Food Sparks: sweet and sour pork

It was the scallops that did it for me at Frank's, it's scallops that did it again for me at the Crown Princess Restaurant on Bay Street in Toronto. The first time I had scallops at this location, they smothered them in XO sauce even though it's perfectly fresh scallop in the shell. But I was pleasantly surprised when I returned and ordered scallops the "Chinese" way - stir-fried. The wonderful thing was it's not your typical Chinese scallop stir-fry where the scallops were thinly sliced and often bland and tasteless. (The only tasty exception I'd encountered was in a Chinese restaurant in downtown Halifax, but then that's seafood heaven, it would be hard to botch although there is still not enough "bite" to the scallops when they are thin sliced.) The ones at the Crown Princess are whole flavorful scallops, perfectly cooked and presented, with pine nuts, green onions and sugar beans for a contrasting crunch.

Not recommended: Scallops in XO sauce

Another dish, sweet and sour pork, considered unsophisticated fare, was unusually well-made at this same restaurant. The pork was lean yet retained its moisture in spite of the double deep-frying needed to keep it crunchy under the sauce. And consistent with the quality, served in style on two pieces of crisp pancakes with fresh pineapples and peppers. Let me add, the pancakes didn't survive the crunch test at the end of the meal but the one piece of pork left did.

Sweet and sour pork

Honourable mention went to the moist and tender chicken with crunchy skin, described literally as "hand poured" - a process that is quite complicated. The chicken is first steamed so that it is cooked. It is then dried and then put on a rack over a pan of hot oil. Oil from the pan is then scooped up and poured over the chicken to crisp its skin without dipping the whole chicken in oil. This way, the skin is crispy but the meat is not greasy or dry. In some restaurants, it's called "oil poured" but here it is called "hand poured", likely just a marketing thing to avoid mention of oil and to emphasize the "hand-made" aspect - as if anything cooked could be otherwise.