It’s always a treat to be invited for eats, whether it be someone’s
house, a restaurant or a pot luck of some sort. What can I say, I love
food (duh…). However, it is an outright honour to be included in
events such as Hot Chefs, Cool Jazz and the Tourism Richmond Media Dine Around. So when I was contacted about the Signature Dish Dining Festival tasting tour, they didn’t have to ask me twice! The whole premise of the Signature Dish Dining Festival is to help introduce the nominated dishes for the Chinese Restaurant Awards as well as exposure of other items that would not normally be on most people’s radar (in particular, non-Chinese diners).
Think of it as Dine Out, Chinese-style
with meals designed to accommodate parties of 4, 6 and 10 at price
points of $100.00, $150.00 and $300.00 respectively. That is roughly
between $25.00 – $30.00 per person. Considering the quality of
ingredients in these set menus, these price points are pretty good
deals. If you check out the menus, Alberta beef and pork, as well as
B.C. Dungeness crab are featured ingredients in all of the menus (as
well as Amoy products as a title sponsor). The event runs from November
1st 
through to the 18th. Much like Dine Out, a reservation can be made via their website.
There
were 3 media tours that concentrated on the areas of Richmond,
Vancouver and Burnaby. My schedule only allowed for Richmond and
Burnaby. In hindsight, that was a good thing since the amount of food
consumed in one night would be just plain nuts. Our Richmond tour
started at Northern Delicacy in Aberdeen Centre. We began our meal with the Lanhua Tofu in Signature Cold Cut Platter consisting of jellied pork, mushrooms wrapped in bean curd sheets, Lanhua tofu, smoked beef shank and a julienned 
vegetable
salad (mushroom, pressed tofu, celery and carrot). This was a
carefully constructed plate (but of course!) and for me, the jellied
pork really stood out. It had a wonderful texture and was seasoned
nicely. Next was a truly sinful dish of Steamed Alberta Pork Belly
with Amoy Black Vinegar Sauce on a bed of baby bak choy. Wow, the pork
fat in this thing plain melted in my mouth. The only chewing required
was for the small layer of moist meat underneath. The sauce was a tad
salty and runny, yet exhibited plenty of depth.
Each of us were presented with their award-winning Special Soft Tofu Dumpling.
A purely vegetarian offering, the tofu dumpling skin surrounded a
filling consisting of shitake mushrooms, five spice tofu and pickled
spinach. It rested on a bed of pea shoots and finished off with a egg
white starch-thickened glaze. Normally, I’m as vegetarian as Charlie
Sheen is celibate. Therefore, this dumpling had to be fantastic to make
me want to finish it. And yes, I finished it despite the fact I really
should have been pacing myself with the food. I found the use of the 
crunchy
pea shoots as a textural contrast to the soft dumpling a necessity.
The dumpling itself was very pleasant to eat with its soft exterior and
abundance of filling. I only wished the sauce was less salty. Yet then
again, I ate the whole thing happily…
As if this wasn’t enough food for the night (remember, this was only restaurant #1 of 4), the Szechuan Style Alberta Beef Short Ribs
with Squash arrived next in a hot pot. I found the ribs to be perfect
in texture which was the right combination of being tender while still
retaining a 
slightly
chewy texture. The ribs were meaty with very little in the way of fat,
which in turn made them easy to chew. The sauce had a complex flavour
(definite 5-spice hit) which was a bit spicy. Lastly, we were presented
with Smoked Chicken with Tea Leaves and Rose Pedals.
By appearance alone, this looked like any other order of fried crispy
chicken with some steamed mantou on the side. However, the juicy flesh
revealed aromatics that was consistent with its namesake.
So seemingly full after a complete meal at 
Northern Delicacy, we made our way over to Richmond Centre for our 2nd stop – Shi-Art Chinese Cuisine. Starting us off was the Deep-fried Shrimp Roll
which was uniquely constructed and plated. At first, I incorrectly
thought that the outside of the shrimp roll was mung bean thread.
However, upon close inspection, it was merely a flour and water batter.
The whole thing was friend perfectly. It was crisp, light and not
oily. The sweet shrimp filling inside was complimented texturally by
carrots and green onions. Next up was the Sauteed B.C. Dungeness Crab with Vermicelli. Naturally, 
they
chose one of the plumpest, most meaty crabs to prepare for this dish.
By now, it would be no surprise to anyone reading this post that all
efforts were put into the dishes to impress. As mentioned, the crab was
meaty, sweet and perfectly fried. The accompanying vermicelli was
tossed with mushroom, shallots, egg and garlic. The resulting flavours
were subtle, yet apparent. The vermicelli itself had the proper
consistency of chewy while still soft enough to eat.
The Stir-fried Silver Cod with Green Onions and Amoy Light Soy Sauce confused some of us at 
first.
We thought it might have been black cod, but in the end, it was silver
cod which is very close in texture and taste. Hence, the flesh was
buttery and soft. Despite being fried, the hot pot as a whole wasn’t
overly oily nor was it saucy either. This in turn allowed the pieces of
fish to still retain some crispiness from the frying. The flavours
were not overpowering with just enough soy, ginger and green onion. For
the beef course, we had the Stir-Fried Alberta Beef Tenderloin with Wasabi & Eggplant. The veggies underneath (snap peas and red pepper) were vibrant and had a nice crunch. The eggplant 
was
lightly battered which added a crispiness that contrasted the soft
flesh. There was a touch of wasabi to add a unique taste to the flavour
profile. As for the beef, it was super tender with just the right
amount of seasoning. Our last dish at was the Pan-fried Diced Alberta Pork Cheek with Crispy Sliced Pork Belly.
Since I am totally biased with anything cheek, I loved that part of the
dish. The pork cheek had the requisite rebound texture which was
uniquely stir-fried with lemon and orange segments including the rind.
The tart-bitter sweetness was an interesting flavour combined with
shallots, 
straw
mushrooms and chili flakes. I could’ve done without the fried pork
belly though. Since they were thin slices, it ended up to be somewhat
crispy, yet chewy. If it was thinner, it would’ve been a more crisp.
And if it was thicker, there would be a meatiness to it.
So this crazy food tour continued across the street to Bamboo Grove.
With a name like that, many would assume that this would be a Dragon
Inn-type of restaurant. Well, it was back in the day, but with new
ownership, they just didn’t change the name. The food is all authentic.
And to 
start us off, they did so with an impressive dish – Stir-Fried Tiger Prawns with Minced Pork and Eggplant.
These bad boys were enormous and would give any other prawn tail envy.
These were succulent, sweet and exhibited that desired snap. The wok
heat in this dish was very apparent with the absence of any excess
moisture. Furthermore, the flavours were rich and the ground pork add
the necessary depth. The eggplant was perfectly oil-blanched as well.
While we were enjoying the prawns, a huge plate of pig stomach, ginko
nuts, pork and bean curd skin was presented before us. It was served
with 
a soy dipping sauce on the side. Rather than being really a dish, this was the ingredients of the Award Winning Pork Stomach & Ginko Soup
which was being heated table side on a portable gas burner. Therefore,
the bowls of soup were scalding hot when served. This was the
intention though since the subtle flavours were magnified. The soup had
sweetness and depth without tasting gamy (a clear indication that the
pork stomach was rinsed properly). The addition of white pepper was the
ingredient that brought the whole soup together. Not only did it
provide a nice bite, it also helped subdue any remnants of 
gaminess from the pork stomach.
Once again, we had beef (of course) in the form of the Stir-fried Alberta Beef Rib Eye Steak with Green Onion and Garlic.
Since they used the rib eye rather than the tenderloin, there was more
natural meat flavour as well as meat texture. The starch-thickened
sauce clung beautifully to each piece of meat and provided a subtle
flavour without disturbing the meat. Moving along to a dish we had an
interesting time trying to figure out. The Stir-fried Luffa, Wood Ear and Assorted Mushrooms was 
pretty
straight forward except for the luffa squash. At first, I though it
was either cucumber or chayote; but one bite and it was clear that it
wasn’t either of them. The squash was pretty nice. It was soft, yet
not mushy. The combination of oyster, king and wood ear mushrooms
provided a good mix of textures and flavours. This was a vegetarian
dish that I would order for myself (or maybe I was going on meat
overload at this point). On that note, the next dish was another
protein – Alberta Pork Spare Ribs in Sweet Vinegar Sauce. Okay, this my friends was the best dish, in my mind, that we had at 
Bamboo
Grove. I mean, how could one not like deep-fried spareribs wok-tossed
with a savoury sweet vinegar sauce? This could’ve been served at a BBQ
joint and wouldn’t have been out of place. The meat was on the chewier
side, yet it was a desirable chewy (does that sound right?). I mean, it
made my mouth happy. Er… Anyways, the texture combined with the
crispy exterior coated with the tasty sauce made me want more. Pour me a
pint and sit me down in front of a hockey game, I’ll take a plate of
these.
OMFG. At this point, I could barely get up out of 
my
seat. C’mon! 3 full meals consisting of many courses of both Alberta
beef and pork. What now? How about one more restaurant at nearly
9:00pm??? Well, off to The Jade we went… And let’s just get right
into the food. We were presented with the Alberta Beef Brisket Braised in Amoy Light Soy Sauce
first. The brisket had a meaty texture with just enough fat to keep
the meat moist. The sauce was not too salty nor too sweet. In fact, I
found it to be a bit mild. Something as simple as cucumber sticks made
all the difference in the world. It lightened up the meat dish with a
cool crunch. At this point, 
I wouldn’t have minded more veggies and my wish was granted with the Buddha’s Feast with
Amoy Light Soya Sauce. The dish was really large consisting of jicama,
snow peas, cabbage, mushrooms, enoki, vermicelli and tofu. Lots of
crunch from the jicama and snow peas as well as the strong mushroom
flavour from the enoki. Not a spectacular dish by any stretch of the
imagination, but welcomed at this point of total food coma.
But the food coma would have to wait. Our second crab dish of the night arrived – Sautéed 
B.C. Dungeness Crab with Dry Curry.
Although there was a good amount of curry flavour, it was far from
spicy. And honestly, if it were too spicy, the delicate crab would be
overwhelmed anyways. On that note, I do realize some people prefer it
spicier as well. If I had to do a direct comparison, the one from Luda
is better. I found the one here a bit too mild and kinda wet. By now,
the amount of food we consumed for one night was getting to be
ridiculous. Thankfully, we reached our last dish with the Baked Sliced Alberta Pork Fillet with Herb & Mushrooms. This consisted of a piece of 
tenderized
pork resting on a slice of portabello mushroom and cucumber topped with
a fresh basil leaf. Despite being stuffed, I still found this
enjoyable to eat. The pork was super tender and exhibited
depth-of-flavour. The cucumber provided a fresh crunch while the
portabello did its woodsy thing. The fresh basil on top was a nice
touch. It added an herbiness at the tail end of the chewing.
Definitely a unique dish not normally found in a Chinese restaurant.
And this form of ludicrous eating would be repeated a few days later
with the Burnaby tour! Aiya! Whatever the case, I was honoured to be
part of this eating marathon and strongly encourage people to check out
the Signature Dish Dining Festival.
