Waterloo Star

This is one of the numerous Chinese places in the plaza. I don't typically go to many of these, mostly because none of my Chinese colleagues have definitively told me, "this one is the right one".

I'd never been to this one before. It's pretty generic from the outside: formica tables, cheap chairs, a counter, nothing special on the walls. Pretty bare-bones.

It took a long time to get a menu, and even longer to successfully order; I think that the people who arrived after me (and got fed before me) likely ordered their usual when they arrived. I was a little annoyed, though, as it was a long wait.

I ordered "chicken with mushrooms" casserole. This basically was a soup/stew with a bunch of cut up chicken legs and thighs (bone-in, skin-on, quite a few pieces were just bone) in a brown stock that had a bunch of re-hydrated black mushrooms, a small amount of bok choy, and some glass noodles. The stock was meaty, but not especially flavourful, except maybe some star anise, and perhaps some clove or Sichuan pepper (I know they're different, but they both anesthetize the tongue). It was also served with a bowl of white rice.

This isn't a way I like to eat, and I really didn't care for this meal. It's very hard to eat chicken on bones without a place to put the bones (I just tossed them back in the stock), and the mushrooms weren't very appealing (sometimes, rehydrated mushrooms come out with a good tender texture, but much of this was stringy and inedible).

I suppose I should have gotten white people Chinese food (say, kung pao chicken, or the like, which was on the menu), but there were a lot of these casseroles going around to people, and I figured that I might be happy, as when I went to Waterloo SOGO a couple weeks back.

I've been told by European and Asian colleagues and friends that the preference that North Americans have for meat without bones is somehow juvenile, and indeed, I kind of think there's some validity to that. (Query: where on the body of a chicken is to be found the "nugget" or the "finger"?) But this meal really was hard to eat: each piece of chicken (and there were probably a couple dozen) had very little meat on it, and a bunch of bone. It also just wasn't that tasty.

I had: #51, Chicken and mushroom casserole
I paid: $13 including tax and tip
Verdict:
Speed: not acceptable, particularly given that I was on cup #2 of tea before my order was taken. I almost missed my 1:30
Quality: this just isn't food I enjoyed, but on top of that, I'm not convinced they're using very good ingredients. Chicken fatty, not meaty; mushrooms not edible even post-rehydration
Value: Not very good
Would go back: No.