Hutong Dumpling and Ron Mueck

Mooey was pretty quick on the blogging action and has already told her version of today's events heavily focussing on our runchies at Hutong Dumpling.  I will focus a little bit more so on Ron Mueck's exhibition.... in a moment.

Hutong was another restaurant on my 'to eat' list so I was pretty happy to tick it off today. 

Yes, Spuey and I thinking hard about what to order for runch. Hmmmmm *thinking face*

Apart from the standard vegies on the side (kai lan with oyster sauce in case you're wondering), we settled on the boiled pork dumplings, chilli wontons (num num!), zhajiang mian (yes, Chinese spag bol) and of course the signature dish - xiao long bao.

My review?  All the dumplings are definitely worth returning for.  Num, num, nums!  The zhajiang mian however was very disappointing - mainly because I was craving it.  The noodles were not handmade (boo!) and the meat was bland in comparison to others I've had.  But then again, it's not their specialty - it just means I won't order it again.

I'd read some not so nice reviews about Hutong, mainly criticising their service.  A Chinese restaurant with good service?  C'mon people, we all know that's a contradiction.  I've come to expect shite service from Chinese restaurants but today was fine; nothing to complain about at all!  It probably did help that we were eating before the lunch time rush.

My pretty, pretty dumpling (whose skin remained intact) bathing in the vinegar.

All up, lunch was $60 for the four of us.  Something is wrong with my head as I must still be living in 1999 with my povo uni student mindset because I thought that was expensive.  Moo came to the rescue to again and brought me forward to 2010 reality - $15 a head (£9) is expensive by Dirty Dumplings standards but still is cheap, especially by UK standards.  Yay for food! 

After a quick fish ice cream stop, we made our to the NGV for Ron Mueck's art display.  Smee and I had been wanting to see Mueck's stuff for some time now but hadn't managed to do so whilst in London.  When Mooey said there was a temporary exhibit at the NGV I said, "Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"  Then Spuey said, "I wanna come tooooooo!!"  So here we are... at the exhibit.... making the most of the awesome photo opportunities.  No flash photography was allowed :( but at least photography WAS allowed! 

Mooey and the Giant Baby. 

Moo and Spu with the Wild Man and the Grim Women.  And now with the two old ladies. 

Hanging with the woman holding sticks.  Spuey and I with the woman in bed.  

Spuey and Mooey check out if Spuey got wounded.  Hmmmm, yes a man on an inflatable pool mattress.

Oh look!  It's a man on a boat.  We all check out what the man is looking out for.  

Moo grows a big head.

Hanging out with the chicken.  The exhibit hall was rather like a library and only low whispers and murmuring was heard.  Spuey almost had to leave the room to stifle his laughter.  Muwahahaha...

Wow, these sculptures were amazing.  Apart from the obvious difference in scale, they all looked so, so real that you were pretty much waiting for one of them to get up and start walking around.  (Cue the screaming the exhibition visitors...... although I'd like to make friends with one of them.)  Each hair follicle was visible and like human hair, it wasn't just all the same colour.... the big face had some white stubble mixed in with the brown stubble!!  The Wild Man had bum fluff!  The little old lady had saggy pantyhose!  The woman with sticks had a mass of pubes! 

We tried to check out the rest of the gallery but given that all three of us have been to European galleries and museums, unfortunately we weren't terribly impressed.  We were ready for something sweet and shuffled our way down to Roule Galette and had a crepe each.  I had mine with the works.  Strawberries, bananas, almond flakes, chocolate and ice cream.

Ok, I couldn't finish it.  I might ease up next time on my order.

So yeah, anyway... Ron Mueck - go see him!  If you can't appreciate any art, you'll at least be fascinated by his work.