Yearning for Har Gaw? Craving Cha Xiao Bao? Drooling over dumplings? Who hasn’t spent a lazy afternoon or woken up bloody early in their favourite Chinese restaurant sipping tea and feasting over an assortment of Dim Sum delicacies? There is more than just steamers, dough / pastries and steeping teas…

What makes a good Dim Sum place? For us it is good quality ingredients, pride in execution, comfortable seating and on top of all good tea. After all. It is called Yum Cha 飲茶in Cantonese. It is quite discerning if you have a nice piece of shrimp dumpling that is juicy and thin skinned but the cup of tea is bitter of sub-par tea leaves… It is like drinking a fine glass of ’05 Shiraz but the cheese has turned sour. The pair needs to complement one another…

So where do we go for dim sum by default? Red Star Seafood Restaurant 鴻星海鮮酒家is one of the restaurants we find ourselves at a lot in Richmond. After the renovation, I find this place tasting a lot better; however, the fancy the Marpole location slightly more. Their service is pretty friendly and they have killer BBQ duck rice noodle.

 

Steamed Pork Shui Mai Dumplings

More prawns and less pork plus some tobiko sprinkled on top. Super juicy with Chinese mushrooms and skin is thin.

 

 

Steamed Meat Dumplings

The skin is thin yet doesn’t break or fall apart when you pick it up with chopsticks. It is filled with nuts, pork meat, mushrooms and cilantro.

 

 

Fried Bean Curd Fish Paste Rice Roll

There was a lot of fresh fish paste wrapped with fried bean curd then wrapped with rice roll. Very flavourful (not fishy) and has a lot of texture.

 

 

 

Coconut Steamed Milk Pudding Buns 流沙飽

Excuse the translation, but I think pudding sounds a lot nicer than “runny” or “liquidizing” buns. What these are are simply buns with a liquidy center made from duck egg yolk and shredded coconut. Usually I’m not a big fan of steamed buns but these ones has a lot of filling and it is very rich! I still prefer the ones at Sea Harbour and Jade.

 

 

 

Deep Fried Taro Dumpling

Mashed taro warm center lightly deep fried with a flaky exterior. One of my favourites.

 

 

 

 

BBQ Duck with rice noodle.

Usually the duck is a deeper red compared to the one in the picture. My guess it wasn`t made fresh from the morning… The meat was a bit tough. But on any other day, it is usually really tasty, with crispy skin and tender meat (see below).

 

 

Hand Shredded Chicken

Hand shredded chicken and jelly fish served with pickled carrots and radish. Cold appetizer with fragrant seasoned oil. The ratio of chicken and jelly to carrots and radish was a little low.

Watch for their daily special.
Now, if you are a fan like I am, you will be sure to come try their dinner menu. They have a lot of specialty dishes like Dungeness Crab with Wild Rice Sea Conpoy & Chicken, Pigeon, King Crab and other seafood items…

 

 

 

King Crab Steamed

Now you may be used to eating King Crab served with the legs dissected and shell ripped open… But have you tried to steamed the legs as a whole? Bet you don’t see this often! This retains all the juice and the flavor. Most restaurants do not prefer to serve it this way simply because it is a lot of work and space. Ask and it can be done… But note… you will have to do the dirty work yourself – cutting and cracking the shells!

The knuckles you can stir fry with soy sauce and scallions.

 

 

 

BBQ Duck

Now like I mentioned previously, if it is freshly made it should boast a deep red color. Skin is crispy but the meat should be tender, juicy and never tough!

 

 

 

BBQ Pigeon

Another delicacy and absolutely tender and moist.

 

 

 

8181 Cambie Road  Richmond, BC V6X
(604) 270-3003

 

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