Minoo, Marian, Lorna and I volunteered in the Activate! Wellness Fair 55+ at the Minoru Place on March 16th, 2011. The Activate Fair is to promote programs for the 55+ to keep our seniors active in the community and stay healthy.
Our booth is to to showcase the seniors community kitchen.
Besides the seniors community kitchen, we also display information on the multicultural community kitchens. We were able to get some people to sign up for the programs during the fair.
Marian, Lorna and I volunteered until lunch time and we decided to go for lunch together. Marian wanted something spicy and we ended up at Moutai Plus Szechuan Cuisine on Park Road. When I told Lorna about this Szechuan place called Moutai Plus at Park Road, she was puzzled as she is not aware of a restaurant called Moutai Plus here. Apparently, she has always known this restaurant as “Dumpling Shop” as indicated in their Chinese name.
The interior is made up of … booth seats along both sides of the restaurant with one square and two round tables in the center. The restaurant seats about 40.
Moutai Plus has lunch specials for $6.95. We did not order from the lunch special. From the menu, this restaurant serves Szechuan and Shanghainese but the lunch special menu looks like pretty common items.
So, we concentrate on their other menu instead. You may click on the menu to view it larger. We basically focus on the left most menu on the top row above which is their specialties.
We started off with an appetizer which is in their specialty menu. This is called Salt Duck Nanking Style. We order the plate version which is $6.95. Half a duck is $12.95. The duck is not fatty and the saltiness is great to go with plain congee. It’s kind like smoked duck. This is a cold dish.
Also from the specialty menu, we ordered the Water Boiled Fish for $9.95. We were totally surprised by the look of the dish. It did not resemble the water boiled fish which we are more familiar with, i.e. with lots of dried chili and oil floating on top. This version has a thickish sauce. I’m not sure if the server got the right order but we did check with her if this is water boiled fish, she said yes. Anyway, this is still good with lots of Szechuan pepper corn flavour. The jhup (sauce) is great with steamed rice. I took some left over home and both Arkensen and Nanzaro liked it.
Lastly, the above Assorted Meat Hot Pot Soup is also from their specialty menu. The hot pot is $9.95. This is just like the Family Hot Pot from Lin’s or The Place which my family loves. It has pork meat, pork stomach, fish ball, ham, shrimp, wood ear, suey choy and vermicelli.
The hot pot is quite a big pot but the only draw back is there is not enough broth as the vermicelli absorbs a lot of liquid. It kind of tasted bland because we had the salt duck and water boiled fish first. Nevertheless, this is a great dish for family with young kids.
The bill came to $33 before tips. The price is very reasonable.
BUSINESS HOUR
Tuesday to Sunday: 11:30 AM to 10:00 PM
Monday: closed
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Not sure if the braised pork hock is on the menu, but it’s delicious with a bowl of rice. There seems to be a couple of items never listed on the menu at the “Dumpling Shop”.
Hi L: Braised Pork Hock — sounds delicious any way you make it. You can’t go wrong especially if the fatty skin is there. 🙂 Ben
Oh one more thing, L. I think the name Moutai was the name of the restaurant on Westminster Hwy (same location as the current Man Ri Sung) which was very popular. Did you know of that restaurant? Ben
Great review!! I love that you guys are quite involved in community kitchens in Richmond. I recently just did a project for one of my class in UBC regarding community kitchen. The course is called Land and Food System 450 and my group and I have to design a community kitchen for my faculty building. You guys definitely given me a lot of inspiration on how a community kitchen should be and how it functions in a community. I just want to say thank you and keep up the good work!!
Hi Ralph: Out of curiosity, could you share how the community kitchen was designed in your project? Tell us more about it (or maybe you blog about it on your site). I am amazed with how the participants of the RCK come together and how they are able to share one not just the cuisines and cooking of each other but also the culture and customs. Maybe you should make yourself available for one of their events or sessions. Unfortunately their events are usually at times when I am at work. Ben
This place sounds great, Suanne. I am wondering if it has any connection with a long-lost favourite of mine, Moutai on Davie. It was primarily Mandarin IIRC but had the most delectable peppering wontons on the menu. They haunt my dreams to this day! And I see this Moutai has a version also… hmmm.