Wednesday, February 29, 2012

CLOSED - Lunch @ Shanghai Fusion Restaurant 滬之星


usually go to Shanghai River or Northern Delicacy for shanghai food but wanted to give this place a try



build your own lunch combo
seems more expensive and have to choose certain types food 
cold smoked fish
sauce too light
bran dough
too hard
deep-fried twisted dough stick, chinese doughnut
too oily and not soft, seems like it was re-deepfried
beef roll
parker place food court make it better and cheaper
steamed pork dumpling 
average taste, has soup locked in
sticks to the sheet
spicy wontons
tastes weird, not spicy enough, not like traditional
house sautéed noodles


Shanghai Fusion Restaurant 滬之星
128-4540 No. 3 Rd (Empire Centre)
Richmond BC V6X 4E4
(604) 284-5557


-prices are cheaper but what you pay is what you get, smaller portions
-tastes are too light, not like traditional
-think they're closed on tuesdays, it was close when i wanted to try the first time
-only a few tables full, only one server but enough as not busy
-gave us a 10% discount, may be because we were the only large table
-most likely won't visit again

Style: shanghai (上海菜)
Visited on: Feb 23, 2012

Shanghai Fusion Restaurant 滬之星 on Urbanspoon

Note: simple translation

Friday, February 24, 2012

CLOSED - Lunch @ Rhino's Kitchen 新犀牛屋

place was packed when it first open so didn't have a chance to try until now but have also heard bad comments ever since. went to try for the very first time, apparently they have also changed their menu, prices are somewhat cheaper than before (and now comes with free drinks and soup?)


a few tvs around and lots of rhinos
if you have the top gun gold card, you can get 30% discount for the other half of the menu (with discount meals start from $10+), this side cannot be discounted
russian borscht and cream of mushroom soup
meals come with a soup
taste a bit better than the average free ones
baked beef tongue & cheese on spaghetti
looks small but has a lot of pieces inside
spaghetti not chewy enough
better if in tomato sauce
deep fried fish fillet and pork cutlet with dried scallop and egg white fried rice
deep frying work is good


Rhino's Kitchen 新犀牛屋
322-5300 No 3 Rd (Lansdowne Centre)  
Richmond BC V6X 2X9
604-273-0022


-food aren't bad except prices are much higher
-however drinks are bad, milk tea too light, only 2 slices of lemon for hot lemon tea
-the average hk style restaurant food aren't offered, fried rice and noodles
-changing to cold drink is expensive, additional $1.25
-service a bit better than average, one of the servers were handing out toothpicks to every table
-lots of staffs wandering around, probably too free as place was 65% full
-besides easy parking and the tv, probably won't visit until they change the menu and drinks, can get better food with same/cheaper price elsewhere

Style: hk style restaurant (茶餐廳)
Visited on: Feb 21, 2012

Rhino's Kitchen 新犀牛屋 on Urbanspoon

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Honey Milk Pretz

Honey Milk Pretz

-can smell the honey rushing out once you open the bag
-thin cut makes it crunchier
-milk taste stronger than honey

i just love eating pretz and pocky so i try all the special ones i can find, especially limited edition

apple 
hong kong shark's fin pretz
kiwi pocky
went crazy when i saw all these in a supermarket in china

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Lunch @ ABC Cafe 愛彼茜餐室

i consider this place a high end hk style restaurant (茶餐廳) as meals are $1-2 more than other places. i visit about 1-2 times a month as it's easy to get a table, except the crazy parking lot that's packed every single day

crispy pork cutlet with fried egg and rice 脆皮豬扒煎蛋飯
2nd time eating this, less rice than the one i ate in december
pork is really crispy and not oily
sauce a tiny bit sour coming from the tomatoes, could be sweeter
sauce different than oven-baked pork rice (焗豬扒飯)
minced meat and preserved olive leaves fried rice 欖菜肉碎炒飯
not at all salty and meat taste is strong
would prefer strong taste of preserved olive leaves (欖菜)
new menu, chiu chow style set 
for $158 serving 10 people, will everyone be full considering i ate $300+ at another chiu show style restaurant with 8 people with almost the same food
yet to try
fried sliced chicken with pepper served with rice in stone bowl 川椒雞石頭飯
tried this back in december
tastes somewhat like tradition
portion also was smaller when i tried again in january
sauce is somewhat salty, has herbs that causes numbness found in spicy food (麻辣)

last time i went i also tried other chiu chow style food:
Pan Fried Oyster Pancake 金牌煎蠔烙: like how it's not peppery and not too much flour
sugar-coated taro 椰香反沙芋: well-made, sugar coating sticks well to taro, not too much green onions used, taro all powdery


ABC Cafe 愛彼茜餐室
2792-4151 Hazelbridge Way (Aberdeen Centre)
Richmond, BC V6X 3R8
604 295 6777

-all meals come with free hot drink
-good quality and big portion though prices are higher than average
-like the new menu with all the different chiu chow style food
-lots of variety in menu
-average service as you find in all chinese restaurant

Style: hk style restaurant (茶餐廳), chiu chow (潮州菜)
Visited on: Feb 18, 2012

Note: translated the chinese myself as i forgot to take a picture of their menu

ABC Cafe 愛彼茜餐室 on Urbanspoon

Friday, February 17, 2012

Sunset Organic Bistro @ Summerhill Pyramid Winery

most wineries in interior bc are closed in the winter as snowfall is heavy and makes it hard to visit. visited in the summer but never got a chance to write about it until now


outdoor patio
can see the wine shop from inside the restaurant, totally lured me in to have some wine tasting after lunch 
banquet hall in the end, bunch of tourists were eating inside 
bottle of wine ordered of course
pan seared ahi tuna
mussels
pulled pork burger
seafood linguini

Sunset Organic Bistro
4870 Chute Lake Rd
Kelowna BC V1W-4M3
(250) 764-8000 

-most were made from local organic food
-faces the okanagan lake
-great ambiance
-prices around the same as all other restaurants at the wineries
-was previously visited by queen elizabeth

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Dine Out @ Diva at the Met

first time the bread came it was pretty much cold, the refills came warm
the butter was topped with salty bread crumbs, if i heard it correctly

beef tartare
veal tongue, pickled pin mushrooms, egg yolk
mushrooms+egg yolk were diced into very tiny pieces
the left, guessing its egg white but its salty
we asked the waitress how to eat it as we've never seen a dish like this
told us to mix everything in the bowl and scoop it with the "egg white"

pacific provider coho salmon
pine nut, chorizo, bell pepper, black olives, caper vinaigrette
the salmon was cooked medium rare, loved the sauce, not too strong so could taste the salmon

heritage pork loin
pork hock press, sauerkraut, bread pudding, mustard jam
tasted my friend's food, nothing special about it

chocolate souffle 
almond powder(?), pistachio ice cream
topped with a sheet of silver painted chocolate(?), melted by the time i took the picture
ice-cream didn't have a strong pistachio taste
very similar to chocolate lava cake

$38 for 3 course meal

Diva at the Met (Metropolitan Hotel)
645 Howe Street 
Vancouver BC V6C 2Y9
(604) 602-7788

was not packed for a weekday dinner dine out

The Good
-first time trying a restaraunt serving molecular gastronomy food, really interesting experience, but my friends did not enjoy it
-the atmosphere was great, we were put by the kitchen and saw the head chef yelling orders
-my water was always promptly refilled

The not so good
-4 of us ordered the same dessert but a wrong order came. so the waitress went to the pastry chef (we could oversee the kitchen so we know who she was talking to) to check the order and found that it was 3 souffle and 1 cheesecake. then an older waitress, probably head waitress, made her check her written order and then made her come over and ask if we ordered wrong. it was definitely the waitress who wrote the wrong order but instead the waitress was questioning if my friend changed her mind last minute so she didn't catch it right. in the end of course she had to ask the kitchen to prepare the right order. this was the first time that i ever experienced getting questioned by a wrong order in a formal restaurant, usually the waiter just apologizes and goes to ask for a new one. even if the food was cooked the wrong way, most restaurant just prepares another one without questioning. this was somewhat disappointing

Visited on: Jan 25, 2012
Diva at the Met on Urbanspoon

Monday, February 13, 2012

Hermes Mooncake

a blog is sort of like a diary, used to keep precious memories and the things i've seen
although mid-autumn's festival was way back in september, this mookcake was coolest one i've seen. didn't get a chance to try them as they belonged to my cousin who's a fashion editor. all i remember was that the flavours were unique and are not found in traditional ones

who would have ever guessed that there's mooncake inside a Hermes box

 

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Chocolate Craze 2

Chocolate Arts - local Vancouver chocolate store
Dark Chocolate Hazelnuts Raisins Oats Bar
not too sweet and a lot of ingredients well mixed into the bar
Armani/Dolci 
chocolate bean

Lindt Lindor - some flavours are only available in assorted box
Limited Edition Godiva Bakery Dessert Truffles