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Thursday May 24, 2012

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Ela finds gold on the Silk Road

Posted by: 3AW Radio | 16 January, 2012 - 11:46 AM
Pastry

Silk Road Uighur Cuisine – 97 Atherton Road Oakleigh 9569 5754

New year, new cuisine – this week I just wanted to try something I’d never experienced before – and so it was off to the Silk Road, and the best of East Turkistan. I don’t know much about Uighur culture, just that they’re not happily a part of China, it’s a very ancient people, and their food at least is influenced heavily by their neighbours on the Silk Road.

Silk Road has only been open a year, and it’s very much a family business – the family themselves have been in Australia for three. As you might expect, it’s a modest eatery – clean, but certainly not fancy, there are plastic tablecloths and boxes of tissues instead of napkins, but at the end of the day it’s the food that will bring you back.

There is something to be said for menus with pictures. I’m sure I’m supposed to scoff at them, but I think they’re fabulous – and Silk Road’s is no exception. The menu isn’t necessarily split into entrees and mains, it’s basically point at the stuff that sounds best to you. In our case we started with Homemade lamb and onion pastry ($10), and Fried dumplings with minced lamb and pumpkins ($12). The pastry was almost like a Uighur version of the quesadilla, pan-fried so the golden, chewy  pastry bubbles a bit on top, it consisted of two flat, round sheets with a combination of lamb mince, chilli, onions, herbs and spices inside – and it was great. Like the pastry, the dumpling wrappers are homemade, the combination of lamb and pumpkin is pretty simple – there are no sauces as you might expect with  Chinese dumplings or Japanese gyoza, and some thought the pumpkin to lamb ratio was weighted a little too heavily on the side of the vegetable.

Uighur salad ($10) is a pretty simple combination of thinly sliced red onion, red and green pepper and fresh tomato, held together with some sesame oil and chilli – it’s a safe, but fresh dish; braised eggplant  was gloriously tender, teamed with red and green capsicum, and somehow managed to be sweet despite obvious evidence of chilli and pepper.

The meat mains were beyond large, and we ordered a small of the Stirfied spicy chicken and potatoes with homemade sauce ($18). This really is homestyle cooking, we’re talking the parts of the bird we might not expect to be paying money for in a city restaurant, and almost every small piece of chicken is still on the bone. This one a thick sauce, with chunks of capsicum, and big soft bites of potato all sitting atop stunning, flat, thick house-made noodles.

We were divided over the lamb ribs ($26). There was nothing wrong with the taste at all, two of us said it just “tasted like something mum would cook” which wasn’t so exciting, while the third excitedly proclaimed it was just like his mum would cook! They were tender, so probably boiled first, then dipped in a spiced batter of sorts and fried. Easy to eat with your hands, again, they were perched on some delicious carbs – these in the form of thinly sliced, spiced, baked potato – it was an extremely generous serve.

You can say it about any international cuisine, but we felt comforted by the fact that we were the only Anglo-Saxons in the restaurant – here’s hoping that doesn’t last for long and more Oakleigh locals discover this treasure.

Burnso will be disappointed but it’s a fairly limited drinks selection – we’re talking a choice between cans of Coke or Lift; there’s an Asian Herbal tea concoction; and some plastic cups of Uighur yoghurt. This ain’t the place for a boozy dinner, though, it’s a great spot for a unique, home-style meal that’s extremely affordable and will give you the opportunity to try a little known cuisine that deserves a whole lot more attention.

PLAY: Ela Carte with Ross and John

 

Blog comments Your Say

  • We live in Oakleigh and after hearing Elas comments on Silk Rd we tried it last night.
    We tried the same dishes that Ela talked aboutas really there is not much else. We were very disappointed as would love to have some decent local restaurants. We agreed (3 of us) at best it is peasant food and would not go back or recomend it to anyone

    Glenise Travaglia Saturday 21 January, 2012 - 12:59 PM

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