Authentic Chinese – is it possible?

What’s authentic? This is something  that can be argued about time and time again.

Of course one of us comes from mainland China, so is pretty expert at ordering the very best of items from the menu at any local Chinese restaurant. We were out for a quick Wednesday evening meal to a place called Asian Court. The restaurant is located in the suburb of Robina on the Gold Coast is Queensland.

Appetiser

We ordered some vegetarian spring rolls to start with. Spring rolls are one “must-have” dish when Chinese people celebrate their Spring Festival. Every family in China cook this dish to celebrate the start of Spring. The spring rolls in Australia are a bit bigger than in China perhaps reflecting cultural adaptation.

Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Spring Roll

Main Dishes

For the main dishes, we ordered the eggplant with sweet and sour chilli sauce and the roast whole Barramundi. Both dishes are very traditional Chinese dishes.

The eggplant dish is a signature dish in Sichuan cuisine. The sweet and sour sauce contains soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chilli and healthy amounts of fresh ginger, garlic and green onion. The sauce gives you a subtle salty-sweet-sour flavour with a hint of spiciness. Chinese people use the sauce to cook with different ingredients, including pork, chicken, eggplant and tofu. We usually prefer our eggplant vegetarian style but sometimes it is not available.

Eggplant and chilli sauce with some pork – not vegetarian

Eggplant

The roasted whole fish is another famous and traditional Chinese dish from Sichuan province. The fish is roasted until moist and tender, with a crispy surface. The accompanying vegetables (Chinese cabbage, seaweed, tofu, or any veggie you like) are cooked in Sichuan hot sauce with fresh chilli, then served at the bottom of the plate before placing the fish on top . A party for the eyes and the taste buds comes together in a single dish.

Roast Barramundi – see those dried red chillies?

Veg from the fish dish – lotus root was delicious

Visited on 16 November, 2016

Cost for three people: $70

Our verdict: Efficient and pleasant service; Good food. We will return.

 

Photo images from a second visit:

We went back for a second visit and tried a few more dishes. Some seafood wrapped in lettuce; meat in lettuce; calamari; seafood hot pot (dry); tofu and BBQ pork