17 July 2012

YUM CHAR, DIM SUM & GRAZING

I really love yum char. The concept of sitting and watching as the carts go past, laden with dim sum treats so you can choose exactly what you desire is high on my list of favourite meals.

I've been to Hong Kong and eaten at that amazing yum char restaurant near the Financial Centre on Hong Kong island where the food was varied and wonderful, especially after a wait of 90 minutes on a Sunday morning. Here in Auckland my favourite has been Grand Park, the large chaotic restaurant under the grandstand at Alexandra Raceway where anything with fish is particularly good.

But yesterday I ate dim sum at Sun World under the York St Carpark on Khyber Pass and I was very impressed. The variety of different fried, steamed, baked and roasted dim sum was impressive. It's a typically large sprawling place, that's not particularly smart or flash, but it's very busy, even at 11.50am on a Monday and that is a good sign. There were only about two tables where the diners were not Asian, and that's a second really good sign.

I loved the little dumplings, neatly pleated and filled with soup, and the siu mai were deliciously porky and prawny at once. Baked rice, wrapped in lotus leaf is always on my list of choices and Sun World's is generously filled with the rich pork mixture. Their rice noodle dishes are properly slipery and tasty, and we loved the slightly spicy crumbed and fried cubes of tofu.

Then I spied what I thought were perfect white bread chicken sandwiches. How wrong could I be? Three cheers for William Chen as he not only introduced me to this sweet, fluffy snack; Pak Thong Ko, which was one of the more unusual but wonderful dessert treats I have eaten in years, but he also took the photo posted above. Only the world's best magazine art director (formerly) could manage to capture the essence of this white rice flour, sugar and yeasty treat and make it look beautiful. White food on a white plate on a white backgrounnd. Thanks William, and I hope we'll be back at Sun World, very, very soon.

Sun World, 2A York St, off Khyber Pass Rd, Newmarket T 09 520 3218 Open 7 days