Mr Taste and I were recently invited to take part in New Shanghai’s first ever Wine & Dumpling dinner, which also coincided with the launch of their brand new wine menu designed and compiled by Treasury Wines.

The new wine menu features aromatic whites with dry lean characteristics and robust reds that are full bodied in finish. The wines are designed to both complement and contrast New Shanghai’s menu, not only to cleanse the palate but also balance out the rich flavours.

I was particularly impressed with the selection of whites, which included a Leo Buring Clare Valley Riesling 2011 with subtle pear and apple notes and the Angel Cove Marlborough Savignon Blanc 2010, which had a refreshing cut grass and fresh capsicum quality. Sadly, both wines are restaurant exclusives, so do give them a shot if you spot them.

To ease down the wine, we were served six courses of New Shanghai’s signature dishes, including their famous panfried pork buns and xiao long bao – which need no introduction at all!

Pan fried pork bun and pan fried pork dumpling

Steamed soup dumpling, mini crab meat and pork bun, steamed vegetarian dumpling

We began with a cold platter, including pickled cucumber, kelp and drunken chicken. All three are considered ‘drinking snacks’ in Chinese, so it was a great way to start the dinner.

Shredded kelp in spice and vinegar, chopped cucumber with fresh garlic and drunken chicken, soaked in Chinese wine

I was a big fan of New Shanghai’s shepherds purse dumplings, which sat in a nutty sesame butter emulsion. The topping of grated cucumber added some subtlety and crunch to the dish.

Shepherd

The main course of crispy chicken and sticky pork belly was also a standout. The pork worked perfectly with the Penfolds Koonunga Hill 76 Shiraz Cabernet 2010 which I found too overpowering sipped alone. But together, the wine brought out a lovely plummy caramel quality in the pork belly. All hallmarks of a great pairing!

Braised pork belly and deep fried chicken in special garlic and chilli sauce

The dessert of slow cooked fungus was a bit of a wildcard. As it was slow cooked, the fungus was quite ‘slimey’ and made it a difficult flavor and texture to grasp for the uninitiated. I didn’t mind it so much, as it was a welcome sweet respite at end of the meal.

Slow cooked white fungus with papaya soup

New Shanghai will be holding a series of Wine & Dumplings dinners this summer, with the next one scheduled for the Charlestown store in November For full details, please visit www.newshanghai.com.au.

New Shanghai
Chatswood Chase
Victoria Avenue
Chatswood NSW
# 02 9415 3536
www.newshanghai.com.au

Waiting in the winter sunshine keeps us warm on the outside until the strong, cold breeze sweeps in and chills our bodies. We stay focused on that delicious, hot, comforting bowl of ramen which is just below our noses… on the other side of the window.

A few people leave and we’re invited to wait inside at the top of the queue position. Our eyes scan each table, each bowl, looking for who’s going to finish next. Standing beside us, doing the same is Ryo, who signals us towards the seats on the communal table.

Ryo's bright orange menu

Our rice ball arrives first, a compacted package of rice and roast pork wrapped in a soft sheet of nori. We split it down the middle, just enough to get our stomach out of first gear. It’s so dense, yet still warm and soft and we’re weary not to chow it down too fast to save some space for the main event, the ramen!

Roast Pork rice ball - $4

My heart is set on #3, the spicy tonkotsu ramen which was a part of my weekly diet when I worked at St Leonards and was able to have lunch dates with Ms. Taste. I order an extra serve of sweet corn that cuts through the rich, hearty soup. The noodles rise out of the soup, covered in the fiery burning red oil, bouncy and delicious. Each mouthful the same, a few noodles onto the spoon, a tiny bit of pork, a tiny corner of egg, a corn kernel or three, a dip into the soup making sure to get a bit of chilli oil and a stray shallot… years of perfection refined.

#3 Tonkotsu - Spicy Hot flavour w/ roast pork, egg and shallots - $11.5 (corn extra $1 or so)

Ms. Taste orders from the chicken side of the menu – the clearer, less heart attack inducing broth, yet with the same delicious noodles. I don’t take much interest in her dish as she polishes off the whole bowl while I am only a quarter of the way through mine.

#6 Chicken soup - Tokyo style soy sauce flavour w/ roast pork, nori, bamboo shoots, egg - $10.5

Ms. Taste has a case of ordering with her stomach and not with her head as the karaage chicken arrives just as she has polished off her bowl of noodles. She takes a bite out of a piece and shuts up shop, pushing the remaining 5 or 6 smoking hot pieces towards me.

Karaage chicken - $6

As long as there’s still some wonderful ramen soup remaining, I can continue to eat anything. So I adjust my meal qi, decreasing my soup portion with each mouthful and increasing the fried chicken portion to keep my meal in perfect balanced harmony. Nothing is more satisfying than finishing with your last bites contain every single component of the meal.

Ryo's

Ryo’s Noodles
125 Falcon St
Crows Nest
NSW 2065
# 02 9955 0225

Open every day except Wednesday from 12pm-2:30pm for lunch and 5pm-9:30pm for dinner.

Grilled chorizo, jamon Serrano on Catalan bread and Sicilian green olives

Back then, food photography was the last thing I thought I’d use the camera for. But since starting the blog, I’ve learned so much about photography and the lengthy post processing involved in achieving a good photo. Still, there is only so much you can learn on your own without a little guidance from a professional. So when I found out that Billy Law from A Table For Two was running food photography workshops, the opportunity was simply too good to pass up.

I have always been a big fan of Billy’s work, even before I started blogging. His photos have a distinct style that demand your attention and tell a story that’s more effective than words. This, I believe, is the true mark of a great photographer.

The food photography workshop at Mumu Grill ran for around three hours. Billy started with a short introduction on the basics of photography – ISO, white balance, metering – before indepth discussion about composition, editing and publishing.

Without giving away all of Billy’s secrets, here are the tips I found most useful:

* Custom White Balance – Adjusting the white balance on your camera makes an enormous difference to your photos and saves you loads of time in post processing. I didn’t realise how easy it was to use. Simply take a photo of a white surface (cardboard, tablecloth, plate), change your white balance to custom and set that photo as the template. All your photos will then automatically adjust to compensate whatever lighting condition you’re in. I’ve lessened the use of my flash gun since discovering this simple trick.

* Rule of Thirds – When you’re taking your photos, be mindful that the important compositional elements should fall into the imaginary intersections created by two equally-spaced horizontal lines and two equally-spaced vertical lines. Keeping to this rule will give you more interesting photos. See here for more information on the rule.

* Noise Reduction – As most of you will know, taking photos without a flash in a dimly lit restaurant is a recipe for disaster. You either end up with photos that are too dark or too grainy to use. A nifty little program called Neat Image is a quick and easy way of reducing noise in photos without the undesirable pixelation.

* Square Plates – Fancy to look at, but incredibly hard to photograph. As Billy puts it, “square plates are evil”. As a rule of thumb, avoid lining up the sides of a square plate with the frame of the camera. This produces uneven, disoriented photos that are not easy on the eyes.

Chorizo braised in red ale with parmesan

As the group broke lunch, we each whipped out our cameras and snapped away at the plates on our tables. The food at Mumu Grill was beautifully simple, where natural wholesome flavours are the highlight. It comes as no surprise that only organic and sustainable ingredients feature on the menu. The dish that intrigued me the most was the pancetta ice cream, which tasted deceptively like chocolate honeycomb with its salty caramel flavours. Let’s hope Craig puts this clever little creation on the menu as a permanent fixture!

Game bird empanadas with Mumu BBQ Sauce

T-bone tagliatta

Duck fat potatoes

Dessert platter - gingerbread and mascarpone sandwich, chocolate raspberry tart, brown sugar pavlova and salted caramel ice cream with pancetta

For more information about A Table For Two’s food photography workshops, please visit www.atablefortwo.com.au. Billy has just released new dates for his July and August workshops, get in quick because they book out fast!

Mumu Grill
70-76 Alexander Street
Crows Nest
# 02 9460 6877
www.mumugrill.com.au

Peri Peri - Chicken Breast Fillets, Shallots, Roasted Capsicum, Caramelised Onions & Bocconcini, topped with Peri-Peri sauce $20 Large

Crust Gourmet Pizza is taking Australia by storm. With stores popping up in key surburbs all over Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, Crust’s hook is in their fresh gourmet ingredients – take that! Pizza Hut. A few even have the Heart Foundation’s tick of approval (although I’m not so sure it’s such a great measure considering McDonalds, Milo and Fruit Fix are also on that list).

We are regular Crust go-ers – their piping hot pizzas are great for lazy nights in and when we have company over. There’s also plenty of flavours to choose from – our favourites so far have been the Aussie, Peri Peri, Magherita and Proscuitto.

At $20+ for a large pizza, it is not the cheapest takeaway pizza around but there is free home delivery thrown in!

Peri Peri - Chicken Breast Fillets, Shallots, Roasted Capsicum, Caramelised Onions & Bocconcini, topped with Peri-Peri sauce

Aussie - Ham, Bacon, Egg Large $15

Prosciutto - Prosciutto, Roma Tomatoes, Garlic, topped with Shaved Parmesan & Wild Rocket Large $20

For a slice of the action, visit www.crust.com.au.

So it made absolute sense for New Shanghai to open shop in Chatswood. Nestled in the lesser known Lemon Grove shopping centre opposite Westfield, New Shanghai had no trouble spreading the word about its launch thanks to its booming sister store in Ashfield.

Xiao Long Bao - $6.80

We all have Din Tai Fung to thank for catapulting Shanghai cuisine into popular consciousness. Before it came around, our appetite for Shanghai’s ‘xiao chi’ (or ‘small eats’) was nurtured by trips to Sydney’s Little Shanghai in Ashfield.

New Shanghai

Skilled dumpling makers

As you walk into New Shanghai, it’s hard to overlook the ‘xiao long bao’ being made right in front of your eyes. The skill and finesse that goes into each one is incredible. Perhaps it’s this command over the art of dumplings that makes the xiao long bao here taste so good. Once you bite into the skin, the filling seeps into your mouth with a burst of flavour. The soup is light, tasty and rolls off the tongue. It isn’t slimey and slippery like the ones you might find at cheaper imitations.

Here are some of my favourite dishes at New Shanghai:

Drunken Chicken

Jellyfish with Cucumber Salad

Shanghai Rice Cake

Pork and Crab Meat Xiao Long Bao

Dumplings

Pan-fried bottom

Vegetarian Wonton Soup

Crispy Skin Chicken

Marinated Beef Slices

Steamed dumplings

Pork with Vegetable Hand Made Noodles

The service and value-for-money at New Shanghai is top notch. Orders start filtering out from the moment you order, even when there’s a full house and a line at the door. The majority of dishes on the menu are under $15, with many just under $10. Just on that note, we did see signs up saying that the menus had ‘opening special’ pricing, which means the prices could go up in a few weeks.

New Shanghai
Shop 20
Lemon Grove Shopping Centre
427-441 Victoria Avenue
Chatswood
# 02 9415 3536
(Bookings are recommended!)

Open 7 days from 10am until 8pm.

But trying to find quality ramen in Sydney can be a matter of ‘hit-and-miss’. The worst was at a “sushi bar” in Parramatta which served me glorified two-minute noodles. Actually no, they were just two-minute noodles. Glorified is a bit of an overstatement.

I do think I am one of the lucky ones though. I grew up in Hornsby and spent my high school and uni years within easy reach of Tokyo Ramen. Weekly lunches here were a great way for me to catch up with friends and satisfy an empty stomach. But even having moved away from the area, I still make the effort to travel to Hornsby for a hearty bowl of noodley goodness (and to visit my parents of course!).

This cosy noodle bar reminds me of the noodle joints nestled in Shinjuku

Tokyo Ramen is hidden in the lower ground floor of Hornsby’s Westfield shopping centre, just metres away from the Coles supermarket. It serves up a fantastic selection of ramen, soba, udon, tempura and don dishes around $15 or less. There is also a Tokyo Sushi stall just outside, which has fresh sushi for hungry passers by.

A word of warning, if you like your ramen noodles swirling in a velvety tonkotsu broth – like you would expect at Ryo’s or Zenya – Tokyo Ramen is not the place for you. The noodles here are made ‘Tokyo’ style with a soy-flavoured chicken broth and a ‘dash’ of dashi.

Negimiso Ramen

My absolute favourite dish here is the Negimiso Ramen, which has a miso based soup, topped with a spicy combination of leeks, shallots, chasu pork and chilli. The flavours are reminiscent of Sichuan cooking – sans the tongue numbing peppercorns! The soup can be quite heavy at times but when done right, the noodles are pure magic.

My other ramen of choice here is the Beef Ramen, which offers a tasty chicken broth topped with a beef veggie stir fry. You won’t find it anywhere else!

Miso Ramen with Butter and Corn

I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve never tried anything else on Tokyo Ramen‘s menu besides the ramen, but my dining company over the years tell me that the Don dishes are quite good too.

I’ve always hoped that Tokyo Ramen would open up more stores around the city. But unfortunately, their one attempt at expanding to Parramatta collapsed due to poor business. It is a shame because an eatery smack bang in Chinatown in the city would do absolute wonders.

Tokyo Ramen
Shop 1042
Westfield Shopping Centre
236 Pacific Highway
Hornsby NSW 2077
# 02 9987 2688
www.tokyoramen.com.au

I knew instantly after reading about The Counter, we needed to make the trip to Crows Nest to take in this authentic American burger joint to relive the fond memories of our last trip to the US.

Noone was sitting at the counter!

So on a cold, wet winter’s night, with empty stomachs and stuck all the way in the lower North Shore, Ms. Taste and I headed to check out The Counter. The restaurant is as classic an American diner can get (with a hint of Aussie locality thanks to the live rugby feed on the large flatscreen TVs). Even our waiter had an American accent!

Strawberry Milkshake

I had the strawberry shake which, surprisingly, was made from real strawberries. Oh the joy of fishing out bits of little strawberries from the bottom. I would describe the size as ‘Aussie modest’ (as opposed to the ‘America ridiculous’ we had in Las Vegas which was twice the size). I was still able to finish it off before we left – no wastage!

Half n Half - Sweet Chips and Onion Strings

I really liked these sweet potato chips. A nice alternative to regular french fries, I only wish more places would have these. The onion strings were pretty good too, but after also having them stuffed in my burger, I couldn’t finish this off.

The Counter Burger

When it came to selecting our burgers, the multitude of choices we were offered meant analysis paralysis. After much deliberation, I choose the preset Counter Burger. It has the smaller 150g size beef patty (weighed after cooking!), sauteed mushrooms, onion strings, provolone, lettuce, tomato and a sun dried tomato vinaigrette. It tasted just as good as any American burger, minus the heart aching fat factor.

Ms Taste chose the custom built option: wholemeal bun, 150g size beef patty, grilled onions, beetroot, provolone, mixed lettuce and red relish sauce. In case you haven’t already`guessed, she was trying to recreate the McOz – bring it back McDonalds!!!!

Custom Burger

The Counter
118 Willoughby Road
Crows Nest NSW 2065
# (02) 9436 2700
www.thecounterburger.com

Tuesday to Wednesday – 11:30am-9pm
Thursday and Friday – 11:30am-10pm
Saturday – 12pm-10pm
Sunday – 12pm-9pm

For other reviews on The Counter, check out what some of our favourite bloggers had to say:

Lisa’s recent trip to The Counter at Spicy Icecream

Spicy Icecream

FFichiban’s completely awesome visit to The Counter at Here Comes The Food:

Here Comes The Food

Stephcookie’s head to head review of Grill’d and The Counter at Raspberri Cupcakes

Raspberri Cupcakes

A great, comprehensive review at Not Quite Nigella on The Counter:

Not Quite Nigella