First Taste Restaurant, Campsie

There's a new Chinese place in town called First Taste Restaurant. I reckon they've got a pretty good concept going with their specialties being double steamed soups and claypot rice aka rice in hotpot as it's called in this restaurant.

I had to search online for the term "double steamed" as I hadn't the faintest clue of what it was in English. Here's a little wiki description for all you people still in the dark. I'm not too sure if double steaming and double boiling are the same thing as I'm seeing it being used interchangeably on Chinese sites with dogy English but I'll stick to the term "double steamed" in this post.

What's the difference between double steamed soups and normal chinese soups? In my opinion if you took two sets of identical ingredients and double steamed one set and just boiled the other you would definitely come out with two different tasting soups. The double steamed soup would have a more delicate flavour and you'd be able to taste every single ingredient - this would be the 'higher class' option. If you just boiled it normally you'd end up with a stronger gutsier flavour and the flavours of all the ingredients would integrate and you'd have to look at the soup remnants to distinguish all the individual ingredients used. Most chinese households just boil their soup and double steaming - as it requires more time and effort - is reserved for soups with more higher end ingredients.

The double steamed soups at First taste are only described as being "stewed with herbs" in English with only a few brief words about its ingredients. The Chinese description however not only states the ingredients but it also says what the soup is good for eg. sore throats, poor digestion etc, which is one of the main reasons why Chinese people make soup in the first place. Soup can be used to accompany a healthy diet and medications to help adjust bodily imbalances.

Pork and mushroom stewed with Chicken feet soup $3.80

I need a little help with translating the beneficial properties of the soup so I'll post that up a little later. This soup is not the "delicate" soup I associate with double steamed soups but I attribute this to it coming from a restaurant as homecooking as always more lightly seasoned. The pork was very tender and there was a hint of ginger which was not overpowering but enough to warm me up. The chicken feet could have been a bit more tender but still good.

Plum sauce spare ribs rice in hotpot $8.80

Beef tenderloin rice $8.00

Hot and sour noodle soup w/ chicken $7.80

My dad and I opted for the rice in hotpot whilst my mum had the noodles. Both the rice dishes were good but my mum wasn't as happy with her noodles - not because they weren't good but because it wasn't what she expected.

Unscraped bottom of hotpot

Scraped bottom of hotpot

To me, the whole point of eating rice in hotpot is to eat the hard rice stuck to the bottom of the pot and that's exactly what I did. My dad on the other hand did not eat any of the rice stuck at the bottom which I thought was a complete waste! I would have scraped the whole thing squeaky clean if my parents stopped me because I was seriously full to bursting point!

We also ordered chinese broccoli just so we had some veggies, a durian dessert aswell as a mango dessert, none of which I have pics for. Actually my dad ordered the two desserts for HIMSELF and they took aaages to come out. When they came out they looked like bowls of yellow muck! Both bowls were overfilled and the waiter probably had a hard time getting them out as both had spilt onto the plate underneath. Even though they'd already spilt some it was still so full that we spilt MORE when we put our spoons in. The desserts were pretty good despite their unappetising appearances but they weren't coldd enough. The mango dessert also had chucks of grapefruit and rockmelon in it which I'd loved. Oh yeah I know I said my dad ordered the two desserts for himself but of course the waiter didn't know that, so he'd placed the durian infront of my dad and the mango infront of my mum and I. Since the dessert was right infront of me I couldn't not try it right? Hehehe so my mum and I ate the mango dessert whilst my dad looked at it whilstfully after finishing his durian one in what was probably only 2 minutes! He managed to get his hands on the mango dessert in the end! LOL

First Taste Restaurant

233 Beamish St

Campsie NSW 2194

Ph 8065 3679

Please visit their website for other Sydney and Melbourne Locations