Baked BBQ Pork Bun – C$3.95 (order of 3)

One of the typical offerings during the dim sum hours of a Chinese restaurant is the Baked BBQ Pork Bun. The reality is that few restaurants can masterfully produce this dish and majority fail only to get by with the unsuspecting customer. The beauty of this particular dish from Pelican Seafood Restaurant is the fluffy and chewiness of the bun without the teeth clinging stickiness. I hate it when I have to violently tongue the lodged dough from my teeth. Of course this review can’t be complete without mentioning the fragrant BBQ pork slowing baking inside the bun. The BBQ pork inside is juicy unlike many other restaurants that procure dried saucy BBQ pork. To finish it off, on top is a thin glaze of honey.

1895 East Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC V5L1T3, Canada
Phone: (604) 251-3395

Sliced Pork with Garlic Dipping – $6.95

A Taiwanese appetizer with thinly sliced pork with diced lettuce and parsley served with their house-made garlic dipping sauce. The freshly boiled sliced pork is warm when it arrives so you get the warmth of the meat and coldness from the diced lettuce and parsley; adding the garlic dipping and you get a mild sweetness to the bunch.

97 Glenville Avenue, Allston, MA 02134
Phone: (617) 782-1688

Steamed Minced Pork Buns (6 pieces) – C$5.99

Steamed minced pork buns in English and 小籠包 (xiao long bao) in Chinese, a world renown Shanghainese dish from the also world renown Chinese joint Ding Tai Fung which started in Taiwan. Although not the original store, the restaurant still does their buns right. The buns’ skin is thin enough so that the focus is on the core. The generous amount of minced pork in the middle coupled with a decent amount of strong pork flavored soup provides the perfect explosive kicker when eaten whole. Vinegar on the side for the buns is a nice acidic complement to the appetizer.

3235 Highway 7 East, Unit #18B, Markham, Ontario, Canada
Phone: (905) 943-9880

Plain Rice Crepe – C$2.40

The above picture may not look so plain with all the sauces, but the word “plain” designates the lack of stuffing within the rice crêpe. The rice crêpe comes drizzled with sweet soy sauce, but most connoisseurs tend to eat with the varying degrees of  red hot sauce, sweet plum sauce, peanut sauce and sesame seeds. The store’s specialty is rice crêpe, that being said, it was extremely smooth. The texture on the tongue was borderline silkiness of drinking Fiji water. The rice crêpe was so soft and delicate that it could split into two pieces if held tightly between your chopsticks, but this is not an indication of an undercooked rice crêpe rather the perfection in timing.

黃三記 (wang sam gei)
4390 Steeles Avenue East, Markham, Ontario, Canada
(Inside Market Village Mall, Unit B14)
Phone: (905) 479-1074

Egg Custard Tart (large) – $0.80 (each)

Egg Custard Tart, a common dim sum dish is similar to flan. Most egg custard tart are made with pig fat rolled with flour to create a flakey outer crust to hold the egg custard. At Saint Anna Bakery & Cafe, they use butter and a light cookie dough to form the crust of the Egg Custard Tart. Their tart is especially good because the tarts are filled to the top and sweet with the strong egg custard flavor. They don’t skimp on quantity and quality. The cafe maintains a fairly fresh batch everyday and you can tell when they have been out for too long when the center of the egg custard tart dips in the center.

2158 S Archer Avenue, Chicago, IL (inside Chinatown Plaza)
Phone: (312) 225-3168

Barbecue Pork Over Rice – $6.05

One of the most common dishes of Cantonese cuisine, Barbecue Pork Over Rice. At Wonton Gourmet, this dish is close to perfection with the honey barbeque lightly infused with the pork. The pork itself is not over-cooked to the point it becomes dry like many Chicagoland Chinese restaurants. Lastly, the sweetened soy sauce is poured over the rice, but not drenched so that the sweet soy sauce doesn’t overwhelms the pork and rice flavors. A common Chinese preference with this dish is an added fried egg with soy sauce over the whole entree (not pictured).

1405 South Elmhurst Road, Des Plaines, IL
Phone: (847) 427-1183

北京烤鸭
Peking Duck: roast duck (picture above) , spring onion, hoisin sauce, and pancake.

NOTE: The item is not on the menu and limited supply of whole duck can make this dish hard to come by.

1405 S. Elmhurst Road, Des Plaines, IL