Archive for November, 2006
Simply Vegetarian in Richmond
We bumped into Steven a couple of months ago in Chapters. Steven used to work with Ben. To our surprise, Steven knows about chowtimes and being a vegetarian, he invited us to try out vegetarian food. We had never visited a vegetarian restaurant before and quickly accepted his invite.
Steven brought us to a restaurant called Simply Vegetarian on Akroyd in Richmond.
With Steven’s recommendation, Ben ordered a combo meal for $6.95. The combo meal comes with a miso soup.
Ben ordered this 3 cups of Treasure which is veggie meat made from soy bean starch cooked in ginger, basil, peanut and satay sauce. We were surprised by the taste of the dish which is pretty good.
Ben’s combo also comes with a green salad.
Steven ordered his favourite dish which comes with a vegetarian chop and spinach. I cant recall what its called. It’s a pretty big serving dish. By the way, you have a choice of brown or white rice.
Arkensen ordered a vegetarian beef noodles. This is a spicy noodles soup with tofu puff, veggie meat and meatballs and some lettuces. The flavour is amazing and out of our expectation.
Nanzaro ordered another noddles soup which is not the spicy type, out of his character. Nanzaro could’nt finish his noddles as the serving is quite large.
I ordered a Mah Poh Tofu which is supposed to be spicy. To my disappointment, it is not as spicy as I expected and its just plain tofu. I would prefer the real Mah Poh Tofu with ground pork in it.
Alleluia Cafe in Richmond
We dined out at Alleluia Cafe in Richmond a few weeks ago. This was from a recommendation from Polly who told us how they enjoyed discounts at the cafe because the owner of this place worships in the same church. We did not know where it was until Ben came across the small-ish sign along Westminster Hwy (northside between No 3 Rd and Buswell St).
Alleluia Cafe is a another HongKong style cafe which we have recently loved to dine in. The cafe was very busy and we had to wait for 10 minutes before we got a table. Unlike a the other HK-style cafes, the decor in this place is much more contemporary and nicer.
Arkensen ordered a fried rice as usual. This time it’s Satay Chicken Fried Rice which costs $5.95. By the way, like most HongKong style cafe, this meal comes with a free drink with a choice of milk tea or lemon tea.
I ordered a Portuguese Baked Chicken with Rice, also for $5.95. This dish has chunks of chicken and very rich in coconut flavor. The dish is also topped with coconut flakes.
Ben ordered a Malay Curry Lamb with Rice for the same price. Its not very spicy (wished that its spicier) and has chunks of lamb cubes, potatoes and onion slices. It goes really well with the steam rice.
We will certainly come back again to try other dishes they had on the menu. The prices were good and we liked the atmosphere. You can never go wrong when you see people lining up for a table, can’t you?
Minstrels
Minstrels are chocolate buttons with a hard glazed shell sold in the United Kingdom. It’s pretty much like M&Ms and Smarties. Ben brought some home after his London trip this summer. They are indeed very much different from the types that we have ever come across. They are much richer and chocolatey.
Ever since then, we had been scouring them all around the Lower Mainland but could not find any. When my sister visited England in Fall, I took the opportunity to get her to buy some for us. At the same time, Ben also visited Malaysia. So this batch of Minstrels, went virtually around the world. From London to Malaysia and then to Vancouver.
Minstrels are like a larger version of M&Ms and its a chocolate candy. They don’t come in other colours other than chocolate.
For us, the best way to enjoy this is let the outer candy melt in our mouth down to the chocolate core. The chocolate core is unbelievably rich. M&Ms really pale in comparison to this. We just simply love this.
Ben also found them selling in Singapore Changi Airport.
Have you tried this? Do your country sell this at all? Anyway, Ben will be in Washington state later on this week and he’ll try and see if they sell it there.
Sweet Rice Soup/Congee
I love dessert soup but it takes a long time to make and my kids do not like them. So, I don’t make it at home. Whenever we eat out in Chinese restaurants which end the meal with a dessert soup, I would usually finished my kids helpings too.
Tanni made this Sweet Rice Soup in the South Arm Community Kitchen this week.
This Sweet Rice Soup is made from pearl glutinous rice, black glutinous rice, peanuts, lotus seed and slap sugar.
To make this soup, bring a pot of water to a boil (about 4-5 litres). Wash and rinse all the ingredients. Once the water comes to a boil, add in the glutinous rice (about 1 cup), black glutinous rice (about 1/4 cup), peanuts (1/2 cup) and lotus seed (1/2 cup). Bring it back to a boil and cover and simmer on low heat for 1 hour until all the ingredients are softened and the soup is thickened. Add 2 pieces of slap sugar depending on your preference and cook until the sugar melted. Serve warm.
Tanni also made some garlic toast as an appetizer. She buttered the sliced French baguette and sprinkled them with some garlic bread herb powder she bought from Costco. The garlic bread is toasted in the oven until the edges browned.
Tanni. thank you for sharing all the yummy dishes.
Green Curry Lamb
Tanni is a another talented cook of the South Arm Community Kitchen. This week, she prepared a set menu (printed out nicely and put on display) for the cooking class. Her initial plan is to make a salad and garlic toast as the appetizers, Green Curry Lamb as the main entree and finally a sweet rice soup/congee as dessert. But unfortunately, with the boiling water advisory still on, she decided to drop off the salad as a safety precaution.
I’ll start off with the main entree. Green Curry Lamb. It was a great dish to be served with steam rice. The Green Curry Lamb is loaded with rich flavour from lemon grass, coconut milk and palm sugar.
Ingredients
- 2 lbs lamb shoulder, chopped into bite size
- 2 pcs garlic, minced
- 2 onions, sliced
- 2 tablespoons green curry paste (add more if you like it spicy)
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 1 lbs potatoes, peeled and cut into bite size
- 2 shallots, sliced
- 2 sticks of lemon grass, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons palm sugar
- 1 can (400g) coconut milk
Lemon Chicken
It’s Florence turn to share with us in the Gilmore Park Church community kitchen. She made Lemon Chicken, chicken corn egg soup and stir fried some sweet peppers. The dishes go well with steam rice.
Florence told us that this is the first time she’s making the Lemon Chicken. Nevertheless, the Lemon Chicken turned out great.
The Lemon Chicken dish is colourful and appetizing.
Ingredients
- 4 whole chicken breasts, cut into 2″ pieces and pounded lightly.
- 1/2 cup corn flour
- 3 tablespoons water
- 4 egg yolks
- salt and pepper to taste
- 6 spring onions
- oil for deep frying
Lemon sauce
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 3/4 cups chicken stock (or 2 chicken stock cubes dissolve in 1 3/4 cups water)
- 2 tablespoons corn flour
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon grated ginger
Il pappagallo Caffe – Home of Ultimate Cheesecake
With the recommendation from Stephanie, Polly and I went to Il Pappagllo Caffe at Hastings St and Sperling for our third cake meet. It was quite a long drive from Richmond.
Pappagallo Caffe is a small, cozy caffe with lots of retro posters decorating its walls. The caffe has a good flow of customers.
There are a few cheesecakes to choose from; blueberry, strawberry, caramel, turtles, tiramisu, etc.
Polly went for the turtles cheesecake. It was topped with chocolate, caramel and nuts. It is a very rich tasting cheesecake. The crust is quite thick and crumbly though.
Polly enjoyed her cheesecake with a cup of cappuccino topped with cinnamon powder.
I opted for the strawberry cheesecake for its vibrant color. The tanginess of the strawberry accentuates the cheese flavor. The cheesecake cost only $3.75 per slice and the serving is really big, value for money. The presentation of the cheesecake is rather plain and homey style unlike those served in Trees Organic Coffee and Death By Chocolate.
I had a caffe latte topped with chocolate powder to go with my cheesecake. The drinks cost between $2.50 and $3.00.
Stephanie, thank you for such a great recommendation.
