September 2016

In Event

Crunchtime Cereal Bar: Pop Up by Milk Creative Communications

September 30, 2016

Crunchtime Cereal Bar is popping up in Gastown this weekend on Saturday October 1st and Sunday October 2nd 8am – 6pm. This pop-up cereal bar offers domestic and imported cereals with all proceeds donated to local charity Backpack Buddies.

After Cereal Killer Cafe in London opened up, word spread about an amazing cafe serving up over 100 different types of cereal from around the world. With 30 different varieties of milk and 20 toppings. Vancouverites were really excited when a similar pop-up concept was coming to Vancouver.

Milk Creative Communications launched in Vancouver today using Crunchtime Cereal Bar as the official launch event for Milk, an eight person Vancouver-based agency, previously known as Heth PR.

Interior

They created a neon-meets-tropical escape in the heart of Gastown inside the space of Timbertrain Coffee Roasters. You can see floral flourishes, brightly coloured accents and a cereal curtain.

Cereal selection

There are 12 different cereals to choose from:

Krave
Frosted Flakes
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
Fruit Loops
Cookie Crisp
Batman Chocolate Strawberry Cereal
Lucky Charms
Smorz
Cap’n Crunch
Nature’s Path Choco Chimps
Golden Nuggets
Lion Cereal

A majority of these cereals were not very interesting, but there are a few ones that I haven’t seen before.

Price

All pop-up proceeds will go to local charity Backpack Buddies, which supplies hungry schoolchildren with food during non-school hours.

Bowls of cereal with regular milk for $5
Almond, soy and chocolate milk available at an additional charge of $0.75
Toppings will be available for $0.50 per topping

Cereal Bowls

You can craft your own bowls in any way you want. You can definitely make it into a super sugary treat by adding extra toppings.

Final Thoughts

At first, it wasn’t known who was behind Crunchtime Cereal Bar, it seemed a bit strange but who doesn’t like a good bowl of cereal? Milk Creative Communications wanted to treat their rebrand like how they would do for their clients, by offering an array of creative communications strategies and solutions.

It definitely drove a lot of attention, but customers coming here on the weekend can still enjoy bowls of cereal that will benefit Backpack Buddies.

Details:
Saturday October 1st and Sunday October 2nd, 2016
8am – 6pm

Website:
http://www.crunchtimecerealbar.com/

Address:
311 W Cordova St. Vancouver

In British Columbia

Chef’s Plate: Food Delivery‎ Review

September 30, 2016

Chef’s Plate has been a popular food delivery service in Toronto, but has now expanded their services across Western Canada. You go on the website and select which meals you want to order for the following week.

They deliver portioned ingredients and detailed recipe cards for nutritious meals.

Delivery

They offer convenient delivery, so if you are away at work during the day, the box will be waiting at the doorstep. All you have to do is choose the day that you want the box to arrive. This works great for people with homes, but if you live in an apartment building or complex without a concierge, you don’t want this sitting freely in the lobby where anyone can snatch it.

Inside the Box

When I opened the box, there was a welcome letter and the 2 recipes that I chose for the week.

You open up the top and you can see the 2 bags of meals I ordered. Each bag has 1 recipe.

Under that is the protein sitting near the ice packs. By the time I got home around 6pm, the meat will still decently cold, but not as cold as I would have liked it. Since the beef was vacuumed sealed, I didn’t think it would spoil.

Recipes

The difficulty of the recipes definitely vary, but didn’t seem too hard. Even though I choose the Steak Provencal, which has a hard difficulty. Following the recipes were ok, but some of the steps were inconsistent or confusing.

Steak Provençal

Looking at the ingredients that came out of the bag, the tomatoes were squashed and the yellow squash was a tad bruised. I guess all the tossing on the airplane ride took its toll on these veggies. When looking closely at the package of beef, it kept saying local, but it’s local to Ontario rather than BC.

They do claim “Locally sourced specialty ingredients that are fresher than the supermarket”, but I didn’t get the sense when the ingredients arrived. Talking to a few friends in BC that received this too…their produce wasn’t fresh.

Even thought the produce wasn’t 100%, I still went ahead and cooked it anyways. I think I did a pretty good job. I really liked the smashed potatoes. A pretty good idea and I’ll most likely copy it for future dinners.

Poricini Mushroom

The produce for this was definitely better than the Steak Provençal. With this recipe, I found that it required to many pans, and also too many steps. I would have been able to create something similar using just one pot.

I found the sauce to be a little bit sparse, but thats just me.

Overall

I am pretty torn about this type of service. It’s convenient to have a pre portioned recipes arrive at the door and not worry about being at home to receive the package. But, on the other side, the recipes aren’t too overly complicated. If it’s your first few times cooking, this might be for you.

What annoyed me the most was how the produce wasn’t too fresh due to the plane journey. Also, their claim of locally sourced products, but you don’t know where they are actually from. If you’re on the West Coast, their local is different from our local.

The price is decent and I can see it being helpful for those who don’t have time to shop for groceries or meal plan.

Website: https://www.chefsplate.com/

In San Francisco

San Francisco CityPASS: Review

September 30, 2016

For our trip to San Francisco, we used the CityPASS to tour around town to see a few of the attractions in the Bay area. I’ve used CityPASS in the past before and they have some of the top attractions for tourists.

The hand-picked attractions include:

7-day Cable Car and Muni Bus Passport
California Academy of Sciences
Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise Adventure
Exploratorium OR de Young Museum
Aquarium of the Bay OR Monterey Bay Aquarium

We went to explore the city of San Francisco and below is our experience at each attraction.

7-day Cable Car and Muni Bus Passport

The CityPASS in San Francisco gives you 7 days of unlimited travel on cable cars, Heritage street cars and Muni Buses. This starts on the first day of CityPASS use.

We used this quite a bit since it was easy to hop on buses and the trolleys through most of the popular areas of town.

If you plan on taking public transportation, the CityPASS is worth it. You just flash it to the driver and hop in. We didn’t have any issues using this.

I found this to be best part of the CityPASS.

Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise Adventure

What better way to explore the city than by the water so you can see the city from afar. When you get to their box office, you have 2 options cruise adventures to choose from:

One-hour narrated Bay Cruise Adventure
30 minute high speed ‘RocketBoat’

The 1 hour Bay Cruise Adventure takes you close to Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, and Angel Island on a narrated tour around the breathtaking pier.

We opted to go with the 30 minute RocketBoat, the fastest and thrilling boat ride in the harbour.

We were all given ponchos and instructed to secure any loose items as they will most likely fly off due to the intense speed. We took a quick ride out of Pier 39 and headed towards Oakland Bridge past the Ferry Building. For a majority of the ride, it was light mist into the boat, as we sped and spun all over the harbour.

As we returned back to the pier, we went at higher speeds ended with an unforgettable ending. Definitely really exciting and great for those looking for a short adventure.

Monterey Bay Aquarium or Aquarium of the Bay

With both options, we went with Aquarium of the Bay as Monterey Bay Aquarium was quite a ways way from the Downtown San Francisco area.

The Aquarium of the Bay is right outside Pier 39 close to Blue & Gold Fleet, so you can do this before or after your Bay cruise adventure as it’s just steps away.

The Aquarium is pretty small compared to some other aquariums in other cities, but you start off seeing different varieties of fish like anchovies and clown fish swimming around the tanks and then the calm serine jelly fish. You can go to another deeper level to explore the water tunnel filled with shark, bat rays, and other sea creatures.
You will also be able to touch sea stars, anemones, baby bat rays, and sea cucumbers.

There are also 2 adorable sea otters at the end of the aquarium, that were just so cuddly with each other.

de Young Museum + Legion of Honor

de Young Museum is located in Golden Gate Park and the CityPass gets you general admission to both de Young + Legion of Honor Fine Arts Museums, if visited on the same day. You won’t be able to see their special exhibitions unless you pay a bit more.

We came here instead of the Exploratorium since we were already in Golden Gate Park and we were excited to go to the Hamon Tower to check out the sights from high up.

The view from Hamon Tower was amazing.

Legion of Honor is on the other side of Golden Gate Park, so you’ll either need to drive there or take the bus. We ended up not coming here since we were a bit tight on time.

California Museum of Sciences

CityPASS gives you general admission to all exhibits including their aquarium, rainforest, planetarium, natural history museum and living roof. It’s right across from de Young Museum. Super easy to go before or after.

What we linked out the California Academy of Sciences is that you get a little bit of everything here.

Final thoughts

Overall, the San Francisco CityPass takes you into a few key areas to explore attractions – Pier 39 and Golden Gate Park. Other alternate attractions are definitely out of the way if you are exploring the core areas of San Francisco.

The Muni pass was great at utilizing the public transportation system and made getting around much quicker. Plus, you can even use it for trolley rides. it’s definitely worth it if you are using it for the full 7 days.

The pass is worth it if you plan on visiting all the attractions and taking public transit.

Website: http://www.citypass.com/san-francisco

In Bubble Tea

Peanuts Bubble Tea: Richmond Public Market

September 29, 2016

Peanuts Bubble Tea is located inside the Richmond Public Market in the food court. This bubble tea stand has been here since 1996 before the wave of all the other bubble tea shops opened across town in huge numbers.

While having lunch at the food court, we decided to make a stop here to quench our thirst.

Original milk tea with pearls and oolong milk tea.

I got the oolong milk tea half sweet. A good tea flavour with a good mount of milky balance.

They also serve Che Lung Bing for $0.60 each. These are the little wheel cakes with fillings inside. The fillings can include peanut, chocolate, coconut, radish, cheese, cream or red bean.

I didn’t end up getting the wheel cakes since they ran out of the cream flavour. $0.60 is such a good price since most places at the night market charge $1 or more.

Overall, a good place to get bubble tea at the Richmond Public Market.

We rate Peanuts Bubble Tea:

Address:
2130-8260 Westminster Highway, Richmond

In Italian

Scala’s Bistro: Dinner near Union Square

September 28, 2016

Scala’s Bistro is located in the Sir Francis Drake Hotel just steps away from Union Square. They have crafted cocktails and Italian inspired fare on the dinner menu. You’ll want to make reservations ahead of time as it can get quite busy. When we went, there was already a line up during peak dinner time around 7:30pm. As we were staying in the hotel, they invited us to try a few items off their menu.

Interior

The interior is quite nice and is dim, which give it a nice romantic atmosphere. Tasteful decor too.

Drinks

21st Amendment “Hell or High Watermelon” is a local San Francisco brew. It’s an American wheat beer, with a hint of watermelon. Very delicious, light and refreshing.

Appetizer

Octopus has sugar‎ snap peas, fiddlehead ferns, cherry tomatoes, potatoes, and herb aioli. The octopus was super tender and I was amazed that octopus could ever be that tender. I would highly recommend this dish.

Main

Orecchiette has spicy calabrian sausage, pangrattato, broccoli diciccio, and parmesan. Great flavours.

Roasted 38° North Duck Breast has a disc of duck confit hash, pickled & roasted strawberries, and natural jus. Very good dish and the skin on the duck was crisp. A good size for a main dish too.

Halibut Saltimbocca has baby artichokes, roasted carrots, early girl sundried tomatoes, and a herb aioli.

Ora King Salmon has roasted summer vegetable tart, herb salad, and crisp garlic. The salmon was very moist and the veggies are all under it.

Dessert

Scala’s Classic Duo has Mini‎ Bostini Cream “Pie” and Mini Chocolate Pecan Torte. We were pretty full at the end of the dinner and wanted to fit in something sweet, so we went with this option. A few bites between us and it was what we needed to cure our sweet tooth.

Overall, the dinner was delicious and I would come again. The food was well executed and the service was good.

We Rate Scala’s Bistro:

Address:
Sir Francis Drake Hotel, 432 Powell Street, San Francisco

Website:
http://www.scalasbistro.com/

In Brunch

Bao Down: Hawaiian Brunch

September 27, 2016

Bao Down has a Hawaiian Brunch every weekend at their Olympic Village location. Since Hawaiian cuisine is all the rage this year, I thought it would be great to check it out with a few friends.

One thing I’ve always adored was their amazing painting on the wall. So bright and vibrant with the rustic decor.

Drinks

Coffee is a must at brunch since we are all still waking up. They have drip coffee with milk and sugar.

They even have espresso-based coffees too if you want something a bit more fancy.

Thai Iced Tea was a cool item on the menu so my friend ordered it. When it came to the table, the drink was super sweet, so she asked if they could do it half sweet, but unfortunately it’s pre-mixed, so they can’t adjust the sweetness. They were nice enough to take this off the bill.

Island Brunch

The Swartz has crispy corned beef and potato hash with 2 eggs, garlic fried rice with tomato and onions.

Under Pressure has panko fried spam, 2 eggs, garlic rice, hash browns, sweet shoyu, tomato and onions.

I found this dish to be quite heavy for brunch. It was pretty hard starting the day off with fried foods and rice. I thought there would be a few lighter items on the menu, but most of them were meaty and heavy.

Overall, I didn’t really take a liking the brunch items we ordered. I prefer their lunch menu with poke as it is more light and fresh.

We rate Bao Down:

Address:
115 West 2nd Ave. Vancouver

Website:
http://baodown.net/

In Chinese

Empire Seafood: Dim Sum + Dumpling Trail

September 26, 2016

Empire Seafood Restaurant is located in Richmond on No. 3 Road and New Westminster Hwy. Surprisingly, I haven’t been here for dim sum before. With so many amazing dim sum restaurants in town, this is one of the popular ones to go to.

We were invited by Tourism Richmond to experience the Dumpling Trail. Empire is one of the restaurants features in the trail for their diverse selection of dumplings from crispy to chewy to all types of textures.

Interior

Dumplings

Shrimp dumplings (Har gow) are a staple in Chinese dim sum. The dumplings are filled with shrimp and wrapped in a tapioca starch pastry. It is them steamed in a bamboo basket.

It comes with 4 pieces in each order. I enjoyed the bounce of the shrimp inside and the skin was a good thickness. Best eaten with some hot sauce or XO sauce.

Pork and Shrimp Dumpling (Siu Mai) is a dumpling stuffed with pork, shrimp and then topped with roe. It is wrapped in a yellow wrapper. It is also steamed in a bamboo basket.

It comes with 4 pieces too. Good mixture of shrimp and pork inside without too much fat.

Taro Dumpling (Wu Gok) is made with steamed mashed taro with mushroom, shrimp, and pork in the centre. It is deep-fried so it gets the wispy texture on the outside. It comes with 4 per order too. You typically get this cut in half before eating.

A nice texture since you get the crunch from the outside and the savoury filling inside.

Fried Pork Dumplings (Ham Siu Gok) has a crisp crust on the outside and inside the the minced pork centre. The filling is pretty good.

Other items

Spring Rolls come in 4 pieces but are cut up into 8 for easy sharing. These are deep-fried and filled with a delicious shrimp centre.

Chicken Feet is a staple in dim sum but not everyone can stomach it. I grew up with chicken feet at most dim sum meals, so this isn’t out of the ordinary for me. It has a nice sauce and essentially you are eating away at the skin and cartilage.

Spareribs with squash comes in one serving in a bamboo basket.

Shrimp Rice Roll comes with 3 pieces and are cut in half. The shrimp is nice and fresh, good colour and tastes great when you pour the soy sauce over top.

Veggies

Pea tips in broth is a delicious dish. The sweetness from the pea tips is really good. Do be careful of bugs since I did find a caterpillar in my portion.

Sweets

Egg Custard Tart is a bit different here since they add some coconut into it. It was good, but unexpected as we devoured these.

Egg Yolk Bun is pretty good here too. The steamed buns have a week yolky centre. Very delicious and you can’t leave here without one.

Final Thoughts

Empire Seafood has some pretty solid dim sum and good prices. Just be aware that they do charge for tea. So don’t be surprised when that pops up on the bill. Try to make reservation in advanced and try to go earlier in the day before some key items run out.

We Rate Empire Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
London Plaza, 5951 Number 3 Rd #200, Richmond

Website: http://www.empirerestaurant.ca/esr/dimsum/

In Car

2017 Ford Escape Sport: Review

September 25, 2016

The 2017 Ford Escape Sport has arrived and we took it up on a trip to Whistler to enjoy the food, drinks and the beautiful backdrop of the mountains in and around Whistler. After racking up 300kms during the trip, I got a good feel for the SUV along the curvy sea to sky highway.

Exterior

The Sport Appearance Package gives the Ford Escape an edgier look. It comes with:

19-inch Black premium-painted aluminum wheels
Black-bezel halogen projector headlights
LED signature daytime running lights
Black-tinted taillights
Unique black front fender grilles
Gloss-black painted upper grille with chrome accents
Black roof rails
Leather-wrapped steering wheel and gear shifter
Sporty V-shaped partial leather-trimmed seats
Gloss-black fog light bezels

These are some good aesthetic features to substitute the Ebony black for the silver trims.

The look of the exterior overall is pretty nice. The black trim and the black wheels give it a nicer look than the silver. It’s a pretty good size for a small SUV. I didn’t have many issues parking either especially when there is the rear view camera to help with parking.

Interior

The interior was roomy and had ample trunk space. With all our luggage piled up in the trunk, we still had lots of room left. The seats were comfortable and no one had issues with leg room. Fitting 5 people inside is no problem at all. The leather trimmed seats made the interior look a lot nicer.

One thing about a car that I love to focus on is the technology. As a person that like to misplace keys frequently, the SYNC Connect allows you to start, lock, unlock and locate your vehicle from virtually anywhere using your smartphone. I rely on my iPhone for a lot of things and if it can find my keys or unlock the car, it’s seriously a blessing so I don’t have remember where I put my keys.

SYNC3 has Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to integrate a limited number of apps from your phone, and displays them on the touchscreen for easy access. Google Maps and Spotify make your driving experience a lot better.

Drive

Driving along the Sea to Sky is quite curvy when traveling along the highway. I found that the Escape has firm ride with responsive handling when merging in and out of lanes. Plus, the blind spot indicator is awesome so you know if there is anything in your blind spot before merging.

Good acceleration and when travelling over 100+ km, it wasn’t too loud.

A unique feature of the 2017 Ford Escape is the Lane-Keeping System. If you start drifting closer to the lane markings, it can apply torque to the steering wheel if it senses your vehicle drifting unintentionally out of its lane. If needed, the system can also send gentle vibration pulses to the wheel to prompt you to steer back toward centre.

Their new centre instrument panel has a front-mounted USB port with a pocket for devices, redesigned climate controls and refreshed, user-friendly design.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I thought the 2017 Ford Escape was pretty awesome on the highway, in the city, and off road. The price point is pretty good and great for those who have a lot to carry in their car.

Website: http://www.ford.ca/suvs/escape

In Four Beakers

Kilala: Japanese Restaurant in Burnaby

September 25, 2016

Kilala has been in the North Burnaby neighbourhood for about 10 years now. After all that time, I finally came here for a visit with M. It is a small sushi bar, so it can get pretty busy around dinner time. The outside of the shop may not look like much but their sushi is delicious.

They started us off with some tea and even gave us a whole pot of it so we could refill it ourselves.

We started off with some nigiri to see how it compares to other places.

Tamago was nothing like other restaurants. I loved the layers of the egg and how it towered over the ball of sushi rice. M loved it and i think its so far his favourite tamago.

Hokkaido Scallop Nigiri was really fresh and the pieces of scallop were very plump.

Next was the Unagi Battera with eel on top of pressed sushi rice. I love the car on the unagi and its so flavourful. It’s a pricey item to order, but its so good.

Look at that. So So good!

Toro Sashimi comes with 7 pieces and it is nice and fatty. The chef really knows his stuff.

Assorted Nigiri comes with 14 pieces of sushi – 1/2 tekka maki, 1/2 kappa maki, and 8 nigiri selections from the chef. There is a little wasabi hidden under the sashimi, so watch out.

All of the nigiri were pretty delicious. My favourite were the tamago and saba. All the others were pretty standard.

Overall, it’s a nice hidden gem in North Burnaby for good Japanese sushi. The prices can be high for some items, but the quality is here. You won’t find too wide a selection for cooked food. It is mostly sushi rolls and raw items.

We Rate Kilala:

Address:
4749 Hastings Street, Burnaby

In Gastown

Kozakura: Japanese Cuisine in Gastown

September 24, 2016

Kozakura is a new Japanese Izakaya located near Gastown. They specialize in Kappo-style Japanese food and the menu is seasonal, fresh and local.

Foodgressing, Food Wench, Maggi, Nosh & Nibble, Picky Diner and I came here for dinner as we were so curious about what they served.

Interior

The interior is pretty small and narrow. Best to make reservations to make sure you have a seat. The restaurant is also dim and has a cozy atmosphere. We came here early in the evening, so it wasn’t very busy. They seat about 25 people in total.

Drinks

Sapporo was my drink of choice at Japanese restaurants. Gotta have Japanese beer to go with Japanese food. It’s a light and fruity beer that pairs well with the flavours.

A few of the others ordered Sake and it comes in such a cute rounded bottom decanter. They have a wide selection of sake, which goes well with the dishes they create.

Food

Osentamago Ohitashi has a poached onsen egg, snap peas, and dashi soy. Definitely not a dish to share. The flavours are very delicate and the egg is just so delicious.

Aigamo Sumiso has sweet soy cooked duck breast, sumiso, and flowering chives. It comes with 4 pieces to an order. The duck was tender and went well with the sauce.

Honjitsu no Osashimi is their daily selection of sashimi. Since we were in a group of six, we payed a bit more to make sure there were 6 pieces each so everyone could get a bit. They used some good cuts of sashimi.

Tako no Yawarakani has sous vide octopus, smoked ponzu, and mizuna. The octopus was tender but still had a bite to it.

Sake Kasu Salmon was moist and flaky inside. You can definitely tell they spent their time marinating the salmon.

Madai Sakamushi has steamed seabream with seared skin, bok choy, and a thick soy dashi. Better presentation compared with the other dishes. Light and delicate taste.

Sanshou Steak is made with ribeye, sanshou peppercorns, and shungiku. The peppercorns were an interesting touch and is tongue numbing. I like the way the cooked it so it is at a medium rare.

Sunomono was served with crab, mozuku, sliced cucumber, and tosazu vinegar. It was pretty good, served cold, and had a clean taste.

Yuzu Miso Buta Niku is sous vide pork loin, yuzu miso paste, and a apricot glaze. That paste was so spicy, but I loved how it cleared your sinuses.

Anago Dashi Chazuke has slow cooked eel, steamed rice, dashi, and mitsuba. Of all the dishes, this was more filling than the others. I could of definitely had the whole thing to myself.

Overall, the food tasted good and has a good clean feeling at the end of the meal. For a large group to come here, it was hard to figure out the best way to order, so we got 2 of every dish on the menu. It seemed like it would be enough but the size of the dishes were pretty small. There is also auto gratuity of 18% when dining with 6 or more people.

We finished our meal and decided to go to another place to fill up a little bit more.

We Rate Kozakura:

Address:
280 Carrall Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.kozakuragastown.ca/

In Cafe

Cup Full Dessert Cafe in Coquitlam

September 23, 2016

Cup Full Dessert is located in the food court at Henderson Mall in Coquitlam. They serve up a few different desserts, cakes and drinks. If you’re a fan of Soft Peaks, they serve up their delicious soft-serve ice cream. If you live in the suburbs, you can now get Soft Peaks without driving all the way downtown.

Drinks

Cappuccino is what I needed in the early afternoon. They even put a cute little bird on top. They use their own blend of espresso beans in all their drinks.

Coffee Float is super nice and strong. It even has Soft Peaks soft serve ice cream inside.

Grape Fresh Fruit drink is so good! You can tell they only use real grapes are their natural sweetness really shines through.

Grapefruit Fresh Fruit drink was great as well, but I still preferred the grape version.

Full Cup Shaved Ice

Green Tea has the shaved ice and green tea in different layers.

It is topped with red beans, almonds, and sponge cake and some more green tea.

Red Bean has the shaved ice, red bean, more shaved ice and then topped with more red beans, almonds and whipped cream.

Mango was my favourite of all of them. You really can’t go wrong with the fresh mango taste and the shaved ice.

Soft Serve

Mudslide has the Soft Peaks soft serve ice cream with chocolate syrup and crushed up Tim Tam Cookies. Great for chocolate lovers. One of my favourite items here.

Roll Cakes

Chocolate Banana Roll Cake is made by Cake Ya, a Japanese bakery about 10 minutes away. The cakes were decent, but I much prefer going to the store to get my roll cakes fresher.

Because these have been in the fridge a bit longer, its not as fresh.

Strawberry Roll Cake I had similar feelings too. This would be an item I get from Cake Ya all the time too.

Matcha and Red Bean Roll Cake was ok too, but I wished there was a bit more whipped cream inside.

Overall, the desserts are decent. I will definitely come back for the drinks and the Mudslide again.

We Rate Cup Full Dessert Cafe:

Address:
#2079-1163 Pinetree way Coquitlam, BC

In Bubble Tea

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice: Bubble Tea in Downtown

September 22, 2016

CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice is the world’s largest Bubble Tea company and they have locations all over Asia and North America. The interior is pretty small, so most people do take out.

Bubble Tea

Classic Bubble Tea with pearls was what I got. I opted for half sweet. It was pretty good, but ChaTime inches out slightly ahead since I like more of the roasted flavour.

Taro Milk Tea with Sago was what Maggi ordered. Check out her blog to hear what she thought.

Overall, it’s a pretty solid bubble tea place in the Downtown area. Nothing fancy or different that really differentiates them from the other shops in town.

We Rate CoCo Fresh Tea & Juice:

Address:
609 W Pender Street, Vancouver

Website: http://cocobubbletea.com/

In Chinese

Moral’s Village: Hot Pot in Richmond

September 21, 2016

Moral’s Village is a new a la carte hot pot restaurant in Richmond. They are a chain restaurant in China and has now expanded to Toronto and Richmond.

The main difference in the Toronto location is that they have all you can eat, which isn’t the same as Richmond.

I was invited to try out their signature dishes on their dinner menu by the crew at Chopstick Fest.

Interior

They have private rooms for larger parties or private functions. You should call ahead of time to reserve these rooms. The private room that we were in also came with our own washroom.

Starters

Before the hotpot began, they shared with us 4 starters. All cold dishes to get our appetites going.

Creating your sauce

There is a cart in the hallway with a bunch of sauces and ingredients to create your own sauce.

Hot Pot

Our table got 2 soup broths – preserved egg and pork bone soup. They have a bunch of different broths that range from mild to spicy.

They even have a soup base called Beauty in the Golden House. It’s quite elaborate and at $68, its not any regular broth. It needs to be ordered in advanced and will really impress guests.

As the different ingredients arrived at the table, we put them into the hot pot one by one. The quality of their ingredients are pretty good and it’s reflected in the price they charge.

Meat

Deluxe Lamb Roll came with quite a lot of slices for an order. Fresh and not frozen when it arrives at the table.

Ox Tongue was sliced nice and thin, so it more tender than usual.

Angus AAA Short Rub was very nice quality too. Very fresh and a good amount of marbling.

Standard Joshu Wagyu Kobe Beef is mouth watering. Very expensive cut of meat for $58 for only 5 large pieces.

Look at all those delicious ratio of meat to fat. So good. Since it is such a nice cut of meat, we made sure not to overcook it.

That marbling is awesome.

Beef Balls with cheese, fish balls, pork balls and prawn balls were all fresh and went well with the hot pot. My favourite was the prawn balls.

Seafood

Deluxe Seafood Platter is decadent and costs over $100. It has fresh crab, abalone, prawns, oyster, and grouper. It was so fresh that the prawns were still moving. The presentation is very nice and comes with a cup of smoking dried ice. Fancy Fancy.

Other items

Pea sprouts are one of my favourite veggies to have with hot pot.

They have fresh handmade noodles and its a nice option to have here.

Bean Curd Roll has 7 pieces and it is deep fried. You dip this into the hot pot until it becomes a bit soggy.

They have a lot of different mushrooms that are great too.

Corn is a great item to add to hot pot to add a bit of sweetness.

Deep Fried Chinese Donut with fish paste and tokibo was an interesting item to have as I’ve never seen anything like it.

Overall

The quality of the hot pot was superb, but it can cost quite a bit. They have pretty premium options when it comes to selecting broth, meats, seafood and other ingredients. Definitely not your everyday hot pot place.

We Rate Moral’s Village:

Address:
4540 Number 3 Road, Richmond

In Downtown

Pokérrito: Burritos, Bowls and Salads in Vancouver

September 20, 2016

Pokérrito is one of the new poké shops opening in Vancouver this year. The poké hype is real and during lunch time, there was a 30 minute line up out the door. Vancouverites are going nuts over the poké.

Building your meal

When you get to the counter they first ask you what protein you want and if you want it as a burrito, bowl or salad.

The protein you can choose from are ahi tuna, spicy tuna, albacore tuna, salmon, sockeye salmon, scallop, shrimp and octopus. Some protein choices cost extra.

You can add in as much cucumber, kale, green onion, sweet onion and cilantro.

You can choose 5 from the following list – Sprouts, masago, jalapeño, pineapple, grape-tomatoes, ginger, wasabi, sweet corn, furikake, and chili flakes.

You can choose 2 of the below as your sides. Avocado, edamame, crabmeat, seaweed salad or spicy seaweed salad.

You then can top it off with some sauce – Umami, wasabi-basil, citrus ponzu, sweet chili or creamy mayo.

There’s a lot of items to put into your creation, but it can also be quite confusing to decide what you want.

Bowl

The most popular item to order is the bowl as you do get a bit more ingredients in it. There is a base or rice either white or brown rice.

It comes in a durable container, so its good to eat in or take out. A lot of people ended up getting take out.

Salad

The salad is similar size to the bowl, but with romaine lettuce instead of the rice.

Burrito

I ordered the burrito and I had added sockeye salmon, avocado, seaweed salad, corn, sprouts, masago, tamago and umami sauce. This is all wrapped up in white rice and seaweed.

Overall, the burrito was good, but next time I would get the bowl just to get a little bit more ingredients. All of us liked all 3 options and is quite healthy. Price is decent too.

We Rate Pokérrito:

Address:
558 Dunsmuir Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.pokerrito.ca/

In Chinese

Liu Yi Shou Hot Pot Restaurant in South Burnaby

September 19, 2016

Liu Yi Shou Hot Pot Restaurant is a new hot pot restaurant in South Burnaby on Kingsway. They are a chain restaurant from China quickly expanding in Vancouver.

They have over 600 restaurants in China. They have 2 more locations on Robson Street and in Richmond. What is unique about their menu compared to their other locations is their pan fried hot pots.

I was invited by the Chopstick Fest, a Chinese Cuisine Festival happening in October later this year to try out a few of their signature dishes.

Interior

The interior is nice and has lot of seating. Depending on your group size, the seating can be quite squishy. For us, we had a group of 7 and it was very tight. We also found that for a hot pot place, there wasn’t very good ventilation.

All of us smelled quite intensely of hot pot afterwards.

Pan Fried Hot Pots

We started with the Pan Fried Crab with ginger onion and short rib soup in the centre. Apparently, you eat the items in the outer rings and then drink the soup in the centre.

The crab was hard to pick at since there were no metal seafood crackers. The taste of the soup was very nice.

The second pot we got was Pan fried fish and sauteed beef in a hot and spicy soup.

This pot had a lot more flavour. The sauteed beef went really well with the hot and spicy soup and spices.

Hot Pot

More spicy soup base is added to the pot. I thought this was pretty strange since the broth would be super oily from the pan fried ingredients originally in the pot. This was definitely a unique experience. We assumed we would get a new pot to switch over but it seemed like it wasn’t the case.

The spicy soup base has quite a kick to it. I always find that spicy is good for cooking meat. It’s a great match to have beef and a good amount of heat.

More of the short rib broth was added to our non spicy hot to cook some meat, veggies, seafood and other items.

To accompany both hot pots, all the extra items are a la carte. So, it’s not all you can eat.

Some of my favourite items were the frozen tofu, quail eggs, and veggies.

Some items were felt were not very fresh like the shrimp. Also the diced beef had bits of shell inside it.

Other menu items

Deep fried buns with condensed milk comes with 6 pieces of buns. Crisp on the outside and I like how there were 2 slits on the top so you can get some condensed milk in the cracks.

Green onion pancake was not good at all. It was only and didn’t have a lot of green onion taste to it. Mostly dough.

Yang chow fried rice was good and an easy item to share with the group.

Fresh young coconut was great for the meal as it quelled the heat from the spicy hot pot.

Overall, we felt like the items were a hit and miss. We also didn’t like how they added the broth into the pan fried hot pot as it made it super oily when we were doing the regular hot pot.

We rate Liu Yi Shou Hot Pot Restaurant:

Address:
5507 Kingsway, Burnaby BC

In Four Beakers

Peaked Pies: Aussie Meat Pies in Whistler

September 18, 2016

Peaked Pies in Whistler Village is a popular place to have a good ol’ Aussie Meat Pie. What makes them so popular is their beautiful looking ‘peaked pies’ topped with mashed potato, peas and gravy. I came with a few friends to indulge on their massive peaked pies.

The interior is pretty small and there aren’t a lot of seating. Most people ended up eating outside or getting it to go.

They have different pies available – traditional, chunky pepper steak, butter chicken, veggie, etc. Lots of pies to choose from.

Look at all those pies. On the outside, they all look the same.

They have an electronic ordering machine if you don’t want to line up at the counter. It’s super fast and easy to use.

Traditional Aussie Meat Pie which has ground beef, onions, and gravy. I also got it peaked for an extra $3.25, which adds mashed potato, mushy green peas and gravy on top. It’s so worth it. You can’t come here without getting it peaked.

All of us got it peaked. The savoury meaty mixture inside the flakey crust is made even better with the peas and mash. This is the ultimate comfort food.

We Rate Peaked Pies:

Address:
105-4369 Main Street, Whistler, BC

Website:
http://www.peakedpies.com/

In Brunch

Southside Diner: Breakfast in Whistler

September 17, 2016

Southside Diner is a cozy little diner in Whistler. When you drive along the highway, you’ll be able to see it. It’s one of the only diners in the area. They open early, so we made sure to come here to grab a bite.

Interior

Nothing says a diner more than their decor. Coca Cola memorabilia on the walls and old pictures. The old school booths and stools.

Rules of the house

There are rules of the house, all 12 of them. TL;DR be respectful and don’t be difficult.

Drinks

They offer many drinks on the menu, but most popular drink in the morning is coffee.

Breakfast

Monte Cristo has ham and swiss stuffed between 2 slabs of golden french toast. It also comes with warm syrup and homefries. The monte cristo was so indulgent. Mmmmm.

I also ordered a side of bacon. I love bacon, so this wasn’t complete without it. The bacon was nice and crisp, which is a bonus.

The Southside Slam has your choice of bacon, sausage or ham. Then you get 2 egg, 2 pancakes and their homefries. A very traditional Western breakfast with a bit of everything.

Overall, the diner is super cute and it’s hard to find anything like it anymore. Good solid breakfast and we enjoyed it.

We Rate Southside Diner:

Address:
2102 Lake Placid Rd, Whistler, BC

Website:
http://southsidediner.ca/

In Chinese

0755 Restaurant & Lounge: Dinner in Richmond

September 16, 2016

0755 Restaurant & Lounge looks like a club on the outside, but surprisingly, they have really good dishes. They showcase dishes from different regions and provinces in China. They are named after an area code of Shenzhen.

I was invited to try out their signature dishes on their dinner menu by the crew at Chopstick Fest.

Interior

The 2 sides are split up between the restaurant and lounge. It has a dark atmosphere and doesn’t look too much like a regular restaurant setting.

Drinks

Their drink menu is pretty large but I found that most of the drinks are very sweet.

Appetizer

Sweet Olive Chin-Yam was an interesting dish on the menu. I really didn’t like it as it was strange to be slightly sweet. It might of been better if this dish was colder.

Sour Jellyfish Head was really good, I liked the amount of vinegar in the dish, plus the jellyfish pieces were large.

Chongqing Spicy Chicken was another delicious dish. It wasn’t too spicy and it added a lot of flavour to the chicken.

Spicy and Sour Lotus Roots was delicious, but I didn’t like the chopped up into smaller pieces.

Mains

Braised Spot Prawns was bathing in the spicy sauce with corn pieces. They give you plastic gloves so you can peel off the shells with your hands. They try to tone down the messiness, but I still found some seeped into the gloves.

Lobster Noodles had a good amount of lobster and the noodles soaked up all the precious lobster juices.

Garlic Steam Scallop had a lot of garlic on the noodles with the piece of scallop on top.

Pepper Steam Mandarin Fish was a surprising dish. I thought I wouldn’t like it, but the fish was so juicy and well executed. It wasn’t spicy at all. From the looks of it, I thought it would be, but just good flavours.

Spicy Sour Beef in Soup looked unappealing, but the flavours of the beef and enoki mushroom were good. A subtle amount of spice but not too strong.

Roast Duck Slices with Spring Pancakes was ok, but the taste of the duck is masked by all the sauce that its covered with.

Steamed Garlic Loofah was another surprising dish. Even though it was stuffed with garlic, it wasn’t too pungent.

Sauteed Pea Sprouts in Broth is a good refreshing veggie dish. I love pea sprouts.

0755 Stir-fried rice with preserved ham came in a tall bucket with the rice packed in it. Lots of ingredients inside the rice.

Soup

Stewed Chicken Soup came in a jar for everyone that orders it. It was a nice clear soup with pieces of vegetables and chicken. There was a good amount in the jar.

Dessert

Ice Cream Toast was large and a good item to share with a group. They make all the ice cream in-house and the green tea ice cream was delicious.

Coconut Pudding was electrifying when it arrived at the table. It had a sparkler inserted up top and lit when it comes to you. When you pop off the top, you will see the milky pudding up top, but when you did deeper, you’ll find the clear coconut water is gelatin form underneath. It tastes so good and refreshing after the heavy meal.

After you eat the pudding, you can then eat the flesh off the inside of the coconut. I would highly recommend this.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the food here. As a restaurant and lounge, I wouldn’t expect them to have a killer dinner menu. I came here once before for some nibbles and alcohol. I was impressed.

Some dishes were a miss, especially the drinks, but there were a few items that I really enjoyed.

We Rate 0755 Restaurant:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd, Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.0755lounge.com/

Interior

Cereal selection

Price

Cereal Bowls

Final Thoughts

Delivery

Inside the Box

Recipes

Steak Provençal

Poricini Mushroom

Overall

7-day Cable Car and Muni Bus Passport

Blue & Gold Fleet Bay Cruise Adventure

Monterey Bay Aquarium or Aquarium of the Bay

de Young Museum + Legion of Honor

California Museum of Sciences

Final thoughts

Interior

Drinks

Appetizer

Main

Dessert

Drinks

Island Brunch

Interior

Dumplings

Other items

Veggies

Sweets

Final Thoughts

Exterior

Interior

Drive

Final Thoughts

Interior

Drinks

Food

Drinks

Full Cup Shaved Ice

Soft Serve

Roll Cakes

Menu

Bubble Tea

Interior

Starters

Creating your sauce

Hot Pot

Meat

Seafood

Other items

Overall

Menu

Building your meal

Bowl

Salad

Burrito

Interior

Pan Fried Hot Pots

Hot Pot

Other menu items

Interior

Rules of the house

Drinks

Breakfast

Interior

Drinks

Appetizer

Mains

Soup

Dessert