Luke Nguyen raises the Red Lantern
What do they say is the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again to get the same result. Over the years we had tried to get into Red Lantern and every time it was booked out. Granted we were trying fairly last minute on the busy nights, but I was determined to get there eventually. When friend Ute suggested that we try it I repeated our tale of woe. I suspected the queues would be much worse now the owner Luke Nguyen has his own television show but Ute came back with a booking – we had a table there from 6pm to 8pm!
Inside the restaurant, the walls are black and red and the lighting is dark. Items like a North Vietnamese radio sit on a bookshelf with the brand name 'Red Lantern' written on the side. Vietnamese artefacts and tin robots sit on shelves. Service is lovely, our waitress steers us towards her favourites at our request and since we only have a two hour window we order and then proceed to talk and talk and talk.
Seeing my camera, the waitress mentions "Luke in the house tonight” and we look at each other. I guess I had presumed that once you get a television show your time in your own restaurant is minimal but then we see him bringing out dishes from the kitchen. "That's very uncheffy” Ute says, as he we overhear him asking a table how they found their food was and removes their plates.
Luke brings over our entrees. "Aunty 5's rice cakes” are squares of chewy, sticky rice cakes that are served with pieces of tiger prawn, caramelised pork, pork floss and shallot oil. Ute asks Luke about these and he explains that he fell in love with them during his time in Vietnam. When it came to putting these on the menu he sought the advice as to which of his aunts made the best rice cakes and it was apparently auntie five out of the twelve aunts whose recipe inspired this dish. "These are just what I needed” Ute says and she is a big fan of the sticky, slightly crispy rice cakes and the fluffy, sweet pork floss sitting on top.
Now this was just what I needed, the duck breast with a lovely light char flavour, tender and paired with a crunchy pickled salad with myriad textures from the batons of cucumber, quartered cherry tomatoes, red onion, crushed peanuts and herbs all brought together with a sweet dressing, deep in flavour.
Shortly after, the mains arrive and the first is a tender cubed pasture fed Black Angus sirloin tossed in the wok with garlic, sesame and black pepper. The cubes of beef are plentiful and the accompanying salad gives the tender, rich, peppery beef a counterpoint.
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