English: 三枣炖芫蹄 Stewed Pork Knuckle with Dates - Sungs Kitchen AUD32

--- 宋家私房菜 Sung's Kitchen (03) 9329 2636 118 Franklin St Melbourne VIC 3000 sungskitchen.com.au/

Mei and Peter took us to a surprising gem of a Chinese restaurant, tucked away in Franklin St.

The selection of Chinese teas were quite amazing, and we settled on a 菊花枸杞子茶 Chrysanthemun and Goji Berry Tea. A clean and simple tea that is supposed to quench the fire.

The undisputed favourite dish of the evening was the 三枣炖芫蹄 Stewed Pork Knuckle with Dates. The pork knuckle was tender, but a bit dry on the inside, partly because the meat is lean, but probably also due to the fact that it had been deep-fried to puff up the skin such that it soaks up the stewing sauce. Raymond, Peter and I snapped up most of the silky skin, while the girls were content with the lean pork. The sauce was quite amazing. It was sticky, sweet and fragrant with the three types of Chinese dates - 红枣 red, 黑枣 black and 蜜枣 honey dates.

You can't go wrong with a sweet and sour deep-fried fish and the 菊花鱼 Chrysanthemum Fish didn't disappoint. The rock ling fillet was scored with a diamond pattern such that, when deep-fried, it opens up into a flower. Obviously though, you need to keep the fish skin intact to contract the base. I suspect that the skin was removed, which mean that the flower didn't "bloom" as fully.

Julia and I like the 咸蛋黄豆腐 Tofu with Salted-Duck Egg, but then, we do like our tofu.

The 辣香鸡丁 Chilli Chicken with Garlic and Parsley was surprisingly garlicky, possibly a dish for the Western palate, but still not too bad.

We finished dinner with some desserts, a lot of them with fanciful 急口令 tongue-twister names in Chinese. Both the Pinenut and Custard filled Egg White Puffs and 豆沙锅饼 Red-Bean Pancake were quite good. Fluffly, not too sweet and acceptably greasy.

Photos: - 三枣炖芫蹄 Stewed Pork Knuckle with Dates - 辣香鸡丁 Chilli Chicken with Garlic and Parsley - 菊花鱼 Chrysanthemum Fish - 咸蛋黄豆腐 Tofu with Salted-Duck Egg - 清炒豆苗 Snow Pea Sprouts - 豆沙锅饼 Red-Bean Pancake - Pinenut and Custard filled Egg White Puffs - 菊花枸杞子茶 Chrysanthemun and Goji Berry Tea - Wine Bottles and Coconut-leaf Lamp - Shopfront

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