Richmond Archives - Page 10 of 11

In Chinese

Excellent Tofu & Snack 好好豆品專門店: Tofu Dessert in Richmond

October 2, 2012

Excellent Tofu & Snack makes in-house tofu desserts and soy milk! M, TaiwaneseGirl, and I were eating at Dinesty and decided to take a trip to have tofu dessert. I love tofu dessert, so I never miss a trip for some yum yum tofu! The last time I came here was 2 years ago and I really wanted to come back.

The shop is very plain looking on the inside and outside, but the tofu dessert is the star of the show!

Menus are in English, Chinese, and Japanese.

Soy pudding with grass jelly ($3.50) was what I ordered. It tastes very bland without any sugar, so you will want to add ginger syrup or liquid sugar for more taste. I love it because it’s healthy!

Soy Pudding with red bean and coconut milk ($4) was what M ordered. He thought it was OK since he’s not too use to eating this.

Soy Pudding with Basil Seeds ($3.50) came warm instead of cold. All our other orders were really cold. We asked them to exchange it for a colder one and they did fix it.

There are items you can add into your tofu dessert – peanuts, ginger and liquid sugar.

Overall, I do really love this place. I also purchased a big tub of sweetened tofu dessert to bring home! It was devoured so quickly too!

Words of Wisdom:

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

We rate Excellent Tofu & Snack :

Address:

160-4231 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=160-4231+Hazelbridge+Way+Richmond,+BC&hnear=4231+Hazelbridge+Way,+Richmond,+Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia+V6X+3L7&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Hanami Japanese Restaurant: Dining on Dim Sum at YVR Airport

July 20, 2012

Hanami Japanese Restaurant is located right before you enter the security check for flights. They serve dim sum and Japanese food. Right before my flight to Hong Kong, my parents and I decided to have some dim sum since we went to the airport way too early.

We waited for a server to seat us at our table, but there was only one waitress on staff. There were two cooks at the sushi bar area, but they did not acknowledge our presence to help us get a seat. After an awkward long while, we just sat ourselves down. Off the bat, we were not impressed at all.

Tea! I’ll say this every time!

Deep Fried Mixed Meat Puff ($5) is not my favorite dim sum item. I always eat it, but I’m not a fan of the combination of the meat and the slightly sweet dough.

The inside has a decent amount of filling. It wasn’t anything too amazing.

Steamed Beef Rice Flour Rolls ($6) has the minced beef in the center surrounded by the rice flour. There are slits cut on top to allow flavour from the soy sauce to seep into the center, plus it’s makes for a good guide to divide this up when eating dim sum.

Bean Curd Rolls with Fish Paste and Greens ($5) was ok, but my parents both felt it was salty.

Pan Fried Eggplants Stuffed with Shrimp ($5) was very weird! It has the shrimp paste sandwiched between two slices of eggplant. It is also very oily, when you bite into it, a lot of oil comes out of it.

Steamed Scallops and Shrimp Dumpling ($5) was ok as well, nothing very special.

Deep Fried Shrimp Toast ($5) was very crunchy and had the slice of toast underneath and the shrimp mixture on top.

Steamed Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce ($5) was ok too, nothing very special.

Steamed Pork Dumpling with Shrimp ($5) didn’t look very appealing and the taste was ok.

Chilled Mango Pudding ($3.75) is always my little sisters favorite item. It is shaped like a heart and topped with evaporated milk.

Overall, the food was quite poor and way over priced. It’s what you get when you eat at the airport. I had some hope for this place, but our experience from beginning to end was very poor. We will probably not return.

We Rate Hanami Japanese Restaurant:

Address:
3211 Grant McConachie Way (Before Security, Int’l Level 3)

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In Bubble Tea

Bubble Queen: Mango Madness in Richmond

July 6, 2012

Bubble Queen is a very popular restaurant in Richmond that serves up a variety of drinks and bubble waffles. I’ve been meaning to check out this place but it took me a while since I don’t live in Richmond.

After going to the Night Market, FoodPunk and FoodQueen decided to come here. I think we were all excited. The place was packed and lots of people were doing takeout. We were determined to get a seat, so I had to stalk tables to snatch one up. A group left and I accidentally ran over a person to grab that table. I felt bad, but I really wanted a table.

Fresh Mango Slush with Mango Cubes is everything a mango lover needs.

The chunks of mango were very large and delicious. You may need a spoon or fork to help you out when eating this.

Overall, they have a HUGE selection of drinks and bubble waffles. You may need some time to figure out what you want to order. It’s a very popular place to hang out, but since the store is very small, most people won’t find a table to sit and chill.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Free Wifi
Large selection of drink and bubble waffles
Very limited seating
Paid Parking in front or free after a certain time (I can’t remember the time)

We Rate Bubble Queen:

Address:
8888 Odlin Crescent
Richmond, BC

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In Chinese

Richmond Night Market 2012: Bakudanyaki, Le Tigre, Icy Bar + More

June 15, 2012

The Richmond Night Market is back! You may be confused why there are 2 night markets in Richmond, I am also confused but I heard there was a feud of some sort. After a four-year hiatus, Raymond Cheung, the founder of the original Richmond Night Market brings it back to a new location close to the Canada Line. There are 250 booths sellingitems such as Korean socks, colored contact lenses, stuffed animals, iPhone accessories, and other cool gadgets. There are also 80 vendors serving up the oh-so-delicious food that definitely attracts the whole city to come here.

Unfortunately, there is a fee of $1.50 to enter the night market, but the parking is complementary and very close! Imagine the admission is the cost of parking…much better than getting a parking ticket right?

By 7pm (the start of the night market), there were already lines into the parking lot of the night market. There is only one entrance and one exit out of this huge parking lot, so be expected to wait. You can also alternatively park at a different skytrain and just take transit down here.

Most people come here just for the food. There is always a crowd near the food area. It’s best to come early before huge lines begin to develop.

There are also a few table that you can sit down and eat your food. Don’t be afraid to eat with strangers if you desperately need to sit down to eat. Near this area are washrooms too.

Whatever you do…don’t buy the drinks from the Coca-Cola staff, they are severely over-priced! Might as well spend your money on something more delicious.

Daikichi Bakudanyak

Bakudanyaki was originally a food truck near the River Rock Casino a few years ago and they are back!! They were the originators of the huge takoyaki balls.

Cost: $5 per huge takoyaki balls
Flavours: Original, Chili, Wasabi, Curry, plus one special feature
Filling contains: Squid, cabbage, corn red ginger, shrimp, rice cake, quail egg and green onions
Website: http://www.bakudanyaki.com/

They cram an enormous amount of filling inside.

Wasabi Huge Takoyaki ($5) is the size of a baseball. All the huge takoyaki’s have the same fillings, the only thing that differs is the sauce they put on top. I chose wasabi since I wanted to be adventurous. The taste of wasabi is quite mild, so it won’t be super spicy. I really enjoyed it and the filling inside the takoyaki is very hearty. You must try this!

Le Tigre – Modern Chinese Cuisine

Le Tigre is one of the new Food Trucks that will be hitting the streets of Vancouver this Summer. They have a stall at the Richmond Night Market, so we had to have a taste of their skewers. What we noticed was the skewers were cheaper than some other stalls, plus they had some very enticing skewers. You definitely need to check out this place!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeTigreCuisine
Twitter: @leTigre_Cuisine

These are way cooler than all the skewer stands at the Richmond Night Market. It’s not just a skewer of meat, they dress them up with sauces and other cool ingredients.

Wouldn’t you want men in hipster hello kitty glasses serve you? We thought it was quite cute.

FoodQueen ordered:

Kickass Rice -$3.50
Pork Belly Skewer – $2.50

FoodPunk ordered:

Mochi Skewer
Pork Belly Skewer
Beef Skewer
3 skewers for $6.50

I ordered:

Beef Skewer
Chicken Skewer
Pork Belly Skewer
3 for $6.50

BBQ Squid

If I could read Chinese, I would let you know what the sign says. Sadly, I dropped out of Chinese school very early so I am no help at all. I really wanted to find some BBQ squid since I kept seeing people’s tweets about them. I didn’t know which ones were good, so I just went to the stall with the longest line up.

You pay at the right and then you line up again and pick up at the left side.

They don’t give you a piece of paper or anything…so I think they trust their customers to be honest. When you get to the man grilling all the squid, he will ask you if you want it regular or spicy.

Spicy Grilled Squid ($6) was spicy. I thought I had a high tolerance for spicy food, but I guess I was wrong. The squid was a bit chewy, but the flavour was good. If you can’t handle your spice, just get the regular one.

Cherry Fruit Juice & Icy Bar

I’ve fallen in love with this stall many years ago. It’s my go-to place for anything mango related. I’ve also been to their location in Crystal Mall a few times for their shaved ice and it’s never disappointed. I would highly recommend this place too.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cherryicybar
Additional Locations: Crystal Mall, Parker Place

Mango Tapioca Icy ($5) was definitely needed after all the salty and spicy food. Plus it was a hot day too. It has layers of mango, icy, tapioca and milk. I loved it!

Red Bean Ice Cream Mochi Icy ($5.50) was what FoodPunk ordered. It was big, but she said it wasn’t as thirst quenching as the mango icy.

QQ Egg Puff

QQ Egg Pugg is a bubble waffle stand at the night market. They have some very unique flavours of bubble waffles. I think they use the Bubble Tea powder in the bubble waffle to give them the color and taste. There are a lot of bubble waffle stands in the Richmond Night Market, so you have tons of options. FoodQueen and FoodPunk chose this because their banner was very cute.

Original, Chocolate or Strawberry – $3.50
Coconut, taro, mango, red bean, cheese or matcha – $4

Coconut Bubble Waffle ($4) looks like the original bubble waffle, but don’t be fooled. It did have a very subtle taste of coconut. it tasted ok, but the waffles looked pretty squished and deformed.

Taro Bubble Waffle ($4) is bright and purple inside due to the taro powder. It was very sweet and tasted like artificial taro.

Rotato

Rotato serves up the hurricane potatoes. The line up was quite long and was about a 30 minute wait. It seems to be the only stall that served these. We didn’t line up, but they do have this really cool illustration about what you can do with your Rotato.

Care For Life Foundation – Wishing Tree

At the Richmond Night Market, the Care For Life Foundation set up a series of artificial trees for people to make a wish. We browsed around and looked at a few wishes. We found a lot of wishes about relationships and how people want their relationship to last till the end of time. Very cute!

Some on the other hand … were not as sweet. I don’t really know what to say about this one…

A good amount of wishes were very sexual in nature as well. On it was a 604 number, but I’m sure no one wants to contact this person.

Address:
8351 River Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
richmondnightmarket.com

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In Cafe

Green Bean Cafe: Airport Food Sucks

May 17, 2012

Green Bean Cafe is located at the Domestic terminal of Vancouver Airport after you check-in and get scanned by security. There’s not much around to eat at the terminal besides this place.

Since I had a hunch that no meals will be served on our WestJet flight, I decided to get something quick. Plus, early flights aren’t fun, so I needed a coffee. This was what I could find.

They have drinks, sandwiches, and other little pastries. The prices and service

Medium Coffee ($1.70) was alright, nothing too special about it. Everyone else in line was also ordering coffee.

Butter Croissant was bearable, but was not fresh at all. The cashier just popped it into the microwave to heat up.

Overall, pretty subpar offerings from this Cafe. Since it is “airport” food, I wasn’t too surprised. If I had known there was a Starbucks a bit further, I should have gone there instead.

Words of Wisdom:

Nothing Special
Convenient just before your flight

We Rate Green Bean Cafe:

Address:
3211 Grant McConachie Way
Richmond, BC

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In Bubble Tea

Pearl Castle: Shaved Ice Dessert and Bubble Tea

April 12, 2012

Sometimes after a large dinner, you need more food! For the #604insomnia crew, they are always hungry! After consuming king crab, we headed over to Pearl Castle to eat some more. We’re young and adventurous! Pearl Castle is a great after- dinner spot as it sells bubble tea and a few snacks.

The interior is quite nice and modern! Unfortunately, the service is really bad here. We sat there for a while waiting for a server to take our orders. It took a long while and I’m not crazy at all. We had to wave our hands several times to get their attention and sometimes they glance at us and then walk away again.

Shaved Ice an awesome after dinner treat. you get a pile of shaved ice delivered to the table. There is condensed milk on top and underneath are pearls and pudding. You can choose any 3 types of toppings for shaved ice and additional toppings cost a bit extra too. It’s fun dessert to share with everyone at the table.

Avocado Yogurt Juice was surprisingly good. The combination of the two flavours made it a bit tangy and sweet. I’d probably get this again! I only ordered it because it sounded cool and they ran out of another drink.

Overall, drink and desserts are good, but you do have to put up with the bad service.

Words of Wisdom:

Bubble Tea + Shaved Ice… or any deep-fried item
Lots of parking in parking lot
Horrible service
nice interior

We Rate Pearl Castle:

Address:
3779 Sexsmith Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Chinese

Empire Chinese Cuisine: King Crab + Duck + Tapioca Pudding

April 7, 2012

It’s the time of year for Alaskan King Crab! The 604insomnia crew decided to head down to Empire Chinese Cuisine for one of the King Crab Dinner sets. We chose this place since it was a decent price and has good food.

Since it is in Richmond on Alexandra Road, the parking is quite packed even though they have their own parking lot. I had to park all the way at Lansdowne for free parking.

We went at around 7:30pm and it was packed inside. Not everyone was eating King Crab, but a majority of people were.

This was about 9 lbs. Most places show you the crab before preparing it in the kitchen. You can pose with it too if you want.

Seafood in broth soup was pretty good! It had lots of different seafood inside and it’s one of my favorite types of soups.

Peking Duck Wraps comes with some cucumbers, onions, hoisin sauce, slices of duck and the wrappers.

The duck slice was very juicy and had lots of meat content to them. They lay it on the plate on top of fried shrimp crackers.

All you do is put a little bit of everything together, wrap it up and munch away. It was yummy!

The main part of the feast arrived! This is the steamed garlic Alaskan King Crab legs. All the legs are cut in half so it’s really easy to eat.

There’s a lot of minced garlic on top, so the taste really infuses into the meat.

You can get them to turn the head into a baked fried rice for a few dollars extra, but we didn’t do that.

Deep Fried Alaskan King Crab Knuckles is another favorite dish! It is seasoned with salt, chillies, and garlic. Super yummy and kickass!

Duck Lettuce Wraps incorporates the rest of the duck in a type of meat mixture. You take the lettuce leaves and a few scoops of the duck mixture, wrap it up and eat it.

Alaskan King Crab Broth with Noodles has a nice fragrant taste and cooked well.

Braised Bean Curd with Bok Choy was quite yummy and you kinda need vegetables to accompany the meal since everything else is kinda fatty.

Baked Tapioca Pudding was something we had to order. We actually forgot to pre-order this ahead of time, but they had one more left so we grabbed it up! It’s really delicious and has a very nice crust on top. Kinda like the pineapple bun thing.

You can see all the little tapioca balls. It’s one of the best baked tapioca puddings I’ve had, so it’s highly recommended to pre-order this!

Overall, the food was pretty solid and it costs $43 after tax and tip per person. We had 8 people at the table. We were all pretty stuff after this.

Words of Wisdom:

Can be hard to find parking at peak hours
Reservations are recommended
Decent service
Pre-order the Baked tapioca pudding

We Rate Empire Chinese Cuisine:

Address:

8251 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Dim Sum

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant: Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) Is Addictive

March 29, 2012

Dinesty is a Chinese restaurant in Richmond best known for the Xiao Long Bao (Steamed Pork Dumplings). They have been know to have amazing food and great prices.

Since the last dinner didn’t go so well at Po King with my parents, I decided it was time for me to decide where to eat. After luring them with delicious internet photos, they agreed to take me here.

Once you enter the restaurant, you’ll see a wall of teapot and little dim sum toys. They are glued to the shelf, so don’t think about stealing them.

Told you there were mini dimsum toys.

For a Tuesday dinner, this place was packed. My mom was super surprised and excited at the same time. We only had to wait about 10 minutes for a table. I’m pretty sure the weekends are crazy to get a table.

The best part about the interior is their open kitchen. You can see everyone cooking in the kitchen. It reminded me of watching a reality show on Food Network or something.

Look at them making the Xiao Long Bao. I was excited.

All your utensils and plates already at the table.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) comes in 8 pieces. The skin has a nice thin layer, but still keeps the juice locked up inside. They were pretty good! My little sister couldn’t get enough of these.

Comes with a vingar and ginger dip for the dumplings. I love dunking it in this sauce.

Marinated beef with soy-sauce wrapped in pancake ($5.50) is crispy on the outside and has a great flavour overall.

Cold Wined Chicken ($7.50) was good, but it did have a bit of a strange taste with the wine. If you are into the whole cold chicken type of thing, this may just be for you.

Stewed Chicken Leg in Brown Sauce ($6.50) was good, but most of the meat was closest to the drumstick. The meat was quite tender too.

Noodles Topped with home-made Meat Sauce ($6.50) is similar to the Korean Jajangmyeon. You mix everything together really well and just eat it. The dish was ok, but the sauce was a tad bit salty and needed to be more thick and chunky.

Fried rice with scallop and egg whites ($9.95) I liked it. It had a good mixture of ingredients and it wasn’t too oily.

Steamed shrimp scallop and pork dumpling ($7.50) was definitely not as good as the XLB. Even though I really like seafood, the taste didn’t wow me. It just tasted so fishy. It also comes with 8 dumplings.

Steamed Pork Dumplings ($6.50) we also got more of these because we really really liked them!

Almond Tofu ($2.75) was good, but the picture on the menu was pretty misleading…it had more fruit and when this name out…it seemed like there were only a few pieces.

Overall, the food was great and at good prices. The service was really good as well. I love their menu since it’s so easy to read and has PICTURES! I’ll definitely ba back to eat more steamed pork dumplings!

Words of Wisdom:

Steamed Pork Dumplings (XLB) is a must!
Very busy, so best to make reservations
Most dishes under $10
Good service

We Rate Dinesty Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
8111 Ackroyd Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Japanese

Matsuyama: Late Night Specials After 9

March 25, 2012

Matsuyama in Richmond has some great late night specials after 9pm. After hearing so much about this place from Wongers, I had to join her, Mini604, GoMunch and Lensflaaare for some late night nom noms.

The place was packed at night, but I guess everyone was there for the late night menu. Also note that parking here is so bad too. You gotta stalk for a parking space.

Miso Soup ($0.89) was the usual miso soup and nothing too special about it.

Salmon Sashimi ($4.25) was a good size and decent quality. They also have toro and tuna on their late night menu for the same price. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was no more toro.

Chicken Karrage (3.95) was nicely deep-fried but still a bit average. It was a good amount of karrage for the price.

Beer Sashimi ($4.95) is thinly sliced with a bed of lettuce, daikon, and sweet sauce. Yum.

Green Tea Ice Cream was something we all craved at the table. They had other flavours too like mango and coconut. I’m sure they didn’t make it themselves and came in a tub. Still it tasted alright.

Overall, the food is quite average, but the draw to Matsuyama are the late night specials.

Words of Wisdom:

Items from $0.89 to $7.95
Free parking, but lot is usually full
Decent food, some items are hit or miss

We Rate Matsuyama:

Address:
8500 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC

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In Filipino

Little Ongpin Restaurant: Filipino Food in Richmond

March 13, 2012

Little Ongpin Restaurant serves up Filipino – Chinese cuisine. It’s located in Richmond on No. 5 Road. I came here with M and Scarface for a Balut eating contest. I was in the contest but I didn’t win.

Before the contest, M, Scarface and I order some dishes. Since I have zero clue about Filipino food, Scarface did all the ordering.

Java Rice is essentially garlic rice. It tasted good and went well with the food, but it was intensely oily. At the bottom, there was a lot of oil.

Pork Sisig is marinated meat on a hot plate. What I found strange was that the hot plate wasn’t actually very hot. Scarface said the dish wasn’t very good and isn’t how it is in the Philippines.

Beef Salpicao is like stir fried garlic beef. The meat wasn’t very tender at all but the flavour was ok.

Pork and tofu was completely different that what we were expecting. Usually it would be pork meat instead of the pig skin. All of us didn’t like the dish.

Overall, M, Scarface and I were disappointed with the meal despite the great reviews online. Maybe we ordered the wrong dishes, but it wasn’t for us. It was a busy night at the restaurant, so perhaps that’s where the quality declined a bit.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of spaces in parking lot
Decent prices
Good lunch deals
They don’t serve beer 🙁
Dishes are hit or miss

We Rate Little Ongpin Restaurant:

Address:
4093 No 5 Road
Richmond, BC

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In All You Can Eat

Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot: Good Food, Horrible Service

January 24, 2012

TaiwaneseGirl wanted to come here for Hot Pot since it’s a large popular chain restaurant in Asia. Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot is located inside Lansdowne Mall in Richmond.

We made reservations at 7:30pm, but they didn’t honor our reservation. So, we waited…and waited…and waited. 40 minutes later we finally got a table. Clearly, we were not impressed with the service. There was 5 of us, so it was a ridiculous wait.

This place is packed on the weekends even though it is so large inside.

All You Can Eat Hot Pot ($19.99/ person + $9.99 broth) with half spicy and half original broth. It’s good to satisfy people who like spicy and non-spicy. The spicy side is really really really good for cooking meat and the original side is good for vegetables.

I usually avoid spicy, but I found the spicy side addictive for cooking meat and tofu!

For dinner, we chose this all you can eat option since it was too expensive buying ala carte.

The sauce is do-it-yourself. You just need to find the table of this stuff and begin mixing. You can choose from the following sauces:

Soy sauce
Vinegar
Peanut Sauce
Chili paste
Chili oil
Minced garlic
Satay sauce

I usually put in a lot of chili oil, satay sauce, and garlic. It’s really up to you what you want your sauce to taste like.

Vegetables, enoki mushrooms, fish balls, corn, tofu, and crab meat!

Udon noodles and vermicelli noodles.

Chicken and fish.

Raw Beef Slices! We order lots and lots and lots of this!

The food was good and we had a great time, but the largest problem here is the service.

Words of Wisdom:

Make Reservations, but not guaranteed to be held for you
Delicious broth
Decent prices for all you can eat
Ala Carte is very expensive
Very poor service

We Rate Mongolian Little Sheep Hot Pot:

Address:
#405-5300 No.3 Road
Richmond, BC
Website:
http://www.littlesheephotpot.com/

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In Dessert

La Chocolaterie: The Best Chocolates In The Lower Mainland

December 21, 2011

La Chocolaterie is the best chocolate store in the Lower Mainland. I really mean that because I have never been so excited and addicted to chocolates until now. Ever since my first bite at the Bakers Market, I have not been able to stop myself. They are my version of Willy Wonka. The owners – Taka & Kayoko have really dedicated themselves on making quality chocolates!

Their store is inside Izumi-Ya Japanese Marketplace. Its a small space, but thats where all the magic happens.

They are best known for their Ganache Chocolates. Really smooth chocolatey texture with amazing balance of flavour. I’m pretty sure they have over 30 flavours. Really unique flavours like blueberry, mango, green tea, black sesame, sake, red bean and even wasabi.

They also have chocolate bars too! These may look normal, but they are truly amazing. Earl Grey and the matcha bars are really good!

These ganache chocolates part of their coconama collection are really the gem of it all!

Favorite Pack ($5) contains 6 of the most popular flavours. You can’t go wrong with this since these are tried and tested flavours.

The green tea is quite strong, so if you aren’t familiar with the taste of green tea, it will be quite bitter.

Adventurers Pack ($5) is not for all. Judging by the flavours, it won’t appeal to everyone. The flavour is very subtle and acts as a secondary flavour to accompany the chocolaty ganache taste. The wasabi is not spicy at all, but you do get the faint flavour of wasabi.

I know some people may be scared of it, but it’s not bad at all.

6 pack of Tarts ($8.80) is assorted and you can choose what flavours you want inside. I initially thought the the tarts were a bit weird, but the tart make the ganache not as sweet. It makes for great presents…but in this case….I ate them all.

I also got Gift Basket A for $30 and it had a good assortment of everything in their store, so my coworkers really enjoyed it.

My all time favorite flavours:

Blueberry, mango, earl grey, coffee, black sesame, strong matcha and lemon basil.

Words of Wisdom:

Great Unforgettable Gifts (especially for the office)…step aside Ferrero Rocher!
Get a gift basket if you want to try a little bit of everything but can’t decide
Can be found at the Vancouver Bakers Market

We Rate La Chocolaterie:
Address:
7971 Alderbridge Way (Inside Izumi-Ya Japanese Marketplace)
Richmond, BC
Website:
http://www.lachocolaterie-vancouver.com/
Twitter:
@TKChocolate

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Vancouver

In Chinese

Michigan Noodle Restaurant: Noodle Soup and Crazy Amazing Dumplings

November 24, 2011

MedicalGiraffe is back in town! Since she made me pick her up at the Airport, we grabbed a quick bite in Richmond. We had no idea where we were going but we somehow ended up at Michigan Noodle Restaurant. We had no idea what to expect. Since it was lunch, they had some really cheap lunch specials and the congee and noodles were cheap.

The interior is not too bad and have lots of seats. During lunch time it wasn’t too busy.

Spicy Eggplant on Rice is on their lunch menu and it was really large. It’s one of those items that are meant to be shared…. or perhaps you have a large stomach. It was a little bit spicy, but it’s not too bad.

If you needed to add more flavour in your food, they have you usual sauces and spices to add a kick to your food.

Shrimp and pork dumpling noodle soup ($4.80) was surprisingly really good! The dumplings were some of the best dumplings I have ever had. Very good flavour and I could eat this all day. This is my type of comfort food!

Overall good stuff, but for lunch I would stick with congee or the noodle soup!

Words of Wisdom:

Cash Only
Parking in front
Under $10
Mediocre service
Must get noodle soup (with dumplings or wontons) or congee

We Rate Michigan Noodle Restaurant:
Address:
8580 Alexandra Rd
Richmond, BC V6X

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In Richmond

Pajo’s Fish & Chips: Down By The Sea

August 24, 2011

I’ve heard the Pajo’s in Steveston is quite popular for Fish & Chips, so it was time for a visit. Pajo’s is located on a dock, which floats on top of the green murky water and it’s attached to the waterfront by stairs. Since it was a very nice sunny day, there were pretty huge line ups just to order.

All the seats on the dock were taken up already!

They also have additional seating near the waterfront, so there is plenty of seating for all! On the hot sunny days, its best to find seating that has shade or else you my develop a nice tan!

They specialize in Fish & Chips, but they also have a large variety of burgers and hot dogs.

They also have beverages and lots of sides to add to your meal.

The first thing you must do is to is to take a look at the menu and order at the first menu, then line up to pick up your order.

Yep, thats tartar sauce that goes with your fish and chips! Yum Yum! Don’t forget to grab yours when you pick up your order.

M and ScarFace both ordered the “One of Each Fish & Chips” ($14.99), which has one piece of salmon, cod and halibut. The 3 pieces rests on a bed of fries. M thought the best fish was the salmon since he really couldn’t tell the halibut and the cod apart due to their taste and color. The fish nice and delicate with a crunchy layer of batter on the outside. M really hated the chips since they were quite bland and soggy.

Even though Vancouver is known for its fresh fish, M still thinks that the best fish & chips are still found in London. He hasn’t found a place here that has amazing Fish & Chips.

I ordered the Halibut Fish Burger and Chips ($10.79). It comes with the burger and a cone of the chips.

Similar to M, I did not take a liking to the chips. Perhaps they didn’t fry them long enough. The only way I could eat them all would be dipping them into the tartar sauce.

The Halibut pieces were quite small, so there were 2 pieces in the burger with tar tar sauce and lettuce. I was not a fan of the bun since it was not toasted. The bun was quite soft. The halibut had a really nice taste, but I wished it came with one large piece of fish and not just 2 smaller pieces. One of the pieces kept trying to escape. Nonetheless, I did enjoy biting into the fish

Overall, they taste of the fish was alright, but the fries are just horrible. Since it’s called Fish & Chips, both should be exceptionally delicious, but it wasn’t too greasy or anything like that.

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on streets
Decent Fish, Horrible soggy chips
Certain items can get expensive
Get seaside atmosphere
Salmon is good!

We Rate Pajo’s Fish & Chips:

Address:

3500 Bayview St
Richmond, BC V7E

Website:
www.pajos.com

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pajosfishandchips

Twitter: @pajos_fishchips

In Dessert

Screamers Soft Serve & Treats: I Scream For Ice Cream…and Slurpee

August 23, 2011

A long time ago, there was a shop at Metrotown that served up a delicious blend of ice cream and slurpee. It was one of the highlights of going to Metrotown with my parents. I was so devastated when it shut down. I thought I would never see the delicious concoction again.

As I was browsing through Twitter, I found out a shop called Screamers in Steveston was selling the wonderful dessert. Since it was so far away in Steveston, I had to give M a good reason to take me here. It really didn’t take much convincing since we were both bored after exams.

You order from the first window and pick it up in the other window. The simple menu is located on the right side. They only have 4 flavours of screamers, but its good enough.

Grape Crush Screamer (Small – $3.35) has the mixture of the vanilla soft serve ice cream with the grape crush slurpee. You can see that the ice cream is surrounding the entire cup and not just on the bottom or just at the top. Well integrated so you won’t miss a bite of the slurpee and ice cream.

Orange Crush Screamer (Small – $3.35) was my favorite because I’m a orange crush girl! Super delicious on a hot summers day.

Lime Crush Screamer (Small – $3.35) was also good. We all come to a consensus that the soft serve ice cream was really really good. M and ScarFace loved the combination of the 2 items but felt that the small was really large. We kept going at the screamer, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. Well worth the money.

Words of Wisdom:

Mini or Small is a good size
All items under $5
Free parking on most roads (Super hard to find a spot during peak hrs)
Delicious soft serve ice cream

We Rate Screamers Soft Serve & Treats:

Address:
12211 Third Avenue
Richmond, BC

Website:
www.screamerssoftserve.ca

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/screamerssoftserveandtreats

Twitter:
@screamers_ss

In BBQ

Hog Shack: Burnt Ends Adventure

May 22, 2011

One day, I was in class and I get a message on Twitter from @Kathygko about an EatUp at Hogshack. She heard they had the burnt ends available, so she grouped a bunch of people together to chowdown on the tasty treat.

I’ve always wanted to go to Hogshack but the drive down to Steveston is always so daunting. It’s 1 hour away from where I live, so it’s always unappealing. Since I knew I would be in great company for the famous burnt ends, I really couldn’t say no to the opportunity. Plus, it was a very nice sunny day! I took M with me after class at SFU and we headed all the way down there. Since I am foreign with Richmond Highways and roads…we did indeed get lost twice. There was even one point where we started heading back to New Westminster. (In my defense, highways are tricky).

Eventually we made our way to Steveston, wow! Honestly, I never knew this place existed since last year. I am a horrible Vancouver-ite. Hogshack is located in Steveston with lots of other amazing restaurants around it as well.

We had the Burnt Ends with 2 sides ($15.95). Burnt ends do not sound very appealing at all, but are ok tasting. Burnt ends are the fatty meat parts of rib ends. They have a nice smokey taste to the burnt ends. A few sides you can have with the dish are coleslaw, mashed potatoes, yam fries, baked beans, Spanish rice pilaf, vegetables, potato wedges, fries and corn bread. I was in a healthy-ish mood, so I got the Spanish Rice Pilaf and the vegetables. M on the other hand got yam fries and the rice pilaf. I didn’t particularly like the sides, they were quite bland and could have used a bit more salt.

The first few bites of the Burnt Ends were really good! Nice tender and fatty! Mmmm! After a while, I noticed some pieces were not as tender as others and the BBQ sauce was a bit overwhelming. I don’t think I am a BBQ person. Heck, I don’t even like BBQ chips. The whole sweet and salty tastes don’t work well with me. That’s just my personal taste, so don’t disregard this as a bad dish at all. After a bit of discussion, some of use actually prefer the BBQ at Memphis Blues over Hog Shack.

Evie and Jen were the latecomers, so they ordered something different since they were not too hungry. They had the Pulled pork sandwich ($12), which has pulled pork, coleslaw, BBQ sauce in a nice bun. On the side, they had the poutine. It has hand cut fries, gravy and curds. They both said theses were really good.

(L to R): @jamtjr , @makukiko, @foodologyca, @kathygko, @VVLao and @jen_chu7 .

With all this food, we were indeed in good company! We had lots of laughs and crazy discussions. Thanks Kathy for organizing!

Overall, I found that the burnt ends were ok, but not super amazing or anything. One thing I want to do is try their Flatliner Challenge. Perhaps next time I will try this out. If anyone else wants to do the challenge too, please let me know and we can be gross together!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on streets, or pay near the parking lot
Flatliner Challenge, eat in under 5min and its free
Burnt Ends

We Rate Hog Shack :

Address:

160-3900 Bayview Street
Richmond, BC

Website:
www.hogshack.ca

In Greek

Felico’s: The Greek Restaurant in Richmond

April 5, 2011

It was divaD’s 22nd Birthday and he held his birthday at Felico’s! The name Felico’s rang a bell but I really couldn’t point my finger where I heard of it before. After Googling the name of the restaurant, it is the really posh looking Greek restaurant near Parker Place. Every time I pass by, I point at it and tell someone I want to go there, but I keep forgetting about it. Today was the day I would FINALLY get to try it out.

The interior is very nice and you can even reserve private areas for parties. They have a lot of space and many many tables. It’s a really large restaurant.

The menu may seem a bit expensive at first glance but you can find some decent dishes between $14 to $18.

The bread is just toasted pita bread with butter.

TaiwaneseGirl and KoreanBoy ordered the Kalamaria ($14.95). It has deep-fried squid served with satziki, roast potatoes, rice, and greek salad.

M ordered the Chicken Parmesan ($15.95). It has breaded chicken breast baked in tomato sauce, parmesan cheese, served with linguine noodles and seasonal vegetables

Jojocake ordered the Chicken Linguine ($15.95). There are pieces of chicken breast, fresh mushrooms, parmesan cheese and you get to choose what type of sauce you want on it. She chose the creamy pesto sauce to go with it.

She loved the sauce, but the chicken was really really dry.

KoreanGirl ordered the Seafood Linguine ($17.95). It has salmon, halibut, prawns, scallops, onion, and fresh mushrooms. Just like JojoCake, she also ordered the creamy pesto sauce.

She ALSO had the same problem with her scallops… dry dry dry. They sauce was still enjoyable.

I ordered the Combination Plate ($18.95). It comes with kalamaria, dolmades, keftedes, spanakopita, homous, satziki, and greek salad. I ordered this because I really wanted to try all the different things on the menu.

I liked the kalamaria and the spanakopita. I was not a fan of the dolmades. Dolmades are Grape vine leaves stuffed with rice and and ground sirloin.I have never had it before, but it reminded me of another variation of sticky rice.

The Keftedes are Ground sirloin meatballs with onion. I found the keftedes to be a bit bland. The greek salad was ok as well, I wish there was more salad dressing and more acidic tasting.

The food was pretty average and it was not spectacular. It was probably because of what we ordered. Overall, we still had a great time, divaD got some nasty tasting shots and Felico’s handled the Birthday party really nicely. Everyone’s food came almost at the exact same time. We did have to wait a little bit longer, but it was good how everyone got their dishes at the same time.

Words of Wisdom:

Free Parking in the back
Walkable distance from Parker Place, Lansdowne, and Aberdeen Mall

We rate Felicos:

Address:

8140 Leslie Rd
Richmond, BC

Website:
www.felicos.com

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.