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.
This will be a quick play by play of our yum cha lunch at The Eight, chosen because sadly Marigold is no more, and The Eight had 2 hours of free parking (though we overstayed by like 20 minutes and paid $9 for the privilege).
These pork spare ribs in black bean sauce were fine. Pretty meaty, not super fatty. Flavour I thought was a bit too mild.
I think these steamed chicken feet could’ve been steamed a little bit longer, but the flavour was good.
I actually also thought these bean curd skin rolls could’ve been more flavoured.
The steamed chive dumplings were fine, not extraodinary, and could’ve used more chive taste. I don’t know what’s happening. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with my specifically, things just tended towards blandness.
The shu mai were good, and adequately flavoured.
The texture and flavour of this this doufu fa was good.
The steamed custard buns were really good! My first one burst hot liquid all over me and the table, and our friend MP gave up hers so I could have an extra.
Overall We had a pretty decent and well priced meal, spending around $32 per person for yum cha, with 2 hours free parking down below during the day, and unlimited free parking after 6PM (important for CBD lunch considerations). My partner had had dinner with her mother and brother the previous week and had a similarly good experience.
Not bad (though I think Marigold was better. RIP.)
The Eight Market City Shopping Centre, Level 3/13 Hay St, Haymarket NSW 2000 (02) 9282 9988
I love a good Shandong chicken, but a Shandong chicken is apparently not an actual Shandong regional dish. Here I will describe some dishes that apparently are.
Here is a collection of braised foodstuffs, including braised pork belly ($5), braised meatball ($5), braised soymilk film ($3), braised chilli ($3), and braised egg ($3), cross-sectional imaging to come. I had mixed feelings about this one, and only really liked the meatball out of all of them. The chilli I found was extraordinarily spicy for such a large pepper, whilst the tofu I thought was not very deeply flavoured at all. The pork belly was alright but not super tender, and the egg cooked all the way through and really nothing special.
If I could go back in time in a time machine, I would only get the braised meat ball, which was very soft and tasty, but probably needed a bit of rice to go with it.
I’ve been searching my entire life (or at least ever since Taste Gallery in Parramatta closed – a real loss for Western Sydney) for some good zhenjiang pork ribs. Sadly these marinated pork ribs with sweet black vinegar ($12.80) weren’t it. I thought that these ribs were unusually meaty, but not very tender. Their taste was not what I had pictured in my nostalgia-addled brain (nostalgia for a restaurant that I ate at two years ago – does that still count?) with a rich plum taste with too much sweetness and not enough sourness, as well as an unpleasant oiliness. Oh well, the search goes on.
I was quite keen on some dumplings (a guy on an adjacent table had some incredibly pungent chive ones that he was ripping through by himself), but my partner chose for us to have the shandong soup buns ($12.80) instead. I honestly don’t know why we’re trying to pretend that these weren’t just xiao long bao, and in my opinion inferior to those from the freezer at your local Asian grocer.
OVERALL THOUGHTS I didn’t love what we had to eat, though for some reason my partner still wants to go back in the future. It might have to be by herself.
We’ve walked past Taste Gallery on Church St several times now, each time with the intention of going in but each time discouraged by the very limited menu printed on their window outside. We finally took the plunge tonight, guided by a previously quite successful delivery order which showcased Taste Gallery’s actually diverse menu, and made the decision to follow through and actually go inside.
The Special Vegetarian Spring Rolls (6 for $7.80) were actually quite special, and served very quickly. My partner was attracted to their netted exterior, and whilst I was not so keen on having vegetarian spring rolls their internal texture was actually quite meaty and had good flavour and mouthfeel.
My partner has spent years searching for the perfect Zhengjiang Vinegar Pork Spare Ribs ($18.80), and Taste Gallery finally delivered the goods. They had the perfect dark and tangy flavour, which is something that she tells me has been hard to find. The pork meat was tender, though due to the dark colouration from the marinade it was difficult to tell visually what parts were meat and what parts were bone. Be sure to order this with white rice ($2.50) or some other more bland carbohydrate, as the flavours are quite strong on its own.
The Thin sliced rib eye with tasty pickles served in hot pot ($17.80) was not what I expected, but ended up still being pretty good. It’s the third time in a week where I’ve ordered something meaty and ended up with thinly sliced hot pot style meat. Recent other offenders in this category include Costas Arepa Bar and Cafe Elation, though this time I admit I just didn’t read the name of the dish properly. The other difference between my expectation and reality is that I thought this would be a hotpot dish in the sense that combination bean curd hotpot is a hotpot dish, rather than a hotpot dish in the sense that shuan yang rou is hotpot. After getting over this letdown of my own doing I did find the dish quite enjoyable. The soup was a little oily but otherwise wholesome, flavoured with suān cài. The beef was unfortunately quite fatty and chewy, however there were those odd morsels that just melted in my mouth and were perfect. The mixture of vegetables and enoki made the dish feel like it could potentially be good for me. Overall I can recommend this dish.
VERDICT We had an overall good time at Taste Gallery, despite the slightly shabbier appearance when compared to neighbouring Chef’s Gallery, and can’t wait to go back. Their food is well priced and delicious.
My partner recently spent $125 on very middling delivered Chinese food, locking me into eating it for the rest of the week.
I will put the same amount of effort into this review as they did cooking it.
Steamed Pork Shumai 猪肉烧卖 ($8.80). Not bad, a bit salty, and a bit dry. The addition of flying fish roe on top gave it a fun crunchy fish roe texture and fish flavour.
Steamed Vegetable Dumpling 韭菜鸡蛋蒸饺 ($7.80) is actually a chive and egg and vermicelli steamed vegetable dumpling. The flavours are quite light, with only a weak chive flavour. Not great but not bad.
Boiled Pork Dumpling 猪肉水饺 ($11.80) had a very meaty taste with strong pork flavour and good chive flavour also. Actually quite good, but she accidentally ordered two servings. (Why?)
Pan Fried Turnip Patty 香煎萝卜糕 ($7.80) had a bit of a too-greasy taste to it to enjoy.
Steamed Black Bean Pork Rib 豉汁蒸排骨 ($9.80) was actively bad. Overcooked, formless meat. The wrong flavour for black bean pork rib. Don’t get this if you’re expecting the yum cha classic. Actively bad.
The Pork and Preserved Egg Congee 皮蛋瘦肉粥 ($12.80) was actually quite good. It was very accurate to the Platonic ideal of a 皮蛋瘦肉粥, and for $12.80 they actually gave us two large takeaway boxes worth.
VERDICT Most of the food from Dim Sum & More was quite disappointing. I wouldn’t recommend it to even a casual acquaintance.
Dim Sum & More Shop 2, 8 Bourke Street, Mascot NSW
When you think about Asian Fusion cuisine you normally think about Asian inspired meals cooked with a mixture of both Asian and European cooking techniques. JC Dragon Fusion in Parramatta flips any such expectations on their heads and serves Chinese food fused with Chinese, cooked with the traditional Chinese techniques of steaming, boiling, deep frying, and stir frying.
Let’s go back in time to before you had seen the above photo. I want you to close your eye and picture for me “steamed prawn and pork dumplings” ($8.80). Now open your eyes. Is this what you imagined?
While Chinese-literate punters would immediately recognise the 燒賣 on the menu as shaomai, the English listing of this item on the menu leads in and traps members of the Asian Fusion diaspora like myself. As shaomai these are pretty good, in no way better or worse than you would get from your regular yum cha restaurant. As dumplings they are a bit lacking.
The pork ribs with black bean sauce ($8.80) was exactly as you’d picture them, though I felt that they did not have such a strong black bean flavour as the shadows cast by pork ribs with black bean sauce of past.
Ever the intrepid explorer, my girlfriend saw a distant table enjoying an aromatic hot pot with their lobster meal, and asked if we could have the same sans lobster. The traditional free range chicken hot pot ($39.80) is not generally offered on the menu, and I’m pretty sure the owner just made up a price for it on the spot. It features half a raw free range chicken (also known as a chicken who walks in Chinese), which is boiled at the table in an aromatic bak kut teh like broth. I thought that the soup tasted and smelled good, however did not find that the chicken added very much at all. The chicken was a skinny triathelete chook, cut up with lots of bones included inside the chicken, making it quite difficult to get any actual meat. Though a large portion I did feel that spending $40 on this presumably more legitimate bak kut teh did not provide much better a result than $5 bak kut teh packet mix soup. My girlfriend stuck to her guns and said she enjoyed it but I wouldn’t get it again.
SECOND VISIT, VIBE CHECK ONLY
I quite enjoyed these special pan fried stuffed bean curd($16.80), like what you would find in a combination seafood hot pot, but not in a hot pot, and with some kind of animal combination attached to the tofu. Pretty delicious to be honest.
The Spicy Chicken with Chinese Wine Sauce ($17.80) was solid in taste and price, but I just don’t love chopped up bones in my chicken. Personal preference.
The battered and salt and pepper fried eggplant was a HUGE portion. Pretty tasty, but super unhealthy. Definitely more than we bargained for.
VERDICT
JC Dragon Fusion Restaurant’s only claim to fusion may be that it fuses yum cha lunch items and dinner items into an all day menu. I do appreciate the availability of dim sum for dinner, and can therefore recommend paying them a visit if you do too.
