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Eggs Mimosa
2011-01-16 01:00:00
The second dish of Cecile choice is Eufs Mimosas in French which is translated to Eggs Mimosa. This is also known as Devil Eggs.  Mimosa is a color of champagne-and-orange-juice shade of yellow. Eggs Mimosa is often served as hors d'oeuvre in a party. It can be done few hours in advance and keep refrigerated until serving. Eggs Mimosa is originated in Rome and popular across the continent of Europe.
More About: Recipe

French Cuisine ? Ratatouille
2011-01-15 17:00:00
It's been a while since I attended the Caring Place Community Kitchen. The reason is Minoo usually demonstrates very simple and old recipes which I had blogged before for this group of participants. The Caring Place participants are mostly new immigrants or people who just started to learn to cook. Occasionally, we will get a participant who are willing to share some very ethnic cuisines and Minoo will let me know to join such kitchen. For this kitchen, we are glad to have Cecile to demonstrate some French recipes. Cecile is borned in Africa (not sure which part, South, maybe) and raised in France. The first recipe that Cecile shared with us is Ratatouille , a popular summer vegetables stew when zucchini, tomatoes and egg plants are plentiful.
More About: Recipe , Vegetable , Cuisine

Pho Cao Van: Nothing Remarkable
2011-01-14 09:01:00
It was Arkensen and Nanzaro?s turn to decide where we are going to eat out. It was no surprise to us what they want. Their criteria is simple and they don?t care where we go to. It has to be: No driving over bridges Sushi or pho or salted fish fried rice Sushi is out because Suanne doesn?t like it. She will come along but she will order Udon which she does not like. I suggested to the boys that we go to Pho Cao Van since it was fresh on my mind. They were happy to say the least because it is just 5 minutes from home. I had almost forgotten about this restaurant until Crispy mentioned it in one of the comments. I had always considered Pho Cao Van to be unremarkable. It had always been there for as long as I remember. Despite all the restaurants around in Richmond , they had managed to continue to operate. Pho Cao Van is located in a quiet section in the middle of Richmond. It is on Saba Road and right behind the Richmond Public Market. There are hardly any traffic there. It is...
More About: Vietnamese

Szechuan House: I Wonder What They Do With So Much Leftover Chili
2011-01-13 15:00:00
That, coming from a Sichuan ese, I had to check out. The Szechuan House Restaurant is located on Imperial at the intersection with Sussex in Burnaby. This is on a small strip mall of seven businesses only with nothing else but residential units within that whole block.
More About: Chinese , Chili

Maxim?s Restaurant: Not Only Just A Bakery
2011-01-12 22:30:00
Suanne and I hardly go to Chinatown anymore. We used to. Many many years ago, we would drive down to Chinatown at least twice a month to buy groceries and also have dim sum. And then we stopped going. There was no longer a need to drive all the way there as we get better food and groceries in Richmond. It had been so long, we just lost touch with Chinatown. Thomas recently wrote to us about a restaurant where he had a dish called Baked Portuguese Pork Chop with Rice. He said it was called May Sum. We searched high and low on the internet but we could not find it. It was only a week later that we realized that he was using the phonetic translation of the Chinese name of the restaurant. So May Sum is actually Maxim ?s which is a more recognizable name. We had always thought that Maxim?s only a bakery. We see a lot of Maxim?s bakeries around town. However, they also have a restaurant, a Hong Kong Style Cafe, on Keefer in Chinatown. We were not aware until Thomas told us.
More About: Vancouver , Restaurant , Bakery

Penang Delight Cafe: "Got-got-got. Everything Also Got."
2011-01-11 09:01:00
Suanne and I don?t normally return to the ?crime scene?. Once we write about a restaurant, we hardly go back for a second visit. There are simply too many other restaurants out there for us to visit and write about. What more, all you readers out there has this insatiable appetite for more new posts on restaurants. But this time I am gonna make an exception. We re-visited Penang Delight with Ron and Nancy again to try dishes we missed the first time we were here. You see, we were very ?mm-gum-yuen? from our previous visit (see post here). We were there on the first day of business and the restaurant was completely overwhelmed with the reception they had. Almost everything we wanted to order on their menu, they ran out of it. Assam Laksa ?> sorry! Pan Mee ?> sorry! Penang Char Koay Teow ?> sorry! Bah Kut Teh ?> sorry! Loh Mein ?> sorry! So yeah, our heart is so ?mm-song? already. You know the feeling right? It is like unrequited love. Something like that. Oh ...
More About: Malaysian , Vancouver , Cafe

BT Cafe: More Than Likeable
2011-01-10 15:00:00
Many of us likes to root for the underdog. I am one of those. When LotusRapper left a comment last month about BT Cafe , he was describing how this little known restaurant is new, small, the prices are cheap, the food is solid and is run by a young couple. Then JJ chimed in and said that the young couple is trying their hand at owning a small business for the first time. The husband is in the kitchen and the wife runs the front of the house. At the back of my mind, I was thinking that perhaps how this young couple put down all they had to start the business. The restaurant business is not the easiest to be in. It is risky and it involves long hours. Most restaurants even work 7 days a week. This is one restaurant that I would like to visit. For me it is not always about the food or the ambiance or the service. It is also very much about the people behind them. I want to go check them out and write about them. I want to see if there is a chance for me to give this fledging new busi...
More About: Hong Kong , Vancouver

Weekend Musings: Vancouver Food Blogs Rock The World and List of Most Activ
2011-01-10 03:50:00
We all know for sure that Vancouver has a very lively and active food blog scene. A little while back I put up a blogroll of all the Vancouver Food Blogs on chowtimes (link here). To tell the truth I was completely and pleasantly surprised that we have so many food blogs dedicated to writing about restaurants and dining outs in our city. Do you know how many sites there are on the chowtimes? blogroll? 114! Isn't that awesome? Just last week, Fairchild TV aired a documentary on chowtimes. In the introduction, it highlighted a point I made about how active the food blogging site is. In the absence of a better stat, I pointed to Fairchild the Urbanspoon Leaderboard above. As you can see, Vancouver dominates 6 of the top 7 positions on the leaderboard for the number of posts published. The top Vancouver food blogs lead all the other blogs by a far margin. [Note: Victoria in the list refers to Victoria, Australia ? not BC] So that brings to our mind. Does Vancouver have the bigge...
More About: World , Rock , Blogging

Bo On The Go
2010-10-30 01:33:00
I think this is some exciting news that friends of Bo and Burmese food is gonna be happy to learn. Suanne and I were at Bo Laksa King's new restaurant a week ago. We were there with Grayelf and TimeToChow after the dinner at Luda where we decided to take go to Bo's for some dessert. End of (Laksa) Era ... and Beginning of a New (Briyani) Era! While we were there for desserts, Bo told us that he will be closing down his "flagship" counter in Joyce at the end of October. It's kind of sad to see that humble little counter in the Joyce-Way Food Market (original blog here). This "flagship" store is where Vancouver discovered the great laksa and other equally great Burmese fare that Bo served. It spread very quickly by word of mouth and before long people were making a bee-line to try his laksa. That was just a little over 1 year ago when Bo was "discovered".  He had been running both the counter and the new place on East Hastings for a few months already. It is taking a toll on h...

iSpicy Sichuan Hot Pot on Kingsway, Vancouver
2010-10-29 03:26:00
It was cold. It was damp. And we were hungry as we drove along Kingsway looking for a place to eat. It was past 2PM already and we only had a cup of coffee and shared a bagel between us since morning. We were telling ourselves that half of the restaurants would probably be closed for the mid day. I caught a glimpse of the "All You Can Eat  $17.95" sign outside the restaurant and said Suanne maybe we should just try this place. It's not in our list of restaurants to-try but I fancy hot pot. It was after all a cold day. Nothing but a Sichuan Hot Pot to spice things up. iSpicy is an odd name. It sounded more like an internet cafe than a traditional hot pot restaurant. We went in and we were warmly welcomed. The owner and his wife barely speaks English. We are OK because we don't need to know a lot of Chinese when it comes to AYCE and hot pot. But as it turned out, we had a very interesting time there. We had a glimpse of what it is like in the struggles of a restaurant owner. W...
More About: Vancouver

Admiralty Center Food Court on McKim Way, Richmond
2010-10-27 15:39:00
Here is continuing on the series of Asian food courts in Richmond . If you remember this post when I said I was beginning to look at Richmond's Food Courts in a different light, I listed eight food courts and so far done five of them. I had written at some point Aberdeen Center and the Richmond Public Market but to this series it doesn't count as our visit was so long ago. So three more to go! Parker Place (link and link) Empire Center (link) Yaohan Center (link) President Plaza (link) Pacific Plaza (link) Admiralty Center Aberdeen Center Richmond Public Market I guess a lot of people does not know this small little business center tucked in McKim Way, let alone know that this building is called the Admiralty Center. Not many people know too that this building has a respectable food court in it too. Parking is available by the right side of the building. It is not apparent to many people but there is a small entrance that leads to a double storey car park. We just dis...

Delicious Chinese Cuisine on Kingsway, Between Victoria and Knight, Vancouv
2010-10-26 09:01:00
Suanne and I had to run out for an errand that Saturday weekend. So we plan to go for an slow and leisurely dim sum since we had time to kill. We know exactly exactly the place to go to. I had been there for lunch alone before and I was quite impressed with the variety of dim sum that had on the menu. Some of you know me already, about how I look forward to non-traditional dim sum items. Siu mail, har gow, rice rolls and stuff like that bores me. But this restaurant has more than that. Their dim sum slash lunch menu has over 100 items. And what more, 40% of them are just $2.75. The restaurant name is Delicious Chinese Cuisine , not to be confused with the Taiwanese restaurant called Delicious Cuisine in Richmond which won 2 CRA awards in 2010. Delicious Chinese Cuisine is located along Kingsway somewhere almost in the middle between Victoria and Knight . When I first came across this restaurant, I thought that this is a Mainland Chinese restaurant because of the bright yellow and...
More About: Vancouver

Bistro The Home on Alexandra Road, Richmond
2010-10-25 09:01:00
I normally would blog this in sequence but this post could be time sensitive. So, I thought I better post this two days after our visit so that more of you could take advantage of the great offer this restaurant has in store. They currently have a 2-for-1 promotion that pretty much makes them the cheapest noodles in the city. And they are a bit of an upscale place too. Bistro The Home is the newest restaurants in Richmond . As a matter of fact, they had been opened just one week. Before I went, I thought that this would be another Chinese restaurant. I actually was half hoping that they would serve HOME STYLE Chinese food. But they are not Chinese.
More About: Fusion , Road

Carrot Orange Loaf
2010-10-25 01:00:00
For dessert, Marian prepared a Carrot Orange Loaf for the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors. The Carrot Orange Loaf is moist and perfumed with orange and cinnamon. A great ending for a meal. They are great for breakfast or snack and made a great lunch box treat.

Chicken Wrap
2010-10-24 17:00:00
For the main course, Marian prepared a simple Chicken Wrap for the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors. The Chicken Wrap is a nice change from the regular pasta or grain dish. The Chicken Wrap is colorful as it has various color vegetables like green snow peas, yellow and red bell peppers.
More About: Recipe

Carrot and Red Lentil Soup
2010-10-24 05:00:00
The theme for this South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors is carrot. The senior garden has yield a good harvest of carrots. All thanks to the volunteers who mind the garden all summer long. One of the volunteer is Frank who keeps a healthy lifestyle at his golden years. Marian prepared a couple of recipes which main ingredient is carrot. A carrot soup and a carrot loaf.
More About: Recipe , Soup , Carrot

Weekend Musings: To Think That KFCs Double Down Is Bad For You
2010-10-23 19:57:00
Hey all, good morning! Have you tried the KFCs Double Down Yet? Arkensen and Nanzaro was waiting for that day when it was going to be available in Canada for the first time. I think it was just the last Monday. While I promised them I will bring them to try it but I was just simply too busy at work that I did not do that. Monday past ... Tuesday past ... and then when I got home on Wednesday, equally as tired, they gave up on me and went on their own to try it. My boys are fast food junkies. They like these kind of food and can have fast food everyday if we allow them to. So I thought that they will come back and tell me that they love it. Instead, Arkensen said it was horrible. He said that it was way too salty. It was so salty that he could not even taste the cheese and bacon. That pretty much sums up every feedback I had heard from people I know. I just cannot understand why this was made so salty. There has got to be an explanation for it because KFC knows about this. Str...
More About: Musings , Weekend

Bao Chau Spring Roll Specialty House on E Hastings and Slocan, Vancouver
2010-10-22 17:30:00
On most Fridays when Suanne and I have our date night, she would take transit and meet me at my office in Burnaby. It works better for me that way because if I get home, I just can't go out again. Moreover, from Burnaby as a staging point, getting to any part of Metro Vancouver is just a short drive. I remember someone telling me that of all the cities in Metro Vancouver, Burnaby is the most central location. It sounded kind of right when he told me that Burnaby is at most just one bridge away from everywhere else. Yeah, sometimes people measure distances by the number of bridges you have to cross. Since we started off from the Metrotown area, we decided to venture north. It is a part of the city that we don't go to often because of the distance from home in Richmond. East Hastings, there are a lot to discover along this street. We thought we go to where Luda is to take a couple of pictures to post on the blog. Remember we asked if anyone wanted to help us make up a table for...
More About: House , Spring , Vietnamese , Roll

Yaohan Center Food Court ? Go After 6PM
2010-10-21 15:30:00
A long long time ago, we used to go to Yaohan ... a lot. Those were the days when we did not have a job and when we decide to dine out, it is to this food court. It was the cheapest and the mostest food that we could get. Yeah, those were the days way before chowtimes when food was not central in our lives -- getting our money go a longer way was. At some point we stopped going to Yaohan. The reason was parking. It is always full, especially around meal times. Getting a spot is close to impossible because there are a few cars idling on each parking lane waiting for someone to vacate a spot. It was THAT bad ... and it still is. So we often just go a couple of rounds around the car park and if we don't find a spot, we give up. Sometimes I will drive over to President Plaza next door and park in the multi-level parking. But whatever you do, do NOT try to park in the parking lots in front of Rainflower or Canadian Tire. They are very efficient in towing away cars. Be warned! The n...
More About: Food , Chinese , Richmond , Center

Chef Hung Taiwainese Beef Noodle in Aberdeen Centre, Richmond
2009-12-20 18:56:00
*** BREAKING NEWS *** I had talked about Ramen purists and how they defended venerable bowl of Japanese pork noodle soup. I tried to garner support from a tiny band of Pho purists to defend with equal gusto the traditional Vietnamese beef noodle soup. I saw a glimmer of hope for the Malaysian Curry Laksa in the effort to be recognized in the company of the big boys in Asian noodle soups. I am still learning about the promise of the Korean Beef Bone noodle soup and their own proud uniqueness. It is time now for the Taiwanese Beef Noodle purists not to be out done ... to stand up and be counted! And man was I surprised by the turn out.
More About: Aberdeen , Chef , Richmond

The Return of the ?Best Chinese Food Outside of China? ? Zen Fine Chinese C
2009-12-20 08:48:00
After the Belgian Waffle breakfast at Damien's, Suanne and I decided to take a walk around the Steveston Village. And we stumbled upon a soon to be opened restaurant that will definitely be the talk of town in the next few week! Steveston Village had changed a lot the past few years. There had been quite a bit of development. I like what I see because the Richmond City had managed to plan all the new development really well without altering the charm of the area. As we walked past this new apartment / retail building I caught from the distance the words "Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine". I was totally excited and was hoping that it is THE Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine that became an overnight success.
More About: Food , China , Chinese Food

Damien?s Real Belgian Waffles in Steveston Village, Richmond
2009-12-20 00:00:00
Just last week, I blogged about our breakfast at the Cafe Medina. One of the more popular items at Cafe Medina is their Belgian waffles which is not surprising given that it is a Belgian owned restaurant. In that blog post, Jonnek responded in a comment informing us that there is a Belgian waffle place in Steveston. That reminded us of the post we read just weeks ago from Yum-O-Rama of that same place. What we learned about this unassuming place was surprising. Read on ... It is called Damien's Real Belgian Waffles. It is located in the picturesque Steveston Village in Richmond . More precisely, it is on Chatham and No 1 Road, just slightly to the west of No 1 Road. The sign outside is so small that you can't pick up the name Damien written on the logo of a boy holding a waffle. We learned later that the name and the logo does not matter as much. It is the words "Real Belgian Waffle" is more important.

Teahouse in Stanley Park
2009-12-19 16:00:00
The Teahouse is located at the western end of the Stanley Park where it has a great view of the Burrard Inlet and West Vancouver . It is a perfect setting for spending a romantic time. Particularly during summer months, it is great to have a walk along the beach and see the sun set. It was too cold that night we were there three weeks ago. The Teahouse used to be a military garrison during the World War II -- believe it or not. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="This picture of the Conservatory was taken from our old post"][/caption] The Teahouse is divided into three sections known as the Tea Room, the Drawing Room and the Conservatory. The most spectacular room has to be all glass the Conservatory. On brighter days, it is quite awe-inspiring being surrounded by majestic trees on one side and the the ocean on the other. We were greeted at the door and they offered to take our coats. Not many places does this and it just gives us that feeling of impeccable se...
More About: Western

Bo Laksa King?s on Joyce and Wellington, Vancouver
2009-12-18 17:39:00
I just gotta see for myself what this hype was all about. When a group of pro chowhounds goes crazy in the forum over something, it has to count for something. After tasting something that costs about $5, they are yearning for more. They are even talking about throwing in $50 each to the chef to give them more. From the way I read it, everything that the chef creates, will definitely turn out to be a winner. They had been surprised by the chef already weekend after weekend when the chef concocts something new. So, I just gotta see for myself what this hype is all about. And all these is happening in the most unlikeliest of places. All these is happening starting from one dish -- Laksa. Unless you live in the neighborhood, you will never walk into the Joyce-Way Food Market to pick a your grocery. Even if you do, you will not even think they have an eatery in it. This convenience shop is located on Joyce in Vancouver . It is just a short walk just north of the Joyce Skytrain st...
More About: Malaysian , King

Swish Swish on Kingsway and Nelson, Burnaby
2009-12-17 16:00:00
I am getting a steady stream of visitors these days at work. This time it was Lauren who flew in from Atlanta for a few days of discussions and planning. These sort of planning sessions are usually grueling as we try to get as much plans agreed within the few available days. So we normally work through lunch most of the time. We would get someone to order in quick lunches like pizza, subs and Chinese take outs. On the last day of planning and since we were ahead, I suggested that we take some time and for once go out for a proper lunch. I suggested that we go to this new Japanese Hot Pot restaurant at the corner of Kingsway and Nelson which I had always wanted to go try. That restaurant is called Swish Swish. Most people driving past this busy intersection may not even notice Swish Swish. This is because it is unnecessarily obscured by pillars which serves no function and does nothing aesthetically to the building. I think it would do the building a world of good if they remove ...

Kari House Restaurant on Bayview St., Richmond
2009-12-16 16:00:00
When Polly and I took a walk at the Steveston Harbour after dining at the Steveston Cannery Cafe, we walked pass this Kari House Restaurant by the water on Bayview & No. 1 Road in Steveston Village. Polly had eaten at this Malaysian restaurant before and she enjoyed the view from the restaurant. I have never dine here before.
More About: Richmond

Cafe Medina on Beatty Street, Vancouver
2009-12-15 19:00:00
Life is good -- especially not having to work on Fridays. So, after the boys went to school, Suanne and I went to have a real nice breakfast. I just love those unhurried mornings. It is unhurried because it felt like a bonus day off and I had nothing specifically I need to do. The Medina Cafe is located just next door to the Belgian restaurant, Chambar (our previous reviews here and here). The address is 556 Beatty Street and is just outside from the Stadium Skytrain Station. Look at the stacks of food by the window (above). That is what Medina Cafe is known for ... Belgian Waffles.
More About: Breakfast , Vancouver

Nuba Authentic Lebanese Cuisine on West Hastings and Cambie in Downtown Van
2009-12-14 13:06:00
That restaurant is located at the basement of the Dominion Building, one of the grand historic buildings in the young city of Vancouver . This 99 year old building was the tallest building in the British Empire when it was built. Because of its ornate structure, this building had been used to film many movies some of which includes The Neverending Story and Battlestar Galactica. Nuba is the name of the restaurant we went to. The entrance to the basement restaurant is just at the corner of West Hastings and Cambie. Nuba is a Lebanese restaurant. It was interesting to note that Nuba used to operate from the very spot that the La Taqueria Taco Shop is today. I guess business is good and they moved to this new location. Actually Nuba also has another smaller restaurant on Seymour too.
More About: Downtown , Others

La Taqueria Taco Shop on West Hastings and Hamilton in Downtown Vancouver
2009-12-14 06:00:00
Anyway, this is about my first food blogger meet organized via Twitter. @604foodtography sent a twitter to @tibbidy, @edlau and myself asking if we wanted to have a quick bite at La Taqueria. @seasaltwithfood picked up our tweet and decided to join us as she was already in downtown. La Taqueria is located on West Hastings and Hamilton in downtown Vancouver . I had never walked along this stretch of the road before. So it was a surprise when @604foodtography pointed to me that La Taqueria is located just across the street from Marc Emery's headquarters (Marc Emery is known as the Prince of Pot in Canada) and next door to Vancouver Seeds Bank (which sells Marijuana seeds for medicinal purposes). It was OK. I did not feel unsafe waiting outside La Taqueria in bright daylight. It was cold though waiting outside. Both @604foodtography and I were there first. I told @604foodtography I had a feeling that @edlau would be late because he had a reputation for being late. True enough, he ...
More About: Mexican , Downtown , Shop

Seville: A Slow Day Before the elBulli Dinner
2009-09-23 04:42:00
Brunch was at hotel recommended restaurant called Al Alcantina. This is located around the central square in Seville historic city center. We had a table outside the restaurant. Our waitress was really friendly and helpful. No bread here ... they served us those thingy above. It was rock hard and definitely on the dry side. We took a couple and then left it alone. The waitress recommended the Ensaladilla La Alcantina which she said was the prize winner of the Best Classic Tapas in the 2003 Seville Fair of Tapas. Sure, we said ... it was worth a try. ?8.70 is how much it costs. It was creamy, served cold and refreshing -- absolutely marvelous. We had never had these before. I think it is made with mayo with potatoes and some vegetables. The puzzling thing is how could this have been classified as tapas? So I did some research and indeed it is considered as SPANISH tapas despite the Russian word in the name.
More About: Dinner , Vacation , Spanish , Slow