Celebrate Asian Heritage Month at Wild Rice

Curry Vegetable Bao

Last night, I tasted some of the Asian Heritage dishes that Wild Rice will be featuring during Asian Heritage Month at the restaurant from May 7-31. My favourite from the selections were the Curry Vegetable Bao, I could have eaten these all night!

At Wild Rice, proprietor Andrew Wong and his executive Chef Todd Bright, believe that Asian Heritage Month is an ideal time to honour the past by celebrating the here and now. Chinese food as it is presented at Wild Rice, is the vanguard of an evolution (or perhaps revolution) in Chinese cuisine. “While we take inspiration from the food of the past, our dishes are not carved in stone replicas of what has gone before. We present modern interpretations of classical dishes that feature our local, sustainable and seasonal ingredients,” says Mr. Wong a third generation Chinese-Canadian restaurateur. While paying homage to the past, Wild Rice is very much of the future.

For Asian Heritage Month, starting May 7 (after Dine Out), the restaurants menu will be offering a special section of heritage dishe inspired by the food that was prepared in the Wong household by his grandmother. You’ll find updated versions of village food such as Siu Mai, Vegetable Bun (Choi Bao), Congee and the ever-popular BBQ Pork (cha siu). In this instance the Siu Mai, a dim sum favourite, has been modernized as an open face dumpling of local spot prawns with pork from Sloping Hill Farm. The Vegetable Bao is enlivened with a touch of curry while the ubiquitous staple Congee comes accessorized with smoked tofu and shitake mushrooms (pa gu). Cha Siu, those delectable morsels of barbequed pork, is made in-house from Sloping Hill Farms free-range, heritage breed pork.

Individual dishes range in price from $5 to $8 or you can order a Heritage Platter with all four for only $19. This special menu section will be offered May 7 through 31.

While these village dishes are the ones specially highlighted for Asian Heritage Month, Wild Rice’s menu features many more tasty temptations drawn from classical Chinese cuisine: Wonton Soup (scallop wontons, roast chicken broth), Seasonal Vegetable Spring Rolls, Chinatown Sweep (aka vegetable chow mein), Fraser Valley Lamb Potstickers (with truffled pea puree) and the ever-popular Spicy Kung Pao Chicken (twice-cooked peanuts, Maple Hills free-range chicken, broccoli and rice noodles).

You can reserve online at http://www.wildricevancouver.com/ or phone them at 604-642-2882

By: Richard Wolak

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