It may not be fancy, but the food is good
Mia Stainsby
Sun
Victor Feng, owner of Joyce Jiaozi tastes one of the dumpling dishes prepared by his wife Jean Yan. Photograph by: Glenn Baglo, Vancouver Sun
A handwritten sign greets you. “No change. No phone. No public washroom. No criminal attempts of any kind.”
And another: “We respect every customer but this is not a licensed premises. One must be responsible for the penalty if he/ she consumes alcohol or smokes inside.”
Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. I think I pass muster and sit down. Unpretentious is an understatement here but if you want a taste of northern Chinese food (as in Manchurian), Joyce Jiaozi might interest you.
I’ve heard the dumplings are good and that’s all I’m here for. Jiaozi is Chinese for dumplings and here, they are made by Jean (Anglicized from Erjing) Yan daily. She and husband “I-mostly-deliver” Victor Feng are from Manchuria in northeast China and the wide-ranging menu features food from that area.
“We come from Changchun,” Feng says, “and it is called a sister to Saskatchewan. We have corn and cold.”
Lamb, wheat noodles and some neighbouring Korean influences are part of the cuisine and they have savoury filled buns from an area closer to Beijing made for them. They also included some Taiwanese dishes thrown in (deep-fried pork chop with rice, beef stew with rice, deep-fried chicken with rice) as well.
We only tried but a small fraction of the 100-plus items on the menu. We ordered steamed, pan-fried and boiled dumplings ($4, $5 and $6). Pan-fried chive pockets were my favourite. Boiled dumplings with shrimp, pork, egg and chives were good; steamed beef dumplings were less good. Yan makes all the dumplings by hand daily. In Manchuria, Feng says, dumplings are eaten at New Years, but here, since they’re so popular, they make them every day.
I really liked the Korean-influenced kimchi fried rice but I’d recommend it only for people who, like me, can inhale kimchi like an industrial shop vacuum. The stir-fried chicken with celery and peanuts is a crunchy dish with bits of chili. Stir-fried lamb and vegetables, however, did not entice. Noodle soups are another specialty but I would have blacked out had I eaten any more. For those who want to delve deeply into the cuisine, there’s marinated pork ears, beef tripe and beef tendon.
Feng says the meatballs “are very special.” They have lotus root, bamboo roots and eggs mixed in.
Should you wonder about the barking coming from the back, it’s not a dog in the kitchen. It is just another pre-emptive move. You’ll find, should you need to use the washroom, there’s a big German shepherd outside the back door, doing his (I’m assuming the gender) job, showing his discontent as you approach.
Joyce Jiaozi might be a hole-in-the-wall and very basic (we noted Feng, who waits on tables, fell asleep on his book at one point and the kitchen sharply rang a bell to jar him out of his slumber) but if you know your way around the menu, there are some very good value dishes.
If you’re there for lunch or early dinner, check out Panaderia Latina Bakery a couple blocks away (4906 Joyce).
I would recommend the meringue sandwich cookies. They look like two white porcupines stuck together with lovely dulce de leche. Yum!
JOYCE JIAOZI
5171 Joyce St., 604-436-5678.
Open Tuesday to Sunday for lunch and dinner. Free delivery within 3 km and minimum order of $15.
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