Bamboo

Although I said that dinner wan’t so nice at Banboo restaurant in Willetton, I still liked their salt & chili pepper squid.  It was nicely crispy, and I enjoyed it with pickled chili and vegetables.  In some restaurants (not only Chinese restaurants) texture of squid is like rubber.  I really hate when someone serve such dish at restaurants.  I think they are using frozen cheap squid, and they don’t cook properly.  I know one Chinese restaurant on South Street that sells rubbery seafood clay-pot dish.  I don’t only hate the fact that seafood is like rubber, but also the taste!  I can tell they use MSG…  I really didn’t wanna pay for the dish

Talking about seafood, I really loved Honey Prawn at Yu (Burswood Entertainment complex).  The prawn was reasonably big, and juicy.

Saigon

Located at the centre of Northbridge, I’m sure that lots of people know this restaurant.  Saigon is a city in Vietnam, and as this name indicates this restaurant serves Vietnamese/Chinese food.

I was still learning English at TAFE (Technical and Further Education institute) when I first tried this place. (6 years ago!)  My classmate (who had been in Perth for few years) recommended a dish called “Saigon chicken rice” to me, and since then I order this dish every time I go to this restaurant, even now.

Besides the taste, the price was also another big factor why I kept eating this dish.  Back then it was just $4.50!  Now, however, it’s about $7? $8?  I’m not sure…  Price’s been gone up.

I usually order fresh spring rolls as entree.  I love the sauce!  shredded carrot and crushed peanuts…

Then, Saigon Chicken Rice…

The sauce is kind of sweet, and you can eat lots and lots of rice with just this sauce.  (which is not a good thing if considering the calorie, actually :p)  The chicken is roasted or fried first, so it’s crispy outside.   This one dish really fill me up, I think men will like this dish.

Yum Cha

Do you like Dim Sum?  In Perth you can get them pretty cheap as compared as in Japan.

Which Dim Sum dish do you like?  My favorites are…

Fried Squid (everyone’s favorite!), Steamed Prawn Dumplings, Prawn in Rice Flour Rolls, Chicken Feet, GInger Tripe, and mango pudding.

Those dishes are what I order every time I go out for yam cha.  I know some people don’t like chicken feet, tripe etc, but I love those offal (if it’s cooked nicely!)

Yes, looks little gross… :p

By the way do you know why this dining experience (eating small servings of different foods) is called “Yam Cha”?  Yam Cha in Chinese character (飲茶) means “drinking tea”, which means that you need to drink lots of tea while having those food as the foods are usually oily and high in fat.  Drinking Chinese tea helps digesting those oily food.  That’s why you need to order Chinese tea at Yam Cha restaurants!

Singapore Hawker Chinese Food

Collins Plaza is a place where few restaurants are gathered and I sometimes go there for lunch and dinner.  There is one Japanese restaurant “Yuki Japanese”, and few Chinese restaurants.  Korean grocery shop “Hi Mart” is there too.  I see Korean people hanging around this area often.

I’ve went to Yuki few times and their food is nice.  The owner is not a Japanese but the interior is well presented and staff are friendly.  One of the Chinese place at this Collins Plaza is Bamboo (I think there is Bamboo restaurant in Northbridge or somewhere too), and their lunch menu was delicious!  I had curry laksa and other dishes looked very nice too. I was little disappointed when I went to this place for dinner though.  The dishes were not as nice as lunch menu   I don’t know why: different chefs, maybe.  Especially, crispy chicken.  The sauce was too buttery and it was not to my taste :p

The another Chinese place I’ve been to is Singapore Hawkers Chinese food.  Even though this place is small as compared with Bamboo, their food was very nice.  For lunch I had Nasi Lemak, and the price was cheap too.

The other day I tried this place for dinner.  We ordered stir-fried Kan Kun (Chinese vegetable) with sambal, fried duck with plam sauce, sizzling seafood combination plate, and sambal squid.

Personally, I thought they put  little too much vegetables on each plate; for example, Sambal Squid dish got tomato, carrot, onion, and okura.  I think they don’t need to put any veggies as this dish is called “Sambal Squid”, but you know how much I love vegetables.  I really enjoyed it.

Sizzling seafood plate (with cauliflower, capsicum and onion) was little different from what I expected, but my family was enjoying it very much.

Four dishes and steamed rice, it was less than 60 dollars!  Really cheap.  No wonder they’re very busy and many people kept coming for take away.

Chin’s Noodle House

This Chinese restaurant in Leeming is one of the places I often go to for dinner.  They are usually fully booked on weekends so we have to make booking few days in advance.  

Despite the busyness their service is good.  Food is served quickly and wait staff often come to table to check if everything is ok.

We usually get san choi bao or Peking duck for entree, and few mains.  Some of their dish is great, and some are ok.  This time we ordered roast meat combination (large size – choice of three meat/octopus), crispy beef and seafood claypot with beancurd.  

Again, the photo is not nice…

I love seafood claypot dish.  I personally prefer it with Japanese tofu, but this dish was also delicious.  This crispy beef, the meat is deep-fried and tossed through a sweet sauce – you can eat rice with just the sauce!

We got roasted duck, bbq pork and octopus for roast combination.  They’re delicious.

If you like seafood I recommend crab cooked with chili sauce Singapore style.  You’ll need to wash you hands after eating this dish…  but very nice!  Or, why not try Lobster sashimi??  I haven’t tried this dish yet, but I’m curious how Chinese sashimi would look like.