2010-08-25 Dinner @ Shanghai Village

ADDRESS :  3250 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC

PHONE #   :  604-872-3618

Ok...I'm gonna share something first before I talk about my dining experience tonight.  Many of you may have noticed that in our blog, we usually only comment on the basic tastes and whether we enjoy the dishes or not...this is because both Buddha Boy and I don't think we're qualified to criticize any of the dishes at any of the restaurants.  Anyhow, I came across about 10+ recent Chinese news articles online about Chinese food and these writers were quite true about the differences between food connoisseurs and food critics.  Many of those so-called "food connoisseurs" are really just food writers, food critics, or restaurant critics.  These critics visit and analyze food/restaurants and then publish their findings/experiences.  However, many of these critics actually don't have much background knowledge of the food that they're tasting, and often, they depend too much on their readings (online or books) and "assume" that their research information is what the food "should be" instead of what the food "supposed to be".  And I must agree with some of these articles when they mentioned that for Chinese food, presently, there's really only one true food connoisseur who has earned the right to comment, to criticize, and to correct one's food, and that person is Leung Man-To (梁文韜, or in Mandarin, Liang Wen-Tao).

 Growing up, our two live-in chefs at home (who followed my grandparents from China to Taiwan to continue to serve them), have taught me some knowledge of the types of Chinese cuisines.  Moreover, at every meal, grandma would ask the chefs to introduce each dish and how each dish was made.  If there were any ingredients used that were not authentic to that dish, the chefs would have to explain why and acknowledge us what the proper ingredients were.  Anyways, I was quite impressed with some of these writers when they mentioned about the main streams of Chinese food.  Any respectable Chinese chef would tell you that Chinese food, through history for thousands of years, was only really divided into Four Great Traditions: Shangdong cuisine (魯菜), Szechuan cuisine (川菜), Cantonese cuisine (粵菜), and Huaiyang-cuisine (淮揚菜).  Though each of these four cuisines seemed to be named after one specific province, but they represent the four major geographic regions of China...and this fact has been proven by history.  However, in contrast, the so-called Eight Great Traditions or Ten Great Traditions were never proven by any historians.

 During our visit to Shanghai Village, the guy sitting at the table next to us was mentioning that Shanghai cuisine is the largest cuisine in China...I was so tempted to turn around and "acknowledge" him that Shanghai cuisine is a sub-sub-sub category of Huaiyang cuisine...grrrrr...

 Anyways, I took a picture of the 99 cents lunch special for their wonton soup...Buddha Boy and I were wondering and thought..."are they really that desperate for business at lunch time?"

 The three of us agreed that the prices are a bit on the higher side...but I guess their prices reflect the location of the restaurant.  Though the servers were very pleasant and courteous, they were quite inexperienced...they came by numerous times to collect/change plates, but never once they filled our tea pot...we didn't bother asking since we just wanted to get out of there...

 After we placed out orders, the server told us that our xiaolongbao is complimentary.  I asked why, he told us that if you order $20 or more, you'll get a free order of xiaolongbao...as much as it sounded weird and awkward...we welcomed any freebies...LOL!

 Buddha Boy and I did not have high hopes of these Xiaolongbao since they were free...I mean how good can freebies be?  But we were wrong...the skins were thin, each one was full of juice, and the flavor was light and they were not greasy...but just like Lin's...I think they put a bit too much corn starch in the meat filling...

 Shanghai Village has just kicked Lin's off my top three list for xiaolongbao and placed themselves along with Long's (#1) and Dinesty (#2)...LOL!!!

We also ordered the Crab Xiaolongbao...I thought these were a bit pricey and I can't really taste the crab...

 Green Onion Pancake...Buddha Boy enjoyed it but I did not.  Buddha thought the skin was crispy and it was not doughy.  I, on the other hand, thought these were doughy and had no flavor...

 Agate Eggs...basically these were preserved eggs + salty eggs...very refreshing!!!

 The server recommended the Three-Cup Chicken and said it's the most authentic Three-Cup Chicken you will ever find in 604...he stated that it tastes just like the ones you'll find in Taiwan...and our verdict?  The ginger slices were too thick and were not pan fried long enough to bring out its flavor, too little basil, too sweet and too salty...definitely NOT authentic.  To those who love Three-Cup Chicken, stick with the one at Magnetic Cafe

 This was their award-winning Fish noodles with Enoki Mushrooms (on the menu and on the checklist, it says "Fish Noodles w/Lily F"...though lily flower (金針花) and enoki mushrooms (金針菇) sound very similar in Chinese, however, they are two different things!!!  OMG!!!  They should have someone proof-read their menu before printing!!!  Gosh!!!  Anyways, the fish noodle were quite nice, soft yet still chewy...kinda tasted like those freshly made fish balls I had in HK except in strings.  But I do agree with Buddha Boy...this did not "wow" us...