Sour Grapes

So far going to Crystal Mall is the closest I’ve come to returning to mainland China since moving to Vancouver. The char woman manning the cash at the Ba Shu food court stall didn’t even try and speak english with me…. ahhh the nostalgic value of having “MAI SHENME??” (”BUY WHAT?”) bellowed at you.. brings a tear to my round-round-eye.

In any case, Crystal City is worth the wander if you’re bored or craving some PRC food (fried egg with tomato? beef roll? assorted noodle soups?) but at Ba Shu the liang pi (cold starch sheets, usually dressed with vinegar and chili and soy and a few other things) was pretty bland and the dan dan mian was so terribly cloying with sesame paste that it was a struggle to eat. Something else wasn’t right with it but I couldn’t put my finger on it until a middle aged woman (also a dan dan eater) came up to the counter to complain that her dan dan wasn’t mala (spicy and numbing). Indeed this dan dan had a bit of chile oil on the top but was only mildly spicy and in no way numbing.

I wanted to get some beef rolled in flaky pancake (rou si chuan bing …if I’m not mistaken) but was told it would take a 15 minute wait … so I wandered off downstairs to the food market which is pretty cool as well. Check out the tofu vendor and the frozen dumpling vendor, what a selection!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 at 4:56 pm and is filed under restaurants.