Dim Sum as a Staple - 钓鱼台海鲜酒家-Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant

March 10, 2012
钓鱼台海鲜酒家 - Fisherman's Terrace Seafood Restaurant, Richmond BC
~
五香鸡粒咸水饺
上素三菇肠
竹叶珍珠鸡
香茜牛肉球
鱼子北菇烧卖
豉汁煎酿茄子
紫菜金菇豆腐卷
银杏鲜腐皮浸豆苗
榄菜四季豆
~

So here we are, back again, except this time with two other families, both of the women my mom's colleagues. Well, at least this gives us an excuse to order more items and try them all!

Finally, they brought back the 五香鸡粒咸水饺 after it was removed from their menu a long time ago. This was my favourite dish of the day. I used to love this and I clearly still do! The frying is just perfect, crispy on the outside and perfectly sticky on the inside. There was a decent amount of chicken in the inside and very nicely seasoned. You can taste the savoury sauce and the chicken but it does not take away from the sweetness of the sticky rice shell.

The 上素三菇肠 was also wonderful, as good as it looks. The soy sauce was nicely flavoured and the mushrooms were great. They always have great rice noodle wraps. We also ate the old favourite with Chinese donut and pork fluff, which was just as good as last time. Oh, I just cannot get enough of the rice noodle wraps.

The 竹叶珍珠鸡 was again a disappointment. This time even more so because not only was it not flavourful, there was less filling of meats and egg yolk on the inside. I do not think I will order this dish again, even though it has been my favourite for so long. It is really very sad but they might have changed either their chef or their recipe. Now I will just have to go and hunt down another dim sum place with good chicken and sticky rice in bamboo leaves.

We had tried their 香茜牛肉球 before, and it did not change much. It was nicely seasoned and the beef was very tender but there was nothing special. The  鱼子北菇烧卖 was actually quite good. I do not remember eating it before but this time, it was certainly memorable. There was a nice seafood taste but also the richness of the beef and the lightness that comes from steaming the dish.

The eggplant dish, 豉汁煎酿茄子, was actually surprisingly nice. It tasted way better than it looked, although it was not particularly a standout. The eggplant was sweet and lovely but the shrimp was more or less just a regular blob of shrimp. The shape also did not appeal much to me.

Since one of Mom's colleagues is vegetarian, we had to order vegetarian dishes. The 紫菜金菇豆腐卷 was mediocre, nothing special but not bad either. The mushrooms in there were good and the tofu puff was nice and juicy but the dish to me was a bit on the bland side. The seaweed was a miss for me.

I loved the 银杏鲜腐皮浸豆苗. I have always loved snow pea leaves. They are just so lovely and green. While not a fan of the bean curd wraps, I absolutely loved the gingko nuts. I do not recall ever eating them, though that's probably just my memory playing tricks. I only heard the term 'gingko nut' this year though, while watching Chopped at school on the Food Network. They are so chewy and lovely! The dish was also very very light and refreshing.

The final dish was 榄菜四季豆. I was fairly pleased with this dish, one of the best 四季豆 I have had in restaurants in quite a while. I know I have never tried  and I absolutely love the flavour. The beans were nicely fried, just the right way. The flavour was deep and savoury but still had the freshness of the string beans. A very nice end I have to say.

Overall, Fisherman's Terrace is still great. I should note that I particularly love their little plates. They are not just your generic white plates. Each is different. Two of the same dishes will come in different plates. They are all the nice, delicately painted and designed Asian-style plates. I have my favourites clearly, but there are definitely more things on their menu I want to try and dishes I would definitely go back for.