Just Desserts

My cravings for xiao long bao (soupy dumplings) and shallot pancakes have gone unsatisfied after a trip to Beijing / Shanghai where they fed us pretty crappy xiao long bao on the tour.

So, I was excited that we got to go out to Ashfield to a place with apparently awesome xiao long bao. The first thing I noticed that along Liverpool Road, there were so many restaurants with the word ‘Shanghai’ in its name. ‘Shanghai Night’, ‘Taste of Shanghai’, ‘Shanghai Food House’ and they are all next to each other. You’d think, this would be bad for business, due to the rule of monopolising. However, each restaurant had about 20 people lining up, waiting to get in. I guess the Chinese don’t follow the basic laws of economics! ;-)

Anyway, I found the food in the restaurant to be quite polarised. Things were done quite well and quite poorly and there was no in between.

Let’s start with the food in the done “quite poorly” category…

The shallot pancakes. It essentially tasted like really bland sandpaper. I was so disappointed, as this is usually my favourite dish. 

The dumplings. If they look bland, it’s because they were. They tasted like those microwaved frozen dumplings from Coles. 

Jellyfish salad. A scathing review from my fellow blogger who said “even the jellyfish salad my godsister makes from the packet tastes better than this”.

Now for the stuff worth ordering;

Fried dumplings - flaming hot soupy dumplings! If you’re like me and you love fried stuff, you’ll love this dish. It’s just like improving on xiao long bao by frying it. Genius!

Fried pork buns - soupy, pork filled buns. We ended up getting two of these by mistake and I certainly wasn’t complaining. This was probably my favourite dish of the night and I know I’ll be craving this for weeks to come.

And last but not least, some pretty “up there” xiao long bao! It had all the right elements - soup so hot that it’ll burn your tongue and a nice casing which wasn’t too thick. Mmmm. We ended up ordering 3 of these.

The final three were done to perfection! I should have stopped there, but we all ordered the fried icecream to finish. That was another mistake. The fried icecream casing (which was too thick) tasted like minty powder which wasn’t too great. 

Overall, it was a good restaurant if you know what to order. And at $15 each, it was a pretty cheap dinner too.

New Shanghai Chinese Restuarant
273 Liverpool Road
Ashfield, NSW 2131
Ph: (02) 9797 7284

Some people may work to feed their gambling problem or to look after their ‘sugar’ partner.

I do both of the above and work to pay for my addiction to these babies.

Xiao Long Bao (aka. fucking awesome soupy dumplings) $5.80 for 4 

Typically, I’d get the Xiao Long Bao at Wang Wang (insert hilariously inappropriate joke here) or Chinese Dumpling and Noodle House in Kingsford on a Saturday night. Then I’d sit in my car like some sort of starving hobo savouring my dumplings whilst spilling soy sauce everywhere.

So today, I went to Din Tai Fung Dumpling Bar. I’ve never had the preservence to eat in at Din Tai Fung World Tower (mainly because of the hour long wait and would cave to eat anything else). However, since opening up in the A-M-A-Z-I-N-G new Westfield Sydney Food Court, I thought the lines wouldn’t follow.

It did.

The line was frigging long at lunch. (However, unlike that still unwavering Zara line, you don’t leave bitterly disappointed and confused). Luckily, you get a menu to tick off while you wait, which makes paying that much faster. There’s also handy buzzers that tell you minutes after you order, your dumplings are frigging ready!

So for lunch we tried the Xiao Long Bao, Shrimp Pork Shao Mai ($9.80 for 4) and Shrimp Pork Jiao Ze ($6.50) along with a bowl of Spicy Shrimp Pork Noodles ($11).

The talking point for me were the dumplings. They were extremely soft and heavenly; hitting you with the burst of soupy broth. Perfect for a winter’s day. Bloody amazing. The four tiny dumplings are served in those extra-large sized ‘Balinese Hut’ steamed baskets pictured above which adds to the novelty and excitement of eating dumplings (but it’s quite ridiculous).

For my dining companion Jim, the dumplings were ‘just like the ones he eats at home’ only ‘the ones at home are better’ (where the hell do you live, a Michelin starred restaurant?!). He absolutely loved the noodles. He loved the jelly like texture and the hand pulled softness of them.

Anyway, I couldn’t stop thinking about the memorable XLB after lunch and given that Din Tai Fung is only a couple of hundred metres from my office, I popped by after work to grab a few more boxes of Xiao Long Bao take-away, for dinner.

I’ll never get sick of you, World’s Best Dumplings.

Westfield Sydney’s food court, after fully opening up is now amazing. Sydney now has real options for lunch rather than the dodgy fast food outlets in the (rat infested, according to SMH) Myer International Food Court. With Becasse, Din Tai Fung, a pasta and wine bar, Sassy Red (Chinta Ria’s younger sister), Thai, Indian, the world’s longest SUSHI TRAIN (in a southern hemisphere shopping mall) and so many other amazing food outlets, Level 5 is the place to be for lunch in the CBD.

Do you love Xiao Long Bao too? How does Din Tai Fung rate to other Shanghainese restaurants with XBL in your opinion?