Super Ling serves homestyle Hakka Chinese cuisine in new Carlton canteen
PIGS’ ears are turning up on menus all over Melbourne including this new-style Chinese diner in Carlton — and they’re pretty darn good, writes Dan Stock.
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IT’S become the go-to ingredient every chef of a certain age/genre seems to now put on their menu, at once ticking off nose-to-tail sensibilities and bottom line economies with a touch of “yeah, and what off it?” ‘tude that comes with the professional kitchen territory.
Pigs’ ears.
Braised or fried or slivered crisp, you’ll find them served in bowls sprinkled with chilli salt and in terrines set with jelly and between crunchy crusted banh mi all over town.
And here they are at Super Ling, a new, small Chinese canteen in Carlton from publican Iain Ling, of the Hotel Lincoln next door.
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Drawing on the Hakka heritage of chef Michael Li — Hakka Chinese are bound by language rather than geography and are now found around the world, chiefly Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia — Hakka cuisine focuses keenly on the texture of dishes. Thus the pigs’ ears.
The thinly sliced, chewy cartilage come drizzled with assertive chilli oil and topped with peanuts and spring onion, forming one part of a generous meat platter that will challenge not only their vegan tablemates but all but the most adventurous carnivore.
Be brave, for there are squares of honeycomb tripe, braised silken and sweetly fragrant in masterstock, and thick cubes of tongue, tender yet still firm to the bite.
There are slices of fatty brisket and slivers of shin slow cooked so soft they fall apart at the merest suggestion of a chopstick.
A few crunchy radishes atop finish a plate of protein borne of centuries-old culture that looks completely at home on a Melbourne table in 2018 ($23).
With a bowl of fabulous fried rice, the light, fluffy grains tossed through wok-fried egg and cubes of lap cheong that add its unmistakeable sweet, porky perfumed richness, you have a mighty meaty meal for two ($14).
It’s a simple whitewashed space of duos on stools and fours along the wall and a zigzag communal table anchoring the centre of the room.
With Oasis on the stereo and Bruce Lee on the walls, this has 20-something Carlton written all over it, though with a bowl of noodles at lunch hitting ($15), it’s probably priced more for their tutors than the local student population.
The slippery, handmade noodles come in three versions: beef and black bean, eggplant, and the one tried, where peppery nuggets of chicken are joined with wok-fried onions and spring onions atop the noodles, the bowl lifted with fermented chilli paste served to the side. Simple and satisfying.
Eating with your hands is encouraged, whether the early hit on the menu — the mapo tofu jaffle ($7) — or the fried barramundi collars after dark.
The jaffle is good fun, old-school rounds of toasted white bread filled with an oily, spicy, tingling mix of mince and creamy tofu that, with a dusting of chilli powder, will have you reaching thankfully for a cold stubbie of Euro Trash lager, the only beer on offer ($8).
The floured then crunchy fried fish wing bits are great. Filled with loads of juicy meat for those who get stuck right in, they are simply served with a light soy/spring onion and ginger dressing.
Share with someone you feel comfortable seeing you with food on your face and tuck in ($15).
Not sure the potatoes need to be “triple cooked”, for by the time you get to them doused in a terrifically dense sauce they’ve lost most of their crunch but they do add ballast to the generous bowl of juicy, meaty storm clams.
Pieces of Chinese doughnut fresh from the fryer are on sopping duties and that sauce — a tomato, garlic, onion, soy and fish sauce dark mush of delicious — is mop-the-bowl-dry good ($26).
A small list of a half dozen low-fi wines complement the equally tight menu, from a crunchy Adelaide Hills fiano for $9 a glass through a Grand Cru pinot gris for $20, though they aren’t poured at the table.
Pub habits die hard, I guess, but at least that translates into staff who are welcoming and easily friendly with an eye for the returning face.
A single sweet is offered to finish, a great little “mille feuille” of custard and caramelised pineapple sandwiched between blistered crisp wonton wrappers, a faint Sichuan pepper tingle lingers long after the three-bite full stop.
In a pocket of Carlton that’s recently welcomed yakitori/ramen restaurant Torisong and Chinese brasserie Tuan Tuan opposite, Super Ling is a nicely priced mod Chinese with a difference.
You could say it makes a silk purse out of a sow’s ear.
Super Ling
138 Queensberry St, Carlton
Open: Mon-Fri lunch; Mon-Sat dinner
Go to dish: barramundi collars
Score: 13.5/20
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