Silk Road Chinese Halal Restaurant – Haymarket

“What’s with the plastic grapes?”

…… asks Mr K as we enter the restaurant with its intensely-coloured wall murals depicting arid plains and camels under a leafy arbour of fruiting grape vines. It seems one can identify a Uighurian/Xinjiang restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown by doing a bit of grape-spotting and it appears we have several to choose from. Apparently this display of grape vines echoes the real ones that grow in abundance on trellises in towns throughout Xinjiang, providing shady retreats from the blistering 70°C temperatures. With heat like that I’d rather sit under fake grapes and chill in air-con while chowing on noodles and dumplings. Well, for now anyway, as perhaps I’ll get there one day.  

My first ever meal (over 10 years ago) under the famed acrylic grapevines was at the tiny and frantic Chinese Noodle Restaurant and the second (not too long ago) was at Uighur Cuisine. The most recent dining-under-the-grapes experience is this one, located next to my most frequented bbq duck place on Thomas Street.

The menu is of the pictorial kind and very easy to navigate and the choices are beyond plenty. Pancakes, hand made noodles, dumplings, grilled meats, the usual suspects really. For lunch on this Sunday we can’t help but try a mixed plate of chicken and lamb Xinjiang shish kebabs, liberally sprinkled with hot red pepper flakes. The smell alone is one to make you wet your nickers and enough chilli to invigorate those sinuses. The chicken is beautifully soft and easy to get your choppers around and sadly the lamb is a bit of a Russian roulette of tender versus gristle.

Hmmm …. what to order next. Noodles. I just had to, especially when I could see and hear one of the kitchen brigade slapping strands of dough around on the bench creating them with such skill and fluency. From the 17-or-so noodle dishes on offer I chose the Fried sliced noodle in home-style sauce with chicken. The aroma of stir-fried capsicum hits you first and as you tuck into the mound of writhing noodles you just can’t stop. The texture of these things is delightful: soft, slightly chewy and fibrous and a great carrier of flavour. 

The world would end if I didn’t order any dumplings so to prevent any form of global catastrophe a steamer basket of Lamb dumplings was promptly delivered. The ball of cumin-spiced ground meat and hot salty soup burst out of the pastry cocoon on the first bite and virtually landed in my lap. Slippery little sucker. The rest of the tasty little buggers were kept under control and went down a treat.

At the front of the restaurant you have a glass cabinet displaying some handmade pastries such as the Chocolate short bread and Fried twisted pancake. The twisted pancake is literally unsweetened dough that is deep-fried, lacking any flavour other than the oil it was cooked in and the texture is firm and stringy. If it were doused in sugar and cinnamon or even some honey it would have been a goer. I guess this is Uighurian street food, right?

The Chocolate short bread was whisked away and microwaved before it came out slightly steaming on the plate. Again no real flavour other than dry powdered cocoa layered with unsweetened bread. This would have actually been nice dipped into a milky coffee. 

There was one thing on the menu I really wanted to try and that was the Rice pudding with honey sauce. Following our lunch neither of us had room for anything more so I returned two days later (before work) and ordered what I believe is the wackiest “dessert” I may have ever had. This is a rice pudding like no other. The hot mound of rice is so glutinous and claggy that the entire plate lifted off the table when I dug in my chopsticks. The mochi-like texture is severely sweet and is studded with dried black dates, kemiri nuts, cashews that I’m sure were fried in black pepper, colourful jelly snakes melting from the heat and a heap of white sugar and black sesame seeds. It’s something a child would make themselves for dinner if they were allowed. Definitely an aquired ensemble and strangely, I quite liked it. Nothing like a sugar kick to get you going! 

Tagged as: Chinatown, Chinese, Dumplings, Haymarket, Northern Chinese, Uighur, Xinjiang