Winna and Nina Zhang
What inspired your current menu at Mikirin?
Winna Zhang: We’ve been influenced by our grandfather a lot. He’s from Shanghai. Nina Zhang: I like to see him cook when we have Chinese New Year or a family gathering. He was always making prawn crackers. I was always there to ask him questions. Same with my mum. Sometimes they’d think, what a questioning girl!
What style of food do you cook at Mikirin?
Nina: A lot of people try our food and say it’s unique, and ask me the cuisine. I say it’s Chinese, but with fusion flavours or other Asian-specific cuisines. It’s still Chinese.
How does the Mikirin Sea Deluxe dish reflect your cultural influences?
Nina: We have the influence of Thai with the basil leaves. And with the togarashi calamari, we make our own togarashi. Ours is a little bit sour; we put a lemonpepper style mix in it.
Winna: For the crab, we fry and soak it in a soy-karaage sauce so it tastes unique.
What surprises you about diners’ reactions?
Winna: They all finish. When we take the bowl back, there’s only soup left. Everything in the rubbish bin is really rubbish.
Your first restaurant was called Spicy Lips. Can you handle a lot of chilli?
Nina: Actually, we can’t take spiciness.
But Western and Chinese spiciness is different, so if we can take it, that means Western palates can take it.
Winna: Western spice is quite plain. When we worked in hotels, they used Tabasco and chilli powders or black peppercorn. They’re not complex. Our chilli pastes, made from combined chillies and herbs, are naturally fragrant. Even the chilli paste you eat with rice is delicious.
Is it easy working with your sister?
Nina: We can even share the one pen. That’s how close we are. We share absolutely everything. Mikirin, Shop 12, World Square, 123 Liverpool St, Sydney, NSW, (02) 8592 2298, mikirin.com.au