Pancake King - Eastwood

Situated in eastwoods taiwanese night markets, this street food stand is famous for their lamb skewers, and boy did they not disappoint. Came on a scoopon voucher that had me 6 lamb skewers with no chilli ($8), 2 small tortilla wraps, a dip and a soft drink. The wait took a while but no matter, they were fresh and hot! Happy to try again.

Watching a chef deftly handle flipping a large, ultra-thin pancake on a heated flat grill helped Pancake King catch my attention at the Taiwan Night

Watching a chef deftly handle flipping a large, ultra-thin pancake on a heated flat grill helped Pancake King catch my attention at the Taiwan Night Markets. Beyond Chinese pancakes, this permanent stall also sells a mysterious collection of spicy sticks sitting in liquid… but for me it was all about eating something made freshly, right before my eyes.Pancake King’s Chinese pancakes are called jianbing. They’re actually more like crepes, with the heavy, circular grill spread with batter and raked with a wooden paddle to ensure uniform thinness. The chef then cracks an egg onto it, breaking the yolk and spreading it around with a scattering of fresh shallots.After expertly flipping the pancake, the chef squirts it with three mysterious sauces. I’m sure one is hoisin, the second is a Chinese chilli sauce, while the third seemed like a salty soybean sauce. Smoothing this three-sauce blend all over the crepe, much like a pizza chef would cover a pizza with sauce, the chef then applies a crunchy layer of fried wonton skins and a scattering of fresh coriander.Flipping up one edge of the crepe creates room to fry off a sausage, which is then folded into your Chinese Pancake ($8.50). It’s a texturally rich, savoury mouthful that is easy to eat on the run; so it’s easy to understand why jianbing are the number one Chinese street-food choice at breakfast time.

As a suburb set right in the middle of two competing mega-centres, Macquarie Centre and Top Ryde City, Eastwood was always going to need to produce something special to attract anyone - bar immediate residents - to its commercial centre. Enter the Taiwan Night Market – a clever conglomeration of permanent and temporary stalls - putting out hawker food...This bright and clean corral of stalls is a short walk from Eastwood Station. It sits right next to the Rowe Street pedestrian mall, which is also running some street food stalls on this busy Saturday night. And if there was ever any doubt that having a vibrant night market scene feeds into the existing restaurants and businesses, nearly all of the restaurants I walked past were also full. In fact there was more nighttime street foot traffic than Oxford Street has had since the Liberal Party ruined it with their Lockout Laws.Some restaurants, like Singaporean street food specialist, Kreta Ayer, and the experts in crispy chicken, Tan Viet Noodle House, had queues to even score a table. After making a note of two regional Chinese restaurants serving up the dishes of Chongqing in Southwest China for a return visit, I fixed my attention firmly upon the Taiwan Night Market.With bright lighting and a giant movie screen, it's easy to get distracted by the spectacle of this bustling place. Luckily there’s the tantalising aroma of barbeque to keep your stomach on the job. No stall puts out quite so much smoke as Lamb & Cumin. This is a chain outlet based upon owner Raymond Hou’s street food memories from his childhood in Shenyang, the largest city in Northeast China.In true street-food form, Lamb & Cumin staff are cooking their short menu of skewers in plain sight. In a warning small sign for Western diners who tend to get squeamish about biting into anything too squishy, they clearly explain their signature Lamb & Cumin Skewers ($8/5) each contain two lumps of lamb rump fat. We watch them turned, and then spiced on the grill with their signature spice blend (you can buy this separately if you love it as much as I did) and dusted with sesame seeds. The finished product is served up to us in a paper bag within minutes. The fat keeps the lamb nice and juicy, while the spice mix has our mouths tingling cumin with a big chilli kick. We consume them in one of the complex's three covered eating areas. If all the tables are full, this is an easy dish to eat as you walk around seeking out the next dish on your Taiwan Night Markets progressive dinner...

Situat în piața de noapte din Taiwan din Eastwoods, acest stand de alimente stradale este renumit pentru frigarii de miel și băiatul nu au dezamăgit. A venit pe un voucher scoopon care mi-a avut 6 frigarui de miel fără chilli ($ 8), 2 tortilla mică, o baie și o băutură răcoritoare. Așteptarea a luat o vreme, dar nu contează, erau proaspeți și fierbinți! Fericit să încerce din nou.