Fish Ball Place, Pacific Mall’s go-to stall for Hong Kong–fashion road meals

Fish Ball Place, a tiny stall tucked away in Pacific Mall’s Heritage City—the sprawling procuring centre’s second-floor meals courtroom designed to seem like a conventional market—focuses on Hong Kong–fashion road meals snacks: dim sum, Chinese language sausages, cuttlefish and, in fact, fish balls. It was my go-to after-school spot. My dad and mom, who labored within the mall, would decide me and my siblings up from grade college as soon as the bell rang, then dump us in entrance of the stall with nothing however a $10 invoice earlier than heading again to work, figuring out that we’d haven’t any hassle securing one thing to eat. We by no means complained. As an alternative, I cycled by way of that menu over time, studying which stage of spice goes finest with every merchandise and which drink would put out the hearth.

House owners Wendy and Tony Kwok, who moved to Canada from Hong Kong in 1992, have been operating the actually named sales space for the reason that mall opened in 1997. However, again then, the Kwoks’ enterprise centered on packaged items, like potato chips and bubble gum. After they lived in Hong Kong, Tony ran an identical fish ball stand. “In Hong Kong, we had been promoting issues like curry fish balls and rice noodles, however we weren’t certain these objects could be well-liked right here,” says Wendy. “Pacific Mall was model new—it wasn’t very busy then.” When the Kwoks relocated their stall from the primary flooring to its present location within the meals courtroom, they determined to take a leap of religion and adjusted up the menu to concentrate on sizzling snacks.

Many of the objects on Fish Ball Place’s impressively lengthy menu comply with one in all my favorite meals ideas: edible issues on sticks. Whereas they do promote different easy-to-eat Hong Kong snacks—tea leaf eggs, rice noodle rolls—the attract of Fish Ball Place is, predictably, their fish balls. Much like fish desserts, fish balls are manufactured from ground-up fish meat held along with a binding agent like eggs and tapioca powder or rice powder. Whereas some are deep-fried, those at Fish Ball Place are boiled to retain the candy fish flavour and bouncy texture.

Different dishes embody beef balls, pig’s abdomen and crimson sausage—all on sticks for simple consuming. Nearly each merchandise on the menu is doused of their signature dressing, a house-made golden-brown curry sauce. Much like a Thai or Malaysian fashion curry, it’s thick and fragrant, with somewhat kick to it. The curry’s hottest model isn’t incendiary—say, six out of 10 flames at most. The spice-averse, nevertheless, can ask for the gentle curry. The very best half: nothing on the menu prices greater than $10, with most objects ringing in beneath 5 bucks.

Listed here are 5 of my favorite issues to get from Fish Ball Place.

Curry fish balls

Fish Ball Place’s namesake merchandise arrives 4 fish balls to a stick. Completely chewy, they’re gentle and have a mildly candy style that completely contrasts the savoury flavour of the curry sauce. Every ball is the proper two-bite snack. $2.75

Curry beef balls

These beef balls, which additionally come 4 to a stick, are denser than their fishy brethren, in order that they have a bit extra of a chew to them. In addition they have a richer flavour. Just like the fish balls, they’re slathered in the home curry sauce. $2.75

 

Pig pores and skin and turnip

For this dish, pig pores and skin is braised with daikon radishes in savoury soy sauce. The refined bitterness of the daikon offsets the richness of the pig pores and skin. $6.50

 

Pink sausage

Skinny slices of Chinese language crimson sausage are skewered and dipped in that signature sauce. The sausage has a slight smokiness that pairs properly with the spicy curry. $3

 

Iced milk tea

Wash all of it down with an iconic Hong Kong–fashion milk tea. Made with black tea, sugar and evaporated milk (or sweetened condensed milk), it helps put out any curry-induced fires and makes for a candy ending to the meal. $3.50

Fish Ball Place (in Pacific Mall’s Heritage City), 4350 Steeles Ave., Markham