I know it's been a very long time since I blogged. In fact, I kind of dropped off on blogging and updating my recipes altogether. Life gets busy sometimes. That doesn't mean I stopped on the sidelines. I have a line-up of food to share and I have several places for you to check out. I just spent the last 2 months working in Watson Lake, YT. For those unfamiliar, it's a 4-5 hour drive east of Whitehorse. Land of the North! After spending a good chunk of time back and forth from there and home, I was quite ecstatic to return to cooking and check out the amazing food I've been missing out on. Derek suggested I get back into my routine by starting with Noodlevember. Doesn't it sound tasty already? We're big noodle fans (fyi ramen joints are hands down my favourite kind), so what better way to kick-off being home, by checking out a new restaurant each week, featuring yours truly. So brings me to my first delicious pick at Shang Noodle House in New Westminster. Quality noodles are difficult to find in certain cities, but I always aim to find at least one place that takes care of the noodle cravings. I was a little thrown off at first knowing Shang's is at the Starlight Casino. However, the reviews seemed good and we thought we'd check it out. Shang's has a very warm environment with the open contemporary wooden decor. It's a fair size so go by yourself or show up with a large group! Our draw here was the various and unique noodle soup dishes you could order as well as their different home-made Chinese and Japanese ramen and udon noodles. Most people are familiar with Japanese ramen, but traditional Chinese ramen is a slightly thicker, paler noodle than that thinner yellow noodle you all know and love. Derek and I ended up ordering two completely different ramen dishes. Derek went for the exclusive Red Reishi, which is made with traditional hand-pulled Chinese ramen and 7 types of Japanese mushrooms. Disclaimer - if you don't like mushrooms, this soup isn't for you. But don't worry, there's many others you could order! Before that night, I had only heard of 1/7 of those mushrooms (Shitake...augh i need to research my mushrooms). This dish was loaded with mushrooms, which added so much flavour to the broth. Without the mushrooms, I'd expect the broth to be just your standard and ordinary Miso base. The mushrooms enhance the flavour profile so there's a balanced composition of salt, earthiness, and smoky richness, and if you're a mushroom lover like we are, you want to finish the broth even when you're full! On the flip side, I opted for the Malaysian-style traditional ramen with chicken, prawn and squid in a spicy Laksa Soup. I've never had a ramen like this before. I did a bit of research before ordering this to familiarize myself. Laksa soup consists of a spicy curry coconut milk broth. That sounded pretty damn delicious to me, and it certainly was! There's a lot of bold rich flavours in this ramen. the broth is smooth, fragrant and slightly spicy. If you like spicy foods like I do, you'll probably still end up adding chili oil. the seafood was perfectly cooked and added an extra flavour and aroma to the broth. I would have preferred a bit more seafood or chicken in my dish, but overall, this ramen was a winner. Warning - this is a heavy dish due to the rich broth. You WILL be waddling out of the restaurant. The only criticism I have about Shang's Noodle House is that it seemed like the staff forgot about us when we were ready to pay and leave. We ended up having to call someone over after waiting and watching staff walk right by us without looking. That being said, the staff were very friendly and just because of this one shortcoming, I'd still recommend this place. Derek and I will be back there for sure. I really want to try to BBQ duck spinach ramen in bonito shoyu.
P.s we also ordered the steamed Shanghai pork dumplings and BBQ Sakura pork and i highly recommend you do to. I could eat the BBQ pork any day as it just melts in your mouth and has both sweet and sour notes.
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