Lady Lunchalot

In the red corner is 1+1 Dumpling Noodle, a member of the Footscray culinary elite - a Chinese food heavyweight, if you will. With thousands upon thousands of handmade dumplings under its belt, and a rope of noodle long enough to stretch to outer Mongolia and back, this Xingjian noodle house has proven itself to be a stalwart member of the cutthroat Footscray food scene.

In the blue corner is the newcomer to the ring, Spicy Bar. They’re threatening to take over 1+1 Dumpling Noodle’s monopoly on Xianjian food in this neighborhood. With 1+1 moving down the road to larger premises, Imelda and the Spicy Bar team have taken over their old shopfront in the Footscray market, and they’re offering the same style spicy, meaty, hearty Xianjian food fron the heart of western China.

Is this town big enough for the two of them?

Last night I stopped in at Footscray on the way home, expecting to find my usual beloved 1+1 Dumpling Noodle in its usual place. Instead, there was Spicy Bar. They weren’t quite open yet, but were preparing the place for their launch on Saturday and were road testing a new chef. Imelda welcomed me inside and decided that I would be their guinea pig (I loooooove being a food guinea pig!).

I started with the barbecued lamb skewers. I only ordered one, out of curiosity (and because I looove those charcoally grilled hunks of meat) but three somehow appeared on my plate. They had that beautiful smoky charcoal flavour with an excellent kick of chilli, as well as a few other levels of Asian spices which shall are destined to remain a mystery to such a devoutly European cook as yours truly. Imelda was worried they were a little too salty, but they were perfect to me. The hunks of meat at 1+1 are bigger and meatier than Spicy Bar’s, but as an entree to what inevitably becomes a huge meal, smaller chunks were fine.

Next up was the lamb with noodles. Imelda asked me if I’d like more veggies or more meat, which was a fantastic question, as I had been neglecting my greens for the past few days. I was also asked how spicy I would like it, and I was able to show off the Chinese (Cantonese? Mandarin) that O had picked up on his travels a few years ago and passed on to me. (”Bu yeow” means that you don’t want something.)

It was the perfect level of heat and the meat-noodle-veg ratio was spot on. I will even go so far as to say that it was less oily than 1+1 Dumpling Noodle’s lamb and noodle dishes.

Yes, I know it’s a big call.

As any dyed-in-the-wool dumpling lover would, I took it upon myself to conduct a taste test. Imelda tells me that their specialty is dumplings, while 1+1 really focuses on the noodles.

That sounded like a challenge if I have ever heard one!

I was pretty full, but Imelda was insisting that I try them, and who was I to refuse my gracious host? Their chief dumpling maker whipped up a batch of the best pan-fried seafood dumplings that I have ever had.

There. I said it.

In comparison with the competition, the dumpling skin was finer and the seafood was really fresh (I got the occassional crack of a teensy shrimp as I was eating them). The best part was the crunchy part of the skin where they had been sitting in the pan. And they weren’t oily at all. Though in all fairness, they could have been cooked for a smidge longer, as there were a few that were slightly underdone.

And the even better part is that I couldn’t eat them all so Imelda packed up my leftovers to take home. So there’s more for me to enjoy tonight!

After that meal it looks like 1+1 Dumpling Noodle is facing some stiff competition from the new kids on the block. And the bell rings on Saturday morning, when Spicy Bar officially opens its doors for the first time.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 15th, 2006 at 11:08 am and is filed under Reviews, Restaurants . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.