Shortgrain Canteen & Shop, Surry Hills

25 July 2011, 09:33

Sick of eating fast food and cheese laden lunches at my desk I was totes craving some Thai food with all the miserable weather we’ve been having. Seriously enough with the rain yo! Shortgrain Canteen & Shop (8-10 Hunt St, Surry Hills), sister restaurant of Longrain, has been on my radar for a while now but with the close proximity to the multitude of Thai restaurants in my work hood I’ve left it to lucky last.

The lunch menu changes each day and consists mainly of salads and curries + rice. Pay at the counter and grab a stool, or check out the jars of sauces created by Martin Boetz. Also, props to the automatic bottle of ice water that magically appears.


Massaman curry of beef with pumpkin ($15). I have a confession. I have never ever tried Massaman curry before… hahaha don’t hurt me! I’ve always had issues with beef in curry lol but super glad I finally tried it! The beef was incredibly tender and the buried pumpkin was like finding gold. Perfect ratio of curry to rice and loved the sprinkle of peanuts and lol the cucumber side salad ($3) hit my vegetable quota of the day.


Silken tofu with tamarind and sesame ($12). Now would you look at that! Don’t you feel healthy just looking at it?! That is one glorious mound of tofu! Enough with the exclamation marks! Now Anna and I heart coriander but it did feel like overkill with all that greenery and after a while the sweetness of the tamarind sauce got a bit cloying, would’ve loved a bowl of rice to go along with it.


Fish dumplings with green curry sauce ($15). And then later in the week Frenchie and I trekked over during one of Sydney’s fabulous ‘let’s see how much rain I can dump’ spells. The fish dumplings had caught my eye on the menu earlier in the day but sadly this was not what I was expecting. When I see the word dumpling I just automatically assume wonton-like dumpling y’know? Instead the fish dumplings were more fish nubbins. It was still tasty though the spice level of the green curry nearly killed me in the first bite haha I am chilli fail!


Yellow curry of pork with pumpkin ($15). Suffered food envy and had to steal some pork and hot damn that was delicious pork! Tender and delicious with the not-as-spicy yellow curry. Sadly no desserts on the menu but will definitely be back when the salt and pepper duck makes its way back on the menu. And hopefully by then the rain will stop…

1. Deadly fish nubbines sound good – and all the curries look fab! Shame I’ll prob never get there for weekday lunch.
   And yay for some sunshine today!

   — Tina@foodboozeshoes    Jul 25, 10:01 AM    #
   
   

2. Deadly fish nubbins sound good – and all the curries look fab! Shame I’ll prob never get there for weekday lunch.
   And yay for some sunshine today!

   — Tina@foodboozeshoes    Jul 25, 10:01 AM    #
   
   

3. I too tried something here and it turned up totally different to what it was described as. Still gorgeous flavours but confusing just the same. Sounds like a smiliar story to your ‘dumplings’.

   — Erin@TheFoodMentalist    Jul 25, 11:38 AM    #
   
   

4. that pork and pumpkin looks soooo good

   — muppy    Jul 25, 12:48 PM    #
   
   

5. love silen tofu in the form of mixing with coriander.

   — Obesebaby    Jul 25, 03:12 PM    #
   
   

6. Oh man, today’s cold rainy weather = Lizzi craving curry like you would not believeeeee. This looks fab!

   — Lizzi    Jul 25, 03:50 PM    #
   
   

7. Oh my! What gorgeously yummy-looking curries!

   — Midge    Jul 25, 05:20 PM    #
   
   

8. You have so many good places to eat lunch near your work – I’m in the desert by comparison. Totes jealous! I LOVE Masaman Curry!

   — Miss Piggy    Jul 25, 05:24 PM    #
   
   

9. I use to despise coriander for that very reason. People overkill it here badly. If its in a dish and gives a nice flavour, brilliant. But when you see a whole tree as a garnish – its a bit much!
   The yellow curry looks awesome!

   — Nic@diningwithastud    Jul 26, 12:52 PM    #
   
   

10. pumpkin in mussaman beef sounds awesome! I’m cravin for some Thai food now.

    — Ramen Raff    Jul 26, 05:16 PM    #
    
    

11. wow you’ve never had massaman curry, whattttt! hahah it’s my favourite curry! glad you liked it – the ones at Chat Thai and Holy Basil are good!

    — jenny (minibites)    Jul 26, 10:17 PM    #
    
    

12. The tofu looks awesome, and I agree, I would have been confused by the arrival of the fish dumplings too.

    — Helen (grabyourfork)    Jul 27, 12:24 AM    #
    
    

13. Astonishingly, massaman was voted as the #1 food in the world recently by the CNNGo people. I tried that in Krabi, though I did not find the curry anything of spectacular proportions, yet went incredibly well with rice and various Thai salads.

    — J2Kfm    Jul 27, 01:29 PM    #
    
    

14. Argh. We went here a couple of Saturdays ago expecting it to be open. Fail. You pics want me to check it out even more!

    — Joseph    Jul 27, 02:49 PM    #
    
    

15. I always thought dumplings were of the wrapper-with-filling variety as well, being the only type I’d ever seen in my childhood, then got utterly confused by an Irish beef stew which had flour dumplings!

    — mademoiselle delicieuse    Jul 28, 03:09 PM    #
    
    

16. im taking on all that corriander!

    — Gianna    Jul 29, 01:41 AM    #
    
    

17. That beef looks like it is to-die-for and I love how you get a little salad with it. Yummo!

    — Madam Wu    Aug 2, 10:48 AM    #