March 2011

Midam Rice Cake Cafe

March 20, 2011

BusanGirl was feeling super hungry, so we headed to Midam Rice Cake Cafe. I’ve never heard of this place because its hidden in Korean Town. It is mostly known to the Korean community.If you are not Korean, you should find a Korean person to help you order and suggest items for you to eat.

Any Korean restaurant that I go to, I always bring one of my Korean friends to help me…or else I would be so lost.

Midam Rice Cake Cafe is located right beside Han Nam Mart (NOT H Mart).

They specialize in food with Korean Rice Cakes. From desserts to main dishes.

The inside of this place is very comfortable and has a traditional Korean feel to it. The music of this cafe changes 3 times during the day. In the afternoon, they play traditional Korean music with Gayagum. Near 5pm, they play kpop and then at night it basically becomes a bar and has louder music.

Most tables fit 4 people and its a great place to study or have chats with friends. Not too many people know about this place so it’s really good to study at.

We got tea in this super cool looking cup.

This is comprised of ice, milk, peanut rice cake, red beans and vanilla ice cream. Imagine this as the Korean version of Chinese Shaved Ice.

The best way to eat this is to try to get a bit of everything on your spoon, or you could mix it all together.

My main thing that I wanted to do was drink tea, so I ordered kukwahcha (chrysanthemum) tea ($4.99). The chrysanthemum tea has a very strange taste to it but I really could not pin point what this flavour is.

The tea cups are SO cute, they are double layered so it keeps you tea hot for longer. The design prevents the loss of heat and lowers that rate.

BusanGirl ordered the Bulgogi vegetable in hot pot . The hot pot has a very nice savory broth. The quality of their bulgogi was very poor and you know it’s not the best quality.

The rice that comes with the hot pot is a mixture of wild rice and white rice, thus the light purple appearance.

BusanGirl’s meal also came with 3 side dishes – kimchi, pickled chives and black beans.

I found ordering here was super hard because the different types of desserts are not always available. I was so confused that I just let BusanGirl do all the ordering. Even though there is english on the menu, it is still very confusing. I still look back at the menu and I really have no idea how to navigate it.

Midam Rice Cake Cafe is the place to go when you want drink and snacks. There is really no pressure and you can basically spend hours here without being shooed away.

Words of Wisdom:

Free Parking in the front
Servers may not be very fluent in english (best to bring a Korean friend)
Not all desserts are available…you must ask server
Most items under $10
Quality food is so-so

We Rate Midam Rice Cake Cafe:

Address:

110-4501 North Road
Burnaby, BC

In Downtown

Fairmont Lobby Lounge: Carvery Luncheon

March 19, 2011

I bought a Social Shopper coupon for a Carvery Luncheon at the Lobby Lounge at the Fairmont Pacific Rim. The deal is good for $20 for 2 Carvery lunch sets ($40 value).

The Lobby lounge is located on the first floor of the Fairmont Pacific Rim. As you can tell by the name, it is located near the lobby. It is an open space and has lots of comfy chairs…VERY comfy chairs. It’s a great place to have a few drinks, appies and have a good chat or a meeting.

For a drink, I was feeling like a non-alcoholic drink, so I ordered the Flower Pot ($8). It’s not a tea or anything, it’s just a soda. It was really good and refreshing, but $8 was quite steep ..but it is the Fairmont, so its expected.

The carvery meats used in the sandwich is cut in the dining room, if you sit close enough, you can see them cutting the prime rib and doing their thing.

The Carvery Luncheon ($20) comes with choice of soup or salad, fries, prime rib burger and condiments on the side.

We could choose from a tomato and garden soup or Caesar salad. Flo said the soup was pretty average and nothing too spectacular. I chose the Caesar salad, lightly dressed, cheese on top and has 2 crouton things on the side. I enjoyed it!

Both choices are healthy alternatives and you can’t really go wrong.

The fries that come with the luncheon were very poorly made. It was not crispy and they were very limp. It seemed like the frozen fries you would get at the grocery store and make at home. We were both very disappointed since we expected more from the Fairmont.

The main item of the luncheon is the prime rib sandwich. Comes in a nice toasted bun, super tender prime rib slices, and a bit of sauce. You can also add a bit of stuff to your sandwich. The is mustard, horseradish, pickles, hot peppers, pickled onions, and beef juice.

You can spread the horeseradish and mustard into the sandwich or dip it as you go. Many endless possibilities of how you want to go about eating it.

If you don’t want to use your hands to eat this, you can use your knife and fork. I found that the best way to go about it was to cut the sandwich in half so you can dip it into the sauces.

Overall, great luncheon for the Social Shopper deal (Saving 50%!). If you don’t have the coupon, you can order this during lunch time for $20 per person. The service was very poor in my opinion. We made a reservation but there was no one at the Lobby Lounge entrance to lead us to the reserved table, so we just walked in and seated ourselves. We waited a long while till a server came to greet us.

Even though you use the coupon, there is a social shopper gratuity added onto the bill so you do have to pay about $8.

We Rate Lobby Lounge at Fairmont Pacific Rim:

Address:

1038 Canada Pl
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.fairmont.com/pacificrim/GuestServices/Restaurants/LobbyLoungeandPatio.htm

In Cafe

Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant

March 19, 2011

InsecureGirl hasn’t eaten out in a few days and she basically went a bit insane and really really wanted to eat out. We all didn’t want to waste too much money so FragileBoy suggested we go to Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant for some good cheap chinese food. He recommended it because its a place which his parents love.

We came and parked from the back, so it does look a bit ghetto, but I assure you it’s not that bad. If you are a big fan of engrish, “Dr1ver no no hit to fence”, will surely crack you up. I was so entertained that I had to take a picture of it.

Once we parked our car, we entered through their ghetto door…yes ghetto but not creepy at all. You just walk past the kitchen into their dining area. You get to glance at the cleanliness of their kitchen and judge for yourself.

The dining room is very colorful and has tons of seating. It looks nothing like their back, so don’t start judging. I know you probably have judged them up to this point. No worries, i did too until I saw the dining area and their menu.

All the dishes we ordered comes with a complementary soup. We could choose from vegetable soup or cream soup. We all just decided to have cream soup. It was ok, mostly corn and ham inside.

We ordered the fried rice (yan su ji fan). This is M’s favorite dish…like seriously …probably the only item he can order in Mandarin. It’s a normal fried rice with the usual vegetables and meat. It was good and cheap!

This was their chicken chow mein with black bean sauce. The noodles were nice and super crispy! You know it’s a good dish when the noodles are crisp and not soggy.

Then we got the stir fried flat noodle with beef and soy sauce. Good tender slices of beef. We loved this dish because it did not contain as much oil as other restaurants.

For dessert we could choose our desserts to be mango pudding. It was very good but what would make this dessert even better is if they had mango bits inside. Mmmm.

I couldn’t find anything bad about the food, it’s good for the price and does fill you up. All this came out to be $29 in total after taxes. 4 people, so it came out to less than $10. We shared all the dishes and we got super full!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in rear
Cheap prices, good food
They use less oil in their cooking
Set meals
Complementary soup and dessert

We rate Sun Yee Cafe Restaurant:

Address:

2128 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

In Fast Food

McDonald’s Double Filet-O-Fish

March 18, 2011

I kept seeing a bunch of advertisements on billboard about Filet O Fish at McDonalds. I have no idea why they are doing such a big advertising push for this sandwich. It’s just a regular filet o fish sandwich but with 2 fish patties.

Since the sandwich is a bit taller than the usual filet o fish, it is housed in a larger blue container.

The only difference is the addition of the fish patty. The way this McDonalds made it was wrong. Instead of the cheese in the middle, the cheese was on the bottom.

By not having the cheese between the 2 patties, the 2 patties were sliding around and made it difficult to eat. Since the ratio between the patty and the tar tar sauce is not the same, you really don’t get enough of the tar tar sauce. I really did not like the Filet O Fish as a double. I am a sucker for the tartar sauce, so adding the extra patty did not do it for me.

I would probably not get the double filet-o-fish again and just stick with the normal Filet-O-Fish.

In Event

$2 burgers at SFU Highland Pub

March 18, 2011

Yesterday was an epic night at SFU during St. Patricks Day. The Student Marketing Association was hosting their pub night and since I’ve never been there for St. Pattys day, I thought it would be a good idea to go. Plus, peer pressure!

I was really hoping there would be food because we were starving! We were super hungry and that was the only thing on our minds. My friends and I were in meetings/classes the entire day.

It was packed by people who were wearing green… LOTS of green and funky green hats…painted faces…GREEN GREEN GREEN.

The pub is still in it’s 2nd phase of renovations, so only the lower level is complete. It still look super amazing!

On Thursdays, they offer $2 burger… there is a minimum order of 3 burgers per table. So, since we were so hungry we got 3 each. We were expecting small white castle burgers, but we were blown away by full sized burgers for $2.

If you only want one burger, grab a few friends and split 3 burgers.

The burger has mayo, cheese and patty. No vegetables at all, if you are a man, you will love this! I’m not a guy but I loved it because I was so hungry. The quality of the burgers were not bad either, better than a Mcdonalds cheese burger! The best part of it was the cheese! Its not the crappy kraft slices, this was real cheddar cheese! Every bite you would get would have a mouth full of ooey gooey cheese with the savory taste from the burger.

Since it was St. Patricks day, no visit can be done without a pitcher of green beer. It was not vibrant green but more of a seaweed green. Kinda creepy, but it did taste like normal beer…but with food coloring.

A pitcher was $10, so it was not too bad at all.

They had some crazy amazing deals like $3 high balls, and $2.75 tequila. Clearly some people had a bit too much and all over the place. If you were wondering, I was not one of those people. Green beer all the way!

Some people have wondered, does drinking green beer turn your pee green. If you have 3 pints which I had, you shouldn’t have that problem. If you drink a few pitchers you may have the green pee issue.

Address:

8888 Unversity High St
Burnaby, BC

Website:

http://highlandpub.ca/

In Fast Food

Tim Horton’s Breakfast Wraps

March 17, 2011

As I was going up Granville Station to get to Dunsmuir, I really wanted to try their breakfast wraps. So, being a greedy food lady, I couldn’t help myself but to get a combo. It comes with a drink, hash brown, and the wrap.

I’ve been eyeing the breakfast wraps for a while but I’ve never wake up early enough to go get it until now.

The hashbrown is made of shredded potato, seasoning, and toasted. It tasted ok, but not as good as Mcdonald’s Hashbrowns.

The sausage breakfast wrap was a major disappointment. It is wrapped in the same pita wraps that they use for their other chicken wraps. Inside the wrap, there is sausage patty, cheddar cheese and scrabbled eggs. I look more picture of the inside, but it was so ugly, I didn’t want to post it up. The taste was alright, but not the best. It’s what you would expect cause it’s fast food.

I try not to believe in “roll up the rim to win”. Sadly, I still didn’t win anything.

Have you won anything?

Photo: Karen Neal/Fox

Even though I am a Canadian, I do not love Tim Hortons. I will get food or drinks if it’s convenient.

Uh oh, is someone going to beat me up? I do like their Iced Cappuccinos.

What I love about How I Met Your Mother is how they always make fun of Canadians. They even had an episode called “Dual Citizenship”, where it revolved around Robin getting a Dual Citizenship. If you are Canadian , you’ll just crack up during this whole episode. Even Tim Hortons is featured in the episode.

In Fast Food

McDonalds Shamrock Shake

March 16, 2011

Before going to class, M and I stopped by McDonalds. Once a year near St. Patricks day, McDonalds offers their Shamrocks shakes.

The shamrock shake is a mint version of the usual milkshake, thus the green flavour. It was first developed in the 1970’s and is still here to this day. They make this milk shake by adding mint syrup with vanilla ice cream.

At first glance, the Shamrock Shake was not as green as I would have imagined. Just a pale green color. Anything that looks a bit abnormal in color is probably created by food coloring.

When I took my first sip, it tasted like a mint chocolate aero bar. Sweet, milky with a hint of mint flavour. I am not a big fan of milkshakes but it was bearable to drink. The Shamrock shake is a great seasonal item, but the aftertaste is not the most pleasant.

If you want to try this out, it’s available now till the end of March.

Old commercial by McDonalds.

In Food for Thought

Secret Menu’s of Fast Food Chains

March 16, 2011

My friend sent me an article about Fast Food Chains in the States having secret menus. You can order some very bizzare items… or even some old favorites that have been discontinued.

Coupon Sherpa of www.Couponsherpa.com wrote an article called ‘24 Secret Restaurant Menus Revealed‘, he lists 24 different fast food restaurants and the different items you can order. Looking at this list, more than half the list does not apply to Canada at all. But, it’s still pretty cool to see some of the weirdest sandwiches ever made. Perhaps I’ll take a trip to the states and go nuts by ordering the most obscure items. I can’t confirm if all of these items are available, but I am pretty sure you can order the specific ingredients to put that sandwich together. Do It Yourself type of thing.

I have been guilty of ordering a few of these items on the menus such as the McGangBang (McDonalds) and London Fog (Starbucks). I actually don’t go up to the counter to specifically order a McGangBang. If I did, I would get some pretty weird looks. They might even think I would want to rob the place. It’s pretty weird how he mentions Starbucks’s london fog since they did introduce it a while ago to their menu. If you want a cheaper version of the London Fog, order an Earl Grey misto with 2 pumps of vanilla syrup.

If you have ordered these items that aren’t on their regular menu, let us know what your experience was.

Below is a condensed list of secret menus available in Vancouver.

Arbys

Chicken Cordon Bleu Sandwich – This spin on the cordon bleu is a chicken breast with a piece of ham on top of it with melted Swiss cheese.
Wet Fries – Hot fries smothered in cheese sauce.
French Dip – This is a classic Arby’s menu item that is off most menu’s but can still be ordered.

Burger King

Mustard Whopper – This is a normal Whopper with one difference, mustard is spread onto the sandwich instead of mayo.
Veggie Whopper – A great alternative for vegetarians who love the flavor of Burger King, the beef is substituted for with a veggie patty.
BLT – A bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich that comes in either a small or medium size.
Ham and Cheese – A classic sandwich option that you can have served either hot or cold.
Frings – An order of frings will split your French fry order with onion rings.
Suicide Burger – This is a large burger including four meat patties, four slices of cheese, bacon and special sauce.
Rodeo Burger – A burger assembled with onion rings and bbq sauce on it.
BK Club – This sandwich is the Original chicken sandwich with bacon, tomato, and cheese.

Dairy Queen

Chocolate Chip Blizzard – This blizzard sounds like your basic chocolate chip ice cream, but its not. It is made with quick to harden chocolate usually used on the dipping cones.
Banana Split Blizzard – All your basic banana split flavors blended together into a blizzard.
Jack and Jill Sundae – A classic sundae with marshmallow and hot fudge.
Lavender Blue Sundae – This is a blueberry sundae with marshmallow.
Frozen Hot Chocolate – In some places this is still on the menu seasonally, but basically it is hot chocolate blended with ice to give it a frozen crunch.
Peanut Buster Parfait – This is a multi level sundae combining fudge, vanilla soft serve, and peanuts.

Fat Burger

Hypocrite – A veggie burger topped with bacon.

KFC/A&W

Poutine – This is a Canadian favorite that includes French fries, fried cheese curds, and gravy layered together.

McDonalds

Biscuits and Gravy – This one may only be available in the South – but it’s the classic combination of gravy smothering hot biscuits.
McKinley Mac – A big Mac with quarter pounder patties.
Grilled Cheese – A bun grilled with American cheese inside.
Big Mac with Quarter Pounder Patties – This is great if you are looking to decrease the cost and calories of the classic Big Mac Sandwich. You get the entire flavor with less meat.
All American – This is a normal sized hamburger with only pickles and ketchup.
Big McChicken – This is a huge sandwich in which the chicken patties replace the bun.
Fries with Big Mac Sauce – Fries smothered in the secret and special big Mac Sauce.
Chicken and Waffles – This is a McGriddle sandwich with chicken in the middle.
Neopolitan Milk Shake – 1/3 vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry ice creams blended together into one shake.
McLeprichon – This shake is only available in March and is composed of the shamrock shake mixed with the chocolate shake making a mint chocolate shake.
Pie McFlurry – If you purchase a pie you can have it blended into your McFlurry.
McGangBang – This is a double cheeseburger with a chicken patty in between the two beef patties.
Land, Sea, and Air Burger – The Land, Sea, and Air burger, has a beef patty, chicken patty, and fillet-o-fish patty all piled high onto a bun.
Root Beer Float – You can pick any size of root beer and they will add the vanilla ice cream on top.
Coke Float – Any size of coke with ice cream. You can even get it with chocolate ice cream.
Monster Mac – A big Mac composed of 8 meat patties.
2 Cheese Burger Meal Mac – Two cheese burgers, fries and a drink.

Starbucks – With the large variety of different Starbucks franchises it is important to know what’s in any hidden menu drink you order. Many should know these options however, since they are not all the same just remember the ingredients in case they do not know and they will be happy to make the drink for you.

Biscotti Frapuccino – This is a typical frapuccino but it has a biscotti blended inside. You will have to purchase the biscotti separate when you are checking out, but you can have it in any flavor frap.
Short Drink – This is a less expensive version of any Starbucks drink. It is smaller than a tall with a lower price.
Red Eye – This is a shot of espresso in regular drip coffee.
Black Eye – This drink has 2 shots of espresso in regular drip coffee.
Green Eye – This drink includes 3 shots of espresso in regular drip coffee.
Poor Mans Latte – We recommend you do not tell your Barista you are planning on creating this drink when you order. Order an iced Americano with no water and half ice, then use the free milk on the side to mix it up to your standards.
Poor Mans Chai Latte – Same recommendation as above applies here. Order a Chai Tea Misto with extra foam, two tea bags, and half cinnamon and half vanilla syrup.
French Pressed Coffee – If you want coffee served fresh from a French press you may have it with any variety in the shop.
Chocolate Cream Frapuccino – This is a frapuccino made with chocolate syrup and chocolate frapuccino base.
Cake Batter Frap – Order a vanilla frappucino and ask for both the vanilla bean and almond flavorings. It will taste just like cake batter.
Crunchberry Frap – Flavored like the crunchberry cereal, this is a strawberrys and cream frappucino with hazelnut flavoring.
Strawberry Blended Lemonade – Although this had been taken off the menu, most locations will still blend the strawberry flavoring with lemonade for you.
London Fog – This is made with vanilla flavoring in Earl Gray Tea.
Zebra Mocha (also called a Tuxedo or Penguin Mocha) – This is a mix of the white chocolate and regular chocolate mochas.
Red Tux Mocha (also called Bleeding Penguin) – The same mix of white chocolate and regular chocolate mocha with raspberry flavoring.

Subway

Pizza Sub – This sub was taken of the menu in most locations when Subway began marketing itself as healthy alternative to fast food. However, upon request you can get the Pizza Sub which combines cheese, tomato sauce, and pepperoni.

Taco Bell

Cheesy Gordita Crunch – This is a seasonal favorite for many, however it can be ordered year round.
Green Sauce – Although this sauce is still available in most South West locations, if you request it at your local restaurant usually they will have it on hand.
Double Grilled Quesadilla – An extra crispy quesadilla.
Chili Cheese Burrito – A burrito filled with chili and cheese instead of the usual mixes.
Enchirito – This is a enchilada of beef, beans, cheese, diced onions, and red sauce.

Wendy’s

Grand Slam – This burger has a total of four meat patties.
Big Bacon Classic – This is your classic burger with bacon.
Value Crispy Chicken Club – A reduced price Crispy Chicken sandwich with bacon, lettuce, tomato, and mayo.
Jr. Cheeseburger Deluxe – This value sized burger includes lettuce, tomato, onions, pickles, and ketchup.
Barnyard – A spicy chicken sandwich with ham, bacon and beef separated by cheese.

In Chinese

Deer Garden Restaurant

March 15, 2011

Over the past weekend, the family and I went to devour some Alaskan King crab. I am sure you have heard all the hype since it’s in season. Since we are located on the westcoast close to Alaska, we get high quality crabs for a great deal.

We ventured out to Coquitlam to Deer Garden Restaurant. We heard they had a new batch of King Crab and made a reservation.

The best time to come during the day is 6pm, at least thats what the restaurant told us to go at.

They were absolutely right! When we arrived at 6pm, a hoard of other families made reservations at 6pm too. Crab after crab were flying out of the tanks….from small ones to gigantic ones.

One thing I did not understand was how they were flipping over the crab and showing us which one would be for our meal. Since my family has been here before, we know they do this to disguise the quality of the crab. We double checked that our crab was alive and all limbs were attached. They rush through the whole process so you won’t be able to notice any flaws. Another table we observed ordered a 17 pound crab but the waitress let the table glance for 2 seconds and then dashed off into the kitchen. Their crab was missing half a leg. Is this normal? It seemed a bit strange to me.

This was the menu. I cannot read Chinese to save my life, so it translates to – King crab 4 types, $17.88 per pound

Portugese Baked Fried Rice (Head)
Salt and chilli crab (Body)
Crab legs in Garlic and green onion
Crab legs in Ginger and Garlic Sauce

The crab that we got was 9.75 pounds for 6 people. It was the perfect weight and we ate everything!

The first dish that came was a soup, it comes complementary with the meal. I’m not exactly sure what it’s called…but hey it tasted good and was edible. Not complaining at all.

The body was turned into salt and chili fried crab. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. There are also garlic chips in this dish. I love garlic chips!

Half of the legs were prepared with garlic and green onion toppings. If you are a garlic fan, you will love this dish. It’s not over powering. What I love about this dish is how you don’t have to crack open all legs to get to the meat. You can get down and dirty with it by using your hands to pull out the meat or forking it.

The other half was a green onion and ginger sauce. I actually prefer this one over the garlic version because it is a bit more sweet and you don’t get the mass amounts of garlic falling off when you eat it.

Our family wastes no part of the crab… not even it’s precious juices. We ordered 2 places of wonton noodles to add it to the left over crab juices. Apparently it’s quite normal and you do get more food!

The head of the crab is flipped upside down and stuffed with Portugese Baked Fried Rice. The crab that is in the fried rice is imitation crab, not the actual meat from the crab. Nonetheless, still delicious.

Since we were feeling a little bit fat after all the seafood and carbs, we thought it would redeem ourselves by ordering their daily vegetable special which was baby bok choy in a garlic sauce.

At the end of the meal, we got Coconut Milk Tapioca Soup.

Overall, the food was decent. All the food came fairly quickly and was prepared well. The only flaw was how the waitresses would try to rush you with the order and not give you a lot of time to inspect the crab you are getting. I know, it’s understandable that they are trying to be efficient and get through all their tables.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on street and parking lot
Best to make reservation for crab
Lots of seats to accomodate large groups

We Rate Deer Garden Restaurant:

Address:

3610 Westwood Street
Port Coquitlam, BC

In Cafe

Well Tea (Richmond)

March 15, 2011

After dinner at Man Ri Sung, M, InsecureGirl, FragileBoy and I wanted to stay in Richmond to chill a bit. We wandered and ended up at Well Tea.

Well Tea is a Chinese cafe, so it serves up bubble tea, snacks and set meals.

I’ve been to the Downtown location near BCIT, and the look is completely different. This one has more of a asian garden type of feel. Very green and the theme carries across the restaurant onto their walls and even the floor. It has these glass boxes with items inside.

One feature I like about Well Tea is how there is a button to call the waitress for orders, more water or even playing the bill. You don’t have to be that awkward person putting up your hand and flagging down the waitress.

InsecureGirl ordered the Calpis Green Tea.

FragileBoy ordered the Green Milk Tea.

M had the Chocolate pudding milk tea. He wanted to get it with real milk rather than the powdered milk. He tends to throw up most of the time. Sadly, they did not have any alternative milk choices for any of their bubble teas.

I was also trying to be healthy. I was looking at all their teas and none of them seemed like usual non-sweet teas. After talking to the waitress, the only option was Hot green tea, no sugar. I did feel a bit cheated of my money because at other places, tea would be free and they would have more variety if they charged. Nonetheless, I was super thirsty, so this did relieve my thirst.

1 tea, 3 bubble teas = $20.44. It was an ok price since our goal going here was just to drink and talk.

Words of Wisdom:

Cool decor, nice ambiance
Lots of varieties of drink and food
Good place to talk over drinks

We rate Well Tea:

Address:
4811 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

Website:

welltea.ca

In Bar and Grill

ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro

March 14, 2011

Another wonderful day for a lunch in Downtown Vancouver and I decided to check out ShuRaku. Apparently I’ve been here before..about a year ago for dinner, but I keep forgetting every time I pass by.

ShuRaku specializes in contemporary Japanese cuisine. Their lunch menu has several set meals between $9 to $15.

Their interior is very modern. They also have a wide selection of sake and other alcoholic beverage. They have a very large menu of different sake choices. (DUH, they are a sake bar). Since I was going to lunch, I really didn’t need to be suffering from the “asian glow”and going back to work would be awkward. Perhaps another time for dinner.

I started off by ordering a pot of tea of Sencha Green Tea (about $2/$3). Tea is not free, but there are about 5 or 6 teas to choose from. The pot that comes with the tea is quite heavy, you will be really getting an arm work out.

It’s like a double whammy of healthiness… arm workout + 0 calorie drink!

I ordered the Karaage Nanban Chicken Set ($9.95). It has deep fried chicken with sweet and sour Nanban sauce. The set also came with salad, rice and miso soup.

The karaage was boneless and under the fried exterior was juicy succulent meat inside. One of the better karrage’s I have had this whole week! The salad was mostly mixed greens with a nice citrus sauce. There is really not much to say about the miso soup and the rice since those taste pretty much the same as other restaurants.

Words of Wisdom:

Great atmosphere
Lunch sets
Lots of variety of alcohol

We Rate ShuRaku Sake Bar and Bistro:

Address:

833 Granville St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.shuraku.net

In Chinatown

Phnom Penh: Visit #2

March 14, 2011

When DesignGirl told me that we were meeting up with MadamMilton, BaguetteGirl, and DermaMan for Vietnamese food, I thought we were just going to get pho. Boy, was I mistaken! We headed to Phnom Penh, where the menu items are as diverse as our pronunciations for the restaurant name.

Phnom Penh is tucked away in Chinatown, and its tasty treasures are masked behind its ordinary exterior and red and white sign board. But inside the restaurant, things were hustlin’ and bustlin’. DesignGirl had dined here previously, so she knew all the right things to order.

With most meals, you get complementary soup, sprouts and hot sauce.

We started off with the Rice Special A – a Vietnamese hodpodge of rice, grilled chicken, Vietnamese ham, egg, and sides of lettuce. This reminded me a bit of Korean bibimbap, as you have to get a little bit of everything and mix the rice all up in it. I drizzled a bit of their mild vinegar over my bowl, and it sure was delish! DermaMan said that this was his favorite dish of the day.

We then ventured onwards to try the phnom papaya salad, which BaguetteGirl ordered since she loves papayas. I couldn’t quite taste the papaya here, as it felt more like radish. It consisted of ‘papaya’, peanuts, hot peppers, shrimp, and mint. It was definitely refreshing and crispy, but because it was so rainy and cold outside, it was more difficult for me to appreciate a cold dish.

Up next was the phnom 2 noodle. The “2” in the name is for the two types of noodles in this bowl. Upon a first glance, you would think this was another ordinary bowl of pho, but it sure wasn’t! The broth was not msg-ridden compared to other pho places, and the noodles were delicate and cooked perfectly. There was also shrimp and other Vietnamese hams and meats in it. You can eat this with the side of bean sprouts they brought. I liked this dish so much, I had two bowls.

What’s a trip to Phnom Penh without ordering their famous wings? Each table in the restaurant had an order of their wings, which were tossed in chilli pepper flakes and came with a side dipping sauce that was slightly tart and peppery. Wow! I was so surprised when I bit into this chicken – it was moist, and juicy, but incredibly flavorful, especially with the dip. I will definitely order this again.

Finally, the moment we were all waiting for arrived: the butter beef. The butter beef is akin to a beef carpaccio in that it features raw beef (slightly cooked around the edges) in a mild soy like sauce, overlaid with ample cilantro and peanuts. This was an incredible mélange of flavors and textures. MadamMilton was very skeptical about eating raw beef and kept telling us she was waiting for “20 minutes to pass” to see if any one of us would rush to the bathroom. None of us did and she gobbled down the butter beef happily.

By then, we were stuffed. DermaMan had ordered a moomooshake, which was a strawberry iced milk shake. It looked very…cold, so I didn’t not sample it. But everyone else that tried it liked it quite a bit.

DesignGirl also ordered an iced Vietnamese coffee, while I got a hot Vietnamese coffee. The Vietnamese coffee came in an espress drip tin, and a cup with condensed milk (your creamer + sugar, essentially). It was so delicious and rich! However, the caffeine concentration in this drink really messed me up and I was dizzy and had heart arrhythmia for the rest of the day.

Phnom Penh is located in Chinatown. We left around 2pm, and the restaurant was still packed and had line ups for lunch diners.

Words of Wisdom:

Very busy during peak hours…line up for sure!
Marinated Butter beef, Chicken Wings, Deep fried squid!!! Order it now!
Metered parking on street
Kinda sketch looking area….near chinatown

We Rate Phnom Penh:

Address:

244 E Georgia St
Vancouver, BC

In Event

Man Ri Sung with Chowtimes

March 13, 2011

I was super excited when I signed up to attend the Duck Feast at Man Ri Sung with Chowtimes and a bunch of other people. I brought along with me – M, Fragileboy, InsecureGirl, and MedicalGiraffe.

I have been to Man Ri Sung a few months ago before they closed down in Coquitlam. They serve up authentic Korean dishes and is most famous of their peaking duck feast.

We were all pretty gung ho about getting to the dinner and left Brentwood Mall a bit before 6pm so it would ensure us that we would arrive on time. Sometimes, things are not always according to plan. In this case, trying to navigate our way to Man Ri Sung was the most failed moment for me in a long time. Our anticipated 30 minute car ride became an hour car ride.

Brentwood Mall to below the airport

( Typed in wrong address into iphone…3211 instead of 8311)
We arrived right on time at the wrong plaza, but after roaming around we couldn’t find it anywhere. So, we looked it up and realized it was on the other side of Richmond. At this point I was like “OMG”, InsecureGirl was like “We should call Ben to tell him we will be late”. I replied saying “People usually don’t give their cell numbers to a stranger….Go tweet him! Tweet him now! Everyone must have 3G by now”.

Below Airport to Richmond Auto Mall

(Typed in 831 instead of 8311)
As we were making our way towards the other side of Richmond, I got a bit more confident that we would make it in 15 minutes late. Yet again the fates were seriously against me… every intersection there was a red light. I’m lying…it was most of the intersections but still it was annoying. Eventually, the phone led us towards the Auto Mall. In our heads, there is no way there would be a Korean Restaurant here.

Richmond Auto Mall to Man Ri Sang

Eventually finding the right address, I drove like a mad woman on the stretch of road back to the center of Richmond. This time, we knew we had the right location!

Long story short, we arrived and were welcomed by Ben and the other guests. They even saved us food! At this point, I was pretty exhausted from driving along Westminster Hwy, so I accidentally left my phone in the car and told MedicalGiraffe to take my camera and start taking pictures. She seemed excited, so I let her go at it.

There was a lot of other customers in the restaurant, so it was packed with other large groups also having the duck feast.

The duck feast is composed of several items, such as the korean side dishes (Banchan), Korean Pancake, Jap Chae, Soon Dae, duck wraps, duck congee, duck and Duck hot pot. All for $18 per head for our group.

The Banchan composed of 3 side dishes – Bean sprouts, sweet potato and kimchi.

They saved us some Korean Pancake, so the picture isn’t really representable of what it looked like when it arrived at the table. It was still warm when we began eating. The korean pancake was a bit less than 1 cm thick and contained green onion, red pepper, onions and some other items.

M enjoyed this dish because being Korean himself, he really missed the taste of traditional korean food. He also said it was comparable to the Korean Pancakes he would find back home.

Another item that came with the feast was jap chae. It is made out of korean cellophane noodles, stir fried with sesame oil with different vegetables such as onions, meat, scallions, and other items.

MedicalGiraffe commented saying she really loved it and wished she had more.

Another dish was Soon Dae (Blood sausage), it’s a traditional korean dish made out of intestines stuffed with cellophane noodles, barley and pork blood. This may sound disgusting but it does not taste bad at all. To add a bit of taste to it, you can dip the Soon Dae into a salt mixture. Just be sure to not smother the sausage in the salt.

The main feature of this feast is the duck wrap! You are presented with a dish of sliced duck, onions, green onions, sauce and tofu skins.

It’s a great dish because you can interact with your food and put it together. You first take the tofu skin and add the onions, sauce and a slice of duck .. wrap it up and begin eating. The duck did taste different this time around, it was not as moist as it was when I had it in Coquitlam. I also did not like the slightly charred bits of the duck skin.

Overall, the duck wrap was ok, but not as addictive as before. Perhaps since they were so busy that the quality suffered a bit.

They don’t waste any part of the duck, so they also give your the wings separately. They are super crispy! I have to admit, it was hard to eat but you can essentially eat the whole thing…even the bones! For me, when I got closer to the tip of the wing, it was really burnt and was super difficult to eat since it really felt like I was eating cancer. I know some people like eating the whole thing, so just a bit of personal opinion.

The next dish was duck congee. I asked M if it has a special name in Korea and he said it was called “jook”. Same name in Cantonese! The rice that is in the congee is not pure white rice, they mix a bit of white rice and wild rice, to have a bit of a purple look to the congee. Inside they do use a bit of duck in it.

The last dish to come with this duck feast is Duck hotpot. Like some of the other dishes it has duck, green onion, hand cut noodles, and other stuff.

Like the other dishes, still pretty good but we wished we had another utensil to easily pick up the noodles and soup. I don’t think any of us wanted to put our chopstick into the pot.

In the back of the restaurant, there is this machine that serves hot ool moo cha (Job Tear’s Tea) for 25 cents. Ool Moo Cha is ground barley powder sugar drink. I found this to be creamy and slightly sweet. I really did enjoy it! Also, supposedly it helps create a soothing effect on the stomach. Very nice ending to a meal!

Photo Credits: Cory Roan, Globetrotting & Adventure Gourmet

I think everyone had a great time at the dinner! Everyone was about to share their thoughts on the food as well as talk about other random subjects.

Since it was a busy night, the service was quite poor. For a table of 11, they kept bringing us one pot of tea when it would be more effective to give us 2 pots. There seemed to be only 1 or 2 waitress(es) serving most of the tables and seemed scrambled most of the time.

Overall, I thought the supporting dishes of the duck feast were well executed. The quality of the duck did not compare to the last time I had the dish. Not as juicy and succulent as before. Also, a bit burnt when it came to the large wings of the duck. The price of the duck feast was a good price!

Words of Advice:

Reservations for large groups
2 hours advance notice for duck feast
Free parking in the parking lot

Address:

8211 Westminster Hwy
Richmond, BC

In Gastown

Momo Sushi

March 13, 2011

I was trying really hard during my lunch time to find a new place to review. I was super stuck until I figured that Gastown was not too far of a walk. I decided to check out Momo Sushi since I’ve had mixed experiences there.

Momo Sushi serves the usual items you would find in a Japanese restaurant.

The first page of their menu, they had a much of their specials and box sets. Most of the items were under $10, so it seemed like a good option.

I ordered the Box Special A ($6.95). It was the cheapest special they had and it was not a bad set menu because it included sashimi. The set included 3 pieces of tuna sashimi, 3 pieces of salmon sashimi, 1 tuna nigiri, 1 salmon nigiri, 3 pieces of california roll, rice, salad, fruit and miso soup.

I also ordered the Chicken Karaage ( about $4/$5). There were 5 chicken wings on a bed of salad. I really did not like the taste of their karaage. It was sweet and it seemed like there was a bit of honey on the coating of it. They also added some small bits of seaweed on top.

Words of Wisdom:

Cheap Bento boxes and lunch sets
Closest skytrain: Waterfront Skytrain

We Rate Momo Sushi:

Address:

375 Water Street, Unit 6
Vancouver, BC

In American

FatBurger

March 12, 2011

To fulfill M’s desire to go to FatBurger, we decided to go here to grab a quick dinner. Like usual, I gave the weird facial expression and decided to go with him.

The closest location to us was the Lougheed Hwy location near Brentwood Mall.

This is the only FatBurger I’ve ever been to, but I am pretty sure most of them look like this. You order up at the counter and pay. Then they give you a number and the meal is delivered to your table.

If you are just by yourself and dont want to feel too lonely there are counters where you can sit at. There are even little TVs to keep you entertained.

M ordered the FatBurger Meal with an extra egg and Chilli cheese fries ($13.27).

M liked the chilli cheese fries, it was a bit on the salty side, but he did like the cheese and the ooey gooeyness.

He didn’t really like the FatBurger, it wad hard to taste the meat, the egg was bland and this whole meal did not seem to be worth the price. He said he would rather go to Veras for burgers.

Since he did enjoy the chilli, he will be back to try their chilli dogs.

I ordered the Mushroom Swiss Burger Meal ($12.49). I enjoyed my burger, the mushrooms were looked perfectly, so it was not a weird slimy texture. I overall found all the ingredients worked well together and nothing was wrong.

I really don’t like their fries, very bland and boring. Not crispy either.

This was the damage on the bill. Comparing FatBurger with the other burger joints in Vancouver…I still think Veras has better burgers than FatBurger.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking in front
Customizable burgers
Unlimited refills

We Rate FatBurger:

Address:
4461 Lougheed Hwy
Burnaby, BC

Website:
www.fatburger.com

In Coquitlam

Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo (Korean Knife Cut Noodles)

March 9, 2011

Fabo took M and I here after class. We wanted to go to the House of Tofu soup but unfortunately it was closed. We didn’t know where else to eat dinner, so she suggested Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo. It is located in a mini mall near Hamnam Grocery store. It is kinda like an open food court but just for this restaurant. It is known well to Koreans as having authentic Knife Cut Noodles.

I was super skeptical when she brought us here because I had no idea what knife cut noodles were. I could just imagine a bowl of knives with kimchi. Eventually I did lighten up once I saw the pictures of the food. hehehe.

This little place seats about 30 people and all items are under $10.

Then menu is located on the board, you probably would want Google search on your phone to figure out what is on the menu. Or, you can do what I do and keep a Korean on hand at all times to do my bidding and translating.

Along with your meal, you get the side dishes – kimchi and sweet potatoes.

We started off with the Wang Mandu – King Dumping ($8.55). This is a HUGE dumpling! It is filled with pork, chives and other items. It is the size of 1/2 of a baseball, it was packed with meat , so much meat.

M ordered the Bulgogi Dub Bob – Fire Meat on Rice ($7.95). It is beef and some vegetables over rice. It also comes with an egg drop soup.

Fabo and I both had the Karl Gook Soo – Knife cut noodles ($7.60). This was a massive bowl of noodles MASSIVE. You could probably split one between two people. They really give you your moneys worth. The dish has the knife noodles, beef, carrots and zucchini. The broth was a nice bone soup.

I really couldn’t finish my bowl and I felt super bad, so I just drank all the soup.

Words of Wisdom:

Authentic Korean Knife Cute Noodles
Under $10
Free parking
SO MUCH FOOD

We Rate Myung Dong Kal Gook Soo:

Address:

103 – 4501 North Road
Burnaby, BC

In Downtown

Freshii

March 9, 2011

I saw Freshii on Twitter and it sounded like a nice healthy and fresh place to eat at for lunch. They offer freshly made salads, noodles, wraps, burritos, soups and even breakfast. They have a very simple and clean look on the exterior and interior. During lunch time it was pretty busy, some people ate in, some people did take out.

At first I was very confused how to order, lots of different options! You start by picking up a clip board in the middle of the room and jot down your name and what to order. You can either choose any of the specialty items, or you can customize your own.

I found the configuration on the room to be quite confusing, you would have to fill in your paper, go to the back of the restaurant to give them your paper, go to another counter, pay and then wait for your name to be called to get your food. I didn’t really want to waste paper, so perhaps next time, I will do online ordering.

Since I don’t like to think for myself sometimes, I decided to create a chef selected salads. You do have the option of making your own salad, but I was feeling not too picky.

I ordered the Freshii Cobb Salad ($9.89). For that price, you do get quite a big salad! Definitely worth the price. In this salad, there was mixed greens, romaine, roasted chicken, avocado, smoked bacon, diced tomatoes, sweet corn, blue cheese, and topped with dijon mustard dressing.

The ingredients tasted fresh and the combination worked well together except for the blue cheese. I thought I would be adventurous today, but nope still don’t like blue cheese. It really has a pungent sharp taste which really disgusts me. If you don’t like blue cheese, try asking them to replace it with some other cheese or get another type of salad.

You are able to choose the amount of dressing you want on your salad, I went with regular but still felt there was a bit too much. Next time, I will choose the 1/2 amount of dressing. It’s really up to personal preferences.

Word of Wisdom:

Online Ordering form
Fresh customizable salads
Most items under $10
To go or eat in

We rate Freshii :

Address:

870 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.freshii.com

In Four Beakers

G-Be Izakaya

March 9, 2011

Last time I went to the Grandvilla Casino, my parents and I went next door to Grand Dynasty for dim sum. Today M and I were thinking of a place to eat. After begging him to take me here, we decided to go to G-Be Izakaya rather than Fat Burger. Seriously, he would think by now that I have some decent suggestions for places to eat.

G-Be Izakaya is a new restaurant that opened up near Grandvilla casino in Burnaby. They are owned by the same people who run Gyoza King. You wouldn’t know it when you sit down, but when you look at their dishes, their logo is on all the dishes.

I was so amazed at their interior decor. It was hot! Communal tables in the middle, tables and booth on the side. There is also a large party room.

When we looked at the menu, the first page it really explained a lot about their restaurant and how they dont serve alcohol due to a pending liquor license, being patient with waitresses as well as it being their soft opening.

Tea isn’t free, so you have to pay for it. You pay per head for tea and you can choose from 7 specialty teas.

I got the genmaicha green tea ($1.50). You get refills of your pot so it’s not too too bad.

Ebi Nira Gyoza ($4.50) comes in 4 pieces and contains porks, prawns and chives. The prawn is not just a paste, you taste a whole shrimp in the gyoza. The gyoza was not super amazing and spectacular, just normal.

GomaMiso Chicken Karrage ($6) is flash fried rice crisp battered fresh chicken breast with sesame miso sauce. I actually love the crispy rice/ cereal batter since it make it super crunchy and the chicken breast is still very succulent and moist.

Fried Goat Cheese Stick ($6) is crispy fried goat cheese served with balsamic teriyaki sauce. Yet again it is covered in something like corn flakes. The inner was very gooey and i think it had some bacon too. Yummy!

Uni Steamed sushi mini Hot Pot ($6.50), it has steamed 7 grained rice with egg, seaweed and fresh uni. It was really a mini pot, it tasted really good if you are a fan of Uni.

You can probably get 6 or 7 spoonfuls of this.

King California Roll ($7) is a roll with snow crab meat, avocado, sprouts wrapped with soy paper and topped with mango and more avocado. Tasted ok, but not awesome. One thing that does make it stand out is how they use healthy ingredients to put this together.

Triple salmon roll ($6) sockeye salmon tempura, avocado, and sprouts wrapped in smoked salmon topped with spicy salmon. Very creative roll but not super amazing. It did seem very healthy and have fresh ingredients.

M ordered the Mushi Choco Man ($3.50). It is a steamed chocolate lava bun. You have to wait a bit before you eat it, the chocolate on the inside was hot. Good thing the waitor warned us because M wanted to dig in.

You have to be careful about this bun because when you bite into it, the chocolate will squirt out. The chocolate on the inside was very nice, warm and rich.

I ordered the Creme Brulee ($4.95), it comes with 3 mini creme brulees – Jasmine, green tea, and earl grey.

This is probably the best creme brulee I have ever had, it was unique and you got to try a bit of everything. The jasmine creme brulee was very subtle. The earl grey creme brulee was very flavourful with a strong taste, so you could definitely tell it was earl grey. The green tea was amazing as well!

Words of wisdom: