7 hours ago
Xijiade Food in Damansara Utama specialises in ‘Dongbei' style dumplings, but it's the ‘xia fan cai', Chinese over-rice dishes, that truly shine
PETALING JAYA, June 22 — Though the sign reads 'Harbin dumpling restaurant' in Mandarin, I find myself repeatedly drawn to the pasty white glow of Xijiade Food not for their dumplings, but for a different kind of meal altogether.
At night, this stretch of Damansara Utama can be rather quiet, but on my first visit, I was greeted by a packed, bustling restaurant filled with people, young and old alike.
And it wasn't dumplings that filled the tables. Sure, there were one or two plates here and there, but mostly it was plate upon plate of bold, inviting-looking messes, heaps of meat and vegetables slick with fiery oil and seasoning that adorned every table.
This row of Damansara Utama can be pretty dark and quiet at night, but Xijiade is impossible to miss. — Picture by Ethan Lau
These are xia fan cai, a loose category of Chinese 'over-rice' dishes meant to be devoured with plain white rice.
Usually saucy, sometimes oily, and always, always heavily seasoned, they span many different regional cuisines in China.
Dongbei or Northeastern cuisine, which Harbin falls under, has its own hearty and filling entries that suit the over-rice category.
Still, xia fan cai is more commonly associated with Sichuan and Hunan cooking, their strong and spicy flavour profiles being ideal for rice.
A quick aside: the dumplings aren't bad, simply made and rustic in execution, but they're mostly forgettable.
Much more memorable was the farm-style stir-fried meat, or nong jia xiao chao rou (RM22), a classic Hunan dish of stir-fried pork belly with green and red peppers, and one of the most emblematic dishes of the xia fan cai category.
The version of Hunan farm-style stir-fried pork belly with peppers at Xijiade is a moreish one, best eaten with lots of rice. — Picture by Ethan Lau
The thin slices of belly act almost as a lubricant, rendering their flavourful fat for the aromatics like garlic and a touch of black bean to cling to.
But it is the peppers that steal the show: they do not bring much heat, only brightness, a little fruit and a hum of warmth.
Glossed with oil, their blistered skins crackled from the wok, the peppers are irresistibly moreish. Best eaten between frantic, greedy mouthfuls of rice.
If that was the only dish I enjoyed here, I would come back a second, third time. Oh, wait, I did.
On those later visits, I tried their rendition of fish fragrant eggplant (RM18), a quintessential Sichuan dish.
The fish fragrant eggplant is thick, saucy and also ideal over rice. — Picture by Ethan Lau
Despite the name, 'fish fragrant' or yu xiang seasoning has nothing to do with fish. Its characteristic sweet and sour spiciness comes from the use of Sichuan pickled chillies.
The result is a thick, saucy dish loaded with soft, silky eggplants, strips of lean pork (yu xiang rou si is another typical preparation) and springy bits of wood ear fungus, all steeped in that unmistakable yu xiang profile.
Sweet, tangy, with a touch of heat, it is yet another winner over rice.
Dry pot thousand page tofu (RM19.80) doesn't sound like something that would go well with rice, but it isn't 'dry' in the way you might expect.
Instead of the soft, sludgy texture of something like mapo tofu, this version is stir-fried in a fiery oil that is both savoury and spicy.
It uses thousand-layer tofu, which is not strictly tofu at all. Made from soy protein isolate and starch rather than soy milk, it has the smooth, bouncy texture of fish cake, but with the ability to soak up every bit of that chilli-laced oil. So yes, it goes brilliantly with rice.
Subtlety is, to my absolute delight, absent from the vocabulary here.
Hand-torn cabbage with lots of lard clinging to each slice. — Picture by Ethan Lau
Even the simple vegetable dishes, like the usual cold cucumber with soy sauce (RM10) and hand-torn cabbage (RM18), are robust.
The former was the spiciest thing we tried — and I mean really spicy — while the cabbage was deeply savoury and unapologetically rich with lard. What's not to like?
No chill: even the cold cucumber here is bursting with spice. — Picture by Ethan Lau
So yes, the sign says dumplings. And sure, they'll sell you dumplings. But the real reason to come to Xijiade Food, and to keep coming back, is to have rice.
Or more specifically, for everything that goes on top of it.
Xijiade Food (哈尔滨饺子馆）
88-G, Jalan SS 21/62,
Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya.
Open daily, 11am-11pm
Tel: 011-3540 2181
* This is an independent review where the writer paid for the meal.
* Follow us on Instagram @eatdrinkmm for more food gems.
* Follow Ethan Lau on Instagram @eatenlau for more musings on food and mildly self-deprecating attempts at humour.
