All Entries in the "Dim Sum" Category

The Jade Restaurant on Alexandra Road, Richmond

Please allow me to do a comparison in this post.

Yesterday, I blogged about the tapas we had in Mis Trucos.

Today I am going to blog about Chinese Dim Sum in The Jade Restaurant. I think this is going to be a bit fair comparison because The Jade restaurant is not a cheapo dim sum joint.

The Jade Restaurant is located on Alexandra Road.

This is the kind of restaurant that you will see a fair number of Mercedes and BMWs in the parking lot.

We don’t normally go to Chinese restaurants that have high ceilings and chandeliers. Those kind of places are reserved for special occasions.

There are not just one … but several chandeliers.

And that explains why we had never been here before. We were put off by the chandeliers.

And the captains wear suits too. The tables have double table cloth. The banquet hall is bright and large. This type of restaurants are designed for banquet dinners. The smallest table is meant for four people. For morning dim sums on a weekend, it is usually a family affair. So seeing multi-generation families are not uncommon.

The only reason we were brave enough to step into here was because we read of the review from Wendy (Eat N About). It seems like the prices were not as bad as I feared.

You know what sucks here? The service. It was not that it was bad all round but a lot of the waiters/waitresses “tai yan” — that means that they have extra good service to the richer tai-tai’s (from the way they dressed and speak in Cantonese) while for us English speaking customers, we are left with the whatever they wished to dish to us.

That is the problem with such successful Chinese restaurants. They are so popular and have so many customers than they can handle, they can afford to select their customers. For some customers, we see that the waiters were always milling around waiting to fill the tea cups for them. For us, when we ask for anything, we were told to “mmm goi tang-tang” (please wait) and they don’t come back. When we ask them again, they give that annoyed look.

So when dining in such places, you got to deal with this or you are better off not going at all. IF … if you can look beyond this, dining in The Jade is good in every sense.

The Jade Restaurant opens at 9AM. So we were there early because their dim sum is really cheap in the first hour from 9AM – 11AM.

My tip to you is to go at 10′ish and order the first round of cheap dim sums and then follow-up with the better (more expensive) dim-sums at 11AM when the sifu (master chef) arrives in the kitchen.

When we arrived, the place was pretty empty. By 11AM, the whole place was buzzing with activity and there was already a number of people waiting for a table.

We ordered the ‘Bo Lei’ tea. It was a very dark tea … much darker than coffee but the flavour was not overly strong. This is one of the more unusual Chinese tea. You might want to try it if you had never before.

The menu does indicate the availability according to time. Click on the menu above to display it larger. If you don’t know what to order, just go for the ones that is marked with a red star. Those are their specialties.

But anyway, the prices of the dim sums between 9-11AM is $4 – $5 but have a limited selection.

After 11AM the prices ranges from $7 – $10 with more varieties like congee, noodles, and some special price items.

We thought it was not too expensive for a classy-looking place like this.

Arkensen and Nanzaro wanted cheong fun. Suanne and I decided to get one that you don’t normally find in other dim sum restaurants. This one has mushrooms and scallops. The boys protested saying that they don’t want this because it has vegetables (mushrooms!) in it. We tried to reason that this has scallops and they will like it. Well, rather than prolonging the debate, I just over-ruled their protest. Guess what … they love it. LOL! They just don’t want to listen to their mum and dad anymore.

They use fine inoki mushrooms. The scallop was most unique and has a very exquisite taste.

This is $5.28. For the non-Chinese, did you know why the price is so oddly ends with twenty eight cents? The number 8 is an auspicious number to the Chinese because the word sounded like “wealth”. The number 2 is a word that sounds like “easy”. So in combination, 28 is “easy wealth”. That is why you find that the Chinese will pay to get car license plate with the number “8″ in it.

In some Chinese cities, people pays hundreds of thousands of dollars for not just car license numbers but for things like phone numbers, the floor of an office building, etc. Even the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony kicked off on 08/08/08 at 8:08 PM.

If the number 8 is auspicious, the number 4 is to be avoided by the Chinese … because it meant “death”. LOL!

Chinese!

Despite protests across the table, we went ahead and ordered the Steamed Mushroom Dumpling ($4.98). The Jade restaurant makes their dumpling very well. The wrap is so thin and translucent that you could virtually see what is inside. This one has shitake mushroom and has a unique flavour.

It was so good that you don’t really need chili sauce or sweet soy sauce to dip. I think pure Cantonese dim sums does not provide the dipping sauces unless you ask for them specifically. Is that right?

Our waiter recommended this. The Steamed Eggplant with Black Bean Sauce ($4.48) was kind of oversteamed because the eggplant is too soft and mushy. We like the version we had at Royal Dinner and Dance better.

For some reason, they gave us this one above when we ordered the Supreme Dumpling in Soup. Their Supreme Dumpling in soup is their specialty.

We thought that it would be good to try dumpling with lamb meat for a change. The Pan Fried Lamb Dumpling is $4.48.

They serve this with sweet soy sauce mixed with chili, cilantro and garlic which was really good with the gamey tasting lamb dumpling.

So many dumplings right? This one is called Steamed Chiu Chau Dumpling ($4.48).

The skin is so thin that we got to be careful picking it up. The crunchy texture of the fillings inside was great. It consists of turnip/jicama, chives, dried prawns, pork and peanuts. Loaded! It crumbles when you bite into it and so you want to eat it placed on a spoon.

The best part of the meal has got to be this simple dish. This item is only available after … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Royal Dinner and Dance on Garden City and Blundell, Richmond

Shhh … don’t tell anyone about this place.

I am just kidding. I just wanted to catch your attention and read on.

It had been a while since we had dim sum as a family. The beauty of having a blog is that you can easily figure exactly when the last time it was. Everything is so well documented. For us, the last time was in October last year. We are not much of a dim sum people.

Last weekend, we decided to just go to a restaurant closest to home. Suanne reminded me that there is a place that serves dim sum with an odd name … the Royal Dinner and Dance. This is located on the strip mall on Garden City and Blundell in Richmond.

The moment we walked through the door, we had a good feeling that this is going to be good. All these years, we did not even realize this place would be like this.

The restaurant is located upstairs. You walk up a very wide staircase which has pictures of dancers. I think this place doubles as a dance club too because there is a stage and half of the restaurant is on the dance floor.

The restaurant is bigger than we imagine from the outside. What caught us by surprised is how many customers they have despite its size. The place was filled with customers. This is the kind of place where entire/extended families come for dim sum.  A lot of the tables taken were parties of four and above.

The table already were prepared with the order form and a pencil. It took us a while, as usual, to make our selection. The prices are cheap too.

Service is hurried as one can expect from a place this this. They came by twice asking if we are ready with the order. They were cool when we said we needed more time. For people who are not used to this type of places, you would take it personally when they abruptly turn away and go to the next table. We don’t consider this rude but understand that some people not used to this will feel slighted.

We were glad to see the varieties they have on the menu. So, we try to pick one or two items from each section … and in the process over-rule some of Arkensen and Nanzaro’s choices. If we leave the choices to them, they will pick TWO orders each of siu mai, har gow and sticky rice. So unexciting. LOL!

I was surprised when both Arkensen and Nanzaro said that they wanted the Rice Rolls with Chinese Donut ($3.75). We never thought they will want such traditional and to us, bland dish.

The Chinese donut here was not crispy but a tad soft. A sign that it is not made fresh. The flavour comes mainly from the soya sauce. They also gave us hoisin sauce and sesame sauce too which we thought it was kind of weird. I actually asked our waitress if it is meant to go with the rice roll and she said “yes”. *shrug*

It was quite nice too dipping the rice roll on the two sauces.

The Pan fried stuffed eggplant with shrimp is kind of skinny. Other than that it is cooked just nice. It is not overcooked that it is all mushy and loses the whiteness inside and yet also not undercooked that it’s raw and fibrous. The flesh inside was still white. We thought they did this perfectly and like the sauciness of the dish too. The sauce was great with the rice roll. Only $2.50.

Well, Arkensen also ask for this … the Steamed Crystal Prawn Dumpling (also $2.50). The size is respectable and the texture was firmly springy.Very good.

We were looking for that tell tale sign of freezer burn and all to see if they are just simply steamed direct from big batches of pre-made ones. They looked good enough for us.

They also have several congee options. We got the Lai Wan Boat Congee ($3.95) because we do not know what it is. We still do not know why this is called Lai Wan or what the words Lai Wan means.

The congee bowl is quite big for a $4 portion and has in it squid, prawn, pork rind, peanut, and Chinese donut. The congee itself does not carry a lot of flavour but a dash of soy sauce and ground pepper does the trick.

Next up is called the Fried Sticky Rice with Preserved Meat ($3.95). It came in a glass bowl and is supposed take a form of the bowl when they cup it upside down on the plate. Well … it fell apart and the waitress had to scrap the rice into the plate, losing the form.

You see it was not sticky enough for that. And I was thinking that this is FRIED sticky rice and so it is not supposed to be that sticky.

Anyway, the sticky rice has lots of … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Dim Sum at HKYK Seafood Hotpot Restaurant in Richmond

The Richmond Community Kitchen gathered for a Chinese New Year celebration at HKYK Seafood Hotpot Restaurant which serves dim sum in the morning.

One of the reason we picked HKYK is it’s wheel chair. There is a parking lot adjacent to this building and there are lots allocated for HKYK but you must register your license plate number in a register book at the reception.

There were fourteen members (old and new) from various kitchens who attended this event.

Another reason we picked HKYK is their prices are really cheap; $1.99 for most of the regular dim sum items. Click on the order sheets above for the enlarge view. HKYK uses a computerized order sheet where you shade the required quantity. It reminds of the multiple choices test in schools.

HKYK has been in Richmond for a long time. I remembered we had dim sum here way back in 2002. It is a big restaurant with many seating. I’ve seen reviews that service is not that good here but for the price that you pay, you cant expect much. We are quite ok with the slow service as that gives us more time to chit chat and catch up with one another.

We ordered a total of 21 different items to try. The Steamed Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf was the only Special item we ordered. This huge dumpling costs $5.50. It came with sugar and soy sauce for dipping.

Other than the above special, we ordered pretty regular dim sum items for those who are not familiar with this Cantonese cuisine to be on the safe side. Moreover, we do have one member who is gluten intolerant.

Pork Dumplings, Shrimp Dumplings, Steamed Dumpling Chiu Chou Style and Steamed BBQ Buns are very common items in dim sum place.

Wonton in Chili Oil and Peanut Sauce, Steamed Pork Ribs in Black Bean Sauce, Steamed Beef Ribs in Black Pepper Sauce and Steamed Pork Liver Rice Rolls with Ginger are more for the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Shanghai River on Westminster Highway, Richmond

This is so cool.

I don’t mean the restaurant only.

I used to start off our restaurant review with a image of the restaurant front like the one above. From now onwards, I don’t need to do that anymore. I can do better.

I could easily use Google Map’s Street View now.  Like this one below:

View Larger Map

Go ahead. Click all over the Street View. You can pan 360°. You can zoom in and out. The images are sharp. Cool, huh?

Alright … back to the restaurant. Shanghai River is one of the more popular Shanghainese restaurants in Richmond and they are successful for several good reasons too.

This restaurant is located on Westminster Highway, just west of No 3 Road. Parking is at a premium in the covered parkade just right of the restaurant. You have to be careful where you park because the stalls are marked.

Reservation is highly recommended at Shanghai River. We were there early at 11:15AM without a reservation and had to wait 30 minutes for a table. The restaurant is large and they turn the tables quite fast. Even then there is a long line. At about 11:30AM, they were already turning away walk-ins and even the calls for reservation for lunch that day. We were just by the waiting area and overheard the incoming phone calls. That tells us we are in the right place.

Bright lightings, tables with double layered table cloth and comfy chair … polite waitresses … efficient and courteous service. They even have a bar. see From these alone I would have thought that this will be a pricey place. I was quite wrong.

The dining area is bustling and very noticeably noisy. Do you think Chinese talks too loudly when dining? LOL! I think we do.

I love their menu. All menus should be like these … well laid out with pictures and English translations. I was thinking that Gweilos would be very comfortable with eating here. Just point to the pictures you fancy and you’re set.

I used the word Gweilo in an affectionate way OK? Maybe I should use the word Sai Yan to refer to Whites or Causasians but the term Gweilo sounds more personal.

Anyway, the surprising thing was that a lot of their Shanghai Style Dim Sum items are under $10 and even main dishes are at the range of $12.

Unlike many Chinese restaurants, Shanghai River’s service is exceptional. The staff were very polite and cheerful to us. I can’t help but notice how well-groomed, young and well-trained the staff are. Their uniform is well fitted. Really, it tells me that they are like the Cactus Club with an Asian twist.  I just like them, especially because they were so busy and yet able to appear composed at the tables.

On the menu, they call themselves the Master of Dim Sum. Like any respectable Shanghainese restaurants, they have an open glass enclosed kitchen where they make Xiao Long Bau in plain view of the diners. They have stacks of bamboo baskets so I guess they are very popular here. BTW, for those of you who don’t know … Xiao Long Bao literally means mini dumplings in bamboo baskets in Mandarin.

We decided to get something special. Instead of the normal Xiao Long Bao, we had the Shanghai Dumpling with Crab Meat.

It is beauty. They make it very well. The skin is of the right thickness and is very … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Hot Pot One in Aberdeen Center, Richmond

We were recommended by friends and readers that we should check out the congee at Hot Pot One.  With three separate recommendations, we know that can’t go wrong.  Problem is it took us so long to check it out.

Hot Pot One is located in the Aberdeen Mall.  It is on the top floor and just next door to the more illustrous Fisherman’s Terrace.  Come to think of it, there are quite a number of good restaurants here at the Aberdeen Center.  There is the Northern Delicacy which we like too.

I remember walking past Hot Pot One some months ago and they had someone standing outside the entrance with the menu in hand virtually asking everyone who walk past to to check out their restaurant.  At that time, I thought that their location was bad because it is at the top floor and at a section which has less foot traffic.

Things had changed since then.  We we went for brunch on last weekend, the place was simply packed.

We were seated by the window which provides a nice view.  It is not often you see a restaurant with so much light and wrap around windows, let alone a Chinese restaurant.

Service was fast and surprisingly unrushed.  They gave us the menu and asked if we know what we wanted.  I think they ask that because they thought we were regulars.  They serve dim sums, regular Chinese meals and of course congee.  We told them we want some time to go over the menu and they left us alone until we asked for them again.

They served individual tea like the ones we had in Top Gun J&C and Garden City Hot Pot.  It did not come across to us at that time to ask if it is compulsory that everyone to order their own tea.  We just thought that it was exactly like Top Gun J&C and Garden City Hot Pot.

They have a good selection of Chinese Tea.  They are $1 per person and $2 for premium ones.  I thought that the Dragon Well which I had in Top Gun J&C would fall under the Premium tea list but they were just $1.  Dragon Well tea is supposed to be the best and sort of like the imperial tea.  I guess there are cheap ones too.  So, I selected the $2 Ginseng Oolong.

They serve their tea in a more practical and less messy way.  I like the tea  cup so much that Suanne bought one for me last week.

They name their congee DIY Congee.  How this works is that you order a base congee for $4.25.  Additional ingredients are $3.25 each.  If you want, you could add the more expensive Geoduck or Tilapia.

I ordered two separate ingredients: liver & kidney and fish head.  The pot of congee is large.  If we knew how big this is, More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Top Gun J&C on McKim Way, Richmond

Christina and ET (Doesn’t Tazte Like Chicken) tried to organize a picnic a few weeks ago but it did not turn out because the weather forecast reported rain for the weekend.  So instead of cancelling the meetup among blogger friends, we decided to gather instead for dim sum.  Long story short, the event was attended by TS and JS (Eating Club Vancouver) and us.

It was Christina and ET’s suggestion that we meet at the Top Gun J&C.  Top Gun J&C is part of the Top Gun Group which included the following restaurants that we had been to before:

• Garden City Hot Pot in Richmond
• Kingsway Sushi on Kingsway, Vancouver
• Richmond Sushi in Richmond
• Top Gun Sushi in New Westminster

I think Top Gun J&C is the original restaurant of the group simply because I see that they showcase Top Gun J&C first over all their other restaurants.  BTW, J&C stands for Japanese and Chinese.

Suanne and I did not pay much attention to the menu.  Instead we left all the ordering to Christina.  All of us conveniently declared that we can’t read Chinese.  Christina had no choice.  He he he … I don’t relish the burden of ordering dim sum on everyone’s behalf.  I think you know the feeling!

The special menu have quite interesting items (see above).  I can see that they are not one of those that serves just common dim sums like siu mai, har gow and the likes.

Like the tea we had at Garden City Hot Pot, here they also serves individual tea selection.  ET recommended that we have the Dragon Well (Loong Jang in Cantonese).  Dragon Well is not common in most restaurants and is considered premium Chinese Tea.  ET knows that Garden City Hot Pot and this restaurant has it.  I was quite intrigued by this tea although frankly I can never tell most tea from another.

So I did some research and found that it indeed is the most important of all Chinese tea.  This type of tea is close to be considered the national tea of China where it is the type of tea among 700 different types of tea in China that is served as official tea to foreign dignitaries.

This tea became famous when a Chinese Emperor liked this tea and bestowed imperial status on the bushes from where his tea was made.  Story has it that today these bushes is still in existence and the tea from these bushes fetches high prices.

The tea making setup here is quite similar to what we had in Top Gun but a little bit more simpler. They have lesser number of plates and bowls.

He he he … I had finally mastered the art of pouring brewed tea from the Gaiwan (lidded bowl) to the cup.  Just to show that it was no fluke, I repeated the demonstration with flying colors.

Here is the order form … see what I mean?  It is all in Chinese.  They are not even numbered so that we can match it against some English description or a price list.  Suanne and I would be totally lost ordering this way.

It seems like they computerize the order taking by feeding this to some reader or something.  That’s efficient … for them, not for the customer.

Christina ordered their specialty … the stuffed chicken wings.  This is stuffed with glutinous rice.  The waitress came back and told us that they are all gone.  They are that popular.

And then later on, we saw them bringing this to the table.  I thought they said they ran out of these wings.  It turns out that Christina had earlier ordered this to go.  She had quietly asked the restaurant to serve this to us instead.  She is so thoughtful!   More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Dim Sum at Dai Tung Chinese Restaurant on Kingsway by Inverness, Vancouver

Alright … this will be the last post before I start on the Spain series.  If all things go OK, I’ll start on it tomorrow.  I had been getting emails, instant messages, and what nots asking when I am going to start writing about it.  All this pressure!

Angie and her family invited us to go for Dim Sum over a weekend about a month ago.  Angie left the suggestion to me.  I hate this.  People seems to think that because we have a food blog, that we know of the best places.  Frankly, we don’t — Suanne and I are NOT professional foodies.

Anyway, I just selected one safe place to go to … Dai Tung.

Dai Tung is located on Kingsway near the intersection with Windsor (see this map for the location).

Come to think of it, the last time we were here was EIGHT years ago with a family friend who just came to Vancouver.  I still remember when we had to endure almost an hour wait for a table and how it was so embarassing for us because everyone was hungry.  That wait was what put us off from visiting Dai Tung ever since.

The lines are still there but this time the wait was much more bearable — 15 minutes.  One bad thing is still the same … parking.  There are hardly any parking spots in this strip mall.  Even if there is one, it will only fit smaller cars.  So visiting Dai Tung requires patience!

However, from the long lines one need no convincing that Dai Tung serves some of the best dim sums in Vancouver.

I don’t know how much the meal costs because Angie’s family paid for the meal.  However from the menu, it appears that their prices are pretty cheap.

They serve the dim sums through push carts.  Don’t everyone like that better?  That way you could actually see for yourself what you want.

I picked the “Old Water” Duck Wings.  Wrong choice.

Not that it is not good.  It is great and I love it.  It’s just that NO ONE else wanted it at all.  So I ended up having to eat almost all of it myself.  Suanne was sweet enough to take a few bites but she doesn’t like it.  She said that there is no meat to it … it is just skin wrapping bones.  Hah!  They don’t know what they miss.

BTW, what is the English word for the “karn” you see above?  I love that too … love the chewy texture.   More on following page. Click here to continue reading