Chequers Restaurant – Chatswood
We are on a quest to find the best eggplant hotpot dish in Sydney. I don’t know what it is about stewed eggplant that tastes so great, but it all started at Chequers a while back, when we were dining with family. The mother of our hotpot quest, is actually called Grandma Hotpot; a dish we ordered on a whim, not knowing what to expect exactly. It came to the table all colourful and bubbly. The combination of silky eggplant strips and tender pork mince in a mildly spicy sauce was very comforting. I don’t remember what else we ate that night, but recall wanting to return the next day for more hotpot. From then on, we have tried several other types of similarly stewed eggplant.
Kam Fook in Chatswood does tasty eggplant hotpot, but it’s a little bit greasy. Choyan in Gordon (near the train station) has also served us delicious hotpot, upon request. Gateway to India, a restaurant also in Gordon, does a pretty good eggplant dish called Patiala Baingan. It’s described as “eggplant roasted in tandoor and stir fried with fresh tomatoes, onions, green chillies, ginger and fresh coriander”. It’s a rich, more-ish stew featuring plenty of both eggplant and tomato which we mopped up with naan bread – again the only drawback is that it’s also a little too greasy for my liking.
B thinks the best contender so far is the hotpot from BBQ King. Tonight, we had dinner with Calamari, who gave the Chequers’ hotpot a sizzling “4 out of 5 eggplants” rating. We also had excellent salt and pepper tofu (crispy and well seasoned on the outside, soft and pillowy on the inside) and a passable beef and black bean dish.
Chequers
Mandarin Centre
Level 2, Shop 220,
65 Albert Avenue
Chatswood 2067.
