[CRA 2010 Signature Dish] Barbeque Spare Ribs 燒排骨 from Dollar Meat Store

It had been a long while since Suanne and I were in Chinatown. The last time was when we attended the Chinese Laundry Kids event in Foo’s Ho Ho. That event vetted my interest in the storied past of Chinatown.

Suanne and I used to visit Chinatown when we first came to Canada. We actually went all the way there on weekends to buy groceries and have dim sum. No longer. It is sad to say that every year, there are lesser and lesser reasons for us to visit Vancouver’s Chinatown.

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Well, this time we visited Chinatown just to check out the award winning Chinese BBQ item.

This Dollar Meat Store had been an institution in Chinatown for well over 30 years now. I guess in its early days, this must have been a premier location for Chinese BBQ.

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Despite the gunky-ness of many stores in Chinatown, Dollar Meat is surprisingly bright and clean. Even the butchers wears caps.

Dollar meats are famous for their Chinese cured sausages and pressed ducks. If you look hard enough they do have exotic meat for sale too.

I am not into eating pressed ducks but Suanne’s dad loves pressed ducks. One easy way to please him is to bring him a thigh and you will be in his good books for days.

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Chinese Restaurant Award 2010 ♦ SILVER in the CHINESE BARBEQUE Category ♦ Barbeque Spare Ribs 燒排骨

It is their Barbeque Spare Ribs that won the silver award in the CRA’s Chinese Barbeque category.

We just bought a bit to go. The above is just … (more…)

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Iceberg Lettuce Fish Paste Porridge

Vanessa is back from Hong Kong and she starts work in the community kitchen right away. She made an Iceberg Lettuce Fish Paste Porridge; Hong Kong style, I presumed.

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The Iceberg Lettuce Fish Paste Porridge is flavored in a rich broth made from pork bones and dried scallop. A pot a hot porridge is good for days when one does not have appetite to eat. Porridge is easy to the digestive system too.

Ingredients

  • Roast pork bone
  • Pork bone (“G gin guat” in Cantonese)
  • Dried scallop
  • Fish paste
  • Rice
  • Iceberg lettuce
  • ground pepper and salt to taste

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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KL Series: Kiew Brothers

After the Hainese Chicken Rice, Nanzaro and I went for a walk in Chinatown. Chinatown is better know as Petaling Street or Chee Cheong Gai in Cantonese. This place a must-go place for tourists. This is where you could get a Rolex for only $10.

The whole street is not closed to traffic and is lined with stalls. Every other stall sells counterfeit products — clothings, watches, DVD movies, perfume. It is also where some of the best chinese food are found.

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We went to the Kiew Brothers shop to get some dried meat. Many swear that Kiew Brothers has the best dried meat in the country. In Cantonese, they are known as “woh lai yeh” which simply translates to “here I come”. I can’t figure why that name but if you say those words, everyone will know what you mean.

They BBQ the meats in front of the shop and has a big fan that blows the smoke out to the street. You can smell the aroma around the vicinity of the area.

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Roast Pork from Parker Place

When it comes to meat, personally, nothing comes close in simplicity than the chinese Roast Pig. This is not the char siew or BBQ’d “roast pig” I am referring to here. Char Siew is char siew. I am referring to what is known as “siew yoke” in Cantonese.

There are minimal marinate involved in making this.

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A lot of my chinese friends had always raved about the best Roast Pork in Richmond. Albert thinks that the best is from the small Master BBQ restaurant in the Real Canadian Superstore. However, a lot of people believes the Meat and BBQ shop in Parker Place is the best.

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This Meat & BBQ shop in Parker Place is almost always busy with a line of of people queuing right out to the walkway. Even Andy from Portland, Oregon made a beeline for this place when he came over to Vancouver for a vacation a few months ago. This shop is that famous for people who likes roast pork.

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The best thing about this roast pork that they are roasted to perfection in every instance. Unlike other place, where it’s sometimes a hit or miss depending on which pig or which cut you are given, the roast pork here are uniformly good. The best thing to me is that when we asked for leaner meat, we don’t get a thick soggy layer of pork fat. (more…)

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Shao-Zi Noodles

Shao-Zi Noodles is the second dish which Julie showed us in last week’s cooking club meeting. Julie prepared the dough ahead for making the noodles. She told us she used 4 cups of flour with 1.5 cups of water and some salt (probably 1 teaspoon) to make the dough for the noodle.

The star of this dish is the meat sauce. Julie told us that the meat sauce can be made in big batch and store in the refrigerator for a few days. The noodle dish can be prepared easily using the prepared meat sauce.

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Ingredients

  • 1 lb Lean ground pork
  • 1 lb spiced bean curd, diced in small pieces.
  • sweet bean sauce
  • soybean paste
  • hot bean paste
  • soy sauce
  • salt
  • sugar
  • corn starch
  • for decoration, thinly sliced carrot, cucumber or celery

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Pickled Mustard and Tofu Soup

Ben complained that he had not had home made clear soup for some time. I know what he wants. He wants something with some meat and tofu in the soup — old fashioned Chinese soup. This is what I call the Pickled Mustard and Tofu Soup, or in Cantonese the Hum Choy Tou Fu Tong … is that spelt right? 🙂

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One of the main ingredients is the chinese traditional tofu. This is the type that is a bit coarse, not like the smooth or soft type. The hum choy, or pickled mustard, is what give the soup it’s salty flavour. For meat, I bought some roasted pork feet from the chinese BBQ shop, you know, the ones that sell roasted pork. Roasted pork feet is cheap and costs only $1 each. I used three feet for this soup.

I know, I know … pork feet sounds gross. If you prefer you may use pork ribs, shoulder, etc. This soup tastes best with pork.

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Shredded Dried Pork (a.k.a. Meat Floss)

UPDATE ON 07-NOV-2009: We now have the recipe for making Pork Floss from scratch. Here is the Recipe for Pork Floss.

UPDATE ON 22-MAY-2006: He he he … guess the name Meat Floss sounds disgusting to some people. So, I have used a better sounding name for the entry … Shredded Dried Pork. Happy? 🙂

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork (also known as Rousong and Yoke Song in Mandarin and Cantonese respectively) is a dried chinese meat item that is commonly used as a topping for many foods. There are many variants of the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork with the most common one being Pork Floss.

In Vancouver, the Meat Floss product seems pretty dominated by the Soo Singapore Jerky company. You will be able to find these Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork in just about any Asian grocery stores. I believe they make Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork and other Asian jerky products under a few brand names. Their most famous brand is Soo. We have seen the Soo’s brand getting more expensive over the year. It’s now about $10 for a jar of 454g (about 1lb).

We bought a cheaper version. It’s branded as Pork Sung and the label said that it’s made by Soo Singapore Jerky too. The 340g jar below costs only $5.58.

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Wikipedia describes the how Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork are made as follows:

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork is made by stewing cheap cuts of pork in a sweetened soy sauce mixture until individual muscle fibres can be easily teased apart with a fork. This usually happens when the collagen and elastin that normally hold the fibres have been cooked out of the meat. The teased-apart meat is then strained and dried in the oven. After a light drying, the meat is mashed and beaten while being dry cooked in a large wok until it is completely dry. Additional flavourings are usually added while the mixture is being dry fried. 5 kg of meat will usually produce about 1 kg of rousong.

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork has a light and fluffy texture quite similar to coarse cotton. It can be eaten just as a snack. It comes in soft or crisp versions. For snacking, I recommend the crisp version. Some are flavoured with sesame seed and seaweed.

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It goes well too with rice porridge. However, I find that the taste of the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork gets drowned out unless you put in a lot of it.

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I prefer Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork with rice. You should use pretty dry and cold rice. Mix it well into the rice and that’s a quick meal — not very balanced though but still a nice meal nevertheless.

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We also make sandwiches with Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork. The ones below are made using a sandwich maker which helps seals in the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork in the sandwich.

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Suanne has the instructions below on making the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork Sandwich in the link below.

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