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December 2010

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MedicalGiraffee is back to town and she had a GroupOn for Raw Canvas. The GroupOn came with 2 tasting plates, and 2 small canvases.

Raw Canvas is a tapas lounge, wine bar and art studio.

The restaurant is split up into 2 parts. A lounge area with long tables! It looks great for big groups and parties.

And then the other half is where all the painting begins! All you need to do is grab a coat, a canvas, and paints and you are set!

You get a plate thing for you to put your paint. If you like to layer your paints and don’t want things to smudge, you get hairdryers to dry the paintings. Also, its good if you want to bring your painting home. You really don’t want paint getting on your clothes or car.

These were the choices for the tasting menu. The tasting menu is $15 and comes with your choice of 3 items on the left side and 3 from the right. The left side has mostly meat and cheese, while the other are spreads, sauces, pickled items, nuts, and dried fruits.

MedicalGiraffe chose :

  • Hot Sopressata: italian style dry hot pepper salami
  • ile-aux-grues 5 year cheddar: moderately sharp with an outstanding depth of flavour.
  • vintage 3 yr gouda: sharp and sweet, like good butterscotch
  • Matiz Fig Spread
  • Organic Almonds
  • Organic Aprocots

I chose the:

  • Rosette de Lyon: french salami made by granville island’s oyama
  • Brie de Meaux: vegetal, earthy flavour
  • Parrano: creamy, sweet flavour of gouda. mellow, buttery, nutty
  • Kalamata Olives
  • Dijon Mustard
  • Cornichons

All the Tasting plates came with a bowl of bread. You can put your items from your tasting plate onto it.

I had a flight of white wine ( About $10). It had 3 types of white wine, but since I am not a wine expert, it all tasted the same to me. I chose white win because its sweeter than red.

MedicalGiraffe had one flight of red wine (About $10).

We stood there instead of setting at the tables because we wanted to paint and eat at the same time. It was quite hard resisting to eat a bit while we had paint on our hands. I have a feeling we ate quite a bit of paint.

This is what we made in the end. An abstract painting… and a weird cartoon painting ripped off from the internet.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Best to have reservations
  • Meter Parking on street
  • Not a place to go alone, best with a group. More people = more Fun

We rate Raw Canvas:

Website: http://www.raw-canvas.com/

Address:

1046 Hamilton St
Vancouver, BC

Raw Canvas on Urbanspoon

Fabo, M, FragileBoy, NotFauna, JoJoCake and I were at Coquitlam Mall looking for Ben & Jerrys…but apparently it disappeared, so to solve our sweet tooth…we decided to get a blizzard. We discovered that they had a new Mini Size of Blizzard which was amazing because I can’t even finish a small size. There is so much Ice cream a person can eat without getting sick.

For $2.69, you can get your own mini sized Blizzard. They have lots of flavours to choose from! But most of they are sweet.

I got the double fudge cookie dough. All chocolate lovers should get this one! M had the French Silk Pie but he got sick of his and started eating mine and wouldn’t give it back because the double fudge cookie dough was better.

Since my hand can be large or small….I put the mini Blizzard near my phone so you know the approx size. The mini Blizzard is quite a good size for ice cream. Good for those on a semi-diet .

Dairy Queen on Urbanspoon

Sushimoto is located beside Holdom Skytrain on the Millenium Line. It is literally a few steps away. Since BusanGirl was going back to Korea for vacation. A few of us met up and enjoy some sushi. NotFauna decided to choose Sushimoto since it seemed pretty popular online. It was really close to our houses, so we went.

The interior was really nice! paper lantern decorations, many little samurai figurines near the kitchen. There was actually MANY MANY figurines ranging from samurai swords to traditional masks.

Salmon Sashimi (Half Order) ($6). A half order contains about 5 pieces. The pieces are not as big as Sushi Town, but the quality is pretty good.

Tuna Tataki ($12.90) was really good. It was nicely seared on the outside. This dish came with organic salad, shaved onions, and topped with garlic chips, green onions and ponzu sauce. The ponzu sauce was perfect for the dish and went well with the tuna and salad.

Moto Signature Roll ($9) has Tuna, salmon, cucumber, avacado, egg, crab meat, masago, and carrot. It is topped with spicy-mayo sauce and wrapped is soybean skin. At first it seemed cool that it was wrapped in soybean skin rather than seaweed, but the skin was pretty thin and all the ingredients inside kept falling out. Great tasting roll, but fell apart too easily.

Amusement Roll ($10) has cream cheese, cucumber, salmon, egg, crab meat, ikura, Mayo and unagi sauce. This roll held together better than the Moto Signature Roll. The roll was pretty average and the addition of the cream cheese made this interesting. Other restaurants usually have it in the philadelphia roll. The cream cheese worked well!

Overall, the food was good and the decor was great. Unfortunately, the service was pretty bad. We all agreed that the waitress was pretty awkward. When she described the specials, we were left more confused by what she said. Perhaps she was new and a bit shy.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Street Parking
  • Large variety in menu
  • Sashimi = good!

We rate Sushimoto:

They are located at:

2221 Holdom Ave S
Burnaby, BC

Sushimoto on Urbanspoon

I heard of Flying Tiger because a friend works here. So, I looked it up and it seemed like a pretty good place for modern asian cuisine. But, today he wasn’t working so IndecisiveGirl and I just ate and complained about how crazy people at Metrotown were….and how hard it is to get anything done due to the crazy Boxing Week rush.

Flying Tiger in Kitsilano features modern asian street food. Imagine the Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant but Flying Tiger would encompass other types of dishes from Korea, India, China, Japan,  Philippines, etc.

The restaurant is pretty narrow, but still can fit a lot of people. It is best to make reservations before hand just in case they have a busy night.

If you are seated near the back of the restaurant, you will be able to see the chefs at work.

Their menu is mostly tapas, drink and a few desserts. We asked the waitress what was good on the menu….and after rambling on for a bit… she basically recommended the whole menu. She was quite helpful actually. She explained the the dishes near the top were smaller and lighter, while the dishes on the bottom were larger and heavier tasting.

The special of the day was Sapporo on tap for $4.50. So myself and InsecureGirl got one each.

We ordered the Ebi Mayo ($12). There were about 5 pieces of shrimp. The size of the prawn were pretty large and nicely prepared. Sadly, this still was not as good as the ebi mayo I had at Toratatsu.

Next we had the Pulled Duck Confit Crêpes ($19). It contained Duck confit, Philippine lime, charred scallion, jicama & cucumber salad, Vietnamese coriander, mint, basil, and sesame oil crêpes. I liked how interactive this dish was. You can make your own dish by adding how much of anything you want.

You basically pile up the ingredients in the middle with a little bit of everything and the wrap it up.

When it is all wrapped up, you can bite it and enjoy.

Lastly, we had the Hawker Street Noodles ($15), it had Fresh egg noodles, shiitake mushrooms, free run chicken,wild sea prawns, squid, snap peas, gailan, nam prik pao,  oyster sauce, and crispy garlic. This was very well prepared and was filling. Since we were so full from everything, we decided to pack it up and it came in a really cute chinese take out box.

The damage of the bill came out to be $61.60. Flying Tiger is not the best place to go when you are super hungry. It is quite expensive, but I guess you are paying for atmosphere.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Free parking at adjacent roads or street meter parking at front
  • All dishes are meant to be shared…tapa style
  • Have daily drink specials
  • Pretty expensive tapas

We rate Flying Tiger:

Website: http://www.theflyingtiger.ca/

Located at:

2958 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Flying Tiger on Urbanspoon

Since MedicalGiraffe was back in town, we went to Cru! Since we didn’t want to waste too much money on dinner, we opted to go there for lunch.

The interior was not as what we imagined. It was kind of small and had mostly booth style sitting. We imagined the inside to be more blue. Instead, it had very warm color tones.

Their lunch menu you can order by dish or you can indulge in the the set menu in choices of 2 or 3 dishes. We chose 2 dishes each for $19.

Medical Giraffe started off with the soup of the day, which was carrot and ginger puree soup. It didn’t really taste extraordinary. The taste was a bit bland and was similar to baby food but in a more soupy form.

She next had the Citrus-cured Roasted BC Sablefish which has olive oil crushed potatoes, creamed leeks and oven-dried tomato. This dish was good, the sablefish was very made perfectly.

I had the Crispy Duck Leg Confit which has warm bacon vinaigrette, spätzle and goat cheese hash. The duck was very crispy on the outside and oh so delicious on the inside. All the items worked out really well together.

For my dessert, I had the  “Grand Cru” Chocolate Truffle Torte with dulche de leche ice cream and a nut tuille.

At first, the torte looked dry, but when you bite into it, it was amazing! Very moist and chocolate on the inside. It kinda reminded me of the one bit brownies but 100000x better. Ice ice cream and nut tuille worked well with the dish as well.

Overall, we didn’t think the portions were large enough to get us full. On normal days, we don’t really eat a lot anyways…so if you are a person with a large appetite, Cru may not be the place for you.

Our server seemed a bit awkward for some reason but we couldn’t put our finger on it. They also seemed understaffed for lunch as there was just one server walking around. The food took a while to come out too. If you are limited to 1 hour lunches…you may expect to be here for 1.5 hours for lunch.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Meter parking… or park in the back and pretend you are going to the chinese restaurant!
  • Don’t sit near the booth near the entrance, every time someone enters, a gust of cold air can be felt
  • Reservations are good to ensure a spot

We rate Cru:

Website: http://www.cru.ca/

Location:

1459 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Cru on Urbanspoon

I have always been fascinated by the thought of modern chinese cuisine. Could this be possible? After hearing much about Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant on Urbanspoon and Twitter. It was something I needed to try in the future with a few gal pals.

I heard a bit of controversy between this restaurant and a UBC Student Club…lets just say it didn’t look good at all. I saw a Groupon for Terracotta Modern Chinese Restaurant the following day and just had to purchase it to see what this place really was like.

Since this place was best known for drinks, I thought I would take CandiedZen to celebrate her birthday.

The interior is pretty cool! It has a bunch of statues of Terracotta warriors. Sometimes I find I am creepily amused by Chinese statues. Being a totally whitewashed asian…It’s quite interesting and I wish I could have a statue on my desk.

The waitress started me and CandiedZen with some ice waters as we pondered over the menu.

For my drink I ordered the Chivas & Green Tea ($9). It came in a cool asian style  cup. I had no idea what Chivas was, but it seemed like they heavily promoted that certain type of alcohol at the restaurant, so I didn’t think it would disgust me. Turns out Chivas is Whisky from Scotland. At first slip, I really did not like this drink. It was just tea and whisky! After eating a bit of food, it matched well with the dishes. and I slowly began to enjoy it.

CandiedZen ordered the Me-So-H69ny ($9.50). Yes, that is the name of this drink! Sounded hilarious and made us giggle a bit. This drink contained Raspberry Stoli, Red Alize, Cranberry Juice and a lychee. This was a really good drink. The drink is more on the sweet side and not too strong in terms of alcohol taste.

For our first dish, we ordered the Golden Squid ($8). It contained marinated squid, bettered and seasoned with salt. It also had garlic, jalapeno and some type of fruity salsa. This was one of our favorite dishes.

We next ordered the Terracotta Spring Rolls ($7), which has inside – tuna, mango and peppers. At first, the taste was quite bizarre. THe better did not match the taste of the tuna. Maybe if they used something else like maybe… avocados, it would be better.

Nest we ordered the Terracotta Short Rib Sliders ($9). It had braised beef short ribs with green onion served on golden mantou buns. CandiedZen and I agreed, it was actually “modern chinese”. They took the ingredients you would find in a chinese restaurant and add a twist. The braised beef was very tender and the sauce accompanied great as well. It had 3 pieces.

The last dish we had was the Barbecue Duck Wraps ($8).  It came in 3 pieces and in each one was BBQ duck, hoisin sauce, green onion, and cucumber.  CandiedZen commented how this dish as quite oily and assumed it was because the duck had a lot of fat in it. One thing which I think would make the dish amazing if it was more of a “do it yourself” type of wrap so customers can put in how much onions or cucumber to it because some people are picky about green onions.

Overall, Terracotta Modern Chinese caters to a very specific type of crowd of people – The young, hip, enjoys drinking and a lounge setting. I was clearly not their target market, as Follow Me Foodie has said several times in her posts. Growing up eating mass amounts of Chinese food, I am basically trained to gravitate towards dim sum restaurants or family style chinese restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Do not expect this place to be a traditional chinese restaurant
  • Sliders are highly recommended
  • Best to drink and have a few dishes
  • Pay parking on streets

We rate Terracotta Modern Chinese:

Website: http://www.terracottavancouver.com/

Address:

52 Alexander St.
Vancouver, BC

Terracotta Modern Chinese on Urbanspoon

Sanpachi Ramen is a new ramen joint that opened up downtown.  I’ve been to several ramen places, and none of them really satisfied me. Until now. Thanks to KimHo for her amazing post about this place. Sanpachi Ramen is on Bute and Robson. This place is now my favorite ramen place in Vancouver.

Sanpachi has really nice interior decor and can accomodate more people than some ramen places downtown.

When you walk into the door, you are able to see the workers in the kitchen preparing the noodles. It’s usually quite common for ramen places to openly display their kitchens.

Their menu looked good, lots of pictures to see what exactly you will be getting.

They even have combos, a few side dishes and half order options. One thing that I rather did not like was how a majority of the menu items were “coming soon”. I really wanted the gyoza 🙁

M ordered the Spicy Ramen ($8.95) with a tasty egg ($1).  The broth was delicious! It was spicy and miso base. The dish came with the usual bamboo shoots, chashu, green onions and a slice of fish cake completed the dish.

The additional “yummy egg” was cooked perfectly so the yolk is slightly gooey. I wish I took more pictures of this, but I was preoccupied ogling my own dish 😉

TaiwaneseGirl had the Tonkatsu Ramen ($8.95). When it first arrived at the table, it really didn’t look like what was on the menu. When I think back, I don’t think TaiwaneseGirl ordered seaweed with this.  Despite the look, the tonkatsu base was the best out of the 3 ramens. The broth was nice and rich. If Inception was a bowl of noodles, this would be it. It had so much depth! This also had bamboo shoots, green onions and a slice of fish cake.

TaiwaneseGirl finished her dish leaving no broth behind. Every last drop was gone!

I ordered the Nori Mayo and miso ramen (half order) combo ($8.95). It’s hard for me to finish a full bowl of noodles…or even one pack of instant noodles. So, the combo was the best solution for me.

The nori mayo had mayo/pork mixture on top of rice and wrapped in seaweed. At first I was a bit skeptical because of the look, but it was pretty good. It also came with 3 pieces of pickled radishes.

The miso mayo was good as well. Probably one of the best miso broths I’ve ever had. It also had bamboo shoots, chashu, green onions and a slice of fish cake completed the dish! Even though it was half an order, I was good and full. I have a small appetite but love try a little bit of everything. So this combo worked out well for me.

The hours are usually 11 – midnight, which is not bad at all.

Overall, I loved this place! I know some people may disagree, but Sanpachi Ramen works for me!

Words of Wisdom:

  • Amazing broth
  • Half orders (great for kids, or women with small stomachs)
  • Combo options
  • Street meter parking or Pay parking in the back near London Drugs

We rate Sanpachi Ramen:

They are located at:

770 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC

Sanpachi on Urbanspoon

InsecureGirl bought a Groupon a while back to try this restaurant since they serve oysters.

The interior is very nice and modern. It would seem like a good place to watch some games here.

Looking at the specials, they do seem really good! Thursdays… free entrees with 3 people. Sweet deal! Sadly we didn’t know about the deals… so we were a party of 2 🙁

We ordered the lager and it wasn’t too special.

These are the selection of oysters. Happy hours!! Buck a shuck!

We ordered Kusshi Oysters ($3.50 each). Kusshi mean “precious” in japanese. It had a smooth buttery texture and a sweet finish. They are small in size, but it’s a good choice for beginner oyster eaters.

The little Wing oysters were the feature of the $1 buck a shuck, so we ordered 4. It is sweet, well balanced oyster in a distinctive deep cup shell with a pleasant, fresh aftertaste.

Malpeque oysters ($3 each) are good transitional oysters, bigger and bolder than Kusshis, but still light-bodied and clean on the finish. Easy to eat, with the perfect balance of sweetness, brine, and pickle-like liveliness, they make great accompaniments to a pint of lager.

You can add tabasco or Xtra hot sauce to you oysters.

This is their menu if you want something else besides oysters.

We ordered the Fish & Chips ($16). It is a 10 ounce sable fish with tempura batter, home cut fries, accompanied with remoulade.
This is one of their most popular dishes and the sable fish works really well for this dish. The only thing we didn’t like about it was how easy the batter would fall off the fish. Despite this, InsecureGirl liked this dish.

We also got the Prawn Linguini ($18). The shrimp is this dish were huge. The pasta was cooked perfectly and had enough sauce! I really enjoyed this dish.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Great specials
  • Buck A Shuck
  • Parking on street

We rate Pier 3132:

Website: http://www.thecrabshack.ca/

Address:
3132 West Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Pier 3132 Grill & Oyster House on Urbanspoon

Dragon Ball Tea House is a popular bubble tea place in Vancouver. They serve milky teas, slushes, real fruit, powder, and many other types of customizable bubble teas. If you are an indecisive person, you will be totally confused when they ask you if you want your drink as a milk or slush, or with pearls. They throw so many options at you, so I totally got lost.

The interior is not very big, so during busy times its hard to fit a large group of people.

Most of the drinks range from $3 – $3.50. If you add pearls or anything extra, it’s $0.50.

What we ordered:

  • Supreme Milk Tea: Just regular milk tea, nothing too “supreme” about it.
  • Passionfruit Black Tea w/ pearls: FragileBoy said the pearls were a bit too soft and chewy
  • Fresh papaya milk: I loved it. It had real papaya, so I was super happy! I hate the powdered stuff.
  • Green Tea Ice Cream: Had a good taste to it. If you like green tea ice cream, you’d probably like this too.

There is something about this washroom key that cracks me up. Can you see what it is? (Scroll down to see answer)

Yes, if you have spotted the 3 signs that say “Washroom Key”, you are right.

At least you know that if you ever need to go to the washroom, you can live in peace knowing that the washroom key is well highlighted.

Words of Wisdom:

  • You can have the most customizable Bubble Tea ever!
  • Parking on the side of building or parking on street
  • Cash Only

We rate Dragon Ball Tea House:

They are located at:

1007 W King Edward Ave
Vancouver, BC
Dragon Ball Tea House on Urbanspoon

Frappe Bliss serves up flavoured shaved ice at Aberdeen Mall. The flavours can range from Mango to Peanut. This little kiosk is actually owned by Fairchild. Isn’t that interesting? It’s like they practically own most of everything in the mall. Frappe Bliss has moved around in many locations in the food court, but they currently reside between the Mambo Cafe and the Anime store.

Frappe Bliss was actually my first job that I ever had. I was so glad the job didn’t last long because as an Chinese person who can’t speak Cantonese or Mandarin, it was a HARD job! It was like trying to guess what people were trying to order. It makes you think, why they even hired me in the first place.

If you are an indecisive person, you can choose from the items on the left or you can customize your own by choosing the flavour of ice and toppings.

They first take a block of flavoured ice and put it in the ice shredding machine to turn the block of ice into the shaved ice you know and perhaps love! If you compact all the shaved ice that you get….it comes out to be  less than a cup of liquid. 🙁

I ordered the Peanut Iceburg ($3.60). It has peanut ice, chocolate sauce, and peanuts. This was pretty gross. The chocolate sauce was too sweet, and the peanut ice didn’t taste very peanut like. Three years ago, they had this amazing peanut sauce which you could have added, but I guess they stopped making it. I wasn’t satisfied with it. After eating this I wanted some frozen yogurt.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Popular ice flavours – Strawberry, Mango, yogurt
  • Best to order fruit toppings
  • Discounts found on their Facebook account (Usually 10%)
  • 10% using membership card

We rate Frappe Bliss:

Website: www.frappebliss.com

They are located at:

4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Frappe Bliss (Aberdeen Centre) on Urbanspoon

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Since FinanceGirl didn’t want Frappe Bliss, the went downstairs to Qoola to get some dessert.

She got the chocolate frozen yogurt and SFUPretender and I thought it had a very sour taste for chocolate but we assumed it was the yogurt taste.

I guess she was in a very chocolaty mood since she added chocolate chips and chocolate sprinkles all over her chocolate frozen yogurt. If you are a traditionalist, stuck with the regular one or the green tea flavour. You can’t go wrong with those.

Website: www.qoola.com

They are located at:

4151 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC
Qoola Frozen Yogurt + Fruit (Aberdeen Centre) on Urbanspoon

The Boss Restaurant is located in Metrotown near Zellers. When you are walking around the mall and you are craving chinese food, this is where most people go.

There are always lineups during peak hours…huge groups of people can be seen around the outside of the restaurant….thats how you know its packed. The Boss undergone renovation last year and looks  a lot  more amazing than before!

We arrived at about 5pm and they told us it’s going to be a while till we got a table. There were 4 of us…and when we looked through the windows we saw tons of booths empty… half the restaurant was empty…so…I wonder what happened!

Since TaiwaneseGirl and KoreanGirl decided to go do some more shopping, we decided to wait. It took us only 10 mins to get a table. But, half our group left..so CanuckGirl and I sat there looking at the menus and playing with our Iphones.

The interior.

As we waited, we both got tea. with my meal, I ordered a coffee and tea mix ($3.50). Basically it’s milk tea but with some coffee in it. It was good but I always hate how there is always so much ice. Did you know, when there is ice in your drink, you get less liquid? True Story!

CanuckGirl ordered the dried oyster and century egg and pork congee ($5.95). It was on one of their specials. It was good congee and very flavourful. When the dish arrives at the table, it smells amazing due to the sesame oil drizzles on top. Everything was blended well together. One thing CanuckGirl hated was the ginger.

I did the same thing too, but I had the drink with it. The only thing I didn’t like about mine was how there wasn’t enough century egg. I love those gross looking black eggs. I grew up with them, so I don’t think they are weird at all.

When TaiwaneseGirl and KoreanGIrl arrived, they ordered the breakfast special ($5). It came with congee of the day and your choice 1 of 4 dishes.

The congee of the day was Clam Congee.

KoreanGirl had the fried noodles and TaiwaneseGirl had the radish cakes.

Overall, the food was decent. A bit on the pricey side for the food you get compared to other HK Style Cafes. I only really come here for the convenience of the location.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Tons of Parking
  • Long waits during peak hours
  • Usually have set meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
  • Can’t go wrong with congee

We rate the Boss Restaurant:

They are located at:

4720 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
The Boss Restaurant (Metrotown) on Urbanspoon

Stepho’s Greek Taverna on Davie Street has been a really popular restaurant in Vancouver for their affordable greek food.

I have always had the misconception that greek food in Vancouver is fairly expensive. When I eat Greek food in Burnaby, an entree would cost anywhere from $15 – $20. BUT, at Stepho’s, you can have large portions for under $10. This is the reason why Stepho’s is always packed with customers during lunch and dinner time.

When we arrived at 5pm, we thought it shouldn’t be very busy, but there there was already a line up and most of the tables were full. Since it was just M and I, we quickly found a table for 2. Despite the large size of the interior and several tables, it was all full.

The menu comprises of the usual greek dishes you would find any other restaurant, but for way cheaper.

I enjoy playing with candles….so if you are a waitress or a waiter and you see the candles are messed up….ya…it was me. Stepho’s does not use traditional candles, like many other restaurants, they have adopted to use the electronic candles to simulate the same feeling. It took me a while to figure out why the candle did not feel hot.

We ordered the Saganaki ($4.95) for an appetizer. Saganaki is essentially fried cheese. I know it sounds grotesquely fatty….very fatty, but something about melted cheese just makes your heart melt every single time. Maybe it’s just me…but I would kill for melted cheese on any type of bread.

For the Saganaki, it came with a pita bread cut in half. We divided up the cheese and put it on our half of the pita bread. Since it is fried, you get a bit of “ooey gooey” and crispiness to the cheese.

If you are watching your weight, this is probably not a good appetizer.

M ordered the Roast Lamb Platter ($9.95). It came with a Roast Lamb, Greek Salad, Vegetable stew, Roast Potato, Rice Pilaf, Pickled Jalapeno, and a lemon. M devoured the greek salad, it was loaded with Feta cheese. The roast lamb was very flavourful, tender and succulent. It was not dry at all. The meat fell off the bone easily. He also enjoyed the rice since it was flavourful.

I ordered the Small Chicken Slouvaki ($7.95). It came with tzatziki sauce, greek salad, roast potatoes, Rice Pilaf, Pickled Jalapeno, lemon wedge, and a skewer of chicken.

This was a small…I can’t imagine how large, the large size would be. I enjoyed the rice pilaf, greek salad, tzatziki sauce, and the roasted potatoes. One thing I didn’t like was how dry and burnt tasting the chicken skewer was.

We also got more pita bread with our entrees.

Overall, we both had a good experience. The portions were large and at an affordable price. Don’t expect to have the best tasting greek food at Stepho’s, but one thing is for sure…you will be full.  The service on the other hand was not great, we often felt rushed with our meal. We spent a total of 35 minutes at Stepho’s. It’s either we eat fast, or they were trying to get us out as fast as possible.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Limited Parking in the rear
  • Street Meter parking in the front
  • Long line ups during peak hours
  • Large portions for under $10

We rate Stepho’s :

They are located at:

1124 Davie St
Vancouver, BC
Stepho's Souvlaki Greek Taverna on Urbanspoon

I went to Berry Good with my food buddies – SFUPretender and FinanceGirl. Berry Good serves desserts, coffee, and tea. Their specialty is Japanese and Korean inspired desserts. Perhaps the owners are Korean and Japanese.

They are located in Richmond near Garden City Road. The location is slightly hidden in a plaza, so you may want to google it before you go.

The interior is small and cozy. Since it is getting close to Christmas, they even put up a small tree.

Most of their daily desserts are displayed near the cashier. You have to go look at them before you order. They have about 8 cakes on display. Not a large selection, but you know they put effort and care into their desserts by keeping the quantity low.

They offer combos with a dessert and drink from $6- $9. These drink can range from cold and hot teas and coffees.

SFUPretender ordered the Raspbery Chocolate mousse. The raspberry chocolate mousse is layered within chocolate cake. I tried a bit of it and it was ok.

FinanceGirl had the White Chocolate Cheesecake. It was really good. it was on top of a bed of oreo cookies. The cheesecake was very flavourful and rich. I would recommend people getting this.

I got the green tea mousse cake. The bottom was made out of vanilla cake, then green tea mousse, red beans, and green tea jelly on top. I originally thought the red beans would be through out the cake, but as I was eating it, it was only on the outside. If you hate red beans, there really isn’t that much, so don’t be scared by it. The green tea mousse seems to be a popular choice at Berry Good. It’s unique!

After we finished our dessert, the restaurant became packed. All the tables were full an everyone seemed like they were enjoying the desserts. There were lots of couples too.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in font
  • If you afraid of disappointment, look online for more reviews.
  • They accept cards and cash.

We rate Berry Good:

They are located at:

#1120-8766 McKim Way  ( In Excel Centre)
Richmond, BC


Berry Good on Urbanspoon

I am delaying my other blog posts to talk about a magical delight called TURDUCKEN!

After hearing about this a few years ago, I attempted to build the Turducken, but deboning poutry is really really hard!! Clearly I failed and just sauteed all the meat to make a stir fry. After this hard endeavour, I vowed never to try this again.

I was roaming around Facebook, I found PhotographyGIrl’s picture of a Turducken. Apparently they sell frozen ones at Save-on-Foods. I ventured there today to find this delectable creation.

After digging through a few frozen turkeys, I found the Turducken. There wasn’t a price, but I didn’t think It would be too expensive. I lined up at the cash register and they told me it was $89.99 and it’s on sale for $85.99. The turducken was not that big, so I didn’t think the price of it was justifiable.

I clearly couldn’t make this purchase or else my mother and sister would slap me. For $80 you can make yourself a decent Turkey Dinner for your family.

Sites to help you prepare turducken:

On a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother titled “Happy Turturkeykey Day”, Ted fixes a parody dish called Turturkeykey. I thought it was funny.

Has anyone attempted making a Turducken before? Any tips? Did it taste as good as you imagined?

I have seen ads all over Vancouver advertising the new dipping sauces for the holiday season. Since we were here anyways…I thought I would try it just for the heck of it.

I ordered my 10 piece Mc Nuggets and asked for the Holiday Cranberry Sauce , Jolly Green Apple and my favorite Honey Mustard (as a safety).

BigBaby, KoreanGirl, and SingingGirl wanted to try it too…so we dipped nuggets and fries into the sauce and it was an interesting experience. The Cranberry sauce tasted similar to the sauce you would have with turkey. The Jolly Green apple was like Jolly Rancher candy.

When you put these sweet sauces with a savory item like nuggets…it does not taste great.

I totally get the effect that Mc Donalds was going for…sauces that reflect the Holiday Season. I am so glad they still have the usual sauces like Honey Mustard, Sweet & Sour and BBQ.

If  you are planning to order Mc Nuggets anytime soon, why not just try the sauces for fun and gross your friends out. Sauces are free so take as many as you want!

McDonald's (Main & Terminal) on Urbanspoon

Excellent Tofu and Snack LTD. looks pretty sketchy from the outside but they make some amazing tofu dessert. Perfect for a snack or after dinner dessert….or if you are a tofu fanatic…you would just come here anytime.

The inside looks like a typically crappy asian place. Plain decor, but if you can put that all aside, you should have an amazing tofu experience.

Their menu has pictures so you know what you are going to get.

They also have another menu with english and chinese, but I avoided it because I was afraid I would order the wrong thing. Sometimes I wish I could read Chinese.

SFUPretender and FinanceGirl both got the Soy Pudding with pearls ($3.50). It was basically tofu pudding topped with a good amount of pearls. You can sweeten up with their syrups – liquid sugar or liquid ginger sugar. If you are unsure which one you prefer, try it before you pour it all over your tofu dessert.

The syrups can be found in these tubes around the restaurant.

I ordered the tofu pudding with mixed fruit with light milk ($4). The fruits are the typical fruit that come from cans and are preserved in syrup.

I love this place because they make all their tofu from scratch and it smells heavenly! When I was walking to the washroom, you can really smell the soy beans.

Words of Wisdom:

  • Parking in the parking lot, but it’s usually full during peak hours. Alternative parking at Aberdeen Mall or Parker Place.
  • Tofu dessert is a must!
  • Really inexpensive, should cost you less than $5
  • They also sell a variety of soy drinks and soy desserts to go.

We rate Excellent Tofu & Snack LTD. :

They are located at:

160-4231 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Excellent Tofu & Snack Ltd on Urbanspoon

Vij’s serves indian infused fusion food. I’ve heard a lot of great things about this place and I thought it was time I try it.

Since I gave away my Blackberry to TaipeiGirl, she took me and TaiwaneseGirl out for dinner. I was super happy because well…Vij is quite pricey.

We just missed the first sitting at the restaurant and had to wait in the back of the restaurant near the bar. We were about the 3rd party waiting and we were told we would have to wait 1hr to 1.5 hrs. Since they do not take reservations, we just waited. It was probably one of the best waiting experiences I have ever had! Nice atmosphere and there were even chairs and tables to have a small conversation.

Before we knew it, the waiting area filled up. This was at least better than waiting outside in the cold. Vij knows how to treat their loyal customers.

As we were waiting, the waitress passed around some samples of different foods that they had. In total they had about 4 variations of samples. They had strange names so I don’t remember most of them. None of them were bad at all! We probably ate everything twice while we were waiting, but still we were happy.

After about 1 hour of waiting, a table cleared up. The lighting was really nice and not too dim. The lamps even add a little something something to the ambiance.

The menu was pretty text heavy…and as a graphic designer… they could have formatted the menu a bit better. They do have a variety of different appies and entrees.

Our water came with a refillable jug on the table. It looked pretty cool so I snapped a picture. It looks like it could be an artifact of some sort. Perhaps I am strange and like things that I would not see in everyday life.

We started with the Samosas ($13). They are filled with lamb and beef sauteed in fennel, cloves and sumac. It also came with naan bread. TaipeiGirl did not take a liking to it since she does not have a high tolerance for the taste of lamb. TaiwaneseGirl didn’t really like lamb but she tried it anyways. We both enjoyed it and the sauce went really well with the samosa.

TaiwaneseGirl ordered the grilled salmon ($28). It came with a coconut and green onion curry. We all came to a consensus that the salmon tasted a bit different that what we would like it to be. It tasted like grilled skin.  On the other hand, the Coconut and green onion curry was fantastic!

TaipeiGirl ordered the Braised Beef short ribs ($27). It is braised in yogurt, fenugreek and cumin curry. This was really good. The meat was really tender and most enjoyable!

I ordered the wine marinated lamb popsicles ($27)in fenugreek curry on turmeric and spinach potatoes. This is the most ordered item at Vij’s and you can’t go wrong with this dish…unless you hate lamb. The lamb is succulent and tender! I would eat this every single time if I could.

Our entrees came with Naan bread and rice to go with our curry sauces. We got full really fast due to all the naan. Naan is so good!

Overall we had a positive experience, but I think Vij’s was too hyped up from friends so we kinda had very high expectations for it. If you compare Vij’s to other indian cuisine places, you can tell Vij’s uses really fresh high quality ingredients.

Words of Wisdom:

  • No reservations
  • Long line ups, unless you go before 5:30pm to line up
  • Lamb Popsicles and Beef Short Ribs are a must!!
  • This is not your everyday Indian Fusion restaurant… expect to pay around $30 – $45

Website: http://www.vijsrestaurant.ca/

They are located at:

1480 W 11th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Vij's on Urbanspoon

SFUPretender highly recommended we visit the 3 foodcarts in Richmond near River Rock Casino, so we decided to take a trip! I’ve heard people talk about the foodcarts, but never really had an urge to go until now.

The famous 3 foodcarts – Shoryumen, Fumisen and Bakudanyaki sell sushi cones, ramen, and giant takoyaki.

We drove and there was tons of parking! If you don’t have a car, they are located right across the street from the Canada Line.

Bakudanyaki sells giant Takoyaki the size of baseballs. Their filling the the takoyaki does vary once in a while, but today they had the Seafood Bakudan for $5.

You can choose what type of mayo you would like your bakudanyaki.

For my Bakudanyaki, I chose the wasabi mayo.

When you begin eating the bakudanyaki, you are greeted with the various ingredients – egg, shrimp, calamari, corn, onion, carrot and potatoes. You might be wondering when you have so many ingredients packed inside, but if the ball was just made like a normal takoyaki, it would be fragile and fall apart easily.

The bakudanyaki was well made and it really did taste like a big takoyaki.

Clearly a great idea and I would get this again.

We rate Tenku Bakudanyaki:
Tenku Bakudanyaki on Urbanspoon

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Shoryumen is the ramen food cart. You can choose from ramen noodles or udon noodles. you can choose miso, curry or shoyu (Soy sause) soup stock. You can add extra toppings for 50 cents.

For my ramen, I got the curry ramen with corn and garlic chips ($7.75). The egg was cooked perfectly and was not over or under cooked. The garlic chips were not a crunchy as I would have liked. They ended up just sticking to my teeth.

FinanceGirl got the Miso Udon ($6.75).

SFUPretender got the Shoyu Udon ($6.75).

In the end we finished it right up. Instead of just disposing the bowl with soup in the trash, you can give it back to them to properly dispose of the soup.

We rate Shoryumen:


Shoryumen on Urbanspoon

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Fumisen sells sushi cones in 3 sizes – small ($3.75), medium ($5) and JUMBO ($8.50).

There are 4 steps into making your sushi cone:

  1. pick a type of rice
  2. pick a protein filling
  3. pick 2 vegetable fillings
  4. pick a sauce

I got a medium cone with salmon rice, scallop chop chop, salmon sashimi, avacado, tobiko, and wasabi mayo. I wanted to try both the scallop chop chop and salmon sashimi, so they were nice enough to give me both! What I LOVE about the cones was how fresh the seafood is.

If you don’t know what toppings to add into your cone, you can always ask the staff because they are the experts.

Apparently, they buy their sashimi and seafood in small batches to ensure quality and freshness.

FinanceGirl got the Medium cone with salmon sashimi, lettuce, tobiko and mayo.

SFUPretender got a small cone with chicken teriyaki, mango…and I am not 100% what else was in there. It looks good and it tasted good so I guess whats what matters!

We rate Fumisen:

Fumisen! on Urbanspoon

All the carts are located at:

8740 Charles St
Richmond, BC