Shark Fin House
Phone 03 9663 1555
Yum cha is the Chinese version of brunch, consisting of smallish meals/snacks (dim sum) that are served with tea. There are many forms and variations, but essentially the food comes out in steamer baskets or plates that are designed for sharing. It is tradition to partake in this form of eating on weekends, where all the family can get together and chat, drink tea and eat dim sum to their hearts delight.
The weekend just gone was Mother’s Day, which was the perfect opportunity, along with the twenty million other people with the same idea, to go for yum cha. EG and I, and EG’s parents, headed over to Shark Fin House. It is one of the more popular joints in town (check out the queue), especially as it has been serving up 100 or so different types of dim sum since 1989.
Now, there is something disturbingly satisfying about a person wheeling food up to you on a trolley. No need to worry about order envy here - if there is something you like, you just reach out and grab it as it whizzes by. The skill one has to embrace is that of decisiveness. Trolley-people don’t like it when you ask too many questions, or dally over your choice. So it is often a good idea to venture to yum cha with someone in the “know”, who can quickly jump in and advocate before a promising dish gets whisked away. That’s my tip for the day 
Okay - so now to the food (glorious food). You must forgive any blatant inaccuracies or misrepresentations. I’ll do my best to describe the choices.
First up was a plump rehydrated shitake mushroom capped with a paste of seasoned minced prawn. A little spot of crab roe made this treat look like a sui mai.
Deep fried tofu was also stuffed with a seasoned prawny mince. The cube of firm tofu had been hollowed out to fit the filling, which was packed in nice and tight. Tofu juice actually spurted out when I bit into it - a hazard for those not in the know as it was hot!
Prawn gow gee is a dim sum stalwart - a steamed translucent rice flour wrapped dumpling that is filled with smallish whole prawns. Apparently the “skin” or pastry is quite difficult to make, and will show the skill of the chef. In this case, they were excellent.
Ooh ooh…this one was a particular favourite of mine. It was a deep fried taro dumpling stuffed with minced pork, shitake mushroom and bamboo shoot. It was both sweet and savoury, overtly porky, and yes, sublimely DFG (deep fried goodness).
Here is another stalwart, the sui mai, which is a particular favorite of EGs. A thin steamed wheat wrapper encased a superbly juicy fine pork mince, and is topped with crab roe. This one must be eaten with a dab or two of chilli sauce.
Another form of gow gee, though this time the filling was prawn, scallop and bamboo shoot. EG said it was a particularly hard dim sum to get right, as often the “skin” would stick, and all the filling would pop out when you picked it up. So I was happy to report that the gow gee stayed intact from the steamer basket to my mouth.
I was a little iffy about sampling this dish, though I did go in for a taste. Strips of braised tripe swam in a silky sauce that was both sweet and heady with five spice. There was other stuff in there - perhaps bamboo shoot, tofu skins and pig skin?! (…well that is what EG’s Mum delighted in telling me ;-))
This was a tofu and seafood stick parcel wrapped in seaweed. It too had been braised, and sat on a shred of cooked cabbage. It tasted fishy, but was nice.
Now to a classic that practically everyone loves - the spring roll. These ones were so hot that I had to sit there and stupidly fan my mouth to cool it all down. But do you think that stopped me taking another bite? That’s right…not on your life They were stuffed with pork and mushrooms and ginger and god knows what else. There is much mystery about the filling of these deep fried rolls of crisp pastry. But they are tasty!
Another one of my favourites - a vegetarian gow gee that was
packed with rice noodles, roasted peanuts (which imparted a wonderful full flavour) and an assortment of vegetables. They had the same translucent rice flour wrapper as the gow gees.
The steamed rice noodle roll was lipsmackingly good and cooked to order (…it didn’t come on a trolley). They had been stuffed with diced BBQ pork and vegetables, and then doused in a sweet soy sauce. Yum!
On a similar vein (in the flavour department anyway) was the BBQ pork bun. When the buns are made they are given a cross cut, which during the steaming process cracks open to reveal the deep red pork mixture within. They were BBQ sweet and immensly satisfying.
For dessert (because yes, I always love this part of a meal) was a silky tofu swimming in a light gingery sugar syrup. This particular version wasn’t as sweet as I’ve had previously, but it was absolutely wonderful. And it is a good way to finish a yum cha meal - a palate cleanser if you will.
We arrived at 10.30 and were out the door at 11.50, which allowed the staff to whip off the tablecloths and re-set the tables for the next sitting at 12 noon. No messing around - this place means business, and you may feel that in the rush to get you seated, get you fed, and get you outta there. But you must embrace it, beacuse the food and the experience is damn good.
Written by mellie on
May 16th, 2007 | Tags: Chinese, restaurants | Category: Uncategorized
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May 16th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Great photo’s and lovely descriptions of each dish.
God, that tofu dish at the end looks bloody marvellous. No wonder the queue is so long!
May 16th, 2007 at 11:56 pm
Hiya Lucy - thanks for that! I took the photos with my big SLR camera this time, and it certainly makes a bit of a differnce. It captures the light and the depth so well.
And the tofu dish was bloody beautiful. EG said he’s going to show me how to make it. Apparently there is some packet stuff you can buy (at Asian grocers) for the tofuy bit. And I think I can knock together the ginger syrup. I reckon it would be lovely with some fresh fruit for breakfast. I will blog the process when I get around to it.
May 17th, 2007 at 2:23 am
You can definitely buy the tofu mixture from the groceries. My mum makes a very nice one after some initial trial and error to get the right brand and consistency. The sugar ginger syrup is basically just boiling sugar with water and ginger.
It works out so cheap that you can make and eat as much as you want and still have some left to put in the fridge for eating later on.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:45 am
Great review as always, Mellie, and good to see you wholeheartedly embracing the ‘Cha! My friends and I love it and have an unofficial YCP (yum cha posse) mailing list: every second month or so we send round a group email inviting interested people to join us for yum cha. We get a different combination of people every time: sometimes it’s just four of us but once there were twenty one of us! Good fun..
We went to SFH this weekend too, but decided to skip the inevitable Mothers’ Day crowds and go on Saturday…
Naturally, we loved it! Have you had their steamed rice noodle rolls with prawn? I prefer them to the pork ones. And have you tried their chicken feet?
May 17th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Hey thanh7580 - Hmm…are you willing to tell which brand your Mum likes? It is always best to go with a recommendation. I was thinking it might also be nice to make the ginger syrup with palm sugar, as opposed to white sugar. The palm is not so sweet, and might add a subtle delicateness to it. What do you reckon?
Hi mutemonkey - oooh, I love the sound of a YCP
Where can I sign up? Yes, the mothers day crowds were rather busy, but it was so lovely as SFH gave out a single carnation to all Mum’s. So very sweet! And no, I haven’t tried the steamed rice noodle roll with prawns. Will give it a crack next time. I didn’t try their chicken feet, though I did see them whizzing by. They were pale though - I am more used to seeing them braised in a dark brew. What’s the deal?
May 17th, 2007 at 11:31 pm
Great looking spread!
May 18th, 2007 at 12:57 am
You shot all my facvourites, the gee gow, the limp rice paper noodle things and the tripe. The chickens feet sound like they were steamed - just dredge them through soy and chili. (By the way if anyone doesn’t like tripe, try one of the soups with tripe at the Melbourne Noodle House where it is sliced into extremely thin slices and is almost indistinguishable from the actual noodles.)
May 18th, 2007 at 11:52 am
Mmmm yumcha! Having lived in Hong Kong, I can’t say I’m blown away by the choices in Melbourne; Nonetheless, Shark Fin House is pretty damn good judging by those standards.
May 19th, 2007 at 10:18 am
Mel, do you mind me asking how much you spend per person for that yum cha session?
May 20th, 2007 at 4:15 am
Hiya noodleoodle - …and that’s why I love yum cha
Hey kitchen hand - thanks for the tip on the tripe noodle soup. Noodleoodle would probably be interested in giving that one a try.
G’day mel. - yes, I doubt we do things here half as well as overseas. EG originally hails from Singapore, and he regales many a tale about how fantastic the food is over there. We are travelling to Singapore in November, so I will finally be able to experience it for myself
Hi anon - we spent $30 per person on this occassion. We also had some congee, and doubled up on some of the dim sum.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:00 am
Hm…
Melb yum cha sure is getting pricey.
I’d rather eat TH once rather than eat yum cha twice.
I feel that the value isn’t there anymore for yum cha in Melb. Besides that, I didn’t see any posh dish justifying that 30$ price tag.
May 20th, 2007 at 7:15 am
I said ANYMORE since this is so endemic in many joints (even) in eastern ‘burbs, like:
Golden Dragon Palace: 33$ pp
Plume : 35$ pp
I don’t feel that’s a justifiable price for what I consumed.
Can’t help but think TH is such a brilliant value. Really, I mean it =)!
May 20th, 2007 at 10:48 am
Oh goodie, yum cha! Haven’t had that in ages. Had the chance to go with a couple friends, but had to study at home. =[ I don’t mind signing up to the YCP either.
mellie, i noticed you ordered lots of stuff i had never seen at SFH before. Were they mostly special orders or just off the carts?
May 21st, 2007 at 12:16 am
Hi moodie foodie - we basically ordered from the carts, the only exception being the congee and the rice noodle roll.
May 21st, 2007 at 10:57 am
Hrmm..strange. Maybe next time i’ll just print out the pictures and show them so they can get the food for me. lol.
May 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 am
Hi mellie and moodie foodie - I’d be happy to sign you up to the YCP - visit my new blog for details!
May 23rd, 2007 at 6:08 am
Hey moodie foodie - a great idea…lol
Hiya mutemonkey - congratulations on the new blog, Melbourne Gastronome. I have added you to my blogroll, and I have also signed myself up for the YCP. Do we have a secret handshake or something