Sydney: Emperor’s Puff
Dixon Street (near corner of Hay Street), Haymarket, Sydney
Phone: 02 9211 2135
A recent trip to Sydney led to all manner of culinary delights for EG and I (…this is the first post of many to come). One place we were smitten with was a hole-in-the-wall outfit that produced a naffy little product called Emperor’s Puffs. The long line of people snaking fifteen deep down Dixon Street in Chinatown first tipped us off to this delicacy.
And this is what everyone was waiting for. $1.00 gets you five puffs. Pretty cheap, eh? The contraption that makes these puffs was quite a feat of engineering ingenuity. It clanked and it shook as it spurted batter into the cast iron moulds, which then passed through a heating element on a conveyor system. One poor lass was responsible for removing the balls from the machine and pumping them full of sweet custard. If these balls are anyones puffs, they are this poor hardworking girls’!
This is a close up of the puff - a walnut sized doughball that is heat marked and crunchy like a waffle.
And this is what you find when you don’t heed the “warning - freshly baked and served hot” sign next to the hole-in-the-wall window. Scorching hot custard. Mmm…
You can read more appreciation of this yummy product here.
Like a mini custard donut. Cool!
1:18 pm - April 7th, 2007Uh huh….deliciously so. I think we need one of these puff making contraptions here in Melbourne!
10:37 pm - April 7th, 2007I’m going to Sydney mid month. I am definitely going here!
11:42 am - April 8th, 2007Hi Mel,
I don’t know what the fuss is all about this puff. The custard taste overly eggy I am afraid.
Maxim’s egg tart has a much better balanced custard.
On the other hand, I’d love to see Melbourne’s answers to hotpot steamboat and great Karaoke like in Sydney.
2:51 pm - April 8th, 2007Hi anon,
There are some great Japanese-style karaoke in Melbourne, for example, Jankara, and Shoya also has private rooms (much better than open mike karaoke). There are also good Korean ones, like M Track on LaTrobe st.
I am wary of steamboat in a restaurant. Much prefer steamboat at home. Meticulous prep work of the raw ingredients is required and cleanliness is paramount, esp. of things like seafood and offal. I doubt many restaurant steamboat places would go to such such lengths. However, if you must, Dragon Boat BBQ (Melb mayor John So’s place) on Lonsdale St has all you can eat steamboat. West Lake also offers steamboat and there are a crop of Taiwanese places that do hotpots - a few on Russell St.
1:52 am - April 9th, 2007Hey there Simon - you’ll have lots of fun in Chinatown in Sydney (…it is WAY bigger than Melbournes). My tip is to hunt out all the food courts, which are usually upstairs or in basements. You’ll find oodles of noodles there
Watch for some more posts on this shortly.
Hi anon - uh huh, the custard is eggy, because yeah, I think it is egg custard
But I just thought they were lovely little snacks - something I haven’t seen before. Egg tarts are a dime a dozen, although I do concede not all are as good as maxims (…or my own home baked ones!)
5:16 am - April 9th, 2007yum…there is a place sort of like this in the food court (shudder)ay QVB…it is called ‘puffy’ and serves up thses yummy, sugary little shell with custard filling…cold, though. still, sugary, crunchy, slippery deliciousness. SO good!
5:28 am - April 10th, 2007Hey there johanna - aaah yes…I tried ‘puffy’ at QV when it first opened. They are certainly delicious - but I must admit to feeling somewhat sullied by them in theory. Seemed bizarre that these “all natural” biscuit bombs maintained their outer integrity, despite the custardy insides, for hours and hours on end. How/why is it so?
5:46 am - April 10th, 2007These are Yummy. If you watch the machine, you will see that there is no pumping them full of sweet custard the whole thing is custard. The outside goes crispy and holds its shape and the inside stays soft with custardy goodness
11:23 pm - April 19th, 2007N’ah sean - Really??! No way. They were pancakey. The custard was not batter-ish at all.
10:53 am - April 20th, 2007oh emperor puffs! i miss them so much. definitely one of my sydney must do’s - along with homemade noodles northern chinese style.
i think sean is right - the batter somehow tastes like custard in the middle when cooked. magic! also it explains why they’re so hot in the middle. they could just pump luke warm custard in if they wanted but that woman in the box just pulls them out and puts them on a tray, then in a bad. magic!
8:07 am - April 21st, 2007Hmm…can it truly be so? Can it just be cooked egg custard?!? Sydney readers - can anyone swing over there and confirm this?!? We must get this solved!
Esther - there is a place on Russell Street near Noodle Kingdown that does a similar emperors puff thingo, but it is like a dimpled sheet - sort of like a custardy bubble wrap. I haven’t tried it yet as I was just too full to give it a crack today. But I’ll go back and give it a blog when I do
12:57 pm - April 22nd, 2007I remember these “puffs” used to be advertised with a glowing neon sign called - The Emperor’s Golden Balls. Used to make all my friends giggle walking past it on the way back to Central after a night out in Chinatown for dinner, dessert and karaoke!
1:24 am - June 4th, 2007Hey ally - too funny. I don’t know why they would have changed it!
3:49 am - June 5th, 2007Hi Mellie, I too am a devotee of the Emperor Puff. I can confirm that it is some sort of custard batter - no custard injected. My assumption is that it works like those self saucing puddings where somehow the batter gets drawn to the top leaving the sauce or in this case custard behind.
10:24 pm - July 7th, 2008Hey anon - ooh, I just lament that I can’t have these treats regularly! Being in Melbourne, they just seem too far away ;-(.
But you make a good point!
10:15 am - July 8th, 2008