Sherman's Food Adventures: Dollar Meat Store

Dollar Meat Store

The last time I was in Chinatown in search for meat, it led me to the corner of Gore and Keefer. No, not that kinda "meat"! This is a food blog! Rather, I was continuing my search for the best Chinese BBQ. I figured if I was going to check out the BBQ meat scene in Chinatown, I needed to visit the Grand Daddy of them all out on Pender - Dollar Meats. Wow, this place brings back huge memories. I remember as a kid, I would marvel at all the cured meats hung on the wall and all the raw meats sitting there without refrigeration (and flies all around too). Is that safe? Well, walking into the place, nothing has changed - literally. It was like a time warp and I was transported back. Wait, my back still hurts and I have a huge mortgage. No, I really didn't go back in time. Darn!

So as per my MO, I went with the big three meats starting with the standard, the Roast Pork. Since they use the whole hog at Dollar, it really depends on your luck what type of meat you get. I got mostly the shoulder for this order and it was sufficiently moist, if not salty. The roast pork was a bit more "rustic" than you would find at a place like HK BBQ Master. The crackling was thin but still crunchy. This was an above average roast pork. As for the BBQ Pork, it was not exactly moist nor was it dry either. If you are a BBQ pork connoisseur, you can tell from the picture that the pork still has the barely cooked texture which would be almost hard similar to boiled meat. There wasn't a huge hit of flavour either, rather the centre tasted like "pork". Yes, that sounds funny, but BBQ pork should take on the properties of the sweet marinade.

Lastly, the BBQ Duck was pretty meaty yet on the paler side of the bbq skin colour continuum. The layer of fat underneath the skin was quite minimal while the meat was mostly mosit. The duck was slightly salty at the thigh, but that is not unusual since the marinade collects in that area. Bottom line? Dollar Meats continues to churn out the same stuff they always have. Nothing more, nothing less. It fall somewhere in between HK BBQ Master and Top King.

The Good:
- Pretty predictable stuff
- Standard pricing
- Nostalgic store

The Bad:
- It does the job, but nothing more than that

Dollar Meat Store 元昌燒臘肉食公司 on Urbanspoon

4 comments:

LotusRapper said...

What other kind of meat were you referring to ....... ?

Sherman Chan said...

@LR Um... What meat do you think?

dennybee said...

Did you happen to catch the price of a 'whole hog' at Dollar Meats?

Sherman Chan said...

@db I'm sorry but I didn't. But... In my past experiences, it will set you back anywhere from $250-$350 depending how big the pig is.

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