VanFoodies.com

Warning: This will be a fairly long post.

You’re wondering, why am I reviewing two Chinese restaurants when I traveled so far? Frankly, because these two stood out for me…and I may have forgotten to take pictures while I was traveling. You can falcon punch me if you ever meet me. I spent two weeks in Australia, going from Sydney, to Melbourne, to Gold Coast, and back to Sydney again.

Bridge in Sydney by the Opera House.

While in Melbourne, though there are different kinds of cuisines, I didn’t get to try much, or get any photos. I can tell you they have one full street dedicated to some amazing Italian food though. Unfortunately, the Chinese food was terrible and very overpriced. I won’t name this restaurant, but it was in one of the casinos. They charge 6 dollars for a single spring roll that tastes very similar to a microwavable one you can buy from Costco.

My brother is unimpressed by their $6 spring roll. He had to eat both.

Though the food wasn’t the most spectacular, there seems to be a lot of museums and art galleries. And of course, if you’re like my mother, there is a Chinatown by the downtown area.

Gold Coast was my favourite, golden sands and blue waters. I did get washed out by a wave while sitting on the beach though, while fully clothed. By the beaches are all West Coast style cuisines, but I didn’t get any pictures of the food. It was quite delicious, I tried some seafood chowder and lobster linguine.

Golden sandy beaches... cause I don't have any pictures of food.

The mentioned restaurants are both located in Sydney, Australia, where I spent the majority of my time. Both are Chinese restaurants found in the downtown core of Sydney.

Din Tai Fung is a fairly famous global chain now, with locations in China, Hong Kong, Australia, Japan, United States, Malaysia, and other locations. They are most famous for their steamed dumplings, which are said to taste exactly the same at any location. The steaming temperature, the way they are folded, cooking techniques, ingredients, timing — all calculated to the tee, and will produce the same result time after time.

Their glowing sign, mmmmm.

It was amazing to watch the chefs cook, because if you know Chinese cuisine, dim sum is an extremely hard cuisine to master. I was told that each kitchen staff had to be trained for years sometimes, just for one task. One person specifically to roll out the dough for dumplings, another to put in the filling and folding, another person for steaming.

The end result was well worth the work they put in. The skin never rips off the steamer as they put a muslin type cloth on before steaming. The skin is thick enough to be elastic-y and chewy, the filling was a little sweet, with juices oozing out when you bite in. Traditionally, according to my mumsie, is to rip a tiny hole at the top, drip in some vinegar, then put the whole dumpling into your mouth. Super amazing, a must try if you ever see one of their locations while traveling.

Their special siu mai dumplings.

Golden Century Seafood Restaurant is one of the best Chinese restaurants in the downtown Sydney area. I agree wholeheartedly, after trying numerous other restaurants around the area. I ate here for a week for dinner (my dad doesn’t cook, or own utensils), and the highlights were their abalone and lobster sashimi.

I face palmed when I realized I forgot to take a picture of the abalone when I got home. Instead, I will paint a picture in your head of what I had. The abalone was huge, probably about the size of three of my fists put together. They served it in thin slices (raw), over a bed of lettuce, with a mini gas stove that had a pot of very simple clear broth. The idea is that you dip the slice into the boiling broth for a few seconds, dip it into a soy sauce and green onion mix, then eat it. Finally, an abalone dish I like! This style of eating it allows you to really taste the abalone and of course the broth was delicious too.

This was a first for lobster sashimi. One time while I was eating it, the antenna thing twitched while I was eating… that was how fresh it was. Raw lobster wasn’t quite what I expected. I love the texture of it, like oranges with the strands of meat, but not juicy. It tasted a bit sweet, very light, very refreshing. It was served with the same soy sauce and green onion mixture. But… I still like my salmon sashimi better, hahah.

Lobster sashimi over ice, with some raw oysters and salmon sashimi on the side. BC salmon sashimi is better though. 🙂

Why did I concentrate on Chinese food? My dad is stubborn. He let me pick the lunch places (which I picked all Western food…was quite disappointing), but we always had Chinese food for dinner.

Apologies for the quality of photos, these were taken before I got my new camera. Anyways, there will be some more posts about where I traveled to and the places I ate coming up.

Happy eating!

Din Tai Fung
188 Pitt Street, Westfield Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
61-2-9264-6010-12
http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp

Golden Century Seafood Restaurant
393-399 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South Wales,  Australia
61-2-8212-3901
http://www.goldencentury.com.au/