Having been introduced to Burnaby Palace Restaurant earlier this year, it was my pleasure to return there for a proper Chinese meal. Tucked away on Boundary road a few blocks south of Grandview, I'd driven by it many times and never noticed it was there. My colleagues agreed that getting a couple dishes and splitting them was the way to go. I wouldn't have it any other way.
You can tell a lot about a Chinese restaurant from it's fried rice. This Chicken Fried Rice
($8) brought me back to China.
More than just soy sauce and rice, the wok had cooked all the flavour of the green onion and chicken into the rice with just the right amount of seasoning. While rice itself is heavy, the flavours of this dish made it light - anyone can eat it and enjoy it's almost Western-cuisine simpleness. No crazy sauces here.
The second dish was Ginger Beef
($11). I don't recall ever eating this in China, but this was the best dish there and I'm incredibly happy to have stumbled upon it.
The beef had a crisp but chewy texture on the outside, the result of the sweetness in the sauce caramelizing as it fried in the wok. The ginger in the dish was spot on, breaking through the sweetness but not overpowering the flavour of the beef. Even a non-ginger fan could eat this and enjoy it. A few more peppers would've added a bit more colour and contrast to the dish. Will gladly order again.
Last but not least, one of my favourite Chinese dishes - Twice Cooked Pork. It's pork belly that is first boiled with ginger and salt, then thinly sliced and fried up, hence the name. In Chengdu, this dish arrived with a lot of thinly sliced green peppers and leeks, heavy on the garlic. It seems like cabbage is the vegetable of choice for filler in Canada, and it's not quite the same.
Ordinarily cooked with bean paste, a bit of soy, and rice wine thrown in to start, the flavour of the sauce wasn't particularly mind-blowing in this case. I enjoyed it, but there wasn't enough garlic to bring it up to my authentic experiences in China. The pork was also cut larger and thicker than usual, sometimes requiring two bites to fit a piece into your mouth. In it's defense, the meat was tender and juicy, complimented by the decent but not amazing sauce. It is one of the better Twice/Double-Cooked pork I've had over here, but still not exactly what I'm looking for.
Overall, I really enjoy eating here, and will be going back to try some dishes outside my friend's comfort zones. The prices are good for the quality, the service was friendly and attentive, and the food arrives at a decent speed. Looking forward to eating here again.
No comments:
Post a Comment