Where Chefs Eat: Junda Khoo of Ho Jiak, Sydney

Junda Khoo has been busy. He is the culinary captain of Sydney’s much-loved four-strong collection of Ho Jiaks, has plans to open a spot for the Melburnians, and is about to release his 100-recipe cookbook Ho Jiak: A Taste of Malaysia. Phew.

On workdays he dashes between his Haymarket and Town Hall kitchens, stopping for pork noodles on the way. And on his precious (and singular) day off each week, he often dines out with his family. So, the flavour master knows food – and he knows where to get good food in Sydney. Here are his go-tos.

Junda, where’s your go-to for a quick takeaway?
Almost every second Sunday, I’ll get takeaway from Charcoal Kingdom in Rockdale, a charcoal chicken shop. I have an El Jannah closer to home but I prefer Charcoal Kingdom, because the chicken is juicy and succulent, and the garlic sauce is addictive. El Jannah’s pretty good too, don’t get me wrong.

Where do you get lunch on the go?
Not so much on the go, but between lunch and dinner services I get takeaway noodles from Happy Chef – I go from Haymarket to Town Hall, and it’s in the middle. I get the pork noodles with extra pig blood. The snack is the pig’s blood – like a blood pudding – I pay $2 and they give me so much for it. I’m a happy man.

If you’ve got a special occasion, where are you going?
Almost every year, I will try to go to Sixpenny once for a special occasion. Last year I went for my birthday, the year before I went for my anniversary. [I love] everything – the food, and Dan Puskas is a sexy man. They’re literally one of the best in Sydney right now. I always get a lot of inspiration dining there, every year the menu’s different. [My most memorable dish is] the kangaroo tartare.

Where’s your favourite coffee in Sydney?
Before I did Ho Jiak I was actually running cafes. I had about 20 cafes Australia-wide, and during that time I was drinking up to 18 shots of espresso a day. So the moment I gave up the cafe life, I cut back a lot on coffee. These days, if I do have coffee, I just have one of those pods at home in the morning. But otherwise, I don’t have a sweet tooth, I’m on the water train – sparkling water or water with lime.

Do you have a go-to spot for a long lunch?
I rarely get a chance to do long lunch; I only get one day off a week, usually with my kids. But the last one I did was so enjoyable at Margaret in Double Bay. The favourite for me there is the King George whiting, but everything is great produce, simple cooking, really showcasing the ingredients.

Where do you go if you’re dining out with kids?
For us local would be Xi Xiang Feng in Beverly Hills. And they really love their Korean barbeque right now; and we go to Hanabi in Lidcombe and Stoneage in Hurstville. The good thing about Stoneage is they actually cook the meat for you – every time to perfection – which is quite hard to find in Sydney.

If you’re going out for a meal with a bigger group, whereabouts are you going?
Pioneer Palace in Lakemba – we did one with the chefs the other night. We went after service, at like 11pm, and sat around till two or 3am. It’s just really, really good Chinese food but they have this one dish that’s quite hard to find in Sydney. It’s a dried abalone and dried sea cucumber dish, where they rehydrate it and then braise it for a long time in red sauce. It’s called hong shao men bao yu – red-braised abalone with sea cucumber and fish maw. All the other stuff – like the pigeon, the salt-and-pepper whitebait – is fantastic.

Do you have a bucket-list restaurant?
My current is Wing in Hong Kong, by Vicky Cheng. I’ve seen so much about it, I get jealous every time I see anyone dining there. It’s Cantonese cuisine – Chinese cooking elevated to a fine-dining level. It’s doing the simple things right, and making it look superb as well.

You mentioned you don’t have a sweet tooth, but do you ever get a sugar craving?
I don’t have a craving, but Mochi Donuts is not bad – I can actually have a whole Biscoff doughnut to myself. It’s literally a doughnut, but with the texture of a mochi, so it has that chew texture. It’s fantastic, and lighter than a normal doughnut, and not as sweet.

What’s your favourite dish on the menu at Ho Jiak?
Right now it’s the crab salad. The idea behind the dish is the Caesar salad, but what we’ve done differently here is made the [aioli-style] dressing with Indomie seasoning, from the instant noodles. We char the lettuce, dress it and instead of croutons we use deep-fried pork blood. We have hand-picked blue swimmer crab in it, and instead of boiled eggs we have smoked eggs.

Is there a hidden gem in Sydney?
The chef’s table at Sugarless Concept. The chef doesn’t use any sugar, which is a challenge – but he pulls it off. For example, sweet and sour pork, where it’s usually sugar-heavy, but he uses natural sweetener like erythritol. Say he’s making a tea-smoked duck, he uses seasonal fruits like blood orange to make it sweet. He even makes a shokupan without sugar.

Junda Khoo appears as guest chef on MasterChef Australia on Tuesday June 15 at 7pm on 10 and 10 Play. The show airs Sunday at 7pm, and Monday to Wednesday at 7:30pm.