chinese Archives - Page 13 of 14

Richmond Night Market 2014

September 13, 2014

(Updated Sept 2014) The Richmond Night Market is back for another Summer! I love coming here for the cheap things you can buy, even though a lot of the products are very cheaply made and questionable… and of course, the food! I went with a few friends and it was actually their first time at this night market (the new one by the casino), seeing that they are both here on a working visa from Australia. They were excited and curious to try the different food that the stalls offered. It was my first time trying the S. Korean ice cane dessert, which is basically an ice cream that comes in a “J” shaped cone and made out of cornpuff. It was truly interesting… keep on reading below to see what it looked like and how it tasted!
It was very busy and crowded the night that we went, probably because it was an ideal summer’s night.
Takoyaki and squid! The takoyaki ($6) was very chewy,delicous and doughy. The squid was very good as well. Felt kind of bad for the guy grilling the squid because he didn’t wear a mask, and kept having to hold his breath while he was cooking it. The squid itself ($6.50 for a small) was very good. There was a nice satay sauce, with a hint of sweetness and smokiness.
The famous hurricane potato ($6). Basically a lightly deep friend potato on a stick, seasoned with your choice of flavouring salt. We chose the cheddar, and it was really good. There was also a long line up for this booth, but we didn’t wait that long. There were 60 numbers ahead of us in line, but the wait was only around 10 minutes. Pretty efficient! However, I’m not sure that it’s worth $6 for a potato though, it just looks cool.
The Korean snow cane stand! They were pretty busy as well, and ended up selling out of the duo cane cone right after we ordered. It was $3.75 for the single J shaped cone, which I got below…
The cone is made out of a corn puff pastry and into a tube, which they put the soft serve ice cream into. The ice cream was your standard soft serve. As for the cone itself? I enjoyed it. It reminded me of the cereal corn puffs, only harder and less puffy. Imagine eating corn puffs cereal with ice cream, that’s basically how it tasted. The cone also did not go soggy, as I expected it to and remained crunchy until the end. It was also very clean and not messy to eat. Would I get this again? Probably, I love corn puffs!
My friend’s deep fried Snickers bar ($6). She said it tasted amazing, and loved it a lot. I’m not sure if I’ll ever try one of these in my lifetime though, what about you?
Update: Going back a second time in September, we didn’t order as much. I wasn’t too hungry, but knew I would regret not trying anything new here and end up snacking at home later. So we walked around the food stands until something caught our eyes. I am a big fan of mangoes, and I saw someone holding this mango dessert and decided to order one as well ($5.75). It came with a generous portion of fresh mango chunks and vanilla ice cream under a bed of crushed ice, topped with condensed milk. I loved the freshness and sweetness of the mango chunks, and the juices soaked into the ice chunks! The condensed milk was the cherry on top of a great dessert. I have to warn you though; it’s a really, really cold dessert so you might be cold after you finish eating this, because I sure was.
The second item we ordered was the takoyaki balls ($5.50). It came in original, chili, curry, and wasabi flavour- this one was the chili flavour. I didn’t try this, but I was told that it there a mild spice and did not overpower the taste of the takoyaki. The sauces themselves are only drizzled on the top.
Apart from food from our second visit, I also ended up buying a cute pair of fuzzy fleece socks ($4) too! My feet get really, really cold in the fall and winter so I wanted a thicker pair of socks. I am also a HUGE fan of polkadots and Minnie Mouse (I was Minnie Mouse last Halloween) so it’s a win-win situation. I’ll probably wear these as slippers around the house as the weather gets colder. I’m just hoping that these socks won’t be of horrible, cheap quality and actually keep my feet warm!
Andddd to finish this post off, a picture of some random product stands! Korean socks and iphone case stands were the most popular. Hope you enjoyed the post, now go and try the J corn cone ice cream!

-Carmen

Ken’s Chinese Restaurant

August 6, 2014

After my cousin’s high school graduation, we were all hungry and looking for a late restaurant to feed our hungry tummies. We were going to go to Congee Noodle House, but knew it would be busy since all the Chinese families that attended the graduation would probably go there. We drove a bit further into Burnaby, and went to Ken’s Chinese Restaurant. Funny, we went here a few years back for my high school graduation. We also sat at the same table this time as well! Ken’s serves authentic Chinese dishes, and satisfied my craving for late night Chinese food.
(Picture taken from Urbanspoon). Ken’s Chinese Restaurant is located in a small strip mall on Kingsway. There is plenty of free parking in the strip mall.
To start off our da lan, we got the standard plain congee, which came in a huge pot. The congee itself was good and was great quality. It wasn’t too runny and watery, and had a bit of a sweet taste to it. Very warm, and comforting. If your purchase is over a certain amount (my uncle told me this, I didn’t read their menu), you can get unlimited congee refills. We had two refills after this, and the quality and taste of the congee remained delicious. Some restaurants (like my visit to AYCE sushi at Toyotomi) diminish the quality of the orders, but this was not the case.
Stir fried broccoli with garlic. Unfortunately, I forgot the prices of each dish this time so they won’t be included. The broccoli was very crunchy and tasted fresh. There was a definite garlic taste to it, and the tips of the broccoli were smothered in garlic sauce. However, the garlic taste wasn’t unbearably strong, and not enough to give you horrid garlic breath afterwards.
Another late night classic! Clams in black bean sauce. This dish was very tasty as well. The sauce was very flavourful, and came with fresh green onions on top. The clams were also really juicy and there was a generous amount. I’ve been to some Chinese restaurants where they serve a plate of clam shells, where you have to scavenge for what little actual clam meat they have. This tastes really good when you add the shell, which is full of sauce, into the plain congee.
Deep fried tofu with spicy garlic salt. Another classic. Ken’s made this dish perfectly. There was a generous amount of peppers, and the tofu tasted really good with the garlic. The tofu was piping hot and crispy on the outside, while soft inside. I am definitely coming here again when I crave deep fried tofu.
Braised string beans with minced meat. We felt pretty gross after eating the deep fried tofu and clams because they were both such heavy (albeit delicious!) dishes, so we decided to order some veggies. The string beans were very crunchy and flavourful as well. However, this was a bit heavy on the oil so I’m not sure if ordering this dish was the best to “clear” our tummies with. But, it was delicious!

Late night Chinese snack is absolutely delicious, and Ken’s did not disappoint! The servers were also very nice as well. I would definitely come here again when craving late night snacks, but hopefully, that is not for a long time since it’s so unhealthy (minus the plain congee)!

-Carmen

Wah Lun Chinese Restaurant, N. Burnaby

May 4, 2014

Once in awhile, I have sudden cravings for dim sum, or “yum cha” as Cantonese people call it. One of my favourite places to go for dim sum is Wah Lun, which is located in North Burnaby. I’ve never tried their dinner menu, but their dim sum is pretty decent.

One thing I like about this place is their ample parking. Even if their parking lot is full, there is a City of Burnaby parking lot located footsteps away from the restaurant, plus street parking!

We went around 1:30 pm, which is pretty late for dim sum so it was easy to find parking.
Am I the only one here that misses the dim sum carts? Funny story, when I was a child I would only want to go to the Chinese restaurants that had carts because I didn’t want to wait around for food.

But of course, as I grew up, I came to accept the fact that dim sum carts are a thing of the past, in this city at least. But at least the food is fresher this way, even if there’s a longer wait time! If you’ve never had dim sum before, they give you this menu, and you write down how much of each item you want.

Any small dish costs $3.15, medium $3.85, and large $4.15. Beside each dish, it will tell you what size it is. We ordered 5 dishes which came to $22.
Another childhood story of mine- Whenever our family went to dim sum, I would only eat dishes that had shrimp or prawn. To this day, I still love shrimp and prawns, throw them in any dish and I would most likely eat it!

So of course, I had to order a prawn dish this time as well. This was the rice flour roll with prawn and Chinese vegetables ($4.25). Wow, so weird saying that in English, I’m used to saying it in Cantonese… anyways. We really enjoyed the dish. The prawns were very juicy and flavourful, plus the greens inside were fresh and crunchy too. It also wasn’t too oily, and I love the dim sum soy sauce too. I’m pretty sure it’s a mix of soy sauce, sugar, and msg and goes really well with this dish!
The second dish that we ordered was the bean curd wrap with oyster sauce ($3.85). I was a bit hesitant to try this but it was good as well. It was very juicy, and came with some mixed vegetables inside that tasted really fresh. When you bit into it, the liquid oozed out and you could really taste the fresh veggies! However, we didn’t taste any oyster sauce. I didn’t even know that it was supposed to have oyster sauce until I looked at our receipt.
Can you tell I love prawns yet?! This is my absolute favourite dish to order at dim sum. When I got to choose one dish to order as a child with my family, I would always choose deep fried prawn spring rolls! Their deep fried prawn spring rolls with golden garlic ($4.15) are amazing. The batter is super crunchy, and the shrimp are very juicy and seasoned well. It also comes with some garlic, but not too much to make it overpowering or your mouth smell bad for the rest of the day.

Topped off with the red rice vinegar sauce, this dish is amazing despite how bad it is for you! I’m also not sure why it’s called “golden” garlic, probably because Chinese people really like the word “gold” judging by how many places have the world “gold” in it, so it sounds more appetizing.
Next dish that came was the sticky rice wrap ($4.15). Honestly, on the menu it doesn’t sound that appetizing but let me tell you, it is really good! Sticky rice wrap is usually composed of glutinous rice, steamed inside a lotus leaf wrap, which brings more flavour to the rice.

Inside, there is usually pork, chicken, salted egg, mushrooms, and Chinese sausage. When I unwrapped the leaf, I was greeted by steam and a delicious aroma of the combination of rice and the leaf wrap. At first bite, it was bursting with flavour and came with a generous amount of lean meat and Chinese sausage.
The last dish we ordered was the pan fried radish cake with Chinese sausage ($3.85). It had a slight crispiness to it which is a good sign. It had a very soft texture on the inside, and was filled with tiny pieces of Chinese sausage. Yum!

Overall, we enjoyed our dim sum at Wah Lun. Their dishes taste fresh and are bursting, (or should I say steaming?) with flavour. My favourites would have to be the deep fried prawn spring roll and sticky rice wrap because it brings me back to my childhood. Service here is also attentive, and they are well staffed!

Toyotomi, Richmond

April 21, 2014

My friend heard that this place was really good for AYCE hotpot and sushi, and after much speculation and anticipation, the six of us went to try it out for the first time. Prior to our visit, I was obsessively reading my fellow Urbanspoon-er’s reviews to know what I should be aware of. So thank you, fellow reviewers for giving me the heads up! We came prepared 🙂

Previous reviews warned us that Toyotomi was a bit confusing to find, especially their parking and entrance. They were correct.

They were pretty strict about parking in the right area, and you had to put down your license plate number or risk getting towed. Toyotomi is located on the bottom floor of an office building. I noticed that the lobby of the building smelled really nice, like laundry.

When we walked in, we were greeted by an elaborate table of empty alcohol decorations. Whoa!
We made reservations for 7:30, since people said that this place gets really busy. It was probably about 1/2 full when we went. Our table was very awkwardly placed. On one side of the table, was booth seating and then there were four other chairs.

However, the table was shorter than the booth and the chairs were awkwardly placed, so that the person sitting at end couldn’t really reach the hot pot. They also didn’t have a built in stove like most hot pot places, just the portable ones which I guess makes it more flexible for them, incase customers don’t want hot pot.
We were also well aware of their strict food wastage policy, so we ordered very carefully. The menu above is their AYCE menu. We chose deluxe since people said that’s the best value, because you get sashimi and more hot pot items.

You can also get AYCD (drink) which cost an additional $4, but I think everyone at the table had to order it. Sauces, and extra toppings cost $0.5 approximately as well.
For an extra $1, you can get two soup bases. We decided on getting the Japanese chili and Japanese bone. The servers were really good at coming by frequently to make sure our soup didn’t run out.

Both of the soup bases were really flavourful. The chili one had a mild spiciness to it, while the bone broth was like a standard, lighter broth. Both tasted pretty different from each other.
Our first round of meat! We ordered AAA prime rib, sirlon beef, fatty beef, lamb, and lean beef. All of them might not be pictured here, as I mentioned in the intro. All of the meat was really juicy,tender and delicious!
Next up, came our other hot pot items served under a bowl of ice. We ordered pork blood, prawns, beef omasum, pork dumplings, and shrimp dumplings.

The pork dumplings were disappointing because they tasted exactly like the frozen ones that you buy at TNT. I also didn’t taste or see any shrimp in the “shrimp dumpings”, but just some sort of seaweed and other meat in it instead. Other than the dumplings, the rest of the items in that bowl were tasty.
My gosh! Look at all that sashimi! The sashimi made it worth the deluxe for sure. Each piece of salmon and tuna was so thick, sweet, and juicy. They definitely did not skimp out with their sashimi.
This next bowl was kind of random. I’ve never seen onion rings, fries, or sausages offered at an Asian AYCE but hey, it was good! We completely devoured this bowl.

My friend couldn’t even wait for me to finish the picture before digging in, as you can see from the chopstick. The onion rings and fries were really crispy. The fries reminded us of Costco fries, which are the best! The takoyaki balls were also really delicious, the skin was pretty crispy. The fried chicken was really juicy, crunchy, and seasoned well!
Up next were our rolls. We ordered california rolls, and a special house roll. I didn’t try the california roll, but the special house roll was amazing. The shrimp tempura inside was super crispy and juicy. The topping was tuna sashimi, with crunchy flakes and special sauce. We ended up ordering so many more of these after because they were simply delicious!
This was the beef sashimi. I don’t eat beef sashimi, but David said that the beef was extremely tender and they ordered many more rounds of this. It also came with a ponzu sauce which complimented the beef perfectly.
Behold! The spicy salmon and tuna sashimi. I honestly wasn’t expecting it to be this delicious, especially for AYCE. The spicy sauce had a mild sweetness to it. The sashimi was also really thick, like the non-spicy sashimi. It came with a crunchy topping mixed inside which I loved, it gave the sashimi a good crunch. The onions on top were also a tasty garnish.
This was our seaweed salad. Nothing too special about it. It came in a really, really small bowl (think soya sauce sized) and with a small quantity. It was pretty crunchy and flavourful, but I wouldn’t order it again just because their other dishes are so much better.
After ordering many rounds of each dish I mentioned, we were ready for dessert. Again, I’ve never seen frozen pineapples offered as a snack/dessert before so I was intrigued. The pineapples came rock-frozen, but eventually melted so that only the inside was frozen. This was a great, healthy (non fattening), and light dessert to an overwhelming indulgent and gluttonous meal. The pineapples were very, very sweet, and did not have any freezer burn taste to it. They were the cherries to the top of a fabulous cake!

Overall, we had a really pleasant and worthwhile visit to Toyotomi. Each person ended up paying $25 (not including tips). Since it was our first time, we didn’t know what to expect but I was impressed with their service, and the quality of their food. What stood out the most was their sashimi and the quality of beef. I can’t wait to come back here again! I also can’t believe I’ve never heard of this place until recently!

-Carmen

Bubble Queen

April 20, 2014

Bubble Queen is a very popular bubble tea joint in the Lower Mainland. My favourite is their fresh mango bubble tea with chunks of fresh mango on top, but I decided not to get that today because I have plenty of mangoes at home right now.

Their fresh mango bubble tea is to die for- it is creamy, sweet, blended perfectly, and on top of that, they add a generous amount of fresh mango chunks on top.
Upon walking in, we were really surprised that there were only five other customers here on a Saturday night (This picture above was taken from Yelp). I’ve been here five other times, and the line up is usually out the door.
I noticed that they have moved their menu on the wall, they used to have menus that customers pass around. It was easier to read, but there was so much on the menu, making it hard to decide what to get! I imagine that the menu would be hard to read when there are a lot of people, since the line up goes in front of it.
More options! If you choose the specialty drinks, you can get free pearls. However, the cost of the speciality drinks are at least $1-2 dollars more expensive, so I’m not sure if you’re actually getting a good deal or not. They also serve bubble waffles or toast boxes as well.
Notice all their mangoes in the fridge and shelf? Yummm! I’ve never seen this place so empty before. I also noticed that the floors were really, really sticky and the tables desperately needed to be wiped down. However, if you’re just grabbing takeout, it’s not a problem.
I finally decided on getting the passion fruit calpis slush with pearls. I always get their fresh mango slush with mango chunks on top, but I felt like having a change today. The other drink is their coconut slush with pearls. Both drinks came to $10.10.
I didn’t really taste the calpis juice in my drink, the passion fruit was very strong. I feel like this would taste better not as a slush, since calpis is usually served just like a juice. I probably won’t order this flavour with calpis again, because it was too sweet for me and I didn’t taste any calpis! The pearls were very warm, but as I mixed my slush with the pearls, they tasted pretty good. They were chewy and sweet!
The coconut slush with pearls was so good! It was so creamy, rich, and frothy with a strong coconut taste. I liked how smooth it was. I wish I had ordered this one instead!
Also would like to point out their enourmous stack of chocolates for their bubble tea! Overall, Bubble Queen has very good bubble tea at a decent price. I predict that as the weather becomes warmer, I will be paying more visits to this joint!

-Carmen