Steamed, CBD

Dumpling fever has hit Brisbane's CBD with with opening of Steamed in the top end of Turbot Street.

Look for it hidden under the Roma Street overpass, but best to walk there as you'll be lucky to find a street park close by.

Owners David Schindler (pictured above) and Kevin Xu have borrowed Kevin's mother from her own kitchen in north China to help make up to 5000 dumplings a day for hungry hoards of office workers.

They come in three types; Harbin- pork and chive, Lovabull – beef with various spices that lack English names, Zen - a vegetarian version named after Kevin's mother who is a zen Buddhist and Pork Clouds – light and fluffy pork buns.

Steamed has a very Asian street food feel and that's no accident. The counter is crowded with bamboo baskets filled with delicious dumplings from which you are served. You can see the dumplings being made through cut outs into the kitchen so there's no doubt everything is extremely fresh.

When I visited David was supervising the installation of more shop fittings to complete the look. There's not an over abundance of seating but the large central table certainly would seat quite a few people. Made from doors reclaimed from Brisbane's 2011 flood, it comes with a little history as well. David plans to use some of the table cut outs as wall decorations.

As I'd already eaten lunch, I took two packs of six dumplings plus a bun home for dinner. I discussed methods of reheating them with David and, as the microwave at home is out of action, frying them seemed the best option. The result was very pleasing adding a crisp, crunchy dimension to the soft dumpling interior.

I'd love to come back and try them fresh from the steamer as David says they taste even better. While this was an ample lunch serve, I would opt for more for dinner next time.

You may already be familiar with Steamed's wares through their market stalls at Jan Power's New Farm Markets and the Moggill Markets at Brookfield Showgrounds.

Got to say I enjoyed the explanation of the Steamed website on the difference between dim-sum, and dim-sim.

"This perplexed us as well until the other half of the business mind explained that in China dim-sum simply means a wide range of freshly prepared snacks, and steamed dumplings only play a small part of this offering. While dim-sim boarded a boat some time ago with the original name "shu mai" and over time it found itself delegated to a piece of dried, deep-fried pastry in a 24hr service station."