dessert Archives - Page 14 of 18

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

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

EAT! Vancouver Festival 2015 Event Recap

June 6, 2015

Hi everyone!

About a month ago, I attended the EAT! Vancouver Festival at BC Place. It was an afternoon filled with being introduced to lots of different food trends, food supplies, healthy alternative food – basically, everything to do with food!

From their website: EAT! Vancouver attracts Canada’s culinary stars, food producers and restaurants, from Vancouver, North America and beyond. Consumers, from across North America, will come to the EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival to participate in Vancouver’s vibrant food culture and experience great food from around the world.

After getting our tickets, we headed down to the main floor of BC Place. What usually holds football games and concerts was transformed into a food lover’s paradise. As this was our first time coming here, we were really surprised at how many stands and how big the festival was.

Instead of purchasing products by cash or card, guests purchase tickets which they can then use to pay for things they want. We decided to walk around once and purchase tickets afterwards.

The first stand that caught my eye was the vendor, Tea Sparrow. Each month, Tea Sparrow will deliver four teas to your door, which have been tested and approved by their staff before delivery. I sampled some of their rooibos tea, which was delicious!
There was also a cheese seminar presented by the Dairy Farmers of Canada happening. Unfortunately, all of the seats were already full but it looked like an interesting show. For all you cheese lovers, this one is for you.
In front of the cheese seminar, was a long lineup where you can sample many different types of cheese. I don’t think I’ve had that many different types of cheese in one sitting before. I’m no cheese connoisseur, but I think that cheese lovers would really love this!

I certainly enjoyed all the different sorts of cheese and it was nice to sample them all. You normally don’t get to sample all these types of cheese, so it’s good to keep in mind what you may want to buy when you are grocery shopping in the future.
Some free dark chocolate samples from Urge Chocolates. Some samples required tickets, which was up to the individual booth. Since we didn’t buy tickets yet, we were only able to sample the freebies.

More chocolate from President’s Choice. I believe they were giving these bars out for free when you sign up for a President’s Choice MasterCard.

I normally avoid tea that has caffeine but I’ve always wanted to try Pure Leaf. They had a few flavours to choose from that day – raspberry, lemon, regular, and unsweetened.

I didn’t find the sweetened flavours to be overly sweet or sugary, which is a plus.
Apart from all the different vendors, there was also a ‘food’ area for visitors to eat and featured different eateries in Vancouver. A food area within a food festival!

We ordered an oreo BeaverTail and poutine, which were both very good.

We also tried the Montreal smoked meat sandwich from Dunn’s. I’ve never been there before, but I think it would have been better at the actual restaurant and not a mobile stand. Some parts of the smoked meat were cold, while other parts were slightly warm.

The worker there was also not wearing any gloves and handled the bread and toppings with her bare hands. She was also the one that was taking care of the ticket payments from customers…so touching all of the customer tickets (where you don’t know where it has been?!) AND then touching the food with your bare hands?

After all our samples of food, we decided to check out the alcohol section. We didn’t know this at first, but you exchange a ticket for a wine/beer glass and will receive the ticket back after you return the glass.

This was slightly annoying as we were left with one single ticket that we didn’t know what to do with in the end, we wished that we could have applied that ticket to one of our wine tastings but not a big deal.

The carpeted floor was also very static-y that day, and everyone would get zapped when accidentally brushing shoulders. At first, I thought it was only me who kept zapping everyone but I heard a lot of other people complaining, and one of the staff members told us that it was due to the carpeted floor. =(

One of my favourite gelato places, Bella Gelateria, was serving gelato martinis!
Scotch served with freshly grounded espresso beans and Bella Gelataria’s salted caramel gelato in a shot glass. It was very creamy and rich, but wasn’t very strong. This stand was definitely one of the most popular stands at the festival.
There were also a lot of BC-based craft breweries at the festival! The craft beer samples were pretty cheap, at $1 a sample and they were also a pretty generous size too!
Originally, we planned on staying no more than 1.5 hours, but were shocked when we checked our phones and saw that 3 hours had passed by! We were also given a goodie bag filled with some samples at the end of our visit.

There was definitely tons to discover at EAT! Vancouver, and lots of new food to try. The festival is held each year around the end of April/beginning of May so I recommend that you check this out if you love trying or learning about food!

Did you go to Eat! Vancouver 2015 as well? How did you like it?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Nero Belgian Waffle Bar

May 31, 2015

Hi everyone!

After a satisfying brunch a few months ago, Naomi from Constant Cravings and I decided to go grab dessert at Nero! No, we weren’t hungry still… but I told her that Nero has been on my dining list for probably 2 years now, and I still haven’t gotten the opportunity. Since Forage was a mere few blocks away, we decided to walk there after and share a waffle.

Naomi had already been here before, so she led the way. To be honest, I was a bit surprised when we got there as I was not expecting their design and branding to look like this! Judging from the pictures I saw, the place looked a lot brighter and less rustic/wooden than it actually was. Not that I minded though, but that was just my first opinion=)

It’s smart that they have their menu on a chalkboard outside. Naomi told me that it lines up pretty quickly here during the summer, so this is an efficient way to speed up the wait!

Yep, I was still surprised at how wooden and cozy it was inside Nero. I honestly thought it would look like a bubble tea or Asian dessert cafe, LOL!

Nonetheless, I did like the interior and here is a picture of a bicycle on their wall. The seating area is quite small and there is no way that all their customers are able to get a seat right away. Which is unfortunate, because their specialty waffles aren’t something that can be easily packed and taken to go.

Since I was the newbie, I let Naomi decide for the both of us. We shared the liege au chocolat waffle, which came with a dark chocolate drizzle, fresh raspberries, and a big ol’ scoop of vanilla ice cream.

The waffle was nice and light, with a sweetness to it and served warm. The dark chocolate and tart raspberries counterbalanced the sweetness of the waffle and vanilla ice cream.

I would love to come back and try more of their different flavours, but I especially hate standing and waiting in lines for restaurants.. that’s a big pet peeve for me and probably one of the biggest reasons I haven’t tried a couple of well known, yummy establishments. I should also mention Nero was empty when we came in around 2pm on a Saturday, but as we got ready to leave, we saw a line that was already out the door!

I saw another customer with a huge fruit assortment on her waffle, I am definitely trying that one next time I come back!

Is Nero worth the hype? For me personally, yes!

-Carmen

Beta5

May 10, 2015

Hi everyone!

Last month, the boyfriend and I were heading back from somewhere (I forget now) and I suddenly had the idea to stop by Beta 5 and finally try their famous cream puffs!

Beta 5 is tucked away and hidden in an industrial part of the city. We weren’t sure that we were in the right place, but I felt confident because my fellow food bloggers had said it was pretty hidden. There isn’t much in that area, but I did see some of my favourite food trucks parked there which was pretty cool!

The inside was a lot nicer looking than the exterior. Beta 5 is a pretty small place, there is no room for customers to sit down and order. I think this is because they are mostly a neat little chocolate factory, but decided to open up a small area for customers to come in and buy their goodies.

There were beautiful, pristine displays of their many different kinds of award-winning chocolates. I was lucky enough to try a few pieces as one of our clients had brought it in to the office before.
We ordered the salted caramel and passionfruit coconut cream puffs. Both of these came to approximately $9. If you buy four, it is 0.50 cents cheaper for each but we didn’t feel like ordering more. You place your order with one of their friendly workers, who types it down in an iPad. Shortly afterwards, another worker will bring out your cream puffs from the kitchen.
The salted caramel cream puff had a rich caramel flavour to it, but it wasn’t overwhelming sweet. The texture of the creme puff was fluffy and perfect, with a generous amount of filling.
We both liked the coconut/passionfruit cream puff a lot more than the salted caramel! The coconut and passion fruit flavours complemented each other perfectly and had a very smooth flavour. The boyfriend absolutely fell in love with this one and continues to rave about it to this day.

At first, the boyfriend was hesitant to come here as he wasn’t convinced that a cream puff could be THAT amazing, but did he change his mind after having the coconut/passionfruit one. He was even more enthusiastic about them than I was, and wanted to go back to buy more! I told him I was right and he should be glad that he listened to me 😉

Have you tried Beta 5 creme puffs yourself?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen