Hold that chuckle! Golden Smell Mee is a second-generation Chinatown food story

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Golden Smell Mee

Where: 142 East Pender St., Vancouver
When: Daily, lunch and dinner
Info: 604-566-7733 | Goldensmellmee.com

Hold that chuckle! The name of this restaurant has nothing to do with body odour or scent. In Vancouver, you oughta know that “mee” in the name Golden Smell Mee, is the Singaporean/Malaysian/Indonesian word for noodles. As for the “smell,” there’s both a second-coming backstory and a name mash-up.

In 1986, after learning how to make jerky in Singapore, William Lim opened Bee Kim Heng, a restaurant with beef and pork jerky shop in Chinatown. Translated, the name meant means Beautiful Golden Smell.

The restaurant eventually closed but the popular jerky business lived on, becoming BKH Jerky (shorthand for Bee Kim Heng), now located on Fraser Street.

Lim had, in fact, improved on the Singapore jerky, says son Scott. Instead of the ground meat used for Asian style jerky, Lim used single-source sliced meat.

“No one else made this type of jerky,” says Scott. “It’s pure meat. People know it’s fresh and what the cut is. We use pork shoulder and inside round beef.” They don’t use preservatives so the shelf life is shorter than other Asian jerkies on the market.

Scott and his brothers, Dennis and Raymond, took over BHK Jerky in 2010 when their father fell ill. The next year, they were invited to Dragon’s Den to pitch an expansion deal. They got a bite from Jim Treliving, co-owner of Boston Pizza, but ultimately, the brothers decided to go it alone.

“It was the most nerve-racking thing I’ve ever done,” Scott says.

In May, the brothers opened Golden Smell Mee restaurant, circling back to their late father’s original concept with Singaporean and Malaysian dishes. The restaurant is up and running with food based on recipes from their mom, aunt, dad, and “all our family,” says Scott. Within the next couple of months, jerky will be grilling in the front window.

Dad might be smiling down at the robot food runner that joined them last month. “Everyone likes to see it moving around. It goes out to sing Happy Birthday and it has a TV screen showing our dishes when it strolls around,” says Scott, who has a thing about sneak peeks of food at restaurants. “When I go to restaurants, I do a walkabout. I go around the whole restaurant, see what people are eating and what the dishes look like. I pretend I’m going to the washroom. I do that everywhere to this day.”

I won’t be doing that there when I return. I’m pretty sure I’ll like what I order. There’s a nice variety of dishes and what I had was bold and confident with smooth, balanced moves.

They don’t incorporate any beef or pork jerky into dishes but I was happy to see something even better. The BKH short rib ($23.95) is marinated in the same spice mixture as the jerky and grilled over a flame. It has so much depth.

“It’s Dad’s recipe. The marinade is the same as the jerky,” says Scott.

The fall-off-the-bone meat is so tender and offered as a share plate but that’s the downside. You don’t want to share. If you can’t get enough, here’s a tip — you can buy it frozen to take home and heat. It’s available the restaurant or the shop on Fraser Street.

“We’re planning to do more frozens,” Scott says.

The satay skewers of beef or chicken (3 for $10; 6 for $18) are grilled as well. Peanut sauce, cucumber and pineapple add more umami and refreshing notes. Roti canai with a curry dip ($10.95) comes with a side of sugar. Sugar? you might wonder.

“The authentic way is to have it with sugar on it, to have with curry. We’ve separated the sugar in case people don’t know and they can make their own choice,” Scott says.

One of my favourite Singaporean experiences is the hawker markets where I would beeline for the Hainanese chicken. Oh ya! So good! The one at Golden Smell Mee won’t disappoint — the poached chicken, rubbed with sesame oil, is tender with delicate whisperings of ginger, lemon grass and turmeric. The broth is the secret to the delicious rice. You can order a full chicken ($48.95) or half chicken ($27.95). Both come with the rice, chicken soup, chili sauce, cucumber, and ginger paste, which takes me to a happy place.

Nasi lemak ($24.95 or $25.95), a Malaysian dish, centres around coconut rice, infused with aromatics and, typically, is served with sambal, fried anchovy, boiled egg, cucumber, and peanuts. It’s accompanied by beef rendang, fried chicken, or chicken rendang. I had it with the beef rendang, braised in a deeply satisfying, aromatic curry softened by caramelized coconut. Crispy anchovies are dried, then fried with sugar and cinnamon.

Mee goreng ($18.95) is wok-fried, loosely tossed, house-made noodles with a slightly sweet, savoury and lightly spicy sauce that clings cleanly to the noodles and vegetables.

At meal’s end they offer a complementary soft-serve ice cream cone — pandan when I visited, but the flavours change.

The signature dish, Scott says, is kon lo mee ($17.95), with house-made noodles, minced beef or pork, won tons, and house-made char siu.

“It’s a dry noodle dish I ate as a kid. When I went to school, it would be wrapped in Saran Wrap and newspaper. Kids used to make fun of it,” he says. “Until they tried it. After that, I’d bring some for my friends.”

There are some departures from the family vault of recipes under “Daily Fusion Specials,” such as beef noodle soup in a tomato white wine broth and an “OG” fried chicken cutlet over noodles finished with sambal sauce. The chef is a good friend of the family who operates a Greek restaurant and pizzeria and who’s learned the family recipes; Asian chefs have mastery over the woks, though.

“The chefs and I are going to Singapore in September to get more inspiration from hawker stands,” he says.

Next time, let me at the bamboo leaf-wrapped sticky rice with pork belly, shiitake, peanuts, shrimp, Malaysian sausage and salted duck egg yolk. And the laksa and the kon lo mee, which Scott’s friend discovered was more fun to eat than diss.

The drinks couldn’t be more basic or budget friendly. There’s Heineken, Modelo, and Kronenbourg 1664 beers. The complete wine list consists of a cheap and cheerful red and a white. That’s it.

Side dishes

Looking for a one-of-a-kind adventure? Have a ton of cash to spend? (And I do mean a ton.)

Then book a spot at the Glacier Table, an ultra-luxury alpine dining experience in Whistler brought to you by the Four Seasons Resort and Residences and Head-Line Mountain Holidays.

You’ll touch down via private helicopter on a Coast Mountain glacier, take a guided tour on a snowmobile, unwind with a glacier-side massage, then savour Kristal Caviar and a 2013 vintage Dom Pérignon at a table set on the glacier or perhaps in an ice cave.

The Glacier Table is available from November through July for couples or up to four guests. That ton of cash translates to $28,000 for two.

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