All Entries in the "Taiwanese" Category
Flo Tea Room in Richmond
When Marian, Emily, Lorna and me had a meet up at the Yuemicka Noodle House which ended up to celebrate Marian’s birthday, we vouched to get together again for the next birthday among us. September is Emily’s birthday. I tried to organize a lunch since mid September but we just cant have a date that suit all. After several dates being postponed, Marian finally suggested that we get together first without the birthday girl and organized another meet up for Emily’s birthday. So, Marian, Lorna and me met up at Flo Tea Room in Richmond.
Flo Tea Room has two locations; one on Granville St and this Richmond location is a new addition. This location used to be Ginger and Garlic Malaysian Restaurant & Grill. The original Flo Tea Room on Granville St. is a Taiwanese place with bubble tea. So, I thought the new Flo Tea Room in Richmond will be the same.
The Flo Tea Room in Richmond looks nicer than the old Ginger and Garlic. It must have been renovated when Flo Tea Room took over the restaurant.
We were quite surprise to find that the menu is more like HongKong style with the addition of some Taiwanese snacks and bubble tea. You can click on the menu to have a larger view. The menu is elaborate, range from snacks, salad, soup, vegetarian, hot pot, set meals, western, special eastern and noodle soup.
We ordered two drinks to try. The one on the right is Mango Slush with crystal jelly for $4.50. It is quite sweet. The one on the right is Taro Milk Tea with crystal jelly for $4.25. We did not even get to try the taro milk tea as we were very full at the end. I took the drink home and tried it later. I found the taste was kind of artificial.
For appetizer, we ordered the Roti Canai for $5.25. Roti canai is a Malaysian street food. The roti canai here is not as flaky and crispy. It came with a very mild curry sauce.
The roti canai came with a drink. Marian opted for a Coffee Tea Mix (Yin Yeong). It has pretty strong flavour.
For the main course, we opted for a special of the day called Duck with Pamelo Skin. The dish which came with steamed rice and steamed bok choy … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Kao’s Family Restaurant on Alexandra Road, Richmond
After the wine tasting and tour at the Lulu Island Winery, Emily S dropped us back at the South Arm Community Center. She and her friend went their way. Lorna, Peggy L and I decided to go for lunch.
Kao’s Family Restaurant has been on our list of places to try for a while but never get to it. I suggested this restaurant because Peggy L is from Taiwan and she can recommends some popular Taiwanese dishes to us.
Kao’s Family Restaurant has been in business for 10 years as the owner told us. This restaurant is tucked in a corner in the strip mall where Bei Jiang Restaurant is. The restaurant has minimalistic setting, just a few tables and chairs. It was pretty quiet on a weekday afternoon. Oh, parking is a big problem in this strip mall.
We left all the ordering to Peggy L. For starter, we had the Pig’s Hoof with Jelly for $4.75. It is served with a garlicky vinegarish dipping sauce which has a kick to it, i.e. a little spicy.
The Pig’s Hoof with Jelly is made with pigs feet that are boiled until the skin falls off the bones. Only the skin is used while … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Huang’s Beef Noodle on Victoria Drive and East 54th, Vancouver
As I was loading the pictures for this post yesterday, I was marveling at this picture below.
I was thinking how amazing it was when we had this. The simplicity of the dish and yet it is delicately complex. The entire process that goes into making this involves techniques that one takes for granted but not many cuisine would even dare to think of.
And then while I was loading the pictures, I came across a website which has a picture of a bag of Pork Floss and under the picture it says something like “Used for getting bacon out from between your teeth!”
It was then I realized how repulsive (for the lack of a better word) the dish above is to other cultures and yet to me this is considered a delicacy.
What I like about this is also that this is cheap. This is called simply the Preserved Egg with Tofu and is $3.50. This is a cold dish and the tofu is sometimes chilling cold when served.
The thing that is strange to non-Asians is the … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Kalvin’s Restaurant: Forget It If You Don’t Have A Reservation
I am surprised.
This restaurant had flew under the radar for so long that am surprised why there are not more reviews written about them. The only blogger who wrote about Kalvin’s Restaurant is Kevin of 604foodtography. The reason was because I was taken aback on how busy this place was when we visited. The food is very good.
I think after reading this post, some of you will be making your way there. I hope you do. It is worth the trip across town.
I kept asking myself why would a restaurant this popular was hardly written about? I don’t have the answer why. Maybe it is the name, you reckon? I mean, with a name like Kalvin’s Szechuan Restaurant, it could be easy for people not to give them a second glance. Moreover, the front of the restaurant does not shout out who or what they really are.
The name outside the restaurant says Kalvin’s Szechuan Restaurant. Deep in their soul, it is actually a fabulous Taiwanese restaurant. Maybe the chef was originally from Sichuan. Maybe that is the name it got started with and they did not bother to change the signboard. However, the take out menu and even the name in Urbanspoon dropped the “Szechuan” word from the name.
I read some of the little reviews already on the internet (Urbanspoon and Dinehere.ca). They are consistent in giving positive feedback.
One consistent comment I read was that you need … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Flo Tea Room: Free Toasts Before 5:00 PM
Nanzaro is one of those people who unselfishly volunteers his time helping people or be involved extra-curricula activities. He likes doing things like that. He had been spending a lot of time over months training for a first aid competition against some tough competition from St Johns Ambulance. In the days leading to the competition, I could see he was anxious and did not want me to ask him about the competition.
Well, his team did not win anything. Obviously the St Johns Ambulance groups swept the honors. After all this is a first aid competition. The Air Cadets did not stand a chance against the pros. But despite the results, I thought that his dedication to doing the best he can be is admirable.
The competition started in the morning and it lasted to late afternoon. When we picked him up, he was upbeat despite being soundly beaten. The first thing he said was “Taiwanese and Bubble Tea”. Suanne and I laughed at him, particularly at the bubble tea part. We had teased him before why he is not like other Asian boys who hangs out at bubble tea houses. He always says that only Asian girls hangs out in Bubble Tea houses and boys go there because they are forced to tag along.
Like Nanzaro, I do not find bubble tea houses appealing. But Suanne latched on to the suggestion. She said we should go to the Flo Tea Room because she remembers that they have free toasts in the afternoon. Moreover the Flo Tea Room was just on our route home.
It was quite a rush getting to the Flo Tea Room. You see, the free toast is available only from … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Yuen-Yuen Cafe: Ba Wan and Other Taiwanese Food
In the past couple of months we had quite a bit of attention put on Hong Kong Style Cafes, Malaysian Cuisine and Filipino Cuisine. I think I had neglected Chinese Cuisine somewhat but I think it will pick up again next month when I set my focus on getting the 8GTCC project going again.
But there is one cuisine I am not very familiar with and it is the Taiwanese cuisine. This is despite that we had 41 dine out posts categorized under the Taiwanese keyword. Quite a lot isn’t it?
My curiosity was piqued last weekend when Suanne blogged about a dish she learned from the Richmond Community Kitchen called Ba Wan (link here). I had never heard of that dish before – not even after blogging on 41 Taiwanese restaurant. What caught me by surprised is the reactions from readers on that post.
We often get dozens of comments for restaurant posts but recipe posts doesn’t draw nearly as many comments. On a very good day, it will draw about 5 comments but the post on Ba Wan drew 20 comments. So I guess this particular dish does resonate well with a lot of the readers.
[Yeah, recipe posts are very different from restaurant posts. While restaurant posts have a lot of reactions, the comments will die down very quickly within a week of two. However, recipe posts have the greatest staying power as it provides a steady trickle of readers, mostly from Google. That is why recipe posts have the highest hits by far. Just that is draws very little reactions].
So I was really keen to learn more about Ba Wan and what the whole deal is with that simple dish. Crispy alerted us that this dish had actually been reviewed before on 604foodtography.
We went to the restaurant that Kevin blogged about. It is Yuen-Yuen Cafe and is located on Cambie and 41st in Vancouver. They are actually located just next door to Samurai Sushi … and that is an important point to note!
You know my boys right? They have this thing about driving across bridges. But at the mere mention of the name Samurai Sushi, they have no issues. They love their ridiculously House Roll. Have you seen how big they are? See this! It is so big you have to eat this resting on your palms.
Yuen-Yuen is basically a bubble-tea house. It is small, clean and neat like most Taiwanese restaurants. Yeah, I noticed that Taiwanese restaurants are generally much well-designed and modern than HK Style Cafes for instance.
They have a funky seating arrangement with a unique wavy table. It is sort of like forcing people to look at the sample photos taken by someone with a photography business. Maybe the owner of Yuen-Yuen also has another wedding photography business or something.
It is self-service. You order the drinks (and food) from the counter, pay for it and when it is ready they will call you over to pick it up. Business was quite empty during that Saturday afternoon. There is an occasional customer who comes in to get bubble tea but no one stays for long. We felt kind of odd coming here for a family meal … to eat and not to drink.
They have limited food available but of course they have Ba Wan. Because of the small selection (which had pictures posted on the wall next to the counter), we practically ordered every food item they have. The prices are quite cheap too but they are mostly snack food rather than full meals.
Oh, cash only also.
Nanzaro and Arkensen does not fancy bubble tea. They prefer Coke (and water!) over bubble tea. Neither does Suanne, strangely for someone with a sweet tooth.
But we still ordered one to share just because this is a bubble tea house. We got the Mocha Milk Tea with bubble ($4.75).
This is the reason we are in Yuen-Yuen – the Ba Wan. Their English translation for this is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Boiling Point on No 3 Road Between Alexandra and Leslie Road, Richmond
Stinky-stinky Tofu. Not just any stinky tofu but stinky-stinky tofu.
That was what JS described it when she wrote to a few of our foodie group alerting us of this ad she saw in the Chinese papers. It is about a new hot pot restaurant in Richmond who billed themselves as Taiwanese Stinky Stinky Tofu.
We were not ones to balk on trying such things. As a matter of fact, we relish on trying such stuff. I had stinky tofu before … many many years ago in Taiwan. It was OK then and so this should be easy.
So, JS, TS, Grayelf and us met up for dinner in Boiling Point.
This restaurant is located on the strip mall on No 3 Road where Celcius is, you know, just across the street from Memory Express?
Boiling Point took over the spot vacated by the Kelong Malaysian restaurant. We were quite surprised to learn that Kelong had finally called it a day. While the food in Kelong had never been known to be good, they had hung on for so long that one would think they will be there forever. As a matter of fact, Suanne just wrote about Kelong about three months ago. BTW, you know what is a Kelong? It is a fishing floating platform which used to be common in Malaysia. See pictures here if you are curious.
Anyhow … The Boiling Point restaurant has outlets on California and Washington state. This is their fifth outlet and the first in Canada.
First thing I did when I got there was stand outside the restaurant and took a deep breathe. It was cold and the air crisp that night. I thought surely if it is indeed stinky I could smell it from the outside.
No, nothing. Nada. Nyet. Nary a smell. On one hand it is a good thing. On the other, I was disappointed.
When I pushed opened the door, that smell hit home. OMG, that smells awful. To some it will smell awfully nice. To me, it just smells awful. It is like they were cooking rotten meat in sewage water in the toilet. Something like that.
But you know what, the smell gets better as time goes by. After a while, we did not even notice the smell. The first smell is awful. Yeah, I was telling myself the same thing the whole day long. Just to psyche myself up for this adventure. I know that like blue cheese and natto, the first bite is the hardest and the more you eat the better it gets.
The decor inside looks spartan. The ugly unfinished concrete floor just jumps out at me as sloppy decor but then it later dawned on me that perhaps they did this for practical reasons. I mean, if this is carpeted, the smell would collect! Then too I noticed that the chairs are plastics too.
BTW, do you know what is the origin of Stinky Tofu? Stinky Tofu is popular in Taiwan but it is also available in southern part of China including Hong Kong. I googled and found the following article from … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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Bubble World on Capstan Way, Richmond
Did some of you notice that chowtimes.com went off line earlier on today? It was 6 hours long starting from 11PM yesterday. Good thing it happened during those hours when most of you are already fast asleep.
The outage was apparently widespread and impact all virtual dedicated servers hosted in GoDaddy. I was told that the root cause was with their network. For a while I was quite concerned that with the sudden increase of traffic the past few weeks (after chowtimes was mentioned on The Vancouver Sun), it is deja vu all over again.
Anyway we are back in business.
Suanne, Nanzaro and I went out looking for dinner that day about three weeks ago. Arkensen said he did not want to go out insisting he is not hungry and had made instant noodles just an hour earlier. He is smart and I think he planned it that way to avoid going out. He had planned with his friends to play Call of Duty: Black Ops. Have you guys seen that game? It has great graphics.
I can’t play those games anymore. These games belong to the younger generation. For my generation, we only have ONE joystick. I know how to move forward and backward and I know how to look left and right. That’s it. With today’s games, you have TWO joysticks and countless buttons. Not only can you move in all four directions with the new controllers, you can look up, down and every direction. So I tried to play these games with my boys. I get killed within seconds … all the time. Even before I can orientate myself, my boys would shout “Head shot!” and laugh out loud. Yeah, they can aim and shoot in a split second right in the middle of their dad’s temple. I give up! I’ll stick to Solitaire on Windows.
Both Arkensen and Nanzaro doesn’t share friends. Weird huh? Arkensen and his friends doesn’t want to have anything to do with Nanzaro and his friends. It is Arkensen’s game with his friends and the rule is Nanzaro stay out of it. So Nanzaro had no choice but to hang out with mummy and daddy. :-)
So we drove and was planning to go to a small Malaysian restaurant in Union Square. Strange … they were closed when in fact the sign on the door says that they should be opened. I think they decided to close shop that day because of the snow fall. So we walked around Union Square and decided to go to the Bubble World.
We had never noticed this Bubble World before. I think they are new.
Bubble World … it is a franchise. You get quite a number of them scattered around Metro Vancouver. When they got started, they are more well known for their Bubble Tea outlets. However, this one is different. This one feels more like a restaurant than a bubble tea joint.
The restaurant does look … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
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