While Sydney sleeps, the team at this Malaysian-Chinese eatery are toiling over what might just be the city’s best , a seafood-heavy noodle soup made famous by the street food hawkers of , Malaysia.
According to Wendy Woon, general manager at , the secret ingredient in the broth is prawn heads – and lots of them.
“Prawn heads have the best flavour, and they’re really gritty,” she says. “You marinate the heads in stock, and then boil them for ages so the flavours can develop, then you bash them with a mallet to release all the good bits.”
Brains and eyes aside, the trick to getting the har mee broth exactly right, evidently, is time – that’s why her father Meng and uncle William are in the Malay-Chinese Takeaway restaurant kitchens from around 4am every day. The restaurant doesn’t actually , which is precisely when hordes of bib-donning CBD workers and Malay-Chinese cuisine enthusiasts start lining up for the soup, whenever it pops up on the menu as a special. (For your reference, Tuesday, Friday and Saturdays are the days to get a bowl.)
The Woon family could very well be considered Sydney’s har mee experts. The family opened , when it was one of the few restaurants to offer Sydney a Chinese immigrants’ take on Malaysian cuisine.
“I remember when my parents were testing out har mee for the restaurant, we used to have to eat it every Saturday,” Wendy says. “They spent years perfecting it. And yes, I appreciate it more now – but I don’t have the patience to make it at home!”
Although the restaurant has been a mainstay on Sydney’s speedy and inexpensive food scene ever since, you’d be forgiven for walking straight past it on a crawl through the city.
I remember when my parents were testing out har mee for the restaurant ... They spent years perfecting it. And yes, I appreciate it more now – but I don’t have the patience to make it at home!
Fluorescent lights and an unassuming shopfront reveal nothing of the restaurant’s legendary status, or the innumerable serves of Malay-Chinese classics that keep customers coming back, lunchtime after lunchtime.
The laksas here are particularly iconic – there’s a sign out front claiming they’re Sydney’s best.
Other Malay-Chinese staples trigger a similar level of fervour amongst regulars, including a textural (broad rice noodles stir-fried with chicken, prawns, Chinese sausage and chilli), Malaysian curries like beef madras, and, of course, satay chicken.
But it’s the har mee, with its rich, pungent broth (usually made with a pork and chicken stock), juicy roast pork, kang kong (water spinach), half an egg, marinated prawns and chewy yellow egg noodles that steals the limelight when it appears on the menu. The har mee days are the busiest of the week – testament to the Woon brothers’ early morning dedication to the craft. “They’re used to the early starts by now,” says Wendy with a laugh.
For some, the soup is as nostalgic as it is flavoursome.
“We have one of the most authentic har mee recipes in Sydney,” Wendy says. “People travel from all over the world for a taste of home. Once, we even had an air hostesses take some back to Hong Kong for her family!” Diners have also transported the dish interstate.
But for Wendy Woon and her family, a bowl of har mee represents happy customers, a successful food business and cooking secrets kept in the family for generations.
“The biggest lesson my father has taught me through running the restaurant is that shortcuts are the enemy,” Wendy says. “We cook har mee the same way he’s always done it, and he’s always done it properly. He does things by the books – his books.”
Catch the Malay -Chinese Takeaway on this week's with Maeve O'Meara 7.30pm, Wednesdays on SBS and you can catch-up on all episodes via SBS On Demand. Visit the for recipes, videos and more.
Shop 1, 50-58 Hunter St, Sydney, NSW, (02) 9231 6788
Mon - Fri 11 am - 7 pm
Sat 11 am - 4.30 pm
