What do you do on a week night and too lazy to cook? Emperor's Garden is a perfect place to go in Chinatown for authentic bbq meat to takeaway.
Just look at the window display - reviews and praises galore, and if you are still in doubt, listen to Simon's dad. Having worked as a chef in a Chinese restaurant in Adelaide and spent a week tasting most of Sydney's Chinese restaurants in the city to recommend to his son, he said Emperor's Garden serves the freshest bbq, and I am inclined to believe him.
The restaurant itself is pretty pricey inside, but the takeaway menu are much more reasonable. There are two windows situated at the front of the restaurant that acts almost like butcherie counters, where you choose whatever bbq meat you fancy and they will chop it up for you in front of your eyes.
Hovering in front of the window, I spotted a familiar friend hidden amongst the tripe, trotters and tongues... I pointed it out to Simon "... is that pigs ears?" Simon wasn't sure, as he has only ever seen it chopped up. I, however, having grown up in a street-food culture, have seen it in its glorious, straight-of-the-pig (and marinated and cooked) form.
Simon asked for half a barbequed duck and half a box of pork, and I prompted him to ask about the ears. It's priced per kg, and costed the same as the bbq pork per kg - so pretty pricey, but I guess it was considered a delicacy. We asked two 'pieces' of ears - and Simon taunted me with the image somewhere out there there is a pig running around without ears...
At the end, it was worth it, the ears were my favourite part of the meal - it was marinated and cooked just right, with the meat (or fat?) being chewy and the bones crunchy, a perfect combination of textures and the flavour was there but not overpowering, so I could happily munched on it without any condiments.
Out of the bbq duck and pork, I preferred the pork and Simon the duck. The skin of the pork was nice and crispy, although I think it could do with a pinch or two more salt. The duck was moist and tender and nicely seasoned, but for me it was too greasy and hassles to eat.
Definitely not somewhere you would visit to often if you don't want your arteries to clog up, but a nice treat once in a while. And now that I know where to find pig ears... be scared, little piggies, be very scared.
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