East Ocean Restaurant, Haymarket

Ahhh, yum cha. Is there anything better than yum cha on the weekend? It's my favourite way to eat - tasting lots of delicious morsels and sharing it around a big table of friends or family. As a push to see each other more often (because it is so easy to lose touch with people), Little Miss, Little Miss T and I organised to meet up for yum cha with a group of other friends. Our original plan was Zilver, but we ended up meeting too late and the lines were ridiculous. (11am is usually the time I try to aim for when I go for yum cha. Anytime after that and you could have a very long wait ahead of you)

We somehow ended up at East Ocean, because the lines there were ever so slightly shorter than Zilver's. I was a little sad about this since I was eager to check out Zilver again because I was underwhelmed on my last visit but it is a firm favourite with a lot of my yum cha loving friends. But East Ocean was a pretty good consolation prize, it's not cheap but it seemed fairly consistent.

So here's the enormous amount of food we ordered, apologies if I have gotten the names of the dishes, or the spelling of the names, horrendously wrong - this is just how I've learnt how to say them over time. I always call myself a fake Asian since I only speak English (something that I'm not proud of) but I've been to yum cha enough that I can usually recognise the names of most of the dishes.

Siu mai - steamed pork dumpling

My favourite is siu mai. I always order it no matter what. It's my indicator of a good yum cha. I've had some really bad ones in the past, including raw and pink on the inside ones at Sea Treasure years ago. The East Ocean ones weren't too bad if I recall, moist and strong in flavour, though not the prettiest I've seen. I still like the ones at Kam Fook Chatswood more.

Har gao - steamed prawn dumplings

Har gao are always a favourite of everyones, so simple but enjoyable. My pet peeve is a ridiculously thick dumpling skin. Some places do their skins so thick that your first bite into a har gao is just 100% skin. These ones were nice and thin and not too starchy.

Lo mai gai - lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice

I love sticky rice. It's really bad for you though, I used to buy them refrigerated from the Chinese supermarket until I noticed the packet said they were 400 calories EACH. Oh my.

Char siu bao - steamed pork buns

I LOVE my char siu bao, but I hardly ever eat it at yum cha because I buy them frozen all the time now. There's one particular brand (the name of which I can never remember, I'll get back to you) that do AWESOME frozen versions that you stick in the microwave for a minute and a half or steam yourself and they taste better than a lot of the ones I've had at yum cha. So I skipped these.

Mai lai gou - steamed sponge cake

I don't usually get the steamed sponge cake and I'm not sure why. I annihilated this one with my chop sticks, it was super sweet, warm and fluffy. Even the most wary Australians with us enjoyed this.

Fried cheung fun - fried rice noodles in hoisin sauce

We were going to go for the usual steamed cheung fun but we were so hungry from the wait in line that we just grabbed the first trolleys that came our way, so we ended up with the fried version. No meat, just fried noodles, sesame seeds and spring onion. Not bad but really oily.

Fu pei guen - tofu skin roll

The tofu skin roll doesn't excite me much but the sight of the wu gok gets Little Miss T excited, the flaky, crisp yam/taro dumplings. I've always liked them but I can never handle more than a bite because they are quite heavy and rich. These ones were a bit disappointing, very oily and a little bit soggy.

Wu gok - deep fried taro dumpling

Ngau Juk Kau – Steamed beef balls mixed with minced ginger and dried tangerine peel

We also get the beef balls, something I hardly ever get, for the people who are a bit less adventurous at the table. Turns out they don't want to try these anyway so that was a bit of a wasted dish. I love the fried radish cake though, though I usually get the steamed version to make myself feel less guilty but I love the golden exterior of the fried version.

Lor bak goh - fried radish cake

Ngau pak yip - steamed tripe

Suan Bao Niu Jin (?) - Beef tendon in garlic sauce

Somethings that I don't usually get but which are interesting - tripe and tendon. The type isn't really my favourite, it's very strong in flavour and quite bitter. The tendon is very interesting indeed. The texture is gelatinous, melting in your mouth and almost buttery. The garlic sauce is nice but I'm not sure I could handle too much of this. I think I prefer my tendon a little firmer, like the type they serve in pho at Vietnamese places.

Fung jao - Chicken feet with black bean and chili

Chicken's feet are a firm favourite of mine. I always prefer the saucy version to the plain ones. The sauce is always so yummy. I know this is the one that people get weirded out by but it's really not that much different to eating any other part of the chicken, except that there's a lot more bones.

Pai gwat - pork spare ribs in black bean sauce

The spare ribs are fatty and tender, one of the dishes that Little Miss V always chooses as part of her 5 dishes she must always order at yum cha

Ham soi gok - deep fried combination pork dumplings

The ham soi gok are my absolute favourite naughty dumplings. Naughty because they're fried, but oh so good. Little Miss T & I are keeping an eye out for this one as the fried trolleys roll past and are very happy when we finally spot them. These ones are definitely not bad, the skin isn't too thick and is nice and crispy, but the filling was a little sparse.

Tofu fa - sweet silken tofu

Another favourite of mine is the tofu fa. Little Miss V asks for an extra bowl of the sugar syrup that comes with it because she loves it so much. I can polish of an entire bowl of this on my own and I almost do, even after all that food.

Dan tart - egg tarts

I cannot and will not go to yum cha unless I am guaranteed to have an egg tart at the end of my meal. They are the only way to end a good yum cha. So I was getting very irritated when they were nowhere to be seen. We kept asking for them and they just seemed to have disappeared into thin air. Then of course about 100 of them turned up at once at our table. We ended up getting too many because the other people at our table didn't like them (hmph!) so I had more than my fair share in the end. They were freshly made so they were hot, with a flaky buttery pastry and a just set filling. Not bad at all. In the end we paid about 25 dollars a head which is quite a lot compared to what I've paid before, but there were a whole bunch of dishes I think we could have skipped. I still have to go try Zilver again to compare!

East Ocean Restaurant
421 - 429 Sussex St,
Haymarket, NSW 2000
(02) 9212 4198
Mon-Fri: 10am - 2am
Sat-Sun & Public Holidays: 9am - 2am