Gingeri Chinese Cuisine

August 22, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste

Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings

Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup

Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables

Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce

Steamed Rock Cod

Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce

Dumplings in Supreme Soup

Chinese Petit

Coffee Jelly

Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream

Gingeri is one of my mom’s favourite dim sum place. I swear she suggests to come here every time we want dim sum food. Not long ago though, I attended a wedding and they held it at Gingeri. I don’t normally come here for dinners, so I was actually kind of curious what the food was like for dinner time. Chinese weddings always have some crazy dinner banquets, with hours of food. This one had around 12 courses I believe? I’m missing two pictures I think, since I was too excited to eat…

First up was Roasted Pig Slices with Jellyfish Appetizer, which was one of the dishes where I got too excited to eat that I totally forgot to take a picture of. The pig skin was roasted to a nice crisp, and the meat wasn’t too salty. Jellyfish is one of my favourite Chinese appetizers, and this one was marinated very well. The second dish was the Fresh Fruit Salad & Deep Fried Crab Claws w/ Shrimp Paste. It was basically a crab claw with shrimp paste surrounding it to form a round shape and then it was deep fried. I really liked the shrimp part, but the crab claw didn’t really have any meat to it. Way too many fruits on the side too..I was already starting to get full. Third dish: Braised Whole Dried Scallops in Mo Qua Rings. This was a really nice dish, as the Mo Qua, which were basically some sort of melon were braised in a very nice sauce. The dried scallops were also extremely soft. Fourth dish: Braised Superior Shark’s Fin in Supreme Thick Soup. The soup was definitely very thick, and you could feel the collagen stick to your lips. They also didn’t cheap out on the ingredients. Fifth dish: Braised Whole Australia Abalones with Vegetables. Another delicacy in Chinese cuisine. The abalone was quite large in size, and it was cooked so it wasn’t too chewy or too soft. Perfect tenderness! I also loved the sauce that it was paired with. But oh my, I was getting REALLY full by the fifth course…so I started leaving my vegetables behind.. Moving on, sixth course was the Pan Fried Lobsters in Consomme Sauce. These were alright. I’ve had better lobsters before. Nothing too special. Seventh course: Deep Fried Crispy Squabs. And yes, I forgot to snap a picture of it as well. It was served still hot and crispy. Good stuff! Eighth dish: Steamed Rock Cod. I’m not a big fan of fish, so this was probably my least favourite of the night. I have to say that the fish wasn’t fishy though, and the meat was quite tender. Still, steamed fish isn’t something I like to eat. Ninth course: Fried Rice with Shrimps in Cream & Chicken in Tomato Sauce. This dish, no one at my table even touched it. We were all too full, and stuffing ourselves with more rice seemed silly. Some of us ended up packing it away instead, so I can’t comment. Tenth dish: Dumplings in Supreme Soup. These were actually really nice to end the dinner off. The dumplings were filled with shrimp and the soup was a thin clear broth. As for the desserts, there were Chinese Petits, which were basiaclly some sort of cookie dough batter, with read bean paste inside. As well, there was Coffee Jelly, which was one of my favourites. It was strong in coffee flavour and was a great dessert for a summer night. Lastly, there was the Sweetened Sesame Dumplings in Red Bean Cream. I’m not a fan of red bean soup, but I enjoyed the sesame dumplings as I love the surprise of the filling spilling out when you bite into these sweet dumplings.

Way too much food for this set menu, and I wish everything was portioned smaller, so I could actually eat everything without feeling like my stomach would explode… Good food though! And service wasn’t too bad.

L.A. Grill and Bistro

August 20, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Curry Penne served with Garlic Bread – olives, tomatoes & onions in curry cream sauce

Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich – toasted whole wheat bread with grilled chicken breast topped with house-made pesto, melted mozzarella, served with roasted potatoes & green salad

L.A. Grill and Bistro used to be a place I went with my friends back in high school. It was cheap with large portions, and their daily specials always attracted us back when we were students. Especially since I’ve moved away from that neighborhood, I haven’t been to Blundell Mall for quite a while. It’s kind of out of my way, but since I hadn’t had it since..probably high school, J and I decided to revisit it.

I got the Curry Penne, which was alright. The curry soup is definitely not the curry you get at Asian restaurants. It’s the westernized curry, which isn’t my favourite compared to Asian curry, but still not bad. All that pasta totally filled me up though.

You can’t expect any high quality food at L.A. Grill and Bristo, but the portions are definitely filling for the price you pay. It’s also got a very nice casual environment, and I think they offer some pretty good deals for late night snacks now too.

Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato

August 16, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender

Espresso ‘La Futura’ – Milano Coffee

J got me a gift card to Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato, and I must say it was my favourite gift card out of all of them! I didn’t even know of this place, but I looked on Urbanspoon after and found it was one of the top places! I was extremely excited to try it since my favourite dessert is ice cream! And so why not get three flavours at once…I wanted more, but the biggest size only contained three flavours, unless I wanted to get a second cup… We got there around dinner time, but it was packed! There was a line up, but it moved fairly quickly as they make you pay first, and then you can try and decide what flavours you want.

So many flavours to choose from, but I knew I wanted to try the Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender, although I still want to try the sesame flavour. Next time! Anyways, The Matcha was definitely my favourite. My next favourite was the Lavender. I personally love anything lavender, as I think it smells so good! It had a strong floral flavour to it, and I found it really interesting. I don’t think J really liked it though. The earl grey was alright too. Not my favourite, but pretty interesting. I find that earl grey flavours are usually pretty bland for most desserts though. J got the Milano Coffee, which was pretty good. It was really strong in coffee flavour.

Bella is a great place to get genuine Italian gelato, and although it is a bit pricey, it is definitely worth it!

Cora’s Breakfast & Lunch (Ironwood)

August 13, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fruit Cocktail

Jo Construction – 3 eggs (easy over), 3 sausages, and bacon

Toast that came along with Jo Construction

Eggs Ben et Dictine – two poached eggs and ham on an English muffin covered with Hollandaise sauce, served with roasted potatoes and fresh fruit

My parents normally don’t go out to eat breakfast, unless it’s dim sum, but we decided to head down to Ironwood to check out Cora’s since it had opened not too long ago. The service there is…interesting. The people are really friendly, but a little overly friendly that it seems almost fake. They seem to just recite these lines, and it’s almost a little awkward.

But anyways, my dad decided to try their Fruit Cocktail of the day, which was supposed to consist of 5 fruits or something like that. I don’t remember which fruits she said, but I took a sip, and it was alright. Just a bunch of fruits blended together I’m guessing, but not a smoothie texture for sure. It was much more light and watery. For myself, I got the Eggs Ben et Dictine. I seem to always get the eggs benedict at breakfast places, but that’s cause I feel like I can’t easily make that at home. Or at least I don’t feel that I’m skilled enough to do so! It was presented really nicely with fruits covering the plate in a nice presentation. Apparently, at Cora’s, their selling point is that their breakfasts are supposed to be extremely healthy because of all the fruits they add to the plate. But the funny thing was that my roasted potatoes were the last thing I would call healthy. They sure were roasted… Some of them were so burnt that you pretty much couldn’t even take a bite from the side. It was just pure black. I swear I had 1/3 of the potatoes left on my plate because they were just clearly inedible.

Other than that, everything was decent. Surprisingly, the portions weren’t as large as I had imagined. I think it’s probably because 1/4 of your plate is full of fruits, so it’s not as filling. So I would say Cora’s definitely has smaller portions compared to places such as IHop. I was also quite surprised that on a weekday morning, there were actually quite a few tables of people eating.

Cartems Donuterie

August 12, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

On our way to Nicli Antica Pizzeria, we drove by Cartems Donuterie, which is said to be one Vancouver’s best donut shops. S and I knew we had to stop by after desserts, and so we did. And of course we had a little adventure while heading over. We left the car at our paid street parking near the pizzeria, and started heading towards the donut pop up shop. It’s literally only 2 blocks away, and short blocks too, but did it ever feel like the longest walk ever… I have to remind you this is on the edge of Gastown, and not to be judgmental, this area is full of homeless people. And so S and I began to speed walk. Or more like run. We were so desperate for these donuts that we sped down that block to avoid all the sketchiness. We were literally panting when we got there, or at least I was. Shows how much I exercise…

Anyways, we were greeted by a friendly man, whom I’m guessing was the owner. S and I were just staring at all those donuts behind the window. So many choices! But we had just ate. So we decided to choose two! The man saw that we were kind of confused staring at all those donuts, so he offered some help. We told him it was our first time, and asked what were the most popular donuts, and he said the Earl Grey and the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. And so we got those two. He was really nice, and actually gave us two Earl Greys. He said that he had made a batch of them that were smaller than usual, and so he gave us two of those instead. But when I looked at them, they were still pretty big! So nice of him. Anyways, I forgot to take pictures of them, since I was too excited to eat them, but you can see what they look like on their website. We basically ran back to the car again…excited to try these donuts.

The Earl Grey was oh so delicious! It’s a cake donut infused with organic earl grey tea, topped with earl grey glaze and a sprinkling of rose petals. I’m a fan of earl grey or green tea when I go for high tea so this was perfect for me! The earl grey wasn’t too strong, and I liked that, and the rose petals on top were perfect with the hint of floral aroma. Floral teas are also one of my favourites, so this was like full of goodness!! Next up was the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. Bacon? Yes Bacon on a donut. (I’m still waiting to try Bacon Gelato by the way…) But yes, bacon on donut is now one of my favourite donuts! The donut was glazed with the Maker’s Mark bourbon glaze and topped with double smoked house cured candied bacon. So delicious! I love how it was sweet and salty at the same time, but it just worked all so well! Another note to keep in mind: these donuts are gourmet and expensive. They use local ingredients, and are priced at $3.00 a donut! Yes, that’s triple the price of the donuts and Tim Horton’s…

So worth the sweat and run to get these donuts though…

Nicli Antica Pizzeria

August 10, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Chili Oil and Rosemary Oil

Margherita di Bufala – pomodoro, grana padano, buffalo mozzarela, basil

I hadn’t gone on a food adventure in a while with Steph, so after a school meeting, we decided to go grab some food. I had a gift card for Nicli Antica Pizzeria, so I decided to bring her there to check it out. The pizzeria is located in the edge of Gastown, and although there are very nice looking boutiques and such around the area, the people in the area are still somewhat..sketch if that’s nice to say. We parked on the sidewalk in front of the pizzeria but there were some creepy men murmuring to us! A little scary… Anyways, when we got in, the place was totally different from the outside. The outside looks all antique and vintage, but the inside was clean and modern. I loved how everything was white with pops of red. So pretty!

We didn’t exactly know what to order since after reading the menu, we were still pretty confused. Most of the ingredients were in Italian, and I was just plain confused. We decided to ask our server what she would recommend. She suggested us to try the Margherita di Bufala as it was one of the most popular, and so we did. Basically, they make Neapolitan pizzas, which I’m still not too sure what exactly it is, since I didn’t really do much research. I read it briefly somewhere online though, and I think it has something to do with the crust and how they actually heat it using a special oven or some sort. And wow, the crust was actually so thin! The ingredients were also extremely fresh. You could tell the tomato sauce and the buffalo mozzarella were fresh. When you take a bite with the basil leaf on top, it was really good too! I did find that the crust got a little tough at the bottom after the pizza sat for a while. You could tell especially, when you tried to use a knife to cut it, and it became really difficult to slice. Parts of the crust were also a little burnt, which gave it an ashy taste, that I didn’t quite like. But other than that, the pizza was extremely delicious. The pizza is also large enough to share with 2 – 3 people, although we saw many tables ordering one pizza for each person.

The Local Yolk Cafe

August 9, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fresh Orange Juice

Our Famous Combos – French Toast, Sausage Links and Three Country Eggs

One Pancake – with two eggs and two slice of bacon

Eggs Benedict – English Muffin, Slice of Ham, Hollandaise Sauce and Hashbrowns

My family had stayed in Lynnwood since we booked our hotel last minute, and everywhere in Bellevue was full, or at a ridiculous price. We got up early to start our day of more shopping, and we decided to head out to grab some breakfast. I really wanted to try these KFC chicken bites that were new, but we were 30 minutes too early, and it wasn’t opened yet. We decided to go to Denny’s which was in close proximity, but we ended up passing by The Local Yolk, which seemed to be a local breakfast place. So hey, why not give it a try. The parking lot had a few cars, so we thought it couldn’t be too bad.

It seemed to be a family run business, and surprisingly it was quite packed on a Sunday morning. The prices were the typical breakfast prices, around $10-$15. My sister and I shared the Eggs Benedict, which was quite large, and consisted of 3 English muffins. The hashbrowns were also really tasty with some crispy edges to them! I also enjoyed their Fresh Orange Juice, which consisted of pulp, so you knew it was freshly squeezed – at least I hope it was!

By the time we left, the parking lot was jam packed, so I guess people really do like coming here for breakfast. Much better than Denny’s for sure in my opinion.

Cheesecake Factory (Bellevue)

August 7, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Tropical Iced Tea

Complimentary Bread

Grilled Rib-Eye Steak served with Mashed Potatoes and Onion Rings

Petite Filet served with Fries and Onion Rings– a smaller version of Filet Mignon

Bistro Shrimp Pasta – crispy battered shrimp, fresh mushrooms, tomato and arugula tossed with spaghettini and a basil-garlic lemon cream sauce

Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake – raspberry-vanilla cake, creamy lemon cheesecake, raspberry lady fingers and lemon mousse

It seems that my family always ends up going to The Cheesecake Factory whenever we’re in Seattle. Perhaps it’s because it’s the perfect place to go to after a long day of shopping at Bellevue Mall. Cheesecake Factory is always packed around dinner time, so we had to wait for roughly 30 minutes before we got seated. I decided to get the Tropical Iced Tea, but I didn’t realize that American Iced Teas were unsweetened! And so I was left with a rather bland iced tea with hints of fruitiness to it. My parents both got steaks, and the Petit Filet Mignon was exceptional. I stole a bite, and the meat was extremely tender. I also tried an onion ring, and loved the outer batter as it was thin and crispy. And I forgot to mention, that Cheesecake Factory’s portions are absolutely huge, and it is almost impossible for me to finish a plate by myself. And so of course, I decided to share a plate with my sister, who doesn’t eat a lot either. We got the Bistro Shrimp Pasta, which was extremely delicious. I loved the spaghetinni, as it was thinner than normal spaghetti, and the shrimp also had a lovely texture since it was coated with a light batter. The sauce was light and not too creamy, which I liked. My whole family was extremely full by the end of dinner, but who goes to the Cheesecake Factory without getting a slice of cheesecake! Most tables had their cheesecake to go, but since we still had a long ride back to our hotel, and the weather was quite hot, we decided to just stuff ourselves and eat it at the restaurant. We chose a lighter cheesecake since we could not go for something extremely rich at that point, so we got the Lemon Raspberry Cream Cheesecake. The lemon and raspberry gave the cheesecake a lighter taste to it, with its hint of tangy flavour. I especially love their whipped cream, since it’s super light and airy. You can barely even taste the cream in it! So delicious!

I do want to mention, however, that our waitress, Kelly, was one of the worst servers I’ve had. She came by at the beginning to take our orders, dropped off our drinks and food, and asked how our food was tasting once throughout our whole dinner. I’m not the type that likes to be bothered while eating, but it’s a common gesture to come by more than once throughout the dinner. Not to mention, that I asked for a straw for my drink, and she said she would be right back, but no straw ever came back. My parents also had to remind her to bring them steak knives, which was highly unprofessional. It was almost like we had to chase her down to get her attention. But that’s just our server. I’ve definitely had better servers in the past here, so I guess this is just an exception.