San Yuan (xinjiang chinese food) in Dandenong :)

I certainly went on a food adventure today! I basically got transported to xinjiang province of china, without having to leave melbourne. Thats one of the things i love about melbourne, i get to try cuisines from many different cultures :)

My friend at work, Fiona, recommended this chinese restaurant to me, she said it was near Dimmeys in dandenong. She gave me detailed instructions but its been so long id forgotten most of it, except for the dimmeys part! (And dimmeys is closing down soon, so lucky i came when i did :)).

So i walked all around dimmeys, and this was the only chinese restaurant i saw.

And i vaguely recall fiona telling me something about a red sign? Not sure! But since id come all this way, i decided i had to at least check out this place, in case it was the place she had meant!

I sat down and looked through the menu. I learned that this restaurant was xinjiang style chinese food. I googled what that was and found out it was an area of western china where the food has many similarities to food from central asia. I wasnt sure what to order, so i asked the waittress, who was super friendly and helpful, and ended up ordering dry fried chicken, a bowl of rice and LAMB KEBABS! (Which i was told was one of the signature dishes in xinjiang cuisine). I love trying signature dishes, its one thing i love to do when im on holiday overseas :)

Well it came out and looked amazing!

Thr flavours were definitely different to the usual chinese food i have. It was great. The lamb skewers in particular were amazing :) tasty and very tebder and juicy and a very distinct flavour!

As i ate it, i could imagine i was in western china, enjoying a local dish.

Was a very satisfying meal and if i worked or lived near here, i would love to pop in again for another meal here! :)