Beijing Eats, Part 2

There are many restaurants in Beijing who do Peking duck and many claim they are the best. We decided to try Made in China located in Grand Hyatt. The restaurant has several open cooking stations where you can see the dumplings being freshly wrapped and the hot kiln where the ducks are roasting. The service was mediocre for a hotel restaurant and they seemed flustered with a busy service. We ordered a series of dishes and found that for a restaurant in a 5 star hotel, it was lacking a real wow factor. The prices were comparable to Sydney restaurants but considered expensive for locals.

Here are a few dishes we sampled:

Chinese rocket

Sichuan spicy chicken

Dumplings, dumplings!

Chicken with dried chilli

Sweet n Sour Fish

Braised beef with handmade noodle

Of course the main reason why we were there was the duck. The chef would bring out the duck on a trolley and show you the whole bird before carving it up in front of you. The knife skills of the chef is impressive with plates of duck arriving to our table in no less than 10 minutes. The duck was sliced in 3 different ways: just skin, skin and some fat and skin, fat and meat. The condiments they serve with the duck are hoisin sauce, crushed garlic and white sugar along side wafer thin pancakes, shallots and cucumber. Overall, I must say the skin was very crispy just like a potato chip without it being overly oily or fatty. I did try another piece with sugar as I was intrigued at what flavour it would bring to the duck but it didn’t tickle my palate. The duck was lacking a real meaty/gamey flavour and I was really disappointed as duck is one of my favourite proteins.

Peking Duck served 3 ways

On our last day we were all suffering sore heads and we were walking around Wong Fu Cheng to find some authentic street food. They have a street where at night various food stalls come out and sell their goodies. The cabbie was trying to tell us that but we found another street that served local goodies such as handmade noodles, dumplings, lamb skewers etc all for about $10RMB-$15RMB!

Steamed buns

I didn’t sampled these but they had several stalls selling starfish, sea horses, scorpions etc. Really freaked me out when they were still moving!

Live bugs skewers

We were lured into an alley way with the promise of tables and seats. The food looked good but it didn’t taste the same as it looked. The soup was bland and the noodles were floury.

Knife noodles and pan-fried dumplings

Fish and beef balls in soup

All in all, Beijing trip was definately an experience. I don’t know if I will come rushing back as compared to Shanghai I visited a few years ago, Beijing food didn’t really catch my attention.

 

Lynn Shanghai Cuisine, Sydney

I get excited when it’s my birthday because it’s the one day I can run around singing to 50 cent In Da Club – “go shawty, it’s your birthday, we gonna party like it’s your birthday” with no shame. But wait there’s more! It’s also because I get to go and eat my heart out with my friends and family. I took this opportunity to try Lynn’s Shanghai Cuisine with my family and since my Grandma’s heritage is from Shanghai, when it comes to Shanghainese cuisine, she’s a tough critic.

Located in the heart of Sydney CBD on the Ground floor of The Castlereagh Club, we were warmly greeted by Teresa, who manages the front of house for the restaurant. Her husband Dennis manages the kitchen and together they own Lynn Shanghai Cuisine. They serve a few of my favourite dishes which not many restaurants attempt to do (look out for the LYNN next to the dishes as that is their speciality). Upon entering the restaurant, there are big glass windows which you can see into the kitchen and see the chefs wrapping up dumplings.

We were captivated by this dish from the picture on the menu and being a Lynn special we had to try it. How do they do cucumber rolls I wonder? The dish was not done in the black chinese vinegar but pickled with white vinegar and garlic. The cucumber was sliced thinly into ribbons and rolled delicately. Very cute presentation!

Cucumber roll with garlic and special sauce - $6.80

The waiter informed us that the soup would cater for 2 people but when it arrived it actually catered for 4! The hot and sour soup had a lot of filling of  wood ear fungus, shredded chicken and bamboo shoots. The soup had plenty of sour and I would have preferred it more hot but that’s just me as I quite like spicy foods.

Shanghai style hot and sour soup - $7.80

I like to make this dish at home with left over roast chicken. The bean jelly is just mung bean thread noodles. They are particularly good in salads as they have a springy/chewy texture and I often put them in noodle soups at home as they have more of a bite to it than regular noodles. This serving size of this appetizer is generous and it is smothered in peanut sauce. My Grandma would make a version of this dish for summer time and add in shredded omelette, black vinegar and chili.

Shredded chicken with bean jelly in peanut sauce - $8.80

Dumplings! What makes a good dumpling? The dough for the pastry must be thin but thick enough to hold the filling. The filling must have not too fatty meat and should have natural juices coming out of it.

Boiled pork and cabbage dumplings (8pcs) - $8.80

Remember how I mentioned I like spicy foods? Be prepared for the next 2 dishes. I was expecting the shrimp and prawn wonton to be these little miniature sized wontons but it came out almost bigger than the dumplings itself. There was plenty of shrimp inside the wonton and it had a good dollop of chili sauce.

Shrimp & pork wonton noodle with a hot and spicy sauce - $11.80

Dan Dan noodle soup is my brother’s fave, he too loves to eat a lot chili with his noodles. Lynn’s version of Dan Dan noodles did not come with a lot of soup and was served like a stir noodle style with the peanuts adding a nice textural element to the dish. I made the mistake of adding more chili sauce without testing the hotness of the dish.

Dan Dan noodle soup - $9.80

This is my first favourite dish of the night and it’s another Lynn special. I usually find some restaurant’s servings of pan-fried pork buns too oily as you need a fair bit of oil to ensure the crispness of the bottom of the bun. Also some restaurant’s bun is too bready and you become full after eating the 1 bun. At Lynn’s however, there was no sign of oil on the outside, very crispy and crunchy bottom and juicy, soupy filling on the inside. We were warned to be careful in biting into the buns as the juices would stream out. I proceeded with caution and bit in slowly but in the back of mind I thought there should be no juices, I’ve eaten plenty of these in my lifetime. Boy was I wrong! We had some buns left over and took it home. Mr Dough ate it a few days later and he heated it back up in the grill. To his surprise, when he bit into there was still juices coming out. I would have thought any juices would have been soaked into the bun already!!

Shanghai style pan fried pork buns (6pcs) - $10.80

I’ve been waiting all night to try this dish, Nanjing crispy duck. This is not to be confused with Peking duck. Nanjing crispy duck is duck coated in 5 spices, steamed and then deep-fried (usually by just pouring hot oil over the skin) until crispy. You end up with really tender pieces of duck with a crispy, salty coating. The duck is traditionally served with steamed buns. Held between silky, soft, steamed buns, there was no hint of oilness and there was minimal fat between the skin and the meat.

Nanjing crispy duck served with golden buns (half duck) - $25.80

Completed bun!

I’ve been eating the next dish ever since I was little and not many places serve this dish. I don’t know if it’s because they don’t have the expertise to make the little sesame pockets. The baked sesame pockets are another one of Lynn’s recommended dishes and they make the pockets in-house themselves. I think it’s hard to get the balance of cripsy outer shell and layers of fluffy like pastry on the inside. The meat filling is minced chicken with preserved vegetables and you eat this dish by stuffing the meat into the little pockets.

Baked sesame pockets with sauteed minced chicken & preserved vegetables, sprinkled with pine nuts - $16.80

Little pocket rocket

I, once again ordered waaaaay too much food and had to take it away.I asked my Grandma what she thought of the meal and she nodded and gave her tick of approval! Great! I can come back and try the other Lynn recommended dishes.

 

 

Lynn Shanghai Cuisine

199 Castlereagh St

Sydney, NSW 2000

T: 02 9267 7780

Open: Monday – Saturday 11am – 9:30pm