Kensington Archives - Page 2 of 2

In Dessert

Earnest Ice Cream: Seriously Good

September 14, 2013

Earnest Ice Cream recently opened a shop on Fraser Street in Vancouver.I’ve always adored their ice cream since they used to deliver the jars to my workplace. Once you have their salted caramel, you can’t go back to other ice cream places.

Depending on what time you arrive, there can be long lines, but you don’t wait too long. Near the big arrow in the back of the restaurant, you can see the pint size jars available. Those flavours aren’t the same as what you can get for the ice cream scoops.

The menu is quite simple and you can see the ice cream available for the day. The popular flavours tend to run out fast. My personal favourites are Salted Caramel, Oatmeal Brown Sugar, Peanut butter chocolate chip, and strawberry basil.

Clearly, I’ve bought a lot of pints before. So, it’s quite nice to finally have then open a shop and not have limited flavours to try.

A scoop of London Fog in a waffle cone ($5) was delicious! You can definitely taste the Earl Grey tea. It was so good that the next day, my sister had to order a pint for the fridge.

Affogato ($6) with a scoop of Tahitian Vanilla Ice cream. It tasted good, but my other friend had hers with whiskey hazelnut ice cream. The espresso is made with Matchstick Coffee. It has a nice strong bold taste that pairs well with the ice cream.

There’s a few tables inside, and some people like to sit on the benches outside. The turnover of the tables are quite quick, so you will have to have good timing to grab a table.

Overall, the ice cream is pretty good, but it is quite expensive. It’s not a place you can regularly go to or else you’ll be broke. It’s a nice treat on a hot day.

We Rate Earnest Ice Cream:

Address:
3992 Fraser St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://earnesticecream.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=3992+Fraser+St,+Vancouver,+BC+V5V+4E4&sll=49.2399859,-122.95816940000002&sspn=0.1721632379598321,0.3516140337636478&t=m&dg=opt&hnear=3992+Fraser+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5V+4E4&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Green Lettuce: Indian Style Chinese Food

April 24, 2013

Taiwanesegirl sometimes takes me to the strangest places I’ve never heard of. She took a bunch of us out to Green Lettuce Restaurant saying how amazing their food is. When I heard ‘Indian Style Chinese food’, I wasn’t sure what to think about it. It was hard to wrap my head around how those two cuisines would fuse together.

There’s parking in the back and this restaurant was packed early in the evening. It’s always good to make reservations here.

When we arrived, we were glad we made a reservation since most of the tables were already occupied.

Vegetable Pakora with Chutney Sauce seemed like it was a fitting choice to have at this restaurant. I was really good!

Chicken lettuce wrap was probably more on the Chinese side and it was also pretty darn good. It’s not exactly the same as the usual Chinese restaurants as they spice this dish quite differently.

Beef chow mein had the very crispy noodles topped with the vegetables and the beef. I’ve always been a fan of the crispy noodles ever since I was a little kid. What I love about this dish is that it stays pretty darn crispy even after they put the stuff on top of it.

Masala Chicken with Roti Nan was more on the Indian side, but we still loved it. They understand the amazing power of spices.

Chicken Fried Rice was pretty darn good too.

We all left happy and the prices were pretty good. I never thought I would like Indian style Chinese food, but it was so good. The combination of the spices work wonders with Chinese food. The taste was very flavourful. We all loved it and were pleasantly surprised by this restaurant. It doesn’t look very appetizing from the outside of the restaurant but they do have some great food.

We Rate Green Lettuce:

Address:
1949 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.greenlettucerestaurant.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1949+Kingsway+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1949+Kingsway,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5N+2T1&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Western Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant: Signature Dishes

December 19, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to try Western Lake’s signature dishes with a few other bloggers. The service is not representative of their usual service since the dishes are overly garnished compared to usual visits.

Western lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant is popular for Dim Sum on the Weekends and there are large waits during those peak hours. If you are planning to go here for dinner or Dim Sum, it’s best to make reservations!

The interior has lots of round tables, but not too much room in between tables.

Peanuts and pickled vegetables came at the beginning of the meal to snack on before the dishes arrived.

Wintermelon Soup came in a golden vessel that housed the soup. It looked very beautiful.

The soup was packed full of seafood and other ingredients. It’s probably one of my favorite soups and they make it really good at Western Lake. Yum!

Sauteed Prawns in Sweet Chili Sauce the shells are still intact, so you need to peel them or eat them with the shell on. The shells are edible, so it’s not bad to eat them with shells. Most people don’t since the shells can be hard and scrape your mouth.

Egg Whites and shrimp over pea shoots was a very interesting dish, the egg was nice and fluffy with sweet shrimp. I’m also not sure why there was so much garnish on this dish.

Sweet Walnuts with Prawns in mayo sauce was a weird dish, I didn’t like it since the sweet prawns and mayo didn’t work too well together. Some people do like this dish though.

Stir Fried Beef with Garlic chips surrounded by fried milk. The beef was very flavourful and tender. It accompanied the fried milk since it’s creamy sweet texture paired nicely.

Roasted chicken was good, juicy and the skin had a lovely flavour.

Braised Pork Belly with Steamed Buns is surrounded by steamed broccoli. The pork belly is deliciously fatty and very tender.

You eat the above dish with the steamed buns, you can cut it in half and eat it like a mini sandwich with the pork belly.

Fried Crab is piled with fried garlic, onions, peppers, and dried shrimp. Yummy stuff but your hand will definitely get messy.

Fried Rice was great!

Red Bean Jello and Chinese Water Chestnut Pudding was a good ending to the meal. I was so glad it wasn’t red bean soup hahaha.

Overall, the dinner was great and the food was well executed. Too bad a few of the dishes were overly garnished with fruits, so it was hard to give you a good idea of how the dishes would arrive at your table. The portions are still the same as you would get. Prices are very fair and one of the better Chinese restaurants to go to in town.

We Rate Western Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant:

Address:
4989 Victoria Dr
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4989+Victoria+Dr+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=4989+Victoria+Dr,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5P+3T6&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Chinese

Ken’s Chinese Restaurant: Signature Dishes

September 28, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: ChineseBites.com approached us to try a few signature dishes at Ken’s Chinese Restaurant. Although the meal was complimentary, the views and opinions expressed are entirely our own.

In early August, Foodology.ca headed out to Kingsway with the regular ChineseBites crew (Raymond, Sherman, Rick, Kevin, Janice and Romina) to try a few signature dishes at Ken’s Chinese Restaurant. The first dish our merry little crew dug into was the Lobster with Konyaku Hotpot. This was a great way to kick start the meal as we were all quite hungry and the lobster was cooked perfectly. I was not entirely sure why this warranted CRA recognition as I have had better lobster in Vancouver but the dish was still quite good. The lobster meat was very tender and flavorful and the portion was quite generous.

The second dish we dug into was Golden Dungeness Crab. This dish was interesting in that it is a standard fried crab dish but coated in an egg yolk coating. Personally, I prefer my crab prepared differently but this dish was actually pretty good. You could definitely taste the richness of the egg yolk along with a subtle saltiness which complimented the crab meat well.

The third dish we tried was a plate of Free Range Chicken. I really liked this dish as the chicken was very fresh and prepared very well. The skin was slightly rubbery but tasty and the actual white meat was very moist and delicious. I could have eaten this plain or with rice, served with a side of ginger. Note: We didn’t end up ordering any bowls of white rice as we ordered a lot of food already.

Our fourth dish is not something I usually order at a Chinese restaurant but still turned out quite delicious: Grilled Rack of Lamb w/ Black Pepper Sauce. I am a big fan of lamb so I ended up loving this dish, the meat was moist and well cooked with a beautiful grill top sear. The black pepper sauce was quite strong but went boldly with the strong red meat.

The fifth dish we tried was the Stewed Pork Hock w/ Peanuts. This is definitely something I could see my parents ordering as it was definitely very traditional home cooking. The dark soy definitely lent a deep, rich flavor profile to this dish and the long stew successfully made the meat tender. Due to the high heat, the peanuts were soft but not mushy which I appreciated.

The sixth dish we had was the Stewed Oxtail. I was excited to try this as I had just tried a delicious oxtail ramen the night before but was pretty disappointed with this dish. The meat was nowhere near as tender as I would have liked. Technically being a stew type dish. I definitely would have liked to see the meat falling off the bone. The included vegetables were also not that flavorful so overall, a pretty disappointing offering.

Thankfully, after the disappointing stew, our seventh dish was a delicious Stewed Pork Belly. When this dish first arrived at the table, I was a little concerned at the huge layer of fatty tissue but after taking my first bite, I was in love. The pork belly was prepared so perfectly that the cut literally dissolved on my tongue. The rich dark sauce was delicious and actually made me want to eat the accompanying broccoli. Overall, one of my favorite dishes of the evening and something I would definitely order again.

Our eighth dish was quite simply Ox Tongue. I cannot recall who ordered this but I very rarely eat this type of delicacy so was a little apprehensive. My first bite into my ox tongue made all my worries vanish as the meat was actually very good! I really dislike dishes like liver and was expecting the ox tongue to be of a similar consistency but it was much better. Again, the dark sauce helped a lot and seemingly goes well with anything served at Ken’s.

The ninth and tenth dishes of the evening were Four Seasons Green Beans and Salmon Roe Fried Rice. I just want to note here that by this point in the meal, I was beyond full. The heavy meat based meal definitely took its toll on my gastronomic prowess. I tried a couple green beans and a small bowl of fried rice but could not really fully enjoy either. From what I remember, the salmon roe rice was decent but not altogether flavorful. I believe the intent was for the rice to be somewhat bland to support the heavily flavored main dishes. The green beans were firm and you could definitely taste the garlic and shredded pork seasoning with every bite.

To wrap up with a few final thoughts, there was a lot of food served and other than one clear miss, the food really was very good. Our dinner definitely was dominated by meat entrees but it was clear that Ken’s can do a variety of dishes very well. On a return visit with a smaller group, I would definitely go for a few bowls of plain white rice and a couple meat dishes. The lobster and crab dishes were good but there are definitely better places for similar dishes but the meat dishes were definitely very strong.

Words of Wisdom:

Definitely go for the rich Pork Belly with a few bowls of white rice
Skip the Oxtail Stew but give the Grilled Rack of Lamp a try
Go with friends/family that love meat, you will not be disappointed

We Rate Ken’s Chinese Restaurant:

Address:
1097 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC, Canada
604-873-6338

Website:
http://www.kenschineserestaurant.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1097+Kingsway+Vancouver,+BC,+Canada&hl=en&hnear=1097+Kingsway,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver+Regional+District,+British+Columbia+V5V+3C9&t=m&z=16 “]

In All You Can Eat

Fatty Cow Hot Pot: Perfect Winter Food

December 19, 2011

Fatty Cow Hot Pot is located on Victoria and 35th ave for all you can eat hot pot. I like going here since it’s closer than going to the ones near Richmond. All you can eat is around $20 per person. The #YVRBreakfastClub / #604insomnia group headed here in very unique outfits. Some of us had superhero clothes and some had our PJs on.

The interior is surprisingly nice with lots of tables to accomodate large groups and small groups. Always good to make reservations.

Each setting comes with tea, utensils and all the bowls and plates you need.

You get soy sauce, sesame sauce and satay sauce. The first set are free, but if you need more, it costs $0.50 more.

You first choose your soup base, which is an additional $7, which sucks since you are already paying so much for all you can eat.

Nonetheless, there lots of other items to choose from. Best to order lots of meat and seafood.

Theres also a second side to order drinks and other stuff.

We got the hotpot split in half for 2 types of broth. It accommodates the different tastes, but eventually it all starts tasting the same because some soup from one side will move to the other. It’s $8.50 for double broths.

Fried Fish Skin is something you must order! It’s really good! It might sound a bit strange, but its kinda like chips. You can eat it just as is or dip it into the broth.

To get our moneys worth, we got tons of meat and also TONS of oysters. We also tried ordering 10+ oysters on a 2nd order, but they didn’t think we would finish it, so we kept asking for it. Their oysters are pretty good and very large.

We also ordered other items, but I was a bit too busy eating hahaha.

Sour Plum Juice ($5 – Jug) was good! I’ve never had it with hot pot, but it went well with it. If you order a jug, you will have enough for everyone (7 ppl).

At the end of the meal, they give you a coconut pudding dessert. Sadly, you can only get one 🙁

Overall, it’s not bad at Fatty Cow Hot Pot, good alternative to heading down to Richmond.

Words of Wisdom:

Cash or Debit only
Make reservations
Busy during weekends
Accommodates large groups
Large assortment of items to order

We Rate Fatty Cow Hot Pot:

Address:
5108 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC
Website:
http://www.fattycowhotpot.com/

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Vancouver

In Chinese

Kalvin’s Restaurant Chowdown Recap

May 4, 2011

A month or so ago, there was a discussion on Chowtimes about having a chowdown at Kalvin’s Restaurant. After much discussion, Kevin from 604foodtography decided to take charge of the chowdown. He put up a post on his blog and sure enough, a great group of 15 got together to have the ultimate chowdown at Kalvin’s Restaurant.

I met a few other bloggers too which was super exciting. The ones that were in attendance were – The Friday Lunch, The Petite Foodie, The Daily Slif, Sea Salt with Food, Ed Eats, Chowtimes, Sherman Food Adventures, Yum O Rama, and of course 604Foodtography. There were also non bloggers too that join in on the festivities.

I’ve actually never heard of Kalvin’s Restaurant until I saw it posted on Chowtimes. This is why I love reading other blogs as well; you really discover all the hidden gems in and around the city.

Kalvin’s Restaurant looks like any other Chinese restaurant, so it is quite easy to miss as you are wandering around Victoria Drive. I arrived promptly at 6pm and the restaurant was not busy at all, most of the tables were reserved, so you know it would be a busy day for them as the night went on.

Our table was huge! We had a table that actually fit 15 people. It was like a huge table for huge families, but in our case, a huge table for hungry bloggers and foodies.

Since there were 14 of us, it was tough to figure out what we all wanted to order. Good thing no one had allergies, so this made the process easier. Kevin took the reign and just ordered a huge array of dishes from the menu. Since I can’t read Chinese to save my life, I am no help in that department.

Before I go and start talking about all the dishes we had, what is so awesome and highly amusing about being at a table of foodies it that most people had their huge SLR cameras ready. For a bit I felt kinda inferior since I carry a Canon G10. Still, a great camera, but not an SLR. Ben from Chowtimes brought along his point and shoot camera so I didn’t feel too embarrassed. Every time a new dish would come to the table, everyone had their cameras ready to take multiple shots, eventually people at other tables started staring at us. Kevin commented saying there was a lady at the next table over just staring at us and shaking her head.

After the pictures were done, everyone dug in!

The first dish that arrived was the Fondue Spicy Pork with Organ Stew (Large – $18). If you aren’t Asian, you will probably be disgusted with this dish, it have all the nasty stuff that usual people may not be accustomed to be eating. The most “gross” ingredients you will find in this are pieces of intestines and pork blood. I found this dish to be a bit too spicy for my tolerance level. I was gobbling tea like no tomorrow.

The next dish that arrived was the Pork & Ton Choy in BBQ Sauce ($11.50). Essentially, the name of the dish is how you would describe it. I didn’t really think there was anything too special about it.

The next one was the 5 Spice Beef in Chinese Pancake ($5 per order). I think we had 3 orders of this. This is a green onion pancake wrapped with 5 spice beef. This is probably one of those usual item you would order as Taiwanese snack at those Bubble tea places. I found that I tasted more of the pancake more than the beef. As you can tell, there was one slice of beef, hoisin sauce and no onions… pretty disappointed.

The next dish was the Spicy Pig’s Ear ($4). I personally love spicy pig ear. Some may say it’s gross, but I just love the texture and chewing on the cartilage. I didn’t think this is was too bad, it was quite average and not too spicy.

I think the Shredded Fish with Yellow Chives ($11.50) was a memorable dish. The fish was quite delicate and well prepared. I think this would be a great dish for little kids since you know there are no bones. I remember as a kid, I would try my best to avoid fish because sometimes there are bones.

This was the Chicken with 3 spices (S- $10.50/ L- $20). You are probably wondering what are these 3 spices – soy sauce, sesame oil and rice wine. I liked it! Having those 3 ingredients marinated the chicken very nicely. Great flavour.

The Shredded Beef with Green Onion ($9.75). It was pretty average. Nothing super special.

This dish is the Red fermented deep fried pork ($5). This was probably the one item that I really wanted to try! The pork had a nice light crunch on the outside since it is deep-fried. It was unique and I have never seen anything like it.

This dish – Cold Bamboo Shoot Salad with Mayo ($7.50) was quite a surprise. No, like actually! I don’t think any of us remembered ordering this. Even looking at the bill, it wasn’t on it. Maybe they threw it in because we were such a large party that ordered lots? No clue. This was an interesting dish yet again; bamboo shoots with mayo on top. When I think of bamboo shoots, I think of long tough sticks. In this dish, it was more like fruit with a bunch of mayo dumped on top. I honestly find mayo very strange on cold items, so I was not a fan of this dish. BUT I did enjoy the bamboo on it’s own.

This dish is the Hakka Style Eggplant with Shredded Pork ($8.50). Hakka style basically means the type of cooking in Southern eastern China. The eggplant is cooked till it is mushy. I love eggplant; some people don’t like it because of that texture. In this dish, I found it slightly bland, so perhaps a bit more seasoning would have done the trick.

The next dish – Diced Chicken & Peanuts with Chili Pepper ($9.75) was HOT. Too hot for me to handle! It looks somewhat innocent until you get those red chili peppers in your mouth. BAM! Burning sensation in the face. Sorry, I can’t comment too much about this dish since all I really remember was hot.

This was the Prawn and Pineapple in Mayo ($16). I usually love prawns to death, but this dish was not for me. Hot prawns with mayo…and then fruit with mayo. In my mind, the only mayo that shall ever touch prawns would be in ebi mayo. Fried items + mayo = good. On the bright side, the prawns were nice and big.

String Beans with Minced Pork ($8.50) is your average type of dish found in a restaurant like this. Nothing too special about this dish.

Crispy Salty Peppery Chicken ($6) is your staple dish at a Taiwanese restaurant. At bubble tea joints, it would be a snack…served on rice, served in noodle…etc. Having the item available here was very interesting since its not usually what you would order. The inside was very moist and you can see the juices run from the meat. I thought the seasoning was fine and the skin was nice and crunchy.

I’m sure you know these are Shanghai Style Dumplings ($6). These were ok, pretty average and are not the best dumplings. This was not bad either.

We had quite a fun time with these dumplings to see who would puncture the dumplings first so the soup would spill. The first person to do so was Karl from The Friday Lunch. We all had a good laugh.

Finally! The last dish of the meal was Chicken with Sesame Oil & Wine in Hot Pot ($16). This was a very delicious deep flavored soup. The chicken was tender and went well with the soup. This is the type of soup I would love my parents to make. The first few sips were good but the after taste you could take a bit of the wine. Even though it had wine, you would not get drunk.

Wow, that was a lot of food. 17 dishes in total for 14 people. The bill came out to be $250.32. After tips each person paid $20.50. It was not too bad since we had that many dishes. The service was not bad either, it was amazing that the chefs could crank out so much food in a short amount of time! This dishes came so fast that there were times when we ran out of table space.

By 6:30pm, there were lines outside….as we left there was still a large line up.

I have to give a big shout out to Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures for sending me the names of all the dishes. Without him, I would be guessing what everything single dish would be called. Another thanks to Kevin (604Foodtography) for bringing us all together!

Overall, I think Kalvin’s Restaurant was just ok. There were a few average dishes and a few spectacular dishes. For myself, I would probably not revisit this restaurant since it’s a bit out of my way to get to.

If you have finished reading this huge post, you have read a total of 1500 words!

Words of Wisdom: