By Lindsay Anderson

Special to The Post

 

We’ll have the dead man’s coffin, please.” 

Yes, that’s a real dish. 

A real dish with a very dark name, available in a bright blue restaurant with flowers on the wall. Sunway serves Taiwanese food, and is not to be confused with Subway, though the ‘n’ and ‘b’ keys are dangerously close on my keyboard. 

It’s a cheerful place to be, especially with the current weather. They offer classic Taiwanese dishes, many of which are street food-inspired; there’s an entire section dedicated to ‘Night Market’ eats, for example, as well as various deep-fried snacks, rice, noodle dishes, and meat dishes. 

Of course, there’s also the ole dead man’s coffin. 

This dish gets its name from its shape – essentially, it’s a loaf of white bread that’s been deep-fried and hollowed out, resulting in a literal box of crispy golden bread. The inside is filled with a creamy seafood soup, then topped with a fried bread lid and sprigs of cilantro. 

It’s an impressive sight, and also a little intimidating to dish up! If you cut into the sides too early, they’ll open like flood gates and allow a river of cream to spill onto the table. The best tactic is to scoop the soup into bowls, split the top piece of bread, wait a bit, then cut into the walls after they’ve had a chance to absorb some of the broth. 

This dish is basically the Taiwanese version of chowder in a bread bowl. The soup had imitation crab, clams, and prawns, and was rich but not too salty. 

The bread was soft inside and crunchy on the exterior, with the most prized piece of the whole dish being the extra-crispy lid – I bet people fight over it all the time! 

Another plate we snacked on was the Sunway soy sauce-based platter. There are various items you can choose from on the menu for this combo (3 for $4.95), and we opted for tempura (deep-fried fish cakes), tofu, and enoki mushrooms, all of which were marinated in a sweet and savoury soy-based sauce. Very tasty. 

We also tried a Taiwanese street food staple – oyster and pig intestine vermicelli soup. It’s thickened with cornstarch and filled with thread-like noodles, large oysters, and slices of white intestine. 

It has a slight seafoody taste to it, and a wonderful texture from the vermicelli. I love that fresh chopped garlic is a common garnish on Taiwanese dishes – it gives both the dish an incredible aroma. 

Our final dish was the pickled vegetable beef fried rice, which was good, though the pickled vegetables weren’t as prominent as I would have liked them to be. 

I drizzled some of the tofu/tempura/enoki sauce on it, and then had an ideal combination of texture and flavour. 

To drink, we had a Jasmine green tea, and I tried the hot wintermelon healthy tea, the top of which was crowded with chrysanthemums and goji berries. It was both beautiful and warming, though as with bubble tea, I’d recommend getting it half sweet. 

Whether you’re up for offal, or wanting something a little more conservative (by Western standards), you can get it at Sunway. 

I highly recommend this place!

 

Lindsay Anderson is dining out at 365 Richmond eateries in 365 days for Tourism Richmond. The Asian Pacific Post is featuring excerpts from her blog each week. See www.365daysofdining.com for Anderson’s blog.

 

Sunway Restaurant

4540 No. 3 Road, Richmond BC

Tel: 778-297-4364

Cash only

Vegetarian options available

 

Menu Suggestions

Dead Man’s coffin: $6.95

Pickled Vegetable Beef Fried Rice: $8.50

Oyster and Pig Intestine Vermicelli: $7.95

Sunway Soy Sauce-Based Platter: $4.75