*pic courtesy of bro
If you know me at all, I generally don’t review Chinese restaurants. I generally don’t go to Chinese restaurants. It’s not that they’re beneath me, it’s because the ones I go to are my go-to, favorite, I’ve been going there for years and years and I probably won’t change that. I grew up frequenting a certain group of restaurants, some of them closed down now and others changed chefs ages ago, no longer as good. Honestly, it’s also because when I go out with friends, we’re most likely to want to try something new, if not, well, we’re almost definitely eating in Manhattan. All of the Chinese restaurants that I’d recommend are in Queens.
Plus, in general, I just don’t really like Chinese food… I crave homecooking more than I crave restaurant stuff. In any case…
A month ago, for my brother’s birthday, he’d decided we should go to this new restaurant, Canton Gourmet (click for his review). The food was good, but it’s all the same stuff we usually get at other restaurants when we go out as a family, so I didn’t think much of it. It’s in Flushing, on Prince Street, which generally turns me off a place (I really really really don’t like going to Flushing [or Chinatown, really] because driving is a pain in the butt and taking public transportation- especially now that I live in Manhattan way far from Flushing- is just not an option).
A few weeks later, I happened to be talking about food with a friend of my sister’s, and I’m not sure how we got to talking about this, but I mentioned this dish I have been looking for since I was 10 years old (which I talked briefly about here)- Dungeness crab over garlic noodles. We ordered it once, and never ordered it again, but I recall liking the noodles so much underneath, and in the 16 years since then, I’ve mentioned this dish to at least a dozen people and expressed my desire to eat them again. The closest I got to finding them was when my best friend mentioned her mom knows how to make them, but that doesn’t really help me. But my sister’s friend got all excited and said “You can get them in Flushing, they’re SO good!” and then says…”at Canton Gourmet.” I about shrieked with excitement, but you know, I just don’t get out there all that often.
Fast forward to Monday, when I had off from work. I decided to go visit my mom, and it so happened my brother was taking her out for lunch… to Canton Gourmet!!! My brother graciously let me order whatever I want, and so…
But let me start with the food in order.
We started off with a tureen of soup- which is enough for 6 [rice] bowls of soup. “Hoi wan gung” (my best approximation of the name) translates loosely to seafood tofu soup. Similar to shark’s fin and crab, minus the shark’s fin, this soup was wonderfully clear and delicious, enhanced by the addition of red wine vinegar (a favorite of mine).
“Ging doh gwut” – I’ve no idea what these words mean except the last one, which means bone. Basically, a thin pork chop covered in a deliciously sweet and tangy sauce, excellent with white rice. Yum. This was very good as well, though I haven’t had it in years (growing up, it was always a choice between this or “jhung sick ngau lau” (Chinese style beef-something), and since I was the youngest, I decided I didn’t like bones so this dish was no good. Plus some restaurants give you more bone than meat; this place did no such thing, this was all meat with only a bit of bone here and there).
“Shuen yoong jha gai” (I think?) – garlic fried chicken. A variation on the normal “jha gee gai” (crispy skin chicken) that many people order when they go to Chinese restaurants- I don’t normally eat any of this, but it looked so good and I do love garlic, so I grabbed a small piece of the breast and was delighted to find how juicy and flavorful the meat was. The fried garlic and shallot hunks all over were delicious, with a garlic/shallot spice kick to them, I loved it. I actually ate a few more pieces of this, when normally I don’t eat any of it. Yum.
concentrating on eating… didn’t even notice my brother snap this candid shot
I have no idea what this dish was called. I heard my brother say “dao fu bo” (tofu bowl) but I don’t know if that’s the name. I don’t really like tofu, but I tried some at his insistence. There were lots of pieces of fish in this dish, and the fish looked and tasted as though it’d been fried before being immersed in this dish, so it was thorougly coated in this delicious gravy. I also tried the tofu, which was also the same, but it’s not my thing. The veggies that lined the bottom of the bowl were saturated as well, but a bit too cooked for me- I like mine with a bit of crunch and bite to it. Still a good dish, just not my type of dish.
But now… for the main event. What you’ve all been waiting for, and what I searched 16 long years for!!! (It came out last probably because it took the longest to cook- he’d actually showed us the live crab on a tray first, asking us to approve the size (3 lbs.) and crab first.)
Dungeness crab over garlic steamed noodles (“Vancouver hai shuen yoong jing”)- I hadn’t realized that the noodles were steamed with the crab chopped up over it, and a bunch of garlic (the brown stuff). This is a brilliant move, as the crab’s juices dripped out and flavored the noodles of crab. I was in heaven while eating the noodles. (The waiter saw us taking pictures and politely moved to the side while we took pictures and then moved back to serve us, which I thought was pretty nice of him since many times, the Asian restaurant waiters aren’t exactly polite, closer to brusque and sometimes downright rude.)
I know some people will “EW” this, but there’s something about crab “tomalley” that I adore- the green stuff, the liver I think it is? The guts? I love crab guts, the roe, all of it. The noodles tasted strongly of the tomalley and I just loved it- I feel like that’s the whole essence of what the crab tastes like, concentrated 1000x and made better. The noodles soaked it all up and were DELICIOUS.
I was very much in heaven while eating these. Simply prepared but so good- let the ingredients shine themselves, and you’ll do well. We had leftovers, so I took these home (big bro, who paid for lunch- thanks again!- doesn’t like eating crab that often/much, and saw how much I loved this dish). My mom suggested de-shelling the meat when I got home, before packing it up to eat for lunch the next day. I’m inclined to agree that it was a smart move… though I’d be fired if that were my job, because when I was eating it, I had to keep picking tiny shells out of my mouth. Oops! Mm. They packed up my noodles and scraped out the top of the shell (which contained loads more tomalley! Yummy!) but got rid of it, since it was huge and didn’t do much except contain that (they served it mostly for looks, partially for the tomalley).
Yvo says: If you like Dungeness crab, you HAVE to get this dish. It’s in a special section of the menu where you pick your seafood, your method of cooking and your starch. Do it! It’s so good! It’s relatively inexpensive as well- $12/lb., so ours was $36 flat- which if you think about how much Dungeness runs you normally, this is a great price. I really liked how perfectly they cooked it- though it’s a simple preparation, it’s also easy to overcook shellfish when you’re steaming them. The rest of the food was also very good, and I recomment this place. Our entire bill came out to just under $80 (before tip), but if you factor in that we totally overordered for three people, had plenty of leftovers for my brother and I to take to work for the rest of the week, it’s a great bargain. If you remove the one Dungeness dish, our bill would have been $45 before tip, which is completely reasonable as we’d still have had leftovers. This is a great place to go for lunch or a high quality Chinese dinner… if you can find parking. (This is across from the “small parking lot” as they call it, by the firehouse, but it’s kind of hard to get a spot in there many days.) Delicious. I will definitely be going back… when I can be bothered to go to Flushing, or when our family goes out for dinner. YUMMY.
highly recommended
Swan says
i guess that’s my dinner tonight
Swan says
wait, i have class tonight. damnit! i wont be eating @ home until 2 weeks from now.
Draven says
bleah, there is no tofu in sharks fin and crab meat…nor are their peas…nor is there egg…
it’s a completely different appetizer…on both taste, composition, ingredients, and not to mention…class….
Azriha says
“leftovers for the rest of the week?”
are you kidding me?
that shtuffs all gone and it’s weds yo….
C says
Yay to the red vinegar!
…nay to tomalley. 😛
cathy says
This is killing me–I gotta try it! Oh, and the tofu and seafood clay pot dish looked lovely…
Denise says
I swear the food must suck here in Washington state because whenever we order things it never looks as good as your pictures. ha!
Maybe I need to just start taking pictures.
Firia says
Dang! Well crafted event telling. 😉 And I’m so glad that after 16 long years, you finally found that special something. 🙂 There’s got to be a satisfaction that escapes even your crafty wordplay. ^_^
Anonymous says
AHHH! my BF was looking for this dish too!! thanks!
– MissLizz
Vivian says
I love ging do gwut! :3