Vacation 2 – Chinese Food

Back in the 70’s, when my parents first came to Toronto, there were only a few Chinese restaurants here. Most of them were located downtown Toronto. I could imagine they must have missed Hong Kong/China a lot back then. I guess since the 90’s, Toronto has become more and more multicultural. (Should I say more and more Chinese?) Instead of Downtown Chinatown, you can see Chinese malls and restaurants everywhere in Scarborough, Richmond Hill (along Hwy 7) and along Steeles.

Back to my trip… During the 3 weeks, I obviously and inevitably had lots of dim sum. Some of them were good, some of them were so-so. One of the surprises was from the “Bamboo Garden” Teahouse in Shenzhen – It is a pretty old Teahouse since I remember going there ~15 years ago. There was a wide range of dim sum and the service was good. We (4 people in total) had dim sum that morning and I paid the bill. Since it was relatively cheap (~RMB 60), I gave them a RMB100 bill and didn’t check the changes. They returned to me after and said they’ve given me less change. The manager then gave me back about RMB15 – wow! It feels really good that moment – Honesty is what everyone appreciates. (The picture above was taken at another Dim Sum place in Yuen Long. It’s changed name, but it used to be the favourite restaurant of my great-grandma and grandma.)

Should I call these Chinese pastrie? These traditional snacks/pastries made from glutinous rice were my favourites back in the primary/secondary school years. As we were living in the New Territories, many old ladies hand-made and sold these pastries on the street. There was a period of time when I found less and less of these were sold (maybe the old ladies were getting too old?!) However, I can see these pastries are made and sold in some small stores again these days. Don’t know if it’s just me or what… I found they now taste different – not as good. e.g. you can’t taste any 雞屎藤 (a special herb(?) that has a distinct flavour) in the 清明仔 (the 2nd from the right at the bottom).