All Entries in the "Cantonese/Southern" Category
Finally, Got to try [CRA 2010 Signature Dish]
Lamb Hotpot 羊腩煲
from Excelsior Restaurant, Richmond
When we came to Excelsior last year in July to try their CRA award wining dish, lamb hotpot, we were disappointed because we were told that they only serve that dish in winter.
So, in this winter, I make sure that I come to Excelsior to try the Bamboo Lamb Hotpot. I came with Lorna to celebrate her belated birthday. Lorna told me that Excelsior has been around for a long time, more than 20 years. Lorna is an old timer here. She’s been here for more than 30 years.
We arrived just before 12pm on a week day. It was not busy at that time but customers started to trickle in soon. Most were middle aged customers. I guess they are all loyal customers who have been patronizing this restaurant. At the far end where the cashier is, you can see the CRA award being hang on the wall.
There are lunch combos range from $6 to below $10 being served during lunch hour. You can click on the menu to have a larger view. We already know what we want, so we just ignored the lunch combo menu.
The Lamb Hotpot was written on a board on the wall. I noticed that the price has gone up since last year. When we visited last year, the menu price was $18.80 but now it was $23.88. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Kalok Seafood Restaurant in Union Square, Richmond
Polly and I met up for dim sum. Polly also invited her friend, Di to join us. Di is kind of on vacation here for a month to experience the winter in Vancouver.
We went to Kalok Seafood Restaurant at Capstan Way, Richmond. I had blogged about this restaurant in the summer of 2010. The English name was Gala at that time. Then this restaurant had a change of hand and became Jubilee Chinese Restaurant which tried to make it a 24 hour restaurant. I guessed it did not last. The lady who served us seemed to be the owner of the original Gala restaurant and told us she had to give up Gala due to her serious illness. She is back now and Kalok is back in business for about 4 months. The English name is the direct Cantonese translation of the Chinese name.
The restaurant is busy at noon even on a Monday. Parking is a bit of challenge here. Di and I went in to get a table first while Polly drove around to look for parking.
Prices range from $3.80 to $7.45. There is a 25% discount from 9:00am to 11:00am and 20% discount from 11:00am to 3:00pm. You can click on the menu above to have a larger view. The one on the right is their kitchen special.
One good thing is tea is free here. Most dim sum restaurants charge $1 per person.
We ordered 7 items to share. Some of our initial orders are not available yet as the server told us that those are new items and not ready yet.
We started off with an order of Durian Pastry for $5.25. Polly and I love durian and we always order anything with durian. The pastry is kind of… More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Dragon View Chinese Cuisine in Continental Plaza, Richmond
Lorna invited me and Emily S for dim sum. Emily brought her hubby along as he has just arrived from China for a vacation with Emily to Bermuda.
I suggested to go to Dragon View Chinese Cuisine in Continental Plaza since I have not blog about it before.
Like most dim sum place, this is nicely decorated with a large center piece chandelier. We were there at 10:30 AM and it’s not too busy.
Dragon View Chinese Cuisine was called Wah Wing before the change of name. Even the napkin still bears the Wah Wing Restaurant Group name. Anyone has any idea for the name change?
You may click on the menu to have a larger view. The dim sum here ranges from $3.25 for S to $8.80 for D. Other more expensive sharing dishes like noodles, congee and rice ranges from $7.80 to $16.80. Oh!, they charge $3 for XO sauce which we did not order.
For week day, if you settle the bill before 12PM, there is a 20% discount for the dim sum items.
We ordered 7 items to share among the four of us. Emily and hubby let Lorna and me to do the ordering. They just want to relax and enjoy the meal. I want that too!
The first item was Deep Fried Lotus Roots Cakes. The above medium size dim sum is $4.19. They were quite meaty and has a crunch to it.
The above Deep Fried Fish Paste wrapped with Rice Rolls was Emily’s hubby’s favourite. It was categorized under P which priced at $4.99. It was a big serving. It is like ‘Jar Leong’ … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Cattle Hot Pot Restaurant in Alexandra Road, Richmond
It’s another weekend dining out with my kids. This time, Arkensen refused to come out with us. So, it’s just Nanzaro and me.
We went to Cattle Hot Pot Restaurant on Alexandra Road. It was empty when we were there just before noon. At that time, there was a wait line in Kam Do Restaurant and Bakery which located just next door.
Cattle Hot Pot is a hot pot restaurant. You can see that each table is equipped with built-in burner. But we were not here for hot pot.
Cattle Hot Pot is affiliated with Cattle Cafe across the road. You can see both restaurants printed on the napkin.
Cattle Hot Pot now serves Fish Soup Noodle Combo and Cattle Meals during lunch hour. You can click on the menu to have a better view.
Nanzaro opted for their Fish Soup Noodle Combo. The combo is $7.50 and it includes a drink.
Nanzaro had lemon Coke for his drink. Like most Hong Kong style cafe, there is an extra dollar charge for cold drink.
Nanzaro’s Fish Soup Noodle Combo is made up of original fish soup base, Japanese ramen with cuttle fish ball and imitation crab meat as the ingredients. The bowl of noodle soup also comes with suey choy, mushroom and … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Kam Gok Yuen in Chinatown, Vancouver
When Lorna and I went to Chinatown Vancouver to buy red dates, we did a little exploration of Chinatown.
The Vancouver Chinatown Millennium Gate is the most prominent structure in Chinatown. Lorna told me that the Chinese characters on the gate was written by a famous calligrapher whose is a friend of her.
We also visited the China Abacus at Keefer Street near Taylor. It is a large abacus artwork with stylized beads of British Columbia jade. I remembered my father have an abacus at home. I never learned how to use it. I’m always amazed when I see people in Chinese stores using it as their fingers danced around the beads.
We also took a walk in the historical alley where Shanghai Alley, Suzhou Alley and Guangzhou Alley is. There were a number of huge posters which showcase the history of Chinatown in the alley. If you are interested in history, take your time to read the posters.
In the historical alley, there is a West Han Dynasty Bell called Yong Bell. The bell was a gift from the City of Guangzhou to the city of Vancouver in honour of the 15th anniversary of the twinning to the two cities.
Finally, I knew where is the world’s narrowest building is. The Sam Kee building is only … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Neptune Seafood Restaurant on No. 3 Road, Richmond
Emily S organized a meet up for dim sum at Neptune Seafood Restaurant on No. 3 Road. There were five of us. The group include Lorna, Jean, Peggy L and me. We were supposed to meet at 10:30AM in the restaurant. Emily S made the reservation. We were all there on time except Emily. Emily turned up only after 11:00 AM as she overslept. We were all wondering if we or she had mistaken the place.
Neptune Seafood Restaurant was closed a while ago. I heard that the owner sold the place but the transaction did not fall through. It was reopened with the word “shakrfin” removed from the English name but the Chinese name remains the same. You can see the old frontage from the post here.
The restaurant is very busy. At 10:30AM, it was already 70% full and this is a weekday. We placed the order before Emily arrived because there is a 20% discount on dim sum before 11:00AM.
Prices here are on the high side. For dim sum, small is $3.68, medium is $4.38, large is $4.98. For specials, SK is $6.98, SLK is $7.98 and SKK is $8.98. I have no idea what the SK, SLK and SKK stands for. Anyone has any idea?
You can click on the menu to view them larger.
The cutlery is simple and nice. Even the teapot cover is labeled with the tea of your selection.
Lorna ordered the above Abalone with Compoy Rice Wrap. This rice wrap is normally eaten during Dragon Boat festival. This item is categorized under SLK which is $7.98.
The rice used for this rice wrap is glutinous rice. This is filled with abalone, dried scallop, pork, green beans and salted egg yolk. Look at the pork fat at the photo on the right. The rice wrap is boiled for few hours until the pork fat melts in your mouth.
The above Dice Chicken, Squid & Mushroom Rice Casserole is from … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Dim Sum at Good Eat Seafood Restaurant on Leslie Road, Richmond
Polly and I planned to go to Kim Ga Nae to try their $7.99 for 5 items lunch special. Unfortunately, when we arrived at 11:00 AM, Kim Ga Nae is not opened yet. So, I went down to go to the door to check their opening hours. What I found is a hand written note on the door that says “Temporary Closed”. Later,I found out that they are closed for renovation.
With plan A dashed, we had to quickly came up with a plan B. Since we were in the area, I suggested we go to Good Eat Seafood Restaurant for dim sum since I have not been to this restaurant before.
Good Eat Seafood Restaurant is tucked in a small mall area on Leslie Road. It is not a very visible location. Parking is quite limited for this restaurant. There is parking in front, on the side and at the back of the restaurant.
When we arrived at around 11:00AM, the restaurant is not busy. It’s about 1/3 full. But by 12:00PM, this place started to fill up. We noticed most of the customers are Chinese seniors.
We saw a sign on the wall that says this restaurant allows customers to bring their own liquor with a corkage charge of $5.
We like that this restaurant uses real table cloth instead of the plastic ones for quick clean up. The cutleries here showed their age. There is a dollar per person tea charge for the dim sum.
The regular dim sum here ranges from $2.50 to $2.95 while the chef’s specials range from $4.95 to $6.95. Some chef specials items come in 2 sizes where the larger size ranges from $9.95 to $10.95.
We selected 5 items to share. The first item is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant at Ironwood Plaza, Richmond
Ben was too involved in his work that he has no time to write of his experience in Beijing. He will be back next week with more travel and good eats. So, at the meantime, I will fill in for a few days.
I went to Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant with Arkensen while Ben was in Beijing. Nanzaro did not want to come along as he was dead tired coming back from a 3 days 2 nights camp. I want to get the boys out even though Ben is not here. It’s quality time that we spend together during such meals.
I picked Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant because it’s the nearest Chinese restaurant to our home. Without Ben, I will not be able to convince the boys to go further. It’s strange that we have not blog about this place. It’s so near and they had won the Best Chinese Restaurant award for the local news paper many times. We had eaten here a few times before, just did not blog about it because we did not have our camera with us during those impromptu visits.
I remembered someone commented that Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant is one of the pioneer Chinese restaurant in Richmond. It used to be located at the Szechuan Delicious Restaurant location across Richmond center. This location has great history with previous tenants like Chen’s Shanghai, Shanghai Wonderful, Shanghai River, Da Hong Yun and Shanghai JJ.
Someone also commented that Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant is a popular restaurant among the police officers. In fact, we had seen two police officers dining at the Danny’s Wun Tun Restaurant while we were there once.
Arkensen commented that the restaurant is bigger than he expected. From the outside, it does not look as big. It seats at least 50 with some round tables that can accommodate bigger group. This is a Chinese BBQ restaurant. The BBQ station is located at the entrance. At the back of the restaurant, there is a noodle station with see through glass partition.
While we were there, we noticed that there are more Caucasian and other Asian customers than Chinese customers. There are also a lot of delivery orders and take out.
I wanted to order a BBQ duck noodle in soup but they ran out of BBQ duck. So, I ordered a wonton noodle in soup instead since this is a Wun Tun restaurant. It is only … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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