Geoff and Joy and our family took a drive to Langley to visit Whitney and Ken on a Saturday. We wanted to introduce our new friends who had just landed in Vancouver from NZ recently. It was a long drive but was glad to find that they had finally completed the upgrade to Route 10 which makes the drive much more faster and easier.
For dinner, Whitney recommended that we go to a Chinese restaurant. The way she put it is as if there are hardly any good Chinese restaurant in Langley and Dragon Garden is about the best it could get.
Dragon Garden is more of a Chop Suey, Sweet and Sour Pork and Fortune Cookies type of Chinese restaurant, if you know what I mean. Even the name tells you as much. You see most of these Chinese restaurant are not quite creative in naming the restaurant and uses a combination of words like Golden, Dragon, Inn, Garden, Gate, Imperial, Phoenix, Silver, Fortune, Lucky, etc.
It was a Saturday evening and for the whole time we were about the only customer there. If not for us taking up a table for 11 people, they would probably have almost no business for the day.
Let’s talk about table arrangements. In Chinese restaurants, larger tables are ALWAYS round and NEVER long. Most large tables will fit about 10 people. I find this arrangement more practical as one gets to interact with one another all round this way. Moreover, food are normally shared (i.e. formal dinners are not served individually) and it makes the sharing of dishes easier.
Dishes are not normally passed around but one unique thing is the “lazy susan” (see above). Tell me … are the Chinese the only cuisine that uses “lazy susans” on the dining table? I think they are.
Whitney did all the ordering. Because of so many kids around, she ordered dishes that kids likes.
Do you know what is the heaviest food in the world? It is called the 1-ton-soup.
Anyway, we had the large serving which has 18 pcs of wontons and costs $9.95. This works to be about $1 per 100kg, give or take. 🙂
The Assorted Meat with Tofu Hot Pot was pretty good. I felt the hot pot is somewhat small. $12.95.
Everyone love the Mandarin Pork Chops ($10.95). They had a very odd reddish color. We asked the waitress what makes the color like this and she said “it must be coloring”!! Beeep!! Wrong answer! LOL!
She should not have been so honest. Saying “I don’t know” sounds more acceptable than “it must be coloring”. Right?
The Szechuan Chicken is supposed to be hot but it was not. This $9.95 dish was alright but I was not too excited over it.
The above is from the Chop Suey section and described as “Lo-Hon-Chai” and in brackets “(Very Special Chinese Vegetarian Dish)”. $9.95 … and we had some left overs.
The kids’ favourites are undoubtedly the Yeung Chow Fried Rice. I just don’t quite understand why fried rice are so popular with kids.
And the Beef with Rice Noodle was the final dish. Whitney said that the skill of a chef boils down to the chef being able to “wok hei” this dish. Is there an equivalent English word for “wok hei”? Sadly, most of us said that this did not measure up … $8.25.
Overall, the food was quite OK and some of the dishes were delicious. The service was superb, friendly and attentive.
He he he … I feel sad for you, Whitney and Ken. You guys should come back and stay in Richmond where real Chinese food are! Anyway, we do not know how much the whole meal was because Ken sneakily went to pay for the dinner and refused to take our share. You see, this is a very Chinese thing … we often fight to have the honor to pay for the meal. So … thanks a lot for paying Whitney and Ken … it was so generous of you as we had always known you to be. We owe you one … next time you come back to the civilization called Richmond, I’ll bring you to a place where they don’t have Chop Sueys and Fortune Cookies. LOL! You’re such a pal!
‘wok hei’ in cooking terms is pretty much being able to master/control the fire while cooking a wok, same as a blacksmith being able to understand the forge and the temperature. The noodles doesn’t look like it has much oil, that’s good. and the pork chops, yeah, it’s food coloring, it probably tastes pretty much like sweet and sour sauce. chinese bbq pork uses food coloring too.
For good chinese food, check out Luxe Chinese Seafood Restaurant on Willowbrook in Langley. You will not be disappointed.
I second “Luxe Chinese Seafood Restaurant”! The next time you’re out in Langley you should try it. They’ve got great dim sum and they also have Peking duck on the menu too. It’s much, much better than Dragon Garden.
I remember when I was little I used to watch my parents fight with their friends to pay the bill.. Sometimes it would be so bad that it was embarrasing. But now I’ve grown up and I do exact the same thing :P.
Yerng chau chao fan … is sooooooo good ><~~ .
Its just not the same as regular fried rice XD.
Haha its my fave fried rice too =D
There are 2 good chinese restaurants in Langley, one is Luxe Chinese Seafood Restaurant and the other is Empire Garden, near to Walnut Grove. Just tried the latter yesterday and the Peking Duck is as good if not better than Luxe Chinese Seafood Restaurant. They specialize in Cantonese and Sichuan dishes. Request for more spiciness if you order their Sichuan dishes and want authentic taste.