Almost a year ago now, Food Stasian opened up to little publicity. I've been trying to visit for a while now but have found it difficult due to its odd opening hours. It's only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays for lunch, and on Fridays they do dinner service too. Last Saturday my in-laws finally found a time that works for everyone and we visited together.
The most unique thing about the menu was that it served both Hong Kong cha chaan teng food and Vietnamese classics. I wondered if it was a husband & wife pairing, so I asked the waitress, but the explanation was just as simple as they had a Hong Kong chef and a Vietnamese chef in the back, mystery solved. What's the most surprising combination of cuisines you've found so far? Answer in the comments below! I recently came across a Nepali+Korean restaurant in Ashford.
We started with some HK Style Curry Fish Balls. These were served in a covered bowl rather than on skewers like you would get from street food vendors. They were plump, juicy, and savoury, with a slight spicy kick to them.
We ordered a Crispy Bun with Condensed Milk, and were surprised when it came as two slices of golden baguette rather than two halves of a baked bun. Perhaps the Vietnamese influence, but they were tasty as they were toasted well and the sweet condensed milk was in great contrast to the crispy crust.
They do have a rotating specials menu plastered in front of their restaurant, and I ordered a Fried Chicken Knuckles from there. Otherwise known as chicken knees, it's the cartilage between the thigh and the drumstick that can be offputting to some but a delicacy to others. When I pan fry chicken thighs at home, I cut them off for myself as a chef's treat, and I've seen them skewered up as yakitori in Japan. These were battered and deep fried, with a variety of textures between crunchy cartilage, juicy meat, and crispy skin. Excellent morsels as a bar snack to down with beer.
We also ordered some Vietnamese Chicken Wings which were thinly battered and deep fried. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo as they came towards the end (food arrives whenever they're ready) but they were well marinated and juicy.
For mains, we ordered a Char Siu Lo Mein for which the waitress asked us if we'd prefer the char siu as pork shoulder or belly. I asked for pork shoulder which is the more traditional cut for char siu, and it arrived glossy on a bed of wide egg noodles. My sister-in-law thought some parts of the char siu shoulder was a bit dry and would've preferred belly, but I thought it was fine. I did think the lo mein was a little bland and would've preferred more sauce to mix everything up together.
Next was the Fried Fish Fillet Rice with Cheese & Corn Sauce. The fish was a battered basa fillet which was tender and mild. It was topped with an egg and sweetcorn slurry, tastier than it sounds. Finally there was some shredded mozzarella, blowtorched on the top for some smoky char. The fish was good, but the rice was a low point as it was too wet, probably the water to rice ratio being off.
The last of the HK mains was a Crispy Noodles with Satay Beef, which was also off the specials menu. They do serve satay beef on the normal menu with soup noodles or rice vermicelli, but in cha chaan tengs they normally serve it on top of instant noodles which I don't want to eat when I'm out at a restaurant. HK satay is not like Indonesian sate, not even like British Chinese takeaway satay, it's its own thing entirely. This one was delicious - thin slices of tender beef braised in a thick and nutty satay sauce, probably Jimmy's brand. I would've loved to pour it on top of the crispy noodles to soften it up, but it was difficult to do when we were all sharing. Unfortunately I couldn't snap a photo of it before our son grabbed the main disc of crispy noodles and started munching on it like a snack, it's a bigger portion than just these scraps I promise!
Finally, we ordered a Vietnamese main, the Bun Cha Special. A giant plate of grilled meats came atop a bed of rice vermicelli and fresh salad, plus a thick Vietnamese spring roll on top. The grilled pork was surprisingly my favourite part of the entire meal, sweet and smoky with a hit of lemongrass in the marinade, and a texture that bounces back when you bite into it, my guess for the cut is pork neck. The grilled chicken thigh was also good but not as popular as the pork. And the Vietnamese spring roll was great, filled with minced pork and wood ear mushrooms. I would've loved to get a mixing bowl and mix everything up with the sweet nuoc cham sauce. This is actually what I would recommend for a first-time visit for the Vietnamese food as it shows off a great variety of what the Vietnamese chef has to offer.
And it wouldn't be a cha chaan teng without the tea, so we ordered some ice lemon tea and hot milk tea. The ice lemon tea were chilled in the nearby fridge, with lemon slices suspended in the bottle to prevent it from oversteeping. The waitress was proud to point out that even the ice cubes were made from tea to prevent it from being diluted! The hot milk tea was thick and strong, served in Black & White evaporated milk crockery synonymous with HK milk tea.
All in all it was a great lunch and we all agreed that we would come back. We paid £89.50 for 4 adults and 1 toddler including drinks but no tip, roughly £20 per person. The BNO visas has meant that Reading is spoilt for choice in HK cha chaan tengs, this is amongst our favourites now, and the Vietnamese food is surprisingly good too! We parked at Headley Road Car Park in front of the Lidl which was £2.20 for 2 hours and 2 minutes walk from the restaurant. Hope you enjoyed reading, check it out if you're interested! 😄