New Sky Restaurant‘s Sopa Pac Pow, $11, 444 Spadina Ave.
The dish
Think of this Chinese-Peruvian soup as a fully loaded egg drop soup. It starts with a velvety base, cornstarch-thickened broth with a subtle white pepper kick. You then get wispy clouds of egg whites folded in along with delicate confetti strands of tender carrots, crunchy Napa cabbage, bamboo shoots and wood-ear mushrooms, and meaty shrimp and pork. At the bottom of the bowl is a bundle of chewy, translucent glass noodles made from mung beans, so have those chopsticks ready.
The dish comes in three sizes but the small is already generously sized for one as a light lunch (especially if you’re ordering another dish). It’s a substantial but not overwhelmingly heavy dish, ideal for a quick lunch. Keep this dish in mind if you want something that won’t upset the stomach but still has a hint of astringent, peppery heat to clear a stuffy nose.
The cuisine
Pay attention to New Sky’s new exterior sign when visiting its larger, spiffier location that took over the former Red Room space at the beginning of April (a rare sight to see a non-chain Chinatown institution actually flourish nowadays). You’ll notice the word “Chifa” at the top right corner, a diasporic cuisine that emerged when Chinese labourers arrived in Peru in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a source of cheap labour. Chinese restaurants and Chinatowns developed from this, blending cooking from China’s southern Guangdong province, where many workers came from, with local Peruvian flavours and ingredients such as tropical fruits like pineapple and Peru’s famous potato, along with a bolder, darker soy sauce in its signature dish, chaufa, or Peruvian fried rice. Think of it as the Peruvian equivalent to how Canadian-Chinese chop suey menus came to be.
What else is on the menu
While Chifa is advertised on the sign, you have to ask the server for the Chifa menu (heads up, it’s all in Spanish). Other classic Chifa dishes include different types of chaufa (fried rice, starting at $14) as well as lomo saltado (sautéed beef strips and French fries, $24). A good counterbalance to the soupy and peppery sopa pac pow is the kam lu wanton ($20). They’re deep fried wontons, but unlike their Cantonese cousin the filling is quite minimal (a sliver of roast pork in this case). Instead, the star is the eggy wrapper fried to a bubbly golden brown and used as a vehicle for the gooey ruby-red sweet and sour sauce, which is dotted with sweet peppers, shrimp, pineapple, onions, baby corn, snow peas and carrots (Chinese nachos, if you will). New Sky’s version is dressed up with slivers of green onion, fresh cilantro leaves and white sesame seeds.
Another quintessential Chifa dish is chie jau kay (also spelled chijaukay, $19), boneless chicken that’s lightly fried and dressed in a savoury-sweet garlic soy sauce with a hint of pepper. Wash it all down with a bottle of cream soda-tasting Inca Cola ($3.50) or Peruvian fruit punch made from purple corn, chicha morada ($4.99).
Explore the area
Canteen, a Hong Kong-style lunch spot on the second floor of the Dragon City shopping centre at 280 Spadina Ave., also serves spicy Malaysian dishes such as nasi lemak if you want to continue the quasi-hidden menu theme. While it’s not a specific shop or restaurant, the Chinatown Centre mall (222 Spadina Ave.) continues to fascinate me as it’s a large, multi-level, reto-looking dead mall in a prime real estate location. I just like walking around there to be transported back to the ‘90s.
