No need to head to Richmond for Dim Sum! Here’s a great spot in Kerrisdale. Two great things about this place that sets it apart? They take “phone-ahead-line-up”, so call ahead. You still have to wait, but it’s a different line that the “walk-ins”. Also, they still have the carts! You can order through the waiter, but it’s fun when someone “drives” by stacks of tempting dishes that you might have missed on the order sheet.
This is a Deep Fried Bean Curd Roll, which is essentially diced shrimp and veggies. The top one had the most crunch, and the filling is a good tender contrast to the crispiness. It is deep-fried, so a little oily, but the inside is nice and piping hot.
We got the Steamed Spare Ribs next, but they were very mild in flavour, mostly garlic and not the common black bean sauce at other places. The serving was a healthy portion, and you’ll always get fatty pieces mixed in with the meaty pieces, but the ratio was good overall.
Ah, the popular Spring Rolls, commonly stuffed with ground “meat” but this place serves them with shrimp! Some other Asian places serve a shrimp salad (with mayonnaise) in a spring roll form, but not here. This was pure savoury. They weren’t too greasy and stuffed with a decent amount of shrimp. Very crispy, this place has their deep-frying down. Oh, and judging by the flakes all over, they were sort of nice and crispy too!
To fill up at dim sum, go for the Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. Sometime they come as one “big” one and other time, three “mini” ones. The mini ones are better because the Big ones usually have a worse Meat vs. Rice ratio. And they stay hot and moist in the leaf, an added bonus since there are so many other things to try!
It’s essentially a meat filled rice dumpling. The rice sort of acts as the skin and sometimes the filling spills over a bit. The filling is a mix of ground pork/chicken, Chinese sausage, shitake and the yolk of a salted duck egg. The sauce seems to be a thin mixture of oyster sauce.
Another item joining the feast was the Rice Noodle Rolls. Served stuffed with various things such as ground beef, BBQ pork, mushrooms, we decided on the shrimp one. Steamed and splashed with some soy sauce when they bring this to your table, this really lets the ingredients shine.
After so many Shrimp based dishes, we decided on the other must have, the “Sui Mai”. These are open-face pork dumplings, tossed with some fish roe. Haphazardly sprinkled on, but still here. Chewy and meaty, this is a good blend of flavours.
So if you want to try a few new dim sum dishes, try Golden Ocean for the push-cart style service. At least you can take a peek at what you’re getting rather than ordering it off an order sheet!
Written By: Grace Cheung (@gracecheung604) www.gracecheung604.com