Tag Archives: Chinese restaurant
yu-sheng-chinese-new-year

The $188 salad during Chinese New Year in Singapore

by charlene on 2011/02/15 in Asia, Featured Article, Foodie Guide

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My family doesn’t normally like to eat vegetables. At every gathering, we prefer to feast on scrumptious dishes of meat: pork, beef, lamb, chicken, fish… you name it, we eat it. But every Chinese New Year Eve, you’ll see my uncles rushing to toss carrot and cucumber strips while beseeching good luck and more money in the coming year. It can be an other-worldy experience…. but Welcome to a typical Chinese New Years celebration in Singapore!

The Yusheng dish was started in the Southern Song dynasty but has been given a modern twist by a Singaporean chef called Than Mui Kai (who is also one of the 4 heavenly great chefs in Singapore during the 1960s!) I wish I had been alive then if only to try their cooking because my older family members often lament about the food of the good old days.

Lets go back to Yusheng.

For many families in Singapore, the first item on the menu would be Yusheng. Literally translated, Yusheng means “raw fish”. It stands that it is a raw fish salad which is tossed for good luck and fortune. It consists of about 17 ingredients (a lot considering it’s just a salad), with each ingredient symbolizing some kind of good fortune for those who consume it.

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For example: eating carrots and daikon brings good luck and prosperity, sweet fruits such as pomelo and candied melon symbolize good fortune, and crispy crackers represent nuggets, as in golden nuggets for more money!!

Having Yusheng on the table is a ritual. This ritual is also referred as “lo hei” or toss up. The higher you toss, the more fortune you will get. First, the waitress will balance a large plate on one hand and serve it down swiftly in front of you. She smiles and wishes you Happy New Year before getting ready to prepare the salad. First she will start by dressing the salmon (or any other fish) with lime slices while reciting the phrase “nian nian you yu” (年年有余) or “every year has fish”, a Chinese proverb meaning “abundance throughout the year”. She then adds pomelo over the dish and says the phrase “da li da ji” 大力打击 meaning “luck and auspicious value”. This goes on until all the ingredients are added, one by one.

Next you will be served long chopsticks which are approximately the length of your arm. This is to enable you to toss your salad the highest you can. Generally everyone stands up to perform this because of everyone wants to toss it higher and higher up. Its also less messy this way. After tossing the salad, you are allowed to put a serving onto your plate.

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What does Yusheng taste like? It’s sweet and crunchy, and tastes of sweet plum sauce and crunchy peanut. It has come to my attention that those in the younger generation love Yusheng whereas the older generation generally don’t favour the taste. Personally, I’m crazy over it.

Yusheng has become quite the icon in Singapore and it’s safe to say almost no one celebrates Chinese New Year without it. However, the original version has since been modified in order to cater to different tastes and budgets.

The most basic and cost-friendly form of yusheng is ordering the dish without fish slices. However, many splurge and order with fish slices and from there, they can choose from salmon, tuna, or mackerel. Some places I recommend for this are Soup Restaurant (B1-07 ,290 Orchard Paragon) or Grand Shanghai (Level ground of Grand Corpthrone Hotel, 392 Havelock Road). Both restaurants are great for Yusheng but both offer very different ambiances. Soup Kitchen is tailored after the Chinese women construction workers that came in the early 1900s offering homey cuisine. Grand Shanghai focuses on the sassy songstress era of the 1940s in China’s busiest city. The prices are more steep at Grand Shanghai with its minimum price of $48 for Yusheng versus $38 for Soup Kitchen.

For those looking for something more upscale, say Yusheng with added gold dust and champagne jelly, I suggest trying out Jade restaurant (Fullerton Hotel, 1 Fullerton Square ). The price is $48 as well but for a much smaller portion compared to Grand Shanghai. Still, it’s worth it for those wanting to ring in the New Year right!!

YuSheng can go up to $188 which is quite a big sum for raw carrots. But hey, us chinese are known for being calculative with money so why not let loose once a year?

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dim-sum

Vancouver Dim Sum

by Samantha Wong on 2010/12/21 in Featured Article, Foodie Guide, North America

dim-sum

Dim sum. Dim sum. Dim sum. Oh dim sum…. how do I express my ardent love for you? I crave you once a week and force friends, family, and even strangers (hellooo awkward first date) to enjoy you with me. I snob people out if they don’t share my exacting standards for you, and regardless of how broke I may be, I never sacrifice quality for price when it comes to you. So, dear food trotters, you might have a shadow of an idea of how much I love dim sum, and be wondering: Where does this weirdo get her fix? Easy. I have three restaurants I am 100% down for, and a few others I deign to dine at. (What a snob, I know).

I love Kirin (I’m partial to the Richmond, Vancouver West, and New Westminster locations), Western Lake (4989 Victoria Drive, Vancouver, 604-321-6862), and Sun Sui Wah (both locations are great). Kirin and Sun Sui Wah are big fish in the Vancouver dim sum pond, and the two have multiple locations. The restaurants are “huge” (both restaurants are popular venues for Chinese weddings, baby banquets, and other important occasions), and the service is prompt, friendly(ish), and professional. You won’t see carts being pushed around here, and the wait staff (depending on when and how often you go) are friendly and attentive. As a disclaimer, I feel like I’m constantly critiquing Chinese restaurants service, but honestly, the waiters always seem more brusque than in western restaurants… or perhaps that’s just my shoddy Chinese that disallows that connection. Both restaurants are on the higher end of the dim sum price range (I can easily spend $20-$30/ person here), but given the high quality of food and mid-to-upscale atmosphere, it’s completely worth it to me. For my “local haunt” when I don’t feel like adventuring too far away from home, I visit Western Lake. My grandma is a “celebrity” here. Actually, Victoria street has a large elderly Chinese population and as my Chinese counterparts will agree, there’s nothing the older generation loves to do so much as wake up early, sit around, and chat with their friends and family. Western Lake is a great place for that generation to go to because they open early (9AM dimsum!), have hugemongous portions (their siu mais have to be on steroids, they’re double the size of normal siu mai’s), and are well priced ($10-$20/ person). Their downside? They are a small location, and when you mix in the older crowd that loves to sit around and ba wai (take up space!) you’re guaranteed a long wait time. But you made a reservation? So? You still have to wait, like all the rest of us chumps. I recommend visiting this place on a weekday or right as they open.

For the dim sum n00b I recommend ordering a few different things to figure out what one likes, but if you jump to my articles of a couple dim sum places in the Bay area , you can get an in-depth list of what I like to order as a per usual thing:

Taipan, Palo Alto
Koi Palace, San Francisco

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Extra notes: while yumming-cha at Western Lake, you MUST order the XO radish cake (cubes of radish cake pan fried with XO sauce… soooo good — as a note within a note, their secret-not-listed-on-the-menu XO sauce can be ordered as a little side dish if you enjoy XO, but bewarned, you may have an additional charge of $2) and if you like eggplant, I would recommend getting the shrimp-paste eggplant dish (eggplant slices with shrimp paste smothered inside). I would avoid their boon tong gow (dumpling soup) as it’s little more than wontons in broth (ick)… stick to the other two restaurants for the delicious boon tong gow. Also, I am totally “RUINING!” the taste of the true dim sum delicacies, but I like to order a small dish of Worcester sauce to flavour my dim sum. This sauce is my panacea for terrible dim sum, and a touch heightens delicious dim sum for me. Think of it as ketchup for the asian lunch. Mmm…

Also, as a complete dim sum snob, I have to favour Vancouver dim sum’s to all other cities I’ve tried. Toronto? Been there, done that. There are a few that are decent. San Francisco? You can read my reviews. Beijing? Sorry mainland, you don’t quite mimic Hong Kong dim sum as well as one might think… and Hong Kong? As the originator, you’re “undisputedly” “the best”. This means you come with a price premium too though. Disagree? Agree? Leave me suggestions for where to visit, wherever you might be based!

[Photos courtesy of mischiru, 1. turnip cakes, 2. Dim Sum 004, 3. dim sum city, 4. dim sum from happy harbor restaurant, 5. Dim Sum 005, 6. Dim Sum Dreams, 7. Dim Sum Dessert, 8. Dim Sum Paradise in Paris, 9. Dim Sum at Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant]

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A Facination with Chinatowns: Good Food (a la Ling Nam) and Nougats

by charlene on 2010/12/09 in Australia, Featured Article, Foodie Guide

There are currently 31 countries that have a Chinatown in their districts. The word “Chinatown” means “the streets of the Tang people”, with tang referring to the Tang dynasty which is considered to be the greatest period of Chinese civilization. I’ve always been amazed at how there seems to be a chinatown in every country I visit. It shows how much the Chinese diasporas have reached worldwide. There’s even one in Nauru, a small island nation in Micronesia in the South Pacific.

A tidbit about Chinatowns was that they never emerged due to conscious choice. Chinatowns developed as a reaction to the racial segregation overseas Chinese faced in their new found land. As a result, they created their own chinatown quarters, with food and shops similar to home, which created a sense of community and belonging for these new migrants. Chinatowns now have evolved into an area which locals and tourists alike can immerse themselves in Chinese culture, without having the exorbitant travel fees of travelling to China.

So here are the top 10 Chinatowns from around the world to satisfy your taste buds and cultural immersion:

  1. Manhattan, New York City
  2. Vancouver, Canada
  3. San Francisco, California
  4. Havana, Cuba
  5. Singapore
  6. Binondo, Manila, Philippines
  7. Jakarta, Indonesia
  8. Brisbane, Australia
  9. London, England
  10. Manchester, England
Chinatown in Melbourne, Australia
Melbourne Chinatown is one of Melbourne’s most popular areas. Although the cabinet makers and lodging houses which Chinatown once consisted of are now gone, they have been replaced by eating houses and top end restaurants. Within the historical structure and arches that are characteristic of Chinatown lies a well-known secret by Australian foodies: Ling Nam (204 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne VIC 3000)

This place is the favorite with parents (to bring their loved ones to) and drunkards (with a hankering for good food after midnight) alike. Apparently it’s been around since the 1970′s and they have a reputation as an incredibly authentic family-style-cooking restaurant, which pleases the guests. The portions are huge and very reasonably priced.

Crispy fried chicken

Despite having a piece in your chopsticks, you will get jealous when your dining partner takes another piece pictured: small size portion

This dish has a healthy crunch to it and the spices are amazing (KFC crispy chicken aficionados, you will love this chicken). The only problem is that they don’t provide knives so you have to struggle at eating it with your chopsticks. This can look very unglamorous.

Salt and Pepper Squid , Braised Vegetables, and Sweet and Sour Fish

The salt and pepper squid is excellent. Just from looking at the picture, you KNOW it’s a good one. My fellow diners were eyeing when it was still in the server’s hand, and from when it was set down on the table, it was gulped down in 10 minutes.

The braised vegetables are good; it’s not too salty and it tastes like something my grandmother would cook.

Sweet and sour fish is made with actual sweet and sour sauce which I was happy about. I had an unhappy meal once when my sweet and sour pork was just honey and lemon! The batter around the fish has a comforting, somehow buttery flavour to it as well.

I enjoyed a really satisfying meal and after writing this post, I still have a hankering for it.

Sadly, many people are still scared of Lingnam because of its filthy conditions. It was so bad in 2007 that the Melbourne council fined them $55,000 AUD and newspapers (loving the taste of controversy) gave in-depth explanations on how dirty it was. Now it’s 2010, and people are coming back. It was crowded when I went there. Honestly, I prefer it when a restaurant has been shut down or paid a heavy fine for not being clean. Once bitten twice shy, they will surely maintain high hygiene standards in case there’s another surprise check.

When you’re visiting Chinatown, you might want to grab a pack of nougats. One thing about Melbourne’s Chinatown is that it has a lot of shops selling nougats. A lot more varieties that those sold in Melbourne airports.

Nougats come from Europe and are a mixture of beaten egg whites and honey with a lot of nuts and candies in it. After describing this, I realize that these do not sound the most appetizing but they are dee-leeesh-cious!  Depending on the composition of the ingredients, it can come into hard or soft forms. It also comes in flavors such as original, cappuccino, peppermint, etc.

Both forms have a nice blend of honey and nutty flavours.  The hard form gives a nice satisfying crunch for those who love crunchy foods. For those with weaker teeth or hate the trouble of crunching, the soft one gives a nice gooey consistency akin to glutinous rice. Sadly I didn’t take down the address but if you see oriental shops selling sheepskin boots and other local Australian products, the nougats are there!

[Photos courtesy of Sarah Cooks, t.linn, zhaoxue, and rabbit lim]

Contacts

Ling Nam

204 Little Bourke Street

Number: 039663 2347

Prices: Expect to pay about $15-25 per pax

Hint: Its easy to miss due to its small door size unlike many other restaurants. Keep your eyes wide open!

Nougats

Prices: Aus $25 for 1kg

Aus $ 20 for 500 g,

Aus $8 for 250g

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A Visitor’s Guide to Chinese Food in Toronto

by Jing on 2010/05/02 in North America

My friend’s from Montreal recently came to Toronto for a brief visit and I wanted to ensure that they really got to know what the city had to offer. Having met at Beijing University, we spent months discovering China, eating out practically every day. I wanted us to relive those moments dining on awesome Asian food, particularly the Mainland Mandarin stuff. Not to mention that Montreal Chinese food sucks, this is their chance to savor Toronto’s Chinese food scene and make them wish they lived here. Here’s a quick list of where I normally take out-of-towners for great, tastes-like-the-Mainland, Chinese food:

Ding Tai Fung
Great place for Shanghai style food, not to be confused with the real Ding Tai Fung franchise from Taiwan. Their soup dumplings (xiao long bao) is the best in the city along with many other appetizer-style foods like:  Fu Qi Fei Pian (Married Couple’s Slices of Lung – thinly sliced beef, beef lung/stomach/tongue in Szechuan spices), Dan Dan noodles, etc.

3235 Hwy 7 East, Unit #18B, Markham ON

905-943-9880

Ten Ren Tea House
A great place I take my mother and elder’s too as it almost seems like a classy tea house for adults when the kids aren’t around. Bubble tea here is the best, along with tea trays of various kinds.  Taiwanese snacks are good, especially the sausages.

3636 Steeles Ave, Markham ON
905-305-8332

Xin Jiang Restaurant
If you’ve ever been to China, you should have noticed the food stalls selling street meat on a stick, also known as a lamb kabobs. In the streets of Beijing, a typical kabob would cost about 0.50 Yuan, or about 0.10 CAD, and it was often accompanied by bottles of Tsing Tao beer. As good as those memories were, it’s been impossible to find this kind of food that comes from the Xinjiang province in China, a province that borders Central Asia and is known for its Uyghur people and for its “not-so-Chinese” food.

3636 Steeles Avenue, Markham ON
905-948-9966

Asian Legend
Northern style Chinese food, a great place to take family or friends for dinner. Order the xiao long bao (soup filled dumplings), stir fried green beans, zha jiang mian (fried sauce noodles), and other appetizers.

Backyard Garden
Really good Mainland food.  The best Fu Qi Fei Pian in the city. Order suan cai yu (sour vegetable fish pot), shui zhu yu pian (fish, chili peppers, and a large amount of oil), ma po dou fu (spicy tofu), amongst many other classically mainland dishes.

3636 Steeles Avenue, Markham ON
905-415-8988

Where else would you recommend?!

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