Sunway Restaurant

November 6, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Taiwanese Beef Noodle

Deep Fried Pop Chicken

Sunway Restaurant is located in Empire Centre, the mall next to Parker Place in Richmond. They are famous for their Taiwanese Beef Noodles and their Deep Fried Popcorn Chicken, so of course I had to try them. The beef noodles are great, but what really caught my attention were the popcorn chicken. I’ve tried a variety of popcorn chicken, like the ones at Pearl Castle and Well Tea, but these tasted very different. They had a unique outer crispy layer that was very different from the others I have tried. It felt less oily, and the crispy layer wasn’t too thick. Prices were also very reasonable with large portions. These popcorn chicken are a must try!

McCafe

November 5, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

I don’t know if we have this in Canada, but when I saw it in the States, I decided to try it! It’s the McDonald’s McCafe Strawberry Lemonade. It looks really pretty, but I found it a little too tart for my taste. Really refreshing on a hot day though. Probably not something I want to drink right now though! It’s freezing here!!

California Pizza Kitchen

November 2, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Cranberry Cooler

Fried Mac N Cheese

California Club – Applewood smoked bacon, chicken and Mozzarella hearth-baked then topped with tomatoes, avocado and chilled lettuce tossed in mayonnaise

Trip to Seattle means having some good food again! Went to California Pizza Kitchen at Northgate Mall. It’s a place great for the family, similar to The Cheesecake Factory, with decent service. Big portions for the price as well! The California Club Pizza tasted basically like a Caesar Salad, so you don’t really need to order another salad on the side. I have to say, it’s quite a healthy choice for a pizza. The Fried Mac and Cheese was not the best though. I felt like it wasn’t very fresh, as it was kind of hard. It almost seemed as though it was made ahead of time and heated back up. Overall, the food is pretty good and worth a try!

Adonia Teahouse

October 24, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Mini Afternoon Tea

I love the feeling of going to high tea. It’s like going back to childhood memories where you dressed up and had tea parties! Afternoon tea is a great choice to get together with your bestie or a few girls to catch up and indulge in some tasty mini sweets and savouries, while taking a sip from your favourite tea. I’ve gone to both the Urban Tea Merchant and Secret Garden, but Adonia is the place where you will feel as though you are in a fairytale. Their decor is beyond exquisite and the chinaware are gorgeous with floral prints. Oh so girly! For just $17 a person, you can enjoy a Mini Afternoon Tea, which includes 7 pieces of mini sweets and savories accompanied by your choice of tea. If you want a larger assortment, then you can go for their Afternoon Tea f or $27 a person. Both are priced at a reasonable price, and the food is delicious!

Ben & Jerry’s Pistachio Ice Cream

October 18, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Going States grocery shopping means buying some ice cream! The States sells branded ice cream like Ben & Jerry’s, Haagen Daaz and Dreyers for ridiculously cheaper prices than in Canada! Decided to try this pistachio flavour Ben & Jerry’s and it actually has pieces of pistachio nuts in it. Has a great pistachio flavour and the bits of nuts in it gives it a great texture. Delicious!

Bell’s Bake Shop

October 16, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Red Velvet Giant Cupcake

Did I make this myself? Nope…but it sure looks like one after a really disappointing cake fail story! I got my friend a giant cupcake for her birthday at Bell’s Bake Shop in Steveston Village, and by giant, I mean it’s supposed to be equivalent to around 20 cupcakes, so it feeds around 10 people. This one was red velvet with buttercream frosting. So I picked it up at the store, and they showed me how it looked inside the box, and I went back into the car carrying it on my lap while I was driven to the restaurant for dinner. I was told to just put it at room temperature so I handed it over to my waitress. Around 15 minutes into dinner, my waitress comes over and tells me that I should take a look at my cake. The manager was also there and said that he had opened it and the cake had fell. Basically the whole top half had toppled to one side. I was extremely disappointed and asked if they could do anything to fix it up. And this is what they came up with. Pretty good compared to what a mess it had looked like…The red colouring is from the birthday message I had paid to get written, and I told the chef to just smother it around since the message was ruined anyways. I had paid $35 for the cake with $2 extra for the birthday message. I don’t know if it was my own fault from the way I carried it, or the cake shop themselves, but I am definitely not going back there again – at least not for a giant cupcake. Yes, the giant cupcake looks really cool and presentable at the table, but if it is so unstable and just topples over, I really don’t think it’s worth it. I might as well just buy 20 different cupcakes.

Cookshop

October 11, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

Given some complementary white wine!

Margarita Pizza with Fresh Tomatoes, young Bocconcini & Fresh Basil

Beef Tartar with Capers & Shallots served on Toast Points with a Quail Egg
Potato Ravioli filled with Chicken & Sage
Crispy Calamari with Tomato Caper Sauce
Local BC. Halibut Cakes Served with Spicy Aioli

Chocolate Panna Cotta

My birthday was a while ago, and one of my gifts was a cooking class at Cookshop! Located at West 12th, it’s a cookstore with a large variety of cooking and baking ware, but also a cookschool at the back where you can learn a variety of different cuisines. My friend knew I was interested in Indian food, and had originally paid for the Indian Favourites lesson, but with conflicting times, we ended up switching to the Summer Tapas workshop. It was however quite different from what I had imagined. I imagined the workshop to be like high school foods class, where we each had a unit with our individual ovens and such, but we were only given a few tables with cutting boards in front of us. A large demo table was in the front with a mirror above so we could see. The chef had prepared most of the items and we were divided into 3 groups to work on different parts of recipes. So some people minced meat, others kneaded dough, and also battered dough. But I guess it makes sense that we weren’t given a whole lot, since the whole workshop was only 3 hours. Quite impossible to make 6 different dishes! Classes are around $79 if you choose ones where you can participate. They are slightly cheaper if they are classes where you just watch the chef cook and enjoy the meal afterwards. There is also a decent amount of food you get at the end, so it’s quite filling. Looked around for a lot of different cooking lessons, but Cookshop is probably one of the few around Vancouver, where you aren’t attending “culinary school”.

Check out their cooking classes at: www.cookshop.ca/

JapaDog (Robson Store)

October 10, 2011May 4, 2013Leave a comment

I Love Meat & Terimayo

Shake Fries

Another trip downtown means getting some Japadogs! This time, I tried the I Love Meat, and it was real cheesy. I still prefer the Terimayo though. Most original! And also grabbed some shake fries. I forgot what the name of these were though, but much better than the butter-shoyu I had last time. I found that one too salty and soggy. This one was dry with some sort of flavouring powder. Delicious!