Whenever I travel, it doesn’t matter for how long or for how far, I always find myself craving Chinese food when I get back to Vancouver. Maybe it is because that is my comfort food, or just that Vancouver has some of the best Chinese food in North America, either way I sought to cease my craving today.
We went to Golden Swan for dim sum, as my guest’s go-to with her family. There isn’t much parking in the smaller lot out front of the building, with customers even getting creative, trying to carve a space out for themselves. Thankfully there is plenty of free residential parking a couple of blocks away.
My guest made reservations so there was no wait. The restaurant was at half capacity at 11am and slowly increased with people as our two hours there wore on.
We sat down and immediately servers with carts came around hawking their selections. A trolley of crystal skin dumplings, one that featured deep fried round pastries, one for congee that you can customize with toppings, and another for meat and one for dessert. Everything else you want, and don’t see, you can tick off their check box menu and submit to the kitchen to prepare.
We went through the list and picked out our favourites and then decided to simply stick with what came around, as a fun game to play. Like dim sum roulette. Luckily most of what we wanted came to us and we were able to get it quickly, to be able to eat quicker. We avoided the cliche dumplings, sticking to lesser seen items that you don’t get outside of dim sum.
We went back and forth, her choosing three and me three. First my guest claimed her favourite Deep Fried Pork Dumpling. I enjoyed these too, using them as a bit of “bread” break from all the meatier dishes that we ordered after. This was the only bit of carb we would have. It had more chewy and crispy dough than the promised filling. I liked it for my use, but as is I wished for more pork to flavour.
My favourite Steamed Pork Rib with Pumpkin in Black Bean Sauce caught my attention; as the server uncovered the steamers one tower by one, in order to physically show us what they had, in case we didn’t understand the Chinese name. I enjoy these for the chew, to be able to work meat from bone with tongue and teeth. The reward, a treat of a tasty bite of meat, soften by the blocks of pumpkin sitting with in the thick sauce.
Similarly I got the Steamed Chicken Feet in Special Sauce. This too I enjoy for the mouth feel, this time soft fold of sagging skin being pulled from tiny bones, like eat cherries and grapes with seeds. The best part being the large bone of the leg where the most of the skin sits. It has a savoury flavour that I find similar to the below.
Braised Beef Tripe or Tendon in Chuhou Sauce. Normally you see them together with a mix of both parts, but here it was either or, so we went with my guest’s preference of the tougher and chewier tripe, instead of the tendon that melts.
My guest was also happy to see Shrimp Paste Stuffed Eggplant. These were large sections of the vegetable softened and with a crater carved into it. It is made into a container of sorts, so that a ball of shrimp could sit in it like a wrapper of a dumpling. Especially seeing as the shrimp filling was exactly the same as the one for ha gao. I would have loved them created into smaller bites, each whole segment felt like a commitment, even after they used scissors to snip them in half. All the flavour comes from the sauce that is poured over the dish, only after it is ordered, to keep the shrimp crispy. Regardless I still found it bland, even trying to scoop up as much sauce as I could with my piece.
My last pick was the BBQ Pork Rice Roll, but one never came carted, so I decided to change it to a sweeter, dessert-like item instead. The name “Deep Fried Bitter Melon Ball w/Custard Paste” caught my attention, enough to ask the staff, who confirmed that this was indeed meant to be a dessert and no, despite the mention of bitter melon, this would not be bitter in flavour. This I really enjoyed, it had such a lovely and striking colour, like pandan. I couldn’t believe this neon green came from bitter melon, and I definitely didn’t taste it. I would have given it a different name to appeal to more people, than just us, who ordered it out of curiosity. The above mentioned paste was salted egg yolk, making the balls savoury. The crispy shell reminded me of Malaysian style kueh with a bouncy chew and the faint scent of coconut, so may be some pandan too. Either way this was the most unexpected and my favourite item of our brunch.
In short, this was an enjoyable meal and it had everything to hit the spot.
Golden Swan Restaurant
5380 Victoria Dr, Vancouver, BC V5P 3V7
(604) 321-6621
goldenswanrestaurant.com
