FoodieChat

It is SO cold lately, that all I want to eat every night coming home from work is a hot bowl of noodle soup.  Usually that’s noodles (udon, egg noodles, rice noodles), with veges of some sort, meat of some sort and some fish balls.  Tonight, I had some leftovers from a steamboat meal so my trick was to poach all the ingredients for just long enough to cook them without turning them into a soggy mess.  Two bowls of water going at once.  One for the fish ball squares – they need to be boiled for 10minutes.  And whilst that is going, poach the other ingredients in order of delicateness - golden mushrooms, shitaki mushrooms, then the tripe and finally the seafood ever so slightly.  Rinse the rice noodles under hot water (if you boil them they will be too soggy). And make the soup base: boil 2 cups of chicken stock, and add a slurp of soy sauce, a sprinkle of white pepper, a few drops of sesame oil and some chopped spring onions.  Place refreshed noodles in a bowl, and arrange all the ingredients nicely on top.  Pour on the hot soup and serve steaming hot.  No need for heaters and woolly socks, you will be warmed to the core In 15 minutes flat too

I’m intrigued – what is claypot rice?  Well I sort of knew, but how could you have a whole restaurant based solely around this one style of cooking?   Well, the queues outside the shop indicated that it is possible, and highly desirable!  First Taste is a chain of small family very casual restaurants that serves rice topped with all sorts of different meats and toppings that is baked in a claypot as its name implies. The rice forms a delicious crust on the pot, much in the same way that paella has one, and is brought to your table on your personal wooden board.  First Taste is also a specialist in soups.  For $4.50, try the wintermelon and pork soup to whet your appetite, as the rice takes 20 minutes to cook. 

Soups range up to $38 per serve that includes shark fins, fish maw and other specialties that may be new to the Australian palate.  But we’re here for the rice!  Delicious black pepper beef tenderloin rice is so tender, just the right amount of spice, and very saucy to mix through your rice.  At $7.50, you’d think yo ureally are eating in China!

Very popular is the chicken and mushroom rice ($7.80), it’s chicken thighs steamed with mushrooms and also chinese sausage.

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One of my favourite ways to spend a day on the weekend is to meet friends and family to have Yum Cha – or “Dim Sum” as the yankees call it.  “Yum Cha” means “Drink tea” in Chinese, whilst “Dim Sum” is what you eat there as an accompaniment for the tea as you catch up – although in modern times, the food overshadows the tea!  Get to Marigold early, as there can be a queue from 11:30am on the weekend – an alternative to the take a number and listen to the microphone approach adopted by some.   Then when you get your table, order your tea (Jasmine, green, oolong etc), and cast your eye over the trolleys filled with steaming hot food (literally – some of the trolleys are mobile steamers filled with hot water).  I love Yum Cha also because the food is mini.  Bite sized so you can have a bit of everything.  Sorry on this trip we didn’t eat that much but here’s what we did have.

Char Siu Bau (or BBQ pork buns) are well known to the general population as fluffly steaming white dough buns filled with sweet pork. But have you tried the baked and glazed version – with a brown top, rounded and smooth?  Another favourite bun of mine is the polo or pineapple buns, filled with custard and topped with a sweet, crispy topping.

Essential but unhealthy – the mandatory spring rolls are crispy, deep fried asian sausage rolls – filled with mince of pork, mushrooms, and prawns if you’re lucky, as well as wood ear mushroom shreds and bamboo.  For the more health conscious, the steamed dumplings are a solid offering.  Prawn dumplings (har gau) are often chased by enthusiastic impatient diners (oh no, I would never do such a thing! ) and are often the first to go; and the most asked for.  Like a steam prawn wonton, wrapped in rice paper and steamed.

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This is my second trip to this restaurant in Sydney’s inner/north/west whatever. The first time was for my friend Bec’s hen’s night (same Bec who took me to the amazing Dadong Beijing Duck restaurant in China!), where we feasted on course after course of Shanghai specialties.   Tonight was just a quiet dinner for two; and we feasted on handmade noodles with pickled vegetables and shredded pork. A huge mound of slippery al dente noodles came to our table, stir fried with plenty of bean shoots, and shredded pork.  The pork was quite fatty, but the noodles were surprisingly not too oily at all! Could have done with a bit more salted vegetable – because I love them – but at $8.80 you can’t complain too much!  The noodles were brilliant with the chilli oil I asked for too.  Then came my favourite dumplings of all time – wartip – or pot stickers as they are also known. These are crescent shaped dumplings wrapped with pork mince (and sometimes some vegetables), and then pan fried and steamed until the meat and pastry is cooked, and the bottoms crunchy.  They’re served bottoms up so they remain crunchy. We got 10 for $8.80. Bargain.

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