Dainty Sichuan

August 30, 2013

We've had some spicy good times at South Yarra's Dainty Sichuan, so were excited to read Simple Eater's review of the new Box Hill version, which focuses on the Sichuan hotpot experience. We were even more excited when Steph, The Simple Eater and Hayley invited us to join them on a jaunt out to sample it for ourselves.

Steph is a passionate advocate of the hotpot, so we let her give us the run-down on the whole process. It's pretty simple: you just pick your preferred soup base (vegos can pick from mushroom, spicy or super spicy - or not, check out the new comment from Ruby) and then go crazy with things to cook in it. You can even get a split soup base - I went for a combo of mushroom and spicy, because I figured you can't really go to a Sichuan place without getting stuck into some chilli.

Turns out this was kind of a mistake - the chilli base is pretty potent and tended to overpower a lot of the fillings. And you don't need to focus your chilli energy on the pot, because Dainty Sichuan has a condiment station!

Look at all those condiments! There's about three different kinds of chilli sauces, a big pot of sesame oil, shallots, garlic, soy, vinegar and on and on and on. I made up a quite glorious little bowl of vinegar and Sichuan pepper, which would have served all my spice needs. So, a quick tip: get the mushroom stock and then go crazy with the chilli-based condiments - it gives you a bit more control. Luckily, there are a range of cooling drinks - Cindy and I both went for a lychee ice ($4.50).

Sweet and icy - they did a good job of cutting through the chilli.

Onto the hotpot fillings! The menu is pretty well served with vegetarian plates, all of which were vegan. Steph took charge, ordering us enough dishes to cover every square inch of our table. We had two plates of the potato slices ($5 a pop), plates of pumpkin and lotus root slices ($5 each), Chinese cabbage ($5), seaweed threads ($5), a mushroom combo ($18), topped up with some bonus oyster mushrooms ($7), a plate of dried tofu sticks ($5), frozen tofu ($5), two plates of potato noodles ($5 each) and two of the rice vermicelli ($5 each). Look at it all!

Eating it all was a super fun experience - there's a bit of an art to knowing how hot to make the pot and how long to cook each of the bits and pieces. The potato, for example, goes quite quickly from being undercooked to falling apart - there's a sweet spot, but you've got to pay attention to make sure you hit it. It's worth the concentration. Throwing some noodles in the pot is crucial - the potato noodles in particular were slippery and delicious. The mushrooms were also outstanding, particularly if you cooked them in the mushroom pot and then dunked them in your condiment combo. My favourite was probably the frozen tofu - it quickly thaws itself out in the hotpot and soaks up all its flavours (it, along with the potatoes, worked the best in the chilli stock I'd say).

The hotpot experience is best enjoyed with a big group - it has the double benefits of letting you choose loads of dishes and giving you people to lazily chat to as you steadily pick at all your food. They happily top up your soup pots as the night goes on so if you over-order like we did you can basically sit there all night, waiting for your second (and third) wind to dive back in again. I'm not sure that anything quite hit the heights of some of the regular dishes at the South Yarra restaurant, but we had a great time sampling all of these goodies. If you're after a similar experience, the South Yarra Dainty Sichuan has a bunch of hotpot tables along with their other options, but only the hotpot focussed Box Hill place has the full condiment station, so it might be worth the trip east.

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There are heaps of reviews of the other Dainty Sichuans (see our previous post for a round-up), but only The Simple Eater has made the trek out to Box Hill.

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Dainty Sichuan

Level 1, 2a Cambridge Street, Box Hill
9041 4318
stock bases $6-8, veg elements $5-18 (we paid about $30pp for more food than we could conceivably consume)
facebook page

Accessibility: Dainty Sichuan is up a flight of stairs - I don't remember seeing a lift anywhere, but I wasn't looking that closely. Once you're upstairs it's a big space with a reasonable amount of space. Ordering and payments is at the table. We didn't visit the toilets.

Vegie Hut II

April 8, 2012

   

We had a fairly unconventional Easter Sunday, heading out east with our mate Michael for walks and eats. We hit Box Hill's Vegie Hut first for yum cha.

   

While it isn't quite so glamorous as Sydney's Bodhi in the Park, there's much to love about Vegie Hut. The yum cha plates are still just $4.20 each, the same price this restaurant was charging when we first visited in 2008. And all-vegetarian yum cha (I can choose anything, ANYTHING from the menu!) is always a luxury. Many seem to appreciate it - though the photo above shows a few empty tables 10 minutes after opening, Vegie Hut rapidly fills and reservations are advisable.

   

Congee is complimentary with multiple orders from the yum cha menu - warm, salty and gently filling, I can see why it's a sick-day comfort food for so many.

   

I was actually hoping that the 'soup dumpling' would be dumplings filled with soup (made famous in Melbourne by HuTong) but it's served the other way round. Less of a marvel, but still quite tasty.

   

I was quite insistent that there would be BBQ mock-pork buns.  Sweet-savoury and freshly steamed, we all loved them and ordered seconds. Thirds, to ensure that we each had a equal number, was tempting.

   

The steamed ribs in black bean sauce aren't very rib-like, but the dish is really all about the silky, savoury sauce. 

   

The grilled dumplings also warranted a second round. As well as crispy-fried edges, they had a fetching gingery kick to them. 

   

We cut all the richness as best we could with steamed choy-sum in vegie-oyster sauce.

While there's no shortage of mock meat in Melbourne's inner city, a trek out for yum cha is always a treat. There's just nothing quite like a BBQ mock-pork bun... its *ahem* non-veg namesake aside.

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You can read about our first visit to Vegie Hut here. Since then, their yum cha has been blogged and loved by veg*ns at The Fairest Feed and Vegan About Town (twice). Vicki Vegan was less impressed by the banquet, while the a la carte options are reviewed favourably at Black Bunny Carousel. Positive accounts also appear on omni blogs Spatula, Spoon and Saturday, Fooodgasm and Foodies N Places.

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Vegie Hut
984 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
9898 2287
yum cha plates $4.20 each
http://vegiehut.com.au/

Accessibility: Vegie Hut has a few steps on entry and a high density of tables. There's full table service. We didn't visit the toilets.

November 16, 2008: A vegan tour of Box Hill

The decadence I anticipated was a Box Hill yum cha meet-up with the vegan potluck crew. Lisa had intended that most of us bike our way there from the inner north, thereby earning this feast. I withdrew early on the basis of my inadequate bike and even less adequate fitness; a few others developed late-hitting ailments (really! I don't think they were wussing out...) and ultimately Lisa and Michael were the only two hardcore enough to take it on. (You can read Lisa's account of their journey on her blog.)

A bike ride is not the only way to develop an appetite for yum cha. Toby, for example, skipped breakfast, and talking food all the way to Box Hill in Kristy's car seemed to have all three of us salivating. Actually, my hunger to visit the Vegie Hut has been growing for over two years; the restaurant's name and address were written by a vegetarian colleague in the farewell card given to me by my former lab in Brisbane. Once there, overwhelmed by the entirely vegetarian menu, I was happy to cede ordering duties to Toby and Kristy.

We started with congee. I've never eaten this savoury rice porridge before and was surprised how much I liked it. I think it's free of charge when you order two or more items from the yum cha menu. Each other dish below cost $4.20, and my descriptions are little more than guesses - pipe up in the comments if you know better than I do what I was eating!

Though they were deep-fried and delightfully crunchy, I didn't really take to these faux-seafood balls - the texture was a bit rubbery.

These were more to my liking - mixed vegetable cakes, with a crisp-fried crust and a thick, salty sauce.

More crisp, deep-fried vege treats!

Spinach dumplings.

The steamed 'ribs' in black bean sauce were a table-wide favourite.

BBQ mock-pork buns - also a winner.

I think this is steamed siew-mai - delicious, but difficult to maneouvre with chopsticks for a clumsy kid like me!

I didn't really take to these - they tasted chemical-y to me.

These super-processed nuggets, on the other hand? Awesome. I ate more than my fair share.

The four season buns each have a different sweet filling - I scored a black sesame one, while Michael chose taro.

With that, we were full. 'Twas a fine feast for about $15 each. But the edible adventures weren't over yet; Kristy next led us to the most functionally named Vegie Bakery.

This bakery features the kind of breads and pastries I'm accustomed to seeing through a Breadtop window, though these were all vegetarian! There were plenty of faux-meat specimens, but on Kristy's recommendation I chose this little green tea cake ($2.20).

It's not the kind of dessert I usually crave or indulge in, but I was won over by the flaky outer layers and sweet fudgy centre when I later ate it for afternoon tea.

Our final stop was the Golden Age Health & Vegetarian Food Mart for some take-home groceries. Here everyone perused the freezer for faux meats - I wasn't immune, but I also picked up a pack of Toby's favourite ramen and some powdered egg replacer (those salad dressing cupcakes were a timely reminder to try an egg alternative).

Laden down with frozen goods, we all headed home to our respective fridges. What a treat; to discover a new suburb and its food with a crew of like-minded eaters!

Vegie Hut
Address: 984 Whitehorse Road, Box Hill
Ph: 9898 2287
Website: www.vegiehut.com.au

Vegie Bakery
Address: 566 Station Street, Box Hill
Ph: 9898 8666

Golden Age Health & Vegetarian Food Mart
Address: 18b Rutland Road, Box Hill
Ph: 9898 2048