Sherman's Food Adventures: Fraser Court

Fraser Court

"Where did you want to go for Dim Sum tomorrow?", queried my mom.  "Richmond", I answered confidently.  Viv looked at me as if I had 2 heads.  Wait, I do have...  uh...  Anyways, even my kids were perplexed, but then again, they just don't like the long car ride.  So, with intentions of heading into Richmond for Dim Sum, my mom suggested a revisit to Fraser Court instead.  She had been there a few times recently and thought the food had improved. Oh alright, I guess I could visit Richmond another day...  They all could sense my disappointment. Not.

It was a good call though because I hadn't been back for Dim Sum since it first opened.  The first dish to arrive was the Fried Taro Dumplings. Light and crispy with minimal grease, there was a thick well-seasoned layer of taro.  As such, there wasn't a whole lot of room for the pork filling.  The little that there was, it wasn't overly fatty not saucy.  Since my son loves both salty donuts and rice noodles, it would only be logical to order the Ja Leung.  The donut itself could've been less dense and crunchier, but the rice noodle itself was relatively thin and light.  Especially for the kiddies, we liked how there wasn't a whack load of green onions.

With the same consistency, the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll was pretty good.  There was a good amount of shrimp and flowering chives which made the rolls substantial.  The shrimp itself was had a decent snap texture and was well-seasoned.  Onto a different type of noodle, we had the Offal Hot Pot with crystal noodles.  These mung bean starch noodles were chewy, yet sufficiently moist.  The sauce exhibited depth of flavour from the braising and the addition of dried orange peel.  As for the offal itself, the tripe was soft while not completely melting away.  The same could be said for the tendon as it was soft, yet maintain its integrity.  

Onto the Sui Mai (pork & shrimp dumplings), they were buttery soft (ingredients a bit loose and wet), yet the meat still had a nice bounce texture.  There was plenty of flavours thanks to the small amount of fat, shiitake mushrooms and crunchy shrimp.  I found that the ratio of ingredients was just right.  Next, the Haw Gow (shrimp dumplings) were equally large with whole pieces of shrimp inside.  They exhibited a buttery and moist snap, yet were over-seasoned to the point that I thought the filling was too salty.  As for the wrapper, it was thin and only slightly chewy.

We also had the Steamed Pork Spareribs which were in really big chunks.  These chunks were very meaty with only a few bones and cartilage.  They were well-marinated being garlicky with a nice rebound texture.  However, once again, the flavours bordered on salty and the big overflowing oil slick didn't help matters.  One of my favourites was next being the Fried Bean Curd Skin Roll.  The exterior was a nice shade of brown which also yielded an appealing chewy texture.  I enjoyed the filling as it was a balanced mix of crunchy wood ear mushrooms & bamboo shoot and moist bouncy pork.  There was only a modest amount of sauce where it was fairly flavourful.

Of course, we couldn't get out of there without ordering the Shrimp Spring Rolls since my son would have a hairy fit.  Well, he had a minor fit because the spring rolls had a layer of seaweed inside.  I would agree with him as the seaweed didn't really add anything and in fact, took away from the shrimp.  It didn't help that there was far too much salt either.  The shrimp did exhibit a nice snap while the rolls themselves were crunchy.  I also thought that my son would love to try the Fried Chicken Wings, but he didn't have any of them either for some reason or another.  For me, I found them to be crispy with a nice toss of salt and spices.  The meat was somewhat moist, but not really all-that-juicy though.

For both kiddies, we got them the mini-Lo Mei Gai (sticky rice).  Similar to the other dishes, there was a good ratio of meat filling to rice.  The rice itself was moist and glutinous while not being overly wet.  Yet, also the same again, there was far too much seasoning (MSG).  We finished up the meal with a few orders of the Mango Pudding to the joy of my daughter.  She dusted off one herself as it was the typical artificially-flavored type.  However, it was a bit better than most versions.  Overall, we enjoyed the Dim Sum at Fraser Court considering the price point.  But the overuse of salt and MSG could be an issue with some people.

The Good:
- Decent eats
- Good portion size

The Bad:
- Too much salt and MSG
- Service is okay, but with such a big restaurant, it can get sparse

Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant 紅日大酒家 on Urbanspoon

1 comments:

Unknown said...

Do NOT go at night unless you enjoy awful senior karaoke

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