Hawker, Sydney

There used to be a Korean restaurant on the corner of Sussex St and Liverpool St but one day it vanished and not long after, Hawker popped up in its place. Like Asia itself, Chinatown is a place where the old and new co-exist. Restaurants that have been there for years continue to survive amongst trendy, new restaurants that seem to sprout overnight (and occasionally disappear in the same amount of time). The popularity of Malaysian food has been on a steep rise over the years and this is evidence.

The crispy turnover pancake station is on the right when you walk in but be careful not to trip over any small children on their tippy-toes trying to see them being made. The most “street dining”-esque feature of the room are stools which almost encourage you to hunch over your food while you eat. Every so often you’ll hear the scraping sounds of wooden stools against glazed concrete flooring, as there seems to be a constant rotation between diners sitting down and getting up. What resembles lighting rigs, lights up large photos of Malaysian markets that hang on the white brick walls.

Cham – half tea, half coffee ($4); Cham ping – half tea, half coffee on ice ($4); Kat chai suen mui – calamansi lime and preserved sour plum on ice ($4)

Do you remember the Old el Paso commercial where the village is choosing between hard and soft tacos and the little girl cleverly asks “¿Por qué no los dos?” This is it, except with teh (tea) and kopi (coffee). Cham is half tea and half coffee, so you don’t have to choose. Here, the tea is a little stronger than the coffee. If you’re thinking of eating all the fried breadsticks on the menu, consider the lime and sour plum on ice. It might prevent you from feeling like a tub of grease afterwards. There is also hot chocolate and barley which is like sweet rice water.

Popiah – fresh spring rolls with yambean, shredded omelette, minced tofu, lettuce, and crispy shallots ($8/2 rolls); Ikan bakar – grilled stingray with a tangy and spicy dipping sauce ($14); Hua chi – fried sweetened bread sticks with sesame glaze ($3)

Being all about Malaysian hawker food, a third of the menu is devoted to fried bread and snacks. The popiah is soft so it doesn’t do the greatest job of keeping the filling in and I wished there was a dipping sauce. I had a big bite of stingray covered in sauce and almost instantly my brain screamed “double spicy!” It’s an exercise in cautious eating because there are many small bones that could accidentally be swallowed. What sauce was left on the plate was mopped up with the fried breadsticks which weren’t sweet enough to make it weird. In retrospect, fried sweetened buns with five-spice might’ve been a more interesting choice.

Wan tan mee – saucy egg noodles, char siew and choy sum, with pork dumplings and soup on the side ($11)

As far as “mains” go, there’s a range of dry and soup noodles. It doesn’t matter if you only like rice, egg, or hokkien noodles; they’re all on the menu served with things like egg gravy or lap cheong (Chinese sausage), a personal favorite. The wan tan mee came with thick-skinned peppery pork dumplings and the noodles were covered in black sauce. At $11, it’s a pretty good deal if you’re hungry. Want more soup with your noodles? There’s spicy and sour fish or chicken-based soups. For the slightly more adventurous, the Penang White Curry has blood jelly. It’s not as gross as it sounds, it’s just slightly chewy coagulated blood. If you can eat boudin noir, you can eat blood jelly.

Apam balik – crispy turnover pancake with crushed peanuts, butter and creamed corn ($3)

Goreng durian – deep fried Musang King durian fritter served with ice cream ($8)

For a good month after Hawker opened, my Instagram feed was flooded with snaps of apam balik and I was curious. What was this crispy-looking box? Apam balik is not for sharing; any attempts to cut it down the middle results in a lot of crumbs everywhere. It’s just so crispy! I’m no stranger to corn in desserts; I’ve been having corn sweet soup (chè bắp) since I was a little kid, so I’m a fan of this. Another thing I’ve been eating since childhood is durian, that big spiky fruit with a very distinctive smell. A decent amount of soft and creamy durian is covered in a thin layer of batter and served with vanilla ice cream. Maybe it’s just me, but durian is best by itself, not deep fried.

There is no roti on the menu at here but it seems to be a fair competitor for the popular Mamak, which is just one street over. It’s street food; cheap and simple fare to fill your stomach while you chat with friends. Here’s to hoping that Hawker doesn’t disappear as quickly as it popped up.

Hawker
345B-353 Sussex St
Sydney NSW 2000
Website