Hana Sushi

It was quite a nice snowy Saturday and we decided to eat dinner before heading back home.

We decided to stop by at The Crystal Mall food court and I ordered from a place called Hana Sushi.

This is the Katsu Curry. You can see half of the picture on the menu sign up top on the left side. The pork itself was very good, both moist inside and crispy on the outside. As for the curry, I'm not sure how I should put it. At first taste, it's quite salty. You get hints of it being curry, but it's not flavorful. The sauce tasted like a curry cream paste. I didn't enjoy the salty curry, but the pork was very good. My dad ordered from the same place and said his dish was salty as well. Everywhere you go nowadays, people have such a high tolerance of salt. The more salted items we eat, the less salty we think it really is.



Location:

Hana Sushi (The Crystal Mall Food Court)
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
1-604-434-1772
1-604-438-6263 (The Crystal Mall's #)
http://www.thecrystalmall.ca

i Café

Today's entry is semi-late, but it'll be short and simple.

This past Saturday, my parents and I went to i Café for dinner. They have a stairway leading up to their entrance and you would notice their giant decor to the right of it. The overall place is really simple, but spacious and with a nice view if you're seated by the window. I've never had any problems with their service, but their food is average. If you ever decide to order any of their beef dishes like prime rib, sirloin or their pork/beef combo set, you definitely won't regret it.

I ordered their Ying Yang Steak Rice. I've tried it before and it's really delicious. I can't really complain. This dish has always been consistent in flavor and taste. The carrots were a bit too soft, but they were still sweet and tasty.

My dad had ordered the Prime Rib set and the beef tasted fresh and flavorful. It tasted like it's supposed to. Most beef steaks nowadays lacks that beef flavor and taste.

For once, we ordered dessert and it's Tiramisu. I don't know whether they made it or had them made and shipped to the restaurant, but as for someone such as myself, who knows a bit about desserts, this is definitely not the typical Tiramisu. The texture was very different from the ones I'm used to tasting. It was more gelatin like than light and fluffy and dense in flavor. It just didn't seem very fulfilling.

Since I'm getting back into the work mode, I won't be updating as much, as I won't be free to go out as often as I like. The place I work is basically a 24/7 operation, so that will keep me quite occupied.



Location:

i Café
2525 Heather Street
Vancouver, BC
V5Z 3J2
1-604-630-0238

Tamarind Hill

Early last month, I had blogged about eating Malaysian Cuisine at Tamarind Hill and how I was rather disappointed in their inconsistency. However, this time around, everything tasted great. I suggest people read the Malaysian Cuisine entry before continuing to read this one. It will fill you in on what I've said about their Restaurant.

This time around, I will be showing some photos of their interior decor.

The picture above and below shows a section where people can wait before being seated.

Here's a view of the counter/divider.

We decided to try some new dishes, but we did order the Malaysian Calamari and the Roti Canai again. The Malaysian Calamari was nice and crispy and the Roti Canai wasn't as bitter as last time. I sure love the dipping sauce that comes with the Malaysian Calamari.

This is Soto Assam. It's spicy hot and sour seafood soup with cut up tomato and papaya. It wasn't even that spicy, but it's quite acidic in taste and flavor. Quite appetizing.

This is a blurry photo of Mixed Seafood Sambal with a bit of onions and various peppers. Sweet and tasty.

This is the Malaysian Curry Laksa. It has egg noodle with dried shrimp, tiger prawns, chicken, bean sprout, egg and fish cake in spicy zesty curry broth. You can choose from three types of noodles for this one. I must admit, this was probably my favorite besides the Malaysian Calamari. The broth was aromatic and flavorful. The only thing we wished for, was for it to be a bit more spicier. I've tried the Singapore Laksa before and it's coconut base. I'm not a big fan of coconut, but it really did taste good. I still prefer the Malaysian Curry Laksa over the Singapore Laksa.

I think what they serve is moderate in heat and that the general public can easily accept it. As for my family, we can take a lot more heat than what's served at Tamarind Hill, but their dishes are really tasty and flavorful. There's still one place that serves Malaysian Food I have yet to try. Hopefully one day, I will be able to try it. I also recommended some really good restaurants that serves Malaysian/Singaporean Food in this Malaysian Cuisine entry. So go check it out.



Location:

Tamarind Hill
103 - 628 6th Avenue
New Westminster, BC
1-604-526-3000

Mui Garden Restaurant

I'll be keeping today's entry short. We went to Mui Garden Restaurant last night and upon walking into the place, the surroundings looked so out of place. It seems as if, half of the restaurant was closed off or something. Service has always been bad there and I don't think they're planning on improving it either.

We ordered the usual and it came with flavorless Condiments.

The Free Range Chicken was tough. I really disliked this.

It wasn't great, but it wasn't bad. Just a tad bit too salty.

The rice was gummy because it had been cooked in too much liquid.

I don't really like Lamb Hot Pot. I just ate the bean curd and one piece of lamb, which seemed quite tender. The flavor was light and medicinal tasting.

I hope I never have to go back to this restaurant. Well, only this particular location.



Location:

Mui Garden Resturant
4327 North Road
Burnaby, BC
1-604-421-1822
http://www.muigarden.com

Rediscovery

Okay, so I lied about blogging the day after my last entry, but I sort of got distracted with other things that were more important.

Anyway, long story short, my dad thought it was a good idea to bring the whole family back to the same restaurant that my dad and I had went to the week before last Saturday. For those who missed it, you can read about it here. Obviously, I'm not going to post pictures that's already been seen. We're here for the new ones. When I walked into the restaurant on Saturday, I was a bit disappointed to see the servers back to normal without the bunny ears/tails and butterfly wings. I guess they only dressed up for Halloween.

We pretty much ordered the same thing as last time except for the Pan Fried Pork Dumplings and again, I forgot to take pictures of the Pork Pot Stickers.

Here we have a small tray of various condiments. There's chili oil, black vinegar, thinly shredded ginger and toothpicks.

Braised Beef Tripe. I didn't try this.

Shredded Pork And Hoisin Sauce Pancakes with shredded cucumbers underneath. My only major complaint is not enough pancakes to go around and after awhile the dish itself just gets kind of disgusting. Not that it's not good or anything, I just think the dish could have been cooked a bit longer with less Hoisin Sauce. The mixture was a bit too wet for my liking.

I'm usually not a big fan of noodles, but this dish was really good. I don't even need the vegetables or seafood there. The squid was rubber. I could be wrong about it being squid. It could have been cuttlefish and they're within the same species.

Cold Wined Chicken was not good at all. Didn't like the texture or the taste.



Location:

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant
160 - 8111 Ackroyd Road
Richmond, BC
V6X 3K1
1-604-303-7772

Tower of muffins!

On Thursday, I decided to bake some muffins since I have an unopened container of sour cream sitting in the fridge. Here are my results.

Isn't it pretty? Eh, just humor me. It had a bit too much blueberries in it, so you guys can reduced the amount of blueberries used or not. Also, since I didn't have Pastry Flour I just used All Purpose Flour. The difference of not using Pastry Flour wasn't too noticeable, but a slight change of texture in the outcome. Originally, the recipe is for 6 dozen and I re-calculated it to make 1 dozen instead. Here is the recipe.

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins (Yield: 1 Dozen)

Ingredients:
100g Granulated Sugar
112.5g Softened Butter
1.67g Salt
12.5g Lemon Zest
66.67g Whole Eggs
66.67g Sour Cream
141.67g Milk
250g Pastry Flour
7.5g Baking Powder
1.67g Baking Soda
166.67g Frozen Blueberries

Procedures:
1) Cream sugar, butter and salt.
2) Add eggs slowly and scrape bowl frequently.
3) Add sour cream, again scrape bowl.
4) Add milk and dry ingredients in alternating stages (1/3 at a time) starting with milk and following with flour.
5) Fold in frozen blueberries. A tip I learned in school is to dust the frozen blueberries with a bit of flour before folding it into the mixture. That way the mixture will grab onto the dusted flour. It's the same as breading items for deep frying.
6) Pipe or drop into prepared muffin tins.
7) Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 20 - 25 minutes or until done.

Have fun baking!

So, earlier today my family went to Happy King Seafood Restaurant for lunch again and I ordered this dish.

Free Range Chicken on Rice. One word, YUCK! I don't care if it was average tasting or not, just don't order it. Look at it; the pinkish color is enough to make you gag. *please ignore my sarcasm* But you have to admit, it holds some truth to it. It may not seem too bad, but up close and personal it's pink. I don't even want to comment on this. Tomorrow, I'll blog about what I had for dinner today.



Location:

Happy King Seafood Restaurant
#258 - 2800 East 1st. Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5M 4P2
1-604-215-3338

Happy Halloween!

Today marks a special occasion and also, the end of October. So I decided to share some photos taken back when I was in College. It was a fall theme involving the ingredient, pumpkin. So, please enjoy and have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Tarts: topped with a marzipan pumpkin, piped rosette of whipped whipping cream, shaved chocolate and a dusting of cinnamon powder.

Pumpkin Pie: topped with marzipan pumpkins, piped rosettes of whipped whipping cream, shaved chocolate and a dusting of cinnamon powder.

Pumpkin Cake: topped with marzipan pumpkins, shaved chocolate and decorative border with rosettes of whipped whipping cream.

Pumpkin Cheesecake: topped with marzipan pumpkins, shaved chocolate, chocolate motifs, whipped whipping cream border and some toasted, crushed, sliced almonds on the sides.

Choose any two items...

I chose chicken wings and fish. It comes with a bun and a sad looking dry coleslaw with a dollop of sauce. I believe the sauce is a mixture of sour cream and mayo. I ordered this meal on Sunday for brunch and if I was at the restaurant around noon, I would have ordered the wings and sirloin steak instead of the fish. Not that I don't like fish, it's just too much fried items in one dish. The menu changes around noon, as well as the prices. It's a cheap meal for $5.85 and it comes with a drink.

I asked for Milk Tea and I'm pretty sure they use the Lipton Rose. Usually, the portion is slightly larger, but it's still a good deal. You can't go wrong with fried foods and for those with a weak heart, please exit this blog.

Kam Do Restaurant & Bakery has been around for quite a long time and if any one generally goes to Richmond to eat, they'll know this place. People would be better off getting a table if they go there earlier because it gets packed quickly. The food isn't anything extra-ordinary, but it's their portions that brings in business.

That's it for today, but stay tune tomorrow because I will be showing you goodies made from pumpkin.



Location:

Kam Do Restaurant & Bakery
1120.1130.1140 - 9391 Alexandra Road
Richmond, BC
V6X 3W5
1-604-231-9216

An interesting Discovery

It's Saturday and we're always thinking of where we want to go for our meal. Either for lunch or dinner and since I did an entry of what I had at Happy King Seafood Restaurant before, I won't blog about my lunch on Saturday because I ordered the same thing. Fast forwarding to night time, my dad and I wandered aimlessly around Richmond and we were always caught in by the heavy traffic on the No. 3 Road with all the construction happening there. It's quite understandable when the 2010 Winter Olympics event is nearing that people are rushing to finish Canada Line and among other things, as well.

We found ourselves parked at the Save-On-Foods parking lot and ready to go try this small Shanghai restaurant, but only to find out it's packed and there was a line of people waiting to be seated. So we decided to walk across the street to check out Ebisu. My dad scanned the restaurant from outside and decided he wasn't in the mood for Japanese Cuisine. There are numerous restaurants around like White Spot, Nando's Chicken and other smaller Chinese restaurant. When we were just about to stop looking for something different and go to White Spot, we saw a restaurant filled with people eating Xiao Long Bao. There was still some empty tables so we decided to go and try this place out.

Upon walking into this restaurant called Dinesty, I was quickly intrigued by the servers. Some of them were wearing bunny ears/tails and some were wearing butterfly wings. My thought was, "could this be a cosplay cafe?" I'm not sure it is since they didn't wear any of the typical outfits, but I was definitely amused. The overall design of the place was very clean, simple, spacious and modern. One perks of this place is, you get to see the kitchen staff in action. It's an open kitchen with glass panels acting as a barrier between the main sitting area and the kitchen. Here's two videos I recorded while I was there.

Did anyone catch any of the servers with their bunny ears/tails and the butterfly wings? You can clearly see the kitchen from the videos.

So, we obviously ordered the Xiao Long Bao. The skin had the perfect thickness, but the flavor of the meat inside wasn't awesome. However, it has the most liquid inside than any other Xiao Long Bao I have ever tasted.

I had to order this Fried Mantou, it's one of my favorites. The outer texture is definitely crispy and crunchy. However, the inside just didn't taste like a regular mantou. It was so light and fluffy, but usually it's firmer than that and it has a real distinct flavor and taste to it. It's still tasty, though.

This was the Beef Wrap. The wraps are Green Onion flat bread/pancake. Overall, this was a good dish minus the scallions inside. It's just a personal preference and I happen to dislike eating raw scallions. It was lacking a bit of sauce, though.

Now this dish was interesting. If anyone ever decides to order this Pan Fried Steamed Pork Dumpling, I suggest poking at it when it arrives. It's like poking a light and fluffy sponge like bun. It's been nicely pan fried as you can see from the lovely color on it. The filling is basically the same as what you get in the Xiao Long Bao and they used a bit too much oil to pan fry it.

We also ordered the Pork Pot Stickers, but I forgot to take a picture. I'll remember to next time.

At the end of the meal, you get this cold refreshing teaser drink that comes in their own paper mini cup. I can't quite figure out what exactly I was actually drinking, but it was good. I'm calling it quits for today, there will be another post tomorrow. It'll be short, I promise.



Location:

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant
160 - 8111 Ackroyd Road
Richmond, BC
V6X 3K1
1-604-303-7772

Insadong birthday dinner

A friend of ours decided to celebrate her birthday with friends and family over a dinner on Saturday. I suggested this place called Insadong, not because it was Korean Cuisine but because it was easy on the wallet for large groups of people. It's also plentiful in food and the service isn't always that bad. That restaurant is usually packed and so, the service isn't great all the time. It differs from time to time, but the staff are generally pretty helpful. The restaurant itself is quite spacious and open, until you get a table in one of their rooms. The room we were in had several tables to fit maybe four or six large parties. It was quite suffocating and I don't think their ventilation was awesome. It's better to have a party out of those rooms and I wish they would change their water bottles; those darn things always leak. If you visit their website, you will see that they have a link to their blog. It has pictures of their restaurant, food dishes and other events. The restaurant is quite big and it can seat a lot of people. They also have WiFi Hot Spots.

We had several dishes and I only managed to take a few photos of some of the dishes.

One of them was Japche. It's stir fry potato noodle with marinated beef Bulgogi and mixed vegetables. This one was really tasty and you can really taste all the flavors absorbed by the noodles.

This is the Seafood Salad. It has jelly fish, shrimp, seaweed, julienne cucumber, pea shoots, minced garlic and small scallops. Also, there's some small side dishes at the back. It's light and refreshing and has a great mouth feel.

We also had Seafood Pancake, Stir Fry Beef Udon Noodles and Noodle Soup.

Then we have the BBQ. It's Beef Bulgogi, Chicken Bulgogi & Beef Galbi. Obviously, there's more than just what you see in that photo. Their Korean BBQ is decent. I have had better, but their Spicy Pork Bulgogi is the best.

And here we have a very expensive looking pink rolled fondant, butter cream and three layered marble cake that comes with a plaque. I've never been a cake fan, especially a butter cream one. This one isn't even close to winning me over. However, I do like ice cream and really well made chocolate cakes. It can't be extremely sweet.



Location:

Insadong
301 - 403 North Road
Coquitlam, BC
V3K 3V9
1-604-936-3778
http://www.insadong.ca

Congee

The season's changing and it's getting colder and I just felt like having congee for once. There's nothing elaborate about today's post; just plain boring.

*random insert of speech, "HALLOWEEN! it's coming!"*

We went for brunch at Happy King Seafood Restaurant yesterday, after we finished our errands.

This is a type of Fried Sweet Bread. I'm still trying to track down the name for it since I only know it in Chinese. This one is my favorite; it never changes and it's always consistent. It's tasty and crunchy.

This is a type of Fried Salted Bread. Again, I'm still trying to track down the name for this one as well, since I only know it in Chinese. There's a similar bread like this one sold in Malaysia and it should taste better than the ones made here.

I ordered Preserved Duck Egg & Salted Pork Congee. It's usually what I ordered every time I'm in the mood for congee. It's a pretty standard congee bowl you can get in any Chinese restaurant/cafe place, but I've had better. With congee you can eat it was fried breads or traditionally with Fried Chinese Donuts.



Location:

Happy King Seafood Restaurant
#258 - 2800 East 1st. Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5M 4P2
1-604-215-3338

Malaysian Cuisine

First and foremost, sorry for the lack of updates. I entirely skipped out on last week's tasty adventure, but I'm sure I'll be back to that place to take photos. This week, I give you a little inside scoop on Malaysian food. Now, I've been to numerous Malaysian/Singaporean style places and this restaurant is one I would recommend. It's called Tamarind Hill. I can't stress enough how important is it for restaurants to be consistent and most of them aren't. I've been to Tamarind Hill a few times and at first, it was a great experience for my taste buds and now it seems as if it's going downhill a bit. Don't get me wrong, it's still good, but it's not the same anymore. The portion is smaller and there's less meat than before. Even some of the items were cooked differently. There's items marked with a chili beside it, meaning it's spicy. However, the items we did order with the chili sign beside it seemed a bit watered down. Despite their inconsistency, I would still go back to try their other items, but their menu is pretty limited. Overall, the ambiance is intimate and cozy and the interior is decorated with items from Malaysia. It's a very authentic looking place and the service have always been good. I would prefer if the lighting was a bit better; it's quite hard on the eyes to see in the semi-dark restaurant, but I doubt they'll change that. That's just my own wishful thinking.

We had ordered quite a few items, but I forgot to take photos for some of them before they were consumed.

As a starting appetizer, we always order the Malaysian Calamari. Again, it's still good, but it's not the same. However, I love the spicy house sauce that comes with it. I believe it has tamarind in it.

This is Hokkien Mee. I've had it numerous of times and the first time I've had it, I was surprised at how good it was. This time it's not bad, but it lacks a bit of flavor. It seemed a bit soggy and bland to me.

This is the remainder of what's left of the Roti Canai. The texture of this is very authentic and true to its natural roots. However, it wasn't sweet and I found it bitter. The curry sauce lacks heat.

We also ordered Red Snapper with Sambal and Curry Chicken. The red snapper was cooked totally different and the Curry Chicken just didn't seem authentic. It's okay for people who have never tried Malaysian food to have the Curry Chicken, but it just didn't taste like it. I mean it wasn't bad, but it wasn't the real deal. Next time, I'll order the Beef Rendang and hopefully, it'll be spicy.

If anyone's going to Richmond and interested in trying some Southeast Asian food, go to Ellie (Located in Continental Center). Be warned, their food packs a punch, but it's so good. I just hope it doesn't go out of business. It seems like they are losing business to the other restaurants around them, but their food has always been consistent. The service isn't great, but their food makes up for it. I suggest trying their Chicken Satays for starters. It's not authentic, but it's really good. Actually, a lot of places that have Satays aren't very close to being authentic. Ellie, Banana Leaf and of course, Tamarind Hill remains my top picks for Southeast Asian Food.



Location:

Tamarind Hill
103 - 628 6th Avenue
New Westminster, BC
1-604-526-3000

Naan Bread!

My dad was telling me how he would always smell this wonderful aroma every time he passes by this Indian restaurant on his way to meet up with his friend. So, we decided to give it a try. This would be my third time trying Indian Cuisine. We ordered quite a few items, so we could take the leftovers home for the rest of the family to try. Although, my mother didn't seem to like it.

The first thing to come was a complimentary item. I can only describe it as Cumin Wafers. Since I'm not a huge fan of cumin, this item wasn't too strong in cumin flavor and it was a bit salty. Served with a sweet and mild Chili Sauce.

Here we have, Prawn Pakora. It was quite tasty and had a nice mild kick to it. The texture of the batter was soft and airy, with a bit of crunch on the outside. It was served with a Chili Sauce and a Lime Citrus Sauce, I believe.

I call this the Tandoori Combo, but it's really called Tandoori Dinner. It's just a variety of tandoori items served with a Butter Chicken Sauce, but without the chicken inside the sauce. There's chicken, lamb and fish with julienne green bell peppers and onions. The lamb was done two ways. One was ground lamb kebab pieces and the other was boneless lamb that's been cubed and marinated over night. The ground lamb kebab pieces and the fish were my favorite.

Everyone should try Butter Chicken if they go for Indian Cuisine. It is a must try. The sauce is not oily from the butter and it has a bit too much tomato flavor in it, but it's still tasty. However, I've had better Butter Chicken. The sauce is good, but the chicken isn't infused enough with the flavors of the sauce. It needs more marinating time.

You've got to have Rice to go along with Butter Chicken. I believe they said it was Basmati Rice. It has a nice texture.

Naan Bread is also another must have. Their Naan bread was so good. The elasticity and texture of the bread was excellent. I would have been happy with just Naan Bread and the Butter Chicken Sauce. Does anyone know any place that serves really good saffron rice? I've had saffron rice once and it was pretty good, but I don't remember where I had it.



Location:

Tandoori Kona
#170 - 11700 Cambie Plaza (Cambie Road & No. 5 Road)
Richmond, BC
V6X 1L5
1-604-279-9259

In the mood for...

Japanese Food. We had a few choices as to where we could go in Richmond city. We ended up going to Aji Taro just because we can't remember what their food taste like. Yes, we're quite random. Instead of eating all you can eat, we decide to order off the menu instead. All I can say is, my taste buds were confused through out the entire meal. We started off with a Boat Combo and it came with Miso Soup. The Miso Soup was pretty salt. The entire meal was pretty salty except a few things.

I'm one of those Asian child that don't eat raw fish and believe me, I've tried it before and it doesn't settle well. I really liked their salad; it was crisp and refreshing. The Chicken Karaage (wings) lacked some salt. It was pretty bland and yet, the California Roll was salty enough that I didn't need the soy sauce. Talk about confusion with the flavors. The experience of eating the California Roll was like eating baby food.

This Chicken Teriyaki came with the Boat Combo. It had a bit too much sauce in the Yakisoba and it was a tad bit sweet, but generally it tasted pretty good.

Obviously, we had no idea that the rolls were that salty when we ordered these. Salty and mushy.

Deep Fried Ika or squid. Again, the salad was very delicious and the deep fried squid was good as well. I only wished that it was a bit more dried or deep fried longer to get rid of the moisture.

BBQ Ika Yaki or grilled BBQ squid. It had a very pungent squid smell and taste to it, which means it's not that fresh. I had 2-3 pieces and ate the vegetables.

I'm starting to think I'm becoming a health nut, but I'm actually suppose to watch what I eat. Everything just taste extremely salty and sweet to me nowadays. My only temptations would be ice cream and chocolate. The chocolate part is easy to solve if you want a less sweeter version of it and just go for dark chocolate. Ice cream, sorbet or gelato is a bit harder to solve when almost every single item out there is so sweet. I have found a few vanilla chocolate dipped bars that aren't too sweet. If anyone knows any brand that has a less sweeter version, please let me know, thanks.



Location:

Aji Taro
101-4940 No. 3 Road
Richmond, BC
1-604-273-3838