recipe Archives - Curiously Carmen

Bon Macaron Patisserie

February 11, 2015

Hi everyone!

Maki hopped on a ferry to Victoria over the long weekend, and surprised me with a box of macarons from Bon Macaron Patisserie! I’ve never heard of them as I’ve only been to Victoria once for a high school field trip, and also because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I also don’t understand the crazy macaron phase that everyone obsesses about but to each their own =)

But enough of me rambling on, I’ll get to what you are all here for =)

First off, can we talk about how cute their mascot is?! It’s a French sir macaron hehehe! After browsing through their site, I learned that Bon Macaron is owned by two good pals who were born, raised, and educated in France, before settling down and opening their store in downtown Victoria.
Inside the mini box were six assorted flavours! They looked so cute and dainty. Maki picked out random flavours for me, but avoided their savoury macaron section. At first, I was a bit disappointed hearing that because I’m sure you all know how much I love my savoury foods over sweets! But she told me they were pretty disappointing and some were really gross, so I guess savoury macaron flavours don’t go well together.
They were all so cute that I couldn’t help putting them all on a plate and making it look nice. Macarons unite! Since we both didn’t know what all the flavours were in the box, I was left to taste test each one and figuring out which flavour it was based on their website. I think I did pretty well, there were only two that I couldn’t figure out exactly but good thing my friend remembered.
The first one I tried was the tangerine chili, it even had sparkles on it if you look closely or open the image in a separate window! I hope that the sparkles are safe for consumption LOL! I loved how this wasn’t too sweet and had a custard filling inside, there also wasn’t much of a chili taste which I preferred. Yum!

When I first bit into the second macaron, my thoughts and taste buds went from weird -> yummy -> weird -> yummy -> I’m not sure how I feel about this anymore. Originally, there was a strong spicy cinnamon and chai taste to it. Then, it started to taste like bananas. I really enjoyed the banana part, but I wasn’t a fan of the strong cinnamon taste. This was either the chai or banana flambe macaron, it seemed like it was a mix of both flavours.
Up next was the chocolate pear, I didn’t see this on the menu but my friend remembered the flavour. I didn’t taste the pear, only the chocolate. They use a dark chocolate filling, so it wasn’t super sweet. I enjoyed this one as well =)

The light pink one was the raspberry. Compared to all the other fillings I had tried so far, this one was a lot sweeter. The raspberry tasted like the candy flavour, instead of the raspberry fruit. I also noticed that the amount of filling that they give here is a lot less than at Theirry’s or Soirette, but that doesn’t bother me!

One of the classic flavours, good ol’ chocolate. If you’re looking for something original and want to keep it safe, this one is the way to go. Just like the pear chocolate above, this chocolate macaron wasn’t too sweet and tasted like it was made with dark chocolate. I liked the lightly dusted cocoa powder on top as well!

Last but not least! I had no idea what flavour this was. I wrote down mini notes on each of these because I figured I’d probably forget and all I wrote for this one was ??? LOL! However, I asked my friend and she said it was the bubble gum flavour. Now that I think of it, there was a slight hint of bubble gum, but it tasted more like a plain macaron except hot pink.

4665958_orig — Picture from EatDrinkVictoria.com

Overall, I really enjoyed the macarons and was left with a happy tummy. Each of the macarons were made with great quality and tasted great even though it had been a couple of days since my friend bought them. The outside shell was slightly hard but when you bite into them, they are soft and a bit moist and chewy. A bad macaron would be super hard, crumble, and crack, leaving you with nothing but a mess and a macaron corpse.

I only had a few small bites of each since I was planning on going to bed soon, but wanted to try them since they were still relatively fresh! I’ll finish the rest of it off today >=). It is recommended that the sweet macarons (ones that I received) should be consumed within three days, and the savoury ones to be consumed within one day.

Special thanks to my wonderful friend Pauline for being thoughtful and surprising me with these treats! =)

What are your favourite macaron places?

-Carmen

Mio Sushi, Seattle

November 9, 2014

A lazy Sunday calls for staying at home in cozy blankets, PJs, and watching Netflix while eating a disgusting amount of corn nuts. Oh, and catching up on blogging too of course. Apart from Toulouse, we also stopped by and tried Mio sushi on a whim. Our result to Mio was a result of indecisiveness, hunger, and convenience.

It was quite sad that after arriving in Seattle for a mere 28 hours, I was already missing and craving Asian noodles. In particular, I was craving udon soup as well so we set out on what would be a thirty minute indecisiveness, constant scrolling on Urbanspoon until we found Mio. There were other places as well, but we didn’t want to drive and we also didn’t want to spend a lot of money in the downtown core.

We were pleasantly surprised at how fast of a walk Mio was from our hotel! I was a bit iffy on walking there because the streets were pretty dark and we had to pass a big dark, unlit park which has probably seen better days… but I was assured that it would be safe to walk, turns out it was a pretty nice day for a brief stroll.

This location of Mio was located right outside of the downtown core, in the South Lake Union neighbourhood. The area looked pretty new, nice, and trendy. Kind of reminded us a bit of Yaletown but more commercial. We were the only customers when we came in around 8:30 pm.
As mentioned, I knew what I was going to order before stepping in. They had a seafood and nabeyaki udon. I got the nabeyaki udon ($9 usd) since it was cheaper than the seafood udon, and all I really wanted was just udon. It came in a cute stone bowl with a handle, and I was warned the bowl was very hot. I would have liked the tempura on the side because it got really soggy, but it was good nonetheless.

There were also some pan fried string beans, but it got pretty soggy and didn’t taste super fresh. Apart from those two very minor hiccups, this bowl of udon was exactly what I wanted, and was delicious. The broth was very flavourful, and a tad salty. It came with perfectly cooked and a decent amount of udon noodles, and imitation crab meat. I liked how there was a lot of seafood as well, it was a good addition as well as the fresh green onion garnishes.
The boyfriend ordered the Gyu ramen. The ramen was really disappointing. It lacked flavour, depth, and was very plain. Perhaps we were just used to amazing ramen in Vancouver, but this bowl was not appetizing. He also mentioned that the ramen noodles tasted like instant noodles… yikes.

To split, we ordered the salmon and yellowtail roll. Yellowtail roll is the same as negitoro roll, it confused us at first. Both rolls were very fresh and flavourful, pretty decent. The price was a bit steeper than we were used to for a casual Japanese joint at $4.75 USD per roll, but we did enjoy the freshness of it so we didn’t mind.

The rolls and udon were satisfying and delicious, but I wish we could say the same about the ramen. Service was pretty attentive, fast, and nice (well then again, we were the only customers in the restaurant!). Mio looked very clean, new, and had hints of pink accents throughout the restaurant. This looked like a place that would be really busy during lunch hours on the weekdays, but it was very quiet that night and they closed early after we finished eating. It was a good and convenient place to grab a quite bite since we were in the neighbourhood.

Fiesta Fridays- Nesters Market Deli Review

June 11, 2014

Hello Fiesta Friday-ers! I forgot to mention that EatMunchLove invited me to the first party, so thank you for introducing me! After my pleasant visit to Urban Fare, I was craving deli eats again. This time, my mind wandered to Nesters because I was at school, and there was a location on the mountain. I also didn’t want to deal with a rush of students in the main cafeteria, so decided that the walk there would be worth it. Fortunately, my friend agreed so we went in between our classes.
Nesters deli was pretty standard. There were many delicious looking items to choose from that day. I wasn’t super hungry, and felt a slight tickle in my throat so settled on getting a small soup and slice of pizza ($4.50). There were 3 types of soup that day, I got the chicken potato soup with chorizo sausage. It was very flavourful and had a generous amount of veggies. There wasn’t much chicken in it and the chorizo was very soggy, I don’t think I want chorizo sausage in my soup again. Usually, after having Western style soup, I am left parched but I did not find myself needing a massive amount of water, which is good.
The pizza was warmed in the oven. A there was only one type to pick from. The dough was very thick, soft, and chewy- I loved it! There was also a lot of deli meat topping and veggies on it. My friend got the soup and sandwich combo and a samosa, which I forgot to take a picture of. He said the samosa was a bit dry but enjoyed his ham sandwich. If I had time to spare on campus and wanted a quiet spot to eat, I would come here again.

I hope you enjoyed the post! Happy Fiesta Friday, I look forward to reading everyone’s posts! 🙂

-Carmen

Sushi California

June 4, 2014

I have heard many great things about this restaurant, but never went to try it because I’m not in that area. One night, I was craving sushi and decided to finally come here after hearing Cheese rave about this place. House special rolls for around $5? Count me in!

We went a bit later and since it was a Friday evening, we knew for sure it would be busy.
Sushi California is located inside a small strip mall right across from Lougheed Mall. There is a small parking lot, but some spots are reserved for other merchants in the strip mall. I would imagine that the small parking lot gets pretty crazy during peak hours.

Anyways, we found parking with no problem since we got there around 8:30pm. To our surprise, there was still a lineup inside the restaurant! I thought that the restaurant was more spacious than I expected.

It was a typical Japanese restaurant, nothing really special about the decoration or interior design. But the food, now that’s a different story…! The two of us ended up over-ordering and had to pack half our food to go. We weren’t sure how big their portions were because it was our first time!
This was their box sushi, which came with shrimp, smoked salmon, scallop, and more things that I can’t remember anymore ($4.95). The sushi rice was pressed very nicely, giving the rice a great texture. It tasted very refreshing due to the lemon.

For $4.95, it was an amazing deal! Also, I ordered a single tobiko and salmon nigiri as well, which tasted fresh. Since we decided to not order a sashimi plate, I wanted to sample their sashimi and thought that it tasted pretty sweet and fresh.
Deep fried california roll, or as they call it, the “crunch california roll”. It was lightly fried, and crispy. Overall, I thought it was okay due to the sauce, but the boyfriend preferred Sushi Mura’s because it was crunchier and there was also more sauce. But again, for $3.95, it was a good deal.
Up next were our smoked salmon garlic roll ($4.50), chopped scallop roll ($3.95), and double spicy roll ($3.95). My favourite was the smoked salmon garlic roll because I am a huge fan of shrimp and smoked salmon!

I actually thought this roll tasted better the next day, because the rice absorbed the garlic overnight giving it more flavour. Some of the garlic flakes were also rock hard. The chopped scallop roll was pretty average. The double spicy roll came with spicy sashimi on top and in the inside. It wasn’t too spicy for me and I enjoyed the spicy tuna sashimi, as well as the crunchy flakes on top.
Last but not least, our chicken karage ($3.95!!! WHAT SO CHEAP?!)! This was absolutely delicious. You think for $3.95, they would cheap out on small chicken wings but nope, these were the juicest and biggest chicken wings I’ve seen! They were super hot, the skin was crispy, and was perfectly seasoned. If I knew how good it tasted and how big the portion was for $3.95, I would have ordered this instead of one of the rolls!

Overall, we really enjoyed our visit to Sushi California. There were many servers working, and they were all attentive and knowledgeable. The most amazing thing about this place is their PRICE though. For $4, you can get their house specialty rolls and the size is not compromised. We paid under $30 for our dinner and we were in disbelief at how cheap everything was. I love Sushi California because their food is delicious, and it is easy on our student budgets.

-Carmen

Tuc Craft Kitchen

March 9, 2014

Hi everyone!

Nestled in the trendy neighbourhood of Gastown, Tuc Craft Kitchen fits in perfectly with its vintage, but modern-type ambiance. Tuc features high ceilings and big windows, which makes it seem roomier and there are wooden board accents on the wall too.

My friends wanted to try this place after hearing good reviews, so we decided to go one afternoon. We all had a lovely experience here, from the accommodating and friendly staff to the delicious dishes they had to offer.
Picture taken from (http://www.vanbrosia.com/2013/08/tuc-craft-kitchen.html). Here is the exterior of the restaurant, pretty simplistic and minimal design but enough to be noticed!
Some of us got there 15 minutes before they opened for lunch, but the owner was nice enough to let us in so we didn’t have to wait outside. I really like the wooden interior and design of the restaurant, and think the white chairs make a good accent as well.
I finally settled on ordering the Tuc pot pie ($11), which consisted of Fraser Valley free run chicken, nugget potatoes, sweet peas, and carrots in a white wine/thyme creme sauce. I liked that there was a generous amount of quality chicken inside.

The top itself was really soft and flaky, which I ended up cutting into separate sections and dipping it in the sauce and chicken. It was very creamy, warm, and comforting. The salad was pretty decent too, it came with a lot of spinach which I loved and there was a sweet taste to it!
This was the chicken dip sandwich with parsnip fries ($12). I didn’t try this, but my friend said it tasted pretty good and thought it was unconventionally delicious with the dip.

The parsnip fries were definitely new to me, but I enjoyed them. More on those later…
Here is where Tuc’s service really shines through! My friend couldn’t eat meat that day due to religious reasons, and asked the server what vegetarian options were available. She told us that there weren’t many vegetarian options but that they would be happy to make a dish for her off the menu. They ended up making a customized vegetarian pasta that my friend enjoyed very much.
This was the beef brisket and pork crackling sandwich that came with a side of smashed potato fries ($13). Even though I only had a bite, I fell in love with this sandwich! The beef brisket was very tender and the pork was very crispy. When you took a bite, it would be soft but there were bits of crispy pork pieces in it too. It came on sourdough bread, with dijon mustard and pickles. So. good.
Next up was the mini shepard’s pie and soup ($9) (I believe the server told us the soup of the day was tomato and basil). My friend enjoyed her dish and I liked the presentation of it, so cute!
To share, we decided to get parsnip fries and smashed potato fries ($8~ for both), even though two of the dishes we ordered came with them already. What really made these fries stand out for me was the dipping sauce. They said it was their homemade ketchup but I have never tasted such delicious ketchup before! It was made with coriander, which made it a bit smoky and spicy but it had a hint of sweetness to it. I would order their fries again just for the ketchup.

I thought their lunch menu was really delicious and crafted with great quality. Their service was also very accommodating, fast, and friendly not to mention the beautiful decor.

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen