[CRA 2010 Signature Dish] Sizhi Tofu Dumpling ????? and Nanhua Tofu ???? from Northern Delicacy

It is always great to meet up with friends who I had never met for a long time.

It must have been at least 15 years since Dennis and I last met. It is good to know that despite not keeping in touch for so long that I am still remembered. Dennis and I were active members of the Mensa Society, the so-called 98% percentile high-IQ group. I enjoyed those days volunteering in the Mensa Society where I had a small role as the National Assistant Secretary. I remember spending nights at the society office mailing hundreds of newsletters and lugging all of them to the Post Office. That was my “night job” — just like chowtimes is now my “night job”.

Dennis was visiting Vancouver together with his wife and father in law who was here f0r a symposium.

I suggested that we meet up in an easy to find location seeing that Dennis and family is not too familiar with the city. Moreover, I wanted to bring him to a place where the food is good and what better place than a place where they won a CRA award. So, we met for dinner at the Northern Delicacy in the Aberdeen Mall in Richmond.

It was a long time since Suanne and I last dined in Northern Delicacy. It was three years ago. Wow, how time flies. Looking at that post three years ago, I can see the difference in how I wrote then compared to now. Back then, the meals were simpler and the blog posts were much shorter. I guess I have gotten more long winded as I get older.

Service is exceptional in the Northern Delicacy. It is certainly a class above others for a Chinese restaurant.

Although Northern Delicacy is a Shanghainese restaurant, it is owned and operated by a Malaysian group. Not many people know that it is owned by the same people behind the Tropika Malaysian cuisine restaurants.

The interior decor is pleasant and tastefully done. They have a private room (see picture above) that has a heavy traditional wooden door mounted on glass walls. That room sure is classy. I wonder what it takes to have dinner in that room.

They have one of the best menus that I had ever seen with quite a number of signature dishes. So it is no wonder this restaurant won two awards in the CRA’s Critics Choice.

It is certainly a work of art and they are very protective of it.

I normally would take pictures of the menu but I dared not even dare to ask this time — lest I be billed $150 for it.

There were a lot of catching up to do. We had the whole night and I decided that we should just go slow and not order everything at one time.

We started off the appetizers with Marinated Wine Chicken ($6). The chicken was plum and the juice (wine) delicious. The only thing is that it is too small a serving for the five adults and one child. We all basically have two pieces each.

We had to get Xiao Long Bao ($5) in a Shanghai restaurant. The dumplings at least looked nice but that’s basically was it. There were hardly any soup in it and the skin is not thin. I had tasted much better ones.

Chinese Restaurant Award 2010 ? SILVER in the MOST INNOVATIVE Category ? Sizhi Tofu Dumpling ?????

This time we were better planned. We knew now that some of the restaurants do not know the name of the dishes in English. So this time we were armed with the Chinese version of the CRA Critic’s Choice list. And it was a good thing we did.

This is because … More after the jump. Click to read the rest of [CRA 2010 Signature Dish]
Sizhi Tofu Dumpling ????? and Nanhua Tofu ????
from Northern Delicacy (511 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2010. |
Permalink |
9 comments

Post tags: Chinese, Restaurant Review, Richmond