Strike 破店

It was another one of my vegetarian days.  It's lunch time, where to go and what to eat.  After tossing ideas back and forth with Buddha Boy, we ended up at Strike 破店 in Richmond.

Buddha Boy didn't have to follow the vegetarian rituals, so he ordered a plate of Shredded Pork and Mixed Veggie Fried Noodle 台式肉絲炒麵.  With simple ingredients of pork, cabbage, scallions and noodles, this plate had very typical Taiwanese flavors of sa-cha sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil.

While this was not appropriate to be considered a true Buddhist/Taoist type of vegetarian, I decided to bend the rules and ordered a roll of Taiwanese Style Egg Wrap 台式蛋餅.  The filling was generous with a thick layer of egg and ample amount of green onions.  The wrap was pan-fried to a crispy outer coat with a gentle hint of flour sweetness.

Next came the Deep Fried Assorted Mushroom 酥炸三菇, something we've always ordered whenever we visit this Taiwanese restaurant, whether it's on my vegetarian day or not.  A combo of king oyster mushrooms (abalone mushrooms), button mushrooms and shitake mushrooms, this deep-fry blend was done similar to the popular Taiwanese popcorn chicken where the elements were lightly coated, deep fried then seasoned with a mix of salt, pepper and five-spices.

My main entree was the meal platter of Abalone Mushroom with Three Spice Sauce 三杯杏鮑菇, which came with a bowl of white rice and three accompanied sides: napa cabbage, corn, edamame.

Served on a hot plate, the main dish consisted of french horn mushrooms (abalone mushrooms) and vegetarian ham.  Unlike its true origin in Jiangxi 江西 where the sweet fermented glutinous rice, pork fat and soy sauce are the main ingredients for cooking a three-cup dish, this was done in the Taiwanese Hakka-style of using rice wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, ginger, garlic and basil.

While not the best in 604, Strike's Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets 鹽酥雞 has always satisfied our cravings.  However, this time was a failure.  Perhaps the kitchen tried to produce too big of a batch to accommodate multiple orders, the meat was overcooked with no crispy surfaces.  While we saw strands here and there, basil taste was zero.  Seasoning mix was minimal and there was a slight taste of bad oil.

We walked in at about 1pm and stayed for approximately an hour.  Food delivery was slow, most likely because it was close to a full house.  Service, while courteous, was inattentive and forgetful.  We had to ask two different servers to fill our water cups.  The first female server forgot, even when she walked by our table a few times.  The second female server remembered after she took and entered a few orders.  The male server really only paid attention to his friends sitting at the table by the entrance.

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 Strike 破店
4751 Garden City Rd, Richmond, BC V6X 2H5
604-821-0880 
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