Everyone likes a good treasure hunt. A while ago a friend - highly trusted in such matters - had mentioned in hushed tones that apparently a mate had said that ‘the best Hong Kong food in the north west’ is from a place in Eccles.
It was something about the ‘in the north west’ part. Not just ‘in Chinatown’, or ‘the best in Manchester’, but ‘in the north west’. We’re talking about a big chunk of the country. We’re talking Liverpool too here, people. Even - yes, I know - Warrington.
So I looked it up. It was supposedly called Second Garden. But there’s no website, and just one single relevant result, aside from the many, many listings for ‘second hand garden furniture’. It’s a Facebook page, and it’s all in Cantonese, but it does appear to be a thing, and it’s way down Liverpool Road.
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Now, my Cantonese really isn’t up to standard. That’s my failing. But hitting 'translate' is like reading a peculiar and surreal poem. Dreamlike, almost. An example from the Q&A section: “Relieve hunger to make all-Kong food? - Temporarily careless Harajuku Sarima middle-style takeaway, authentic isolation, bang bang, and jobless trial.” Ooo-kay.
Another: “I look forward to seeing you all again in the coming days. Thank you for being with me all the way. I have to eat and fight through the river.” Don’t we all, pal. Don’t we all.
All I’ve really learned is the address, that the pictures make the food look amazing and that Facebook’s translating software is bewildering and ultimately unhelpful. I’m also gathering that it’s a takeaway, not a restaurant, and it’s not called Second Garden, but ‘Popchop Curry House’.
Curiouser and curiouser, basically, and by this stage, I’m pretty much convinced that this place is going to be great. It simply has to be. So I’m just going to have to go there and busk it. I arrive at the Irwell, just past the big B&Q at Trafford Park. Perhaps this is the river I need to ‘fight through’, but my journey passes without incident.
“Is the humidity okay to park? - Location near railway road can be used,” I glean from Facebook’s increasingly surreal translations. I can’t find a railway road, so I park around the corner, the humidity barely an issue.
Then, a few doors down from Packet House pub on the corner, there’s Popchop (not Second Garden), which looks newly fitted out and smart, though perhaps not quite finished. The pass from the kitchen hatch is a piece of formica board set on stacked up cans of Carnation Milk, used for its bubble waffles.
There’s one table inside, and the menu behind the counter has three or four disheartening Post It notes saying ‘sold out’, and it’s only been open an hour. I was warned that not only was it the ‘best Hong Kong food in the north west’, but that it often sells out of most things before it closes at 9pm. Never a bad sign. Inside, it’s all Chinese students too, another mark in the plus column. As a group, they don’t tend to entertain bad food.
Less encouraging is the news that there’s no daily specials today, and I really, really fancied the look of the Tokyo Fried Rice and the Salt & Pepper Pork Fried Rice. A bit disappointed, the Popchop Chicken Curry (£9.90), a Crispy Pork Katsu Curry (£9.90) and a Chicken Thai Red Curry (£8.90) is ordered.
But checking the Google reviews while waiting, I spot one saying ‘I ordered the curry pork chop with rice, the first taste... just like back to HK’, so that's encouraging. Three dishes isn’t quite what I was after to get a good idea of the place, but it really helped that they were all superb. Superb.
The pork cutlet was thunderingly crisp, and the katsu sauce, so often packet-made, gloopy, sad and underwhelming, was easily the best I’ve ever had anywhere. It’s made fresh in-house, apparently, with that gentle warmth of chip shop curry sauce and peanut butter (the smooth kind, obviously).
The Thai red curry, though Thai, of course, and not exactly from Hong Kong, was significantly better than most red curries I’ve had from Thai establishments. And Thailand, for that matter. Super spicy and split with oil and coconut milk, it also featured the unexpected genius of chunks of sweet pineapple. Not traditional, and perhaps sacrilegious to purists, but it’s a Hong Kong twist that is more than welcome here, and should now be obligatory in all red curries from now on. Sorry, Thailand.
The Popchop chicken curry is also a straight 10, with a sauce that makes you groan and is full of floating chunks of melting potato. All dishes are served on perfectly fluffy rice.
Okay, three orders isn’t really enough to judge somewhere on, particularly for the coveted crown of ‘best Hong Kong food in the north west’. But what if they’re all brilliant? Hong Kong Choi, also in Salford, is blindingly good too, it’s worth noting.
But I will say this; no amount of parking-based humidity, no authentic isolation nor fighting through the river will stop me from going back to try those daily specials to find out for sure.
Popchop Curry House, 325 Liverpool Rd, Eccles, Manchester M30 8GF
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