Peace Harmony @Sydney/Wynard

Peace Harmony is a Vegetarian Thai restaurant. Not only are they a vegetarian restaurant, but they also produce foods that have no onion, garlic or MSG which is an extra bonus for certain vegetarians of different faiths. The menu is abundant with traditional Thai dishes, and the use of mock meat.

Thai Papaya Salad

Vegetarian Thai Hokkien noodles

'Duck' Curry

The dishes are vibrant with colour and all the ingredients are fresh, and full of flavour. My favourite of all the dishes we had was the duck curry, I love the taste of vegetarian duck (which is a strange thing to say). The Thai papaya salad was a bit different, where it had a sweet taste that is more similar to a Vietnamese Nuoc Mam dressing, than a spicy Thai dressing. 

Overall, it is a great Vegetarian Thai option, and to my amazement contained the flavours of traditional Thai food.

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!