Shanghai Nights - Ashfield

"Dumplings, dumplings, dummmppplings!", cried Leona. When she sent out the urgent call to a group of us that she needed to experience the dumplings of Ashfield for the first time, it didn't take much for us to heed her request. I myself, am one such Ashfield-virgin and if you recalled my last rant about the quality and expense of xiao long baos at Din Tai Fung, you'd imagine how quickly I was to agree to a Tuesday night excursion to Sydney's inner west. And it was a perfect last supper of sorts, to farewell Lili of PIkelet and Pie who was on her last week in Australia before her big seachange to Vietnam.

We started off on Lili's recommendation of Garlic Cucumber ($8.80). I was a little taken back with it from the first bite as I expected a warm dish but instead it was a kind of cold salad. But it wasn't long before the potent hit of garlic made its presence known and I was in bliss. I don't like cucumbers but in this sauce, I'd happily scoff it down.

Here they are! My babies! Of course I expected that its beauty would pale in comparison to Din Tai Fung's gorgeous, luminous skins, plump shapes and minute pleats but these Xiao Long Baos ($6.50) make up for it in substance. Oh. My. God. Though I would've loved more soup, the flavour won me over. Din Tai Fung's xiao long baos? Never again.

The pleasure doesn't stop there, my friends, with dumpling winner #2. These pan fried pork dumplings with shallots ($8.50) also won on flavour although the bottoms wasn't as crispy as I hoped. Still, I loved fried buns and I'm very talented at overlooking the grease factor of things (and dropping them on my lap!).

The noodle dish was a spicy pork and cucumber number of Zha Jiang Mian ($7.50). I'm not a big fan of Shanghainese noodle dishes as I've always found them, dare I say it, bland and unexciting. Yes, my tastebuds can be rather biased when it comes to my beloved noodle dishes but only because I've been positively spoilt with growing up on Malaysian and Thai - both of which does noodle dishes the best. So forgive me if I found this unmemorable... just a matter of personal taste.

Zha Jiang Mian

There were murmurs of approval for the Sesame Fried Sticky Rice Cakes ($4.50). I love sticky rice so these were incredibly addictive. But I admit, I couldn't help but wish for a bowl of kaya (Malaysian Coconut jam) so I could dunk these babies in.

Noticing a kind of greasy trend in our dishes? Yeah... not a good idea ordering our cholesterol-laden dishes, which we realised after seeing our Shallot Pancakes ($4.50). So crispy. So good. But oh! The grease!

Lastly, something I've never seen before - Shanghai Fried New Year Cake ($8.50). Little discs of glutinous dough are fried in a fragrant XO sauce and the gorgeous aroma of the 'breath-of-the-wok" was ever present. Not as much sauce as I would like but it sure was fun to bite on the strange chewy texture of the glutinous noodle cakes.

Dumplings were a surefire winner of Shanghai Nights and it was a great change to try the other non-dumpling dishes on the menu. And at only a paltry $9 per person (and trust me, we were stuffed!), can you spell w-i-n-n-e-r? Though next time, less fried dishes and more Xiao Long Baos! Ashfield, you are now on my radar and it's about bloody time!


Shanghai Nights

275 Liverpool Rd
Ashfield NSW 2131
(02) 9798 8437

Open daily 10am-10pm. Shanghai Nights accepts cash only.