Dear Reader, I know the title suggests that I was hanging out with the chefs from the television show Iron Chef but alas my visit to Cabramatta with my friend Christie and her baby Poppy to buy ingredients to make Pho didn’t involve either Chen, Sakai or Michiba. After shopping, the hot summer weather meant that Christie, baby Poppy and I sought the relief of air conditioning, high chairs and yum cha food at the Iron Chef restaurant.
We’re shown to a table and given a high chair and then the wonderful, gratifyingly fast ritual of yum cha ordering begins. A woman suddenly appears with her trolley of steamed goodies and gives us a hearty “Good morning!” She lifts up the lids of her selection and we’re happy to see our favourites here. We pick and choose the ones we want and bypass the ones that don’t thrill, she stamps our card and we commence one of our favourite rituals.
Chinese New Year Soup Dumpling
We ordered this dish because she had made a special mention that this was available just for Chinese New Year. It came in a steamer but inside is a glass bowl filled with clear broth, strands of coriander, an enormous pork and seafood dumplings and slippery, clear mung bean noodles underneath the dumpling. The broth was just what we needed in this heat-I always thought that eating hot soup or curries in heat was counter-productive but it refills our energy reserves nicely. The pleated dumpling, and you can perhaps see that it is a Titanic sized specimen floating in the sea of soup, is filled with pork mince and prawns as well as some bamboo shoots to give it crunch.
Seafood dumplings
Christie and I both adore seafood-we have such similar food tastes and we first bonded many years ago when we started talking about our mutual love of cream. Seafood is another item that we gladly snaffle up and this is a goody. Sometimes I find seafood dumplings have those bits of peanut which I do not like at all as they taste soggy but this is full of prawn and scallops with a thin, translucent dumpling skin.
Har Gow prawn dumplings
My favourite dumplings, these were very good indeed the large prawns having a wonderfully fresh texture to them. My kingdom for a tower of steamers!
Yam dumplings
This was the first time that Christie had tried these and she was curious about them. They’re deep fried dumplings filled with pork mince, pork pieces and vegetables and then covered in pureed purple yam which is then coated in super fine, delicate crumbage that melts on the tongue. They need a little more seasoning but the texture of these is what wins us over.
Chee cheong fan
We weren’t won over by these at all-even Poppy who loves these rejected them summarily. The prawn texture wasn’t as springy as the ones in the har gow and they tasted a bit flat and over steamed.
Prawn and mushrooms
“Ooh what are those?” I say spotting some dumplings. I’ve been wanting to try some yum cha fare that is a little different from the norm. These were round balls made up of seafood mince on top of whole shiitake mushrooms. The texture for this dish was good although I did find that these needed a little seasoning too.
Seafood dumplings with fish roe
By now we were getting quite full but I saw these at another table by on my way back from the restroom so we ordered a serve of these with the restaurant manager as we didn’t want to bother the yum cha ladies with opening up all of their baskets if we were only after one dish. We asked the restaurant manager what was in them and he thought about it for a second before suggesting that he try one of ours and let us know! They’re very friendly here and I think Poppy had them wrapped around her little finger. These ended up being seafood dumplings containing prawn, scallops and little tendrils of octopus and finely sliced Chinese greens all topped with fish roe which we both enjoyed (although the Adrian Monk in me thinks that they could have distributed the fish roe a bit more evenly).
Oh Poppy!
Christie and I were too busy talking when we looked over and saw that Poppy, who had already finished eating her selection of goodies, had taken a fork (from where I have no idea-resourceful little girl!) and was dragging the steamer of dumplings towards her!
Oops!
Then the inevitable happened… round steamer basket rolling across the restaurant floor, seafood balls in the pram and slippery shiitakes on the carpet. Ahh Poppy, you are a funny little girl!
And yes we can still see you Poppy 
Seafood and avocado
Spying something else new, we had to order it. They seem to like using a lot of the seafood mince which is something that you see a lot in Asian food, particularly street food. This comes as three very large deep fried triangles of seafood mince filled in the centre with pieces of prawn (the prawn similar in texture to the one in the chee cheong fan, a bit flat) and avocado that is served warm and cooked. It’s definitely unusual but not bad but they’re also very, very filling.
Egg custard tarts
The egg custard tarts comes as three small tarts to a serve and the woman warned us that they were very hot as they had just come out of the oven. The custard was sweet and eggy and the pastry was crispy but not quite reaching the heights or number of layers of some multi layered egg custard tarts pastries.
Coconut cake
We ordered this at the very last minute, in fact after our bill had been handed to the waiter we had to try this as it was a little different and there weren’t that many dessert choices going past (we didn’t see any of Christie’s favourite, mango pancakes at all). It’s a large serve and made up of a dense, slightly moist coconut cake. I don’t know if I could eat the whole thing, it’s quite dense and dry in texture and not really what I expected.
In the whole franticness of yum cha I never really see which items get stamped with medium and large (and do “small” ones even exist?) so I don’t know the prices of everything but Christie and I are pleasantly surprised to see that the bill for all of these dishes comes to $68.20 which we were surprised at considering that we really ordered everything that took our fancy.
So tell me Dear Reader, did you do anything for Chinese New Year this year?
Iron Chef Chinese Seafood Restaurant
84 Broomfield St, Cabramatta NSW
Tel: +61 (02) 9723 6228
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50 Comments | Add your own
This place looks so authentic! Just like the yum cha I’ve been having in Hong Kong
Yummy!
I’ve never seen that Coconut cake before! Does it have a strong coconut flavour? A shame that it’s was dry
Poppy is as cute as every!
For CNY this year I just celebrated with the family ~
The Chinese are so wonderful with children I’m sure it wasn’t a problem that half your meal went rolling along the floor. It’s always great after some exhausting shopping to stumble into a restaurant serving Yum Cha.
I’ve never done dim sum or yum cha. And Poppy is adorable. Those cheeks!
I’ve been meaning to get to Cabramatta for ages – would love to hear about your grocery shopping!
Oh how adorable is Poppy!!! Our kids love dumplings and have an almost insatiable appetite for them, but Poppy is so little – good on her for trying different things! Yam dumplings are the ones for me to try too!
What a great find Lorraine. Great price too! Poppy is so cute
I hope we get to see your pho soon!
I didn’t celebrate Chinese New Year here in Mexico, though I would have dearly loved it. Those dumplings look wonderful–and Poppy just gets cuter and cuter, if that is possible.
Ha! That pic of Poppy sneaking the dumpling is gold!
This Poppy is adorable and I love that name. You know I get jealous when I see this kind of food that I don’t have access to. Lorraine, you mentioned Adrian Monk. I am so Monk about Monk that I still DVR the reruns and try to watch them in order.
this looks like a great place to go, I’ve never been to Yum Cha..but now I think I will. Poppy’s got the right idea hiding behind the white rabbit xo
I’ve eaten here once many moons ago. I didn’t do anything special for Chinese New Year however I’m happy it’s the year of the Dragon as its supposed to be a good one!
Looking forward to your pho recipe! We had such a fun day out (except for the drama of trying to find a park!)
Yum Cha is one of life’s joys, really. I love all those yummy dumplings, but always make sure to leave room for the egg tarts – they’re my favourite.
What a lovely lunch; and Poppy is absolutely adorable with those pudgy cheeks. I am envious that you are in summer; we just got dumped on with 5cm of snow and the temperatures plummeted to a mere -11°C,
Thats a big restaurant and full too, must be good food and the strategically chosen name:) That coconut cake looks different and very appetising.
Ah I don’t think I will ever move on from dumplings…these little parcels look so inviting!
Most important: big hug and kiss to Poppy!! I told you last time she was going to be a little gourmet before we knew it. Well, I like borrowing from others too – good on her for starting to take note [never mind the splish-splash
!]. I love the look of all this food: moist and succulent – even the chee cheong fan, which I adore, looked appetizing! This is Sunday: in the ‘old’ days our yum cha morning, so feel a little jealous! However, have just got my first Valentine’s gift from the US in the form of a wonderful recipe, so can’t complain 
!
LOVE experiencing dishes you photographed today!
We celebrate Chinese New Year in a unique way!
Being entertained by the lion dance, make our own red envelopes too!
During the New Year, we “Treasure the Pleasure of making and sharing “Lucky Foods” aka foods for good fortune! WHOO HOO!
That Poppy is a cheeky little monkey, isn’t she??
I haven’t been to Yum Cha in yonks, think it’s time to have it again!
OK: Let’s look forward about 3-4 years. We still can’t wait to read our daily NQN, but on certain mornings there will be an addition:
‘and Poppy says’ . . .
* oh, yum!
* try that one!
* another bite, please!
* Oh, Auntie Lorraine, it’s not polite to say ‘yuck’ in a blog??
I can’t wait
!
How cute is Poppy! She just wanted more dumplings…
Love the looks of the soup dumpling
I love coming here for yum cha! They have so much variety and it is much cheaper than the places in the city!
—Lorraine,
I do believe they savor dumplings in Heaven. Don’t you? Perhaps w/ a bit of CupCake Merlot!!
You. Rock. The. Blogmosphere!!!!
xxxx
Oh my goodness, is that the cutest baby ever, or what! I love that middle photo, it’s like, “who, me?”
Wow, you still get to watch the original Iron Chef? I used to watch it faithfully, until it was phased out & replaced with Iron Chef America.
My gosh, Iron Chef America has been on the tube for a quite a few year now, I’m really surprised it’s not come your way as yet.
I always thought the original Iron Chefs bright satin outfits were sooo not the right thing to wear, when you’re rushing around sweating bullets, trying to outcook your competitor!
One good thing though, Masaharu Morimoto, from the original Iron Chef series, is one of the featured chefs on Iron Chef America. I do favour him actually, as he’s a brilliant cook/chef.
Love your sweet Poppy girl, shes such a darling. Good for her for trying to snigger a dumpling!
The food looks wonderful, I do love the looks of the dumplings with prawns & scallops, but have to admit, I’d pass on the octopus tendrils and fish roe, thank you!
We had yum cha for lunch yesterday, we just find it so hard to resist! The manager knows us well and brings over our favourite dishes without even being asked and even makes a special dish thats not on the menu if he has time. That’s such great service, and they’re so friendly I’m sure they’d love little Poppy
This week I’m making gluten free dumplings and hargow with a new recipe for wrappers with taro and rice flour, hope they work!
I love the egg custard tarts – a favourite of mine. Poppy is adorable.
Studied for my interview.
I so love yum cha ,but havent been for while. The look of all those seafood dumplings makes me very hungry. lets hope poppy continues her eating…… my teenager was good when he was that age… but now…..
I love Iron Chef! I go there lots, their fried noodles are great!
Haha, I think little Poppy is going to be a gourmand by the time she’s 5
Poppy is just gorgeous. She looks so subtle pulling the basket towards her.
Nope I didn’t do anything for Chinese New Year. I was in South America… not much Chinese New Year celebration there!
Dined at Iron Chef in Cabramatta with friends a few years ago, particularly liked the Chilli Lobster and Chilli Crab meals. Have not tried their Yum Cha but it does look delicious.
Love the fact that she tries different cuisines, every child should be that adventurous! 
Poppy is a scream and at the age where you really can’t take your eyes off her for a nano second
I cooked red pork,supposed to be auspicious!for New Year,also had a clean up around the house,also lucky,and surrounded myself with all things red or gold,surely the dragon will smile upon me for the rest of the year,heres hoping!!!
Yum cha,its not available in the northern rivers,but we compensate with fabulous seafood and make our own dumplings,still havent mastered the custard tarts though,how about showing us how to do the pastry?
You are literally killing me here. Its been ages since I had yum cha and dim sum with my girlfriends back in Malaysia.
A very drool-worthy menu!!
Beautiful!!!
All those dumplings are making me hungry in midnight….
Poppy is adorable!!!
I’ve never seen a dessert like that coconut cake at yum cha! Though, to be fair, my family never looks past the egg custard tarts
Poppy is possibly the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen, and a girl after my own heart! Love how she managed to get hold of that fork and make a move on the dumplings
That photo of Poppy with the fork is classic, she looks so cunning
I love yum cha, a few dishes here I haven’t seen before.
I adore yum cha, but rarely get to enjoy it. It looks like Poppy had a ball!
I haven’t had a dumpling feast in so long. Half the fun is spying things others are eating and going “can I have one of those?”
I am also in love with those containers.. they are gorgeous with the wood and metal… wonder where one could find them in the US… never seen them like that before.
Fun post and awfully cool a baby eats things like that.
Dear Lorraine,
For the times that we have ventured out to Iron Chef in Cabra for dinner, the food was great but we have never tried yum cha though.
Your post is beautiful… Thank you for showing your entire experience there at the yum cha. We do not have anything like this where I live… But I believe I am going to find one in surrounding cities and experiment. What a treat it must have been for the eyes, palate, and stomach… And bravo to letting the little one try different food options… so many kids are stuck on Chicken fingers and hot dogs… Beautiful post!!!!
Dim sum is one of my family’s favorite food to eat. Atleast once a week , we need to eat dim sum. My daughter loves the rice noodles wrapped in shrimp, steamed.
Love this post!!!
Oooooh so close to home for me. I really do hope you enjoyed your dinign experience at Iron Chef. If you’re willing there are a few smaller yum cha joints that are very, very good. Contact me if you wish to know which ones they are
looks delicious, have been trying to find a decent yum cha place in Sydney recently, its like you read my mind!
Poppy is just gorgeous!
I love how the egg custard tarts always come in three’s, see it means I get to have 2 while hubby has one hehe
All these years of loving yum cha and I never knew what chee cheong fan were called. Leading to much laughter in Newcastle’s only yum cha place when we tried to describe them. Long Flat Stuffed Noodles was descriptive enough for us to be told that was a Sydney Noodle!
Awww!!! I’m in love with Poppy with that one picture. She is REALLY cute and she’s a true foodie here!
I love dim sum. I haven’t had for a while. Definitely I need to call some friends this weekend for dim sum brunch! Thanks for sharing yummy photos!
That pic of Poppy with the fork is a winner.
As mouthwatering as your pics always are, this time that picture of Poppy reaching out towards the dumpling with the fork made the post!
Oh Poppy is just the most gorgeous little bub!!! I could eat her right up, never mind the delicious Chinese. I love that she was pulling the food toward herself with a fork
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