Sakura

On Tue, 09 Dec 2003 21:56:35 -0800, Dennis Suchta
Someone wrote:

>Was just there two weeks ago. Best chinese I ever had. Wanted to get the
>  Alaskan crab but the smallest was 22lbs and $100. Settled for a 3lb
>dungeness. They also serve the best dim sum.
<snip>

Dennis,

Sun Sui Wah was incredible, I loved the presentation of the live seafood to the diner, nowhere, that I can think of, in Chicago does that type of presentation. Actually, Morton's with lobster, but Morton's doesn't do stir fry with ginger and scallion. <smile>

I did not get a chance to go for Sun Sui Wah's dim sum, but I'm glad to see it lived up to expectations, I had heard it was very good as well. I did try the whole head-on shrimp, pan fried with salt and pepper, really excellent. We also had the scallops, brought to the table live as well, these were prepared in the shell with black bean sauce.

We had two kinds of clab, King in SSW's signature presentation of garlic (lots of garlic) sauce and Dungeness with ginger and scallion. The Dungess was very good, but the King blew me away. The King was not cooked as 'well done' as one typically finds and the meat had a slightly soft luxurious texture, hard to describe, easy to eat.

I would suggest though that your memory is a wee bit off on the King crab size, they run about 5-lbs at SSW, not 20-lbs, though they do cost in the range of $100 Canadian.

We had a few other dishes, there were 6 of us, but we ate quite a bit, most notably the squab and Peking duck, SSW does roasted poultry very well. For veggies we had ong choi in garlic sauce and a very good mushroom/Chinese broccoli combo. The mushrooms are dried then rehydrated, slightly chewy, as you said, but with a very intense flavor.

The only so-so dish was crispy skin chicken, which was a bit dried out, and we had actually meant to order whole poached chicken with green onion and ginger, our only slight misstep of the evening.

With a 20% tip,  booze, including beer, wine, a few hard liquor drinks and three or four dishes I am forgetting, our tab for 6 came to just under $CN500, or about $60 per person US. I thought this excellent value for my dining dollar.

Enjoy,
Gary

Was just there two weeks ago. Best chinese I ever had. Wanted to get the
 Alaskan crab but the smallest was 22lbs and $100. Settled for a 3lb dungeness. They also serve the best dim sum. Attached a previous post (not to this group).

Dennis

Sun Sui Wah is not in the center of town. The restaurant is on the second floor of a multi purpose building with parking underneath. The place resembles a Polish Banquet hall, cavernous and brightly lighting, except for the one red wall with two dragons each having a lit up red eye. The restaurant is made for large parties. Tables are for six/eight/twelve people. Smaller parties are accommodated by rolling out a smaller table into some empty space. Menu is a photo album.

Along one wall are several mammoth tanks. One had geoduck the size of my arm. Another held Alaskan crab while Dungeness filled the third tank. From the menu it also seems that there are shrimp swimming somewhere along with scallops (my eyesight at a distance is limited). I wanted to try the Alaskan crab but the smallest was around 20lbs for about $100cdn. So I opted for a 3lb dungeness, a stuffed crab claw and a szechuan shrimp/chicken in garlic sauce.

The stuffed claw was the usual: shrimp paste around a claw, deep fried. Wasn't greasy but it was a tad overcooked.

The crab was brought alive, dripping water, to the table. I had to pass sentence personally. Had it prepared salt&pepper, spicy. Was a total mess eating it but it was great. The seasoning was mild but addictive - found myself licking the shells.

The shrimp/chicken szechuan consisted of plump, medium size shrimp, slices of chicken breast, mushroom caps, transparent noodles in a broth. Spicy but not overpowering. The mushroom caps were probably dried and reconstituted - the centers were inedible. The noodles were a little difficult to negotiate the trip from the bowl to the mouth.

Had a BC Guetz along with the meal.

Asked the waiter about the Sunday Dim Sum. They open at 10AM and he said that by 12 they are filled with a line. Since I was driving back and didn't want to delay I went at 10AM. I was not the first at the door (which was still locked). The Dim Sum has a fixed station, steam cart and bakery cart. Again, this is set up for large parties. Found it frustrating to see a promising cart stop at the party of nine and get cleaned out. Never made it to the station since the carts were more than enough and the other six people I invited didn't show up. Usual dumplings (pork, shrimp, vegetable). Great pot stickers. Three types of BBQ pork buns (steamed, baked and pastry). Pork meatballs. Crepe filled with pastry cream and mango. Custard mango tarts. A shrimp paste ball rolled in Almonds (this time it was not rubbery). The sticky dough stuffed with meat mixture deep fried thing. Things I didn't try: con gee, sticky rice, spare ribs, tripe and mystery packages (some communication problems). The plates are sized for larger parties, usually four to a plate the individual objects smaller than I have previously encountered. Declared the left overs at the border.

There is plenty of reason to return. The picture book had a terrific plate of fresh shrimp. Just need to get a party of 20 together so the menu and/or dim sum can be adequately covered.

G W. wrote:
> Someone wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>>Try the Clab:
>
>
> Trent,
>
> I had clab a couple of months ago myself. Picture was take Sun Sui Wah
> in Vancouver
>
> http://www.sptsb.com/SunSuiWahKingCrab.jpg
>
> Regards,
> Gary
>

From [email removed] Thu Dec 11 07:53:15 EST 2003
Article: 22880 of chi.eats