11:00 AM
Janice
I've been a bit of XLB craze lately. After going to Shanghai Wonderful and Dinesty, I still want more (and as I'm writing this post, I really wouldn't mind more right now either). After raves by krispymilk about Shanghai Ting, which is a food court stall at Empire Centre food court, I decided I could just have a steamer full of XLB all to myself.
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| If you look at the very top right of the store sign, they have this teppanyaki thing with unknown meat, macaroni, and egg. I don't think they actually sell this. |
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| ALL THE XLB SOUP THAT COULD'VE BEEN IN MY MOUTH INSTEAD OF IN THE STEAMER |
Rating: ★★
I would've given it 1 but I kind of hope that this place has a bit of potential since there were quite a few customers. Maybe they just hate me. I'll give this place a try another time. (Also I didn't want to be a Grinch for Christmas. I already scheduled some angry posts for post-Christmas.)
Shanghai Ting 上海亭美食
1130 - 4540 No. 3 Road
Richmond, BC
(604) 278-8335
13 comments:
Oh no! It's sad to hear you had a bad experience, especially since I recommended the place :(
Personally I don't care much about presentation (buns stuck together etc) as long as it tastes good. But in your case I guess it is a big issue if un-sticking them means losing all your soup!! If you look at my picture, my buns are kind of touching the wall and the steamer as well, but I remember all of them were full of soup and didn't break! So I didn't pay much attention to the presentation.
Yea maybe give it another try some time. If it's horrible again, then well, you know they hate you lol!
Buddha Boy:
wow, those look so different from what we had. we haven't been there in a while. we'll drop by there soon and let you know if anything has changed.
If you're looking for good XLB, you might want to consider checking out Lin's on Broadway and Granville. They make pretty good one there. Last time some of the soup was a little saltier than I like, but overall it's been some of the best I've had in Vancouver.
Also the "i" is missing from macaroni in caption. At first, I'm like...that's odd where are the macarons on it?
Merry Christmas Janice!
@krispy: yeah no worries! I'll go back and try again to see if they hate me haha. Yeah I wouldn't care about the presentation either considering it is food court, but all of them burst :(
@BB: yes!!! let me know :)
@Vincent: Haha yeah, I have a lot of XLB places on my list. Thanks for the suggestion though. :) and no, it was actually blogger's formatting problem. I started a new line now and it's working now. stupid blogger!! Merry Christmas to you too!
One acronym for you.
LOL.
Oh noes! I have also heard good things about that Shanghai place but now that I've read your post, I don't know if I should try the XLBs there LOL
Perhaps it is their one off day (I doubt they hate you!!) so give them another chance :D
@kevin: :(
@kirby: nah, you should still try it. I kinda feel like it was a one time thing. i'll go back and update (hopefully it will be a positive update).
i'm very sad to see this janice, as SHT from my experience was one of the better and authentic XLB spot in van pour moi. the last time i was there, near the end of the summer, the XLB were juicy, plump, and full of love as the way i had them growing up as a boy in SH. from your picture i do notice them a bit dull. did the skin break when you pick each XLB up from the steamer and the juice dripped away? or was the XLB juiceless to begin with? if it's the latter i suspect the XLB have been pre-steamed
i really hope SHT can keep it up, too many crappy XLB places here
i'd suggest Chen's on Park Rd or Wang's in Crystal Mall, they're good but too much MSG
@dickr: NO! Well, actually: there was one without juice (the deflated one) and the other ones, they were stuck to the wall of the steamer. So when I picked them up, half of the skin still stuck to the steamer and the juice poured out. So depressing. Same for the ones that didn't stick to the steamer, they stuck to the other XLB and all the precious juice leaked. :(
Yeah, I'll def give it another try.
Here's a pic of XLB from Shanghai just to remind you of the good ol' days: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-z58hLEtdPXQ/TI_7_p0NzLI/AAAAAAAAChM/-NNq_4LAdmU/s912/DSC_0451.jpg?gl=CA
omg I just checked my caption and this was the crab base XLB (xie fen?) and it was only $22.5 RMB. So cheap and delicious. Normal XLB was 9 RMB.
that's too bad, XLB skin breakouts do occur when the XLB's are arranged disorderly
i have experienced many XLB bursting in the past, then i learned to always keep a spoon handy, so when I pick up each XLB from it's top knot with chopsticks, i'd cover each XLB with a spoon on its bottom to protect the juice leaks. but in the situation you described (where XLB's are stuck to one another) that could be tricky.
hopefully the next time you visit SHT this won't happen again. tell them that you really appreciate good XLB and you're there because of some good reviews, i'll bet they'll do a better job. thanks for that link btw
i just came back from bellevue yesterday. i visited the Din Tai Fung there, as you may know they're world famous for XLB. it was $11 for 10 small crab based XLB. the skin was so thin that every time i picked one up i was afraid it'd break, but they never did and held the juice. i was quite impressed. oh, and i must mention they were carefully hand crafted by los amigos de mexico :)
@dickr: yep! that's how I pick up my XLB too. Still impossible with the SHT XLBs since the skin just broke through the sides. I've been to the Din Tai Fung in Shanghai too! I still like the small shops that are like fast food format. I'm heading to Seattle next week, as much as it is tempting, I'll probably grab food somewhere else just because there's so much Asian food here. hahaha
hey Janice, i'm informed that there's been some changes at SHT and if you are still interested in the original SHT's XLB that we raved about, you'll have to visit Shanghai River.
@dickr: at Shanghai River? really? when was this change? I went a month ago, and they were pretty bad -- the pork inside was mushy and weird. My friend went last week and had the same experience.... :/
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