Curiously Carmen

Deer Garden Signatures (Vancouver location)

I can’t believe I haven’t written about Deer Garden yet because I love this place so much! I would come here more if there wasn’t any lines, and if I lived closer. The boyfriend and I both hate waiting in lines for food, which is why we don’t come here as often as we like.
Deer Garden Signature Vancouver Richmond Does anyone here watch Big Brother Canada? Every time I come here, I am reminded of Marsha the Moose from their wall decor.
Deer GardenSoup base & noodles combo, $9.95: The reason why the boyfriend loves this place a lot more than Cattle Cafe is that Deer Garden still serves the spicy peanut soup. Ever since Cattle Cafe discontinued the spicy peanut soup, he jumps at the chance to go to Deer Garden as they are the only place around that still has it. Correct me if I’m wrong or if you know of any other restaurants with the spicy peanut soup base!

Choice of soup: Chili peanut
Choice of noodles: Egg Noodles
Choice of toppings: Chicken balls and Vietnamese style pork  (choice of 2, additional toppings @ 1.50 each)
Deer Garden Signature Vancouver Richmond The soup has a very strong peanut taste, so I would definitely recommend this broth if you are an avid peanut sauce lover like he is. For me, I am neutral towards peanut butter and thought that the Cattle Cafe soup too strong. I can have some of the peanut soup here without feeling that it is overwhelming peanut-y.

As usual, the bowl came with a very generous amount of noodles!
Deer Garden Signature Vancouver Richmond Soup base & noodles combo, $9.95: Fun fact about me, I have been known to place the wrong order with the soup noodle combo. This is the third time that I ordered incorrectly -_- I think it’s because whenever I look at the ordering paper, I see part of the name and I just check it off without bothering to read the rest. The worst time was when I ordered a tomato soup base instead 🙁

Choice of soup: Fish soup
Choice of noodles: Vermicelli
Choice of toppings: Sliced cuttlefish (ordered the wrong item by accident), beef ball, and basa fish fillet ($1.50 extra)

Deer Garden Signature Vancouver Richmond I normally get fish soup w/ century egg & parsely, but I’ve been getting off tasting century egg the past couple of times so I decided to just try the fish soup. It’s actually just the same soup but without the century egg, and comes with some beancurd.

Normally, I would have just eaten the cuttlefish since it was my mistake and Asian restaurants aren’t forgiving when it comes to this stuff and won’t replace it for you. But I was really looking forward to the fish fillet and ordered it as an extra, giving the cuttlefish to the boyfriend.

As usual, the bowl of noodles was warm, comforting, and extremely filling. We love coming here because the noodle combos are consistently delicious and satisfying. It’s too bad that there’s always a line up here, or we would be coming a lot more!

yay-nay-or-meh

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Deer Garden Signatures Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co.

Sometimes, the boyfriend and I are in the sudden mood to try out a new restaurant. More often than not, we will already have a list of restaurants we want to try together so it is a matter of deciding which one. It is a task that might not be as easy as you think! On one particular warm sunny evening in June, it was Rocky Mountain Flatbread that we decided to finally check off our dining list.

IMG_4053.JPGThere are two locations in Vancouver, we went to the one on Main Street. I should make it a goal to try all, if not most, of the restaurants here!

Walking in, the atmosphere was fantastic and really set the mood for the rest of our visit. The patio was open, with the sunlight graciously pouring throughout the mid-sized restaurant. There was also a live band playing in the corner of the restaurant, featuring an amazing acoustic singer. The ambiance here was very warm, as well as the friendly service.
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To start, we ordered the homemade iced tea and lemonade. Both were not very sweet. I would have preferred my lemonade to be sweetened a bit more because it tasted like concentrated lemon water (which I know is essentially what lemonade is… but more sugar would be nice).  It was definitely a drink where you take occasional slow slips because of how sour it was.

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I ordered the ‘parma’, which came with organic tomato sauce, mozzarella, Parmesan, cured ham, arugula, mushrooms, and mango. Perhaps the most interesting topping on this was the mango, but I was very intrigued and had a good feeling that all the flavours would go well together. Was I correct?

A million times yes!! Everything was really fresh, and the mango gave it a bit of a ‘spark’ to an already awesome flatbread. The sweetness of the mango enhanced all the other flavours, this dish was just brilliant. 12/10 would order again.

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The boyfriend ordered the Italian sausage, which came with pesto, mozarella, Italian sausage bits, and spinach. Again, this dish was executed very well and we enjoyed it. The ingredients for both flatbreads were very fresh, while the dough was soft and chewy but crispy on the outside.

I am really glad that we finally tried this place out, and I feel like we would come back here again. From the ambiance, to the service, and the food, everything was simply wonderful and we had a great time. I would recommend coming here with a group of people, so that you’re able to try more of the flatbread varieties they offer.

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Duotian Fish Soup Noodles Restaurant – Stingy restaurant =\

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.
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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.
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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.
IMG_4059.JPGCheese ordered the pumpkin and tomato fish soup with rice noodles, beef balls, and sliced beef.
IMG_4060.JPGI 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
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The Bubble Tea Shop – Specialty Bubble Waffle Time!

Hi everyone! =)

Maki and I were looking for things to do in Richmond one night, and a trip to Richmond obviously isn’t complete without engaging in over indulgence of Asian food. At least, that’s what I always look forward to when going to Richmond. Maki was craving bubble waffle, so we decided to give this place a try!

This is totally off topic but I just want to tell you guys how cursed the boyfriend and I are with visiting Mango Yummy.  We have been wanting to try Mango Yummy since it opened, and have probably tried going there at least FIVE times now. They all failed. Either they were closed, we didn’t have enough time, or it was way too busy to even try attempting to score a table. BUT, we are not giving up yet. WE WILL GET TO YOU, MANGO YUMMY.

IMG_3160.JPGAfter you order, you then proceed to find a table. Since we came on a busy night, it took us awhile to get a table. It would be nice for them to have more seating, but the cafe itself isn’t that big so it probably isn’t possible =(

We shared the ‘triple decker’ bubble waffle, which came with fresh strawberries, banana, and whipped cream. Since it was busy that night, our food was a bit slow to arrive.

The bubble waffle wasn’t as fluffy and thick as I hoped it would be, but not bad either. The strawberries and bananas were nice and fresh.

I’m not sure if this was worth $7.25 (2015 pricing), I’ve had better bubble waffle at the nightmarket for a cheaper price. But I’m glad that we tried this place. The workers were friendly and informative, while the cafe was very clean despite being busy and that customers are expected to put away their dishes.

If I were to come back, I probably would stick to their standard or deluxe bubble waffles, which are cheaper.

Do you like bubble waffles?

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

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Longtail Kitchen – Modern take on Thai street food

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!

IMG_2459.JPGLongtail 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.
IMG_2460.JPGAt 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.
IMG_2462.JPGThe 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.

IMG_2463.JPGFor 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 😉
IMG_2461.JPGAnother 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

Longtail Kitchen on Urbanspoon