I'm sure when most people (ie ME) think of Cabramatta they think of a suburb bursting with smells, sounds, sights and flavours similar to Vietnam...that is after all why most of us (again, I mean ME) refer to Cabramatta as Sydney's "little Vietnam".
On the other side of the train station however lies the behemoth of yum cha in south-western Sydney, Iron Chef.
I've been invited to lunch with a group of other food-bloggers which means we're shown to a rather large table complete with Lazy-Susan. If there's one thing I know about Chinese food it's that Lazy Susan = a truckload of food!
Like most yum cha places I've frequented Iron Chef is a mass of trolly dolly's each peddling their goods at hungry diners. It can be quite overwhelming at first and if you let your tummy run away with you it's easy to have a table groaning with food in under 5 minutes (trust me, it's happened to me many a time before).
I really enjoyed my yum cha lunch at Iron Chef - they had all the bases covered and I left feeling full and satisfied.
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| Really love the Prawn Har Gaw (bottom) at Iron Chef- the prawns were super plump + fresh with a nice "chewy" bit to the dumpling skin. Also enjoy the fresh Vegetable Dumpling with Peanuts (top). I didn't try the Dim Sum - as I'm not a Dim Sum fan...I know know, what kind of "foodie" am I? |
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| Just for something different, we were given roast pork belly pancakes instead of the Peking duck pancakes - I didn't try these as they pork is not free-range (but man I was SO tempted) but they were a BIG hit at the table. |
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| The prawns in rice-paper were fantastic (aren't they always) as were the fresh steamed greens with oyster sauce (I always need veggies at yum cha to kid myself that I'm having a healthy lunch). The fried noodles with veggies were also a popular item at our table. |
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| LOVED the fried calamari at Iron Chef - it's the first time I've see "real" calamari tentacles used for this dish and the batter was totally different to anything I've had a yum cha before - much more flaky, almost like fish batter from your local fish + chip shop. Also loved the fried prawn dumplings - as I love all fried things (obviously). |
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| Is there a happier sight than a tray crammed full of fresh-out-of-the-oven egg tarts, I think not! |
