Dumpling King - Moonta Street, Central Markets

Many years ago Dumpling King was the scene of a food epiphany for me. Their dumplings became the standard against which all other dumplings are judged. I've had many a dumpling since then - some better but many much worse. Regardless, Dumpling King will always have a place in my heart and when a friend suggested we eat there for lunch I immediately agreed.

Although they were obviously busy we were quickly ushered to tabled (this is almost always possible if you are happy to share) and immediately ordered sweet and sour soup, fried chicken and prawn dumplings and steamed greens with oyster sauce.



The sweet and sour is a very textural soup - thick and almost glutenous liquid; creamy, firm tofu; crunchy black fungus and bamboo shoots; and soft egg. It also has enough heat and acid to get the saliva going and excite the taste buds for the dumplings to come.



Crispy, chewy dough filled with minced chicken and prawns that pop these dumplings are grease bombs with insane flavour - especially after you hit your dumps with some chilli onion jam, black vinegar and soy sauce. I could literally feel the fat running down my chin while eating these. When your family motto is 'adipem est saporem' this isn't a problem.



I'd recommend your order some greens with your dumplings. There's nothing particularly special about them but you need something to take the edge off the grease-bombs.

Although I've heard a lot of people complain about the service I've never had a problem with it - it's chaotic, not bad. So long as you're happy to go with the flow and demand whatever you need (usually more of the FREE tea or a couple of little bowls if you're sharing a meal) you'll be fine. Plus, the food is good and the price is right.

Tomodachi, Adelaide Central Markets

I really want to like Tomodachi - I truly do. And why wouldn't you? Tomodachi translates into English as 'friends'.



But I just don't like Tomodachi. Nor do I particularly dislike it. There is only one word that describes this eatery - bland... but perhaps that's the point (more on this later). However, Tomodachi always suckers me in with their massive cabinet of alluring faux food. I think there are examples of teriyaki chicken, tonkatsu, dumplings and various donburi in the photo below. 



I'm fascinated by how these dishes are preserved or styled or made or whatever they do (can any explain this to me?) And also why they do it - presumably a nice picture would do just as well. Anyway, this faux food acts as a gastronomic magnet (I think I just answered my own question) to my stomach. I went with the tempura prawns for lunch today (faux food close-up below). $9.50 for 4 massive prawns with tempura veggies, rice, miso soup and dipping sauce seemed like a massive bargain.



Unfortunately I was wrong-ish.  

The real dish looks extremely delicious, doesn't it?



Even close up it looks exceedingly tasty.



But it just wasn't it. It was bland, bland, bland, bland, bland. But I say again - perhaps this was the point.

Let's start with the bad. The batter on the (smaller than in the faux food cabinet of promise) prawns wasn't crispy or crunchy but more like a dagwood dog - without the flavour. The Japanese mash potato salad had no flavour whatsoever - no little carrot-y or onion-y or celery-y bits to give it character. The salad dressing had this unexpectedly weird fruitiness. The rice and miso soup were lukewarm - verging on cold. The wait was almost 10min.

Phew - enough of that... some good points now. .

The size of the meal was very generous (there were lots of crunch, savoury tempura veggies) - but do you really want to eat a lot of something that doesn't dance on the taste buds? The highlight of the meal was the special dipping sauce - it was rich and salty and sweet and bbq-y. And most importantly, the dipping sauce really uplifted the bland prawns. This is why I think the tempura prawns were left intentionally bland - the plain batter soaked up the deliciousness of the dipping sauce like a sponge. Is this the point or have I missed something?

But nothing NOTHING could save those horrible bloody potatoes.