Categories
Chinese

Hong Kong Cafe 港夠味 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

A few years ago my partner actually walked into Hong Kong Cafe 港夠味 Burwood, sat down, and then got back up after I decided this was not where I wanted to eat. More recently we were lured back by our friend PMR, a former Burwood local, for a pretty normal lunch.

Pictured is the free soup, something that our friend PMR has never been offered in the 10+ times he dined here with his HK Chinese girlfriend. It was honestly pretty good – much better than the paid soup.

This is a borscht-like paid soup, with two slices of garlic bread. I did not enjoy this, but I did enjoy ticking off borscht as something that I have now tried and no longer want to try (although I suspect the Hong Kong cafe variety may not be as classical as others). The bread was quite good, though.

The iced milk tea was not too sweet – not bad, but not phenomenal – feelings that apply to many of the dishes of our meal.

The club sandwich is a go to for my friend, who has told me about this particular sandwich multiple times before us going here. Whilst initially unenthused, I must admit that they were actually surprisingly pleasant, despite being intensely unspecial. No single part of these sandwiches was worth writing home about, but together the softly toasted bread, the iceberg lettuce and tomato somehow melded with the egg and spam and beef to create a mild in salt but heavy in umami taste in the mouth. Though not something I’d travel for, I agree with PMR that it’s a reliable choice for the undiscerning man.

The braised beef with rice was pretty good, complete with all essential components including bits of tendon and other connective tissue, fascia. The meat had a good flavour, and the rice was essential as a vessel of flavour and sauce. If it hadn’t come with rice we might have stupidly ordered it without, so I’m glad that choice was taken out of our hands this time.

The stir-fried beef noodles/gan chao niu he/干炒牛河 was actually very good. Good amount of beef, good wok hei aroma, soft noodles, and healthy amount of bean sprout and chives. Given all the other stuff we ordered we weren’t able to finish it, but my partner enjoyed the leftovers for lunch at work the next day.

The mixed meat baked rice came surprisingly not as a baked rice but rather as mixed meat slices with Portuguese sauce on top, rice on the side and some almost certainly microwaved chopped vegetables with two pieces of broccoli.

While I’m certain that I asked for baked rice and not this non-baked rice, both my partner and my friend proceeded to gaslight me about this for the rest of the meal.

Points weighing against this dish included the abject lack of effort made to hide the fact that these vegetables more likely than not came pre-diced from a bag from the freezer aisle, though apparently this is fine and expected. This incorrect dish also required us to manually cut up the large slices of over-tender meat into bite sized pieces, making it difficult to share. (the over-tenderness making it difficult to differentiate between the animals of pig and cattle).

Despite these complaints, I must admit that the flavours of the meat, sauce, and rice mixed together quite nicely. It just wasn’t what I asked for and I was too shy to say anything.

UPDATE 25/10/2025
I walked past on today, the day of publishing. It’s been internally demolished. I hope something cool will open in its place.

Hong Kong Cafe 港夠味
123 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Groceries

Xibei Crispy Spiced Pork Roujiamo 西贝 放心早餐 酥皮腊汁肉夹馍 – Grocery Review

Whilst Xibei (西贝餐饮), one of China’s largest restaurant chains is embroiled in a nationwide scandal involving the overreliance of pre-packaged, frozen, and parcooked ingredients in their restaurants, I have no problem enjoying their deeply and obviously and intentionally pre-prepared roujiamo.

I found this microwave, airfry, and eat roujiamou at a local Chinese grocery store a couple of months ago, before all the controversy. It is made by Xibei’s 西贝 放心早餐 divison, focused on heat-and-eat breakfast foods. This particular roujiamo (酥皮腊汁肉夹馍), purchased for around $6, was really good.

The filling is advertised as having greater than 50% meat by mass, and encompassing a mixture of 30% fatty and 70% lean meat. Both these claims appear likely to be true, as I found the filling to be both meaty and tasty, with the other 50% made up of spices, capsicum, chillies, and other vegetables.

The mixture of the fatty and lean pork was excellent, producing a melt-in-your-mouth texture whilst retaining a degree of bite and chewiness.

The pastry, cooked in the prescribed method of microwave then airfry, was thin, crispy, and not at all too bready – more than can be said for some of the lesser restaurant roujiamos I’ve had and reviewed on this blog.

I honestly think this $6 roujiamo is superior to a good number of restaurant alternatives, and would not be that offended if it were served in one.

Sadly on a subsequent return to the grocery store this was nowhere to be found.

Until we meet again.

Xibei Spiced Pork Crispy Roujiamo (西贝 放心早餐 酥皮腊汁肉夹馍)

UPC: 6978181690362

Categories
Malaysian

The Old Buddies 老伙記 – Campsie NSW Restaurant Review

I feel like over the last five years, as the growth of our liabilities and expenses has outpaced the growth in our income (thanks NSW), the contents of this blog has gone from a mix of Western and Asian cuisine at both luxurious and budget-conscious price points to a clear majority of Asian food at under $20 per person.

In keeping with this trend was our visit this morning to The Old Buddies 老伙記, a recently opened Malaysian-Chinese restaurant in Campsie. The premises are small with only a few tables on the inside, and a few tables for alfresco dining on th eoutside (though I’ve never heard it called that for this kind of local, hole-in-the-wall Asian restaurant). We were greeted in Mandarin and therefore felt the need to order in a mixture of broken Chinese and pointing, thought it later became clear that English would have been absolutely fine, as was Cantonese (the lady working there called me 靚仔 (leng zai), which I’m very proud of).

We had the Crispy Nam Yu Pork with Curry Noodles ($18.80) based on an (accurate) online recommendation. Provided was an excellent bowl of curry mee with a rich and warming soup, a mixture of egg and rice noodles, and nice variety of toppings. The namyu pork was lightly crispy on the outside and richly fatty and melty on the inside.

The pork, imbued wiht a umami red fermented tofu flavour, was sliced thinly to ensure a maximal number of mouthfuls that could have pork involved, a worthy strategy to minimise quantity of pork whilst maintaining frequency.of enjoyment. Other toppings in the bowl included egg with embedded fish paste (yummy, and not something we’ve had before), and bean sprouts.

Our other choice was the Signature Nasi Lemak with Crispy Belacan Chicken ($15). This nasi lemak, whilst fine, was not as excellent as the curry noodles. The chicken, lightly seasoned and deep fried, came as 3 drumettes, which was not extremely clear from the photo. The eggs were hardboiled with chalky yellow yolks rather than the soft boiled yolks in the menu photo, and though the meal was overall fine it didn’t have enough factors that set it out from every other nasi lemak out there. Appropriate props should be given, however, for the unlimited self serve sambal and hainanese chicken chilli sauce.

Overall
The Old Buddies 老伙記 is a welcome addition to the Malaysian food scene in Campsie, a suburb in which I no longer live. The nam yu pork curry noodles were absolutely excellent, though I’m yet to find a second item that is worth eating (other online reviewers weren’t as impressed by the roti canai nor the char kway teow). The restaurant offers a braised pork rice dish only on some days (the owner said to follow the Instagram to find out when it’s available), as well as allegedly Sydney’s only yong tau foo (tofu and veggies stuffed with fish paste), so these are potential reasons to return.

They’re open from 5AM Mon-Sat and 7AM Sundays, which may seem unusual at first but is kind of in keeping with a bunch of other Chinese and Malaysian restuarants in the area, catering to a workforce that gets up early, has a meal near home, and goes elsewhere to do their job.

The Old Buddies 老伙記
5/2-16 Anglo Rd, Campsie NSW 2194

Categories
Bakery

Christina’s Honeycakes – Newtown NSW Restaurant Review

I ordered this small round honeycake ($65) from Newtown bakery Christina’s Honeycakes for a recent family birthday via home delivery service store2door. Delivery was smooth, but required a little bit of foreplanning as ordering had to be done prior to noon on the day two days before delivery.

The cake was very dense and sweet, with multiple thin layers of honey soaked sponge alternating with thick layers of flavoured cream. I’ve never had medovik before and am unlikely to ever have it again (of my own accord), so I don’t have any other honey cakes to compare this with, but the sweetness was in general too much for me.

I will say however that despite its small size it packs a punch in terms of its density, so a small 18cm cake really does go a long way in terms of how many people it can serve. Christina’s says 10 people, which I agree is appropriate, and can even stretch to more if need be.

Quite surprisingly for two Asians, my parents were fans.

Categories
Thai

Bangkok Snap – Northmead NSW Restaurant Review

2021 was a peak food ordering time for me, and as a year probably set us back significantly in terms of our finances and ability to purchase a house. To this day I am still finding photos from delivery meals that we ordered and consumed in our little apartment in Wentworthville 2145. It’s quite strange that whilst I often forget the quality of meals eaten some months back, I seem to still remember the taste and mouthfeel of these particular items that I will briefly describe below. The pricing is going to reflect 2021 prices (pre-post-COVID inflation, but inclusive of delivery app markups).

I can’t believe I literally just said I could still remember the taste and mouthfeel of this meal, because I really don’t have anything memorable for the BBQ Pork with Sticky Rice ($19.90).

Luckily I do remember these Potato Prawn ($10.90), which were all eaten by me because my girlfriend at the time was not a prawn fan. I thought that they were crispy, though underflavoured, with the ratio of potato to prawn too high. The sweet chilli sauce was an absolute neccessity here in helping the potato go down. I think these were even worse the following day.

I love a net spring roll ($9.90), and these were no exception.

I actually really enjoyed this pineapple fried rice ($19.90), even though it was served in a plastic takeaway container and not a half pineapple. The balance of lightly spicy curry powder and sweet pineapple flavour was just right, and I’m craving some more now. Man food is yellow, and it’s delicious.

For a place so close to work, I’m surprised I’ve never been in person. And now that I’ve found these photos and written this post, I’ll probably never have to.

Bangkok Snap Northmead NSW
100B Briens Rd, Northmead NSW 2152