Tian Ci Vegetarian Restaurant - Yum Cha @ West Ryde

I love Yum Cha!! The idea of Vegetarian yum cha would have never crossed my mind, but you meet new people who open your world to new ideas. I admit, the outside of the restaurant looks dodgy, but looks can be deceiving right? Some of the dishes were a bit different to what I would normally order at a Yum Cha, but always willing to try new things. It was also different as it was a small restaurant, so no one comes around with trolleys, you are provided with a menu and tick the boxes for what you would like to order.

Steamed rice rolls with satay sauce

This was on the special menu, and one of my favourite dishes. Steamed rice rolls is a yum cha staple, no matter if it is with prawns, meat or in this case some faux meat. There was a lovely light soy based sauce that accompanied the dish. I enjoyed the dish without the satay sauce, but my friend thought it was bland without it.

Steamed vegetarian dumplings

Steamed BBQ pork buns

Mushroom and vegetable buns

Both steamed buns were tasty, but I preferred the mushroom and vegetable buns. The buns themselves were soft, fluffy and delicate. Blogging and thinking about the steamed buns makes me salivate.

Pan grilled vegetable rolls

This dish had a very interesting texture, one that my palate did not quite enjoy. The inside was nice though, filled with mushrooms, and other various vegetables. I am not actually sure what the outside is made from, but it seemed slightly egg but also tofu like.

Pan grilled dumplings

Chicken with mushrooms

The broth was extremely tasty. But, I find that vegetarian chicken is not my favourite faux meat, as it can be more chewy than other faux means. 

Duck with Five Spice sauce

This was not what I expected. The dish smelt like duck, but didn't contain any pieces of duck (that I could see). The sauce was warm and juicy and absorbed in the layered rolls of duck (well I don't think it is duck, but I have no idea what it was). It was soft, yet chewy and filled with the lovely juices.

Sago with fresh melon

As per usual, you can't leave a restaurant without dessert. We were quite full by the end of it, so a dessert to share seemed appropriate. The dessert was refreshing, and a great way to end the meal.

I am not sure how much each dish cost, as all yum cha places have their own system. However, for 8 dishes and 1 dessert the bill roughly totalled $50 for two people.

Good food, good times!

Dan's House @ Haymarket

We all love a good meal deal, and one of my uni friends found a great one for Dan's House which is a Chinese Cuisine restaurant with a speciality in peking duck, and other duck based dishes. It is a new restaurant that has been open since Late April 2012. The deal allowed us to pick 2 entrées with peking duck as the main dish, and a dessert to share.

Sugar cane smoked duck breast with lychee and mango jelly

As soon as I saw this on the menu I wanted to try it, the idea of lychee and mango with duck sounded tantalising. The result, was good but not great. I found that the texture of the mango jelly was too hard, which didn't quite work with the soft duck. However, the lychee sauce with the duck and the cucumber worked extremely well. If the mango jelly was a bit softer, it would have made the dish great.

Sichuan numbing chicken with fresh fruit salad

Now this entrée was tasty! After doing some quick Google research, the term 'numbing' comes about due to the use of Sichuan pepper as an ingredient. The chicken was cooked with perfection, but the marinade is what made the dish. It had a perfect balance of sweetness and spice. That marinade could accompany any meat. The strange part of the dish was the fruit salad for 2 reasons, first we were unsure how to eat it with the dish, and secondly the fruit purée at the base. 

We ended up just blowing the fruit salad into our bowl and eating it with the chicken (which was a good result). However, the ingredient of the purée was difficult to figure out (I was supposed to ask the waiter, but I forgot too). It tasted like rock melon, but at the same time it didn't, and it had a slightly rough texture. We were both confused.

Peking duck with complimentary soup

Mmm peking duck. We both love peking duck, and this definitely hit the spot. No words can really describe how good peking is. In summary though, soft duck meat with a slightly crispy skin and vegetables all wrapped up results in a great main.

Chilled mango sago cream with pomelo and vanilla ice cream

When this dish came out I was actually unsure on how to eat it, lucky for me, my friend knew how. We split the sago cream into 2 portions, and dumped a spoonful of ice cream into each bowl. The sago cream had bits on mango, but the pomelo is what made the difference where it added the bitterness, resulting in a bittersweet dessert.

The overall dining experience was exceptional, where the wait staff reminded me of people you would see at Yum Cha. This means, that as soon as they saw any dirty plates on the table they would take it away.

Good food, good times!

New Shanghai @ Ashfield

New Shanghai is one of the many restaurants along  Liverpool Road that provide Shanghai style cuisines. All with there twist to the word Shanghai, including 'Shanghai night', 'Shanghai food house', 'Taste of Shanghai' and the list goes on (similar to how there seems to be a lot of twists on the term 'Thai').

Stir fried hand-made noodles with pork and vegetables

This is one of my favourite Chinese styled noodle dishes, similar to SuperDish in Cabramatta. The main difference was that noodles at New Shanghai were thicker,which I didn't mind at all. It was a great starter, especially since I had a massive craving for it.

Beef noodle soup

My sister wanted this dish, and despite the colour of the soup, I found that it was rather bland. My sister agreed and said 'it is usually made better'. Despite the down part, I did like the size of the noodles, not to thin and not the thick. The beef was also very tender.

Steamed pork dumplings

Most people who love dumplings that look like the above image would know the name of ' Xiao long bao'. These dumplings were absolutely delicious. In each little bundle of joy, there is a warm soup that bursts in your mouth and provides a whole new level of flavour. People often compare dumplings of New Shanghai with Din Tai Fung. I like New Shanghai's dumplings more, for 3 reasons; they are bigger, cheaper, and tastier. I find that the Ding Tai Fung dumplings stick to the paper, as at New Shanghai they don't. This dish alone is one of the popular dishes, and will get you going back there for more.

Fried pork dumplings

Fried dumplings are just as good as steamed. In most cases the fried dumplings have no hidden surprises, but this case was different, where even the fried dumplings contained the wonderful soup. In this case I preferred the steam over the fried, but it really depends on the dumpling to which one tastes better.

Overall, the dining experience at New Shanghai was wonderful. It is a fast service restaurant, so don't take too long to order, and it is not a place where you loiter for another 30 minutes after your meal is finished. We got there early, so the wait wasn't long but a line started to form a bit after we left (around 7.30pm). New Shanghai is cheap, compared to other dumpling places, where in this case the whole meal cost $32 for 2 people. This will most likely be my new dumpling hub. 

Good food, good times!