Billy Kwong

Kylie Kwong, Aussie-Chinese celebrity chef famous for her fusion Western/Asian cuisine, was not exactly what drew us to her restaurant, for we love our authentic Chinese style food (preferably cooked at home, by mum, but once in a while we can survive restaurant stuff). Kylie has an uncanny resemblance to my sister, so we thought maybe, just maybe, if we're lucky, the wait staff will not know the difference and give us free dinner... I mean, it's amusing.

Mum and dad had dined there before and highly recommended their mussels, but neither Lily nor I have any interest in this bivalve mollusc (however well it may be cooked), so I took on the challenge of picking the dishes that everyone will enjoy.

For starters, steamed oysters, lettuce wrap with pork mince and ginger, and seared

chicken liver with sweet sauteed onion. Oysters were plump and juicy but I skipped it (not keen on molluscs). Lettuce wrap (san choy bao) was delicious but, sorry Kylie, greasy, and we could

have used an extra lettuce leaf per person because there was way too much mince (which were also on the salty side). I really really liked the chicken liver, seared on the outside but BARELY cooked

on the inside so it was very tender and moist, though it could be cooked a bit more without compromising flavour and texture.

For main we had stir-fried mushrooms, wagyu beef brisket with szechuan eggplants, and Fukien fried rice. The four varieties of the mushrooms were juicy and plentiful, while the wagyu beef was AMAZING - melt-in-your-mouth with a great flavour that didn't overpower the sweetness of the meat itself (tomato based sauce, mildly spicy), the eggplant pieces so mushy it was blended in with the sauce. The fried rice was

lovely but we then regret the choice because the sauce from either the mushroom or the beef would have been YUMMY over the rice!! Very satisfying.

And no we couldn't fool the wait staffs, as Kylie herself was sitting in the middle of the restaurant, waiting for her friends to arrive. She kindly obliged us with a photo (of her and my sister - thanks Kylie!)!!

A few other specialties we didn't order (but wish we did) were the crispy skin duck and the pork ribs. Saw a few pass by and they looked simply devine. But we're not complaining - there's only so much space in our belly! Thumbs.