With a culinary history spanning hundreds of years, chinese cuisine is incredibly diverse. In fact there are eight major regional styles represented throughout China.
Chef Neil Perry's Spice Temple restaurant #MelbourneRestaurants focuses on these lesser known regional cuisines. In a sea of cantonese restaurants and dumpling houses flooding Melbourne, this is a breath of fresh air.
When you book, ask to be seated downstairs. The ground floor level is definitely the place to enjoy a good meal. A low ceiling and dark moody lighting gives off a nice cosy ambience terrific for a romantic night out or a quiet chat with friends. At Spice Temple #MelbourneCity, like in true chinese fashion, the best way to eat is to order dishes to share. Not only does this make for a more interesting graze but you'll also get to try lots of different flavours.
The dish I was most looking forward to trying was the "Typhoon Shelter Style" fried calamari with cabbage salad. This dish is a take on a Hong Kong classic. Typhoon Shelter cooking is a very rare and dying breed of cooking style, once popularised by the boat people who lived by the Hong Kong harbour in years gone by. The calamari came in a lightly deep fried batter which was smothered in an avalanche of fried garlic slices and fried onions. This was all tossed through with sichuan peppers and chilli.
Crunchy deliciousness is how I would describe it.
Our other entree of lamb and cumin pancakes with house chilli paste was very similar to a chinese green onion pancake but instead filled with a lamb patty.
The pastry was pretty authentic. It wasn't too dense and you could actually see the individual layers. Taking a bite into this with the spiced lamb centre was really satisfying.
Onto mains, and the signature sweet sour hot numbing pork wasn't as mind numbingly hot as advertised. But I was okay with the degree of heat as it didn't overshadow the other flavours in the dish like the sweet and tangy hit from the vinegar and peppers in the sauce. I liked it.
A few minutes after tucking into the pork our fish main arrived. Steamed market fish which happened to be flathead fillets. This dish was a bit underwhelming. The fish was cooked a little over and I would have preferred it if the chef chose a more traditional approach of steaming a whole fish instead of using fillets. Also I felt the sauce of soy, sesame oil and chillies was too subtle. It needed the pickle element to be more prominent as I think this would have elevated this dish to something truly tasty.
It wasn't a bad dish, it just could have been better with a few small adjustments.
Our side order of house fried rice with bacon was definitely catering for the western palate and was on the bland side and didn't excite. I wouldn't order this one again.
But the highlight for me was the mango pudding dessert. It had the texture of a light fluffy mousse. It was delicious and moreish. If you have this dish in Chinatown you will find that the texture is slightly more gelatinous, very similar to a panna cotta.
I like both versions but it was nice to have this variant for a change. The addition of some fresh mango pieces mixed through would have topped it off for me but it wasn't a deal breaker. The sesame tuile gave a nice crunch amidst the creaminess of the mousse.
Our last dessert, the yuzu caramel bananas with cashew nut ice cream didn't quite hit the mark. The ice cream was okay and tasted like cashews but the bananas were cold as was the crepe wrapped around them. And with the sauce poured over the top, the crepes became soggy and the texture wasn't pleasant. This is not how I imagined this dish would be presented. I think this dessert would have been better served warm with hot drizzled yuzu caramel sauce over warm caramelised banana wrapped crepes.
There were hits and misses with some of the dishes on the night but all in all the food was really good. And I have to applaud the chef's desire to present a menu showcasing alternative chinese cooking so extra points for that. Most importantly, I had a great night out so I would not hesitate to come back here again to try some of the other items on their menu.
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