chinese Archives - Curiously Carmen

Food: Shang Noodle House

March 19, 2018 Leave a Comment

While browsing Groupon in the fall, I came across a really good deal at Shang Noodle House! The Groupon came with two bowls of noodles, takoyaki, fried chicken, and two cans of pop for only $25! I purchased it right away and we went to go try it a few months after.

After we paid for street parking, we went inside the restaurant and found out that they had free reserved spots -_- so a heads up to all of you driving there, save yourself some money! The restaurant was completely full and it looked like most people also had the Groupon based on the food everyone ordered. I mean, Asian people usually do not buy canned pop at restaurants… we all know it’s really overpriced!

Takoyaki: The takoyaki came out piping out and fresh. The outside was crispy while the inside had a good amount of stuffing and a piece of octopus. It was pretty good!

Chicken wings: The chicken wings also came out piping out and fresh. I really liked them because they had the flavour of chicken karaage. They were also very crunchy and crispy.

Prawn, scallop, chicken, and bbq pork ramen in pork broth: I chose this one since I like my prawn and chicken. The pork broth was yummy and flavourful, with a strong white pepper flavour. The ramen was different than the usual type of ramen. I would describe the noodles to be more like egg noodles actually.

Pork katsu udon in bonito shoyu: The pork katsu came on the side, and it was quite a big portion. Definitely worth the full price of $10.90! Just like the other fried stuff, the pork katsu was very crunchy and fresh. The bonito shoyu broth was tasty as well.

The Groupon was a great deal because the portions here are really filling and delicious. Even without a Groupon, I would definitely come back. If they do another Groupon deal, I’m definitely going to re-purchase it!

While doing research for this review, I found out that this place is owned under the Kirin Restaurant Group. Even more bonus points because Kirin is quite notable for Chinese fine dining.

Yay!

Food: Angel Cafe (Revisit)

January 25, 2018 1 Comment

I normally don’t tend to write revisit posts even if I visit the restaurant multiple times after, but I felt like I should make an exception with Angel Cafe. Or maybe I should write revist posts more often? I’m open to feedback and suggestions 🙂

Anyways, the reason why I decided on writing a revisit was that my original post was singing praise about only one combo dish in particular. The boyfriend and I go to Angel regularly but order the same combo dish that I reviewed, until our last visit.

We decided to get some new things and seeing how my old review focused only on the combo dish, I thought I would share some other menu items that they offered!
French toast: Funny story, the boyfriend and I wanted to order a main dish but turns out I only had $25 cash, which wasn’t enough LOLOL. So, we decided to order the french toast which was cheaper. It was our first time having the french toast here.

I absolutely love Asian french toast, and this was done perfectly. It was slightly fried due to the egg batter on the outside. But the inside was soft and full of custard goodness.
Garlic fried rice: The boyfriend and I were introduced to this dish over a year ago when we came with my cousins. This is their go-to, and for good reason! Over a year later, we decided to order it again. It comes with a TON of fried garlic on the top that you mix in with the rest of the rice. You have to remember to mix the fried garlic or else the bottom of the bowl won’t be garlicky.

With the stone bowl rice, parts of the rice become hardened which is actually a type of Chinese dish (‘fan jew’ in Cantonese). It’s a pretty big bowl and one person definitely can not finish it. With the french toast and garlic fried rice, we were both really full and satisfied.

Angel has not disappointed us thus far and we will continue to come here for our HK style cravings. Perhaps stay tuned for a part 3 when we venture out of our go-to dish again?! =P

Yay!

Grand Dynasty Chinese Restaurant

September 10, 2017 Leave a Comment

It was a special occasion, so my parents, boyfriend and I decided to try a different and more upscale Chinese restaurant for dim sum. Grand Dynasty is located in Grand Villa casino by BCIT. A good thing about this place is that there is lots of free parking! There is a designated parking lot beside the restaurant, but most people don’t see it because the casino is covering it. I believe you can also use the multi-level free casino parking lot, but I’ve never tried that… so if you get a ticket, it ain’t my fault!

We didn’t think that we needed reservations on a late Friday afternoon as dim sum peak hours were finished, so we were quite surprised when we were told there was a 30 minute wait! But we wanted to try this place, so we waited and looked at the menu. It actually ended up only being a 20 minute wait so yay!

Garlic shrimp spring rolls: The garlic shrimp spring rolls were so tasty! The shrimp inside was fresh, bouncy and plump. There was also a good amount of garlic inside. The spring roll shell itself was fresh and crunchy.

Shrimp dumpling: A classic dim sum dish. Again, the shrimp and veggies inside tasted fresh. However, we found it to be a bit smaller than average so that was a bit disappointing.

Sticky rice wrap: I’m used to seeing the sticky rice wrap served individually, so was a bit surprised when it came out in one big wrap to share! But I was told that this is the traditional way of serving it. I actually preferred it this way because sticky rice is always so filling. With this method, I can scoop less so I don’t end up feeling super stuffed. Anyways, moving on to the taste… it was tasty, no complaints. A good amount of meat inside as well.

BBQ pork buns: We really love Wah Lun‘s BBQ pork buns, so we wanted to see how it compared. Wah Lun’s was definitely better. Although the BBQ pork buns weren’t bad, we were all disappointed by the size of them.

Egg tart: The egg tarts were warm and delicious with a nice flaky shell. But as with the shrimp dumpling and BBQ pork buns, we all thought the size was small.

We ordered more dishes for the four of us, but I was too hungry and tired that day to remember to take more photos.

The food taste and quality of the food is there, but the sizes were a bit smaller than we were all used to. The prices are also a bit higher since it is more upscale. Grand Dynasty wouldn’t be our first choice for dim sum, but I don’t think we would mind coming back if a relative suggested it.

Yu Xiang Yuan Handcrafted Noodles Restaurant

February 11, 2017 6 Comments

If you read my CC Curently (A new series featuring monthly-ish highlights of mah life)post, you would know that I caught a cold in Victoria. Once the boyfriend and I arrived back in Vancouver, it was almost dinner time. Seeing how we were in the middle of that Arctic air snap, we both wanted warm, comforting noodles. The first choice was Deer Garden since we had to drive past it to go home, but then we remembered this restaurant was in the area as well.

This is one of the unusual cases where the boyfriend finds new places to try. For the longest time, we wanted to try this place because we both LOVE handcrafted Lanzhou style noodles. BUT, we couldn’t because we kept on forgetting the name or where it was! Even when writing this post, I had to Google ‘Fraser and 41st noodle restaurant’ to find the name. =P
The restaurant is more on the small side, but the seating still felt pretty comfortable. The decor is a bit all over the place with mismatched chairs (note the more royal red seat covers vs. the others) and mismatched tables (note the white table cloth tables, wooden table, and glass pane table) but that’s when you know it’s a legit Chinese restaurant!
Beef noodles w/ vegetables in soup with dragged noodles, $7.50: For $7.50, this was really worth it and so delicious! The broth was clear and not too heavy, but still full of flavour. There was a generous amount of beef slices and vegetables as well.

And of course… the noodles. DELICIOUS. Lanzhou style noodles are one of my favourite foods ever, and this place nailed it perfectly. They were nice and chewy and soaked up the delicious broth. It was a perfect bowl of noodles for my yucky cold and cold weather.
Dan dan noodles w/ cutting noodle, $7.50: What Lanzhou noodle soup to me, is dan dan noodles to the boyfriend. He loves dan dan noodles due to the peanuts and spiciness. I only tried a small bite since I was sick and didn’t want to aggravate my stomach with the chili oil, and it was really good!

The dan dan noodles had a nice spicy kick to it. There was a strong peanut flavour and a good portion of meat as well.

We both loved our noodles here and will definitely come back when we are craving it! If you’re not familiar with the different types of noodle styles, there are pictures at every table showing you what style it is.

As an added bonus, the free wifi sign at the front of the restaurant says “FREE WIFE” instead of wifi. LOL! Now you definitely know it’s a legit Asian place… typos everywhere and too cheap to print it again.

Fat Mao Noodles

January 2, 2017 4 Comments

My friend had wanted to try Fat Mao Noodles, and being the noodle fanatic that I am, I did not say no. If I ever say no to noodles, you should know that I am probably not okay.

The restaurant has been open for a bit over a year now, and gained a bit of interest in the foodie community. Why? The restaurant was opened by Angus An, who is behind Maenam, Longtail Kitchen, and Freebird. You can read my review here on Longtail Kitchen afterwards!
Fat Mao Noodles is located inside Chinatown. It is easy to spot from the rest of the stores on the bloack due to it’s glass walls.
The restaurant is fairly small, but seating is still comfortable because customers do not have to squish beside each other. I was greeted instantly by the workers in the open concept kitchen. My friend and I came around 12 pm, and there was only one other table (pic taken before we left).

The place started filling up around 12:30pm, so we were glad we came before the rush and got to order and ask our server questions!
The menu is also worth including because it is so cute! We really enjoyed the cat themed decor in here, and I’m sure cat lovers would appreciate it as well.

After all, mao is cat in Cantonese, so the restaurant name translates to fat cat!

Each table also has a side of sauces to go with the noodles. As you’ll soon read, these sauces played a really important part to my bowl of noodles!
Braised duck noodles, $11.99: With this dish, you could choose between either Shangnai chewy noodles or wide rice noodles. I love my doughy and chewy noodles so I went with the Shanghai noodles.

First off, the duck was amazing. It was soooo tender, and effortlessly fell off the bone. It was also full of that Chinese BBQ flavour. Just for the duck alone, I’m glad I ordered this! I’ve attached another close up of the duck below because it was that delicious.

The noodles were perfect as well. They had a perfect bounce and were chewy. Since they weren’t completely flat, some of soup went in between the folds and made it more flavourful.

The broth was average. It was more on the sweet side, but it was really flat. The server recommended two scoops of the vinegar sauce. I ended up adding 5 scoops and one scoop of chili to make it have more depth. I’m really glad the sauces were there!
Boat noodles, $10.99: This was the special that day. It was a spicy pork broth with pork shoulder, beef balls, fried garlic bits and crunchy deep fried noodles. We also speculated on why it was called boat noodles.

Unlike the duck broth soup, this boat noodle broth was full of flavour. The broth had a nice tangy spicy kick to it. It didn’t really need any of the additional side sauces but my friend added some chili flakes for even more heat.

We both agreed that the noodles were a bit underwhelming. They tasted kind of like pho noodles, but were harder (not in the undercooked way). We both liked the broth of the boat noodles more, but the noodles for the braised duck noodles were better.

The boat noodles were definitely more of a southeast Asian influence while mine was more like a Taiwanese noodle. This is why we liked Fat Mao because you could get a mix of different types of Asian cooking!
Durian ice cream, $5.99: Although my friend was quite full, she really wanted to try the durian ice cream. She is a huge durian lover and wondered how durian ice cream tasted.

The ice cream was very light and fluffy, more like a mousse. It had a strong durian taste which she liked, and it was drizzled with caramel sauce on the top.

However, for the price, it was not worth it. She got the small size, which was about 6 regular spoonfuls. For $6, that was really steep and if she had known the price, would have not ordered it. So, it was delicious until she found out the price. But she also commented that she should have asked for the price before ordering.

Overall, we enjoyed our visit to Fat Mao and left satisfied. Although my broth was pretty flat, it was easily made better with their sauce. And that whole duck leg was just amazingly tender and what a meat lover’s dreams are made of.

Yay!