2010-05-15-8GTCC

A bunch of people from the chowtimes blog set about a quest to experience the eight great cuisines of China. The second in the series featured Jiangsu, and was held at Shanghai Village Restaurant (3250 Cambie Street). How could we resist when it was mere minutes from home?

The menu was set by the organisers in conjunction with the chef, and was an amazing deal at $400/table.

Ranch chicken with tea tree mushroom	Ribs with lotus roots clay pot soup Nothing special in that it's exactly as I make it at home	Nanjing salty duck How can you go wrong with salty duck?	Qinhuai bean jelly / Marbled preserved egg / Five-spice smoked fish / Marinated bean curd The bean jelly was probably my favourite dish, with a well seasoned and slightly vinegary sauce. For the egg, they somehow managed to combine the contents of preserved egg and salted egg into one shell.
Soy sauce braised spot prawns Although not an authentic ingredient, the practice of using what is available locally and in season is authentic. Fresh spot prawns are alwyas good, plus the typical Chinese seafood seasoning of soy sauce, garlic, green onions, etc.	Braised crab ...	... and lobster Mmm, pinchys	Fantail shrimp (tiger prawns)
Suzhou Wang Si beggar's chicken Not quite baked in clay	Suzhou Wang Si beggar's chicken Cracked open	Suzhou Wang Si beggar's chicken Served	Jinling spareribs Quite sweet, so I can only eat a piece or two
Soup dumplings Hard to go wrong with little dragon buns	Qiaoxia sauteed prawns with pea shoots Pea shoots were nice, but it's getting to be a bit too much shellfish in the meal	Suantang fish noodles Nice noodles made from fishball paste	Yangzhou Hongyun lion's head meatball A good change from the shellfish, although at this point in the meal, it wasn't the flavour I was looking for
Fried grouper Too dense a fish to be deep fried, too much sweet and sour, and as Haoyong says, "Why would anyone invent this dish?"	Yangzhou fried rice A bit too bland for my liking	Quartz dumplings Tasty dessert filled with sesame paste, with the dough marbled to resemble the stones found in some river in the region

Overall, it was a great experience. There were a couple of dishes I would go without, and I would actually have set a different menu that (I think) fits a bit more coherently. But still, there were many great tasting dishes and we were all quite thoroghly stuffed. I want to thank the organisers for putting this together, and I look forward to the next event!

Towards the end of dinner, Haoyong kept saying that after this kind of food, he always gets a craving for strong spicy foods. It just so happens that there is a Szechuan restaurant just down the street that serves double boiled fish. So after dinner, to the protests of those of us who just wanted ice cream, Haoyong steered our group to Beijing Garden (3466 Cambie Street). (For those who don't know Haoyong, if he has a food craving, he will get his way even if it is your birthday and you want something else.)

The restaurant just opened last week, replacing a most excellent Szechuan restaurant. Interestingly, despite the English name, the Chinese states that they specialise in Cantonese and Szechuan dishes. My geography of China is quite terrible, but I can tell you that those regions aren't exactly close to each other, nor are they close to Beijing. I had already mourned the loss of a superb restaurant close to home, but was obligated to try the new incarnation.

It turns out that the new owner is Cantonese, and currently cooks all the Cantonese dishes himself. However, he has retained the Szechuan chef, so much to my delight, the Szechuan food is just as good as it was before (well, we only tested one dish, but given that the chef is still the same, I would hope that the new management recognises the value of his skills not to meddle too much).

Double boiled fish It's not really boiled as it's sitting in a bowl of oil. I didn't get a picture when it first came out of the kitchen completely covered in chilis before the server scooped most of it off.

I won't mention that our next stop was Tim Horton's.