In
the past week I have eaten the very well known Chinese Xiao Long Bao’ or
Shanghai dumplings, twice and both were handmade in-house served steaming hot
in their bamboo container. The bouncy buns were
full of tasty pork mince and hot soup.
This has to be my favourite dumpling; coming in close is the
wonton. Good wontons are so few and far
between unless you’re in Hong Kong. But
Shanghai dumplings are pretty spot on when made with skill and love.
The
first lot I ate them at was at a place called Hutong Dumpling House in Chinatown
Melbourne. You may have seen my dumpling
on Instagram, but yeah they were pretty darn good especially with the vinegar
and a splash of chilli sauce. Mmmmmm!
Today
we took my Dad out for a cheap and cheerful Chinese restaurant in Kingsford
after his weekly Sunday soccer match. He
tells me he has eaten at quite a few joints around the Kingsford area and knows
a few of the owners but his favourite is this one. The name is hilarious hey?!
There
were only three of us and it was pretty busy on ground floor at lunchtime so we
headed upstairs to the minimally decked out restaurant. At the back you can see the dumpling and
noodle making area. I wanted to take a
pic but there was no one there as we were leaving!
In
typical Asian cheap eating style the place isn’t the cleanest, the spoons are
plastic and they have wooden disposable chopsticks. I scan the menu with its bright photos of
each dish and we decided to have the following.
Xiao
Long Bao - you get half a dozen in each
serve in the bamboo steamers. Compared
to the ones at Hutong they were pretty much the same. The dumpling skin was slightly thicker
here. There was a bit more soup in these
ones too which makes you really carefully lift them up from the paper hoping it doesn't burst before you get it to your bowl. I douse them in vinegar and
chilli once again and enjoy every moment of it.
Only had two this time. I think I
will be back as they are so cheap! I
think it was $5 for the 6?! Should pay
more attention next time but I was hung-over and really wanted to just eat. 8/10
Hot
and Sour Soup - This came in a rather
K-mart looking bowl which made me giggle a bit, would’ve been much more fitting
in a Chinese ceramic bowl. It was a big
serve; maybe we had two little bowls each from it. It was thick with strips of tofu, black
fungus, pork and bamboo shoots. I hate
bamboo shoots. I pick them out. There was so much pepper in it and I was questioning
where the sourness was coming from as other hot and sour soups I’ve had have a
reddy tinge to them. It was super hot
and spicy! Very nice if you like hot
things. 7/10
Drunken chicken – I love this dish as it is cold and is
different to all the other sizzling meat and stir-fry dishes. It’s soaked in wine and has a distinct but
subtle flavour to it. The skin isn’t too
fatty either which is good. I hate fatty
chicken skin! 8/10
Shanghai noodles with pork – This is a typical noodle dish
with bits of pork and greens. Nice soy
and garlic flavour. Again better with
some chilli sauce. 7/10
Sizzling Szechuan Beef – This was my husband’s pick and it
was pretty good although they didn’t put the beef on the hot plate in front of
you. I like it when they do that where the
loudness of the sizzle makes people look at what you have. The dish was scattered with whole dried red chillies
and chunks of onion, capsicum and decent sized bits of beef. The beef was pretty tender and the sauce had
a little sweetness to it, which worked well with the heat of the chillies. You get a free bowl of rice with any main.
6.5/10
I was pretty stuffed after this and had some hot tea to wash
it all down. By the time we were
finishing up a whole bunch of students came in and the room was getting loud. Oh well not to worry we don’t like to hang
around after a meal anyway. We just eat, pay the bill and go with a very satisfied feeling as we had some yummy food for
a mere $35.50! The service was fine, and not even worth a mention as this is type of place where it's all about the food not the service.
I would definitely give this place a go for some of the
Shanghai dumplings if you don’t want to head into town to Din Tai Fung or
Chinatown. You would be guaranteed to save
few dollars for pretty much the same tasting food.
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