Are you craving some spare ribs with sweet vinegar sauce? Deep-fried shrimp rolls? Or maybe a hearty bowl of pork stomach with gingko?
Excuse me for being a wee bit obsessed with Chinese food, but I’m excited about the new “Signature Dish Dining Festival” that’s on now in Vancouver (until November 18). Last week, I gave you a preview of the festival, in which 18 Chinese restaurants in Greater Vancouver are offering fixed price menus, each featuring a selection of their specialties, or “signature dishes.”
This week, I want to tell you more about some of the signature dishes that you can sample during the festival. And even if you’re not here in Vancouver, please keep reading. I’ll share a recipe from one of the participating chefs for his scrumptious signature dish.
The recent darling of trendy chefs, pork belly has long been popular in Chinese kitchens. At Northern Delicacy, in Richmond’s Aberdeen Centre, this dish, which they call Steamed Alberta Pork Brisket with Amoy Black Vinegar Sauce, comes with a thick layer of pork fat coating the tender stewed pork. Don’t think of it as pork fat, though — it’s more like a layer of melting meaty butter that oozes onto the pork and across your mouth.
This Deep-fried Shrimp Roll, arranged like a pyramid, gets points for presentation, doesn’t it? It’s a tempura-style cylinder of shrimp, coated with a delicately crispy batter. The accompanying vinegary pickled vegetables cut through the richness of the fried shrimp. Find it at Shi-Art Chinese Cuisine, in the Richmond Centre Mall.
The Jade Seafood Restaurant, also in Richmond, is known for its mix of traditional and innovative Cantonese dishes. For the Signature Dish Dining Festival, their menus include lots of creative choices.
Jade’s Executive Chef Tony Luk created this canape-style dish, Baked Sliced Alberta Pork Fillet with Herb & Mushroom. It’s a bite-sized slice of soy-scented pork, layered on a cucumber with a mushroom and a leaf of fresh basil.
What’s a Chinese banquet without crab? The Sautéed B.C. Dungeness Crab with Dry Curry is a little messy to eat, but you’ll want to lick every bit of the delicate curry off of the meaty crab legs.
Although Chinese restaurants may not be known for their desserts, Jade Seafood offers this soothing finale: a sweet and creamy dessert soup made of taro and tapioca pearls.
Bamboo Grove may be one of the most surprising restaurants in Richmond. From its sign, it looks like your run-of-the-mill take-out joint. Apparently, that’s what it used to be, but new owners completely revamped both the interior and the menu, creating an upscale Cantonese dining room. Bamboo Grove would definitely be one of my top picks for the Signature Dish festival.
Bamboo Grove’s simple but delicious Stir-fried Tiger Prawns with Minced Pork and Eggplant is a pile of massive meaty shrimp, sautéed with creamy eggplant and salty bits of ground pork.
Despite its confusing name, the Stir-fried Luffa Wood Ear and Assorted Mushroom is an unusual mixed vegetable dish, with fungus-like wood ears, oyster mushrooms, and “luffa,” a mild, pale green squash that resembles chayote or a moist zucchini.
One of the most unexpected dishes I sampled was the Pork Stomach & Ginko Soup. I thought that the pork stomach would be tough and chewy — like tripe — but this mild meat was soft and almost buttery, tossed with slices of bean curd sheets. The soup was served separately, a creamy broth that tasted rich and peppery. No wonder this dish is a prize winner in the annual Vancouver Chinese Restaurant Awards.
Alberta Pork Spare Ribs in Sweet Vinegar Sauce
Adapted from Ming Yeung, Executive Chef
Bamboo Grove Restaurant, Richmond, BC
These easy-to-prepare, tangy-sweet, and smoky ribs are another winner from Bamboo Grove. If you don’t eat pork, try substituting chicken thighs or even slabs of extra-firm tofu.
Ingredients
8 pieces bone-in Alberta pork spare ribs
1 tsp. white sugar
3 tsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. chicken stock
1 tsp. apple cider
6 tsp. Chinese black vinegar
2/3 c. (150 ml) water
Vegetable oil (for pan-frying)
Directions
1. Wash the ribs. Pat dry, place in a large bowl, sprinkle with white sugar, and marinate for about 2 hours.
2. Mix brown sugar, chicken stock, apple cider, and black vinegar together with the water to create a sauce. Set aside.
3. In a large heavy skillet, heat the vegetable oil over medium heat. Pan fry the ribs until they are browned on the exterior and they have lost their pink color, about 5-7 minutes, depending on the thickness of the ribs.
4. Add the sauce to the ribs and stir fry over medium heat for another 15 minutes until ribs are cooked through and sauce reduces to a thick, glossy coating.
Serves 8 as part of a Chinese meal with several other dishes.
If you go…
Vancouver’s Signature Dish Dining Festival runs through November 18. Each of the 18 participating restaurants–in Vancouver, Richmond, and Burnaby–is offering fixed price menus for groups of four ($100), six ($150), or ten ($300) diners, featuring a selection of their “signature dishes.” Reservations are recommended. The menus are online at the Chinese Restaurant Awards website.
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Photos ©Carolyn B. Heller