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 went out of my way between night shfits looking for some deep fried mini shrimp heads to bring to work, but could only find these deep fried baby crabs.
As deep fried baby crabs go, these certainly did the job. They had quite a nice seafoody umami taste, though were quite oily and would be really at the apex of any food pyramid as a sometimes only treat.
The only bad thing about them is how slightly freaky the little crab bodies look. I recommend first having a few with your eyes closed, so that you can enjoy them before you look at them.
Today’s review is about Man Xiao Bao’s Fat Sauce Ramen. There doesn’t appear to be any official English translation for the name, but I think fat sauce, or grease sauce works pretty well.
The packaging is extremely elaborate, with no less than seven individually packed components, consisting of noodles, fried tofu wrapper, dried coriander, ghost chilli powder, bean sprouts in vinegar, more vinegar, meaty greasy sauce, and of course noodles.
The cooking instructions were translated by Google Translate as I’m a bit of a 文盲. Essentially the noodles are cooked separately and drained, then the toppings, then it’s all mixed together. Despite the seven component smorgasbord, the bok choy and egg pictured on the packet was not included, and had to be added separately.
Luckily, I had some bok choy in the fridge, and some of the excellent 78 degree snack eggs from Weilong in the pantry.
Taste wise, I found these noodles to be unfortunately extremely sour. It is probably my fault that I didn’t read the (CHINESE) instructions on the little sauce packets themselves, which if I did I would know that I was meant to adjust the amount to put in by personal preference. Still, I can’t imagine that anyone would want to put all of that vinegar sauce in.
The famed combination of stewed bone soup, fried meat paste, and braised grease sauce, as appetizing as those components once translated into English, were not perceptible to me.
I overall did not enjoy this, despite the journey of putting it all together, and won’t be buying this again willingly.
Man Xiao Bao Fat Sauce Ramen (满小饱肥汁拉面) UPC 6973279800241
While I guess some of the grocery posts on this blog have worldwide appeal, much of what I eat from the local Asian grocery store is made here in Sydney, and only available at a few places. This makes me writing this essentially useless, as the likelihood of even a single person reading this and then deciding to buy or not buy these wontons is exceedingly low.
Despite this, I thought the Prestons Foods Pork & Garlic Chive Wontons to be quite solid. The filling was generous and had a good meaty texture and good chivey flavour. I’d eat them again.
It took about six months of heavy targeted ads on social media for me to succumb to ordering LeTAO’s made-in-Japan cheesecakes.
The first thing that struck me about the LeTAO cheesecakes were their size. Even though their size and weight are explicitly stated on the website, I clearly did not pay close attention to this as both cheesecakes that I ordered were much smaller than I had imagined, especially given their premium price point.
It was a matter of quality over quantity, however, as these cheesecakes, though expensive were quite good. The melon double seasonal limited cheesecake ($40.99) had a pleasant mouthfeel, not too sweet taste, with a hint of melon flavouring. It was well enjoyed by the entire family, who are usually more used to Savoy’s taro cake but were forced by me to try something new.
The Parfait D’or Fromage ($37.99), a rectangular cheesecake of also very small proportions contained a mixture of camembert, soured cream cheese and mascarpone. The camembert definitely added a dimension of strangeness to the cake that the melon cake did not have, though none was more strange than its dimensions. It should be noted that the promotional pictures on the LeTAO website feature this particular cheesecake being served on a wooden board, with nothing of a known size to compare it to.
THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS These LeTAO were pretty good, classically not too sweet given their East Asian origins, and definitely an interesting change up from the classic sponge cake that might rule your family traditions. Their price point and small size are however quite challenging, and important to consider for anyone planning to feed more than a few people.
I am glad that I turned down Big John’s offer to comp me a bag of their fab frozen dumplings after my stellar review, because it leaves me free to write a less gushing review about one of their other products. As someone immersed in the Sydney foodie social media scene, it always makes me feel uncomfortable how many of these influencers are taking money or freebies from industry. I understand that for some this is a job rather than a mere stupid hobby, but I find it very difficult to trust recommendations from anyone who might have a conflict of interest. Even when a review is not directly paid for or comped, there’s a general understanding that if you’re someone who’s a negative Nancy you’re less likely to be invited to collaborate with other brands.
So I’m glad to say that I have no conflicts of interest to declare when it comes to reviewing Big John’s Jumbo Pork Meatballs, Classic Shanghai Style. I had been craving a lion’s head meatball ever since I was reminded of their existence in some kind of Youtube video. My last such meatball was from Taste of Nanking in Waterloo, two years ago, and it was time to have it again.
These meatballs were cooked as per the instructions, in a light broth of ginger and light soy sauce, though I forgot the ginger. I also later cooked them steamed and then another time boiled with just plain water.
No matter how I cooked them, I felt like they were too wet and too loose in their structure. Perhaps it’s because my view of what these balls should be like are coloured by my last experience. Perhaps they’re not even meant to be the same kind, as these are Shanghainese and those were from a Nanjing-themed restaurant. Who knows, not me, for I do not read Chinese. I invite commenters to tell me that I’m comparing them to the wrong benchmark if that is the case.
I also felt, probably related to their structure and texture, that there was too much ginger in the meatball itself, let alone for it to be boiled with ginger as per the instructions. Perhaps if the ginger was minced more finely the ball would stay together better.
Ultimately though, while some may like these, they were not what I was after.