A handful of Australian restaurants have recently sprung up in
Shanghai. Let's go and
see how they are.
I smiled to myself when I learned that a handful of Australian
restaurants have recently sprung up in Shanghai. Clearly my latest
eating quest had been determined: to investigate, in a most earnest
manner, the Aussie cuisine oeuvre. I started with Kakadu
(Australian), a new restaurant featuring aboriginal ingredients
from the Australian wilderness.
The influential gastronome Anthelme Brillat-Savarin declared,
"The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the
discovery of a new star." And much like an amateur sky gazer,
little did I imagine I would discover a new star in my first foray
into the Outback. At Kakadu, every dish was filled with ingredients
entirely new to me: new spices, new herbs, new fruits. It was like
condensing into a single meal the explorations of my first months
in China—the thrill of numbing Sichuan peppercorn, the satisfying
rot of fermented fulu, the pucker-up kiss of green tangerines. In
just one afternoon at Kakadu I had a dozen equally startling novel
foods. I had crocodile, emu, kangaroo, lemon myrtle, the tart fruit
quandong, the earthy cocoa and hazelnut-flavored wattleberry, the
sour-sweet ryeberry, the paprika-like tomato berry, a candied wild
hibiscus dropped into a flute of champagne and chambord. My lunch
(yes, I ate all that for lunch) was stunning. I was wholly
unprepared for it. After a softly dramatic close with a subtle
"wattleccino" brewed using powdered wattleberry, I was vibrating
from the barrage of new tastes.
Kakadu is a family business run by Australian James Sing and his
friend of 15 years Eddie Cheung. Sing's 22-year-old nephew, Paul
Sing, is the wunderkind in the kitchen (I joined him for a demo of
grilled baramundi). James's mother is at Kakadu every day, too. The
whole group has a contagious passion for the cuisine.
There were no more such culinary shockers on my Aussie journey,
but several hearty and tasty meals. At Sasha's (Fusion), the
upstairs dining room has been re-branded as Prime (Fusion). Not too
much has changed—the menu is still modern Australian with imported
fish, lamb and lots of premium steaks. Julian Robertshaw creates
the menus. His previous work at luxe resorts shows in his dishes.
There is caviar and foie gras, and a few forays into molecular
gastronomy. Stand-outs include a big eye tuna starter and salmon,
smoked in-house and topped with "a ton of caviar."
The final leg of my tour brought me to CBD (Australian) in
Xintiandi which is whispering through the winter in an extended
"soft opening." The clam and mussel chowder boasts a saline depth
that comes from fresh fish stock. I rapidly devoured the New
Zealand lambchop which is intensely rich and lacks that pungent
gaminess which makes my tongue curl. The accompanying brown sauce
with rosemary is lick-the-plate worthy. The house-baked bread,
encrusted with sesame and sunflower seeds, is some of the finest
I've had in Shanghai restaurants.
As my Australian travels wind down, I'd like to raise a a glass
of "Kakadu Breeze," a spellbinding potion of lemon myrtle-infused
vodka, cranberry juice and apple sours, to the cuisine of Oz.
Kakadu
Location: 8 Jianguo Zhong Lu near Chongqing
Lu
Tel: 021-5468-0118
Sasha's
Location: 11 Dongping Lu near Hengshan Lu. Metro
Line 1 Hengshan Lu Station
Tel: 021-6474-6628
CBD
Location: 101G-201, Bldg 5, Lane 123, Xingye Lu
near Huangpi Nan Lu, Metro Line 1 Huangpi Nan Lu Station
Tel: 021-5306-6003
(City Weekend January 25, 2008)
