Howard Chen

Houston

Producer at ESPN

Producer @ESPN. @aajatexas VP. Ex-Rockets/Astros reporter, CSN Houston. Ex-social @kprc2. @SyracuseU grad: @WAERSports @Z89Sports. @aajasports ✊🇨🇦Htown ❤️

Articles

S’wich’s New Redfern Branch Adds Four Fresh Sangas to the Mix

2 days ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

You can hear S’wich’s new mocha-hued shop from afar. Seventies funk pulsates through modified vintage Spica TC-50 speakers and stepping inside, you’ll notice the curves of the future-forward fit-out by Studio Shand. It’s a far cry from how Jordan Abram and Jay Fink began their journey into hospitality. The childhood friends ran a three-week makeshift pop-up at an old Bellevue Hill deli in 2019.
First Look: Izakaya Gaku Is for Walk-Ins Only, and Goes All-In on a Hard-To-Find Rice Dish

2 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

There’s nowhere to eat kamameshi in Sydney, according to chef Shimon Hanakura. So, he opened Izakaya Gaku with fellow chef Haru Inukai. The restaurant in Five Dock is now the go-to for the Japanese comfort dish where rice is cooked in an iron pot with a punchy broth. As you approach, you’ll spot the small dining room glowing under a striped awning. Up a few steps and you’re in a space that, quite honestly, feels true to Japan.
Room Ten Is New Again, With a Cafe Menu Rivalling Its Hot Younger Sibling Pina

2 weeks ago | broadsheet.com.au | Grace MacKenzie |Howard Chen

In 2010, Sydney’s cafe scene was nowhere near as strong as it is now. When you found somewhere like Room Ten – the Potts Point hole-in-the-wall known for standout coffee and simple salads and sandwiches – you held onto it. But now, the team wants to set Room Ten apart. And give Pina, its sibling eatery directly opposite, a run for its queue. “I have to compete with my own shop,” owner Andrew Hardjasudarma tells Broadsheet, laughing. “At the moment it looks like I’m playing chess with myself.
First Look: Food Truck El Taco Serves the Mexican Food Sydney’s Been Waiting For

1 month ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

Crossing Marrickville Metro’s concourse, you’ll hear a cleaver thwacking on a chopping board. Then you’ll smell the intoxicating aroma of meats grilling over embers. It’s intriguing enough to divert any grocery plans to investigate what’s going on. It’s El Taco, a Mexican food truck from cousins Edson Dominguez Tapia and Miguel Seynos. “We’ve been working in construction for a while, but we didn’t like it at all,” Tapia tells Broadsheet.
First Look: Korean Tissue Bread Steals the Show at Buttered, Chippendale’s Newest Bakery

1 month ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

One of the beautiful things about the digital age is how speedily food trends can travel across the globe. First we had the cronut and croffle proliferate our cafes and bakeries, then the crombolini and the crookie. And Asian Australian bakeries are booming right now. The latest wave to crash onto Sydney’s shores is Korean carbs, and you can find them at Buttered. “From the beginning we decided we’re not doing croissants, we're not doing sourdough,” Anece So tells Broadsheet.
First Look: Kombu Lab’s Teeny Four-Dish Menu Is Here To Give Tonkotsu a Run for Best Bowl

1 month ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

“We like tonkotsu ramen, but it gives us gout,” Kuon’s co-owner Kenny Lee tells Broadsheet, laughing. Lee owns the hospitality group – behind Kuon Omakase and the now-closed Tempura Kuon – with chef Hideaki Fukada. And when they were tasked with opening another intimate omakase restaurant, the brief went in a different, more casual direction. Enter Kombu Lab, a 10-seat ramen bar with a teeny menu.
Cross Section’s chicken caesar wrap

1 month ago | smh.com.au | Howard Chen

The first wrap to be inducted into Sandwich Watch, this rock star of a sanger delivers a satisfying crunch and proves size does matter. Howard ChenApril 16, 2025, register or subscribe to save recipes for later. You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add more. Save this article for laterAdd articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime.
First Look: Sydenham Got the Inner West Memo, Welcoming Its Very Own Wine and Pasta Bar

2 months ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

“I could eat two or three serves of this,” someone at the neighbouring table blurts out. A generously layered beef shin lasagne gleaming with vodka sauce and Parmigiano is quickly disappearing from the plate. The handmade pasta is the work of chef-owner Nicholas Giannopoulos, who’s just opened Sippenham with his best mate Stephen Mandis. Giannopoulos is captaining his first kitchen, after a childhood watching his dad work at Luna Blu, a long-closed Tuscan 20-seater in the Italian Forum.
Three To Try: Eateries for Outstanding Indonesian Wrapped Rice in Sydney’s CBD

2 months ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

Punchy aromatics escape through the pyramid of banana leaves and paper, held together by a rubber band. Unfurling the parcel is akin to unwrapping a gift: the excited anticipation is almost too much. This is the joy of nasi bungkus, Indonesian wrapped rice that’s customised to your liking with curries and sambals.
Park Bong Sook’s Seafood Pancake

2 months ago | broadsheet.com.au | Howard Chen

Growing up as a 1.5-generation kid in Midwest America, pancakes were ubiquitous in my life. My family wasn’t particularly wealthy and pancakes were a way to make a dollar stretch. On the weekends, my mum would make danbing, a Taiwanese egg pancake that’s savoury and sweet, with a bouncy, chewy texture known as QQ. On family-holiday road trips, my dad always made sure we ate at the hot breakfast bar of our motel, which – you guessed it – had pancakes.