Selection of Alice Cho's Chinese Teas

Sydneysiders are truly spoilt for choice:  you can find lip-smacking spring onion or pork pancakes at Mother Chu’s Taiwanese (at $2.50 – $3 a pop); sweet boat noodle soup thickened with chicken blood at Chat Thai; garlicky Russian salad and Uygur-style BBQ lamb skewers at Kiroran; and deep-fried lamb cutlets topped with roasted garlic, chillies, black beans and shallots at East Ocean. There’s plenty of theatre too: watch hand-pulled noodles from Xinjiang being made at the Chinese Noodle Restaurant, sweet conical ‘roti tisu’ being shaped at Mamak and tiny warm cream puffs being moulded and filled at Emperors Garden Bakery – one of Sydney’s best bargains at 4 for $1.
After all, this is the largest Chinatown in Australia and the largest Chinese New year celebrations outside of Asia are held here each February. For decades, most of the Chinese restaurants specialised in Cantonese cuisine.  But changes are afoot.  At East Ocean, the menu has recently been overhauled to include dishes from other areas including Shanghai, Sichuan and Beijing.   Make sure you try the lamb cutlets, a clever take on the popular salt-and-pepper combo (you can order lobster, mud crab and king crab in this style). I also recommend the wasabi prawns, an inspired dish of plump, crispy deep-fried prawns, coated with vivid green wasabi mayonnaise flecked with black sesame seeds.  If you can’t make it for dinner, go for Yum Cha, available 365 days a year, and along with Marigold and Regal, one of Chinatown’s best.
At the impressive new ‘Red Chilli’ restaurant opposite the Entertainment Centre, spicy Sichuan cuisine is all the go.  As we are ushered in, I notice a number of diners ordering the same dish: a large, beautifully engraved bowl which, we’re told, is called ‘Chef’s special hot fish fillets’. The idea is to scoop the fish out from the bowl of sizzling oil which is infused with scores of chillies and Sichuan peppercorns. Its multi-layered flavour is sensational, and the hot numbing impact of the peppercorns makes my lips tingle (make sure not to miss the luscious pieces of Chinese cabbage buried deep at the bottom).
It reminded me of the ‘piece de resistance’ at Neil Perry’s new ‘Spice Temple’, currently the hottest place in the Sydney CBD, where it is charmingly called ‘fish drowned in heaven facing chillies and Sichuan peppercorns’. It’s another multi-layered flavour hit. Perry describes ‘Spice Temple’ as a modern Chinese restaurant which pays homage to and draws inspiration from the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Hunan, Jiangxi, Guangxi and Xinjiang, and you’ll find more hot and numbing dishes on the menu, the hottest of which are in red letters.
While food may be the major attraction of Chinatown, this area is also well known for its markets. Paddy’s Markets is one of the biggest, selling everything from vegetables to clothing. Don’t leave without visiting the hole-in-the-wall adjacent to Emperors Garden Bakery in Dixon Street.  People queue here for the cream puffs and I know why: tiny and delectable, they are filled with hot custard while you watch, and are heaven-sent. Take them with you over to the tranquil Chinese Garden of Friendship by which time they will have cooled enough for you to eat without burning your tongue.