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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

Protected: Seville: Stages of Spanish Style Bullfighting
2009-09-22 05:38:00
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
More About: Vacation , Style , Spanish

Seville: Bullfighting
2009-09-21 16:00:00
Each night, there will be three matadors who will fight six bulls. Yeah ... we learned from the Bullfight Museum tour that these bulls are born and bred for this one night. If you ask me, it is a one side fight. The whole sequence are made to weaken the bull gradually ...
More About: Vacation

Seville: Self-Service, Toothpick Tapas
2009-09-21 04:30:00
Their bread was pretty good. Oh back to the tapas. We ended up ordering quite a number of tapas. Some we selected from the bar, others were brought to our table. The above is cured meat and cheese. We like the one above. It is Cheese, Walnut, Raisin, and Chocolate Sauce. It is like a dessert to us.
More About: Service , Vacation , Spanish

Seville: Rabo de Toro and Plaza de Espana
2009-09-20 23:53:00
Time to eat. After the visit to the Bullfighting Museum in the morning, it just occurred to me that there is one thing that we had not eaten yet in Spain ... Rabo de Toro! I remember reading somewhere that the bull killed in the bullfight is sold in the market for its meat. The meat is not prime meat but the best part is the Rabo de Toro. So we went scouring for a place for Rabo de Toro. We went to a few places asking if they have Rabo de Toro. That drew smiles from a number of places we went to. We finally found one restaurant which turned out to be pretty good which has that. He he he ... you know which part of the bull that the Rabo de Toro is made of? We sat at the patio and was immediately served olives and water. The olives was salty and sour. For the life of me, I can never learn to appreciate olives. Yet it is so popular around the Mediterranean.
More About: Vacation , Spanish , Espana

Seville: The Bullfight Museum
2009-09-20 07:01:00
Near the Torre del Oro, we began to see sculptures of Matadors. We were near the Bullfight museum. One of the things we planned to do in Spain was to watch a bullfight. Bullfighting is very much a popular sport in southern Spain unlike in Barcelona where people do not like bullfighting. Our hotel concierge told us that summer is the off season for bullfighting. It was disappointing to us but at least we planned to just visit the Bullfight Museum .
More About: Vacation

Seville: El Cortes Ingles
2009-09-19 19:16:00
We went to El Cortes Ingles . Yeah, it is a departmental store but it has a great cafeteria. More importantly, people don't smoke here! Wrong choice. English is also at a premium here. At least the waiters (in bow ties and tuxedos!) were very professional, polite and patient. The Summer menu above is in Spanish but we already know quite a number of Spanish words. We could piece together some words to know what some of these means. It is a 3-course menu for ?9.95. I remember calculating that we were spending a lot of money on drinks (was almost $40 Canadian already!). We told ourselves that we are bringing two, maybe three, bottles of 2L bottles the next day even if it means breaking my back carrying it in the backpack. You know, I like the formal-ness in Spain even in serving water in nice glasses. Mind you, this is a cafeteria.
More About: Vacation

Seville: Real Alcazar
2009-09-17 05:03:00
Next stop that afternoon was to visit the Real Alcazar. Alcazar is the Spanish word meaning Castle. It phonetically sounds the same right? Actually the word Alcazar is based on the Arabic word al qasr, also meaning castle. The word Real means Royal. So, Real Alcazar means the Royal Castle. Real Alcazar is still in use by the Spanish royal family as the official residence in Seville. The section is off limits to tourists. We were told that they live ... on the apartments on the second floor.
More About: Vacation

Seville: The Cathedral of Seville
2009-09-16 04:31:00
We were surprised to learn that the Cathedral of Seville is the third largest church in the world. This cathedral was built immediately after the re-conquest of the city from the Moslem Moors. It was built on top of the great Moorish mosque. The bell tower used to be a minaret. When it was built they wanted to make this the biggest and grandest of all churches to show off the reconquest of the city. For many years before the reconquest, Iberia peninsular was under the control of the muslim. I think Spain is about the only country that had successfully re-conquered the country from the Moors and turned back the tide of Islam. In the process, it had made Spain more Christian. The Cathedral of Seville is huge with soaring roof with pointed arches of the Gothic style. This style allows building of this size without having thick walls to support the structure ...
More About: Vacation

Seville: Hotels in Spain
2009-09-14 15:47:00
We don't normally post about hotels but we will make it an exception this time. This is because we were so pleased with the hotels in Spain throughout. We were particularly impressed with the hotel in Seville. Even though it was a last minute booking, we managed to snag a hotel called the Best Western Cervantes Hotel right in the middle of old Seville. It was just ?50. We did not expect much especially with a "Best Western" name to it. We selected this primarily because of the low price, location and the reviews we found on Trip Advisor.
More About: Hotels , Vacation

Seville: From Barcelona via Girona on Ryanair
2009-09-13 22:10:00
From fearing being late for the flight, we ended up waiting because the flight was delayed 90 minutes. Frankly, it was a frustrating wait because Ryanair did not even have anyone at the gate for the whole time to let anyone know how long more it was going to take. There are no aero bridges. So everyone had to embark the flight from the tarmac and having to carry our own baggage up and down the stairs. There were no seat assignments on budget carriers. You have to pay extra for the right to get on first to secure better seats. For cheapo like us, we ended having to rush. At least the Spaniards are generally courteous.
More About: Barcelona , Vacation , Girona

Peach Cobbler with Oat Scones Topping
2009-09-13 16:00:00
We have Peach Cobbler as dessert in the South Arm Cooking Club for seniors. Cobbler toppings take on many forms. Some resemble sugar cookie dough while some are like pie crusts. This topping is a tender oatmeal scone, which bakes up crisp, nubbly, and slightly sweet.
More About: Recipe , Dessert , Scones

Zucchini Rice Casserole
2009-09-13 00:00:00
Helmut and Paul made this Zucchini Rice Casserole adapted from Cooking Light. This recipe serves 8. You may halve the recipe easily. For solo dining, you may filled this in 1-cup ramekins and freeze them just before the baking process. This way, you can bake the individual servings when needed. Otherwise, you can bake it first and portion them into single serving plastic containers and freeze for later consumption. You just have to reheat them in the microwave. The Zucchini Rice Casserole is a creamy and rich and I'll bet your kids will love this comfort food. They will not even noticed that it's made with healthy zucchini.
More About: Recipe

Gazpacho
2009-09-12 16:00:00
Ben enjoyed the Gazpacho while we were in Barcelona this summer. Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup from Spain. It is describe as liquid salad or 'salad in the form of soup'. Gazpacho is a wonderful way to serve summer fresh vegetables.
More About: Recipe , Soup , Salad

Salade Nicoise
2009-09-11 21:00:00
The Salad e Nicoise is a wonderfully balanced meal, offering vegetables, starches, and proteins all on one plate. This salad gets its name from a French seaside city of Nice where tuna is traditionally features in this salad.
More About: Recipe , Potato , Tuna , Tomato

Kash Cool Restaurant in North Vancouver
2009-02-24 16:00:00
If there is one major cuisine that I have never tried before, it is Persian cuisine.  This is despite that there is a large Iranian community here in Vancouver , particularly in North Vancouver.  My impression about Iranians in Vancouver is that they are either rich refugees from the Shah period or that they are great ...
More About: Restaurant , Cool , Others

Pineapple Jerky from Jerky.com
2009-02-23 21:01:00
Guess what came through the mail last week.  A quick scan of the envelope showed that it’s a package from Jerky.com.  I was rather surprised this package actually came … and that it passed Canadian Customs. I received an email from Jerky.com asking if we would like to try one of their latest product.  Doug was ...
More About: Pineapple , Snack

7-Courses of Beef from Song Huong, Vancouver
2009-02-23 01:00:00
Some of you may remember this.  This was way back in spring last year when we went for a little vacation in Seattle where we came across the first time the Vietnamese Seven Courses of Beef at the Tamarind Tree.  It was one of the most memorable dinners we ever had.  We lamented the fact ...
More About: Vancouver , Song