Categories
Chinese Fast Food

Chick Joy – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I’ve always wanted to try orange chicken, made famous by Panda Express of California, but I’d never seen it on a Chinese restaurant menu until now. Though orange chicken wasn’t anywhere near Chick Joy’s best sellers, and was in fact not mentioned at all in online reviews, I knew I had to take the rare opportunity presented to me to live out my dream.

It turns out that the orange crispy fried chicken (8 pieces for $15) was really just generically fried chicken with a separate orange sauce to be lathered on by the eater. Though initially an underwhelming concept, I guess this does make sense as it gives control over how much of the sticky sweet sauce is desired.

While I had expected “8 pieces of chicken” to consist of perhaps the classically known half-bird with all its different pieces, what actually came (and what in retrospect was clearly pictured in the menu photographs) was 8 semi-identical drummettes. Whilst this was a bit of a disappointment, I must admit that the drummettes provided were tasty and crispy, I think previously par-fried and then re-fried to order.

The orange sauce was sweet and sticky and really not that orangey – more of a sweeter version of a sweet and sour sauce, but not bad and good to try once.

I think that if these guys actually had a half bird divided into thigh, wing, breast, and drumstick pieces then they might be onto something real.

I will list this restaurant as Chinese as the middle-aged man manning the fryer had to get his son or colleague to take my order in English.

Chick Joy
Burwood Chinatown Shop, 7A ground floor 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Café

Angus – Marrickville NSW Restaurant Review

I finally got my wife to agree to go to Angus with me, having seen it mentioned multiple times online as a source of a good fish sandwich.

The fish sandwich ($27.39) was indeed good. The fish was soft and moist, with a crunchy crumbing. The tartare sauce was generous and highly dilled, with the brightness and tartness of capers adding additional flavour.

Though the housemade focaccia was high in volume, its airy and compressible structure meant that it didn’t feel like a burden to consume, and overall the balance of flavour, moisture, and bread was on point.

For our second sandwich my wife chose the crumbed chicken sandwich ($24.01), which is not something I would’ve chosen in addition to crumbed fish, but this is after all a democracy (sometimes).

Neither of us liked the chicken sandwich as much, both finding it dryer and less flavourful – attributes that the furikake, fermented chilli mayo, pickled cucumber, and slaw could not fix.

Overall
Prices were paid as written, inclusive of a 10% weekend surcharge – which on one hand makes sense because of penalty rates, but on the other hand I suspect weekends make up a disproportionate amount of their business. $27.40 for a fish sandwich is really too much, no matter how good it is, and $24 for a less good chicken sandwich is as well. Because of this, Angus will have to be one and done for me.

Angus
69 Meeks Rd, Marrickville NSW 2204

Categories
Vietnamese

Green Mango Catering – Regents Park NSW Restaurant Review

Not a restaurant, but a catering service that I had the pleasure of eating food from at a recent course.

Being so sick and tired of the same sandwiches, rolls, and occasional pizza served at educational events by the local hegemon, it was nice to see something that deviated away from the standard fare. We had Vietnamese food options both days, though I only managed to capture images of this delicious shaking beef with tomato rice, and a fairly good soft shell crab bao.

It was really just like eating a meal that I would want to eat at a restaurant, rather than having to subsist on something (ham and cheese and salad rolls) that I’d never order for myself.

Though I didn’t pay directly for the meal, it was included in the price of the course. They’ve really set a high standard for catering and I’d not bne sad if future educational events and conferences that I happen to be at could hire them as well.

Green Mango Catering
Unit 3/2 Amy St, Regents Park NSW 2143

Categories
Chinese Groceries

Lucky Dumplings 品质王 饺 – Grocery Review

Don’t tell any of my local Chinese restaurants, but I would not be mad if I had these pork and cabbage dumplings 猪肉白菜饺 (500g for $10) served to me in a restaurant.

They were large, plump, tolerated well my haphazard boiling with no stirring of the pot, and most importantly, tasted good.

The filling of the pork and cabbage dumplings had a good texture with a bit of meat texture which made it seem like more than just your classic mystery slurry, and a light but enjoyable flavour that was allowed to shine by the addition of some extra vinegar for dipping. I can recommend them.

Lucky Dumplings Pork and Cabbage 品质王 猪肉白菜饺
EAN 9309002913068

Others:

Though I enjoyed the pork and cabbage dumplings, my experience with the country-style chicken 田园鸡肉饺 variety was less rewarding. I enjoyed neither the flavour, which I felt was lacking, nor the texture of the frozen vegetable medley.

Lucky Dumplings Country-Style Chicken 品质王 田园鸡肉饺
EAN 9309002913099

Conversely, the addition of a little bit of prawn (and I think a bit of chilli) in the chicken, corn, & shrimp 鸡虾玉米饺 dumplings, as well as the removal of carrot and peas, made them much more palatable.

Lucky Dumplings Chicken, Corn & Shrimp 品质王 鸡虾玉米饺
EAN 9309002913051

by FD Catering Service,
Unit 3/31 Ascot Vale Rd
Flemington VIC 3031

Categories
Bakery Chinese Dessert

Fujimi Bakehouse – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review


I had the opportunity to not enjoy this pearl custard/egg tart almost 2 years ago, not post about it, and have the photo sit on my computer until now.

I had in fact forgotten about the experience, until I revisited it when I was served baked goods from Fujimi during a recent echocardiogram course.

Clearly not learning from my mistake, I had again the same tart. My main criticism about this arises from the fact that I don’t actually enjoy the pearls in bubble tea that much, let alone on top of a tart. They’re OK one by one, surrounded by a large mouthful of bubble tea, but when clumped in a group together I think they’re just too sticky and flavourless.

I also had this purple tart, which I can’t identify, but was slightly better. My main complaint about the pastry was that it was soft, rather than crispy. Was this due to the travel-and-wait time, or is this a factor inherent in these tarts?

I don’t know, but I don’t want to have them again to find out.

Fujimi Bakehouse
Burwood Chinatown
Murray Arcade, 127 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134