noodleoodle

This place is like home. The specialty is dumplings, either pork or beef, (they have started to do vego ones due to lobby group pressure, can’t be a good thing). My favorite is the dumplings in soup with chilli oil. These little buggers are fat and plump with a wonderful hand rolled doughy encasement. The filling is soft and tender minced pork that is poached briefly in some furiously steaming contraption. The soup is subtle and soothing but abruptly injected with some fiery chilli oil.

The order of things goes like this: Get directed to very worn laminex table, order dumplings, retrieve small bowl of soya sauce with chopped chilli (they never top the chilli up enough), get plastic cup of tea, wait less than one minute, eat over a dozen magnificent dumplings, pay, leave, repeat.

Dumplings in soup with chilli oil cost $5.80. Can you believe that? They do have numerous noodle dishes here but I’m so entrenched in my ways I haven’t had one.

Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant - (03) 9663 8555 - 23 Tattersalls Lane Melbourne 3000

Happy Birthday Cal!

I remember a food hall I used to go. It fed me when I was a student. Ongs, was on Little Burke, a dungeon really. Stairs descended into a low ceilinged maze, housing about a dozen or so Asian food vendors. It was good and cheap. It had a bar, which was a big draw card in those days. What’s changed?

Since the demise of Ongs there has been little of this kind of venue in Melbourne. In Sydney, they seem to be abundant. Our first expedition started badly. E and I had an altercation about our mode of transport. Eventually, I won, and got her into her pram, but in the confusion I forgot the directions.

We entered Chinatown blindly looking for food courts. Without much trouble we found ourselves on the top floor of the building that houses Paddy’s Market. Here there is a complex of more than a dozen mostly Chinese vendors selling a vast range food stuffs. Knowing nothing about any of them, we chose randomly. Golden Towers Seafood Noodles. Glossy photographs behind the counter spoke to us, and it wasn’t a conversation about seafood.

It was Beef Noodle Soup. This one came with pork wontons and braised brisket. The soup had a great tasty stock. It made the previous one I’d had, (cattle-meat-noodles), seem as it at come from a can. Included was Chinese greens, E polished most of these off, which surprised me, she eats mainly pork these days. Our noodle soup cost $7.50.

In the under pass on the way home we had to stop and watch a busking classical violinist. I was seriously paranoid that some journalist was doing a story on how we are all uncultured yobbos. (Today Tonight also copied this story that very day). So in case of hidden cameras, we had to nod some appreciation and chuck in a bit of cash. E really enjoyed it and cracked it when I made her leave.

Market City Food Court - Level 3 2-13 Quay St Sydney

According to Wikipidea, beef noodle soup or cattle-meat-noodles, is common through out East Asia and Southeast Asia. Apparently the Vietnamese Bo kho, is a version of this Chinese dish. It was first made by the Ethic Chinese Muslim group, Hui. I had a bowl at Blue Sky this week.

I plan to eat many of these soups. It seems that it’s a very popular dish in many countries. Loved enough in Taipei to inspire the annual Taipei Beef Noodles Festival. The one I had at Blue Sky was not fantastic, I’m hoping to find better.

The soup consisted of a dense beef stock, that seemed to me considerably flavour enhanced. It was slightly thickened with rice flour or something similar. This didn’t help it’s over all look, making it seem a little congealed. The egg noodles were nothing to rave about. They were of the common commercial dried Singapore variety. The bowl was stacked with large chunks of cheapish stewed steak.

The most interesting part of the soup were a number of Star Anise pods in the stock. These were surprisingly pleasant.

The Beef Noddle Soup was $7.00 with a tall glass of tea. Good value.

Blue Sky Chinese Restaurant - (03) 9663 9888 - 7 Waratah Place Melbourne 3000

So, I got the name wrong. It’s Noodle Kingdom. They’ve been around for three weeks now. I visited with high expectations, given this regal title. They ushered me to a small table next to the alley kitchen. I assume there’s tables upstairs, cos you could only fit a half dozen people here. I ordered a noodle soup and was given a tall glass of warm tea.

The soup took longer than I expected, which is not that long. Seeing my apprehension, a waiter came and explained that about every ten bowls of noodles, the noodle maker whips up a new batch. Did she say, “noodle maker”? Then there was a large bang as dough was stretched out and slammed down on the bench. I watched him do this about a dozen times. Each time the dough was stretched and pulverised, it separated into longer and thinner strands. Finally transforming into long shinny noodles.

A small cluster of these was then submerged into a boiling vat, stirred with chopsticks and lifted into my bowl. They tasted wonderfully fresh and chewy. Not over cooked. I’ve got to say I was impressed with all this, and will be going back on the strength of these freshly made noodles. More soon…

Yesterday I went to a little eatery on Russell street call Nam Loong. I’ve been going there as long as I remember for their Char Siu Bao - Chinese Steamed Pork Buns. These things really are just brilliant. $1.50 each to take away. I’ve never bought anything else. I usually buy three, which is to much. Remind me to only get two next time. It’s a really great stretch of street along there, and I enjoyed a stroll while eating.

When i was purchasing my buns, i noticed they had a few of those golden/plastic cats with waving hands on the counter. Our friend Caz, gave us one that is now sitting in the kitchen. It’s a bit crazy, scares me a bit … just keeps on waving … and waving …

Nam Loong - (03) 9663 4089 - 223 Russell Street Melbourne 3000