Bakery Nouveau

Restaurant: Bakery Nouveau

Cuisine: Bakery/Desserts
Last visited: January 15, 2010
Area: Seattle, WA (West Seattle)
4737 California Ave SW
Price Range: $10 or less (USD)

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 6
Service: n/a (I wasn’t actually there)

Ambiance: n/a

Overall: n/a

Additional comments:

• Pastry chef William Leaman
• Pastries baked several times daily
• Famous bakery in Seattle
• Gourmet bakery
• Traditional desserts with a gourmet/West Coast twist
• Breads/Desserts/Pastries/Chocolates/Jam/Lunch
• Award winning desserts
• Natural ingredients
• Seasonal ingredients
• Gift baskets available
• Daily/Weekly/Holiday specials
• Dine in/Take-out
• Mon-Thurs 6am-7pm
• Fri 6am-9pm
• Sat 7am-9pm
• Sun 7am-7pm

**Recommendation: Geez...almost everything. The blueberry pistachio cake, double baked almond croissant, German chocolate cake with coconut, passion fruit macaroon.That's basically everything I tried and I recommend it all. When I go back I'm definitely trying the Phoenix and Praline Dream.

Have you ever liked something so much you were literally using your licked fingers to squeegee down the plate? This was definitely one of those times, and I had no shame doing it. I don’t know – maybe part of it was me knowing that I couldn’t easily get these amazing desserts again.

Nouveau Bakery is a Parisian bakery in Seattle – again Kim was kind enough to bring back some goodies for me to try…and thank god he did. This bakery is known as one of the best bakeries in Seattle. Winner of numerous awards the pastry chef William Leaman is also the 2005 World Cup of Baking Gold Medal Winner.

Holy crap I don’t know what I did to deserve Christmas all over again. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but I think could be the 1^st time I’ve given a restaurant 6/6. I did only try 4 things, which to me is a decent sample, and everything was equally amazing…I don’t know how many times I “OMGGGGGGGG” – seriously food orgasm coming up!

I looked at the online menu because since I wasn’t actually there to do the ordering I didn’t know exactly what I tried. It markets itself as an authentic Parisian bakery, and the majority of their items are very French – however there definitely are some global influences in there. I don’t know many, if at all any authentic French bakery that serves up pizzas, carrot cakes and Pistachio blueberry cakes! The last one is definitely a West Coast fusion thing that I would expect to see at Kreation Artisan Cake, a bakery in Vancouver.

Authenticity is a big deal to me, but did it bother me this time? No. Authentic or not, Nouveau Bakery has amazing cakes and pastries and I almost want to make the 2 hour drive to Seattle right now to try more things. If you’re not going to like something, I think it’ll be partly because you think you’ve paid too much for it…they’re quite pricey…but it is a quality dessert, so I think it’s worth it! They're very well thought out, well executed and presented.

On the table:

Double Baked Almond Croissant 6/6

• Our classic croissant soaked in simple syrup and filled with delicious almond cream. It is topped with sliced almonds and additional almond cream $3.85 USD

• It’s double baked to make a very chewy nougat like croissant. It’s very tightly packed layers of crisp flaky pastry.

  

• It’s sweet, but not too sweet and it's wonderfully nutty and dense. It’s almost like a giant almond nougat or almond caramel because the almond cream isn’t really a cream but almost like a paste – I think it’s made with marzipan and ground almonds.
• The middle is very moist and really not greasy at all. I’m surprised!
• The bottom is really browned because it’s double baked so all the sugars are very caramelized to give it a richer deeper flavour.

• I was literally licking the crumbs off my plate and off Kim’s plate. I actually want to lick the screen right now.
  

  

Blueberry and Pistachio Cake 6/6

• $5.50 USD
• If I’m going to die after eating something…it could be after this cake. If heaven tastes this good how to I get there sooner?! It’s so good I could almost give it a 7/6. Seriously I almost hate myself for being lucky enough to try it. Mind you I do love pistachio and blueberries…so the two together were a delicious concoction.
• I don’t have the exact description but I would say it’s alternate layers of Pistachio cake with blueberry mousse. It’s almost like a twist on a French style napoleon because it has a puff pastry like layer on top too.

• Unlike local bakery Boulangerie Cho-Pain their top layer of puff pastry is perfect! I could cut myself the tiniest slice with the fork without the mousse squishing out the sides or having to remove the top layer. It was nice and soft, and it's not even a puff pastry, but it's the easiest way to describe it.
• The pistachio cake is awesome with real crumbs of pistachio. The blueberry mousse was nice and light and made with real blueberries too. It’s nutty, creamy and rich in flavour.
• The bottom 1/3 of this cake tastes like a Pistachio Kit Kat bar! There’s a brown wafer like layer and it tastes like it’s made of ground up very crispy wafers, ground up hazelnuts and maybe even a little bit of chocolate although the chocolate is very subtle if it’s in there

• It's the texture of ground up Chinese egg rolls and gave the cake a crispy crunch. They weren't hard, but delicate and I’m so surprised they weren’t soggy either. It’s seriously AMAZING and pleasantly unexpected.
• No part of this cake needs adjusting.

  

German Chocolate Cake 2/6

• $5.50 USD
• I don’t have the exact description but it’s layers of rich dense chocolate cake with layers of coconut walnut caramel filling.
• This chocolate cake is an extremely moist chocolate cake and it was perfectly sweet for me. It looks much more sweet than it actually is. It’s not very bitter so was probably a 68% cocoa or so. It wasn’t a milk chocolate nor was it a dark chocolate cake batter. It’s a rather light cake with a rich chocolate taste that lingers.
• The layer of caramel coconut cream is amazing! They use loads of fresh coconut and tons of chopped walnuts in it. It’s almost like a thick chewy coconut caramel nougat with walnuts. It’s amazing.
• Eaten together nothing is overpowering and I tasted every single ingredient from the crunchy walnuts to the juicy coconut shreds. It made the cake extra moist.

Parisian Macaroons 4/6

• These traditional Parisian cookies are light and airy. They are rumored to be the best outside of Paris! Flavor choices vary by day and feature: Café, Passion fruit, Chocolate, Raspberry, Pistachio, Coconut, Caramel, Salt Caramel, Blood Orange and Cassis $1.50 USD (The description is from the website...it’s a pretty expensive macaroon and they’re pretty small though)
• Coconut 4/6
• The coconut macaroon tastes like almond macaroon to me. That’s probably because there is almond in it. I wouldn't have guessed coconut until I saw the listed flavours though.
  
• I think they could have used real ground up dried coconut in this macaroon. It's obvious once you know the flavour is coconut, otherwise it's hard to put your finger on it.
  
• It’s very sweet. For me a bit too sweet to the point of hurting your teeth. It’s the almond coconut cream in the middle that was very sweet for me. I like the macaroons from Say See Bon better although they are almost exactly the same. They’re just as chewy and they even look the same.
• The meringue isn’t as thin or delicate as Say See Bon because the crispiness is more like a cookie than it was a meringue.
• Passion Fruit 5/6
• Wow! This really tastes like passion fruit! Seriously when you take a bite and start chewing it starts melting away and it tastes like passion fruit juice! I loved this one and it was so unique I’ve never seen it before.
• Again it was a bit too sweet for me (but the coconut sweeter), but the flavour was so strong and so unique I would still recommend for people to try it.

Salumi Artisan Cured Meats

Restaurant: Salumi Artisan Cured Meats

Cuisine: Italian/Sandwiches
Last visited: January 15, 2010
Area: Seattle, Washington (Pioneer Square)
309 3rd Ave South
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5.5
Service: n/a (I wasn’t actually there)

Ambiance: n/a

Overall: n/a

Additional comments:

• Opened by Mario Batali’s dad
• Specializes and famous for cured meats
• Gourmet home made high quality cured meats
• Famous for cured meats
• Popular for sandwiches
• Large selection of cured meats
• Small selection of specialty sandwiches
• Home made
• Gift baskets available
• Platters available
• 5 course lunch parties available Wed/Thurs ($40/each)
• Eat in/Take out
• Lunch only
• Beer and wine available
• Open Tues-Fri 11am-4pm

**Recommendation: Porchetta

Drool!!!! This sandwich was delicious. Well the Porchetta was…

Now let’s start again. I wasn’t physically there to try the famous Salumi sandwiches, but I’m lucky enough to know Kim. Kim was in Seattle for business and had intentions on visiting Salumi, so on his way back he actually brought 2 sandwiches for me to try. I had heard about Salumi doing my own research, from Sherman, as well as through other foodie friends. I haven’t actually tried them since I’m from Vancouver, but I was very eager to do so the next time I was in Seattle. I have to see for myself what the rave is all about.

I tried the Porchetta and the Salumi Muffo – it’s interesting to note that Salumi is famous for their cured meats, yet the Porchetta sandwich (with no cured meats) was the clear winner for me. Next time I visit I would order the cured meats on their own to try separately. Probably better alone on a platter with some cheese than in the sandwich.

I just found out that Salumi is opened by Mario Batali’s dad. Mario Batali is one of my favourite chefs, so this is a big deal for me. However I’m not letting it affect this review because I wrote the review before I discovered this fact…so I’m literally just adding this paragraph in last minute.

On the table:

**Porchetta 6/6

• Salumi’s tribute to the pig. Pork butter-flied and stuffed with our own sausage meat and spices $9
• The description of the sandwich doesn’t really make sense to me, that’s not how I would describe it because it’s not what it looks like.
• This was an amazing sandwich though! It’s served hot so I had to bake it in the over before trying it again since it had traveled for 2 hours before hitting my mouth.
• The porchetta didn’t taste really salty, even though it usually is. Instead it was just so flavourful, it’s amazing.
• This sandwich is loaded with nice big chunks of porchetta (boneless pork roast). It’s as tender as pulled pork, but it’s actually chunks of it in the sandwich. It’s 90% lean with little bits of fat, but it doesn’t taste fatty at all. It was tender, juicy and had absorbed the wonderful flavours of the whole fennel seeds.
• There were lots of fennel seeds and it brought a beautiful licorice and black pepper flavour to the meat. There was also some garlic although you can’t see it. It’ s very subtle and the garlic flavour is more infused.

  

• The sausage meat was almost like meat loaf, but there wasn’t much of it. The mixture of the two meats just made for an extra tender sandwich.
• There was also a subtle and natural sweetness to the meat and this was thanks to the carrots and celery. The porchetta is supposed to be butterflied and stuffed with veggies, tied and then roasted, but that’s not what it looked like. I did see very small and minimal pieces of carrot, but the pork pieces were chunks.
• This sandwich hardly had any other ingredients or sauces and it didn’t need any. (I love sauce too!) It was simple and just great tasting slowly roasted pork.
• The bread was a baguette and it wasn’t too chewy. I could have eaten the meat alone that was definitely the star.
• FYI – I know a secret! At least I think I know part of it! I’ve never been there so I haven’t witnessed how they make it so may be no secret at all. But beside the porchetta, the secret is in the butter they use for the bread. It’s not butter! They actually use the pork lard (fat) as the butter. I can see and taste it! It has so much flavour and is SO bad for you, but it makes the difference and adds flavour!

Salumi Muffo 4.5/6

• With vegetables, olives, pimiento, provolone, cooked salami, and spicy Sopressata $9
• This is a slightly spicier sandwich but still savoury from the olive, sweet from the veggies (carrots, onions and maybe some celery) and tangy from the pimiento. It tastes like a cross between a green olive tapenade and an antipasto. It was very Mediterranean/Spanish and they brighten it up with some freshly chopped Italian flat leaf parsley.
• Sopressata is Italian dry-cured salami. The one here is made with whole black peppercorns and the slices are perfect. They’re nice and thin to enhance the best flavour, yet they taste thick…also because the quality of meat is so high. It had a combination of lean and fatty meat but the ratio was right, and when you bit into a black peppercorn it was just delicious and gave it that spicy kick. I actually could have used 1 more slice of each salami because the bread is thick.
• The salami is savoury with a slight tang at the end and it really matched the tapenade. They make all the cured meats in house with old Italian family traditions. I really felt like I was eating meat and not crappy deli stuff.
• The ratio of ingredients was right on as well however I could taste the olive tapenade the most. The provolone was a hard provolone so it stood up to the cured meats without competing with them.
• The bread was Ciabatta bread and it was a littler too chewy and too hard for my liking. However it absorbed the oils of the olive tapenade really well.
• The sandwich was pre-made and out of the fridge, which is a bit unexpected. It was a really good sandwich, but not excellent. I felt like the olive tapenade could have used a few different kinds of olives and the bread didn’t work for me.

Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant

Restaurant: Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant

Cuisine: American/West Coast/Fast Food/Seafood
Last visited: January 9, 2010
Area: White Rock, BC
15479 Marine Drive
Price Range: $10-20

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: Fish: 6 Other stuff: 2
Service: 5

Ambiance: 3

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Family owned
• Since 1975
• Specializes/famous for fish and chips and tartar sauce
• Huge portions, huge pieces of fish
• Only one kind of fish: Cod
• Deep fried and breaded everything, except for salads
• Familiar to locals and tourists
• Line-ups
• Homemade, family recipes
• Great for families/seniors
• Very casual, fun atmosphere
• Special: Buy 3 pieces and get 1 FREE
• Great option for picnic on the beach
• Some burgers, sides, salads available
• Award winning “Travelocity.ca selected local favourite”
• Dine in/Take-out
• Take-out window, patio area
• Accepts inteac/Visa/Mastercard

**Recommendation: Fish and tartar sauce (I’d even pass on the chips)

The first time I heard about Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant was at a family dinner. Thanks to me we always end up talking about food! :D My cousins and I were sitting at a table talking about the best fish and chips in the city. I was talking about how I wasn’t impressed by Pajo’s in Richmond and then with high enthusiasm one of them blurts out “Moby Dick! Moby Dick in White Rock is THE BEST Fish and Chips in Vancouver!” I could hear the passion in his voice and the excitement in his eyes. We could all feel it…it was pretty hilarious. Nonetheless all of us put it on our list of places to go!

So I came here literally right after my 3 course brunch at Giraffe Restaurant down the street. This was pretty much my second lunch, but I just had to try it! While waiting for Kim to arrive, I spent 20 min. walking up and down the street to burn off brunch so I would be hungry again. Kim and I have been talking about it for ages, so I’m glad we finally made it!

Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant has been around for ages, and not much has changed since its opened…not that I was alive then, but it doesn’t seem like anything has changed. It has the family owned atmosphere with that “tacky” quality fish and chip places have. It’s fun though and it suites the atmosphere, so I liked it! Even the service is very family-owned – everyone seems to be grinning from ear to ear and you can feel that they really appreciate your business from the moment you walk in to the minute you leave.

Some (very few) people may call it a "tourist trap", but I don't think so. I was there visiting in the winter and it was packed with locals. Ultimately you do get a huge piece of quality fish that's fried very well with homemade tartar sauce...I could pass on the other items though.

On the table:

**3 Pieces Fish & Chips 6/6

• $16.60 (If you order 3 pieces you get 1 free! The offer isn’t advertised, but they’ll give it to you.)
• Yes, this was the best fish and chips I’ve had yet. However I don’t have much to compare to because I don’t have fish and chips too often. I could, but I doubt I will find better than this.
• The fish is premium quality Alaskan Lingcod and they slice and filet it in house! It’s the biggest deep-fried fish I’ve ever had. The meat was was juicy, tender, flaky and fried golden brown to perfection.
• The batter is the 2^nd part to what makes this fish perfect. It’s a really thin crispy batter, to the point of almost forming air pockets. It was that light and I’m so surprised at how well it held on to the fish, the fish didn’t separate from the batter. I want to taste more fish than I do batter, and in this case I did. It was the perfect ratio.
• To my surprise, one of the first things I noticed was that the fish and batter were not seasoned. There was no pepper and very little, or I think none at all – salt! Usually this would be a big deal to me, because there should be some salt to enhance the flavour, but it didn’t bother me here too much because the star of the show was the tartar sauce!

  

Tartar sauce 5/6

• Small: $.80 Large $1.40
• The tartar sauce is another famous item at Moby Dick Seafood Restaurant.
• Start off with a premium ingredient and serve it with a homemade sauce…how can you go wrong?
• People say it’s the best tartar sauce ever, so I had my expectations set high. I wouldn't call it a classic tartar sauce though.
• It smells and tastes like dill vegetable dip and ranch salad dressing mixed together. It’s mayo based, so a bit thicker than a salad dressing. There’s lots of dill, some pickles and minced onions too. It could really be used as a potato chip dip or for a potato salad. It was creamy, but maybe a bit thinner in texture than a traditional tartar sauce. It was excellent, but the dominant flavour is dill and for a tartar sauce I would like a bit more of a pickled flavour.

Chips 1.5/6

• Small $3.90 Medium $4.90 Large $5.90
• To be honest I could do without the fries. They’re hand-cut Yukon Gold fries with the skins on (even though the menu says they peel the skins by hand).
• They’re a bit sweeter because they’re Yukon golds and they would have been excellent if they cooked them well. They were very oily though and soggy because they were soaked in oil. They were almost wet, and I had grease all over my hands.
• They could have been so good, but I think they need to re-assess the cooking temperature and time…or even just fry them twice or fry them longer in hotter oil. It catches me off guard because they nailed the frying time on the fish and the batter was so light and crispy.

  

Clam Strips 1/6

• Breaded clam strips served with cocktail sauce $4.90
• I was not feeling this at all. The batter was completely opposite of the batter on the fish. It was dense, crunchy and reminded be of the batter cheap pubs use for their onion rings. Or it reminded me of heavily battered popcorn shrimp, but with a fishy taste. The batter separated from the clam meat; however the clam itself was quite tender. It was a whole lot of batter and not a whole lot of clam.
• The clam strips were also quite bitty too. There were a few that were at least 2 inches and then a bunch at the bottom that were really small.
• I also didn’t like how they served it with 2 random onion rings. It was almost like they knew the clam strips looked a bit pathetic so they added the rings last minute to make the dish look fuller. How did they taste? Like a regular onion ring. It wasn't the fish batter or the clam batter, but somewhere in between.
• Cocktail sauce: The cocktail sauce was more on the ketchup side than it was on the horseradish side. It was quite mild, so I think it catered more to kids and seniors with sensitive taste buds. It was a bit tangy and lemony but I like a stronger kick to my cocktail sauce.

Shanghai River Restaurant

The kitchen and "xiao long bao" making station

Bean Curd Roll with Vegetable

Restaurant: Shanghai River
Cuisine: Shanghainese/Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: Multiple - September 4, 09

Area: Richmond, BC

7831 Westminster Hwy

Price Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very Good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5

Service: 3

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Known as the best/Richmond's most popular Shanghai restaurants
  
• Higher end Shanghai/Chinese Restaurant in Vancouver/Richmond
  
• Hit or miss items - but when it's a hit it's a big hit!
• Busy/Crowded/Line-ups all the time
  
• Reservations recommended
• Menu in Chinese and English - some pictures
• Shanghainese staff in front and in kitchen
• Very popular to locals/Chinese/main stream/tourists
  
• Should go with at least 8 ppl - how the menu/portions are designed
• Visible "Xiao Long Bao" (famous steamed pork dumplings) making station
• Dishes meant to be shared
• Private dining room available

**Recommendation: Steamed mini pork dumplings "Xiao Long Bao", braised eggplant with chili sauce, deep fried crab with chili & garlic

This place is Richmond's most popular Shanghainese restaurant. It serves fresh, hot, made upon order authentic Shanghainese cuisine. It's famous with locals, tourists and the media. There's always a line-up and as soon as 6:30pm hits the place is pretty packed already. You want to come here with around 8 people because the portions and menu is designed for parties of 8. This way you can order lots and try a lot too. Make sure you make a reservation or arrive early before the dinner rush (7-7:30pm).

The menu is quite large (typical of Chinese restaurants), but there are some staple items that everyone orders. I find the dishes are hit and miss - they used to be better. They have such a following it doesn't matter if they've gone downhill though. The food is still great, but it just used to be better, every single item used to be a hit, now you can find something similar and better at another Shanghai restaurant in Richmond. Some dishes are still amazing here and some are just not good for a restaurant of this caliber. This is a higher end restaurant so you expect fine dining type dishes. They have a great array of seafood dishes, and a "xiao long bao" making station open to the public to view. It has gone a bit downhill for it's own standards, but it's still great on the wide scale - still recommended as a place to check out whether you're a tourist or local.

Shanghai River - Review 2

Shanghai River - Review 3

On the table:

• **Xiao Long Bao - steamed mini pork dumplings 6/6
• This is the staple menu item when dining Shanghainese. They should always be made fresh and upon order - everything should be done in house - from making the dumpling pastry to making the ground pork stuffing. I mention more about this in my review for Chen's Shanghai Kitchen.

• Chen's has a thinner skin and more soup, which is a major focus when making these dumplings. However the broth and soup these dumplings hold is more flavourful at Shanghai River. Maybe they marinate the ground pork better - the most obvious explanation. They're also twice as hot at Chen's, the ones at Shanghai River maybe sit there for a tad longer before they're served. The restaurant is much bigger than Chen's so they're not able to serve them as fast as Chen's.
  
• $6.80 for 8
• Shredded chicken with vermicelli 2/6
• Shredded chicken and julienne raw cucumbers on homemade rice paper noodles or "vermicelli". It's topped with sesame sauce and served as a cold appetizer.

• This is a great dish, but it's just not that good here. When it's made right this dish is a 6/6. The combination or raw cucumbers, sesame sauce, steamed shredded chicken, and these homemade glass noodles are amazing. Texture and flavour wise this dish is great.
• I say it's not good here because even though the rice paper noodles are made in house, they weren't chewy at all. It should have been too. The texture wasn't right, and when you know what the texture is supposed to be like, these just aren't good. This vermicelli isn't the kind you're used to seeing at Chinese restaurants - the Shanghainese homemade vermicelli is wider and flat - almost like paper.
• The sesame sauce wasn't that good either, it was lacking flavour. It was just thick tasting, but not flavorful or aromatic. It felt like it came out of a jar, (which it does) but when it comes out of the jar it still requires mixing with other flavours because it's not a ready made dressing. Watered down JIF peanut butter would have tasted better.
• On the other hand the chicken was really good - because they didn't include the chicken skin, which I prefer - I hate when they include the chicken skin - most Chinese people would disagree with me on this one though. I'll find a better place that serves this dish and let you know when I d o. Check back for updates =)

• Bean Curd Roll with Vegetable 1.5/6
• Minced Chinese leafy green (similar to spinach) wrapped and rolled with sheets of bean curd. It's served cold.

• This appetizer is much better at Chen's. The presentation is beautiful at Shanghai River, but the item itself just isn't good. It was bland, and not flavourful at all. I even dipped mine in vinegar because it was so bland. Imagine eating cooked boiled unsalted spinach, and plain tofu...together...it needs flavour! It was AMAZING at Chen's compared to here. Sure it's not served all fancy, but it doesn't matter when the flavour is there...it tastes better all minced up - the ratio is great and it's just better this way.
• $6.80 for 8 pieces
  

• 

  

• Clay Pot Steamed Chicken & Won Ton soup 4.5/6
  
• A huge clay put of supreme chicken broth and won tons. Also includes bak choy and a whole small chicken (bone and all) that is cooked in this stock.

• Flavourful! This is not your watered down soup, or processed chicken stock. This is pure chicken stock - cooked with chicken and bones, and everything. It's light and clear, yet so rich and flavourful at the same time. You get full from the flavour not really from the soup.
• It comes with 10 "wontons" which are not wontons. They're actually dumplings called "Shui Gao". They're similar to gyozas - but made with veggies and pork. These are made fresh and in house, and they are really fresh because the skin is so soft it breaks apart quiet easily. They wrap these dumplings up quite loosely so that when they cook they're able to contain some liquid within the skin, so don't think it's poor wrapping or anything. These are great in size - bite size, not too big, and the skin is so delicate you don't want to over stuff them.
• It's a huge pot for $22, well worth it - especially since you're getting so much chicken. This chicken doesn't look appetizing, but it is. The meat just falls off the bone, really tender. They cook it for so long in this chick en stock that the meat just shreds away.
  

  

• **Braised eggplant with chili sauce 6/6
• Braised eggplant cooked in shrimp paste with bamboo shoots and black wood ear mushrooms. $14.80

• This is a popular dish found at many Chinese restaurants, but it's the best here to me. It's actually a Shanghainese dish that the Cantonese adopted. It's one of the three dishes used to introduce Westerners to Shanghainese cuisine.
• This is so good here. They make it vegetarian, which is rare, and I didn't even miss the meat. You get big pieces of eggplant, pieces you can actually bite into. A lot of it too. It's soft and still has some texture. I don't like it when they cut the pieces too small because it gets mushy and breaks apart when they braise it. They braise it in a dried shrimp paste - and the dish doesn't taste shrimpy at all. The shrimp paste just adds this aromatic flavour - one of those flavours that makes you go "hmm what is that?".
• This dish is almost stew like, kind of greasy, but that's common for this dish because the sauce is gravy-like. It's not spicy either even though it's cooked with chili sauce. Most places serve it in a clay pot because there's a lot of sauce and the eggplant pieces are smaller. Shanghai River is the only place that makes this dish vegetarian - replacing the minced pork with black ear wood mushrooms and bamboo shoots. I like the addition of these ingredients, this original switch up gives this dish 2 kinds of crunchiness and more variety.
  
• This is great on its own, and even better with rice...soak up the sauce.

• Tasty Twist Idea: I even like to wrap it in the homemade Shanghainese style crepes they serve. This is my own creation, but I like it!
• Pan-fried Pork with /Bean Sprouts and 8 homemade Crepes/Pancakes 3/6
  
• Shredded pork, green onion, bean sprouts and julienne raw cucumbers served with homemade Shanghainese style crepes.
• This is the Shanghainese version of Peking Duck - common at Cantonese Chinese restaurants. I like the Peking duck one better though. This one doesn't go with the crepe as well as the Peking duck does. They both have hoisin sauce you include, but you don't even really need it with the Shanghainese one - the sauteed pork has so much flavour on its own. The pork they used was also too fatty for me, and I felt like it was too chewy rather than tender. It just doesn't work well as a wrap because the size and texture of the pork pieces just slide out of the crepe as you bite into it - which defeats the whole purpose. I enjoyed the crepes much better with the braised eggplants
• This dish is a bit expensive too - $16.80
  
• Stir-fried Prawns 5/6
  
• This is another dish that is common in Cantonese restaurants. They do a really good job with this dish here. The prawns are really crunchy - cooked perfectly. It's so fresh and you want to taste the quality of the prawns in this dish. This dish is all about the prawns - more so than the sauce.
• **Deep-fried Crab with Chili & Garlic 6/6
• We didn't order it this visit because there were only 4 of us, but I've order it before and it was delicious. This crab is served dry - and it's absolutely covered with chili flakes and minced garlic. The minced garlic is amazing, it's the texture of finely ground bread crumbs. It's either deep fried/pan-fried/dry fried until it becomes this texture. The garlic almost forms a baked golden brown crust on the crab...it makes you want to eat the shells. This dish is so flavourful and aromatic - really delicious! There's a hint of spiciness from the chili flakes, but it's not really spicy or anything - they are professional with the seasonings, and have them adjusted perfectly.
• $32.80