Miku Restaurant – Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi

2011 Follow Me Foodie Favourites & Yearblog

Happy New Year! Welcome to my Follow Me Foodie Favourites & Best of 2011! This is a recap and yearbook/yearblog of the BEST Follow Me Foodie (FMF) Food and FMF Foodie Moments in 2011.

I wrote a Follow Me Foodie Favourites & Best of 2010, so I decided to do another one this year. I don’t even know where to start. It’s been a crazy year, and I’m so grateful for everything that has happened with this blog. I’ve loved every minute of it (even the parts where it hurt to laugh because I was so full) and I’m so happy to have shared these delicious moments with you. Thank you for following me foodie and cheers to another year of gastronomic indulgence!

NOTE: IT’S NOT NECESSARILY “THE BEST“, BECAUSE FOOD IS PERSONAL AND I CAN ONLY DISCOVER SO MUCH IN A YEAR. THESE ARE JUST SOME WORTH MENTIONING IN MY BOOKS… OR BLOG? BLOG. IT’S MORE OF A 2011 RECAP/SUMMARY. ALL EXPERIENCES ARE FROM 2011 ONLY.

Top 20 BEST ASIAN/FUSION Restaurant Dishes & Food in Vancouver:

Suika – Beef Short Rib

Being in Vancouver, we’re spoiled by great Asian/Asian Fusion cuisine, so I decided to make it a separate category. Vancouver dominates and excels when it comes to Asian/Asian fusion cuisine.

Listed in no particular order. Based on the menu item, not the restaurant.

1. Suika – Beef Short Rib

2. Aki Japanese Restaurant – Black Cod (Sable Fish)

3. Pho Tam – House Special Pho

4. Wing Kee – Fresh Steamed Scallops with Vermicelli and Garlic

5. Dan Japanese – Tuna Chili Sashimi

6. Wang’s Beef Noodle House – Beef Brisket Noodle

7. Kirin Seafood Restaurant – Black Cod Braised with Squash and Roasted Pork Belly

8. Jade Seafood Restaurant – Steamed Mushroom Dumpling

9. Rainflower Restaurant – Pan Fried Tiger Prawns with Basil

10. Tokyo Joe’s Sushi Factory – Volcano Roll

11. Empire Chinese Cuisine – Alaskan King Crab Dinner – 4 ways

12. Red Star Seafood – Dungeness Crab with Wild Rice

13. Motomachi Shokudo – Bamboo-Charcoal Dark Miso Ramen

14. Tokachi Japanese – Tuna Gomaae

15. Empire Chinese Cuisine – Deep Fried Alaskan King Crab Knuckles

16. Ichiro Japanese – Dragon Roll

17. Delicious Cuisine – Deep Fried Shrimp with Salted Egg Yolk

18. Hapa Izakaya (Kistilano) – Salmon Shooter

19. Suhang Restaurant – Steamed Soup Buns with Pork Filling (XLB)

20. Jade Seafood Restaurant – Jade Smoked Grandpa Chicken

Honorary Mentions from 2010 list: Miku Restaurant – Aburi Salmon Oshi Sushi, Top Gun J & C Restaurant – Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Hakkaido Ramen Santouka – Toroniku Shio Ramen

See “Follow Me Foodie Best of 2010 Asian/Fusion Dishes” here.

See the full “Follow Me Foodie Best of 2011″ here.

“We are noodle folk. Broth runs through our veins.”
—Mr. Ping

Enter to win 2 tickets to the advanced screening of Kung Fu Panda 2!

Ticket details (valid one night only):

Date: Tuesday May 24
Time: 7pm
Theater: SilveryCity Metropolis (Metrotown Mall)

How to enter:

1. Send the following tweet: “I entered to win Kung Fu Panda 2 tickets on @followmefoodie‘s contest! What’s your favourite Asian Noodle? http://goo.gl/TKYPt“
2. Comment on this post with your favourite noodle dish in Vancouver.

Contest ends Sunday May 22 at midnight. Thank you and good luck!

And remember to visit Follow Me Foodie Facebook Page!

The Noodle Series – 20 Asian Noodle Dishes

In celebration of Kung Fu Panda 2 I’m featuring Mr. Ping’s favourite food! NOODLES! Here are some delicious noodles that come to mind for me. They’re not all necessarily my favourite or the “best”, but it showcases a variety. This is only within the Asian noodle category too. There are so many more choices and these 20 noodle dishes just touch the surface! Now how big of a noodle fan are YOU?!

The Vietnamese Noodle

Pho Tam – House Special Beef – Combination of Beef and Rice Noodle in Soup

The Beijing Noodle

Beijing Cuisine – Tossed Mung Clear Noodles in Sauce, Sesame Paste & Shredded Meat

The Chinese Noodles

Michigan Noodle Shop – Traditional Wonton Noodle Soup

Michigan Noodle Shop – Lo-Mein with Shredded Pork in spicy Brown Sauce

Rainflower – Hometown Style Pan Fried Silver Needle Noodle

Rainflower – Scrambled Egg & Scallop Fried Rice Noodle

The Thai Noodle

Khunnai Chang Madame Elephant Thai Cuisine – Pad Thai

The Japanese Noodles

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka -  Toroniku Shio Ramen

Miku Restaurant – Soba Pepperoncino

Aki Japanese Restaurant – Nabeyaki Udon

The Taiwanese Noodle

Wang’s Beef Noodle House – Beef Brisket Noodle

The Shanghainese Noodles

Northern Delicacy – “Dan Dan” or “Tan Tan” Noodles in Black Sesame Soup

Northern Delicacy – Shredded Chicken with Glass Noodle

The Malaysian Noodle

Seri Malaysia – Mee Goreng Mamak

The Singaporean (Malaysian) Noodle

Bo Laksa King – Laksa

The Korean Noodles

Jang Mo Jib – Jab Che or Jap Chee  (Potato Noodles)

In Korea (but available in Vancouver) – Stir Fried Korean Rice Cake Noodles with Gochujang Sauce (Ddeokbokki)

Celadon Fine Korean (whistler, BC) – Chilled Pink Angel Hair Noodles

The Szechuan Noodle

Sichuan Da Ping Guo Restaurant – Sichuan Glass Noodle with Soy Nuts

The Persian Noodle (Dessert)

The Apron – Faloodeh

Restaurant: Kalvin’s Szechuan Restaurant
Cuisine: Taiwanese/Chinese/Szechuan
Last visited: April 10, 2011
Location: Vancouver, BC (Kensington)
Address: 5225 Victoria Drive
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4 (based on what I tried)
Service: 3
Ambiance: 2
Overall: 4
Additional comments:

• Taiwanese Family run
• Authentic Taiwanese
• Authentic Szechuan
• Some Shanghainese items
• Extensive menu
• Popular to Chinese locals
• Big portions
• Very affordable
• Better with groups
• Limited seating
• Reservations recommended
• Chinese & English menu
• Chinese written specials
• Frozen products to go
• Cheap eats/budget friendly
• Cash only
• Mon-Fri $6.50 lunch specials
• Mon-Sun 11-2:30pm, 5:30-9:30pm
• Closed Wednesdays

**Recommendations: Crispy Salty Peppery Chicken, Prawn & Peanut with Chili Pepper, and Chicken with Three Spice. Apparently the Smoked Duck is a signature item and the Fondue Spicy Pork with Organ Stew is the must try here, but I’m not too keen on offal.

My Taiwanese friend from Japan came back home for a visit and she was craving authentic Taiwanese food. After my recent delicious experience at Delicious Cuisine, so was I! Taiwanese food in Metro Vancouver is limited to endless bubble tea cafes, so there’s really not much selection for an actual Taiwanese restaurant. We decided on Kalvin’s Szechuen Restaurant and despite “Szechuan” being in the title, it is also known for traditional home cooked Taiwanese food. It’s funny because I’m supposed to make another trip out here in a couple weeks with a larger group.

Let’s forget about “authenticity” for a moment because Chinese cuisine is shared throughout China let alone Asia in general. Quite often Szechuan, Shanghainese, and Taiwanese food will cross paths and borrow ingredients and cooking methods from each other. Quite often they will offer some similar menu items, but the execution of each will be quite different depending on the chef’s style and area. Kalvin’s Szechuen Restaurant is actually a mixture of all three cuisines, but a predominant focus on Taiwanese and Szechuan. They do offer Shanghainese items, but from what I tried and could gather, it’s not the specialty here.

It’s a small and very casual restaurant and had steady traffic through the entire dinner service. It’s Taiwanese owned and operated, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the chef had some Szechuan culinary experience. It’s an obvious local favourite and it’s popular for a restaurant that flies under the radar, especially with the dodgy looking outside. They also have a frozen foods section in the back with dumplings, pancakes and Shanghainese specialties to go.

The daily specials are written only in Chinese, which totally sucks, but the menu has English so it wasn’t too bad. On the other hand it made it seem more authentic which I liked. I must say though English translations for Chinese menus really frustrate me. It makes it difficult to explore a menu when there’s a lack of description and it causes people unfamiliar with the cuisine to keep ordering the things they already know and like.

I mean with over 20 items for beef and names which are also descriptions like “Shredded Beef with Onion”, “Shredded Beef with Green Pepper”, “Shredded Beef with Bamboo Shoots”… how am I supposed to order without winging it?!!? Please. Help. The best I could do was observe the tables and see what everyone else was ordering. Luckily I had my Taiwanese friend with me… but too bad she’s not a foodie and always orders “Pork Chop on Rice”… argh… useless I tell you… j/k!

Nonetheless Kalvin’s Szechuan Restaurant was a great find and I would come back. The food was solid, the portions are very generous and the menu is more than affordable for lunch and dinner. It’s a quick and casual go to if you live in the area with plenty of traditional Taiwanese and Szechuan options. However if you’re looking for traditional Taiwanese that’s a bit more formal I would highly recommend Delicious Cuisine.

On the table:

**Crispy Salty Peppery Chicken - 5/6

• $6
• This was very good, but it’s not an item you have to get here, unless you haven’t tried it before. I just like the dish so I like to compare.
• It’s a good appetizer, but it’s common at a lot of bubble tea places too.
• My favourite is the one from Pearl Castle because it’s crunchier and crispier see here, although this one has a better flavour and it’s a bit more authentic.
• It’s Taiwanese street food and it’s not your average salt and pepper chicken or chicken nuggets.
• It’s very crispy boneless pieces of moist and tender juicy dark meat chicken marinated in garlic, wine and soy sauce and battered in potato flour and deep fried.
• It’s very well seasoned with salt, white pepper and Chinese 5 spice powder.
• It’s also tossed with some garlic and crispy fried basil leaves, which makes it more traditional. There should be more, but this is already one of the few places that serve it this way. Beefy Beef Noodle does it as well, but they’re not as good as here.
• It’s a very aromatic chicken with a wonderfully savoury flavour that is incredibly addicting like popcorn chicken.

5 Spice Beef in Chinese Pancake – 3/6

• $5
• I really like this and it’s another Taiwanese street food staple that’s also found at many Shanghainese restaurants.
• It’s served hot and made upon order and I usually love this item, but this one wasn’t well executed.
• It was a crispy and flaky home made green onion pancake or crepe, but it was much too thick and doughy with very little beef in the roll.
• There was one sweet scallion, a bit of sweet Hoisin sauce, and one slice of beef  that was a bit dry and much too thin that I could barely taste it.

Deep Fried Pork Chop with Rice – 3.5/6

• $5.50
• It’s one of the most popular lunch time items in Taiwan.
• This is classic Taiwanese peasant food, or comfort food.
• It was a really big portion and enough for two people.
• It’s a generous bed of rice topped with a typical Taiwanese pork broth/sauce made of light soy sauce and white wine.
• It’s a large fillet of crispy bone in pork chop, but it was really thin and a too battered for me. It’s executed the same way as the salt and peppery chicken.
• It was well flavoured and marinated in soy sauce, white wine and garlic before being crusted with a potato starch batter seasoned with 5 spice powder, salt and white pepper.
• The pork was moist, but the quality wasn’t great and the skin was a bit gelatinous and just too heavily battered that it kept separating from the meat.
• The sauce over the rice was a bit bland and thin and I like it more thick, savoury and sweet.
• This was good, but there is better versions of this dish.

**Chicken with Three Spice – 5.5/6

• Small $10 Large $20
• It’s actually supposed to be called “Three Cup Chicken” and it’s delicious!
• This is one of the most popular Taiwanese items and it’s supposed to represent the quality of the overall restaurant. It’s the prawn dumpling or har gow of dim sum.
• It was another large portion and it’s served in a clay pot. I had it at Delicious Cuisine, but can’t say which was “better”.
• I wish it was actually cooked in the clay pot though because it should be sizzling.
• It’s “Three Cup Chicken” because it’s made with 1 cup soy sauce, 1 cup white wine and 1 cup sesame oil.
• It’s stew like with aromatic bone in pieces of tender chicken generously coated with a thick and rich syrupy sweet and savoury honey like garlic soy sauce gravy.
• The chicken had a bit of a pan fried crust on them and it seemed slightly shallow fried and a bit oily as expected, but they were excellent.
• It’s like a sweet Taiwanese BBQ sauce with fresh basil, nutty sesame oil aroma and creamy caramelized cloves of whole garlic and a faint gingery background.
• It’s sweetened with sugar and it’s lick your fingers good… although eaten with chopsticks.

**Prawn & Peanut with Chili Pepper – 5/6

• $16
• Ohhhh! So this is what “kung pao chicken” is, well this was kung pao prawn, but same flavour. Based on the description I didn’t know.
• The waitress insisted on having it prepared mild instead of my requested medium, and thank god! Holy crap! Mild was so spicy already!
• This is a very typical Szechuan dish and it was pretty authentic except for the Sichuan peppercorns which were very minimal. It was spicy enough though!
• It was a huge portion with plenty of saucy prawns, lots of roasted chillies and tons of crunchy peanuts.
• The prawns were crunchy and coated with a spicy version of a similar sauce used in the “Chicken with Three Spices”.
• The initial flavour is sweet garlicky soy sauce and sesame oil and then gradually the heat picks up and then it hits you right away. The spice lingers for a long time afterward.
• It’s quite salty and it’s fragrant spicy, not hot, with the dry chillies and peanuts being flash fried in the oil to prepare the base of the sauce.
• The spiciness is powerful, bit still flavourful and addicting, but it’s really spicy! It had my nose running after the first three bites and I can handle my spice.
• The crunch of the nutty peanuts helped tone down the spice, but barely and I would have liked some more scallions. It took a long time to be able to taste the other dishes afterward, but it was really good!

Stir Fried Seasonal Vegetable – 3/6

• $8.50 or $9.50 depending on vegetable. This “tung choy” was $8.50.
• Tung Choy or Tong Choi or Water Spinach, is a popular vegetable in Asian cultures. It’s often in the “Morning Glory” dish at Malaysian restaurants.
• It’s a mustard green and it has a hollow stem and nice crunch.
• This one was simply sauteed with some minced garlic and it was a bit bland, but simple. It’s how it would be prepared in the home.
• I prefer the Malaysian version best, or Cantonese version which uses fermented bean curd and it adds so much more flavour.

Red Bean Pastry Pancake – n/a

• $4.50
• I hate red bean, so I can’t even rate it. The people that like it thought this one was decent.
• This is a Shanghainese dessert and it’s made fresh and piping hot and I still tried it.
• It was flaky, crispy, a bit oily and not that sweet at all with a thin layer of creamy red bean paste sandwiched in between the crepe.
• The pastry is fresh and made in house and it was nice and thin, but I just don’t like it.
• If you like this dessert there’s a better one at Northern Delicacy – see Sweet Red Bean Paste Pancakes.

Apparently the first 5 drinks are typical of any traditional Taiwanese restaurant. The “Root Beer” isn’t the American Root Beer either. It’s Taiwanese Root Beer made with Sarsaparilla root so it’s supposed to be more aromatic with a hint licorice flavour.

Restaurant: Spicy Szechuan Seafood Restaurant
Cuisine: Chinese/Szechuan/Dim Sum/Shanghainese
Last visited: December 24, 2010
Location: Richmond, BC (Richmond Central)
Address: 100-8151 Anderson Road
Price Range: $10-20 (dim sum), 20-30 (for dinner)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5 (based on few items I tried)
Service: 3.5
Ambiance: 3
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Specializes in Szechuan cuisine
• Lots of Shanghainese/Cantonese options
• Dim sum/lunch/dinner
• Known to Chinese locals
• Reasonably priced
• Lots of variety
• Clean/comfortable
• Chinese/English menus
• Accepts MC/Visa/Interac
• Mon-Fri: 11-3pm, 5:30-10pm
• Sat-Sun: 10-3pm, 5-10pm
• Closed Tuesday
  

**Recommendations: n/a, haven’t tried enough to say

Spicy Szechuan Seafood Restaurant isn’t really hard to find, but you probably wouldn’t notice it or consider dining there unless it was recommended. It’s a pretty discrete restaurant in Richmond in a relatively dead mall complex. Generally it was a pleasant surprise and one of those places that mostly Chinese Richmond locals know about, like Suhang Restaurant and Deer Garden Signatures just to name a couple others.

Asian food is sometimes hard to “rate” because there’s easily better ways to execute some of their dishes, however by messing with the execution it somehow also messes with the authenticity. I’m not an expert in Asian cuisine, but I eat a lot of it so I usually come at it from an angle of how it stacks up against to other restaurants in the same caliber.

I heard good things about Spicy Szechuan Seafood Restaurant before, but because of it’s rather isolated location it’s not usually something that comes to mind when deciding where to eat. The inside is actually a lot nicer than the outside and it’s a pretty large restaurant. The name suggests it specializes in Szechuan cuisine, but the menu has a lot of Shanghainese options and what I tried seems like it caters to Cantonese tastes. They do offer all three cuisines, but I would call it very Cantonese style Szechuan and Shanghainese food, so it wouldn’t be my pick for authentic Shanghainese or Szechuan cuisine in Richmond. It was still good and well priced and I do want to go try more items, but I wasn’t floored by anything I ordered.

To my surprise the restaurant was actually pretty busy for lunch and dim sum, the staff and clientele were pretty much all Cantonese. I tried ordering a popular dish from each cuisine to get an idea of what they do best. This was actually Christmas Eve lunch before heading to Le Gavroche for Christmas eve dinner – see here, and Ramen Santouka for Christmas eve dinner #2 – see here. It was quite the full day, literally and figuratively… but what’s new?!

On the table:

Stewed Spare Ribs in Red Sauce – 3.5/6

• $8.25
• Found under “specialty dishes” – check.
• I had to see why it was so special and unique.
• They look better than they tasted, although they don’t taste bad and I’d think most people would enjoy them. From a “foodie” perspective they could be better.
• The meat was falling off the bone, but the quality of the meat wasn’t great and it wasn’t really tender. It was still chewy so I think they boiled the ribs on high rather than slowly stewing and braising them on low temperature.
• There not as flavourful as they could have been, but the marinade is still good. It’s quite sweet with a hint of licorice flavour and I could taste Chinese 5 spice powder which includes a nice amount of cinnamon and star anise, hence the licorice. The flavour was well infused throughout the meat.
• It was almost like Chinese BBQ pork meets soft pork jerky and it resembles that flavour and texture as well.
• The red sauce actually wasn’t that saucy and it was more like a clear coloured sweet syrup with some aromatic spices, but it’s not spicy at all.

Steamed Mini Pork Buns – 3.5/6

• 8 pieces $5.95
• Standard Shanghainese dish – check.
• They’re actually really cheap here and they’re not bad, but not the best XLB. They’re very Cantonese style in flavour.
• The skin was incredibly thin, I think one of the thinnest I’ve had, but a bit too thin that it almost broke and wasn’t as chewy.
• They held a decent amount of soup, but it wasn’t hot enough.
• The broth wasn’t as rich or creamy as the ones from Shanghai River, Suhang Restaurant, Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen or Shanghai House. Yeah so basically, they’re not the best here, but I would still order them if I came again, because they’re decent, just not authentic.

• The pork filling was very good, but the thing is it tasted more Cantonese than it did Shanghainese. It tasted more like Cantonese pot sticker filling or gyoza filling with more ginger, garlic and onions. Shanghainese fillings can have these ingredients as well, but usually they’re not as heavy on them and the meat is just slightly different.

Hot and Sour Noodles in Soup – 3/6

• $7.50
• Popular Szechuan dish – check.
• This is a classic Szechuan soup, but this time it was made with noodles and was recommended.
• Again, it was a very Cantonese style of hot and sour soup. For one it wasn’t that spicy at all, which is a characteristic of traditional Szechuan food, and I would have liked it more spicy. They definitely make it less spicy for their Cantonese clientele.
• The traditional Szechuan one also usually has pork and sometimes pieces of pork blood in the broth, but this one had some seafood instead. I’m not a fan of pork’s blood really unless it’s Chef Consentino’s Pig’s Blood Parpardelle from Incanto, so I didn’t mind it’s absence.
• There was lots of ingredients like soft tofu, carrots, black wood ear mushrooms, bamboo shoots, carrots, scallops and some shrimp.
• The soup was a bit thick and gravy like similar to a sauce rather than a soup and it absorbed into the noodles very rapidly. I would have preferred more soup because it’s supposed to be a soup noodle bowl.
• The “soup” is salty and sweet and decently tangy with red vinegar.
• I think they used some soy bean paste (Cantonese version of Miso paste) in the base because it was quite savoury, but not salty. There’s no seafood or meat flavour in the broth, so it was otherwise quite bland without that complex flavour I expect from soups.

• I like the texture of the crunchy ingredients, since the noodles were so soft. The noodles aren’t made in house though, which unfortunately I find a lot of restaurants aren’t doing as much anymore.
• The prawns were savoury and actually very good here. Whether they were frozen or not (probably frozen), they tasted fresh and they had a great crunch because they were cooked perfectly.
• Overall I’ve had better sweet and sour soup, and it was still good value, but nothing I’m anticipating to order again.

Noodle Up! Exploring Noodles in Richmond, BC

Bundle up? Or Noodle Up? I chose the latter. Well I actually did both, Vancouver is cold this year! I was invited by Tourism Richmond to sip and slurp my way through various kinds of Asian noodles. And what better city to do this in, than yes you got it, Richmond! Here is your noodle S

When it comes to exploring the Asian noodle scene in Vancouver’s lower mainland, I have to give it up to Richmond, BC. Richmond is known as mini Hong Kong, and for good reason too. The population according to me is 99% Chinese, with the 1% found in Steveston Village (see my post on dining in Steveston here). This means that the Asian culinary scene plays to the tastes of the locals in the area, and the result is pretty much delicious Asian food (particularly Cantonese Chinese food).

Noodle making in Asian cultures is a form of art, and rightfully so. It takes years to perfect the technique and we’re lucky enough to have some Asian noodle masters giving us their best. From thick, thin, rice, wheat, buckwheat, bean, egg and even yam noodles every culture has their own kind. The style and ingredients will also vary depending on the country, region, city or province. Whether it’s hot, cold, fried, steamed, boiled, deep fried or served in soup or sauce – I’m a fan. So here’s to eating 11 bowls of noodles at this Noodlemania event!

I’m not saying that Richmond houses the best Asian food or noodles, but it does have a large majority of options for them and within close proximity too (although the traffic involved to get to each one may be a pain), but hey, that’s why we have the Canada Line!

Note: The restaurants selected this evening are members of Richmond Tourism, so the following shows only a limited selection of what is available in Richmond. Due to the nature of the event the dishes may not be a proper representation of a regular day, although this time I feel like most of what we were served is actually very representable.

Date attended: November 30, 2010

This is Restaurant 1 or Part 1/3

Noodlemania Part 2 – G-Men Ramen Noodle House

Noodlemania Part 3 – Northern Delicacy

On the table:

Restaurant 1:

Spicy Stage Cafe (Richmond Central)

Spicy Stage Cafe is a relatively new Hong Kong style cafe and restaurant offering Hong Kong Western cafe dishes, Chinese hot pot and even bubble tea. However they’re most popular for their customized soup noodle bowls where customers can select their own noodle, soup, and 2 or more types of ingredients or toppings to go with it. I don’t expect much from these restaurants, but it’s quick, casual, budget-friendly and a large portion.

They offer Chinese to South East Asian noodle bowls, however considering their in house chefs specialize in Szechuan cuisine, the dishes are executed with Szechuan/Chinese style. It’s actually almost the same as Deer Garden Signatures just up the street, except Spicy Stage Cafe is $.25 cheaper, but Deer Garden Signatures has no MSG. So, given that information, take your pick!

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Fresh Fish Soup – 2/6

• With Rice Noodles, Tofu Puffs & Fish Balls $7.25
• It was a milky broth, but not a creamy or heavy one. The broth shouldn’t taste fishy like dirt, but it should have a nice clean fishy seafood taste, this one had neither. It did have the aromatic taste of white pepper though.

The noodles are rice noodles called “lai fun” and they’re slippery and great with BBQ duck and soup. These were dried and they don’t absorb much flavour, but they do tend to get quite soft when being served with hot soup.

Thai Tom Yum Soup – 2.5/6

• With Vermicelli Noodles, Prawn & Crabmeat $7.25
• The crab meat is artificial, as most places would be for this type of restaurant. The prawns were good and not overcooked.
• It was actually quite sweet and tangy, but it’s more of a Chinese/Szechuan interpretation of Thai Tom Yum rather than an authentic Thai version. There’s not as much fish sauce or prawn shell infused flavour and pretty much no lemongrass or Kaffir lime leaves (although difficult to source in Vancouver anyways), so it’s quite different, but still good in it’s own way.

The Vermicelli Noodles are great with this soup and I find they work well with Malaysian/Singaporean/South East Asian soup bases. They hold on to flavour and they’re a bit more brittle in texture.

Szechuan Spicy Soup – 2/6

• With Yam Noodles, Fish Balls & Beef Balls $7.25
• It’s a deceiving broth because it looks clear, but it’s very spicy with a spiciness that pinches your throat and lingers for a while. It’s also not too oily which I appreciated.
• It’s made with deep fried or whole roasted red hot chili peppers as well as whole black peppercorns. When it comes to spicy, leave it to the Szechuan chefs to knock your socks off. I like spicy, so I could handle it especially since it was also quite sweet to balance it out. What I couldn’t handle was the amount of MSG though… there’s a lot.

This Yam Noodle is made from yam flour and it’s very stretchy, chewy and a jelly like noodle. It’s high in fibre and good for gluten free diets. I usually see it thin and round rather than thin and flat. They’re quite filling, but I enjoy them.

Deep Fried Spring Roll – 2/6

• $3.95 (Not sure for how many)
• I don’t know, it’s a spring roll. I rarely eat them.
• It was crispy with a doughy chewy batter and stuffed with a very soft mixture of shredded cabbage, celery and carrots.
• I was surprised it wasn’t served with sweet and sour sauce or Worcestershire, but maybe they just forgot to serve it.

Pan Fried White Turnip Cake – 2.5/6

• $3.50 (Not sure about portion)
• I think they meant deep fried, because these seemed very deep fried with a crispy exterior and very creamy soft and mushy centre. I actually enjoyed them and they were slightly spicy and nice and garlicky. There wasn’t much mushroom, dried shirmp or sausage in them and it was more just plain white turnip cake, but I didn’t mind that.

House Special Deep Fried Chicken Wing – 3.5/6

• $5.95
  
• I liked these the best out of the deep fried items. They were incredibly garlicky and I’m a sucker for an overwhelming amount of deep fried crispy garlic. Who isn’t? It’s so nutty, savoury and delicious. The chicken wings were a bit dry, but still nice and crispy on the outside and surprisingly not greasy.
• I still think the ultimate chicken wings in Richmond are from in Wo Fung Dessert at Aberdeen Mall.

Deep Fried Crispy Tofu – 3/6

• $4.95
• This was almost the Chinese/Szechuan style of Agedeshi Tofu… or some argue the Japanese copied the Chinese. On another note, I liked the unexpected presentation.
• It’s firm tofu rather than soft puffy tofu and it’s very lightly battered and topped with deep fried garlic chips and MSG.
• This was overwhelming with MSG, although crispy and no doubt flavourful from the “magical dust”.

Beef Tongue – 4/6

• $5.95? (Not sure of the price)
• If you’re an offal fan, check out my post on Chef Chris Cosentino’s famous offal restaurant Incanto.
• I’m not a huge offal fan, and I won’t go out of my way to order it, but I’ll try it if it’s there.
• This was actually very tender well marinated beef tongue. It was soft and almost like a lean and tender slice of beef. It’s still firm and the texture is very easy to chew. It was marinated in a savoury and sweet Teriyaki like sauce. It was solid.

Cold Chicken with Spicy Hot Sauce – 1.5/6

• $7.95
• This was very spicy and nutty with lots of sesame oil, but I didn’t find the dish well rounded in flavours. The sesame oil came off a bit dull rather than aromatic and the spiciness was one dimensional without the savoury and sweet balance.
• This is a very typical Szechuan-Chinese dish made with lots of roasted whole red chili peppers and chili oil. It’s probably quite authentic, but just not for me. A couple pieces into it and you’ll probably be calling for Tums or Pepto Bismol.

Beef Tenderloin & Rice – 1.5/6

• Don’t quote me on the name, and I’m not sure of the price. I’d guess $7.95 or less?
• The bowl is not a hot stone rice bowl, it just looks like one.
• The beef quality wasn’t great and even though it was cooked medium rare, the pieces were incredible tough and chewy although well flavoured.
• The flavour was good though and the veggies were fresh.

Restaurant: Wing Lei (Chinese Restaurant)
Cuisine: Chinese/Seafood/Contemporary
Last visited: August 17, 2010
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada (On the strip – inside The Wynn)
Address: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, NV 89109
Price Range: $50USD +

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 3.5
Service: 4
Ambiance: 5
Overall: 3.5
Additional comments:

• Contemporary Chinese cuisine
• 1 Michelin Star restaurant
• AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellence
• “Best Chinese Restaurant” – Las Vegas Life Mag
• Executive Chef Ming Yu
• Blend of Cantonese, Shanghai, Szechuan cuisine
• Famous for Peking Duck
• Seasonal menus
• Chef’s specialty menu available upon request
• Good for groups
• Set menus available
• Full wine bar
• Reservations recommended
• Dinner only 5:30-10pm
• Casual business attire
  

**Recommendations: Come to Vancouver

Wing Lei is a fine dining Chinese restaurant located on the strip at The Wynn hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. “Wing” is a play on the hotel name “Wynn” and together “Wing Lei” means eternal prosperity. It serves a mix of Cantonese, Shanghainese and Szechuan cuisine and they pretty much took the classic favourites from each and put it on the menu. Wing Lee is modeled off of the best Chinese restaurants found in Hong Kong hotels and the food is finely executed for the most part. The atmosphere is gorgeous, the staff is in Armani uniforms, and the food is generally good, but overrated and overpriced.

Honestly, I can’t call Wing Lei authentic Chinese cuisine and I’m not sure if they claim to be as they do mention that their style has French influence. The authentic dishes are quite authentic, but there’s definitely some fusion going on with some of the dishes and I can confidently say that Chinese food is the best in Vancouver, BC. I am so lucky to live here… there… ? I would define it as contemporary Chinese and I was more impressed with the non-traditional dishes because I had nothing to compare them too.

I wasn’t necessarily disappointed and the food wasn’t horrible, but it was no different than good Chinese food I could get anywhere else in Vancouver. I could even get it better for 1/4 of the price… mind you, you are paying for the overall ambiance and experience of dining at Wing Lei – a “1 Michelin Star restaurant” that’s also “the best Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas” and a “AAA Four Diamond Award of Excellent for 2008, 2009, and 2010.” So did those titles make a difference for me? Not so much… I don’t know maybe it’s because I’m way too familiar with the culture and the food to know that there’s better. I also wasn’t in charge of ordering this meal, but was open to seeing how this “best Chinese restaurant in Las Vegas” would compare.

On the table:

**Lychee Blosson Martini – 5/6

• Grey Goose L’Orange Vodka, Soho Lychee Liqueur, Lychee Puree, Sweet & Sour $16USD
• This was delicious. It’s their signature drink, a classic martini that’s very strong, but also quite sweet and fruity so it’s very dangerous. It’s very floral and it probably would have been better if the lychee fruit was more in season, but still one of the best lychee martini’s I’ve had.

**Hibiscus Highball - 5/6

• Tanqueray Rangpur Gin, Grand Marnier, Sweet and Sour, Hisbiscus Syrup, Mint, Club Soda $14USD
• Minty, floral, sweet and tangy, slightly carbonated with orange and cranberry like notes served with a candied Hibiscus flower. Equally as delicious as the lychee martini and just as dangerous.

Peking Duck Salad – 4.5/6

• Mesclun lettuce, slivered almonds, mandarins, peanut-truffle vinaigrette $14USD
• This is not Chinese at all, it’s Chinese meets French, but it was still good and I really liked it. I could really taste the truffle oil which also had a nuttiness that I loved and it stood out most for me. It was a combination of flavours that I didn’t expect, or have I ever tried together, but thoroughly enjoyed. It was savoury, sweet with a juicy citrus tang from the orange, bitter greens and crunchy almonds. The cup it was served in which was a pastry tart shell was hard though and I would have preferred a flaky buttery shell instead.

Crab Salad with Golden Beet Root Carpaccio – 4.5/6

• Seasonal special – Sweet Chili Soy, Lemon fish dressing $16USD
• Again, this is not Chinese at all. Never in my life have I seen beets used at a Chinese restaurant, however in this case the Euro-Asian flavours worked here as well.
• I loved the sweet tender red and yellow beets, bitter frisee with the crunchy juicy lobster marinated with a sweet and sour, yet savoury dressing with a slight chili kick at the end. It was sweet chili sauce made into a vinaigrette with some savoury light soy, pungent fish sauce and splash of lemon juice, all the flavours went together perfectly.

Beef Tendon Slices – 2/6

• Star Anise Jus $20USD (On specialty menu available upon request)
• Traditionally this would be served on a cold appetizer platter like the one here at Shun Feng, or here at Kirin, or here at Sun Sui Wah.
• The beef tendon slices at Wing Lei were a bit more marinated and coated than I’m used to. It had a sweet chili sauce that had a slight licorice flavour, but it wasn’t that spicy. I’m not a fan of beef tendon though, I always find them a bit rubbery and dry and the clear tendon part is crunchy and comes out of nowhere, so I would usually pass.

Cold Jelly Fsh – 1/6

• Oyster chili vinigairette $18USD (On specialty menu available upon request)
• This was the most disappointing. This would traditionally be found on the cold appetizer platter as well along with the beef tendon slices.
• For sure I’ve had better jelly fish. It was bland and barely marinated and I couldn’t see or taste the vinaigrette at all. This was a twist on tradition because it’s usually supposed to be marinated in sugar, vinegar, salt, sesame oil and sometimes with a bit of chili flakes.

Imperial Peking Duck – 4/5

• Carved table side, steamed buns, cucumber, scallions, Hoisin sauce $78USD
• This is Wing Lei’s most popular dish and claim to fame. It’s a Peking duck that comes out on a cart and it’s carved right at your table. However this is the traditional way it’s served and if you go to any decent Chinese restaurant they will do the same. At Wing Lei they make the wraps for you before serving it and of all the times I’ve had this dish (a lot) I’ve never had it served this way. If you’re an “experienced” Peking duck diner than these were good, but you’ve probably had better.
• The duck was incredibly fatty and it was the fattiest duck I’ve had in an Imperial Peking Duck wrap. The skin was also not as crispy as I’ve had it and that’s the most important part to this dish. The duck itself was tender and juicy, but the fat wasn’t even that tender so I found it chewy and way too oily and greasy.
• The carving of the duck was also not traditional – see the Peking Duck wraps at Kirin or Empire Chinese cuisine to see how it’s usually served. I would prefer the Peking Duck wraps at Kirin, Rainflower, or Empire Chinese Cuisine, all in Vancouver, BC.
• The twist was the wrap – they used steamed buns instead of thin crepes. These steamed buns sure made these wraps more filling and they taste like thin sheets or rolled mantou (a super soft and chewy Shanghainese bread). These buns were excellent, but I would prefer the traditional crepes.

Peking Duck – 3.5/6

• This was the remaining duck that was served as is.
• I’m used to having the rest of the duck prepared for a lettuce wrap, and I think they still offer that as an option here.
• The duck was juicy, tender sweet and savoury, but I’ve had the skin crispier.

Wok Fried Maine Lobster & Noodles - 3.5/6

• Scallions, ginger, Sherry sauce, served in shell $68USD
• I think you have to request noodles and it’s probably an additional $15USD or so for that.
• This was good, but Chinese lobster is almost always good as long as it’s not overcooked. I’ve also had it better in Vancouver. The sauce was very simple and basic and the noodles were very mediocre. Overall I would have liked more lobster flavour in the sauce itself, the Sherry sauce just wasn’t obvious and some of the noodles were a bit dry. The lobster was tender and juicy and perfectly cooked though.

Steamed Chinese Egg Custard – 4/6

• Made with egg and preserved century egg about $28USD
• A recurring special, but not available on the regular menu.
• This dish has always been excellent, so it was not different here. It’s a 6/6 in general, but a 4/6 here.
• This is a super traditional dish that Chinese mom’s would make at home. It ‘s a typical Chinese comfort dish that is rarely served at Chinese restaurants because of it’s simplicity. It stems back from the olden days when people used to put eggs on the table as a filler because it was inexpensive and easy. It was almost the equivalent of ordering a tuna casserole. It’s good, mom usually makes it best, and it would be surprising to even see it on a fine dining menu.
• Egg custard is not a typical dish to foreigners, so it works in favour of the restaurant because it is delicious and they get credit for introducing a “new” Chinese dish.

• Despite the fact that it’s a simple dish, they actually did a decent job with it. The texture was silky smooth like tofu and I loved having the preserved century duck egg in there. The black coloured egg, a Chinese delicacy, tastes like a bland firm jelly on the outside with an extremely thick and creamy pungent egg yolk that’s slightly salty and hinders a slight vinegar aftertaste. If you’ve never tried it, you’re missing out, but I grew up with it so I’m biased. My mom would put salted egg in this dish as well and some cilantro and onions, but everyone has their own interpretation.
• This one also had a lot of soy sauce and usually it comes with the soy sauce on the side so that people can put it on themselves. It was a light soy sauce and it gave the steamed egg custard a savouriness that was all very light.
• It’s rare to see at a Chinese restaurant, but Negative Space Chinese Cuisine offers one and there are excellent Japanese versions at Seto Sushi and Koto Izakaya and Robata.

Salt and Pepper Crispy Prawns – 4.5/6

• Jalapeno, crispy garlic $32USD
• This was delicious as it always is and I was actually quite impressed because it was the last thing I ate and even though it was slightly cold by then, it was still very crispy.
• On the other hand, as long as the restaurant it using fresh prawns I could easily find it just as good or even better in Vancouver, BC. The salt and pepper garlic chili seasoning is a typical Chinese flavour used to prepare deep fried seafood (I’ve even had it prepared with worms, and I can honestly say it makes everything taste better – see here). Usually there is even more crispy garlic like the Deep Fried Black Cod with Special Garlic available at dim sum from Empire Chinese Cuisine.
• The best deep fried seafood like this I’ve had is the famous Under the Bridge chili crab in Hong Kong.

Garlic Beef Tenderloin – 5/6

• $38USD
• There’s no menu description, but it was scallions, bamboo shoots, snap peas and I’m pretty sure the standard garlic soy reduction.
• I have to give praise to the beef tenderloin which was very well flavoured and extremely tender.  However the sauce is just your standard Chinese stir fry sauce with perhaps some fermented soy bean paste. The execution was normal so there is nothing too special about the dish besides the beef. It was very good, but you could find this at any nice Chinese restaurant that uses a high quality beef.

Three Cup Chicken – 3/6

• Garlic, scallions, basil, sweet ginger soy reduction $28USD
• I barely remember this dish and that’s probably because it was nothing out of the ordinary. I know it was good, but also nothing that stood out. the sauce was just a typical good Asian sauce and the basil added an aromatic quality, but other than that it was as good as chicken with garlic, ginger and soy sauce. also the main ingredients in every single Asian dish…

Hunan Spicy Lamb - 4/6

• Scallions, chili, garlic soy reduction $32USD
• Sorry for the poor image – it was spinning around the lazy susan and last to come on the table so I didn’t want to cause a hold up.
• I’m not a huge fan of lamb, but this one wasn’t too gamey and it was really tender, soft and buttery pieces of lamb loin. It was the spiciest dish of the night and I’m sure you could find this in Vancouver although I’m not sure where yet.

Braised Eggplant – 5/6

• Bamboo shoots, wood ear mushrooms, chili soy sauce $12USD
• I actually thoroughly enjoyed this dish, but I also just really love eggplant and this dish is always good to me. The portion was small, but it was a side so it’s understandable.
• What made this dish stand out was how finely executed it was which each ingredient being cut to perfection. The eggplants were really tender, soft and creamy with a slight spice and I liked the crunchiness of the vegetables.
• However the braised eggplant with chili sauce from Shanghai River in Vancouver, BC  is just as good if not better. Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen and even Congee Noodle House does a good version and Tropika as well, although that’s Malaysian style.

Sichuan Green Beans – 2/6

• Garlic chili paste $12USD
• A typical dish you can find anywhere. It was just a mediocre Sichuan green bean dish and it wasn’t that spicy and could have used more garlic. I actually prefer when they sautee it with some dried shrimps. It gives it a nutty salty flavour that’s even better than this version.

Yang Chow Fried Rice – 3/6

• Shrimp, BBQ pork, chicken, eggs, asparagus, scallions $16USD
• This was done quite well with lots of shrimp and ingredients. The flavour was quite tasty, but no different from a regular Yang Chow Fried Rice from a good Chinese restaurant.

Steamed Jasmine Rice

• $5USD
• The most overpriced bowl of plain white rice ever.

Restaurant: Sichuan Da Ping Huo Restaurant (Private Kitchen)
Cuisine: Sichuan/Szechuan/Chinese
Last visited: April 20, 2010
Location: Metro: Central station – Central, Hong Kong
Address: L/G, Hilltop Plaza, 49 Hollywood Rd., Central, Hong Kong
Tel: 2559 1317
Price Range: $280HKD/person+10% service charge. Drinks extra. (About $37CAD)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: 5
Ambiance: 6
Overall: 6
Additional comments:

• Private kitchen in restaurant setting
• Specializes in authentic Sichuan/Szechuan cuisine
• Famous in Hong Kong
• Local gem/hidden gem
• 12 year old menu
• Husband and wife team
• Reservations only
• Dinner service only – 1st seating 6pm, 2nd seating 9pm…I think?
• Set 12 course menu, no choice
• Drink/Wine menu available
• LIVE Chinese opera singing entertainment – Video
• Secret location
• Casual fine dining

**Recommendations: MUST try/eat in Hong Kong.

Sichuan Da Ping Guo Restaurant is a famous private kitchen in Hong Kong. It has a 12 year old menu and the restaurant is at full capacity every night. It has a secret location and from the outside it looks like a hole in the wall. However go inside and you’ll notice a gorgeous restaurant that’s set up to look like contemporary underground fine dining. I got goosebumps walking in. This is one of my most memorable and best experiences in Hong Kong. It’s definitely a must try/eat because the experience is totally worth it.

Ambiance/Atmosphere

The owners are total artists in the greatest sense. The husband runs the front and is a painter and photographer and his paintings are displayed inside the restaurant. The wife is the executive chef and everything is home made with her authentic and traditional Sichuan recipes from China. They’re the friendliest people ever who march to the beat of their own drum. I love it! The wife is also the live entertainment for the night and sings Chinese opera at the end of your meal. (To see the video clip click here) Together this husband and wife team are unstoppable.

The owner is awesome! He’s such an artist with hid indie/artist/quirky look. I don’t remember if his glasses had lenses…but he’s freakin’ cool!

This is all you can see of the kitchen…it’s very secretive and mysterious. You feel like you’re in a cave. They do a great job on creating an unforgettable atmosphere.

A close-up into the secret hole of the private kitchen. They’re preparing the appetizers of the night. The kitchen is only run by about 2-3 people.

I had to get a photo of the chef because I’m THAT curious and THAT nosey! I couldn’t bare to leave without catching a glimpse of the master of the kitchen and the major success of this restaurant – the wife.

But in the end I got to meet them both!

The appetizers – First 3 courses of the night.

Food

If you can’t handle the heat….get out of this kitchen! Seriously. Authentic Sichuan food is very spicy and it’s the spicy where if you’re not used to it you probably won’t be able to sleep that night.

The menu is standard and everyone is served the same 12 courses and they adjust the portions accordingly. They alternate each course with one spicy and one not so that there’s a balance. You’ll be extremely full after this meal especially after all the sour plum juice/water you’ll be consuming.

The only menu is this wine list.

On the table:

Sour Plum Juice  – 3/6

• Extra charge.
• Start off with a sour plum/prune drink. It’s an acquired taste and you either like it or you don’t. I’ll drink it if it’s there, but I wouldn’t normally order it. (It’s a traditional drink to have with hot pot too)
• It’s served chilled and it’s sour and sweet at the same time.
• It’s the perfect match with the spicy Sichuan food because it breaks up the spiciness and makes everything taste more mild. This does the trick…water – not so much.

Chilled Cucumber Appetizer – 5/6

• Crunchy raw cucumbers in a sweet and tangy soy sauce syrup.
• They warm you up with the appetizers starting with a non-spicy dish.
• This is more or less a salad and the sauce is syrupy. The cucumbers are almost pickled because the sauce is sweet and sour.

**Spicy Sichuan Salad - 5/6

• Shredded raw celery, carrots and bean sprout salad in a spicy sesame sauce.
• This is the 2nd appetizer – the medium level spicy dish.
• It’s a chilled raw salad with nice and crunchy vegetables and it’s very refreshing.
• It’s very oily with lots of sesame oil and chillies. It’s very aromatic though and not just spicy.

**Sichuan Glass Noodles with Soy Nut Appetizer – 6/6

• Thick glass noodles, minced vegetables, green onions, chili sauce and crispy soy nuts. Served chilled.
• This is the 3rd appetizer and it’s the very spicy one!
• It was my favourite of the 3. Loaded with crispy soy nuts (similar to peanuts but crunchier), it’s a very crunchy dish and you almost get tired of chewing.
• There will be a lot of sauce left over and it’s common to ask for that to be packed up because it’s freaking amazing sauce!

• There’s also some Sichuan thick glass noodles underneath that are absolutely delicious. They’re chewy and flat – everyone loves them.
• The sauce is very spicy, but sweet at the same time with again lots of sesame oil.

Mouth Watering Chicken – 4/6

• Sweet soy sauce and ginger marinated chicken with charcoal roasted peanuts.
• The name of the dish is actually “mouth watering chicken”.
• The chicken is served cold with the skin on and the bones – Chinese style. Since it’s cold the flavour on the chicken solidifies and turns into jelly.
• It’s spicy at first and then becomes sweet.
• It’s very well marinated and flavourful, but also quite oily.

Minced Chicken & Vegetable Soup – 3.5/6

• Minced chicken, Siu Choy (Napa Cabbage), oyster mushrooms and tofu soup.
• The minced chicken is the texture of tofu or soft cheese. It’s very tender and soft with a gentle white pepper flavour.
• It’s pretty much cabbage soup with a white pepper chicken broth.
• It was a nice break from the spiciness – not my favourite dish, but still good.

Chili Beef – 3.5/6

• Beef brisket with red hot chili peppers.
• This dish is almost like a stew but thinner and quite soupy.
• The spiciness definitely catches up. Initially I didn’t think it was too spicy even though there are 2 different kinds of whole chilies in it.
• It’s a pretty big bowl and it’s loaded with beef. However the beef was inconsistent – I found some pieces were very tender with very marbleized fat, and some pieces were very chewy.
• Everyone thought this was the spiciest dish – I was okay though, but I do have a slightly higher tolerance (I was trained by eating Indian food with Indian people…) If you bite into a pepper or eat the seeds then yes – it probably is the spiciest dish!

Chili Prawns (Sichuan Prawns) – 3.5/6

• Sichuan prawns with minced vegetables.
• The prawns were crunchy and butterflied so they absorbed flavour well. However I expected the flavour to be sweet and spicy, but it wasn’t.
• It’s actually a non-spicy dish and the sauce tastes like celery because they make it with a lot of celery, cilantro and green onions.
• It was just a bit overboard with the celery and cilantro (even though I love those).

Jasmine Rice

• This is the part where you’re served your white rice. I kind of wish it came a bit earlier because I wanted something to soak up the delicious sauces.

**Sticky Rice with Pork & Pumpkin – 6/6

• Sticky rice with steamed pumpkin pieces and pork.
• This dish actually seemed more Chinese Cantonese than Sichuan to me.
• It was a non-spicy dish and I thought it was awkward to have it served after the Jasmine rice. It is delicious though! One of my favourites of the night.

• The sticky rice is incredibly moist and packed full of flavour. The whole dish just tastes very creamy in texture. Great execution!
• There’s super creamy steamed sweet pumpkin pieces underneath.

• In the centre of the sticky rice there’s a nice piece of pork roast (butt or shoulder) and it was perfectly tender. It tasted like pulled pork and it was literally falling off the bone. There’s actually not much sticky rice as there is pork.

**Ma Po Tofu – 5.5/6

• Tofu with marinated ground beef in spicy chili sauce and green onions.
• I think this is the most authentic Ma Po Tofu I’m ever going to get – unless I travel to the Sichuan province in China…hmm
• Ma Po Tofu is traditionally Sichuan food and the Cantonese version usually uses ground pork, veggies, black bean sauce and is much less spicy and sweeter.
• This is the real authentic one and it’s spicy! I found it the spiciest and also the most oily. It was swimming in sauce and almost like a soup again – but if you drink the sauce you’ll probably be on the toilet later that night…for longer than you want.
• This one you have to eat with rice. I found the ground bean a little crumbly and dry though.

Vegetable Soup – 2/6

• Iceberg lettuce soup.
• If you’re a vegetarian you can pretty much start eating now…
• I was so full at this point, so I couldn’t really enjoy the soup – but after all the strong flavours I just had this was very blah. It was a very light and simple soup.
• It reminded me of the 1st soup with the same white pepper taste. I think they soup base was made from soybean paste and it was almost like Miso soup, but not as good and bold in flavour.

Sichuan Dumplings – 3.5/6

• Home made dumplings served in spicy sauce.
• Each person is served 2.
• These dumplings are good but they have a very thick skin. It’s very chewy and doughy and I’m not sure if that’s a characteristic of Sichuan dumplings.
• They’re really filling because the skin is so thick.

• I couldn’t really get a good image of the filling but it’s stuffed with minced pork meat. It’s very minced and tender.
• The sauce is the real winner of this dish. It’s a nutty sweet chili sauce that was similar to the sauce from the chicken dish – except spicy.

Tofu & White Fungus Sweet Soup Dessert – 3/6

• Tofu, white fungus, palm hearts, diced apple and pears served in a sweetened soup. Served chilled.
• I’m not a fan of Chinese dessert – especially ones like this. However if you like it it’s probably a 4/6, but for me it was a 1.5/6.
• The white fungus is a type of Chinese mushroom that looks like big clouds of thin clear jelly. It’s slimy and slightly crunchy and the texture of saliva.
• It’s naturally sweetened with the fruits as well as some sugar but it’s not that sweet either.
• It is a perfect dessert to end the meal though. It’s quite cooling and refreshing so it suits the spicy menu we just had. So it works in a traditional sense.
• It’s just slimy and stick in texture – I needed dessert somewhere else…and as full as I was I still went for dessert after this…I need real dessert

To complete the evening you also get live entertainment! The lady of the house/restaurant, and also the owner and executive chef, sings Chinese opera. She’s amazing too! Check out the video here!

Restaurant: Toko Foods

• Vancouver based noodle factory since 1995
• Distributor for Asian foods/ingredients
• Majority Chinese dishes
• Some Shanghai/Szechuan/Curry/Laksa dishes
• A few Korean/Japanese dishes/appetizers
• Known for really fresh homemade noodles (made daily)
• Traditional dishes, that are not fusion, but also not really authentic
• Closed 6pm Monday Tuesday
• Open for lunch everyday except Sunday
• Dinner service Wed-Sat.
• Closed Sunday

**Recommendations: A noodle dish…my noodle dishes were just ok. I haven’t tried everything but next time I would probably go for a noodle dish that comes with a light or clear broth Eg: Ramen and noodles

I’ve heard of this restaurant through word of mouth, but that’s about it. Even Chinese people don’t really know about this restaurant. Actually you wouldn’t even know it was a restaurant unless you were looking for it or someone told you about it. From the outside this place looks like a giant factory – which it is. The back end of the restaurant is dedicated to the noodle factory and the front end serves as a restaurant.

Walking in I was actually quite surprised and impressed with the restaurant set-up. Knowing it was a noodle factory I thought the restaurant was going to be a couple wooden stools and a couple counter tops, but to my surprise it was an actual restaurant set-up with comfy dark brown leather chairs and contemporary decor. The decor and food actually comes across as “Chinese food for white folk”, but nonetheless it’s still fresh, high in quality and pretty good. I expected the prices to be cheaper since the noodle factory is operated right in the back of the restaurant – but it isn’t. It’s average priced or even a bit more expensive (for average, or even a tad smaller portions) and Chinese standards.

On the table:

• House Special – Crispy Pan-fried Chow Mien Noodle 3.5/6
• Just the noodles 5/6
• A bed of fresh chow mien noodles with chicken, pork, a few shrimp, some squid, carrots, and bok choy.

• The noodles are really really fresh and you can definitely tell. When you lift up the ingredients you can see how soft and fresh the noodles really are. They almost came across as overcooked because they were so fresh. I imagine the cooking time would be less when you’re dealing with homemade noodles that are made daily.
• The meat was a bit fatty for me, so I didn’t really like that. The shrimp, on the other hand, was crunchy and perfectly cooked.
• 

• Tan Tan Noodles 2/6 (on the whole)
• 5/6 for the noodles
• Tan tan noodles is a popular Chinese/Szechuan/Shanghai soup and noodle bowl. It’s spicy. The soup base is made of chili oil and Szechuan peppers. It’s also served with minced pork meat on top.

• I know it doesn’t look that great. Looking at the picture you’re thinking: “Is it creamy?” “Is it supposed to be creamy?” “Is it made poorly? “Do you mix it?” “Has it gone bad?” etc. The reason it looks this way is because Toko made it the “unauthentic” way. They added sesame sauce or peanut butter (I think in this case sesame sauce) to the soup base and that’s why it’s not mixing in. Some restaurants will do this to add more flavour or to make it more mild tasting. It’s quite common to do this. It would be like adding peanut butter to a hot soup base…I know sound weird, but it’s actually pretty good. It’s just that the oil in the sesame sauce won’t mix with the water soup base.
• The noodles are really the star of the show here. The were really fresh tasting – except because they were so fresh the starch from the noodles were cooked in the soup base and the whole thing tasted starchy. On top of that the added sesame sauce didn’t help the starchy situation. The soup and noodles came off a bit powdery tasting and thick and it lacked flavour too. Sesame sauce by itself has a very dull taste – it’s like eating unsalted peanut butter…so it didn’t do much when it was in this dish.

• Tan tan noodles also should come with green onions on top…and this one didn’t have any. They did however add ground peanuts on the top – not the authentic way it’s served, but still really good when they put it on. It’s aromatic and I like the texture with noodles and ground pork.I love tan tan noodles, but just not here.

• This was in a way tan tan noodles for white folk…