Shortgrain Canteen & Shop, Surry Hills – Closed
EDIT: CLOSED
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…
