I remember the first time I tried a Chinese banquet. The first two courses came out and I was hungry so I ate my fill with both of these courses foolishly ignoring the fact that people were only trying one or two pieces of the dish. I filled up before long and then regretted my eagerness to consume when eight other courses came out in quick succession afterwards. Thus was my lesson learnt in Chinese banquets – brace yourself for an onslaught of dishes!
Tonight’s would be no exception. It was a Chinese New Year buffet organised by my uncle and his girlfriend. It was at the Souths Juniors Club in Maroubra-my uncle and father have long ago given up on competing for parking in Chinatown. As Chinese are very superstitious people, the number of 10 guests wasn’t lost on everyone and many agreed that 10 was a good number for 10 courses. We’d be dining from their Chinese New year pre-set banquet.
Prawns and Scallops
When everyone arrived, five dishes landed on the table almost instantly. One of my favourite dishes was the simple stir fried prawns and scallops with a light ginger sauce. The scallops and prawns are that wonderful soft consistency and I resist the urge to go for seconds as it’s not a huge plate and is quickly gone.
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March 7, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
“OK – grabbed a table next to the row of hanging ducks…” Geoff SMSes me when I am busy trying to cross the city to meet him. And why this particular location in front of a row of hanging ducks? Why a merry group of seven are on the pursuit to find the best Peking Duck in Sydney just in time for Chinese New Year! Accompanying me this afternoon and evening I have David (the chef from Perama), his wife Belinda, Anna & Phillip, Geoff & Rachel and Mr NQN!
We’re starting at the afternoon hour of 3:30pm and our aim is to try as many Peking Duck restaurants as possible given stomach space and time. Although it’s not a scientifically controlled study, it’s about as accurate as we could get given time and various factors etc.
The brief was simple
- We would only order Peking Duck and any drinks we needed. We wouldn’t waste space on any other food.
- We would eat it as it was served to us and not ask for any variations
- Our second course would be sang choy bao (filled lettuce leaves)
- We would score the pancakes and lettuce cups each out of 10. We were permitted to adjust our scores on the first three places to ensure that they weren’t judged too easily or harshly
- We tried to not take up too much time at each place as they were busy so the tables could be used on other customers
So without further ado, read on for our quest to find the best Peking Duck!
East Ocean, Chinatown
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February 11, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
There are noble pursuits, the climbing of Mount Everest, the pursuit of an Olympic medal but Your Honour, allow me to share my pursuit. No, not just the pursuit of Happiness, although this would be considered an adjunct of this, but the pursuit of the best Peking Duck in Sydney. It goes alongside my pursuit of the best Xiao Long Bao dumplings (IMHO at Shanghai Night provided the skins are intact followed by Din Tai Fung whose skins are always intact). Just because one is looking after their tastebuds (and I’ve come to realise my pursuit of food is not about feeding my stomach, but more keeping my tastebuds entertained), doesn’t mean that it isn’t as worthwhile a pursuit. And it seems I have a group of people who were happy to join me!
@Gourmetrabbit and I were talking about Peking Duck, as people that are obsessed with food tend to do. If you know me you’ll know that even talking about food makes me incredibly hungry and she suggests that we get some Peking Duck. She starts searching on her phone for some good locations that we both haven’t tried yet and before you know it, we have a little group, all hungry for Peking Duck in two cars on the way to Eastwood where we’ve heard the Peking Duck is rather good. Also along for the ride with @gourmetrabbit and I are Perama chef @davidtsirekas, @pandas4 and her husband.
The queue
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January 10, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
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.
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.
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.
Fresh honeydew milkshake $4.50
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October 3, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
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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September 19, 2009
by Not Quite Nigella
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