Saturday 30 March 2013

Food: The Search For Great Curry -- Part 1 @ San Lung


Curry chicken chop with rice
Image from Locky's English Playground
After writing about my Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast series (see Resources below), I have been searching for my next favourite food search. One day, I wanted to have curry for dinner, and I said to myself, "Let there be curry", and there it was. I found myself at San Lung, a Chinese noodle / curry restaurant in Mongkok. Since I had only 20 minutes for dinner, I needed something quick, and because most curry dishes are ready-to-serve in Hong Kong, this place might just be the perfect place...

Image from smallcatbb
... and so I thought.

I ordered curry chicken chop with rice and it was soon delivered. First look though, wasn't very appetising.

Curry chicken chop with rice
Image from Locky's English Playground
In terms of look, I am not going to say what I think it looks like, but the colour is close to dark brown. The curry had particles of red and black, which I'm guessing is the chilli powder, ground pepper, ground star anise, and some unidentifiable leaves of herb which did not seem to be adding any special taste to the curry. 

The taste of the curry? Hot, plainly hot, other than the fact that there were many herbs I could identify, they never seemed to match. It's not Hong Kong curry, not Japanese, not Indian, not Pakistani, not know where!!! It was like pouring everything into a grinder and then the cooking pot and then to the table without actual cooking! No, without even testing before rolling it out! What are the boss and the chef thinking?

As for the other stuff in the dish (I use "stuff" for a reason), the potato tasted normal, the chicken chop was tastelessly partly hot and partly cold, which means that the chicken was not cooked with the hot curry, and the curry was poured onto the cold, pre-cooked chicken chop without prior reheating.

Overall, it's not disgusting, but it is just edible. Did I get a stomach ache? No. Will I return for more? I don't think so.

You can't always get what you want, right? Better luck next time, I hope.


Scores:
Look:            ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5
Taste:            ★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Smell:            ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5
Textures:       ★★☆☆☆ 2/5
Temperature: ★★★☆☆ 3/5
Overall:         ★☆☆☆☆ 6/25


PS: I have added the Scores to the Hong Kong-style French toasts series, do go and check it out once more!



Vocabulary:
appetising -- (adj)  (UK usually appetising) describes food or smells that make you want to eat:
grind -- (vb)[T] (groundgroundto make something into small pieces or a powder by pressing between hard surfaces:
roll (sth) out -- phrasal verb to make a new product, service, or system available for the first time:
edible -- (adj) suitable or safe for eating:


Resources:
San Lung - Hong Kong Style Noodles/Rice Noodles Tea Restaurant in Mong Kok - Hong Kong Restaurants Guide HK Restaurant @ OpenRice in English
http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=38379&tc=sr2map

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 1 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2012/12/food-search-for-great-french-toast-part.html

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 2 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2013/01/food-search-for-great-hong-kong-style.html

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 3 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2013/01/food-search-for-great-hong-kong-style_18.html

Food: The Search For Great Hong Kong-style French Toast -- Part 4 @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.com/2013/02/food-search-for-great-hong-kong-style.html

Medical & Healthy and Fitness: Star Anise As A Cure For Flu @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2011/11/medical-star-anise-as-cure-for-flu.html

Song & People & TV: You Can't Always Get What You Want -- Band from TV & The Rolling Stone @ Locky's English Playground
http://lockyep.blogspot.hk/2011/08/song-people-tv-you-cant-always-get-what.html

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/appetizing?q=appetising+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/grind_1?q=grind
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/roll-sth-out?q=roll+%28sth%29+out
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/edible?q=edible