Have your day in court

Empire Centre Food Court

4600 No. 3 Rd., Richmond, B.C.; Open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., vendor hours vary.

San Sebastian has its tapas crawls. Singapore is famous for its hawker centres. Here in Richmond, we have shopping-mall food courts.

These clusters of casual, inexpensive, home-style Chinese cooking have a cult following and world-famous reputation for good reason. They're full of tiny, unglamorous, mom-and-pop gems offering specialty dishes that rival some of the city's best restaurants.

If one were to go on a Richmond food-court crawl, it would likely include hand-pulled noodles at Xi-An Cuisine in Richmond Public Market, bubble waffles and cream puffs at Aberdeen Centre, xiao long bao dumplings at R&H Chinese Food in Lansdowne Centre and roasted pork belly at Parker Place Meats & BBQ in Parker Place Mall.

What about Empire Centre?

This U-shaped mall, divided by an outdoor parking lot, is probably best known for being home to Chef Tony, a splashy seafood restaurant. But on other side of the plaza, in a sleepy hallway flanked by herbalist shops selling shrivelled lizards and travel agencies that never seem to be open, is an unsung food court, staffed by a colourful cast of characters, that deserves more attention.

None of the stalls have websites and their hours are unpredictable. After three visits, I still haven't been able to catch Lai Leung Kee Delicatessen (which apparently makes a mean braised brisket in clear noodle soup) when it's open. But I'll definitely be going back. This is a must-try food court, and these are my favourite vendors.

Shanghai Station

604-306-2328

I first heard about Empire Centre last winter, after a fellow judge on the Chinese Restaurant Awards told us she had found a small stall that was selling excellent abalone for Chinese New Year. Abalone, a giant sea snail, is one of the world's most luxurious foods. To see it in a food court – starting at $59 and served on a Styrofoam plate – is extraordinary.

So is owner Lisa Cheng, a self-taught cook who opened Shanghai Station just over a year ago as a hobby. Her primary business is G-Stone Jewellery, a bling-filled shop, also in Empire Centre, which sponsors the Miss Chinese Vancouver Pageant and is host of the annual Friends Forever concert benefiting the Canadian Cancer Society.

"My friends think I'm crazy, but I like to eat. I wanted to try something different and help people keep their bodies healthy. And I don't have to dress up. You haven't seen my stage pictures," she says, whipping out her phone. There she is – all dolled up in rhinestones and bouffant hair, singing and posing with Mayor Malcolm Brodie: "He's my pianist."

Ms. Cheng's abalone, usually available year-round as a special order, is cooked in a light braise made from fish maw and dried scallops (rather than fatty meats), which she developed after taste-testing her way through the best restaurants in Richmond. "I wanted to make mine with less cholesterol," she explains.

Another one of her seasonal specialties are Chinese egg dumplings, little omelettes that are only partially cooked so that they stick together when folded into crescent-shaped pockets stuffed with minced pork and chopped water chestnuts, then quickly dunked in boiling water to order.

Recently, she created a dish she calls Rose Lover, a dessert dumpling stuffed with sweet potato and corn, drizzled with red-bean paste and rose-petal-tea syrup. Although the flavour is slightly bland, the artistry is beautiful to behold.

But her spicy wontons are what you really have to try. The plump hand-made dumplings (also available frozen for takeout) are stuffed with moist minced pork, green bok choy and shepherd's purse (a peppery, leafy vegetable common to Shanghai). The large platter is ladled with a creamy sauce made from peanut butter, sesame-seed paste and hoisin, streaked with a splash of chili oil. They are rich, spicy, satisfying, wholly addictive – and a winner of this year's CRA Critics' Choice Signature Dish Awards.

James Snacks

604-716-1328

Before opening his clay-pot-rice stall in 2004, James Yu was a fur manufacturer specializing in mink. So why go into cooking – clay-pot rice, in particular?

"My friend bought a lot of clay pots," he explains. "They were very cheap. We had to figure out how to use them."

When James Snacks first opened, customers paid a $3 deposit, refundable if they returned the clay pots – or theirs to take home if they didn't. "My mom got a whole bunch," says photographer Leila Kwok. "It was a great promotion."

This rice dish is no mere snack. Each pot is cooked to order and takes about 25 minutes. The closed-lid pots are blasted in the stove at a very high temperature so the rice soaks up the floral white-pepper stock and builds a crunchy crust around the edges. Lift the lid and a cloud of steam billows out. Pour a glug of soy sauce over the rice and mix it all up with salty preserved sausage, softly steamed cabbage, big slices of zesty ginger and your choice of meat. We tried the bone-in free-range chicken (so tender) and ostrich.

Yes, ostrich. It's served here not because there was a surplus of ostrich meat on the market (thank goodness), but because it's lean and low in cholesterol. It tastes like dark chicken meat, has a slight chew and was a well-deserved CRA Signature Dish winner in 2010.

Be sure to save room for dessert. Mr. Yu makes his own silky tofu puddings, a very labour-intensive process. The warm, boldly aromatic almond pudding (he grinds his own almonds) with white fungus and fresh papaya is amazing.

Choi House Special Chicken

604-782-7899

"How many plastic bowls do you need?" Mrs. Choi asks in Chinese.

Four.

"Give me more money," she says.

Forget it! She laughs, but she's not kidding. The last time my friends were here, they asked for extra chopsticks. "No," she replied. "You can use toothpicks."

It's a good thing her salt-baked shredded chicken on rice is so glistening, moist, tender and comforting. She can afford to be rude. Again, this dish takes about 25 minutes to prepare.

Ding! Ding! Ding! When our order is ready, she starts hammering away on the countertop bell to grab our attention. But later, after we devour the glistening, home-style platter, she suddenly clams up.

"I don't believe it," she says, when I tell her how much I enjoyed, not just the chicken, but also her salt-baked chicken kidneys, which may look kind of gristly and gnarly, but are clean-tasting and succulent. ("No way! That is not offal," exclaimed one member of our group.)

She won't tell us much about herself, other than that she and her husband opened the stall in 2009, after working "somewhere else." The recipe (which takes "hours and hours" to cook) is a family secret from her husband's side ("hundreds and hundreds" of years old.)

But if we really liked the kidneys, she suggests we come back for the pig tongue. "It's very famous too," she says smiling shyly. Aw, I think we finally won her over.