Yesterday felt like one of the coldest days of the year! No joke. Walking outside for 10 seconds made my legs feel like they were on fire! Then they went numb and I couldn't feel them. Ridiculous.

And just my luck, my button fell off my jacket as I was walking from one class to another, so I couldn't button my peacoat up! It was so cold walking about with my arms wrapped around my body, looking like I was stealing something! Haha.

Even better. Right when I got off class, my mother called me, and was freaking out because her car wouldn't start! Being the good child that I am, I decided to meet up with her and wait it out in the cold winter weather, until the guy from AMA arrived.

After what seemed like forever, we headed home, and my mom started freaking out again! It was supposed to be my birthday dinner with my aunties that night, but because she didn't get home at 2pm like usual (we got home at 5..) she had no time to prep or cook the meal she had planned for the night. As a result, I suggested going out for hot pot (my fave!) at this place I recently saw an ad for in the local Chinese newspaper, called 649 Restaurant. They advertised all you can eat for $16.99 per person, which is very cheap compared to other placers in the city that charge $21.95 and up.

We battled the quiet roads and slippery conditions until we reached a little strip mall in the Ermineskin/Steinhauer area in the south. The restaurant looked empty, and although a little hesitant, we walked inside to be greeted by a very friendly Chinese lady. There was only one other table occupied in the dining area, and I'm not going to lie, it had me a little worried.

So empty...

The Hot Pot menu consisted of 33 different items, some already cooked, and others waiting to be cooked in the broth. Despite the lack of variety, they carried the essential items that you could expect to eat at hot pot.


649's Menu

One thing I like about this place is that you can order any type of broth that they carry at no extra charge, unlike King's Noodle & Hot Pot which charges $7 for flavours other than satay & chicken. In addition, they provide patrons with a multitude of ingredients to create the perfect sauce for hot pot. Sauce is important!


Tons of sauce making ingredients!


Fresh ingredients for sauce

After dining here, I heard complaints from some of my friends saying that this place was terrible. But in all honesty, I thought this place was great for the price! At $16.99, there is a trade off of price for variety, but the quality of the food and ingredients is fantastic. The vegetables are fresh, and the meat is sliced and prepared upon ordering. For a 10 minute drive away from my house, I appreciate that I don't have to drive 20+ minutes to go to Chinatown and have hot pot.


Deeeelicious

Of course, if you're a fan of variety, I'm sure you wouldn't mind paying the $5 extra to go to Chinatown.

649 Restaurant
3014 106 Street
Edmonton AB

Whenever I go out with my family as a whole, we usually go out to eat Chinese food, because that's what the grandparents like. This year, going out with my family for my early birthday dinner, finding a suitable Chinese restaurant REALLY was a challenge. I just don't find that any of the Chinese restaurants taste that great, and the ones I thought of potentially going to were closed!

Browsing through Edmonton's Chinese newspaper, my mom found an ad for a restaurant she hadn't been to in years: The Wokkery.

Mom said that this restaurant used to be pretty good back in the day, and that they had reopened with a new name. They also had a special deal going on when you order a set dinner, so that's where we were headed to.

This place really is a hole in the wall restaurant. You know, the places that look really sketchy from the outside AND in, they're kind of dirty, but yet they always seem to impress and taste pretty good! You just have to ignore one thing to enjoy another, I guess.

Interior of the Restaurant

As we walked in, the restaurant wasn't dimly lit per se, but it wasn't brightly lit either. The lighting was kind of yellow, I would describe it as the colour that comes from old incandescent light bulbs. The restaurant was empty, all except for one table. Now, I don't mean to be racist at all, but the only table occupied was occupied by Caucasians. At that point, I became skeptical, thinking this might not be a good hole in the wall restaurant. I was hoping to maybe see some Chinese people, in all honesty.


Placemats

As we sat down, the waitress came over with the menu, and she was quite enthusiastic despite the restaurant being pretty dead during dinner time. I always let my parents pick the menu at Chinese restaurants, mostly because I don't really know what I should get anyways. I'm not the biggest fan of Chinese food - I eat it enough at home when my parents cook!

After placing our order, a few other Asian patrons came in, as well as people coming in to pick up some take-out, so I was a little more relieved to see that this place wasn't a complete disaster, and that people actually liked the food here.

When the food arrived, I was more than happy, I was actually pleased! The food tasted very good in terms of Edmonton standards for Chinese food, and everything was clean. The food wasn't overly salty or oily, and anything deep fried looked like it was fried with fresh oil - it was light in colour.


look at how clean the deep fried shrimp are!

I think my favourite dish would have to be the spicy crab. The crab was full of meat on the inside, and the spicy topping wasn't overdone, making me drink multiple glasses of water.


Crab, my favourite!

The dinner experience at the Wokkery was actually quite pleasant. The people working were very friendly, the place was clean, and I had a great time with my family. They have great prices on their menu, so definitely check this place out! Don't be afraid when you see it from the outside :)


Just some of what we had that night

The Wokkery Restaurant
10969 98 Street
Edmonton AB

One of my uncles from my mom's side of the family recently came to Edmonton to visit, but with my family's busy schedule these days, it's so hard to find time to sit down and chat, even with your own family!

Lucky for us, today was the one day that everyone had a day off from work or from summer camps, so we called up my uncle and headed out for none other than.. dim sum! My parents have recently been talking about a new dim sum place that opened up in the West end of Edmonton, that they visited and actually enjoyed. As for myself, I really could care less. Once you taste dim sum in other cities like Vancouver, or even Calgary, looking at dim sum in Edmonton really turns you off. But once we went to this place, my perceptions of dim sum in Edmonton changed a little, not a lot, but just a little :)

My Placemat :)

The restaurant my parents brought everyone to was called 'Delicious Delicious'. It's a pretty big name to live up to, if you ask me. The restaurant has been open for approximately two months, and is located inside of the Albert's Family Restaurant that is inside of a Howard Johnson Hotel. Weird, right? Totally not where you would expect a Chinese restaurant to be! On the exterior of the hotel, there weren't many signs that a Chinese restaurant even existed inside the hotel, until you walked up to the door, where they had a couple small signs posted in the windows. Now, the best part is, once you walk into the hotel, it's hard to decide whether you're looking at a rundown area of the hotel, or some Albert's Family Restaurant filled up with Asians, young and old. Both are weird and awkward situations, but you kind of figure out where you're headed and you just follow your instincts!

We walked into the Albert's side of the restaurant, and were greeted by a nice Asian lady saying there was actually another entrance into the restaurant - one that was unmarked, haha. Anyway, she brought us to our table. At the time, there weren't too many tables filled, and the ones that were occupied had lots of elderly men and women sitting there - the type that have too much free time and go out for dimsum all too often.

One unique thing about this one restaurant is that the dim sum is not rolled around on carts with cranky ladies shouting out the names of the food she has on her cart. Instead, this restaurant uses the paper method, where every dish is listed and you can check off which dishes and the quantity of each you would like to order. This is the way I like it - guaranteed that the food will come to the table hot & fresh! We ordered most of the usual items (shrimp dumplings, siu mai, ribs, shrimp cakes, buns, etc.), so I don't want to review EVERY single item we ate, I just want to highlight a select few!

One that I want to mention in particular is their custard buns. These are not your typical white bun with gel-like custard in the middle. Instead, these have a hot, liquid egg yolk/sugar combination inside of them! I was really surprised when I ripped off my first piece, because the inside just leaked out of the bun and I knew I had to place it straight into my mouth. I particularly enjoyed the fact that it wasn't super sweet like most Chinese desserts, and you could feel the pieces of egg yolk in the liquid centre. Just beware though - make sure you eat these when they are still HOT. Otherwise you will be greeted with a solid, fatty mess in the middle, don't say I didn't warn you!!


Hot custard bun!

When our shrimp dumplings (ha gow) arrived at the table, I was surprised!! Those dumplings were MASSIVE. The flavour was just right to them too - not too salty, shrimp were deveined and you could taste the sweet seafood flavour to them.


Shrimp Dumplings

Another dish I particularly enjoyed was the shrimp wrapped in beancurd, with cheese in the middle. You would think to yourself that this is a bizarre combination, as did I, but after trying it, it actually tasted very good! The beancurd on the outside was fried to a nice, golden crisp, causing the cheese amongst the shrimp to be melted perfectly. It was a nice pairing that I will definitely try out again !


Shrimp and cheese wrapped in beancurd

Last but not least, one of my favourite dishes from the meal was rice rolls with pork ribs, served on a sizzling plate! Knowing me, Asian noodles are my food of choice, and rice rolls are no exception! The sauce for the ribs was infused with the taste of black beans, garlic, and chili, and kept at a nice temperature by the stone plate (I think thats what you call it?!). The heat from the plate continually cooked the rice rolls while they sat at our table, giving them a nice crisp/burnt texture. Add the sauce over top and I'm in food heaven.


Ribs & rice rolls in sauce

Overall, the dim sum was excellent for Edmonton standards. I've even read that the dim sum chef originated in China, and last worked in Vancouver. I have high hopes for this place! Make sure you guys go check it out :)

Delicious Delicious
15540 Stony Plain Road
Edmonton AB

I had some relatives from Vancouver come up to Edmonton for a surprise visit this past week, and for my family, that meant going out for dinner. The Chinese cuisine in Edmonton isn't all that great, so it was hard choosing a place that would be appropriate to bring our guests out to. To my surprise, my mom and aunt decided to pick Urban China - very surprising since neither of them had been there before! Their reasoning was that dinner on a Monday night would be much better than on the weekend. Less business = better service = better food! They're smart.

I had heard and read from others' experiences that this restaurant was a little more on the expensive side for Chinese food, and taste of the food was a hit or miss. As a family, we chose to order their Peking Duck set meal for $208 - not bad, since it was meant to feed around 10 people, or 11 in our case.

Settings at the table

Most set meals in Chinese cuisine feature the same type of food, so I won't be explaining every single course in the meal we ordered, but rather I will describe some of the dishes I thought were cooked very well, or had some degree of difference or unique quality to them.


Pork Stomach and Pickled Mustard Soup

In most Chinese set dinners, it begins with a soup. The soup accompanying this meal was a "Chiu Chau" style soup, made with pork stomach and pickled mustard. I'm definitely not a fan of pork stomach, but pickled mustard on the other hand.. yes please! The soup was lovely, the seasoning to the soup was great to cover the usual prominent taste of pork in the soup, and the light broth was great to start off the meal.


Peking Duck Wrap


Toppings for the wraps - including honeydew and cantaloupe!

Our first course was BBQ duck, and it would be served through two different dishes. The first dish we had was the traditional peking duck wraps. Normally this dish is garnished using carrots, cucumbers and green onion. Here at this restaurant, we were given the choice of cucumbers, onion, cantaloupe and honeydew! It was so unique, and surprisingly, the sweetness of the melon was a great pairing for this dish to offset the saltiness of the hoi sin sauce.


Duck & Jellyfish

The second duck offering was presented as a duck meat and jellyfish mixed together. I thoroughly enjoyed this dish, as the jellyfish was cut into thick strips, and cooked perfectly to maintain the elasticity of the jellyfish. And while I talk about this - is jellyfish considered to be a seafood? I really don't know..


mmm Lobster!

Our dinner also included a lobster course. This one here was really interesting - instead of the normal cream-based sauce and noodles, this one was cooked with a completely different sauce. It tasted almost like a satay-based sauce, and was very delicious. I don't even like lobster and I thought this dish tasted very good.


Stir fried beef with bell peppers & king mushroom

Another interesting dish in our meal was a beef dish, in which the beef was stir fried in a spicy sauce with bell peppers and king mushroom pieces. The coolest part of this dish was the king mushroom - it looked like tofu, but once you bit into it, it had a very interesting texture. The outside was a little tough, but the inside was soft and chewy. It was a nice contrast in texture when compared with the tender beef, and crisp peppers.


Second soup for the night :)

A second soup in our meal was a fish based broth, which included snow pea tips, grass mushrooms, wood ear fungus, snow ear fungus, and bamboo. It was a nice twist on the usual snow pea tips with abalone mushrooms in broth!


Steamed fish with glass noodles

And onto one of my favourite dishes from the night - steamed fish fillets served on top of glass noodles. This dish was one of my favourites because it was flavourful, and a very unique way to present the fish. The noodles were al dente, and the salted vegetables garnishing the fish gave the perfect saltiness to the dish.

All in all, the meal was great! I will be back again for sure in the future :)

Urban China
10604 101 St NW
Edmonton AB