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Curiously Carmen

Applebee’s – Roadtrip to the USA!

July 10, 2015

Hi readers!

Call us crazy, but some friends and I made the trip down to USA for some good ol’ indulgence in cheap American food. Yes, we drove all the way there just to eat, but ended up wandering around Bellingham after as well! I’ve only ever driven by Bellingham or went to Bellis Fair, so it was nice to go around and explore the rest of the city.

We headed down shortly after rush hour ended, and following an adventure at the US border, we were off to Applebee’s!

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To start off, I decided to get a strawberry lemonade. I was quite tired that day and needed some sugar for energy! The lemonade was very tart and sour, because the strawberry syrup was at the bottom. Give the drink a good stir and it will taste a lot better.

This drink also came with fresh strawberries! I ordered a couple of these during our visit as they have unlimited refills.
IMG_4687.JPGOriginally, we were going to go to Olive Garden but found out that Applebee’s was having a promotion! One appetizer, and two entrees for twenty dollars – so cheap! You could never get that sort of price and portion in Canada.

The boyfriend and I shared the deal, while my two friends got the same deal but the ‘upgraded’ version.

Pictured above was both of our appetizers which we all shared – boneless wings and onion rings. The boneless wings were very juicy, flavourful, and had a nice crispy exterior! They were delicious! I believe my friends ordered this with BBQ sauce. As for the onion rings, they were gigantic and very fresh and crunchy.

Both appetizers were very satisfying and it was a great start to our meal.
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I ordered the chicken strips and fries. Again, the chicken strips were fresh and had a crunchy batter, just like our appies. They were also well seasoned and juicy. The fries were a bit too salty and I didn’t end up eating all of them.
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The boyfriend ordered the cheeseburger. The onion and bacon were already inside the patty, which is why the burger looks pretty plain. He enjoyed the burger a lot.
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As I mentioned above, my two friends decided to upgrade and get the $25 special instead of the $20. Cheese ordered the macaroni and cheese, which came with some bread and chicken strips.

He was in love at first bite! The mac and cheese was incredibly creamy, and full of garlic and herb flavour. The chicken strips were the same as the ones I ordered. He wanted to finish the mac and cheese, but it was so rich and creamy that he had to pack some leftovers.
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Cocoa ordered the chicken steak and prawn with potatoes. Oh mannnn… I had a bite of her chicken and I was in LOVE. The garlic butter slowly melted and encompassed the chicken, and was so delicious! It was very juicy, bursting with flavour, and had a slightly grilled taste to it.

I wish I had ordered this instead and will probably get this the next time I’m at Applebee’s!

We were all very satisfied and stuffed after our meal at Applebee’s. We couldn’t believe how little we paid, yet how much food we got in return.

What is your favourite American chain restaurant?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

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Filed Under: food & drink, western Tagged: america, applebee's, chain restaurant, cheap food, chicken strips, chicken wings, delicious, food, food blogger, foodie, fries, indulgence, onion rings, prawns, seafood, us, usa

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.

photo (15)

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.
photo (14)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.
photo (13)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!
photo (12)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.
photo (10) 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.
photo (11)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.
photo (9)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!

Wah Lun Chinese Restaurant 華麟海鮮酒家 on Urbanspoon


Filed Under: chinese, food & drink Tagged: asian food, chinese cooking, chinese recipe, chinese sausage, dim sum, food review, oily food, pan fried, prawns, radish cake, seafood, spring rolls

Hello!

Hi and welcome to Curiously Carmen! I am Carmen, the girl behind the blog. You can read more about me here!

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