The Squid Steamed at New Town in Vancouver was a bit unusual, but was very enjoyable and I gave it a decent Rating of 4 out of 5.
Although I ordered this dish from the Dim Sum Menu at the New Town Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown, the portion that was served was much, much larger than usual. I wasn’t especially enamored of the curry sauce at all, but I very much enjoyed the less-than-common type of squid that was used.
What was rather unique about this dish was that the squid was not the fresh variety, but rather Dried Squid. I am not entirely sure if it was the completely dehydrated variety that requires reconstitution by soaking in water, or whether it was semi-fried type that may, in some cases, be steamed without any soaking at all. In any event, the end result was very good. Dehydrating squid, as with other culinary ingredients, really concentrates the flavor, and that was very much apparent here. The texture. Moreover, was quite dense and was more chewy than the usual fresh squid preparation. These two factors alone, made this dish very enjoyable.
As I mentioned, the portion I was served was very large, and certainly more than I was expecting. Part of this was, of course the vegetable component, which included peppers, carrot and onions. Quite honestly, this would be fine in a main course dish, or even an appetizer, in very small amounts, but at a Dim Sum meal, I like to eat a succession of different foods, and I prefer to be able to focus on a specific item and not be filled up with ‘extras’. Still, restaurants do have to turn a buck and I didn’t mind this too much.
The one aspect of the dish that really wasn’t too keen on was the Curry Sauce. In truth, I tend to find that curried dishes in both Japanese and Chinese restaurants are not something I tend to enjoy all that much, particularly as they are often somewhat uninteresting and often over-sweet. This version, while having a bit of chili heat was, as is often the case with Curried Squid Dim Sum, bland to the point of being insipid. Other than that, though, I rather enjoyed this preparation.