All Entries Tagged With: "Dim Sum"
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
Garden City Hot Pot in Richmond
More than a month a go, we received an email from a couple from New York saying that they will be in Vancouver and asking if we would like to meet up. Aaron and Charmaine wrote that they had been following chowtimes for sometime and that they will be in Vancouver to do the Alaska cruise. After some email exchange, we decided to meet up for dim sum in Richmond.
I suggested meeting at the Garden City Hot Pot mainly because it is high on my list to visit. I had been there for dinner once but not for dim sum.
Truth be told, Suanne and I are bored with dim sums. We are just bored with unexciting generic items like siu mai, har gow, sticky rice and such. We like places like Sea Harbour because they have unique one of a kind dishes.
We came to know Garden City as a place where they serve individual serving of tea from Doesn’t Tazte Like Chicken. So at least at the Garden City Hot Pot we get to experience something new.
Interior is clean — much more cleaner than I expected actually. The walls were quite tastefully decorated with paintings and they even have pots of flowers (albeit fake) on the tables. It is something you don’t see often in dim sum places.
To our pleasant surprise, the service was also top notch for a busy dim sum place. They took the time to let us settle down and even took time to chat with us.
We were asked first off what tea we wanted. Having absolutely no idea what to order, we quite randomly picked our choices. We ended up Rose, Lychee Hoong, Chrysanthemum and Jasmine.
Apparently at Garden City Hot Pot, EVERYONE must drink tea, even the kids. They charge $3 per head whether you want tea or not.
Arkensen and Nanzaro asked for ice water but they clearly informed us that we will need to pay $3. So we decided that since we are dinged for it already, we went on to order two additional type of tea. Based on their recommendation, the additional choices were Sau Mei (good for curing sore throat) and Grey Tea (bitter and good for curing cold).
Someday … I will go learn more about the finer aspects of chinese tea but for now my choice is Rose simply because it has flower bulbs in it.
Since we are unsure how to go about steeping the tea, they gave us a demo. Here … I am reproducing the steps for you info.
 They have provide you the kettle at the table where you keep the water boiled. It is hazardous especially if you have children around.
There was no switch to control the heat. You need to move the kettle away from the heating surface if the kettle is boiling. |
 The tea leaves are served in small saucers and is sufficient for multiple rounds.
You don’t use up all the tea leaves at one go … just a bit would do. |
 Fill up the steeping cup with boiling water, cover and then … |
 … immediately you pour away the water. They provide a bowl to collect the water and comes by regularly to clear them. I think this first rinse is to wash the leaves. Then you refill the steeping cup with boiling water to steep the tea. I have no idea what is the optimum time to wait. I just let it get to a stage when it is dark enough. |
Simple huh?
The hardest part is pouring the ready tea from the steeping cup to the drinking cup. You got to do that with the lid on. Obviously, we made a mess because we can never get it done right without having spills dripping down the bottom.
Is there a technique to doing this? Our technique is to use the saucer to catch the spill. Not quite elegant but it works.
Enough of tea … on to the food. One of the items we had is called the Steamed Fish Head with Preserved Vegetables in Black Bean Sauce. ($7). The fish was fresh and flakey. Somehow this does not come across to me as a dim sum and more like a normal lunch/dinner dish.
The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the sauce was … steamed rice. Would you think of the same thing too?
Curiously, they asked us twice if we wanted Baked BBQ Pork Bun. We said no initially because we thought it was just the normal char siu bau. They insists that we try their version saying that it is the most popular dim sum they served. We relently … and was surprised.
It is unlike the normal BBQ Pork Bun one would expect. Instead, it is like a cross between a Pineapple Bun (Bolo Bau) and Char Siu Bau. Very unique indeed.
The topping is sweetish with a little saltiness. It is excellent. If you happen to dim sum here, you should try it. Chances are that you will love this. This is $4.50 for three.
The Deep Fried Ground Pork and Tofu Skin Wrap was another item we like a lot. This is $6. It is bigger than one normally expect, partly because, I think, it’s wider than normal. The deep fried crispy skin balances the texture from the ground pork. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Shi-Art Chinese Cuisine at Richmond Center on No. 3 Rd
The members of the Richmond Community Kitchens celebrated the end of the season by having dim sum at Shi-Art Chinese Cuisine at Richmond Center on No. 3 Rd. If I recalled clearly, there are members from the South Arm Community Kitchen, Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen and the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The community kitchen will break for summer and resume in September.
Shi-Art Chinese Cuisine is located at the front of Richmond Center facing No 3 Road, across Tim Hortons. You will not miss this bold red front entrance.
When I took the group photo at the end of the meal, some of the members had already left. Next time, we’ll have the group photo taken first before we eat.
There were an assortment of sauces that were given to us even before the dim sum arrives. Fanny and Alice did most of the ordering as they are the experts in dim sum. Both of them are from Hong Kong. Fanny told us that Hongkies usually eat dim sum as brunch and they will take a long time to enjoy it. Here are the items we had and they were ordered in multiples.
The Deep Fried Shrimp Spring Rolls are crispy on the outside and has tender shrimp fillings.
These Deep Fried Mango Milk Pudding are amazing. At first, we thought they are some deep fried sweet potatoes but it’s too tender to the bite. We like this a lot. It’s categorized under the Chef’s Special.
The Shredded Chicken with Sesame is another Chef’s Special. It’s crunchy and served cold.
Pan Fried Stuffed Eggpant is also the Chef’s Special. I love the soft textured eggplant in some garlic bean sauce.
Pan Fried Rice Roll in Soy Sauce is the last item we ordered from the Chef’s Special. I love the caramelized part of the rice roll. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
King’s Chinese Cuisine on Main and 29th, Vancouver
It was one of those weekend mornings again. Suanne had a subtle way of hinting that she does not want to prepare breakfast but not wanting to say so. I don’t know how to describe it but I can pick up the vibes — unmistakably.
I did not know where to go and the boys keep asking me what’s for breakfast. When I don’t want to answer, I just tell them “it’s a secret”. It used to work because they like surprise … not any longer. They now follow up with another question … “where are we going?”. They hate it when I drive across the bridge because it meant a 30 minutes drive, at least.
I did cross the Knight St Bridge and headed up Main Street in Vancouver. Then at East 29th, I saw a queue outside of the orangey restaurant. It is definitely a dim sum place … and a cheap one too. I can tell because many of the customers are seniors or with large families.
I thought we will not go wrong eating here since there was a queue even though the walls outside was all defaced with graffiti.
This place is called King’s Chinese Cuisine and is located on the intersection of 29th and Main.
The wait was not too long, about 15 minutes. We had to walk right into the back of the restaurant to deposit our name for a table. It is a large place and so they are able to turn the tables very fast. It is also a mad house … the hustle and bustle here is very typical of a neighborhood Chinese Dim Sum place. It’s noisy and obviously very popular.
This is a place where they use plastic sheets for table cloth. With these, cleaning up a table for the next customer is just a matter of seconds. Pull up a layer, tie it up in a bundle with all the left over food and bowls and the table is all ready. Function over form is how I describe it.
Even before we got seated, we were already asked what tea we wanted. I have no idea and I always kept my head down and pretend not to hear … I always left it to Suanne to decide. She had no idea herself too. So she always blurts out a name that comes to her mind. This time it was Tiet Guan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy). One of these days, we got to learn the finer points of Chinese tea.
They also passed us the order sheet. This is not just an order sheet but also double up as a receipt! The prices were printed at the top of the order sheet. So, for $2.30 to $4.75, they are cheap.
I see a lot of tables ordering the Fried Rice Noodles. It must be their specialty and they looked good too. You can tell when you see parts of it charred … meaning that they have “wok hei” when they did this.
Kind of hard to explain what “wok hei” means — anyone wants to give that a try?
The Fried Rice Noodle was good on it’s own. But the sweet sauce imparts a lot of flavour to it. Their sweet sauce is done perfectly … not too thick and not too light … just perfect. No wonder so many people ordered this. This is categorized as a “special” dish and costs $4.75.
They serve their Gai Lan kind of dry. Normally in other places it is drizzled with oyster sauce but here they serve the oyster sauce in a small saucer on the side. The stems are big and tastes a little bitter’ish. It was a lot of it. Since the boys did not want to have anything to do with green food, Suanne and I had a tough time finishing it all. $4.75.
We like this next one. It is simply called Jelly Fish. However, it is more than just jelly fish. It is topped with bean curd roll filled with mushroom, pickled daikon and carrot. You can imagine the variation of texture in this dish (soft jelly fish with crunchy daikon).
The light vinegar was just the right dipping sauce for the cold, almost bland bean curd. We like this a lot and it is $4.75.
Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant on No 3 Road in Richmond
It had been a long while since we had Dim Sum. Six months to be exact. Not sure why … I guess we are not much of a morning meal blogger ourselves.
Sea Harbour had been around for a very long time. Believe it or not, I still remember the last (and only one) time we were there … 9 years ago!
The facade of Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant had not changed all these years. They looked the same and if I may add, a less than impressive looking one from the outside. We do notice though that there are always a lot of cars parked in front of the restaurant during meal times.
The looks from the outside is misleading. Sea Harbour is one of the more upscale dim sum places in Richmond. The decor shouts opulence with chairs upholstered in gold fabric, newish looking carpets and tables with double table cloth.
Service is impeccable. They all looked well trained and well groomed with clean pressed uniform. Needless to say, the service were polite, quick and attentive. The wait staff actually always keep their heads up to look for eye contact in case you need them!
Since we don’t read Chinese, we asked for an English one. We were pleasantly surprised to see they have the version in English with pictures.
Looking around the neighboring tables, we see a number of tables of non-Asian customers. Mind you, Sea Harbour is as authentic a dim sum place as it gets but I think the reason that even non-Asians eat here is probably because of the user-friendly menu. All Asian restaurant should have these kind of menu.
However, the ordering sheet was only in Chinese. We had to cross check the numbers on the ordering sheet against the Chinese characters on the menu.
We try to not order the normal stuff. You know, like Siew Mai and such.
First one above is the Deep Fried Seafood Salad Roll. It is filled with mayonnaise and crusted with panko. It was rich as expected of anything with mayo. $5.
The Shrimp and Fish Maw Bean Curd Roll. We like the smoothness and lightness of the bean curd roll with freshness of the seafood. The bean curd roll is somewhat more “egg-y” than normal. They make good quality dim sums. This is a “large” dim sum item … $5.
