Yan’s Garden

Yan’s Garden
9948 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC

I have been told I have a really odd set of skills. The most recent one that was “exploited” was that of a handyman: A friend (“YN”) recently moved to a new apartment and needed help to assemble some IKEA furniture. While I think the instructions are pretty straightforward, he wasn’t so comfortable and asked for help. So, I went with some borrowed power tools and, after a couple of hours, everything was up. As a “thanks”, he invited me for dinner and his choice was Yan’s Garden.

The area where Yan’s Garden is located might be better known for the Korean shops, including restaurants, than Chinese – for example, Insadong Korean BBQ and Seafood Restaurant. But, when I said “wherever you want to go”, the decision taking process was completely out of my hands. Heck, had we gone to a dive, I would have been fine with it as well!

When we walk past the door, I found it… Odd. To the left there was additional dining area that looked completely different from the main dining area you would go to had you go straight past the door. From what I have read, it seems they leased the adjacent commercial unit and… well, it seems they ran out of time or budget (or both) as both sections look completely different. But, that is something I don’t think I care much about…

I left all the ordering to YN and wife and we started with some soup, in this case, watercress soup. There are two ways to prepare this soup, the “quick boil” method where the watercress would be boiled in water along with some meaty goodness and serve it right away (this process would take less than 10 minutes) and the “slow boil” method where the watercress along with some bones and other ingredients would be boiled for a couple of hours. In this case, it was the later version (which makes more sense in a restaurant, as it tends to be more flavourful). It was quite good, until we ran into a small details. Unfortunately, I won’t delve into it (if you want to know, please, drop me an email) and, while they tried to recover from that “incident”, it marred the rest of the meal for YN’s wife.

Along with the soup, we had some prawns – if memory serves me right, deep fried prawns then stir fried with wolfberries. The prawns were fried OK; however, I did not get any seafood/sweetness from the prawns. And this is eating it both ways: with the shell and without the shell. OK, feel free to call me lazy but, in addition to the “sweetness” of the ingredient, I also like the crunchiness of the shell. Since a lot of times the seasonings will not go past it, most of the flavours will “stick” to it. I see no reason why that should go to waste. Anyway, I don’t think this is a dish I would be crazy to order.

This second pictures is in honour of Gigi of Ho Yummy. During the bloggers dinner at Alvin Garden, she was the only one who took a picture of one of the food on top of the rice!

Also, we had pork with slices of jalapeño peppers (again, I will go for the description rather than the actual name of the dish). The pork itself was fried and then tossed with the rest of the ingredients. Fortunately, it was not fried dry. But, heck, what else can I say: I like pork, there is almost no way somebody can screw up with that meat! Errr… Actually people have but I won’t go into that, hehehehe.

And, of course, some greens. I must mentioned something “funny” happened while deciding to go for this one. Originally, the thought was to go for either Chinese mustard or gai-lan. However, there would be a surcharge for those. YN was debating which one he should go for when I made that decision easy by just saying “bak-choy” (or “bok-choy”). I was not supposed to do this, as YN was making the calls but, hey, I just wanted greens and any of those would have done just fine. (Besides, I was just there to help them, not for the meal and didn’t want to make it slightly more expensive…). Anyway, I think they overloaded it a bit with oil (see, really shiny!).

A small time out here: Long time ago, I asked my mom while she added a dash of oil to the water before boiling the vegetables. Her answer was on the following lines: Historically, the water from Guangdong tends to be murkier than the rest of the country. After cleaning the vegetables, you don’t want the “earth-y” taste of the water get back to the vegetables, hence, we add some fat. That way, it will “coat” the vegetable and that earth-y taste won’t stick back. Whether that is true or not, I won’t argue about it. However, given that the water in Metro Vancouver is quite good, I am not sure if that is still necessary. While that does add flavour, that also causes problems to other people. I am impartial about it, except when they over do it. In this case, I think they over did it.

To finish the meal, we had desserts. YN ordered the sweet beans (which I did not take pictures of) and I had the mango pudding. Not much to talk about but it did what it was supposed to do…

Overall, regardless of “the incident”, I won’t say I was thrilled by the food. (When it comes to Chinese/Cantonese food, nobody has scored higher than an 8/10, to my mom’s 10/10 – but, hey, I have rights to be biased on this one!). Although YN took care of the bill, I was able to take a quick peak at the total (just under $50). While for 3 it could have been more expensive, I think it could have been better. Won’t complain too much here as, again, YN took care of it. Otherwise, I don’t see a good reason to come back (again, regardless of “the incident”).

On an unrelated note, if you navigate through their menu on-line, you won’t find these dishes there. It is in the “Chinese” menu. Hmmmmmm….

Tagged under: Burnaby • Chinese • Pork • Seafood