A new Luk at Chow

THINGS don't get more multicultural than Chui Lee Luk's new Chow Bar & Eating House in Sydney's Surry Hills.

"We've got Thai, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Hakka and Aussie chefs in the kitchen," says Luk, who closed long-running fine-dining restaurant Claude's in Paddington after 10 years to focus on the new venture (Claude's, meanwhile, has reopened as another Asian eatery, Red Rabbit).

Luk has cherry-picked a strong team, including restaurant manager Gavin Wright, previously at Tetsuya's, Pier and The Wine Library, head chef David Quinton (ex Flying Squirrel), sous chef Jun Chen (ex Claude's and Universal) and assistant manager Camille Baldassari (Claude's, La Brasserie).

Chow is a hybrid bar/restaurant with a "Chinese pub"-style interior that draws on elements of the traditional English pub, Chinese restaurants, Asian street markets, hawker carts and gaming dens. Detective is glad the designers knew which aspects of the English pub and Chinese restaurant to incorporate - a new venture featuring smelly beer mats, flock wallpaper and ancient lazy Susans certainly wouldn't have cut the mustard in this cool reinterpretation of the old Bentley site on Crown Street.

Chui Lee Luk has swapped fine dining for fun with the Chow Bar & Eating House in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Luk says she's delighted with her "fun and casual" change of pace. "The relaxed atmosphere makes me feel more free and liberated," says the Malaysia-born former lawyer who began her career with Christine Manfield at Paramount, worked with Kylie Kwong at Wockpool and infused some French flavour into her repertoire at Cleopatra and Banc before joining Tim Pak Poy at Claude's, which she took over four years later.

"There's a lot more freedom to take chances with the cuisine, experimental concoctions in regards to cocktails, and I'm aiming to evolve a new style of casual and knowledgeable Chinese restaurant/bar service."

THE new venue is already attracting the big names, with both Manfield and Neil Perry spotted dining at Chow recently.

And there's much to be excited about on the menu, including the dish that's shaping up to be the house specialty - lemon chicken - (Detective swears it's nothing like the sickly sweet version traditionally served in Chinese food barns) and fabulous "drunken mussels" flavoured with beer, ginger and spring onion. Detective strongly recommends the "explosive lamb" (packed with lethal dried chillies). She'll be back for more once the burning stops. Talented Luk has been involved in more than just restaurant openings of late; her impressive new book, Green Pickled Peaches (Hardie Grant, $59.95), is out next month.

WHEN Detective returned to Australia after living in London for more than a decade, it was a wrench. Hopping on a budget flight and finding herself in a completely different country - anywhere from Malta to Morocco - in under four hours was a major attraction of the English capital. But the longer she's been back, the more she appreciates how we really are the lucky country with our melting pot of cultures, reflected in the authentic ethnic foods we eat. Chinatown precincts and their peripheries are the best example of how we've embraced the flavours of Asia.

Today, we can just as easily nip down the street for a bowl of Korea's bibimbap or a steaming pho from Vietnam as we can tuck into a spag bol or a takeaway fish and chips. At the recent launch of Asia on Your Doorstep, a Good Food Month festival initiative in which restaurants in Sydney's Haymarket precinct are presenting signature dishes at hefty discounts alongside demos and talks from food identities, SBS television presenter Adam Liaw spoke about Asia's influence on our dining landscape.

"Sydney has the best Asian food in the world," says Liaw, whose Destination Flavour Japan series screens on SBS at 8pm every Thursday until November 21. "Nowhere else can you get Korean, Thai and Japanese all cooked at this level of sophistication and authenticity. It's our Asian influence that sets us apart from all emerging food nations."

Detective looks forward to Friday, when Sydney's Chinatown Night Markets will transform Little Hay Street into an evocative vision of Old Shanghai, with food stalls and lanterns lining the street and special $3 dishes, from Hong Kong to Hanoi, up for grabs.

A CHICAGO restaurant is in strife over a hamburger. Kuma's Corner has dubbed the Ghost, topped with a communion wafer and finished with a red-wine reduction, its burger of the month, enraging religious groups, who claim the dish makes a mockery of the central Catholic symbol.

The owners of the nine-table restaurant in the city's Avondale neighbourhood have refused to remove the controversial dish from the menu, arguing that the creation is not a commentary on religion nor an attack on personal beliefs, but simply named after one of their favourite heavy metal bands, Sweden's Ghost. Among other Kuma's Corner menu inclusions are the delightfully named Plague Bringer, Slayer and the Yob (cue howls of protests from bogans worldwide). Detective hopes Kuma's Corner has no plans for a meat-based Madonna tribute.

Source: The Australian, 19 October 2013