Shanghai Dimsum

Shanghai Dimsum, is kind of a misleading name.  I actually came across them when I was looking on Yelp for a location for Sunday brunch/dimsum.  And when I looked at the pictures on Yelp, this looked like any regular Shanghainese food.  So I skipped over it for that particular brunch meal.

Checking out Shanghai Dimsum came when my friend from Germany came back for a visit.  She says there isn't much good Asian food in Europe.  While I have not tried any Asian food in Europe, I do know that it's super expensive.  I was in Amsterdam earlier this year, and walked by their small Chinatown because I wanted to check out the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple.  I love Buddhist temples, I find the smell of incense so calming.  Anyways, in Amsterdam, a bowl of wonton noodles was 7 euros, and a bowl of pho was 9 euros.  So ridiculous.  So off we went to Shanghai Dimsum.  What we ordered was highly dictated by what my friend wanted to eat and what good deals the restaurant had. We ordered a savoury sticky rice roll, stir fried sticky rice cakes, beef brisket noodle in soup, pan fried XLB (only $3.99 for first order), pan fried dumplings, steamed soup filled dumplings, and steamed silk skinned XLB (crab & pork only $3.99 for first order).

The savoury sticky rice roll, stir fried sticky rice cakes, beef brisket noodle in soup, and pan fried dumplings were pretty standard.  They tasted like how they would taste at any other Shanghainese restaurant.  I have to say that the stir fried sticky rice cakes had good 'wok hay' though.

Savoury Sticky Rice Roll

Stir Fried Sticky Rice Cakes

Beef Brisket in Noodle Soup

Pan Fried Dumplings

What stood out to me here were the XLB (xiao long bao, or steamed soup dumplings).  The skin of the steamed dumplings were the thinnest from any Shanghainese restaurant in the GTA.  Mind you, I haven't been to all of the Shanghainese restaurants in the GTA either.  So some of you may say, that there's thinner skinned dumplings out there.  I wasn't able to really tell the difference in the filling from the normal pork one with the crab and pork.  So next time I go, I would just get the normal pork ones (they were the ones with the thinnest skin anyways).  The pan fried XLB was interesting, I've never had those before.  They were like a cross between the pan fried dumpling and the steamed soup dumpling.  The filling wasn't as juicy/soupy as the normal steamed soup dumplings.

Pan Fried XLB

Steamed Soup Dumplings (Pork)

Steamed Silk Skinned XLB (Crab & Pork)

While looking on their website, which is rare I find for Asian restaurants to have websites, they have two locations, one in Richmond Hill and one in Scarborough.  Just wanted to note that the one I went to was the Richmond Hill location.

Shanghai Dimsum

330 York Regional Road 7,

Richmond Hill,

L4B 3P8

Phone: (905) 597-5866

Hours:  Monday - Sunday 9:00a - 10:00p

 http://www.shanghaidimsum.ca

Metro Square Food Court: Lucky Curry House, Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku

On a busy Saturday afternoon, the hubby and I were running around doing errands, it was already late, closer to 2pm, when we decided we should probably stop off somewhere for lunch.  We were close-ish to Metro Square, so we decided to stop by there for lunch.  Whenever I pass by there, I think of curry and roti.  My mom found the Lucky Curry House located within the foodcourt of Metro Square many many many years ago.  On a night where she didn't feel like cooking us kids dinner, she would grab a beef curry and roti for us.  Lucky Curry House is a Malaysian type curry.  Their curry has less spice flavouring than lets say Indian curry, and is flavoured with a bit more ginger and lemon grass.  I don't know if they changed owners, but the roti just wasn't the same as before.  I don't know if it's because my kid taste buds are different than my adult taste buds, or if reminiscing about food, the food always tends to be better.  The roti that we got wasn't as light and fluffy as I remember it being.  The one we got was small, and oily.  The chicken curry was still good.  I could just drink that stuff.....  Speaking of drink, the order came with a drink, we chose chrysanthemum tea.

Chicken Curry with Roti

There are two things that the Taiwanese are known for, beef noodle and popcorn chicken.  The hubby had a hard time decided, but ended up picking up his favourite beef noodle from Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku which is on the complete opposite end of the food court.  The beef was flavoured well, the broth was bland.  I didn't particularly like the noodles either, they tasted floury/doughy.  No something I would order again from them.  I would like to try their other offerings though.

Beef Noodle

Metro Square Food Court
3636 Steeles Ave. E.,
Markham, ON
L3R 2Z5

Phone:  Lucky Curry House (905) 947-0668
             Taipei Chin Yuan Pai Ku (905) 940-2008

http://www.metrosquare.ca/restaurants.php

Catch Up #4: Randoms

Here's a bunch of randoms that I couldn't really put in any of the other Catch Up blog categories.

Food Truck Alley 2:  Rose City Kitchens & Frankie Fettuccine Food Truck Co.

It seems the the food truck scene isn't quite picking up in Toronto, which is kind of disappointing.  Shortly have they opened the temp location along King West, they again closed.  But I'm glad I at least got to stop by once.  The day that I went, there was Rose City Kitchens, a hot dog truck, a funnel cake truck, and Frankie Fettuccine.  I ordered from Rose City Kitchens while my friend ordered from Frankie Fettuccine.  

At Rose City Kitchens, your order includes a 'sandwich' (I'll explain why I put sandwich in quotes), salad and drink for $10.  I ordered the Greek sandwich.  I wanted something light for lunch, hence ordering a sandwich.  But I didn't want it THAT light.  The sandwich was HALF a pita sandwich.  The pita shell used was of the small size.  The salad was a kale and tomato salad heavily doused in some sort of dijon mustard dressing.  It was beyond over dressed.  Not only that, I found a cherry tomato that was covered in what looked like bird poop.  I was disgusted, and couldn't eat anymore.  But it was't like I was missing out on much.....  I was just glad I could steal some food from my friend.  One food truck I will not try again.

Rose City Kitchen Menu

Kale Salad, Greek Sandwich with Chicken

http://www.rosecitykitchen.com/#home

I should have, but the thought of all those carbs from the pasta.....  My friend ordered the arancini balls, and ossobuco poutine.  Both were done so well.  The arancini was done mini sized, compared to the Italian place I normally visit.  The tomato sauce, so tasty as well.  The Ossobuco was done like a 'pulled' beef brisket.  So very tender and melt in your mouth.  Instead of french fries, deep friend gnocchi was used.  I'm getting super hungry thinking of this.  I don't remember the prices of the dishes, but from what I remember, the portion size that you get, for the price paid was very fair.  If I see Frankie Fettuccine next year, I know where I will be stopping off for a snack.

Arancini

Ossobuco Poutine

http://www.frankiefett.com

My Wonderful Kitchen
This is another place similar to other congee/noodle places.  Popped in to check it out based on a good review I read.  We ordered the beef brisket in soup (no noodles), and ja jiang mien.  The brisket was a good size, very tender and decent flavour.  The ja jiang mien was not that great.  The sauce was very ketchupy tasting and very soupy.  I'm used to having the sauce be thicker.  Definitely do not order this dish.  Free dessert comes when you get the bill.  That night it was a shot glass full of mango tapioca pudding.  Will return to check out some other dishes.

Beef Brisket

Ja Jiang Mien

Mango Tapioca Pudding

350 Hwy 7 E.

Richmond Hill, ON

L4B 3N2

905-889-1080

https://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Wonderful-Kitchen-十粥十/541062532648943

Lanzhou Hand Pulled Noodle

Seems like theres a larger number of these hand pulled noodle places popping up, most likely due to the large number of immigrants from China.  I like noodles in soup, so why not give it a try.  There essentially two kinds of noodles dishes you can order, one is in soup, the other is stir fried.  Once you decide on the kind of dish you want, then you get to choose what kind of noodle you want to be in your dish.  I don't remember the exact number, but there were a good 5 or 6 kinds of noodles ranging from very thin noodles (similar to angel hair), to knife cut noodles.  On their menu, they list as having spinach noodles, but out of the 3 times I've been there, they never have them.  We ordered the Lanzhou noodle with round noodle and the beef brisket noodle with knife cut noodles.  The Lanzhou noodle is a light clear broth served with some cooked daikon, very thinly sliced beef and green onions.  In my opinion, the beef is way too thinly sliced, because when we picked it up, it just completely fell apart.  

Lanzhou Noodles

The beef brisket knife cut noodles had good flavour, and the beef was tender.  I personally like the texture of the knife cut noodles because it is slightly more al dente or chewier because of the inconsistent thickness of the noodles.  I didn't eat much of this one because it's the preference of the hubby, usually his dish.

Beef Brisket Knife Cut Noodle

Don't expect good service here.  The 2 waitresses are either really angry looking and never crack a smile, or they ignore you while watching the Mandarin TV dramas.  When they do answer you, they sound like they could care less.  

8362 Kennedy Rd.,

Markham, ON

L3R 9W5

905-470-8188

Wonton Time

We had a craving for wontons.  Simple as that.  I don't really like the wontons at Jim Chae Kee, not because the filling isn't good, because it is, but I just don't like the size of the wontons.  Classic wontons should be small, small enough to pop into your mouth.  My friend suggested Wonton Time inside of Market Village.  Apparently this place has been around for years, but I've never noticed them.  Their menu is small, fish balls, beef brisket, wontons, shrimp dumplings and veggies.  I think thats pretty much it.  But when you do something good, you don't need a huge menu.  We pretty much ordered everything on the menu, some of us with rice noodles, others with wonton noodles.  The wontons were good, shrimp were 'crispy', with just the right amount of filling.  The beef brisket my friend says it's the best place for it.  It's been so long, I can't really remember.  Maybe I should go again soon.  The shrimp dumplings is similar to the wonton, except larger, and mixed into the filling are bamboo shoots and cloud ear fungus.  There's an extra crunch in the dumpling that the wontons don't have.  I personally prefer the wontons over the shrimp dumplings.

Wonton Time

4392 Steeles Ave. E.,

Markham, ON

L3R 9V8

905-477-8882

 

Yuan Yuan

Dumplings are another one of my favourite foods.  I can never say no to good dumplings.  I used to have a favourite dumpling restaurant, as of until last weekend located in Commerce Gate.  But from that night on, I will never go back.  I found a cigarette filter in my bowl of soup noodles.  So now Yuan Yuan has moved up the ranks of my list of go to dumpling restaurants.

The actual reason that I wanted to try Yuan Yuan was not for it's dumplings but for their Tian Jin pancakes.  It used to be hard to find places that make them, but as it turns out even T&T makes them now.  I guess it's due to the influx of people from China immigrating here.

Our table of 4 order the beef noodle (which is a must according to my husband), tomato & pork soup noodle (which arrived at the table looking different than other restaurants), steamed vegetable buns, fried dumplings, a vegetable dish and of course the Tian Jin pancake.  The beef noodle was quite good, just enough flavour in the beef, and was tender, but the broth was lacking the beef sauce flavour.  So i'm not quite sure where the colour in the broth was from.

Beef Noodle

Tomato & Pork soup noodle was very good and light.  I love tomato based broths so I don't think it could be bad.  In a way the broth was kind of refreshing, even though it was hot.  The one thing I've noticed is that there weren't many chicken or fish dishes.  Do people in China consume mostly pork and occasionally beef?

Tomato & Pork Soup Noodle

The steamed vegetable buns were a lot better than I was expecting.  I think I would order these buns again next time I'm eating there.  There was good flavour, good amount of filling and the bun layer had that slightly chewy consistency which I love in steamed buns.

Steamed Vegetable Buns

The fried dumplings, I believe we ordered the pork and leek filled ones.  Flavour was pretty good.  I was expecting the fried dumpling to be more similar to the pan fried dumplings, but these came out more deep fried.  Deep fried anything is always good!  Just need to be careful eating them.  They're SUPER hot!

Fried Dumplings

The vegetable dish, we didn't expected ALL the veggies to be deep fried and then tossed in a sauce.  I guess this is the exception to my rule where deep fried everything tastes good.  It was way too oily!  I wish I remembered which number this dish was so I would never order this again.

Fried Veggies

Last dish (although i'm certain we ordered steamed dumplings too, but I can't seem to locate the pictures, so I might be wrong?), was the Tian Jin pancake.  It was a challenge to order this dish because on the menu it's not name Tian Jin pancake.  Again, my memory fails me, and I can't remember what it's called.  And of course, there's a huge language barrier between the 4 of us and the wait staff at the restaurant.  None of us speak Mandarin.  So I Googled and found the picture of what the pancake looks like and the waitress figured out what it was.  I really liked this pancake, and would definitely order it again!  Other places give the option of the deep fried dough fritter or deep fried chip like things.  But here, it only comes with the deep fried dough fritter.

Tian Jin Pancake

Overall I would come back to this restaurant again to try their other foods.  A lot of the dishes have names that I don't remember ever seeing before.  So it would be an interesting food experience :)

Yuan Yuan
9425 Leslie St.
Richmond Hill, ON
L4B 3N7
905-237-8877