Someone is always here to answer questions – about anything from sourcing and freshness, to cooking or processing.” It also allows us to talk to people about where and how the product is caught. “We love to educate people so that we can show them how good our seafood is. We do the same with fish – and if you’re going to buy a salmon steak, why not buy it from somewhere it’s the absolute freshest? We get fresh stuff in daily!”Ĭalvin proceeds to give us a quick lesson on assessing the freshness of fish (first, look at the gill – you want it to be as red as possible but also look at the eyes, they should be clear). That means that if you buy a king crab, we’ll bring it out to you and show you that it is alive, and then we’ll process it for you to take home. “I mean, what do we do best in BC? Fresh, wild seafood! In Chinese culture, nothing is more precious than fresh ingredients, and nothing is fresher than ‘live.’ At Hung Win, we pride ourselves on providing great live product. “Most of our customers have been coming here since I was a kid,” he says, “I love working here…it’s like an aquarium, but you can feed your family from our tanks. Calvin’s goal is to remain at this address as long as possible. Calvin has a day job in finance that operates on Toronto time, but once that working day is done, he makes his way to Hung Win to pitch in at the family business. MAP Second Stop: Hung Win Seafood on GoreĪt Hung Win Seafood, William introduces me to Calvin, a second-generation fishmonger. I meet William in front of Kam Wai, and we head out to run some errands together. He knows the neighbourhood’s business owners, where to find which ingredients, and where the best deals are, making him the perfect guide to get to know the secrets of some Chinatown shops. The recently renovated space has a few dine-in tables but is the best know as a source of quick take-out comfort food and a good selection of frozen grab-and-go Dim Sum favourites, like soup dumplings, Pork Siu Mai, Har Gow (shrimp dumplings), BBQ pork buns, vegan steam buns – the list goes on…Īs a second-generation proprietor, William Liu has had a strong connection to Chinatown his whole life (his father opened Kam Wai over thirty years ago, and William grew up on Keefer Street in Chinatown). Kam Wai is well established and locally famous for their Dim Sum. The team at Kam Wai Dim Sum busy making dumplings. Today we meet William Liu, co-owner of 金 威 點 心 Kam Wai Dim Sum at 249 E Pender for a walk around Chinatown…. This series aims to familiarize readers with the businesses of Chinatown and the people who own and work at them, and to give you the inside scoop on how to shop at them. The old-school herb shops, butchers, dumpling makers and fish mongers need community support and patronage in order to stick around. But if Vancouver doesn’t rally to protect and support them, they will continue to vanish. The shopkeepers (hit hard by Covid and still struggling) are a huge part of what makes this neighbourhood great. To me, Pender, Keefer, Georgia, Gore, and Columbia are some of the most interesting streets in our city. I also love the layers of generations, customs, cultures. I love the layers of Chinatown – the colours, textures and architectural styles, the fading Chinese characters painted on buildings decades ago, and the Tupperware tubs filled with tiny, crunchy fish.
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