Shanghai Elan Restaurant

上海粗菜館
1687 - 4500 Kingsway
Crystal Mall, Burnaby

I find that there is a short supply of Shanghainese restaurants in Burnaby. Whenever I want to eat Xiao Long Bao (steamed juicy pork dumplings; XLB), all the good places that I can think of are located in Richmond! Sure, there is a famous XLB stall in the food court of Crystal Mall, but it's not quite the same as sitting inside a restaurant and being served by someone.

Finally, there is a restaurant that steams up some pretty good XLB in Burnaby! Occupied in the space that was formerly Pittsburgh Café (a Hong Kong style café) inside Crystal Mall, Shanghai Elan is another option for XLB in the city.

I like the matching plates, tea cups and tea pot set. It adds a bit of traditional charm to the restaurant.

Green onion pancake ($4.50)

The first item to arrive for lunch was the green onion pancake. Arranged in a basket, the pancake was hot and flakey with a moderate amount of green onions inside. Not bad! For me, it would go really well with a hot bowl of sweetened soya bean milk. Yum!

Shanghai style juicy pork buns 小籠包 - AKA xiao long bao/XLB ($5.50)

Next up was the bamboo steamer of 6 Shanghai juicy pork buns! Fresh right out of the steamer, the wrappers were thin and still soft making it extra hard to pick them up with chopsticks without breaking! Luckily, my mad chopstick skills served me well and none of the dumpling wrappers ripped when I picked them up LOL...

These XLB were pretty good as the wrapper was thin and the ground pork filling inside was juicy and not too gritty. The soup was also flavourful...though maybe due to some MSG?

Shanghai chicken sauce small wontons ($7.50)

W likes their mini wontons so we ordered a bowl. There were probably a dozen or so of the mini chicken wontons in a savoury broth made from dried baby shrimp and preserved vegetables. A handful of chopped green onions and some seaweed garnished the soup. I also speculate that the broth or wontons had some MSG in it because I was quite thirsty after this meal. Nonetheless, I thought they were still tasty. These mini wontons were cooked well in that the wonton skin was soft and slippery but still intact after jostling about and the chicken meat inside had a nice umami flavour.

Turnip cake 蘿蔔絲酥餅 ($5.50)

Last to arrive was the turnip cake...which wasn't exactly a cake but more like a turnip pastry. When I saw them, I wanted to hold back some snickering because I thought they looked like pill bugs!! Sorry, I know that wasn't an appetite-inducing comment haha...

 

Despite the somewhat unappetizing appearance (to me at least!), the flakey crust yielded a soft and steaming hot filling of seasoned shredded daikon radish with some carrots and green onion. The bottoms were also crusted with toasted sesame which added a nice aroma and texture! These pastries were rather large and eating one whole pastry really filled me up! 

 

Now, I'm quite tolerant of salty and heavily seasoned food so I found the dishes at Shanghai Elan acceptable. However, for those who like lighter flavours without such liberal usage of MSG, you might not like them it as much. Still, I think Shanghai Elan would continue to do well as there aren't that many choices for XLB and Shanghainese cuisine in the area.

Pink Sugar Cafe

115 - 3030 Lincoln Avenue
Coquitlam, BC

Gosh! I can't believe I have completely forgotten to keep up with my posts! This is what the onslaught of hot, sunny, summer weather can do to me. It makes me lazy and sluggish and all I want to do is sip on an icy cold drink under the shade haha... Anyway, forget about the hot weather for a moment and rewind back to the cool spring day when I went to Pink Sugar Café.

Pink Sugar Cafe is a place that one would not notice if you don't work or frequent the plaza that it is situated in. Open only in the morning and afternoon, this small cafe serves coffee, tea, sandwiches, and desserts for the working crowd nearby. It also has daily lunch specials offering Japanese lunch box sets! Very unusual for a cafe that sells sandwiches but it makes sense once you know who the owners are. The owners are a husband and wife team who have roots in Japan. I believe the husband is Taiwanese(?) because he speaks Mandarin while his wife is fluent in Japanese.

 

Sometimes their desserts also reflect their Asian background. On the day that I was there, the chilled display case had a green tea pound cake. They also make Japanese style Swiss roll cakes on order!

 

I was quite curious about their Japanese lunch sets ever since I heard my sis talk about how popular it was with the lunch time crowd. She said it often sells out so pre-ordering is a must! With the help of my sis, I finally got to try it!

 

Japanese Bento (lunch box set; $9.99)

On the tray are 5 items (clockwise from top):

Minced pork patty in a tangy ketchup-based sauce topped with grated daikon radish and onions - I'm not sure what the stiff, red thread-like pieces are...they are edible though.

Cold soba noodles with nori (seaweed) strips - dressed in a light, savoury sauce

White rice topped with a small scoop of tuna salad and a sprinkle of black sesame

Miso soup filled with spinach leaves, tofu cubes and daikon radish slices

Steamed savoury egg custard topped with shrimp, edamame beans and sliced shiitake mushrooms

 

Overall, this lunch set had a very home-y feel. It felt like I was eating a delicious home-made lunch that a Japanese mother would make. I think one of the reasons I felt this way was because the sauce that the minced pork patty sat in tasted EXACTLY like the sauce that my mom makes for her steamed pork spareribs!!! 

 

The steamed egg custard was soft and silky with a touch of umami flavour from the mushrooms and shrimp. I really liked it!

 

I found it a bit odd to see a dollop of tuna salad on top of the rice but I didn't mind it. The soba noodles and soothing miso soup rounded out the traditional Japanese lunch set.

 

The size of the lunch was just right. It came with a cup of tea too but I found that I didn't really drink much of it due to the miso soup, juicy pork patty and the soft, almost-liquidy, egg custard. Everything just balanced out!

 

The workers nearby are so lucky to have this cafe around! 

 

A note: the dishes for the Japanese lunch sets varies daily so you may not get the same thing each time!