A rare bird, indeed
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday September 26, 2009
A talented chef with a flair for roast duck is drawing admirers from near and far. Good Luck Chinese Restaurant180-182 Liverpool Road, Enfield, 9747 4625Daily 5.30-10.30pmTHREE stretch limos pull up outside a suburban shopfront. The venetians are closed and the sign on the hoarding says "Good Luck". Is a gambling den hidden behind the shuttered blinds? Is that why 20 tourists and their guide tumble out of these very flashy cars and file quickly through the front door?Something has brought these visitors to Enfield but it's not blackjack, it's duck. David Zhao has been making his Peking-style roast duck for 15 years at Good Luck Chinese Restaurant and word has clearly travelled.The tourists, including a tiny, model-like creature in black patent stiletto boots and hooded jacket and an elegant woman with flashing diamonds on her ears and glitter on her cheekbones, have obviously heard the word and come to join devotees of Zhao's duck for Sunday dinner.Little kids playing near the tank of goldfish €“ it's rare to find a Chinese restaurant with a tank of purely decorative fish €“ stop and stare at the newcomers. The children have been mimicking the martial arts showing on the television in the corner as their parents chat or grab one of them and chopstick food into his mouth.At another table, a couple sits with their teenage daughter who pulls out a pink Nintendo DS once the duck arrives and plays as she eats.Nearly everybody starts their meals with a golden bird, its head and beak sitting crisply and discreetly on a platter with a pile of meat pieces and thin slices of breast fanned out around it.The master in charge of this presentation is a handsome young man who ferries the fowl from the roasting drum out the back to a small table near the front door to do his dissecting. A flattened cardboard beer box is a makeshift splashback to protect the window.By the way, you have to order this special bird ahead of time €“ the day before on the weekend or during the afternoon for your weeknight meal.But there's no chance you'll forget because the woman who takes your phone booking will ask, "You want duck?"We sit in front of the slivered spring onions, batons of cucumber and a dish of hoisin sauce and wait and wait for our duck. We could order other dishes because the menu is bursting with northern Chinese cold entrees and hotpots. But we would rather hold our tastebuds for the hero of the night and looking around, that seems to be the way to go.Finally, a steamer basket of wonky wheaten pancakes slides on to the white cloth along with the roast duck itself. There's skin to die for with some very delicate flesh and fat almost all rendered away, leaving just a powerful flavour trace.We coat the handmade pancakes with hoisin, stuff them with spring onions, cucumber and duck and roll them into clumsy cigars. While the duck is wonderful, the pancakes are thick and slightly gluey.Our serving could feed six or eight people easily and we do our best but count on taking the rest home for a lucky lunch tomorrow, giving us room to try something else tonight.The lamb steamboat with accompaniments such as fried gluten balls and potato slices looks enticing.So does the Peking lamb hot pot with recommendations such as ox tripe, cabbage and fresh golden mushrooms. It's also hard to turn down the range of dumpling and noodle dishes.But we are feeling snacky and pick steamed spiced peanuts for our Tsingtao beer, boiled pork with smashed garlic and fragrant bean curd.We are told the warm peanuts, scented with star anise, are a favourite with Peking people and it's hard to stop munching. The pork is cold and we dip the bite-sized slices into a soy and sesame sauce with chopped garlic. Surprisingly, it's a bit bland.The bean curd, however, is anything but that. Soothing, nourishing boiled tofu is stirred into fluffy piles and laced with pickled, salty, seaweedy flecks. These are toon, a Chinese hardwood whose young leaves and shoots are known as a tree vegetable or hsiang chun ya.We finish with another delicious comfort dish, the opaque water-based soup, fragrant with spring onions and made from our leftover duck bones.I have counted eight, possibly a dozen, of these soups and roasted ducks journeying from the kitchen to the brightly lit dining room with its beige-pink walls dotted with red and gold decorations. Clearly, many people from many places have gambled on being nourished tonight. They have been paid back in spades.DIGESTFoodPeking duck is the hero among a cast of steamboats, hotpots and many other northern Chinese specialities.ServiceImpeccable if distant until the restaurant's host sits down to chat at the end of the service.AtmosphereThe plain, brightly lit room is family-friendly but equally fine for a banquet-style gathering.ValueVery good. The duck is a fixed $60 and other dishes are well-priced. $46 a head.NoiseMedium.Recommended dishesPeking duck and soup, steamed spiced peanuts, fragrant bean curd.
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald
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