Anywho, so this year last year’s theme was Mexican and oh boy, were there a lot of dodgy looking moustaches around (fake and real). Anticipating a hot summer (*snorts*), we bought a slightly dodgy-looking above-ground pool and so we had a Mexican Pool Party! We of course had to have Mexican food (albeit made with an Asian spin on it) and lots of booze to go with. Whoo!

Guacamole, Salsa, Pulled Pork... makes Tacos!!

First up were tacos. Unfortunately, the guacamole and salsa were made first and being the pigs we are, we “accidentally” ate most of it before the rest of the taco bits were done. Howie made a commendable attempt in curbing our enthusiasm for the guacamole and salsa, but we could not be denied – they were just too good! Things quickly went downhill when Minh arrived with some Doritos. Good thing there were heaps of the utterly amazing pulled pork and had lots to spare despite our constant nibbling.(...)
Read the rest of Mexican Pool Party (1,000 words)

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2012. | Permalink | 28 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Walk upstairs to the bar

Ms G’s opened  to a lot of hype. Everyone was excited about Dan Hong’s next project following the success of Lotus, this time partnering up with Jowett Yu. We all saw what they could churn out at Lotus. Dan, He’s a young chef who is in tune with culinary trends around the world (if you follow his Twitter, he goes around the world searching for inspiration) but also a guy who treks out to Cabramatta for a bowl of noodles in a hole in a wall joint which I’ve been frequenting for 20 odd years since I was a kid.

This blog post is long overdue, we’ve been to Ms G’s a few times since it has opened but we just never got around to writing about it. My memory might be a bit hazy when it comes to describing the dishes and the menu might’ve even changed since our visit. However, just enjoy looking at the photos taken by Minh and get a feel of what Ms G’s is capable of churning out.

Cocktails

Cocktails are served in bubble tea cups, with the wrapping and all. Its a nice and quirky touch, definitely gets people talking and for us, brings back memories of university at UTS where we use to frequent Easyway at least once a day. Subsequent blood tests ruled us all out with diabetes.(...)
Read the rest of Ms G’s, Potts Point (810 words)

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2011. | Permalink | 15 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

How was it possible that I had never tried this Hainan Chicken before? Obviously this was a fault that needed to be rectified immediately, and by immediately I mean that I wandered by Eating World Foodcourt 3 months later solely by chance and decided to stop in. And you know what? Howie was right, this is the best Hainan Chicken in Sydney.

Half Roasted Chicken Meal $18.80

(...)
Read the rest of Singapore Shiok, Eating World Foodcourt, Chinatown Sydney (487 words)

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

One thing which hasn’t changed too much over the years in Cabramatta is the abundance of great food. Despite a predominantly Vietnamese and Chinese/Cambodian food and restaurant dominance in the area, it hasn’t stopped a flux of Lao, Thai or Korean restaurants vying for their share of attention in this food loving suburb. I’ve seen a restaurant such as Iron Chef bring a Hong Kong yum cha and dinner experience to Cabramatta with great success and it was only a matter of time before someone again tried their luck at the lucrative ‘casual’ dining market  here.

Enter Super Dish, the apparent creation from the owners of the famous late night joints of Super Bowl and Super Meal in Sydney’s Chinatown. At some stage or another, we’ve all had that 12am craving of congee and salt and pepper squid and Super Bowl or Super Meal would always deliver the cheap and nasty late night Chinese food fix.

Super Dish is far from cheap and nasty, the exterior and interiors have a modern and clean feel to it and they also have massive windows which open out onto the street for a bit of al fresco dining.

I’ve seen crowds start to build at Super Dish, curiosity got the best of me so I decided to pop in for a quick lunch with Linda. The menu is quite extensive with the usual suspects such as congee, soup and fried noodles, steamed oysters, salt and pepper squid, shandong chicken and fried rice to name a few. We settle for an outdoor table on the pathway which is a nice change for a restaurant in Cabramatta.

Shan Dong Chicken ($19)

A biproduct of Shangdong cuisine, this is one of my favourite must-have dishes when dining at Superbowl or Supermeal in Chinatown. Given that it was on the SuperDish menu, I had to order it. It was everything that I expected it to be; tender chicken, crisp skin and a dark vinegar based dressing with plenty of tang and saltiness. The chicken sat on a bed of sweetened fried basil which I wasn’t a big fan of, my only gripe of the dish. It’s a tad pricey at $19 but the generous portion makes up for this.

Seafood combo beancurd hotpot ($24)

The good old seafood combo hotpot, another one of my usual orders to provide some balance to my usual orders of fried based dishes. This hotpot which was still bubbling when it arrived at our table contains all the usual suspects; prawns, fish, squid, various vegetables and some bloody awesome tofu which took us by surprise with its soft and fluffy interior.

King prawn in shell with mungo bean vermicelli in XO chilli sauce($25)

This dish on the menu caught Linda’s attention, it’s a classic combo of XO sauce and vermicelli which always goes well with a seafood such as prawns. This dish took a bit longer than usual to come out and after tasting it we figured out why. The vermicelli was slightly overcooked, as they were a bit too soft. Flavour wise the dish was spot on though, with the prawns and vermicelli absorbing all the goodness of the XO chilli sauce.

It’s early days but Super Dish is drumming up it’s fair share of admirers and return visitors. They offer something unique, a casual Hong Kong diner style experience where sometimes all you need is a hearty bowl of congee or fried rice with a side of salt and pepper pork ribs. We’re gonna definitely come back and try have dinner here, I spotted dishes such as Hong Kong style typhoon crab and crab congee.

There is a high percentage of Cantonese, Chinese and Teo Chew migrants in Cabramatta and the type of food Super Dish is churning out is a good reminder to them that they don’t need to travel too far for their ‘SuperBowl-like ‘fix.  Its hard to declare Super Dish a winner, I only tried three dishes but the long queues on the weekend might indicate something.

On a final note, what is your favourite late night feed? If I can get my hands on it, its gotta be deep fried salt and pepper pork ribs with salted fish fried rice!

Super Dish
17/180 Railway Parade (Outside Cabramatta Plaza and close to the train station)
Cabramatta NSW 2166
Tel: (02) 9727 7880

Open 7 days 8am – 10 pm

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2011. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

The menu boasted a plethora of Asian dishes, from Thai to Chinese to Vietnamese cuisines, and it took us a while to decide and agree on what to get. Craig, our friend-chef, cautioned us on not ordering too much as he wanted to try out a couple of recipes on us. Awesome. When we had finally decided, we kicked back with our BYO wines and hungrily waited for our dinner.

Despite ordering quite a bit, our dishes soon sailed out from the kitchen.

Salt and Pepper Squid ($12.50)

There’s something quite compelling about salt and pepper squid with my friends. I notice that more often than not, when they see it on the menu, they have to order it. I suspect I might be the same, but nonetheless, I’m glad they ordered this dish as the perfectly seasoned squid was perfectly chewy and soft. Just thinking about it now makes me horribly hungry.

Combination Seafood Omelette ($11.50)

By the time I could put down the camera to start eating, this omelette was pretty much gone! A testament to its deliciousness. I only managed to grab a small piece, but that morsel hit all the right tastebuds (all thanks to that sauce I think!). Eating it with fried rice just seem to make it even more flavoursome.

Sizzling Mongolian Lamb ($13.90)

I love a good sizzle in my food, especially when it’s still sizzling when it comes out. The lamb was liberally saucy (just the way I like it) and was perfectly seasoned. This was another dish that disappeared quite quickly.

Deep Fried Bean Curd with Salt, Pepper and Chilli ($9.50)

I tend to favour steamed tofu over the fried bean curd for some reason, but that’s not an excuse not to try any (though admittedly, I did eat everything else before turning my attention on to this dish). I was surprised at how much I liked it: its soft, crispy shell gave way to a hot and silky inside. Despite the pepper and chilli components, I was pleasantly surprised (again) to find out that it wasn’t spicy at all! Woohoo! Then again, I did studiously choose a piece that was furthest from the chilli bits.

Chicken Pad Thai ($10.50)

Being pad thai fanatics, this dish didn’t last long at all with my friends. I’m not quite a pad thai fan (more a pad see ew person myself), but I thought this dish was pretty decent.

Fried Rice (Small, $5)

As much as I love rice, I simply adore fried rice – especially if it’s a combination! It never gets old, regardless of how much I have it. Some places are a little stingy on the proteins and veggies, so I love the fact that Tamarind is quite generous with the Chinese sausage and seafood. Yum.

Singaporean Chilli Crab

This was Craig’s first test dish and although it was a little different to the Singaporean Chilli Crab I’ve had (not as spicy being one of them), it was still very, very tasty.

I loved how the dish also came with bread to mop up all that delicious sauce.

Blackbean Mussels

Craig’s second test dish, I have to admit, I didn’t taste at all. I’m not a big fan of mussels and while I sometimes do try to at least taste mussel dishes, often times I don’t feel quite up to it. It was one of those times that night, but the girls seem like they liked it!

Shang Dong Chicken

The last test dish was Shang Dong chicken. The girls also loved this dish and I couldn’t wait to bite into that saucy chicken… until I did and found out just how spicy it was. It was almost incomprehensible, as it didn’t look spicy at all! No tell-tale chilli bits or chilli redness… Sigh. But before the chilli ran rampage in my mouth, I did get to taste its saucy goodness. It’s not a wonder that no chicken pieces were left.

Ube Cake!

S graciously provided us with dessert: a Filipino ube cake, which I learnt contains taro and coconut pieces.

We’re so spoilt! The cream was light and the coconut pieces dotted between the taro sponge layers were utterly scrumptious.

Inside Tamarind

Tamarind is in its early days yet, but it’s definitely a restaurant that has a lot to offer. The extensive (maybe too extensive) menu most probably would be streamlined in the near future, as Craig and his team figure out what their customers prefer (insider info! Ooo).

From the wonderful test dishes he’s made for us, I don’t doubt that Tamarind will go from strength to strength (biasness aside).

Tamarind
Shop 6, 368 Hamilton Rd
Fairfield West, NSW, 2165
Ph: (02) 9609 6605
Web: www.tamarind-asiancuisine.com.au

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2011. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: favourites, poultry, Seafood

If you take a stroll to the other side of Chatswood train station, you’ll find Chatswood Chase and a slew of other restaurants. The last time I went to Chatswood, Chatswood Chase looked totally different (10 years ago), so I was surprised to see it get a make over.

What you’ll also find is a new restaurant called The Rice Den. Situated away from the crowds of Eat Street, it sits halfway between Chatswood Train Station and Chatswood Chase. A few friends of mine have been meaning to take us here, it’s a bit of a regular joint for them since they live in the area.

It’s hard to explain the cuisine type here, it’s ‘Modern fusion Asian’ but it doesn’t really stick to one cuisine. You’ll find a bit of Japanese, Chinese, Thai and Malaysian. It’s a jack of all trades, but master of what?

Steamed cheong fun - $6

The balmy summers evening is kicked off with the steamed cheong fun. It’s a photogenic plate of soft steamed rice noodles with a sweet sesame and ‘Rice Den’ sauce, which had hints of hoisin and soy. On top were fresh shiitake mushrooms and shiso leaves and fried onions which added a bit of texture.(...)
Read the rest of The Rice Den, Chatswood (567 words)

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2011. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

One point of contention which kept coming up again and again in my research was the Michelin Guide, and Hong Kong’s reputation for having the most affordable starred restaurants in the world. The rewarding and selection of the restaurants was enough to cause an uproar and locals that I spoke to were split between being impressed and disdainful of the rating system.

I decided to let my stomach to do the talking and ended up at three very different Michelin restaurants.

Tim Ho Wan

Baked bun with BBQ pork HKD 12, Rice roll stuffed with beef HKD 15, Steamed fresh shrimp dumplings HKD 18, Glue rice dumpling HKD 20

Tim Ho Wan is undoubtedly the most famous of the Hong Kong Michelin restaurants. When it first received its star the restaurant was labelled as the cheapest Michelin restaurant in the world and the crowds flocked to it, it’s not uncommon to be kept waiting for 1-2 hours outside the tiny eatery which only fits 29 people. The demand has been strong enough that a second branch was opened at Sham Shui Po, capable of seating over a hundred people but today I’m with Boo at the original branch in Monkok waiting impatiently in line at 9.30am.(...)
Read the rest of Hong Kong – A Michelin Story (1,905 words)

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 41 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Novotel Blogr

This is my message to Minh after noticing her Gtalk status of “craving hotpot”. We’ve tentatively started doing fortnightly dinners and our Italian plans for dinner are blown away in a hotpot craving instant. We’re headed off to True Love Hot Pot Restaurant tonight, a relatively new restaurant on the Burwood Rd strip, drawn by the promise of $25 all you can eat.

All you can eat y’all.

Minh’s directions are wonderfully vague as usual, “Kind of near Canton Noodle House” and Sydney’s usual crap traffic mean that F and I are an hour late before meeting up with Minh at 7pm. Thankfully finding parking isn’t hard and despite the crowds doing their late night shopping we’re ushered quickly to a table.

Half Chicken, Half Chilli Hot Pot

(...)
Read the rest of True Love Hot Pot Restaurant, Burwood (809 words)

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, Dessert, lamb

The logic is simple – the quality of the dumplings is just as good out west and the prices easily 2/3 of what they would be in the city. A few emails later and we’ve got a group of 5 tagging along with us to our favourite Ashfield restaurant, Taste of Shanghai. It’s been a while since our last visit and the restaurant has been renovated in our absence, the counter top is sleek and the menus are now sadly missing all photos, but the food remains as good as we remember.

Xiao Long Bao, 8 for $8.80

(...)
Read the rest of Taste of Shanghai, Ashfield (1,022 words)

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Bayon Noodle looks like a new Chinese and Cambodian restaurant. Cambodian food is difficult to find in Sydney, however if you are in Cabramatta, there are atleast half a dozen decent ones.

Green papaya salad

This is the Vietnamese version with a generous array of fresh papaya, mint and basil, fresh prawns, crushed peanuts, pork belly. The best way to eat this is to pour in the bowl of fish sauce and toss the salad altogether. In terms of taste, it wasn’t too bad, lacking a bit of ‘kick’ but then again I am comparing it to Thai/Lao papaya salads which are extremely pungent and flavoursome.

Khmer bbq herb beef w/ pickles

Tender beef grilled with unidentified herbs and spices and a side of cold pickles, what more could you ask for ? It’s the perfect contrast of smokey warm beef with the cold and crunchy pickles.

Nom Ban Jok (Khmer herb fish paste w/ vermicelli noodles)

This was surprisingly one of my favourites. A spicy coconut based soup with copious amounts of pungent fish paste and other ingredients touched every one of my taste buds. What makes the dish is probably the side of salad with it’s different textures. Off the top of my head I spotted cabbage, cucumber, bean sprouts, and chives.

Salt and pepper squid

A very light batter compared to other versions I’ve eaten, which is great. I could spot and taste huge bits of freshly cracked black pepper, definitely putting the ‘pepper’ in salt and pepper calamari. Though one thing I did notice was a few prawns on the fish, maybe they ran out of calamari ? But I’m not complaining too much. This was another dish served with a side of their house pickles, great combination. The sourness of the pickles offsets the saltyness of the calamari perfectly.   

Chive dumplings

I don’t have a picture of the internals, but imagine a sea of green chives and not much else. Being of Teo Chew descent, we live and breath chives (literally). While they are detrimental to our breath, they are bloody good. Pungent chives are encased in a dumpling and then lightly pan fried to give it a bit of crunch and texture.  

Salor Gor Gor (Khmer hot pot)

 This was another traditional khmer dish and one of my favourites as well. It’s a soup based dish with braised vegetables such as eggplant, tender pork belly and some berries/beans which I’ve seen in some Indian dishes. It’s a hard dish to describe, but flavourwise it’s full of different herbs and spices which touched every corner of my taste buds. It’s a dish you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere apart from a Cambodian restaurant.

Stewed duck noodle soup

The perfect winter dish, fall off the bone stewed duck in an amazing soup full of duck flavour. The duck leg is braised in different herbs and spices, I can taste star anise, cinammon and 5 spice amongst others. On the side is a crunchy piece of prawn cracker, it’s all about the textures.

Bayon Noodle is the new kid on the block in Cabramatta. There are about 2-3 very good Chinese Cambodian restaurants within the vicinity and you’ll see locals dressed in their home clothes slurping away at noodles or hearty rice dishes. It’s going to be tough for Bayon to differentiate themselves, but I think they are on the right track. The decor inside is a lot cleaner and modern than the other places and they have the advantage of Merrick Watts and his family eating there a few months ago!

Bayon Noodle
233 Cabramatta Road, Cabramatta NSW 2166
Tip : It’s in an alleyway off John St, on the same side as Commonwealth Bank and Gloria Jeans.

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Me : ” Damn another dumplings place in Ashfield ?? Yeah sounds awesome we can do Friday if that’s cool ?

Mate : ” Yep, I’m free … call a few of the boys over too so we can try most the menu “

Me : ” No worries I’ll let them know, we’ll bring over a few drinks too. Just a warning we may be a bit rowdy from Friday night drinks before hand “

It’s quite funny when a quiet Friday night with dumplings turns into a twenty five person birthday party. My mates and I were planning on turning up in our comfortable bogan attire on this cold Friday night, only to receive an email saying that my mate has organised an impromptu birthday party for his girlfriend with their friends. Somehow, our three bottles of cider wrapped in paper bags wasn’t quite going to cut it as a gift. Either way, we rocked up to what turned out to be a pretty good night at a restaurant which exceeded our expectations. You can never have too many dumplings, right ?

(...)
Read the rest of Dumpling Noodle Plus, Ashfield (994 words)

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 21 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dumplings

I was in danger of doing it again, but it’s a good thing that I’m eating with people who’s assertive with what they want to order. It didn’t take us long, then, to decide on what to order and for Lynda to order (in Vietnamese, no less) to our waitress. I listened enviously as she confidently ordered our dishes. Whenever I attempt to order in Vietnamese or Cantonese, I’m so conscious of how stilted and Aussie-fied my pronunciation is so I sometimes stick to pointing and saying the dish’s English name.

Braised Scallops with Snow Peas ($17)

F couldn’t pass up this dish when he saw it on the menu – he literally gasped and stated that we were ordering this dish in a tone that brook no argument. I have no arguments here, I adore scallops with snow peas – a dish that my father used to make all the time at home.

It’s been a very long while since he’s made this dish, but with one bite, it all came back to me in a rush. The well-seasoned scallops were soft and juicy, while the snow peas provided a fresh, crisp, crunchy counterpart.

Crispy Skin Chicken ($13)

They say that the skin is where most of the fat is on the chicken; they say that when you’re dieting to fit into a dress for an up-coming wedding that you should forgo eating that skin and go for the leaner option of eating just the flesh (if you must eat it at all that is).

Clearly whomever said this hasn’t seen just how deliciously and invitingly sinful this crispy skin chicken looks. Surely they can’t resist something that looks like this. The chicken is pretty much WYSIWYG: totally crispy skin barely draped on succulent, juicy meat.

Sigh. It was totally worth the amount of exercise needed to work off the piece I ate.

BBQ Beef in Lemon Sauce ($13)

This is David’s and Lynda’s favourite dish from My Thuan; they order it every time they come here. F thought it was so tasty and different with its perfectly-seasoned, tender beef that has a slightly acidic tang.

Don’t be fooled by that big pile of beef though: most of the dish is butter lettuce.

Soft Shell Crab ($20)

The amount of soft shell crab was amazing for the cost – comparing it to the barbecued beef, there seemed to be a lot more crab than beef for a fraction more.

I think this is the first time I’ve had so much meat in a soft shell crab dish; bite after bite, my mouth would be filled with soft, well-seasoned crab meat. Nom nom nom. I think F and I hoovered up this dish, unable to resist from coming back for more.

Stir Fried Morning Glory in Salty Bean Curd ($9)

I was expecting to see chunks of salty bean curd peppering this dish for some reason and I so was a bit disappointed that there weren’t any. The salty bean curd flavour was definitely there though, as was the ginger flavour. What I originally thought were strands of noodles were actually terribly thin slivers of ginger. I half marvelled at how they got it so thin and was half annoyed that I would have to meticulously pick them out before eating the greens.

I wasn’t going to have dessert, but F was the devil sitting on my shoulder and I found myself ordering two che ba mau, a “three-coloured” sweet bean dessert with coconut and shaved ice. I was so excited about eating it that I totally forgot to take a photo of it until we had cleaned out our tall glasses.

My Thuan is located at the corner of the perennially busy artery that is John Street and Hill Street. The service is slightly better than your average Chinese restaurant and a lot more attentive too.

I was determined to reach my goal by the weekend that followed this dinner, only to be foiled by the simple, delicious food… but my goodness, it was worth every bite.

My Thuan
117A John St
Cabramatta, NSW, 2166
Ph: (02) 9728 9843

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beef, Seafood

Teresa is a very dear friend of ours, someone who we love and can always count on for a random comment which will crack us all up. She’s also a member of es&t, often looking for the next best Japanese restaurant in Sydney. Recently, she left the sunny shores of Sydney for a 12 month career break in New York City. We wish her all the best and we can’t wait for her to come back with Momofuku cookies and Hershey’s chocolate!

Mojito

(...)
Read the rest of Hotpot and a farewell to Teresa (488 words)

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

I’ve been to Ashfield, Burwood and Chinatown for dumplings during the winter months but I always seem to come back to Chinatown Noodle Restaurant. Having spent my Uni days near the Chinatown area, visits here were few and far between. We use to eat around UTS meaning apart from the UTS broadway campus food court, we would frequent Subway, KFC, McDonalds and Ogalos quite regularly. Little did we know that Bourke St Bakery had a sister store nearby. If we felt like Asian food, we would goto Market City food court for some Mongolian Lamb hot plate or dodgy Laksa. Little did we know that hidden away were several dumpling houses such as Chinatown Noodle Restaurant near by.

The restaurant is nestled between Menya and a few Taiwanese eateries. The place next door usually has massive queues, from Students to curious first timers who we noticed were giving the restaurant a go because the queues were long.

Special braised eggplant $10.80

Some of the guys weren’t too excited when I said I was ordering braised eggplant, their opinions changed quickly after their first few bites. The eggplant is braised, resulting in something fleshy and soft however the outside is slightly crispy. It’s a bit like a banana fritter where you get a nice country exterior but a warm and moist banana flesh inside. This is my favourite dish on the menu, one of the few which are on my must order list.

Steamed pork & chive dumplings ($8.50 for 12)

My favourite combination of all is pork and chive, despite the guaranteed ‘breath test fail’ which chives give. There really isn’t much to say about this dumpling, that it is light on dumpling skin and generous on filling is good enough for me.

Jellyfish salad ($9)

To break things up a bit we order the jelly fish salad which has an abundance of cabbage, cucumber and jellyfish. It’s a refreshing dish, plenty of crunch and a bit of a sour kick with the vinegar based sauce. It’s served cold and it is very refreshing.

Salt and pepper crispy pork $13.80

I love the fried varieties of pork and chicken, with my favourite being fried salt and pepper spare ribs. Unfortunately, the pork here is nothing special with the batter dominating the pork. The serving is generous though, we find ourselves snacking on the pork at the end of our meal while chatting about office politics and shenanigans over tea before heading back to work.

Chinatown Noodle Restaurant
8 Quay St
Haymarket NSW 2000

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

As part of the Chinese New Year celebrations, Zensation in Surry Hills is holding a number of Chinese High Tea sessions, an enjoyable 2 hours which serves nicely as an introduction to a few of the different Asian varieties of tea. Starting with a ruby red Hibiscus Flower tea our Host (and store owner) Raymond Leung gave us a brief overview of the teas to be served and introduced his staff members (two of whom are incidentally  his daughters).  His passion for teas is clear in his voice and the store clearly reflects his background in interior design with wonderfully whimsical lanterns strewn about the store, fabrics and colours bringing the small store to life.

A total of 6 teas were served all with accompanying side dishes, the staff were kept busy moving around the store for the relatively large group of approximately 20 people. As each tea was served to the tables Raymond would relate a little about each tea and explain the history behind each. One of the staff members demonstrating was a qualified Tea Ceremony master and it was truly mesmerising watching her technique as she prepared each tea without hesitation, her hands moving with a swift precise motion.

I find that trying to describe the taste of tea to people is almost impossible for me. I can’t seem to describe the taste of tea as clear and defined with a musky scent without feeling a bit of a twat in the process! One of the things I love about tea is that it isn’t all about the taste, it’s the atmosphere it creates for me while I’m sipping at one of my favourite brews and that was very much what this High Tea experience tries to create for you.

Hibiscus Flower Tea

White Peony served with Assorted Chinese Almond Cakes

Eating these Almond cakes was a blast from the past! I haven’t eaten them for years and the first bite took me back to being a kid and prying open the tin box to get at these crumbly almond cookies. The almost drying sensation of the cakes made it a great match for the mild white tea.

Zensation Jade served with Edamame

Despite the Japanese snack, this particular green tea originated from the North West region of China.

Milky Oolong served with Custard Egg Tart

My favourite tea of the day! Following a rather elaborate preparation the tea is then poured into the taller cup (male cup). The round cup is then placed on top and the entire set up flipped over to be drunk out of the smaller cup. The tall cup retained a beautiful floral scent and the resulting tea was amazingly fragrant with a strong enough flavour to compliment the egg tart.

Pu-Erh served with Steamed Dim Sum

The Pu-Erh tea is fermented for a number of years and is stored in cake form. The resulting tea was a deeply dark brown colour with an almost earthy taste. The leaves which result from the cake can be steeped up to 10 times without any loss in flavour.

Bouquet Tea served with Rice Dumpling

Our final tea was a beauty! Also known as a blossoming tea, a tightly stitched together flower with needles of tea is placed in the pot and slowly unfolds as the heat starts to penetrate. Despite its visual appeal it was probably the weakest tea of the lot and apart from the sheer fun of watching it unfold found it rather forgettable.

As an overall introduction to asian teas I found the session a lot of fun. I’ve tried a lot of these varieties of teas before but getting a quick history behind the teas as well as just relaxing in the rather eclectic looking shop made the two hours almost fly by as I simply chatted to L as we enjoyed our tea. For people interested in something a little more in dept, Zensation are looking into starting a Chinese Tea Appreciation Course! Details are hopefully coming soon. 

Zensation are running the Chinese Tea Appreciation courses as part of the Sydney Chinese New Year festivities. Bookings are essential and sessions are $30 per person and include a 20% voucher at the end.

Zensation
656 Bourke St
Redfern, NSW, 2016
Ph: (02) 9319 2788

Chinese High Tea Details

© Minh for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Sam one day sent me a link to the Mahjong Room, asking if I was interested in playing Mahjong whilst having lunch. For most of the time, anything involving food piques my interest, but it was the thought of playing Mahjong while eating (for some reason) that really intrigued me. Despite having a Chinese background, I have never played this age old game before (I don’t really see the tile-pairing matching game on the computer to be ‘true’ Mahjong).

I know, shocking, isn’t it?

It’s been a while since I went and have unfortunately forgotten our host’s name, but he gave us a brief introduction to the history of Mahjong, then proceeded to go over the main objectives and rules. We were to learn the very simplified version of Mahjong, as we only had two and a half short hours to learn and play it (and it’s less confusing what with not having to worry about the points system).

It was a bit hard to fully understand it a first, but both our host and Sam assured us that as once we started playing, we’d get the hang of it.

Oh noes! It/'s crooked!

We first played an open hand to get us used to the rules (and kind of have more of an idea of what the heck we were doing), which Ram won.

Our host would walk around to the tables, helping where confusion reigned and explained a lot of things, but we were rather glad that we had Sam – it was as if we had our own private tutor! Hehe, technically we did.

Absolutely love doing this! So much fun

We were served tea as soon as we were seated, but during the second (but now closed hand) game, we started to wonder when they were going to serve lunch – I, for one, was rather hungry (not having had breakfast and all).

It wasn’t until we were almost finished with our second game that our first dishes were served. We then realised that while the table was perfect for playing Mahjong, it wasn’t near big enough to eat at, at the same time. Our dishes were placed on any free space and, lacking that, on top of the tiles.

San Choi Bao (with Vegetables)

Our host had come around and asked us if we had any special dietary needs – Ruby raised her hand and said that she’d prefer not to eat meat, but seafood was okay. I thought it was nice that they remembered she was the aquatarian on our table, so all the special dishes were placed in front of her.

Ruby tells me that the vegetable San Choi Bao was quite delicious and I could quite help but be slightly envious by the generous portion size: she had two bao’s to our one-each.

San Choi Bao (with Chicken)

We were given bowls and chopsticks, but it was a bit awkward with the lack of room to put anything down. I’m quite sure I used the bowl to capture any errant saucy drops from the bao.

I loved how crisp the fried noodles were and how the sauce didn’t overwhelm the flavours of the moist chicken or fresh vegetables, but rather, it enhanced them. It was quite a joy to eat.

Or maybe it was so because we were quite hungry. Either or, we loved the San Choi Bao and ate it with much gusto.

Shallot Pancakes

Being not the biggest fan of shallots, I wasn’t expecting to like this dish – I love being proven wrong when it comes to food. The pancakes were made just right, so that it wasn’t over powered by the shallots, but it wasn’t hiding the flavour either – allowing the shallots to subtly add to the overall taste.

There was a tomato dipping sauce, but I didn’t think it added anything to the pancakes and was just as good eaten plain.

We got two slices each (I think one was eaten prior to the photo being taken *shake fist*).

Boiled Vegetarian Dumplings with Choy Sum, Black Fungus, and Pressed Tofu (I think)

These were lightly flavoured and while it was pretty decent, it wasn’t as memorable as say the San Choi Bao.

We got one each. There seems to be a trend of eating one of everything – in a way, it was such a teaser, kind of like an amuse bouche (hehe I’ve been watching Top Chef lately and just wanted to use it, my bad). If anything, it was making me more hungry rather than filling me up!

Tiger Prawn and Chicken Wontons - Minced Prawn and Chicken wrapped in Crispy Pastry

I personally adored how crunchy the wontons were, and they weren’t overly oily either. The slightly sweet-sour sauce nicely complimented the contents within, which tasted quite fresh and well-cooked (succulent, not rubbery).

Definitely wished I had more of these to eat.

Xiao Loong Bao - Shanghai style steamed Pork Dumplings

I can never get over how cute these always look (yes, even the mangled one on the right).

The broth inside was a little salty, but the meat wasn’t too bad though it wasn’t quite up to the standards of the bao from New Shanghai or Din Tai Fung.

I’m quite sure Ruby got something else since this was pork and she absolutely abhors the taste, but I must not have taken a photo of it… *gasp* Terrible! I’m not certain why I didn’t – I’m sure I had a good reason… I hope. Sorry!

Blue Swimmer Crab Gow Gee - Poached Dumplings served in Light Broth

More dumplings! These were okay, but sadly it was the last dish (I think we were a bit crest-fallen at the fact).

The dishes had consistently come out quickly once we started eating, but so involved in our game were we that we didn’t realise that they had stopped. We kind of looked at each other and wondered if that was it. Sadly it was.

(And sadly, we were still hungry).

We managed to squeeze in two more games (in which Ruby and I won respectively) before the end of the playlunch session.

The Mahjong Playlunch sessions run for 2.5-3 hours and cost $36 per person, which includes the dim sum “nibbles” (which I’m quite sure they’ve amended since last time I checked the website – if I had known, I would have eaten something beforehand!) above. Check the website for the dates of the sessions, as there are only 2 sessions held on every second Saturday of the month this year.

Booking is essential, where you must book in groups of 4, 8, or 12. I initially emailed them for a booking, but was politely requested that I call in, as they grab your credit card details in the event of a cancellation (full cost applies if cancellation is within 3 days of the session, or something like that).

Mahjong Playlunch
312 Crown St
Surry Hills, NSW, 2010
Ph: (02) 9361 3985
Web: http://www.mahjongroom.com.au/

Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 10.30pm

© squishies for eatshowandtell, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chicken, dumpling, pork, Seafood, Sydney, Sydney, Surry Hills

Seriously, I refuse to pay a premium price for my beloved dumplings. While Din Tai Fung has grace, class and attentive customer service, Ashfield’s small and dodgy looking establishments make it close enough to being the dumpling capital of Sydney, if not Australia. Keep in mind, it’s the great tasting dumplings at a fraction of the price of Din Tai Fung which makes me coming back for more at either Shanghai Night, or New Shanghai. 

This evening, we duck in for a quick dinner. It was 6.30pm on a Saturday evening and I was already moaning about the potential lining up we had to do. When we arrived, I was amazed that there were only two tables occupied throughout the entire restaurant. Credit crunch anyone ?

There is always a man in the corner sitting down hand making the dumplings. His routine is robotic, his dumplings are consistent. I’d be surprised if he couldn’t roll me a dumpling with his eyes closed.

Not long after we order, our first batch of dumplings arrive. The service at Shanghai Night is quick, even when it is packed to the rafters.

Steamed Shanghai style mini pork bun $6.50 (Xiu Long Bao)

These tiny packets of goodness retain the contents of their soup 99% of the time. The other 1% requires some delicate handling to ensure the dumpling isn’t seared by the carelessness of one’s chopstick handling. Our dumplings arrive looking incredibly fresh, still steaming out of it’s bamboo steamer.The soup is hot, so be careful. Think of it as trying a meat pie once it’s come out of then oven, the first bite always has to be delicate otherwise you’d burn your tongue. 

Fried pork dumplings

Very similiar to the xiu long bao’s above, but fried. We actually ordered the wrong one, I wanted the one with chives in it but beggars can’t be choosers right ? The skin on these dumplings is slightly crispy, and I actually quite like the burntness on the bottom of each dumpling. Once again, be careful with these dumplings as they are full of hot soup which is seriously addictive.  

BBQ Lamb skewers (6 for $7.80)

These skewers are a common sight in Shanghai and Beijing. Many street vendors line the streets and grill their meat freshly on the spot for the fraction of the price we pay here. I lived on these religiously in China, so I was curious to see how Shanghai Night compared. First of all, they had the right idea by cooking them over a charcoal bbq out the back of the restaurant. From where I was sitting, I snuck a quick photo of the waitress grilling my skewers. At the same time, she had a hand fan in her left hand fanning the charcoals. I felt like I was back in Beijing at that moment. 

The lamb skewers are tender and cooked perfectly. Copious amounts of spices are covered on each skewer, ensuring an ‘earthy’ type taste. I’m not exactly sure what the spices are, but I could definately taste some cumin and chilli powder. 

Crispy skin duck ($16 ish)

The duck was fantastic, despite tasting like it went for a bath in a tub of salt before it made it’s way onto our table. The skin is slightly crispy and the duck is moist and not overly dry. I did notice myself constantly reaching for our teapot because of the saltyness of this dish though. 

Perhaps there was a sale of tea pots in Yagoona ?

This will be our last post for 2008. Thanks for reading our blog, we hope to see you all again in 2009!!!

Shanghai Night

275 Liverpool Road, Ashfield, Sydney
Tel: (02) 9798 8437
Open : 7 days 10am -10pm
Cash only

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 10 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ashfield, dumpling

Howard’s aunty from Hong Kong annually makes a trip to Australia to visit the family. Therefore every year for a period of 2-3 weeks, lucky for me there’s eating out every day of the week. What makes each meal even better is that I don’t have to pay for any of it =D

After exploring just about every chinese restaurants in the Ashfield region, Howard suggested that we try Yummy restaurant in Beverley Hills. The chinese newspaper advertised a special deal on the crabs, provided you dined in on the weekdays.

Yummy restaurant has two branches, one on the Hume Highway in the Yagoona area, and the second in Beverley Hills. Having tried the one in Yagoona previously which resulted in utter dissapointment, I was a little apprehensive about Beverly Hill’s. However, upon arrival to the restaurant, witnessing the restaurant filled to full capacity albeit on a week night, the hustle and bustle from the waiters combined with the buzzing chatting from the patrons assured me that this would be a different experience.

Stir fried Mud crab with ginger and scallion

For me, what makes or breaks this dish is dependant on how fresh the crab is. In this instance, the crab was definitely fresh, with the flesh being sweet and springy. A light sauce coated each piece of crab meat, helping to enhance the flavours of the crab.

Stir fry of three mushrooms with baby bok choy

This is a very simple dish consisting of three types of mushrooms: Oyster, Shitake and Enoki, flash fried with baby bok choy. The flame radiating through from the frying pan licked each piece well, ensuring that each piece was cooked, yet still retain its natural form (rather than all wilted). As the previous dish, the sauce is very basic, thus allows the vegetables to be the star of the show.

Salt and Pepper pork

Pieces of pork ribs dipped in a thick batter and fired to crispy gold. The pieces are thin and quickly stir fried in a chilli, ginger and spring onion mixture and flavoured well with salt and pepper. At first sight, i was quite impressed at how this dish was presented, each piece of pork was separated and coated in the mixture, overall it was not drenched in oil.

Steamed egg tofu with seafood

A favourite of ours. The tofu combined with the egg to form a custard consistency, topped with thick and saucy prawns, scallop and mushroom mixture, was definitely the outstanding dish of the night. The freshness of the seafood together with creamy tofu just melts in your mouth with each spoonful.

Stir fried beans with dried shrimps

To balance out the meat dishes, another vegetable dish was mandatory. The beans were stir fried in crushed dried shrips, flavoured with garlic and plenty of chilli. I found the saltyness or the dried prawn/garlic mix too strong, thus overpowering the sweetness of the bean.

If you’re ever driving around Beverly Hills and at the same time famished, I’d recommend you give Yummy a go. The freshness of their seafood comined with traditional methods and flavours would for the Chinese people, be a reminder of mum’s home cooked meal; while for others, open up your tastebuds to a whole new world of flavours.

Yummy Seafood Chinese Restaurant

503 King Georges Rd
Beverly Hills, NSW 2209
(02) 9580 0788 
Open 7 days

© Linda for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 5 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags:

Being relatively new to the Food Blog scene, we were a bit overwhelmed when we were invited by Christie from Fig&Cherry to the Sydney Food Bloggers meet at East Ocean Restaurant. I saw the invite list and thought perhaps we were a bit out of our depth to be in such company with established and popular food bloggers from Sydney. However, everyone was so nice and it was great to finally put a face to the wonderful writing and photography which each blog presents to the interwebs.

I finally got to meet my first forray into Food Blogging, Helen from the ever popular Grab Your Fork. I have been following Helen for years, often relying on her constantly accurate reviews of the many food establishments within Sydney and beyond. It was also great to meet Lorraine from notquitenigella, who has a huge following partly due to her fantastic knack for cooking and also her wide coverage of restaurant reviews within and beyond Sydney.

I must say, there are a fantastic ensemble of Food Bloggers in Sydney and I was fortunate enough to meet most of them at the meet. Also Joining us was Suze from chocolatesuze, who often sells her biscotti at several markets in Sydney. Lisa from Spicyicecream who makes beautiful creations including desserts, Jen from Jenius who I have also been reading for years, Reemski who is also a new addition to the Sydney Food Blog scene like ourselves, Kathryn from Limes & Lycopene who I read regularly about nutrition and health, Belle & William from Ooh, Look who are always a good read as they cover everything from travel, restaurants as well as recipies and of course Christie from Fig&Cherry who is a wonderful read because of her superb range of recipies , not to mention great photography of her creations. 

It was great to be among the company of fellow food enthusiasts, there were lots of laughs and of course lots of food. Hopefully we can do it again!

© Howard for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinatown, food bloggers meet

One of my first tastes of Xiao Long Bao was at a Yum Cha restaurant in the hustle and bustle of Shenzhen, China and then followed by a few in Shanghai. After the experience of slurping away at the concentrated soup then eating the pork mince encassed in a translucent flour skin I was amazed at how such a simple piece of food could pack so much flavour. Ever since the unveilling of Din Tai Fung (DTF) in Sydney, it appears that most people, fazed and intrigued by the Taipei restaurant chain that popularised Xiao Long Bao has flocked to it. However, what most people don’t realise is that, long before the new kids on the block dominated the scene, Ashfield was the destination of choice, notably for dumplings and Xiao Long Bao. Mind you, I still prefer coming to Ashfield than going to DTF and Chinatown itself.

Walking along Liverpool Rd, inundated with Restaurants displaying images of types of food on offer, ruminating which store to gratify our craving, we couldn’t help but follow the crowd and join a queue. There seems to be a few new dishes in town as well, these include the specail and roat duck. I was tempted to try these, but I entrusted my stomach into the hand of the restaurant with the longest queue.

How could one not be tempted by the only restaurant with a Daylight saving special ?

Xia Long Bao (8 for $7.80)

My missionn is to try every xia long bao dumpling in Ashfield. On this occasion, the dumpling skin is thin yet sturdy. The meat and soup dominate the dumpling, which is a good sign. I did find one or two which didn’t hold its form and exploded once I picked it up, but it might have been due to my carelessness rather than the poor construction of the dumpling. The soup is sweet and flavoursome, and most importantly does not burn on contact with my mouth.

The heat source

Generous amounts of vermicelli

Blue swimmer crab with Vermicelli noodles ($13.80)

I love crab cooked in vermicelli noodles and at $13.80 I couldn’t refuse. What amazed me was the way it was served. The crab and noodles are cooked in some wax paper which is put on top of a vase like heat source. The crab was surprisingly sweet and there were copious amounts of vermicelli noodles it was enough for a meal in it self. The usual price is $16.80, I’d pay that without blinking an eye as the dish was fantastic in both price and flavour. If you have you have tasted mud crab served with vermicelli noodles in other chinese restaurants, you can expect similiar flavours in the Taste of Shanghai version.

Fried lamb in cumin powder ($14.80)

If there was one dissapointment , it was the lamb. The coating was overpowered by flour and I could barely taste the cumin. The amount was generous though, and was a good accompaniment to our giant serving of vermicelli.

Sweet sesame sticky rice balls ($5 / bowl)

Luscious sticky rice balls were filled with oozing amounts of sweet sesame. The rice balls were so soft, they were almost too delicate to eat.

Double filling sticky rice balls (4 for $7.80)

Once again, the sticky rice was tender and soft which made each bite melt in your mouth. The outside was dasted with yellow bean flour, while the Inside consisted of two layers. The top was filled with a thick red bean paste in contrast to the gooey sesame paste in the bottom layer. This format is good for us because we usually can’t decide between the two.

Taste of Shanghai is yet another addition to the array of Shanghai cuisine offerings available in Ashfield. I’d say it is one of the better one’s at this stage but it’s a close call. I think any one of them can take the mantle as ‘best in Ashfield’ depending how hungry I am at the time , or perhaps which one has the longest queue on any given night as they are all fantastic in their own right. Who needs Shanghai when you have Ashfield ?

Find out what Notquitenigella thought of this place

Taste of Shanghai Restaurant
264 Liverpool Road
Ashfield, NSW, 2131
Ph: (02) 9798 2877

© Linda for eatshowandtell, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ashfield, dumplings