Cherry's Food House

So if you haven't already heard, there has been some drama surrounding Cherry's Food House in Richmond.  Well, I'm not going to get into that with this post.  What I am going to focus on is the Korean Chinese food that they serve and what I thought of it.  I will reiterate that Cherry's dishes up Korean Chinese fusion cuisine, so I do not want to hear comments saying it isn't authentic.  That is not the point of the place.  Frankly, if the food tastes good, I am not inclined to slam a place for not being authentic, especially when they have already stated as such!  So without further delay, lets get into the food!

The main thing they wanted us to try was the Ginseng Chicken Soup.  This was served in a large pot atop a butane burner.  There was a whole small chicken prominently in the soup with dates, goji berries and of course ginseng. I really enjoyed this as the soup was so full of concentrated chicken flavour.  It was naturally sweet and exhibited the silkiness of the collagen-rich broth.  The ginseng was definitely there, but not too strong so that it was too herbal.  Highly-recommended.

Another must-order item here is their Seafood Pancake.  With most other places, you'd find a bunch of green onion and practically no seafood.  Not here.  In fact, there was so much imitation crab stick, the whole thing looked like an imitation crab pancake.  There was also other bits of seafood in there though and it was not super doughy either.  As you can see, the outside was crispy and the whole thing was really large.  Sure, there was green onion in there, but only a bit.

With the BBQ Beef Short Ribs, we finally saw the fusion part of the menu.  At first glance, the short ribs looked like any other version with nice grill marks and a sizzling aroma.  However, the meat had been tenderized, hence, the chewy meatiness of short rib was absent.  Instead, it was buttery tender except for the cartilage portion near the bone.  For some, that would be the wrong texture, but believe me, for others, it would be welcomed being easier to chew.  Personally, I didn't mind it as it was indeed a breeze to eat and the flavour was aromatic from the fat as well as the classic sweet saltiness.

The same Chinese Korean fusion was present in the Bossam as well.  Normally, the pork belly is boiled in a brine that has elements such as ginger, onion, garlic, soybean paste and believe it or not coffee.  The reason you do not taste the coffee is that all of these elements are supposed to be subtle.  In this version here, it seemed to taste more like a Chinese "lo siu" where there are elements of sweetened soy and other aromatics.  Again, that didn't bother me because I'm Chinese and these flavours were familiar.  I merely wrapped the tender pieces of pork belly in the cabbage leaf and all of the other condiments.  Tasted great in my opinion.

The next fusion dish, Sweet & Sour Pork, was something I really enjoyed.  I'm sure you are all familiar with the Korean version of Tangsuyuk where the batter is potato starch and the sauce is filled with fruit.  Then there is the Northern Chinese-style where the pork is sliced into thin pieces and coated with corn starch (or tapioca starch).  Both versions do not contain ketchup nor hawthorne.  So the one here at Cherry's is more akin to the Northern Chinese-style but has elements of the Korean version as well.  The pork was tender and the batter was super crispy.  The sauce was tangy and sweet.

We tried 2 of their cold noodles including the Cold Noodles with soup and the Spicy Cold Noodles.  The buckwheat noodles were chewy and appealing while sitting in a cold broth.  The flavour was a bit different that I am used to but it was still savoury with some sweetness.  Maybe it needed some more acidity?  It did have some chicken meatballs which was different.  As for the spicy cold noodles, they were chewy and mixed with a good amount of gochujang-based sauce.  Plenty of spice, tang and sweetness.

We weren't done with noodles as we also had the Jajangmyeon.  I guess a Korean Chinese fusion restaurant makes sense as this is the Korean version of the Chinese Ja Jeun Mein.  It is basically cooked noodles topped with a stir-fried sauce.  For the Chinese version, it is usually a meat sauce made of pork, sweet soybean paste and sometimes onion and/or pressed tofu.  Julienned cucumbers are served atop the sauce.  The Korean version is a black bean sauce with onions, chunjang and pork.  Well, as you can see, this is a pretty legit Korean version, but with cucumbers and a fried egg.  So definitely fusion but also pretty authentic too.  This was good.  I definitely enjoyed the chewy noodles and the rich sauce with the sweetness of cooked down onions.

We had another hot pot on a butane burner with the Sliced Beef Hot Pot.  I think this was pretty much a fusion of Korean and Japanese where the broth was akin to Sukiyaki with its sweet soy flavour.  This turned out to be one of my favourites as the beef was super fatty and tender.  It soaked up all of the broth and the veggies did so too.  Overall, the food at Cherry's is quite tasty and if you accept the fusion part of it, then there should be no complaining about authenticity.  Portions are really generous and the pricing is reasonable.  I can see why the place was packed when we were there.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Large portions
- Reasonably-priced
- Some pretty tasty dishes

The Bad:
- Well, this will upset the authenticity police (well too bad for them)
- The place gets slammed at peak times and they have a hard time attending to all the tables