Dew Drop Inn Tea House - Berkeley - Wollongong, Australia.

Dew Drop Inn  Tea House- Nan Tien Temple

I'm back.

Don't worry, I didn't starve myself over the past month. I still ate at a few new places which I'll be blogging about shortly.

 

Before I went into intensive study mode, we headed down to Wollongong for a day trip.

 

It was a nice and sunny day in Sydney, so my family decided that it would be fun to head down to Nan Tien Temple in Wollongong. I took on the driver’s role as I love opening the window to let the breeze go through, while zooming at over 100km on the highway. It didn’t take very long to get there, just about 40 minutes from the Sutherland Shire.

 

I previously blogged about the lunch we had at the canteen. On this occasion, we went to the ‘Dew Drop Inn Tea House', which is located at the base of the front temple.

There are many items to choose from and we have trouble deciding what to have. Mum insists we order two plates of spring rolls, saying how my brother loves it spring rolls and will eat it all. I, on the other hand believe it’s too much. We end up ordering one plate and I will let you know what happened later into this post.

 

The ‘Spring Rolls ($8.00)’ is perfectly fried to a golden yellow colour, making it extra crispy on the outside. It is filled with a combination of rice noodles and shredded vegetables, served with side of sweet chilli sauce. Brother decides he doesn’t want to eat anything fried so doesn’t even have one!

The ‘Chao Shao Noodle (Dry) ($12.00)’ looked fairly small when it was brought out but once you mix everything around, it isn’t as small as it looks. Egg noodles are topped with vegetarian BBQ flavoured meat and some vegetables. I try a bit of the mock meat, and find it quite chewy. 

The ‘Auspicious Noodle Soup ($12.00)’ is a clear egg noodle soup served with vegetarian balls, vegetables, and vegetarian mince. This is actually much better than I expected, as I was expecting the soup to be bland.

 

The‘Curry Rice ($12.00)’ is a mix of tofu, mixed vegetables and broccoli in a curry sauce. I like the curry sauce but find that there is way too much cabbage and potato, and not enough of the tofu.  Think I will choose to have something else next time I’m here.

 

Vegetarian food here is decent but I still prefer the food at the canteen. Though, the wooden interior is lovely and sitting there is so peaceful and tranquil. For those tea lovers out there, they have a range of teas on offer.

Where?
180 Berkeley Rd
Berkeley NSW 2506
Australia

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Friday 10:30am - 4.30pm 

Saturday - Sunday 9:30am - 4:30pm

Website
http://www.nantien.org.au:88/en/facility/dew-drop-inn
 

Manpuku - Kingsford - Sydney, Australia

Manpuku

 

I will be on a hiatus from blogging for a month as the dreadful exams are coming up and I won't have much time to explore many eateries during that period of time. Do not fret as I'll be back here soon. So keep watch!

 

A colleague at work, Mr Purple, was nice enough to drive us all to a Japanese eatery called Manpuku in Kingsford. I love how there are so many restaurants along Anzac Parade, yet it relatively easy to find parking.

 

Manpuku specialises in Japanese ramen and a number of flavours are on offer. For those that prefer to eat rice, mini rice bowls are also available. I'm here for one thing only and that one thing is the ramen.

 

We get there right at 12pm and there are not queues and fairly quite. However, the students from the nearby UNSW start to fill up the place very soon. Upon entering, there is a chant in Japanese to welcome their customers. We peruse the menu and have difficulty deciding, as everything looks so good.

Condiments are freely available including pickled vegetables, red ginger or roasted sesame seeds.

 

The 'Manpuku Red ($13.90)' is a pork tonkotsu based ramen in which I opt for 'extreme' spicy. I couldn't help myself. They also had a special on for students where they were offering free 'Oomori - extra noodles ($1.50)' for free. Yay! With my high tolerance to chilli, I actually find it quite spicy. Mr White on the other hand, didn't find it very spicy at all. We're talking about extreme chilli levels here.

The thin noodles were cooked perfectly al dente. There were a lot of noodles but a lack of meat. One piece of fatty pork which melted in the mouth  and a runny egg wouldn't have been enough if it wasn't for the extra noodles.

 

The stock was thick and rich with flavour. I would have liked it if it was less thick but that's my personal preference.  I especially like the addition of black fungus as a lot of places don't put this in anymore due to allergies people may have.

Mr Purple found the soup way too thick and said this may have been because of the addition of too much corn starch. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it may be due to the amount of time that the pork bones have been left simmering for.

There isn't many good ramen places in the Eastern suburbs and this has got to be one of the better ones. Service is great as the staff are bubbly and ultra friendly. Hopefully I can return to try out their other delicious ramen.

 If you're in the area and feel like something warm and tasty, then do give Manpuku a try.

Where?
482 Anzac Parade
Kingsford NSW 2032
Australia

Phone no: 02 9662 1236

Opening Hours
Tuesday - Sunday
Lunch
11:30pm - 2:30pm
Dinner
5:30pm - 9:30pm

Website
NA