Author Archive for Ben

Famous Hakka Restaurant in Richmond

We met up with a Christina and Ed for the first time over lunch a few weeks ago.  We got to know them because, like us, they are also food bloggers from Richmond.  We decided to meet up and picked the new Famous Hakka Restaurant.

It turned out that Christina and Ed are real foodies and very knowledgeable about Chinese cuisine.  Christina, in particular, takes food seriously.  She told us that meal times were formal events in her home when she was young.  The family meal is very important and must have at least a meat, a veggie and a soup.  I thought it was quite funny when she told us that she had never had Chinese takeout until she was 12 — and how it was an event for her.  Christina and Ed had a knack for properly describing the food … Suanne and I only describe food we eat with words like yummy, good, delicous … LOL!!

You guys should check out Christina and Ed’s food blog.  It is called “Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken“.  Remember the word “taste” is spelt as “TaZte” — you ask them why.  OK, back to food …

The Famous Hakka Restaurant is located along No 3 Road in the strip mall near the intersection with Cambie.  It had just opened for just a couple of months or so.  Actually, this is our first trip to a Hakka cuisine restaurant and looked forward to learn more about it.

It still being new, the entire place is neat and clean.  With wrap around floor to ceiling windows, it is bright making it perfect for taking pictures.

I really know very little about Hakka cuisine even though I grew up with lots of Hakka friends.  My impression is that Hakka food is simple, has little garnishing and emphasises on the main ingredient.  If it is chicken, all you see and taste is chicken … they normally don’t add stuff like cucumbers, leafy veggies and such.  Is my perception correct?

We left the ordering to Christina and Ed.  For tea, they ordered the Gook Far Char (Chrysanthemum Tea).  Gosh … for all my life I did not know that Gook Far Char and Gook Bow Char are different.  I thought they are the same.  I learned something new today.  I had been playing around the idea of doing some research on Chinese tea and making a series out of it.   He he he … that will certainly make you all cry foul worse than my tedious travel series!  But seriously, I think that would be great for the Google Search Engine and will bring even more traffic to this site.

So, since this is supposed to be a formal meal and according to Christina a formal meal MUST have soup, we ordered soup.  We had the Pork Stomach with Salted Veggie and Peppercorn Soup.  They have a large ($13.95) or regular ($8.95) servings.  We ordered the large one.  I like pig stomach … and love the chewy texture especially.

We also had the ($11.95) Hakka Style Stuffed Tofu Hotpot.  This reminded me so much of the popular Yong Tau Foo in Malaysia.  I think they are the same.  The stuffing should be made of fish and pork but am not absolutely sure.

The Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Vegetables ($11.95) would turn a lot of people off because of the fatty pork meat.  But we love it.  It is simply delicious especially with steamed rice.  This dish must be made only with pork belly … if anyone try to make it with lean meat, it is not Mui Choy Kow Yook anymore.  The most important thing here is the texture.  Suanne makes this at home … see her recipe here.

We ordered half of a Baked Chicken with Spiced Salt.  The half chicken costs $11.95, while the whole chicken is $22.95.  See how they serve the chicken?  All chicken had heads right?  And so, they must also serve the head.  I did not notice if anyone ate the chicken head but am pretty sure Suanne would not.  So … Christina and Ed, did you guys eat the head?

The chicken is a bit boney but otherwise … well … delicious.  Christina and Ed would be able to describe this dish better.

The total bill came to just under $60.  For four adults and two growing teenagers, it was not bad.  We enjoyed the meal, learned quite a bit but most of all, we enjoyed the company.

Popularity: 70% [?]

Rose Garden Seafood Restaurant on Kingsway, Vancouver

Even though we live in Richmond for many years our weekends revolves around the Metrotown area.  We used to attend the church near Metrotown.  Also, we forced our boys to attend Chinese language classes during Saturdays.  So, for the longest time, we had our weekend lunch outings near the area.  Those were the days before chowtimes.

One of the places we frequented was the Rose Garden.  We absolutely loved their delicious comfort food, huge servings and especially their low prices.  Our boys were very young that we just ordered two dishes for less than $15 and that was enough to feed the whole family.  Those were the days.

It must have been 4-5 years since we last stepped into this place.  It looked every bit the same — even the waitress was still the same but a bit more plum.  They used to know us quite well because we almost always ordered the same stuff.  But this time, we were like strangers to them.  The place still looked the same.

This time we noticed that the plates and cups were quite faded.  It shows their age.  I am not sure how long they had been in business but I guess they had been quite a fixture on this part of Kingsway.

I guess many of you know that restaurants come and go.  There is a saying that of all newly opened restaurants, 80% of them will close within a year.  And within the second year, another 80% of those who survived the first year will fold.  It is those that manage to survive the second year who will thrive for one reason or another.  The Rose Garden is one of those who I know will thrive.

They have a varied menu.  If you want westernised food like chow mein, they have it.  If you want something more authentic Chinese, they have it too.

We choose from their Family Combo.  Their “3-item” option costs $36 which includes soup, steamed rice and dessert.  If you more people, they provide free dishes too.  We wanted so much to order the 4 items but with the additional 1 free dish, it would have been way too much for the four of us.  Someday, I’ll round up a few foodies and tackle their 8 items.

The free soup was respectable — tasty and have enough meat and most of all, does not have much hint of MSG.  We like clear soup like this.

The eggplant was quite fresh and moist with juice.  It delivers an enormous amount of flavor despite the simplicity.  This is something we like with rice or just by itself.

The seafood and tofu hotpot was filled to the brim.  Imagine this is meant for one person but let me tell you there are more than enough for two adults.  They have big fresh tasting prawns.  I can have this everyday.  Does anyone know how to make this?  Is it just a simple matter of dumping all the ingredients into a hotpot and cook away?

The Chicken was awesome.  The skin were crispy and the lean white meat had a right touch of dryness.  You don’t want this too oily as the big deal is to have the white meat soak up a little the sweet soya sauce.  Hmm … nice.

The free dessert is red bean soup.

Rose Garden is located on across from Safeway on Kingsway.  I don’t have the address but it is on the Vancouver side just a little past west of Boundary.  We like Rose Garden and I think you will like it too.

Popularity: 68% [?]

Imperial Court Beijing and Szechuan Cuisine in Richmond

We went to the Imperial Court Restaurant for breakfast more than two months ago.  Although we know of Imperial Court, we had never been inside simply because it looked expensive from the outside.  To us, it is expensive when they have “captains” (chief waiters) in black vests, have tablecloth and expensive chairs.

It sure does look like an above average Chinese restaurant, don’t you think?  Well, it does to us.  Because of our limited use of the Chinese language, we are somewhat intimidated and uneasy in these kind of places.

As usual, the boys asked for water (they don’t like Chinese tea).  Even then the water came in a nice looking glass.  We like little touches like this.

We went to the Imperial Court only because of the ad they put up in the Richmond area papers.  They had special discounts then for dim sum between 8AM to 11AM.  I don’t think they have the discounts now.  So don’t just go there now and say that chowtimes said they are suppose to give 25% discounts for dim sum, OK?

Back then they have a Peking Duck special for just $10.80.  Anyone have any idea how much would a whole duck normally cost?  The last time we had Peking Duck was … oh … 12 years ago in HK!!

The Imperial Court is located in the strip mall right across from Richmond Center on No 3 Road.  Their address is #6-6360 on No 3.

This is not a push cart dim sum place.  You place your order on the order form.  We prefer push cart types as we can see what it is we are ordering.  It is hard for us trying to figure out the English descriptions.  Most of the dim sums are below $3 which is inexpensive for a place like this.  Their most expensive ones are those with shrimps which even that is below $5.

For this post, I would like to get the reactions from the non-Chinese readers of chowtimes.  You see, I had often brought my non-Chinese friends to dim sum but more often than not, I get a lot of reactions to the food — mostly of uncertainty over the content of it.  Here goes … my impressions of non-Chinese’s impression of Dim Sum.

Siew Mai ($2.96), I find is the one that is a favourite among non-Chinese.  Anything that has lots of meat (especially beef and pork) is a favourite to non-Chinese.  But I sometimes got to explain what the orangey stuff is on the top!

Deep Fried Roll ($2.96) is another favourite with non-Chinese.  Maybe it is because of the easy to remember name and that it is quite westernised by now.  We would not have ordered this if not for Arkensen wanted this.

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling ($2.96) is also a common dim sum choice that I notice non-Chinese gobble down very fast!  Normally, the Chinese would just order one serving of this but when I am with my non-Chinese friends, we ended up ordering more.

The looks of the thing above puts off a lot of my non-Chinese friends.  I guess they must be thinking … now … why would anyone wrap their food with a rotten piece of leaf?!?  Many of these friends, does not touch it … not even with their chopsticks.

The lotus leaf warp aside, they are great.  In it is sticky rice ($4.50) … if they served it unwrapped, it looks a lot more appetizing.  I also think that to non-Chinese, aside from sushi, rice are not supposed to be sticky … i.e. sticky is yucky.

But frankly, to the Chinese, it is low class sticky rice if it is not wrapped in lotus leaf.  The lotus leaf actually imparts some flavour to the rice.

I get mixed reaction from Steam Rice Roll.  The one above is with Shrimp ($4.50) which is acceptable to most non-Chinese because, well, they can see the shrimp in it.  But I don’t think it is a favourite because it is tasteless besides the shrimp.  But that is not the point … you MUST have this with the soya sauce.

I once was asked … then why they not pour the soya sauce in it before it is served.  My answer?  “Just because …”

The one above is also Steam Rice Roll but with Pork Liver ($2.96).  It looks like beef at a glance.  If I tell my friends it is beef, they will eat it but would probably have thought that the texture was kind of … different.  But when I let them know it is pork liver … eeww.

The Baked B.B.Q Pork Bun ($2.96) from the Imperial Court is quite unique.  They are extremely glossy and also really beautiful if you ask me.  They apply a thick layer of syrup on the bun and make it very very sticky.  This one you must try in Imperial Court.  I always describe this as the Chinese version of burgers.

The Spicy Shrimp Dumpling ($4.50) is not the normal dim sum dish, I believe.  I think they have this because of their Szechuan background.  Dim Sum are from south China (HK mostly) and are somewhat bland in taste.  So, having such strong spicy dim sum is a good idea.  I don’t think many non-Chinese would appreciate this because of the spiciness.

The Beef Ribs with Garlic ($2.96) was quite OK.  This would have been great with steam rice.

The Imperial Court have other choices too other than Dim Sum but they only serve this in late mornings.  Looking at the prices, they are quite OK … just a tad more higher than other Chinese restaurants.  But then this is not like any other Chinese restaurant.

They have a “Patrons” charge of $3.20 which I think is for the Chinese tea.   Total bill with tips came to $40.  No bad … not bad at all.

It was one of the better dim sums we had.

Popularity: 78% [?]

Sushi Platter from Matsuyama in Richmond

I don’t know what to say.  This summer had just gone past so fast.  This morning I was reminded that summer is coming to an end and this weekend is as good as it gets for the rest of it.  So, for a change we decided to just go out to the park for lunch.

The boys had been hankering me to get the Matsuyama Party Platter which we did not manage to do all these while because they wanted an hour advance notice to prepare them.  We called the moment they are opened (at 11AM) and placed our order.  Guess what, they told me over the phone that they only needed 15-20 minutes.  I guess it’s because it’s early enough that they did not need the 1 hour advance notice.

We had blogged about Matsuyama before here.  This place had turned out to be our favourite sushi place in Richmond.  By the time we got there as the appointed time to pick it up, it was all ready.

BTW, a question … you don’t leave a tip do you when you go pick up your food from the restaurant on your own, do you?  And another question … if they deliver to your house, how much do you tip the deliverer?  A percentage of the tab or a fixed amount.

They came packed nicely in a round plastic platter.  For a moment, I thought they might even give it to us in a few separate Styrofoam containers like some sushi places do.  I like this better because it looks nicer.  The soya sauce was included in separate containers rather than sachets.

We brought it to the South Arm Park.  On a nice day like this, this place is always packed with picnickers.  We love this park more than anyone else in Richmond because it is well maintained, large and most important it is very shaded.

The boys were quite impatient to dig in but they know the protocol in the family … pictures first before they can touch the food.  Sigh … such is the life of a food blogger.  :-)

This is a 54 piece platter.  Although it works out to a lot of pieces shared between just the four of us, I know the boys will finish it all off.  They will eat anything except for (1) anything that has cucumber in it, and (2) it is not contaminated by the wasabi.  Anything that is 1/2 inch from the wasabi is pretty much left to Suanne and I to eat.

Suanne and I were not fans of wasabi ourselves.  We always leave it untouched.  However, we like the ginger, especially Suanne.

This above must be what they call the House Roll.  It is quite big and filled with stuff like salmon, tuna, avacado, imitation crab meat, eggs, cucumber and salmon roe.  Or at least I think that’s what it contains.

The California Roll is the favourite of the boys.  It almost always contains only imitation crab meat, avacado and sometimes cucumber.  This is not Japanese having been invented in Los Angeles where avocado is first used as an ingredient.

On the home front, we have the BC Roll.  I don’t know the history behind the BC Roll but I reckon it must have been invented here in Vancouver.  The unique ingredient here is the grilled salmon skin which gives it an oily taste.  Could it have been invented by Vancouver’s Tojo?

The surf clam is quite unique in that we don’t see a lot of this in average sushi outlet.

Popularity: 79% [?]

Pennsylvania: Hershey’s Chocolate World

Since we were around the ‘hood, we included a trip to Hershey … Hershey, Pennsylvania.  Hershey is the home of Hershey.  It is also known as “The Sweetest Place on Earth”.

Hershey, Pennsylvania was not always known as Hershey.  It has another name (can’t remember) but was renamed as Hershey when the town became well known for the chocolate it makes.

Everywhere you go, you see the name Hershey.  There is always something named after Hershey, ad nauseum.  There are stadiums, library, homes, schools, parks, and what nots all named after Hershey.  Even the street lamps are in the form of Hershey Kisses!  Some of the street lamps are wrapped Kisses, while some are unwrapped like the one you see above.

Tourism is as big as chocolates here in Hershey.  There were unbelievable number of people who visits Hershey everyday.  I am quite surprised.  The infrastructure (road, car parks, etc) they have around the Hershey’s Chocolate World rivals that of Disneyland (but of course not as many visitors).

Our first stop is at the Heyshey’s Chocolate World.  They have a number of attractions and from a glance they looked quite interesting but frankly, we were quite disappointed.  Clearly, the attractions are geared towards the kids below the age of ten.  I know our boys, now barely into their teens, would have been bored to death here.

We booked ourselves a Trolley Tour which took us around the Hershey town.  I really got bored barely five minutes into the tour.  It’s like every other sentence they uttered the word “Hershey” in it.  I think they oversold the Hershey name.  The only best part is when they passed around sample of Hershey Kisses.

Believe it or not, they made everyone do a singalong on the trolley tour.  Gosh … You are my sunshine?  Bicycle built for two?

At least they have a theme park with some wild looking rides.  We only got to see it from the outside.  That will appeal to my boys.

They brought us around to see the chocolate factory, again from the outside.  This is reputed touted as the largest chocolate factory in the world.  They don’t conduct factory tours here anymore, to our disappointment.

Instead, we had to ride the kiddie rides which brought us round to see singing cows and childish fake manufacturing line.

Do you know which is Hershey’s top selling brands?  It’s Kisses, Reese’s and of course the Hershey Bar.

At least we have been there.  I think Hershey Chocolate World is over-rated.  We could not resist getting some chocolates though … but they melted in the car by the time we got to Philadelphia.

Alrighty … am going to take a breather on this travel series and move on to restaurant reviews starting tomorrow.  (Was that claps I hear now?)  :-)

Popularity: 62% [?]

Lancaster: Plain and Fancy Farm Feast and Amish Experience

Part of our itinerary is to make a stop at the an Amish area on the way to Philadelphia.  Ever since I watched the movie Witness, the one that Harrison Ford starred in, I was quite amazed with the Amish way of life.  It just so happen that somewhere in between Washington DC and Philadelphia lies the largest Amish community in North America.  That place is called Lancaster and this is the place where the movie Witness was shot.

Our stop is primarily at a famous farm called the Plain and Fancy Farm.  There is another farm called “Good and Plenty” but we choose this one.  This place is located somewhere between two little towns called … believe it or not … Intercourse and Bird-In-Hand.  Weird name for towns, I know.  Can anyone guess why the town is called Intercourse?  No dirty ideas please!

There are two things we wanted to do here … have a good old Amish feast and take a tour of the area and learn more about the Amish way of life.

The Plain and Fancy Farm is a small complex of everything Amish.  Besides the restaurant, this is where you can book a bus tour which brings you to various areas in the nearby Amish community.  One thing I learned here … despite the simple lifestyle, there are a lot of Amish millionaires here!  So, don’t think that these people are simpletons.

We opted for their Rolls Royce meal … the all you can eat Family Feast.

If there is anything that the Amish does extremely well, it is their food.  Not only are they very very good, they sure serve lots and lots of it.  We got seated on a long table which we thought was a bit odd since there were only the two of us.  The table setting is unique where they have a little bench thingy right in the middle.  You know what it is for?  Well, they serve so much food on the table that this is their way to stack the plate high.

Service was exceptional and so downright genuine.  I already like the Amish because they were so polite and so patient with us with our questions.

The drinks we ordered was just lemonade and sweetened ice tea.

The feast was delivered in three separate courses … the appetizer, the entree and dessert.  Make sure that when you start off with the appetizer that this is just the appetizer … the main meal is yet to come!

First appetizer was the iced raisin bread.  We love the icing and the freshness of the bread.

Then there is the rolls with apple butter.  We just discovered apple butter the day prior.  The bread smell like its just been taken out of the oven.  Warm to the touch, this is perfect.  For me, this itself could make a meal.

Ever heard of chow-chow?  No, not the dog.  Called chow-chow, the above is a common relish in this part if the world and is made of a few vegetables.  I love cauliflower but Suanne rarely makes it at home as she claims that it has no nutritional value.

Oh … here is a childhood joke about cauliflower I still remember from my teen days.  It goes like this … Boy to girl … “Hey, you look very good”.  Girl, blushing, asked “Oh really?  Why did you say so?”.  Boy replied, “It is because you are pretty … pretty like a flower”.  Girl shyly asked, “Really? What type of flower?”.  Boy answered … “cauliflower!”.

Was that funny or lame?  LOL!

There is this thing above … am not sure what this is called.  It’s cabbage with mayo … very much like coleslaw.  Nice, we like it.

After this we loosened our belts one notch to tackle the entree.

Their fried chicken was awesome.  The skin is crispy and the meat inside moist.  Simply one of the best fried chicken we ever had.

The chicken pot pie is nothing short of amazing.  I never quite cared for anything named pie but this one was like wow.  It resembles nothing like a pie though.

The roast beef was almost perfect.  Being a meat eater, I had two servings of the above.

At this point, I was just wondering if there will ever be just one dish that is just OK.  Nope … the mash potato is not just OK, it was more than OK.

The sausage is large.  It looked mean for sure but for some reason, we are not a huge fan of sausages.

The steamed baby carrots were tender and soft with a hint of sweetness.  Nice.

I believe this is called the grind corn.  Never tried it before but I love this.  I bet this is easy to make at home … I started to suggest to Suanne to research this on the net … she gave me the evil stare … I immediately looked down on my food like I had never suggested it at all.

The bow tie pasta was darn simple — just butter and pasta.  Now, that would have been easy to make at home too but I better shut up and eat.  This reminded me that nice food need not be complicated.

And finally came the dessert.  This is when we loosen another notch in our belts.

The famous Shoofly Pie … it made of molasses, brown sugar and cinnamon.  Know why this is called Shoofly?  Oh … whipped cream … this is not the real deal if you don’t have lots of it.

And the other dessert is the Apple Sour Cream with Caramel.  My life would be complete if I have this at home everyday … but then to think of it, my life would end the instant I dare to express this to you-know-who.  LOL!

Last but not least … homemade ice cream.  That’s it and thank goodness.  If there are more food, we would need to remove our belts because there are no more notches to loosen.

Damage was about $40 buck.  We left happy and for a fleeting moment, I wished I am an Amish.  Where do I sign up?

And now … ladies and gentlemen … Ben goes into his tirade of his travel series again … BUT … BUT … he is doing it hidden in the next page.  If you care to read of it, click on read more below.

Popularity: 85% [?]