Today, braving some wet and nasty weather, myself and another long standing ex-Hong Kong chowhounder of 2+ decades, had a rare luncheon meet-up at this Markham culinary icon.
Sadly, this time, the company was way better than the food! Although amongst the top-tier Dim Sum Chinese restaurants in the GTA, the Dim Sum dishes we ordered today, though crafted fairly competently, lacked the right and proper seasoning. Case-in-point, the overuse of ‘ Rose essence rice wine ‘ in the Har Gow shrimp dumpling filling, which overwhelmed the supposedly delicate flavor profile. Both the Taro Croquette and their house special, famous Fried Squid tentacles in seasoned salt and pepper were executed well, but sadly, the temperature was on the cool side when arrived at the table…… a reflection of the prepared dishes having rested in the kitchen for a fairly long time. As expected, the acceptable ‘BBQ pork rice-roll cheung-fun’ has a fairly thickish wrapper, a common sight and feature amongst 99% of GTA’s Dim Sum restaurants offering! The steamed Chicken feet, fairly run-of-the-mill stuff!
For tea, I brought along some 10 years old Pu-Erh tea from Hong Kong’s famous Luk-Yu tea house!
Overall, though the food was on the disappointing side, however, thanks to great company, the luncheon managed to turn out into a pretty enjoyable one! We even took advantage of our meet and made plans for our next chowmeet - trying out the new Michelin one star ‘ The Pine ‘ in Creemore!
