September 8th, 2009 §
Ambassador Chinese Cuisine is practically a landmark in Richmond Hill. Every weekend, dozens of Chinese families flock to Ambassador for an age-old Chinese tradition: dim sum.
A group of friends and I joined the frenzy one rainy Sunday noon. Given my preference for northern Chinese food, I hadn’t been to a Cantonese-style dim sum place in a long time. I let my friends do most of the ordering since they had been here before, I just sat back and prepared to eat.
Crispy shrimp cigars were spring rolls shaped like straws, with a single shrimp in each. They were so cute! The spring rolls were crispy and golden. Perfection.
Pan-fried pork and shrimp dumplings were a little burnt, but the wrapper held strong. The filling was average, mostly pork and chives with some little dried shrimps.
Pan-friend bean curd rolls had a vegetarian filling in a bean curd wrapper. The bean curd tasted surprisingly fresh.
Dessert in the form of steamed egg custard rolls arrived too early in the meal, but were light, fluffy, and not too sweet.
Steamed shrimp dumplings in a translucent wrapper sprinkled with roe, stuffed with plump pieces of shrimp. So tender, so delicious.
Steamed shrimp and roe shao mai, in a surprisingly tough egg wrapper. Not as tender as the steamed shrimp dumplings.
Jellyfish and mango salad was cold and refreshing. The biggest surprise? The jellyfish did not taste like canned jellyfish.
Steamed pork rice noodle roll. It was soft and delicious, especially with the light house sauce. If I knew how to make rice noodle rolls, I’d make them every day.
Another dessert that arrived in the middle of the meal, tapioca jelly cups, each with a different ingredient in the centre. One had red bean, one had egg custard (?), and one had a cream-coloured filling that I didn’t get to taste.
Coconut tapioca dessert, with chunks of real coconut, honeydew, canteloupe, and of course, tapioca jelly. Anything with coconut tastes good to me, and honeydew is only my favourite melon, so of course, I loved this.
Another bean curd roll, this time with a savoury ground pork filling that included wood ear (mu er).
This was also a steamed pork dumpling, but the wrapper is made of tapioca as opposed to flour. The filling did not hold together very well though.
The last to come was also the one we were dreading the most: curry octopus. One of my friends had ordered this on a whim/dare. It was a bad decision. The octopus was hard to chew and the curry was more messy than it was flavourful.
Desserts came at the same time as entrees, service was mediocre, but what do you expect from such a large banquet hall? At least the bathrooms were clean. The prices are reasonable, and (I am told) the quality of food is consistent, which is the biggest draw for its loyal customers.
Rating: 
July 3rd, 2009 §
Chinese Dumpling House, or 真東北餃子館 as they’re known in Chinese (the signage has no English), has been at its Metro Square location for decades. Though they are not as big and shiny-looking as some of the newer/renovated Northern-style dim sum places, they are serious about tradition.
We arrived at peak lunch hour and waited about 15 minutes for a table. The place was small and cramped, but service was fairly fast considering they make everything to order. The dim sum was really cheap, and we went a bit nuts – ordered way too much! But that just means leftovers for the next meal.
The green onion pancake came in a dough twist form, which is something I’ve never seen before. It was light and crisp, with very aromatic scallions. The dough was not salty enough, however, and since it was a dough twist instead of a proper pancake, the inner layers were thick and chewy, instead of crispy.
The pork intestines tasted a bit off, as if they’d been sitting out for too long. The spicy marinate was decent though, so I ended up picking out and eating all the shredded vegetables.
I can’t remember the Chinese name for this, but it is a cold dish featuring liang fen, which is mung bean jelly (also known as nokdumuk in Korean). Liang fen doesn’t really taste like anything, which is why it is a great ingredient in cold dishes, because it pretty much goes with everything. This particular platter also consisted of cucumber, carrots, cooked pork strands, mu er, sliced egg wrappers, coriander, and sesame paste. Everything tasted great except, surprisingly, the sesame paste, which bogged everything down instead of making it lighter, the way mung bean jelly cold dishes usually feel.
This vegetarian dish was spectacular. It consisted of eggplants, potatoes, onions, and peppers, and it was so delicious and savoury. The vegetables were baked before they were stir-fried in some sort of gravy. They were gleaming with oil when they came out but that didn’t stop me from devouring half the plate. The potato chunks were like home fries, Chinese-style. I imagine that traditionally, small peppers would be used instead of bell peppers, but then the dish might have been too hot to handle.
The pan-fried pork dumplings were disappointing compared to the other dishes. One dumpling was clearly scorched, but most importantly, the filling was not savoury because a lot of the dumplings had leaked.
Then two large steamers arrived at our table. One was the vegetarian dumplings, stuffed with egg and chive (a combination usually reserved for fried dumplings, not steamed ones), the other were pork dumplings, stuffed with pork and pickled cabbage. Pickled cabbage is a popular ingredient in Northern China, and this restaurant made its own, so this was a real treat.
The egg and chive dumplings were not salty enough – a recurring theme with their dishes, it seemed. The pork and pickled cabbage dumplings were better, although I still appreciated the hand-made dumpling wrappers more than the filling.
We had red bean pancake for dessert (I use the term “dessert” loosely because Chinese meals do not formally distinguish between courses), which were so delicious. The pancake was just crispy enough, and the red bean paste melted against the heat of the dough into a smooth, luscious paste.
Rating:
3636 Steeles Ave., Unit 112-113,
Markham, ON
Tel: 905-947-9880
June 9th, 2009 §
Northern Dumpling Kitchen is a small, casual restaurant tucked in-between many of the same in Times Square, Richmond Hill. I’m always on the look-out for northern-style dim sum, so when I read this Chowhound discussion, I immediately went to investigate it for myself.
Parking was hard to find in Times Square, since many Chinese like to go out to eat on the weekends. We arrived around 12:30 and only had to wait 10 minutes to be seated. The other patrons were all families who cared not for their appearances. The place was small and dingy, like the restaurants we used to frequent when the standard for cleanliness in Chinese restaurants was set lower. I was not impressed, but I knew that if the chef could pull off a really good steamed bun, I would be coming back. After all, who am I to judge the patrons and decor of a place that serves good, cheap food?
Service was fast and friendly. Unlike many dim sum locations where waitresses will ignore you for a good 20 minutes, this place was small and the servers kept an eye on everyone. The menu was long and varied, but we stuck to the dim sum selection. Prices were low, which was reasonable given the drab decor.
The first to arrive was a large bowl of fried tofu in fen si soup. The soup was filled with crisp and light fried tofu, clearly made in-house, but could have used more vermicelli.
Next came the tu dou si, potato strands in chili oil, which was lacking in salt and altogether undercooked (they felt wet somehow).
We ordered a rice cake stir-fry with xue cai, soybeans, and lean pork. Rice cakes can be stir-fried with many ingredients, but this is one of my favourite combinations. The rice cakes were surprisingly tender and well-formed, even they were probably made from frozen rice cakes. The pickled xue cai was clearly the store-bought canned kind, because they were far more salty than the rest of the ingredients.
Next to arrive were the steamed dumplings (jiao zi). The fillings were not very savoury and completely forgettable.
Similarly, the xiao long bao tasted like wontons instead of proper soup-filled dumplings. I think it was because the filling was made with too many scallions and even some sesame oil (completely inappropriate). Traditional xiao long bao have a savoury pork filling.
The only slightly redeeming dish was a plate of spring onion pancakes with sliced smoked pork and Hoi Sin sauce. The spring onion pancakes did not have enough green onions, although they were cooked to a perfect crisp. The sliced smoked pork was delightfully smokey and paired well with Hoi Sin sauce.
While Northern Dumpling Kitchen seems to have gotten the right idea with its no frills service and northern-style menu, the chefs need to stop cutting corners and put more effort into the dishes. Xiao long bao that comes out tasting like wontons, stir fried rice cake with store-bought canned xue cai, and undercooked tu dou si is simply not acceptable to serve to a Chinese clientele. Perhaps some customers can overlook the laziness of the chefs at these prices, but I would rather drive another 20 minutes and pay the extra $5 per person at Ding Tai Fung.
Rating: