Beef with Preserved Vegetable at Goldstone

Beef with Preserved Vegetable at the Goldstone Restaurant

The Beef with Preserved Vegetable at Goldstone in Vancouver was a decidedly unusual breakfast item and was easily worth a 4 out of 5 Rating.

The Goldstone Bakery and Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown didn’t manage to survive the Covid-19 pandemic, and recently closed it’s doors after three decades of service. I am afraid I didn’t really manage to get much of a sense of the place after having only stopped in once for breakfast, but it seemed a nice, friendly sort of place. What I will recall is that the dish you see pictured above was the second part of what is, to date, the most singularly unusual breakfast special I have ever encountered.

The restaurant, which had a bakery up front, was a diner-style place, with the menus under glass on the tabletop. The dishes were mostly Chinese, but there were some Western selections which included a variety of sandwiches, and standard breakfast items. On the day I visited, there were also three breakfast specials available, one of which caught my eye. These were:

  • Omelet, with a choice of several fillings;
  • Ham with 2 eggs any style; and,
  • Ham with 2 eggs any style PLUS a Noodle dish with a choice of several toppings.

Well, I just had to go for that interesting sounding ‘fusion’ special, of course …

Scrambled Egg and Ham
Scrambled Egg and Ham

Well, the Ham and two eggs were certainly nothing to write home about. There was nothing wrong with them at all (it is, after all, fairly hard to screw up such a simple dish), but the plating was a bit casual and I generally find it hard to get orgasmic over plain old ham and eggs. There was a roll included but, with noodles to follow, I didn’t bother with it.

Anyway, the noodles you could choose were Spaghetti, Macaroni, or Vermicelli. I went with the latter as it seemed to be more at home with the available toppings. I didn’t record what the rest of these were, but I decided on the Beef with Preserved Vegetable.

Well, the noodles came served in a light Chicken broth which was very nice, but, as you can see, the choice of plate was probably not the best, and I am surprise my server managed to get it to me without slopping half the contents all over herself or me. A bowl would have been much more suitable.

The Beef was thinly sliced, very tender, and tasty. The vegetable, which wasn’t otherwise identified on the menu, was, I am fairly, Brine-Pickled Mustard Green as the lactic acid tang was fairly pronounced and made a lovey contrast to the beef. The dish was, in fact, not unlike my own recipe for Beef with Pickled Mustard Greens 酸菜炒牛肉絲, except that this version was just a bit milder and sweeter. In any event, the Beef with Preserved Vegetable at Goldstone was a very nice little dish, and my breakfast one of the most unusual I have had.

Comments, questions or suggestions most welcome!