Soupy Dumplings – New Shanghai

I love shopping so it’s very exciting when the Emporium opened up in Melbourne last year. It is a new shopping centre which has taken over the old Myer building connected to Melbourne Central. They have a great variety of stores but more importantly they have a very impressive food court with – Jimmy Grants, I Love Pho Express, Rice Work Shop and many more. But more importantly they have New Shanghai a new restaurant serving traditional Shanghainese dishes.

My dad’s family is from Shanghai so I have grown up eating these dishes. I have visited New Shanghai a couple of times and they were very kind to invite me back again for a meal 🙂 So Mr Bao and I had a little date where we visited the Dog Lovers Show first to get some goodies for Cupcake before heading over to New Shanghai.

Xiao Long Bao – Crab & Pork $11

We arrived at a slightly odd time 4pm a little too late for lunch and too early for dinner, but that doesn’t matter because it meant the restaurant wasn’t as busy and we could take our time enjoying our meal. Don’t be too alarmed at the speed the food comes out here at New Shanghai, it feels like you have only just ordered and within a minute the food appears in front of you. I actually find it quite impressive as the dumplings are always piping hot when it arrives. We started with these Xiao Long Bao (AKA Soupy Dumplings) with a crab and pork meat filling.

I actually had a lot of fun shooting these little dumplings, they’re very cute! They also taste fantastic with a very soupy filling so I suggest eating with a soup so you don’t lose all that liquid goodness. Everyone has different preference, but I like my Xiao Long Bao with a very thin skin and more soup inside. And dipped in a little bit of vinegar and ginger perfect way to eat them!

Ok I promise this is the last XLB picture 😛 I’ve tried both the plain pork XLB before and I think I prefer them more than the one with crab meat. As I found the flavour of the crab a little overpowering and there is slightly less soup. While Mr Bao preferred the ones with crab meat so I guess each to their own ~

Pork wonton with peanut butter, red chilli oil & spice $11.5

So the XLB were good, but the pork wontons blew me away! These wontons had the silkiest and soften skin (wrappers) served with peanut butter sauce, red chilli oil and some spice. It had so much flavour and just enough chilli to give it a little kick, however, not overpower the rest of the ingredients. Two thumbs up from us and highly recommend it!

Sweet and sour pork in dark vinegar sauce $5.8

Apart from dumplings we also shared some dishes, this is the sweet and sour pork in dark vinegar sauce. So think sweet, sticky and tender pork but it’s not the Hong Kong style roast pork, it is more braised in a thick sauce. Great snack to have on its own or with some rice.

Pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce $17.5

There’s a lot of pork in Shanghainese dishes ~ We also ordered the highly recommended pork belly braised overnight in sweet soy sauce. It was similar to the previous sweet and sour pork, while this was more salty and the meat was very tender. Mr Bao also liked the fatty bits on the pork belly as it wasn’t too oily. Another great dish to share amongst a couple of friends.

Deep fried crispy skin chicken with noodles $13.8

Thought it was a good idea to order something with carbs to keep Mr Bao stomach full and even happier. We chose the deep fried crispy skin chicken with noodles and special garlic and chilli sauce. The chicken was close to being boneless which is a bonus for us because we are so lazy haha the chicken skin was so thin and crispy. The sauce also complimented the chicken and noodles very well.

Steamed pumpkin and stick rice cake with red bean paste $9.5

I could feel my jeans tightening up but I simply couldn’t leave before I got some dessert. As a matter of fact, it’s very nice to see so many dessert options at a Chinese restaurant and some more unique dishes and not just mango jelly. This is the steamed pumpkin stick rice cake with a red bean paste filling, because the dumpling is made from rice dumpling and steamed, it had a very sticky and glutinous texture. I think it’s one you either like or not 😛 I love this texture, but I think it would’ve been even better if it was a taro paste filling as I like that more than red bean paste.

Baked pastry with red bean paste $9.5

Last but not least was this baked pastry with a red bean paste filing, the pastry was very flakey. Again I’m not the largest fan of red bean paste so even though it was nice and sweet, I would’ve preferred maybe a custard or pumping filling instead.

We are being regulars at New Shanghai, as we love going shopping and then stopping by for a quick bite. Service is always quick but not rushed. Most importantly the soupy dumplings (XLB) and pork wontons are made so well! It is also very reasonably priced, Mr Bao and I properly spend on average $20 to $25 each and we are stuffed 🙂 So if you haven’t visited New Shanghai, I recommend you going after doing some retail therapy!

New Shanghai
Level Three (Food Court)
Emporium Melbourne
287 Lonsdale Street
Melbourne 3000
PH: 9994 9386
W: http://www.newshanghai.com.au

 

Daisy@Nevertoosweet and Mr Bao visited as guests of New Shanghai and ID Collective 

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Weekend Getaway – Tasmania with Aden

Another week, another weekend getaway 🙂 This weekend I jetted off to Tasmania to spend the weekend with Win Win and her in laws. That’s 8 adults and 2 kiddies hahaha I haven’t travelled in such a large group for a long time ~ it’s so hard to organise accommodation, transportation and most importantly meals!

Wrest Point Hotel

They started their Aussie tour in Sydney and then came to Melbourne and now off to Tasmania. I wasn’t going to join but I couldn’t exactly turn down an all expense paid for holiday 🙂 They arrived early Friday while I arrived after work ~ I’ve visited Hobart a few times so am quite familiar with it. We checked into the Wrest Point casino hotel in Sandy Bay.

Mewah Chinese Restaurant

Just like our parents, Win Win’s in laws only like Chinese food especially at night they need to eat rice 😂 so for our first meal we ended up at Me Wah one of the famous chinese restaurants.

I didn’t bring my camera but my Brother in Law who’s a much better photographer has done the honour of taking the photos for me. So once I get the photos I ll be able to blog about it in full. But to summarize, we quite liked the dishes especially the roast duck but found it to be rather overpriced.

Hotcakes – PB crumble, banana and chocolate with salted caramel and double cream $15.5AUD

Next morning we headed over to Salamanca Place. I have been told by many including BBFF (Shellie) and Colleague (Barry), that I have to go to Machine Laundry Cafe for brunch and have been warned about their long queues. Having 10 adults and 2 kids… I was not hopeful that we’ll get a table, but luck was on my side and after a short 10 minute waiting we scored the one and only large communal table.

The highlight for me was definitely this Banana and chocolate hotcake, with peanut butter crumble and salted caramel sauced finished off with double cream! Blog post to come 😀

Salamanca market

We then strolled around the Salamanca Markets, which only opens on Saturdays and is actually Australia’s largest outdoor markets. There was a variety of stalls there, ranging from art/craft, clothing, vegetables and fruit to honey and vintage antiques. I did end up getting a few props for the blog and something for Mr Bao as he didn’t come hehe

Smith’s Specialty Pies

I couldn’t leave without getting one of Smiths scallops pies! If you haven’t had scallop pie before and you like scallops I seriously urge to find one or make one yourself. The flavour and sweetness from the scallops it’s really something special!

Scallop Pie $6.5AUD

It was then followed by a revisit to Doctor Coffee, one of the first places I actually blogged about ~ I really like their mocha, it’s more like a hot chocolate with cinnamon, so best way to describe it would be a hot chocolate chai! Whatever they want to call it, it’s delicious and am looking back to go back just to drink this and their other coffees!

Doctor Coffee Mocha $4AUD

It was now time to leave Hobart and start making our way to Launceston, but on the way there, we did stop by Richmond Bridge, that was built in 1843AD! Even though I’ve already visited a few times, I still think it’s gorgeous and feels like I’m in Europe and not Australia.

Richmond Bridge

Half-way to Launceston, we also stopped by a small town called Ross, not sure if you have heard of the Japanese Anime movie ‘Kiki’s Special Delivery’ by famous animator Hayao Miyazak, he actually visited Ross a few years ago and found inspiration for the movie at the local Ross Village Bakery!

Ross Village Bakery

They’re not only famous of the Anime, they also have what is described as the ‘best’ Vanilla slice ~ my brother-in-law who claims he doesn’t like sweets, was excited about trying. It’s the first time he’s tried one, and he really liked it! In fact he liked it so much, I didn’t even get the chance to have a bite and the whole slice disappeared 😛 So of course we had to order another one! It was a really nice slice, with an extra creamy not too sweet custard filling.

Vanilla slice $3.5AUD

Finally we made it to Launceston in the evening, and immediately checked into our hotel, the Peppers Seaport Hotels. I was totally taken by surprise because I expected a tiny hotel room, but instead we got a huge self-contained apartment! And I got a whole Queen size bed to myself 😀 Thanks Win Win!

Peppers Seaport Hotel

Dinner time…yup another Chinese Restaurant hahaha I don’t think I’ve had so much Chinese food since my parents left 😛 This time it was at the local Dynasty restaurant, when we drove past, we thought it was going to be a reasonably-priced, but nope, they were actually quite pricey at least $30 for a dish! They tasted alright, but we didn’t think it was very authentic so if you want Chinese food in Launceston, we suggest that you try somewhere else. Maybe Mewah as they have another branch there ~

Sheffield Mural Fest

Sunday morning we left bright and early at 8am to head up to Cradle Mountain, on the way there, we stopped at Sheffield a small town with a population of only 1000 people. But they’re quite famous of their mural wall paintings all around the town. The kiddies really liked the colour paintings and we were also blessed with blue skies!

Favourite mural

This is my favourite mural ~ It’s so colourful and just looking at it makes me so happy!

Cradle Moutain

That’s Cradle Mountain! It’s got lots of lakes and nice walks but unfortunately, the good weather gods decided it was time to rain…and began pouring as we got up to Cradle Mountain. So we couldn’t really see anything, which is a real shame! But hey people say ‘more reason to go back!’

Love him heaps!

I then had to rush from Cradle Mountain back to Launceston and to the airport to catch the 6:10pm flight back home. Turned out to be more like a 7:45pm flight as Jetstar decided to delay my flight again >_< even though it was another rushed weekend away. I really enjoyed spending time with this little man! They still have one week in Melbourne before they head back to Hong Kong, going to miss them so so so much, don’t get to spend this much time with them!

PS. Did you spot some of the pretty photos? They’re from my Brother-in-law, he’s recently picked up photography and I think he’s pretty good at it 😀

Dill-licious Dumplings – ShanDong Mama

Dumplings, I’ve grown up eating them 🙂 On my Dad’s side our family originated from Shanghai so we eat dumplings like Xiao Long Bao, probably one of the most known dumplings ~ But technically they’re supposed to be little buns because Bao means buns. While on my Mum’s side they’re from the Canton reason so the dumpling they eat are more like dimsims and Shu Mai are definitely my number 1 favourite!

But I’ve actually never heard of Shan Dong dumplings, and didn’t know that they had their own version of dumplings ~ I first heard about Shan Dong Mama from Ms I-Hua’s blog post about them a few months back and have been dying to go. Laziness got the best of me, because Shan Dong Mama is in the shopping centre in China town, parking is a nightmare and I try to avoid that area at all costs 😛

Finally a few weeks ago, we so happened to be in the city catching up with Yue and they once again came to me for suggestions and I immediately said “ShanDong Mama”, especially since they were driving hahaha I called up before but was told that they didn’t take bookings.

Fortunately, they weren’t too busy on a Friday night and we immediately got a table. If you’re a frequent guest of Chinese restaurants you will immediately recognise the bright lights, brown tables and chairs and also super quick service at ShanDong Mama hahaha it’s all about serving customers efficiently so they’ll eat and leave 😀

We flicked through the menu and found a good range of dishes and not just dumplings, it also offered side dishes, snacks, rice and noodle dishes but of course no dessert 😦 We had a bit of a laugh at when we saw this ‘translation’ on the menu ‘Yuro’ and ‘Daryl’, we suspect it’s because it’s too hard for people to pronounce the Chinese translations.

As an appetizer we ordered the homemade smoked spiced fish, it’s a dish that my grandma makes at home all the time, but I know there are many versions of it and uses different types of fish. I’m not really sure what fish this was but for $8, we thought it was a very generous serving. If you haven’t had Chinese smoked fish before, the fish pieces are marinated in Chinese spice such as ginger, Chinese rice wine, soy sauce, star anise and then deep fried in peanut oil. It is then tossed in sticky sweet sauce very similar to those used for the marinade 🙂 This one didn’t feel like it was deep fried instead it was pan fried then covered in sauce. Either way it was quite good, even though Mr Bao thought the sauce was a little sweet.

Initially we wanted the Daryl, but they had sold out so we opted for the Yuro. Still a good choice, with noodles and fish pieces and lightly scrambled eggs through a thick sauce that they called gravy ~ We really liked the flavour of the fish and the chewiness from the black fungus. The gravy was quite thick and I think we would’ve preferred if it was thinner and more like a noodle soup dish instead.

Melbourne Dumplings $13.8 – Diced seafood and chicken mince lemon rind olive oil parsley and garlic

Wanting to try both steamed and pan-fried dumplings, we started off with the Melbourne Dumplings steamed. I was very curious to what filling it will have and how will it reflect ‘Melbourne’ 😀 Turns out it was a combination of diced seafood, chicken mince with lemon zest, olive oil, parsley and garlic. I liked the diced seafood with prawns, calamari, mussels fish and also chicken but I found the lemon zest and parsley to be a little out of place but still tasted nice.

Dill-icious Pork Fried Dumplings $12.8 – finely chopped pork mince and fresh dil

Another funny name for dumplings the ‘Dill-icious’ pork fried dumplings hehe the filling had pork mince, fresh dill, spring onions, ginger, dried shrimps and a sesame oil. The dill really gave the dumplings extra flavour along with the dried shrimps and sesame oil, was the favourite dumplings of the night.

Prawn, Black fungus and chives dumpling $12.8

We also tried the prawn, black fungus and chives dumplings, it tasted a little similar to the Dill-licious dumplings, we liked the black fungus and the replacement of dill with chives instead ~

Left – Prawn dumplings Right – Dill-licious Pork Dumplings

Both dumplings looked very similar so thought I’ll take a photo of them both together to show you what the filling looks like inside ~ The dumpling skin was a good consistency and not too thick, I also liked the  crispy bottom.

That sums our my first experience trying Shan Dong dumplings and it was great ~ We all really enjoyed the dumplings here. I also agree with I-Hua that because there was so much flavour in the dumplings itself, unlike Shanghainese dumplings, we didn’t have to use any sauce like vinegar and soy sauce 🙂

Shandong Mama is definitely worth recommending to those who like dumplings and want to try something a little different 🙂 It’s also a bonus when reasonably priced, with all this food it cost about $22 per person, just don’t forget it’s a cash only restaurant ~

Mr Bao Special – HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

I haven’t had a Guest post here at Never Too Sweet for quite a while, so I am very excited that someone very special has finally decided to make his debut and that is the one and only Mr Bao! Hahaha I have been asking and bugging him to do a guest post for me for the longest time, but he always declined…but finally he agreed 🙂 He’s actually posting a savoury recipe which is also a first time for my blog ~ Hope you will enjoy this post!

PS. Please do not believe everything he says, because it’s not all true 😛
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello everyone! It is my honour to guest post for Daisy here at Never Too Sweet, you may know me as Mr Bao, I am actually  the co-founder of this blog as I came up with the name “Never Too Sweet For Me”. Great name don’t you think? Would like to thank all the readers who have supported this blog and I hope you will continue supporting us.

HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings

Photo courtesy of Lianne Thank you!

The reason why I decided to do this post is because, a couple of weeks ago, we were invited to a pot luck at Lianne’s, where we were asked to bring a dish, there were a lots of good dishes such as the Kong Ba Bao and sticky pork ribs…all the great food you name it!! As an international student, once in a while we miss home, having these Asian dishes inspired me to make our HK Style Swiss Chicken Wings.

I wonder how many of you are curious about why this dish is called “Swiss” Chicken Wings? Let me tell you a little story about Swiss Chicken Wings.  In 1860, there’s a HK style Western restaurant called Tai Ping Koon Restaurant (太平館餐廳).  The founder invented a sweet soy type of wings.  A tourist tried it and adored it.  He asked the waiter about the name of the dish.  The waiter’s reply was “Sweet Wings…”.  Due to confusion of Chinglish, the tourist mistaken it as “Swiss Wings”.  Therefore, the funny name has since lasted until the modern days.

Here I’d like to take this chance to share this recipe.  This recipe is super simple as I’m such a lazy person, it only took me about half an hour.   Meanwhile, I could go play my PS3 while the chicken is cooking =)

Preparation time: 10 mins     Cooking time: 30 mins   Serves: 4

Ingredients:
– 8-10 Chicken wings (full wings or middle wings), rinse and bloat dry with kitchen paper
– Half a bowl (small Chinese rice bowl, roughly 125 ml) soy sauce
– 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
– 2 teaspoons Shao Xing wine
– One big bulk of rock sugar (preference depending on sweetness)
– 3cm ginger, roughly chopped into 3-4 pieces
– 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
– 1 cup of water (may vary, just enough to cover all wings)
– Garnish: 1 stalk of spring onion chopped finely (optional)

Method:
– Boil chicken wings with cold water to remove fat and any impurities.  Drain well, bloat dry and set aside for use.
– Heat a large heavy based saucepan adding vegetable oil.  When the oil is hot, add the garlic until fragrant followed by the wings.  Stir fry the wings until the skin is slightly golden brown.
– Stir in all the ingredients, set to boil and cook for 10 mins.  Frequently turn the chicken wings to make sure they absorb as much soy mixture as possible (this step is very essential).
– Turn the heat to low.  Cover the saucepan and let the wings cook for another 20 mins.
– At this time, you may taste the mixture and see if more rock sugar or salt is needed.
– Cover the pan again and turn the heat up.  Let boil for another 3 mins.  This allows the final favour to be absorbed by the chicken wings.
– Turn the stove off and let the saucepan rest on the stove for 10 mins before serving.

So there you go my simple and delicious swiss chicken wings, I hope you will like it :D.  Finally of cause, I would like to specially thank the real founder of NTS for letting me to post this.  Cheers guys, you may see me haunting this blog very soon in the future again!

HK Delights – Happy Chinese New Year 2013

Kung Hei Fat Choi! In the year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi in the year of the Snake 😀 Wishing you all a prosperous, happy and healthy new year! It’s time to say goodbye to the Dragon and welcome the Snake! Do you celebrate Chinese New Year (CNY)?

Being alone in Melbourne with Mr Bao and no family, we didn’t plan anything for CNY and decided to just go with the flow 🙂 We do miss celebrating with family, having a huge feast together and receiving lots of red packets (envelope with money inside 😉 )

Because of CNY, I was inspired to write a post about the HK street food I was indulging in 😀 Really sorry, but I didn’t manage to get the price and address of every item, but if you go to HK, these can be easily found on the streets especially in Mong Kok.

Rice Noodle Roll (Chu Cheong Fun) $12HK ($1.50AUD) found at snack food stores

As soon as I arrived in HK, my parents bought me these delicious Chu Cheong Fun otherwise known as Rice noodle rolls. The ones we get at Yum Cha usually have a filling such as BBQ pork (char siu), prawns or beef. But these are plain rice noodles rolls cut into little pieces and covered in the best sauces Hoi Sin Sauce, Sesame Sauce, Soy Sauce, Sweet Chilli Sauce and toasted sesame. It’s a really simple dish and very cheap to make and buy, but it’s SO damn good 😀 I love the rustic way they wrap the cheong fun in butchers paper and in a plastic bad, and you eat them with bamboo skewers!

Curry Fish Balls $8HKD ($1AUD) found from snack food stores

One afternoon, Dad took me out on a ‘Street Food’ raid in Jordan, and the first thing I got was the Curry Fish Balls. If you grew up in HK, I’m sure you have had you fair share of curry fish balls 🙂 These fish balls were hot, spicy and super bouncy hehe it’s very hard to find these kind of fish balls outside of Australia. If you grew up in HK I’m sure you have had your fair share of curry fish balls, do you remember when they use to be sold in those carts on the streets? Unfortunately, due to hygene factors theres a lot less of them around on the streets now 😦

“Soup Dumpling” Guan Tang Jiao available from most Yum Cha outlets

Yum Cha in Australia is pretty good so I don’t have much to complain about that ~ but I do miss Soup Dumplings or they are called ‘Guan Tang Jiao’ in Chinese 🙂 It may seen strange to some but basically the Soup Dumpling is literally placing a dumpling with chicken, mushroom and prawn filling into a bowl of soup. It’s a very comforting dish ~

Retro Vitasoy milk $7.9HKD ($1AUD) available at 7/11 and other convenience stores

Dad then got me this retro Vitasoy milk in a glass bottle that was slightly warmed in hot water. Dad was also telling me how these retro Vitasoys use to be 20c HKD hahaha and now have increased to $7.9HKD ~ I’m not usually a fan of the Vitasoy in the paper packs, but something about the glass bottle really made it taste better, a much stronger soy taste.

Red Bean Icy Pole $6HK ($0.80AUD) available at 7/11 and Supermarkets

On our way home one day, we saw a street store selling ice-cream and other sweets, Dad immediately pulled over and bought two Red Bean Icy Poles 😀 These are his favourite ~ if you like red bean desserts, you’ll definitely like this, it’s not too sweet with crushes red bean throughout the icy pole.

HK Style Baked Sweet Potato $15HKD ($1.8AUD) found on the street

This may not look that attractive, but I love these HK style baked sweet potato 🙂 I’m not sure how they ‘baked’ whether they used charcoal or something else. But the sweet potatoes are a different variety than the ones we get in Australia, I found them to be much sweeter. They occasionally have the purple sweet potatoes too ~ but I didn’t see them this time.

Cocktail Buns approximately $8HKD ($1AUD) available from most HK bakeries

Even though, I love my artisan breads, I occasionally do crave HK style bakeries, the breads are simply different with a much lighter texture. My favourite are these cocktail buns with a sweet coconut filling! Thankfully we can get these here in Melbourne Bread Top and they’re not that bad either ~

Sweet beancurd (Tofu far) $9HKD ($1.1AUD) from Kung Wo Dou Bun 

I’m very lucky because there’s an amazing store that sells Tofu Far, Kung Wo Dou Bun which I’ve blogged about ~ It quite sad because I haven’t found tofu far that I really like in Melbourne, it’s all made from powder and gelatine. While the ones in HK are made from soy milk and has a strong soy flavour.

Egg Waffle $12HKD (($.150AUD) and Pearl Milk Tea $15HKD($1.90AUD) available from  snack food stores

Egg waffles are probably the most famous HK street snack, they’re called egg waffles I assume because of their bubble shape. It’s got a pretty unique texture, I love the ones that are freshly made, super hot, crispy and a pillowy inside 🙂 Unfortunately, it’s quite hard to find fresh and delicious egg waffles now in HK, but if you’re lucky you’ll find them in Jordan and Mongkok ~

Pearl Milk Tea originated from Taiwan, and many Milk Tea outlets such as Gong Cha, Chatime and Comebuy have opened in HK basically every corner. I personally think they taste better than the ones we get in Melbourne and very similar to the ones made in Taiwan 🙂

HK Style Waffle $12HKD ($1.5AUD) found from snack food outlets

These HK Style Waffles go hand in hand with the Egg Waffles 🙂 Most people either like one or the other like me BOTH hehe These waffles have a very spongey texture and not at all crispy, and you can see it is folded in half, because inside its slathered with generous amounts of peanut butter, condensed milk and sprinkle of caster sugar! It’s SO hard to find HK waffles now 😦 most places are very stingy with the spread or have pre-made the waffles and hence, they’re quite dry and stiff. But if you manage to find these, trust me you will LOVE them!

Tai Cheong Bakery

Last but not least Egg Tarts! Egg Tarts! Egg Tarts! I had so many of them in HK this time 😀

Tai Cheong Egg Tarts $5HKD ($0.8AUD)

In my opinion, Tai Cheong Bakery probably makes the best egg tarts in HK ~ I love the biscuit/short bread crust and not the flakey puff pastry (I’m weird :P) While the filling has a rich egg flavour and very silky texture. They’re even better when they’re fresh out of the oven, luckily, there are now many Tai Cheong Egg Tarts and most make yummy egg tarts. But if you can I would recommend you going to their main store in Central and see if you can catch some freshly baked ones.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and it wasn’t too random for you 🙂 Once again sorry for not being able to provide you with the exact address of all the places to get the food. But if you do happen to travel to HK and would like some advice please feel free to email me and I’d be more than happy to help you!