Hawker's Delight

From Hawker's Delight

Hawker's Delight at Main and King Edward is a real chowhound kind of place. Very inexpensive, quick and tasty. I have eaten here many times and I always come out very satisfied. Today, I ordered Chicken Rice ($4.25!)and some satays (6 for $3.00).

This is the most inexpensive Chicken Rice I have found yet. The Chicken and Sauce are well executed. It doesn't come with the traditional bowl of broth. The chicken itself was tender and gelatinous. It only comes with one sauce - a ginger/chili mixture that tastes bright, fresh and tart. A winner. The only in-authentic aspect to the combo was the soya - they did not use the sweet dark soy that you will get in a Singapore Hawker stall or at Chatterbox.

Prima Taste's Chicken Rice is better overall, but it costs almost three times as much. I give Hawker's Delight a thumbs up for this Chicken Rice. Try their Laksas, Mees, and other dishes too. Excellent value.

Hawker's Delight

4127 Main St., Vancouver

Prima Taste

From Prima Taste

I'm on a mission to document Chicken Rice in the GVA. Yesterday was Cafe D'Lite, today it's Prima Taste.

Prima Taste is a restaurant chain headquartered in Singapore. They have a number restaurants scattered all over Asia as well (Manila, Shanghai, Tokyo, etc.). There are only two locations in North America. One in San Jose, and one here...so we are very lucky.

Prima Taste takes this hawker cuisine to a new level. The interior design, branding, food and presentation are expertly executed. They have an extensive menu which covers all the favourites of this cuisine. I'm here for the Chicken Rice, so I will focus on that.

The portions are small and the chicken is not deboned (unlike Cafe D'Lite's). The meat is tender and gelatinous - perfect. The sauces included the entire (proper) triumvirate: Ginger/Oil; Chili/Oil; and Dark Sweet Soy (similar to Indonesian Kecap Manis - it has a deeply caramelized sweetness). To contrast, Cafe D'Lite did not have the Dark Soy...and their Ginger and Chili sauces did not taste bright (it tasted pre-prepared and refrigerated for a few days).

I had great service from Rogerick - my Jamaican bartender. The chef is a Singapore trained Taiwanese chef.

I ordered the Chicken Rice, Roti, and Ikan Bilis. The Roti was tender and flakey. The curry dipping suace tasted lighter (more diluted) that I usually have it. It's very good though. They also serve a BBQ version of Chicken Rice...next time I will try this.

My whole meal was under $20CAD.

Chen's Shanghai Cuisine - Destination XLB

From Chen's Shangh...

I drove out to Richmond to visit my parents with one of my daughters yesterday. I had to hit Chen's which IMO, has the best Northern Chinese dumplings in the GVA. (Let me qualify that I haven't been to all the known places in this dumpling universe yet -- Wang's over at Crystal Mall in Burnaby is supposed to have exemplary dumplings, for example.)

Chen's is located on Park Road (at Number Three Rd, across the way from the Richmond Center...you can see Sears - if you require more landmarks). Longtime Richmond denizens and aficionados of Chinese cuisine will know Park Road as a catalytic area in the evolution of Chinese food in Richmond. ChinaCan (a seminal Chinese Supermarket...the first one to open in Richmond) was located there for many years. That spot is now occupied by another Chinese Market oddly named "The Great One." ChinaCan was the gravitational epicenter of Chinese food there for many many years. It was a place where the Asians living in Richmond could buy bulk bags of rice without having to trek out to Vancouver's Chinatown. A number of Chinese restaurants (mostly of the Cantonese/HK variety) opened close by to take advantage of the Asian traffic there.

Nowadays, there are Chinese restaurants all over Richmond. The epicenter has moved to Alexandra Rd - known to Richmond locals as "Eat Street" because of all the strip malls featuring a variety of Asian restaurants (Taiwanese Bubble Teas, Pho, Chinese Noodles, Asian Nightclubs, Izakaya, etc)....now back to Chen's.

In case anyone wonders about authenticity, the first thing you'll notice is that Chen's does not have a word of English on their sign....when you walk in, you'll notice a predominantly Chinese clientele. All good signs.

They have a Chinese Menu (which is longer than the English Menu). You order from a dim sum checklist. Today we ordered xiao long bao (called Baiyulan buns on this menu), Green Onion Pancake, Shanghai fried buns, Green Onion Buns, and Dan Dan noodles.

The buns are freshly made to order at the back. They do not pre-prepare and refrigerate them , a common practice which affects the quality of the skin.

The XLB and the Pan fried buns were fantastic ($4.20 for 6) - both if them are incredibly juicy and fresh tasting. The filling is boiling hot, so wait a bit to let it cool. A word of warning - The Pan Fried buns are as juicy as the XLB - so watch out - this is uncommon. Most of the time, Pan Fried buns are not packed with the gelatin that makes XLB juicy. I bit into one and it squirted clear across the table! My daughter had to duck to avoid it.

The other dishes were great too. The Dan Dan noodle was the kind with the dilute light sesame paste broth with crushed peanuts on top.

Without a doubt, Chen's is worth the drive out. Cheap eats done right.