Long & Short Soup
Back in the day, if you were in Sydney’s Chinatown, Lean Sun Low was the place to go. One dish everyone loved was Long and Short Soup. As Eileen Lai later recalled in Cantonese, her dad, LEE Tung Hoi, didn’t know much English—so he simply called it “Long and Short Soup.”
The comforting bowl of wonton soup, with its bamboo-pressed noodles, became a crowd favourite. It was so popular that Mr King Fong even remembers Dr Victor Chang dropping in for a bowl after surgery.
And while Lean Sun Low closed its doors in 1985, Long and Short Soup never really went away. You can still find it on Chinese restaurant menus across Australia today.
Iconic Australian fashion designer Jenny Kee reminisced on fond childhood memories of going to the Lean Sun Low Café after visiting her father’s office above Paddy’s Markets in the 1950s, “On the way home, we always stopped by the Lean Sun Low Café to have our billy cans filled with a savoury rice porridge called juk."
This information is from Dr Christopher Cheng’s interviews with King Fong and Eileen Lai.
Click to listen to Mrs Eileen Lai’s recollection of Long and Short Soup at Lean Sun Low in Cantonese from NLA.
Click to listen to Mr King Fong’s life story in English, including his memories of Long and Short Soup, recorded for State Library NSW, 2020.
