On July 17th, the ChineseBites.com review group met up in East Van for a ten course feast at Fortune City Seafood Restaurant. Highlighted by a two dish Peking Duck offering, the assembled bloggers were hosted to a tasty assortment of classically familiar Chinese dishes.
To start the meal off, we were served a plate of Pan Fried Tiger Prawns – 頭抽老虎蝦. The prawns were formidable in size and cooked beautifully in their shells.
After quickly polishing off the prawns, we were served the star of the evening: Peking Duck – 北京片皮鴨. The pieces of duck skin were crispy and clung to slender cuts of lean meat. Paired warm wraps and dark sauce, this was definitely the best dish of the evening.
The bulk of the duck meat made up the third dish: Lettuce Wraps – 生菜包. Although I have had this dish dozens of times in my life, I believe this was the first time the duck meat mixture contained ‘lap cheong’ 臘腸 or Chinese sausage. The duck meat was tender and paired well with the salty sausage and assorted diced vegetables.
The fourth dish was Sautéed Ling Cod with Veggies – 龍躉球炒時菜. After a couple wraps of duck meat, it was nice to switch things up with a nice fish dish. The Ling Cod was extremely tender and broke apart very easily while the greens were crisp and well prepared.
The fifth dish was Deep Fried Crispy Skin Chicken – 炸子雞. Although the star of the evening was the Peking Duck, this chicken dish was actually quite good as well. The skin was fairly crispy while the white meat was moist and flavourful.
The sixth dish was a Pork Chop in Plum Sauce – 話梅豬扒. This dish is fairly common at large Chinese dinners and is best served with white rice. The actual cuts of pork are quite tender and are complimented nicely by the sweet plum sauce.
The seventh dish was Winter Melon with Assorted Seafood – 瓜環海中寶. Another great dish to have with a bowl of white rice as there is a copious amount of quality seafood. The ham is very salty so definitely cut it with a mouthful of veggies and scallop or prawn.
The eighth dish was Braised Egg White and Crab Meat with Broccoli – 賽螃蟹. This dish will not be popular with everybody but if nothing else, it is edible and the broccoli is pretty good.
The ninth dish was House Special Chow Mein – 招牌炒麵. The sheer portion size of this noodle dish is staggering especially at the late point of a meal. There was a massive amount of noodles lying under tender pieces of chicken, seafood and veggies.
The tenth and final dish was dessert in the form of Baked Tapioca Pudding Pastry – 酥皮西米焗布甸. I was too full to try a slice of this pastry pie but from the general consensus, it was fairly typical of what you will find at almost any Chinese restaurant.
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In closing, ChineseBites dinners are always enjoyable and Fortune City was no different. The dishes are extremely familiar and will be satisfying to anybody that has ever gone out for Chinese food in Vancouver. If you are ever out by Renfrew and East 1st, swing by for some tasty Peking Duck and a couple side dishes.
