Meal #23 - China (Part 2: Shanghai)

Ahhh. Shanghai, gateway to China! Home of dumplings! We certainly didn’t need to be “shanghai’ed” into this meal.

Shanghai Noodle House
Tattersalls Lane, Chinatown
Melbourne City

Tattersall’s Lane may have a seedy feel to it, and more reminiscent of the old Shanghai of opium dens and sailors’ dives than the thriving super-modern city Shanghai is today, but this did not put off our diners. Nothing puts off our diners! Not even torrential rain, as Dom, Rami, Caroline, Nick, Sai, Paul and Deb proved this Saturday, braving hostile elements to seek out this tiny Chinatown café.

Simple plastic tables, paper menus on the walls, tea in a steaming urn with plastic cups and a drinks fridge in the dining area made for a casual atmosphere where the emphasis was clearly on the food. Hey, they could have had a barn with straw on the floor for all we cared, it was DRY. Our dampened spirits were soon restored though, as Shanghai-style cuisine easily fits the category of “comfort food”. There are lots of soups and hot dumplings and the Chinese equivalent of stew, the claypot. With the sounds and smells of the busy kitchen wafting into the room and the brisk staff dashing to and fro, we stuck in with gusto.

The Meal

Entree:

Vegetarian Buns
Steamed Spring Onion Buns
Fried Beef Dumplings

Large steamed buns packed with delicious vegetable fillings. Mounds of hot dumplings. A great way to start the meal.


Soups:

Vegetarian Dumplings in Soup
Pickled Radish, Sliced Pork and Egg Soup
Wonton Soup
Shanghai Vegetarian Noodle Soup (main)

The range of soups was quite varied, with pages of noodle soups on offer, soups containing everything from bean curd and mushroom to mixed seafood to pork stomach. We tried the vegetarian one, which was good, although the huge bowl was too much for just one diner. Then there were the dumpling and wonton soups – continuing the trend of excellent dumplings begun with the entrees. The smaller entrée soups come in an interesting selection of flavours, many pork-based. We tried one that had shreds of egg stirred through it, its delicate flavour in counterpoint to the sharpness of pickled radish.

Mains:

Spicy Garlic Sprouts with Sliced Chicken
Sliced Chicken and Fried Rice Cake
Garlic Spouts with Clam Meat on Rice
Stir Fried Egg and Leek
Leek, Sliced Pork, Noodle Claypot

The stir fries, which tended to be based on a few key ingredients and relatively light on meat, were flavoursome and filling. Garlic sprouts, which featured in two of our dishes, look a bit like green onions and taste like garlic, only even more garlicky. The spicy sprouts with chicken packed a punch but were definitely popular. They were also a good accompaniment for clams, which appear to be the favourite fruit of the sea at the Noodle House.

The stir fried egg and leek was a classic Chinese omelette – a simple dish but great. Less familiar was the fried rice cake. This came in thin slices and has a soft, slightly chewy consistency. The taste relies heavily on the other ingredients and the sauces that it comes with. The sliced chicken made for a relatively mild flavour but there were stronger flavours, like chilli chicken and pork and spinach, on the menu as well.

Claypot was big on the menu, with almost as many claypot dishes on offer as there were noodle soups. These came served in the pot they were cooked in with rice or noodles. Cooking in the claypot retains moisture and heightens flavours - one diner who is already a Noodle House fan reported that the seafood claypots can be overpoweringly “oceany”. The pork claypot we tried on Saturday came with leek, beancurd, mushrooms and other goodies and made a hearty meal.


The Verdict

There was a wide range of menu options – with vegetarians even being offered a “stir-fried greengrocery” – and everything we had was good. The low price (entrees between $4 and $6 and mains around $8 - $10), belied the serving sizes, which were huge. Most of the flavours were based on simple combinations, which combined with the large serving sizes could lead to some dishes becoming monotonous for a single diner. It’s probably best to share mains, rather than order individual dishes as we did. While the basic décor and unromantic laneway location might scare away the fine diners, this place is really very good. We’d go again; we’d even get rained on again to get there!


PS - after 3 photos our camera ran out of memory, then before we could delete anything, the battery died. Thank God for the ever trusty, back-up mobile phone camera!