The food here is well worth the journey and unmatch all those Chinese restaurants at Chinatown in Fortitude Valley, Brisbane.
What drew me to put this up on my blog knowing that many of my readers may not be able to visit this restaurant is that I can find good old taste, taste of the 70's to mid 80's here in Brisbane. The taste of old fashion dim sum. My memory tells me that Hong Kong Chee Cheong Fun must not be marshy, firm to hold using the chopsticks, firm when one bites into it but not hard to bite. Of course, it must not break when held by a pair of chopstick( by someone who knows how to use chopstick correctly).Next, my memory recalled that the same texture for Har Gow when I bit into one at this restaurant. I believe producing good and firm texture for Chee Cheong Fun and Har Gow are lost skill if you try recollecting how often your chopsticks have to prick into Har Gow in order to pick up this food item or having a hard time preventing parts of the dim sum from falling before it reaches the mouth.
The next surprise for my memory is the filling inside the Chee Cheong Fun and Har Gow. It contains winter bamboo shoots. I cannot recollect having eaten one in Malaysia for the past 10 years. This applies to my Hong Kong dim sum adventures in the past five years. Most restaurants fill Har Gow with turnips instead of winter bamboo shoots. I cannot recall any restaurant filling Chee Cheong Fun with winter bamboo shoots. Only Teluk Anson Chee Cheong Fun has turnips and mushrooms fillings.
Finally, the chilly sauce was also a surprise when I requested for chilly oil. The sauce reminds me of yesteryears dim sum/ yum cha restaurants such as Lai Cheong, in front of the old Central Market in Kuala Lumpur. From the color you would notice it is not the clear, translucent type of chilly sauce which many dim sum restaurants offer now.
The texture of the Chee Cheong Fun, and Har Gow, the filling using winter bamboo shoots and the old style chilly sauce make this dim sum meal truly old style, old world and my good old taste of the '70s.
What do you have to say?Besides Chee Cheong Fun, the Hsiao Loong Pao dough is also kneaded lightly. What raises the skill level of the chef was the smaller than usual Hsiao Loong Pao still had good balance of soup and meat and the soup does not easily leak. Another good dim sum is beef ball which is tender and soung. A rare item is lai sar pao
Back to this obscure restaurant in the suburb but well patronised by Hong Kongers', I find the pricing to be very competitive and at least 30% less than those in Brisbane CBD.
One another occasion, I had dinner at this restaurant and ordered a plate of mud crab fried with ginger and spring onion and topped with yee meen(cantonese dried noodles). Mud crabs in Australia are much bigger than those found locally. The wok hei was excellent and the flavours of the crab exuded nicely into the noodles. The second dish I had was steamed baby abalone with spring onion and finely chopped ginger. The third dish was kai lan fried likely with garlic. The vegetable was crispy and tender and sweet. The meal came with free soup of the day; dried lettuce leaves boiled with carrot and meat bone, fruits and water chestnut foo chuk sweet. The bill came up to AUD 84.00. well worth it. In Hong Kong the same meal would certainly cost more.
