K & J’s Food Truck features an Austrian menu crafted by a Baron Klaus Erich von Hochgotz. I have no idea if thats his real name. I saw them near Main and Terminal, so I had to give them a try since I don’t usually wander too far to find new food trucks.
With the amazing Summer weather, its hard not to visit a food truck and eat your food in the sun.
The line ups are not very long as their menu isn’t very large.
The main item on the menu are schnitzel sandwiches with different sauces and topping add-ons. They also have smoothies and salad.
Wiener Schnitzel Sandwich ($10) has a huge schnitzel that is thin, breaded and deep fried veal with spinach, tomatoes and sauce. The sandwich was pretty bad and it needed something to balance out the fried schnitzel. The bread was quite hard and didn’t seem well executed. The schnitzel was so large that it was very difficult to eat. I needed a knife and fork to eat this without getting it all over myself.
Coast is part of the Glowbal Group of restaurants and they specialize in seafood. They bring together West Coast flavours with fresh local seafood.
They have a special cocktail hour from 2:30pm till 5:30pm. On this menu, there is $5 beer and wine as well as oysters, appies, entrees, sushi and sashimi. We rushed from work to make it on time.
As we arrived, the waitress was a bit rushed and impatient about ordering. With 20 minutes to spare, we put in our order but then the waitress was a bit rude and told us we only have 4 minutes to make another order. She was very precise in saying 4 minutes. Not 5 minutes, just 4. You can tell Happy Hour doesn’t bring happiness to the staff since they get slammed with orders.
For a nicer restaurant, I’m not sure why the service is so poor.
Kirin Beer ($5) is a light beer thats crisp and smooth. Warsteiner ($5) was pretty good, it has a clean, crisp, refreshing taste.
Both good choices to go with the food they serve. Light beers go well with seafood and fried foods.
Kusshi Oyster ($3.70 each) tastes clean, mildly sweet, delicate, and meaty. It’s one of my favourite types of oysters.
Smoked Salmon Flatbread ($16.95) has dill crème fraîche, red onion capers, and arugula. It is a filling item to order and there’s a good amount of smoked salmon on top.
Crispy Garlic Calamari ($14.95) is topped with fresno chillies, cilantro, and a lime aioli. It wasn’t very crispy after a while, it got quite limp.
Overall, the food was alright, but nothing very special. I would still prefer to go to a Japanese restaurant to get food like this. Even with the food 50% off, it was still a tad expensive.
As the Summer is getting hotter, why not cool down with some Froyo (frozen yogurt) from Qoola. I love froyo and Qoola makes it from real ingredients, no artificial flavours or preservatives, live & active cultures, no hormones, and fortified with vitamins. It’s like ice cream but way better for you.
Want to win 1 of 4 Gift Cards to Qoola?
Only open to residents of British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario.
As an added bonus, check out Qoola’s Canada Day Promotion! If you register your Qoola Card online or decide to buy $10 worth of froyo before tax, you are entered into a draw to win a 3 day, 2 night stay at Whistler (for BC residents), Banff (Alberta residents), and Niagara Falls (Ontario residents).
Tea Wok opened right under Columbia College on Terminal close to Science World. The cafe is pretty hidden and you will probably only notice it if you walk around this area. They serve up Taiwanese dishes, bubble tea and dessert.
Their menu is quite limited and is not like the full Tea Wok Restaurant. When we came, they said their fryer was broken so they couldn’t make any other that good salt peppery chicken.
The interior isn’t too large inside, but can still fit large groups if its not busy. During lunch time I did notice most people did do take out.
Jasmine Green Tea is always a cold drink that I enjoy. I find that it was a tad sweeter than most places, so I should have ordered it half sweet.
Minced Pork with marinated egg on rice was one of their lunch specials. It’s pretty basic for a lunch meal and there wasn’t anything special about it.
A lot of the food on the menu is more like Asian fast food. The food is average and nothing special.
I love myself some good froyo when its hot in the summer. Sometimes I feel like I can’t function at all when it gets higher than 26 degrees (celsius). Qoola opened in Pacific Centre in the food court with a smaller space than they normally have. There’s no seating inside, but theres tons of seats in the food court.
They have 8 different kinds of frozen yogurt, but I always go with the original tart flavour. Before you dive into a flavour, you can try them to see if any of the flavoured ones taste good.
I gravitate towards the fruit section for the toppings. I’m all about the fresh fruits. I found this location doesn’t have a large variety of fresh fruits. I could see strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, and mango. The others are canned fruits in syrup.
They have lots of other toppings like chocolate, gummies, nuts, cookies, etc.
Original Froyo with mango, blueberries, oranges, lychee and kiwi flavoured balls. I found the original froyo to be enjoyable, but I still wish they had more fresh fruit options for toppings.
It’s a convenient location but I’m not a fan of food court seating. It’s pretty depressing. On the bright side, they are opening up their Robson and Bute later this Summer.
The lovely people at Hagensborg Chocolates sent me a variety of chocolate to try out. They produce high quality All Natural European chocolate truffles right in Burnaby, BC. Their chocolate truffles have a soft ganche centre with a hard chocolate coating around them. Chocolate truffles are usually round in shape to resemble a truffle mushroom, but they take it a step further and have it shaped like a piggy.
Oink Oink! The Truffle Pig’lets retail for $1 each and I find its a good size to get a taste of the product. If you had a bunch of these in a bowl, I would probably devour them all.
The flavours that the Truffle Pig’lets come in are:
Milk Peanut Butter and Raspberry Jam
Dark Mint Chocolate Chip
Dark Peppermint
Peanut Butter
Milk Chocolate
Caramel
Dark Chocolate
Dark Hazelnut
All of them were good and I didn’t encounter a flavour that I didn’t like. If I had to choose my favourite flavour, it would have to be Dark Hazelnut.
They also have full-sized bars if you are craving a bit more. Imagine that 4 piggies make a bar.
Their newest flavours:
Crunchy Milk Almond
Crunchy Dark Almond
Truffle Salted Caramel
Sea Salt Caramel
They also have bar sizes of the Pig’lets flavours. The Truffle Pig Bars retail for about $3.50. I really liked the Crunchy Dark Almond bar as you can tell I really love nuts and chocolate. Best combination ever.
They sell them at their store in Burnaby, or at select specialty stores around the world. I once saw it at Urban Fare in Olympic Village too.
Address:
Unit 103 – 3686 Bonneville Pl.
Burnaby BC
Canada V3N 4T6
The International Summer Night Market is back again this year near IKEA in Richmond. I haven’t been here since the other night market near River Rock Casino opened. This was the original night market back in the day, but several night markets have popped up in other subburbs.
It’s not as crowded, less lines, and free entrance. It’s a bit hard to get to if you don’t drive, but there is a shuttle bus service from Bridgeport Station running every 15 minutes.
I was invited by Chinesebites to try out the new food vendors for this year. As we all know, the food stalls are really the main attraction for the night market. I met up with GastroFork and FoodQueen to devour the 2 aisles of food stalls.
Sugar Twist Cotton Candy
Sugar Twist Cotton Candy creates these beautiful cotton candy creations. It’s a fun item for guys to get their girlfriends or for little kids. You can order them with 2 layers or up to 4 layers. I’m sure you can do more layers, but the cost will go up.
I couldn’t help but keep on watching them make the cotton candy. It’ pretty cool. I would say this is the most unique item at this night market.
4 layer cotton candy in the shape of a flower ($10). It took us a long to devour this because it looked too pretty. How could we destroy something so beautiful.
After taking tons of pictures, we ate it up pretty quickly. They add a strawberry coating on top, so it tastes a bit better that usual cotton candy.
Hatchan Tako Yaki
They have tako yaki with a bunch of different toppings. This is another popular stall at the night market. You gotta have tako yaki.
Original Tako Yaki ($5.50) comes with 6 pieces. It was super hot when it came out. We had to wait a while until we could put it into our mouths.
Hurricane Potato Fries
There are 3 potato fries stalls at the night market, but Hurricane Potato Fries was the original before all the other ones appeared at the night markets. They are at a bunch of different special events throughout the year. I recall last Winter they were at the German Christmas Market.
They have the:
Hurricane Potato Fries ($4.50)
Hurricane Zucchini Fries ($6)
Hurricane Yam Fries ($6)
Once you choose the type of hurricane fries, you can choose 2 seasoning to add on top.
The fries are pretty long…you could even have a sword fight. Thats just what Gastrofork and FoodQueen just did. Nat and I just watched and took photos.
No foodies were hurt in the making of this ‘food fight’.
In the end we did devour all of the hurricane fries.
All 3 types were pretty good, but my order of preference is potato, zucchini and then yam. The quality is good and I would get this every time if I come to the night market. It’s also one of the essential items to eat at the night market.
Yuja Ade and Patbingsu
Yuja is a Korean marmalade which has a lot of Vitamin C, which is good for colds and flus. I remember my parents having a jar of this in the cabinet. We would mix it with hot water when we would be feeling sick.
They serve it with soda water, ice and the yuja ($4). The yuja is like the yuzu fruit. It tasted pretty good and quite refreshing for the hot summer days. I would have never thought to combine it with soda water.
Patbingsu ($6.50) is Korean shaved ice with red beans, fruit, ice cream, and condensed milk. Good dessert, but I still prefer it Chinese Style.
They sell chicken fingers with their 2 signature flavours – original and spicy.
I thought it was clever that they were selling the strips and their breading. If you really love it, you can bring it home and make your own.
I saw on their Facebook page that you can coat mushrooms, onions, tofu and just about anything.
The strips are served on top of popcorn. M remarked that it was such a Korean things to do since it would be normal to see that in a Korean bar.
The flavours were good, but it was really masked by the shear amount of salt that was on them. Perhaps we got a bad batch, but it was pretty damn salty.
All About Ice Cream
They have a variety of ice cream and also fresh fruit juices served in pineapples or watermelons.
Mango Ice Cream was pretty bad to be honest. It wasn’t very creamy and tasted more like icy sugar water. It wasn’t what M expected.
Pineapple Juice ($8) was sweet and refreshing, but one comment that all of us has was that it wasn’t cold enough. If it was a bit colder, it would be a lot more enjoyable.
Watermelon Juice ($8) similar comment as the pineapple juice. It has ice cubes in the juice, but it needed a lot more to cool down the drink.
Amazebuns serves deep fried buns like mantou with different toppings.
We tried matcha with condensed milk. It was a fun item to eat, but the outside out be a bit ore crunchy.
Tantuni Authentic Turkish Cuisine
Tantuni is a type of Southern Turkey Street Food like a wrap shapped like a ‘U’. This stall serves it with 3 different types of protein – chicken, lamb and beef.
We went with the Chicken Tantuni. It had a lot of herbs and spices that gave it a lot of flavour. The downside is that the wrap is pretty juicy, so when we took bites out of it, it ejected lots of sauce into our mouths.
New Style Green Onion Cake from Alberta
When we first saw this, we were quite curious why this Green Onion Cake from Alberta was so special. Apparently green onion cakes are the unofficial food of Edmonton? There’s even an article about it in the MetroNews.
This booth has a variety of fried foods on the menu from spring rolls, banana spring rolls, wonton chips and green onion pancakes.
We added sweet chili sauce on top. It’s what they recommended.
Green Onion Cake was ok, but we definitely agreed there needs to be more green onion in it.
Spring Rolls were ok as well. There just wasn’t anything unique about them and a tad bland. I think I like my spring rolls with more meat.
Banana Spring Roll were fun to eat but I think if it came with chocolate sauce, it would be amazing.
Lao ER BBQ Squid
There are 2 BBQ Squid stands across from each other and we had to see which one was the better one.
This stand isn’t as busy, but they make some good BBQ Squid.
BBQ Squid Mix ($7) I had them add a little bit of spicy sauce to it. Good flavours and you really can’t go wrong with BBQ Squid.
BBQ Squid
They have more variety of squid items here and they do have deep fried BBQ Squid.
BBQ Squid is a bit more oily but it does have a smokier flavour to them.
No matter which BBQ Squid stall you go to, both of them are good.
JJ’s Fresh Roasted Corn
Corn on the cob with husks is super hot! I nearly burned myself, so you really gotta be careful. When you get your corn, you can sprinkle on any combination of toppings that you want. Its a bit messy to eat, but I love the corn since its nice and sweet.
Top Wok
Top Wok sells dim sum items as well as curry fish balls. You’ll notice Top Wok right away since its usually the first stall you pass by when you go into the food section of the night market.
Curry Fish Balls ($3) are a must! They also have a super spicy version but we passed on it since I didn’t want to suffer.
Sui Mai and Har Gau were ok. Nothing special about them.
Korean Waffles and Twister Potatoes
This stall is way in the back corner of the food stalls, but they still drew a large crowd.
Fish waffle with red bean filling. Very cute and always delicious. A classic Night Market favourite.
Ice Cream Fish Bun
This was definitely different and we had to try it. When do you ever get to eat a fish stuffed with ice cream and fruit?
F~bun Ice Cream ($5) is a bit pricey for what you really get if you think about it. It was cute but the taste was ok.
Lazy Den Tea House
This stall was very familiar to me because they have a restaurant in Port Moody.
I wanted to get a Sausage in a Sausage, but sadly the ran out.
Jasmine Green Tea was just what I needed after consuming so much food! It tasted great and I would have had another but they ran out of green tea after making my drink. I would recommend coming here for tea based drinks. Not too sweet either.
Xin Jiang A Fan Ti Halal BBQ
This booth is great for skewers and they definitely put on a show. It’s hard to pass by and not be intrigued by all the smoke and smells.
Lamb Skewer was moist and delicious but M did remark that it was a bit salty.
Mother Clucker
Everyone wanted to try out Mother Clucker but it seemed like they had some issues on the day we came here, so they weren’t selling anything. I thought it was a bit weird, but at least everyone seemed to be amused by their chicken mascot.
So many selfies of this guy.
There’s not too much to look at, but people usually find socks or cheap tech gadgets.
Overall, the food quality at this night market is ok, but it’s not as good as the Richmond Night Market by the River Rock Casino. Your staple items like tako yaki and hurricane potatoes are always a hit. The good side about this night market is that it’s not too crowded and there is free entry.
Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try all the food stalls at the International Summer Night Market with a few other bloggers. All thoughts are my own.
Yogen Fruz has been around as long as I can remember. My parents would take us here for a nice sweet treat only if we behaved. From my young childhood memories, I was always amazed that a solid brick of yogurt and fruit would be a match made in heaven.
Yogen Fruz started off in Toronto in 1986 and now has thousands of franchises all over the world.
I always gravitate towards the frozen yogurt with the fruit flavours. I was never into the chocolate or vanilla flavours. You can’t go wrong with fruit.
Their ‘fresh’ fruit is all frozen, but it needs to be all frozen so it gets all whipped into the frozen yogurt.
Mango Frozen Yogurt is a flavour your can’t go wrong with. Strawberry is pretty good too. What I like about their yogurt is that it has a slightly sparkling soda taste to it. It really just brings me back to my childhood. The texture is consistent and very smooth.
Overall, I still love it after all these years. Before all the other frozen yogurt places popped up in town, this was my go to froyo place.
We Rate Yogen Fruz:
Address:
Oakridge Centre, Food Court,
650 West 41st Avenue, Vancouver
Disco Cheetah Food Truck was outside my work place this week and since they were only a few steps outside our building, I just had to get a bite for lunch.
They serve up Tacos, Burritos and Quesadilla with a Korean twist. Korean and Mexican flavours really go well together.
Their menu is a bit limited but everything is $10 or under.
Grilled Cheese Chili Chicken Quesadilla ($10) has Korean chili mayo on top with dill sour cream, kimchi slaw and pickled red cabbage on the side. Everything was delicious. I really appreciated the cabbage and the slaw to really balance out the quesadilla.
My other coworkers got their tacos and burritos and seemed to enjoy it. I’m glad Disco Cheetah rolled into our neighbourhood to serve up lunch. There really aren’t too many options near the Science World area.
I was passing by the mall and this sign caught my attention. They actually advertise the butterbeer frappuccino when it’s on their “secret menu” that no one talks about.
Some location and some staff may not know how to make a butterbeer frappuccino, but here’s the recipe:
Creme Frappuccino base
Add caramel syrup
Add toffee nut syrup
Thats basically it! I’ve never been to Harry Potter land in Orland to try the Butterbeer, but some have said it’s close to the real thing and some people say it’s not. I’ll definitely know later this year when I make a trip there.
M and I chose to have the mini size of the frappuccino. I actually really like this smaller size. Since the butterbeer frappuccino is more on the sweet side, having a smaller size worked really well.
Elephant & Castle is back with their summer menu. Their summer menu includes spicy tempura shrimp, honey Dijon salmon salad, steamed mussels in a light beer cream sauce and Mediterranean chicken wrap. They still have their regular menu items as well.
Enter below to win a $50 Gift Card to Elephant Castle so you can try their new summer menu items.
Mediterranean Chicken Wrap ($13.50) has shawarma style grilled chicken breast served in a garlic naan bread with lemon feta spread, shredded lettuce, onion, tomato, banana pepper, pickle, chopped parsley and topped with tzatziki. served with a choice of side.
Steamed Mussels ($14.50) has a full pound of mussels, steamed in a light beer cream sauce with garlic, onion, chilis, and lemon juice. Then there is bread on the side.
Honey Dijon Salmon Salad ($15.50) hasoven roasted, honey dijon marinated 6oz salmon fillet. romaine, arugula, radishes, cucumber, onion, and sundried tomatoes tossed in a creamy parmesan vinaigrette, topped with shaved parmesan and toasted pine nuts.
Spicy Tempura Shrimp ($13) has a light tempura batter, sauced with a spicy chili aioli & garnished with togarashi seasoning.
Pearl Castle‘s main location is in Continental Centre in Richmond. They also have 3 other locations throughout the Lower Mainland. Pearl Castle is a Taiwanese Cafe and they have won the Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner for ‘Best Taiwanese Restaurant’ year after year between 2010 and 2013.
I usually come to Pearl Castle late in the evening to grab a quick bite with friends and chat over some drinks. Ever since Deer Garden moved out from this complex, they have really been up-ing their game to expand their menu. I was invited by ChineseBites to try a variety of food and drinks off the menu, so just be warned, this isn’t a normal dining experience.
They offer a wide variety of tea-based beverages, slushes, bubble teas, and juices. They have added a few new drinks onto their menu recently and are launching their cotton candy beverages in mid June.
The group of us managed to sample (left to right):
Pudding Milk Tea
Coconut red bean
Peach lemon green tea
Green tea red bean
Traditional black tea with jelly noodle topping
Winter melon juice with jelly noodle topping
Green lattea
Fresh taro green milk tea
Roasted rice lattea
There’s also a Ferrero Rocher chocolate milkshake too.
I had the Roasted Rice Lattea all to myself. I really enjoyed it because you can just sip away at it and it’s not too sweet. You need to drink it with a cream on top. Without it, the drink is way too bland.
Young Girl’s Dream is a new drink launching mid June 2015. It has grenadine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. It looks really fun and exciting but it is on the sweeter side.
Blue sky has blue tangerine, calpis, pop and cotton candy. Similar to the Young Girl’s Dream, its fun but quite sweet. I’m sure you’ll have blue lips after drinking and eating the cotton candy.
Wonton with chili sauce was decent. The skin of it was slightly thicker and the pork inside could have been more dense as it fell apart easily.
Deep fried fish cake was pretty good. I’ve never had deep fried fish cake like this before. I find that Pearl Castle makes deep fried things super delicious. It comes with a seafood sauce and house special sauce, so make sure you dip the fish cake into it because its delicious.
Deep fried mushroom was another great item. You should also dip this into their seafood sauce or house special sauce.
Deep fried tofu comes with a side of kimchi and sauce. I just really love their deep fried food with the spices they put on top. I didn’t like the kimchi that came with it, it wasn’t very fresh.
Taiwanese Sausages comes in nice thin slices. A good dish for sharing with a few friends.
Pineapple shrimp fried rice is a new item on their menu. Yummy and you can’t go wrong with fried rice.
Kimchi seafood fried udon was more sour in taste that I would have liked. It was decent, but not the best one I’ve had.
Three cup chicken is an award winning dish from the 2015 Chinese Restaurant Awards Diners’ Choice winner. The dish is served with 3 side dishes, rice and some cookies. These set meals will make you quite full. Good flavours, but it was a bit dry.
Marinated chicken with rice is another new item added to their menu. You have the chicken steal with some veggies and tofu. On the side, you have some cookies. It seems like all the set meals comes with cookies. These cookies will seem familiar because I’m pretty sure you’ve had them when you were a kid.
Milk seafood & pork hot pot is pretty darn good. I would definitely come back to have this again. It tastes like a savoury creamy soup rather than milk. It has a decent amount of seafood and pork.
Curry coconut seafood & pork hot pot is a new addition to the menu and it’s similar to the hot pot above, but it has curry and coconut flavours. Another good flavour combination, but I still prefer the milk version.
Garlic sauce chicken is similar to the three cup chicken dish, but with more garlic.
Fish Nuggets with Sour Sauce comes with the 3 side dishes and rice. Red chili peppers are hot, but it balances well with the fish nuggets.
Original Taiwanese beef noodle was surprisingly good. The beef was tender and the noodles were really enjoyable with a good texture.
Spicy incense pot is a new item on the menu and it is heated underneath to keep it warm. When they say spicy, it’s pretty spicy because of the red chili peppers. Watch out.
Marinated pork with rice is another new dish and it’s similar to the marinated chicken dish. The only difference is the protein.
Vegetarian abalone mushroom with three spices comes with rice and veggies. It’s not the most exciting dish, but if you’re a vegetarian, this may be for you.
We went through a lot of dishes for one dinner, so near the end, most of the dishes started tasting similar. We don’t normally have so many dishes come at the same time, so it was a marathon to taste everything unless a lot of the dishes contain the three spice powder. My favourite items are the hot pots.
Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Pearl Castle’s dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since they knew we were coming.
We Rate Pearl Castle:
Address:
Continental Centre
1128-3779 Sexsmith Road, Richmond
McDonalds Canada just introduced the Red Velvet Oreo McFlurry. M thought it would be a fun review to do since it might taste good. I had my doubts about it, but I gave in and tried it with him anyways.
We got a snack size to share since I didn’t want us to consume too much of it. We’re trying to lose weight for the summer, but so far thats been pretty slow progress.
The vanilla ice cream is mixed with Oreo cookies and then the red velvet syrup. They aren’t using the red velvet cookies, so thats why the color is so intense. I was a bit disappointed because of that. Since they use the sweet syrup, and the cookies, it makes the McFlurry extra sweet.
Would I order the Red Velvet Oreo McFlurry again? Not a chance!
