Bites: Dim Sum @ Dragon Palace, Northbridge

Dim sum has always been a favourite of mine.  Whether it is an early morning brekkie at 6am or brunch at 11am, its a meal that I look forward too!  Since coming to Perth, I have eaten at pretty much every dim sum restaurant in Northbridge. Most of them had their fair hit and misses which is well, quite understandable.  While most serve the common fare of siew mai and prawn dumplings, as well as squid tentacles, I find that Dragon Palace has a larger assortment of food to offer!  One of my favourites would be the spicy cold chicken!

Spicy and tasty! The chilli oil has that typical ‘numbing effect’ of the Szechuan peppers!

Another favourite which I first had when Nana ordered it for our lunch last year!

Pan-fried XO radish cake! Super yums!!

While the next one is quite a common dumpling, I believe Dragon Palace does it BEST!  Had it at Xin Tian Di (previously Jade), and EWWWWWW the lard was not melted properly.  So instead of a liquid-y/soupy consistency, you had something that felt rather oily and rough, imagine an oily soup that has started to cool.

Steamed Ribs with Cheong Fan!!

Similar to the normal ribs, but this one has rice rolls to soak up all the tasty rib sauce!

Of course Dragon Palace had a lot more dumplings to offer! But with the usual dumplings like Siew Mai and other Prawn dumplings crowding the table, it was not worth taking!  Overall, a meal at Dragon Palace is 5 bucks more than usual, leading the bill to about $22-25 per person.  But it’s good quality food in a fairly upmarket ambience.. although the noisy crowd is something else.. @@!  The service is pretty decent but tend to be rather slow and inattentive during lunch periods.  Filling up teapots can be rather tricky then!  Putting minor flaws aside, Dragon Palace is my pick for nice dim sum!  Although I have to insist that the best squid tentacles come from the Dim Sim Cafe!!

WenY

Bites: Heather’s Hutch Cafe @ Nedlands

Taxation is a done deal, so is Investment Analysis and Financial Accounting Theory & Practice.  Exam season has not been kind to me.  It has been raining every single freaking morning!!  Cold.. hungry.. *emo*!  But that is ok, I found a nice place to seek shelter from the cruel winter!  After taxation on Tuesday, darling and I were literally starving!  Not to mention it a typical cold winter afternoon with chilly winds with puddle of water everywhere!!  Hungry as we were, we wanted to eat something proper!  After much thought we decided to eat nearby and it immediately came to my mind that there is a nearby cafe neatly tucked amongst the apartments on Broadway!  Decided to try my luck because I remember them being closed on some days!  Lucky as we were, Heather’s was actually open!!

 

Heather’s  Hutch and its interior!  Felt slightly vintage! 

 

We order the mushroom soup ($9) and a lasagne ($16) to share!!  I have to say, both of it turned out nicely.  But god the serving is just too big!  Both of us did not manage to finish even half of the lasagne I think.  No doubt it was yummy, but the serving was crazy huge.  I think something like twice the thickness and twice the size of the one sold in uni!!!  For the size, and quality (of course!), the price is justified!  But then again, it is really too filling for one person!  Next time if I came alone, I would like to have the soup again!  So yummy!!

 

Ok mates, over and out! Today I woke up at 6am, reached uni about 7am and started nerding! So goddamn sleepy now! Off to bed!! Oink oink!

 

WenY

Bites: The Imp @Victoria Park

I promised myself awhile ago that I shall abstain from any food blogging but ZzzzzZzz. I got bored of studying :P!  I have been to new brekkie place over the weekends so I’m here to share my latest brekkie tryout in Perth!  The place is just a couple of minutes away from home and it is really convenient!  The Imp is conveniently located along Albany highway near to Toto and is pretty much a nearby neighbour of Utopia BBT.

 

We started our morning pretty late at about 10 but that is pretty early considering that I sleep about 3-5am everyday.  I guess this is the Asian thing huh?  Wonder how I will cope with my lifestyle once I graduate! The Imp was pretty crowded possibly a mix of old customers and new ones driven by hype and curiosity!  On the menu, the Imp has all the usual suspects but my exploit this morning would be the big brekkie.  At least I know it is something that will last through dinner :D!

I decided to give a miss on the drinks but sister had to have her daily dose of caffeine which I have to insist came out very very tempting!

With a froth of layer to die for, I would have loved this to be a hot chocolate!   But alas, it is still coffee, my arch nemesis.  My sister says that the barista is from one of the cafes she frequents in city!   On the taste, well I did not take a sip so I’m pretty much clueless!

 

Pretty much all of us had the big breakfast except YH and Kelvin!

Poached eggs on sourdough toast for the first course? :)!  While we had 6 poached eggs on the table, darling was a little let down by the fact that hers was cook through.  No more liquidy yolk!!!  EMOOOOOO!!  Fortunately mine was every bit as runny as it should be! 

 

Bacons! What would you do without these??  It is even a complete breakfast meal without these?  Most would say no but I would beg to differ!  Nevertheless, crunchy bits of salty goodness are outmost welcomed in my tummy!! I mean, who would every say no?

 

And for the final course on the plate, we see the Imp’s hash browns, roasted tomatoes, chipolatas and homemade beans.  While the sausages were mediocre at best, the hash browns and full flavoured tomato was something to die for!@!@#!  I liked the hash browns as they very unique and pretty different in every way!  The tomatoes were good, very juicy and everything a good tomato should be.  Had plenty which still felt raw inside, while this was juicy throughout!  The homemade beans, felt undercooked but the sauce which tended to be a little spicy was really good.  Or at least I thought so :)! 

Nevertheless, seeing the uninspiring chipolatas was a let down.  I mean seriously?  =X!  I feel that the big breakfast all over Perth, especially top rated ones fail to amuse in this department!@#!@#  I hate all, I MEAN pretty much all the sausages I have eaten so far. 2 words to describe them - “uninspiringly boring”.

 

Next comes what I dare say, the winner!  This was YH’s open BLT!  So what makes this the winner? Well, first you do not see any bread.  And then the plating is on a plank of wood. Mmmm awesome aye?  Hehe ok, I’ll stop cocking for a moment.  But really, generous lashings of balsamic with crispy-wafer thin bacon streaks and a runny poached egg was just too hard to ignore.  It was so, so, so good!  Shaved cheese did add some complexity but wow, the choice of balsamic, it was really good.  So good I must insist.

YH’s open BLT!

 

Putting the sausages aside, I thoroughly enjoyed the big breakfast although if you were to compare it to the savoury Asian breakfast I had at Gopi the day before, … .  The simplicity or rather complexity taken for granted in Malaysian breakfast food was so satisfying even though the Nasi Lemak rice was not “lemak” enough.  Overall, the morning was all good at the Imp, the pricing was decent, food above average (putting sausages aside)  and wow, the open blt? Desirable!!

 

WenY