A couple of days ago, I got an email about the Melbourne Dumpling Festival. I love dumplings, so that was all it took to convince me to go. I know it sounds like all I do is eat, and that's not far from the truth. A typical pre-Dota Skype conversation with redbeanpork pretty much goes like this.
redbeanpork: Hello!The festival was held in the arcade at 206 Bourke St, which I've rarely ever been to, but now features Tim Ho Wan, a Chinese restaurant chain run by Michelin star chef Mak Kwai Pui. There always seems to be a really long line outside the restaurant, even though it has been open for over a year now. One of the things mentioned on the festival website is that they'd be giving away gold dust custard buns. Custard isn't really my thing, but MrFodder loves it, and I wanted to see if I could taste the gold. So I joined the line....
Me: Hello!
redbeanpork: *says a bunch of stuff*
Me: *silent because I muted my mic*
redbeanpork: Fodder... are you there?
redbeanpork: ...
redbeanpork: What are you eating?
Me: Om nom nom.
Fortunately, I had my kindle on me (I'm currently reading a series called Eat, Pray, Die, and it's about someone who works as a poison taste tester. It combines the detective genre with food - which makes it perfect for me!). It was "lucky" in that I joined the line quite early and waited for less than an hour. I figured it'd be a long wait anyway, as all of these "festivals" seem to include waiting in line for ages, buying overpriced food, having nowhere to sit and actually eat it.
I was actually lucky (no-quotation marks), as I was the last person to get a custard bun before they ran out of the first batch. And I got in line 30 minutes before the event started.
I thought there would be stalls with dumplings around, but there were. There just happen to be a bunch of Chinese restaurants in the arcade (it is in Chinatown, after all), and they were just doing their regular thing. A bit disappointing!
They did have a beer and dumpling pairing thing going, but I found out about it too late to get tickets. I'm not a huge beer drinker anyway. Do dumplings even go well with beer?
I love that this was the name of their cocktail bar.
A and I love to joke about your stereotypical Asian names for things. The more words you have from this list, the better your restaurant must be: golden, lucky, dragon, lotus, forever, prosperous, happy, jade, longevity, (the number 8).
Tim Ho Wan looked really busy, as did the other restaurants downstairs (though it was hard to tell, as there was a huge line for the free green tea ice-cream as well as for the buns), so I went upstairs to China Chilli and ordered something to take home for me and MrFodder to eat.
They gave me a menu to order from... in Chinese. Little did they know, I'm a Fasian (fail Asian).
I figured out how it worked, but I felt really hesitant pressing things, so I only ordered a couple of items.
I managed to finish my book in the time I spent waiting for my food and started a new one. I hadn't even realised that 40 minutes had already passed until the woman next to me tapped me on the shoulder and asked how long I'd been there. She looked at my receipt and started getting really worked up. She had only been there for 20 minutes at this time (though that's still a long time to be waiting for dumplings) and started calling over waiters and managers, getting really angry on my behalf. On one hand, I felt a bit bad, as I hadn't even realised I had been there for that long, and I had already factored in long waiting times into my expectations. On the other hand, MrFodder was waiting for me to bring dinner home, and I still had to order new glasses.
(Sadly, I got a call from the optometrist today saying that when they tried to put new lenses in my frames, they broke them. I was pretty crushed, as MrFodder seemed to really like those frames. I liked how lightweight they were, and the cost of new lightweight frames was more than our health insurance would cover, so I didn't want to pay for a new pair of frames. The optometrist was nice about it, and said that I could pick out a replacement out of any of their frames, and they'd give it to me free of charge. I picked another lightweight pair that I didn't like as much as my old ones, but they would do. Now the even longer waiting game and more time spent with contact lenses. T_T)
The total time I spent waiting for dumplings was just over 50 minutes. The woman next to me said that she's never going back to that restaurant. I wanted to see how good their food was before judging them, as I imagine today would be quite busy for them.
Not wanting to brave another potential 50 minute wait at another restaurant, I decided to order my glasses and pick up dumplings from Melbourne Central on my way home. I did stop by Maxim's Cakes and Pastry to pick up some wife cakes for dessert. I love wife cakes, though I'll admit that I've been eating them since I was a child, long before I got married. I didn't even know they were wife cakes, I only knew them as lo paw beng, which I thought meant old lady cake, and my child-brain assumed it meant I would live for a long time if I ate them (lucky golden dragon longevity cake!).
This was my final haul in the end:
Sadly, none of the food was amazing. I think Shanghai Street dumplings are much better. Even the frozen dumplings you buy from Costco are better. :( The China Chilli dumplings had a hint of tea flavour, which was kinda nice, but everything just tasted really salty. I didn't even add any soy sauce, as I love to eat dumplings plain.
As far as the custard bun went, I completely forgot to try any of it. MrFodder opened his mouth, and not long afterwards, the bun was gone. He did stop briefly to let me take a photo of the inside though.
He said it was good, but the gold didn't really add any flavour, so I imagine it's just for decoration. I would report back if he poops gold tomorrow, but I have to hit my post deadline for today, and I don't think anyone cares that much... Or even wants to know.
I'm really glad I didn't invite anyone to join me today, as I would have felt bad making them wait around for so long and probably would have left early. I think the only reason I stayed around for so long is because I was completely engrossed in my book and didn't even realise how long I'd been there. I doubt I would have had the patience otherwise. I try to avoid saying negative things about events, but I wouldn't recommend going in the future. The wait time is ridiculous. The line for the free ice-cream was incredibly short when I first got there, so if you wanted to stop by for that, it's probably a better goal than lining up for the free custard bun. By the time I walked out with my dumplings, even the ice-cream line was crazily long. Would not recommend trying to get into any of the restaurants in the area though. Getting in isn't the issue, getting food is, as it looks like they had a much greater than anticipated take-away demand, and the backlog of food orders was incredibly long.
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