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