Goosefest 2010 @ Golden Century, Haymarket

The mission: To eat roast goose.

The location: Golden Century, Sydney’s much loved institution for late night diners and lovers of Chinese food.

On this poultry night of nights, 35 hungry and excited diners gathered for what was to be a sumptious 10-course Chinese banquet. It started with a conversation between Sydney’sTwitteratiabout goose cravings and the zero possiblity of locating a restaurant in Sydney that served it. Enter the Gooseman, aka Tim Elwin in the real world, who collaborated with Golden Century with the simple premise of “I bring goose, you cook for us”. Deal!

And so initial plans for one table of friends to share in this generous bounty soon exploded into the hottest dining event on an otherwise quiet Wednesday. Three tables were quickly filled and would you believe, there was a waiting list! Seats were hotly coveted and the twitter stream was flooded with calls, rsvps and excited mumblings for, what is now been bestowed as Goosefest 2010.

Our dubious guests-of-honour were sourced from Thirlmere Poultry, which produces hand reared and free range poultry and is also available through Tim at Urban Food Market. Our goose was marinated in a master stock for 24 hours before being roasted rendering a crispy skin.

I was particularly lucky to grab a seat and my excitement was palpable as I’ve never had the pleasure of extending my love of poultry to the way of the gaggle. I didn’t even know that it was hugely popular in Hong Kong and Cantonese cuisine (clearly I need to get in touch with my Southern Chinese roots more often!). Tonight also marked my very first visit to Golden Century despite having lived in Sydney for over 15 years. For shame!

But what’s a meal without a plethora of other courses? We started off with one of my all-time favourites, a Cold-cut BBQ meats platter filled with the usual suspects of roast duck, char siu, crunchy strips of jellyfish, tender beef and cold pork slices. This is a platter that I’d like to devour by my lonesome in front of the TV with chopsticks in one hand and hoisin sauce in the other.

But that was just a teaser. After all the anticipation in the lead-up, it would be cruel to make the diners wait for the main event so without further ado, our roast goose arrived quickly after to much applause. I salivated at the first glance of the succulent meat and the glistening of its dark amber roasted skin was truly breathtaking.

At this stage I must commend everybody for their restraint as if there’s one thing that’s just as important as eating goose, is the photos that we must capture before we touch chopsticks to poultry! SLRs, point-and-shoots, mobiles, iPhones – our goose paparazzi would put the Paris fashion runways to shame.

Luckily it lived up to expectations, as the goose was incredibly good. The only way i could describe it without sounding like an idiot, is to say that it tasted like a beefed up, meatier version of duck with a gamier taste. Still delightful in every way but it really shined when it was accompanied with the sweet, hoisin-like sauce. It was totally worth the fuss. In fact I’d like to apply for a lifetime dinner membership to Goosefest if that’s alright with you all!

Now that the goose has all been demolished, the rest of the evening just flew by, especially the dishes. The floodgates opened and one by one our little table of ladies were snowed under a barrage of Chinese courses.

The Sautéed Prawns in a Sichuan style had a nice kick to it but being Sichuan, it needed more heat. I’m no chilli fiend but I like my Sichuan food to blow my top off.

These Scallops Sautéed with Honey Beans looked good enough but something must’ve went wrong between camera-shoot and camera-down because I didn’t end up trying it. But heck, it’s scallops, of course it was going to be good!

The next dish definitely brought out the groan as it’s an absolute favourite of mine. Steamed Barramundi with the ubiquitous flavours of ginger, soy and shallots. Big props to our waiter who, with a deft hand, removed the fish carcass in no time at all. The flesh was tender and just melted in your mouth. This is my most beloved way to cooking fish and at this stage, I must’ve been glowing.

Because one serve of goose will never do, we had a Roast Goose Fried Rice to tuck into. The goose pieces were evident but sadly, the rice was disappointingly bland. But nothing that a large spoonful of steamed fish and sauce couldn’t fix.

The next lot of dishes were your typical Chinese varieties but if it was done well, then it goes from being pedestrian to something else. The Beef with Black Pepper is one I always enjoy and at Golden Century, the beef was utterly tender and the sauce, beautifully thick, which gave the cubes of beef a delightful coating. Being a pepper fanatic, I would have loved it if it had a couple more pounds of black pepper in it. But that’s just the sadistic side of me talking.

Obviously there’s no such as thing as too much bird because the Crispy-skinned chicken arrived towards the end with a rather unsexy layer of prawn crackers. But I’d never refuse a good chook and I attempted to steal as much of the crispy skin as I could without being detected.

The obligatory vege course was your run-of-the-mill Gai Lan or Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce. I’m no greenie but I like my gai lan… but not when it’s tough and stringy.

At this point, the food coma set in but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The Roast Goose was worth all the anticipation and it was remarkably satisfying to have my first full Chinese banquet in years after swearing off the cuisine (growing up eating it every day does take its toll).

A thousand thankyous to ‘Aptronym’ and Tim from Urban Food Market (now hereby known as Gooseman) for rounding up the geese and the gaggle of hungry Twitterers. T’was a fabulous dinner with fabulous company.

No doubt there will be the inevitable Round 2 so if you want to join in the fun then be sure to join Twitter and follow @urbanfoodmarket and @aptronym and keep your eye out for details (and follow me while you’re at it!). Who knows, maybe I’ll see you there too.

The inaugural Goosefest 2010 was held on January 20th 2010 at $40 p.p. All meals and drinks were paid for by (the very hungry) Citrus and Candy.

Golden Century

393-399 Sussex Street
Sydney, NSW 2000
Australia
(02) 9212 3901

Open 7 days 12pm to 4am

Tagged as: Golden Century, Goosefest, Sydney