The cooking, eating and travel blog of a hungry blogger from Sydney, Australia featuring original recipes, interviews and articles on all things food @Not Quite Nigella

Category Archives: Chinese

Ching Yip Coffee House, Chinatown, Haymarket

ching yip chinatown inside

It was Father’s Day and I needed to take my Hong Kong born father somewhere good for dinner. His favourite restaurant was one we all despaired of but he steadfastly requested it every year. It had a 3 course set menu for $15 and sometimes we’d get a case of food poisoning after it. Despite this, he asked for it every year and we all breathed a sigh of relief when it closed down (we couldn’t even feign surprise). My father has always mourned the loss of his favourite place silently and I always kept an eye out for Hong Kong eateries. When Eve Loves wrote a story on Ching Yip Coffee Lounge and mentioned that it was a Hong Kong style of place, our dinner plans were suddenly derailed and we pointed ourselves in the direction of Ching Yip, two floors up on busy Sussex Street. And a place you wouldn’t know about unless someone told you it was there.

ching yip chinatown lemon display

The centre piece is the glass cake display case that now holds a variety of fruit-an eye-catching display yes but one that I’m sure for which the fridge was not intended. Inside, it’s all muted pink decorations from the 80’s – I believe the term is salmon pink but as it’s a bit grungy it has a grey tinge. Carpets are worn and disturbingly darker in patches near the kitchen. A woman in gumboots hauls wet boxes of food across the carpet and the obvious drips ensue. Ahh the grey patches…

We have a look at the menu. Eve mentioned the afternoon special where for $5,$6 or $7 you can get a special afternoon meal with a tea or coffee. The set menu doesn’t look quite as thrilling as Eve’s option (it’s chicken wings today) so we don’t go for that. Instead we choose the pork knuckle for $7 with a coffee. They ask us whether we want it with noodles so we ask for egg noodles. We choose a few other things, mainly based on the food my father used to eat in Hong Kong and the pink laminated menu is a curious mix of Western style dishes like omelettes and spaghetti as well as grilled items and an endless list of drinks.

ching yip chinatown horlicks

Warm Horlicks $3.20

I’m a bit of a Nanna in training as far as Horlicks goes and I love it. When I taste it, I’m reminded of when I used to drink this as a child to help me sleep and go into nostalgic mode.

ching yip chinatown shake

Fresh honeydew milkshake $4.50

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32 comments | October 3, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Dumpling King, Newtown

dumpling king newtown menu

I don’t really consider myself a gossip (ok celebrity gossip not included) but I suppose I tend to indulge in food gossip and if someone tells me about a great place and then tells me that I can’t blog about it, I doubt that I could resist blogging about it. Reader Phoebe told me about Dumpling King in Newtown and asked me not to blog about it, but that is like asking Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt to not seek publicity.

So one night, when our first choice was fully booked, Miss America (and yes Miss America is a he, he was a little hurt by the comments about his arms), Queen Viv, Mr NQN and I headed for a dumpling meal at Dumpling King on King Street, Newtown. As they are fellow Dumpling fiends, I knew I was in good company. We were all raring to go except when we got there, we saw that despite the name, there were only a few dumplings available: vegetarian, prawn or pork. These could be either pan fried or steamed which made for about 8 variations but all in all, not the dumpling fest we had envisaged given the name. No Xiao Long Baos or those puffy doughy pan fried dumplings. We settle on a few dumplings and some other dishes.

Shallot pancake $6

The Shallot Pancake comes first. It’s a deep fried and crispy buttery dough reminiscent of a buttery thicker roti.

Pan fried Northern Style Dumplings $8.80 for 12

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28 comments | September 19, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

BBQ King, Chinatown

“Please don’t give me a mullet, please please!” I pray silently to myself one afternoon sitting at the hairdressers. The reason apart from justifyingly fearing that particular haircut? I was speaking on a panel of the We Blog The World Event held by Klick Communications where my lovely friend The Second Wife works. I would be speaking alongside Ben Groundwater “The Backpacker” blogger from the Sydney Morning Herald and Tim Burrowes from Thumbrella. And the last thing I wanted was to have the haircut from hell.

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Renee Creer, Trina (aka Foraging Otaku), me and Ben

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Some pics from We Blog the World taken by Klick Communications. I didn’t take any photos as I was too busy being nervous…

At 6.20pm at the Sir Stamford we answered some questions from our fantastic moderator Kim who runs Klick and then fielded questions from the audience. And by 8pm we were done and dusted and retired to the bar. By 10:30pm we realised we were all starving and so a collective gaggle of us jumped into 3 taxis and high tailed it to BBQ King – stat! Yes we were starving and it suddenly hit us that we had to have food and have it now. Dining with me were Trina, The Second Wife, Naomi, Tess, Ben, Alice and Glen.

A food lovers version of an art gallery?

We’re shown to a large table on the ground floor set among a gallery of photos all celebrating BBQ meat and meaty goodness. There are some curious BBQ King Fashion photos with some models with China doll haircuts posing in the restaurant. But these are a mere distraction for us as we peruse the menu determined to try the best they have to offer. I have strange memories of BBQ king from many years ago when we were asked to share a large, round table with strangers and a Peking Duck that was expensive but not very exciting so I was a bit apprehensive but hunger got the better of me. And keen photographers take note, BBQ King has deceptively difficult lighting. It’s incredibly yellow and hard to photograph in so please excuse the photos.

Yes that’s a ceiling full of Ducks!

Complimentary watercreess and pork soup

To whet our appetites, they give us a big bowl of watercress and pork broth. It seems to be self service here and I have to apologise to my fellow diners for doing such a terrible job of ladling this up. It’s delicious and warming and certainly whets the appetite.

Spring rolls $12 ($6 for 4)

The Spring Rolls, an item I am usually hugely disappointed in are really tasty here with a great mix of flavours and they’re not too dry with a good amount of filling in them.

Braised Chicken Fillets in Scechuan sauce $19.80

This resembles sweet and sour chicken with the pieces of capsicum. It’s spicy and sweet but not particularly exciting.

Steamed Chinese broccoli with Oyster sauce $12.80

These are nicely steamed with a nice texture to them and simply flavoured with Oyster sauce.

“Suckling Pig” and Roast Duck $42.80

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37 comments | September 3, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Kingsford Chinese restaurant, Kingsford

When I was in Primary School we were asked to design a name and logo for an airline. I chose mine to be: “TBAITW” which stood for “The Best Airline in the World”. You see I was going for the luxury market. However the girl next to me chose a clever tactic and chose “Aardvark airlines” because she would be the first listing in the phone book and therefore easy to find. And I think when they were thinking of names for this particular restaurant, they rejected all the usual names for Chinese restaurants including “Golden”, “Lotus”, “Jade”, “Kingdom”, “Palace” or “Dragon”. I think they just though sod it, let’s just use Kingsford Chinese restaurant. People who are looking for a Kingsford Chinese eat will find us easily.

Complimentary soup

I’d heard about Kingsford Chinese restaurant by many. Mostly for the brusque service but delicious food. And despite the fact that we had almost dined here several times we were always lured somewhere else. And if you’ve been to Anzac Pardae in Kingsford, there is no shortage of somewhere elses with so many restaurants within the 2-3 block area it makes deciding hard. Tonight we’re dining with Rose and Ronald and lucky that we’ve chosen to eat early as it means that there is no problem getting a table. We choose 4 dishes that we’ve heard that they do well. Prices are fabulously cheap and you can get a rice or noodle and meat dish for $6.60. The complimentary soup is delicious.

Sang tung Chicken $11

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27 comments | August 16, 2009 by Not Quite Nigella

Palace Chinese Restaurant, Sydney CBD

Awards are controversial. Not only do people expect more but if it’s closely fought they tend to compare the contestants. And that’s exactly what I’m doing today when we’re dining at Palace Chinese restaurant this beautiful Sydney Sunday morning. And why was I up so early? Well I have to admit I set the alarm ready to go to an outdoor festival only to wake up and realise that it was next week. Yes embarrassing. So Teena, Philippe and baby Annabel and I make hasty alternative plans to Yum Cha in the city as Philippe wants to trawl the nearby luxury goods strip later.

Even though we are dining relatively late at 2pm (Yum Cha ends at 3pm) there is still a sizeable amount of people in there. Mr NQN and I usually prefer to eat a bit late as I hate queuing for a table and at this time we walk straight in and are seated. And a good thing as Philippe claims to be a “Starvin Marvin” and within minutes, our table is filled with all manner of delicious dumplings. The bamboo steamers are a little fancier and the service a little pushier. When we say “No” repeatedly to one who proffers up a single steamed basket in an effort to offload it, she proceeds to put it down on our table and then reach to stamp the card.