Originally published in Jargon, summer 2001.

Project Dumpling
by Simon Sellars & Anna Hyde

The discovery of gold in 1851 attracted Chinese immigration to Victoria, Australia on a large scale. The small Chinese community first occupied Celestial Ave in the heart of Melbourne, providing for the needs of the diggers – lodgings en route, food, equipment and medicine – while Little Bourke St became a low rental area on the outskirts of the city. Soon after, Chinatown had extended northwards to Little Lonsdale St and its adjoining lanes, and as far east as Spring St.

Today Chinatown is a busy and important centre for Melbourne’s Chinese community, predominantly extending along Little Bourke St, between Spring and Swanston Sts. It is also one of Melbourne’s most popular places to visit, and provided the perfect backdrop for ‘Project Dumpling: The Search for the Perfect Dumpling!’

Ah yes, dumplings: little bags of joy, tender and succulent, a juicy taste explosion massaging the taste buds and senses. Can one ever have enough? So versatile, so cute…dumplings have got the lot. And they’re cheap. Now join our top-secret operatives, Agent Chops and Agent Duck, as they risk their lives sampling the good and the bad so that you may dine in style on a tight budget…

CHILILICIOUS!
The Camy Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant (23–25 Tattersalls Lane) is a great place to visit if you’ve got a hankering for some dumpling goodness that just won’t quit. Nestled against (but not to be confused with) the Shanghai Noodle and Dumpling House, Camy offers cheap and terrific meals starting from $5.

‘Dumpling in Soup’ is a hot, tasty dish and a satisfying meal for one. The dumpling serving is generous and the soup is a functional broth that nestles the dumplings in its spicy sauce, while also making for a refreshing end to the meal when the main ingredients are finished. Hot to the last drop!

‘Fried Beef Dumpling’ is served on an oval platter and comes in substantial proportions – the dumpling skin is crispy on the outside and the meat is soft and juicy. Each dumpling is packaged in a rice wrapper that functions as an excellent insulator, and each is guaranteed to be steamy hot in the middle*. (*Note: guaranteed hotness provided normal eating time of up to 25 minutes is taken.)

While one might say the bilingual menu is ‘dumplocentric’ it does offer a variety of dishes, both sweet and savoury, as well as some vegetarian meals such as vegie ‘ham’ and vegie ‘duck’. Free tea, fresh chilli sauce and tooth picks are offered in abundance for all to share. Dining at The Camy Shanghai Dumpling Restaurant is a delightfully ‘chillilicious’ experience offering competitively priced food combined with friendly, prompt service and a quiet, mannered atmosphere.

ULTRA CREAMY – WITH A PUNCH
If you like peanut butter, then you’ll love peanut butter dumplings from the Shanghai Noodle House (next door to the Camy). These compact, frilly treats are hot and steamy and come with a bowl of peanut chilli vinegar that is ultra creamy and packed with a punch!

There is free, self-service tea as you enter and each table is equipped with the necessary soy sauce, serviettes and toothpicks. Staff are always polite and are pleasingly dressed in ‘Hello Kitty’ aprons. Lucky customers may also receive a free bowl of delicious soup complete with fried egg strips, fresh coriander, lettuce, seaweed and two different types of fungus. Prices hover around the $5 mark.

For this assignment, we sat opposite an elderly Chinese gentleman who slurped his noodle soup with gay abandon. But we were not deterred, for we knew it was all part of the experience of enjoying the food – as our ears attuned to the surroundings, we could hear that nearly all the customers were slurping and drinking their broth straight from the bowl. And pretty soon, we did the same, our Western-style embarrassment soon forgotten as the refreshing liquid splashed all over our faces and down our clothes. Yum!

And then we noticed a hand-written legend above one of the wall-mounted menus: ‘Crab’s Comeback’. We are still waiting…

ENCHANTING UNDERGROUND AMBIENCE
Big Eyes Tofu (265 Little Bourke St), situated within the subterranean depths of the Ong Food Court, offers diners a selection of freshly cooked hot meals, which are ordered by saying the number next to a photo of the dish you like best. A good meal costs around $7. ‘Prawn Dumpling in Soup’ is imaginatively presented in a metal bowl within another metal bowl. Each prawn dumpling looks like a jellyfish floating in the ocean, with decorative flaps of translucent dumpling skin amid the reedy appearance of boiled Chinese broccoli. The accompanying sauce is tres sweet and comes served with fresh chilli. A cold shandy from nearby ‘Damien’s Cocktail Bar’ complements this dish perfectly.

Ong Food Court is a comfortable place for the lone diner and also suitable for a large group of friends, as many tastes are catered for. The real granite surfaces and soft lighting add to the enchanting underground ambience. And televisions are strategically located for all customers’ enjoyment, screening such programs as Sale of the Century and ‘the news’.

CHOPSTICK ADVICE – WITH A SMILE
Next time you stroll down Little Bourke St, don’t be put off by the upmarket appearance of Post Deng Café (214 Little Bourke St). You might think the sartorial staff look a bit fancy for you, but service is friendly and the customer may also receive advice on correct chopstick procedure – with a smile! Tasteful watercolours decorate the walls and hauntingly beautiful melodies such as ‘Don’t Cry for Me Argentina’, ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Danke Chen’ fill the room. Lunch specials start from $5.50 and tea is 50 cents. Dumplings are not the focus of the menu although some are offered as entrees to whet your appetite. The rice-based lunch meals are flavoursome and contain some unusual ingredients, such as plum.

Why ‘Post Deng’? This question is answered in the menu booklet. Deng Xiaoping, China’s late Paramount leader from Sichuan, led Chinese people to prosperity and a renewed interest in their national preoccupation – good eating. Sichuan is famous for its cuisine, which is well-balanced between light and heavy seasoning. But the Post Deng Café is flexible and expansive: popular Cantonese and Beijing meals are also served.

DUMPLINGS FOR THE CONNOISSEUR
Shanghai Village (26 Corrs Lane) has an ‘olde worlde’ and wonderfully warm environment: the non-fake timber interior provides an enticingly spacious and calming backdrop to an eating extravaganza. The menu is extensive with cold dishes such as duck liver and special desserts – four-dollar meals include spice-and-sour soup with sea cucumber, or curry beef soup, while your standard plate of 15 dumplings costs $5.50. Shanghai Village also sells cheap frozen dumplings for the connoisseur. The special mezzanine level is available for parties and is also the location of the women’s toilets.

THANKS – BUT NO THANKS
If we may be so bold as to mince no bones, the Silver Bird Garden Restaurant (198 Little Bourke St) is NOT our favoured House of Dumplings. The rice dishes purchased may as well have come from some end-of-the-day food court bain marie; the prawns in the dumplings were none-too-fresh; and as for the noodles, frankly one could do better with the ‘two-minute’ variety. The modern decor has all the ambience of a Tatts pokies joint (although the aquarium built into the wall separating the eating area from the kitchen caught our eye). And the irascible Head Waitress looked upon us with ‘Fawltyesque’ disdain, plonking our food down so hard the table shook! God knows what we’d done to provoke her ire. The only thing I can think of is that we were munching previously-bought Kong Foo Sing fortune cookies straight from the box…