This venue was the South Australian's recommendation and it should be noted that he hasn't failed us yet. I'm not so sure about this place though.....
According to the South Australian, the drawcard dish here is the Scallops & Eggplant however I didn't get around to trying it as we ordered far too much food, most of it of the "burn off your tastebud variety". We were not sure what to do with Chicken & Chilli (top) when it arrived. However turns out it's not the spiciest thing we ordered. I've never encountered this before, perhaps because I usually eat the westernised version of Chinese food, but in this particular dish the chicken came complete with bones. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem, but the pieces were very small and about one third chicken, one third batter and one third bone. I persevered but in the end crunching bones is not my favourite meal. I actually enjoyed the chillies more.
I followed the chilli chicken with crispy duck and was unimpressed. As I said, I'm sure Flower Drum has ruined any chance I have of enjoying Chinese food because S-bo and the South Australian raved about this duck.
After duck I moved on to salt and pepper calamari (not pictured sorry). The calamari pieces were great. I love anything battered and this was a prime example. Also there was just enough chili lingering on the batter to add a kick. In amongst the calamari were bright red slices of fresh chili, with seeds. Now I'd handled the Chilli Chicken fine so surely the smallest little slice of chilli in this dish would be a piece of cake, right? Nope. This was pretty hot, possibly the most concentrated spice I've had (the slice was less than half a centimetre). I toughed it up however and kept eating. That's when I came across my downfall...a whole half of one of these lethal little guys sitting on the plate. I offered it to S-bo and he politely declined. Being the mature (and slightly tipsy) person I was that night I then challenged the South Australian to eat "the chunk". He accepted the challenge and proceeded to pick out an equal amount of chili for myself. With four pairs of eyes on me I couldn't offer a challenge and then refuse to take it myself. I should have though. After a good 30 seconds of chewing I no longer had tastebuds and the South Australian was crying, water teeming down his cheeks.
How do you recover from such an experience? You eat as much rice with sweet and sour sauce and drink as much red wine as possible, because that's the only relief available on your table. You can ask for water but the waiter will laugh as he delivers it. But can you handle more spice? I was yet to try the restaurant's namesake, spicy fish so I gave it a shot. I really didn't think I had any tastebuds left but I had just enough for this dish to tip me over the edge. All I can say about it is hot! Now others might disagree and granted I'm not the biggest eater of spicy food, but I did just eat nearly half of the hottest chili in the world so no-one's allowed to call me a wuss this time.
The wrap up from Spicy Fish is that I didn't enjoy the food that much, but let's be fair, I didn't make any selections myself. I'm sure there are items on the menu which aren't spicy and that's what I would have chosen. If you like your spice, go for it but don't expect any other taste sensations at the same time. My main gripe was the price, we payed$130 between 5 for our selection of crazy Chinese spice and I thought it was a little too much considering the portion sizes. The South Australian has not let us down previously and again made a good selection. Perhaps not because of the food but because we spent all night laughing. You can find such hilarity yourself in Chinatown.
