Hakka No 1

I was craving somethings spicy, salty, and a bit saucy! And I know just the place. One of the places I used to frequent is open for take out these days via some of the delivery apps. Today we looked up the options and a few clicks at the finger tip equaled to some delicious Hakka food at my door step. I you want to take a break from cooking, give Hakka No 1 a try.

Hakka No 1 is located in a random strip mall on the back parking lot of Walmart. It's a bit hidden, but once you find it, it's hard to get away from it. On the East side of the city there are many Hakka places to choose from, so I had a few shops that I frequented. Now that we are on the West side (imagine I'm making a "WEST SIDE" hand sign) now, there are not too much to choose from. Hakka is a mix/fusion cuisine. The fusion is between Indian and Chinese. Since India and China border has a lot of mixed marriages, people and families, it's just a matter of time when the 2 most awesome world cuisines merge and morph into something wunderbar. Their site seems to be in construction right now, but do check back later on http://hakka1.com/

This Hakka place is not the most well-decorated, or fancy shop. It's actually a bit run-down and no-frills kind of. But the food is well worth your time. Let me tell you about my favorites:

1) Fish Pakora
Normally I really like the Fish pakora and would order it, every, single, time. Fish Pakora is typically made of chucks of white fish, like a tilapia perhaps. Mixed in with spicy flavorful batter with Thai green chili. It's also a bit lemony and fresh as you bite into the dish. Squish a lemon wedge on these, and we are gold. This is got to be my absolute favorite. Every Hakka place makes the dish a bit differently, the trick is the batter mixture ingredients because it gives the dish the flavor. This place's recipe makes my palate dance, I love it.

Well... today I don't have pictures of fish pakora to show you unfortunately. I absolutely ordered the fish pakora - because I like the dish so much. But in the pack I got Chicken pakora instead. I don't dislike the chicken version, in fact, if you read reviews on this restaurant other people love it.. but it's just not what I ordered. I have to say I was quite disappointed about this because I was looking forward to it. In normal circumstances I would have said something and sent it back to trade for the dish I ordered. But obviously a bit hard to do with the delivery option. The fish pakora looks exactly like the chicken version on the outside, raw ingredient completely different.

2) Manchurian vegetable balls
The Vegetable balls are filled with peas, cabbage, corn, and.. other vegetables to form balls that are 2 cm in diameter. Probably fried first then cooked in this lovely spicy "Manchurian" sauce that goes well with many dishes. The menu has many "Manchurian" items like Manchurian fish or Manchurian chicken - this sauce is on top of everything.

Side bar: What is.. Manchurian?
Interestingly enough, Manchu is a place in china. But pretty opposite where India borders china. Manchu is the far Northeast, bordering.. Russia-ish. History of war, conquering, and combining or division of land made this portion an important part of modern China. There's a lot of influence of Manchu culture like the shaved forehead with braid in the back, and some fashions. One of the more recent dynasties just before independence - Qing Dynasty, was ruled by the Manchurian people.

How it got into this dish name - I have no idea. Geographically it doesn't really make sense to have influence from that far away. Maybe it's also mountainous and full of farms?.. I really don't know. But like a lot of Asian-fusion North American food, making sense may not always be the case, sometimes it's just a catchy name. Delicious though? 100%

3) Bombay Chicken
Bombay chicken (not sure if this is at all from Bombay), is also a lightly coated dish, cooked in heavily spiced sauce. You can ask for it "dry" which means they go light on the sauce and crisp up the chicken. It's cooked with a lot of onions and garlic. Goes fantastically with rice. Everything seems to already come with rice, don't order an extra. With all the spice and sauces, you kind of need it to tone it down.

The experience - via SkipTheDishes:
https://www.skipthedishes.com/

Nowadays this seems to be the norm with this world-wide pandemic. Unless you feel like jumping in the car yourself, food delivery services are booming to help us out. Usually it takes 30-45 min for your food to get to your door step, not bad at all. There are many food delivery services out there and I have signed up for a few. Today I chose SkipTheDishes, and let me tell you 2 reasons:

- It doesn't raise the prices up per dish as much as some others. I was comparing with another popular food delivery services, the competitor charged 2 dollars more per dish! So you might not notice, and perhaps there's a smaller "delivery fee", but you are certainly paying the difference.

- It donates to Foodbank Canada. Every dollar tipped to the delivery person, SkipTheDishes seems to donate the same amount to food banks. Well that's quite awesome I have to say. I'm happy to tip more, to my food driver, and to food banks - sweet on both fronts.

My lovely delivery person waved at me when I picked up my food at my doorstep, he's now about 10 meters away but probably wanted to linger and make sure I get my dinner. Thank you lovely delivery man!!