If this year has taught us anything, it’s resilience and to expect the unexpected. So whatever 2021 has in store, we’re as ready as we’ll ever be. So with this hopeful spirit that we gathered for the first time in almost a year at Ho Jiak for a more low key celebration for making it through this year.

Ho Jiak is a Malaysian restaurant inspired by the homestyle dishes that the head chef grew up cooking in the family kitchen. This inspiration came through in the decor of the restaurant with the ground floor of the two-story restaurant drawing on the street he grew up on in Penang, Lebuh Ah Quee, while the first-floor decor is styled like his grandma’s home.

This is the Tau Eu Bak ($32.00), ‘braised slow-cooked pork belly in soy sauce’. The pork was tender, but retained sufficient bite to not melt and fall-apart, while the sauce brought a deep savoury sweetness without being oily and the soft boiled eggs added a welcome moister variation to the usual hard-boiled eggs.

This is the Nasi Goreng Normal ($18.00), ‘Malay style spicy seafood fried rice with shrimp paste’. Despite asking for ‘mild’ spiciness, the heat packed in this fried rice is inescapable and firey enough for me to space out my bites. Heat aside, we enjoyed the deep flavour brought by the shrimp paste, along with the variety of fish cakes and prawns as well as the sunny side up egg.

This is the Char Hor Fun Chicken ($19.00), ‘stir-fried flat rice noodles with seafood base and starchy egg gravy’. The noodles had the great flavour of wok hei that was well complemented by the gravy. And to my surprise, there were even a few prawns in the chicken variation.

This is the Ying Yong Choy Sum ($28.00), choy sum cooked two ways served with oyster and garlic sauce. The two ways are steamed stems piled high with fried garlic and deep-fried leaves. I’d only encountered deep-fried kale before and loved that, so these choy yum leaves confirm that deep frying green leaves is the tastiest way for eating them. The texture is much like dried/fried Korean seaweed.

There are no photos, but we also enjoyed the following dishes:

• Kiam Ah Nui Squid ($35.00), ‘wok-fried with salted duck egg yolk, butter & curry leaves’. The combination of the egg and yolk gave the most delicious and moreish coating to the melt-in-the-mouth tender squid.
• Or Cio Hoon Gu ($39.00), ‘stir-fried wagyu (Darling Downs marbling score 7+) with black pepper and oyster sauce’. Compared to the other dishes, the flavour here is more subtle allowing the beefy flavour of the wagyu to came through.

And finally, this is the Iced Teh Tarik with Grass Jelly ($7.00, less ice). The generous size of this regular glass surprised us and provided a refreshing beverage that cut through the spice of some of the dishes as well as delivering a fragrant depth in the tea.

It’s easy to see why Ho Jiak is a crowd favourite. The food is impeccable and the service is attentive and friendly.

Ho Jiak is located at 92 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000.