Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine

Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

During the next couple of days after I came from my trip to Panama, for some reason, I wanted to have dumplings. Possibly to check if there was a place that could even remotely match my mom’s cooking? So, on one day, I was in Crystal Mall at lunch time and… Well, the rest is in this post, hehehehehe. Now, I have written about Crystal Mall previously and noted that, due to the amount of options, choosing one is somewhat difficult. However, there was one in particular, in the far corner of the food court that had people queued waiting for their orders. Hey, with so many customers, it ought to be good, right? That place is Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine.

Looking at their menu, a single order (usually consisting of 5 pieces) was a bit too small but two orders might be a bit too much. Given I wanted variety, I chose to go for two different orders, one of xiao long bao and one of wonton – the second one of course would be to compare it to the one my mom and I made… After making my order, I was told there will be a 10 minutes wait. Ouch… Me hungry and making me wait?! ARGH!!!!

This picture of course explains why. If they are made to order, it ought to be good, right? However, it makes me curious: where are the cubes of stock (for the xiao long bao)? Hmmmmmm… After almost 15 minutes, I was starting to wonder, what the !#@$!#@$ happened to my order?! It just happened that it was out; however, because the cashier was shouting the order numbers in Shanghainese or Mandarin (couldn’t tell), I did not realize mine was already out and was sitting there. ARGH!!!! Deep breath… So, here is the food:

To the un-initiated, the best way to describe it would be a soup in a dumpling. As mentioned above, to make it, you would cool/freeze some stock until it is either gelatinous or like ice cubes and then wrap it with some other filling into a dough to make the dumpling. Steam them and serve! Of course, there are some dangers: The stock, now liquid, could easily burn you if you are not careful when eating them. And, of course, if you are not careful when taking them from the steamer, it could puncture and the broth would just leak out. So how where these? I will say it was quite good, though I have had better. Then again, these were relatively cheap so I won’t complain too much.

Since this won’t be enough for me, I also had wonton.

Ah, wonton… Of course, these are not the same style my mom makes so compare them would be akin to comparing apple to oranges. They were good in their own way; however, there was something I did not like. Specifically, it had a bit too much chive. I mean, I like chives but when half of it is made of chives… It is not called chive dumpling, it is a wonton!

Overall, despite these comments, I will have to say, for the price, it was quite good. Both dishes together were less than $10. Too bad I went there a couple of days after having my mom’s wontons… ^_^;;;

Tagged under: Burnaby • Chinese