Kung Hei Fat Choi

Chicken with Chestnut

To mark the end of the lunar year, my colleagues and I went to the Mississauga Chinatown to celebrate with a New Year's Eve lunch on Thursday. It has been a long time since I've been here, but everything looks about the same: the red gates and golden roofs, the wall of dragons.

But Best Friend Restaurant is probably new in this location as its various plaques and certificates ("King of One Dish 2010") had primarily Markham designation. One wall had a 4 panel paintings of the epic Journey To The West (with the Monkey King) but done in a comic-book style. We settled down for a multi-course meal ($88.88). It took a while for the first dish, Chicken with Chestnut, to arrive but then they came in quick succession. The meat was so-so but I really enjoyed the dense and rich chestnuts.

The seafood chow mein noodles and the fried rice with chicken and fish (an extra $11.49) were tasty but typical. I was tempted by the stir-fried goat but it was a bit tough and gamey. Faring better was the steamed fish and the mix mushroom with tofu dishes, both were soft and tender. The two outstanding items were the lobster in szechuan sauce and the pork pettitoes. The lobster, covered in sweet sauce and ginger, was a bit messy to eat. Its bed of rice had soaked up all the wonderful flavour. The pork (trotters) looked a bit daunting, large and still on the bone, sitting in a dark stew. The extremely fatty skin cover also made it an unusual sight in your standard North American meal. But once you sliced it apart, the meat inside was juicy and tender. The skin was rich but mild, surprisingly lacking that strong, earthy fattiness flavour that could be a turn off. All in all, it was a satisfying way to usher out the old year.