Myst Asian Fusion - Burnaby, BC

This sunny Saturday was supposed to be spent visiting a couple of places that are part of Vancouver Foodster's Plant Based Bowls Challenge. I was looking forward to using this blog space to reaffirm  my belief in the value of a part time vegetarian life while at the same time mocking the mere existence of so called super foods and the need for more anti oxidants and trashing "big organic" for being far more hype and expense that it is worth. Don't worry! I will still get to that! And I will probably poke at Dr Oz in the process too for promoting all sorts of crap! For today though, an early start turned into a late start and a couple of extra errands, and Rolling Cashew seems to be m.i.a., and hey! Is that Myst Asian Fusion that we are driving past? I've been wanting to go there for a long time! So there we were. Beware of their parking lot though! If you enter from the wrong end (use the eastern most entrance) you will be in serious trouble. Amazingly, street parking is free!

Inside, despite arriving just after noon on Saturday, we were seated right away by an efficient, friendly and very busy server. It is a sharp, modern looking place and our table for two against the wall would have been perfect for a couple that did not order too much but for us it would prove to be challenging. The second challenge would be deciding what to order. There is an extensive menu of mostly Taiwanese style items but reaching a bit with items such as the Soup Dumplings that we ordered as an appetizer.

Soup Dumplings

Here, I found myself giving in to the fusion theme as ordinarily I would only order this in a Shanghaiese restaurant (Really? Am I such an expert? Hardly. In reality, I think anyone can prepare and serve anything they want but I still lean towards ordering what I feel a place might be best at. And it has nothing to do with cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is actually a compliment. I wish someone would culturally appropriate me!...but I digress). Still, these were not bad. There was, of course, a tasty little meatball inside, soup was present, and the noodle itself held everything together nicely. Not the best Xiao Long Bao that I have ever had but pretty decent.

Laksa with Salty Peppery Chicken

And now Laksa in a Taiwanese restaurant. Marie loves laksa. She felt like this one needed a little salt and we both agreed it could have been a little richer (like more coconut milk) but again not a bad effort. The egg in the soup was curiously fried rather than boiled but it worked. As part of a combo, she had the Deep Fried Salty Peppery Chicken and this was very good (and almost always present on a Taiwanese menu). Crispy and yet moist inside and a generous portion.

Xianjing Lamb Combo

I had a combo with Xinjiang Lamb with "Caraway" Sauce. I believe there is some sort of translation issue with caraway and cumin (it is the same at Bubble world). This is not lamb with caraway (which might be pretty interesting) but cumin. I expected that and got what I was hoping for and it was also very good. A nice little punch (I tend to slide the dried chilies to the side so I don't sweat all over the furniture ) and strong cumin flavour. Served with rice, a very nice sort of mild Kimchi salad (not sure what they call it) and noodle like strips of greens that turned out to be some sort of seaweed. I usually enjoy nori and most other edible kelp but this one tasted a little too much of the beach for my inexperienced palate.

Taro Slush with Pearls

And my partner loves bubble tea! this one was Taro Slush with Bubbles and amazingly little bits of actual fresh taro were detectable in the mix. Points for that! You will not be shocked to her that we had food to pack up for later. This was not cheap. I can't pin point the cause but it was about $10 more than I expect to pay for Taiwanese lunch. Service was nice, we were comfortable enough but I'm not sure Myst is up to the hype it seems to be receiving. Don't get me wrong, I would come again but its not number one on my list.