Shanghai Dragon Dumpling house

I have burned about 481 calories today on my practice run. It may not have been great but it was an easy run. At least I got my mojo back which is great. So of course to replenish the carbs used and the calories burned I had dumplings.

The place is in Prahran on Chapel st and there is one in the city.

They make all their own dumplings on site. The place was dead quiet for a Friday night except for a few Foodora orders.

Here I have not had the custard bao and I wanted to try these. These were yum and not very sweet.

I also had the spring onion pancake with an Asahi beer. Asahi is a Japanese  beer and it works best for Japanese food and not Chinese food. I was looking for the Tsingtao beer but they did not have. This Asahi was too heavy for the meal and I needed a lot of water to get it out.

Rating: 14/20- good but please add in Tsingtao beer and I might be happier. People please come and visit this place in Prahran.

Melbourne Dumpling Fest pop up

This was a one night only pop up and it was badly organised. It was in 206 Bourke st where Tim Ho Wan is. The first 200 people to register and vote for their favourite restaurant got a free Lava bun from Tim Ho Wan. This was pretty good.

The one thing that really irked me was that there was no takeaway food on display. Everything you had to ask the restaurants and there were huge lines just for that. There wasn't a lot of chairs to sit down on. Also the crowd of people was just bad. But after 8pm people left and it was fine.

There was a free cooking demonstration done by Dumpling Mania which was all good. We all got to sample some of Dumpling mania's siu mai which was good with the chilli sauce. People had beer but I did not seeing as it was too late.

The chinese mushroom dumplings that I got at Dragon Boat for $5.90 were great. But for that price it was a bit expensive. However the bao with popcorn chicken from Nuoc Charm was bad. It was $6 or 2 for $10 but it was the worst. It reminded me of Roll'd's one from Jam Factory. Here it was just lukewarm and very lacklustre.

If there was a dumpling festival again next year, this should be outside and in a bigger venue such as Fed Square.

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is a Chinese dumpling store which is from Sydney. It is popular with the Sydneysiders for their dumplings and wontons. Here everything is hand made.

At the Melbourne Emporium store there was a huge queue for a table. You have to wait at least 40-50 minutes for a table, which during that time they will give you a buzzer and order form in which you can order and decide. And then when your table is ready they will buzz you.

The place is huge and spectacular and its not cramped. Better still they take up a whole level and are opened when Emporium is closed.

The service there was no frills. The lady that served me did not smile one bit. The manager was very friendly. And I couldn't find the bathrooms easily either. I had to ask someone to help me and then they told me it was right next to the cashier. A sign would be good guys.

The food is great but they do have a little bit of msg in it. I had the vegetable and pork wontons with noodles in soup ($12.80), two vegetarian buns ($5.50 for two, $3 for one) and a golden lava bun ($2.20- its a bit steep for one). The food came in record time and the noodles were good. In fact the noodles were homemade. You can see them making the dumplings and noodles through a glass window.  The vegetarian buns were filling and the golden lava bun was really addictive. At first I thought it was that very sweet custard bun but it was a bun filled with egg yolk and a little bit of sugar.

Rating: 15/20- dumpling love, marred by imperfect service and a disorganised place. Ah well, let them find their feet.