Eating in New Zealand

Since my friend had just recently arrived in New Zealand and was feeling a little homesick, I decided to cheer her up a little by taking her to a good Yum-cha restaurant. There are actually not that many good ones close to the city - I know of a few in Howick / East Auckland area but have lost touch since a few years ago, and the ones I am the most familiar with are usually in the city which are: Sunshine restaurant, Grand Harbour, and New World Restaurant in Newmarket. Of course there are a few that I haven’t mentioned in the city and Newmarket vicinities, but I’ll talk about why they aren’t included in the top list in a later post :)

Since I was after something a bit closer to home, I opted for New World in Newmarket, which was a mere 5 minute drive from my place after taking traffic into consideration. As usual, the restaurant is really busy during weekends so we had to wait a little while until food trolleys managed to make their way to our table. And boy did we start ordering :P

We started off with something light, and the congee here are fairly well made compared to the quality on offer by other yum-cha eateries. I usually go for the shaved pork and thousand-year-old-egg congee, along with some chopped spring onion and chopped fried oil sticks, which provides a nice contrast to the plainness of the congee (which was the taste we were after). Although my friend commented that the rice in the congee could have been whiter in color, she still finished her share :) I guess that counts for something!

Their steamed dumplings are quite well made in general - the prawns are fresh and don’t taste like the frozen ones with the plasticky overtone that I sometimes taste when I eat at cheap noodle stalls in foodcourts - and the skin of the dumpling holds the shape with resiliency but not too thick (and hence not too rigid). A very tasty treat.

Since it was close to Chinese New Year at the time of our dining, we thought it to be appropriate to have some fried gelatinous rice cakes, which are traditionally consumed during Chinese New Year as part of the good fortunes thing. As far as I know this is the only restaurant that serves it during yum-cha all year long as opposed to being just a New Year thing, so interested parties can come along and try it whenever! The stickiness is not overly so, although it might be a little bit too sweet for those with lighter palates, I’ve definitely grown fond of this dish. It’s kind of like a very light version of caramel chew, and quite filling too since it’s made with gelatinous rice. A good choice if you aren’t too keen on eating too much!

Ahh.. how can we miss the in/famous chicken feet? Although it’s actually called phoenix feet, most people know it as the chicken feet and this place does this staple dish fairly well too. The phoenix feet served here is not overly oily, is flavorful, and most of all very soft - not overcooked or undercooked at all. The tendons and the skin peel away easily and goes down very easy with the sauce - I’d be tempted to order some rice because the sauce is pretty nice too, but today I was feeling rather peckish - so no rice today :)

I understand a few of my non-Asian friends are always slightly uneasy about this innocent dish ;) So I do try to get my fill when in the company of non-squeamish people who also love chicken feet!

Another staple Yum-cha dish is the small pork spare ribs. Some black beans, chilli, seasoning and steamed - it’s one of the few dishes that I always order without fail during Yum-cha, and certainly at this restaurant. They’re fairly consistent with this dish and the ribs are usually cooked just right.

Since there are quite a few pictures in this post (I do go overboard with them!) this post has been split into two. Stay tuned!

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