healthy eating Archives - Curiously Carmen

The Green Moustache (Mini Rant)

March 19, 2016

The Green Moustache offers healthy, alternative eats but the thing that sold me to visit was their dairy free cheesecake, since I can’t eat dairy anymore but want my cheesecake!

For starters, after driving to their West side location (they also have one in Whistler) and meeting up with Avocado and another friend, I was so disappointed when I was told they didn’t have any cheesecake that day. Since we made the trip here already, we figured we might as well share some other items.

‘Hook’ smoothie, 12 oz $6.50: Cocoa, mint, goji berries, honey, banana and almond milk. They were out of the honey so they told us they substituted maple syrup instead. Not a big deal, but how do you run out of honey when that is one of the main ingredients in all your drinks, and you pride your smoothies on not using sugar?

This basically tasted like a dark chocolate banana smoothie, with hints of mint to it. I liked that it wasn’t too sweet.
Buddha bowl, $9.50: An assortment of healthy greens, quinoa, and rice. AGAIN, they didn’t have ripe avocado on hand so they gave us hummus instead. That was another disappointment since we both love avocado.

This bowl was filled with an abundance of fresh ingredients, and was really filling due to the brown rice. It had a combination of both sweet and savoury, and soft/crunchy textures.

Just to re-cap, each item we ordered so far has had an ingredient unavailable, or just the dish was entirely unavailable itself. Not impressed….
Raw chili, $9.95: The chili is served a bit chilled/room temperature, something that I found a bit odd. Unfortunately, we found a rubber band piece in our dish. When we asked about it, the staff apologized and said that this was their last bowl of chili so they wouldn’t be able to make us a new one. We came at 12:30 pm and it wasn’t even busy, yet this was your last bowl?

To add to the disappointment, the chili was incredibly salty. It was hard to eat more than 2-3 spoonfuls at once because it was just too salty, even with the brown rice. We were glad that had the refreshing buddha bowl, and would alternate.

Eventually, we just gave up on eating this and packed it up – my friend came up with the idea to eat this with tortilla chips instead, which would probably taste better.
Chocolate walnut fudge brownie, $3.50: To make up for the rubber band and having so many items unavailable, we were offered a complementary brownie as an apology. We enjoyed the brownie, and I liked how it wasn’t that sweet and probably made with dark chocolate. It was sweetened with dates as well.

Although service was very friendly and knowledgeable, I’m not sure if I’ll return or recommend this place as I left disappointed at how many items were missing from our dish. It’s definitely not worth driving out to this area if you aren’t already here.

I understand that occasionally, restaurants will run out of certain items, which is totally understandable and fair. But judging from how many items were unavailable just shows disorganization from the establishment.

Thanks for reading,

Carmen

Kirin Seafood Restaurant

October 12, 2014

I’m not a fancy dim sum diner. Most of the places I go with friends or family are pretty casual, your typical semi-sketchy Chinese restaurant with questionable English descriptions, mysteriously stained carpets, and disgusting washrooms that haven’t been cleaned in eons as a restaurant attempt to save money. I’m joking…. maybe (not).

But hey, I’m Chinese myself and I was brought up in a family of said Chinese restaurant businesses and if you’re Chinese, you know it’s true. Don’t even deny it 😉 Nonetheless, the food served at these sub-par Chinese restaurants are always authentic and satisfy my dim sum craving. My family doesn’t believe in spending more money at a fancy Chinese restaurant, when you can spend less and have more food at a regular Chinese restaurant.

So it was quite a surprise as I found myself in such a fine dining Chinese restaurant one afternoon. This is what fancy dim sum looks like! Kirin has a few locations in Vancouver, we went to the one in downtown. The outside is deceiving since the restaurant looks smaller than it actually is.
First up, was the taro root puff. Basically, there is seasoned pork or other type of meat, depending on the restaurant, enveloped by taro. It is then slightly deep fried, so that only the outside layer is crunchy. I fell in love with the taro root puff at first bite. It was delicately crunchy, and tasted very fresh. The taro was a bit sweet and went well with the saltiness of the meat inside. I normally don’t order this dish at dim sum, but I think I’ll be trying it again at other places!

Up next, was the shui mai. Since there were only four pieces and six of us, I decided not to eat it so that the others could have it. It was one of my friend’s first time having dim sum, and she really enjoyed the shui mai.

The pan fried rice noodles came next. I am a big fan of rice noodles, and this plate was a lot better than most I’ve tried at other restaurants (what a difference fine Chinese dining makes, eh). I liked that some of the noodles were slightly crispy, which added some dimension to the dish. I’m paying more for this dish than at other restaurants, so I’m glad that it was made very well.

Afterwards, the deep fried tofu arrived! Just like the deep fried taro root, the deep fried tofu was very crispy but not overly fried or oily. The batter was quite thin, but just enough to be crispy. It was seasoned with garlic and salt, which went with the delicately soft tofu perfectly.

Up next, was our steamed shrimp dumplings! I wanted to dive in right away because I love my shrimp, but decided to wait until it cooled down =( Nothing special or bad in particular about this dish, it tasted average. The pan fried radish cake followed, I find that these are hit and miss at dim sum. At Kirins, it was a definite hit!

The radish cake was very moist and had a nice consistency, while the outside was lightly fried. There was some little dried shrimp pieces and pork (I believe, can’t really recall) as well.
Our last two dishes of the day! I really love my prawn and shrimp, and requested that we ordered the prawn spring roll. Give me anything with prawns or shrimp at dim sum, and I will be very happy. I’ve never seen prawn spring roll presented like this before, I thought that the batter looked a bit unusual. Turned out that it was actually wrapped in deep fried bean curd, cool! The bean curd was very flaky and crispy, which I loved. Since the batter wasn’t as thick, there was more prawn and garlic inside. For dessert, we ordered egg tarts. They were so delicious that we ended up ordering another plate, and I considered ordering one to go LOL. It was very warm, with a flaky crust and was a bit sweet. Overall, what a perfect egg tart should taste like.

Service wise, we were greatly taken care of and there were many staff walking around. However, I do think that the manager got mad at our table when we asked him to separate the bill. It’s not that common in Chinese places to ask for separate bills. It was definitely awkward. I’m not sure why he was so upset, it’s not like we weren’t paying and the restaurant wasn’t that busy when we paid. People do it all the time, he should get used to it even if it takes a bit longer to pay.

All the dishes at Kirin were executed very well, and demonstrated what delicious and ideal dim sum should taste like. My favourites were the deep fried bean curd spring roll and the deep fried tofu. For the price we paid, it was definitely worth it as the quality and preparation in each dish really showed.

-Carmen

Kishimoto Japanese Restaurant

September 19, 2014

I have heard amazing things about Kishimoto, both from my friends and also online. I’ve always wanted to try it, but know that it’s a sushi hotspot and I do not really want to wait ages in line.. 🙁

Finally, one day, timing worked out and my boyfriend took me there to try it! I was very eager, and had extremely high expectations before even walking in the front door.
As always, finding parking along Commercial Drive was a hassle but we did find free street parking that day! Yay! Kishimoto is a relatively small restaurant, and adding to the popularity= long, expected wait times. We went around 5:30pm right after I got off work, because I knew if we went around 6-7pm we would have to wait.

Walking in, you will see signs everywhere instructing guests to wait until they’re seated, no sitting down until all the guests have arrived, etc etc. Just shows how busy it gets! We waited around 5 minutes for the server to clear the table for us. Smooth sailing so far!
My boyfriend has been here before, and said that their tuna tataki ($11.95) is a must order. So, of course, being the curious food blogger I am, I had to give it a try. When the server put down the plate, I thought that she had mistaken our order cause all I saw were onions. The tuna tataki was actually under all the onions and roasted garlic. I was in love at first bite.

The tuna was incredibly soft, and melted in your mouth. It had a slightly grilled taste to it. Adding the onions, roasted dry garlic, and ponzu sauce, it was absolute perfection. My favourite dish of the night.
I knew that Kishimoto specialized in intricate plating techniques, so I was quite eager to see how our dishes would be plated! Here is the negitoro roll, chopped scallop roll ($4.95), and wild salmon nigiri ($3.00). I thought that the chopped scallop roll tasted pretty average. I really liked the negitoro roll since the tuna tasted very fresh, and had a lot of flavour.

The wild salmon nigiri also had a great, fresh, and juicy flavour to it as well. I ordered one piece of salmon nigiri, turns out that one order is actually equal to three pieces! I really enjoyed the sushi rice, it was cooked perfectly and had that distinct delicious sushi rice taste to it. Definitely worth the $3 since you get three pieces of nigiri! The “flower” art at the bottom was composed of daikon (type of carrot) sheets, edamame beans, and ginger. The candle seen at the top picture was a real candle, wrapped around a daikon sheet. Pretty interesting concept! I wonder if anyone has accidentally lit their daikon on fire…. Knowing how clumsy I am, I’m surprised I didn’t knock it over…
Up next, was our salmon oshisushi ($12.95). Oshisushi is a type of sushi made by placing all the ingredients into a box and pressing it together, hence the rectangular shape. The salmon oshisushi came with creamy sauce, crushed black peper, jalapenos, and salmon sashimi. After it is pressed, it then gets lightly torched. I enjoyed the salmon oshisushi as well, but found that after a few pieces, it was a bit too heavy for me due to the creamy sauce. I ended up requesting for a lemon slice, where I then lightly squeezed the juice onto the remaining pieces. I found that cut a bit of the cream heaviness out. Oshisushi = oishi 😉 If you know some Japanese haha…
The second oshisushi we ordered was the ebi ($12.95). This one came with cooked prawn, basil, pesto, creamy sauce, and crushed black pepper. Just like the salmon oshisushi, I found that it was a bit heavy to eat though I did enjoy the pesto sauce. There was a slightly grilled taste to these as well. I ended up drizzling a bit of lemon juice to this one as well. For those who have tried Kishimoto’s oshisushi, did you find that it was a bit on the heavy side due to the cream?

I noticed that all their desserts were made in-restaurant, so I wanted to give it a try. We ordered the house-made strawberry sorbet, which came with condensed milk topping and served with a cute wooden spoon! Our waitress informed us that it was still frozen, and to wait a few minutes before digging in. There was a very strong strawberry flavour to the sorbet! Adding the condensed milk on top, the dessert was sooo gooood. There were also bits of strawberry seeds in the dessert as well!

All in all, I did enjoy my visit to Kishimoto and left satisfied. Service was a bit slow at some points, since they had a full house. I noticed that it got busy around 6pm so I’m glad we had an early dinner. I highly recommend trying the tuna tataki here! What were your favourites?

-Carmen

PS. Stay tuned for some delicious Seattle eats next week! 😉

Cora Breakfast and Lunch

September 9, 2014

After a turn of unexpected events, my friends and I found ourselves hungry in Coquitlam one sunny afternoon. We never go to Coquitlam, and were at a lost for ideas. Minutes passed as we uncomfortably sat in my friend’s leather seat car while our thighs burned from the sun, looking up place to place on our phone (LOL). I suddenly had a eureka! moment and remembered a joint by the name of Cora.
Cora is located in a plaza by Coquitlam Center. Honestly, at first glance, it reminded me of a daycare center or a preschool. It definitely looks like a kid’s paradise. Little did we know what was in store for us…

Walking in, my eyes were greeted with a dramatic and exuberant display of fresh fruits and bright colours. I looked around the restaurant in awe, as I took in all the bright colours and the measures they took to make this place kid-friendly.

Walls were painted with cute drawings of fruit in cute fonts. Cereal boxes which doubled as home-y decor. Friendly servers in brightly coloured uniforms. Cora is truly a fruit-lover’s heaven.
Cora does not skimp out at all with the fresh fruit. I have a feeling that parents must love taking their kids here, because it is such a fun atmosphere for kids to eat their fruits. This plate here was the eggs benedict with smoked salmon, served with roasted potatoes and fresh fruit. He fell in love with the eggs benedict at first bite. The Hollandaise sauce was delicious, and the English muffin tasted soft. Together, the eggs, Hollandaise sauce, smoked salmon, and English muffin went really well together. The fruit was extremely fresh as well. Yum!
Unfortunately, I forgot the name of what I ordered and I couldn’t find it on their website 🙁 I’m pretty sure it was just the standard breakfast plate. It came with bacon, sausage, roasted potatoes, eggs, and of course, fresh fruit. My meal was pretty average, just the standard breakfast plate that you would normally find. Nothing too special about it and was a bit bland, I wished that I had chose the eggs benedict instead because it tasted a lot better!
My friend got Cora’s special, which came with the standard breakfast sides, toast, and crepe. He enjoyed his plate, and we ended up all sharing the bread but we couldn’t finish it all.
My boyfriend ordered the mango banana yogurt smoothie. It was so good that I ended up ordering one for myself as well! It was very creamy and thick due to the yogurt, and was refreshing as well. You could definitely taste both the mango and banana in the smoothie. As a bonus, it came with a fresh strawberry and a slice of cantaloupe!

All in all, we enjoyed our visit to Cora. My plate wasn’t too special, but I really liked how much fruit they included. The one thing that sticks out about Cora for me is the abundance of fresh fruit and the friendly atmosphere they have. The standard breakfast plates are nothing special, but they go one step higher with the amount of fresh fruit that is served with each plate.

-Carmen

Shishinori

August 22, 2014

There’s a new mini Japanese eatery in town by the name of Shishinori, located along Cambie Street! I was walking along Cambie one day, when their unique menu design caught my eye. I ended up coming back here a week later to try out their dishes.

Unfortunately, Sangria didn’t have time to sit down and eat here so we opted for take out instead. Though our visit was short, it was quite pleasant and the worker that day was very friendly.

They serve Japanese style cooked lunches, so you will not be finding sushi or rolls or anything like that there. Nonetheless, the food was delicious and I would love to come back again!

This is the menu from the outside; I haven’t seen many menus displayed like this before! Definitely a great way for the restaurant to grab attention, as it would be fairly unnoticeable without.

Since we ordered takeout, I’m not too sure if it is the same concept as Basho, where you pay for your dish first and then they deliver it to you at the table.

Shishinori’s interior has a lot of wooden design elements. The tables were wooden, and some of the utensils were as well. The place looked very clean and cute, they had a small tray by the door where customers were able to fill up their own water.

They also had a screen projector that played Anime shows, as you can kind of tell from the picture above. We arrived there around 11am, and we were the only customers so far.

There was a small mix-up with our takeout order, we orderded three dishes but she thought we only had two. But the worker was very nice about it and had our third dish ready to go in less than 5 minutes. My friend and I took that time to snap some cute pictures of the place 🙂

Curry chicken bowl with brown rice and spinach salad ($8? $9? Somewhere around that price). Brown rice is their standard, a plus for all the health conscious peeps out there! The curry was really delicious and flavourful, with a generous amount of chicken in it and the meat was also lean.

The salad was amazing. I’m normally not a fan of salad, but I ate every last leaf. I’m not sure what sauce they used, but it was really good and the fresh peppercorn really enhanced the flavours of the sauce.

The veggies themselves were really crunchy too. Initially, when I looked at the box, I wondered if it would be filling enough since I was pretty hungry that day. I didn’t think it would be, but I was actually really full from it. So yummy!
Sangria’s salmon carpaccio. It came with smoked salmon, the same salad as mine on top of a bed of rice. She didn’t have any complaints about it and thought it was good too. I didn’t get to try hers, but judging from the amount of fresh peppercorn on the salmon, it looks really good!

However, she was really thirsty after her meal and ended up drinking two large ice waters immediately after.

Cinnamon’s wild salmon paradise bowl ($12). She really enjoyed her bowl and noted that there were three different types of seaweed inside her salad. Again, her salad was the same and she found the peppercorn to be pretty spicy, but very delicious.

All in all, I really enjoyed my curry chicken bowl at Shishinori. It was very filling and the flavours were really strong. Everything tasted super fresh in my dish, from the peppercorn to the veggies in the salad.

Apart from their lunch bowls and sets, they also have different flavours of iced tea, which looked good.

They also have matcha yogurt parfaits, which are perfect for a late afternoon treat! They don’t have matcha lattes anymore though, the worker told me that it took too long to make so they opted for the parfaits instead.

Shishinori is very promising and has the potential to be as popular as the other Japanese pastry cafe, Basho except for healthy, full meal sets. I will be back! 🙂

-Carmen