Restaurants
Congee Star
Congee Star is located in a plaza in the Don Mills and Eglinton area serving a continuous stream of customers from surrounding businesses and residences alike. Although their name highlights congee, it's only one of many types of offerings that this self-titled "authentic pan-Asian restaurant" offers.
The congee selection is extensive with 27 options to choose from including the Shredded Chicken and Duck Congee ($4.95), pictured at top. The succulent duck slices are fully deboned and come complete with roasted skin. The Lean Pork with Preserved Egg and Salted Egg Congee ($4.95) includes a rough dice of both in the mix. Be warned, the salted egg is aptly named and works well with the savouriness of the black preserved egg. Those looking for something more wholesome might want to try the Taro and Corn Congee ($4.25). And for the adventurous, there's Blood Jello Congee ($4.25) which includes soft cubes of pork blood, also strangely known as blood tofu.
A traditional accompaniment for congee is the Deep Fried Dough Fritter ($1.50), similar to a cruller in its airiness. You dip the dough fritters into the congee as you would a cookie into milk. As good as they are in congee, I have also seen them dipped into wonton soup for a variation.
Rice Noodle Rolls and Snacks are also on the menu. The snacks are akin to the options found at a dim sum place without the more familiar varieties like har gow (shrimp dumplings). I really enjoy the Minced Beef Rice Noodle Roll ($2.95). The rice noodle delicately wraps the tender beef without being sticky and the combination of sweet to salt in the soy dressing is the perfect topping. I also try the Deep Fried Fish Skin ($3.25) which is surprisingly not greasy. The fried skin is served with a wonton soup broth for dipping which brings out the fish oil enhancing the flavour. Admittedly, fish skin is not for everyone.
Just as popular it seems, is the wide selection of stir-fried noodle and fried rice dishes, so many, in fact, that it's tough to try them all. The standards, such as Cantonese Chow Mein ($9.75) or Fried Rice Noodle with Beef and Black Bean Sauce ($7.25) are solid but I'm a particular fan of the Pickled Cabbage and Shredded Pork Braised Vermicelli ($7.95), pictured above. It's light, not oily and flecked with shreds of salty cabbage and shiitake mushrooms. The thinly sliced pork is not overly fatty and provides the right amount of meatiness to the lighter rice noodles. I like it topped with a drizzle of chilli oil that's at each table.
There are a number of dishes that are vegetable based. I hesitate to say vegetarian because I can't confirm if the sauces are made without chicken stock, oyster sauce or other flavour enhancers, such as conpoy (dried seafood usually a scallop muscle), that would not be considered meat-free. The Fried Bean Curd with Vegetable ($8.50) is colourful, fresh and sauced to well. The dish comes with just-cooked broccoli that's retained its crispness. Along with braised Chinese mushrooms and thinly sliced carrots, this is a well orchestrated dish and a good example of what Cantonese stir fry should be like.
With efficient attention and speedy kitchen service, Congee Star deservedly has its loyal customers. If you're in the area, stop in at Congee Star. The hardest part will be choosing only a handful of plates from the hundreds that are on the menu.
Hours:
Monday to Thursday - 10:30 am to 11:00 pm
Friday to Sunday - 10:30 am to 12 midnight
Discussion
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So to help remedy the author's omission here's a small explanation of congee:
The congee served at Congee Star is the Chinese version of congee (there's a number of country specific variations). At it's base it is essentially a rice porridge, which is made of normal rice cooked with large amounts of water until it becomes a very thick soup (ever had rice pudding? that rice would be considered half cooked congee). Congee essentially has no taste beyond its natural rice taste and usually is served with a variety of different flavours as mentioned in the review.
A few of my friends have further explained to me that congee is often used as a breakfast food, as baby food and as something to eat when you have stomach problems. Generally it's a very easy to digest food and one friend mentioned how he lived off congee during his crazier partying and rave days.
My Chinese friends tell me that the congee at Congee Star is pretty good and is authentic - however a few swear that their Grandmother's congee is better.
Congee Star also easily scores high on my "authentic ethnic food rating scale" since I have been the only non-chinese person in the restaurant in about 90% of my visits.
Thanks for that tidbit Cam.. I eat congee when I have stomach problems, or whenever I just want congee, heh, but yes.. very easy to digest, though if you're sick you won't add thousand year old egg, obviously. A grandmother's congee is always better, heh. ;)
1. On the homepage the excerpted/condensed text strips out the hyperlinks so that you need to click on the title of the post or "more" in order to read the full post.
2. Since the post you clicked on was just the "announcement" post you then need to click to read the full review/profile.
So why did we design it this way?
The first issue is a shortcoming with our new design that we didn't anticipate. We plan on addressing this soon.
The second issue is a shortcoming of our content management system in that we need to "announce" our reviews/profiles in order to properly index and categorize them.
In an nutshell, I understand it's not ideal but we're not doing this in order to garner extra clicks or page views.
One trick - on the homepage, just below the latest five posts, you'll see a section called "Latest Reviews". Just click on these instead and this will take you directly to the full review.
i love congee and i look forward to trying to this place!
If you want decent congee, head up to Markham. Try Keung's kitchen at the Warden T and T plaza. Congee Star isn't even fit for mainland folk.
My only beef with the place is that every single time, they would screw up someone's order, so not everyone would be happy each time (happened to me twice since). If they can improve that, I would recommend them 10 times over!
I won't recommended it, the congee was mediocre at best the beef with black bean tasted of burnt vegetable oil and had no black bean flavour, the spicy salted deep fried seafood was so overcooked eating cling film would have been a better choice and last they didn't have BBQ duck at 6pm on a Saturday night.You might ask what do I know this white boy's been eating home cooked Chinese food since I was 12 and I was a chef for 25yrs.