Tags
Australia, canberra, Chic Gourmet restaurant, Chinese cuisine, Dickson, dining with friends, Happy birthday
Chinese food in Canberra
The other night it was my Chinese friend Peter’s 30th birthday so we decided to go out to dinner and Peter chose a new restaurant in Canberra which is about a five minute drive from my home.
It’s a Chinese restaurant, quite casual and with an unusual name Chic Gourmet which if I had heard the name before we went I would not of thought it was Chinese cuisine…I guess I am so used to names with a Chinese connection!!
The menu was large and whilst there were my usual favourites, there were a few dishes I had not eaten before. So I ordered my usual dishes and the waitress was very helpful in checking which ones were vegan. My choices were the salt and pepper tofu with chilli, the Thai style sweet and sour deep fried eggplant and something I had never seen before, hand-made fried mushroom buns in the shape of a baby Hedgehog. These arrived looking so cute but I did eat them and they were truly delicious as was the tofu; so fresh and with just the right amount of chilli.
Peter ordered all the meat dishes and started off with the hand-made signature pan fried pork buns, hand-made pork wontons in a spicy sauce and a dish of stewed duck with beer and chilli oil. It’s a real shame those wontons were not vegan as I must say they looked fabulous.
Every dish really arrived very nicely presented and as with the majority of Chinese restaurants; food arrived quickly.
Peter also ordered two soups one was a stewed Barramundi in a hot and sour soup and the other was a boiled beef, Ling fish, king prawn and squid in a hot chilli sauce. 
Every time we go out with Peter, he always orders what we think are way too many dishes but they seems to get eaten, every time! This evening there was five of us and I was the only one not eating meat so there was quite a bit of food to be eaten even lots of vegetable dishes.
Peter’s girlfriend Katie had been to the restaurant a couple of times before and knew that two vegetable dishes in particular were very good. So she ordered them; the stir fried mixed vegetables with lotus root (probably the most delicious vegetables I have had for some time) and a dish of organic stir-fried pea sprout with garlic sauce (another absolutely delicious dish). I now can’t wait to return to eat these delicious and very healthy vegetable dishes again.
And just when we thought the dishes had finished Katie ordered both her and I a bowl of traditional Peking style slow cooked pear and white fungus soup for dessert. I thought this was very sweet of her as she had brought a cake from the local cake shop and as it wasn’t vegan she wanted to ensure I had something to eat. Not my favourite dessert I must say but I took a few sips.
And as you do when you are with much younger people, you find out about Apps (beautycam) that makes your skin look fabulously smooth and adds ears and other things to photos, so we engaged in some frivolity for a little while before ending the very lovely evening.
Last month my lovely Chinese friend Peter and his girlfriend Katie took my other friend Jon and I to a relatively new noodle restaurant just near my home in Canberra. It has a very small frontage on the main street in Canberra’s Chinatown. I am not sure if I should call it Chinatown as it is only one street but it has many Chinese restaurants and Chinese food stores and is frequented by many Chinese Australians so perhaps Chinatown it is. 
When you enter Chongqing Street Noodles restaurant you are greeted by a rather large statue of Chinese nana with cat like whiskers. I have no idea who this is but maybe my blogging friends (Marta/Sophie/Edwin) might be able to help. She is also painted on the wall and depicted on plates and bowls and printed on the paper napkins. The obligatory waving cat also welcomes you.
Since going to this restaurant with my Chinese friends I have been another six times both for lunch and dinner and have booked for a group of us to go tomorrow night. Yes it’s definitely my new favourite place to eat.
I absolutely love the noodles. They are authentic Chongqing street noodles so are very spicy. There are options to have your dish mild (one chilli pictured on the menu) or incredibly spicy (five chillis pictured on the menu). I choose mild but still find the sauce a little bit lip numbing. I think you can see how bright the sauce is from my photo. But oh my goodness it is so worth that lip tingling!
On our inaugural visit, my Chinese friends ordered a cold chicken dish [again with spice] and a couple of tea boiled eggs [for those of you who do no know what these are – they are hard boiled eggs which once cooked and cooled have their shells cracked and then are placed into a mixture of water, tea leaves, soy sauce, salt and other spices like cinnamon stick and star anise]. Peter told Jon to put the egg into the noodle dish which he did so the spicy broth seeps into the egg.
Peter and Katie also ordered dishes of cold cucumber in a spicy Chinese vinegar, shredded potato in chilli oil and Chongqing street noodles with beef. The chilli theme comes out in nearly every dish on the menu.
Jon said his Chongqing beef noodles were on par with those he had when we travelled to Sichuan Province last year which means they were mouth numbingly hot!
The beverage situation is a bit limited. Cans of coke, sprite and fanta are sold. There are also bottles of herbal tea, a prune drink, soy milk and a grass jelly drink [no idea what this is and too scared to try]. I always buy a bottle of cold soy milk – it’s quite sweet but lovely with the spicy noodles.
(source: courtesy of internet)
I start off leaving from Canberra and arrive at Sydney Airport from Canberra for five weeks in the ‘Middle Kingdom’ and because this year [and last] I achieved Qantas Platinum Frequent Flyer Status I take my friend Jon and I into the First Class Lounge. On our last occasion we saw a famous movie star so that was pretty cool and on previous occasions I really look forward to ordering scrambled eggs, hash browns and sourdough toast but since becoming a vegan, eggs are out so it was delicious sourdough, hash browns and avocado and…a glass of champagne!
Before I leave for any overseas holiday, I do a lot of research about where I want to go and then type out a full itinerary which includes details of places to visit/who I will see/my driver [if there is one]/costs and accomodation details. My friends who travel with me love it because all details are in one document and it might include a map and a link to the place we intend to visit. However, I do always leave time for resting as that is just as important to me as sightseeing. This time was no different…a complete itinerary.
We arrive in Beijing nearing midnight and I had booked an Airbnb in Sanlitun [area that is know for the location of many embassies and lots of restaurants and bars]. Our accommodation was great and the weather was amazing the next day; skies were blue [surprisingly]…but so welcome as we had great views from our apartment.
Our first day and evening we went for a walk around the local area and saw some great buildings; some I had not seen before in the two years since I had been to Beijing.
Our second day, I had arranged a private driver, one I used when I lived in Beijing, to pick us up to take us to the Forbidden City. Both Jon and I had been to there separately before, but I really wanted to go back and walk slowly through and see things I had not seen before. It was worth it as we arrived early and our fabulous driver Mr Mike had already booked us tickets so there was no need to line up; just arrive show our passports and in we went and as can be seen from my photo so did thousands of other visitors.
But before we arrived, cars are not allowed to stop on Chang ‘an Jie [street] alongside the Forbidden City or Tian’anmen Square so we parked some distance and after going through security screening (and seeing the long line of Chinese to visit the body of Chairman Mao at his Mausoleum) we entered Tian’anmen.
So as I said, we entered the Forbidden City and walked about a couple of hours. It is a former imperial palace; so impressive and really you could spend days there looking at the individual rooms containing jade, jewellery, wooden structures etc. Or like me, just loving walking around the ancient buildings because it has such an incredible history having taken fourteen-years to complete by over fourteen-million workers and the fact ordinary people were not allowed to enter without permission! I love hearing the provincial Chinese talking when it is their first visit to such an amazing place they thought they would never access.
And one of my favourite sites is the rooftops..
Afterwards we enjoyed a delicious Chinese lunch of eggplant [of course], sautéed cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, a tofu dish [that didn’t look all that good but was absolutely delicious], string beans and mushrooms and duck pancakes for Jon. And a bottle of New Zealand white wine brought by a dear Chinese friend.
What a great way to start a five week holiday in the Middle Kingdom…so until next time!!
I wanted to thank some friends for something they did for me last year so I thought a dinner out at one of Canberra’s Chinese restaurants would be ideal…it was!
And tables are very nicely presented…
We ordered a couple of dishes to start; the Sichuan style crispy chicken with barley and caramelised onion and salt and pepper tofu and we also shared a bottle of white wine. I did like the serving bowls the dishes arrived in!
We also ordered the roast duck and mushroom pancake and a mushroom vegetarian pancake for me. These were put together at the table by our waiter so whilst it doesn’t look that great in my photo both were delicious. I also borrowed a photo to show what they look like inside.
A really nice evening and an excellent way for me to thank friends for being so generous.
I had read about the Chinese restaurant at the Canberra Casino which had very good reviews but had not particulary wanted to go there as it was located inside the casino and guess I didn’t think it would have great ambience being next to gambling tables. But… recently I read another review at the beginning of Chinese New Year (gong xi fa cai to my Chinese friends) which again mentioned how good the food is…so knew I had to go especially over CNY.
We were the only people in the restaurant which had lovely Chinese lanterns all throughout and was served by a beautiful girl who was born in Japan and moved to Australia to be with her partner; an Aussie boy – lovely chatting to her I must say.
I am not sure where the name Natural Nine comes from but all the colourful paper place mats have the Chinese character for the numeral nine on them and also the same character is on the walls. They all look fabulous.
The menu is extensive and great for vegetarians and I think that is why we ordered so much food. 
First up we ordered the steamed mushroom and water chestnut dumplings with black garlic dressing and as Jon loves spicy food and chicken wings he ordered the Sichuan pepper and lime chicken wings. Both dishes arrived pretty quickly which made me think they are part made and heated up when ordered but my dumplings were still very good and Jon said the wings were extremely tasty.
Our next dishes were the sweet and sour plum eggplant with handmade egg tofu – best dish ever!!! I loved it. This came served with a bowl of steamed rice but as we had ordered another rice dish we did not touch it.
We also shared a bowl of exotic mushroom and burnt onion wild fried rice; so delicious and such a big bowl, so we only were able to eat about half. Shame we were so full as it really was very good.
This restaurant is well worth visiting; such good food. After lunch we head to the Casino and watched a few people start with a huge pile of chips and end up with none!! I guess that is why I never gamble!!
When I spoke to the waitress, I had mentioned that the paper place mats were fabulous, so when we went to pay she gave me two to take home…very kind!!
A thirty minute walk from my home is a suburb with many Chinese/Thai/Indian and Vegan restaurants. I usually eat at the Dickson Dumpling House which is definitely my favourite but I wanted to try something different, so with a good friend who I used to go to school with [all those years ago], we visited a Malaysian/Chinese restaurant called Rasa Sayang. This particular restaurant has been in this suburb for over thirty-five years so it must be doing something well.
The menu is extensive with over 100 dishes to choose from and has lots of options for us vegetarians. I ordered the tofu with peanut sauce and Anne ordered the deep fried spring rolls with a plum sauce. Pretty good but am glad the tofu comes with a sauce otherwise in the main I do find it rather bland. But this particular tofu was lovely and fresh so it was enjoyable.
I ordered some Malaysian bread [roti chanai] to share which was absolutely delicious. My friend had not tried this type of bread before and loved it so guess next visit she will order it along with her omelette.
The owner is very personable and enjoys a joke whilst taking your order and as soon as he saw us laughing at his jokes, he returned to tell us more…more laughter and now ready to order our main courses. Anne ordered the crab omelette with beansprouts, shredded onions and topped with oyster sauce…she said it was absolutely delicious. So delicious that since that visit she drives over from her home [about half hour] to pick up this omelette regularly. [no photo as forgot to take one].
I enjoyed the evening very much and loved chatting to my friend but as it was a week night [I was working back then], we just ate our meals and left rather than what I usually like to do which is relax, chat and enjoy a glass of wine. Next time!!
The owner, JJ Chen was a public servant in Canberra for some time and then moved to Beijing and the head cook is her mum who has been a cook at Parliament House and the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra. I also did some research and found out that the head chef’s grandfather was a cook in China’s Imperial Palace and he had passed down his recipes and taught his granddaughter how to cook.
