Temasek

Scoot down a nondescript laneway off one of Parramatta's main streets, and join the queue - there's almost always a queue - at this 19-year-old Singapore-Malay institution. Forget the bland beige walls and indifferent floor staff - it's all about the faithful plates from both sides of the Johor Strait. Hainanese chicken arrives with textbook smooth skin, paired with rice gently fragrant with ginger and chicken broth. Order the signature chilli crab a day in advance, or settle instead for the rewardingly messy chilli king prawns, bedded under a thick, red-hot curry sauce sweetened with pineapple. Assam fish is a moreish bowl of blue-eye trevalla steaks submerged in the tang of tamarind and lemongrass broth, and the belacan kangkong (water spinach) is one for the dried shrimp-paste lovers out there. Kill off any chilli sweats with a colourful ice kachang, a generous mound of shaved ice buried under sweetcorn, purple grass jelly, red beans, evaporated milk and swirls of red syrup.