All Entries in the "Asian" Category
Lao Shan Dong Homemade Noodle House in Burnaby
As strange as it may seem but Lao Shan Dong is one of my fav eating spots but had never ever gotten to blogging about it. This is despite also the fact that it is located within a 3 minutes walk from my office.
Lao Shan Dong is located at the busy intersection of Kingsway and Nelson in Burnaby. The location is less than desired, I reckon. You see, the restaurant is snucked into a recessed area of a principally an office building.
The looks of this place is just like any ordinary Taiwanese noodle house. It is small with tables all packed that makes it sometimes impossible to navigate through. But despite that Lao Shan Dong is steeped in history. Apparently this Lao Shan Dong is a branch of the legendary Taipei restaurant which dates all the way back 60 years. The original Lao Shan Dong was opened in 1949.
I finally brought the whole family to eat here. It is a long drive from Richmond which we do not normally do anymore. OK, I work around here but driving that distance to work and driving to eat is a different thing altogether.
This restaurant is always busy but I had never had to wait for long even at the busiest of times. They turn the tables very fast. Frankly, this place seems very much like a fast food joint. People come in, order, eat and go.
For starters, we had the House Special Cold Meat Combination. They have it in two servings … large for $8.95 and small for $6.95. We had the large one. It consists mainly of Pig Ear and Beef (?) slices. It was good except that we find the sauce a little too thick and salty. If they had diluted it a bit, it would be just perfect. Read More
Tri-ty Cafe in Richmond
It seems like we Richmondites living south of the City Hall are second class citizens. Until TODAY, the side streets are still a mess … it is passable but we still have our four lane street relegated to a single lane. Despite the warmer air the past two days, the hard packed snow is not really melting at all.
Anyway, we ventured out again for lunch. We wanted to go to Top Shanghai but it was absolutely packed. So, instead, we pop over the new place next door. It’s called Tri-ty Cafe … odd name but it looked good.
Tri-ty is located on the strip mall on Akroyd and No 3 Road. It’s on the side where Safe-On-Food is. Parking was madness that day because of all the snow piles taking up a lot of the parking bays. To add to the madness, everyone is taking the advantage of the break in the weather to venture out.
You know the reason behind the Tri-ty name. Well, it is QualiTY, QuantiTY and TasTY!
Actually, Tri-Ty is a hip place that caters mainly for the younger crowd. The decor has really clean lines but not spotlessly clean. It seems like a great place to hang out for youngsters because they pasted a cheap looking sign that says something like you gotta spend a minimum of $3 to hangout here … something like that. I thought that the sign kind of cheapens the place!
From the looks of it, this seems like a Taiwanese style restaurant.
What I like about this place is that a lot of thought outside-the-box in placed on the little details. They even have one of those fadish electronic picture frames which flashes the delicious looking food and drinks. I think it is an awesome idea. We couldn’t help but kept on looking for what is shown next. I bet this draws a few extra orders … it is like a more modern version of “would you like fries with that?”.
I have seen chopstick stands quite commonly but the one above beats the rest. It is both a soup spoon and a chopstick stand. Pretty neat. I wonder where I could find one of these.
For appetizers, we ordered the Marinated Intestines because I know my boys had taken to a liking of this. The intestines were served warm which contrasted very nicely with the cold sourish pickled cabbage. It came with two types of sauces too (also one hot and one cold). We expected the texture to be chewy but instead it is soft. It is simply good. $4.50. Read More
Tai Hing Congee and Noodle House in Richmond
It snowed the night before. It was one of those mornings, you know. The air was chilly and we all wanted more than just cereals for breakfast. We wanted something warm, hot and I could see Suanne hinting under her breath that she wanted to not make breakfast that morning. She does it ever so subtly … like commenting there are not enough eggs for everyone and that we are down to only two Costco croissants. LOL!
The boys were too lazy to go out and so was I. The main problem was not so much as the drive and all … it is because we gotta brush our teeth, take a bath and put on going-out clothes. That is Suanne’s rules. It is like a formal event or something. Before we go out, Suanne will insist we all must, at the minimum, take a bath, brush our teeth, comb our hair and put on street cloths. This time she compromised … she allowed us to go out “as is” as long as she does not have to make breakfast. Deal … we said!
So we all gingerly rescued our yesterdays clothing from the laundry basket and pull it over our head (after taking a quick whiff it is humanly acceptable). We quickly combed our hair using our fingers and made sure we zipped our mouth unless absolutely necessary during the short drive. Suanne, being the ever so prim and proper, went through the rituals. She kept very quiet during the drive because I can see that she was beginning to turn blue from holding her breadth. It was not that bad, really … and it’s all in her mind, we told her. We assured mum that once we take our first bite, the smell will theoretically dissipate.
We knew about this place called Tai Hing. It is very well known for being cheap and no frills kind of a breakfast place. This is exactly the type of place where 73% of the people comes in without combing their hair.
Tai Hing was absolutely full that morning, and I assume like every morning too from the looks of it. Some people had to wait for a table outside the restaurant in the frigid weather. They are highly popular because of one thing … their food is simple and their prices cheap. OK, that is two things. Read More
Cafe D’Lite on West Broadway
How was it? How did you like all the snow the past week? LOL!
I’ve never seen so much snow falling in the Vancouver area for as along as I can remember.
To think of it, it all came even before the official start of winter. Here in Richmond we had almost 2 feet of snow in all. Try walking in the snow and the snow will reach up to your knee.
There is this something about snow … it’s mesmerizing to watch it falling. While it is still powdery and fresh, it’s beautiful until it starts to turn in a slushy mess … or …
… you try to drive out to the streets. The city of Richmond did not bother to plow the side road until the day of Christmas which made it quite a challenge to get to the main streets. I think the worse is over now because yesterday many parts had turned into puddles of water. Suanne and I ventured out on an errand Vancouver downtown and ended up having lunch out.
We went to one Malaysian restaurant we had always heard about but never tried before. As a matter of fact, Cafe D’Lite has been on our To-Visit list the past three years or so. It’s just because it was really out of the way for us. Cafe D’Lite located in 3144 West Broadway. Actually it is just next door to the famous Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry. Read More
Pho Queen Restaurant in Richmond
It had been abnormally cold the past week or so here in Vancouver. It’s kind of unbelievable that we have temperatures below the freezing point even in high afternoon. The sun was shining ever so brightly but as soon as you step out doors, you just feel the chill right down into the bones.
The boys were away at their friends which leaves Suanne and I alone again. It’s a blessing that we have more time to our own but then again, we know that as the boys gets older, they will spend lesser and lesser time with us. Eating out together is what I had always enjoyed.
Suanne and I had nothing much in mind. Weekend after weekend, we normally do not know what we wanted to eat. When it is time to eat, we just jump into the car and drive. We decided to drive to the Union Square, a strip mall with lots of Chinese restaurants along Capstan Way. Since it was so cold, we actually were thinking of either pho or hot pot. We decided to check out the Pho Queen.
Pho Queen had just opened because I recall this place used to be a Chinese restaurant. Pho Queen is perhaps the classiest Vietnamese restaurant around because they have a chandelier in the middle of the dining room. The restaurant is roomy and spacious because obviously this used to be a large Chinese restaurant. Even the tables are the expensive marble ones.
Their menu had a lot more varieties than the usual pho places. Despite the name Pho Queen, their menu is dominated by the non-pho stuff. The pricing is very reasonable with a large bowl of pho at $6.50 to $7.00. They even have Cambodian dishes.
I had scanned their take-out menu into PDF here if you want to check out it out.
I had the Egg Yolk Condensed Milk with Soda on Ice. How does that sound to you? What a weird combination right? This one is $3.00. It does seem to me it is blended although I am not sure exactly how this is prepared. It just tastes like a very rich but fizzy milk to me. Read More
Szechuan Harvest Moon Cuisine in Richmond
We went out again for a weekend dine out with ET and Christina from doesnttaztelikechicken.com. It was our turn to chose a location. We opted for one of the recommendations from a chowtimes reader.
Marc recommended Szechuan Harvest Moon Cuisine located on No 3 Rd at the strip mall where Hon’s is. Actually Harvest Moon is located in one of our favourite restaurants called Evergreen Garden which had recently closed down. What a waste … Evergreen had great dinner combo specials.
From the outside, the decorations looked really garish. With the red lantern and red faux banners in the door, it looked really like a Chinese wedding ceremony is happening here. Frankly, if I were them, I would re-design the entire entrance. If not for the recommendation from Marc, we would have missed giving them a try.
The inside of the restaurant is something else though. The place was clean and neat with real tablecloth. What we noticed mostly was the red seat covers which we felt lent an air of sophistication to the place. Real nice.
According to Marc, the Szechuan Harvest Moon Cuisine is an off-shoot from the Golden Szechuan Restaurant. It is opened by Danny, who used to be the restaurant manager of Golden Szechuan. It was strange, we felt, when Marc mentioned Danny’s name like he knows him. Well, we soon found out why … apparently, Danny knows everyone! When we got there, Danny greeted us like he had known us for years!
Anyway, Danny told us that although he is from Hongkong, he insisted that the chef is from Szechuan. We asked him about Szechuan cuisine and he seems to have an answer to everything.
We were there early and so while waiting for ET and Christina, Danny suggested that we get a bowl of Dan Dan Noodle to share first. We fondly remembered our $1.99 Dan Dan Noodle and thought why not try it here and compare. This one is $5.99 though but at least they have ground pork unlike the $1.99 version we had which is just noodles. Also, this one tastes different in that it is spicy and lightly sour and does not have sesame oil. According to Danny, this is authentic Szechuan Dan Dan Noodles.
A little trivia for non-Chinese. In some higher-end Chinese restaurants, they provide “communal chopsticks”. They are generally darker in color from the rest of the chopsticks. This is what you use to pick the food from the dishes to your bowl. Since we were dining with ET and Christina, we play along and use the communal chopstick … otherwise, when my family were dining on our own, we all just dig in.
Also, better Chinese establishments will provide you two pots … one for the tea and another for hot water to fill the tea pot when it is running low.
Danny came by and gave us a complimentary sample of what he calls the Salty Vegetable. It was good for vetting our appetite but it was so little.
Danny talked us into getting their crab. It was the name — Cold Pot Crab — we would not have gotten it. And no … the above is NOT the way it was served. They came by the table to show us it is a live crab they are serving us, all 2.8 lb of it.
Au Petit on Main Street and 33rd, Vancouver
I had always heard so much about Au Petit … about how popular it is but we had never been there nor did we know where it was. All we know was that Au Petit is a Vietnamese restaurant. We met up with Angie’s family again for a weekend lunch.
As many of you already know, Angie is the person behind Sea Salt With Food. Sea Salt With Food specializes in home cooking recipes. What is amazing with her site is that all the recipes were her own cooking … and she blogs everyday. Moreover, she told us that she tries to make her home cooked food better than what she comes across outside. I was just thinking how lucky her family is having such variety of home cooked food everyday.
The Au Petit cafe is located on Main Street and 33rd St in Vancouver. From the outside, it does not really look like what I had imagined it to be. It was somewhat more old and rundown than I had expected.
The place is really small, befitting its name. Despite its looks, it is undoubtedly a very popular restaurant with a lot of customers, many of them taking out. There was once I heard the owner saying at the top his voice that he needed people to order one at a time when there were a few customers milling around the counter trying to place their take out order all at once! BTW, FYI, the owners are Cantonese speakers.
As much as we wanted to spend a lot of time enjoying the meal, we realize that this is not a place where you hang out after a meal. We do feel rushed, not because the owners rushed us but the sheer turn around of the tables and the many take out customers.
We soon realize why this place is so popular. There are nothing on the menu that costs more than $7.50.
I had the Dark French Iced Coffee With Condensed Milk. It was a much smaller cup that I am used to in other Vietnamese joint — much smaller but much better. They made it very thick and what I like best is it is rather bitter’ish too. $3.15.
The other drinks we ordered was the Ice Soda with Lime. $2.50.
And the Iced Tea was $2.
Their Vietnamese Shredded Pork Salad Rolls is highly recommended. It has a very fresh crunchy vegetables and particularly great dipped in the fish sauce. What we like most was the strong basil flavour. It was $6.25 and came in two rolls.
I believe their specialty is not the Pho but their fresh French Bread. They had it mentioned on their signboard and most tables had them too. It was indeed the best such bread we had ever tasted. It is very light but the amazing part is the crust which is thin and crumbly. It does make a mess breaking the bread. You gotta try their French Bread.
The bread actually came together with the Curry Beef Stew ($7.50). This dish quite OK (not great) with lots of firm beef cubes and tendon with carrots which is the saving grace. We wished that the beef stew is made hot and a bit more thicker.
The above is excellent. It’s called the French Bread Sub with Home Made Ham, House Meat Ball, Vegetable and Hot Pepper … and it is only $4.50. Be warned that the hot peppers are deceptively hot. If you like hot stuff, you will like this. It’s messy eating this because I ended up with lots of crumbs all over the table and my lap. If you want to order just one thing in Au Petit, you should try this.
Angie had the BBQ Lemongrass Boneless Chicken with Vegetables. This is served on rice noodles and fish sauce. The BBQ Chicken looked really good and they are quite generous with the amount of chicken meat on this dish. $7.50.
Nanzaro had the Assorted Seafood Rice Noodle in Soup ($7.50). I find this a pretty respectable seafood noodle soup because of the number of seafood items in there.
Arkensen and Justin had Pho. A large one costs $6.75. Arkensen gave a thumbs up for this. I find that it has quite a bit of MSG. Also, they did not serve pho with fresh basil and chili. Maybe they forgot about it. It does look pretty unexciting to me.
The bill came up to about $70 including tax and tips. They accept only cash, BTW. We wished we had a lot more time here but overall the meal was good. I think they have one of the best Vietnamese subs around … all thanks to their bread which made the world of difference. And don’t forget their awesome pork salad roll too.
