Blue Eye Dragon is one of the many restaurants listed in the Entertainment Book, which I otherwise would not have found, as it is tucked away on the quiet side of Pyrmont. But what a brilliant find! I completely utterly absolutely enjoyed their food, ambiance and service, and would happily come back again even without the discount voucher!
What they serve are popular dishes from Taiwan. Before I describe what we had, it is important to introduce to you a bit of history and geography of Taiwan in relation to China. In 1949 thanks to the unstoppable advancement of the red wave, the Nationalist Party and many of the civilians retreated to Taiwan. They brought with them treasures and artifacts of the Forbidden Palace, people of different cultural backgrounds, and very importantly, their food habits. Many of them didn't know what to do for a living, so they started by selling food from their home town, on street stalls, push carts, and small shop fronts. Eventually these turned into restaurants that serve authentic, traditional Chinese food from all regions of China, north, south, east and west.
And, fortunately for me, this is the kind of food environment I grew up in.
Taiwanese cuisine is not very well-known for two reasons - there are not too many restaurants that specifically focus on Taiwanese cuisine, but more importantly, Taiwanese food is really the essence of all the cuisines from the different provinces and regions of China, so it is difficult to define Taiwanese food. What most Westerners known as Chinese food really are Cantonese food, which only forms one small region of the whole of China. It is a pity, because personally, Cantonese food is no where near as enjoyable as the lighter and more delicate dishes from the Eastern/South Eastern provinces.
When I first heard "Taiwanese cuisine restaurant" I was very skeptical because my knowledge of real Taiwanese local cuisine is not what I consider "fine dining". But Blue Eye Dragon surprised me. Their not-so-long menu (in English, of course) included many dishes I immediately identified as dishes I had as a child, and are a variety of dishes of different origins. Some were even dishes that my mum makes at home – that’s GOT to be good!
So we ordered the crispy chicken with basil, five spice and salt-pepper dip on the side (a more delicate version of the ever-popular street-stall food), and crispy prawn with plum sauce for entrée, followed by tender beef strip stir fried in Taiwanese satay sauce, and san-bei calamari (san-bei meaning three cups, each cup being a condiment).
The crispy chicken was great, deep-fried but it felt surprisingly light, nowhere near the grease of KFC! And although I’m not one who eats much salt, their salt-pepper really added a great touch to the chicken. The prawns were average in my opinion, I think the chicken just stole its glory. The satay sauce for the beef was very authentically Taiwanese, it’s a popular dipping/stir fry accompaniment, though I never liked it that much because of its texture, grease and salt content. But my compliments to the chef – the flavour was there, without the dripping grease and overpowering salt. I still don’t like the texture but that’s just me. The san-bei calamari was delicious – it was rich in flavour but it wasn’t heavy. San-bei, meaning three cups, are sesame oil, soy sauce, and rice wine, and are traditionally cooked with chicken, along with plenty of basil, garlic, ginger, and chilli to taste. It is usually cooked until the liquid has reduced, which means the chicken will have absorbed all the flavour but also became drier. The San-bei calamari at Blue Eye Dragon was still tender and moist, with heaps of sauce in the pot. Delicious, but not quite authentic enough in my purist point of view.
We had room for dessert – Ice cream is not ‘Taiwanese’ but they served a brand of ice cream that created a storm there. Movenpick Ice Cream of Switzerland… Oh my, smooth, creamy, full of flavour, but not heavy with cream… Oh my. I don’t normally like caramel flavoured ice cream but that was one heck of a caramel ice cream… And that chocolate ice cream, dark Swiss chocolate flakes in the chocolatey ice cream… and you can see the vanilla seeds in the ice cream (and I detect a hint of mint??!!)
As we sat and chatted we started eavesdropping to the conversation between the owner and the table next to us. The owner’s mother is the head of this business, apparently she takes her food ingredients very seriously, and would spend more on quality fresh in-season ingredients. Then she would take her time looking through the purchase, pick and choose, and discard whatever that was substandard. I was pleased to hear that they take great care in choosing what they serve us – makes me more comfortable dining there.
The service was great. Their waitress was very friendly and genuine. The atmosphere was pleasant. After La brasserie this is the second restaurant that makes me feel I can just sit here for hours, with my friends or on my own, but this restaurant may be quieter as it’s tucked away in the quiet side of town. Highly recommend it. They are located at Shop 2, 42 Harris Street, Pyrmont (02 9518 9955), but only open for dinner on Wednesday to Saturday.
Sorry, no photos, but I will visit again and make up for it!
