Chang An Northwestern Chinese Cuisine 西北樓 陝西風味

Date: October 19 2010
Location: Unit A10 - 240 Alton Towers Circle, Scarborough, ON M1V 3Z3
Website: http://www.cn.qqeat.ca/search/show.php?id=719 **Website in Chinese only**
Menu: http://www.cn.qqeat.ca/search/file_show.php?filepath=../upload/1200266656.jpg
           http://www.cn.qqeat.ca/search/file_show.php?filepath=../upload/1200266705.jpg

C.C. and I enjoy spicy food a lot especially Szechwan style of Chinese food 四川風味. This is the first time we tried out Shaanxi Style Chinese food 陝西風味. I have very poor knowledge of China geography so I google on the web to find out where it is located. Apparently, Shaanxi is a province located in the central part of China. There are lot of delicious food in Shaanxi and Liang pi 涼皮 is the most popular food which you can find on every streets in this province.

Liang pi 涼皮 is a noodle made from wheat or rice flour. It is usually prepared cold in a source which contains many different flavours: sweet, sour, spicy, nutty and herbal. Liang pi is a very refreshing appetizer. There is another type of noodle which is very famous. It is called Qishan 岐山 noodle. This noodle is usually prepared hot in a soup base. It has a more chewy texture as compared with Liang pi 涼皮. 

* The English translation on the menu is not 100% correct, so I have translated it myself and put the real name along with the number in bracket *

Chuan Bei Liang Pi  川北涼粉

(216 Mixed round bean flour in Chuan Bei Style)

This is a spicy version of Liang pi 涼皮. It as all the flavours I described above.

I love this dish alot as it is not too sour.

Steamed Chicken with Sesame Source 口水雞
(Cannot find this on the internet menu)
This dish is not as delicious as I expected and I don't recommend it.
The steamed chicken is prepared cold with no flavour.
The flavour was only coming from the spicy sesame source.

Xi'an Rou Ga Mo 西安肉夾饃

(105 Xi'an delicious pork with pancake)

The waitress said, the pork is cooked slowly in a sauce and then pan fried to make it more flavourable.

It tasted a bit like pulled pork but the pork was cut into tiny cube size.

Very delicious dish but a bit oily.

Dapanji 大盤辣子雞 

(302 Cooking Pot Spicy Chicken )

The main ingredients include chicken, garlic, potato, green peppers, chili peppers, lot of chilly oils served with noodles. 

This is a very delicious dish however extremely oily. If you like spicy and herbal food it is a must try.

Qishan noodle  岐山麵

(Cannot find this on the internet menu)

I accidentally deleted the pictures I took so I substitute it with a picture on google.

The noodles are chewy and tasty. However the soup base is a bit too oily for me.

Tangyuan in Fermenting Flutinous rice soup base 酒釀湯圓

(120 Brewed rice with Rice Glue ball)

This is a dessert. Tangyuan 湯圓 is little rice ball made with glutinous rice flour. 

The one I ordered has black sesame fillings.

The rice balls are prepared in fermented rice soup base so it has a slight alcohol taste.
I enjoy this dessert a lot as it is not too sweet.

Tomi Good Eats 湯米王

Date: Feb 2010
Location: First Markham Place - Food Court, 3255 Highway 7 E, Markham, Ontario L3R 3P9


My C.C. and I love to have noodle for lunch and Tomi Good Eats is one of the places we like. Their rice noodles are average but the soup base is the best. Every bowl of noodles have a choice of fish soup base or chicken broth soup base. Personally, I found the fish better than chicken as it is more tasteful and healthier (lot of omega 3).

Tomi Good Eats also serves 過穚米線 (Guo Qiao Mi Xian) and the direct translation is "crossing bridge rice noodle". You may wonder how come the name sounds so weird. Well there is a story behind it and for those who are interested, you can checked it here. Tomi Good Eats' 過穚米線 (Guo Qiao Mi Xian) is served with a big bowl of really hot soup and it comes with a few slices of thin raw chicken meat, fish, and some vegetables. The idea is to get the meat cooked by submerging them into the hot soup. A bowl of 過穚米線 (Guo Qiao Mi Xian) is about $5.99-$6.99 depending on the ingredients.

This time I didn't order their 過穚米線 (Guo Qiao Mi Xian) but I tried out their chicken rice noodle and dumpling rice noodle. Both are $4.99.

Tomi Good Eats

Chicken rice noodle with fish soup base

White fish soup base. Very delicious!

Dumpling rice noodle with fish soup base

 

Ding Tai Fung Shanghai Restaurant 鼎泰豐

Date: January 2010

Location: 3235 Hwy 7 E Unit #18B, Markham, ON L3R 3P3

My C.C. and I were working busy til 8:00pm tonight so we decide to have dinner together. We chose 鼎泰豐 - Ding Tai Fung Shanghai Restaurant. For those who are not familiar about Shanghai Cuisine, here is the link for explanation. I had visit 鼎泰豐 Ding Tai Fung many times and I found their food to be okay. Their 蟹粉小籠包 Steam Crab Meat and Pork Dumpling are one of the best in town and it is also my favorite. However their other dishes are average depending on what you order. I am not very happy with my meal as I had try better dishes from this restaurant before. In terms of pricing, it is not expensive the whole meal only  cost $25 including tax and gratuities. The dumpling cost ~$7.99, noodle ~$6.5, and the beef roll is ~$5.49.

 蟹粉小籠包 Steam Crab Meat and Pork Dumpling

One order comes with 6 dumpling
The outer layers of the dumpling is very thin. you can see the soup waggly around 

The dumplings are very juicy but a bit oily too
All the crab meat is in the middle of the dumpling

炸醬麵 Noodles mixed in broad-bean sauce

  Surprisingly they use beef instead of pork which most other Shanghai Cuisine used
I don't found this noodle as tasty as I though because it is not spicy enough and the beef are too dry

牛肉卷 Beef Roll

Their beef roll is average and the whole dish is too dry
I feel the beef is not marinated enough as compare with Asian Legend
It has lot of raw green onion which I don't like