food & drink Archives - Page 36 of 37

Wang’s Taiwan Beef Noodle House

February 24, 2014 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone,

I used to frequent this restaurant at least once a week, but I’ve stopped coming here for awhile since I’m not in the neighbourhood anymore. Over the past three years, I’ve developed a love for Taiwanese food and Wang’s does not cease to curb my cravings.

Their Taiwanese beef noodles are well-perfected and authentic, perfect for those rainy Vancouver evenings. Although they offer more than just beef noodles, the noodles (thick type, you can choose from thick/thin/vermicelli/rice noodle) are undoubtedly the star of Wang’s.

The other dishes I have tried here do not match up to the deliciousness of their noodle soup. Also, their service is agreeably quite slow even when the restaurant isn’t busy. I would recommend getting a table right by the cash counter or you will be hard pressed to get any service, from what I’ve experienced. They have a small parking section in the back which fits two cars, but there is plenty of meter parking on Cambie street. Let’s start with the food now!
We started off with Taiwanese salty and peppery chicken nuggets ($4-$6). Taiwanese nuggets are different than nuggets you’d get elsewhere! They have a distinct flavour and seasoning that my friend and I tried duplicating (and kind of failed because we didn’t have an industry deep fryer) that consists of potato starch, Taiwanese 5 spice powder, rice wine, and other ingredients.

The batter of Taiwanese nuggets is pretty light compared to regular nuggets, but it’s also really crunchy when cooked well. The batter at Wang’s is cooked and seasoned perfectly. I enjoyed these nuggets but I found that roughly 1/4 of the nuggets were not meat. Normally, I only eat actual meat as opposed to the fatty parts, tendons, and skin so that set me off. Some places also include basil so that would have been nice, but nothing too big of a deal! =)
This was the minced pork sauce with noodle (small – $6 large – $7). We didn’t know that it came with such a hefty amount of vegetables since the menu didn’t specify! It also did not come with any soup which we expected, only the remaining meat sauce juice that sunk to the bottom of the noodles.

The meat sauce was well flavoured, not too salty, which made up for the lack of soup. As for the thin noodles, it was well cooked. Overall, my friend enjoyed this dish although they wished it came with less canned vegetables and soup.
The star of the show! My mouth is watering from reading this post …. #foodblogger problems #foodieproblems :(. This is the beef brisket noodle with thick noodle. There were four of us, and three of us ordered this dish! I am a really big fan of their noodles. It’s soft and chewy, which is very comforting and satisfying.

Since the texture of the noodle itself isn’t that smooth, soup seeps into the curves of the noodles so you really get a taste of the soup with every bite you take. I really like the texture of the noodle, it’s comparable to the in-store, hand-made ones at Chef Hung’s in Richmond (My other favourite Taiwanese joint).

The brisket is also very, very tender and soft, although some pieces are pretty fatty. The cherry on top of this delicious bowl are the fresh parsley and onion. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, it makes the dish taste a lot more fresh. The soup itself is a bit flavourful, my cousin said that there was a hint of spiciness to it which I didn’t taste.

We asked what the difference was between the rice noodle and vermicelli, but our server couldn’t tell us because she didn’t speak much English. If you’re a picky customer and want perfect and customized service, good luck! They also serve your water/tea in very small cups, and since the soup is salty, you’ll run out pretty fast which is unfortunate since their service is slow.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

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TRADER JOES MINI HAUL – PART ONE!

February 21, 2014 1 Comment

Hi everyone!

Trader Joes is like a little country that welcomes you with open arms and smiling faces. The reason why I say this is because everything in store is produced and manufactured by themselves. Their staff are really friendly, and their interior design gives me a modern day cottage with a laid back feel to it.

Apart from that, most of TJ’s products are super healthy – organic, no preservatives, low fat, gluten free, no artificial flavours, but you get my point! I love that most ingredients that you read on the package are actually recognizable, meaning that they are all natural and do not contain artificial preservatives or things ending in -oxide -xide -acid, etc.

The best part though, is that even though all their products are super great quality and healthy, it’s extremely affordable. Usually, the trade off when buying healthy products is the cost that’s attached.

I took the liberty of taking a few pictures of the store shelves, just to give you guys an idea. The shelves are jam packed with yummy products, and as I mentioned before, their signage is really cute. I also love the packaging of their products. Kudos to the design team!

On their website, the coconut cranberry granola sounded really delicious, as did the triple berry o’s I laid my eyes upon on their shelves. However, these two did not live up to my expectations, especially the triple berry o’s. At first taste, they tasted no different than honey nut cheerios, which was disappointing to me.. Secondly, the dried berries inside the cereal looked really unappetizing, and tasted really unappetizing since they were super, super dry.

The blueberries were the worst part. To me, it tasted like cardboard and they were also really shriveled up even after I waited for it to absorb the milk.

On the other hand, the coconut cranberry granola was not bad, I just didn’t really like the taste of it that much. I felt that it tasted like regular granola that you can get at Walmart, and there weren’t that many cranberries inside. I also didn’t really taste much of the coconut flakes, although I could see a generous amount.
These caught my attention because of the nutritious and healthy ingredients in it. It’s also a good source of omega 3 and fiber among other nutrients, not to mention that it’s not fattening. I’ve also tried their other quinoa chips, so I decided to give this one a shot too.

I was glad I did because I liked these ones better. These chips had a fair amount of seasoning to it, bringing it away from the bland flavour tortilla chips usually have. I also liked how there were different chip varieties in there – carrot tomato, spinach garlic, and red beet onion. My favourite was spinach and garlic, although the other ones weren’t bad also. The variety in the chips kept it somewhat exciting. They were also pretty crunchy and had a thick texture to it too!
Saved the best for last! I was randomly walking by the frozen dessert section, not really aiming to buy anything but this caught my eye. Chocolate non-dairy frozen dessert made with coconut milk. I was really intrigued by this, so I decided to give it a shot. Am I ever glad I did!

There is a rich and creamy chocolate taste, but also a hint of coconut too. I honestly can’t tell the difference between this and real dairy cream, which is a great thing since this is much healthier for you. Eating this gave me less guilt as it is lower in fat and calories than regular ice cream.

The ingredients in this are also more familiar than ones in ice cream, which is always a plus! I will most definitely be buying this tub of goodness again.

I hope you guys enjoyed reading this! I have several more products I bought that weekend, so expect another haul sometime. Happy grocery shopping and remember to be aware of what you’re putting in your body!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

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Chad Thai Restaurant Review

February 20, 2014 Leave a Comment

Hi readers!

I have heard many great things about this place from my friend, and the perfect opportunity came to finally try it out when one of my best childhood friends came back into town this week. I feel like since it’s such a small place, it often gets overlooked by all the other surrounding restaurants in the neighbourhood. It also has really high ratings on Urbanspoon, which I never knew!

This was the Chad Thai Garden dish. It consists of a fresh rice roll stuffed with vegetarian delights such as tofu, mushroom, carrot, and served with spicy dipping sauce. At first bite, I fell in love with the flavour of this dish. The spicy dipping sauce really highlighted and complimented the flavours well.

The part I loved most though, was the BASIL! The basil was what really made this dish stand out as it kind with its minty flavour, giving this dish a good PoP! The only thing I didn’t like was the way that it was prepared.

The rice wrap was wrapped pretty loosely, and the three of us had a hard time eating this without the wrap breaking and having the contents go on all over our plates.

The second thing we ordered was the Gai Yang. Gai yang is a type of Thai grilled chicken which is marinated in Thai herbs and spices. We picked the sweet chili sauce for the dip, instead of the peanut sauce.

I enjoyed this dish as well. It tasted really similar to lemon grass chicken to me. I would probably have preferred white meat over dark, since it was a bit fatty but overall not bad!
The last thing we ordered was the Yen Ta Fo. This is a thin rice noodle in piquant sweet and sour stock with fermented tofu, calamari, fish balls, prawns, and crisp wonton topping. I found this dish to be definitely more sweet than sour, I wish that it was more balanced.

We also ordered the soup to be medium spice, but we all agreed that it wasn’t really that spicy. It came with a good portion of seafood which I enjoyed. I probably wouldn’t order this dish again because the soup was too sweet for my liking.

Overall, the food at Chad Thai was pretty decent. I wish we ordered more food so I could give a better review, but we weren’t feeling that hungry! The servers were all really friendly and attentive, coming to fill our water constantly and asked us how everything was. Small things like this really are appreciated and come noticed!

At the end of your meal, they give you complimentary Thai candy which was really good- it was a bit sour, kind of like the Chinese dried salted prune candies. I would probably come here again sometime, and try more of their other dishes!

Sandy La Chinese Restaurant Review

February 19, 2014 Leave a Comment

Hi readers!

My first impression of this place was not great, but I was willing to give it a second try. Lack of service and the amount of oil they put in some of their dishes was what tainted their reputation for me. The food at Sandy La is drenched in oil, to the point where on both occasions, I had a tummy ache.

They are also not properly staffed (probably because the owner wants to cut down labour costs to maximize their own profit), and the few staff that they do have, are not properly trained. The owners of Sandy La try to cut corners to maximize their profit, but it clearly does not work. It’s unfortunate because once you strip away the service, restaurant layout, and oiliness, the taste of the food itself is pretty decent.

We made a reservation at the restaurant for 7pm. However, we were told that there wasn’t a table for us, which was frustrating because that is the point of reservations! There were two large tables open for bigger parties, but they did not want to give us those tables since we only had six people. When we finally talked to a server, she pointed at the table in the corner and said that we had to wait until they were done.

The wait was uncomfortable as well due to the small size of the restaurant and also the way that it is designed. When you first walk in, you open the door which leads you to a small area. There is a second door that you have to open to get into the restaurant. The purpose of this is to block out the cold air, which is trapped in the small area.

HOWEVER, they put the second door right across from the first door so that it’s basically useless since cold air still gets into the restaurant. THEN, there are tables right in front of that second door so whoever sits at those tables will still be freezing. During our first visit, we were sitting close to the doors so it was really chilly, we couldn’t take off our jackets. I’m guessing again, that the owners wanted to maximize seating area so that they can have more profit. But clearly, this design does not work and is uncomfortable for those who have to wait.

After almost 45 minutes of waiting for our “reservation”, we were finally seated! We quickly ordered because at this point, we didn’t want to wait anymore than we already did. In total, there were only three servers during peak which is why service was so slow. They could have used at least two more servers.

The server came by promptly with a bowl of soup, which was complimentary since we waited for a long time. It seemed pretty oily to me so I only had a few sips. The boyfriend’s brother noted that there was a really strong MSG flavour on it (read my article on the dangers of msg here).

This was the pan fried spicy beans ($10.95). I understand that the beans are pan fried, but these ones are a lot more oily than the ones I have at other Chinese restaurants. The taste of these beans are good, once you get past the oil.

They were pretty crunchy and had the right amount of spice. They also are not stingy with the amount of meat that comes with this dish.

Up next was the beef and broccoli chow mein. Again, I did not each much of it because I was scared I would get a tummy ache again. I could already feel my tummy churning from the oiliness of the pan fried green beans.

This dish was pretty good though. There was a perfect crunch to the noodles, and the sauce/beef/broccoli are up to standard. In a city like Vancouver where it is filled with authentic Cantonese dishes like this, it is easy to tell right away which restaurants can compete and which can’t. I would like to order this dish again!

The boyfriend’s family brought the crab to the restaurant, and asked for them to make it a certain style. I’m not too sure what the English name is but it’s something similar to deep fried garlic flakes and spices. I thought this dish was delicious.

The batter of the crab was really fresh and crunchy, instead of soggy batter that you may find at other places. The seasoning of this dish was perfect as well. I have high standards for this dish since I grew up owning a Chinese restaurant, and my dad made this dish perfectly – almost heavenly 🙂 No one can cook this type of crab as good as my dad and I’m not even trying to be bias!

This satisfied me very much and I would order it again. One thing though, it took us awhile to have the server bring us the clamp to break open the crab. But otherwise, YUM!

This dish is the only reason why the boyfriend’s family comes here as opposed to other restaurants. This is squab, otherwise known as pigeon but I was taught today that pigeon is the incorrect term for it?

Anyways, this dish, again, was delicious. Nothing to complain about with this dish. I didn’t try it because it was too oily for my liking, but everyone else enjoyed it thoroughly. If you are going to come here, definitely give this dish a try!

This was the beef and vegetable dish. I took a better picture of this dish but I can’t find it on my phone anymore so this will have to do. Anyways, this dish seemed very oily and was very shiny when you looked at it, which put me off.

I ended up eating it, but washed off the oil in hot water in my bowl. I would not order this dish due to the oiliness of it. The good thing was that there was a generous portion of beef and sauce. We also sound a styrofoam circle in the dish, if you look carefully, center-ish towards the bottom right. Not sure how it got there but oh well.

Lastly, came the traditional red bean dessert. Right off the bat, the boyfriend’s brother noted that their dessert was better than most Chinese restaurants. Theirs had a thicker texture to it, and was also not as watery in contrast to other places. It was also very sweet so it accomplished the goal of a dessert!

At the end, our server told us that they gave us a discount on the crab, which was nice of them since we had a lengthy wait. It was originally $7 a pound but they charged us at cost, which was $3.50-4 I believe, I can’t remember exactly.

My recommendation is to definitely try the squab and crab, but be wary of their vegetable dishes as they are super oily. I would also recommend coming here past prime dinner hours even on a weekday, since we made reservations but had to wait around 45 minutes. In conclusion, their food is pretty decent once you get past everything else.

When it all comes down to it, you go to a restaurant to eat and enjoy their food, which is we did enjoy the majority of our food. It’s just a shame that everything other than that was lacking, from their service, to long wait times despite reservation, and layout of the restaurant itself. Trying to be efficient is great and I applaud efficiency, but Sandy La cuts too many corners when it comes to hiring servers and seating space to the point where it’s not efficient anymore.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

A Canadian’s take on Moose’s Down Under! (Australian pub)

February 16, 2014 Leave a Comment

Hi everyone!

Last month, I was invited to Australia Day by one of my good friends, Hayley, who is living in Vancouver on a working holiday visa. I have never celebrated Australia Day, so I was quite excited and curious to check it out!

I have heard my other friends say great things about Moose’s Down Under, and it was time to see for myself how it was like! Of course, when an Australian tells you this place is legit, you know you gotta check it out.
David and I could hear the music from Moose’s a block away, so we knew it was going to be busy and packed! When we got in, we could tell it was crazily packed. There was a lot of great Australian music blasting, and literally a sea of Australians (Well, not literally, but you know 😛 ).

The man who greeted us at the door was wearing extremely tight denim short shorts, with temp. tattoos of Australia all over his body! For Australia Day, it is tradition to play the hottest 100 songs on the radio station, Triple J. The countdown ends when the number one song is played.

It was my first time listening to Australin pop/rap/rock, but I was thoroughly impressed and enjoyed all the songs they played! Aside from the music, the screens were also playing Australian television- most of it was cricket, which is as popular as hockey in Canada!

Also, at one point, the owner of the restaurant stopped the music and everyone stood up to sing the Australian anthem. Me being Canadian, I stood up and absorbed the environment around me, and was in awe. It was so great seeing such patriotic people being united in one place, yet at the same time, loving Vancouver. There was lots of (drunk) cheering and hugging to be found as well. I admired and respected the staff working that day, but service was pretty decent seeing how busy they were.

Also, I learned that the term sheila is slang for a female! Many other Australian slang words were learned that night!
Now comes the food! I was quite excited to try the food after my coworker told me about the kangaroo burger. Naturally, as a foodie, I was intrigued- I’ve never been to a place not recognizing more than half of the menu! I saw many different items on the menu that I’ve never heard of before, and it took me awhile to decide what I wanted to eat!

For drinks, David and I decided on trying Australian beer. We both love beer, and can not pass an opportunity to try new ones! We ordered Coopers which was a type of pale ale and Toohey’s extra dry based on the recommendation from Hayley. I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t like Toohey’s since it’s extra dry, but it was really good!

I was very intrigued by this “chicken parmie” on the menu. Basically, it is a grilled breaded chicken that is slathered in tomato paste sauce, with melted cheese on top. I really enjoyed this! It was breaded really nicely and the chicken portion was very generous.

The tomato paste tasted really fresh, and wasn’t overly sweet to the point where it tasted fake. It came with a side of salad and on a bed of fries which were both decent, nothing too special. I will definitely be ordering another “parmie” soon! They also had special “super parmies” menu which included outback jack (smokey BBQ, carmelized onion, bacon, cheddar) and parmie gonzalez (salsa, guacamole, jalapeno, corn chips, nacho cheese).

The burger in the back is David’s roo burger. Yup, you guessed it.. kangaroo meat patty!!! I had mixed feelings about this dish, and was hesitant to try it. I’ve heard that kangaroo meat isn’t as good, and I kept having an image of a cute little kangaroo hopping around I know I shouldn’t be bias towards kangaroo because they are animals just as cows, chickens, and pigs… =(

Anyways, I found that the patty is definitely not as juicy as a beef patty. It is a lot more drier and also a lot more leaner. I prefer my patties juicier so I wouldn’t order the roo burger again but it was definitely an interesting experience.
Behold, the roo poutine. Basically like a regular Canadian poutine, but with kangaroo meat! Again, I found the kangaroo meat a tad too dry for my liking, but I would definitely suggest giving this a try. They were pretty generous with the portion of kangaroo which is always a plus!

In conclusion, I really enjoyed Moose’s Down Under and had a great time celebrating Australia Day. Hayley also said that this place is “as Ozzie as it gets”, so really, you can’t go wrong when a true Australian says it’s great and authentic. She also comes here when she’s craving some good ol Aussie food.

What I really liked most was the atmosphere. Everyone seemed to be friends with each other, they were all united there for a single cause- the love for their nation. It was really nice to be surrounded by such happy and drunk people that took so much pride in their country, especially when singing the national anthem. Everyone there was also really friendly, so I felt right at home even though the boyfriend and I were the only ones without an Australian accent.

On a side note, Hayley has her own blog which you can find here – Hayley on Holiday. ! Hayley is never afraid to take chances and explore the world on her own, and attempting to visit 25 countries by 25- she is only one away from that! Somehow, she balances working two jobs in Vancouver while exploring the city and working on her website! Read all about her travel adventures and her experiences living in Vancouver so far! I promise you, her adventures are awesome and will make you want to travel the world alone, too.

Thanks for reading! If not, thanks for scrolling all the way down here, I hope you found what you were looking for. Check out my other reviews on restaurants, makeup, and my personal reflection journal or thoughts!
-Carmen