Categories
Chinese

Fuzhou City (福州城) Yummy Street Food – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Firstly, I think it’s important to recognise that this restaurant, to a Western outsider like myself, is just known as Yummy Street Food. However, to the cultured few who are able to read Chinese, it’s Fuzhou City Yummy Street Food, meaning that this restaurant serves specifically Fuzhou regional cuisine, which is not immediately apparent to the average Aussie bloke and wasn’t even apparent to me until I was writing this review.

We ate at Fuzhou Yummy Street Food one morning, in a packed restaurant where we had to sit next to a fridge behind a corner. We had a collection of small eats, which I will now describe one by one from what memory I can muster up.

The first thing we received from our order was this deep fried triangle that is really just known as a triangle cake 三角糕 ($3) in Chinese. It is a simple wedge of glutinous rice with a little bit of seasoning and unidentifiable vegetable inside, with a mild flavor a sense that it wasn’t fried in particularly fresh oil and an unenjoyable absence of a warm temperature.

This five-spice roll 五香卷 ($13.80), visually similar to a deep-fried lor bak, was not as good as what I’ve had at for example Malaysian restaurants of a similar nature. In my opinion the filling was quite loosely packed, poorly structured, with more vegetable than meat and with a less crispy bean curd wrapper than you would think from looking at it. It was, overall just not what I was expecting, which likely reflects more on my lack of understanding of Fuzhou regional cuisine than the quality of the food itself, but still this is my blog of my own personal views and I just didn’t enjoy it that much.

The Fuzhou pork wonton soup 肉燕 ($10.80) was interesting, and I’m glad I was able to try it, even though I didn’t enjoy it that much. Basically these little pork wontons are made with a wrapper made of pork skin rather than flour – quite a keto friendly dish and it’s just so deeply Chinese to make an entire dish out of pork. Contrary to the five spice savory roll these wontons were densely these wontons were densely packed with meat. I enjoyed the flavour of the soup, though ultimately I didn’t love the one thing about this dish that actually makes it special – the pork skin wonton wrapper. Despite the novelty that it provided, I guess I didn’t like the texture of it and how it felt like I really had to bite through the wrapper to get to the filling.

Another thing that we had and I didn’t love was the sweet and sour pork ribs with potato in garlic sauce 醉排骨（配土豆）($22.80) , which was not only uncharacteristically expensive for this restaurant but also majority potato as opposed to majority pork. The pork pieces were too highly battered, and the flavor too sweet rather than a balanced sweet and sour.

We also had a hot soy drink no sugar (无糖豆浆 热) ($3), which is what it is and I find it difficult to rate the same drink at a hundred different restaurants in Burwood.

Overall Neither of us particularly enjoyed our visit to Fuzhou City Yummy Street Food. While ordering we thought that there were many things we’d like to try on a subsequent visit however following our meal. I feel it is unlikely we’ll ever return. They really need to add “Fuzhou City” to the English signage.

Fuzhou City (福州城) Yummy Street Food
135 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134
0424 008 633

Categories
Italian

Paninoteca Hub – Lake Heights NSW Restaurant Review

In what’s probably a vain attempt to undo 30 years of processedmeatmaxxing, I’ve been trying to minimize my intake of processed and red meats overall – an endeavor that’s probably ruined my experience at the Illawara’s famed panini hub – a place that really specializes in sandwiches filled with the worst and best kinds of processed meat.

Instead of some delicious abomination filled with salami and mortadella, I had a cotaletta ($13.50), featuring a chicken schnitzel, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, Swiss cheese, and Russian sauce between some housemade bread.

Not bad, good size comes to mind. The flavours are muted, and a little bit more dressing could have gone a long way, though the light taste of it all did allow the sweetness of the Swiss cheese to shine through. The schnitzel was pleasntly warm, though the bread, though made in-house, was nothing special.The deli is located within a bottle-o, and co-located with an Italian grocery store, so it’s less of a restaurant and more of a place that sells sandwiches, with a park bench outside – adequate seating for a couple of guys, but probably inadequate during a more busy period of time.

Service, in contrast to what some of the other online reviews have said, was instant near closing, with no wait at all – a completely different experience to Inner West darling Raineri’s. It’s probably not a huge amount more time driving down to the Gong and getting a sandwich from Paninoteca Hub, than waiting in line at Five Dock.

Perhaps a more cured meat forward sandwich, preceded by a psyllium husk bolus, is on the menu for next time.

Paninoteca Hub
Shop 1a/20-22 Weringa Ave Lake Heights NSW 2502

Categories
Chinese 四川 (Sìchuān/Sichuan)

Bowl Bowl Beef 碗碗牛四川跷脚牛肉 – Burwood NSW Restaurant Review

Bowl Bowl Beef 碗碗牛四川跷脚牛肉 is a small stall on the upper level of Burwood Chinatown, offering Sichuan themed noodles and soups – possibly but not provably linked to the Taikoo Li, Le Shan group of restaurants on Burwood Road. Surely it doesn’t make sense for them to have three restaurants in one suburb? I went on a weekday afternoon, availing a 40% eat-in discount from an app that cost me thousands in extra fees during the 2018-2021 era.

I ordered the Qiao Jiao Beef Brisket 跷脚牛肉 ($17.80) from the menu underneath the main section with the big pictures. That should’ve been the first clue. I immediately tried to lift up the noodles with my chopsticks for a representative photo, but I was unable to find any. Fearing that perhaps they had messed up my order, I reviewed a picture of the menu on my phone, and I had indeed ordered a bowl of soup without noodles. Though it isn’t what I would have wanted, I had to prevail.

The soup was pretty good. it had a light, not overpowering herbal taste, but not in the sense of it being Chinese medicine in nature. The broth was clear and felt more cleansing than what could’ve been a heavier alternative, possibly aided by the cabbage, which had most of its intrinsic flavour boiled away. There was plenty of beef within the bowl for one person, though I think I would’ve been much less satisfied with the quantity had I paid the full price rather than with a 40% discount.

I enjoyed the mixture of lean and fatty pieces of sliced brisket, especially the fact that the ratio of straight fat to muscle was not too high. The beef was tender but chewy, providing a good mix of mouthfeels. The soup was served with a side of chilli flake-powder, with which no instructions were provided. Unfortunately there were no other more clued-in diners nearby for me to watch and copy, so I just intermittently dipped some of the beef slices into the powder.

Overall not bad for a soup, and definitely suitable for someone looking for a low carb Chinese food option, but I was really fanging for some noodles.

The prawn and beef pan fried dumplings 鲜虾牛肉锅贴 ($14.80) were really excellent. They were pan-fried well – crispy on the outside, but still moist on the inside, and featured a lacey skirt, which added extra crisp.

The filling was very prawn forward, with large portions of prawn wrapped in beef. The flavour of the filling and the dumplings themselves were very umami. Delicious. My only complaint was that these were not served with vinegar, but I realised on my way out that there was vinegar available at the counter.

Overall I didn’t get what I thought I was getting, but the food was pretty good, especially at a 40% discount. I have to say I’m not that excited about eating hot food out of disposable plastic any more, however.

Bowl Bowl Beef 碗碗牛四川跷脚牛肉
Burwood Chinatown, 127/133 Burwood Rd, Burwood NSW 2134

Categories
Chinese Snacks

天天好日子 香辣小海虾 Tiantianhaorizi Spicy Shrimp – Grocery Review

Around 4 years ago, I had a delicious fried prawn head snack from the Korean grocer in Strathfield Plaza. It was crispy, crunchy and umami. Not getting the name nor the photo of this snack was one of the regrets of my life, and though I suspect it was from Jung Sae Woo, I have never again seen it for sale.

Today I came across what appeared to be a similar snack at a local Chinese grocer. This packet of deep fried spicy shrimp was only around $2, and so relatively low risk to try. Unfortunately they ended up being not very similar to what I remember of the Korean shrimp. These Chinese spicy shrimp were not just the head but the full animal.

They had a sticky exterior coating which meant that they were a bit softer rather than truly crispy. The stickiness of the coating made the snack seem sweet even though the flavour of it wasn’t particularly sweet – more of a spicy with a little bit of numbing and a bitter aftertaste

I didn’t really enjoy these as much as I had hoped, although my orange cat did enjoy one (and he will probably therefore die).

I wouldn’t get these again.

天天好日子 香辣小海虾 Tiantianhaorizi Spicy Shrimp
6938395622054

Categories
Australian Bakery Café

Hearthe – Stanmore NSW Restaurant Review

We were the only Asians at a packed Hearthe on a Sunday morning not long ago, not counting the two in the kitchen, and thus the only people to have their very good congee, though more on that later.

The first item that arrived was the salt bush scone with dessert lime marmalade and cream ($14). The scone itself was savoury, with a light, chive like flavour do them that suberverted expectations of a wholely sweet-spectrum dish.

The cream, whipped well, is always a welcome addition to any scone dish, whilst the “dessert lime marmalade”, which I can only assume is a play on words based on the “desert lime” its made of, was a less sweet, more bitter concoction. My wife enjoyed this dish more than me.

The ham and cheese scroll ($9) was up next. Though plucked from the display cabinet, it was served warmed up, semi-gooeyfying the relatively large high density of cheese within this pastry.

The layers of the scroll were very buttery and dense, contributing to an overall sense of luxury to this scroll, though again, similar to the marmalade, there was an overall hint of bitterness to it.

The rice congee with paperbark smoked barramundi, with karkalla, samphire and finger lime with a toasted croissant crouton ($19) was completely different to everything else on offer at Hearthe. The croissant “crouton” functioned much like a youtiao, though tasted a bit burnt and was on a whole less good than the traditional alternative. The native greens (karkalla and samphire) weren’t that tasty, and the finger lime was not able to be found or tasted.

Looking past the croissant and native greens, the dish as a whole was an extremely traditional rendition of a Chinese congee. The flavour was umami and warming, and just as a classic congee, not overly rich. The flakes of barramundi within the bowl were perfectly proportioned, and permeated through each spoonful. It did a really good job as a congee, much better than many Chinese restaurants we’ve been to, and despite the superficial attempt of being fusion, was deeply traditional in its overall execution, tasting more of shallot and fish than it did of native things. It’s a shame we didn’t see any of the other (non-Asian) patrons ordering it.

The unforgettable cake ($10 for a small slice), was actually much more forgettable than Hearthe proprietor Christopher Thé’s original claim to fame, Black Star’s strawberry watermelon cake. Though it was built in a sandwich like construction featuring jelly and cream between multiple layers of sponge, I didn’t feel that this really made up for the relatively uninteresting and subdued flavour, and it ultimately ended up seeming like too much structural effort for little flavour pay-off. At least it wasn’t too sweet.

The paperbark cake ($10) had a nice, floral and peppery top layer, with a honey-drenched mimille feuille centre and a rich, chocolatey, dense mousse-like base. This was probably the most “native Australian” tasting item on the menu, though overall too sweet for my liking.

UPDATE –
We found our way across the bridge to a community cultural event, where Christopher The was doing some live baking with his kids whilst one of his other kids played music.

We were served these very unassuming tarts with kiwi and mango pearls on arrival.

The music was intermitted by these fresh-out-of-the-oven blueberry cupcakes, which had a taste of self-raised flour. I reiterate add at this point that the whole thing was one professional baker and his kids, who are definitely not professional bakers and just there to do their best to help out.

The cherry strudel with fresh and sour cherries, anise myrtle, and a coffee and wattle seed ice cream turned out to be quite good, despite Christopher leaving his dry flour at home. We enjoyed the tartness of the sour cherries, and that it was overall not too sweet.

A surprise showing of a work-in-progress next generation strawberry-watermelon cake. I think it would be better with less sweetness.

OVERALL
Despite criticisms, I enjoyed my meal at Hearthe, and the little Australian twists present in most dishes. It almost felt like what BUSH should’ve been, and it just happens to have some of the best fish congee around.

If you’re really into classical guitar and live North of the bridge, the live-baking thing could be a thing too.

Hearthe
16 Douglas St, Stanmore NSW 2048