Dessert story

If you are looking for something bit different, you should try the Dessert Story. This dessert restaurant is dedicated to Taiwanese and Hong Kong desserts.

The dessert in the following video is similar with the ones served in Dessert Story. From this video you can get an direct view about how the dessert looks like

https://www.youtube.com/embed/P-JtJPLnhwI“>http://

Dessert Story has a very colorful menu. Their menu features more than 100 types of Asian street deserts ranging from hot and cold sweet soup to ice cold snow desserts.

I personally like the snow ice series which is the perfect desert for an hot summer day. As it comes in large proportion, so the best way to eat it is share with your friend or get ready to plough through the ice mountain. The price range for the ice series are from $8-10$. My recommendation are the mango milk snow or shaved ice, mango pudding and milk snow ice with red bean, and pearl.

As an mango lover, I personally strongly recommend the mango snow ice with popping pearls.

Though its price maybe a bit higher than the price of other dessert, it is definitely a good choice !!! The texture of the shaved ice was smooth, and it taste almost like ice cream meanwhile, it also got a good portion of fresh mango. Before I had this dessert, I never heard of popping pearls, but now I find the texture was so interesting. When you eat it , it just like having a mini explosion in your month. This was one of my friend and myself favourite dessert and gone within no time.

The taro dessert is another speciality dessert in the dessert story. It comes with taro balls as the main ingredient and then you can choose the different combination of sides like taro mash, grass jelly, herb jelly pearls and beans. Other main options include mango series, shaved ice series and tofu pudding series (a popular dessert typically found in Hongkong).

The fellowing picture is about the herbjelly ice, taro balls and cream. Actually except the taro balls , there were in fact more items: sweet patato balls( yellow), and pearls( balck)

The sweet patato and taro balls were chewy, but has no taste to it,as it means to be eaten together with the syrup in the bowl. The pearls also chewy, and has no taste either. For those who are not aware of these mysterious black balls, they are the pearls which you find in the bubble teas ,like one you find at cha time( one shop sells chinese drink)The herbal jelly ice is very similar to grass jelly, however it has herbal properties.

If you are a fan of warm dessert, you can choose the taro series, glutinous rice, mixed pudding and tofu pudding and etc

If you are not into the dessert, then you can choose fruit smoothies, traditional Hongkong and Taiwanese style drinks to quench your thirsity.

I’m so glad there’s now an authentic Asian dessert place in Melbourne! and if you guys have chance, you definitely should try the Mango shave ice !!!

Address  

195 Little Bourke Street, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

Phone Number 

03 9650 7776

72 Kingsway, Glen Waverley, Melbourne, VIC

phone number: 03 9561 8884

Maribyrnong

Highpoint Shopping Centre, Level 3, 120-200 Rosamond Road, VIC

Phone number :03 9317 3889

Lan-Zhou hand-pull beef noodle

The morning in Lan-zhou starts with a bowl of beef noodles soup. Here where the Huanghe River across there are over 1000 Muslim hand-pulled noodles restaurants. Every day, over a million bowls of beef noodles soup are eaten. The flexible texture and piping hot are the main factors that Lan-Zhou hand –pulled noodles is being appreciated.

A century years ago, a Muslim called Ma-Bao-Zi, pour the soup, and then the hot-pot noodles’ gone very popular. All the steps operate manually. Ma-Wen-Bin is the 4^th generation of the Lan-Zhou hand –pulled noodles restaurant. He has been working in the restaurant over 40 years. To have the noodles come out in different sizes ( wide, Medium, Thin, Extra thin). Arm has to be strong as well as the strength control that has to be strong yet with gentleness

https://www.youtube.com/embed/3hUY_nJ-pc4“>http://

The clearness and turbidity of the beef soup are two of the keys to justify the genuineness of the beef noodle soup. The best beef noodles soup should have five features: clear and smooth soup, clean and clear daikon, sharp red chili oil, fresh green vegetable, bright yellow noodles. Ma-Bao-Zi creatively added in “Penghui water” when he was making dough.( penghui is the ash of a type of plant called pengfeng and the ash contains potassium carbonate) that makes the dough mote elastic.

Noodle kingdom, as I know, probably is the only one restaurant served Lan-Zhou hand-pull beef noodle in Melbourne. People could watch the chief noodle-maker making hand-pulled flour noodles in the front window at any branch of noodle Kingdom. All the noodles are cooked fresh to order. The healthy broth is made from a stock of beef bones and Chinese herbs simmered overnight in a 120 litre pot.

When you read the reviews on urban spoon you would see that Some people said that they felt thirsty after they eat the food there. Actually myself and my friend felt thirsty as well, which  suggest they use a liberal hand with ol’MSG. However my friends and I do not mind a bit flavor enhancer here and there, but if you are sensitive it might be something to check up on. Moreover in some negative review, people mentioned the dumplings there taste not good. I agree with them, so do not order the dumplings when you eat there. The Hand-pulled nodles is the most recommended dishes there.

All in all, from my point of view, as the only one restaurant to serve the Lan-Zhou Hand-pulled beef noodle in Melbourne, it already did quite good job. Those negative reviews do exist, but this restaurant still be a good restaurant and the only restaurant for eating those noodles. Since different branch have different rank in urban spoon, and based on the rank and my personal experience, the original one in preston may still be the best.

Address 

469 High Street, Preston, Melbourne, VIC

Phone number 

03 9478 8885

Shanghai Soup Dumplings

What is Shanghai soup Dumplings

Shanghai Soup dumplings( xiao long bao ) is one of the most famous cuisine in China. It is a kind of soup-filled dumplings with a very thin skin. The paper-thin skin enveloping perfectly seasoned pork fullings and hot, flavorful soup.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/SenvN3SjVbo“>http://

To find the best ShangHai soup-filled dumplings-in Melbourne is not quite easy. The reason is that the soup-filled dumplings is very popular so lots of restaurant begin to serving it to customers. And It is difficult to taste all of them and tell which one is the most authentic one.

What is Melbourne’s best soup dumplings?

Here are two of Melbourne’s best soup dumpling with a decent price. One named :New Shanghai, the other named Shanghai street food.

Service : The staff of these two restaurant are fast and professional. They run nonstop and  always on the eye out to clear plates for you on the table. But In New Shanghai, the professionals rolling, stretching and stuffing these little dumplings before their customer’s eyes. These little miracles comes flying fast from furiously nimble hands of the chefs on show in the clear-glassed kitchen.

 

Eating environment :

New Shanghai is located in Emporium Shopping center Level 3 with over 90 full service set. It is decorated by red and black lacquered wood, flags and 1930s Shanghai posters. Shanghai Street food is located in China Town with a much longer history in making shanghai soup dumplings than New Shanghai.Comparing with queuing at Shanghai Street, the time of queuing at New Shanghai is much more short than it in Shanghai Street.

Although there are various kinds of fillings for the soup dumplings( xiao long bao ), the most popular meat are pork or a mixture of pork with the meat and roe from Shanghai’s famed hairy crab.

Both of these two restaurant offer these two main types of soup dumplings, regular pork soup dumplings and hairy crab meat soup dumplings. The former are similar to those in other restaurant, but the crab soup dumplings served in New Shanghai is different from those Shan hai street served.

New Shanghai’s crab soup dumplings are more smaller and exquisites than those served in Shanghai street. Both of these two crab dumplings are stuffed with tiny shreds of sweet crab meat. However, Shanghai street crab soup dumplings has more sweet crab-meat than New Shanghai’s crab soup dumplings have. But with more crab meat does not mean taste much better. Actually it is really hard to tell which one taste better, as different people have difference preference. Personally I prefer to eat New Shanghai’s crab meat dumplings. Although the size of it is not as big as the one in Shanghai street but it has a perfect percentage mixture of pork and crab meat. The New Shanghai’s Xao long Bao contains more soup than Shanghai Street ones contain. And Shanghai street soup dumplings taste more sweet than New Shanghai’s dumpling.

Therefore, if you like to eat Shanghai soup dumpling with a sweet flour and contains more crab meat and few soup, Shanghai street food is a better choice for you. While if you prefer to eat small, juicy and less sweet one, the New Shanghai would be a good choice for you .

So these Shanghai Soup dumplings mentioned above probably are not mind-blowing, but they are good, authentic and with a decent price. So if you have any questions about Shanghai soup dumplings please leave a comment for me and I will reply you as soon as possible^_^

Address 

New Shanghai

Emporium Melbourne, Level Three, 287 Lonsdale Street, CBD, Melbourne

phone number 03 9994 9386

Shanghai Street Restaurant 

146 Little Bourke Street, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

phone number 

03 9662 3226

Chinese Hamburger

Historically Xian was once the most bustling and flourishing city in the world, 13 dynasties had its capital built here. The whole world gathered together here, bought different delicious food from everywhere, until today here is still the staple food paradise to the Chinese

Chinese hamburger (clip-bun with meat) is one of the most famous staple food in xian and even in the great china

The following video is about the chinese hamburger and how popular it is in china.

In this video you will notice that there is a long queue for purchasing the Chinese hamburger. And the the reason that makes the straight-forward Guan-zhong forks waiting patiently it can be the “Chinese hamburger”(clip-bun with meat)

In Xi’an Bun is the most common staple food. and Chinese hamburger is the most classic way to eat. Chinese hamburger is a brilliant combination of two kinds of food. white Bun and stewed meat. The white Buns in Xian are backed with fire, and added in over 30 types of seasoning, the slow-cooked meat soft and rich. The plain flavor of the white bun makes the taste of the meat even more outstanding

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZTVu68iA7zk“>http://

If you want to try the Chinese hamburger in Melbourne , urban spoon can be a good guide for you. There are  two Xian restaurants in urban spoon, one is located in Box hill named Shaanxi-Style Restaurant, with 3.5 ranking. The other is on Russel street, named Xi’an Famous , with a lower ranking 3.0. if you just fellow the ranking , you would more likely to choose the box hill one, however actually you can enjoy the more authentic Chinese hamburger in Xi’an Famous (the CBD one ) with a more fairly price.

Both of these restaurants had negative reviews in urban spoon. For Xi’an Famous (CBD one), the negative review is mainly about its unqualified customer service. One customer complained about his 30 minutes waiting and non-existing service, while from my personal experience I think that was just an unique case. I have been to that restaurant over seven times, and I never have that kind of experience before，so I do believe maybe at that day there was something  emergency happened with its staff management.

Shaanxi-Style Restaurant also has some negative reviews about its serving, however as I just being there once, so I have no right to comment its service. But actually customer service is not the only problem to this restaurant. My friends who come from Xi’an told me that the Chinese hamburger and other Xi’an food in Shaanxi-Style Restaurant( the box hill one ) are not as authentic as the one in CBD, maybe few years before, the food there was tasted good, but now compared with Xi’an famous , it has no advantage in the favor and even with more higher price.. Therefore, the Xi’an Famous would be the best choice for eating Chinese hamburger and other Xi’an food.

I normally order the pork chinese hamburger with one secret made cold wheat flour noodle. And I really recommendend you guys try this comboon when you go there^_^

location

CBD ›260 Russell Steet, CBD, Melbourne, VIC

phone number 

03 9663 3993

Hot pot

Hot pot also known as Chinese fondue has a history over 1000 years and until now, it is still the most popular dish for social or family gathering in china.

The hot pot city in china is Chongqing, a municipality under Sichuan area. Chong Qing hot pot is the most famous hot pot in china, even around the world.

The most authentic hot pot restaurant in Melbourne , in my view , is the Dainty Sichuan.

There are many branches for Dainty Sichuan, like South  Yarra, Boxhill, and Chinatown. In this blog, I’ll introduce you the Box Hill one, which serves mainly superb hotpot and few Sichuan dishes. As I eat a lot hotpot in china, I definitely believe this one is the best authentic and delicious hop pot you would typically experience in china

What is the process of eating hotpot at Dainty Sichuan ?

Very simple !!!

Firstly, you need to pick your own soup base. Dainty Sichuan offer customers variety individual boiling soup pots, normally I go for combo(mushroom and spicy).

Secondly, you need make your own mixed sauce.

Unlike other hotpot restaurants in Melbourne, Dainty Sichuan has a huge condiment station!!!

The condiments there all being hold in big pot, from sesame oil, soy, to chill based mushrooms and chill sauce and you can take as much as you like.

    

Third step is about the fillings –raw ingredient. I usually order an vegetable combo, a serving of lamb, beef, and pork belly. .

When you fell too spicy, you can take some drinks, plum juice is the cooling drink I often choose.

Then comes to eating !!!

Is there any tips for eating at a hotpot restaurant ?

Here are some you should pay attention

1 wait for the broth in the pot start boiling.

2 if you put meat ball into the hotpot, the correct time for you to eat is when it start floating.

3 Roof vegetables like carrot and radishes takes longer time to cook, so you should better cook 8-10 minutes before you start eating them.

4 Lastly, eat with a group. It’s just more entertaining that way. Hotpot seems almost designed for good conversation

If you want to know more information about Chinese hot pot, just leave me a comment and I will be glad to provide more information.

Dainty Sichuan, Box Hill
Phone: (03) 9041 4318
1, 2a Cambridge Street, Box Hill VIC 3128

About

Hi there. My name is shiyao Zheng and welcome to my blog.

When I came to Melbourne I found there are tons of Chinese restaurants here, but actually it is not easy for locals or other foreigners, or to some extent, even for Chinese themselves to find tasty authentic Chinese food among these restaurants in Melbourne. People often use urbenspoon as their eating out guide, I used it like a bible to guide me to place to eat when I was new to Melbourne as well.

While later I found that the rankings and some reviews there are little bit biased, some were being underpraised some were being overpraised.

So I decide to start this blog ,A bite of China in Melbourne, to introduce the restaurants which provide the most authentic Chinese food with a fair price in Melbourne.

So thanks for dropping by and I’d love to hear from you ! Feel free to connect with me if you have any ideas or questions or specific Chinese food you’d like me to cover on the blog.