Dragon Palace Restaurant

With ridiculous prices and an multiplying population, finding parking is truly a pain in the butt.

And paying for expensive parking to eat an expensive meal is heartbreaking too but its what I have to put up with to have a mega epic breakfast like this to start the week.

An epic good but also OH SO BAD breakfast that was the first meal of the week but left me wanting it to be the only meal for the rest of that week. It probably contained my week's worth of energy and fat requirements.
But the pleasure about all that is, while you were rushing out the door with vegemite on toast, I was busily on my journey to fat town with the following companions I met along the way:

Steamed Prawn & Coriander Dumplings

These were straight off a fresh trolley of goodies.
Hot and steamy, just how I like it ;)
These dumplings have roughly chopped prawns combined with coriander but I have no recollection of that distinct coriander taste and smell. Instead, I thought they were some form of green chive-like vegetable mixed in with the prawn meat mixture and wrapped in chewy dumpling skin. Priced at $5.60, these are expensive little ones!

Steamed Scallop & Prawn Dumplings

These dumplings feature the classic har gao style dish with a slight twist, that being the addition of miniature and sometimes-not-existent pieces of precious scallop. So when you got lucky and did hit a piece of scallop, the mouth would fill with a smooth, moist feeling. LOL. You get my drift. But it's hard to come by those experiences frequently, cause most of the time you don't get as lucky. And because these things are predominantly ruled by prawns. It's not often that the prawn isn't the star of the dish, and in this case you find yourself scouting around for something else within all that annoying *prawn in the way.

*Just wrote porn by accident. Ho ho ho

Siu Mai of Prawn & Fish Roe

Another well known Dim Sim dish is THE Siu Mai, a combination of (usually) mince pork meat and speckles of prawn, wrapped cosily with a tight layer of yellow-coloured skin. It is usually recognisable thanks to it always being topped up with an orange garnish on top, whether that be a dot of carrot, fish roe, or to be cost conservative, a single fish roe.

Dragon Palace's version of Siu Mai differentiates itself in that chunks of roughly chopped fatty pork pieces are used instead of mincing it up. The fatness is visible and has a chewy but bouncy texture to it amongst the other ingredients. It isn't exactly noticeable what you are eating that tastes so damn good, thinking it is the meat until you find out otherwise.
So, if you're looking for a diet, don't look for this dish.

Spare Rib in Black Bean Sauce

This is the very thing that makes its appearance in the aforementioned Siu Mai. But I guess its so good that it needs a dish on its own to really shine - all that glorious, sparkling, gleamy shine from the fat that has developed onto an overeating pig. Ironically in Chinese spare ribs would depict someone of skin and bone and needs a serious dose of THIS. But this is ONE FAT PIG and the fatty meat you see here is proof.

However, I wouldn't say there's much to the black-beaniness to the sauce that the meat is served in, in the evidently clear sauce with individual black beans scattered on top. Something I like about this dish served here are the cubes of taro amongst the pork, which make very exclusive and infrequent appearances only.

Pan-fried Meat & Chive Dumplings

Unfortunately, these were served cold. Not even lukewarm but cold. Ok maybe not cold but they were room temperature :( Which means that impeded on how delicious these things are when they are served hot. They are comparable to the Korean gyoza somewhat, in that both dumplings are commonly pan fried until crispy on one side of the dumpling. But these are served with VINEGAR!, as pictured above in the distasteful photograph. *Apologies*

These are plumper and fuller than typical gyoza and sport mince pork and even finer minced prawn. However what you see when you bite a chunk out of it is GREEN GREEN GREEN from all the chives (or some other green thing).
Pleasing, because you pretty much do not see any sight of green at dim sim, unless you look at a tree outside. There is nothing close to healthy about dim sim.

Deep-fried Prawn Dumplings with Mayonnaise

These used to be my absolute favourite, back when I didn't know what unhealthy and deep-fried meant. And now that I do, it still doesn't stop me from eating them. LIFE IS SHORT so get fat if you want to! After a few rounds of circling the floor, these prawns had lost their hotness but kept their cool. Even their wonton skin didn't keep them warm.
The side of mayonnaise is very welcomed when these are burning your finger cause they provide a very comforting and contrasting soothing effect when eaten with the dumplings.
Sweet and savoury combinations DO work out fine!

But these are usually a winner cause anything deep fried is usually always a winner. Anyone who disagrees is usually lying.

Snow Mountain Egg Yolk Bun

What an enticing name that lures you in at first sound. And sight! These yellow plump speckled babies indeed look like mounds drizzled with snowflakes drifting from the clouds above. Oh-so-pretty like a dainty snow covered mountain top, it might just make you not want to destroy it.

Perhaps a more picturesque and more fitting description would be a volcanic mountain, its colour reflective of the sun setting in its presence with the sky littered with mini clouds. And upon aggravating this volcano, this chewy, sticky volcano, a hot liquid lava centre erupts from its core and can actually burn you.
Dangerously beautiful.
Really, a fascinating golden liquid fountain oozes its life out the moment you discover and break into its heart. And you really would not want to let this carpet of sunshine escape anywhere besides your mouth.

Classified under the sweets/desserts category, one would not immediately apprehend the slightly savoury flavour of the interior filling, with the contrasting hint of sweetness. The vivid and intense yellow colour of salted egg yolk provides a rich and luscious texture, and is a perfect cocktail of both sweet and salty. So amazing that you would not be considered to be selfish for not wanting to share this little drop of sunshine and put it in your pocket.

One encounter, and you will fall in love at first bite.

Deep fried Crab Meat Dumplings

I'm not particularly a huge fan of these triangular battered "crab meat" pillows, but that's just me. They happened to be served poppingly HOT!, and happened to be is used because many a time they do their tiresome laps around the restaurant floor and get all bored and cold afterwards. And cold boring batter is just that: cold and boring and bland and doughy and ugh.

I think I am indifferent to these crab meat dumplings cause of the difference between what they are suggested to be. If something is deemed crab meat dumplings, they should contain, and if not contain, at least look/smell/taste/feel some element of crab right...? Maybe even crab meat powder?! At least these sound like crab meat dumplings, cause they're called crab meat dumplings but don't really have anything inside resembling crab meat. Rather like the seafood sub at Subway, however that was something I used to eat, and only eat without fail.

Beyond the crunchy battered coating exterior, is white "meat" paste that bores resemblance to all the pastes that Asians typically love to use. Similar to what is used in fake meat manufacture. We love the fake, cheap, but good quality stuff.

Sometimes the quality can be compromised :x

Chicken Feet with Spicy Sauce

So when you first hear the limbs chicken feet being a dish on its own, what does your brain think? I wasn't kidding when I mentioned in a previous post that no part on an animal goes to waste and time and time again that point gets proved and reiterated, over and over and over, again and again and again. Usually offal can still be tolerated and understood and can even be a delicacy as there is only one organ in each animal and is thus a scarce resource.

But this is feet! Real feet from a dead animal whose flesh is probably sitting in someone's stomach. And for me, I don't exactly crave feet. I have a particular disliking to even hearing the word and GAWD it's just so putrid! But yes there are dishes containing chicken feet, pig trotters, duck feet etcetera etcetera and yes I have eaten all these mildly putrid animal feet and yes I do enjoy them occasionally and no I am not disgusting. But nowadays for some unknown reason I don't touch these whenever they have walkabouts to my table or even if they walkabout and plod themselves in front of me.

When you look at a chicken strutting its stuff, it doesn't (and shouldn't) occur to you that you could eat those thin and bony legs. And even if some sick person did (which obviously happened), one wouldn't think there would be much to eat from it. However, it always surprises me how chubby these chicken feet always are: there is always puffy, plump skin and fats wrapped around the segmented bones and joints. However there isn't much to really swallow, as the mass of a foot is comprised of the chicken skeleton.

Mmm, dead chicken feet, chopped, slaughtered and cooked in its own blood... garnished with some lucky peanuts.

Just kidding!...but that is definitely believable.

Steamed Prawn Dumplings

The signature dish at Dim Sim gatherings, also known as Har Gow, the infamous prawn dumplings makes an early appearance. Prawn Dumplings can be the very reason for going to yum cha (also known as dim sim) and they very might well be the heart and soul of this largely loved aspect of Asian cooking. So well known and popular that if you say HAR GOW to a non Asian language speaker, they would still understand you and start salivating.
These little (well, decent sized) plump, juicy morsels are full of prawns, nestled inside that transparent layer of outer skin. So there's no hiding, no disguising, just the bundle of prawn that you can peep at behind the panel of slightly translucent skin, all exposed and naked for you to gaze dreamily at... (prawn and porn really do exert an aspect of similarity!?)

Absolute delight to a prawn lover and you won't get enough of that bouncy, flavoursome, springy bite in your mouth =p

Guaranteed to please.

Durian Puffs

And probably the worst fat contributor of all are these glorious gems which make you melt at the knees as they melt in your mouth. They're the type of foods which you'd hate to love, because they have the potential to do you so much damage with one hit.
Sometimes the things you love, are the very things that you shouldn't love.

These flaky golden delicious babies can actually challenge the mindset you have towards durian, like, forever. The fruit that smells like it's run a marathon then rolled in poop can actually make you excited, and I for one, am always in anticipation for Durian puffs. Even when I can take a dislike to the pungent, foul smelling spiky fruit that you can use as a weapon and kill someone a thousand times with its thousand daggers.

Personally I link the smell of durian to gas (and not the offensive kind)! But thankfully, the durian filling inside these puffs mingle with the mouthwatering aroma that drifts from freshly deep fried, unhealthy foods, keeping their own stink to a minimum so allowing you to really enjoy it without holding your nose. The continuous, flaky coils of batter circling the filling reveal threads of durian slithers that take on a creamy, melty, smooth texture, intermingled with sweetness and guilt.

Much of a love-hate relationship, just like the feeling I get for stuffing my face with this breakfast.

...

Dragon Palace boasts a huge seating capacity, perfect to accomodate its mass crowds for the lunch hours and being a popular choice for dining on weekends. It is majorly populated by Asians, despite pricing their dishes a bit more expensive relative to others. Rather so, the buzzing atmosphere adds to the excitement of the meal, with the possibility of the lavish interior design and modern decor adding to the price of the bill.

The queuing system can have loop holes, if acquaintanced with management. This applies with the charging of tea as well, which is a bit steep the last time I checked, being at the $2-$2.50 mark. Yum Cha, however, does literally translate to "drink tea", where the tea is the star of the show and the dim sim are merely accompaniments. But then again, in comparison to the usual $4 a cup of tea at cafes...I'll have to shut up.

Aforementioned, prices charged are relatively more expensive and the grand total for breakfast came to approximately the $60 mark. Is that pricey or is that pricey? That pretty much averages out $5.50 per dish. That's like 12 subways = 12 breakfasts!!!!! Or 6 footlongs, depending on my appetite ;)

I have to admit the service provided here varies up and down, depending on the day, the waitstaff, and the mood the waitstaff are in. Some are extremely considerate, helpful and have the patience of a brick wall and can provide any help required from them, while others...ehhhhh not so much.

Non consistency is observed but to be fair, it's not really fair to judge the overall fruit basket if you get the occasional bad fruit in the pack.