Curiously Carmen

Boiling Point

May 2, 2019

It’s about time we tried Boiling Point! Sometimes, I feel like such a shameful blogger when I have yet to visit popular restaurants in the city. Do any other bloggers feel the same way?

Anyways, I have heard really good things about Boiling Point from many people. Since we wanted to go to OneZo BBT that day, I suggested finally trying Boiling Point since it was a block away! Two birds with one stone!

Parking is not easy around this area since Kingsway St is so busy but we managed to find paid meter parking a block away.

The restaurant was packed and the was a lineup as expected. They have a tablet where you enter in the number of people and the machine will print out a ticket. The staff will then call you up when the table is ready. Since we were a table of 2, we only had to wait 5 minutes which was nice!

I found the seating to be very secluded and awkward. The booth is really high so you can’t really see the servers walking by and you share a table with a flimsy wood divider.

The angle in the picture above makes it look spacious, but once you go inside to the actual booth is where it feels slightly claustrophobic.

Beef hot pot, no spice: My beef hot pot came at a steady boil already! After they bring you the hot pot, they use a match to light it so the boil continues.

I really enjoyed my hot pot! The soup was tasty and reminded me just of hot pot broth. There was a strong satay sauce flavour which I loved.

There was a generous portion of beef slices, and a couple pieces of fish and cuttlefish. I found the seafood pieces to be cold inside, so I let them boil more and ate it at the end.

There was also a generous amount of napa cabbage which was sweet. I liked the variety in the pot in terms of meat and vegetables, and would definitely get this pot again!

The broth seemed a bit oily so I was worried at how my stomach would react, but it was fine so yay!

Korean bean paste hot pot: The boyfriend ordered his with a 4/5 spice level. However, it was quite disappointing because it was more of a 0/5 spice level! We aren’t sure if the server heard wrong, the chef made a mistake, or their spice levels aren’t that strong??

Anyways, despite that, he enjoyed the variety of meat and vegetables. His pot also came with some instant noodles because Koreans love their instant noodle!

Since he was expecting it to be a spicy soup, it wasn’t as good as he hoped it would be. Hopefully it’s just a one time thing because I would love to come back!

Tea, free: S’mores is a regular here and recommended we came for lunch because prices are cheaper and you get as free iced green or black tea!

The tea was enjoyable! It was not super strong or fragrant, but you could definitely taste the tea. It came sweetened which we didn’t mind, the black tea tasted like a subtle version of the McDonald’s sweet tea in the US.

Overall, we left very full but I was more satisfied than the boyfriend. I’ll have to try to convince him to come back and hopefully next time, they’ll have the spice levels adjusted.

M.O. Fruitsecco Sparkling Beverage

April 30, 2019

M.O. Fruitsecco, a new line of sparkling beverages made by the BC Tree Fruits Cider Co, has just recently launched in time for the sunny patio and BBQ season! They sent me some to review, so I enlisted the boyfriend, Cocoa, Sangria, and Lager to sample these with me!

I shouldn’t even be having alcohol with my stomach issues so I let my friends have most of it, while I had a couple small sips.

M.O. (pronounced em-oh) Fruitsecco is a sparkling beverage with no added flavours or colours. The few ingredients were familiar, plain, and simple to read. We were also happy to see that each can contains only around 110-120 calories (depending on flavour)!

Currently, M.O. Fruitsecco is available in three different flavours, all of which are dry. Here’s what we thought of each!

Sparkling Rose: The Sparkling Rose was the top choice for us in terms of flavour. The Sparking Rose features 3.5 apples, 9 cherries, and soda water. The cherries and apples added a bit of sweetness to the dry profile.

Each can has a dry to sweet indicator. All 3 flavours are dry and at the same indicator level.

Check out the simple and familiar ingredients too!

Sparking Dry: Moving on to the second one, the Sparking Dry features 4 apples, 1 lavender sprig, and soda water. Sangria and I noted the subtle, floral lavender aftertaste which was really nice!

However, the rest of them did not taste it. I’ve never had lavender flavor in my alcohol so this was pretty cool.

Sparkling Basil: This was the least favourite out of the three. It contains 4 apples, 1 basil leaf, and soda water. None of us could really taste the basil leaf but two of us noted a soapy aftertaste, like if you didn’t wash your cup properly.

I found it to be alright, but I would definitely want the Rose or Dry instead.

All in all, M.O. Fruitsecco was a great addition to our dinner party and a great way to start off the summer! They are sold in same flavour packs of 4.

Availability: The Sparkling Rosé is available in BC government liquor stores (BCLDB), select private liquor stores and grocery locations. The Sparkling Dry and Sparkling Basil are in private stores and grocery locations in BC and Alberta.

Price: $9.99/4 pack. Until June 1st, BC Liquor Store is having a $1.00 discount for the M.O. Rose flavour (the best one in my opinion!).

Press sample featured. All opinions own.

OneZo Tapioca

April 27, 2019

Amongst the surge of new bubble tea places in the past year, OneZo inarguably has been one of the most popular and successful ones so far! I’ve heard good things about it from multiple people but have yet to go because me and caffeine don’t mix well.

For example, many years ago (when my stomach tolerated dairy), I drank a milk tea at 10 am and couldn’t sleep the next morning until 6 am! Another time, I was lying awake in bed at 2 am wondering why I couldn’t sleep…. After thinking of everything I ate/drank that day, realized I had a can of Pepsi during a family gathering. -_-”

I could get the slush but their tea drinks were their most popular so I didn’t feel like it would do justice. However, seeing that it was a 4 day long weekend, I figured I could have caffeine on Friday and have 3 more days to adjust my sleep schedule until going back to work on Tuesday!

After having lunch at Boiling Point, we walked over to OneZo but ended up missing it because it was quite inconspicuous! Once we got in though, it was packed (also because it’s small and narrow).

Passion fruit green tea with OneZo pearls: I wanted to try the fresh fruit tea but it only came in a large size, and I was not ready to commit to that much caffeine. So, the passionfruit was my second choice!

Let’s start with the pearls, which is what they’re famous for … They were sooo good and chewy!!! I got the OneZo pearls which was a daily preselected mix. That day, it was a mix of mango, sweet potato, and crystal. It was my first time trying flavoured pearls and it was delightful! The mango flavour was quite subtle but definitely had a tropical flavour. The sweet potato had a stronger flavour and reminded me of less dense version ZenQ’s sweet potato Q ball. The crystal pearl is your regular pearl but clear.

Moving on to the green tea, I found it really fragrant and strong! Since it’s been awhile for me and green tea, I asked the boyfriend to try and see what he thought because he drinks tea every week. He agreed that it was a stronger green tea and very fragrant.

My only complaint was the passionfruit seeds! I appreciated the quality and use of fresh passionfruit seeds, but the crunchy texture distracted the beautiful chewiness of the pearls. It reminded me of crunchy sunflower seed shells which is not what I’m wanting in bubble tea.

Although I enjoyed the taste of the passionfruit, I wouldn’t want the seeds in there again.

Brown sugar dirty milk: We are huge fans of LINE Friends, hence the Brown Bites series on my blog. We follow an IG page of Brown comics, and the night before, they posted a drawing of Brown drinking too much brown sugar dirty milk. So this was one of the influencing factors of the boyfriend getting the brown sugar dirty milk… Yes we are a bit (maybe very) crazy with LINE friends!

Anyways, he didn’t realize that this didn’t come with any tea. No complaints though because he really enjoyed the drink. It was sweet and had a nice caramelized flavour.

We thought there weren’t going to be any pearls but it ended up coming with your standard black pearls, which were tasty as well.

Overall, we both were very satisfied with OneZo and can see why it’s so popular! You can really taste the quality in their drinks and customized pearls. If you’re a pearl lover, I would definitely recommend coming here.

Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant

April 24, 2019

I’ve been to Fraser Court many times for dim sum over the years, but didn’t realize that I never actually wrote about it! Dim sum is something I love, but don’t get to enjoy as much now due to my digestive problems.

However, there are times when my stomach feels okay so the boyfriend and I finally went for dim sum after over a 9 month hiatus! Fraser Court is one of our go-tos, so we played it safe and went here.

There is a parking lot, but it can be quite busy during peak dim sum period and Jethro’s Fine Grub (bleh) is also located in the same building. There is plenty of free street parking around though.

Sticky rice: One of my favourites, and it is one of the healthier options that I can eat because it’s steamed! Sticky rice is very filling, so we only managed to eat one (which is fine because leftover dim sum is delicious too). There was a generous amount of pork and the sticky rice was fragrant.

Shrimp dumpling: Another one of my favourites! The shrimp tasted fresh and had a nice bounce to it.

Shrimp rice flour roll: Clearly I love my shrimp. The best part of rice flour rolls is the dim sum soya sauce, which is mixed with sugar and MSG… so bad for you, but life is about eating delicious food sometimes (within reason, don’t eat everyday!).

Again, the shrimp had a nice bounce to it and tasted fresh. Some places add a couple pieces of Chinese vegetables, but this place didn’t.

Bean curd wrap: This is one of the boyfriend’s favourite, but unfortunately it was very disappointing that day. The meat inside the bean curd was oddly dense… like, SUPER, SUPER, dense.

Deep fried taro dumpling: As much as I wanted to eat this, I didn’t because I would pay for it later with stomach pain! If made perfectly, deep fried taro dumplings have a light, crispy, crunchy batter and a savoury filling. The boyfriend enjoyed this a lot more than the bean curd wrap.

Minced fish paste rice flour roll: Yup, we love our rice flour roll – this is the boyfriend’s favourite rice flour roll. The inside was lightly battered, giving it some crunch.

Minus the disappointing bean curd wrap, we left very satisfied and with a lot of leftovers for later!

Fraser Court is a decent option for dim sum in Vancouver, and we will definitely be back sometime… just not too often because my stomach wouldn’t be able to handle so much heavy food on a regular basis!

Deer Garden Signatures – Richmond (Capstan Way)

April 21, 2019

After a fun evening doing an escape room with Latte and her friend, the boyfriend and I were pretty hungry so I suggested good ol’ Deer Garden. There are two locations in Richmond, we decided to go to the one on Capstan Way since there’s more parking at this location.

We had to wait about 20-30 minutes, which was expected since it was a busy Saturday night!

French toast: Since Latte and her friend already ate prior to doing the escape room, they ordered a small snack to share (we were happy to learn that they did not have a minimum charge!).

Latte is a fan of the french toast here and it did not disappoint! The french toast came in cubes already which was convenient, and you also get more of the fried edges.

Noodle soup: I went with my usual noodle soup: fish and century egg soup, with beef balls, sausage, and crystal noodles. I had no complaints about the noodles and absolutely devoured everything. I was so hungry! It was consistent with all the other Deer Garden locations I’ve been to.

Noodle soup: The boyfriend went with the chili peanut soup with beef, crystal noodles, and I forgot the other topping. The chili peanut soup is his favourite here, and he enjoyed it a lot too.

Deer Garden is comforting, filling, and so delicious! We left very satisfied and I wouldn’t mind coming back to this location if I was in Richmond again.