Category: Chinese

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Chinese Groceries

Best Flavour Dim Sims Australia 精美点心 Pork Bean Curd Roll 鲜竹卷 & Sticky Rice Chicken 糯米雞 – Grocery Review

The initial part of this review is for the Pork Bean Curd Roll 鲜竹卷

I rarely ever do frozen grocery reviews (because of pure laziness), but this was actually pretty good. It is a pack of frozen bean curd roll / 鮮竹捲 / xiān zhú juǎn / sin zuk gyun that was only like $7 or something.

They were simple to steam, and though they came out relatively wet, all I had to do to eat them was fish them out with some chopsticks.

The flavour was quite accurate, the bean curd wrapper was soft, and they were packed with meaty filling.

They’re not a luxury meal, I don’t think they’re much worse than what you would get at yum cha. I’d have them again.

Best Flavour Dim Sims Australia 精美点心 Pork Bean Curd Roll 鲜竹卷
UPC 9337087000243

The second part of this review is for the Sticky Rice Chicken 糯米雞
I thought about just adding this onto the existing post about Best Flavour Dim Sims Australia 精美点心’s Pork Bean Curd Roll 鲜竹卷, but felt that restructuring it would be too difficult, as it’s already been published. I will likely come to regret this in the future, as I write reviews for more and more products made by the same companies. That’s a problem for future me, not now me. Amazing, it is a problem for now me after all.

Like the bean curd roll, this lo mai gai is actually also very good, easy to steam at home, and tastes just like the real thing.

The fillings are full of chicken, lap cheung, sticky rice, and a small amount of crispy lotus. The only thing missing is a salted egg yolk, which to be honest isn’t always present at yum cha nuò mǐ jī anyway.

Once again, I can wholeheartedly recommend.

Best Flavour Dim Sims Australia 精美点心 Sticky Rice Chicken 糯米雞
UPC 9337087000441

Categories
Chinese

Xi’an Restaurant (西安风味小吃) – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

One of my favourite things about Xi’an restaurants is that they are almost invariably named “Xi’an Restaurant”. We ate here in the first week of having moved house, in a flurry of cheap and cheerful dines out whilst we were still unpacking our kitchen.

The food was generally good. This Chinese pork burger Roujiamo 肉夹馍 ($8) was moist and meaty, flavourful though lacking any visible vegetables or herbs.

The Pan Fried Chives Pancake 韭菜盒子  ($7) is a relative favourite of mine. This example had a good crispiness to the skin, which was kept thin so as to maximise the filling to pastry ratio. A good example in a sea of good examples.

The Rice with Yuxiang Eggplant 鱼香茄子 ($16) was a vegetarian version of the dish, well priced, tasty, and very filling. Something my partner enjoys and I am yet to make an edible version of.

Comments
Though readers will note that only the roujiamou was particularly Xi’an in origin, this restaurant executed good versions of Northern as well as Sichuan cuisine at good prices. I’m sure we will be back for more.

UPDATE 13/03/2026


I went back by myself last night, about half an hour before close, for a bowl of noodles. I kind of rationalised going back without my wife by it being just a quick meal, that was ultimately going to be cheaper than buying groceries and cooking for one. The Biang Biang Noodles 𰻞𰻞面 were $17. The service was fast, and the bowl was gigantic. The sauce or gravy of the noodles was extremely delicious, with lots of umami flavour contributed to by the variety of ingredients including egg, pork (with cubes of both lean and fatty meat), as well as tomato, a natural source of glutamate.

The cubes of potato added a richness and thickness to the soup that would have been difficult to achieve with tomato alone, ensuring that flavours clung to each road strand of noodle. The noodles themselves were a bit more soft and well cooked than I would have expected, however thicker parts of the noodle did retain a signature kind of bounce to them, which was I liked.

It was overall a good bowl of noodles at a reasonable price, that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Xi’an Restaurant (西安风味小吃)
30 Hercules St, Ashfield NSW 2131
0426 092 275

Categories
Bakery Chinese

New Shanghai Workshop – Ashfield NSW Restaurant Review

PHOTOS TAKEN MOMENTS BEFORE DISASTER

We stopped at New Shanghai Workshop in Ashfield on our way to see a house that we ultimately locked ourselves into a $10,000/month mortgage on. Whether or not that was the right decision ultimately remains to be seen, but every day looking at my bank account and a series of consecutive interest rate rises I do wonder.

We had a number of pastries, that were all generally quite good.

Specific memories that I had include the egg yolk short cake with custard crisp ($5.50), which was rich, flaky, and not too sweet.

And the pan fried prawn bun ($5.80) which was only slightly above room temperature, didn’t have much flavour, and kind of sucked.

It’s just a shame we won’t be able to afford to eat here again for the next thirty years.

New Shanghai Workshop Ashfield
269 Liverpool Rd, Ashfield NSW 2131

Categories
Café Chinese

Park Cafe – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

My PMR friend stopped by Campsie for an impromptu visit, and I found us a place to eat with record decisiveness and in record time. He very kindly allowed me to choose two Taiwanese dishes from their combination Western and Taiwanese menu, which is all available all-day long.

This Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (卤肉饭 – lu rou fan) ($16.80) was really good, with a mixture of soy braised pork belly and pork mince, plenty of braising fluid as gravy, white rice, and a runny-yolk but solid-albumen sunny side up egg. The fatty pork belly was really soft and delicious, with the minced portions being more lean and providing textural contrast. The supplied braising liquid was enough to flavour the entire mound of rice, which was a generous serve and definitely enough if if you’re a rice lover. I enjoyed this, and may actually have to come back with my partner so that she can enjoy this too.

The Taiwanese Beef Brisket Rice ($18.80) was the lesser of the two dishes. It too featured an egg, which was not pictured on the menu photo, but lacked bok choy, which was. The meat was relatively tender, but the flavours and textures of the more lean beef and its composite sauce were less rich and indulgent than that of the pork belly rice. My friend agreed with me, but still enjoyed it. I will attach below a photo of the menu for photographic comparison of its components.

Park Cafe
Shop 5, 20-22 Anglo Rd, Campsie NSW 2194

Categories
Chinese

Delicious Chinese Restaurant – Kingsford NSW Restaurant Review

I’ve been watching The Brothers Sun, part of a recent (and welcome) push by Netflix to get more Asian-American content on screen, and one of the jokes that they made early on was about a restaurant named the “#1 Seafood Restaurant,” which may or may not be the number 1 seafood restaurant of their local area. Named in a similar vein, Delicious Chinese Restaurant just happens to also be quite as delicious as it is advertised to be.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a combination bean curd hot pot (?$25) that I’ve not liked. It’s just one of the best things ever – so warm and comforting, always with such soft fried tofu and an assortment of meats and vegetables. This one was a bit heavier on the garlic than I’m used to, but still good overall. Good with rice.

The Hokkien Fried Rice was also very good. Great with combination bean curd hot pot once you’re done with the topping it comes with.

I think the salt and pepper pork chops were a bit more floury than they absolutely had to be, but they tasted good, and that’s what was important to my partner. I would’ve liked just a little bit less batter, but what can you do?

Overall a good option for a succulent sit down Chinese meal, in a formal restaurant that’s also fine catering to couples or solo diners, Chinese or otherwise. I think the next step for Chinese restaurant dominance would be to have actual photos on their menus.

Delicious Chinese Restaurant
291A Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032
(02) 9663 2853