City Temple of Shanghai

City Temple of Shanghai
3755 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

“Anybody interested in some XLB?” That was what Sherman wrote in an email. I am not sure but, there are times where I wonder if that question should be asked anymore… Well, actually, this was, as I was in “maybe” mode. Why? Me, don’t want to tag along for food? Well, it just happens the day Sherman suggested we went for xiao long bao was the day I went with TNG to Squamish! In the end, we chose to come back to Vancouver and, for TNG to meet fellow food bloggers in action, in this case, in addition to Sherman, there were also Elaine, Matt and Degan. The place for XLB? A small mom-n-pop, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Main Street called City Temple of Shanghai.

We were the last the arrive and, for the most part of the dinner, we were the only ones. There were people coming in and out and, almost at the end, a small family arrived for dinner. But, then again, it was a weekday so it is possible that was the cause why it was so empty…

We left the ordering to “Da Man”, aka, Sherman. Part of the menu was already decided in advance:as mentioned originally, we were here for xiao long bao (XLB) and, while making the reservation, Sherman took the executive decision to reserve a duck as well. So, instead, the question was… What else? In the end, all of us stared at Sherman…

While he was doing the ordering, I looked around and noticed this… OK, this picture might not be quite evident but, similar to a lot of Asian places, here is your menu on the wall… Except that it also had English “translations” in it. So, it certainly helps tentative non-Cantonese speaking customers (actually, she seems to speak Madarin).

So, here it is the duck… One of the two dishes they prepare out of one single duck. Here, the skin was removed and then served with “Chinese crepes”, green onions and cucumber. I won’t say it really wowed me mainly because I thought the “crepe” was a bit too stretchy/elastic and the duck skin wasn’t that “fatty”. Otherwise, the duck skin was quite crispy.

This is the reason why we were here: xiao long bao. For a place that specializes in XLB (or supposedly), well, they were OK. From the dough side, the top portion was a bit doughy but, otherwise, the filling was quite juicy. Some extra seasoning in the filling itself would have made it better but, still, it was doing a decent job. One interesting detail is that, to prevent it from sticking, a thin slice of carrott was at the bottom of each dumpling. Interesting touch…

From here on, I will have to say one of the biggest epic fails occurred: The battery of my camera died… As a result, I didn’t take pictures of the rest of the food; instead, the pictures below are from Sherman!

So, here is the duck, stir fried and served with iceberg lettuce to make wraps. Again, the meat was OK; however, the veggies along were cooked unevenly. For example, the carrot was still crunchy while the celery was cooked through.

Tan Tan noodles. For some reason, I thought we were jumping back and forth with the different cuisines but, hey, if it is in the menu! There wasn’t much of a bite in the noodles but the sauce was quite peanut-y (sp?). I would have preferred a thicker sauce but that is more of a personal preference.

One dish that ended up quite sideways was this: rice cake and pork chops. The rice cake ended up being quite chewy, which I thought distracted the dish. The pork chop was… Well, it felt it was battered and then fried, rather than cooked through in a wok. Not sure if it is acquired taste but I could have done without this one…

In addition to the XLB, another type of dumplings was ordered in the form of regular potstickers. These were quite good, I will have to say. OK, the “sking” was a bit doughy again but it had some crispiness and, similar to the XLB, it was juicy inside. Again, some extra seasoning would have helped but, otherwise, I think I could easily a dozen or so of these…

Shanghai fried thick noodles. Hmmmmmm…. Probably I am not as crazy for starch but, at this point, I thought it was OK. Quite oily though but, oddly, compared to Tan Tan noodles, at list this one had a bite. Not necessarily the best but it somehow did the work.

After we finished our meal, we spent some time chatting when suddenly, the owner (?), served this to us as dessert. It had some pumpkin on the dough filled with red beans. I thought it was somewhat oily but, if you have a sweet tooth, you will not like it, given it is not that sweet. Compared to other Chinese desserts, it was quite good, though. So, a bit of an acquired taste?

Overall, it has some good points (like some of the dumplings/potstickers) but some other dishes felt generic. Still, given it is a mom-n-pop type shop, I didn’t set expectations too high as using that as a yardstick, I felt it was still good (though not necessarily my first place to go). And, as I have mentioned previously, it is at times, who you are with and, in this case, it was they who made this dinner even better.

Tagged under: Chinese • Dumplings • Vancouver