Red Star

Occasion: Dim sum with my mom and her friends
Location: Red Star Seafood Restaurant on Granville between W 66th and W 67 Ave in Vancouver
Edibles: lots of the same classics from the Flushing dim sum outing - shrimp fun; shu mai; har gao; pork and thousand-year-old egg congee; steamed daikon cake (what can I say, I'm a creature of habit), plus a few new items - Chinese broccoli sauteed with garlic; ma lai cake; green tea jelly

Musings: A couple of pluses and a bunch of minuses. This place doesn't hold a candle to my favorite Vancouver dim sum place, Sun Sui Wah in Richmond.

Plus: 1) The shu mai and har gao were huge - easily the size of two in almost any other restaurant. 2) The ma lai cake was delicate and fluffy. Yum.

Minus: 1) The shrimp fun had pungent garlic chives (a.k.a. Chinese chives) in them, an herb I never acquired a taste for. 2) The pork in the congee seemed a little off. 3) The green tea jelly was just weird. 4) No ladies with the carts; you order off a menu.