Adonia Tea House

January 29, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

J and I finally met up to have some girl catch up time and we woke up early to go brunch. Well not that early, but we got to Vancouver around 11 and when we got to Jethro’s Fine Grub, we were told we would have to wait 40 minutes. The place was really tiny and 40 minutes is usually an okay wait for me, but I had other plans after. So we decided to go elsewhere. J suggested Adonia, and we called to make sure we could get a seat, and off we went.

I love how the chinaware is super girly at Adonia. All the floral and golden details make you feel like you’re at an actual tea party!

Jasmine Green Tea (back) and Mango Passion Fruit Green Tea (front)

Their teapots however, were not as girly as I had imagined them to be. For myself, I got the Mango Passion Fruit Green Tea. My mini afternoon tea set came with a choice of tea, so I chose this fruity green tea. I usually like floral teas, but this fruity tea was a nice change. A hint of sour and sweet, but not overwhelming.

Seafood Chowder – Crowded with fresh seafood

J got the Seafood Chowder, but I never tried it. It looked appealing though, with an actual large piece of shrimp in it.

Smoked Salmon – Gourmet sandwich with smoked wild sockeye salmon, dill cream cheese, sweet red onion and capers on foccacia bread. Served with a side salad.

For her entree, J got the Smoked Salmon Sandwich. I was so tempted to get this too! It looked delicious with loads of smoked salmon on the foccacia bread, topped with onions and capers.

Mini Afternoon Tea – A sampling of our afternoon tea. It includes 7 pieces of mini sweets and savories accompanied by your choice of tea.

For myself, I got the Mini Afternoon Tea. This was for $18 and included your choice of tea, so an average price for high tea. They also offer just an afternoon tea, which is their deluxe version and I’m guessing includes much more. That one, however, is $27.

Ham and Cheese Sandwich, Cucumber Sandwich, Egg Sandwich, Berry Scone with Devon Cream and Raspberry Jam

On the bottom tier, we have our savories. The sandwiches were all very basic sandwiches, but they were presented nicely and delicious! Simple ingredients, but executed right! The scone had berries in it and top with sugar on the top. It wasn’t my favourite, as I found it a bit too dry, but scones aren’t my favourite.

Brownie, Coconut Lemon Pie, Fruit Tart

The top tier was filled with 3 desserts. I’m always excited to try the dessert section! I didn’t find them any special though. They were all decent, but nothing made me go wow! I did enjoy the Fruit Tart though, but I think it was because of how nicely it was presented. Each piece of fruit, although small, was sliced nicely so it would all fit on the tart.

Overall, Adonia was average. I don’t think it was anything amazing and the service wasn’t exactly the best either. Also, you don’t know what the savouries and sweets are before hand. So you really just get a surprise, whereas many other high tea houses have a menu listing the different items that you will get.

Cheesecake Etc.

January 25, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

After dinner, J and I went to get dessert at Cheesecake Etc. It was probably half full since it was a weekday night, so they told us to just choose a seat wherever we wanted.

Original Cheesecake with Strawberries

J got the Original Cheesecake with Straweberries, which I’ve also had in the past. They have actual strawberries on them, and the whip cream is fresh! However, I still like the cheesecake at Cheesecake Factory in the states the most!

Tonight’s Special – Tiramisu

The waitress told me that tonight’s special was the Tiramisu, so I immediately said yes to that. Their cheesecake is basically the same, except you can choose different toppings, so of course I wanted to try something new! I really enjoyed this. It wasn’t too strong in alcohol and the cake itself was soft and crumbly. Perfect when it was mixed in with the whipped cream!

That night, they also had a pianist and jazz singer performing. I’m not usually a jazz person, but jazz and cheesecake in a dimly lit seating area just seems to work so well!

Kitanoya Guu (Richmond) (revisit)

January 24, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

I feel like I just recently went to Guu in Richmond, but come to think of it, it was actually a month ago. J and I wanted some Japanese food though, so off we went. It was a Thursday night and the place was pretty empty. The vibe and ambiance was totally missing, although they still screamed Japanese words at you when you enter and leave! Since there weren’t many customers, the service was especially tentative, and I feel like our tea cups were always full.

Salmon Skin Salad (on the house)

Within minutes of taking down our order, we were given a complimentary appetizer. It was a Salmon Skin Salad, and although I usually don’t like to eat salmon skin, this one was not bad. The lemon gave it some zesty flavours, and worked well with the rest of the salad.

Beef Tataki – thin sliced seared beef w/ ponzu sauce

I chose to get the Beef Tataki, since I love the way Guu flavours it. However, I was extremely disappointed with tonight’s! Beef tataki is supposed to be seared, but this one was overdone. It still looks red on the picture, but I should have taken a snapshot of the other side, because it was completely cooked and brown. J and I both agreed this was not up to their usual standards.

Tuna Tataki – seared tuna w/ ponzu sauce

The Tuna Tataki was also a disappointment. It seemed like the chefs weren’t making their tatakis correctly tonight!! They are usually really delicious, so I’m not sure what went wrong, especially since they had plenty of time to perfect it since there were barely any customers.

Steamed Mussels

Somehow, we ended up with Steamed Mussels too! We didn’t order them, but I took a picture of them before we told them to send them back. They looked delicious though, and we were tempted to eat them anyways…The mussels looked fatty!

Unagi Moshi – BBQ eel & poached egg on rice in hot stone bowl w/ teriyaki sauce (without egg)

J wanted to get something like a unagi don, so the waitress recommended us the Unagi Moshi. It’s colourful and comes in a stone bowl. It totally reminded me of a bimbimbap!

The waitress then helped us mix it all together. I’m not a big fan of eel, but I liked how the bits were all mixed into the rice, so you could still taste the eel, but the texture wasn’t as apparent. It was strong in ginger flavours, and the teriyaki sauce worked well with everything. At the bottom, the rice started to dry up, and you could get the crunchy rice texture just like in any stone bowls.

Yakiudon – pan fried udon w/ beef, mushroom, green onion, & soy sauce + butter

I also love Guu’s Yakiudon, so I had to get that! But I was disappointed with it! When it was served, it just didn’t look appetizing. The udon was a bit soggy, and just wasn’t up to par! I felt like everything that I always enjoy at Guu were such a disappointment tonight!! What was wrong with the chefs 😦

Beef Tongue – 3 styles (Daily Specials)

Finally, J wanted to try something interesting, so we got the Beef Tongue which was prepared in 3 different ways. I have to say I was hesistant to try it first, just because I get a little iffy when I try new organs, or weird body parts… Who doesn’t?! The first one on the right of the plate was cooked and chilled. We found that it was quite salty and reminded us of ham. The texture is definitely chewy though. The one in the middle confused us a little. It had a sunny-side-up egg on top and underneath was a meatball! It was a meatball with beef tongue in it. This is a good choice for starters who have not tried tongue before, since you wouldn’t even realize what’s in it. It’s literally like a meatball! The last one on the left was crispy on the outside, and wasn’t as salty as the first. It was flavourful and I liked it much more compared to the first.

Overall, I was quite disappointed with my visit at Guu this time. I remember a friend saying that the Guu in Richmond is always either a hit or miss. Their consistency is a problem, but this was the first time I experienced this. Weird how it was a weekday and the chefs had plenty of time to perfect their dishes since there were few customers, yet they did not.

Top Chiu Chow Cuisine

January 20, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

I didn’t even notice Top Chiu Chow Cuisine until my family decided to go try the restaurant. It’s in the same mall as Richmond Sushi and Bubble World among many others, but it’s literally at the end of all the shops in a corner. The restaurant was quite packed when we got there, but we made reservations beforehand, so we immediately got our seats.

Apparently they also have a second floor, but it seemed a little sketchy…hmm
The decor is surprisingly quite clean and modern for a Chinese restaurant. They started us off with complimentary peanuts and something that reminded me of sour pickles.

Since their menu is all in Chinese, I’m not exactly sure if I’m translating the items correctly in English, but here’s the items we ordered.

So we kind of got lured into getting their Daily Soup…okay fine, maybe they didn’t exactly trick us into it, but the guy told us we should get a soup since most dinners aren’t complete without a soup. He suggested the daily soup, and started listing out the ingredients, and my mom just quickly said sure. We later realized that it cost us $68.80…

Daily Soup

It came in a large cauldron and we learned that we had ordered some soup with expensive ingredients… Shark fin! And now I feel terrible because I was hoping to stop consuming shark fin since everything is about sustainability these days. 😦

They serve the soup to you with just the clear broth. It’s also got goji berries, chicken, and other Chinese ingredients.

The waiter then scoops out all the stock. The shark fin was actually not even that good. The parts of the shark fin were not the best parts, hence the price wasn’t extremely ridiculous. We were surprised that the service was quite good though, since they also offered to reheat our soup after if we decided to eat our other dishes after our first serving of soup.

Oyster Omelet – 煎蠔餅

This is a typical dish in Chiu Chow cuisine. I really enjoyed this dish although I found it a little oily. It was nicely pan fried so that it was crispy on the edges though.

Crab and Shrimp Balls

I’m not sure if I’m translating this correctly, but half of them are basically crab balls and the other half are shrimp balls. They are fried and then you dip them into this sauce for extra flavour. I found them to already have enough flavour alone, and dipping into the sauce just made it too salty.

Chicken with Kale Leaves – 潮式川椒雞

I found these chicken to be a little too salty, but it worked well when accompanied with rice. The kale leaves also gave a nice crunch. They were flaky and almost like seaweed!

Marinated Goose Meat – 滷水鵝肉

We were quite disappointed with the marinated goose meat. It was much more tough and lacked flavour. It felt like these were not done in house, and that they had just reheated store bought ones.

Satay Beef Noodles with Veggies

We were expecting the noodles which to be flavourful with satay, but surprisingly it lacked the satay flavour. It was a sweet flavour instead, which we didn’t mind. Very saucy, and the beef were tender.

Oranges were complimentary and were a refreshing way to cleanse our palettes.

Sweet Red Bean and Lotus Seed Paste Dumplings – 潮式水晶包

For dessert, we ordered sweet dumplings which are famous in Chiu Chow cuisine. Half were filled with red bean paste, and the other half filled with lotus seed paste. I tried both, but my favourite was the red bean paste. They had tons of filling and you could tell the filling was grounded with actual red bean or lotus seed. There were still little bits in it, unlike store bought paste. What was great about these dumplings were that the outer layer was extremely thing. They’re kind of like a mochi gelatin texture and translucent, but the chef was skillful enough to make them extremely thing. The only issue was the folding area which was difficult to keep thin, and therefore there would be a lump of dough at the bottom end.

Overall, I was quite satisfied with Top Chiu Chow Cuisine. The service was extremely tentative and they even switched our plates twice throughout dinner, which doesn’t happen at most restaurants unless you are eating seafood.

Nicli Antica Pizzeria (revisit)

January 19, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

For K’s birthday, we headed to Nicli Antica Pizzeria since she wanted some thin crust pizza! I’ve gone here once, and the pizza crusts are made from scratch. The place was quite packed when we got there, and it makes sense since it’s a nice place to drink a glass of wine, have some pizza and chat with friends.

Special* – parma prosciutto and arugula

We chose three pizzas to share, and I chose their Today’s Special, which I forgot the name of since it was so long. But it had param prosciutto which is my favourite. The arugula also added some great flavour to it. I guess the funniest part of dinner was our inabilities to cut our pizza. These pizzas are made from scratch, hence their crust is much more tough than normal pizza. Some people like it and some people don’t, but the crust is intended to be like that. Our waitress laughed at us while we took forever cutting our pizzas, and in the end she told us it would be okay to use our hands. How embarrassing, since we looked around and everyone was well-mannered and slowly slicing their pizza. I was hungry, so eating with my hands were the way to go!

Pesto – herb pesto, fior di latte, marinated black olives, capers, roasted red onion, fresh tomato

J chose the Pesto, which was definteily much more interesting than normal pesto pizzas I’ve had. The flavour was much more strong, and the capers and roasted red onions gave it a distinct flavours. The only part was that I don’t like olives, so I had to pick those out.

Margherita – pomodoro, grana padano, fior di latte, basil

Lastly, K got the traditional Margherita, which is a great classic. Their tomato sauce is made from fresh tomatoes too, so it has a distinct flavour.

Tiramisu – classic with Marscapone cream and frangelico syrup

For dessert, we decided to all share a Tiramisu. It was homemade and really good! Just the right about of alcohol in it, and the cake was soft.

Apple Fruit Cake?

I wish I remembered the name of this cake, since it was really good. We got this as a little surprise since we wanted to get a dessert that could support a candle. I guess none of their desserts really did that so they put the candle next to the cake instead…Anyways, this was really good! There were soft apples with a sauce inside the cake, and it also came with a vanilla bean ice cream on the side. Yum!

The downside to Nicli is that they don’t take reservations, so you’ll need to expect some waiting time if you come on their busy nights.

Ebisu (Richmond)

January 17, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

For New Year’s Eve, my parents didn’t feel like doing much celebrating, so I decided to go out and eat with K instead. I had just gotten off work, and since it was really last minute, most of the places were booked up. I was really hungry too, so I wanted to go eat right away! Finally, we found reservations for Ebisu in Richmond, but they said they would be bar seats. It was just the two of us, so we could care less! When we got there, I was surprised that Ebisu has renovated and the interior was much more stylish. The servers also all spoke Japanese giving the restaurant a feel of authenticity. And surprisingly, the bar tables were nothing like what we had thought. They were comfy booth seats that basically only seated two customers. It was extremely comfortable and we still had tons of room to move around.

Thunder Fries – Freshly cut deep fried sweet potato sticks served with a tangy house cajun dip

K decided to try the Thunder Fries and they were basically yam tempuras shaped like fries. At first, I thought it would be more like the Western style yam fries, but they were definitely softer in the inside and the outer batter was crisp and flaky like tempura. The cajun dip gave them some flavour and hint of spice.

Healthy Veggie Roll – Red & green pepper, avocado, cucumber, carrot, Kaiware with rice & salsa sauce on top wrapped in color soy been paper

K also got the Healthy Veggie Roll. Sounded super healthy and it came in soy bean paper. I didn’t try it out so I can’t comment on it, but it looked pretty!

Miso Soup

I got the Chicken Teriyaki Boat since I was starving! It came with a Miso Soup, which was nothing special.

Ebi Sunomono

The Boat also came with the Ebi Sunomono which I thought was better than what I had expected. Usually complementary sunomonos are quite sour and the appearance is usually not that appealing. However, they presented theirs nicely and it had shrimp and nicely sliced cucumbers. It wasn’t too sour too which I liked.

Chicken Teriyaki Boat (includes the Miso Soup & Ebi Sunomono) – Chicken Teriyaki, Dynamite & California Roll, Salmon & Tuna Sushi, Assorted Tempura

And here is the Chicken Teriyaki Boat. At the end of my meal, I realized I had eaten a lot! I found the sushi to just be average. The salmon wasn’t anything spectacular either. It wasn’t amazingly fresh or anything, but it was decent. The tempuras really filled me up with all the fried oil. Food was average, but it was a pretty good deal. I think it was around $14 for the whole set.

Christmas Baking!

January 14, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Christmas Day is always good and bad at the same time for me. It’s great because it’s a time to reunite with family and friends, but at the same time, thinking of what to do can sometimes be a headache. It always seems to revolve around food though with all those family dinners. But what about the afternoon? This year, I celebrated Christmas and also S’s birthday by baking some Christmas goods! First up, we got the Pilsbury Christmas Cookies. So yea…we’re not exactly the best bakers, and we wanted to be festive, so what’s better than premade cookies where we just need to pop them into the oven right? I actually expected to cut the cookie dough, but apparently, they’ve gotten so advanced that they already come pre-cut too… Guess you literally just need to put them in the oven.

These cookies were sold out everywhere too! My mom snatched the last box so I guess they’re a big hit during the holidays. And here’s the finished product! Don’t they look awesome?! Tasty too, and so easy to make! Oh, and no washing dishes required! Well other than the baking sheet.

And then we also made Gingerbread men! We were also lazy and bought the kit from Superstore. However, it wasn’t as quick as the Pilsbury cookies. It came with the pre-mixed flour, icing flour, piping bag, cookie cutter, as well as some sweets that we didn’t end up using. I think we over mixed these guys since they came out pretty holey… And the shapes were extremely awkward looking. The cookie cutter shaped the arms and legs extremely skinny so it was really hard to lift the dough off the counter, resulting in awkward looking men. We used smarties instead of the included sweets and the icing was surprisingly really easy to use and also didn’t taste too sweet. The gingerbread was strong in flavour, but I found them quite hard after letting them cool. Either we over mixed it or the mix wasn’t great.

Lastly, we baked a pie! We followed Grandma Ople’s Recipe and we were quite proud of our finished product! The lattice top just makes the pie look so much better. The filling definitely was too strong in cinnamon and spices for me though. Funny thing was we already cut down half of the cinnamon that was required. The crust was flaky, and that’s thanks to the Pilsbury unroll-and-fill pie crusts! Yes, we were being lazy again, but we didn’t have time to let our dough refrigerate!

And more desserts! Well we didn’t make this, but my parents bought some Cheesecake from Costco, and it was not bad. 4 flavours including lemon, raspberry, chocolate and dulce leche. My favourite was the lemon since the hint of sourness balanced off the sweetness of the rest of the cake. At an affordable price too!

And that was my Christmas afternoon. Definitely a belated post! 8)

Chef Hung

January 13, 2013May 2, 2013Leave a comment

Looking for food on Christmas is always a headache! Pretty much every restaurant is closed on Christmas Day…well except for Asian restaurants! And so we headed over to Aberdeen, and the parking lot was just a mess. Aberdeen Centre is the only mall open on Christmas in Richmond I think…so I guess everyone just crowds there. After long waits stuck in traffic in the parking lot, I met up with K, JW, and JZ for some Taiwanese food at Chef Hung.

Pan-fried Crispy Pancake with Green Onion

I didn’t try these, but they looked nicely pan-fried. At least they weren’t burnt!

Braised Beef Shank & Tripe with Thin Noodle in Soup

I’ve tried their noodles a few times before, and their Champion Beef Shank is always popular. This time I chose the Braised Beef Shank & Tripe. As always, the soup broth was tasty and wasn’t overwhelming in flavours. The soup is supposed to be MSG-free. The tripe is basically the cow’s stomach, and had great texture. It wasn’t too tough which is always good.

Overall, not bad! I always seem to go back whenever I want Taiwanese noodles. It also won 2012’s Vancouver Restaurant Award for being the Best Noodle House, so I guess that says something. Worth giving it a try.