Great Century Restaurant - Dim sum galore!

I LOVE YUM CHA. I REALLY REALLY LOVE YUM CHA. Except I don't usually get to go Yum Cha. :(

I probably go......twice a year? That's because my Dad has a weekly ritual of going to Yum Cha with his friends, so when it comes to the weekend, he's all Yum Cha'd out! How rude! Determined to put a stop to this situation, I dragged a friend along (Actually, I don't think there was much resistance there!) for a bout of yum cha gorging at Great Century Restaurant in Bankstown.

The great thing about this place is that there is usually heaps of parking in Bankstown, the food is good, the portions are quite decent, AND you get 20% off Yum Cha Mon-Saturday! OH YEAHHHHHH BABY!

Despite getting a crappy seat by the fish tanks where most trolleys cannot go past, we still managed to get a heap of the dishes we love!

Siw Mai - Pork and prawn dim sim

I cannot go yum cha without ordering atleast one steamer of these. Luckily, I'm not with my nephew today, who will ONLY eat siw mai. He'll easily eat 4 steamers of these just by himself. And me, being the older Aunt, will need to give up a few of these babies to him because I'm suposed to. Hmpf. But today, it's all mineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!

Har Gau - Prawn Dumpling, my second favourite!

Pork ribs steamed with black beans

Salt and pepper calamari

The first 2 times these came out, we couldn't flag the waitress down because of where we were sitting. By the time we got our hands on these babies, they were cold :(

Harm Sui Gok

These golden babies are crunchy and chewy at the same time. It's filled with pork mince, dried shrimp and mushrooms. There were actually 4 on the plate, but we were hungry!

Sui Gau

Standard won ton like dumplings. Quite nice, but not really worth the price. I think they put this down as an "Extra Special".

Whole prawn dumpling

This one had a whole prawn on the tail, wrapped with prawn mince and then the wrapper. Really nice, but I still like the classic Har Gau.

Chicken feet!

A second round of Siw Mai!

Teeheheheheeeeee! My nephew isn't here, so I get to have another steamer full to myself! Woohoo!!

The whole bill came to around $55. A bargain if you ask me! We didn't even finish all the food and ended up taking some of it home.

Great Century Restaurant
23 Greenfield Parade, Bankstown
(02) 9708 6354

Iron Chef - Cabramatta

I took a day off awhile ago as I was just so sick of work. I met up with a friend who also didn't have work and headed off to Cabramatta's Iron Chef for some Yum Cha. I rarely ever get to go yum cha now days as my dad goes every Monday or Tuesday with his buddies for yum cha. So come the weekend, yum cha is the last thing on his mind. Its such a shame though as I LOVE yum cha!!!

Work has given me an entertainment card giving me 20% off at the Iron Chef, which is even better!

Harm Sui Gok

The shells are made of glutinous rice flour which has been deep fried. This gives it a lovely golden crunchy but chewy texture. The filling is pork mince and dried shrimp which has been cooked in a lovely gravy. This was fresh out of the fryer when we got it! SO GOOD!

Siw Mai - Pork Dim Sims

This is a MUST HAVE when I go yum cha. If I go yum cha and don't get AT LEAST one steamer full of Siw Mai it feels like I haven't been yum cha at all. Its like going to a steak house and having a salad. I MUST HAVE SIW MAI!!! This was quite nice, but I prefer the filling to be much chunkier.

Har Gow - Prawn Dumplings

This is also a MUST HAVE when I go yum cha. Although I won't feel as unsatisfied if I don't have this compared to the siw mai. The wrapping is soft but chewy and its filled with chunky bursty prawns and bamboo shoots. I love to eat this smothered with chilli sauce.

Char Siu Bao - Steamed BBQ Pork Buns

We make our own Char Siu Bao at home with home made char siu. They're really really good, but we just can't get the lovely buns as light and fluffy as these. (Plus, my mum hates them fluffy!). These were so satifyingly soft and moreish with the rich BBQ Pork filling.

Fong Jow - Braised chicken feet in black bean sauce

Most people, including a lot of Asians are actually terrified of eating chicken feet. I don't know why, considering you're eating almost every other part of the chicken anyway. These were really nice. Good braised chicken feet is soft and gelatinous. You can put it into your mouth and they'll literally fall off the bones.

Char Siu - BBQ Pork

These were ok. Not as good as mine for sure ;) Plus they weren't ultra fresh out of the oven, which is the only way to eat it. The cart lady did tell me that she's going to go nuke it back up in the microwave before giving it to us. It looks like a lot of BBQ Pork there, but there is actually a layer of peanuts underneath that has been stewed in a soya sauce like broth.

Si Jup Pai Gwut - Steam pork ribs with black bean

I don't know why they keep calling these pork ribs, as most restaurants actually use pork chops or some other cut of pork to make this dish. Most of the time you won't even find a bone in there, and if you do, its a pork chop bone. This was ok, a bit bland for my liking. My mum (and me) definitely makes better ;)

Wu gok - Deep fried taro dumplings

These golden orbs of goodies are made with mashed taro, which is stuffed with pork mince, dried shrimp and other goodies. These are then dipped into beaten egg whites and deep fried to give it the lovely delicate texture.

Ngow Cheung - Steam beef rice noodle rolls

These are made with big sheets of rice noodles rolled around a soft beef mince mixture. A slightly sweet soya sauce mixture is poured ontop after they've been steamed. These are lovely and soft and silky. I always prefer the beef to the prawn or BBQ Pork filling.

Salt and pepper octopus

These were too bland for my liking. It tasted as if they had forgotten to season it. I love my salt and pepper to be salty and really nice and peppery/spicy. I probably wouldn't order this again. Wait, its deep fried, and they always say salt and pepper.....ok, maybe I WILL order it again. Hopefully I won't regret it next time.

We made complete pigs of ourselves, but it was worth it. And with the discount from my entertainment card, we paid about $55 for 2 people. A bargain.

This is going to be a hectic month!

Things have been hectic for me, and its barely started. My sister and the kids are here from Singapore, meaning I'm pretty much going to disappear all of December. I've still got events in my social calendar for December, but I certainly won't be taking the responsibility of organising anything else (Which for some reason, always gets passed to me). I was going to write some nice blog posts and throw in some photos I've taken, but here's a quick summary as to what's happened in the past few weeks:

- CookieJar girls night in - Mey kindly offered her place for a bit of a girls reunion. Which involved make-your-own (MYO) viet summer rolls, a bottle of delush Chianti red wine and fondue (amongst other junk food). It started off with a bit of girly banter, which turned into a full of bitch-fest that resorted in dirty jokes! As it always does! After stuffing ourselves until we could barely breath, we settled in for a perving session of Jessica Alba. Good Luck Chuck. Now I found this movie HILARRRRRRIOUS! People think Jessica Alba is just a pretty face, but I can tell you, she's fantastic as comedy! Plus she's HOT! Like H-O-T. I've said this many times, even at one work function (Yes, bad move) that I WILL TURN GAY FOR JESSICA ALBA! God that woman is hot.

- Moishii's 27th Birthday - This was held in Bexley North in some dodgy joint called "Ruby Lounge", and the Greek Night was called "Caramela". The restaurant was attached to some dodgy pub that even the locals don't frequent. The good thing was that the drinks were super cheap! Hellooooooo Vodka! $4 a vodka is pretty darn good IMO. The bad thing for the restaurant was, because they made us wait til about 8:30pm before we could go in (even though they're supposed to open at 8pm), we found out about the cheap drinks. So when they charged me $7 for a vodka, and others $4.50 for a straight OJ, we just decided to hit the pub instead. Which we ended up doing because by 10pm, all we had was dip and salad. And poor gus didn't even get a bread roll and had to share with someone else. So after about 3-4 vodkas at the bar, we headed back into the restaurant at 10:30 get a platter of unknown meat and some chips. After 5 mins of eating that, most of our table gave up on the platter leaving alot of the food untouched and hit the pub again. 45mins of drinking, we all head back inside only to find out that for our $40, there's no dessert, tea or coffee included. With that, a few of us decided to leave. Some headed home, whilst me, Cherry, and voice of an Angel headed off to Burwood where we ordered mass amounts of food and dessert before calling it a night after 1.

- Fisherman's Wharf Seafood Restaurant - I took my parents to the new seafood restaurant that has opened in the top level of the fish markets for Yum Cha. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. Infact, alot of the people we saw at Yum Cha, usually frequent the various yum cha places in Chinatown. Looks like there is stiff competition out there.

- Sydney FC vs LA Galaxy - After David Beckham saved our lives last time, I decided that I had to go watch him play when he was in Sydney. We actually had pretty darn good seats for the price we paid! I brought my DSLR along to get a few action shots, but in my eagerness to take photos, I didn't check my settings properly. I accidently changed the mode whilst taking my camera in and out of my bag and when it mattered the most, the shots came out blurry!! *cries*

- The Malaya - Our once-every-3-weeks lunch with my workmate found us at Malaya again. After hearing me rave on and on about the Sze Chuan eggplant, we went back and ordered the set menu for 2 people. I was a bit hestitant at first, simply because I hate Otak Otak. I've tried it many times in Singapore, and regret it every time I get it. But the ones at Malaya were TO DIE FOR. If Otak Otak tastes like that in Singapore, I'd order it more often! We paid $50 each for lunch, but the food was so unbelievably good, it was worth every cent!

- Pizza and Party - We had a farewell lunch last friday for a workmate and ended up at the Australian Hotel for some beers and pizza. No photos here because we were all busy eating. And I decided to lay off the alcohol at lunch as well. Not because I was being good and cutting back on the alcamahol, but because we had our work xmas party that night and I didn't want to be sleepy for it! Our xmas party this year was at GPO. At first I couldn't understand how they could fit a few hundred people into the place, that is until I found out that we booked the entire bottom part of the GPO. All the usual restaurants (Post, Prime etc) were closed. In the underground section, all the bars were stocked with all you can drink beer, wine and champagne. There were pool tables and heaps of arcade games (Daytona and pinball machines!!!!!). We also had the dancing head thing where they put your head onto these digitally created bodies and generate a music video clip for you.

Unlike last year, which was heavy on alcohol but light on food, this year was a perfect balance. There was food EVERYWHERE. We had a sushi bar, an oyster bar, a pizza bar ontop of all the trays and trays of finger food that included fish and chips, spring rolls, vegetable crumble pies, meat pies, quiches, calamari and the most DELUSH rare wagyu beef rolls. By 7pm, I was screaming I was full! By 7:30, whilst shoving another spring roll down my throat, I was still screaming I was full. This continued until about 9pm, when we all abandoned the food and hit the open bar for some much needed vodka. Next thing you know, I was on the dance floor. By 10:30, when people started getting sufficiently sloshed, they brought out more pies (after the dessert already came out) to help with the alcohol munchies! HOW COOL IS THAT! So everyone started eating again before we hit the arcade games, where I am the reigning queen of Daytona. 4 out of 4 races! EAT THAT!

I also complained to my workmates that I've never been kicked out of anywhere before. So one of my workmates stayed with me until EVERYONE had left and we were surrounded by security asking us to leave. Woohoo!! Ok, well I wasn't FORCEFULLY EJECTED from the venue, but I finally lasted until the party ended! So to celebrate that little achievement, we headed off to the metro for more drinks before I stumbled home at 2am.

- The Kids - Now that I've semi caught up, my sister and the kids are here from Singapore. I've got a few days off here and there in December to spend more time with them. We're currently planning on going fruit picking again and possibly to the Blue Mountains. I was also planning on doing the Bridge Climb with my brother and my nephew (When he arrives), but I think its going to be hard to get a date that will suit everyone. So I might forego that and use my day off to watch my nephew compete in the tennis camp again. We'll have to see what happens.

So if I'm very quiet in December, I'm not ignoring you, I'm just busy with the kids. I'll try to update this post later with a few piccies. And as for the rest of my holiday posts, that's going to have to wait. I think its becoming a pattern. I can blog my heart out, but once I get close to having to relive my Mykonos experience, everything comes to a screeching halt....

Yum Cha and cookies!

Yum Cha in Singapore is really expensive compared to Australia. The food isn't as good, and alot of them don't have the trolleys they push around filled with steamers full of food. *SHOCK* *HORROR* That's the whole fun of yum cha! Every trolley comes bearing steamers full of suprises. Its kind of a lotto draw most of the time as to what you get in each cart, the only difference is you'll win alot more in yum cha than you will in lotto! With that in mind, we decided to have a big family yum cha session to satisfy my sister's yum cha cravings.

It was off to the local Crystal Seafood Restaurant in Strathfield with the kids:

BBQ Pork in short crusty pastry

Black bean steamed pork ribs

Har Gow / Prawn dumplings

All was going well until the little one had another tanty! *Turns camera off to tend to crying child*

After yum cha it was time to bake some cookies for xmas. I went with shortbread this year and pulled out my new set of cookie cutters.

To those who missed out on the cookies, I might make another batch soon! So find any excuse to see me! :P


I also grabbed a packet of Cake Mate icing used to decorate cookies and cakes that come in an easy to squeeze tube. Perfect for the kids:

I also made a special Gluten/Egg/Dairy free batch of shortbread for my niece. I wasn't even sure it would work and I warned her it might not even be edible! But being the optimistic and happy go lucky girl that she is, her first comment after biting into the cookies I made her were "MMMMmmm.....Crunchy!!". They weren't meant to be crunchy......oh wells! Atleast she liked it! Me on the other hand......well.....lets just say that I never want to eat them again!! So being the kind sister that I was, I helped my niece decorate a gluten free cookie so she can give it to her mum and to make sure she eats the ENTIRE cookie infront of her!! MAUahAUha

The "ME" was supposed to be "MERRY XMAS".....I had to convince her to write something else cos it wasn't going to fit!!

The Iron Chef cure

After leaving my Christmas party early because I was so sick, I took the next day off work since I couldn't possible handle sitting in the office for 8 hours suffering. However, I'm not much of a rester. Moishii once pointed out to me that I can't relax. When we're on holidays, I'm forever storming around like my ass is on fire. When we go to the beach to chill, 15mins after lying down, I'm screaming that we need to get into the water. So asking me to lie in bed all day, AFTER sleeping for 13hours was not going to happen. So what did I do? I went yum cha with my family for lunch...Hey, if it doesn't kill you, it must be good for you right???

We hopped onto the train, and 30mins later, we were at Cabramatta. Across the road from the train station (Not the busy side of the station) is Iron Chef. Now I LOVEEEEEEEE Iron Chef. I particulary love Sakai, and running a close second is Iron Chef Chen. So I was hoping the quality of the food would live up to the name of the restaurant.

Tanks and tanks of live seafood

Nice spacious interior

One of the few Yum Cha places that list their prices

My must have "Har Gow" (Prawn Dumplings)

"Low Sar Bau" - Has a sweet and salty runny egg filling

Seafood dumplings

Beef balls.....errr...beef MEATballs

Family favourite of Chicken Feet

In between taking the kids to the toilet, mopping up spills, feeding the kids and the frantic stabbing of chopsticks by some people, I didn't get many photos after that. The food was good.....not Iron Chef standard though. But then its not like I actually KNOW what Iron Chef food tastes like.....but I don't think it was supposed to taste like that. Its supposed to be orgasmic! It should make the person moan out in delight with every mouthful! Ok...maybe not.....but it should atleast make you dream about the food long after you have finished eating!

The bill was modest and easy to get to by public transport. My parents have also been here for dinner before and they have great specials. Such as 25% off your ENTIRE bill on Tuesdays. The only problem is that everyone tries to take advantage of the offer and the first time they went, they ended up waiting for 2-3hrs just to get their food. So get there early if you want a cheap cheap dinner.