Lee Ho Fook, Collingwood – inventive Chinese food
Update: Lee Ho Hook is now based in Melbourne’s CBD.
Every generation has its own hipster enclave. In Melbourne, the city’s laneways and the suburbs of St Kilda, Fitzroy, Carlton and Richmond have all had their turn. At the moment though: Hipsterville, thy name is Smith Street, Collingwood. To celebrate dear friend Pucci Girl’s birthday, we headed to Smith Street earlyish on a Saturday night and Lee Ho Fook where chef Victor Liong serves up his own take on Chinese food. Like most of the shopfronts along this strip, on the city’s north-east fringe, there’s a long dining room with a kitchen at the back. As is the custom these days, the restaurant has two sittings; we decided to head in for the earlier sitting with a view to kicking on somewhere else afterwards.
As such, the noise level hadn’t yet reached its full potential as we started sipping a very nice bottle of Perrier Jouet. We could even hear some of the music which, unsurprisingly, featured a fair smattering of 70s classics. Greedy Girl knew she’d heard the name ‘Lee Ho Fook’ before – Warren Zevon’s 1978 cult classic Werewolves of London.
“I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain/He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook’s …”
But I digress. We were there, of course, for the food. After noting that there were no mushrooms on the banquet menu (a particular dislike for Pucci Girl), we asked for an extra dish and tucked in. First up were tea-smoked eggs. These were served very cold which was a slight shock to the system but were, nonetheless, quite tasty. The yolks were still runny and they were topped with fronds of dill and avruga ‘caviar’ (a herring roe) and served on a pool of spring onion oil.
Tea-smoked eggs
Next was the chef’s take on pork buns. Greedy Girl and gluttonous husband consider themselves to be pork bun connoisseurs, having enjoyed Momofuku guru David Chang’s version many times. These were presented more like sliders, with the pork belly sandwiched between a ‘milk bun’, with fermented chilli, peanut sugar, salted cucumber and some coriander leaves. They were particularly yummy; the meat was soft and the combination of condiments was perfectly balanced. Even Greedy Girl didn’t mind the coriander.
Pork belly buns
Next up was a variation on traditional spring onion pancakes: a fried pizza base topped with spring onions and buffalo mozzarella. At first bite, the mozzarella didn’t do much for Greedy Girl but she came to appreciate its smoothness as a good foil for the spring onions. Only a few scattered onions remained on this plate.
Lamb and mozzarella with spring onions
Very tasty lamb tartare
Next up was another revelation – crispy eggplant (pictured at the top of this blog). If all eggplant dishes were this good, Greedy Girl would have one every week. The pieces of eggplant were crisp on the outside and beautifully soft on the inside. The menu described the sauce as ‘spiced red vinegar’. It was superb. Slightly sweet with a little heat and tang. Incredibly yummy.
More veggies were next. Described as new season ‘jade’ vegetables, we were treated to some asparagus spears, snow peas, broccoli and sugar snaps dressed simply with some sesame oil. Fresh, crunchy, yummy.
New season ‘jade’ vegetables
Next was the only real disappointment of the evening, the twice-cooked free range pork belly. This was served in a red braised ‘Dong Po’ style – basically, rice wine, rock sugar and different types of soy. While some friends reported getting the odd tender piece, it was mostly pretty tough and dry. Given the pork belly we’d had earlier in the meal was uniformly melting, this was a bit of a let down.
An unmemorable pork belly
Next up was white cut spatchcock served with Hainan-style condiments. This was a play on the traditional chicken rice. The spatchcock was tender, moist and delicious.
Spatchcock with Hainan style condiments
It was accompanied by the restaurant’s signature fried rice which worked very well with the poultry which has a rather more pronounced flavour than chicken.
The ‘signature’ fried rice
Sauces for the spatchcock
And so to dessert. First up was creme fraiche with granita. Vinegary desserts seem to be the in-thing. Greedy Girl isn’t fond of them and found this mixture of goji berry and date vinegar granita to be a bit strong. She’s not particularly enamoured of creme fraiche either and the addition of lime and vanilla didn’t do enough to cut through. After a spoonful, it went over to gluttonous husband.
What’s the deal with vinegary desserts?
Jasmine tea and caramel custard
Anyway, Lee Ho Fook is an interesting culinary odyssey. Greedy Girl would happily go back and order a la carte to try some more of the chef’s take on Chinese. With a resume that includes stints at Sydney fine-diner Marque (a very enjoyable night out) and Mr Wong’s, Victor Liong clearly has plenty of talent and imagination.
Lee Ho Fook
11-15 Duckboard Place, Melbourne
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