Tim Ho Wan, Bourke St Melbourne

We used to like going to yumcha but the prices these days are exorbitantly expensive. A few baskets of oft ordered dimsum would easily set one back $50 to $60. For those who used to have yumcha regularly, they would be familiar with the different tiers of dimsum dishes. For example, the least expensive and basic dishes are labeled 'small' dishes and consists of dishes like phoenix claws aka chicken feet. There are 'medium', 'large' and 'deluxe' dishes with the deluxe dishes consisting of special ala carte dishes usually served on plates rather than in baskets like fried whitebait fish, suckling pig and blanched vegetables. In recent times, the 'small' dishes have been slowly disappearing and prices increasing to $5.50 when it was previously $3.50 pre inflation. 

Speaking in terms of pre inflation like this makes me feel like an old person. In the old days... and cue adjusting my reading glasses. Call me an old person, but I sure miss the good old days. 

So when we go for yumcha, it is a special treat. On one of the occasion that we were nearby Bourke St last year, we went to Tim Ho Wan. Not all the dishes are the traditional yumcha dishes I'm used to but they are Cantonese dishes that I like. 

We ordered Golden Tofu ($9.20). It was deep fried and covered with sichimi chilli powder and seaweed. OK.. maybe not a traditional Cantonese dish, but who doesn't like deep fried food eh?

This next one is traditional Cantonese food - BBQ pork rice roll ($11). For some reason rice rolls have become very popular recently. There is a place in the city that specialises in rice rolls. Their rice rolls are much thinner and silkier whereas these are a little thicker and doughier. 

Personally I prefer the thinner ones because they're silkier and more delicate. Each roll is handmade and steamed to order so the quality is better. But, because it is thinner, it takes more to be full and at $14.50 per dish it is not a cheap carbo meal to gorge on. 

We also ordered the beef noodle soup ($11) to try. It was a small bowl of noodles and beef so that one does not feel too full to try other dishes. 

The bok choy in the noodles was a welcome element to the meal. 

At last, a yumcha dish! Spinach dumpling with prawns ($9.20). This is certainly not a frozen dumpling, because the filling was plentiful and tasted fresh. The spinach looked green and fresh. 

I would have liked more dumplings, after all isn't that what dimsum is about? But we had to reserve our stomach power for something else and that is dessert...

Mixue, a popular Chinese chain of bubble tea and ice cream opening up in Melbourne was a long awaited event. We tried out their vanilla ice cream ($2) and a milk tea drink ($4.60). The prices are good, but the ice cream tastes icy rather than creamy. Well, at least they got one of the components right... Icy, but not creamy..

The milk tea was average. It did not have a fragrant tea taste but not too sweet, which I liked. 

So on the one hand, we have a cheap but taste average case and another where it is not cheap but taste better case.. what to do? 
 

Mini Dragon, Wantirna

Lots have been written, youtubed and talked about noodles like knife cut noodles, hand kneaded noodles, egg noodles, rice noodles, but what about hand torn noodles? Malaysian hand torn noodles called mee hoon kueh is difficult to find in Melboune. There is literally only a handful of restaurants that serve this dish! Even in Malaysia, it is not widely served because the dough has to be freshly made by hand to order, and it is time consuming to make. Imagine having to spend 10 mins to knead and tear by hand, to make 1 bowl of noodles when the vendor can make 10 bowl of noodles using premade noodles with the same amount of time!

I am sure I  have written about mee hoon kueh before in the past on this blog, about my attempts to make this noodle. Alas, making these at home is not as tasty or easy as going to a restaurant for a hot bowl. Finally, there is a restaurant that serves this dish! For $12.90, one can get a bowl of mee hoon kueh and a drink at Mini Dragon. 

The noodles are thin and silky, the size of a mouth. The fluttering edges of the dough makes the slide down the throat most satisfactory. The soup is an anchovy broth that is the familiar taste of home. Salty, umami taste that is needed to accompany the noodles.

The obligatory minced pork, deep fried anchovies are sadly not adequate. The minced pork was cold, and the deep fried anchovies are not crunchy. It was quite difficult to chew actually and it detracted from the whole experience. Otherwise, I really liked the mee hoon kueh. Just the noodles and broth was so good.

 Another lunch special is the Hainanese Chicken Rice. This was not too bad, but I prefer the rice a bit less mushy and the chicken silkier. Overall, it was not too bad. 

Parking at the front of the shop is limited to half or 1 hour but there are more all day parking spaces around the corner from the shop. 

If you are hankering for a nostalgic taste of mee hoon kueh, have a try of it here.

Later that month, we returned to try their dinner menu and ordered Marmite Pork Ribs and XO Fish Fillet. Both the dishes were deep fried before doused with sauce, and both were brown! What a coincidence. There were not many interesting vege dishes, except for stir fried sweet potato leaves but it was not great value, about $23 per plate. 

The dishes on the dinner menu are about $25-$30. The hawker food dishes on the lunch menu at $12.90 are great value. 

The Marmite Pork was tasty and reminded me of the same dish that can often be found in 'dai chow' stalls in Malaysia.

The best value dish on the dinner menu are the fish fillet dishes at $18.80

The fish fillet used are barramundi fillets. There are a variety of sauces to choose from, like Nyonya sauce (their bestseller), XO sauce, Thai, Sichuan, Special and Sambal sauce. Gaz wanted to try their XO sauce and liked it. I would like to try the Thai style sauce next time.