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2015: samantha eats her way through sydney, cities: sydney, cuisine: malaysian, oceania: australia, photography: food
Last Thursday was supposed to be my “day off” eating…and then my family decided to go to PappaRich, a Malaysian chain that’s opened a branch in the Macquarie Centre since I was last in Sydney. My craving for Malaysian food–more specifically, for Hainanese chicken rice that’s quite popular in South East Asia–is indeed an occupational hazard: one of the Shakespearean films about which I wrote for my recent chapter on “Asian” adaptations is entitled Chicken Rice War, a comic, post-modern take on Romeo and Juliet, wherein the two families run competing chicken rice diners. So yeah, I’ve been craving chicken rice since June, and there’s none to be found in Belfast. Occupational hazard, indeed!
Wendy and I both have too-sweet-teeth (which will eventually render us toothless), so we had to have a Matcha Rocks and Open Sesame to drink ($7.50 each). It came with ice-cream and a spoon–what more needs to be said? :D
Matcha (green tea) on the left for Wendy, and black sesame on the right for meeeeeee.
As customary of our family outings, we each pick something from the menu. Mum is quite a noodly person (perhaps evidenced by our trip to Chefs Gallery the previous day), so she went for a bowl of that. (Embarrassingly, I don’t recall which–but it wasn’t that good, so isn’t really noteworthy.)
Oodles more noodles for mummy.
Dad wanted some satay action, so we had a mixed platter with 6 pieces ($14.90). The meat was okay, but the sauce was super delicious!
Gotta love this kind of presentation!
Dad also cheated and ordered a roti kaya ($8.90), which is roti bread stuffed with a coconut filling. This was a bit weird with our main because it felt a little like dessert, but Wendy and I had no qualms with such a concept. ;)
Not sure why the coconut jam filling was green, but hey!
Wendy’s choice was a garlic naan with curry chicken ($12.90). You know that naan obsession that manifested itself at Cafe Sydney? Yup, she still has it. The naan was yummy, as was the tender curry chicken, so I think Wendy was quite satisfied.
I think I ended up having more than my fair share of the naan.
And of course, my choice was the chicken rice with steamed chicken ($13.90). I was pretty full by then, but still wolfed down a bowl of the stuff. Oh, the flavours!
This is the rice that launched a thousand…om nom noms.
Visited on: Thursday, 17 September 2015. Dinner.
Spent: Around $90 for four people. Dad has the receipt somewhere…
Overall: This certainly satisfied my Hainanese chicken rice craving! I’m not sure how often I’d come here if I lived in Sydney–I’m sure there are quite a few other options–but as it were, I was happy for dad to pay for my dinner. Would probably investigate other places instead of returning here indiscriminately, but it was certainly a lovely meal. 7.5/10.
Pappa Rich
Several locations in NSW: Chatswood, Broadway, Macquarie, Parramatta, Bankstown
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