I don’t know a great deal of good places in Chatswood so when Carrie and I were meeting up to discuss things, I let her choose. For whilst I have a long list of places I’d like to eat, there was a yawning gap as far as Chatswood was concerned. And despite my usual effort of coralling people into going places, I was pleasantly surprised when I let someone else choose where morning tea would be. Ten Ren Tea is on the busy Victoria Avenue in Chatswood and you would never know it but walking through the store and out to the courtyard is a tropical, lush, green oasis, right in the middle of crazy, busy Chatswood.

The menu is huge consisting of Iced Milk teas; cha (tea) with fruit, icees, Exotic Icees, Traditional teas, Border Infusions (ground black tea, rice and sesame) and Cha for healing  as well as a page full of Vegetarian snacks and sweets.

I order one of the House Favourites, a sweet potato green milk tea with complementary additions. Yes it’s hot but I’m also persuaded to also order a Crushed Ice with Rose Oriental Beauty tea ($7.50). Carrie orders a green milk tea and a Green Tea crushed ice with 8 treasures ($7.50) . Looking around we see that it’s a haunt for students and there is even a special note on the menu that says “No card games allowed”

Sweet potato and green tea with QQ $7.50

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For those readers outside of Australia, Beverly Hills zip code 2209 in Sydney is really not very similar to Beverly Hills 90210 in L.A. I recall reading a tongue in cheek comparison of the two suburbs and whilst 90210 is glamourville, 2209 in Sydney is a down home suburb largely absent of Porsches, celebrities and multi million dollar Mansions. It was in an odd way funny that we were going here for my father’s birthday, on January 1st, as I had just finished the Tori Spelling autobiography sTORI Telling which was a surprisingly entertaining read, her father of course producing 90210 and she starring in it. Don’t judge me. My next book is Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, I promise.

A bit of history…

The 3 types of Peking Duck on offer

I wanted to visit here after reading about Belle’s visit in which she talked about the Mantou buns with sweetened condensed milk and Beijing or Peking Duck. As the name suggests, their specialty is Peking Duck and they have 3 different versions which vary according to the accompaniments that you order priced from $58, $68 to $78.

Mr Cleaver

There’s a man in chef’s whites wielding a cleaver straddling the space between the two rooms and he continually slices the skin and meat off the duck. And we mean continuously as the restaurant is full by 7pm and it seems that everyone wants their duck.

Complimentary peanuts

Green pumpkin water $4

Unlike many Chinese restaurants, tea is charged separately starting at $4.50 per pot so we opt to go for a big jug of apple juice as the weather outside is hot. I am also intrigued by the Green Pumpkin Water drink on the menu so I order this in the hopes of having a Harry Potter moment but it appears that something was lost in the translation and this is Winter Melon juice. Not quite as exciting as a Green Pumpkin juice. It’s an unusual tasting drink, very sweet much like an Iced tea rather than a fruit or vegetable juice.

Ducks wings $3.80

Served cold, this serve is a generous 11 wings, cooked in a slightly herbal tasting sauce. Only my husband seems to take to these although I can imagine these would be nice in a clear broth to help balance out the herbal taste and to warm them up.

Fried slices pork belly and vegetables with a spicy sauce $16.80

We were confused when we saw this dish as I expected something a bit different but the fried slices pork belly and vegetables with a spicy sauce were quite delicious, the sauce quite spicy with a black bean taste to them. However we find that there is not a great deal of meat in this dish – what ultra thinly sliced pork belly there is is savoured and vegetables make up a large proportion of the dish, including the not particularly nice green part of the leek. I don’t think it’s a great sign that they use this part as it’s usually discarded or used to flavour soups, not as a stir fry ingredient. The amount of them leftover attests to how everyone else at the table found it.

Griddled bean curd sticks with pork and vegetable hot pot $16.80

We find the same situation with the griddled bean curd sticks with pork and vegetables. The dish is about 50% onion and only a small amount of pork and slightly more bean curd sticks. A disappointment as the flavours are good and it’s just a pity that they pad it out with cheaper ingredients.

Steamed Golden bread with Sweetened condensed milk $10 for 6 buns

If there’s one thing I firmly believe in, it’s the power of sweetened condensed milk. It’s my Windex. There’s nothing that can’t be solved by it. World wars and peaces treaties could be brokered with the stuff. So when I see Mantou buns with sweetened condensed milk, it’s an obvious order. The steamed buns (the white ones) are pillowy soft and collapse under each bite, the golden ones are deliciously airy, crispy and light.

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Sydney may already have a Chinatown close to the city but Ashfield is what I consider to be Little Shanghai or Shanghai-Town. This is a suburb where, should you have a craving for dumplings that are a little different from your Cantonese Yum Cha variety, there is  a stretch of road studded thickly with restaurants offering Shanghai cuisine and dumplings. This is where you can eat until you’re stuffed for under $20 a head (or even $15). Something of a minor miracle in Sydney.

And if you’re a regular reader, you’ll probably have suspected my ulterior motives for going here. That is, to try more Xiao Long Bao, those famous Shanghai soup dumplings. We’re taking M and her sons S and In along for the ride as they’re all dumpling fans. This Saturday night we’re meeting early, at 6.30pm outside Ashfield Mall along with some unusual looking types, and what do you know but we’re greeted with a queue outside of ticket bearing patrons. It’s like being transported to a Yum Cha restaurant at 1pm.

I feel like breaking into song: “I’ve got a golden ticket!”

The girl with the tickets lets us know that it will be a 15 minute wait and we stand outside pondering the other numerous Shanghai eateries along the road, many with only 1 or 2 customers inside them. If there’s one thing about Chinese restaurants, it’s that if there’s a queue, it’s usually a good sign.

Within about 10 minutes, our table is free, and it’s a good thing as S is hungry (he is a growing boy after all). We order straight away as they’ve given us a copy of the menu to look at while waiting. We’ve chosen a selection of dumplings as well as one of their chef’s specials and a tofu dish.

Spring Rolls 6 for $7.80

Everything comes out quickly and our small table can barely fit it all so we do a lot of quick eating and juggling. The first thing we try is the Spring rolls, which In had ordered as they’re his favourite. They’re not bad, nice and fresh and very hot although Spring Rolls aren’t usually my item of choice.

Xiao Long Bao 8 for $7.80

The next item is one that we warn the boys will need a bit of patience and restraint. If they thought the Spring Rolls were hot, they might get a shock when biting into the hot soupy Xiao Long Baos. We let them cool for a while and then instruct the boys on how to eat them. After telling them to “Put the entire thing in your mouth” In chomps down halfway on his sending an explosion of soup forth across the table and dribbling down in front of him, much to his utter delight as only an 8 year old can see it. The other tables around us chuckle at the sight and M clucks “What part of ‘put the entire thing in your mouth’ didn’t you get?” while mopping him up.

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