Chinatown Eats: Bitter Melon and Spare Ribs

A large portion of bitter melon and spare ribs with lots of rice!

Went to Chinatown today and headed to The Boss Bakery and Restaurant for lunch.

One of the lunch specials was a classic Cantonese dish -- bitter melon with spare ribs.

Here the bitter melon is thinly sliced and sauteed with onion, and pickled vegetables that add a slightly sour taste to counterbalance the sweetness of the small pieces of pork ribs. 

The saucy dish is great with white rice, and at The Boss, it's always a giant mound that could feed a family of four.

Mini pineapple buns and flaky egg tarts

Just as we were finishing our lunch more food was ferried to our table -- freshly baked mini pineapple buns and flaky Portuguese-style flaky egg tarts. 

The buns were warm, light and fluffy with a slight crunch from the cookie top. So good!

The Boss Bakery and Restaurant, 532 Main Street, Vancouver, BC. Tel: 604 683 3860.

Hong Kong-style Diner in Paris

Have a pineapple bun, char siu and milk tea in Paris

The Hong Kong Tourism Board is doing something eye-catching for the right reasons.

At the Art Basel fair in Paris, there's a cha chaan teng pop-up serving Hong Kong-style milk tea, char siu, pineapple buns, mango pudding, and egg tarts. 

"It is exciting to see many visitors coming to the cha chaan teng and enjoy a variety of authentic Hong Kong delicacies. We look forward to continuing to showcase Hong Kong's unique experiences in different ways at Art Basel exhibitions around the world," said Tourism Board executive director Dane Cheng Ting-yat.

The cha chaan teng is sponsored by the HKTB

The one in Paris is not the first time the HKTB has set up a pop-up cha chaan teng -- earlier this year one was installed at the 24th Biennale of Sydney, an international festival of contemporary art held every two years.

In December a cha chaan teng will be set up at Art Basel Miami Beach from December 6-8.

The HKTB is not only trying to promote Hong Kong as a destination to attendees, but also that the city will be hosting Art Basel again from March 28-30 next year.

This cha chaan teng concept is a good soft power initiative... but what Hongkongers really want to know is, how's the food?

Taste of Hong Kong at Cha Kee

Pineapple bun with iced milk tea from Cha Kee

Many people recommended I check out a cha chaan teng called Cha Kee in Richmond, so I finally did -- twice.

Opened in December 2022, it's tucked away in the corner of the first floor of a shopping mall called President Plaza, across from Aberdeen Centre in Richmond. 

Buttery scrambled egg sandwich

It seems just about everyone sitting in the food court are eating dishes like scrambled eggs with white bread toast, satay beef with instant noodles, and sipping cups of milk tea.

Other dishes include pork chop rice noodle, French toast, BBQ pork spaghetti, Hong Kong style Swiss sauce chicken wings, and curry fish balls. 

The first time I went, I had just eaten breakfast so I tried an iced milk tea and the pineapple bun. Each person gets a circular vibrating pager, even me with a simple order.

My pineapple bun arrived warm with a tall glass of iced milk tea. The pineapple bun was fluffy, with a crumbly cookie top, and was delicious, washed down with a very caffeinated milk tea. I was buzzing for pretty much the rest of the day.

I went again the other day with a friend where we were able to try more items. She had a bowl of macaroni with uneven slices of pork liver, which came with a side of scrambled eggs and white toast that she washed down with a cup of hot milk tea.

She invited me to have a few bites of the pork liver and I heartily tried some. Liver is an acquired taste and here it wasn't seasoned, but just kind of boiled in the thinly-laced chicken soup with a lot of macaroni. 

Meanwhile another friend had recommended the scrambled egg sandwich and I did not come away disappointed. In between two slices of toasted white bread slathered with a generous amount of butter was a big portion of scrambled eggs that were pillowy soft.

Slices of liver in macaroni soup

I can easily see how biting into this sandwich is the edible version of a big hug for people missing Hong Kong diner food in Vancouver.  

After finishing the scrambled egg sandwich I was actually quite full, even though I only had a small cup of iced milk tea. Food courts are where cheap and cheerful food is at!

Cha Kee

8181 Cambie Road

Richmond

Cha Chaan Teng Offers Taste of Home

A giant fluffy pineapple bun that's made on the premises

Hongkongers missing the taste of home can now to go to Ho Yuen Cafe, opened by the second-generation owner. The mural on the wall has Lion Rock in the centre, flanked by Hong Kong on the left and Vancouver on the right.

Over 60 years ago her father opened Ho Yuen, a cha chaan teng in Tsz Wan Shan, but in the 1980s the family immigrated to Vancouver and so he shut Ho Yuen. However, in Vancouver he opened two other Ho Yuen businesses in Richmond and Coquitlam. 

The interior is bright and cheery with Lion Rock

By 1996 her father retired, and the family returned to Hong Kong where she worked in marketing in the fitness industry. She met her husband, a personal trainer and they had a son.

She decided to go back to her cha chaan teng roots and in 2014 she revived the Ho Yuen brand by opening in Wong Tai Sin, and later Ho Yuen Bakery.

When Hong Kong invited tenders for food trucks, Ho Yuen Express was born and it was a baptism by fire, spending HK$1 million on the food truck and modifying it, and then quickly learning how some locations like Disneyland were better than others, like Kwun Tong.

In 2020 she moved back to Vancouver because of her special-needs son. And in the last few years she took her time looking at locations to open Ho Yuen Cafe.

The location is not high traffic at all -- it's in an industrial area near a park where people walk their dogs. Nevertheless, the bright cafe has large windows and a big kitchen where staff make everything in-house from the char siu to cookie-base egg tarts and pineapple buns. 

Satay beef noodles is another signature item here

One of the signature items is the pineapple bun which is really large and fluffy, complete with a giant slab of butter inside, and a cup of hot milk tea to wash it down.

If that's not enough carbs, a bowl of satay beef with instant noodles is delicious. The noodles have slices of tenderised beef and it's not too spicy, and the soup is comforting.

The owner is already thinking of expanding the brand down the west coast to Seattle and California, and it will be interesting to see if she can spread the culture of cha chaan tengs in North America.

Ho Yuen Cafe

113 - 1750 West 75th Avenue

Vancouver