Crazy Wing, Chinatown Melbourne

When I arrived back at my desk in January post wedding, Christmas Holidays, New Year and honeymooning in Hawaii things were looking a bit grim. Our long awaited holiday to Hawaii was well and truly over and it was back to work. Ho hum.

I’m a true believe however that the only way to get over the post holiday blues is to book another holiday ASAP. As we were lucky enough to have a five day Easter/Anzac Day long weekend this year it was the perfect chance to make the most of the time off work and visit Melbourne. Be still my grumbling tummy!

As soon as I’d booked our flights I started on the very important business of planning where to eat. Months of reading food blogs and restaurants reviews helped me to compile a healthy little Melbourne wish list all of my own. Man, this was going to be an AWESOME eating trip.

Number one on the list was Movida. A few weeks before we were due to fly out I rang up Movida to make a booking for Good Friday only to be told they were closed on Good Friday. In fact they were going to be closed for the ENTIRE EASTER LONG WEEKEND. Nooooooooo! I hung up feeling very sad until I realised that if I couldn’t go to Movida, perhaps I could go to Movida Next Door instead as it’s basically the same same but different. Smart thinking Miss Piggy. I quickly rang back only to be told that Movida Next Door would also be closed all long weekend, in fact all the Movida’s restaurant would be. Gah!

This little encounter sent alarm bells ringing in my tummy. After ringing nearly every restaurant on my wish list (yes, really I did) I found out that at least half of them were going to shut shop over Easter, and many of the others were already booked out.  Insert expletive here!   

The Boy couldn’t understand my dismay. Why couldn’t we just walk around aimlessly for five days and find places to eat. We’d done that before (in my pre-blogging less food obsessed days). Surely there must be some places open – we were staying smack-bang in the middle of Chinatown after all. All good points, but what about my wish list. Huh? What about all of my carefully well laid out plans for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dinner?

You won't find food down there...it's not on my list!

So on our first afternoon in Melbourne we set out to find somewhere for a late lunch. Just something small to tide us over to dinner. Seeing as Movida’s was closed I thought we’d head up to Hutong for a dumpling fix (I knew they were going to be open as I’d called them the week before to triple check).

A funny thing happened on the way to Hutong though. As we were hurtling across Russell Street I turned my head and noticed Crazy Wing. I did an impressive U-turn and headed over to check it out. I’d read quite a bit about Crazy Wings in Sydney’s Chinatown, and whilst this wasn’t part of the same franchise, it seemed to be the same same, but different. How fortuitous as I’d be wanting to check out Crazy Wings in Sydney, and this seemed to be the next best thing.  Seems that The Boy's idea of wandering around and seeing what we stumbled across wasn't so daft after all.

The place was packed which we took to be a good sign and we got the last available table. The entire restaurant was engulfed in the delicious aroma of meat cooking over charcoals. Our waitress shows us to our table and gave us a wooden tray (which turns out to be the tray our skewers are plonked on when they are ready, as well as the tray for our chewed chicken bones and other eating debris).

We were also given an order sheet which listed the various options available and you simply select what you want to eat - indicating how many of each item on the order sheet. Simple.  The difficult part was choosing what to order as everything just sounded fabulous.

We go crazy ordering, and actually end up back at Crazy Wing three times to make sure we try all the stuff on the menu that we couldn't fit in on previous visits. It was a fun and cheap way to eat - especially as they had a two for one beer offer on the weekends, as well as other two for one specials that we made the most of.

Clockwise from left to right: Shredded Cucumber ($5.00); BBQ Pork Belly ($2.50 per skewer); BBQ Sweet Corn ($2.50 per skewer); BBQ Pork Skin ($1.80 per skewer).

There was a great debate about ordering the "Crazy Wings". We did actually order them, but when I realised that they were hotter than the bowels of hell the waiter kindly cancelled our order. It was quite funny watching other peoples strategies for counteracting the chilli induced pain the Crazy Wings caused. The people next to us swore drinking Soy Milk would help, the guys opposite us had a 2.5 litre of Sprite which they took turns in sculling. The people next us indulged in congee and rice, and a group of girls on an opposite table each clutched a jug of water for dear life. When all of that fails you can just burst into tears like one girl did (really)!

Clockwise from left to right: BBQ Prawn ($1.80 per skewer); Honey BBQ Steamed Bread ($1.50 per skewer); BBQ Honey Spice Chicken Wing ($2.00 per skewer); Chinese Leek ($5.00 for 3 skewers)

Our favourite skewer would have to have been the prawns, which were so crunchy you could eat the tail, shell and head without any trouble. The pork belly was another winner - deliciously smokey and tender. I loved the grilled corn and The Boy couldn't get enough of the wings - especially the honey wings. Everything was dusted in a spicy Sichuan pepper so a jug of water was a good idea to combat the heat once our mouths started tingling and we'd run out of beer. 

Clockwise from left to right: BBQ Capsicum ($3.00 for 3 skewers); BBQ Enoki Mushrooms ($4.50 for 3 skewers); BBQ Prawns ($1.80 per skewer) and BBQ Lamb Meat ($1.50 per skewer); Jug of Water to help "ease the burn" of the crazy wings.

I was very impressed by the strings of Chinese Leek and Enoki Mushrooms that must take hours to thread onto the wooden skewers, but only minutes to eat. I know I wouldn't have the patience for such delicate work.

Crazy Wing is at 177 Russell Street, Melbourne (just between Little Bourke and Bourke Streets).