Snacks at Hapa Yaletown

While my mom was away in HK, I decided to take the stepdad down to one of my favourite spots for some snacks and to catch the Canucks game. Along with the traditional Ebi Mayo and Ishi Yaki, (which have been photographed numerous times) we also got some of their more unique dishes. 

This is the Sticky Rice Dumplings, we ordered it without know what to expect. When it arrived in a steamer basket, we were still unsure. I guess I had expected Shanghainese-style dumplings, where meat and sticky rice are mixed together, and then wrapped in a doughy skin. Not sure why I would have expected a Chinese interpretation at an izakaya, but there you have it. 

Delicately picking on of these up, I dipped it into the provided soy sauce. Slicing it open with my chopsticks, I discovered that the sticky rice "was" the skin, and nestled inside was the pork. Taking the dumpling in two bites, you get a bit of rice and a lot of pork. It's not always on their menu (part of their fresh sheet) but if it is, you should give it a try! 

Another out-of-the-ordinary dish for us was the Renkon Gyoza. Instead of using dumpling wrappers, the minced pork is sandwiched between two slices of renkon lotus roots and then dipped into a tempura batter.

The whole thing is then deep-fried. With the renkon as the "wrapper", and the tempura blanket protecting the whole dumpling, the minced meat inside is amazingly juicy. If are looking for something different, you've found it. 
Have you been to the other Hapa locations? Check out my other post of Hapa Robson.  Take a gander and let me know what you think. 
Have you tried something out of the ordinary at Hapa? What was it and How was it? I'm always looking for new ideas.