Super tasty treats to bring in Chinese Year of the Ox

Jan 23 2009 by Lady Who Lunches

Super tasty treats to bring in Chinese Year of the Ox

WHAT do you do when your festivities run dry and the dark winter months start to drag by with dull and dreary monotony?

Find a new reason to celebrate of course. Which is why my friend Pip and I chose to head to one of Perth’s oriental food havens to mark Chinese New Year for a fuel-up during a stomp round the city’s sales.

In between beauty bargains at Boots and magical money-off must-haves at Monsoon, we decided to celebrate the Chinese occasion in true culinary style and headed to the New Lucky Restaurant on South Methven Street.

And our sales fever continued: a super tasty treat lay in store for us with a three-course lunch for under a fiver!

Pip, an Ox according to Chinese zodiac calendar, and I – apparently a quiet, reserved rabbit – met donkey’s years ago when our girls were in the Pony Club together.

I admit, we were more part of the Pinot Grigio camp than the pushy parent pack so it came to be that over the years – and long after the ponies and pigtails flew the nest – Pip and I spent many a ‘vino-collapso’ evening together.

Not this week though. The pair of us are going through the perennial January detox and so ordered sparkling water all round.

The Lucky’s menu is concise, which for lunch-time workers also equates to a swift choice, but covers all the classics you anticipate in a Chinese restaurant from meat swathed in sweet and sour, curry or blackbean sauce to, erm, omelette.

The decor is the comforting kitch you expect from a good, established Chinese restaurant. Never complete without a fish tank in the corner, with which the New Lucky duly obliges.

Pip plumped for spare ribs followed by chicken in hot garlic sauce while I went down my ‘ole favourite’ route of pancake roll starter with Kung Po chicken as the main event.

Sticky and tastily tender, Pip gave her ribs a – albeit red-coloured – thumb’s up. While my dinky pancake rolls tickled my tastebuds for what was to follow.

The Kung Po chicken was sweet, warmly spicy and delicious with a spattering of cashew nuts to give a bit of bite.

And Pip’s dish lived up to its description. The sauce smelled tantalisingly of sweetly cooked garlic with a hint of warmth from fragrant spices, coating tender pieces of chicken.

Generous main course portions for lunchtime with a big bowl of rice meant little space for a third course. But we couldn’t admit defeat so a cool and refreshing scoop of ice-cream rounded off our meal to herald in the Chinese year of the ox in style.