North & South Yum Cha

Yum cha cart

I love yum cha!  Such a great way to catch up with friends and share dishes of delicious food.  It usually works the best with at least 3-4 people, as most dishes come wtih 3-4 small portions (such as dumplings), and the more people you have, the more dishes you get to sample!

North & South has been one of the best Chinese restaurant in Christchurch.  It was unfortunately burned down last year, but had since re-opened this year to the delights of many food lovers.

This time around, a group of 11 of us went for sunday lunch.  As it is usually busy on weekends, I had pre-booked the table for 12pm.  That was a good move, as by the time we turned up, the place was already packed with people waiting for tables!

As they are quite busy, the food was served in carts which go around the restaurant.  We get to select dishes of food when the cart came to our table, so we got to see what we were getting.  Unfortunately that also means we didn't get to order what we want, although there wasn't a lack of selection.  As we had so many dishes, I decided to present them in collages rather than individual photos.



Two kinds of barbecue pork bun



Our first dishes were BBQ pork buns.  There were 2 kinds, one was the steamed traditional Cha shiu baau, the other was in a glazed bread bun.  The Cha shiu baau has sweet BBQ pork inside soft, melt-in-your-mouth sweet bread.  The glazed bread bun was also nice with glazed Chinese style sweet bread.

An assortment of dumplings (clockwise from top left): Soup dumplings, Grilled dumplings, Shao mai, Shark fin dumplings, Spinach & vegitable dumplings, Duck dumplings

 We also had a selection of dumplings.  My ultimate favourite is the prawn dumpling, although didn't see any this time.  My favourite out of this lot was probably the duck dumpling.  This is a bit different from the usual filling, with shredded duck meat and vegitable inside crystal pastry.  Soup dumplings are little delights filled with pork mince and soup.  The best soup dumplings in Australasia are probably from the world famous Din Tai Fung in Sydny.  The ones here are fine, but the pastry was slightly thicker and the soup was not as full of flavour.  Gillled dumplings are always good, as who wouldn't like some extra grease!  The shark fin dumplings' pastry was unforunately a bit on the dry side. 

 


Deep fried goodies (clockwise from left): Sesame balls, Savoury dumplings, Pumpkin pattie, Sweet bread with condensed milk, and Taro pork dumplings



The deep fried dishes are always welcomed.  Best served and eaten while hot, and they were in this case.  The pumpkin patties were good with sweet pumpkin fillings.  The deep fried sweet bread is great, and made even better with the condensed milk dipping.



Deep fried tofu, Eggplant, Beef balls



Deep fried tofu were done well and were crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, with bits of fish meat on top and a special soy sauce to add flavour.  The eggplants were similar the tofu dish, with well cooked eggplants.  I am usually not an eggplant fan, but I do find the eggplants here delicious.



Beef tendons, Beef short ribs, and Tripe



Here's are some dishes that might not be for everyone.  Beef tendons sounded strange and chewy, but are very tasty if done well.  Here, the beef tendons were well cooked till the tendons were soft and gelatinous and full of the delicious tomatoey chilly sauce.  One of my favourites!  Beef short ribs were great and cooked through, so they easily came off the bones.  The tripe were also nice and came in a sauce similar to the beef tendon.



Deep fried squid, Chicken glutinous rice in lotus leaves, and Steamed vegitables



It would be wrong to go to Yum Cha and not have deep fried squid.  These are delicious when cooked well, with crispy coating and slightly chewy squid on the inside and sweet chilly sauce on the side.  Usually the dish would be gone in seconds especially when boys are there.  I have had good deep fried squid from here before, however this time was not as good.  The squid was not as well coated and was slightly soggy.  The chicken glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaves was good.  It came in two parcels which we got to open.  Once opened, we found sticky glutinous rice with chicken inside with a hint of the lotus leaf aroma.  We also got some steamed vegitables drizzled with oil and soy sauce as our green for the meal.



Sesame balls with glutinous rice and red bean filling



After all those food, we were keen for something sweet.  Egg tarts are always delicious with rispy sweet puff pastry and soft egg custard topping.  We have been waiting for those, but did not see them come out.  Unfortunately our waiter informed us they ran out of egg tarts!  It was only 1.15pm!!  Next time, will have to get them put aside as soon as we get there!  Disappointed, we found comfort in the sesame balls.  These are little balls of glutinous rice with red been filling, deep fried and covered in sesame seeds.  Again, as with all other deep fried food, best served and eaten while hot.  It was in this case, and the glutinous rice was soft and sticky with sweet red bean in the middle.  A near perfect finish.



Aftermath



All in all, we had a nice lunch and had bellies full of yummy food.  The service was unfortunately not as good, particularly since they were so busy.  While our waiters were polite, they were too busy to be attentive.  Our tea pot was frequently empty and waiting to be refilled.  At one stage, one of us actually went and got some hot water ourselves.  The food also suffered a little, and were not quite as good as my previous visits.

With all those dishes we had, it came up to $13.40 each person!  What a cheap delicious lunch!  Will be coming back again for yum cha, and also need to come back for dinner for their crispy peking duck.

North & South Gourmet
300 Lincoln Road, Addington, Christchurch

(03) 339 8887