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.
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