Number 9: exploring lesser-known Chinese cuisine

On The Coast's Lisa Christiansen and Jason D'Souza are exploring the diversity of Vancouver through its food. In a new series called Number 9, they go to some interesting restaurants, order dish number nine off the menu, and see what they get.

Today, Lisa Christiansen and Jason D'Souza went to a little place at West Broadway and Cambie: Peaceful Restaurant, a smallChinese food restaurant.

Peaceful achieved a degree of fame thanks to Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, whichprofiled the restaurant in 2012.

Co-owner Amelia Huang says that Vancouver's diverse food culture is a great way for people to get to know the people who call the city home.

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"Just through food, that's kind of everything we have here. It's the gateway," she said. "That starts permeating in the rest of your life as well. It goes as simple as learning how to use chopsticks, to learning a little bit of the Chinese language, for example."

Huang says that the standout food at her restaurant are the dishes from Northwest China; luckily, that's exactly what Christiansen and D'Souza got.

Dish number 9:Xi'anwhite lamb stew

Dish number nine is Xi'an white lamb stew. Instead of typical noodles, the soup has chunks of unleavened flatbread, which historically were easy to store, especially by people on horseback.

Huang says that while lamb is widely eaten in China, it's not the protein people most associate with the country.

"They think New Zealand, or Indian, especially northern Indian food, or they think Greek food, but they don't think Chinese food," she said. "This is one of those things people don't realize, but China's massive. So a lot of northwestern Chinese people eat lamb, and a lot of them are Muslim as well."

D'Souza is vegetarian, so this meal's review was all on Christiansen.

"This is delicious," she said.

D'Souza's impression was that the soup really didn't look like what he considered to be Chinese food.

"That's kind of the amazing part," Huang said. "Seasoned Chinese food lovers will have an opportunity to expand a few things."

"I am unbelievably overwhelmed I know that's too much excitement there for one sentence by how much we just learned about Chinese culture from the number nine," Christiansen said. "I feel like I should take this to go in a saddlebag and ride off."

Tune into On The Coast all this week for more adventures with appetite.

To hear the full story, click the audio labelled:Number 9: a restaurant serves up lesser-known Chinese cuisine