We take a drive out to Cabramatta for a yum cha feast at Ocean Treasure at Cabrabowls lawn bowls club. There's yum cha dishes like crispy ham sui gok and hard to find prawn fritter rice rolls to a dramatic pork pyramid. Find out what the food is like here and why you yum cha lovers might want to visit here.
It's a sweltering hot Sunday lunchtime when Laura and I arrive at Ocean Treasure in Cabramatta. This Chinese restaurant is located within CabraBowls or the lawn bowls club and serves Yum Cha at lunchtime. We walk past the undercover lawn where one family is braving the heat and playing lamb bowls. We quickly make a beeline for the air conditioned comfort of the restaurant.
The Ocean Treasure restaurant has a front area with red arched rooms and greenery and this opens up into a large restaurant room. The trolley ladies are busy wheeling around their trolleys on the floor.
As soon as we sit down we order some jasmine tea but the 40C+ weather is so energy depleting that we also need some soda water. You need to go to the bar for this and it's $12 for a large jug of water from the pump.
"You want footballs?" says a very friendly trolley lady and we eagerly nod yes. "I'll give you fresh ones," she says. "Could we get all the sauces please?" we ask. She's chuckles and says "I'll give you all the sauces!" and dispenses some sweet and sour sauce and mayonnaise. These footballs aren't quite as filled as say the ones at Garden Palace but the glutinous rice outer is outstanding. It's so crispy, tasty, moreish and importantly freshly fried. Give me a dozen of these.
The next trolley to go past has our favourite yum cha item that can be hard to find. This is a donut fritter filled with prawn mince and then wrapped in rice noodles. It is utterly delicious because it is crispy, soft and bouncy in one bite. In the city a lot of places no longer make it or it has to be a special order. It turns out all you need to do is go to Cabramatta for these and they're just available on the trolley!
Sometimes we see an item and we have no idea what it is. This is one of those times and they don't know how to describe it in English so we just order it. At first glance it actually looks like slices of pineapple but it's a steamed cake called Huang Jin Gao or golden cake. It's similar to the steamed Ma Lai Gao but more yeasty and buttery smelling. I'm glad that we tried it but it isn't really either of our thing.
The next items come from the steamed trolley. The garlic chives are always a must and these have the requisite garlicky kick plus a prawn filling.
Next up are the tofu squares topped with prawn mince in a light oyster sauce. These are quite mild in flavour and need a bit of chilli sauce to pep them up.
Then on our favourite woman's trolley we see an item that I had first eaten in Singapore. It's a prawn ball coated in crunchy tapioca with a centre of melted tasty cheese and is designed to look like lychees. The fried items are excellent here as they are freshly fried and this is no exception. We both love the crunchy outer, bouncy prawn filling and the gooey cheese centre.
Likewise the deep fried black sesame balls have that glorious glutinous texture to them with a sweetened black sesame filling. They're so good that even healthy eater Laura goes back for another.
I always have to have prawn har gow whenever I go to yum cha and usually they taste very similar no matter where you go (so much so that I could have sworn they were all made at the same place). But these ones are different. They're better and with so much more flavour to them. I can't explain it but they stand out in a city full of har gows.
"You've got to order the pork pyramid!" says Laura. Even though she doesn't eat pork or beef she is the kind of friend that always thinks about what I might like to eat. She had seen the pork pyramid on social media and it is quite an eye catching dish that has to be seen to be believed. It takes 30 minutes to make so we also order the mushroom shaped buns with custard. These look adorable and are filled with plenty of delicious salted egg custard that spills out with every bite.
Half an hour later the pork arrives in it jiggly pyramid shaped glory. It's an architectural marvel and is strips of pork belly fashioned into a square pyramid around preserved mustard green centre with an oyster sauce gravy. The best way to tackle it is from the top. The pork belly is meltingly soft and it would go well with some steamed rice. It's a fairly large dish so good for sharing.
It's hard to tell how much each dish is at yum cha because they just stamp your card but the end bill is $155 but that also includes the pyramid, plus plenty of dumplings to take home too!
So tell me Dear Reader, hahve you ever seen a pork pyramid before? Have you ever seen or tried the golden cake?
This meal was independently paid for.
Ocean Treasure
Cabra Bowls, 82 Longfield St, Cabramatta NSW 2166
Phone: (02) 8722 4322
Open 7 days 10am-3pm, 5-9:30pm
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