Sunday, October 26, 2008
Golden Dragon Palace; 金龙官
***Warning, this post has loads of pictures***
My aunt made a booking at Golden Dragon for her birthday, so we went there today for the first session of yumcha. Before I go on, just a side note, Golden Dragon is reputed to be one of the best places for yumcha in Melbourne. Yes, all my relatives have very discerning tastes. Which I can't complain about, can I? :)
^ When you first step into the cool interior of the restaurant, you'll see loads of traditional Chinese oriental pictures on the walls. The walls, floors and chairs are mostly of dark and heavy wood, which is a typical feature of Chinese restaurants in Melbourne.
^ There's also a large mirror, with a low table in front. I saw the Melon magazine there. :P The logo of the restaurant is also pasted semi-translucent on the glass. And yes, more pictures of oriental-looking plants...
^ I would say, for a yumcha restaurant, the ambience is as muted as it gets. But we came on a Sunday, so I'm not sure if this is always the case. The lighting was soft and yellow, which was pleasant, but was no help with my photos.
^ WTH? Lol, even the prison-like bars on the windows look oriental. Figures. Btw, that's my aunt in the middle. I mean, both are my aunts, but she's the one with the birthday. :P
^ Woohoo~ Our table, which was sizeable. Plus we had a spare chair... The glass top in the middle got really dirty at the end, lol! But if I were the table, I wouldn't be complaining yea, having tasty food spilled on me would, I think, be a good thing. :)
^ When I describe the ambience as 'muted', it's meant to be a compliment. There was a considerable crowd already milling at the front of the restaurant BEFORE it even opened... And when they DID open, everyone was like chionging inside... LOL, but okay, to be fair, it had started to drizzle by then, so yeah. W00t~ Now to the food section, OMGAWDDDDD. XD
^ Say hello to the very first dish I ate. ^^ Chicken pie! And one of the best I've tasted. Not too fat, not too much chicken stuffed into it, and just the right amount of suger brushed on top to complement the savoury flavour of the chicken inside. Not to mention the pastry was really melt-in-the-mouth crumbly. :)
^ Feng Zhao!!! Usually, I'm not really enthu about this kind of dish, but I can say now that I rue only having taken one. It was really good, with a slight tang of pepper to liven the usual taste. When I say I didn't even mind biting the toes off, it's a testament to how good it tasted. :P
^ Tripe, I think. Dunno whether it was beef tripe, or pork tripe, or whatever, lol. I didn't touch this dish, but my cousin seemed to like it, so yeah.
^ Hmm, I didn't try this dish as well, because it looked very mundane. I was trying to save my stomach for the weirder stuff to come. :) If I hazarded a guess, this would be vegetarian pork dumpling...???
^ OMG! This dish was pure heaven! Scallop Siu Mai! The scallop was so fresh and juicy, and it tasted awesome combined with the siu mai. I would have order another one just for myself. XD
^ Oops, wait, was this the tripe? LOL. Don't know, I didn't eat this anyway. :P
^ Suckling pig! Not bad, I quite liked this dish. But there's still a suckling pig place in S'pore which I like better. :) Then again, this was a good effort. I just wish there were buns provided with this dish. :P
^ Ha Gau!!! Yea man, this dish was awesome!!! Compared with that mistake of a dish at Claypot King, this was the embodiment of REAL Ha Gau, haha! The skin was thin, but not too thin so that all the stuff falls out, and the prawn inside was SO fresh my goodness... You know those kinds of prawn you chew and chew and juice keeps coming out? Yeeeaaaaahhhhh... :D
^ Sesame Prawn dish! Quite good, the first time I've eaten a dish like this, but I'm biased toward anything with prawns inside, hahahahaha!
^ Oooh, I remember this weird dish, this was fried/steamed Eggplant. Though I didn't try it, the adults all seemed to like it so, lol. I only like eating eggplant with curry, so I avoided this dish.
^ Look at it! Just look at it! XD Glutinous rice, and it was so yummy. Too bad we only ordered one plate, I I just had one spoonful, but it was nevertheless very nice. No overcooked or undercooked rice, and it was chewy and subtly flavoured. I woulda had a bowl to myself if I could. XD
^ Chee cheong fun with prawn! XD one of my fave yumcha dishes, and Golden Dragon didn't let me down! :) The cheong fun was smooth, soft and thin, and (duh!) the prawns were super fresh, HUGE and juicy. We odered the char siew version as well, but I chose to put this up instead, since prawns PWN char siew anyday.
^ This is yet another dish which wow-ed me. Introducing Prawn wrapped in Glutinous Rice! (With a lap cheong on top, lol) Can I just say that pairing savoury, flavourful prawns with relatively mild-tasting glutinous rice is pure genius??? The taselessness of the rice provided the perfect background to enjoy the savoury sweetness of the prawns within. I should have just fainted and gone to heavan lar, with all the prawn dishes I was eating. XD
^ Hey hey, the humble char siew pau also didn't lose out. Once again, a normal yet exceptional dish. The bread was soft (with no unpleasant damp or stiff parts) and the char siew sauce inside was smooth and very sweet and flavourful. I like that the meat didn't contain much fat, unlike some of its mediocre counterparts.
^ This carrot cake made me feel so nostalgic! It was thick and dencely flavoured, with the hint of pepper. Neither was it too sweet or too salty, it had just the right texture! X3 Best of all, I had one all to myself, since by this time people were starting to get full, lol. (Usually what happens when everyone starts to get full is that they push everything onto my plate, LAWL! They all know of my bottomless pit stomach. XP)
^ This is the typical yam dish. I didn't try it cuz I don't really like this sort of dish, and I didn't want to ruin my appetite eating a dish I didn't wanna eat in the first place. Yam can be quite filling. But again, one of my cousins LURVES this dish.
^ ALERT ALERT! SUPERSTAR OF THE DAY! Mango and Cream Wrap! You know, I thought I'd be the last person to ever endorse a cold crepe dish, but I'll be damned if anyone ever tries this dish and can honestly tell me they don't like it. Seriously, if you ever try this and say you don't like it at all, then I say I can see your nose growing very very long. This was my stairway to heaven lor! Even my cousins laughed when they saw my face, lol. Apparently I had this very worshipful expression on my face, HAHAHAHAHA!
No words can describe how frickin' wonderful the combination of pastry, mango and cream was. It was just mind-blowing. It looked so harmless at first as well. That is, until you bite into it, OMYGAWD. You get the gist. This is one of those try-before-you-die kind of dishes. A safe bet you can only get it at Golden Dragon.
^ Fried lin yong and Banana. This dish offered one of the most unique and unexpected tastes of the day. Seriously, who would've thought? Lin yong and banana? Well, haha, you haven't seen the salted egg and custard dish yet to come, lol... But yeah, this was pretty decent.
^ After tasting this dish, I feel kinda ashamed of myself for saying before that I don't like this kind of egg tart. Because this dish made me change my mind. ^^;; I mean, HELLO??? The pastry was so light, fluffy and tasteless enough to complement the superb sweetness of the egg inside. Plus you could actually taste the egg, just slightly, not just the sweetness. HAHA, and I had two, because by this time all the extra food was being pushed to me liao, LOL! I know la, I'm kinda shameless when it comes to food. :x
^ My phone cam makes this sago dish look like crap lor... SIGH. It was so nice somemore! Warm and not too sweet, kinda thick and kinda not. Sits in the mouth really nicely. :) Another must-try (haha, arguably, almost every dish I've posted up is a must-try). What I love about this is that the sweetness is not over the top, and it wasn't too gooey. Understated elegance man.
^ Say hello to the salted egg and custard bun. Not bad, not bad, tastes like what kaya kueh might taste like. ^^ One of those dishes which sound really weird and scary, but actually is quite nice when you actually taste it.
^ Ok this is either the fried milk or the steamed milk dish. The weird dish that my third aunt really really LURVES. Looks more like the steamed milk dish, but then again, I can imagine fried milk will also look like this.*shrug* Yes, you hear correctly, FRIED milk. LOL. This dish had a slight garlic aftertaste, which means it had this really healthy sort of taste, very liang. Like the liang feeling after you drink ginseng tea, or something to that effect. Apparently it's very health. O_o But for me, heck care whether it's healthy or not, it tasted weird. But I don't like garlic anyway, so take this opinion with a pinch of salt.
^ Last dish! ^^ Ummm. this is actually the fried skin of those fried red bean paste balls. You know? Those fried red bean paste balls with sesame seeds stuck outside. Yeah, this is the red-bean-less skin, served by itself. Lemme just say this tasted really funky, lol! Like eating those fried red bean balls without the red bean inside, haha!
So there you have it, a very satisfying and worthwhile trip. But be prepared to foot the bill. We had nine persons, so it came to about AU$30 a head. Otherwise, if you feel like splurging some cash on really good food, then you should head down to Golden Dragon. For those on a student's budget, this is a place worthwhile to save for. :D If I ever decide to return, I wanna try out their Sharkfin Dumpling Soup dish. Come with, anyone? :)
...is what I said. Savvy?
6:15 pm
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Blog Meme! (I Got Tagged!)
I've read other people who've basically been too lazy to blog, so their blogs are full of blog memes. :P NOW I'VE BECOME ONE OF THEM, HAHAHAHAHA! Ok here goes...
1. what's the best movie you've seen in the past two weeks ?
Wall-E! <3
2. name one person who made you laugh last night .
Ziva from NCIS.
3. what were you doing at 0800?
8am: waiting at the 207 bus stop
8pm: trying to stuff the already-overfull recycling bin
4. what were you doing 30 minutes ago ?
Tidying up my room
5. what was the last thing you said out loud ?
"What was the last thing you said out loud" LOL. Yes, I repeat the questions under my breath. It's a bad habit when I read stuff. XD
6. how many beverages did you have today ?
Ummm... 2 bottles of water, 4 mugs of water, 1 500ml ice break coffee
7. what color is your hairbrush ?
Navy blue and black
8. what was the last thing you paid for ?
My 500ml ice break coffee
9. where were you at 7 o'clock tonight ?
In my room
10. what's the weather like today ?
Sorta cold in the morning, but fairly warm and really sunny in the afternoon. A cool, pleasant day.
11. what's your favorite ice-cream flavor ?
It's a tie between Chocolate Peanut Buttercup and Roche
13. do you want to cut your hair ?
Nope, I am under express orders not to do so. :P
14. are you over the age of 25 ?
Nope
15. do you talk a lot ?
Yes, I even conduct imaginary conversations with myself and inanimate objects
16. do you watch the O.C. ?
No... who gives a damn about the O.C. when there's Ugly Betty and Heroes???
17. do you know anyone named steven ?
I read a book once called Even Steven...
18. are you a jealous person ?
Depends, y'know?
19. who're you thinking of right now ?
Jess (I think because I'm doing this meme cuz she tagged me, LOL!)
20. name a friend whose name starts with the letter K .
Kwann
21. who's the first person on your received call list ?
Yuqi
22. what does the last text message you received say , from who ?
"I didn't go cause my sister wanted dessert house :( i want to try next time though.." from Yuqi
23. do you chew on your straw ?
No, unless I'm sharing drinks with someone and have to find some way of identifying my straw. I like my straw to be at full capacity, thank you very much. Chewing a straw only makes the opening smaller. Can't stand those idiots who chew their bubble tea straws; how the heck do they manage to suck up their pearls???
24. do you have curly hair ?
Nope
25. where are you going tomorrow ?
To Las Vegas to buy a hotel. YEAH RIGHT LOR. A better question would be: Where are you NOT going tmr?
26. what was the last thing you ate ?
Chicken and mayo sandwich
27. will you get married in the future ?
I hope I will :)
28. is there anyone you like right now ?
Nope.
Well, I like all my friends... :D
29. when was the last time you did the dishes ?
Monday
30. are you currently depressed ?
Kinda, and stressed at the same time. -____- Stressed = depressed in my dictionary.
31. did you cry today ?
Nope
32. what's your favorite hang out place ?
Red Silks, King's Cafe, Sambal Kampung, Teppansan, Max Brenner's, Hudson's Coffee, Pancake Parlour etc. Places which have nice ambience.
33. name one of your hobbies .
Reading and drawing. Who gave you the right to decide that I can only list one? Baka.
34. did you ever lied to your best friend before ?
Mainly white lies. :) Anything more serious and my conscience will bbq my ass.
35. quickly take a picture of you right now and post it here .
Aiya go search me on facebook la, as if I got so much time. My pc doesn't have a built-in camera. YOU'RE DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PEOPLE WHO HAVE OUTDATED PCs!!! ihateyouihateyouihateyou.
36. name your first love .
Hmmm...it's a tie between reading and drawing...
But relationship-wise, no, none, nada. :P
YAY! There, I'm done. That was kinda fun, haha!
...is what I said. Savvy?
8:51 pm
friends
June 2006
