The modest Chinese cafe in Newtown, Wellington, is hiding something very special.
This is an edited excerpt from Two Bear Sandwich Club, a Substack newsletter by Nick Iles.
The best meals I have ever eaten all have one quality in common: they made me feel like I was special. Of all the people I could have been and all the places I could have been, I was currently experiencing the best version possible. And I don’t mean this in a high-price-tag, silver-service sort of way. I mean pulling over on the side of a road in northern Spain and stumbling across red hot gambas al ajillo, bubbling and rinka-tinkling away in its terracotta pot, the garlic turning dark brown in hot oil. I mean ducking out of the rain into a Turkish joint in north London and being given piles of pillowy bread, endless homemade dips and blistered fatty lamb chops. I mean the first time I walked into Chan’s Eatery, the little Chinese cafe on the busy traffic-light junction of Riddiford and Constable Streets in Newtown, Wellington.
Chan’s feels a little bit like time travel. Not in the sense that it is in the past. Rather, to fly across to China would take hours and walking through the door here takes a mere moment. Once inside, it feels like somewhere between a steam-billowing hawker stall in Hong Kong and a greasy-spoon cafe in East London. On each of the small plastic tables are tall pots of a deep, dark crispy chilli oil. It’s the kind of place that knows you want the chilli oil and knows you don’t want to have to ask for it – or be supervised using it.
Of course they know all of this. The place is run by a couple who have made food their life. Lavender, the owner, is always behind the counter, and ready to welcome you in with genuine warmth and hospitality. Ready to talk you through the simple sounding menu and the complexity you will actually get, always checking it is what you want and tailoring it to your taste. Originally from Hong Kong, Lavender moved to Wellington in 1976. She met her now husband and they moved out to Wairarapa in 1980 to open a small restaurant. They stayed for 30 happy years before relocating back to the city just over a decade ago – first to Kilbirnie with a small fish and chip shop, and then just down the road to a smaller site on Riddiford Street serving soups and dumplings. They outgrew that site and opened Chan’s just over five years ago to expand their menu and serve more guests.
All this I learn as Lavender leans across the counter and chats away with us on one of our many visits, as we eat in the prized window seat. It feels like an odd thing to say, but sitting at one of those tables feels about as relaxing and welcoming as it is possible to feel in a room not in your own house.
Menus are printed large on the walls around the open kitchen and are a whistle-stop tour of south China and some of the surrounds of Southeast Asia. The braised meat menu offers potentially the most outstanding single offering anywhere in the city, half a braised duck on noodles of your choice with a broth and side of pak choi, all for $21.50. The long,slow braising creates something so sticky, gelatinous and savoury that you find yourself nibbling at the bones of the bird long after the meat has gone. Fat stuck to the front of your teeth and your hands, shredding the napkins on contact.
If duck isn’t your thing, you can swap it out for pork belly or beef shin, both braised and sticky and unctuous. Saying that, the duck is a bit of a necessity here. The red duck curry is an immensely dark, almost rust-coloured broth that is both spiced and floral in equal measure. The sweet duck is piled high on top of rice and a ludicrously generous amount of crisp, perfectly cooked vegetables. Lavender is keen to point out that all the curries here are made from scratch – the pastes for red, and green curries, the rendang, the laksa and tom yum soup. All of them made with knowledge gleaned from over 40 years of cooking.
It’s not just the curries – almost everything here is homemade. The additional little sides are some of the most important items on the menu. Dumplings are packed with an obscene amount of pork and herbs, and are poached so their skins become translucent and slightly sticky. The pork is good, but the chicken dumplings are something quite extraordinary. Chicken – shredded, not minced – is mixed with wood ear fungus and Chinese mushrooms and wrapped, crimped and steamed, resulting in the cutest, most savoury and texturally perfect dumplings I have had in New Zealand. The spring rolls are also good; crisp and fresh from the fryers, served with one of the brightest dipping sauces I have seen in my life.
Everything here is just a little bit better than it needs to be, and certainly better than 99% of the other places around Wellington doing a similar thing. The culinary standards we take for granted can be so much more, and Lavender knows this: her fried rice with Chinese sausage and pork belly has depth and complexity, her Singapore noodles are golden and filled with surprises. With their dedication to making everything on site, by hand, and their decades of hospitality experience, Chan’s is a real treasure hiding in plain sight. Lavender, her husband and sometimes other members of the family are all waiting behind the counter to make you feel very special. Take a seat by the window, have a chat with Lavender, and watch the world go by outside. Oh, and get the duck.
Chan’s Eatery: 170 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington.