Sensus Bistro on Capstan Way, Richmond

We had passed by Sensus Bistro many times before.

But the thing is that we had never had the urge to go in and check it out … until now. You know what I think? I think it is because they have dark windows throughout the frontage that firstly you cannot see what’s in it. For us, we were a bit hesitant too because we were not sure what this place is. With a name like Sensus, who knows it’s like a bar or something which we do not normally go.

Sensus Bistro is located in Union Square on Capstan Way in Richmond. This is the place where Liu’s Taiwanese, Han Ju Hot Pot, Pho Queen and Richmond Sushi is, to name a few.

When we walk past this time on the way to @Ease, we notice the poster above pasted on the entrance. It looks like it is a Hongkong Style Cafe in the likes of Bauhinia … an upscale, more expensive type of HK Style Cafe. We thought this would be a much better idea than @Ease and decided to lunch here instead.

Don’t be misled by the empty looking restaurant above. We were there early for lunch as we normally do (i.e. it was just after 11AM). So they had just opened and the lunch crowd had not started trickling in. By noon, the place was packed. Sensus is obviously a popular restaurant and we had not heard of anyone talking about them before.

The decor is modern … OK, relative to all other HK Style Cafes. It is clean and well maintained. We had a good feeling about this place. If we had not pushed opened the door and walked in, we will have never discovered this place. If you ask me, the dark windows should go.

They have a relatively large menu with the same kind of offerings you find in Bauhinia. It is in color and have selected dishes pictured on it too. I had taken a few pictures of their menu and put them way down this post. Check that out.

On the table was this thingy above showing their special. I already know what I wanted. I had always wanted to try this (at Bauhinia). It is expensive though … $18 but on Thursday it is a special of the day at $14.

It sure is a mouthwatering chunk of meat isn’t it?

I ordered this with spaghetti on the side. The spaghetti is very well made … not too soft and firm to the bite.

While it is really nicely deep fried and crispy on the outside and the meat is tender and juicy inside, the pinkishness of the meat really puts me off. As for the taste … More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Pastry Club Dessert Cafe on W 41st Ave, Vancouver

When Joanne recommended the Pastry Club Dessert Cafe to me, I thought it sounds familiar.  Upon checking my list of places to go for cake meet, apparently it was on top of my list.  What a coincidence.  So, without further delay, Polly and I went to check out the Pastry Club Dessert Cafe in Kerisdale.  They are close on Sunday and the rest of the days, they are opened from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm.

Parking seems to be a problem here.  The servers keep watching out for the parking meter enforcer and we overheard them saying that the parking meter enforcer comes to check the meter everyday.  So, make sure you feed the meter if you park your car in this area.

Pastry Club Dessert Cafe is a small cozy neighborhood type of cafe.  It has 9 tables that serve 2 each.  During our visit there, we noticed that the servers know everyone of her customers except me and Polly.  When a server came to serve a customer seated next to our table, she predicted what the customer is going to order and said to the customer “something never change”.  That shows that the server really knows the customer well and the customer is a regular.

Polly and I were there quite early i.e. way before lunch time.  So, we ordered our regular coffees and desserts from the counter buffet.  Polly had latte while I opted for a stronger cappuccino.  The small coffees cost $2.95 each.

There is only one type of cheesecake that day which is Chocolate Marble Cheese Cake.  A slice costs More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Miku Restaurant on West Hastings, Vancouver

Suanne and I are getting into the groove of going out for a nice dinner to start off the weekend. Just the two of us.

So when it was Remembrance Day on Wednesday last week, we made the excuse to also dine out the day before. After all, it felt like a weekend, albeit a short one.

We went to Miku because we heard so much about their unique version of sushi. Having never been here before and guided by the reviews we read, we went there with a perception of exclusiveness and authentic Japanese culinary experience. After all, they are located at a part of downtown that we thought is an expensive area to operate a restaurant.

Miku is located on West Hastings just west of Burrard. It is just a street away from the new Vancouver Convention Center.

As usual, we were at Miku early at 5PM. They were at the midst of setting up for the evening. We were greeted by the restaurant manager, Erica, who turned out to be our perfect host for the evening. We were given a choice of seated at the bar or the tables. We opted for the tables simply because we felt kind of odd eating in front of the chef, especially when we want to take pictures. On hindsight, it would have been much better seated at the bar because that was where the action is.

Miku is modern and certainly upscale. The service was impeccable.

While their menu is not overly large (it was a 3-pager only), the menu was rather overwhelming to us as a lot of them are in Japanese names. I am sure you know the feeling when you have menus you simply have no idea what they are. I must say that our waiter was really good and patient with our questions and help us navigate the menu.

I got something Japanese for the drink. This is called the Nakano Brewery Ume Shu ($8 for a glass). I like this … it is a well-balanced complex Japanese plum wine. Even Suanne likes it too. It does not reek of alcohol and is light. The only thing is that the ice dilutes it pretty fast so it is best taken early on.

We started the night with two orders of sushis. The above is their signature Miku Roll ($15). This roll has salmon, uni (sea urchin), snow crab and cucumber and rolled with tobiko.

While this does not look particularly pretty, it is amazing. What makes this different from others is the way it is prepared …

… Aburi-style. Erica explained to us that the Aburi technique of searing is copyrighted. When I saw that they were making this, I asked if it is OK if I take a picture of them making this at the bar. I scampered over and took the picture above.

We had seared sushis before. This is is different in that they had a bigger torch and seared with a charcoal which gives out crackles as it is seared. The charcoal is supposed to give it a smokey flavour while the searing serves to liquify the oil in the ingredients. It looked fancier but am not sure if the charcoal really makes a difference.

Two things we love about the Miku Roll … you see the fatty looking thingy topping the roll above? I thought it was some fatty meat or something until we asked our waiter who said it was their very own Miku Sauce. It was great and was curious what exactly it is made of. When we got the chance, we asked Erica who said that it’s a secret recipe that she is not privy to that info. Maybe she did not know? LOL!

The other thing that is amazing here is the tobiko (flying fish roe) which was seared making it really crunchy. We had a great time popping all the tobiko which scattered inside our mouth. Nice!

Our second sushi is called the Premium Aburi Sushi and described as the Chef’s Selection of Assorted Aburi Sushi. With a name like that you cannot go wrong right?

There are a total of 7 pieces of sushis in this $18 offering. Each of the sushis were paired with … More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Red Espresso – Rooibos Tea Espresso

This came in the mail and oh yeah, its a sample for us courtesy of Red Espresso. Please note we are not paid for this blog post if that matters to any of you.

Actually there is a specific way to write the name of this unique product. It is not Red Espresso …

… it is red espresso. That is what I noticed … they made the word “red” red all the time and spelt them all in lowercases. Weird. But smart. That’s branding at its finest if you ask me.

red espresso is the world’s first espresso made of tea. It is made with Rooibos tea which is gaining popularity around the world and we had read about them before. So when red espresso asked if we would like a sample, we said sure. We were curious and wanted to see for ourselves what the fuss is all about.

What we found out was that Rooibos has all the versatility of espresso coffee. With this you could make latte, cappucino, americano, white mocha and even iced tea with apple juice. They even trademarked the red espresso names so that when you ask for these items below, it means Rooibos tea from red espresso:

• red latte
• red cappucino
• red canadiano (he he he … not Americano!)
• red symphony (is actually white mocha)
• fresh red (iced tea with apple juice)
• iced red (iced tea)

Before I continue, I want to point out that these pictures here are all mine. How did you like it? It is not exactly pro level but I am pretty pleased how they all came out.

Anyway, you can prepare a red espresso in a few ways. You could use an espresso machine, a stovetop espresso maker, a french press or even a drip coffee maker.

I don’t have an espresso machine at home. I had always wanted to buy one but Suanne kiboshed that idea because she said does not have anymore space in her kitchen. So we opted for the next best way to make this. We bought ourselves a stovetop espresso maker (above).

So I did a bit of research. Apparently the Rolls Royce of stovetop espresso makers are made by Bialetti. But Bialetti are so expensive with some fancy models costing over $100.

I found the basic one above in HomeSense. It is less than $10. Cheap but it works the same. He he he … I hope this is safe! OK we admit. We are noobs when it comes to this thingy. So, please don’t roll your eyes as I attempt to explain the basics OK?

With the stovetop espresso maker, you basically prepare your brew on top of your stove burner. The pressure from the boiling water will apply sufficient pressure to express a thick concentrated coffee from the beans. There are three sections: on the left is the boiler where the water goes. The middle part is the metal filter for the coffee (or in this case the red espresso). And on the right is the chamber where the espresso is collected.

It is a simple device. It is also the way the Italians make their espresso as I was told.

The Rooibos tea looks kind of like … More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Negative Space Chinese Restaurant on Odlin Crescent, Richmond

I posted about funny Chinese dish names yesterday. Today it is about a Chinese restaurant with an uncommon name – Negative Space.

Negative Space had been operating since April. This space used to be where Hai Jun is which was one of our favourite restaurants.

Negative Space is located in the Pacific Plaza on Odlin Cresent and McKim Way. It looks very contemporary in black and grey with pictures of their food on the windows. Walking past it, it does look inviting and will definitely make one take a second look at what they offer.

The interior looks smaller but cozier than what we remember from days of Hai Jun. Maybe it is because they partition the area into some sections that is semi-private. There is this one corner that seats six, maybe seven, people that I thought was a nice touch — it has throw pillows and is partitioned from the rest of the restaurant.

We immediate like it. The place is clean and looks brand new.

The menu was interesting with quite a wide variety of food types. We could not quite put them into any particular category of Chinese cuisine. So we asked and they told us that they serve Chinese fusion food taking the best of all the cuisines offer. Fancy description, so we thought.

One particular item that caught our eye is the Japanese Kobe Beef. It costs $35 per ounce and you need to order a minimum of 5 ounces. You do the math! I was curious if anyone actually will spend that kind of money in a restaurant like this.

I wish I had taken the picture of the menu to share with you but I can tell you it is very interesting. We found it hard to decide what to order and changed our minds several times before finalizing on what we wanted.

The food did not disappoint.

Suanne initially wanted to get the Spicy Pork Belly but ended up getting the Negative Space Hot Pot. This item is not on the menu but we saw one table having it. So we asked for it because the soup looked so rich.

We get a choice of either pork, beef or seafood to go with the hot pot. Suanne opted for the pork which came nicely curled in a separate dish. Presentation wise, it does look really nice.

The soup was rich and really delicious. It came also with some … More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Funny Chinese Dishes: Dead Man’s Coffin, Wild Speculation Beef Salamander and More

I did a lot of thinking over the last week.

All this was sparked off by the long comment that Dyn made which I made it into a blog post called Why Do Whites Accept Japanese and Thai Cuisine Over Other Cuisine. I posted it because it was controversial and thought our readers would love to read of it. However, little did I expect that Dyn’s notes sparked off a series of very long, thought provoking comments from other readers.

That got me thinking over a few comments made regarding bad translations in Chinese Menu that puts off diners who are not familiar with the cuisine. So I did some more research on the internet and in one discussion forum, there was a discussion how a western menu differs from a Chinese one.

Menu from The Cannery, Vancouver

In western menu, the dishes often describes the ingredients and the way it is prepared.

Menu from Sunway Restaurant, Richmond

On the other hand, with Chinese dishes, you will not always be able to picture the dish if you are not familiar with it. Traditionally, many Chinese dishes have a 4-word (syllable) names and some of the names have no relevance to the dish. Sometimes they even sound poetic when spoken.

Anyway, Suanne and I thought that over the weekend we just go and check out two funny sounding menu items that we know of. These are from our past restaurant visits that our readers had pointed out which we did not realize. The plan was just to go into these restaurants and order just this ONE item and do a review of them.

Suanne was kind of “mm hoe yee see” going in and ordering one item for the two of us. Taking pictures in a restaurant already catches attention but going in and ordering ONE specific dish, taking pictures and then leave quickly sure got the attention of the restaurant. But that is what we did.

Here is what we tried:

Dead Man Coffin from Sunway Restaurant

Anyone has any idea why this is called the Dead Man’s Coffin? I can only guess it is because it is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading.

Orange Poached Pears

For dessert, Minoo prepared Orange Poached Pears.  This dessert is best served chilled.  You may served the Orange Poached Pears with some vanilla ice-cream, leave out the syrups.  The pears can be cut into smaller pieces and serve with your favourite yogurt along with some granolas for breakfast.

This Orange Poached Pears recipe serves 6.

Ingredients

• 2 cups orange juice
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• zest of 1 orange, cut in strips
• 3 whole cloves
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 6 ripe but firm pears, peeled, cored, and quartered lengthwise

More on following page. Click here to continue reading.