Comments on: One-plus-One Dumplings: Uyghur-licious

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 07:56:13 +0000

“Chinese food in Australia is for the most part, awful …” , strange – where have you been eating ? There *are* plenty of bad Chinese restaurants here (as there are Italian, Indian, French, Japanese, etc etc) but there ane many good ones as well, some truly excellent. As for the rest of Australia, I don’t know, but one has a better chance of hitting on good Cantonese food in Melbourne than on good Italian fare. Its the Indian eating places in this city which are usually awful – just a very few notable exceptions.
As one of the previous posters noted Chinese food has been around (in Victoria at least) since the gold rush, mainly Cantonese as southerners predominated among those seeking gold. The cessation of migration at Federation (White Australia Policy) cut of that flow of natives which seems necessary to keep honest any cuisine transplanted to a foreign land. Throughout the last century just about every Victorian country town had its Chinese restaurant and in most the food had become ‘adjusted to Australian tastes’ (one could discern the Chinese origin of a dish, sometimes only with a fair effort !) Despite this genuine Cantonese food has been available in Melbourne for a long time. When my Cantonese parents-in- law (gourmets from Singapore) came to visit in the early 1970’s they arrived with low expectations in relation to eating but were amazed at what they found. Some dishes (helped by the availability of better ingredients) they said were better than what could be had in Singapore. It’s only got better in the years since.
The large migration (and temporary student residents) of the past decade have provided a new stimulus to quality Chinese food as well as increased diversity, as unlike in gold rush times, the recent arrivals are from many parts of China.
Aussie palates and perceptions still remain a threat to a continuation of high quality Chinese cuisine in this country (as, too, for all manner of other cuisines) – witness the ignorant writing which regularly masquerades as food reviews in our broadsheets …. and the diners with bottles of wine even in “classy” Chinese restaurants. I’ve seen a party drinking Grange with dim sum at what is probably the city’s best dim sum restaurant; God help us !!

By: Melbourne bites - Austin Bush Photography

Melbourne bites - Austin Bush Photography — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:48:09 +0000

[...] the form of a grubby Chinese restaurant in Footscray called 1+1 Dumpling Noodles. The restaurant, which Phil has previously written about, has a largely predictable northern Chinese menu, but with a few obscure but delicious [...]

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 02:11:53 +0000

querycurio – You’re right. There is some fantastic Chinese food in Melbourne but it is in the minority and generally hard to find. If you picked a Chinese restaurant at random from an Australian phone book, I could almost guarantee you that it would be bad.

By: querycurio

querycurio — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 05:47:29 +0000

oh kewl .. I’ve also seen a Uyghur place in Box Hill and Dandenong .. I’ll check out this one too

hmmm I’ll have to disagree with your opening declaration that Chinese food in Melbourne is awful … from my experience, as a western nation we offer one of the best Chinese and Asian food experiences in any of the metropolitan cities. I think you should check out areas towards Box Hill, Glen Waverley, Doncaster and Burwood where most of the Chinese population resides. For eg. the best roast duck shop is underneath and within an arcade off Middleborough Road, Burwood – its called All Peoples .. its well known within the Chinese community. Another secret is Gold Pond in Vermont, the small dining room is so popular that its booked months in advance, and is boarded up so that the public wouldn’t even know that it exists in that sleepy location. It serves up speciality dishes which are pre ordered.

By: mechelle

mechelle — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 13:10:57 +0000

There is a good restaurant named Xing Jiang in Ashfield Sydney you can ask for your lamb shikebabs to be spiced up alot the hand made noodles are great,slightly better than Sydney Chinatown.

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:10:22 +0000

May – I just had a terrible flashback to Ratanakiri rice wine.

By: maytel

maytel — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:03:45 +0000

I once stayed in a yurt and was treated to a traditional mongolian meal which consisted of everything made out of mutton….it wasn’t very nice, thankfully traditional mongolian hospitality and drinking games helped the meal along and by the end me and the Malaysian Chinese girl I was with were betting each other to eat the sheep’s eyeball

I’ve never been so drunk in my life

subsistence foods are palatable if washed down with lashing of the local liqueur….(most subsistence communities also tend to distil their own mind numbing moonshine)

By: Phil Lees

Phil Lees — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:43:17 +0000

Jen – Cheers. Nice to know. One of the things missing from One-plus-One is any of the Uighur pastries, and if pork is anywhere on the menu, I’d have my doubts about everything being halal.

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Hi again,

Correction: I tried the place tonight and the food was good… not as good as the Sydney one but is a very nice change from the normal Chinese food places. Service was horrible though… and I have become confused as to whether they serve Halal meat or not… The owner (who is from Xinjiang) has no idea what the word Muslim or Halal meant… The owner and waiters all spoke Mandarin (different to my Cantonese)… perhaps someone out there may be able to talk to them properly and find out.

I could have sworn Xinjiang was Muslim? Or is the owner of this restaurant just the minority?

By: Jen

Jen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:02:02 +0000

FYI, I gave them a call and after some chinese/english verbal mishmash…. have said that they do cater for Muslims (even though they serve Pork…which I find very strange).

Just for people out there and wanting more information :)