Eating Vancouver Part 3 Dim Sum

While we have been to the usual trio of Vancouver dim sum of Dinesty (more of a soup dumpling place like DinTaiFung), Fisherman’s Terrace, and Sun Sui Wah, we wanted to try some place that does the usuals very well but also wasn’t afraid to have some new dishes like Koi Palace back in the Bay Area. We ended up at Chef Tony Seafood Restaurant. Located in a strip mall in Richmond, the outside looked like a run down 70s strip mall, the inside was more like the bar at the W. The usual dim sum staples were well done (which won’t be mentioned here), but they had some cool dishes we really enjoyed.

Creamy almond paste buns. Light and not too sweet almond cream paste in a bun. As light and ephemeral as Marzipan (which I also love) is heavy and substantive. A good in between of Marzipan and Annin tofu, in a bun.

Flaky almond meat loaf sticks. Tastes way better than the English translation sounds. Had no idea almonds went with mix of pork and shrimp.

 The usual tripe on the right. The left is egg plant with a meat ball on top. I actually liked it even though I am not an eggplant fan.

 The usual shumai but with a fancy topping of black truffles. It smelled absolutely fantastic, made a regular dim sum staple more magical. The difference between a regular Ford Taurus and Taurus SHO.

I had hopes that the mushroom tart would be equal of Koi Palace’s abalone  minced chicken tart, alas, it was not to be.

This artsy looking piece is the Longan jello with goji berries. Not too sweet, as a fan of longan, I can’t believe this isn’t at every dim sum restaurant.

Lastly, the fried taro with various fillings topped with an abalone. This was also quite good. Even without the abalone, the dish would have been great.  Crispy on the outside, middle layer of soft taro, and fillings on the inside. Mmm…

Eating Vancouver Part 2 French and Shanghai

For breakfast, after Yuji’s Japanese fare, some French pastry was in order. We ended up at Thierry. It is a chocolate shop and a cafe. Chef Thierry was pastry chef for a couple of 2 star Michelin in France and London.

From upper left clockwise. Ham croissant (Pain au jambon), butternut squash soup, chocolate croissant (Pain au chocolat), and a grill chicken on baguette.

For dinner we switched it up and went for Shanghainese at Shanghai River  in Richmond. The menu was impressive and vast. We ended up over ordering per usual. The steam dumpling was very good and more authentically Shanghainese than the technical precision of DinTaiFung. If DinTaiFung dumplings are Porsches, the Shanghai River ones are Corvettes. Meatier, not as uniformly pretty, but good in a slightly different way. Duck 2 ways, smoked fish, duck and scallop soup were all equally well done.

Eating Vancouver Part 1 Yujis

We spent a few days visiting Vancouver. We had been there quite a few times before, and continued to finding new restaurants.

First up is Yuji’s in Kitsilano. Located in a shopping center across the street from a Papa Johns. Their Omakase is more like a set menu and priced at $60 Canadian, really great deal considering the current USD exchange rate of 1.35 to CAD. Well worth the money. The restaurant itself was situated next to another pizza takeout restaurant at the corner of an unassuming shopping center.

Yuji’s first course of from upper left clockwise, yellow tail salad, uni, fish and roe, crisp taro and yam, fried soft radish, bamboo shoots. Lots of root vegetables for winter I guess. The uni was great, and way the yam and taro was made was fantastic even though I usually don’t even like either.

Second was grilled cod (no miso unlike Shiro’s) with picked ginger (the pink and red shoot on top), and grilled chicken.

Third was a tempura selection which I didn’t take a picture of.

 Fourth was the steamed egg with scallops and shrimp.

 Selection of sushi was fifth.

Lastly was the green tea Panna cotta with red bean paste on the bottom.