If grandmothers around the world had a rallying cry, it would probably sound something like “You need to eat!”

Delicatessen with Love by Gabriele Galimberti is a globe-trotting photographic project with a simple and endearing premise: portraits of grandmothers alongside their specialty dish. The sentiment is universal and the results are stunning and inspirational.

“It seems like everybody loves this project,” Galimberti explained. “I think it’s because it’s a simple project. Something that everybody can understand and read. It doesn’t talk about photography, it talks about normal people, simple things, food, travel … so, people doesn’t need to have any king of specific knowledge to understand it. I think this is why I had success with it.”

Inspired by this project, Slate Magazine is promoting their great Mother’s Day initiative called #grandmacooks where you can submit picture of your grandmother (or perhaps any grandmother?) with their signature dish on Twitter or Instagram using that hashtag. Make sure to bring your camera on Mother’s Day!

Sichuan food could be my favourite regional Chinese cuisine. No – it is my favourite regional Chinese cuisine. I love the “mala” (麻辣) – the heat, the numbing and the funky flavours that define this food. We now have some pretty decent and authentic Sichuan restaurants here, but most of them serve up a caricature of this nuanced cuisine. The spicing and seasoning are often unbalanced, highlighting a mere one or two particular aspects of the Sichuan flavour profile. All too often the “mala” ( ”numbing heat”) overshadows everything else on the plate. The dishes are commonly quite salty or have a certain “sameness” to the flavours.

This culinary caricaturization is common in many ethnic cuisines. We experience it with depressing regularity in our Mexican food, Thai food, Southern food….you name it; this town has wrecked it. But with the recent wave of migration from China, Sichuan food is surging and things are definitely looking up.

The roots of Sichuan cuisine are in rustic countryside cooking; but during the dynastic period of the Three Kingdoms, this food was raised to a high art. Much of the cuisine – which at the time was not at all spicy – was codified by the experimental cooks in the imperial courts. (According to Fuchsia Dunlop, author of the Sichuan cookbook “Land of Plenty,’’ some estimate the province’s modern culinary repertoire to be more than 5,000 dishes. The cuisine is codified into 33 cutting terms, 63 cut shapes, 56 cooking methods, and 23 official flavor combinations. Take THAT, Escoffier!)

Sichuan peppercorns, fermented and pickled ingredients were commonly used ingredients. But the chill pepper was not introduced until the 1700′s when the Portuguese imported the chili pepper to Asia from the New World. This footnote in the spice trade revolutionized the cuisines within the entire region. The heat from the chill pepper completed the Sichuan flavour profile as we know it.

But Sichuan food is not all about “heat” and “numbing” – it has subtle characteristics that a good, tight restaurant kitchen can extract. In my personal survey, only a couple of restaurants have this ability – New Spicy Chili (formerly Golden Spring) and Golden Szechuan – both located at the north end of Number Three Road in Richmond. I am retiscent to use the word “best” when describing restaurants, but I am comfortable saying that – in terms of the food – these two are the best Sichuan joints in the GVA.

I had been to Golden Szechuan a number of times in previous years and I had dismissed it as “inauthentic.” The flavours just weren’t right: “too Cantonized,” I thought, and the restaurant promptly fell off my radar…until Father’s Day lunch last year. I was pleasantly surprised that all the food we had was cleanly and authentically executed. One taste of the cold Chicken with Spicy Sauce confirmed this. Along with the strong numbing sensation that came on like a shot of Novocaine, the sauce had a nice subtlety – with the sweet, spicy, and strange notes were all perfectly balanced and harmonious. Was there a personnel change in the kitchen? Or perhaps the management noted the change in the city’s Chinese demographics and adapted the menu.

A couple of us had been looking for an authentic Sichuan Cold Noodles since they came back from a long working stint in Chengdu. After trying all the renditions around town, Golden Szechuan’s was the clear winner. The sauce was nice, subtle but still delivering the fierce heat and numbing sensation expected from this dish. The cooks also used the correct noodles – extruded, texturally fine-grained strands that did not have the gluten bounce and tooth of the pasta from most other Sichuan restaurants.

Plate after plate were at good at the very least; and many were great. Each dish tasted distinct and different from each other. In terms of “mala”, Golden Szechuan delivers – so order plenty of rice if you are not used to heat or this flavour combination.

I have been here to dine with two and with four people and had decent meals. It is, however, well worth assembling a larger group – at least six people – so that you can cut a wide swath through the extensive menu.

A few years ago, I became obsessed with recreating old fashioned soda fountain drinks – carbonated drinks that were the turn of the century (1900′s) transition between their origins as  medicinal drugstore tonics and the popular bottled beverages that they are today. These drinks, of course, are what we now call “sodas” and “colas” – sweet concoctions of flavoured syrups dissolved in carbonated water.

When I was assembling my kit (which would have been about 15 or 20 years ago now), it was tough to find ingredients and tools. I DIY’d my own carbonator using home-brewing parts (this was before the Soda Stream) or I purchased commercially made soda water. I knew how to make flavoured syrups (fodder for another post), but some key ingredients were as rare as unicorn tears. Specifically, “phosphoric acid” to make phosphates were impossible to find. The internet was not much help as the only sources I was able to find were chemical supply stores in the US. Shipping restrictions were insurmountable and I ended up improvising with other ingredients. Finally, I was able to source phosphoric acid through a supplier in Richmond (now long gone), but it wasn’t exactly the right stuff….and I actually didn’t know how to actually make the solution that soda jerks used to use. (The internet was of no help back in those days).

The “right stuff” is called acid phosphate which isn’t the pure phosphoric acid I was using, but a solution of phosphoric acid, calcium phosphate, magnesium phosphate and potassium phosphate. Why would one use this scary sounding chemical concoction in a drink? Acid phosphate, an acidulant, adds a mild tartness to the soda. You can also acidulate using readily available ingredients such as lemon juice or (as I have) citric acid (which you can find anywhere you can buy preserving and canning equipment). Citric acid and lemon juice, however, both add a puckering sourness to the drink, not the clean, smooth “brightness” (for the lack of a better word) that acid phosphate provides.

I was thrilled when Darcy O’Neill - the well known Canadian cocktail blogger at Art of Drink started selling the real deal on-line through his own company Extinct Solution. Being both a bartender and trained chemist, he is uniquely qualified and is the leading authority on everything to do with old-school cocktails, tinctures, soda fountain drinks. (Check out Fix the Pumps - the old-school soda recipe book he wrote and published a few years ago.)

I had been ordering it only from him for a couple of years until I noticed that Modern Bartender in Chinatown has started carrying it. They also carry a huge array of syrups, extracts, tinctures, bitters, lactic acid (another old-fashioned drink acidulant), and bar tending gear – it is a real candy store for the cocktail geek and soda jerk. You can find similar items at the better stocked liquour stores like Legacy Liquor Store (they may carry acid phosphate now too….I haven’t checked).

A new and interesting source of syrup (but not acid phosphate) is Glenburn Soda Fountain – the new soda and ice cream joint in Burnaby heights. Here, you can get an honest to goodness phosphate drink from a passionate and obsessed soda jerk named Ron La Quaglia. First timers should order the cherry phosphate – a soda fountain classic and gateway drink into this time shifted universe. You can also get the very good and interesting syrups made by Organic Fair from Cobblehill, BC.

There really isn’t a need for a recipe here….but here is a quick outline: add some syrup to the bottom of your glass, pour cold soda water and stir to dissolve. Add ice….then the piece de resistance: a few splashes of acid phosphate to taste. Serve.

Check this stuff out if you are looking for something “new” to add to your drink repertoire. Summer is here and (finally) it is easy to party like it’s 1899.

This city is a great place for a cook who likes to make Indian food. We have scores of Indian grocers – especially in the East Side. Along the now fading “Little India” of Main Street and the great ethnic Sunset shopping district of Fraser Street are a number of  stores that specialize in Indian spices, sundries and vegetables – even kitchen gear. Surrey – with its large Indian population – is an obvious destination for the dedicated cook (it is nearly an hour away by car).

India is a very big place and its gastronomic diversity is wide. It has a highly regional culinary landscape with a challenging pantry to stock. We are fortunate to have some excellent sources of these ingredients.

Historic immigration patterns have given Vancouver a wealth of stores that cater to Indians from the north – in and around the Punjab. Less common are stores that specialize in regions to the south. At the risk of over-generalizing, South Indian cuisine is characterized by lighter, often vegetarian dishes. Many of the fragrant spices common in the food in North India use are very rarely in the South. The South Indian cook spices more minimally in relative terms – often using only mustard seeds, cumin, and turmeric. Coconut features prominently in the pantry – especially as a source of oil. The more familiar wheat-based breads such as naan, chapati, or poori are not as common as cakes make from pulses and rice. Fresh curry leaf, as essential in South Indian cuisine as onions are in North Indian – is not readily available at most Indian grocers.

Thurga Mini-Mart on Fraser stocks such items – and other more obscure sundries. Their selection of spices is decidely smaller than North Indian grocers, but the inventory of Sri Lankan and South Indian specialty ingredients is un-paralleled (with the one exeption of Jeya Brothers on Broadway. I’ll cover that place in another post).

One rare item I buy regularly is the Dosa batter made by Simply Curries. (You might remember Simply Curries Restaurant on Kingsway – the owner is the same fellow who makes it.) It is made not from dried flours – but from scratch with lentils and rice in proper Indian wet grinders -ensuring a proper texture. It is also fermented naturally which gives it an authentic tartness that instant dosa mixes do not provide. I cook it with a dosa pan which I also purchased here a number of years ago…but I have used a French crepe pan with great results.

Thurga Mini-Mart
6049 Fraser Street
Vancouver
(604) 877-0087

Chuan Ku BBQ a  is part of a growing Spicy Chinese dining trend that we are seeing all over town. A few of us, after having dined there a number of times since it opened last year finally decided that the place was worthy of a large chowdown. Since this is a Beijing-style joint, that means lots of lamb – and in this case, a whole side of lamb. Our last large Beijing style lamb chowdown was at Bei Jiang on Alexandra Rd two or three years ago now – and at the time, it was the only place offering whole Xin Jiang lamb. This type of dining more common now.

Mutton BBQ has a long tradition in Beijing. Its roots are in the cuisine of the Muslim Turkic Uyghur people of Xin Jiang regions to the north west of China. This sparsely populated but strategically important area has been the scene for multitudes of dynastic wars and geopolitical skirmishes over the last millennia. The current Chinese government, in propagandist double-speak, calls the zone “The Xin Jiang Uyghur Autonomous Regions” – a weak attempt at hiding the truth of forcible occupation, political oppression and ethnic cleansing that they have practiced on the Muslim populace for decades. However, fetishism of this nomadic minority culture by the majority Han Chinese is common place; and Uyghur lamb skewers could very well be the typical Beijingers favourite food.

The blithe and unwitting sadism of the immense popularity of Uyghur cuisine in Beijing is lost on most of the city’s populace. Streets lined with Halal Uyghur BBQ joints are regular destinations of Beijingers from the entire demographic spectrum – most of them not knowing anything (or perhaps not really caring) about the ethnic cleansing going on in the Western Regions.

The ancient spice route – the Silk Road – cut through this area and left its culinary mark. Cumin and dried chilies define the primary flavour profile, with Sichuan peppercorns, coriander, black pepper and assorted other spices providing subtle back notes. Mutton is the meat of choice – but lamb, with its milder, less gamey taste, is usually what you get here in the west.

Here at Chuan Ku, you need to pre-order the lamb is you want a whole side. The chef isn’t a traditionalist. Oyster sauce and soy sauce – ingredients which are foreign to this dish –  are both used in his special rub. He marinates it for three or four days and BBQs it in a real charcoal grill in the back. Real charcoal makes a difference and the more common gas grilled renditions just do not cut it.

The lamb by itself could have fed us all, but from our previous visits here, we knew we wanted his Sichuan-style chicken wings. We would have ordered the Sichuan dry fried fish, but we decided against it this time. He also serves an ersatz Xinjiang styled skewered bread dusted with the requisite spices. I suggested to him that he should make Uyghur-style nang (naan) which is a traditional flatbread wrap for the meat skewers.

The feast was decidedly messy – our attempts to cut the meat with dull steak knives resulted in a shredded mockery, but the chef came back later to collect the mutilated carcass to cut it and re-grill it for us in the back. Sharp knives – another suggestion for next time.

Afra Bakery and Market on Pemberton Rd is well outside North Vancouver’s “Little Tehran” on Lonsdale and around 13th, but I think it is well worth the detour. Their massive sangak “pebble” oven operates continuously throughout the day baking giant bedsheet sized flatbreads. You are nearly guaranteed to get a fresh-baked one if you navigate yourself to the very back of the store and through the door to the bake shop.

Stock up the Mediterranean shelf in your pantry here. While you are here stocking up, pick up their tart lemon-juice pistachios, and various nuts and dried fruit. My kids like the long black sunflower seeds (which they like to call “eagle claws” for reasons that will be obvious when you see them).

Summer approaches and my thoughts are tending to icy drinks that I can sip on my balcony. I usually have a nice selection of ingredients in my pantry that I can quickly turn into cold refresher. One item that is currently in vogue at my house is Flor de Jamaica (“Jamaica Flower”) which we make into a sweet cold infusion that is common in Latin America. Agua de Flor de Jamaica has a subtle floral and fruity aroma – somewhat like cherry; and a tartness like cranberry with a hint of rhubarb. This plant’s latin name is Hibiscus sabdariffa - and it is called Jamaica, Roselle, Sorel, Hibiscus, or Kardake depending where you are in the world.

Flor de Jamaica is a bit of a misnomer to botanical purists as the dried red material above is not the flower, but the sepal of the plant- the part located right at the base of the flower and has the job of encasing it when it is immature.

The actual dried sepals are not that easy to find here. Los Guererros is a fairly reliable source but they do run out regularly. You can sometimes see it listed as “kardake” at some Middle Eastern stores. The syrups and powdered mixes are readily available – but are inferior in flavour and colour to the real thing.

The naturally sour leaves and stems of the plant are also edible and treated as a vegetable – sort of like spinach. It is called, amongst many of its other regional Indian names, “gongura”. Andhra cuisine (a regional Indian cuisine) features this ingredient prominently. You can buy frozen, canned and pickled gongura here at a few of the local Indian grocers. It is also used in Caribbean cooking where it is called by its common English name “sorel”.

To make the drink, you simmer and steep the a package (about a handful) the dried sepals in a pot of water, then sweeten with sugar to taste. You can also flavour it with fresh ginger, allspice, and cinnamon like they do in some parts of the Caribbean.

Jamaica, Roselle, Sorel, Hibiscus, Kardake: Refreshing Summer Drink

 

Print

Prep time

1 min

Cook time

25 mins

Total time

26 mins

 

Agua de Flor de Jamiaca is a drink made from the dried sepal of the hibiscus flower. It is tart and should be served sweetened over ice cubes.

Author: fmed

Recipe type: Drinks

Cuisine: Latin American

Serves: 6

Ingredients

• 1 package Flor de Jamaica (about a handful)
• 2-4 litres Water (to taste)
• 1-2 cups of white granulated sugar (to taste)
• 1-2 inch knob of ginger (optional – sometimes used in the Caribbean variants)
• 2-3 allspice berries (optional – sometimes used in the Caribbean variants)
• 1 stick cinnamon (optional – sometimes used in the Caribbean variants)

Instructions

1. Put the dried sepals (and ginger/allspice/cinnamon if using) in the pot of water, cold from the tap
2. Add the sugar
3. Bring to boil then reduce the heat
4. Simmer for about 5 mins
5. Turn off the heat and let steep for 20 minutes
6. Adjust sweetness buy adding more sugar if required. You can dilute it with more water.
7. Strain into a pitcher and let cool
8. Put into the refrigerator until cold
9. Serve in glasses with plenty of ice.

3.2.1753

If you can’t find the dried Flor de Jamaica, you can try the powder mixes or syrups.

Sources

Dried Sepals

Los Guerreros 3317 Kingsway

Syrups

New Asia Market 265 E Hastings St As Thai “Sorel” syrup.

Los Guerreros 3317 Kingsway

I have a new addiction. My first encounter with Dates dipped in Tahini was at Al-Nakeel – the pan-Arabian restaurant at the corner of Kingsway and Fraser and I have been obsessed ever since. The food there was passable but I really could not recommend it except for one thing: their Saudi Coffee (which is served with dates and tahini) which they served us after our meal. Saudi Coffee is quite dilute – tasting more like cardamom tea with a bare hint of coffee; and the Arabica beans it is made with are so lightly roasted that it still tastes green and grassy. You can substitute a commercially available light roasted bean but it won’t have those vegetal flavours.

Traditionally, the dates are served with just plain tahini, but I have been adding a squeeze of lemon and some salt to help mitigate the dates’ inherent cloying richness. I am hooked – and so is my older daughter who now takes this stuff for lunch. We now have about a dozen packages of various kinds of dates from different countries in our pantry. (Probably fodder for another post).

Recipe for Saudi Coffee with Dates and Tahini

 

Print

Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

15 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Saudi Coffee with Dates and Tahini is a traditional offering in the Middle East. The coffee is made with barely roasted beans and tastes more like a tea. It is accompanied with dates and tahini.

Author: fmed

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Saudi

Serves: 4

Ingredients

For the Coffee

• Green Arabica Beans (very lightly roasted in a pan to taste) or Light roast coffee beans; ground
• 3-4 Cardamom pods
• 1 pinch of Saffron
• Sugar on the side

For the Tahini and Dates

• Dates
• Tahini
• A squeeze of lemon (optional)
• Salt to taste (optional)

Instructions

For the Coffee

1. Set a pot of about water to boil. Enough for a teapot
2. Add one or two tablespoons ground coffee into water
3. Add cardamom and saffron
4. Pour into a thermos and let steep for 15-20 mins (or more) to taste. It should be very light.
5. Decant and filter into a teapot and serve with sugar on the side

For the Tahini and Dates

1. Add a few tablespoons tahini into a serving bowl (stir to loosen)
2. Squeeze some lemon juice from a fresh lemon (optional)
3. Add a pinch of Salt (optional)
4. Serve as dipping sauce for dates.

3.2.1753

Seriously.

What hath hell wrought that we choose lying down in the plank bed over the mild inconvenience of a passing summer shower?

Eating potatoes wrapped in dumplings, finishing off with a pie whose crust is teeming with a slurry of flour, sugar and butter is weighing down the gypsy loving daughters in all of us. Here at the Nancy Drew Research Institute (NDRI) we ardently believe that if these girls were gluten-free there would be a different world stretching before us. Our days would be given over to riding wild horses and strewing things about, instead of collating notes about quasi-poorly written books that are older than our mothers.

If you have been paying attention to this city’s Chinese food scene you will have noticed the growing presence of authentic spicy Chinese cuisines.

I’m not talking about the restaurants that serve “Szechuan” cuisine—that old-school westernized version of Sichuan food that we’ve been enjoying since our youth. I’m talking about the cuisines that have been carried here on a new wave of recent immigrants from the provinces in and around Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan, in the geographic middle of China. In what is called the Traditional Four Schools of Chinese Cuisine, the food from these provinces belong to Chuan Cai or the “Sichuan” School.

Restaurants representing the food from the province of Sichuan make up the bulk of this new trend, with the other regional cuisines following from a distance.

These cuisines are typically rustic, so homestyle preparation dominates their culinary repertoires. They all exhibit distinct regional characteristics and have their own specialties, but the culinary boundaries can be blurry, with each province claiming to be the true originator of certain canonical dishes. All these cuisines do share a common ingredient—the chili pepper, which lends its signature capsaicin heat. Sichuan Peppercorn is almost as common an ingredient—but used much more in Sichuan cooking than the others. Pickled and smoked ingredients and the liberal use of garlic and ginger completes the flavour profile.

Unfortunately, these cuisines’ regional nuances are practically non-existent in restaurants outside of China. Here in North America menus from Sichuan, Hunan, Guizhou, and Yunnan restaurants are usually similar except for a mere one or two specialized dishes that assert a particular regionality.

The notable differences you find come not from regionality, but from the trajectory that this food followed to our shores. For example, certain variants of Sichuan cuisine (a regional favourite all over China) emerged first in Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei prior to migrating to North America. Thus you might see “Authentic Sichuan” joints alongside “Beijing Sichuan” and “Taiwanese Sichuan”—each imprinted with flavours, cooking methods, and presentations that are foreign to the original, native cuisine.

Beijing lamb skewer beer joints are one such mashup of trajectory. In these often lively beer bars where lamb is the focus, food from Sichuan and Xin Jiang (the northwestern “protectorates” of China) both share prominence on the menu. These places are so popular in Beijing that the smoke from their BBQs has been partially blamed for recent air pollution problems. In an effort to improve air quality, the city tried to clamp down on these alleyway operations, but the resultant outcry from the skewer-loving Beijingers skewered the initiative.

Taiwanese cuisine, one of China’s most diverse, is another example. It has been influenced by cuisines from Japan, Korea, and from southern China. Taiwanese food has always had some spiciness, but many now-classic dishes were introduced by Sichuan immigrants, who fled there after Mao’s defeat of Chiang Kai-Shek and his army in 1947. The iconic Taiwanese Beef Noodle is a direct descendant of Sichuan Braised Beef Noodle whose origin can be traced to Gangsham—once a small village in Chengdu county, now part of the metropolis of Chengdu City.

A Spicy Survey

Richmond seems to be the obvious destination for anything Chinese; however, the true emerging centre for Spicy Chinese is the area around East Kingsway, from about Joyce Street all the way to Crystal Mall in Burnaby. A quick survey of the area uncovers a couple of dozen restaurants (most of which are family run) that can be categorized into Sichuan Hotpot, Beijing BBQ, Taiwanese, Hunan, and Sichuan joints.

West Kingsway

This survey won’t be complete without mentioning two outliers much further west towards Knight Street (near Famous Foods) so let’s start our journey there.

Nine Dishes has a bit of a cult following and is often packed on weekend nights with Mandarin speaking twenty-somethings filling up on homestyle food. Run by the laconic but friendly Chef Yves, this restaurant serves a Beijing beer hall variant of Sichuan cuisine, replete with beer-friendly dishes such as cumin lamb skewers, lotus root “burgers” and spicy wonton. Yves’ signature dish, however, is his house-cured Sichuan sausage—common in China, but near impossible to find here. Reminiscent of a dry-cured chorizo sausage, it is spiced with dried chilies and Sichuan peppercorn.

Spicy Beauty is a new Hunan place that opened at the end of last year. The interior is spiffier than usual for a restaurant on this dilapidated end of Kingsway. Its chef (who actually hails from Sichuan province) spent a number of years cooking for a high-end Sichuan hotel restaurant in Hong Kong, which shows in the higher-end presentation and more muted flavours.

Kalvin’s Szechwan serves Taiwanese-Sichuan food—a hyphenated take on Sichuan cuisine which incubated for some time in Taipei prior to heading west to North America. Their menu traverses some of the usual Taiwanese classics such as Three-Cup Chicken, Salt and Pepper Chicken, and Braised Pork Hock, but it also lists some more obscure Sichuan-inflected dishes. One such dish is its well-known Red Fermented Pork—where pork slices are first marinated in fermented spicy tofu and the red wine lees (a by-product of red rice wine production and the dish’s source of colour).

Kingsway and Joyce

The ethnically diverse shopping district of Collingwood, centred at the corner of Joyce and Kingsway, is characterized by small, independent grocery stores. Cantonese-run greengrocers share the strip with shops catering to Korean, Latin American, Filipino, and Vietnamese clientele. It isn’t easy to miss the Spicy Chinese restaurants there.

One of my favourites is Lucky Noodle, whose Hunan food can be unabashedly spicy and smoky—two major characteristics of this cuisine—and also salty. Order anything with their smoked Hunan bacon and their smoked bamboo shoots.

Right next door (literally) is Li China Grill—a Beijing-style BBQ joint that specializes in lamb skewers and notably – Chongqing-style roast fish in a pan. Here, they flame-roast one of a small selection of fish prior to dressing it with one of four condiment mixtures in a butane fired hotel pan. The “ma la” topping – with its peanuts, dried chilies, and Sichuan peppercorns is deservedly their most popular.

This area is dotted with restaurants that specialize in authentic Sichuan Hotpots. I count five in the section between Joyce Street and Crystal Mall. My preferred targets for hotpot are Spicy Legend and iSpicy, whose broth and higher-quality accompaniments make them stand out in this competitive area. iSpicy’s Sichuan dumplings (which unfortunately you cannot get by itself without ordering a hotpot) are soft, pillowy, and taste authentically Sichuan.

A bit north on Joyce St near the Skytrain station is one the city’s rare Guizhou specialists. Yummy Mammy’s menu lists the usual Hunan and Sichuan dishes, but is punctuated by a few specialties from the province. The dish to get here is their Sour Fish Soup, a rustic dish of lake carp simmered in a tart and spicy stew.

Crystal Mall and surrounding area

The concentration of spicy restaurants thins out along Kingsway until you hit the mother lode within Crystal Mall, where there are four full service restaurants and five food court stalls that specialize in Spicy Chinese food. Nowhere else in the entire Greater Vancouver Area will you find such a concentration. The food court is a treasure trove and worthy of its own post.

Perhaps the best of the bunch in this area is S&W Pepperhouse, another one of the rare Guizhou restaurants in town. While it doesn’t have much in terms of spiciness, their award-winning dish of Deep Fried Tilapia with Cilantro and Peanuts is representative of Guizhou cuisine. Like most of the other restaurants in this survey, they also serve some great Sichuan food—namely the scary sounding Husband and Wife Lung Slices, which, despite the visceral name, does not contain lung at all; tripe and shank make up the protein.

Just around the corner on Imperial Ave is the popular Hunan restaurant Alvin Garden, a long time critical favourite. They used to operate as Crystal Hunan on Kingsway across from Metrotown Centre many years ago, making them the first restaurant in the GVA to serve authentic Hunan food. Some of their best dishes are Hunan in origin—Hunan Smoked Bacon and Garlic Stems—and some are Sichuan—Tea Smoked Duck to name some examples. Their menu is more concise than the other Hunan restaurants in this survey, contributing to their consistency and quality. Their award-winning Spiced Pork Heart is perhaps their most well-known dish.

When eating at these places, order beer (if they are licensed), smoked plum juice, or Wong Lo Kat (the herbal tea in the red can) to counteract the spiciness and saltiness. And rice. Plenty of rice.

The List

Nine Dishes - 960 Kingsway

Spicy Beauty - 1707 Kingsway

Kalvin’s Szechwan - 5225 Victoria Dr

Lucky Noodle - 3367 Kingsway

Li China Grill - 3377 Kingsway

Spicy Legend - 3309 Kingsway

iSpicy Hot Pot - 3520 Kingsway

Yummy Mammy - 4963 Joyce St.

Crystal Mall Foodcourt - 4500 Kingsway

S&W Pepperhouse - 4500 Kingsway

Alvin Garden - 4850 Imperial St.