Parker Place Food Court - Shanghai Goodies and Lai Taste

Well, it's a month of firsts.  First the Beaver Tails, now Viet Namese Subs.  Can you believe I've never had a Viet Namese Sub?  Anyway, I'll get to that later.  I was out with my parents and they were giving me the Parker Place Food Court tour.  They go for walks everyday and part of their routine is to go someplace to get a snack.  It used to be Richmond Public Market for the longest time, now it's Parker Place for XLB and and Viet Namese Subs.  I decided to meet up with them after one of their walks and was really, really hungry so we ordered a bunch of stuff to try.

I usually can't handle spicy, but sometimes I like to tempt fate like here with the Hong You Cao Sou (No idea how to write it properly).  Anyway, essentially it's wonton noodles in a spicy sauce.  It wasn't too bad considering it was a food court, and you really can't complain about the pricing.

Sen Jian Bao (again, no idea how you're supposed to spell it) were okay, but a bit dry inside compared to some other places that serve it.  Still, they were tasty overall and for the price, it's hard to complain.

XLB!  I can't believe I'm using this acronym, because I always thought of them as Shao Long Bao, but then again, I guess that depends on what part of the world you're from.  I could never figure out how the hell you get a "sh" sound out of an "x", but whatever, that's opening a whole other can of worms.  The XLB were not too bad, skin was a bit thick, but still tasty.  They had a decent about of soup inside so more or less made right.  There's this place in the Aberdeen Food Court that makes better food-court xlb, but that's just my opintion.  These are definitely still good enough to eat that I won't bother walking to Aberdeen if I'm already in Parker Place.  Decent food, cheap, quick and easy.  Chinese fast food at it's finest.  Yeah, I'd go back.

Part two of the tour was my introduction to Viet Namese Subs.  Now, being in the Parker Place Food Court, some might question the authenticity of this Viet Namese shop.  For me, I couldn't care less who made it, as long as it tasted good.

I tried the pho and the cuts of beef were quite different from what I'm used to.  Thicker, and more of it.  The quality of the beef was good, unfortunately the broth itself didn't have very much flavour (haha, maybe not enough MSG).  Anyway, the star of this shop isn't the "pho", it's the subs.  Authentic or not, they taste awesome, and there's no way to beat the price - cheaper than dirt.

We ordered two types of subs, the pork and the fish.  Both were absolutely amazing.  The pork was tender, with a thinly breaded coating.  It was like veal (yeah, I know, veal is baby cow and we're talking about pigs here).  The veg wasn't overwhelming the meat, and I think the combination of the pickled radish and carrot combo (sort of sweet and sour) along with the celantro is a perfect paring to the deep fried pork.  This combo comes wrapped in a lightly toasted French-style baguette.  It wasn't hard, it wasn't chewy, it didn't fall apart and every bite was suprisingly neat because none of the ingredients fought against the other as in some other subs.

 

The fish sub was also delectable.  Same veg ingredients, and a perfect blend of textures.  Best of all, a stupidly low price considering you get a very tasty and rewarding meal. 

Gonna try the brisket next time.  Had the beef, hope the brisket will be better.  Or maybe I'll just order more subs next time!  I never had a Viet Namese Sub before, so are they all this good?  I will definitely have to start experimenting with other places, but damn, Lai Taste really delivers for less than a fist full of dollars.