food & drink Archives - Page 45 of 115

House Special Modern Vietnamese

July 23, 2019

House Special is a restaurant whose name I have seen tossed around on other food blogs. While looking for a place to have dinner with Latte, I suggested we try this place. It had good reviews but I left feeling disappointed unfortunately.

House Special is among one of the recent surges of modern Vietnamese dining in the past few years, a concept that isn’t really that popular in Vancouver. Most Vietnamese restaurants are small, hole in the wall, family run places.

But I’ve seen House Special, CoM Vietnamese, Anh and Chi, Do Chay, DD Mau, just to name a few, open up which are different than what we are used to!

Anyways, House Special is located in Yaletown. I was quite surprised walking in because I have been in this space before! House Special replaced Malt and Marrow, where the boyfriend and I stopped for a drink after biking 4 years ago. I never wrote a review since we just had a beer.

They have a patio with communal tables but Latte and I sat inside. It was still pretty early and didn’t get busy yet. Service was attentive and quick.

Spring roll: Latte started with a spring roll, which she had no complaints about. It looked fresh and crispy!

Vietnamese coffee: Latte also ordered a Vietnamese coffee, which she enjoyed.

Pho: I decided to try a staple, which tells a lot about a restaurant. It’s hard to mess up pho, isn’t it? Well somehow they did end up messing it up.

The noodles came stuck together in a lump at the bottom of the bowl. Usually noodles are precooked which is completely fine, but it would have been nice for the kitchen to quickly stir out the noodles before serving.

After stirring and trying to loosen the lump of noodles, they were unfortunately soggy and way too overcooked.

The broth was pretty standard, but the soggy, overcooked noodles were very distracting and ruined the pho for me. There was an average amount of beef inside but the beef balls were on the small side.

Bun bo hue: Latte’s bun bo hue noodles were also overcooked and soggy like mine. Bun bo hue contains a different type of noodle than the pho so I guess they overcook their noodles here. Latte enjoyed the soup though, and it had a good amount of spice.

Overall, the dishes left not much to be desired. It was a forgettable experience to me and I was expecting more.

Nay!

Sushimoto

July 20, 2019

As someone who has lived in North Burnaby her entire life (except for that brief stint in Calgary but that’s a story for another day), you would probably be surprised to hear that I’ve never actually been to Sushimoto until now.

I’ve heard so many great things from many people about Sushimoto but just never ended up going! But my mom and I both had a day off so I suggested we try this place.

Sushimoto is inconspicuously located at Holdom Station, making it easy to SkyTrain to. If you’re driving, the building also offers free 1 hour parking which was nice.

Most Japanese restaurants in Vancouver these days are Korean or Chinese owned. I believe Sushimoto is Japanese owned as I heard staff speaking Japanese to each other. Plus, the menu also had Japanese in it which is not something you’d find unless it was an authentic Japanese restaurant.

Small salmon sashimi: We were surprised to see that Sushimoto offered a side of free sushi rice with sashimi if requested! That’s almost like making your own nigiri.

The salmon sashimi pieces was smaller than what you’d get at run of the mill “fast food” sushi restaurants such as Sushi Town, Sushi Garden, Sushi California, etc. But the sashimi tasted very fresh so it was fine with us.

Chirashi don: The chirashi don was on a lunch special for $10. We split this and were quite satisfied with it too. There was a good amount of sashimi and everything tasted fresh.

The sushi rice also came drizzled with the sauce used for the unagi. It was sweet and reminded me a bit of teriyaki. The unagi sauce and sesame made the rice taste even better.

Maki combo: To end, my mom and I also shared a maki combo. It ended up being too much food so we packed the California roll.

The rolls were average, nothing special or bad about them.

All in all, it was a pleasant visit to Sushimoto and I’m glad I finally tried this place. I would definitely come back!

Yay!

Introduction to Thursday Plantation

July 18, 2019

I have used essential oils with my diffuser on/off for the past 2 years or so. But over the past few months, I have developed a strong interest in essential oils and have been regularly using my diffuser for relaxation and as a sleep aid!

I have tried a few different brands, experimented with which oils I like, including argan oil shampoo, and which oils blend well together! I would consider myself to be pretty knowledgable about essential oils now.

Thursday Plantation is a line from Australia that produces high quality essential oils, and essential oil-based products. They recently sent me a few things to try out, and I was more than happy to considering my new found interest in essential oils.

I tried 3 of the most common essential oils – tea tree, peppermint, and lavender. They are great beginner oils and some of the first ones I’ve used a couple years ago.

Compared to other essential oils I’ve used, the Thursday Plantation ones are very potent. One drop is probably all you need in a diffuser.

On my first try with these, I used 4 peppermint drops and 2 lavender drops. That’s pretty standard for the cheap oils I purchase off Amazon. But that was WAY too strong for these bad boys! I got a bit dizzy and ended up pouring half of the water out and adding fresh water to dilute. Lesson learned, only 1-2 drops needed!

The essential oils are about $15-20 CAD each, which I would say is mid range pricing for essential oils. I’ve purchased a kit of 8 oils for $30 CAD, and also more expensive ones that were $40 CAD each.

I also tried Thursday Plantation’s face wipes. They contain tea tree oil, copaiba oil, and aloe vera.

My experience with tea tree oil face products in the past is that it has been very drying. I was a bit hesitant to try the wipes because I thought it would dry my skin out, but it didn’t at all. The wipe was moisturizing and made my skin feel plump, hydrated, and refreshed.

Other products that they carry include soaps, pure tea tree oil antiseptic for skin (different than essential oils, NEVER put essential oils on your skin without a carrier base), face wash, shampoo, conditioner, lice treatment, and more.

My first experience with Thursday Plantation was positive and I would recommend giving them a try. Thursday Plantation is also suitable for vegans and do not do any animal testing.

Products are available at Safeway, Real Canadian Superstore, Save on Foods, Rexall, GNC, and online!

Press product featured. Opinions are own.

Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine

July 17, 2019

Although I have been to this plaza many times, I never noticed Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine quietly tucked in the back until Maki recommended. This place has been on my to-try list for quite awhile, so the boyfriend and I finally went one weekend afternoon!

Note the line up only 20 minutes after they opened!

Wang’s looks bigger than it is from the outside. The inside is quite cramped. It has the mom and pop run feel to it which was nice! Although cramped, the service was really friendly and fast.

One thing I recommend is to come early or be prepared to wait.

Just to give you an idea, we came on a Saturday at 10:50am which was 10 minutes before they officially opened.

But… Most of the seats were taken and we got the last seat, 10 minutes before opening! How crazy. A steady line was forming by 11 so we took that as a sign of a good restaurant.

Xiao Long Bao: The XLB were reasonably priced, about $7 I believe? Pretty cheap compared to other places in 2019. (I mention the year because food prices increase every year, and I don’t want someone reading this 3 years from now thinking they’re the same price. Cause Curiously Carmen is here to stay if things go as planned!)

Anyways, the XLB were so good. There was a small glass window where you could see 2 staff making them from scratch. The portion of pork was very generous and filling. The broth was very flavourful. I would order these again in a heartbeat.

Sliced beef with noodles in soup: I was having a hard time deciding between this and their pork noodle soup. In the end, I had no regrets picking the beef one because it was so good.

The sliced beef was so incredibly tender and flavourful. From the online photos, it looked like the beef wouldn’t be that tender but the slices almost melted in my mouth.

In addition to the delicious beef, the broth was really good too! Although the broth was on the clear side, it was full of comforting sesame flavour. I would imagine this bowl would taste good if one added the chili oil on the table into this too.

Dan Dan noodles: The boyfriend enjoyed his Dan Dan noodles too. There was a good amount of spiciness to it.

His only complaint was that it didn’t come with any meat, so he was a bit hungry after still.

The food came out very quickly, and since it was such a busy place, we finished our meal in under 20 minutes!

The turnover is quite quick, which is needed due to the line ups. So glad we finally tried Wang’s!

I would definitely come back in a heartbeat… But only if I came before 11 because I don’t like lining up for meals!

Yay!

Shanghai River – Multiple Revisits

July 14, 2019

About a year ago, the boyfriend and I found Shanghai River on Yelp and it has become one of our go-to places whenever in Richmond. We started practicing archery nearby which is great because we can come here for dinner afterwards!

Since we have been here multiple times since my first post, I thought I would write a revisit on it.

This place is a bit upscale but we usually just order the XLB and some noodles, so it’s not that expensive. The set menus and larger dishes are the expensive ones.

Parking has usually been pretty easy. There is an underground parking lot with many reserved spots for the restaurant.

Pan fried pork soft buns: The pork buns are delightfully crispy on the outside. The pork inside was flavourful and juicy. An order comes with 5 buns so it is great to share.

Shanghai fried noodles: The noodles here were decent. There was a good amount of wok hei in the noodles. I’m not really sure how to translate wok hei but the literal translation is ‘pan air’.

When a dish is cooked in a wok pan, you should be able to taste the smokiness/grilled taste in the dish. They were a bit oily so I only had a few bites.

Mapo tofu: The mapo tofu was absolutely delicious! It packed a good amount of heat. There was a good amount of minced pork and tofu in there too. I shouldn’t be having spicy food but I couldn’t resist and had a couple bites!

Shanghai wonton soup: After seeing the staff make the wonton behind the clear glass, I decided to give their wontons a try and was not disappointed!

The soup was a bit bland and probably just a canned chicken broth, but the wontons made up for it. The skin was silky smooth and the inside was filled with meat. I would recommend this if you’re wanting something clear and light but still yummy.

Dan dan noodles: The boyfriend’s must order when coming here. The dan dan noodles here are more soupy rather than saucy. It packed a good amount of spice.

Xiao long bao: Saving the best for last, the xiao long bao! The skin is thin except for the dough twist on top. There was a good amount of flavourful broth inside, as well as pork. Just writing about this is making me hungry.