I’ll start off with an embarrassing incident. We were walking to the Hong Kong Cake Shop on busy Victoria Avenue Chatswood as I wanted to buy some bread and cakes (what’s new you might say). I saw a sign saying “Come in and try our fish balls”. Not being one to refuse a food invitation I walked in and helped myself to a toothpicked morsel from a plate of several on the counter. There was a loud gasp from the staff. Apparently I had helped myself to a paying customer’s plate that just happened to be sitting on the counter. I apologised profusely. I obviously had no idea and the owner apologised to me for scaring me. In my defence, your Honour, sample plates are usually on the counter with toothpicks and this customer’s order of 20 or so fish balls had a toothpick in every fish ball and of course they were small sample sized I naturally assumed….

I’m babbling of course. I recovered from my embarrassment and bought some goodies. Armed with a tray and tongs, the first thing to catch me eye was a Corrugated loaf ($2)-it was a good 15cms long and indeed corrugated in shape and flexible. It smells sweet and buttery and is interspersed with sultanas. My husband likes this bread sliced, with jam for breakfast.

The next thing I purchased was a lotus seed cake with preserved vegetable $1.80. I adore Lotus seed, it’s my version of chocolate flavour. If I see something lotus seed flavoured, I’ll order it above all other flavours. The pastry is fairly layered and the lotus seed paste thick. What I hadn’t counted on was the preserved vegetable. It had a strong aroma and a firm texture and if I could pinpoint an aroma it would be spicy ginger.

Another flavour that I particularly like is Chestnut (don’t leave me alone with a can of chestnut puree) and at $1.40 for the cake, it’s a steal. It’s a plain but soft vanilla sponge with a thin smearing of that Chinese mock cream that Chinese bakeries often have and then a squiggle of chestnut puree on top of mock cream at the top.

The last item was a red bean jelly ($1.10). They dislodged it from the bowl with a skewer for me to take away. She mentioned that there was rice in it so I thought that there would be sticky rice but it appears that it’s either rice flour in the jelly or something else entirely that I can’t see or taste or something was lost in the translation. In any case, it’s not the most flavoursome of jellies and I give to my husband, a jelly loving fanatic who gobbles it down.

The prices are typical of Chinese bakeries, amazingly good. Just don’t help yourself to the toothpicked balls on the counter!

Hong Kong Cake Shop

Shop B3 Victoria Plaza 369 Victoria Ave, Chatswood
Tel: +61 (02) 9419 2204

Sometimes, when you’re having the laziest of a lazy 4 day weekend, all you can manage to travel is Chinatown for a loadup of Chinese dumplings. Shanghai Night in Ashfield is my husband’s favourite place to eat, probably in the whole of Sydney but we just couldn’t muster up the energy to drive there so it was to Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Chinatown, half an hour closer, that we went. Its an unusual setup, all geared to get maximum table turnover in a tiny but crowded space. There are plenty of people outside waiting for a table and you order from the menu while waiting outside and when your table is ready, so is your meal, or at least most of the dishes you have ordered. None of this wasting 10 minutes precious table space umming and ahhing over what you want. Its strictly eat and go but unlike Shanghai Night, the service is pretty friendly.

We order the Juicy pork buns (like the Shanghai night mini pork buns) $8 for 10; a half serve of 5 pan fried pork buns $4; Pork and seafood steamed dumplings, 16 for $8; Fragrant Spiced noodles $8; Braised Eggplant and Potato $9.80 and Mushroom and chinese vegetables $8.80. Prices are a dollar or two higher than Shanghai Night which is understandable given that its in the city. Like Uighur and Northern Chinese restaurants, there are grapevines stretching out across the ceilings and wall tapestries.

I have to duck off to the ladies while my husband and the Assman wait for our table outside. I have to be escorted there-they don’t give you the keys, they take you there. When I return a few minutes later, they’re already seated and we already have two dishes on the table.

Braised eggplant and potato $9.80

The braised eggplant and potato is full and flavoursome-the eggplant is crispy on the outside and soft inside and coated in a delicious spicy garlic sauce. The potato is similar to roast potato chunks in a chinese sauce.

Mushrooms and chinese vegetables $8.80

The mushrooms with chinese vegetables by comparison is more low key. Not bad by any means but following such a full flavoured dish does not do the mildly flavoured dish any good.

Juicy pork buns, 10 for $8

Our Juicy pork buns come in two steamer baskets with 5 dumplings in each-which is one serving we are told. They’re juicy and very full of liquid but they’re not particularly gingery like Shanghai night’s ones which we prefer. Still its a generous serve of 10 for our $8

Pork and seafood steamed dumplings, 16 for $8

My husband loves the pork and seafood steamed dumplings, the less glamorous, dumpy cousin to the showy mini pork buns. The dumplings are a little bigger than Shanghai night’s and the filling has a distinctly different taste although I wouldn’t have necessarily proclaimed it to be seafood. It doesn’t matter what I think of these though, my husband is fiercely loyal to these and devours every one except for the one I try. Yes luvvies, that’s 15 dumplings as well as his share in other dishes.

Pan fried pork buns, 5 for $4

I try the mini fried pork buns, 5 large upturned golden bottomed wheat flour dumplings with thick chewy skins and pork inside. They’re decent but I admit here that I prefer Shanghai Night’s version better.

Fragrant spiced noodles $8

Lastly I try the fragrant spiced noodles. These are a huge disappointment flavour wise and are not really fragrant, unless you count the scent of oil, soy sauce and chili flakes abundantly scattered on top. The thick, endlessly long noodles are rather fun to play with though and hooking them with your chopsticks and trying to get them into your small bowl is quite a challenge. When Assman tries to hook his in from a great height, we see the staff watching him to see whether he will make it in and of course he doesn’t as they break halfway and they laugh good naturedly. There is no meat in this dish, just a lot of chinese greens so he makes a quick meal of it and all that is left is a soup with 1/2cms of oil floating at the top and a lot of chili flakes.

We watch the noodles being made from the square window into the frantically ordered kitchen and watch them rhythmically loop the handmade noodles into a bundle before plunging them into the boiling water. Dinner and a show indeed!

Chinese Noodle Restaurant

Shop TG7, 8 Quay Street Haymarket NSW 2000
(Entrance from Thomas Street, next to Burlington Centre)

Don’t you hate it when you go to foodblog about a place that has always provided you with great service and food only to find that the owner is away and chaos and confusion runs amok?

Needless to say, this is what happened to us with Crystal Garden. Its our most well loved Chinese restaurant, a hidden gem and we’ve always had flawless service and food there. Tonight, the owner is absent and sadly it really shows with the service we receive.

If you order their regular suburban Chinese offerings, you’ll wonder what I am talking about. Its only when you scratch the surface of this suburban Chinese restaurant and order the seafood from the tank that this gem really shines.

He looks mad-as well he should be!

Tonight its a celebration so its Lobster from the tank ($75 a kilo for a 2.3 kilo lobster). We needed to pre order it as they usually only have crab and fish ready in the tank. We also order Pay pah tofu (tofu balls sauteed with prawn meat with broccoli), fried rice and a steamed fish with ginger, coriander and shallots.

We’re waiting a good 25 minutes before any food arrives with nary a prawn cracker passing by our table. Its relatively empty but we’re receiving service as if the restaurant was full and there was only one waitress on. There’s also no sign of the complimentary house soup that one gets when making a big seafood order.

XO Chili lobster 2.3kg with double lot of e-fu noodles $182.50

After 20 minutes we beg for some prawn crackers (which never materialise) and within 5 minutes of our request, our enormous lobster platter arrives resplendent with glistening sauce. The lobster is huge, sitting atop a double lot of e-fu noodles on a large oval platter, the luscious XO chili sauce almost spilling off the edges. Something to note about the lobster and crab here is that you will always get the whole lobster whereas at other places we’ve ordered crab and lobster at, we could swear that there are a few pieces that have been taking for posterity by the kitchen staff. They’re very generous with using XO chili sauce which some restaurants skimp on as it can be expensive. The lobster is tender and succulent and each piece is coated in the delicious sauce. The noodles are soft and the unctuous, spicy sauce coats them perfectly. Its heaven on a plate, nothing more, nothing less.

Fried rice $7.80

We need to request the next few dishes as our waitress says that she was waiting until we finished each one before getting another. She starts to clear the plates but gets distracted halfway and walks off leaving half of us with fresh plates, half without any plates at all with the new ones sitting at a nearby table which we help ourselves to.

Pay pah tofu $13.80

Our pay pah tofu arrives surrounded by steamed broccoli, its a little more messily presented than normal although it tastes magnificent, the soft flavoursome balls of tofu have small pieces of prawn inside and are coated in a delicious oyster and sesame sauce. The broccoli is perfectly textured, firm with a touch of crunch still.

Steamed barramundi with ginger, shallots and coriander $28

Our steamed barramundi arrives, again with some prompting from us, and its as good as always, the fresh fish steamed perfectly with a deliciously light soy and ginger sauce atop which sits shredded shallots and a sheaf of fresh coriander. Its a deliciously healthy but satisfyingly tasty dish that we cannot fail to order.

After some orange slices we realise that there is no sweet red bean soup coming, another complimentary dessert when you make a big seafood order so we pay and leave without receiving the usual farewell, the waitress looking up confused at us. *Sigh* Just remember, its all about the seafood.

Crystal Garden

1121 Anzac Parade
Malabar NSW 2026
Phone (02) 9661 9026
Lunch Tuesday to Friday 12 noon-3pm
Dinner Sunday to Thursday 5pm-10pm Friday to Saturday 5pm-11pm

I had been given some double passes to see Home Song Stories by the kind people at Dendy films and it seems only fitting that we partake of some suburban Chinese Australian cuisine to help get us in the mood. My husband and I (and his family) love Dendy films as they’re not the usual cliched Hollywood blockbuster, plus they serve the best choc tops with real waffle cones, good quality chocolate and flavours like Cherry Ripe and Boysenberry. Once you’ve had one you’ll be hooked!

At about $11.20 per person, Chong Hing must be one of the best value restaurants in Sydney. If you look at their regular menu the prices are similar to any suburban Chinese restaurant. However a glance at their walls shows their set menus for 2, 4, 5, 6 and 8 people. What is also surprising is that there are a few seafood dishes offered in this set menu. Tonight we have 4 omnivores and 1 herbivore so we opt for the Menu A for 4 plus a vegetarian dish (warning for vegetarians, there aren’t many vegetarian dishes on the menu).

Menu 4A comprises of Deep fried king prawns in creamy sauce, Pork strips with stir fried mixed vegetables, Chicken with celery and honey and pepper pork ribs

Shortly after we order, the tea and house soup (clear vegetable and pork broth) arrives. Then with the rice arrives the first dish, pork strips with mixed vegetables-fabulously tender strips of tasty pork with shiitake mushrooms, boy choy and other veges perfectly cooked-definitely one of my favourites, especially the pork strips. They’re generous with the skiitake mushrooms, one of the costlier vegetables.

The prawns with creamy sauce arrives, the creamy sauce being a tangy Praise type mayo which was a little too heavy handed for my liking (I never liked Praise mayo) but I managed to secure some relatively sauceless pieces. They are beautifully crisp, large prawns generously garnished with perfectly steamed broccoli with a light saute sauce. I was surprised to see that there were so many prawns and that they had taken care with the garnish.

The honey pepper pork ribs arrives, in a past visit I wasn’t as fond of these as I’d hoped, they weren’t terrible by any means, perfectly edible and tasty in fact, just not quite the harmonious mix of honey and black pepper that I’ve had in the past. However tonight, they are my favourite dish.

The vegetarian chow mein ($7.50) arrives and it is a huge plate piled high with fried chow mein noodles and a variety of mixed vegetables. Our resident vegetarian wonders how on earth she can finish it, indeed she can only polish off 1/3 of it and the rest is packed away for her son just like a Mother Hen!

The last dish to arrive is the chicken with celery. All I can think is what a boring name for something so tasty. Underneath sat a bed of deep fried chicken morsels and on top sat a mound of the tenderest sauteed chicken and veges. Chicken done two ways?

Menu 4A was a good mix of steamed and fried dishes. There was plenty leftover, actually about a whole plate’s worth. I neglected to mention that serving sizes are very generous and I think 3 dishes with soup and rice are sufficient or if you have 5 people, you would probably be happy with the set menu for 4. The damage was a princely sum of $44.80 for us four omnivores and $7.50 for the vegetarian chow mein!

And as for the movie? It was great, like a Chinese suburban version of Romulus My Father but more interesting in my opinion. But if anyone could tell me who the family were in the last scene that were getting out of the car with Tony and his sister that would be great. We had discussed this but no-one could hazard a guess as to who they were.

Chong Hing Chinese Restaurant
Open 7 days
325 Anzac Pde
Kingsford NSW 2033
Phone (02) 9663 1761

Dendy Newtown
261-263 King St Newtown
Bookings phone: 02 9550 5699