Tha Australiafiles: Part 5- Baozi

Remember that I mentioned that it was nearly lunchtime in the previous post? This is where we went for lunch a little while after.

There was so much choice of buns and dumplings: chicken, beef, prawn and pork (the latter two I can't have, being Jewish and all- always awkward when you're half Chinese), but mum and I settled for vegetable buns and custard baozi. You order at the counter, and then you're given this strange gizmo here:

Apparently we have these here in the UK too, but I've never seen them.

You go sit down with your receipt and gizmo, and when they're ready for you to collect your food the gizmo goes bananas, red LEDs flashing and buzzing like an angered hornet. Pretty neat, huh? It saves you from hanging around like a lemon and blocking up the walkway.

Nice buns.

The buns came in two separate bamboo steamers, one on top of the other (and a lid on top, which I took of before photoing). On top were the veggie ones, and beneath the custard buns.

Three veggie, two custard

Lots of spring onion, egg, garlic and Chinese mushrooms

Chinese custard buns usually have a thicker custard than the West is used to

It was a bigger than average lunch for mum and I even sharing between us, but I think being on holiday makes everyone a little bit crazy when it comes to food. Was it worth it? Hell, yes.

The Australiafiles: Part 1- How a Chinese Family Eats

Family food time. <3

For the past two weeks I was in Sydney, Australia, having made the long journey from here in the UK for a cousin's wedding. I took the opportunity to document some cool food experiences, from aeroplane food to fancy restaurants. I think I'll start with the latter!

Quick background: My mum's side of the family is Chinese, and scattered over Malaysia (where her generation was born and raised), the UK, the US and Australia. The only place I haven't been to is the US, and all others I've either lived in or visited a number of times to see family (luckily this time around my relatives in the US made it to Oz for the wedding so I got to see them too). A high percentage of Australia's population is Chinese or otherwise East Asian, so that will probably reflect in the food I post about here.

Now, onto Chinese eats, and with a very traditional type of food: dim sum.

See that round thingy in the middle? It's called a Lazy Susan: the multiple dishes are placed on it and the diners at the table can spin it around to try a bit of everything on offer (which is quite a traditional Chinese way to eat, rather than Western-style where stuff is plated up for you). In the case of dim sum you order what you want off of trolleys of food that are pushed around, and it's added to a tab thingy that's added up at the end of your meal. You often also get a pot or two of green tea.

The gold sparkly thing in the middle was because we were celebrating my jia po's 80th birthday.

You can get all sorts in dim sum: jiaozi dumplings, baozi dumplings, egg tarts, choi sum, beef balls, noodles... and, of course, chicken feet.

One of two things I find too fiddly to eat: the second being cherries without a pitter.

I'm not grossed out by chicken feet (more poetically called 'phoenix claws' in Chinese), but I find them so damned difficult to eat. You're supposed to just pop them in your mouth and (look away if squeamish) suck the skin and sinew off the bones, spitting the bones out, but this is a way of eating I just haven't inherited from that side of my family. (Noodle slurping I can do, though.)

A beef ball: tender and flavoured subtly with things like ginger, garlic and spring onions

Mum and I, with me showing off my mad chopsticks skills.

Afterword: We went to a really nice restaurant for dim sum on this occasion, but dim sum isn't usually a formal thing. I've also noticed that a lot of Chinatown restaurants in London only do dim sum at lunchtime to 5pm (and it was indeed lunchtime when we went to this place)- so I guess it's more of a lunch/ brunch thing.

Chinatown: Jen Café

I'll say this right away: Jen Café is all about the jiaozi- the Beijing dumplings.

There's usually a lady at the front making fresh jiaozi (the lady under the window with yellow text)

Where?

Situated in Soho right at the beginning of Newport Place, Chinatown, the nearest tube station is Leicester Square. If you're around in Chinatown, look for the pagoda in the square at the end of Gerard Street or Lisle Street and you're there.

It felt a bit weird capturing this pic- usually there are loads of people sitting around it

What?

Like I said, you go here to eat dumplings. Reviews about this place are often pretty mixed when it comes to the service and the other food, but the view on Jen Café's freshly made pork and vegetarian dumplings (and their bubble tea) is unanimously positive. You can pick any other place in Chinatown to have decent noodles, rice and roasted meats, but if you want affordable, fresh and delicious dumplings boiled or fried, you go to Jen Café.

I had vegetarian fried dumplings. Eaten dipped in soy sauce and Chinese vinegar, these were beautifully crispy, pleasingly chewy and full of flavour

Concerning bubble tea, I always, always measure how good a café's bubble tea is by their taro bubble teas- it's my favourite bubble tea flavour. Taro is a type of purple yam, and since I like yams and I love unusually-coloured food, it's pretty much my perfect flavour. It was good but could have had a stronger flavour; I'd say the second-best taro bubble tea I've ever had. The first belongs to a place formerly known as Cafe de Hong Kong, now under the name of Longji, but I'll review that another time. It wasn't at all watery though, which is what I've found with the more disappointing bubble teas I've had.

Bubble tea: a tea, coffee, milky or fruity drink served hot or cold with sweet and chewy tapioca balls (which are the 'bubbles')

The menu isn't huge although it boasts a large range of drinks, but after all this is a café, not a restauraunt.

The service was alright- the ladies got our orders a bit confused but were pleasant enough, contrary to a review I've read where they described the staff as being 'contemptuous'. Not the slickest of systems, but one that works in the end- and certainly worth it for the bubble tea and jiaozi.