As Chinese parents who bring up children in English speaking countries are wont to do, my parents gave my sister and I Chinese names as well as English ones. My name translated from Chinese into English means “Little Pretty” (although my mother would often sniff that I had more in common with my English name Lorraine which means “warrior” according to the book she used). Not so fortunate was my sister when she asked my father what her Chinese name meant.

“It means ‘Little Homely’” he said.

My father is not usually known for his diplomacy or tact. My mother horrified at his translation scrambled to find a less offensive descriptor and translated it to mean “Little Quiet” before giving up and admitting that my grandfather named me and my grandmother named my sister and that there wasn’t really a word for her name. “I just thought it sounded nice in Chinese” she offered weakly.

And so I knew that it was with both my parents that we had to visit Fei Jei meaning ‘Fat Boy’ in Chinese. Recommended to me by a friend of mine Woolloomooloo resident Petrina formerly at Donna Hay, she was melodically swooning over the omelette said to be lighter than air. Fei Jai is the “fat child” or more accurately small compact moodily lit child of Peter Lew whose uncle owns Flower Drum in Melbourne and Nicole Holloway formerly of Hugo’s. And my Cantonese father who prefers to eat Chinese only food would no doubt have his own opinion of the food. It sits on Challis Avenue or as well call it the street of no restaurant names (aka too subtle signage) and we only find it because we know that it is at number 31.

Scallop and prawn dim sim $15

OK they’re not the cheapest little morsels at $15 for four but they are a cut above the rest. The filling for the siu mai is chock full of plump and juicy Hervey Bay scallops and prawns. And before you know it, your siu mai is gone and you don’t have another to replace it which makes one a bit sad. Between each and every course they clear and replace our plates which secretly pleases my mother who leans over and whispers “I’m very impressed by that” but Mr NQN and I feel that we don’t need such frequent plate changing picturing the towers of plates in the smallish kitchen so we ask to keep our plates.

Crab omelette $16

The star dish, the crab egg white omelette is fluffy and light and creamy with delicate pieces of blue swimmer crab, and not just tiny threads of crab, some big enough to notice that they’re there and it’s made from freshly picked crab. There’s a small bowl of black pepper to sprinkle on top of the omelette which brings it all together beautifully.

Char Siu pancakes $18

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The XXX wall

There is one thing that all of my close friends have in common. They are fabulous people – gifted people even and when my friends meet my other friends the common remark is “Your friends are really nice!” It’s absolutely true, I hand pick all of them and they are the brightest and sweetest cherries in the box. One of them is The Second Wife who upon learning that it was my birthday put her hand up to organise a food trivia night for my birthday. Yes any invitee to a birthday party or Halloween or even dinner at our house will know that after the food and drinks are eaten, games are aplenty whether it be Murder in The Dark for Halloween, Sardines for Christmas or simply Charades for after a dinner party.

I racked my brain trying to think of places to hold my birthday. I wanted it to be central to everyone to get to and when I saw LL Wine and Dine’s website and the magical words “Private Room” coupled with the fact that there wasn’t a minimum spend to have the room I looked further. The private room was all red which was very Twin Peaks-I could easily imagine the dwarf and giant hanging out there (which really was my prerequisite for choosing a room). Plus it was also a former adult bookstore so what’s not to intrigue? But beyond that, the building has such a fascinating history that it was the perfect choice for a birthday.

See that little room up there? That’s where they discovered the p*rn stash!

The front of the restaurant was originally where the adult book store sat but in the back, through one of the 650kg secret steel hydraulic doors was a steel walled room gambling establishment and swingers room where the real action happened. It took 2 weeks to strip all of the steel out once they moved in. Whilst they knew of it’s provenance as an adult book store, the owners didn’t realise what else lay hidden until it came to renovating it. The unexpected prize? A steel fronted secret attic space hiding bags and bags of XXX magazines and tapes!

Where the hydraulic door would have slid back to lead patrons into the inner sanctum aka the gambling club and swingers club

In fact the room that we have booked has some hooks from the ceiling that were used to suspend swings and harnesses from and plastered and painted over is the door that leads to the tank stream underground passageway where patrons could slip out unnoticed. The police used to watch the place with interest from the front where they would see men disappear into the store but never come out and it was through these secret doorways that patrons would leave. It’s a modern day maze a la Alice (admittedly though, a children’s book wouldn’t be set in Kings Cross). And you know I wouldn’t choose just anywhere to have a birthday right?

Where the owner of the adult book store would have sat in the booth looking out onto the store

So with the venue decided we chose the Sapphire $50 banquet menu so that it wouldn’t be too expensive for everyone and put down the $10 per person deposit. I have a slight obsession with the TV series Twin Peaks and David Lynch and it was only when we sent out the invitations that I realised how few of my friends had seen the series. Ah well! After sending off the guest list to the The Second Wife, she and her husband Gravy Beard weaved their magic from there and put together a list of questions including trivia questions and blind tastings. People would split up into teams of three and the prize? Well that’s a secret!

I decided this year as it was so close to Mother’s Day and I was busy baking for that that I wouldn’t make my own cake. So I called upon Buppa from Buppa’s Bakehouse to make it for me. The Bakehouse has sadly now closed but I knew that she was doing private orders and I knew that she would think up something quirky and fun with a Twin Peaks theme.

The table of vegetables

Mr NQN and I arrived that evening at 7:30pm. I do love dining out in this area but parking is a beast so we had to cab it (warning for drivers, there is only one parking station for the whole Potts Point/Kings Cross area and scarce 1 hour parking everywhere!). We walk downstairs to the private area. It’s dark, in fact very dark so please excuse the shots as we were in the darkest part of the restaurant right down at the bottom with just two lamps lighting up the whole area and we forgot to bring the flash. Mr NQN set up a time lapse camera that would take a photo of the room every 10 seconds and The Second Wife set up her little table of unusual vegetables.

Prawn and pork wontons

The staff that were looking after us introduced themselves and asked us what order we would like things to do done in and we decided to start on the entrees and then have the games before and after the mains. The food started to come out quickly and we started with bowls of delicious slippery prawn and pork wontons that sit deep in a bowl filled with chilli oil and aged dark vinegar sauce, topped with thin slices of silk egg which is like a thin scrambled egg, pickled mustard and shallots. The wontons are good with a flavoursome filling and a smooth, slippery thin pastry. Miss America leans over and confesses “Do you know I haven’t touched a dumpling since our dumpling escapade?”

LL san choy bau

This was many of our favourite-the san choy bau here is quite different from the ones that you may find with pieces of duck and water chestnut. This one is filled with minced chicken with a spicy lime dressing and it has toasted pine nuts and croutons to give it an even greater crunch to match the crunchy iceberg lettuce.

Crispy tofu

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“I’ve been looking for this place for over half an hour!” Blythe wails telling us that she had even asked the convenience store next door for directions here having overlooked China Beach. Located right on the esplanade on Manly beach in prime position with the beach across the road the room it still manages to elude those searching for it by foot or by car. The room is long and eyecatching in tones of red and white designed by Iain Halliday.

The menu here is similar to the menu at sister restaurant China Doll at Woolloomooloo wharf – some Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese. This should technically sound warning bells but we were assured by friends that this worked. The mains actually sound a little more enticing than the entrees which is a change so we order a couple of entrees and plenty of mains. They explain to us that the dishes are designed to share and that for entrees there are usually four pieces of each but they can be upsized to suit the number of people dining (at extra cost of course).

Betel leaf with house smoked trout, grilled eggplant and green chilli nam jim $4 each

We start with the betel leaf topped with a smokey house smoked trout which still retains a good amount of juiciness and isn’t smoked until it is dry. There’s some grilled eggplant which also adds to the silky voluptuous texture and a green chilli nam jim to give it a little punchiness as well as lots of fresh herbs.

Chinese 5 spice crispy prawns with toasted chilli and lemon $16 ($20 for 5 prawns)

The five spice prawns come with a little five spice powder and a lemon wedge which we squeeze onto the five prawns (upsized from four). They’re tempura battered and served hot and crunchy although if you are looking for a similar dish but larger the squid might be your choice.

Grilled lamb cutlets with green papaya salad, cherry tomato, sweet fish sauce $24

The grilled lamb cutlets end up being everyone’s favourite dish of the night. The grilled lamb is buttery soft and tenderly pink in the middle and the piquant green papaya salad redolent in fish sauce and Thai basil suddenly makes perfect sense to cut through the rich, buttery lamb.

Twice cooked free range duck with sweet tamarind, lychee, ginger and crispy eschallot $29

I had had a similar dish at China Doll and it reminds me somewhat of Kylie Kwong’s duck dish. It is a generously sized portion (indeed prices are very reasonable considering the proximity to the beach) and the sweet tamarind goes perfectly with the juicy duck pieces whilst the crisp eschallot give it a savoury aspect.

Roasted pork belly stir fried with mama’s curry paste, snake bean, lime leaf and basil $28

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