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After being away from home-cooking for over a week, I found myself hunting down a Chinese restaurant. Claypot King sits on Swanston Street and immediately grabbed my attention because... well, how often would you find a Chinese restaurant with alfresco dining?
Alfresco dining
With appetites which had been expanding over the duration of the flight down from Sydney, we decided to start with plenty of entrees. The xiao long bao (steamed mini pork bun) was enormous and meaty. No sight of soup at all though! The har gow (prawn dumpling) were pretty average as well and I was fooled into thinking the pandan dumpling was a savoury entree! The pandan essence and sweet mung bean filling were delectable, nonetheless.
Then out came the peking duck; crisp skin on a thin slice of meat, cucumber, hoisin sauce and a shallot stick were wrapped inside steaming hot pastry sheets.
Xiao long bao a.k.a. steamed mini pork buns a.k.a. soup dumplings
Hargow a.k.a prawn dumpling
Pandan leaf dumpling
Peking duck
Its pretty hard to find traditional herbal soups in Summer so we were thrilled to find a whole menu full of authentic variations.
Herbal soup of dried scallop with watercress and duck kidney
I decided to play it safe and had the chicken and mushroom claypot rice which seemed to be their hero product. If you've never had claypot rice, it's a bit like getting a warm Korean bimbimbab or eating overcooked rice (but this is somehow more pleasant). The soy and ginger based marinate was so hearty and comforting.
Chicken and mushroom claypot rice
Combination seafood claypot rice
We finished off with a ice kacang. There was plenty of peanuts, corn kernels, grass jelly, rose syrup, red beans, condensed milk, lime jelly and a mountain of shaved ice.
Ice kacang
Inside the ice kacang
The small damage :)
Then off we went to discover the back streets of Melbourne.
View of street from our table
Claypot King
209 Swanston St, Melbourne, VIC
Phone: (03) 9662 3222
Trading Days: 7 days, 10 am - 11 pm
Yay you've got comments back! That place looks good. Two of my favourite things are in this story: XLB (they look quite big, how were they?) and Ice Kacang. I had that last night and was so happy :)
they were the biggest soup dumplings i've ever had! i'd say they were about 75% of the size of a woman's palm?
The restaurant looks very good, but it's your blogging style what struck me the most. Good work!
Thanks so much for the words of encouragement ;) *giggles*
hehe how often do you find a chinese restaurant with alfresco dining? err dude, chinatown, every night.
haha, that's such a good point! It's different in chinatown though, coz it's a pedestrian strip and not really a road?
True its not on a road, hey did you try Gill's Diner while you we're down there? That was my fav eatery, oh and robot bar was cool as heck, had old school 60's robot boxes and figurines everywhere.
Oh and Tunnel Club has transformed from asian hip hop gangsta crud to a cool house club called Sorry Granma, it's got old portraits on every wall with googley eyes stuck on them, hilarious!
Cakes in St Kilda were a complete let down though, I'd rather go to Papa's @ Haberfield any day, Go Sydney!
Anyhoo I better go do real work now.
one more comment! The claypots look pretty dang ordinary to me, should try hotpot rice at huong huong ;)
hmmm not my favourite place to eat but definitely a place that is considered cheap to eat.
The clay pot theme have been growing quite popular in Melbourne the last few years.
The best thing about this blog was the stir fry, ice kacang and your bill ;-)