We are crazy busy at work right now, having a couple new projects, but when my parents offered to take me out to dim sum, I accepted their rescue mission after a small hesitation - sure it would make for an even busier afternoon, but the productivity would surely be up if I had an hour out of the ~40ºC heat??
It was a "new" place - Good Eat Restaurant on Leslie Road in Richmond. The building use to house the "Loong Wah" Restaurant from waaaay back when; the owners of Loong Wah still own the building and rent it out to Good Eat. I remember I used to go to Loong Wah as a child and the lady (somewhat of a family friend) would tell us stories about how Gino Odjick (of Canucks 94 playoff fame!) would come in with his family for grub. The owner speculated (in Asian superstitious-style) that because Oodjick was such a scrapper on the ice, his infant daughter had a birthmark on her face. Does the daughter have sucha birthmark? Who knows. It made for interesting convo though!
The slip of paper for ordering was all in Chinese, but there were a handful of items that had a "thumbs up" next to them - and thumbs up mean the same thing in any language, right? :) One such dish was the cold chicken & jellyfish salad with pickled vegetables.
The parental units agreed that it was a good deal - $3.50 for the order, and that the chicken had more flavour than Koon Bo in Vancouver. However, Koon Bo still remains my favourite - I would have liked a stronger tasting vinaigrette and crispier, thinner noodles. I do agree that it was a good deal, especially for Richmond and if you had a smaller appetite!
Dad made the executive decision to get the deep fried prawn cake atop tofu. Both me and Mom stared longingly at the deep fried prawn cake atop wedges of Japanese egg plant at the tables nearby. As much as I love tofu (and they had used a silky-soft tofu that was perfect!), the eggplant looked that much better. Dad waved us off and told us that we should come without him and order the eggplant version. Meh - all men are the same!
Good Eat also does a bean curd "chicken roll", otherwise known as the "flower mushroom cotton chicken" / *fa goo meen fa gei*. What is special about this cotton chicken is that Good Eat prepares it with silkie chicken (black skinned) instead of the traditional chicken. The result is a more flavourful, meaty dish.
Every other table around us had ordered the "shrimp tubes" / *ha tong* - think of a long skinny spring roll with an entire prawn in it. That's my kind of spring roll! They were crispy, hot, and much appreciated!
Finally came the most anticipated dish, the sharkfin dumpling. What made it special? Two things: It was only $2.50! and the fact that the individual tureens holding the dumpling and soup were about six inches in diameter. Those are big puppies! Where other dim sum places offer the same dish at double the price or more, Good Eat Restaurant brands this dish with another "thumbs up" symbol beside it on the ordering slip. There were huge chunks of shitake mushroom in the soup, as well as a chunk of "fa gau" / sea cucumber. The soup was decent, and the dumpling was yummy!
Good Eat Restaurant only accepts cash - not too big of a problem considering they have good value, and different deals; for example, 10% off the bill at certain times, and 20% off all station items (excluding dim sum). They also have a variety of different noodles for only $9.98!
8111 Leslie Road [map]
Richmond BC
Phone: 604-249-0084
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