Namu Gaji, an Encore

The number of full service restaurants in our area is mind-boggling.  We can eat out every day for a few years without going to the same restaurant twice, but we choose to go back to some places time and again because of their food and hospitality.  Namu Gaji is one such place.

A few months ago, we had an excellent okamase dinner there (see my 1/28/13 post “A Special Dinner at Namu Gaji“).  On our latest visit, we sat at one end of the communal table with two friends and ordered from the regular menu.  

The amuse-bouche, a piece of squid on a melon cube, was followed by Namu’s popular chicken and beef Korean “tacos”.  “Tacos” of course is a figure of speech.  They were chopped meat of chicken or beef short rib placed with kimchee salsa and remoulade over seasoned rice on toasted nori sheets instead of tortilla.  The flavor was Korean rather than Mexican.

Korean tacos

David, one of the owners, kindly sent us a salad of sugar snap and English peas, dragon tongue beans, avocado, and a cured yolk.  The raw vegetables cleansed our palate and prepared us for the rest of our dinner.

Salad of peas, beans, avocado and egg yolk

We ordered a trio of meat dishes: chicken wings seasoned with Sichuan pepper, pickled dragon tongue beans, lime and a blue cheese sauce; bone-in suckling pig belly with roasted corn, Thai chili and perilla; Korean fried chicken tossed in a sweet and tangy sauce and sides of spicy slaw, pickled daikon, and a dashi gravy.

Chicken wings

Suckling pig belly

KFC (Korean Fried Chicken)

Our carb of the evening was supplied by okonomiyaki, shiitake dumplings, and gamja fries.  The Namu Gaji version of okonomiyaki, a Japanese-style savory “pancake” cooked on a grill, was topped with kimchee, oyster, yamaimo, cabbage, bonito flakes, and kewpie mayo (a Japanese brand mayo with egg yolk, vinegar, dashi powder, mustard and, yes, MSG as ingredients).  The potato fries (gamja means potato in Korean) with short ribs were doused with kewpie mayo, teriyaki sauce, gochujang (red chili paste), and kimchee relish.

Okonomiyaki

Gamja fries

 We ended our dinner with black sesame pudding, fresh strawberries, and whipped cream.  It was another memorable meal at Namu Gaji. 

Vegetarian dim sum

Vegetarian food has become so ubiquitous that vegetarian dim sum seems almost the logical evolutionary step.  A new place opened up in Markham recently - Wutai Vegetarian Restaurant (Chinese name Wu Tai Shan 五台山 the home of many Buddhist monasteries and temples in Shanxi, China).   I was surprised at both how little different the vegetarian dim sum seemed from regular dim sum and how different Wutai was from the old style vegetarian restaurants.  The latter usually offers faux chicken, faux duck, even faux bbq pork - all made from gluten and with the respective fake flavours.  The irony of course is that all these offerings of fake meat implies a lingering yearning for meat, a questionable commitment on the part of the vegetarian.  Wutai Vegetarian seems to serve vegetarian the authentic way - with lots of mushrooms, vegetables and soy (all my favourites).  It shouldn't be difficult with the abundance of these produce in the city.  

Of course, when you think about it,  dim sum has also evolved quite a bit from the old standards of bbq pork buns and shrimp dumplings.  In fact, many items on the contemporary dim sum menu are already vegetarian, especially in finer restaurants.  So it's really a small leap to do a strictly vegetarian menu. There is clearly motivation behind the extra effort - the restaurant is owned by the Cham Shan Buddhist Temple on Bayview.  What a great way to spread the word and make some money for the organization - tasty vegetarian food!  Decor is bright and airy with an abundance of chandeliers and golden lotus.

Below is a selection we tried from the 49 items on the dim sum menu (no doubt there is some symbolism in the number 49).  I found most of them tasty.  The bitter melon tempura was a tat oversalted and greasy but most of the items were well made and thoughtfully presented.

Cheese tarts served in neat wooden boxes

Bitter melon tempura

My favourite - crispy fried taro cakes with taro thinly shredded for a more intense flavour

Layered soy sheets - not too exciting

King mushrooms wrapped in bamboo fungus

Your standard turnip pudding cake without the dried sausages

Looking good are the fried sticky rice dumplings with peanuts inside.  This is available in regular restaurants and people who like these dumplings think that these are very good.  Personally, I don't like fried sticky rice - the rice soaks up all the grease when fried.

This too is available in regular restaurants - enoki mushrooms and cucumber in steamed rice rolls

Osmanthus flower cake - made with gelatin

Vegetarian lunch is well and good - but will I have a vegetarian dinner at this restaurant?  That remains to be seen.  I had a peak at its dinner menu - lots of mushrooms and vegetables, clearly healthy for you...

Still Delicious!

We paid a visit to what used to be Delicious Restaurant on Hwy 7 tonight and was pleasantly surprised to find that after a month of renovations and a total revamp, including a new name, White Orchid is still delicious!  But it really shouldn't come as a surprise as the chef is still the same Patrick Chuang and if anyone can cook, he can cook anything.  In this case, even though the menu has changed, the same expertise and care is applied to the new dishes.  It is a double bonus that the "old" favourites like HaiNan chicken are still there and still the best in town.  So it is now not just a Chinese restaurant, but a Malaysian Singaporean restaurant, making the menu all the more diverse.

We made a point of trying something new on the menu - roti and curry chicken.  The roti are the best ever - I've never tasted them so crisp and light.  The curry chicken is tender and just the right amount of curry flavour.

The Pad Thai, another new dish here, is perfectly al dente and the flavour just right.  I hate the sugary sweet ketchupy red sauce often used by some Asian fusion chains on noodles that are usually too soft. I made a point of using the pad thai dish as the test piece with which to rate an Asian fusion restaurant and very few passed.

And to my utter relief, the Hai Nan chicken is still the best in town.  You wouldn't find a more tender yet firm and tasty white-cut chicken anywhere else in the GTA.   What made this now "Asian fusion" restaurant different from all those other ones out there is that they still serve good old Chinese greens, tossed in ginger and wine.  That little dash of wine made all the difference to the greens. You wouldn't find anything other than "salads" at other Asian fusions.

Dinner finished with a lovely dessert - coconut tapioca with fruit.  The perfect end to a perfect meal.

Chef Patrick Chuang said he is still game to do "private room dinners" for customers.  So this renovation is certainly a bonus.