If inexpensive Chinese food is your thing, Burwood is a must. There’s Shanghai-style dumplings, wonton soup from Jiangsu and a choose-you-own-adventure bowl. Add in some chicken wings from Korea and the fact it’s easy to navigate (it’s all pretty much located on Burwood Road), and you’ve got a bunch of reasons to head to this inner-west suburb.
Nanjig wonton soup at My Chinese Kitchen – $6.80
Lisa Wang gives a coy smile when she describes the broth of her Nanjing wonton soup. “It’s very unique. The soup is made from chicken stock and we mix it with something secret. It’s very delicious.”
Fifteen translucent, handmade wontons float in the yellow-tinged broth and each delicate wrapper is filled with a well-seasoned mixture of pork, ginger and shallots. “The wrapper is very thin. We make it ourselves because you can’t buy such thin pastry from any shops.”
You couldn’t be blamed for worrying that such thin pastry might be in danger of breaking. “No, no, no it don’t break,” says the owner and chef of My Chinese Kitchen, which specialises in the food of Jiangsu, a coastal Chinese province north of Shanghai. “When you put the wonton in boiling water, you do it very quick, otherwise it will melt.”
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SIGN UPPork-and-prawn dumplings at Sydney Dumpling King – $11.90
Before the lunch rush, Sydney Dumpling King has a convivial atmosphere filled with the sounds of women chatting over a work counter as they pinch balls from fat snakes of floured dough. These will form the wrappers for the restaurant’s myriad dumplings. How many do they make? There’s some discussion before they decide on roughly 2000 per day.
There are lots of fillings available, but the generous pork with prawn is the tastiest. Sydney Dumpling King eschews the usual three-ingredient mixture and fills the dumplings with tender pork and prawn meat, wood ear mushroom threads, egg and chives. Try them boiled, dipped in a mixture of black vinegar and chilli oil.
Soup from Yan Guo Fu Malatang – $12 (for 500 grams)
The long queue at Yan Guo Fu Malatang is a sign that good food awaits. It also gives English-speakers a chance to figure out what’s going on.
The shop is light on instructions, so follow by example. Grab a big glass bowl, a pair of tongs and choose anything that takes your fancy from the containers.
At one end there’s an abundance of dark leafy greens, sheets of beancurd, veiny taro and plump puffs of tofu. Further along there’s an array of noodles and thinly sliced, marbled meat, fish balls, and pig’s blood congealed into wobbly cubes.
The cashier weighs the bowl and spirits it away to a row of fast-working cooks who chop the ingredients and cook them in a tasty beef-based broth.
When your number is called make sure to answer “all of them” to the question: “Which toppings?” It will earn you an approving look from the cashier and makes for the best soup. Toppings include a liquidy sesame paste, pepper oil, sugar, black vinegar and a splash of lip-numbing Sichuan chilli oil.
Murray Place Arcade, 123–127 Burwood Road
Sheng jian bao dumplings at Yang’s Dumplings– $8.80 for six
The crisp bottoms and flavourful fillings of sheng jian bao dumplings make them a Shanghai favourite. Made in-house daily, they’re filled with minced pork and balanced with rich broth.
They’re tricky to eat because it’s easy to burn yourself on the soup, so owner Stephen Poo says to take a small bite at the top, add some chili oil and black vinegar to cool the filling, and then take a second bite.
We have a different strategy, though.
Dip the whole dumpling in vinegar and chilli, put it in a spoon and puncture the wrapper with a chopstick to let some broth run out into the spoon. Then you can safely slurp the soup and take a bite of the dumpling while everything is hot and tasty.
They’re delicious either way.
Durian bun at Maria’s Bakery Inn – $4
Maria’s Bakery Inn has the cosy, well-loved look of a place that’s been trading on Burwood’s main strip for 28 years. Customers stream in to pile barbeque pork buns, chicken buns and durian buns on trays to take away.
Durian might have an identity problem – its milky-white flesh is slightly slimy and renowned for being stinky – but actually the scent is tropical and it’s fruit has a lovely, complex flavour.
Maria’s durian bun is two slices of a fluffy yellow Hong Kong pineapple bun, or bo luo bao, wrapped around durian that’s cut like thick slabs of butter. “We’re using the real durian meat mixed with butter cream,” says store manager Ping Liang.
Don’t be deceived by its compact size; the durian bun is filling. “One bun is enough. Like a lunch, it makes you really full,” says Liang.
Chicken wings at Chir Chir – $12
If Chir Chir has the uniformity of a chain restaurant, that’s because it is one. The menus are glossy, the decor out-of-the-box and the staff smartly uniformed. It’s also noticeably different from much of the rest of Burwood, where incredible eateries are more often than not no-frills.
With more than 200 restaurants across Korea and Taiwan, Chir Chir has perfected its fried-chicken recipe. A good option is the half order of wings, which is filling and delectable. They have a light, crisp batter that seals in moisture and they come in two sauces – either a fiery, red, sticky chilli sauce or a salty, dry garlic one.
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