Category: Chinese

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Chinese

Harvest Foodie 聚丰源 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Panned by both the NSW Food Authority (1) (2) and Google Maps reviewers alike, Harvest Foodie sits adjacent to the Burwood Chinatown arcade and somehow became our choice of a second breakfast meal one morning, after a salty visit to Cha Dim House.

While the majority of negative Google Reviews seem to be about the attitude and communication skills of the aunties working here, my partner and I found no problem with this. I actually thought they were pretty chill, even taking my beef noodle order through me showing them a photo of what I wanted from the placard outside. Sadly the food was not as good as I had hoped.

This is a soy milk ($3). How can I really describe essentially the same soy milk made by a couple of similar machines across Burwood? Why does my partner always order them? Should I buy a soy grinding machine for home?

This is a soy egg ($2), not the same as a soy milk. It was fine. Totally adequate.

These pan fried dumplings 鲜肉锅贴 (8 for $10) were very cheap, but not particularly good. I felt that the wrappers were far too thick, with a leavened texture to them, which is the opposite of what I like. Dumplings, I feel, should be filling forward.

This homemade beef noodle soup 红烧牛肉面 ($15) was deeply disappointing. It was very salty, but had none of the spiciness that the menu picture implied. We didn’t finish it.

Other thoughts
Commenters on Google Maps seem to feel that the restaurant offers a dynamic pricing model, based on how much cash the aunties think you have in your pocket. Whilst this would be hilarious if true, and would be supported by the lack of prices on the placard outside, I just feel like it would be too much work to put into practice.

Harvest Foodie 聚丰源 Burwood
135 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Drinks

SOTEA 抒茶 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

I shouldn’t call this a review, and it’s not even a restaurant, but the title syntax has been established for so long now that it feels impossible to breka.

We had the magnolia milk tea at SOTEA back in June, a few months after opening, once the hype and the lines had died down. Some meals I remember with clarity a few months later – mostly if it was either really good or really bad. This was neither.

I’m not completely convinced that we needed a 19th bubble tea shop in Burwood, and yet I’m sure we will find ourselves trying the 20th once it too pops up. This not-review will get posted outside of the usual schedule.

SOTEA 抒茶 Burwood
75 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Groceries

Sydney Best Dim Sim – Eastwood NSW Restaurant Review

There’s a joke in the beloved but ill-fated Netflix series “The Brothers Sun”, where they talk about going to the “Number 1 Seafood Restaurant in Alhambra,” only to find that this was merely the name of the restaurant and not a reflection at all about the restaurant’s quality.

This is similar to what happened to me, as I fell victim to a puff piece by 7NEWS Australia, and ended up at “Sydney Best Dim Sim” in Eastwood, purchasing a selection of frozen disappointments to steam at home.

While I don’t have photos of every individual thing, I do have a representative sample. I had the scallop dumpling 带子饺 (8 for $9)
, which was unenjoyable. It was difficult to ascertain the presence of scallop, and the texture of the filling was very homogenous, pasty, and sticky – nowhere near the quality of a yum cha restaurant or one of my preferred frozen dim sum suppliers in Sydney. You’re simply not meant to be able to squeeze filling through the tines of a fork like that.

I faced a similar problem with the gow choi gow / prawn and chives dumpling (韭菜饺) (6 for $7.80), again with filling that was a sticky clumped mess, minimal evidence of actual seafood, and this time with not much chive flavour either.

Overall
I am somewhat doubtful that the ones spruiking this place have even tried the dim sum on offer. They are demonstrably inferior to options from Lai Shing Dim Sim Factory, as well as Ho’s Dim Sim Kitchen, both in Marrickville, and both of which provide truly restaurant grade frozen dim sum for the same price.

At the end of the day it’s my own fault for trusting traditional commercial media, when I don’t even trust food influencers who may even take a free meal.

All meals on this blog are paid for independently. Many, like this one, with regret.

Sydney Best Dim Sim
Shop 23/185 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW 2122

Categories
Chinese 西安/陕西 (Xi'An/Shǎnxī/Shaanxi)

Liang Pi 一碗儿凉皮 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

We went to the Liang Pi shop in Burwood Chinatown and actually just got a roujiamo – my contribution to a night where we had a LARGE number of different things.

The roujiamo 腊汁肉夹馍 ($9), or “marinated meat in baked bun”, as the tax invoice would have you believe, was really very good. It had been quite a while since I’ve had one, and this really did hit the spot. The bread was so light and airy yet at the same time crispy, and the filling so fatty and moist and delicious.

The ‘mo was filled in a way such that the mouth was much wider than the base – no doubt to make it appear more full and attractive – but also to encourage larger and more satisfying bites to be taken up front.

There was a complete lack of greenery in this bun (one might sometimes expect to find a bit of herbage in a roujiamo, as the photo on the food stall’s online presence has it), but I really did not care.

This was delicious.

Liang Pi 一碗儿凉皮
Shop 13A, Burwood Chinatown, 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Snacks

好丽友咸蛋黄流心派 Orion Salted Egg Yolk Lava Pie – Grocery Snack Review

These were actually good. The outer layer of cake was moist and chocolatey, though not too sweet – almost like a flat, less dense and less rich brownie.

The item is not advertised as dark chocolate, but I think is dark in the sense that most East Asian snacks just aren’t that sweet, which is a good thing.

The creamy ‘salted egg’ filling was hard to appreciate as a flavour, so if I were really keen on this dimension of the snack I’d stay away, but as a generic chocolate brownie-type snack it’s a win for me.

好丽友咸蛋黄流心派 Orion Salted Egg Yolk Lava Pie
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