Vancouver, part tres
Jul. 16th, 2013 06:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarea
This weekend I went to Vancouver with my mom.
Because my dog is still on prednisone, I didn't want to kennel him, so I booked a pet-friendly hotel and took him with us. (Found a rate/hotel I liked on Hotwire that was pet friendly, went to Better Bidding and asked for their assistance IDing it, called the most likely hotel to ask their exact pet policies, then booked it, and thankfully it *was* that hotel, as assumed.) If I can help it, I don't want to do that again. My dog is not people friendly like most dogs, and he is very suspicious of the slightest movement/noise. So the whole weekend, I stressed about making sure that he had his walks (braving public areas each time), ate properly, and wasn't too noisy to the other guests.
I also stressed about my cat, who I'd left at home. Because there was so much to do before I left (all the dog stuff, plus I rented a car, because the last time I went up to Vancouver, my windshield got dinged :( ), I didn't do what I normally do when I leave for a weekend -- check to make sure I could see that he was free, even if hiding under a bed or something (basically, ensure that he wasn't locked in a bathroom or closet). Once I realized that, late the first night, and recalled someone saying that cats couldn't live for more than a day or two without water, I kept imagining a horrible scenario in which I would come back to find the sad little desiccated corpse of my cat, trapped in the bathroom. Thankfully, that did not come to pass. Not only was he free and perfectly fine, it turns out I hadn't even closed my bathroom door.
Anyway, back to the real topic, which is about the food I had in Vancouver. Sadly I did not have time to go out of my way to get a Japadog (my mom wasn't into the idea at all).
But I did have...
My aunt had recently been to Vancouver herself, and kept talking about this great Shanghainese restaurant, Top Shanghai, that she claimed was the best Shanghainese restaurant in all of Vancouver, that if you asked ANYBODY where to go for Shanghainese food, this was the place they'd name.
Well, I was skeptical for two reasons. One is that my aunt has a penchant for exaggeration and storytelling. Two is that the place has a decent 4-star rating on Yelp, but from only 60+ reviews. Meanwhile, the Shanghainese restaurant that I'd gone to withadelagia last time has a 4-star Yelp rating also, but from 200+ reviews. My mom was suuuuuuuuuuuper excited to try it, though.
Sadly, we were fated to be disappointed. I cannot tell you how incredibly lackluster the whole experience was, from the service, to the way they situate their tables, to the food. Oh, the god-awful food. Seriously, if I didn't know better, I would think that my aunt had never been to a Shanghainese restaurant before. How could she call this place good?! It's possible that we just ordered all the wrong things. It's possible. But surely, in a good restaurant, you should at least be able to get 50% good food if ordering randomly from the menu? As it was, they only had ONE item that was any good. One. Though admittedly it was a standout.
But I'll stop talking and show you instead.
Top Shanghai
Jelly fish - cold appetizer. Usually, jelly fish is served in light brown strands. It's crunchy and delicious. This was like... haphazardly cut up and nearly flavorless. Seriously WTF. I have never seen jelly fish served like this.
Spicy cucumber - cold appetizer. Again, this looks like amateur hour. It's nothing like the beautiful spicy cucumber appetizer from Din Tai Fung. And for DTF we wouldn't need to go all the way to Vancouver, there's one in freaking Bellevue! Also pretty bland and tasteless.
Duck web/feet - cold appetizer. Yes, my mom went overboard with the cold appetizers because we were expecting them to be small plates, like at DTF, not such huge portions. My mom ate the celery and had to leave the duck feet because the dish was so tasteless.
Man tou. Lest you think that all we ordered were cold appetizers and maybe they just didn't do them well, here's a plate of man tou. Look how they're scrunched together, misshapen and leaking fluid. Ugh. Seriously, presentation???
Spring rolls. Fairly generic. Not the proper Shanghainese style, which are more rectangular. These also tasted really average, which is to say, 'bad' -- I usually don't care for spring rolls. I only like the real Shanghainese kind.
Pan-fried dumplings (aka potstickers). The bottoms were browned pretty nicely, I'll give them that. But the shape was all wrong. And the way they were browned, as if they'd been deep fried, was totally wrong as well. Plus they didn't taste all that great.
Xiao long bao. This was the only saving grace of the meal. Their xiao long bao was surprisingly good. Possibly even the best I've ever had. If we'd just gone here and eaten these soup dumplings, I might have come away with an entirely different impression of the restaurant, at least food wise.
I'd probably go back, but only to try a couple of things I didn't get to try this time and see if it makes a difference. We didn't get any noodle soup, for one thing, their drunken chicken seemed popular with other people, and the couple next to us got some pork belly that looked pretty good.
Next up, we went to Mak Ung Kee, which is a Cantonese noodle house that my mom remembered her friend taking her to on another trip. It took me some time to find it, because its English name is McNoodle, or apparently MaxNoodle at some point as well. But the Cantonese is pronounced Mak Ung Kee, and in Chinese it's still that name. Their Cantonese style noodles are great. We actually came here twice -- once for dinner and also for lunch on the day we left.
McNoodle House
Wonton/beef brisket/beef tendon noodle soup. The bowls are fairly small, so if you want to get full you need to get other stuff. Everything is really yummy, though.
Seafood congee. Their congee is super good too. Although again, small portions.
Gai lan. A plate of leafy veg is called "yao choi." We had them skip the oyster sauce that usually goes on top.
The star of our trip was our next meal, though. Surprisingly, because it was dim sum, and I usually don't like dim sum. Pretty pricy, but I have to say it was the best dim sum I've ever had. Now I know that I should never have dim sum unless I'm going to this place! They have several locations, but the one we went to was in Vancouver proper, on W 12th. The problem with having dim sum with two people is that you don't get the same variety you'd get with a larger party. That meant that we ordered waaaay too much for the two of us, but we HAD TO.
Kirin Seafood
First I want to show you guys this monster. A king crab in one of their tanks. He was HUGE.
Cha siu pastries. In Cantonese called "cha siu sou." Usually if I'm forced to eat dim sum I will like this if nothing else. It was the best I've had -- the pastry was light and flaky, and had wonderful flavor.
Deep-fried tofu. It was very good. The outside was uniquely breaded. I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't your usual deep-fried tofu. It was like it had a yummy crust.
Cha-siu pineapple buns. This was okay. If you like sweet and savory together, it might be something you'd enjoy. They were small, though, so easily eaten. :D
Shrimp dumplings ("ha gau"). These were totally delish, and huge.
Crab, shrimp, and spinach dumplings. Also delish. I loved the flavor of spinach in this.
Chicken feet. Ahhh, you can't eat dim sum with Chinese people without getting these! Not my favorite, but my mom loves it. What was unique about this dish to this restaurant was that at the bottom, there were pieces of gluten. Soaked in the sauce for the chicken feet, they were really delicious.
Scallops on top of a special kind of tofu. I'm not sure what's special about it other than its perfect oval shape, but this was very good.
Deep-fried sesame balls with red-bean paste. Again, not usually a favorite of mine, but these were delicious. They came piping hot, and as with the flavor of everything else, they were just good.
The day before we left, we went to Shanghai River, which was sadly not as good as before (or maybe as I remember). It was still good, and way better than Top Shanghai, especially in terms of the comfort and classiness of the restaurant itself, as well as the way the food looked, but flavor wise, it wasn't as good as even, say, Din Tai Fung.
Shanghai River
Cold plate appetizer with celery and bean curd, and drunken chicken. They were both OK. They weren't as good as the squid appetizer that I had the last time. The celery was old/tough (they should have pared it), but the chicken was nicely drunk.
See, now these are proper Shanghainese pan-fried dumplings! They're shaped correctly -- look at their moon-shape and perfect pleats -- but even more than that, they were delicious, the highlight of the meal. They seem to have extra veg in them than the usual potstickers.
Man tou. While these tasted only OK, they at least look right. Some care was put into their appearance, unlike the ones from Top Shanghai. (And yes, we ordered many of the same things as we did at Top Shanghai, for the sake of comparison, and because we generally like those dishes anyway.) And of course, for these and the potstickers, they all had perfectly browned bottoms. This is important to me. I really, really hate improperly browned bottoms.
Xiao long bao. Very juicy and nicely done, but flavor wise, Top Shanghai actually was better.
Shredded pork and preserved vegetable noodle soup. This was fine, about the same as I've had at other places. Didn't particularly stand out.
On this trip, we discovered the Aberdeen City Centre, which is like a giant mall for Chinese people. It's kind of fancy, like Bellevue Square, but the shops are all Chinese/Asian. They had a store for Singapore jerky (beef, pork, even salmon), which was made fresh right there. It was called Mei Jan Hong. They have crispy pork and soft pork, and I didn't know what the difference was so I bought a mix. It turns out that soft pork jerky is like the kind you can make at home with ground pork. Crispy pork jerky is the kind I prefer, which is made from actual slices of loin or whatever cut it is they use. The jerky is harder (it's not actually crispy), but I like the texture and flavor more. There's also a bakery there, I didn't catch the name, but I bought an egg custard tart that was good. They have two kinds: one that's with flaky pastry, and one that's more like tart pastry (I got the latter). Here's a pic:
Two doors down from Aberdeen is Parker Place, which is a much more run-down version of a Chinese mall. If Aberdeen is like Bellevue Square, Parker Place is like... Wal-Mart, if Wal-Mart were a mall. Still, it was the place for us, because my mom wanted to buy some Chinese DVDs, and there were like three stores there that sold them (cheap!), a casual food court where we had some pretty yummy iced tea, and best of all, Parker Place Meat & BBQ, a tiny little place where they sell delicious Chinese BBQ meat. There is absolutely no place where you can sit -- it's like, smaller than my bedroom -- all you can do is buy your meat and be on your way. I found it on Yelp because people were raving about their roast pork (not their BBQ pork aka cha siu, mind you, but roast pork, with the crackling skin). I bought "one bone" (at least, that's how my mom ordered it with the butcher) and it was indeed delicious. You can even specify how lean or fatty you want it. I really wanted to try some of their other stuff, but it just didn't make sense given our meal plans. However, all the meat that everyone else was getting (especially the roast duck) looked reallllllllly good.
Oh yeah, some details on where I stayed, for future research purposes: Got the Delta Vancouver Suites for $150/night. Location was just south of the entertainment district, in the Stanley Park/Coal Harbour area. Because my mom and I spent so much of our time in Richmond, I'm not really sure how viable the location is for mostly downtown Vancouver jaunts. It cost $28/day for parking, and then only because it was the weekend; I think it's $35/day normally. Not too far away was the mall parking garage where T. and I parked last time. I might have considered it again if I hadn't been with my dog and my mom, who can't walk very far or much. The pet fee was $35 per pet for the length of the stay. The room itself was pretty nice, as was the hotel, with a very friendly/professional staff. They were really nice to my dog. The front door is a bit of a pain to get to, as it's inset into an alley, and the parking garage is across from the hotel, not directly connected, but it was OK. I probably could have gotten a much better deal on parking than I did by working the system a bit, but it was just convenient to go through the hotel to do it, as you get in and out privileges, and I had my dog and mom in tow!
And that was our trip! Whew!
Because my dog is still on prednisone, I didn't want to kennel him, so I booked a pet-friendly hotel and took him with us. (Found a rate/hotel I liked on Hotwire that was pet friendly, went to Better Bidding and asked for their assistance IDing it, called the most likely hotel to ask their exact pet policies, then booked it, and thankfully it *was* that hotel, as assumed.) If I can help it, I don't want to do that again. My dog is not people friendly like most dogs, and he is very suspicious of the slightest movement/noise. So the whole weekend, I stressed about making sure that he had his walks (braving public areas each time), ate properly, and wasn't too noisy to the other guests.
I also stressed about my cat, who I'd left at home. Because there was so much to do before I left (all the dog stuff, plus I rented a car, because the last time I went up to Vancouver, my windshield got dinged :( ), I didn't do what I normally do when I leave for a weekend -- check to make sure I could see that he was free, even if hiding under a bed or something (basically, ensure that he wasn't locked in a bathroom or closet). Once I realized that, late the first night, and recalled someone saying that cats couldn't live for more than a day or two without water, I kept imagining a horrible scenario in which I would come back to find the sad little desiccated corpse of my cat, trapped in the bathroom. Thankfully, that did not come to pass. Not only was he free and perfectly fine, it turns out I hadn't even closed my bathroom door.
Anyway, back to the real topic, which is about the food I had in Vancouver. Sadly I did not have time to go out of my way to get a Japadog (my mom wasn't into the idea at all).
But I did have...
My aunt had recently been to Vancouver herself, and kept talking about this great Shanghainese restaurant, Top Shanghai, that she claimed was the best Shanghainese restaurant in all of Vancouver, that if you asked ANYBODY where to go for Shanghainese food, this was the place they'd name.
Well, I was skeptical for two reasons. One is that my aunt has a penchant for exaggeration and storytelling. Two is that the place has a decent 4-star rating on Yelp, but from only 60+ reviews. Meanwhile, the Shanghainese restaurant that I'd gone to with
adelagia last time has a 4-star Yelp rating also, but from 200+ reviews. My mom was suuuuuuuuuuuper excited to try it, though.Sadly, we were fated to be disappointed. I cannot tell you how incredibly lackluster the whole experience was, from the service, to the way they situate their tables, to the food. Oh, the god-awful food. Seriously, if I didn't know better, I would think that my aunt had never been to a Shanghainese restaurant before. How could she call this place good?! It's possible that we just ordered all the wrong things. It's possible. But surely, in a good restaurant, you should at least be able to get 50% good food if ordering randomly from the menu? As it was, they only had ONE item that was any good. One. Though admittedly it was a standout.
But I'll stop talking and show you instead.
Top Shanghai
Jelly fish - cold appetizer. Usually, jelly fish is served in light brown strands. It's crunchy and delicious. This was like... haphazardly cut up and nearly flavorless. Seriously WTF. I have never seen jelly fish served like this.
Spicy cucumber - cold appetizer. Again, this looks like amateur hour. It's nothing like the beautiful spicy cucumber appetizer from Din Tai Fung. And for DTF we wouldn't need to go all the way to Vancouver, there's one in freaking Bellevue! Also pretty bland and tasteless.
Duck web/feet - cold appetizer. Yes, my mom went overboard with the cold appetizers because we were expecting them to be small plates, like at DTF, not such huge portions. My mom ate the celery and had to leave the duck feet because the dish was so tasteless.
Man tou. Lest you think that all we ordered were cold appetizers and maybe they just didn't do them well, here's a plate of man tou. Look how they're scrunched together, misshapen and leaking fluid. Ugh. Seriously, presentation???
Spring rolls. Fairly generic. Not the proper Shanghainese style, which are more rectangular. These also tasted really average, which is to say, 'bad' -- I usually don't care for spring rolls. I only like the real Shanghainese kind.
Pan-fried dumplings (aka potstickers). The bottoms were browned pretty nicely, I'll give them that. But the shape was all wrong. And the way they were browned, as if they'd been deep fried, was totally wrong as well. Plus they didn't taste all that great.
Xiao long bao. This was the only saving grace of the meal. Their xiao long bao was surprisingly good. Possibly even the best I've ever had. If we'd just gone here and eaten these soup dumplings, I might have come away with an entirely different impression of the restaurant, at least food wise.
I'd probably go back, but only to try a couple of things I didn't get to try this time and see if it makes a difference. We didn't get any noodle soup, for one thing, their drunken chicken seemed popular with other people, and the couple next to us got some pork belly that looked pretty good.
Next up, we went to Mak Ung Kee, which is a Cantonese noodle house that my mom remembered her friend taking her to on another trip. It took me some time to find it, because its English name is McNoodle, or apparently MaxNoodle at some point as well. But the Cantonese is pronounced Mak Ung Kee, and in Chinese it's still that name. Their Cantonese style noodles are great. We actually came here twice -- once for dinner and also for lunch on the day we left.
McNoodle House
Wonton/beef brisket/beef tendon noodle soup. The bowls are fairly small, so if you want to get full you need to get other stuff. Everything is really yummy, though.
Seafood congee. Their congee is super good too. Although again, small portions.
Gai lan. A plate of leafy veg is called "yao choi." We had them skip the oyster sauce that usually goes on top.
The star of our trip was our next meal, though. Surprisingly, because it was dim sum, and I usually don't like dim sum. Pretty pricy, but I have to say it was the best dim sum I've ever had. Now I know that I should never have dim sum unless I'm going to this place! They have several locations, but the one we went to was in Vancouver proper, on W 12th. The problem with having dim sum with two people is that you don't get the same variety you'd get with a larger party. That meant that we ordered waaaay too much for the two of us, but we HAD TO.
Kirin Seafood
First I want to show you guys this monster. A king crab in one of their tanks. He was HUGE.
Cha siu pastries. In Cantonese called "cha siu sou." Usually if I'm forced to eat dim sum I will like this if nothing else. It was the best I've had -- the pastry was light and flaky, and had wonderful flavor.
Deep-fried tofu. It was very good. The outside was uniquely breaded. I don't know how to describe it, but it wasn't your usual deep-fried tofu. It was like it had a yummy crust.
Cha-siu pineapple buns. This was okay. If you like sweet and savory together, it might be something you'd enjoy. They were small, though, so easily eaten. :D
Shrimp dumplings ("ha gau"). These were totally delish, and huge.
Crab, shrimp, and spinach dumplings. Also delish. I loved the flavor of spinach in this.
Chicken feet. Ahhh, you can't eat dim sum with Chinese people without getting these! Not my favorite, but my mom loves it. What was unique about this dish to this restaurant was that at the bottom, there were pieces of gluten. Soaked in the sauce for the chicken feet, they were really delicious.
Scallops on top of a special kind of tofu. I'm not sure what's special about it other than its perfect oval shape, but this was very good.
Deep-fried sesame balls with red-bean paste. Again, not usually a favorite of mine, but these were delicious. They came piping hot, and as with the flavor of everything else, they were just good.
The day before we left, we went to Shanghai River, which was sadly not as good as before (or maybe as I remember). It was still good, and way better than Top Shanghai, especially in terms of the comfort and classiness of the restaurant itself, as well as the way the food looked, but flavor wise, it wasn't as good as even, say, Din Tai Fung.
Shanghai River
Cold plate appetizer with celery and bean curd, and drunken chicken. They were both OK. They weren't as good as the squid appetizer that I had the last time. The celery was old/tough (they should have pared it), but the chicken was nicely drunk.
See, now these are proper Shanghainese pan-fried dumplings! They're shaped correctly -- look at their moon-shape and perfect pleats -- but even more than that, they were delicious, the highlight of the meal. They seem to have extra veg in them than the usual potstickers.
Man tou. While these tasted only OK, they at least look right. Some care was put into their appearance, unlike the ones from Top Shanghai. (And yes, we ordered many of the same things as we did at Top Shanghai, for the sake of comparison, and because we generally like those dishes anyway.) And of course, for these and the potstickers, they all had perfectly browned bottoms. This is important to me. I really, really hate improperly browned bottoms.
Xiao long bao. Very juicy and nicely done, but flavor wise, Top Shanghai actually was better.
Shredded pork and preserved vegetable noodle soup. This was fine, about the same as I've had at other places. Didn't particularly stand out.
On this trip, we discovered the Aberdeen City Centre, which is like a giant mall for Chinese people. It's kind of fancy, like Bellevue Square, but the shops are all Chinese/Asian. They had a store for Singapore jerky (beef, pork, even salmon), which was made fresh right there. It was called Mei Jan Hong. They have crispy pork and soft pork, and I didn't know what the difference was so I bought a mix. It turns out that soft pork jerky is like the kind you can make at home with ground pork. Crispy pork jerky is the kind I prefer, which is made from actual slices of loin or whatever cut it is they use. The jerky is harder (it's not actually crispy), but I like the texture and flavor more. There's also a bakery there, I didn't catch the name, but I bought an egg custard tart that was good. They have two kinds: one that's with flaky pastry, and one that's more like tart pastry (I got the latter). Here's a pic:
Two doors down from Aberdeen is Parker Place, which is a much more run-down version of a Chinese mall. If Aberdeen is like Bellevue Square, Parker Place is like... Wal-Mart, if Wal-Mart were a mall. Still, it was the place for us, because my mom wanted to buy some Chinese DVDs, and there were like three stores there that sold them (cheap!), a casual food court where we had some pretty yummy iced tea, and best of all, Parker Place Meat & BBQ, a tiny little place where they sell delicious Chinese BBQ meat. There is absolutely no place where you can sit -- it's like, smaller than my bedroom -- all you can do is buy your meat and be on your way. I found it on Yelp because people were raving about their roast pork (not their BBQ pork aka cha siu, mind you, but roast pork, with the crackling skin). I bought "one bone" (at least, that's how my mom ordered it with the butcher) and it was indeed delicious. You can even specify how lean or fatty you want it. I really wanted to try some of their other stuff, but it just didn't make sense given our meal plans. However, all the meat that everyone else was getting (especially the roast duck) looked reallllllllly good.
Oh yeah, some details on where I stayed, for future research purposes: Got the Delta Vancouver Suites for $150/night. Location was just south of the entertainment district, in the Stanley Park/Coal Harbour area. Because my mom and I spent so much of our time in Richmond, I'm not really sure how viable the location is for mostly downtown Vancouver jaunts. It cost $28/day for parking, and then only because it was the weekend; I think it's $35/day normally. Not too far away was the mall parking garage where T. and I parked last time. I might have considered it again if I hadn't been with my dog and my mom, who can't walk very far or much. The pet fee was $35 per pet for the length of the stay. The room itself was pretty nice, as was the hotel, with a very friendly/professional staff. They were really nice to my dog. The front door is a bit of a pain to get to, as it's inset into an alley, and the parking garage is across from the hotel, not directly connected, but it was OK. I probably could have gotten a much better deal on parking than I did by working the system a bit, but it was just convenient to go through the hotel to do it, as you get in and out privileges, and I had my dog and mom in tow!
And that was our trip! Whew!
