Dim Sum at Golden Ocean

I know most of you probably head into Richmond for Dim Sum, but sometimes, fighting the "L" & "N" drivers on a Saturday morning just isn't my cup of tea. So instead, one weekend morning, we decided to check out Golden Ocean in Kerrisdale. Now I'm probably going to regret this, but they do take "phone-ahead-line-up", so if you know you're heading down, it's best to call ahead. They will still make you wait, but it's a different line that the "walk-ins". Another great thing about this place is that it's one of the few places that still have the carts! So although you can still order what you want from a waiter; sit there long enough and someone will "drive" by with something to tempt you with a dish that doesn't jump off the order sheet.

The first item we got was the Deep Fried Bean Curd Roll, and it's stuffed with diced shrimp and veggies. The top one had the most crunch, seemingly having spent the most time being deep-fried. The other two on the bottom were good as well, but missing the browning of the top one. The filling is good, after the crispiness when you first bite into it, you are then biting into tender shrimp mixed with some Asian veggies. So a little oily, but the inside is nice and piping hot. 

So, after the slightly overly oily first dish, we flagged down a cart carrying Steamed Spare Ribs. The serving was a healthy portion, but I'd have the say that one piece at the 6 o'clock position bothered me. And, overall, it was a bit too bland for my taste. For those of you who don't appreciate black bean, this could be your dish, since it's mildly flavoured with garlic and not much else. You'll always get some fatty pieces along with the meaty pieces, but I found the ratio to be good overall.   

I've never been a huge fan of Spring Rolls, probably because most are stuffed with ground pork and way too greasy. The only thing that makes them palatable is the Lea & Perrins you dip into so as to cut the oiliness down. However, I wanted to try these ones because they were filled with shrimp, sans the mayo dressing that most shrimp ones come with. Yeah, deep-fried shrimp and mayonnaise isn't my thing. 

I'm glad I gave these ones a try, because as you can see, they aren't overly greasy and stuffed with a fair amount of shrimp meat. Oh, and judging by the flakes all over, they were sort of nice and crispy too! 

One my my go-to dimsum dishes is the Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. When you order these, you never know if you're going to get one "big" one or three "mini" ones. I personally prefer the mini ones because I always find the Big ones to be very poor in terms of Meat vs Rice ratio. They stay nice and hot in the wrapper, so take your time trying out other things before opening these babies up. 

Unwrap these and you're rewarded with a meat filled rice dumpling. The rice should cover the filling entirely, but I don't mind if the filling spills over a a bit, like the one here. The filling is usually a mix of ground pork/chicken, chinese sausage, shitaake mushrooms and the yolk of a salted duck egg (my favourite part and I always leave this to the end), with an oyster sauce based concoction. These were nice and saucy and great meat to rice ratio. No complaints here! 

After the Bean Curd and Spring Rolls, we decided to go the route of less fried greasiness. One of my comfort food as a child is Rice Noodle Rolls. So we got one with shrimp (whole shrimp, not shrimp meat/paste). I loved to play with these as a kid, unrolling the noodle, dipping the shrimp in hot sauce, and then rerolling it. Yes, it was labour intensive, but it was good! The shrimp here kept falling out of the roll when I picked it up with my chopstick, but it didn't stop me from engaging in my childhood past-time. Steamed and splashed with some soy sauce when they bring this to your table, this really lets the ingredients shine. I liked it quite a bit. Oh, and there were three rolls with the order, I started playing with one before remembering to take the photo! 

And no, it's not that I don't like the traditional "Har Gow", but since we'd already had a few shrimp dishes, we decided to go with the other must have, the "Sui Mai". I've always liked the fish roe topping on these little open-face pork dumplings, but wow, they really spread it on unevenly here. Not sure if that is because these are made in-house, but I have to say, I grabbed the two with the most roe on top! Poor other soul who was left with a rather naked dumpling.
So if you're in the mood for dimsum and want to try a few new things...head to Golden Ocean and their push-cart style service. At least you can take a peek at what you're getting rather than ordering it off an order sheet!