Curiously Carmen

Gong Cha – Robson Street (Multiple visits)

June 5, 2019

I first tried Gong Cha by Happy Tree House BBQ on Kingsway Street a year ago, but forgot to take pictures for a review, boo!

Before our first Japanese lesson, I noticed that there was a Gong Cha nearby! Since then, we have been getting a drink for our lessons so this post contains a couple visits.

This Gong Cha is usually quite busy, which is not surprising considering the location. Unfortunately, it is also quite hot and stuffy in here. They would benefit from some A/C, especially now that summer is here!

Wintermelon juice: I was disappointed to hear that the sweetness level is not adjustable here as well. Nonetheless, I did not find it super sweet. Even with the addition of pearls, the sweetness was at a good level for me.

The wintermelon juice was refreshing, light, and helped quench my thirst.

Milk tea with pearls: On our second week of lessons, the boyfriend went with the regular milk tea. He found it overwhelmingly sweet, to the point where it tasted just like syrup.

The tea was fragrant, but he would definitely get this half sweet next time!

Wintermelon with pearls and grass jelly: I never order a combination of pearls and grass jelly, but I was feeling a bit hungry before our lesson so I added the grass jelly to curb my hunger LOL!

I was quite shocked at how generous they were with the grass jelly! My drink almost looks black with how much grass jelly there was! The grass jelly was sweet and enjoyable.

Coupled with the pearls, it was a nice textural mix. I would get this combination again if I was feeling hungry! It’s a tiny snack and drink in one, muahaha.

This location is convenient for us to grab a drink before Japanese lessons, so we will probably be back!

Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant

June 3, 2019

If you grew up in Vancouver and you are Chinese, chances are, you’ve been to Sun Sui Wah for a wedding/baby celebration/any celebration etc. At least I have been multiple times throughout the years!

Chinese food is one of the hardest cuisines for me to eat now with my digestive issues because most food is very oily. But I didn’t want to miss out on a family gathering so I came along. I was mostly just there for socializing but was able to eat a couple of dishes.

Special thanks to Maki, Nigiri and the boyfriend for describing the food taste to me!

Roasted squab: We started out with a roasted squab, which is a family favourite! However, the meat was quite dry so it was disappointing.

Jellyfish: The jellyfish was also disappointing as well. There wasn’t much flavour to it. The boyfriend ended up adding some salt from the squab dish, which helped.

Sauteed prawn and vegetable: A safe dish for me! After the first 2 disappointing dishes, this one was enjoyable. The prawns were very snappy and had a nice flavour from the wok (aka wok-hei or wok-air). The garlic was tasty as well.

Soya sauce chicken: We weren’t planning on ordering this, but the waitress recommended it and said it was one of their best dishes. Well, she was right and we all enjoyed it! The chicken was well marinated, very tender and juicy. I was able to eat the chicken breast part and enjoyed it a lot.

Spicy eggplant in clay pot: Another favourite dish. This usually contains tofu, which is delicious because it gets marinated in the sauce. However, there wasn’t any tofu in here which was a bit disappointing.

Honey garlic spare ribs: No one had any complaints about this dish!

Scallop egg white fried rice: A simple, carb dish to end our meal. The fried rice surprisingly wasn’t that oily which was nice.

Tapioca pudding: Tapioca pudding is so good! Sadly, I couldn’t have some since it contained dairy and I didn’t bring my Lactaid pills (although those don’t work sometimes either). Everyone enjoyed it a lot and said it wasn’t super sweet.

Ebi Ten

June 1, 2019

Ebi Ten… One of my favourite restaurants ever! I discovered this place about 8 years ago, and would come pretty often if I wanted a quick bite in downtown. They used to have Twitter specials so I remember walking here after class to take advantage of it!

It’s been a few years since I’ve come here, because I’m not in this area as much anymore.

However, we recently decided to start Japanese lessons (woohoo!!!) close to Ebi Ten, so we stopped by for a quick dinner beforehand. The days beforehand, we were so excited to have Ebi Ten again!

Ebi Ten is a small, quick service Japanese restaurant like what you’d find in Japan minus the salarymen. I love this place because it is consistently delicious, quick, cheap, and the quality is great for what you get.

You order at the counter and then wait for your food to be cooked. I find that the staff do not speak English that well, so it may be hard to order if you have questions or special requests. I guess we just have to work extra hard with our Japanese lessons now 😉

Pork katsu curry: For authentic, comforting, Japanese-style curry, Ebi Ten is definitely the place to go. The boyfriend really enjoyed his curry and ate it all up. His pork katsu was also very fresh and crunchy.

There was also a small side of sliced marinated beef with onion.

Chicken teriyaki: I ordered mine in a take out box because I wasn’t super hungry yet and knew I wouldn’t be able to finish. The chicken was tender and marinated in a soy/teriyaki sauce.

It was delicious, although I was really thirsty afterwards. I love Japanese mayo, and would have loved to seen more drizzled. If you haven’t tried Japanese mayo before, give it a try – it’s much tastier than regular mayo!

I have no doubt we will be back more, now that we are starting to take Japanese lessons in this area.

If you are wanting a filling, delicious, and relatively cheap meal for downtown prices, head over to Ebi Ten – you won’t be disappointed.

えびてんはおいしいです！：）

YiFang Taiwan Fruit Tea – Cambie Street Location

May 30, 2019

Another Taiwanese bubble tea place checked off my list! YiFang is one of the many bubble tea companies from Taiwan to show up in Vancouver in the past year. I remember when they opened their first shop in downtown 1 year ago? Now, they have 5 locations in Metro Vancouver – with more to come probably!

Cola and I went to the location on Cambie Street after having lunch at TonTon Sushi next door, just across from King Ed Station.

One thing I really appreciated about YiFang was their descriptive menu. Under each drink, there was a full description of what was inside.

For someone who has dietary restrictions and digestive issues, it’s really important that I know what exactly is in the food or drink before having it. So, I really appreciated this detail!

Black tea latte: Cola has had this before, and found it to be alright. Nothing too special, nothing bad about it either.

Wintermelon juice: Unlike Sharetea, I wasn’t able to customize the sweetness level because it comes as a pre-made juice here. That was a bit disappointing, but luckily I didn’t find it overly sweet.

Even with the pearls added, the sweetness level was still tolerable although I would have liked it a bit less sweet for the wintermelon flavour to shine.

Brown sugar soft pearl latte: After hanging out with Cola, I came back a few hours later to get the boyfriend a drink to-go before heading home. We usually try new bubble tea places together and I didn’t want him to miss out!

Unfortunately, he didn’t find the black tea to be fragrant or strong enough. The black tea was quite faint.

Jinfeng roselle lemon slice juice: I also ordered this to have at night. Sadly, I forgot to order pearls! But after drinking it, I’m glad I didn’t because the drink was already very sweet.

I would describe this as a blackcurrant juice, just like Ribena, with a hint of lemon. You also aren’t able to customize the sweetness for this either. I ordered this with 30% ice, which was not a good idea because the juice was veryyyy concentrated and sweet.

I’d recommend ordering it with full ice level, otherwise it is like drinking syrup!

I’m glad I tried YiFang, but I wish customers were able to customize the sweetness level for their juices. I wouldn’t mind going back to YiFang if I happened to come across one and was wanting bubble tea though.

The drinks that Cola, the boyfriend, and I tried all weren’t the fruit teas which is what they’re known for… so we will definitely have to come back and try those!

Innocent Ice Cream

May 27, 2019

Innocent Ice Cream has been on my radar for a few months now. It had many good reviews and also a decent vegan selection with coconut milk bases and not just sorbets.

I consider 3+coconut based flavours to be a decent selection because most places have 1-2 coconut based flavours. I’ll soon find out this was not the case though. Unfortunately, I left pretty disappointed with this place (not just because of this). I’ve never been so turned off by coconut-based ice cream before!

They also specialize in ice cream sandwiches which I thought was unique!

Innocent Ice Cream is a small and narrow shop on Main and 33rd, around QE Park. The place is pretty easy to miss because it’s small.

The service was friendly and patient while I sampled two vegan flavours and asked if their waffle cones were also dairy free.

I had a hard time choosing between the two vegan flavours … not because they were so tasty, but I found them both really bland and the strongest taste was the wooden sample spoon.

Strawberry shortcake: Described on the website as a roasted strawberry ice cream with shortcake pieces. I did not taste any shortcake pieces with my scoop.

In addition, it was very bland and had virtually no strawberry flavour at all. The taste was more like a bland, unsweetened vegan coconut ice cream. The richness of the coconut milk was there, but taste-wise, everything was lacking and disappointing.

At least the waffle cone was good and sweet. But I didn’t end up finishing this because it was so disappointing.

Classic ice cream sandwich: The boyfriend chose a pre-determined flavour off their menu board. The classic came with vanilla bean ice cream and a vegan chocolate chip cookie. You can also pick between a regular size sandwich, a mini, or a flight of 3 mini sandwiches if you’re indecisive!

He enjoyed his sandwich a lot more than me, but found it to be nothing super special or memorable.

I really wanted to like this place but the vegan flavours fell short for me. The offerings that day were tasteless. On the website, they had listed 7 coconut-based vegan flavours and 2 sorbet flavours, so it was disappointing that there were only 3 coconut-based vegan flavours as well.

The regular flavours weren’t anything special or memorable either, so I doubt we will be back. There are plenty of other ice cream places in Vancouver that are a lot better, and I don’t think Innocent Ice Cream matches up.