Jenkins and I were in the mood for Taiwanese food one day when I remembered that I had been meaning to try Lin’s Chinese Cuisine for a while. Although it appeared to feature an eclectic mix of Chinese food from several different regions, its claim to fame were its xiao long bao. We arrived on a busy Friday night at about 7:30PM and although the line-up to get a table looked daunting, we were seated after about 10 minutes or so.

Jenkins and I perused the menu for a bit and finally decided on what to order. First came the pan fried beef pancake. When it arrived at our table, they looked a little flat but taste-wise, they weren’t bad. However, I felt that the green onion pancake used to wrap the beef a bit doughy since I like my pancakes to be crispier and not as heavy.

Next up were Lin’s famous xiao long bao. The skin on these dumplings was very thin and light, just barely holding the soup and juicy meat filling on the inside. They certainly were quite good and among the best I’ve had but I think I prefer the ones at Shanghai River slightly more.

One of Jenkins’ and my favourite dishes are tan tan noodles so we decided to give it a try at Lin’s. The broth was made differently from the lighter coloured version we’d had at other Szechuan and Taiwanese places which seem to be more peanut-based. The noodles were cooked perfectly and the peanut flavour in the soup were balanced with some salty soy-based flavours and a nice amount of spiciness.

Finally, Jenkins and I closed off our meal with some peppery chicken. We originally thought this would be made in the same style as at a Taiwanese restaurant but our server explained to us that it was not deep fried and had a huge abundance of peppers and chilis. The chicken itself was pan fried until it was quite crispy and this dish was quite spicy. We could really taste the unique flavour of the Szechuan peppercorns used in this dish. We wisely ordered a bowl of rice to go with this dish. Jenkins noted later that there seemed to be quite a bit of MSG in this dish.

Jenkins and I quite enjoyed our time at Lin’s but also felt that it was a bit overhyped in recent times. We noticed that some of the dishes on the menu did not seem to be your traditional Chinese fare but we surmised that they had to do that in order to cater to its wide range of customers. Similar to most restaurants, you just need to know what to order. We haven’t been able to find another restaurant with comparable value and taste so we’ll definitely be back to try some of their other dishes.

Details:
1537 West Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-733-9696

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

In our Jiangmen hotel, there was an “eating street” right on the second level of the hotel. Basically, it was a large restaurant but organized into several different storefronts that offered food from all the different regions of China. You can visit as many stalls as you want and everything is tabulated onto one bill. I ate here a couple of times while I was at Jiangmen and really enjoyed how this allowed us to sample several different restaurants/stalls in a single meal.

There were six of us one day for lunch so we decided to go to the eating street so we could sample a variety of different items. First up was a fried curry rice. It had an excellent curry flavour and was very tasty.

We had to sample some dim sum…after all, we were in Guangdong province, one of the birthplaces of dim sum! I found the siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings) here to be ok but I’ve definitely had better in Vancouver.

The crab and seaweed dim sum looked pretty interesting so we gave that a try as well. This was actually so popular that I didn’t get a chance to try one myself. I’ll just have to assume it was quite tasty.

The braised pork with veggies went very well with rice. The oil had been rendered out of the pork so it wasn’t too oily.

The ja jiang mein was spicy and very tasty. The noodles were made fresh on the spot and you could really taste the difference.

The vegetables were served with preserved (i.e. 1000 year) egg. I really enjoyed this dish because the egg adds a different taste to the overall dish.

I expected the tan tan noodles to be the peanut sauce version that’s found in most Szechuan and Taiwanese restaurants in Vancouver. This version had no peanut sauce and had a clear soup base but was very spicy.

Now it was time for dessert. We all shared some almond pudding and some black sesame pudding. They were both very tasty but also very thick…meaning they were quite filling.

The glutinous rice with red bean is a popular dessert item for us when we go for dim sum.  The beans were left whole instead of ground up in a paste so it made for an interesting texture contrast against the gooey rice part.

We also had a thin pancake with red bean paste.  I enjoyed this quite a bit because it was nice and crispy …but not oily at all.

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars
Price: $ (I think all six of us ate for around $20 Cdn!)

We finally made it to Jiangmen, which is a medium-sized city about two hours by car away from Guangzhou in southern China. I had several relatives in Jiangmen, most of whom I’ve never met before so this part of the trip was pretty exciting for me and my family.

There was a nice restaurant in our hotel and we ate there for dinner one evening with my dad’s schoolmates. In China, it seemed pretty popular for people to reserve small private rooms when eating with a group of people taking up two or more tables. I guess this works out well for everyone because you can be as noisy as you want without disturbing anyone.

The first dish this evening was some vegetable soup with carrots and bok choy. My grandma actually likes to make this dish quite a bit…now I know where she got her inspiration from.

We also had a bunch of cold dishes. I didn’t try any of these because I was just recovering from a bout of food poisoning (from Shanghai). However, I was told they were quite tasty.

There was beef tripe…

…and chicken fingers. Parts of the bones were actually taken out, making the chicken very easy to eat.

My mom enjoyed these pickled cold cucumbers quite a bit.

Now onto the hot dishes. The free-range chicken was a pretty standard dish. It was nice and moist though from the soup that it came in.

The prawns were big but I found them to be undercooked, making the shells quite difficult to peel off.

I liked the light garlic flavour coming from these garlic chives with pork. The chives were nice and crunchy, which I always enjoy.

The roast pork and BBQ pork dish was very tasty. The roast pork was a bit on the fatty side but I think this was partly what made it so tasty. The skin was super crispy. I noticed that all the restaurants in Jiangmen served the roast pork with some sugar for dipping. I’ve never had roast pork like this before but it tasted really good.

By now, I was starting to get full so I didn’t try the puff tofu with lamb although it was very popular with the people sitting at my table.

The stewed beef with potatoes was another tasty-looking dish that I didn’t get a chance to try.

The steamed cod came with chives and ginger. It was simply made but pretty good.

I really liked these sweet dessert buns. They were filled with some sweet sugary poaste, sesame seeds, and peanuts.

One of my dad’s friends told me that this place was about average in terms of food but is always popular because of its nice surroundings and decor. I did like some of the more unusual dishes (such as the dessert buns) but did agree that some dishes could have been better.

Summary:
Food: 3/5
Service:4/5

So first of all, sorry for the lack of posts. I’ve been maligned the past week with the flu. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming…

While we were in Zhujiajiao, we stopped by one of the street stalls that sold candy. My brother and I split some sticky candy that came on a stick. I think it was pure sugar and it was very sweet…but it was fun to mold the candy using the sticks. These sugar candies cost about $0.50.

Here is a picture of a lady making the rice “tamales” that we ate for lunch.

Here are some more yummy looking snacks that we were much to full to eat!

While we were in Shanghai, we had the opportunity to spend part of a day in one of the region’s water towns. Think of Venice…but Chinese-style. It was pretty neat to visit Zhujiajiao, which is one of the closer water towns to Shanghai. After a nice gondola ride around the town, we stopped for lunch at a restaurant recommended by our gondolier.

We ordered some stir-fried veggies with bamboo shoots. The veggies were chopped up quite finely but had a nice crunch to it.

The fresh lai mein with preserved vegetables was quite tasty. The preserved veggies were not too salty and went well with the noodles. You had to eat this dish fairly quickly though because the noodles got mushy after sitting in the soup for too long. The preserved veggies seemed to be a specialty in this town as we saw quite a few people making them outside of their houses.

These vegetables were cooked in chicken broth (similar to the first dish). They had quite an interesting texture…similar to grass but still very crunchy.

The deep fried peppery pork was very popular with my brother. Personally, I would have liked it if there was more of a pepper taste but this still went very well with rice.

This chicken soup was one of the best chicken soups I’ve ever had. An entire chicken was used to make this soup. Most of the fat was actually skimmed off the top so I didn’t feel too bad about having several bowls of this stuff. The soup obviously had a great chicken flavour and the chicken itself was juicy and tender.

We saw a bunch of these braised pork hocks on the street so decided to order some to try for lunch. It came with a lot of sauce, which went very well with rice. I’ve had a version of this dish back in Vancouver but this one was not as sweet as what I was accustomed to.

These rice “tamales” looked better than they tasted. Similar to the pork hocks, we saw a lot of these being sold on the street so we really wanted to try it out. Although the flavour was good, it was not strong enough and I also found the rice to be a bit undercooked.

We also ordered some dumplings at the recommendation of our server. These were filled with vegetables and pork. Taste-wise, there was nothing special about these.

I liked our meal at the water town because it was different from the usual Shanghainese fare we were used to. I also liked trying out the new variety of vegetables, which I’ve never had before. Our entire meal, which fed 5 adults, cost only $40. Not bad, considering we were stuffed full.

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars

On our last evening in Beijing, we went to a restaurant right across the street from a military hospital.  I didn’t see too many people in uniform eating here though. 

Instead of the regular tea we were accustomed to in most restaurants, we were served some chrysanthemum tea.  It was very flavourful, probably due to the generous serving of chrysanthemum flower buds in the pot.

The first dish were the ubiquitous chinese gourds with pork.    As usual, the gourds were fresh and crunchy.  I liked hos the gourds were julienned or shredded, which made for an almost salad-like texture.

The stir-fried veggies were simply cooked but very tasty.  They almost tasted like stir-fried lettuce.

And what meal is complete without sweet and sour pork?   This dish wasn’t too bad…I liked it because it was light on the batter.

We also had chicken with cucumbers.  I liked the cucumbers and even though the chicken looked a bit dry, it was actually quite juicy.

It took me a while to figure out what the next dish was my mom figured out that it was stir-fried jicama.  I’ve only had jicama fresh and uncooked so this was quite an interesting taste sensation.    It was very crunchy yet creamy at the same time.  That probably sounds a bit odd but I enjoyed this dish.

The steamed tofu with veggies and mushrooms was very filling and went well with rice.  My dad and brother liked this dish quite a bit.

The clear soup was refreshing and had a light flavour.

For dessert, we had some deep fried cake (I think?) with taro inside and dusted with sesame.  Although it was a bit on the oily side, I liked the taste of this.  It was crispy and the sesame made it nice and toasty.  I also liked the light sweetness of the taro.

My favourite items at this restaurant were actually the tea and the dessert.  In fact, they actually went quite well together because the tea helped to cut through some of the oil in the dessert and made it easier for me to eat a couple of pieces of the dessert. 

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars

Before I went to China, my hair stylist recommended that I check out a chain of restaurants called “Dong Bei Ren”.  Translated literally, this meant “North East People”.  My hair stylist said he ate at this place every day when he went to China and its food was very different from what was available here in Vancouver.  When I told my tour guide that I was interested in trying Dong Bei Ren, he recommended this other place that was closer to some of the sites we were visiting.  It was a small family restaurant but was very busy and I would argue the best restaurant we visited while we were in China (or at least one of the top 3!).

First came some stir-fried “wood ear” fungus, which is a famous dish in the north eastern region of China.  It had a slightly tangy taste and a light crunch.

Next came some lamb skewers.  These were extremely good.    The skewers had a mild lamb flavour and did I mention they were really good?  The lamb was very juicy and had some very spicy curry seasonings.   Jenkins is not a huge lamb fan normally and he enjoyed this dish very much.  These were actually grilled just outside the restaurant and had a great charcoal flavour.  Just looking at this picture makes me start to drool. 

We also had some spicy pork ribs.  The ribs were dry roasted with chilli, garlic, and onions.  Similar to the lamb, the ribs were very spicy but extremely tasty.  I can take quite a bit of spice but I had to temper the spice with some rice.  One of the reasons we ordered this dish was because almost every table in the restaurant ordered it as well.

I grew up eating canned dace when I was little and this next dish kind of reminded me of those days.  This dace cooked with black beans and served with some veggies.

The hot and sour soup was not as thick as the one I usually have in Vancouver.  It was just the right amount of spiciness and the big chunks of swirled eggs were a nice touch.  I found it really easy to have several bowls of this soup because it wasn’t as thick as the hot and sour soup I was accustomed to…I guess it seemed less filling. 

I had never had anything like these thick potato rice noodles before but they were very tasty.  The noodles had a chewy, glutinous texture and the entire dish had a similar taste to fried beef rice noodles although the texture was completely different.

The minced pork and fresh cucumbers went very well with these noodles:

My only regret about this restaurant was that the chunky noodles came at the end, when I was completely stuffed already.  If anyone knows of a similar restaurant here in Vancouver, let me know and I would be the first in line.    This restaurant was definitely very popular with the locals and was packed with people, all with tables full of yummy food.

Summary:
Food: 5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars

Of course, when you are in Beijing, you have got to try the Peking Duck.  Having grown up in Vancouver, I was used to the Hong Kong/Cantonese version of this dish but the Beijing version is actually slightly different.  It was originally served to the emperor several hundred years ago and is considered by some to be the national food of China.  The restaurant we arrived at was named after one of the imperial restaurants that the emperor and his family used to frequent.

The Peking duck takes a while to prepare so we started first with some other dishes.  Pretty much all the meat dishes we had that day were duck.    First came some stir-fried gourds.  It was lightly flavoured and very fresh and crunchy.

I think it’s because our tour guides always told the restaurants that we were from Canada…but we were almost always served one sweet and sour dish.  This time around, it was sweet and sour duck.  Maybe it was the sauce, but it didn’t really taste like duck…perhaps because of the light batter.  This dish was quite good with rice though and the accompanying cucumbers were very crunchy.

I wasn’t too fond of the deep fried duck although it was quite popular with Grick.  It did taste good but since I was trying to be healthy, I didn’t want to eat too much deep-fried food. 

The spicy pork dish was actually very spicy…I definitely needed the rice to tone the spice down.    The pork was nice and juicy though and went well with the crunchy chives.

The mushroom with bok choy was pretty standard but still very flavourful.  I liked the mushrooms because they were nice and tender.

Normally, these dishes would be more than enough for a meal…for lunch, no less!  However, the Peking duck was finally ready for consumption.    First, they rolled the duck out so they could cut the duck up in front of us.  I guess they wear the masks for sanitary reasons. 

To go with the pieces of duck, we had some Chinese “tortilla shells”…

…and some Peking duck sauce and chives.  I don’t normally like chives with my Peking duck but these chives were very mild and very tasty.  In the Vancouver restaurants where I have Peking duck, the brown sauce is usually hoisin sauce…but this sauce had a stronger, more smoky taste.

The Peking duck in Beijing is also different from the Cantonese version in that the both the skin and the meat of the duck are cut off.  I suppose one can argue that this version is healthier than the Cantonese version, which just uses the skin…but that’s probably quite a weak argument.    The duck is also roasted with applewood chips so has a very strong smoky flavour, which I really enjoyed.

Too bad I didn’t take a picture of the assembled Peking duck but it was super tasty and I definitely ate more than my share!  I really enjoyed the Peking duck here in Beijing…it was quite different from the Cantonese version and had its own great unique taste.  It was not too oily and I really enjoyed the contrast of the crispy skin with the juicy duck meat.

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars

We arrived in Beijing late in the evening because our flight on Eastern China Airlines was delayed by over two hours. Even though we had originally planned to see a bunch of sites, including the Temple of Heaven, all we had time for was dinner. Golden Harvest is a Szechuan-style restaurant located just outside the ancient city walls of Beijing.

We started off with some soup. I’m not too sure why, but when it first came out, it was a bit bubbly. It was a clear soup with eggs, bok choy, and mushrooms and was light and refreshing.

When we saw the sweet and sour lotus root, we actually thought it was some kind of meat. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be lightly battered and deep-fried lotus root. I enjoyed this dish quite a bit. The lotus root was very fresh and tasty and went great with rice.

I found the black bean pork with peppers and onions to be on the oily side.

I wasn’t sure if the spicy cubed chicken was going to be very good but it turned out to be quite tasty. It was very spicy and I had to make sure my cup of tea was always close at hand. The chicken was very juicy and went very well with rice.

Of all the dishes here, I enjoyed the lotus root the most. Normally, I’m not a huge fan of sweet and sour dishes but I found this lotus root dish to be very unique.

Summary:
Food: 3 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars

No no, the name of the restaurant wasn’t called Local Restaurant. By the time I remembered that I didn’t copy down the name of our last restaurant in Xi’an, we were pulling away from the street on our way to the airport. Here’s a fleeting glance of the restaurant through the window of our car:

Grick, Jenkins, and I went to this restaurant on our last morning in Xi’an before we headed to the airport. My parents weren’t hungry so they didn’t join us and our tour guide recommended this place because it was very popular with the locals and was very close to our hotel. When we entered the restaurant at around 11AM, it was pretty empty but it was packed with people by the time we left (around 12).

It was quite the ordeal for us to order on our own. There was a lot of broken Mandarin, pointing at pictures, and general gesturing. We started first with some bean thread noodles with mushrooms and pork. This was quite oily but still very tasty. The noodles had a nice and chewy consistency. When done correctly like this, bean thread noodles are one of my favourite types of noodles.

Next, we had some braised pork. We actually thought from the picture that this would look like the Shanghainese version of this braised pork but it actually tasted quite different. The sauce was slightly tangy and went very well with rice. Even though the pork looked fatty, it was actually a bit on the dry side. The sauce also went very well with rice.

For some reason, our last dish took quite a while to come. It was a very spicy chicken dish that probably would have gone very well with rice. Unfortunately, we ate all our rice with the pork. You have to be able to take spicy stuff though because our mouths were burning by the time we were done with this.

This restaurant was definitely one of the better ones we went to in Xi’an as evidenced by the packed tables. And best yet, the total cost for this meal was less than $11 for the three of us.

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars
Price: $