Old School Chiu Chow in Vancouver

Delicious and large portion of the oyster omelet at Chuan Yue

Whenever Cantonese people get together, the conversation inevitably turns to the subject of food. They talk about which restaurant they have been to recently, which dishes were delicious and which ones were a pass. 

Recently my parents heard from their friends about a Chiu Chow restaurant in Vancouver and we decided to check it out. "It's not a nice place or anything," my father warned, as if I was there to critique the decor.

The restaurant is located in a mini strip mall

The place is called Chuan Yue on Oak Street and 67th Avenue, located on a mini strip mall, next to a pizza joint. 

And indeed the decor is nothing to look at -- in fact it reminds me of being back in China, where the doorways to the kitchen and washroom are shielded with fabric, in this case embroidered ones. That is hardly hygienic... The furniture needed updating, but again we were just here for the food.

Sitting at an adjacent table were family friends my parents haven't seen in a few years so it was a friendly catch-up. Since I have been away for so long I hadn't seen them for over 20 years. They now have a granddaughter who's a sassy five year-old. When we asked her name, she told us, adding, "of course".

Cute.

The chef and owner wore a baseball cap and chatted with us and seeing as our two tables knew each other he took our orders at the same time. He was a humble bragger, liked to talk about his achievements but not try to seem too boastful (but in fact he was). 

The pork stomach soup with pickled vegetables

He went on about how he was arguably one of the most authentic Chiu Chow chef in Vancouver, and that the others working in other (and better decorated restaurants) could not produce the same dishes as him. 

So we tried them out. The soup of pork stomach and preserved pickled vegetables was not a promising start. The soup lacked flavour as it hadn't simmered long enough and did not have a milky appearance. It was also missing ginger and peanuts, and used black instead of white pepper, but the pork stomach was tender and not too chewy.

However things improved considerably with the arrival of the oyster omelet. It was as big as a medium-sized pizza and choc full of little plump oysters. The omelet itself was so fluffy that it was delight to eat with some rice (though that was dry and tasteless). 

We also had the crab and shrimp balls that were delicately deep-fried, and again very light, hardly oily and not dense at all like others I have eaten before. Gai lan was added to the mix, and the young shoots were very good, though served in a pond of oil.

Deep-fried crab and shrimp balls

The chef-owner later came out to chat again with our two tables, asking if any of us could speak the Chiu Chow dialect. The uncle on the other table said he only could speak a few words, but could understand it and again the humble bragger tried to keep talking to the uncle in Chiu Chow, but he couldn't keep up.

We ordered half a marinated goose for take out and it was impressive, the flavour of the master sauce full soaked into the meat and not salty.

Meanwhile the chef also boasted he could make the best crispy fried noodles served with vinegar and sugar. But we were too full to order it. 

Now if he can deftly make the crispy sugar taro dessert without burning the sugar then he deserves to be a humble bragger, but for now we're still on the fence.

Chuan Yue

8329 Oak Street

Vancouver

604 336 6238