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!

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I have to mentally prepare myself when entering hipster joints. I have to tell myself that they’re just hipsters and they mean well enough and that they don’t harm anyone really. For good measure I remember the quote from Seinfeld when they referred to Kramer as the “hipster doofus” and realise that being a hipster is not a state of being for most people. And when I was warned by many that The Corner House was hipster central, well I braced myself. Mr NQN and I were on a date night, just the two of us.

Mr NQN and I walk into one entrance of The Corner House in Bondi which takes up residence where the Old Castile pizza joint used to sit. We’ve dining early at 6pm and we are shown to the empty back room. The maitre’d is brusque and seems as if he has a thousand other important things to do other than seat us. Thankfully the Arctic chill ends there and the waiter and bartender are lovely and everything settles down just nicely. We take a look at the menu (a sheet of paper wooden pegged onto an A4 sized piece of box cardboard) and the waiter gives us some recommendations. Prices are excellent here with most mains hovering around the $30 mark.

This drink is a riot in London $18

The cocktail list has a fun list of names including this one which caught our eye called “This drink is a riot in London” and has Tanquerey, St Germain, Campari, apple and cucumber and is sweet and refreshing and summery. The description reads “All the elements of an English Summer: fresh, floral and a hint of bitter lawlessness.” The bartender that conceived the idea was in London during the riots and was inspired to make this cocktail.

Bread

The bread, two fresh fat fingers, is drizzled in olive oil and salt with roasted pepitas and sunflower seeds.

Crowded House Pizza $23

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Ever passed by a place dozens of times on the way somewhere, pegging it in your mind for a longer, lingering glance but have never stopped in? That happens to me a lot in Sydney where a new, bright, shiny restaurant or cafe seems to emerge from the restaurant ether every few days or weeks or so. And whilst I have walked past The Winery many a time either in or out of Thomas Dux next door or on my way to another appointment I never quite made it in. Which meant that the suspended peacocks and Elvis room hadn’t excited me until today. And well of course taxidermy always gets me excited.

The Elvis room

Having a business meeting is always made that much more pleasurable when there is lunch or food involved. And when the people you are having the meeting with don’t mind you whipping out the camera and taking photos of the food well, all the better. Who am I kidding? I used to do it even before the blog We’ve ordered a selection of food to share among the six of us.

Crispy little fish White bait, chipotle & lime mayo $18

The entrees come out before long and little fishies are coated in a crunchy, light seasoning like a fine polenta and deep fried and served with a spicy chipotle and lime mayonnaise. They’re not bad and the fish flavour is quite pronounced on these and remind me of whiting (as opposed to the smaller whitebait that you can buy sometimes called nanata that are served in fritters).

Stuffed roasted mushrooms with ricotta, pinenuts & pesto $18.50

The stuffed roasted mushrooms are simple but well executed with a nice balance of flavours. There is milky, creamy ricotta and the pesto mushrooms are juicy and slightly addictive.

Brandied chicken liver pate & toasts $19

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