The contents of this blog are matters of opinion formed over one more visits. There has been some artistry applied and metaphors and similes should not necessarily be taken literally.
I had two things from Wok N BBQ tonight, purchased on the way home from visiting a friend and with the express intention of eating it slowly over the next few days. “Groceries”.
The crispy pork ($42/kg) had a good crisp to its crackling skin and a good mixture of fat and lean meat, as well as some soft bones which my partner would’ve enjoyed had she been around, however I felt it was unfortunately oversalted.
The soy chicken ($17 for half) was conversely undersalted, even when fully dipped into the sauce, though this was made up for but not balanced by the quite salty ginger and shallot mix. The texture was tender and silky, which is a plus.
Overall I did not feel that Wok N BBQ provided an exemplary experience and will hesitate to go back given multiple other superior options in the vicinity.
These shepherd’s purse and egg buns came recommended by a reader, though I actually already had them in my freezer by the time the comment came through.
They are part of the ‘paper skin’ line, which is an accurate description given the superb filling to skin ratio as seen on the cross-sectional image provided. The skin, despite its thinness, was extremely strong, bouncy, and held up well to steaming.
My wife and I were less impressed by the filling, however, and felt that the taste was a bit bland. This was easily corrected with a bit of chilli crisp and vinegar, but having to add flavour to a prepackaged frozen bun isn’t exactly my dream.
I wouldn’t get these again, but I do like some of Ruyee’s other offerings.
Ruyee Steamed Bun with Shepherd’s Purse and Egg 如意纸皮包子 荠菜鸡蛋味 EAN 9309000476008
I picked this up from the freezer aisle of a local Asian grocery store. The picture on the label promised juicy, fatty, braised pork with pickles. I expected the pickles to not be a major ingredient, firstly because they were left out of the picture, but also because of the text that said “meat only goodness”.
The pickles were, in fact, a major component. The bowl, heated up via a combination effort of steaming and microwaving, was probably 50/50 pork and mustard greens.
The flavour of the food was quite strong and salty, though we ate it by itself rather than accompanied by rice, which I assume is how it was designed. The mustard greens and sichuan pepper contributed the majority of the flavour, in addition to an enthusiastic quantity of soy sauce.
The pork was a combination of fatty pork belly as well as pieces of lean meat. The pork belly bits were delicious, fatty, and delivered the characteristic melt-in-your-mouth quality despite having been frozen and reheated two ways. The lean bits of pork were in my opinion too lean to be enjoyable.
Overall thoughts: Promising, but way too salty for me to buy again to eat without rice.
Xianjiuji Sichuan Braised Pork with Pickles 香九记四川扣肉 EAN 9301168240064
To take my mind off some disastrous performance in a practice examination, my friend and I had lunch at this Uyghur Chinese restaurant on Burwood Road towards the top of the street where a number of Uyghur restaurants are. It was a no-fuss, very straightforward ordeal where we chose a number of the most popular options from the menu.
The XinJiang Style Stir fried noodles ($24.80) were quite good with tender beef, noodles that were ‘jin doa’, and a slick of oil coating every single mouthful (but in a delicious manner.) The flavours were good and there was a nice variety of vegetables and a balance of flavours, textures, and components.
The stewed beef with vegetable ($24.80) was delicious and tasty. It came loaded with glass noodles, however it probably would have been good with extra rice, given the sheer quantity of gravy. Despite the fact that some extra rice probably would’ve been optimal, it was however just fine without it, not too salty, and not neccessarily needing a second carb to dilute the flavour. The beef was fatty and flavourful, without too much gameiness or agriculural scent, and the vegetables a mind-trick into pretending we were eating something slightly healthy.
The lamb skewers (4 for $16) were pretty good when they were fresh out of the grill, not too spicy and in fact probably could have actually used a bit more spice. Sadly my friend is a white man and we wonder if that may have affected the amount of spice that was laid onto these skewers, but we wouldn’t want to assume for sure. It’s sad that these skewers did get a bit less appealing towards the end of the meal, once the heat had been radiated away to the environment. It is not physically impossible to avoid degradation of lamb skewer quality throughout the course of a meal, by the application of a heated plate or using a heating element, for example, a candle under a plate, however this was not in practice in this restaurant, or to be fair any other Chinese restaurant I’ve been at. The Koreans have this down though.
Overall I felt the meal at Xin Jiang Hui Min Hand Made Noodle Restaurant was quite good and quite a reasonable price for the amount of food that we got. We left quite filled and with leftovers that continued to taste good after a trip to the microwave.
I would recommend this restaurant to a friend or colleague.
Xin Jiang Hui Min Hand Made Noodle Restaurant (新疆回民手工拉面) 193 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134 (02) 8971 5876
I went a little off script and bought us xiao long bao from a brand that isn’t the one that we have for years established that my wife loves. These are the pork & crab meat soup dumpling 冷凍鮮美蟹肉小籠包 from Synear 思念, which was obviously always going to be a problem because it’s rare for her to have a seafood and enjoy it.
The instructions on the box were clearly written in English. I scalded my right forearm as I was placing them into the steamer and had to run my arm under water for 15 minutes – the perfect time to cook these XLBs and then let them cool a little before eating.
I did not have any particular adverse feelings about these xiao long bao, though my wife had one and immediately did not want to have any more. They didn’t taste extremely crabby to me, though I did think there was some particulate matter inside them, kind of in the texture of a thin prawn shell (though it must have been something else, as this is not in the ingredients list).
Would I buy again? As a single man, maybe. But as a husband of a woman who hates them, no.
