Sunday Lunch at Bo Laksa King
Posted on 05/01/2011
Address: 2546 East Hastings Street, Vancouver
On this first day of May, we were wondering where to have lunch after our walk around Crab Park. Birds chirping, wind rustling new leaves sprouting on trees and another nice day to revisit Bo Laksa King Bubbles & Bits on Hastings.
The first thing we noticed when walking in the front door was the absence of the massive bubble tea signboard behind the bar area. The 'Bubbles' part is now gone from 'Bubbles and Bits'. It looks like Bo is moving forward with having this cafe all to himself... which is a fantastic step forward in his young career as the best known Myanmar-food chef in Vancouver.
Bo has a new, 2-page simplified menu (page 1, page 2) that features the 'greatest hits' of his culinary range.
Laksa $7.95 Your choice of vermicelli or yellow noodle served with tiger prawn, fish ball, tofu puff, hard boil egg, chicken and house make authentic flavour coconuts curry broth.
We thought something has changed in the Laksa recipe, but can't be sure what it is. It is still a delicious bowl of laksa. A note on the noodles: laksa in Singapore and Malaysia is served with round rice noodles. Bo seems intent on keeping the choice of ultra-thin vermicelli or properly round, but yellow noodles. I'm assuming the yellow noodles are wheat noodles? Or are they rice noodles with yellow food colouring? Anyhow you slice it, foodies from SE Asia will expect round, white, rice noodles in their laksa.
Lahpet Thoke $7.95. (Fermented Tea Leaf Salad). Pickled tea leaf, tomato, cabbage, garlic chip, roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, broad beans, mixed together with fresh lime juice seasoning.
A very, very interesting salad dish. Our first time trying this exotic salad, we found that the fermented tea leaves sort of infuse the whole sourish dish with their fermented fragrance. The dry, crunchy nuts compliment well the slightly watery mixture of vegetables.
Spicy Squid $6.25. Blanched squid, onion and garlic, cilantro, tossed in house made spicy lime vinaigrette.
This is a really good and original salad dish. Since the squid is merely blanched before being added into the mix, the meat is very soft and tender -- not at all over-cooked. So many chefs over-fry or over-boil their squid, which many times produces overly-cooked and overly-hard squid.
This spicy seafood salad is very good and yummy. It is our favorite salad so far at Bo's as we always pounce on this selection while deciding what to order...
Pad Thai $8.95. (Authentic Thai Street Food). Thai rice noodle, eggs, shrimps, extra firm tofu, Chinese chives, dried chili peppers, banana flower, bean sprouts, preserved turnip, stir fry in house made traditional tamarind sauce.
I always get suspicious when a restauranteur adds that 'authentic' bit to a menu item. In my somewhat worldly-wise skepticism, this bit of wordsmithery can be seen as attempting to make up for lack of culinary skill.
If you want 'authentic Thai stree food' -- go to Thailand. Because unless there is a charcoal pit heating a well-seasoned wok producing nothing but pad thai somewhere in the back kitchen of Bo's, there will be no 'authentic street food' unfortunately.
Having said that however, I agree in principle with Bo's stance on street food. According to this chef from Myanmar, the best food in Asia is found among the millions of push-carts and roadside food-stalls, producing their one-and-only, expertly prepared dishes to a constant and unending line-up of victually sophisticated and hungry patrons who expect nothing but the best and ditch the rest.
I have been to Thailand three times in the past four years and have made a point to consume pad thai to understand what the 'real thing' tastes like. Comparing Bo's Pad Thai to the original is an exercise in futility. The dish really falls short of what good Pad Thai is supposed to be. Bo's giant mound of flat rice noodles are surrounded by a few pieces of cubed tofu, a couple prawns and some scrambled eggs, all of which combined with fresh bean sprouts and a few 'condiment greens' (cilantro etc.) amount to a very dry and rather bland eating experience.
Tom Kha $6.75. Your choice of chicken or shrimp in straw mushrooms and coconut broth flavoured with galangal, kaffir lime, hot pepper, lemon grass and lime juice.
Tom yum paste is the secret ingredient in tom yum soup. Tom kha is tom yum paste plus coconut milk. Depending on which part of Thailand or Laos you find yourself, Tom Kha is either fiery red like Bo's or milky white.
As usual, it is hard to tell what depth of ingredients are to be found under a sea of red broth and floating mushrooms in a serving bowl of tom kha.
Once the fiery red soup is scooped into an eating bowl, it becomes apparent that, yes indeed, there is life-sustaining chicken meat cooked to a tender succulence. Orientally surrounded by bits of lemon grass, galangal and kaffir lime leaf.
All-in-all, Bo Laksa King is a fantastic value-for-money. It is hard to find a place that bills under $50 for 5 dishes. It is an unusually pleasing experience to me knowing that I have eaten rather good food for such a price. It is like the eating pleasure is enhanced by the pleasure of 'saving money'.
Long live Bo Laksa King!
p.s. Bo says he will be gone for a month and a half starting sometime in June for a trip to Thailand. He is assisting some associates in the building of a school program for orpans in a refugee camp near the town Mae Sot (Western Thailand very near Myanmar border). Good luck Bo! and happy trails!