Supper Nights - Masthai Seafood Restaurant

Argh! I haven't blogged in waaaay too long. Work is getting in the way of life. Sometimes one needs to be reminded: trabaja para vivir, no vivir para trabajar. I really must remember this and I do apologise for the long gap between posts. So without further ado, onto it!

Welcome to Supper Nights! What is it? A group of friends who went to uni together, they meet up one night each month for a late-night 'supper' meal or late-dinner. If dinner's too early some of us struggle to make it in time due to work so a late dinner works out well. And we get to try out some late night dining options too. We started supper nights in 2010 and I for one really enjoy them. So welcome to the first 'Supper Nights' post at Masthai Seafood Restaurant in Beverly Hills.

I've been coming to Masthai with my family for many, many years - proof of this is the fact that I have a print out of their menu which I found online back in 2004. Yes, I still have that printed copy. The prices have increased a little (inflation anyone?) but the dishes remain the same. And that's a good thing, because they have a lot of really good dishes here. Another good thing is that 'supper' starts at 9:30pm and that means we can order congee!!!! Yes, I love congee!

Repeat - I love congee. Especially the 'Preserved egg and salty egg congee' which is the best congee at Masthai. Preserved egg (a.k.a century egg) and salted egg (a.k.a salted duck egg). Two simple ingredients that give the congee a depth of flavour - fantastic comfort food and a must-have at supper. Another menu item here which is great for supper is  'Deep fried pigeon'. Oh boy, it is good! In my opinion, Masthai's pigeon is one of, if not the, best in Sydney. For the unfamiliar, pigeon is like eating duck - only it's smaller, more flavoursome and with much leaner meat. It's messier cause it requires one to use their hands but I think it's well worth it. A dish of 'Fried soft yifu noodle' rounds up our "supper staples" - it's a simple dish but it's tasty and goes well with congee and pigeon.

Congee, pigeon and noodles - 3 of the best comfort foods ever!

Then we kind of got a little crazy and ordered a few not-really-supper-dishes. Starting with 'Stir-fried tofu with dried scallop'. This was my request cause I love, love, love this tofu dish. The chequer-piece shaped tofu is soft and silky inside, the fried exterior gives it a nice flavour along with the dried scallops and vegies. The flavour is probably a little strong for supper, i.e you need rice. But not so with our other vegie dish of 'Kangkong with preserved tofu and chilli'. This was good! It's a very standard dish but the vegetables themselves were really fresh and not over-cooked.
 

That's right kiddies, vegies that taste really, really good.

'Pan fried bitter cucumber with egg' is another good supper choice. Well, for those of us in the group that like the bitter taste!! The egg is cooked through with lots of pieces of bitter melon. To top it off we got a 'Steamed eel', there's a choice of sauces and from memory this was garlic with something (maybe shallots? ginger? I can't remember now.). It was steamed nicely, the pieces of eel had a bit of bounce when biting into it, it's texture firmer and not flaky like regular cooked fish.
 

Bitter melon for the bitter folks and eel for the seafood-adventerous.

And the best end to the meal? Well of course it's dessert, which is complimentary at Masthai and usually comprises some cut fruit and tong sui (糖水). Yum!!! I love tong sui so I always look forward to this and they have a few different ones, all of which they make really well. Today's is red bean soup complete with peanuts and a black sesame glutinous rice ball. A warm and sweet ending to a very nice meal shared with very good friends.
  

Sugar and heat, it makes my heart sweet!


What: Masthai Seafood Restaurant
Where: 495 King Georges Road, Beverly Hills (02) 9580 5609
How much: Apologies but for some reason I didn't write the prices down before they took the menu away! Pigeons are $19.80 each, the total bill came to $153.30, which gives an average price of $20 for the dishes.
Need to know: Bookings are definitely recommended, especially if you're coming for dinner. You should also pre-order pigeons to avoid disappointment as they often sell out fast! Supper starts at 9:30pm and the restaurant stays open til around 2am in the morning.

New Shanghai Bondi Junction... and 1/2 price "Dumpling Happy Hour"!!!!!!!

Do you love Xiao Long Bao? Do you love them so much you could eat more than 1 steamer full on your own? Do you love them so much that your family referred to you as Xiao Long Girl back when you were a student? Oh wait, now I'm just talking about me!

Right, so I looooove Xiao Long Bao. And it's become a lot easier to get my Xiao Long Bao fix thanks to places like Din Tai Fung, New Shanghai, Taste of Shanghai - now I don't have to go all the way to Ashfield for these wonderful soup dumplings.

I was at Westfield Bondi Junction today and decided to try their recently opened stall at the Harbour Room foodcourt (David Jones end, yes - the expensive foodcourt). We got the "New Shanghai Xiao Long Bao" (pork) as well as boiled "Pork and Chinese cabbage dumpling".

Compared to the dumplings at their Ashfield restaurant, they were pretty much the same except that they were quite salty. Maybe the cook added a little too much salt today by accident? The Xiao Long Bao had a nice thin skin but could have held a little more soup. The soup that was there, could have been a little more flavoursome. Boiled dumplings are nice and have a good home made taste (although still too salty).

I'm willing to try it again to see if the salt levels go down, it makes for a good food court option, especially if you're not too hungry since you can get the smaller side dishes as well as get the dumplings in half-size portions.

Friendly dumpling lady in action (I said dumpling, not dumpy!), Xiao Long Bao, Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumplings.

Another reason why I'm willing to try it is because they currently have "Dumpling Happy Hour". You'll see in the bottom photo the flyer that I picked up. All dumplings are 1/2 price 6pm-7pm Monday to Friday. For a limited time only. That's why I had to post this today, despite there being loads of other posts I haven't written up yet.

How cheap is that!

Dumpling Happy Hour leaflet, the dumpling lady in action.

What: Xiao Long Bao dumplings, and other assorted Shanghai dishes
Where: New Shanghai (the Dumpling Happy Hour is only at Westfield Bondi Junction)
How much: Xiao Long Bao is $7.00 for 8, Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumpling is $8.80

Twisted Noodle Bar

I wanted to try Twisted Noodle Bar ever since it had opened, despite not having much of an idea about what the food was like. All I knew was that it looked interesting, promising. Then I read a description about them online which made me think I really needed to try this place out. And when I finally did, I regretted not making the time to go sooner.

Twisted Noodle Bar serves Yunnan food which an smh article described as "a complex mix of the fresh lightness of Guangdong and the powerhouse heat of Sichuan, with a good dose of spice and tang". It's an accurate description (I think) and if Twisted Noodle Bar is anything to go by, then I think I like Yunnan food!

My first visit was for lunch and having read through the menu a few times we saw that there were lots of small side dishes, noodle and rice dishes on offer. We decided to try the lunchtime special which gets you any two side dishes with a bowl of rice or Yunnan noodle for only $8.50. Bargain! So we ordered two sets of the lunchtime special and were therefore able to choose four of the side dishes - settling on Marinated Beef (normally $4.20), Baby Octopus (normally $4.80), Pig Blood with Chives (normally $4.20) and Sausages (normally $4.20). I'd had a craving for sausages so just couldn't help myself! They tasted like, well, regular sausages. Which is exactly what I wanted. Call if comfort food I guess. The pigs blood with chives was nice and pretty much what you'd expect if you're a regular consumer of pigs blood jelly. Baby octopus had a teeny bit of spice and was served cold. It was also super tender, probably from marinating, which made it easy to eat. But the best side dish of all was the marinated beef which was also served cold and had loads of flavour. I can definitely see myself ordering it again, I could see myself eating this while drinking chinese wine, cup in one hand, fan in the other, composing quatrains about the moon...

...but I digress. Back to 2011 and back to Sydney. The Yunnan Rice Noodles are served plain which makes them a good match with the side dishes. They've got a good bitey texture too which is an important aspect of noodle assessment in my opinion. All washed down with a glass of Grapefruit Juice with Honey ($3.80) which is served in one of those currently fashionable drinking jars, the flavour was so light that it bordered on absent but I actually liked it as it was refreshing to drink after eating the more heavily flavoured side dishes.

Grapefruit juice with Honey, Yunnan rice noodles, side dishes.

Sausages, Marinated Beef (and possibly the worst food photo EVER taken by my phone), Baby Octopus, Pig blood with Chives.

On the second visit I resist the urge to order marinated beef again as I wanted to try more of the menu. This time I chose a side dish of Soft Pork Bone ($4.80). Oh, what can I say - tender, juicy, melt in your mouth pork with a good dose of flavour. It's a decent sized serve for a side dish and I think I could just eat this with a bowl of plain rice and be more than satisfied.

But there's more tastiness to come as we wanted to try the Yunnan Noodles to see how the spicy/sour soup measured up. Sheung Wan Noodle ($10.80 I think) is described as beef and radish with soup noodle. You can choose the level of sour and spice and we opted for normal. It had a good kick and was delicious, the radish sponges up lots of flavour and the beef is tender (but not _as_ tender as the Soft Pork Bone). One thing to note, it's a BIG serving so if you're ordering one of the noodle soups make sure you're hungry! The only other item we ordered was a glass of Mango Ice Tea ($3.50) served once again in a drinking jar (I think I'm going to need some of these cute drinking jars for my own home one day). This drink had a lot more flavour that the grapefruit one, it wasn't too sweet so again made for a good accompaniment to the food. By the end we were so full but very satisfied. So full that I won't be coming back for a short while as I'm still digesting all those dishes, but when I do I'll be sure to try some more items on the menu.

Soft Pork Bone and Mango Ice Tea in a drinking jar.

Sheung Wan noodles - check out all the flavour and check out the tasty twisted noodles!

I happened to walk through the area on Valentines Day last month, and saw quite a few couples having dinner inside. One couple looked particularly sweet and seemed to be enjoying the food almost as much as each other's company - a match made in heaven, just like Yunnan rice noodles and side dishes!

What: Twisted Noodle Bar
Where: Shop 44/1 Dixon St, Sydney ph: (02) 9267 2327, open Monday to Sunday 11am to 10pm
How much: Side dishes range from $3.80 to $4.80, noodles around the $11 mark. The $8.50 lunch special is available 11am - 3pm daily and definitely worth trying.
Need to know: They do takeaway. And more interestingly, they do gift vouchers!!!

Sick days 3... Cheung Sing BBQ House

Another day and I'm still sick. It's the weekend and I find myself at Cheung Sing BBQ House in Maroubra. There's an endless number of items on the menu but feeling the way I do I really don't have an appetite (rare, I know). I find "rice noodle soup" the most appealing option. Plain rice noodles in plain soup with plain vegetables. It's the kind of thing a sick person eats. And even better is the fact that it was cheap at just $4. And since I'd made a cost saving on the noodles I also ordered an iced lemon tea, the justification that lemon is good for a sore throat!

Soothe your throat with iced lemon tea, and your sick soul with plain rice noodle soup.

What: Cheung Sing BBQ House
Where: 695 Anzac Parade, Maroubra Junction ph: (02) 9349 3362
How much: Plain noodles only cost $4, one can still be frugal when under the weather. Iced lemon tea was around the $3 mark (?).

Sweeties Paradise

Sweeties Paradise. It's a Hong Kong style dessert place featuring a myriad of sweet dessert soups and various other offerings. So many that even after 6 visits there are still so many things to try, and already a few favourites. Mango Grass Jelly ($4.99) is a nice, simple mix. The fresh mango offsets the sweetness of the grass jelly. Papaya Fungus Sweet Soup ($6.20) is a tried and true classic that can be served hot or cold. When eaten cold, it's refreshing and perfect for summer. Mango Pomelo & Sago Sweet Soup ($5.50) is fruity, the pomelo giving it a bitter kick to balance the flavours. Almond Soup and Tofu Pudding ($4.50) is for people who really like almond. The tofu pudding is a little different from the usual kind, it has more of a jelly texture than one often sees. Almond Egg White ($5.20) is another one for the almond lover, the almond soup is a nice consistency containing pieces of egg white.

The one let down so far was Snow White Soup (with sago/black pearl, $5.50). We had it with black pearl, maybe that's where we went wrong. There's some bits and pieces of fruit, I can't be sure exactly what they are. And then there's about seven million bits of black pearl, with a load of vanilla ice cream on top. After eating about two million bits of black pearl, one starts to wonder how they are going to eat the other five million.

Papaya fungus sweet soup (front) and Mango grass jelly (back), Mango pomelo & sago sweet soup (front) and Almond soup & tofu pudding (back), Snow white soup with (seven million) black pearls, Midway through Snow white - still so many black pearls... 

Almond egg white and mango glutinous dumplings - when will I see you again?

But there's another highlight to make me forget about Snow White and the seven million black pearls. It's Mango Glutinous Dumpling ($4.99 for 3). The dumpling is soft with the right amount of chewy stickiness and a light mango flavour. Then inside one finds a treasure - a piece of fresh mango. I've been day dreaming about the dumplings ever since that first taste.


Mango glutinous dumpling - the second encounter is just as breathtaking. Thumbs up all round! 

They seemed to be open quite late when I went there on a Friday night, so it's a great option for an after-dinner treat. And they have takeaway too, for those like me who can't get enough. Paradise indeed!

Papaya Fungus Sweet Soup - takeaway makes for a nice treat at home.

What: Sweeties Paradise
Where: 45 Dixon Street, Haymarket
How much: Most dessert soups around the $5 mark

Ching Yip Coffee Lounge

You can probably guess I love food. Something else I also love is a bargain. When the ticket machine on the bus is broken, I don't think anyone is more excited than me about getting a free ride to work (cause that's a saving of $2.64!!!!). So it makes sense that a food bargain is like a match made in heaven. Ching Yip Coffee Lounge has got a great value afternoon tea and daily set menu. Afternoon tea is daily from 3pm-5pm and there are various options which cost either $5, $6 or $7 and all come with tea/coffee. The set meal is about $10 (I can't remember the exact price) and comes with an entree of soup, a main meal which is usually a plate of rice with some kind of dish heaped on and a coffee/tea. There's also the regular menu with loads of options. The best thing about coming here on this occassion was the air-conditioning, which meant some respite from the 40+ degree heat here in Sydney. I ordered the afternoon tea of "Luncheon meat and fried egg sandwich" with an iced lemon tea for the drink. It's a simple sandwich, but the kind that really satisfies with freshly cooked luncheon meat and fluffy egg. Iced lemon tea is just the right level of sweet and not too lemon-y. Apologies for the terrible photos, I had my camera on the wrong setting but I was starving and just couldn't wait to eat!

What better than a food bargain? A food bargain that tastes good.

What: Ching Yip Coffee Lounge
Where: Level 2, Dixon House, 413 Sussex Street, Haymarket
How much: Afternoon tea $5-$7, daily set meal around $10