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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

Longtail Kitchen – Modern take on Thai street food

May 8, 2015

Hi everyone!

I’ve been hearing many great things about Longtail Kitchen on social media, and decided that it was finally time for me to try it out.

Longtail Kitchen is a sister restaurant of the very popular and successful Thai restaurant, Maenam. I actually didn’t know that Longtail was a Thai inspired eatery until reading the reviews and their website!

Longtail is located inside the River Market at New Westminster Quay. I haven’t been to New West for awhile, and don’t remember seeing this building the last time I was here… but basically, the bottom floor is like an upscale food court. You won’t find any greasy, old looking stands here (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) but instead more local and new eateries.
At Longtail, you order and pay at the front, then the staff will bring your food to you. This was our first meal of the day at around 3pm, so we were pretty hungry! We sat at a table right next to the window wall (? Is there a specific term for these??) which I’m pretty sure they open up so people are able to sit outside in the summer.

You are able to see a bit of the Fraser River and the boardwalk, but unfortunately I was too short and my eye level hit right where the white window pane was and couldn’t see anything. =( You can see the picture above to understand what I mean.
The boyfriend ordered the green curry with chicken. When it arrived, we could smell the delicacy and aroma of all the spices that went into this dish. The green curry had a strong, rich coconut taste to it. The chicken was very tender and juicy as well. It came with a rice bowl side, we were hoping that it would be coconut rice but sadly it was just plain rice.

For myself, I ordered ‘Mama Cheung’s laksa’, which I don’t see on the menu anymore, so I guess they rotate their menu frequently to ensure freshness of all the food items! The laksa came with a seafood curry broth, chicken, fish cakes, prawns, veggies, and noodles.

I was expecting the curry to have a fishy taste to it due to the seafood broth, but it was very mild. Again, the curry was rich and spicy. The prawns were big and juicy, and had a nice snap to it- a sign of freshness. I saved the tofu puffs for the end so that they would be saturated with the curry! Everything tasted extremely fresh and made with great quality.

The laksa soup was so good that I drank all of it, I wasn’t even thirsty afterwards! That is a wonderful sign and says a lot about how it was prepared 😉
Another cool thing to add about Longtail is that they also offer some Thai cooking products to bring home! We spent some time looking at what they sold, as we haven’t heard of some of these products before.

Needless to say, we found ourselves savouring every single bite and were glad that we made the trek out here! One thing to add though, was that the portions were a bit smaller than what we were used to. But it is understandable, they use quality and fresh ingredients and the prices aren’t bad for how delicious everything was.

Which would you rather order – chicken curry or laksa soup?

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen

Joyeaux Cafe

April 30, 2015

Hi there!

So, it has been a tradition where every Friday, my coworkers and I go source out new restaurants to try around our area. They started to appoint me each week seeing I’m the food blogger, but I didn’t want to always be the one that picked, we now take turns! One week, my coworker took us to Joyeaux Cafe for lunch as she had been here before and liked it.

Although I am in downtown quite often, I’ve always gone by this place without noticing. I didn’t know that it was an extremely popular lunch destination! We made reservations at 1:30pm to avoid the lunch rush, but it was still really packed. Seating there is very tight, so don’t be surprised if you have to share tables with other customers. Two of us came back a few weeks after, and we shared tables with others.

Walking into the restaurant, you first order and pay for your food. The cashier then gives you a number, and you’re proceeded to ~~fight the jungle~~ find a table. It gets a bit hectic in there during the busy lunch hours- you have been warned! The other workers then bring out your food in trays, and search for your number. All of the staff were really friendly and efficient though, so props to them!

On our first visit, I ordered the typical Vietnamese cold cut sandwich, or banh mi. At $5, the price was a bit higher (for 2015 prices) than what I normally pay for a banh mi, but understandable since this place is in the downtown core. The bread was soft and fresh, and the banh mi came stacked with plenty of fresh ingredients as you can see!

All the veggies tasted really fresh and crunchy. They even went the extra step to crack fresh pepper! I was also really happy at the fact that they put Vietnamese pate, some restaurants I go to don’t include this.
Most of my coworkers that day ordered the lemon grass chicken special, which came with your choice of noodles/rice and spring roll/salad roll for $10. I had a bite of the chicken and again, it was really good. The chicken had a slight crisp on the outside, but was nice and juicy inside.

I’m not going to show all the food that we ordered since they were pretty much all the same thing… but this was the daily special again, but with vermicelli instead.

Joyeaux Cafe is a good place to go if you’re in downtown and craving Vietnamese food. The food is fresh, tastes great, and fast. It’s a bit more expensive than I’m used to, but I would gladly come here if I wanted good Vietnamese food in downtown! Extra points for serving their banh mi with meat pate!

Archimallows – Homemade Gourmet Marshmallows

March 30, 2015

Hello everyone!

Archimallows is a pop-up marshmallow shop, with their kitchen located in South Vancouver. They’re probably best known for being the adorable pop-up stand at Pacific Center’s Holt Renfrew in Downtown Vancouver, but they do private functions all over town.
At the social, Kyle had a small little table decorated with cute pieces of fake moss, fresh marshmallows in mason jars and white rice, finished off with polka dots! I LOVE POLKA DOTS, so naturally we were off to a great start. In fact, I’m wearing my polka dot printed PJs and have my polka dotted phone case to my left right now.

His flavours rotate depending on the week. At the event I attended, he had dark chocolate salted caramel, lemon meringue, vanilla sprinkle, and cola float (pictured above).

After lightly torching the marshmallows, you have a selection of finishing it off with a quick dip in coca-cola or Bailey’s (yes, the alcohol). You can see the bowl of Bailey’s in the first picture, the cola is a bit hidden behind the marshmallows =)
Here is Kyle lightly torching the lemon meringue marshmallow. Each of the marshmallows are individually torched in front of your eyes!
After toasting, Kyle asked if I wanted to try it as a s’more… the answer was a 100 percent YES!

Oh man, this was heaven in a bite. The graham crackers were crunchy and had a light flavour to them, so that it did not steal the spotlight from the marshmallow. The lemon meringue had a slight lemon taste, but it wasn’t super sour. It was soft and melted in your mouth, but had a nice, thin crisp exterior.
Vanilla sprinkles! Just like the lemon meringue, it tasted really fresh and the marshmallow was very soft. This was dipped in Bailey’s so it had a slight caramel taste to it, which enhanced the lightly torched exterior. There isn’t much Bailey’s on the marshmallow, it is definitely not enough to get you drunk if you’re worried about that.

Kyle was also nice enough to make more s’mores for my friends and I! I had the salted caramel s’more, and it was probably my favourite flavour of the night. It came with dark chocolate flakes which were slightly melted due to them being torched. I liked how it was slightly salty and had a caramel taste, even before it was dipped into the Bailey’s!

My marshmallow experience before trying Archimallows went only as far as jumbo-puffs, or those generic store brand marshmallows. I got to try and see a whole new wide of fancy, quality marshmallows!

The best bet to find Kyle and his pop up stand is at Holt Renfrew! If you’ve ever been there, you might recall seeing his stand right near the bridge/tunnel that connects Holts and Pacific Center. Next time I’m in the area (which is often considering I work closely), I am definitely going to try to find Archimallows!

Which flavour sounds the best to you? Dark chocolate salted caramel, lemon meringue, vanilla sprinkle, or cola float? Let me know in the comments down below!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

The Last Crumb Bakery

March 16, 2015

Hi everyone,

Valentines Day for the boyfriend and I was mostly spent eating out and trying new places, we tried a total of 3 new restaurants in one day. In the afternoon, we went for brunch and dessert followed by a lovely dinner at The Fish House in Stanley Park.

I had my eyes set on taking him to The Last Crumb, since I thought he would enjoy the peanut butter pie! I called The Last Crumb to confirm that it was not a daily rotation special. They confirmed that it was baked year round, but could not guarantee it would be on the shelf since it is very popular.

We drive past this area quite often and Main Street is one of our favourite neighbourhoods in Vancouver to eat in, but I’ve never really noticed this place. I think because their sign is small and hanging on the top, so if you’re in a vehicle and looking out the window, it’s not at eye level? I always thought it was some kind of furniture or interior design store… not a bakery with yummy goodies!
The cafe is very spacious and simply decorated. I really liked how roomy it was in there, yet it didn’t feel too big. There is also a small alcove upstairs with more tables, and even a little play station for toddlers!
I’m happy to say that they still had the peanut butter pie! Obviously, it was a big hit with the boyfriend and he thought it was amazing. Peanut butter lovers, this one is for you. Very rich in peanut butter flavour and creamy, although the texture itself was a bit soft like whipped cream if that makes any sense.

I normally do not like peanut butter desserts, but I gave it a try anyways. I was pleasantly surprised to find it okay! I think it was due to the caramel drizzle and Reese peanut butter chunks inside that sealed the deal for me. I wouldn’t order this for myself, but wouldn’t mind having a few bites to share.

The crust was a layer of cookie crumbs. I want to say Oreo, but it was not sweet at all so it’s probably some other type of crust filling. It balanced the sweetness of the rest of the cake.
I wanted something for myself too, and ordered a herbal fruity tea called “Hanna’s picnic tea”. It was slightly sweet even though I didn’t add any sugar. It was also pretty concentrated in flavour.

I can’t believe I didn’t see this when we were going up the stairs, but look how interesting this is – real tea cups and saucers glued on to an otherwise plain wall!

This would be a nice place to get dessert after dinner, but sadly they are only open mornings until late afternoon.

Are you a peanut butter lover? Would you give the pie a try?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen