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| - I haven't handed out five stars in awhile, and I am very excited to do so for this hidden gem in First Markham Place. First there are the handmade noodles, that have the perfect bite and texture to them. The broth is kept simple on purpose to let the quality of the noodle shine. My family and I were also lucky enough to get this dim sum dish that looks like yellow yuen bos (chinese gold pieces) that are actually only available upon reservation due to the labor it takes to mass produce the dish. The chef was nice enough to let us sample it when we asked what it was, and he had some extras from the reservation for tonight. They are filled with a condensed milk like filling and is petite and unique. Neat dessert piece. We also got the Xiao Long Bao, which in my personal (and my family's) opinion is waaayyy better than Ding Tai Fong. When I bit into it, the soup was flavourful, but not overly salty like many other restaurants. The chef then told us that it's because they don't add msg to the Xiao Long Baos, but instead rely on the natural flavours of the ingredients. Then we had this wrap thing with a dough stick inside (also has hoisin sauce and chinese onion in it) which was delightful. The wrap was made from scratch (as is everything else thus far), and both textures and flavours was excellent. Finally there was a dish with marinated chinese pulled pork I guess you could say, b/w two white pan toasted homemade breads. Again flavourful and awesome texture. The price for this place is also quite low, most dishes are well under $10, and average about 6-7 bucks a dish I would say.
Sure this restaurant isn't anything fancy, but I believe that the cultural aspect of the dishes (which you can surely taste), as well as the determination of the chef to make most things from scratch is highly commendable and is quite rare these days in the Chinese food industry. As a result I believe that this place is well deserving of the 5 stars I've given them, and I hope more people can discover this place and share their thoughts on it as well! If you're curious about the dishes I've talked about, I've uploaded the pictures so take a gander =)
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