Finding Chinatown in South Florida

It took us almost 4 years to find a place that can be authentically considered as "Chinatown." This is not the area located in 163rd street down by North Miami (although that area also has a lot of good turfs) but rather a little bit up north in Fort Lauderdale particularly in the Oakland Shopping Center located at North State Road 7, Lauderdale Lakes. At least for our standard, this area has by far the best and most authentic Chinese/ Cantonese food and cheap too!

So what do this place have that is incomparable to the rest? The Oakland Shopping Center houses a bakery, wholesale dimsum store, oriental market, Cantonese restaurant, Vietnamese restaurant, herbs and accupunture store, and a roast meat store.

Cliff and I enjoyed going to this area because we can actually shop for the freshest dimsum and roast meats at the same time getting to enjoy a traditional Cantonese meal that could fit our budget. The dimsum place is called Asian Prepared Foods, and no, it is not a restaurant but a wholesale purveyor of dumplings particularly rice noodles, hargow, steam buns, soy milk and tofu pudding. But watch out when you go because the store is only open to the public on Mondays, Wednesday and on the weekends.

The bakery a couple doors down called Maxim Oriental Bakery has the best chicken pie and beef curry puff. The dough is very light and fluffy and the smell of the store is heavenly! They also sell egg custard tarts, and cakes topped with fresh fruits.

The Gou Lou Cheung Chinese BBQ located at the very end of the shopping plaza has the best roast duck and pork. Entering the small shop would remind you of the small eateries in Hong Kong that are cheap, filling, and divine! The roast duck here is nothing similar to some Chinese restaurants are offering, crispy and dry. This one rather is crispy on the outside, soft and juicy texture on the inside. The shop also sells frozen bags of pork and leek dumplings and siomai (the Filipino style) which is also yummy.

Finally, after visiting Oakland Shopping Center so many times, we finally got to try Silver Pond Chinese Restaurant. When you walk in you will notice that there are two types of menu, the Chinese - American menu containing crab rangoons, pu pu platters, sesame chicken and all those type of foods, and the other is the Traditional Cantonese menu, the one we are more used to eating such as Beef Stew Casserole, Crab and Vermicelli Hot Pot, etc. We ordered all of Cliff's favorite (his request): Winter Melon Soup, Seafood Roll, Jelly Fish, Baked Scallops, and Cantonese Beef. The total bill was about $40.00 way cheaper than what we had expected, we even have some extra to bring home for lunch the next day. The food upon tasting it reminds us of the Chinese restaurants that our family would visit in the Philippines such as Emerald Garden, and Gloria Maris.

We were not able to take whatsoever pictures during our visits because we were running errands that day, but I thought about sharing it to some people who has the same passion as us and have the willingness to try something different. If you are up for an adventure and have some extra gas to spare definitely go visit Oakland Shopping Center, for sure you and your tastebuds will not be disappointed.