food & drink Archives - Page 3 of 45

Food: Boston Pizza (Multiple visits)

July 8, 2018 Leave a Comment

When it comes to chain restaurants, Boston Pizza is probably the one that the boyfriend and I go to the most. It seems like these days, chain restaurants are given a bad reputation but I personally like chain restaurants because they are reliable and satisfying.

We’ve been to Boston Pizza so many times but I have yet to write a review on it! This post is a collection of many visits and our go-tos whenever we come here. We like to alternate with different items on the menu, depending on what we’re feeling that day.

Chicken strips and fries, $12.50: I will never stop ordering chicken strips. Chances are that I order this, almost every visit. Do I get sick of them? No, never, it’s not possible to get sick of chicken strips. The chicken strips are always delicious. They come piping out, seasoned well, and are juicy. They come with fresh fries, and your choice of plum or sweet and sour sauce. To make it somewhat healthy, the dish comes with a few vegetable stalks which are always fresh and crunchy.

Pizza burger: Is it calorie wise? Nope. Is it good? Yes. The pizza burger was one of the boyfriend’s great discovery. It goes up a level from your regular burger. The patty is encased in pizza dough, cheese, and pepperoni. This is definitely one of those treat yourself after a long week, or cheat meal burgers and I would not recommend getting this often if you want to fit in your clothes, LOL!!!

Meateor pizza, large (on promotion for $27, normally $35): On one of our visits, all the pizzas were on sale- a large pizza for the price of a medium. The meateor pizza was full of meat and so delicious. The pizza dough was nice and thick too.

The large pizza is definitely way too much for two people. It’s probably best split with four people. We ended up taking half of it home.

Dinesty Dumpling House

July 4, 2018 Leave a Comment

After going to Din Tai Fung in Seattle, a Michelin-star chain of Taiwanese restaurants, I was wanting to try Dinesty Dumpling House to see how it compared. Dinesty is pretty popular in Vancouver and it is one of Cocoa’s favorite restaurants, so off we went one Saturday evening!

We made a reservation at their Burnaby location just incase it was busy. It is located a block away from Metrotown, in the same building as Trattoria and element hotel. Good thing we made a reservation because it was packed!

Drunken chicken: Cocoa loves the drunken chicken here so we ordered a plate to share. One thing that sets it apart from other drunken chicken dishes is that it is completely boneless. It is served at a nice chilled temperature. If you are a fan of drunken chicken, you would like the one here.

Xiao long bao: The XLB here were pretty good, although not as good as Din Tai Fung. I was hoping it would be similar so that I could get my fix in Vancouver. They were nice and juicy and came with a good amount of soup inside.

Taiwanese beef noodle soup: I found that the broth was pretty flat and didn’t have much dimension to it. The saving part of this dish was the super tender and flavourful beef brisket.

Dan Dan noodles: The boyfriend was disappointed in this, and rightfully so. There was a huge portion of noodles but not much flavor and no protein. It was no bueno.

Beef roll: The beef rolls were pretty decent, although the portion size wasn’t worth it for the price.

Shanghai pork buns: Just like the XLB, the pork buns were nice and juicy inside. They came lightly pan fried so they were slightly crispy when biten into.

I think this place is a hit or miss depending on what you order. Some items were good, but some were disappointing and not worth the price.

Meh…

Mott32

July 1, 2018 1 Comment

Recently, I was invited to a tasting at Mott32 in downtown at the Trump International Hotel for their new summer menu. It was a great experience! The ambiance was great and the inside of the restaurant was very pretty and photogenic (aka #instaworthy).

Mott32 is quite an unusual name for a Chinese restaurant, isn’t it? It is named after a street in New York, 32 Mott Street because it was the site of NYC’s first Chinese convenience store. There are also Mott32 locations in Hong Kong, Bangkok, and Las Vegas.

Here are the new dishes for the summer. Each of these dishes took an unique and fancy spin on dim sum dishes. I love when restaurants are really creative with their dishes!

South Australian Scallop, Garoupa, Caviar & Gold Leaf, Egg White dumpling: We started with a steamed dumpling. I’ve never had such a fancy dumpling before. It was tasty and the egg white texture went well with the scallop and garoupa (type of fish).

King Prawn Garlic Spring Roll: This is my guilty pleasure at dim sum. The spring roll was very fresh and crunchy. The prawn inside had a nice snap to it too. No complaints!

Blue swimmer crab meat, conpoy, winter melon soup: An upscale twist on the fish maw soup. Instead of using fish maw, they used conpoy which is made from the abductor muscle of scallops. The soup had the same gelatin-like texture. There was also generous chunks of crab meat and thinly sliced winter melon. It was delicious.

Cold free range chicken, coriander, and black truffle: Another spin on your traditional cold chicken dish. This was truly unique as I never had Chinese cold free range chicken and black truffle together! They also added truffle oil so it was really aromatic. However, there wasn’t a lot of truffle oil taste.

White asparagus, crab meat, honey peas: Our veggie dish was white asparagus, which I thought was rice noodles when it first arrived. The asparagus was covered in a delicious sauce made up of egg, crab meat, and other veggies.

Crispy cod fish with golden garlic and chili: The cod fish was deep fried and then covered with lots of chili and garlic. For most of us, we found it to be very spicy! It doesn’t look too spicy, but it was! I dusted off a lot of the chili flakes which helped it to be less spicy. The batter of the cod fish was very fresh and crispy.

Kung po prawn, sweetcorn, and water chestnut cake: This dish was sooo unique and unlike anything I’ve had before. It was so delicious and I haven’t stopped thinking about it, and I want to try to find a way to re-create this at home.

The bottom layer was like a ‘pancake’ of chopped water chestnuts and corn which was lightly fried. I’ve never had water chestnuts in this way and thought it was so innovative! On the top, was stir fried prawns and cashews. Texture wise, it was so unique with the crunchy properties of water chestnut. Even when I tried to Google recipes similar to this to make again at home, I couldn’t find much on it which shows how innovative this dish is.

Alaskan crabmeat, egg white fried rice: In Chinese banquet style dinners, rice or noodles usually are the last to arrive after all the main courses. My own thoughts to this is because people can fill up on other things instead of carbs.

Anyways, the fried rice was delicious. It was a saucy type of fried rice. Some of us found it to be a bit too salty, but I thought it was good.

Guava, pomelo sweet soup with sago: Mmmm… another super unique dessert that I haven’t seen before! This was a blend of guava and pomelo into a smooth and rich smoothie…with sago in it. It was so refreshing and such a nice way to end the tasting. I’m a huge fan of guava so I absolutely loved this.

I really enjoyed all of the new summer dishes that Mott32 had to offer. This isn’t their whole menu of new summer dishes, there are also some new ones that we did not sample! All of Mott32’s dishes are made fresh daily and never frozen. They also do not use any MSG in the cooking, so I was not left parched and feeling gross afterwards!

With the uniqueness and quality of the food, along with the beautiful ambiance, dining at Mott32 is not cheap so I would save it for a special occasion. I was thinking that it would be nice to take my parents here since they haven’t had such an elevated dim sum dining experience before.

Yay!

Food: Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie

June 14, 2018 Leave a Comment

A couple of months ago, I had scheduled a RMT appointment. After the appointment, I was feeling quite relaxed and when going back home, I noticed that Chez Christophe was closeby! I have been hearing really great things about this place so I thought it was a nice day to treat myself.
I believe this is their new location, their old cafe used to be a couple blocks down or maybe even on the same block? I can’t remember. Anyways, the cafe was nice inside and was super clean. They had a plethora of assorted chocolates, as well as a bunch of seasonal goodies (It was right before Easter when I went). All of their desserts looked very yummy.

Hot chocolate, $4.75: Since I don’t drink caffeine, I went with the hot chocolate. It was made with steamed milk and Swiss chocolate and lightly dusted with cocoa powder on top. The hot chocolate was the perfect amount of sweetness for me. The cocoa powder on top was bitter and unsweetened, so it helped to balance the richness.

Hazelnut croissant, $4.00 (approx): Mmmm, this was so delicious! The croissant was light, soft, and flaky. The chocolate hazelnut filling inside was delicious as well!

Chez Christophe is a great place to get your chocolate fix. You won’t be disappointed with their quality or selection. It’s a good place to come hang out or meet with friends too!

Yay!

Food: Trader Joe’s Haul

May 22, 2018 Leave a Comment

Woohoo! This post makes me so happy to do because it’s a long time coming. I did a Trader Joe’s haul four years ago and wanted to do more reviews on their products, but then the exchange rate became crap and we stopped going to the states as often. But finally we came back!

Going to Trader Joe’s is always a highlight of the states and during my visit in February, I made sure to stock up!

This will be a review of the items that I bought!

Bamba peanut snacks: These were quite interesting. They had a light fluffy texture like Old Dutch’s Popcorn Twists. The taste was the same except that right after you bite it, it goes from salty to a powdered peanut butter taste. I didn’t really like the taste and wouldn’t order it again… Maybe if it wasn’t peanut butter flavoured.

Chocolate hazelnut cookies: Oh gosh, these were AMAZING. I wish I bought more than one box. The cookies were light but tasted like shortbread. The hazelnut spread inside was super delicious. To end, it was sprinkled with powdered sugar which was icing on the cake. I don’t have much of a sweet tooth but these were so good!!!

White truffle potato chips: We are huge truffle oil fans, so this went into the grocery cart instantly. They tasted like regular chips but with a hint of truffle oil. Would definitely repurchase this as well!

Strawberry rhubarb soda: The soda was alright, nothing too special about it. It had more of a rhubarb taste and didn’t taste like strawberry. Not bad but not super good either!

Speculoos Cookie & Cookie spread: The OG product that made me fall in love with Trader Joe’s in the first place. A combination of their chocolate and cookie spread, this goes well with so many things!

Almond butter: The almond butter spread is pretty good too, although obviously not as good as the Speculoos 😉 It’s a good alternative to peanut butter and also does a good job in keeping you full.

Honey crisp apple cider: I was quite excited to try this, but it tasted just like regular apple juice instead of a cider. It was still delicious and refreshing though.

Dark chocolate Speculoos cookie: This was an impulse buy while waiting in line to check out. But man, am I glad I got this because it was delicious! Dark chocolate with a layer of Speculoos cookie inside? Can’t go wrong with that 😉

Mac and cheese: The boyfriend ate this when I was not home one night. He said it was very disappointing, so I’m glad that I didn’t miss out on much. He said that it wasn’t cheesy or creamy at all. That’s a bummer!

The items at Trader Joe’s are either hit or miss. It all sounds delicious on the packaging so the real test is when you purchase and eat it. Hopefully this post will help you not have to test out as many products and save some moolah (especially since it’s in USD)!

Read more: We stayed one night in the states, and I did a review of the hotel we stayed at!