by Ken Tsui | The Soup House on Victoria Drive serves up practically every combination of classic clay pot rice imaginable — over 30 in all. While it owns up to its name – serving nutritious, restorative Chinese herbal soups – a clay pot rice nevertheless manages to find its way to every hungry diner.

The fundamental concept of clay pot rice is meat and Chinese greens cooked over a pot of rice. As it cooks, the meat flavours meld with the rice as the toasted grains at the bottom of the pot crisp up. As a kid, I relished those delicious moments when I could scrape the pot’s crunchy bottom layer. The simple joy of listening to it makes me feel like a kid again.

Despite its seeming simplicity, a good clay pot rice is only achieved with a delicate balance of heat and time. It’s a laborious method that The Soup House gets right with archetypal choices like chicken, shitake mushrooms with sausage, and “preserved dried pork” (Chinese bacon) on rice. With a splash of sweet soy sauce, the one with smoky “preserved dried duck” (Chinese duck prosciutto) makes me especially weak in the knees. Take a look…

5673 Victoria Drive | Vancouver, BC | 604-568-7773 | www.souphouse.ca | Cash Only

AH, BUT HAVE YOU HEARD OF THESE?