curiouslycarmen, Author at Curiously Carmen

Richmond Night Market 2015 – Part 2/2

June 28, 2015

Hi everyone!

Continuing part 2 of my trip to the nightmarket with some friends a few weeks ago! Here is part 1 if you missed it =)

As we were walking around, I noticed a stand from Mogu Street Eats. I’ve read about their food truck and heard great things about it, and my friend said that she saw it on The Food Network. So, my other friend decided to get the chicken karage and see if it was actually that good!

Honestly, it didn’t look too appetizing to me because the batter looked pretty old and it looked pretty oily. He insisted that I try it and my opinion was right – it was soaked and dripping in oil.

It’s probably prepared better at their actual food cart because there’s no way that this chicken could get such great reviews.

The nightmarket was almost closing, and we saw that some places were beginning to offer closing specials (they weren’t super good deals though so no point waiting to come later). Decided to ask this stand if they were offering any closing specials, and they said no, but offered us a cheaper price.

After some negotiation, we settled on a price we were both happy with (sorry forgot what it was)! We got the lamb, prawn, and chicken skewer.

The chicken skewer was still a bit raw inside, so I didn’t eat it because I didn’t want to risk feeling sick afterwards. The prawn was also slightly raw too =( If they were both cooked fully, it would have been pretty delicious as the seasoning was great!

The last thing I got was a mango shaved ice!

The mangoes tasted really fresh and ripe. Drizzled with condensed milk, it tasted heavenly!

The ice cream tasted very cheap and like ‘cardboard’ to quote my friend. It wasn’t exactly the best quality ice cream, you could definitely taste the lack of quality in it.

As for the shaved ice, it was just crushed ice with no flavour because well… it was just crushed ice LOL. I was expecting something like this, but maybe this is a different style. There was more ice than toppings, so it was hard to combine the ice with the mango/condensed milk/ice cream to make it taste better.

Overall, this dish was definitely not worth the price.

——

Richmond Night Market 2015 – Part 1/2

June 24, 2015

Hi everyone!

Last year, I wrote a post on the Richmond Night Market so I thought I would do one again this year. That post received quite a few views, so I figured that you readers like to hear what’s good/bad at the nightmarket!

There are two nightmarkets in Richmond, this is the one by River Rock Casino (the more popular one to go to). There is free parking, but the lot was apparently ‘full’ so we drove around the area for a good 15-20 minutes looking for parking. But when we actually walked across the parking lot, half the lot was empty so I’m not sure why they said it was ‘full’. =.=”

Admission to enter the nightmarket is $2.75 per person. You can buy a booklet with 10 entry stamps and skip the long line ups if you think you’ll be coming here often though! Even though the line was long, we waited under ten minutes.

I took a picture of the booth at the top, followed by what we ordered underneath. All the food here is cash only! Although it is street food, it’s not exactly cheap.
The boyfriend loves his takoyaki, and quickly set off looking for a takoyaki stand! While I was in line for squid, he came back with this!

We enjoyed the flavours of the takoyaki. It was well seasoned, tasted fresh, and came with a generous amount of flakes and sauce on top!
While he is obsessed with takoyaki, I am obsessed with squid and a trip to the nightmarket is not complete without some grilled squid.

I ordered the ‘signature’ squid, which had a salty but sweet aftertaste. The squid was nice and crunchy, with a hint of smokiness from the grill.

My friend ordered the ‘garlic lovers’ squid, which I liked more than the signature. The flavours felt more rounded and I liked the strong garlic taste, compared to the sweet aftertaste that I had with the signature. They were both delicious, but my personal preference was the garlic lovers.

My friend, who came here a few weeks before us, said not to get the bubble waffle from the ‘orange stand’, so we went to this place instead LOL.

Although the wait time was pretty long, it was worth it. The bubble waffle was nice and puffy, with a crisp exterior and soft interior.

Thanks for reading! I felt that this would be too long of a post if I included all the food we tried, so stay tuned for part 2 =)

-Carmen

Ludica Pizzera – Board games & pizza galore!

June 21, 2015

Hi everyone!

I love playing board games. And food. So when my coworker told me about this magical place with over 600 board games to choose from, AND you can eat great pizza while playing, we knew we all had to check out Pizza Ludica!

Pizza Ludica is located in the Tinseltown area, a quick walk from downtown or you can easily get there by transit. I’ve passed this place a few times before, but had no idea that it was a board game and pizza shop!

Customers are advised to make an online reservation, as it can get pretty packed – especially on Friday & Saturday evenings. Unfortunately, all the reservations were full when my coworkers and I tried, but decided to come pretty early to get a table reserved for walk-ins.

I’m glad we came early because the place got pretty packed around 6:30-7pm on a Friday evening. I came back here again a few weeks later with my friends, it was a weekday evening so we did not have any trouble making a reservation.

I forgot to take a photo of the board game shelf but here is one I found on Yelp. They have their whole selection of board games online, divided up into different categories. The shelf is also divided up into alphabetical and numerical sections, making it easier for customers to find the game.
We split three pizzas among the four of us. Their pizzas are made fresh and baked in front of you in a stone oven.

Pictured above is the snorta pizza, which came with ham, bacon, pepperoni, sausage and mozzarella. Basically a meat lovers paradise.

This was one of the specials that day, the chicken pesto pasta! Again, this was really tasty and I really enjoyed the dough. There was a nice and strong pesto taste, and the chicken was moist and flavourful as well. You can also see that we were playing Clue while eating this!

I ordered this one with friends when I came back again, but found it to be extremely oily that time.

I forgot which pizza this was, and I couldn’t find this on the website so it was probably one of the specials that day.

All in all, the pizzas here are pretty good! The dough is nice and chewy, with a thicker and crunchier crust.

When I came a second time, they had a ‘game ambassador’ working that night. The game ambassador is a genius in all the board games that they offer, and can teach you how to play or give you recommendations. He was very friendly and gave us really good instructions and game recommendations! I really appreciated this extra touch of service 🙂

To finish off this post, here is a picture taken by my friend! The game ambassador recommended a game called Hokkaido, which we enjoyed playing!

Pizza Ludica is a great place to hang out and play board games with friends and eat delicious pizza! The service here is really friendly as well. If you love board games, check out this place.

What is your favourite board game?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

The Bubble Tea Shop – Specialty Bubble Waffle Time!

June 19, 2015

Hi everyone! =)

Maki and I were looking for things to do in Richmond one night, and a trip to Richmond obviously isn’t complete without engaging in over indulgence of Asian food. At least, that’s what I always look forward to when going to Richmond. Maki was craving bubble waffle, so we decided to give this place a try!

This is totally off topic but I just want to tell you guys how cursed the boyfriend and I are with visiting Mango Yummy. We have been wanting to try Mango Yummy since it opened, and have probably tried going there at least FIVE times now. They all failed. Either they were closed, we didn’t have enough time, or it was way too busy to even try attempting to score a table. BUT, we are not giving up yet. WE WILL GET TO YOU, MANGO YUMMY.

After you order, you then proceed to find a table. Since we came on a busy night, it took us awhile to get a table. It would be nice for them to have more seating, but the cafe itself isn’t that big so it probably isn’t possible =(

We shared the ‘triple decker’ bubble waffle, which came with fresh strawberries, banana, and whipped cream. Since it was busy that night, our food was a bit slow to arrive.

The bubble waffle wasn’t as fluffy and thick as I hoped it would be, but not bad either. The strawberries and bananas were nice and fresh.

I’m not sure if this was worth $7.25 (2015 pricing), I’ve had better bubble waffle at the nightmarket for a cheaper price. But I’m glad that we tried this place. The workers were friendly and informative, while the cafe was very clean despite being busy and that customers are expected to put away their dishes.

If I were to come back, I probably would stick to their standard or deluxe bubble waffles, which are cheaper.

Do you like bubble waffles?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Catch 122 Cafe Bistro

June 18, 2015

Hi everybody!

Back in March, some of my coworkers and I had lunch at Catch 122, as per my suggestion. I’ve heard so many great things about this place and decided that it was finally time that I check it out!
I made reservations for the five of us, and am I glad I did – the restaurant was full when we arrived, with a short line forming. I wouldn’t mind waiting, but didn’t want to waste our lunch break waiting in line and having to rush the eating part.
After much indecisiveness, I decided to get the croque madame. It came with a poached egg, house smoked ham, Yukon nugget potatoes, and salad. The poached egg and ham came on top of a piece of toast and fresh veggies. I really liked the savoury potatoes, as well as the ham due to its smoky flavour.
Coworker’s braised short rib benedict – I didn’t try it, but he said the short rib was really, really, really good.

Coworker’s truffle-scented mushroom omelette

Coworker’s catch 122! This looked really good, it came with house smoked and cured wild salmon, poached eggs, arugula, and the same side of potatoes as well.

We also split a pulled pork poutine as well. The fries were pretty standard, but the pulled pork was delicious. It was tender and was full of flavour, there was also a generous amount of pork and cheese too. We were pretty stuffed by the time we ended our meal.

I’m glad that I finally got a change to try Catch 122! Service was very slow though, not sure if they were extra busy that day or if it is always like that? I would have liked this place a lot more if service was more friendly. I’m not dying to come back, but it’s a good brunch option if you’re ever in the neighbourhood.

Do you like Catch 122?

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen