Casual Lunch at Bamboo Basket, South Bank, Brisbane

If I have to name the most important task when one works at a fixed office location, the first one will have to be 'where to go for a decent lunch' (it used to be where to get the nice coffee, but thanks to L, it's now down to the 2nd position).


Despite the fact that I do often bring lunch to work (more often in winter than in summer) and store food in the office (in fact, store food where ever I am), I wish there are more than a dozen places, at least, I could choose.  However, the reality is never as sweet as you wish.  I could hardly name even three, taking the time (it need to be short enough to fit into a standard 3/4 hour lunch break), the food and the price into account.  Some of them I give an 'adequate' tag, and will be the only few places I visit.

Bamboo Basket Chinese Restaurant at South Bank has opened for just around a month, since then I have been there for three times.  It no doubt falls into the 'adequate' category. 

When it comes to 'Chinese' food, I could become a bit harder to be pleased (ok, maybe not just a bit) since Dad and his family have always been very sophisticated with food and cooking.   My grand-mum, my dad and all my aunties are experts in South-East Chinese (江浙) cuisine.  If someone ever going to say that I have an exquisite taste, it would have to come from the family heritage.

The first thing I asked is if the won-ton has 'white skin' or 'yellow skin', this tells me what kind of pastry it uses.  Personally, I like the white one better, less extra flavour.  The won-ton is not too bad, can do better with a thinner wrapper, more shallots or a little bit of cabbage, but it's already better than my expectation.  What impressed me is the noddle, it's freshly handmade in the restaurant, same as the won-ton.  The handmade noddles has this fresh and interesting texture that no machine-made could match. I thoroughly enjoyed it.  The soup is too salty to my taste, also needed just a little more flavour.  I asked for some sesame oil for the soup.  The staff gave me some dark one but I was secretly hoping for the light one.  Nonetheless, it's not too bad, just a few drops makes the difference.

There are other food that I have tried, but this noddle will now be my first choice on the lunch menu and defiantly suggests me to have a noddle dish than a rice dish from the list.