My Chinese Kitchen, Burwood

Happy Year of the Dragon! I have just returned from a trip to New Zealand, and this is the first opportunity I've had to write up a new post. While touring NZ, we alternated between admiring the truly amazing scenery, and doing outrageous stuff like jet-boating this close to the cut-throat rocky protrusions over a river in Queenstown. And hand-feeding alpacas:

 And posing in vast, open fields:

I have heaps of great photos so I may very well do a write-up of my trip, even though we had very little in terms of interesting eats. Come to think of it, I don't think we had any interesting eats. Thanks to the fact that we signed up for the trip as part of a Chinese tour group, we were forced to eat cheap, bland food for the duration of our time there. Stuff like steamed catfish (which looked deformed and off-colour), fried eggs, and stringy, stir-fried vegetation. Urgh. Therefore, it was with relish that I devoured dinner at My Chinese Kitchen in Burwood. It was the first decent meal I've had in over a week.

We've been here on many, previous occasions, and enjoyed the food immensely on every visit. The dishes are interesting, and the prices reasonable. We always order the Nanjing Duck. Don't be put off by the pallid appearance of the dish. The flesh of the duck is flavourful (and salty! very salty!) with shaoxing wine, soy sauce and sesame oil, and the skin is quite addicting. 

 

Nanjing Duck, half for $13.80 (1/4 for $7.80)

The Pan-Fried Fish with Soy Sauce is our second cold dish. The fish has been fried, and then soaked in a mixture of soy sauce and sugar. Again, a dish we order every time.

Pan-Fried Fish with Soy Sauce, $9.80

Rationalising that I've been living off of catfish for the past week, I insisted that we order the Spice Salt Soft Shell Crab, which arrives piled in a golden heap. The crab has been battered and deep-fried, and is wondrously crunchy without tasting greasy at all - the mark of a deft hand at controlling the temperature of the frying oil. "I've been eating steamed fish all week", I repeated in my mind, as I helped myself to what seemed like half the plate.

Spice Salt Soft Shell Crab, $18.80

The Yangzhou Meat Balls held a high fatty to lean mince ratio, and were very moist and flavourful as a result of it. The braising liquid had infused deep into the meatballs, as well as into the bed of vermicelli lining the dish.

Yangzhou Meat Balls, $15.80

 The Boiled Beef in Spice Chilli Sauce was the only miss of the night. Much too salty and peppery, not to mention positively swimming in thick, starchy sauce.

Boiled Beef in Spice Chilli Sauce, $15.80

If there is a single dish that you must order at this restaurant, it is the Stir fried eel Huaian style. Each, tiny eel has been deep-fried, and then coated with a sticky, sweet and salty sauce. The combination is irresistible.

 

Stir fried eel Huaian style, $22.80

We ordered three steamers of Juicy Buns (aka. xiaolongbao) because they're my siblings' favourite. These ones were juicy indeed, but the wrappers were too thick, in my opinion. 

 

Juicy buns, $7.50 for 8 pieces

The Crispy King Prawn Egg Rolls were beautifully presented, but unfortunately were nondescript in flavour.

Crispy King Prawn Egg Rolls, $18.80

The Steamed Duck with Prawn Dumplings, by comparison, is something I would definitely order again. The duck is covered with the same thick, sticky, and slightly-sweet sauce as many of the other dishes. A ring of prawn dumplings in egg wrappers encircles the generous serving of duck.

 

Steamed Duck with Prawn Dumplings, $24.00

As usual, our eyes were bigger than our stomachs and we had over-ordered. We were beyond full by this point, but we still had a few dishes to go. Next to arrive was the Pork Ribs in Special Shallot Sauce. The pork turned out to be so succulent and delicious that I polished off a sizable portion despite my ready-to-burst stomach. The ribs are brought to us wrapped in foil, and the waiter pulls apart the meat and soaks it in its own cooking liquid (the "Special Shallot Sauce", I presume) at our table.

Pork Ribs in Special Shallot Sauce, $18.80

 The pork after being pulled apart

Some of us were groaning "no more!" by now, but we still had one more dishes to go. Our final pick for the night was the Steamed Egg Plant with Salted Fish. The salted fish was somewhat stinky. I was honestly too full to appreciate the dish.

 

Steamed Egg Plant with Salted Fish, $15.80

Oh wow. I feel bloated simply writing all that down ;P

All in all, a highly recommended restaurant!

My Chinese Kitchen

195A Burwood Road,
Burwood, NSW 2134

Phone: (02) 9715 6699

Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant, Burwood

Despite its name, Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant has very little in way of seafood. "Sea Bay" seems to be a homophonic play on its name in Chinese "xi bei", which translates into "North-West". And indeed, North-Western Chinese cuisine is what is served here - big, hearty portions of it, at very reasonable prices.

The restaurant was completely filled when we arrived (without a booking). The staff politely informed us it would be about a 10-15 minute wait until an available table, so we entertained ourselves in the mean time by perusing the impressive menu on diplay in the window.

Soon enough, we were ushered in and seated , the eight of us hunched over a table intended for a much smaller party. Never mind. We were hungry, there was still a long queue waiting outside, and we were just grateful to be out of the cold.

 An artistic self-portrait, taken on an iPad 2 - the perfect answer to when a food blogger forgets to bring her camera to the restaurant (doh!)...

We rattled off a selection of hot and cold dishes from the laminated menu, and within minutes they arrived at our table...all at once!

The jellied pork ear was perfectly crunchy and chewy with cartilage. I kept going back for more despite the searing heat from the tiny, red chillis.

Think the following one may have been tripe. It was very spicy. We Northerners sure love our chilli...and offals!

Some hot dishes to warm the gut: dumpling noodle soup, and mutton broth with 'mo' (a type of Chinese bread)



Sweet and sour lamb (I think...or maybe pork?). Absolutely loved the sauce. I was mopping it up with my share of the 'mo' :D

We ordered some green shallot wraps, not really sure what to expect. They turned out to be filled with cooked vermicelli and thin slices of fatty beef. A bit tasteless, really. It could have done with some sort of sauce, or seasoning. Guess that was why there were squeezie bottles of soy sauce at each table.

And, my personal favourite of the night: hand-made noodles, the "xi bei" way! Tiny, springy pellets of gluten-rich dough in a rich, meat sauce - yum!

The bill came to around $20 per person. Yes, the seating was really cramped, and there was a baby screaming constantly from the left-hand corneer, but you know what? It's dining experiences uch as this that bring back the fondest memories of my home land. I'll take unpretentious, quality food over a Michelin experience any day!

(Well, may be not if someone else paid for me to eat at the latter :D)

Sea Bay Hand-Made Noodle Restaurant

181D Burwood Road, Burwood 2134 NSW

Phone: (02) 9745 2238