Canton Express, Sydney (15th November 2012)
Ever since my company relocated to the new premises on Pitt St, I've been working at the office on Thursdays and absolutely loving it - less time spent travelling on the train but most of all, actually working in an office where I feel I belong. I've been working on the client site for over 1.5 years and though I have a desk and all I need to do my job, it just doesn't feel the same. Plus now I get to put faces to names I see in emails!
Being new in the area, I'm still figuring out where the good lunch spots are. My aimless walking took me to the food court at Australia Square for lunch today. Situated on the corner of George and Bond Streets, this circular tower is pretty hard to miss - the retail centre underneath the main tower complex (also where the food court is located) is accessible from George Street, Bond Street, Curtin Place or through the outside seating area off Pitt Street. With 15 different eateries on site, it's no wonder this is a popular place for lunch for the working folk in the vicinity.
At 12pm, the food court was buzzing with hungry patrons buying food from the eateries and filling up the indoor seating (outdoor seating available as well). I decided to grab lunch from Canton Express (formerly BBQ King Express) and ordered their Hainanese Chicken Rice (cost $11). The eatery, as the name implies, serves a mix of Cantonese cuisine including BBQ pork with rice and seasonal Chinese greens, and wonton noodle soup. And they were definitely speedy with the service - took less than 5 minutes from order to when my food was ready for collection!
OK, I did mention I was eating in when I ordered...Instead of serving my Hainanese Chicken Rice on a plate, my meal was packed in takeaway containers. Hmm, it seems to be the norm for all the eateries here, serving their food in takeaway containers (I guess this makes the job of the cleaners much easier than having to sort out dishes in addition to cleaning tables). What was ridiculous was my meal came in 5 containers! One for the rice, one for the chicken and greens, one for the soup and one for each of the condiments of chilli sauce and minced ginger with chopped scallion in oil respectively. Granted, it was very organised and neatly presented but a bit overboard and I felt self-conscious that other diners sitting nearby were chuckling quietly as they watched me unpack my lunch at the table. Finding a table was a bit of a mission and I had to share my table with some random diner.
The Hainanese Chicken Rice was quite good though the soup lacked substance and all I could taste was salt. Chicken was tender and moist - great that it was served deboned but with a disposable plastic spoon and wooden chopsticks, it still makes it a pain to cut up the bigger pieces of meat :/ The chilli sauce wasn't quite what I expected - normally a mixture of pounded chilli and garlic, this one looked suspiciously bright red which made me think it might be watered-down sweet chilli sauce. But oh, when I had some of it, it gave a spicy kick which goes very nicely with the chicken and rice. Definitely keen to come back and try out their other Cantonese dishes.
Being new in the area, I'm still figuring out where the good lunch spots are. My aimless walking took me to the food court at Australia Square for lunch today. Situated on the corner of George and Bond Streets, this circular tower is pretty hard to miss - the retail centre underneath the main tower complex (also where the food court is located) is accessible from George Street, Bond Street, Curtin Place or through the outside seating area off Pitt Street. With 15 different eateries on site, it's no wonder this is a popular place for lunch for the working folk in the vicinity.
At 12pm, the food court was buzzing with hungry patrons buying food from the eateries and filling up the indoor seating (outdoor seating available as well). I decided to grab lunch from Canton Express (formerly BBQ King Express) and ordered their Hainanese Chicken Rice (cost $11). The eatery, as the name implies, serves a mix of Cantonese cuisine including BBQ pork with rice and seasonal Chinese greens, and wonton noodle soup. And they were definitely speedy with the service - took less than 5 minutes from order to when my food was ready for collection!
OK, I did mention I was eating in when I ordered...Instead of serving my Hainanese Chicken Rice on a plate, my meal was packed in takeaway containers. Hmm, it seems to be the norm for all the eateries here, serving their food in takeaway containers (I guess this makes the job of the cleaners much easier than having to sort out dishes in addition to cleaning tables). What was ridiculous was my meal came in 5 containers! One for the rice, one for the chicken and greens, one for the soup and one for each of the condiments of chilli sauce and minced ginger with chopped scallion in oil respectively. Granted, it was very organised and neatly presented but a bit overboard and I felt self-conscious that other diners sitting nearby were chuckling quietly as they watched me unpack my lunch at the table. Finding a table was a bit of a mission and I had to share my table with some random diner.
 |
| Canton Express in the food court of Australia Square |
 |
| Hainanese Chicken Rice ($11) |
The Hainanese Chicken Rice was quite good though the soup lacked substance and all I could taste was salt. Chicken was tender and moist - great that it was served deboned but with a disposable plastic spoon and wooden chopsticks, it still makes it a pain to cut up the bigger pieces of meat :/ The chilli sauce wasn't quite what I expected - normally a mixture of pounded chilli and garlic, this one looked suspiciously bright red which made me think it might be watered-down sweet chilli sauce. But oh, when I had some of it, it gave a spicy kick which goes very nicely with the chicken and rice. Definitely keen to come back and try out their other Cantonese dishes.
Comments
Post a Comment