Sky is falling!!! In my last post, I wrote about Excellent Tofu & Snack, a dessert tofu shop in Richmond next to Aberdeen Centre. Going there wasn’t that much of an issue; after all, it was late night (*) and I was already in Richmond in YVR. However, the issue is going to Richmond during the day where all hell break loose!

(*) Just because it is night does not preclude from tweens driving expensive cars taking over the parking lots of most strip malls!

But, in this case, Chris, Sarah and Bin wanted to go for some Chinese eats and to Richmond it was… However, there was sort of a reason…

We arrived at Yaohan Centre and the experience I was hoping to show Chris and Company happened almost right away: The crazy Richmond drivers. See, one of the things that some of us have complained about Richmond, aside from the narrow parking spaces, is their drivers. Truth is, people there do NOT know how to drive. I am not talking about just hitting the gas or brake; people don’t know know how to maneuver nor want to walk an additional 100 metre. Instead, they would rather double park (and don’t give a damn in the process) or stop, holding all the traffic while waiting for somebody who is starting to load his/her car, rather than turn around to the next open spot. In fact, in the two trips to Richmond, I think Chris and Company saw a bit of everything. In the particular case of Yaohan, I was turning around and had the right to take a parking spot. However, a SUV speeds up trying to take that same spot. Nope, I didn’t budge! Just because you have a bigger car does not mean I will yield to you, bastard!

But back to the trip. Once in Yaohan, we went to Osaka Supermarket (aka, T&T in disguise) and then a peek at their food court. Alas, we arrived a bit too early and several of the shops there was still empty. So, we took a quick drive to the mall across the street to Aberdeen Center. First thing I had to show them? That insane turn at the entrance. To those who haven’t driven there, as soon as you enter the building (driving, of course), you have to do a sharp right turn and, less than 10 metres later, a sharp left turn which leads you to the parkade. Here is the problem: as mentioned above, people do not want to walk an additional 100 metres and, given there is only lane up and one lane down, they would hold all the cars while waiting for somebody to leave. Going to the next level? Not a chance! “Fortunately”, we were still relatively early and managed to snag a spot almost right away.

Taking them to a small tour to what this mall has to offer, we went to our intended destination: their food court. Now, I must mention that I offered to drive to Burnaby, specifically to Crystal Mall as an alternative but, I guess due to time (despite it was noon, remmeber the one hour time zone difference), we decided to look for options at the food court. So, it was Chris and Sarah, Bin by himself and I by myself, buy something and meet back in ~15 or so minutes. In the end we got…

Chris seemed to be hypnotized by the siu mei and ended up getting not one or two but *three* dishes from Leung Kee Cantonese Food, from char siu pork to rib and Chinese sausage on rice and curry. All of these came with a small soup.

On Bin’s side, he went to Cafe D’Lite Express and got an order of Hainanese Chicken with rice. To me, it was OK. For some reason, I felt there was something… Missing? Probably I didn’t scoop too much of the sauces? Maybe…

And, finally, despite people have said it has gone downhill, chicken wings from Wo Fung Dessert (my previous post here). Has it gone downhill? Well, I will have to say that, probably a bit less of that ginger marinade like taste it had in the past but still delicious in its own ways.

And here is a plate with a bit of everything.

To me this food is more on the lines of “comfort” food, not necessarily fine dining or anything on those lines. After all, hey, this is a food court! As for the food itself, aside from too much carbs/rice, I won’t necessarily call the best (for example, for pork only, I would have gone to HK BBQ Master) but, for variety and quick fix, this definitely does the job. Is this food court better than the other ones? Well, it is a hard call. Aberdeen’s have things that Yaohan does not have (Frappe Blisse) and vice-versa (congee in Yaohan). Likewise, these do not have something that Crystal Mall has (XLB at Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine) and, once again, vice-versa. In the end, it is a matter of whether you want to travel to these places, else just what is available in the closest place and enjoy what you can get. As for myself… Well, while most of the stuff here are things I can find alternatives without driving down to Richmond so unless there is a good reason, like driving out-of-town friends to visit them, I will stick with what I can find in either Vancouver or Burnaby. As for Chris’ thoughts? How about you check his post!

Oh, one another thing I really hope happened is that Chris, Sarah and Bin now know what mean when people like me and Sherman says “Richmond”! Why? Because, when leaving the parking lot, what I described about Aberdeen Centre parking lot actually happened: long line from the entrance, almost bumper to bumper. As soon as I signaled, there was a car right next to mine waiting to take my spot. At least they were using the blinkers!

Excellent Tofu & Snack
160 – 4231 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Almost two months ago, I was in Edmonton and, while there, I visited Corso 32 with Edmonton food blogger Chris, who writes Eating is the Hard Part. During our conversation at Corso 32, I briefly made mention he should visit us and, indeed, that’s what Sarah and himself did a couple of weeks ago during Family Day weekend – also Louis Riel Day as well as Islander Day, but, for us in BC, the holiday that, as of 2011, we don’t have. While it was “late” and despite they could have easily taken the Canada Line, I offered to pick them up at YVR. Why? Hey, would I leave out a chance to eat out? Of course not! Now, since they have had dinner already, I gave them the options of something “light” and that one option became Excellent Tofu & Snack.

Located in one of the several strip malls in Richmond, Excellent Tofu is just behind Aberdeen Centre. Getting there wasn’t that much of a problem. Finding a parking space was! In fact, one car was double parked. Bastard! Fortunately, as soon as I turned around, there was an opening so I grabbed it.

Due to the layout, there was no table for three (or four); instead, we just grabbed a spare chair. Once given the menu, I started tossing around the options and ended up with these three:

What are these? Dou Fu Fa, aka, silken tofu. Top down are the black glutinous rice, red beans with coconut milk and, finally, grass jelly (all of them warm). And, on the first picture, there are the two squeeze bottles with syrup: one “regular” and one with ginger. One thing I mentioned to Chris and Sarah was that these will be really plain (you might need to try really hard even with the toppings) but, despite that, they liked it! (Check Chris’ post, here!). And they liked it even more when they added some of the ginger syrup. As for me, well, I am Chinese, what do you expect?

Out of the three, I will have to say I prefer the red beans and coconut milk more than the others. Part of the reason is the coconut milk, as it gave a really light hint of nuttiness. The one requires a bit of an acquire taste is the grass jelly. By itself, other than a light herby hint, it was quite bland.

Given its hours and type of food (which you can also have to go), one can imagine why it is a popular stop for a quick stop for snack. Alas, for me, it is in Richmond so I am not necessarily in a hurry to go back. Even if I was in Richmond is the issue of parking in this tight strip mall. So, in the end, it is almost a perfect storm type condition for me to go back but, if they were met, definitely.

I have mentioned that I am un-Chinese Chinese. What does that mean? That, while I was raised with the culture, there are a lot of things, specially traditions, didn’t really “stick” with me. Of course, growing in another part of the world (read: Panama) meant I had to balance things: local vs. background? Of course, moving to Canada wasn’t even in remote parts of my mind back when I was growing… Oh, how things have changed. But, what has not changed is that desire to celebrate the major Chinese holidays. Chinese New Year, Autumn Festival, et al. And with that it means… Food!

Alas, here is one of those strange situations: Since my parents are in Panama, my options are extremely limited, in the sense that I can’t have a family dinner. Fortunately, a lot of times, a family friend drops me a call and, well, I simply tag along. This year, though, for other reasons, I was quite busy and didn’t check; but, still wanted to a meal with roasted pork… Hmmmm… Pork… Granted, I could have gone to Chinatown and buy a pound of roasted pork and cha siu. Had I done some, would it be blog worthy material for Chinese New Year?

Here is a wacky completely non-sequitur note: reflecting the population of Metro Vancouver, over half of the people in my work department are of Asian origin. This meant that before Chinese New Year, there were some plans hatching to have a lunch. Considering that we might be spending a bit too much time together at work, heck, why not. But wait, not just a simple lunch at the nearby Hon’s. No, no, no. We had bigger… BIGGER plans. How big? As in THIS big…

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a WHOLE roasted pork. C’mon, people, don’t tell me you didn’t want to see the *real* stuff? Buying a couple of pounds and eat it with other dishes? Once again, doable, but that is something anybody could do on a regular day. I mean, it is not that I haven’t done it myself; for example, when I visited HK BBQ Master. But, for something as significant as Chinese New Year, c’mon, if I am going to blog about it, it has to be overkill or just go home. Taking snapshot of a pound or two of roasted pork just does not cut it! (And, heaven forbid, imagine I start making videos!!!). No, I will be doing a disservice to readers.

But, I am jumping ahead… Before getting that whole roasted pork, there was a bit of logistics involved, starting with… Where? In my case, I work in the West End and there are only that many places that can make it, namely, Hon’s. But, after the downfall of Hon’s even as a regular restaurant (yes, it has gone downhill), the closest “suspect” would be Chinatown. But looking for somebody to deliver (not to mention a “good” place), we started to scout places in Richmond. Alas, to be able to do this, it would require somebody to drive there and, given we are all busy working, nobody was willing to take some time to do it. In the end, we restricted ourselves and plans seemed to fall into oblivion. Fortunately, Mr. Spoon saved the situation by getting a suggestion from his mother-in-law and others pitched in by volunteering to drive. That place ended up being Dollar Meat Store in Chinatown. OK, OK, I am sure that some of you will be laughing at the name but, hey, they would prepare it in sort of a short notice and we were all up for it.

Of course, you could eat the pork by itself but it would sound… Strange? Anyway, we needed some other dishes to go along; but, given all the logistics involved, Mr. Spoon took reign on the situation and only ordered *one* dish to go along: shrimp fried rice from Hon’s. Well, he is the organizer and I will leave it up to him. Before anybody anything, let’s go back what I mentioned about the population: Despite the main dish was pork, some people in our group does not eat pork so that one other dish had to be non-pork based… But, there was still one issue: no vegetables. To “salvage” the situation, at least from a personal level, I ordered some side gai lan.

In the end, everything was assembled and ready to go… Now, I wanted to go directly for the belly but, based on how it was reconstructed… Well, that meant I could only have it in round 2. And, yes, I went back for more pork. Sad reality is, most people were full after their first round. Some fools (me included) went for other rounds afterwards. That brings the next question… How was it?

In the case of the pork, there is never a correct answer, as it depends on how you like your meat. But, overall, I found there was a really nice balance of fat and lean. No piece was dry and there was a thin layer of fatty-like goodness between the craklings and the meat… Ah… On the topic of cracklings, they could have been better; however, I must consider the fact this wasn’t a suckling pig and the rainy day, plus transit time plus wait time, would have impacted in the end result. Not complaining here, as, in the end, it was eaten with major big smiles…

That brings yet another question: Did we finish it? Here I will be saying something that you will hardly read/hear me say: there was too much pork. No, we did not and there were enough leftovers for the following day, something that people went for. Now, notice something… Missing? Being the stereotypical Chinese, we will almost for certain, get the bones, the head and trotters. Some people, on the other hand, were squeamish about it. As a result of that, I ended up packing the bones and trotters for soup. The head? If it wasn’t because I was full at that moment, I would have produced a knife and started cutting the cheeks out. Alas, that was not to be.

Overall, despite there were some odd moments/situations, it was still a good meal. We enjoyed this so much that we were considering getting a lamb from the Greek Festival later this year!

Chicken for Lunch
Scotia Place
10060 Jasper Ave NW
Edmonton, AB

At first, this was sort of a tongue-in-cheek visit. C’mon, should I go to Chicken for Lunch? OK, one step back. What is Chicken for Lunch first? It happens to be a restaurant in Scotia Place food court in Downtown Edmonton. The food they serve is the typical Canadian Chinese food; however, as the name suggest, they emphasize more on chicken than other proteins. OK… So, what is the big deal then? It just happens it is the “extension” of sorts of The Lingnan, a “Chinese” restaurant in Edmonton… Which happens to be the “featured” one in a TV show called The Family Restaurant: The Quons. Yes, that was part of the reason for the tongue-in-cheek…

But, you know what? Let’s give them a break. Edmonton is not Vancouver and, similar to other places in the world, cuisine is adjusted based on ingredients availability and adapted to local tastebuds. It does not matter at times how authentic or traditional it is: If your patrons do not accept it, chances are business will go down. If they are happy with the food served, should we judge them? Having said that and putting it aside…

Part of the call to fame of Chicken for Lunch, aside from the fact it is featured in TV, is that the portion seems to be ridiculous. And there is Amy Quon, who runs the place. In a way, she seems to be a character of her own. If you are a frequent customer, she will remember you and, chances are, you will be given some “extras”. And, you know what? It works for her. In that food court, there are a handful of restaurants and, aside from Chicken for Lunch, the only one that I saw some business was Subway. Wow, talk about rough! Of course, this is Scotia Place’s food court. If you want to, you can easily go to the food courts of the neighbouring towers/centres via pedway so it is not as if they are the only option. But, let me assure you they do have their clientele.

But back to Chicken for Lunch. Knowing they close by 2:00 p.m. (more or less, don’t know about the exact time) and knowing that there might be long queues during peak lunch hour, I chose to arrive really early, as in around 11:00 a.m. local time. Set up was pretty forward: with rice, rice noddle, some vegetables, spring rolls and, well, chicken in different forms and iterations. But, wait! They also have an a la carte menu with other more Chinese Canadian diner staples, like sandwiches and what not. I skipped those, of course. But, here is the kicker of the “popular” dishes: Because of the line, they have the “base” prepacked (as in rice, rice noodle and vegetables) and you would then choose the proteins. It seems to work for them so I will leave it like that. Do they allow customization (for example, no rice noodles)? Not sure…

On the day I went, the two chicken options I chose were the kung pao chicken and the dry spicy chicken. Both were supposed to be spicy but I didn’t break a sweat with either one. Could it be my heat tolerance has increased lately or it was because it was cold outside (as in -30C cold before wind chill)? Anyway, the kung pao had a gravy/sauce of sorts which “moistened” the otherwise plain white rice. That sauce felt slightly starchy, but it is a case of it is what it is. The meat itself was OK. As for the dry spicy chicken, it felt that batter was a bit thick but, otherwise, tolerable – not too moist and borderline dry. Now, one thing I noticed about the chicken is that it is deboned dark meat. From that perspective, no complains!

As for the rest, the brocoli was quite al dente so I will leave it as person preference. The rice noodle… Well, it was a bit odd. It was plain and didn’t seem to contribute too much compared to the rice. OK, the gravy/sauce helped the white rice. But, in the end, I would have prefered more vegetables. And, finally, the spring roll. It was OK, slightly oily but, otherwise, nothing to write home about. Still, I would call it a bonus rather than being judgemental.

If I were to try to compare it to Vancouver offerings, Chicken for Lunch would face an extremely steep battle. Take, Kent’s Kitchen for comparison purposes. They have more variety and they are cheaper… WAY cheaper. (In Chicken for Lunch’s case, that meal was almost $8; compare it to just over $5 at Kent’s Kitchen or maybe $6 in some other similar spots in food courts). As for the food itself, if I don’t consider it “Chinese” but Canadian Chinese, it is edible but not something I am in a hurry to go back. But, again, this is Edmonton and not Vancouver so I would be really biased here. From an Edmontonian perspective? Sorry, didn’t ask but I am sure they have their fans.

Din Tai Fung
700 Bellevue Way NE
Bellevue, WA

First of all, Happy New Year everybody!

During this last holidays, I decided to do something “unusual”: Rather than staying in town, I decided to go down to the US. Why??? Why not! Considering that a lot of places were closed or people flooding to the malls, I just wanted out. So, for that purpose, I checked with my friend “Stimulant Junkie”. OK, OK. Normally, I would go down to the US by myself; however, in this case, I had an agenda of my own and Stimulant Junkie was more than a “willing” volunteer. And what was that agenda? Visit Din Tain Fung, a well know restaurant from Taiwan which specializes in xiao long bao, aka, XLB. Given all the hype that restaurant have had, there were several questions in my head, and the only way to answer them would have been to visit it!

We were planning to arrive for lunch and, after some detours and turns (the streets surrounding the mall where DTF is located were packed), we arrived around 1:15 p.m., just to find there was still a long line outside! I walked in and entered my main. In turn, I was given an order sheet with a number: 136. Of course, there was a question I had to ask: what was the expected time. Answer given? 30 minutes. At this point, it was the question of whether it would follow the experiences I have had in Vancouver with Chinese restaurants, where a X minutes wait actually mean 2X, if not 3X, the specified time! (And that is even if “reservations” were made!). It didn’t help when one of the wait staff walked outside holding a white board asking for the order sheet. Nothing wrong with that except for one detail: they were not even at number 110 by 1:15 p.m.! I was having second thoughts about this and was even considering going to The Cheesecake Factory at the other side of the mall… Or Earl’s for god’s sake! However, Stimulant Junkie was the voice the reason and told me, given we drove all the way already, we might as well stick around. In the meantime, we filled up that sheet and looked around. Specifically, “looking around” at this:

Yup, they have the prep area facing the outside and you can see the dumplings being prepared. Now, to those fuzzy about the “authenticity” topic, let me put this up front: the majority of the people preparing the dumplings and dumpling skins are NOT Asian. In fact, we saw a couple of Caucasian and a lot of Latino. I am not trying to stereotype anything here; instead, it is that issue of authenticity that some people like to bring up at times. Does it matter if the cook/person preparing a dish isn’t of that ethnicity? What if he/she can manually prepare them as well as those of that cuisine ethnicity? Granted, they might not really “understand” the cuisine but, in this case, they are just repeating the steps. If they can do it well, the results ought to be as good. (As a reminder, a good restaurant “chef” is not necessarily the one that makes the “best” dishes; it is the one who can make good dishes that others can reproduces over and over with relative ease).

While observing them prepare the XLB, I noticed something odd… OK, not the scale, which they used to standarise the weight of each dumpling. Instead… Where are the stock “cubes”? OK, to those who don’t know, when soup and/or soup stock is cooled down, it gels, at which point, one can “cut” it into pieces/cubes or whatever preferred shape. Then, it can be “wrapped” in the dumpling skin as part of the filling. When it is steamed, these cubes melts and turns back into that liquid soup form. After observing for a while, I noticed they were not using such “cubes” so made me wonder if they were making XLB in that station or not. But, looking closely, I found out where it was: there were some gel droplets the size of a lentil mixed in the pork filling. Of course, that brings another question: How would they ensure the appropriate amount of soup in each dumpling? I guess that would be something we will find out when we eventually eat some.

That “eventually” ended up being a bit over an hour after I put my name down. OK, let me try that again: they didn’t call our number; instead, they called for all the order sheets number 140 and below! I wonder if that was to “test” how many customers were patient enough… Hmmmmm…. I guess some trends are applicable regardless of which side of the border you are in. Anyway, at that point, we were told there would be an additional 5 to 10 minutes wait. Would that be yet another 15 to 30 minutes? Fortunately, this time, they did make good on that and we were seated at a table with two small dishes with ginger.

However, rather than the food being ready to be served, the order sheet was given back to us now with the menu. So… What is the point again of asking us to fill up the order sheet in advance? I don’t want to delve into that because it somehow works for them at our expense. Glutton for punishment? Hmmmmmm…..

But back to the ginger: feigning ignorance, the waiter told us how to prepare the dipping sauce by adding soy sauce and vinegar in a 1:3 ratio. At that point, again, he took our order sheet (which was returned after it being entered into the system) and yet another wait…

(At this point, I might as well mention this: unlike Chinese restaurants here, tea is not “free”. We ordered jasmine tea which came from a tea bag.)

“Fortunately”, this wait wasn’t that bad (or, this time, since we were seated already, we didn’t care that much). So, for order #1, their pork XLB. Sorry for the odd quality of the pictures. Since we were hungry, there was only that much patience and, as a result, only that many shots – these were “the best” I took. But, back to the dumplings, we had to do the “skin” test, i.e., holding it to see how the skin stretches. And, indeed, it stretched a little bit and had a semi-thin texture. After dipping it into the sauce mixture, to the mouth it went and…

Before I continue, one disclaimer: later that night, when we were back in Vancouver, we went to Shanghai River (SR for short. That visit, though, won’t be blogged for other reasons) for yet more XLB, this time on this side of the border for comparison purposes. While SR is not necessarily THE top dog, at least it is near the top of the list according to some so that ought to be a good enough yardstick. Having said that…

The dumpling skin was indeed thin and was able to hold the contents. However, while the sides were good from that perspective, the “top”, i.e., were the pleats/folds were to “meet”, was a bit doughy. I guess the people preparing it at this location still haven’t mastered it completely. As for the rest, that’s when things start to be a bit of a mixed bag. The broth for one was barely lukewarm. My best guess would be to cover themselves by not serving an extremely hot broth which could have burned some mouths. And then there is the amount of broth in the dumpling. Given the observation above about the stock cube, I was a bit disappointed by the amount of soup. If I had to guess, it was between 33 to 50% less than the one we had at SR. Finally, the pork. While I was focusing more on the broth itself, which was savoury but the ones from SR was even better, Stimulant Junkie made an interesting observation about the pork: They were chunky (as if they were hand minced, rather than thrown chunks into a blender and turned into a paste). Alas, they weren’t too seasoned which resulted in a slightly bland filling. Granted, the dipping sauce did improve the dumplings slightly, in the end, I wasn’t necessarily impressed.

For our second order, we went for their fish dumplings. The truth is this was chosen almost by whim. We had a bit of mix feelings about this. At first, I thought it was plain, a bit too plain. But, then again, Stimulant Junkie being the voice of reason, asked me to try it again, this time with a bit of the dipping sauce. At this point, I was able to lightly “taste” the fish. In the end, it was pleasant, considering it was fish, to the point Stimulant Junkie thought it was superior to the XLB. I guess I have a slight bias towards almost all thing pork…

To finish the meal, we had taro buns. Now, the order comes with two pieces; however, hunger took the best out of me… Woops? However, there is a small snafu on their side: Remember the fact they use an order sheet? You would assume that lessen the risk there will be a lost in translation and, as a result, incorrect dishes ordered, right? Well, at first, we got the sweet taro dumplings, rather than the sweet taro bun we ordered. They realized it and send it back, which resulted in yet another ~5 or so minutes wait to have the order fixed. As for the buns, there were highlights and lowlights. The low was the dough: I didn’t like the fact it wasn’t too fluffy-stretchy, i.e., that stringy strand from some steamed pork buns. Of course, this is a person preference which might not be something shared by everybody. Past that, the taro filling was quite good. It felt it was freshly grated/mixed and still had some starchy feeling to it. In a way, one of the few instances I would say I liked taro without much fuss! (The fact it wasn’t too sweet was a bonus).

After paying the bill, we noticed a mistake from them, which we had to solve at the cashier. Remember the note above about the sweet taro bun/dumpling mixup? Well, they charged us for both. At least they acknowledged it and solved it on their side, though, of course, once again, by using order sheets that shouldn’t have occurred to begin with. Oh, on that note, given it was after the fact (and despite the dumpling/bun snafu was before the fact), no comp at all, not that we were expecting any to being with…

Again, Stimulant Junkie and I went to Shanghai River later that night and had XLB their. In the end, we though SR’s was inferior from the skin perspective but, for the rest, broth amount and taste, SR was better. The pork filling? A bit of a coin toss. That brings the main question: Was it good? Since I haven’t had XLB in Seattle/Bellevue, I can’t say or compare to any of their offerings; however, the major question is for those of us in Vancouver. And to both, Stimulant Junkie and I, that answer is, we have similar offerings here so it is not worth for us to drive down. Now, if I happen to be there for other reasons, I will give it a chance again. However, for this visit, expectations of being a Michelin restaurant and/or being a well known restaurant chain won’t be there.

Dol Ho
808 Pacific Ave
San Francisco, CA

A lot of times, plans get shift around because things do not happens as we wished it would. In this trip to San Francisco, originally we were planning to go to Yank Sing on Monday before flying back to Vancouver for some dim sum comparison. However, on Sunday, plans ended up being shuffled because of weather: It was “raining”. So, Sherman and I were in the situation of wondering where to go for breakfast. After some brainstorming, we decided to switch that visit from Monday to Sunday. However, that wasn’t the only change: Given that Yank Sing, from the outside, had the looks of Sun Sui Wah or Kirin, we thought we could give it a try but… But.. Why not make it more “interesting”. That’s how we ended up going to Chinatown where we found Dol Ho.

(And, yes, old school Cantonese dim sum is served as early as 6:00 a.m. for breakfast, not brunch/lunch as done here in Vancouver! )

Did I say… Old!

Originally, we considered Y Ben House, which is literally across the street. However, we didn’t do it because I insisted in something dodgier which Dol Ho seems to fit quite nice. C’mon, frequent readers should already know my mantra: just because it is dodgy does not necessarily mean it is bad; instead, there is an aura of mystery (specially those that have been there for a long time). And, to paraphrase Anthony Bourdain “what’s mystery meat without the mystery”?

When we walked in, I can safely say we brought down the average age of the customers for at least 5 years. Not only this was a dive, it was also old school… EXTREMELY old school! How so? After we sat down, we were ignored for at almost 10 minutes, some of the attendants were yelling to some of the customers (though, in a Chinese way, not necessarily in the “bad” way) and so on. In the end, Sherman flagged one of waitresses in some “unconventional” ways and where we ended up making our first order (to test waters first):

Haa gao or shrimp dumpling. The “skin” was a bit doughy but, otherwise, it was good. The shrimps didn’t have much of that “snap” but they weren’t mushy or had some weird smells so, from that perspective, it is an old schools style haa gao.

After we finished the haa gao, they brought the cart out and we started ordering some of the “usual suspects”, starting with phoenix talons, aka, chicken feet. Nowadays, a lot of dim sum places fry these before they are steamed so they are cooked faster. However, the ones here still had a bit of that resistance in the skin, which lead us believe these might have been fried lightly. If you are used to the easily chewable soft version found here, you will experience something really different here. The sauce though had a bit too much starch but I didn’t pay too much attention to it.

Siu mai or your pork dumpling. Those who have had dim sum in Vancouver will notice something “interesting” (or lack of): There is no roe but something “yellow”. Old school uses some duck egg. Another old school detail? There was pronounced shiitake/Chinese mushroom taste. Finally, the pork wasn’t really mechanically grounded, rather, you could still taste some chunks, as if they were being pound by hand. Given this place is so old-school, for some reason I would believe this is true!

Beef balls. Again, old school style – these had a soft “bounce” when you “bite” into it; however, it didn’t have that heavy meatball consistency found in more modern type dim sum restaurants. And, in the picture above, Sherman was pouring some soy sauce Worcestershire sauce, somewhat necessary because, well, this one didn’t have that much salt in it.

Rice noodle rolls, in this case, with a shrimp filling. Similar to the shrimp in the haa gao, it lacked a bit of that shrimp bite but, otherwise, it worked fine. One thing that some people will certainly complain about is the thickness of the rice noodle: I would easily say these were at least 50% thicker than those found in more modern dim sum places. Now, that wasn’t much of a distraction so no complains. One thing that might not work for a lot of people is that the rice noodles didn’t really “soak” the soy sauce. Depending on how you like yours, that would be details, minor details…

In the second picture above, you should have noticed the steamers and, when they are placed outside the kitchen like that, it can mean only one thing: Steamed BBQ pork bun. Before I continue, a tale I used to tell about my grandfather: almost 30 years ago, when he took my cousins and me to dim sum, the first round was usually BBQ buns for everybody. Obviously, that was to fill us up. Not that I am complaining but something that brings memories… But back to Dol Ho, their version is a “airy”; however, when bitten, it gets a bit doughy. The pork was on the savoury side, not that sweet which works fine for me. Not the best pork bun but, to me, mostly memories!

Finally, some spare ribs. One good note is that they aren’t loaded with fat and eat piece had a decent amount of meat (for spareribs, that is). Otherwise, I would say it is about the same as most spare ribs you would find anywhere.

Overall, Dol Ho is what it is: an old school Cantonese dim sum place where it seems time stopped. Interestingly, this type of dim sum is the one I used to have in Panama, so in its odd ways, I really appreciated this visit and experience. Having said that, it might not be for everybody. There is no modern version of some of the dishes, specially if you are interested in those versions (like the siu mai with roe rather then duck egg). Also, if you are looking for service, there is none (unless you count DIY) and language might be an issue (or adventure if you are up for it!). In my case, I didn’t care for that so it was a nice change from that fancy type of dim sum.

Oh, one final detail: The six dishes plus the two buns plus tax plus tips for Sherman and I were less than $20…

Yu Kee BBQ Kitchen
111 – 2609 East 49th Avenue
Vancouver, BC

Some of you might be wondering: Am I not the one who “complains” about Chinese restaurants and do not visit too many of those? True… So, why another Chinese restaurant post, then? Well, *another* might be stretching it but, while I can do Chinese for a full month, truth is, I do not want to bore you with visits to Chinese after Chinese after Chinese. Besides, there are a lot of other non-Chinese restaurants out there! Of course, there is another reason why I do not blog too often about Chinese restaurants: you can seldom go there by yourself (compared to say, Vietnamese where you can still get a decent meal).

So how I ended up in Yu Kee, a small Chinese restaurant in Killarney Market? While I have known of its existence for a long time, all the previous instances I have been there were a bit of a failed attempt: for the most part, I arrived too late. However, that was before they opened a proper restaurant side, which, unlike their previous iteration, they are open until 10:00 p.m. And the fact that Anita dropped me an email asking if I was interested in checking it out, that pretty much sealed the deal.

We arrived for lunch time and, given it was a Saturday, I was both surprised and partially confused as to why it wasn’t packed. But, it does not matter: what we care about was to be able to get a table! With that settled, it was a matter of checking the menu and make our order…

Normally I start off with my dining companions order; however, in this case, I will start with mine. More on that in a moment. So, above, their two BBQ meats on rice. I went for cha siu and duck. I couldn’t find an option for a third meat type, namely, roasted pork, so, alas, I had to settled for these two. The cha siu was a bit mixed: It had the pork taste to it; however, I thought some sweetness was missing and wished it was fattier. Now, I know some people will tell me “I could have asked for it that way!”. My answer would be, sure, I could; however, instead, think of how a regular Joe would have made the order – without specifying how. The duck was, well, duck-y but, similar to the cha siu, I wished it was fattier and juicier. In the grand scheme of things, I would say it is good, though not necessarily the best I have had. As a dish, there was one thing that I wished that, again, they did by default: add more sauce to it, as it started to drag down the dish.

We ordered wonton soup to share and we were both surprised at this serving: this ain’t the big order! Each wonton had its share of both pork and shrimp – unlike some places that ax the shrimp and still call it wonton. It was good, though, there was one thing they could have done to improve it: make the pork pieces chunkier, but this would be nitpicking.

Now, Anita’s order. See, the reason I left it for last is that I just want to bug her about her order. Yup, she ordered that, congee! I was thinking, c’mon, out of all possible orders, specially BBQ or something on those lines but congee? Why??? Why???? (Oh, wait, Sherman has already given the name “Miss Y” to somebody else… ). If you have had congee before, you know what to expect, so there isn’t much point on me trying to explain it, probably other than the fact it was smooth.

And, when you order congee in a Chinese restaurant, chances are you will order this: yau ji guai or youtiao, or simply Chinese doughnut. I haven’t had these in a long while but, still, I can say these were quite good. It was still crispy while partially doughy, good to drop into the congee. However, the most important part? It wasn’t too oily, the big issue I have ran into other parts.

Overall, while not necessarily perfect, Yu Kee still it is quite good, specially considering its location: basically in the middle of nowhere – or at least a place where most people won’t necessarily know it exists. It gives me an incentive to come back some other time but, given some things were a bit sideways, it would be more of a case of if I am in the area more than anything else.

Luda
2683 E Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Long time readers can remember that, some time ago, I made reference to the area near Hastings and Slocan (east of Nanaimo, a couple of blocks from the PNE). Specifically, I used to go to a nearby game shop to play Magic the Gathering; however, I haven’t been there in a long while. Reason? Aside from the cost of the game (which has become ridiculously expensive nowadays), I have moved on to other things. One day, I chose to drop by and, while I didn’t play, at least it was good to see people I used to play this game with. On my way out, I noticed that Louis Garden closed and replaced by a Chinese restaurant. Given that I seldom go to Chinese restaurants mainly because going by yourself is sort of pointless, I made a mental note and check with that one person who I am certain will drop by that area without much hesitation and, at times, short notice: Sherman. So we did on a Tuesday, just to find out it is closed on Tuesdays! If you need an example of epic fail this would have been it! So, we mulled it for another day and, dropping by the area again on a Friday, I checked again with Sherman and, bam!, he was good. Even better? Since two can only order that much, he brought reinforcements in the form of “Rich Guy”!

When we arrived, the restaurant wasn’t either empty nor full. Let’s just say there were enough customers to keep things busy and, as people left, there were people walking in as well. In our case, when Sherman and Rich Guy arrived (the car ahead of me, happened to be Rich Guy’s so it took me an additional minute to park nearby), they were given a table in the middle; however, since a table on a side was about to empty, we decided to hold a little bit and have that one table instead. Well, we don’t want to attract too much attention, do we?

Now, one of the usual complains about Chinese restaurants is the English menu and the Chinese menu. In this case, I am happy to say there is only one menu, though, except for one single page and some specials hanging on top of the cash register, everything was there. But, given that none of us could read Chinese…! Of course, rather than following what was written, we could speak to them as well (sort of!) so there was a small advantage point for us compared to other non-Chinese speaking customers. Still, in the end, when ordering, we left it mostly to the waitress to select the dishes. How so? More of that in a moment.

After we made our order, we were given this bowl of soup. As in Cantonese sort of tradition (at least my mom did this as well), some light soup to begin with. One thing I will have to say about this: It didn’t feel too salty (read: MSG laden) nor it felt oily. So, from that perspective, it was good. But, then again, it was “free”!

Dish #1 to arrive. While ordering and asking the waitress for suggestion, she made mention of the crab, specifically, curry crab. I was a bit perplexed at first but, hey, if this is a “specialty”, why not? One thing that we didn’t pay attention at first but we eventually caught up was the size of the crab: we were given a 2.9 pounds crab ($10/pound). For three people??? Ouch!

Hepatopancreas, unlike dinners with other people, I had to “fight” Sherman for this!

As for the taste, I had bit of a mixed feelings. Because it was fried, some of that unique seafood texture was gone. But the issue was the curry. Don’t get me wrong, if you have had Chinese style curry, you should have a good idea of what to expect. However, the problem is that it masked the crab flavour extensively. I.e., it tasted more curry than crab. Is that good or bad? Well, in my opinion, if that is the case, I could have used it with almost any meat (specially heavy or gamey one) instead. It wasn’t bad, I thought it could have been better.

OK, when you go to a place that claims to have the best X or Y dish, or have a dish name as part of the restaurant name, you would think that dish ought to be ordered, right? In this case, Luda makes emphasis in Hainan so we had to order Hainanese Chicken! (Of course, given it is adopted in several other regions in Southeast Asia, calling it by the place of origin might be a misnomer). In this case, we order half a chicken.

Now, to those not familiar with this dish, it is often served cold. I remember introducing this dish to somebody in the past and she was caught completely off guard by that fact and its slimy/gelatinous texture. Of course, those who have eaten this for a long time knows that is one of the unique characteristics of this dish. And, in Luda’s case, it didn’t fail. You could literally see that gelatin below the skin. As for the chicken itself, I thought it was good in its own ways: enough fat, enough meat, enough chewiness. However, if there was a sour note wasn’t in the chicken itself but in the price, i.e., is it worth the $12.50 of this dish (remember, this is *half* a chicken, without the rice included!)? Now, I am aware of places that would sell this dish in a slightly subpar version; however, the cost is way below what is being charged here. Is that price difference worth it? In my case, not necessarily; however, others might disagree.

And talking about rice, this is *not* served with the chicken, we had to order it separately. They have the regular plain steamed rice or the “special”, oily version. In this case, I thought it did have some unique taste but wasn’t sure if it was that different from regular steam rice. I mean, it was good but not extremely outstanding.

When the waitress notice our hesitation in order the third dish, she suggested some of the specials (she was pointing, again, the area above the cash register) and mentioned their spare ribs. Well, pork works for me! And this was indeed a surprise: each piece was quite a decent size piece and, depending, there was the bone attached or some cartilage attached. Each piece was still juicy, despite the fried texture outside. We were debating if these were brined before cooking but it didn’t matter, it was good in its own ways and, me being a pork fan, I would certainly order it again.

Back when I was living with my mom, one thing was given in every meal: you will have rice, meat and veggies (usually leafy). In this case it wasn’t that different. After choosing three dishes already, I checked with Sherman to order a vegetable dish. Between broccoli and gai lan among several options, we ended up ordering pea shots. I was slightly disappointed but not by much. It had a nice crunch still; however, the garlic didn’t do much. Sherman was mentioning it felt quite oily; however, I am sort of used to have vegetables in Chinese restaurants to be done this way. I mean, otherwise, you won’t see it “shine” as seen above.

And, finally, “dessert” (it is more on the lines of something sweet). In this case, Mijune‘s favourite, red bean “soup”! Now, I put it between quotes because it also had some tapioca in it, which provided a slight slippery note aside from the partially chalky feeling of the bean. One thing that Sherman made mention was the sweetness – or, rather, the “lack” of it: it wasn’t sweet at all. However, that worked fine to me.

The total bill for three, post tax, before tips was $83. Now, depending on the perspective, this could be called expensive. But, in their defence, we ordered the crab. Without it, it would knock down $29 of that amount. The question would be: was it worth it? Again, it depends: for slightly lower quality but cheaper, you could have gone to places like Mui Garden. But, if $$$ is not necessarily an issue, it is a good option.

Xiang Yuan Qiao Bridge Rice Noodle
2128 – 4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

It is commonly agreed that Crystal Mall is one of the best places for Chinese cheap, quick eats, with some of them delivering dishes that are about par (probably giving them a bit too much credit here, though) with some sit down restaurants. Of course, given the price point at the food court, I am more willing to return there than the sit down ones! While I have written about a couple of places in Crystal Mall (like Delicious BBQ and Wang’s Shanghai), you have to admit that, for some gems to shine, you have to have something to compare against. In other words, in a sea where everything is “good”, there has to be one that sucks; otherwise, means that everything is average.

As for Crystal Mall, I have purposely avoided some of the stands probably because of some pre-conception or simply because I am not that enticed to try them. Which ones? If you see something on the lines of “2 or 3 items plus rice or noodles” or sushi, chances are I will see what’s in the next stand. (For the former, I would rather go to Kent’s Kitchen; for the later, too many in Metro Vancouver). One of the places I thought was below average in Crystal Mall was Beijing Restaurant, which I blogged previously here), and I wasn’t the only who thought was subpar. So, in a survival of the fittest type environment, it eventually closed down and now has been replaced by Xiang Yuan Qiao Bridge Rice Noodle. I was tempted to check the other stands first but after seeing such a long queue of people, I thought, what the hell, let’s give it a try…

I am not sure if you are curious or not but you have to wonder… Why such a complicated/long/strange name? Well, it just happens there is an explanation about the origin of the “crossing bridge rice noodle” name on one side of the stand. While I could copy all the text here, I will just refer to this page for an explanation. However, the key to the text is that the dish has all its components served separately and then combined at the table when served. At that point I wonder: “Really? I a food court environment?” Actually, I have seen something like that done in Korean stands (in Yaohan, for example) where they would serve the banchan separately; however, I would consider that to be an exception rather than the rule. So, with that in mind, I made my order and waited…

And waited… And waited… In the end, I swear I waited for ~10 minutes! OK, good food takes time (but, then again, being in a food court, long wait times might be an oxymoron). Anyway, if it wasn’t because I *thought* I heard my order number (they do not speak Cantonese or Hakka, which I understand), I might have been waiting forever for my order to come out. And what did I order?

For the most part, they have “pots” with one meat type per order, including a “WTF?!” option: SPAM. Now, I know people might bash this luncheon meat but I admit eating that while growing up, not to mention recently had it in the form of SPAM musubi. Believe me, it is not as bad as people put it… But I digress. Anyway, I ended up getting the assorted rice noodle version which includes four types of meat.

To answer question #1, no, everything was served combined. In fact, seeing through the small window, you could see they prepare everything in the pot and put it in the stove to boil it. In other words, this would be more on the lines of a hot pot than the claimed before mentioned crossing bridge rice noodle dish. As a result, I didn’t care anything related to authenticity and tried this soup “as is”.

So how was it? As a hot pot, I will have to say the broth wasn’t that bad, though using that plastic spoon shaped like a Chinese spoon was a bit of a pain to scoop it. At first, I didn’t “feel” the heat (I ordered spicy); however, as I went, it started to make me sweat bullets. It is one of those instances where it was both type of hot (temperature and somewhat spicy) created a compounded effect…

The noodles were a bit on the slippery, easily breaking side. Not necessarily my liking but still did its job. Out of the different meats, I was able to easily identify lamb, chicken and pork – Not sure what was the fourth one. In addition, there were some bamboo “shoots”, wood fungus and a hard-boiled quail egg plus the token piece of Shanghai bok choy. The meats weren’t that bad; however, I would hardly call them good. The one issue that I had was the game-y lamb taste was heavily “infused” into the broth and overpowered the rest of the meats. If it wasn’t because of the visual and, in part to the texture, I might have as well called it a lamb hot pot.

Despite the negatives, I will have to call a decent hot pot-type dish. Still, the harder part to swallow was the price point: This one in particular was $8.75 (single meats start at $6.75). Considering this is Crystal Mall, depending on which stand you go, you can find something more decent, if not better, at this same price point. This is the main reason, if given the option, I would rather go “somewhere” else, rather than here. Not bad, but there are “better” places right next to it…

Chinese Skewer King
900 W Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

After been back in town, it was time to tackle the remaining food carts in Vancouver. After all, given my experience in Re-Up BBQ, it was quite possible that my initial thoughts of food carts in Vancouver was mistaken and, actually, there was some glimmer of hope. That brings us to today’s post of another food cart in the Downtown Vancouver area: Chinese Skewer King, which, as the name suggests, has skewers. Can you go wrong with some meat-on-a-stick?

One of the tricks of trying to visit these places is to avoid the rush. If you go too early, chances are they haven’t set up for the day; however, if you go to late, there are chances they will be gone for the day. In my case, since it is not far from Burrard Skytrain Station meant I could try to go after work and still have a pretty good chance they will still be there. If not, well, another day? (Technically they close at 3:00 p.m.)

Their menu is relatively simple: “meat” on a stick. OK, there is a reason why I put meat between quotes: in addition to pork, they also have vegetarian and tofu. They used to have lamb but, I guess, the cost of lamb made it a bit unfeasible in the long run. The day I went, given it was close to closing which meant I only had that many options available, namely, they didn’t have tofu. Furthermore, the operator thought I wanted all of them pork. Under normal circumstances, that would have been a good guess; however, I was there to try as many possible, which meant switching one of them for the last vegetarian one. So, after a shake of their spices (including some heavy dose of cumin), to the grill it went.

Given the time of the day, when business was already winding down, I found the opeartor to be quite enthusiastic. “Special for you, I will make it spicy” (Errr…. That’s one of the options? ) “Want to take a picture of the grill? Sure!”. From that perspective, that was a bit un-Chinese (if I can say so myself); however, camera aside, I guess there was some reasons behind it: since there were no customers, why not entertain the ones in front of him on the ~5 minutes it takes to grill them?

For $6.50 (tax included, take that Roaming Dragon!), you get three skewers plus a bun plus pop. On the day I went, I had the option to take any can/bottle of pop and, in one of those few instances of me being greedy, I ended up grabbing a 710 mL bottle. I know, at this point, you might be wondering, how the hell they can even break even if they were selling it with a 710mL bottle? I think they realized that because on a second visit, they only had 355 mL cans (of course, same price). On the note about price, it is $2.50/skewer, which is not necessarily cheap; however, the more you buy, the better the deal seems to be: 6 skewers are $10, which results in ~$1.66 a piece. Still, I think the $6.50 combo above hits a decent price range spot.

The bun itself was meh, I think I could have lived with out it. But, then again, I might be making too much emphasis on what could literally be a throw in “freebie” (OK, not really, if you get it by itself, it would have been a loonie). That brings me then to the skewers, starting with the vegetarian one. In this case, two pieces of zucchini, two pieces of mushroom and one piece of pepper. Depending on how you like yours, I thought these were nicely grilled: the zucchini were soft but not to the point of it being mushy. The mushroom (technically not a vegetable but, still, can fall in the realm of “vegetarian”) still maintained a slight bite, which I thought provided a some contrast to the zucchini (since it was firmer than the later). The pepper still had some crunch but, since there was only one piece, didn’t really notice it.

As for the pork, the texture of the pork was a bit mixed, some were chewier, some were quite tender, some were a bit subtle, some were gamier. In other words, it was all over the map. Did I care? Not really. One thing worked quite well: while it has different taste and texture, it was seasoned evenly by the spices (specially cumin) so, at least, from a taste perspective, it ended up even.

As mentioned above, on a second visit (this time for takeout during lunchtime), I noticed one thing that can hamper their business model: Since there is only that much space in a grill, if the demand is high, they can only prepare that many skewers at a time. That’s what happened on my second visit: Since it was lunchtime, there were several customers and my order was “lost” in the queue. When they (at this time, there were two people at the car) realized I was standing there waiting for my order, I asked “you order such and such, right?” Hmmmm…. Not necessarily a good impression… But, taking it from a food perspective only, I will have to admit it is on the lines I would expect from such places. Slightly cheaper would certainly sweeten the deal but that is a completely different story.