Shalom

If you’ve always fancied yourself as a chilli fiend, you’ll happily get your spice on at Shalom. The fried chicken with fresh chilli sauce, crusted with a daunting layer of chilli paste and seeds, is guaranteed to bring tears of pleasure and pain to your eyes. There are several Shalom outlets dotted around Sydney, but the Sussex Street outlet is the fanciest, with an Oriental themed décor of red walls and dark brown timbers. Happily enough, prices are still kind on the wallet, although you’ll have to queue at the register to order and pay for your meals. It’s not all chilli, with plenty of tamer Indonesian favourites like the rawon buntut black oxtail soup, a dark broth heady with cloves and nutmeg, and skewers of lamb and chicken satay smothered in a spicy peanut sauce. The beef rendang is a commendable version, chunks of beef cooked in coconut milk until fall-apart tender. Join the hoardes of Indonesian students in a bowl of durian ice, what converts call the “king of fruits” covered in a mountain of shaved ice. If that’s a little too exotic, there’s always the avocado shake blended with condensed milk, or the cendol ice, pandan noodles in coconut milk and palm sugar syrup.