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 walked into Jinweide expecting a simple menu where I could just say ‘1 lanzhou beef noodle please’, but when confronted with a number of unexpected options, I deferred to the person taking my order, ending up with this Handmade beef noodle, thin (type 3) noodles, less spicy ($14.80)
Despite the high degree of visual appeal, the taste of these noodles failed to impress me. I think the most critical part was that the flavour of the broth was too mild, tasting watery rather than soupy. I don’t think the ‘less spicy’ option was necessarily a factor in this, but just that a bit more salt or even some natural or artificial glutamate would’ve helped. Having said that, the quantity of food for $14.80 was quite good, with a large serving of noodles and beef and soup that I could not finish, only half because I didn’t want to.
The beef bun / roujiamo with lean and fat meat ($8.80) – choices of just lean and just at also available – was not bad, but not great. It was overall pretty juicy and flavourful, with little bits of tendon included, and more spice and colour than from Cheng’s next door. Though I understand the need for a beef variation for our Muslim friends and colleagues, this one was far from the standard of a good pork roujiamo.
Other thoughts The guys on the table next to me participated in some kind of challenge item where you place a gloved hand into a big box of sliced beef, and the amount that you fish out is the amount that you get to eat. This looks fun, though I don’t know how I would’ve eaten such a large amount of unexciting noodle soup. Overall I feel that 1919 Lanzhou Beef Noodles, further down Burwood Rd, is a superior option.
Traditional Cantonese Taste 老广记石磨肠粉店 unlocked for me something above and beyond what I understood cháng fěn 肠粉 could achieve.
We had the dried cordyceps flower with pork and egg rice paper roll 虫草花猪肉鸡蛋肠 ($16.50). While I’ve had a couple of different cheungs fun around the place, mostly from yum cha restaurants, I’ve never had anything like this in my life. Though it seems small in this photo, the thing was huge and bulging, of adequate size for the price asked.
It was absolutely packed with layers of tender pork mince, multiple layers of rice noodle sheets, as well as soft egg, with each layer melding into one another to form an ultimate combination of creamy umami. The egg component I think was a true winner, adding moistness, textural interest, as well as creaminess to a dish that may sometimes otherwise be a bit bland. Ultra-light soy sauce was available on-table, but unnecessary.
I did not love the pork and preserved egg congee 皮蛋瘦肉粥 ($12.80). While the bowl was large, I felt that it was too sparsely topped/filled, especially with regards to the only minimal showing of century egg, sliced ultra-thinly to maximise visual appeal without actual mass presence, making the bowl closer to a bowl of plain rice congee than a classical flavourful pi dan shou rou zhou.
The fried bread/ you tiao / dough cruller 经典非凡油条 ($3.50) was excellent. Freshly fried, crispy, warm, and soft. It’s a shame that the congee was so unspectacular and bland, as it would’ve made a good accompaniment to a more flavourful zhou.
I really don’t know why I was expecting something different when I ordered the fried egg noodles with beef 干炒牛面 ($16.80). I had pictured, for some reason, some kind of saucy Hokkien mee, but instead what this actually was was just gānchǎo níuhé with egg noodles instead of rice noodles. The dish was large, with a mound of voluminous noodles and a weaker than average meat to noodle ratio. The flavour was light, and I regret not adding some of the tableside soy sauce to the mix. I don’t know if my lack of enjoyment of this dish was due to unmet expectations or the food itself, though it did taste better after a period of fridge time, microwave time, and resting and digesting on my part. Either way, there’s probably a good reason this dish is usually made from rice noodles, and it’s my own fault for being illiterate in Chinese.
My partner always orders a soy bean drink unsweethot 石磨原味豆浆 无糖 ($3) from wherever it may be available. I did not care for it.
Overall thoughts (interim) The rice noodle roll with egg and the fried dough crullers are my top picks from this restaurant, though I would be hesitant to recommend the other things that I had here.
Update October 2025 We rarely go to the same restaurant twice, unless it’s really good or it’s been a long time, but we went to Traditional Cantonese Taste twice in four months – not because it was truly amazing (though the rice noodle rolls are), but because there are truly quite few restaurants open for breakfast in Burwood. My wife gave me the opportunity to walk through Burwood for 15 minutes to find somewhere to have breakfast at, and all the places we walked past were either not that appealing, or we’d done them to death. Traditional Cantonese Taste 老广记石磨肠粉店 was the call that she made in her frustration of my indecision.
We had the dried cordyceps flower with chicken and egg rice roll 虫草花滑鸡蛋肠, which was pretty good, but probably not as good as the pork mince version. I thought about what the reason for this difference could be, and I think it’s because the chicken chunks were relatively large, whereas pork mince really lends itself to homogeneity and a melding in of flavours and textures between the egg, rice noodles, and meat.
The Rice with pork ribs, chicken and cured meat clay pot 大四喜煲仔饭（排骨, 滑鸡, 腊肠, 腊肉）*$25.80) was I think a new addition to menu, which since our previous visit has been upgraded from a single laminated sheet to a multi page booklet complete with photos. I enjoyed the rice, first and foremost, with the lightly salty soy sauce and the crispy but not burnt bottom section. The protein components, of which there were 4 different ones, were less enjoyable. I felt that both the chicken and the pork ribs had distinct but different ‘agricultural’ tastes, with a strong scent of the animal. It’s rare for me to ever have a problem with the gaminess of meat (especially unless it’s goat), but this was what I experienced. The two types of cured pork were yummy, and my wife graciously allowed me to have more than my fair share of this.
I tried to get us more you tiao but they hadn’t started them at the time I ordered, and the woman who told me she’d let us know when they turned the deep fryer on failed to let us know. It’s ok. We were full anyway.
Overall thoughts (update – October 2025) My thoughts remain the same. Rice noodle roll with egg good. Other things, not as good.
I’m almost certain I had written something about Babylon Bakery already, but I couldn’t find anything in the drafts or in the scheduled posts, and I couldn’t even find any notes taken from the meal, so I guess I’ll just do it again from memory.
We visited Babylon Bakery after seeing it recommended on social media by someone who I hope wasn’t a paid influencer. We ordered a relatively large amount of food to eat in, and unfortunately had to wait a relatively large amount of time (21 minutes) for our food to arrive.
We had a one kilogram mixed skewer pack ($40) which consisted of chicken tawouk, lamb kofta, as well as lamb meat skewers for a total of eight skewers worth. This also came with some coleslaw consisting of lettuce and tomato, as well as some seasoned onion, garlic and hummus dips, and chilli coated bread.
This was a large dish and extremely good value for only $40 with an overall huge amount of food. The chicken was my favourite, being quite juicy and tender, followed by the lamb kofta. The the chunks of lamb meat were less to my liking with a bit of gaminess to them, and overall a bit less tenderness than the other two options.
We also had a fattoush salad (regular size – $8) although, and I didn’t know this at the time, we probably could have had fattoush instead of coleslaw on our kilogram of mixed skewers. This was fine, it was what fattoush iss.
Unbelievably, we also had a chicken shawarma roll ($10), originally intended to be for the following day, but then I wanted to try some. This was excellent with a large helping of garlic sauce, and quite juicy with the pickles – not dry at all like some that I’ve had, for example, from Shawarma Albeik.
Overall We ultimately packaged up the remainder of our kilogram of meat and took it home to eat the following day. Overall, the value proposition offered by Babylon Bakery was quite good, however I guess they’re not particularly well set up for dine-in eaters with only two small tables on premises. The majority of their orders were for takeaway, and perhaps if one is intending to dine there, it would be better to just order as takeaway, arrive 20 minutes later and then eat there, because sitting there waiting for twenty minutes was no fun. The food is all served in disposable stuff anyway.
I’ve walked past Chao Shan Dry Noodle 潮汕干面 in Burwood Plaza quite a few times, but have never eaten here before due to a general lack of desire, as well as a general sense of cultural inaccessibility, with a somewhat confusing menu (for an outsider) and a paucity of reports online.
We therefore present the first published English language full length case report of a Western person eating at Chao Shan Dry Noodle 潮汕干面.
I had this dry noodle with pork soup ($14) with an added tea/soy egg for $1. The noodle and the soup was served separately, and indeed available to order separately. Available at the counter are self-served jars of Chinese pickled chilli, and zhejiang vinegar ( visible in the top left hand corner of the photo above.)
The meal came with no instructions, and through a process of trial and error I took alternating mouthfuls of noodle and soup. The noodle was chewy but not overly tasty, with the majority of the scallion oil flavour settling at the bottom. This persisted despite some pretty vigorous mixing on my part.
The soup was a clear soup, with pieces of lean pork meat and lettuce, ladled from giant vats at the back of the restaurant. Though I wanted to enjoy this, there was a faint gamey taste to it, which put me off a bit.
At a point midway during my meal, a stranger came and sat directly opposite me and started chowing down his noodles. We neither spoke nor made eye contact, but we were in quite close proximity that I’m quite confident that others in the West would also see this as unusual behaviour. But of course, Burwood is not part of ‘Western Culture’. The experience of sitting face to face with this guy, though strange, was of net benefit to me as I was able to watch how he ate his meal and adjust my own strategy accordingly. It didn’t make the food much more appealing.
Overall thoughts Apart from a single comment on reddit, I have presented the only full English-language case report of a meal at Chaoshan Dry Noodle / Chao Shan Delights in Burwood. I did not love my meal and would not return.
I truly cannot believe how terrible this is. It is so dry and crumbly, too sweet, similar in quality to Ülker Halley’s (Turkish) variant, and overall inferior to both competing choco pie products from Orion and Lotte.
The worst part was that I had to buy a whole bag of them. 10 for $6, even more expensive than Lotte, and coming close to Orion prices.
The Chinese domestic market simply cannot compete in some regards, which explains why I’ve never seen this in Australia before now, and will never buy it again.
