Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Shanghai River
7831 Westminster Hwy, Richmond

Author: My Husband

My wife and I have been customers at Shanghai River since it opened, and we think it is the best beifang (northern Chinese) cuisine restaurant in the lower mainland. The people who own Shanghai River have seen fit to put some money into the upkeep of the restaurant, and things still look fresh and clean even after all these years.

We think they make some of the best “xiao long bao”, as well as a bevy of northern Chinese standards, in the lower mainland. As far as Chinese cuisine goes, I’m more partial to Cantonese, which I feel has a wider range. However, once in a while, when the itch for beifang food needs to be scratched, we will return to Shanghai River.

Here are some of our favourite dishes from a recent meal there:

We started with some xiao long bao.

Shanghai River has two varieties – the standard bao with just pork, or the xie fen bao with added crab roe and meat. We went for the xie fen bao, which adds a strong hint of crab roe flavour that goes very well with the pork. In Shanghai, most xiao long bao is of the xie fen variety; I think that is definitely the way to eat them. Shanghai River’s baos have a consistently thin skin, and there is a healthy dose of crab roe tinged broth that is oh so good. This is one of the must-have dishes at this restaurant.

Next up, some prawns.

These are prawns fried in soy sauce. The sweet and savory soy sauce complemented the sweetness of the prawns perfectly. The prawns were firm and fleshy – very satisfying.

Then, some crab claws.

My wife really likes this dish. Each “ball” is made by rolling crab/prawn paste into a ball around a whole crab claw, breading it, and then deep frying it. This version was good, though not that different than the many other versions we’ve tried at other quality Chinese restaurants.

And then, my favourite dish at Shanghai River.

This is a tofu hotpot with crab meat and roe. The strong flavors of the crab roe are imparted to the tofu, which is soft and smooth. The tofu, as well as the rich and complex sauce, is perfect accompaniment for simple steamed rice. We don’t usually have rice when we eat out in restaurants, but we made an exception for this dish.

And then some smoked duck.

This is another one of Christina’s favourite at Shanghai River. This ducked, smoked with black tea, is lean, yet moist and flavourful. While smoked duck can never be described at tender, Shanghai River’s version has a texture that yields readily to your bite. And the tea-smoked flavour is very strong in the meat.

And finally, a dish that we got for my mom.

Broccoli with fluffy egg white and conpoy (dried scallops). This is a simple dish, yet very comforting. The egg white and shredded conpoy is a perfect foil for the broccoli – the green-ness of the vegetable is toned down by the eggs and even I, of the vegetable averse school, ate some.

Shanghai River is one of those restaurants that have paid attention to the details and gone from strength to strength through the years. The place is always packed, so reservations are a must if you are planning to visit.

Author: My Husband

So, I had some pretty good Italian food this past week. In fact, in the past several days, everywhere I looked, I could only see Italian restaurants. And no, I’m not writing about Commercial Drive.

I’m writing about a city that is home to this lovely church…

In real life, Brunelleschi’s dome is really very imposing and impressive. I’m glad I took “Western Civilization” in high school.

… and this rather famous fella

Please accept my apologies if the photo causes any offence. However, I feel that David should be seen the way Michelangelo intended for him to be. This version is a replica that stands outside the entrance of the Palazzo Vecchio. The real Michelangelo creation has been moved to the nearby Accademia Galleria to protect it from the elements.

If the title didn’t give it away, and if you guessed Florence, you’d be right. I was there on business this past week and I tried, as best I could, to experience the artistic and gastronomic delights that were in such abundance in this city.

On a previous visit to Florence, my wife and I stayed in the historic part of the city. We did a lot of touristy stuff and ate at many restaurants that were obviously targeted at tourists. While the food wasn’t bad, we also did not see many locals eating in those places. And locals must know the best places to eat, right? Thus, on this trip, I leveraged my Italian colleagues’ experience and had them take me to eat at their regular lunch and dinner spots.

For lunch, the we mostly went to little pizzerias. In these places, you would find a coffee bar, a refrigerated display case showing sandwiches and salads, and a small blackboard showing the specials of the day. You would tell the guy behind the display case what you wanted, and he would extract it from the case or relay the order to the kitchen. After this, you find your own seat and wait for your order to arrive. A waitress would come around to take your drink orders, deliver drinks and food, take orders for coffee, and deliver your bill. After finishing up your meal, you take your bill to the cash counter and pay for your meal. It is simple and efficient (once you figure out the process), and unlike the sit down restaurants, the food at these pizzerias are pretty reasonably priced.

So what does a pizzeria meal look like? Continue reading to find out. I did not see any other people snapping pictures of their food, so in order to not look like a business-suited loony, I had to surreptitiously take the following photos with my Blackberry. The thing about snapping photos with a Blackberry is that it looks just like you’re checking email!

There’s always a selection of sliced-up breads served. And in many places, different types of breads can be found in the basket. My Italian colleagues just eat the bread plain – no butter or olive oil required. They rip the bread into chunks and just start eating. I don’t know if unfinished bread is reused or not, but it’s best to not think too much about it.

After the breads, they would deliver the sandwiches, which were lightly toasted in the salamander before being delivered to the tables. These small and simple sandwiches – the likes of which included tomato/mozza or prosciutto/mozza – were delicious, proving that you don’t have to load up sandwiches like Dagwood Bumstead to make bread taste good.

If you ordered something from the kitchen, it would be delivered after the sandwiches. Like this simple pasta for instance…

This was a simple pasta dish tossed with a tomato/basil sauce. See how the sauce sticks to the pasta? This was delicious!

Two courses would – typically – be more than enough for lunch. How about dinner? We had our dinners in full-service restaurants where meals would follow a similar format.

First, a selection of sliced breads would be served. Then drinks would be delivered. Then the first course, which could be pasta…

like this pappardelle. The above was the best dish I had during the trip. While it looks deceptively simple, the pasta sauce was out-of-this-world good.

… or cured meats.

This is a classic prosciutto/cantaloupe first course. The prosciutto was buttery, not too salty, not too gamey, and not too sinewy. It’s hard to find prosciutto this good in Canada, yet it’s just considered “normal” stuff in Italy.

After the first course, it would be on to the second, which typically involves some sort of protein.

Like fish…

Some nicely crisp and flaky sea bass served on a bed of roasted vegetables.

… or steak

An angus filet served with a truffle sauce. Incidentally, I was quite disappointed with this dish; the truffle sauce smelled heavenly, but didn’t taste like anything. This must have been the “fake” African truffles…

One night, we left the office at 11pm and even a restaurant used to serving late dinners turned us away. So I slunked back to the hotel and managed to get the bar to make something up for me. I was not really hungry (hunger had come and gone hours ago), so I made do with a typical late night “snack”…

A gran piatto of cure meats comprising salami, braseola, and prosciutto accompanied by some cheese. I would recommend trying braseola if you can find it – the cured beef is even less stringy than prosciutto!

Did I mention I have a thing for Italian coffees? I ended every meal with a caffe like this…

Many Italians finish their meals with a caffe, as did I. My drink of choice was caffe macchiato, which is a shot of espresso doused with a teeny bit of milk and foam. A demi-tasse is what caffe macchiato is supposed to be served in – not a 12 oz Starbucks cup…

Foodwise, I had no complaints about this latest trip to Florence. Eating at places where the locals did really paid dividends as I ate well without having to break the bank…

But beyond the food, Florence is a really beautiful city, especially the historic part of town. Here are some photos which I hope you enjoy…

The facade of the famed Duomo, properly known as the Basilica de Santa Maria del Fiore.

Typical narrow cobblestoned streets in the historic part of the city.

A view of the Tuscan hills from the Arno River.

Florence’s famous Ponte Vecchio. Both sides of the bridge are lined with jewelers and goldsmiths.

And finally, like in many European cities, small is considered beautiful…

Smart cars are popular, as are the really cute Fiat 500s.

And I really got a kick out of this little commuter bus. Cute!!

And as always, I’ll end this travel post with a comment or two about the airline I flew on. This time it was Lufthansa, and I’d have to say that it was a positive experience. No, they didn’t provide SIA-level of service (who does? no, not even Emirates…), but they acquitted themselves very nicely with the crew’s professional demeanor, their food offerings (very edible) and comfortable seats. Good news then, since I have another long-haul flight with them coming up in November.

Location: My tiny kitchen

Making wontons was a lot easier than I expected. To be accurate, I did waste a few pieces of wonton skin in the beginning. However, soon I learned to be humble and not over-stuff the wontons. Bearing that in mind, I was able to finish wrapping all the wontons very quickly.

This recipe makes about 80 small wontons, which would be enough to serve 4 people.

Ingredients:
– 1 bundle of yellow chives. You can find this type of chives in an Asian supermarket. They look like green chives except their colour is yellow. If you cannot find them, then skip them.
- 2 cups of minced pork. I used the type that is half fat and half lean.
- 20 tiger prawns that are 21 to 25 count in size.
- 1 stack of wonton skin. You can also find them in an Asian supermarket.

For serving the wontons:
- 1 green onion, chopped
- Soy sauce
- Sesame oil
- Chili oil
- Chili sauce. I used this Vietnamese brand:

Steps:

1. Marinate pork in the fridge for 2 hours with:
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tsp of coriander seed powder
- a few drizzle of sesame oil
- 1 tbsp of Japanese vinegar
- 2 tbsp of Japanese cooking wine
- 4 tbsp of soy sauce

2. Remove shells from prawns. Rinse. Following down the back of the prawn, slice each prawn into halves. Remove any vein. Cut each half into two pieces. Marinate the prawns with:
- a few drizzle of sesame oil
- 1 tsp of cornstarch
- 1 tsp of salt
- freshly ground black pepper

3. Rinse the yellow chives. Finely chop the chives and mix them into the pork.

4. Place a piece of wonton skin on your palm. Place a piece of prawn in the centre of the skin. Place a small amount of pork on the prawn. Wrap up the wonton by folding the diagonal corners toward each other. Apply a gentle squeeze on the opening so that the stuffing will stay inside during cooking.

In the beginning, place only a small amount of stuffing in the wonton. After making a few wontons, you will be able to put more stuffing in them.

Also note that once exposed to air, the wonton skin becomes dry very quickly. After the wontons have been wrapped, try to cook them as soon as possible.

5. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Place the wontons into the water. Very soon, the wontons will float. Once that happens, let the wontons boil for 2 more minutes and they are ready.

6. Drain the water and place the wontons into a bowl. Drizzle chili sauce, sesame oil, chili oil and soy sauce over the wontons. Sprinkle them with chopped green onion and serve.