asian food Archives - Curiously Carmen

Ebisu – Richmond Location

October 29, 2016

The boyfriend and I are avid sushi lovers. On any given day, we are probably eating Japanese food or otherwise just cooking at home. One of our favourite places to go is Ebisu, although we don’t go there as often as we’d like.

After a busy summer semester, we decided to celebrate by going to Ebisu in Richmond! I wish I remembered to take a photo of our booth, but unfortunately, I didn’t. We were seated in a booth right next to the bar, and was able to see the exorbitant array of alcohol up close. Although I’m not a fan of hard liquor, their collection was truly impressive and pretty cool!

Prawn tempura nabeyaki udon, $11.50: The price for the udon was a bit steeper than what I normally would pay, but Ebisu is a bit more upscale. I don’t like when the tempura comes inside the soup, as it makes it soggy. We quickly took the tempura out before it got super soggy.

This dish was comforting and filling, and had a good amount of udon in it. It could have used a bit more chicken, and the breast was a bit bland but still juicy. The boyfriend really enjoyed the soup, which was a bonito base.
Miso soup, free: This came with the other dish. The miso soup was pretty standard, but I liked how it came with a good amount of tofu and seaweed inside.
Ebi sunomono, free: Again, this came with the party boat that we ordered. Both of us aren’t really big fans of ebi sunomono, but this one was pretty standard.
Chicken teriyaki boat, $14.95: Don’t let the giant boat fool you, because the boat is actually only good for one person. It looks big but it isn’t really thaaaaat much food.

We really enjoyed the chicken teriyaki. The chicken was very juicy, and the skin had a nice smoky crunch to it. The tempura tasted fresh. Meanwhile, the 3 pieces of california roll and 3 pieces of dynamite roll were pretty standard.
Chicken karaage, $8.25: Yum, this was delicious! My stomach is pretty sensitive to oily foods though, so I only ate the small piece. However, it was very crunchy and fresh! We would definitely order this again. Although, we came back to this location a year later and the chicken karaage was not as good.

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Ebisu and will be back to one of their locations. The service was a bit slow at times though. There were a couple times where we were trying to order/get our bill, but the server was cleaning and wiping down the tables for closing.

Yay!

Tasty Hand-Pulled Lanzhou Noodle, New York City

June 19, 2016

Since I’ve gotten back from New York, people have asked what my favourite moments there was. Undeniably, the Empire State Building, Matilda the musical, and visiting all the urban parks were at the top of the list!

But what about food? Would you believe me if I told you it was this small, dingy, hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Chinatown called Tasty Handpulled Noodle? Perhaps it’s the noodle crazed fanatic in me talking, but I still constantly think about this place and how delicious their hand-pulled noodles were.

House special noodle soup, $8.50: For $8.50, this bowl was definitely worth the price and so filling.
Beef noodle soup, $7.25: I ordered the beef noodle soup because I don’t really like tendon.

The star of the show here is definitely the hand made and hand pulled noodles. Each noodle bowl is made fresh to order. Your noodles start from a lump of dough, and once you specify the type of noodle you want, you can see the worker in the kitchen pulling and cutting the noodles before throwing it in the boiling hot water.

The noodles had a great chewy texture, and were pretty thick too. The slightly ribbed edges of the noodles allowed for the beef broth to soak inside, which led to a very delicious taste in your mouth!
Roast duck noodle soup, $7.75: We both loved this place so much and couldn’t stop thinking about it after lunch, so we came back for dinner the same day. Yup, we loved the noodles that much and the price made it even better!

Instead of ordering the beef noodle soup again, we decided on trying the roast duck noodle soup. The base and noodles were the same, the only difference is that it came with duck instead of beef. I actually liked the duck more than the beef because it was more tender and had more flavour.
Here is a photo of the chef pulling the dough to create the delicious noodles!

Tasty noodle, you were DEFINITELY tasty! Don’t judge a book by its cover or you’ll miss out on some delicious noodles. Give this place a try if you’re ever in New York City’s Chinatown neighbourhood!

Yay!

Thanks for reading,

Carmen

Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant – Stingy restaurant =\

July 14, 2015

Hi everyone!!

Cheese and I decided to have lunch here one day because we were craving Hong Kong style iced lemon tea, and it was the closest place. I didn’t really have a good experience here last month, but I wanted to come back and give it another try.

I’m not sure I’l be back or not, their food isn’t that great because the restaurant is so incredibly cheap and stingy. There are definitely a lot better places, this place falls on the bottom for the make-your-own-noodle -soup combo category.

As I mentioned earlier, Cheese and I came here instead of our original plan at Sushi Uomo because we were craving HK style iced lemon tea. When our drinks came, the lemon slices were incredibly paper thin. The pictures don’t do it justice because you see the front of the lemon slice and not the side.

Because the lemon was so thin, our drinks did not taste authentic and tasted like plain sweet tea from McDonalds. It was pretty disappointing, and we ended up crushing our lemons completely to a pulp in order for it taste a tiny bit like HK lemon iced tea. Overall, it was pretty disappointing.

Continuing along to prove my point of how cheap they are, look at this french toast that my friend ordered. There was barely ANY custard in it, he felt like he was just eating two slices of bread.

There was also barely any syrup on the side, normally they provide a full small tin of syrup for you.

If there was an adequate amount of custard filling, the french toast would have been decent.
Cheese ordered the pumpkin and tomato fish soup with rice noodles, beef balls, and sliced beef.
I ordered my usual century egg and parsley soup with vermicelli, beef balls, and fish balls. I wanted cuttlefish but they were out. =(

The broth was lighter and more watery than I was used to, but the flavour was still good.

Overall, Duotian is pretty meh and I wouldn’t come back unless I was stuck in the area and REALLY, REALLY craving noodle soup. Cattle Cafe and Deer Garden are much better, and they are less cheap with their ingredients.

Have you been here? What did you think of it?

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Taishoken Ramen 大勝軒

December 24, 2014

Taishoken Ramen has been on my must eats list for a good few months now. The sad thing is that I’ve tried to come here twice, which have both failed. Third time is the charm I guess, as the boyfriend and I finally found ourselves here one early evening.We had just finished walking around the Christmas market and Taishoken had just opened, which was perfect timing because I didn’t want to wait in line in the cold. He dropped me off first, and there were still a few minutes before the doors actually opened.

Around 4:58, there were three other parties starting to line up too. The size of Taishoken was pretty standard for a ramen shop, warm and cozy. I chose a table furthest from the door because I was quite cold that day, and didn’t want to feel the breeze of the door.
Of course, I ordered the shio tonkotsu ramen. Shio is my absolutely favourite ramen broth, anyone else? 🙂 Since I’ve been wanting to come here for so long, I had an idea of what it would taste like because I’ve read so many reviews. The shio tonkotsu ramen was very creamy, thick, and rich… perfect! The noodles were cooked al dente and had a nice bounce to it, I also loved how there were so much green onions! As for the pork shoulder, I found it slightly on the dry side, but that’d me trying to nitpick at something.

Can we also take a moment to appreciate the egg? It was cooked perfectly to my liking, with a bit of yolk oozing out. The egg was also marinated in some type of salty soya sauce broth, which made it taste even better.

I ordered a side of extra noodles, which was not a good idea because I was way too full afterwards! The bowl of extra noodles came in the side, which I divided up with the boyfriend. I knew there was no way that I would finish it myself.
The boyfriend ordered the shoyu tonkotsu ramen. Like myself, he found the broth to be very flavourful and rich and his noodles were bouncy as well. However, he was disappointed with the pork belly meat because it was very rubbery and chewy. For something so fatty like pork belly meat, you would expect a softer, melt in your mouth texture. I’ve read on previous reviews that people had the same opinion as him too.

For both our ramen and the side of extra noodles, our total came to $21 without tax and tip, which is reasonable for dinner. Since we came when it had just opened, there was only one server who was doing her best to attend to every table and was very friendly. But the shop filled up every fast, so service was a bit slow but that’s okay because she was trying to do everything herself. The chefs actually ended up bringing our food because the server was very busy.

Would I come back? Since it is in a somewhat convenient area and I won’t have to drive through the downtown core to get a good bowl of ramen, yes. I don’t see myself wanting to come back right away, but if I’m ever hungry at the office, Taishoken is a mere 7-10 minute walk away! I would also only come at obscure times because I don’t want to wait in line for this.

-Carmen

PS. Merry Christmas eve to those celebrating Christmas! 🙂

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!