Sherman's Food Adventures: Tasty Wok

Tasty Wok

After landing at Bellingham International, it became clear that I needed to pick up food along the way home for dinner.  Heck no was I going to be cooking anything and I was in no shape to go eat out (with all the 2nd hand smoke, I must've lost 3 years of my life in Vegas!).  But where?  I was going to do the Kent's Kitchen thing, but Vandelay offered up another option being Tasty Wok.  Located within Champlain Mall, this was not a place I would've had on my radar.  Since I was famished, I decided to order with my eyes and not my stomach, which resulted in 6 dishes.  Yah, I got a bit greedy there...  It would make Mijune proud.

Starting with a fried item that would qualify as somewhat of an appetizer, the Fried Fish tossed in chili salt was cooked a bit too long.  Hence, the fish was rather dry.  On the other hand, it was crispy though with just enough saltiness and a touch of heat.  The Broccoli with Beef looked vibrant and in fact, it was done quite well, especially for something sitting in a warming tray.  The broccoli was crunchy and well-seasoned (without much goopy starch-thickened sauce) while the beef was tender, albeit in little bits.  Now, as for the Sweet and Sour Pork, I can't mince words, it sucked more than Paris Hilton.  Yes, I do realize it was sitting in a warming tray for who-knows-how-long, but even taking that into consideration, the dish was barely edible.  Why?  Well, the meat was fried far too long, where it became more of a jerky.  Also, the batter was too thick, where it soaked up the bland radioactive red sauce.  It was sweet pork jerky with no sour.

Well, not all was lost because the Soy Chicken was not bad.  Consisting of only chicken legs, there was a good chance the meat would be juicy and soft.  They actually suggested I get some when I was picking out my dishes.  Good call as the skin had a nice rich colour which translated to plenty of flavour.  I also got some Chicken Fried Rice to go with all these dishes.  The rice was rather soft and not very toothsome.  At the very least, it was not greasy at all.  In fact, there was not much flavour either.  Lastly, I got an order of the Fried Flat Rice Noodles with Beef.  For me, I thought there was far too much veggies in the form of white onion, bean sprouts and green onion.  The textures overwhelmed the noodles and the beef.  Other than that, the flavours were fine with enough soy caramelization from high wok heat.  Overall, the food was serviceable at Tasty Wok with the exception of the crappy Sweet n' Sour Pork.  With that being said, I'd gladly go to Kent's Kitchen over them though.

The Good:
- Relatively low price
- Some okay dishes
- Friendly people

The Bad:
- Hit and miss (Kent's is better)


Tasty Wok on Urbanspoon

3 comments:

LotusRapper said...

Sherman - presumably on your way home from YVR that there'd be many other better options than Tasty Wok ? How about "Good Taste" at SE Marine/Fraser ? Or that Chinese BBQ place (forget name) at the corner of E.49/Elliott ?

Just sayin'

Tasty Wok is awful. My wife used to work at the physio clinic in the office building fronting 49th and I had a few meals at TW. Yukaroo.

Sherman Chan said...

@LR Trust me. Not my idea. But on the other hand, I gotta eat the bad to really appreciate the good too.

LotusRapper said...

Now that's a philosophical reply !

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