Wonton King has been open on Marine Drive for as long as I can remember. That’s a pretty damned long time.. considering I’ve been living in this area for more than 15 years now! I probably have gone when I was younger, but not enough that I would remember. Now that I’m older, I never personally would have cared or bothered to set foot in her because I hate going to Chinese restaurants alone or with friends unless we know about it already.
Stepping inside, I was a little taken aback. Sorry I gotta admit, Marine Drive is a busy street, so a clean and well kept interior was not what I expected. The service was also really good and attentive! Complete with uniforms as well!
Left the ordering to my parents cause well…there was no English on the menu.
Green Vegetable and Tofu soup. Generally it’s made with seasonal vegetables, and this time it was made with bitter mustard leaves..yuuuck. I’m not a huge fan of mustard leaves because of the slight bitter taste to them, but at least they’re not as bitter as bittermelon.
魚香茄子 (Yú xiāng qié zi), literally translated to fish fragrance eggplant. Mmmm….eggplants are good. I love them, no matter what method of preparation.
Deep fried large intestines. It strikes me as strange how a lot of friends don’t know what this dish is, even though it’s a very typical Cantonese dish. I have fond memories of eating this as a kid, but stopped for some unknown reasons. Most likely because my mom felt that the restaurant couldn’t clean it well enough nor was it very healthy, so now when she orders it it’s a little bit of a treat.
Served on a bed of pickled daikon and carrots, these were crunchy and chewy at the same time, and when coupled with the red sweet and sour vinegar dipping sauce….ohh man…deliiiicious.
Stir-fried Water Spinach, aka hollow heart vegetable or 空心菜 (kōng xīn cài). Hands down my favorite Chinese vegetable because it stays crunchy even after being cooked, it can double as a straw and just tastes so earthy and good. See kids, spinach IS good.
Deep fried silver fish. I regard these as chinese fries, perfect for both pre-drinking and after drinking. Actually…probably more so after drinking.
Fermented rice soup..or what I know it in Mandarin as 酒釀 (Jiǔ niàng) Basically, rice is fermented and it becomes rice wine. After the wine is decanted off, the bits of rice is taken and made into a soup. It’s a slightly sweet soup typically served for dessert, similar to the Korean sikhye (see Seoul Doogbaegi for a picture near the bottom)
All of the items here are way above average, but the quality was also up here with the price. The only complaint is that the prices should have been more on par with the portion.
@ The time of this post, apparently The Wonton King is closed for renovations under new management. As for whether or not they will keep the same name, who knows?
