Two years ago, after I moved back to my hometown of Burnaby, a friend who is originally from mainland China introduced me to the Crystal Mall food court – saying it is full of culinary gems you wouldn’t normally associate with the words “food court.”
When I think of food courts, I think garbage fast food, not delectable goodies like you find at, say, the Yaohan Centre in Richmond, which has some an awesome Hainanese chicken rice dish that is totally worth the drive.
The Crystal Mall food court is a place I find endlessly frustrating – simply because I have such a hard time deciding where to eat.
It’s that good.
But there’s one item I always have to pick up or I can’t live with myself. There are these chilled duck wings at a place simply called Delicious B.B.Q. (I don’t know why there are periods in their name because it’s not an acronym, but I digress.)
I don’t have much of a description for them because it’s not a complicated dish. They cook the duck wings and then chill them and package them up.
You eat them cold and there’s a subtle hint of spice you discover as you tear into them. They are highly addictive, although not everyone will like the texture of them. This is a real personal favourite, but I totally get if people don’t like chilled meat. It border on gelatinous, but works nonetheless.
I mentioned above Hainanese chicken rice, something my friend – who feasted on for three years while she went to school in Singapore – recommended to me.
It is also a chilled dish and it is amazing.
Westerners mostly view cold meat and poultry as a leftover, but these two dishes show you don’t need your main dishes to be hot to adore them.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
DISCLAIMER: I have not been paid by the food outlets in this column to write about them. They don’t even know I’m writing about them.
