XOPP

BREATHE A SIGH of relief: the pippies in XO sauce at XOPP are just as good as they are at Golden Century. And that’s a good thing, because it would be pretty awkward if the dish that inspired the goofily named (say it slowly, one letter at a time) and eagerly anticipated spin-off of the Chinatown institution were not up to scratch. The steamed clams are textbook tender, the shimmering amber sauce just as mystifyingly complex, and, of course, the addition of springy vermicelli noodles or crisp Chinese doughnuts (or both) remains vital. To order this dish is to remind yourself why it is a bona fide Hall of Famer on the Sydney dining circuit. Look beyond those pippies, however, and the comparisons are few and far between. Yes, servers still sport name badges, wine fridges are well stocked with Aussie icons, and you can order a bowl of unforgettable hot-and-sour soup, salt-andpepper squid, two courses of Peking duck or the famous beef tendon hotpot – but XOPP is fundamentally different from its predecessors. Up here, in the strangely semicircular space on the first floor of Kengo Kuma’s cyclonic Exchange building, there’s hardly a tablecloth or a fish tank in sight. The lights aren’t set to clinical brightness. Most of the tables are oblong shaped, set with pale jade porcelain and carrot-coloured chopsticks. There’s even a bar with a separate snack menu and the offer of a wicked jasmine bubble tea panna cotta for dessert. Try not to panic.

Start from the very top of that snack list. You’ll be rewarded with a pair of gloriously golden fried mantou buns, split in half, stuffed with sweet prawn meat coated in XO mayonnaise and crowned with an exclamation of XO sauce. Suddenly, the prospect of chicken liver and shaoxing wine parfait makes sense. The sherry-like cooking wine reinvigorates the old standby, imparting sharpness and a caramelised complexion made all the more compelling when spread on airy segments of those savoury Chinese doughnuts. There’s far less East-meetsWest commotion in a plate of crunchy deepfried pork ribs brushed with red bean curd, but no less excitement. Add a Tsingtao or three, and you’ve got a promising night ahead of you.

Billy Wong, son of GC founders Linda and Eric Wong, is running the show, and there’s next-gen panache aplenty. Gone are the garlicky cucumber logs that kick off every great meal at the Sussex Street HQ, replaced by a hillock of soft and subtly smoky chopped tomatoes. White-cut chicken, meanwhile, benefits from a ruthlessly delicious sesame sauce and teensy cubes of densely flavoured black vinegar jelly. And if you’ve ever wondered whether the Typhoon Shelter treatment works on anything other than shellfish, order the cauliflower and see. In such capable hands, just about anything would benefit from a deep-fried rubble of garlic, chilli, shallots and fermented black beans.

XOPP not only indulges our unending romance with tried-and-true Cantonese classics, but also gives us a few new reasons to fall in love all over again. ■ Matty Hirsch