Archive for July, 2008
How Much Do You Tip?
Well, well, well. Mary Stacy was quite sharp. She noticed that we normally tip in the region of 10% when we eat out. Now that it was brought up, I think it’s a very interesting topic.
We had always thought (and still believe) that Canadians generally tip in the region of 10% to 15%. That is to say that we generally tip 10% and only 15% or more if the service is good. Well, that had always been what we normally do.
We do observe and practice tipping more when we are in the US. I believe the norm is to tip at least 15% and up to 20% and more if the service is good. So, when Mary Stacy mentioned that 10% was low and that I think she’s from Chicago, I am kind of not surprised she mentioned it.
I could be wrong.
So, here is the question for you all … I mean you ALL readers … I mean not just readers from Canada and the US … can you share with me (1) where you are from and (2) how much do you typically tip? Just take a few seconds and respond with a comment.
I will collect all responses and summarize them. It will be very interesting to know, I bet.
Update 18Jul: FYI, here is what I found on wikipedia about tipping in Canada:
Tipping in Canada is similar to that in the United States due to the close cultural nature of the two countries. For example, while tipping for waiters in the United States is 15-20% for good service, waiters in Canada also receive 10-20% for good service.
Whew! It’s good to know we were not so cheap after all. LOL!
Sambal Nasi Lemak
Ben picked up this ready to serve Sambal Nasi Lemak from Smart & Save to try out. We simply love spicy food and nasi lemak (rice cooked with coconut milk) is very simple to prepare.
This package costs around $2 plus and it serves 4 to 6 persons as printed on the package. All you need to do is to heat up the sauce and it’s ready to eat. This sauce is great as condiment for curry laksa and prawn noodle.
The nutritional value indicates the sodium is on the high side which I’m always on the look out. Nowadays, processed food usually has high fat and sodium that one must be aware of. It’s not only the calories that we have to watch out for.
I usually don’t serve the sambal on itself. I will cook the sambal with some caramelize onion which add sweetness and nutrition to the sambal.
The basic condiments for nasi lemak are hard boiled eggs, fried anchovies, roasted peanuts and cucumber slices. You may also serves the nasi lemak with some curry chicken or sambal prawns or squid.
I serve mine with garlic sausage and stir fried cabbage because I’m trying to clear my fridge of any perishable food as my vacation is just a few days away.
The Boss Bakery and Restaurant in Vancouver’s Chinatown
Vancouver’s Chinatown is known as the second largest Chinatowns in North America. Only the one in San Francisco is larger than Vancouver’s. Frankly, it had been on a decline for many years now. We used to go to Chinatown often for food and groceries but no longer. We could get what we wanted and more just about anywhere in Metro Vancouver these days.
Suanne and I decided to take a drive to Chinatown a weekend a few weeks ago. The boys were off doing their air cadet stuff and we had time for our own. We checked out a few places but many of the restaurants really looked very dirty. The one that seems the cleanest is The Boss.
The Boss Bakery and Restaurant is located at the 500 block of Main St. I believe they are the same restaurant as The Boss in Metrotown which I used to blog here. (BTW, the one in Metrotown was closed the last time I pass by a couple of weeks ago … am not sure if they are undergoing renovation).
Don’t be deceived by the picture I took above. It’s just that the angle shows a quite classy restaurant. It is not! It is by no means dirty but rather quite clean for a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown.
They gave a huge menu which they place under a glass top — just like they do in the Metrotown restaurant. I know it’s kind of corny but it’s practical if you ask me. I get seated and there is the menu right in front of me … no need to wait for the server to bring along one.
However, they have a very limited menu for breakfast and I mean very limited. They only have the breakfast menu you see above and congee.
I had the congee which was quite good and has in it three types of meatballs, fish, shrimp and beef. What I like most is the raw ginger they put into this. For $4.75, it’s quite cheap.
Suanne had the Breakfast combo which included quite a lot of dishes … it includes the dinner roll above right down to all the items below! The Boss is principally a bakery and they make great pastries. The dinner roll were fresh out of the oven … soft and smell really good.
Next was the pork chop and eggs. The pork chop was moist and juicy … really nice.
Suanne does not like eggs and so I had hers. Sunny side up is the best if you ask me. Now … for those of you who normally have eggs with ketchup, you MUST try it with white pepper and soya sauce. This beats ketchup 1000 times.
The combo also included a Shredded Chicken with Pasta in Soup. It was quite bland. I am not a fan of these type of pasta in soup … it’s pretty tasteless but I guess it is popular because it’s a chockful of carbohydrates.
And … there’s a cup of beverage too for $1 extra.
The bill is only $11.29. You can’t beat this place for value. When you’re here, check out their Chinese pastries.
The Place on Granville, Vancouver South
LotusRapper (also goes by the name Saabken) recommended this place to us. I tell you … this guy is a real foodie and sure knows his food. The other day, he commented about this place called “The Place” where he claims that they have the best spicy beef noodle soup, we simply had to check it out for ourselves.
The Place is located at about 63rd on Granville in the southern part of Vancouver. It is such a nondescript place that most people would not have noticed it let alone giving it a second glance. But I tell you … it’s a gem of a place.
The Place is a no-frill smallish Chinese restaurant. I don’t know how to categorize it … maybe the best way to describe it is it’s Mainland Chinese restaurant. They serve both Shanghai and Sichuan dishes.
Service is excellent and I like the sweet and polite server which sometimes I find so wanting in many such restaurants. She was so helpful in helping us choose the dishes as we could not read Chinese. Although there were English translations on the menu, it does not do justice to the type of dishes they have.
The Place have very unique dishes and does seem very authentic. The server recommended the Family Hot Pot (Chien Gar Fook in Cantonese). It was great. It is a clear and flavourful broth with lots of stuff in it … fishballs, vermicelli, sliced pork, and suey choy. They also have stuffed bean curd skin and egg wrapped minced pork. This is so good and excellent with rice — a real comfort food.
It came in a large pot that is more than enough for the four of us. Although it’s pricey at $13.25, it is worth it. You should try this.
The second dish recommended was the Boiled Spicy Fish. It is a Sichuan style “Sui Gee Yee” — very, very spicy — very, very nice. It is a big serving of fish filet with bean sprouts. Suanne said that it is too salty for her. I can’t say it’s salty for me as I was just dealing with the heat of this really spicy dish.
This dish costs $13.25. You should order this if you like spicy Sichuan food. It has a thick film of oil which may put some people off.
The Braised Pork Hand came served in a wooden bucket. This is a Shanghainese dish, I believe. The sauce at the bottom of the bucket is sweet and one must never waste this … it is very good with plain rice. It’s so good I could just eat rice with the sweet sauce alone as a meal.
Again, this is not exactly very healthy food. The best part of the meat is the thick fat layer of skin. Yummy.
For $47, including taxes and tips, I find this value for money. There were so much food left over we had them to go — we have enough left over for lunch the next day. BTW, they only accepts cash.
I like The Place and will definitely go back again to check out their other dishes. I know they are not very healthy food but they are really delish. I highly recommend this place. You MUST go.
Fish On Rice on Kingsway, Burnaby
We are beginning to run out of a place to eat in Richmond. Since the boys wanted AYCE (All-You-Can-Eat) Sushi, we took a long drive to Burnaby. There are lots of cheap and decent sushi places along Kingsway at around the Metrotown section. We decided to go to Fish on Rice.
There are actually two Fish On Rice with the other one along Broadway in Vancouver. The Fish On Rice on Kingsway is located on the second floor of 4381 Kingsway. When I suggested Fish On Rice, Nanzaro thought I was pulling his legs. He simply could not believe there’s a sushi place with that name. He expected more Japanese sounding names like Akasuka, Ningkasu, Yokohama, Toyota, Mitsubishi. LOL!
Frankly, I knew of the bad reviews of Fish On Rice particularly the fact that they have bad service. I sort of understand that because they have one of the cheapest AYCE Sushi around town.
The Lunch AYCE is $12 but is $1 extra for weekends. Between the four of us, it costs $60 including tips. We went at about 1PM and knew that there would be a crowd — we just did not know how big the crowd was.
We put in our name to the waiting list and was informed that the wait is 1.5 hours and that we were given at most only 1 hour to eat because they closes lunch at 3PM!! Take it or leave it, they said … no negotiation. I wanted to go for another place but the boys wanted this so much and did not mind waiting. It was easy for them to say — they have their iPods while Suanne and I only have each other to talk to.
We did not have to wait for 1.5 hours really. We got shown our tables only after 30 minutes. I guess a lot of people left their names and then left without waiting.
The interior look quite authentic but I do suspect this is not Japanese owned. Seating were cramped and tables were divided into booths of various size. We wanted so much to get seated by the windows with sunken floors but it was not possible because they are meant for bigger parties.
There are rules here … all AYCEs have rules. Here, you could have either AYCE or ala carte but not on the same table. There is also a 2 hour time limit.
Service was indeed bad. The waitresses walked around with their eyes looking at the floor all the time. They were so afraid of eye contact. We had to literally block their path to get their attention.
Mum, as usual being kiasu one, over ordered. Her reasoning that we only have 1 hour to eat but I know she wants maximum value for the money! For those who don’t know the meaning of the word kiasu, see here. I kid you not … kiasu is a word recognized by Oxford Dictionary.
We all regretted … BIG TIME! There were so much food all that we wanted to puke! I mean, why go through the agony of stuffing yourself silly just because it is AYCE right? Not to mention too … the guilt the next day when we step on the scales and found that we just gained 1 KG in 1 day. We never learn. LOL!
The food was not stellar but was quite OK. Some of them had lots of MSG. We, of course, maximized on our order of sashimi. We were not surprised that they are sliced so thin (they are supposed to be chunkier).
Salmon head and salmon cheek. Suanne digs this stuff. She enjoys picking up the flesh pieces. Too much work for me … too much work for the boys too.
I think the above is the Crispy Chicken Skin … it was some skin but not 101% sure if it was chicken. Nice … we like it. Not healthy, I know but they are absolutely delish.
Oyster Motoyaki is another of Suanne’s favourite. It has too much mayo and too rich for me. Suanne makes this at home and has the recipe here. It’s easy to make … check that out.
There are lots of other pictures we took … click on the link below to see more.
Sunday Morning in Stanley Park
This post had been lying on my draft folder for ages. It must had been 3-4 months already. I am digging up all these old posts which I neglected to blog earlier because, well, I need to stock up on posts before we leave for our 2 week vacation next week. I want to make sure you all have something to read everyday … LOL!
It was a spring weekend when we decided to go to the Stanley Park for a morning walk. It had been ages since we were there.
Of all the urban parks in the world, Stanley Park surely must rank as one of the most beautiful in the world. All visitors to Vancouver MUST make a visit to this park and take a picture of downtown from here. I always tell visitors that their visit is not complete if they did not take a picture from here.
We woke up real early and brought along some Chinese buns to eat at the park. We bought the buns from the Osaka Supermarket the day before. For sheer variety and freshness, not many places can beat Osaka. (Osaka is located in the Yaohan Mall along No 3 Road in Richmond).
Their Pineapple Bun is really good. Known as Bo Lo Bau in Cantonese, this is one of the most popular Cantonese pastry and is available in almost any Cantonese bakery. Suanne makes it at home but had never quite achieved the same level of quality (or even look!) as those we bought from the stores. Here is the recipe for those who are interested.
The one above is good. Osaka called it Cake Roll with Dried Pork. It is a fluffy cake with cream and pork floss. It gives a very delicate balance of sweetness from the cream and a tinge of saltiness from the pork floss.
I still have not quite figured out why white people can’t stand the thought of eating pork floss. LOL! It is one of the best topping and fillings that one can use on almost anything (rice, noodles, pastry, sandwiches or even eaten by itself). One theory is that it looks like fur, while others says that the name, pork floss, is absolutely gross.
Suanne made it once at home … it was a very laborious process. Here is the recipe if you want to know how it is made. We normally buy pork floss from the stores.
Tim Horton’s coffee is our favourite. We like it over Starbucks anytime. We always had the same … “double double”. For those who are not familiar with Tim Hortons, double-double is Timmy Ho speak for two sugar and two cream.
We had a good walk around the park and covered 14 kilometers the whole morning. Enjoy the rest of the pictures we took below.
7th Heaven in Richmond’s Aberdeen Center
I can’t recall which one but there is a Vancouver Food blog that did a review of the 7th Heaven Cafe in Richmond not too long ago. If it was not for that blog (which gave a rather good review), I would not have know it is there.
The 7th Heaven Cafe is basically a HK-Style Cafe. It is located on the first floor of the Aberdeen Mall in Richmond. It is really tucked behind the Northern Delicacy restaurant and one would not know of its existence if not for a banner they put up.
It is definitely a much more cleaner place than most HK-Style Cafe. They apparently allow the rental of the entire place for events during certain days of the week for a minimum charge of $2000 or $3000 … something like that. Our boys like this place simply because they have free wifi here.
Food wise, their menu shows a wide variety. Their Laksa (which they spelt as Larsar on their menu) looked pretty but does not even have a kick to it. They even have sweet corns in it. It looks like Laksa but does not in any way tastes like one. This one is $7.50.
We also order the Curry Lamb. From the looks of it, we knew that it is more of a “curry cream” and devoid of spices — indeed it was. They had two huge piece of lamb though but it was so tough and dry we did not finish it all.
One thing we observed … the dishes looked pretty and nice.
We also had the Hainanese Chicken Rice. The chicken was somewhat skinny. It was nothing to shout about, really.
Ginger and chilli sauce … a must have in any Hainanese Chicken rice.
The Sauteed Clam in White Wine Sauce costs quite a lot. I can’t recall exactly but it could have something like over $20. Again, presentation wise, it was really nice but it is just OK. I would say it is not worth the price.
All in all, we were not impressed with 7th Heaven. The whole place looked great with fun decor. The waiters and waitresses are young and looked quite professional. The dishes looked great. But that is as far as it goes. Frankly, we were quite disappointed. The boys were happy though … they had wifi.
