I have always had a hard time trying to find a good dim sum place in Burnaby, but Sherman found one and brought me one day. He's been there before but it's new to me. New Starlet is located on Kingsway, just a bit east of Royal Oak. The two of us tackled eight dishes, yeah, sounds about right!The Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow 蝦餃) were quite large, and there was lots of shrimp inside the delicate wrapper. As you can see at the 10 o'clock mark, the skin was translucent and quite thin overall. I liked the filling because you could detect large chunks of shrimp, instead of some places where the shrimp is diced superfine and mixed with other filler...not here. Now you either hate this or you love it, there's just no "I don't mind it" attitude when it comes to Chicken Feet (Fung Zaau 鳳爪). Delicately spiced with some peppers and sitting atop of peanuts, I found this to be quite good. The feet had a good balance of skin, cartilage and bones. For extra heat, a few peppers are placed on top, should you dare.
For some reason, I find rice noodles in all forms very comforting, whether it's rice noodles in soup, or plain noodle rolls simply pan fried with soy sauce and sesame seeds, or as you can see above, these Shrimp Noodle Rolls (Har Cheong Fun 蝦腸). Plump shrimp snuggled in thin sheets of rice noodles. Topped with the accompanying soy sauce, this dish has a great blend of flavours with the sweetness of the shrimp and the saltiness of the soy.Carbs, bring on the carbs! The Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Gai 糯米雞) is a small package of chicken, some ground pork, Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk and shiitake mushrooms wrapped completely by a layer of sticky rice. The one novel thing about this New Starlet version is that they actually use a few grains of wild rice too. Then the whole rice log is wrapped in lotus leaves and then steamed. I like to add a bit of hot sauce to bring all the flavours out. Along with the Shrimp Dumplings, another dim sum staple is the Siu Mai (燒賣). Essentially, these are open faced pork and shrimp dumplings. The wrappers are wonton wrappers but you just don't close the whole thing up. It's a mixture of pork, shrimp, Chinese mushrooms and if done right, they can be quite juicy. Done wrong, and you feel like you're eating a dry meatball. Fortunately, the fatty pork gave these nuggets lots of moisture and the end result was good. Beancurd Skin Rolls (Fu Pei Guen 腐皮卷) is a steamed roll that has many of the same ingredients as a Siu Mai with the addition of bamboo shoots and veggies. The bean curd skin is filled and then rolled tightly as if it was a spring roll. Some places deep fry these, but New Starlet steams theirs. I prefer it this way, as it's much less greasy. The resulting juices from steaming makes a great sauce as well. The filling was just a touch bland but nothing a bit of hot sauce can't fix.This rather bland looking Black Bean Pork Spare Ribs (Pai Gwut) was probably the most disappointing dish of the day. The black bean flavour was imperceptible, and the actual pieces of the pork were just a touch too fatty. I'm fine with a bit of fat, but not actual pieces of fat with a small bite of pork attached to it.Our last dish was the BBQ and Cured Meats with Rice in a Claypot. The meats include Chinese sausage, cured duck and pork as well. The soy sauce gets poured tableside and everything is mixed together. An alternative would be to move all the meats off to another plate and serve yourself the rice first. The meats had a good flavour and the rice had a nice texture, but the one thing missing is the crusty bottom that's expected of claypot rice.This is the whole shebang...not bad for two people...mind you, I had plenty of leftovers for dinner!
The Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gow 蝦餃) were quite large, and there was lots of shrimp inside the delicate wrapper. As you can see at the 10 o'clock mark, the skin was translucent and quite thin overall. I liked the filling because you could detect large chunks of shrimp, instead of some places where the shrimp is diced superfine and mixed with other filler...not here. 
Now you either hate this or you love it, there's just no "I don't mind it" attitude when it comes to Chicken Feet (Fung Zaau 鳳爪). Delicately spiced with some peppers and sitting atop of peanuts, I found this to be quite good. The feet had a good balance of skin, cartilage and bones. For extra heat, a few peppers are placed on top, should you dare.
Carbs, bring on the carbs! The Sticky Rice (Lo Mai Gai 糯米雞) is a small package of chicken, some ground pork, Chinese sausage, salted egg yolk and shiitake mushrooms wrapped completely by a layer of sticky rice. The one novel thing about this New Starlet version is that they actually use a few grains of wild rice too. Then the whole rice log is wrapped in lotus leaves and then steamed. I like to add a bit of hot sauce to bring all the flavours out. 
Along with the Shrimp Dumplings, another dim sum staple is the Siu Mai (燒賣). Essentially, these are open faced pork and shrimp dumplings. The wrappers are wonton wrappers but you just don't close the whole thing up. It's a mixture of pork, shrimp, Chinese mushrooms and if done right, they can be quite juicy. Done wrong, and you feel like you're eating a dry meatball. Fortunately, the fatty pork gave these nuggets lots of moisture and the end result was good. 
Beancurd Skin Rolls (Fu Pei Guen 腐皮卷) is a steamed roll that has many of the same ingredients as a Siu Mai with the addition of bamboo shoots and veggies. The bean curd skin is filled and then rolled tightly as if it was a spring roll. Some places deep fry these, but New Starlet steams theirs. I prefer it this way, as it's much less greasy. The resulting juices from steaming makes a great sauce as well. The filling was just a touch bland but nothing a bit of hot sauce can't fix.
This rather bland looking Black Bean Pork Spare Ribs (Pai Gwut) was probably the most disappointing dish of the day. The black bean flavour was imperceptible, and the actual pieces of the pork were just a touch too fatty. I'm fine with a bit of fat, but not actual pieces of fat with a small bite of pork attached to it. 
Our last dish was the BBQ and Cured Meats with Rice in a Claypot. The meats include Chinese sausage, cured duck and pork as well. The soy sauce gets poured tableside and everything is mixed together. An alternative would be to move all the meats off to another plate and serve yourself the rice first. The meats had a good flavour and the rice had a nice texture, but the one thing missing is the crusty bottom that's expected of claypot rice.
This is the whole shebang...not bad for two people...mind you, I had plenty of leftovers for dinner!
