All Entries in the "Taiwanese" 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

Blackberry Bistro in Richmond’s London Landing

George and Ease recently invited us for dinner.  It had been a very long while since we had met up.  It must have been something like over three years.  We had utmost respect for them and remembered so well how they had supported us in times of need.

A few years ago Arkensen was in hospital.  Suanne and I took turns to stay with him in the hospital every night.  There was that one day Arkensen had a rough patch and I stayed with him right through lunch and dinner time.  Just then when it was late and I don’t expect anyone anymore, George showed up despite his busy schedule. Seeing that I had no eaten yet, George went out scouring for dinner for me.  I will never forget that act of selflessness from him.

Ease told us she had been reading our blog all these while.  So when Ease contacted Suanne suggested we meet up for dinner, we immediately agreed.  We went to this new place call the Blackberry Bistro.

The Blackberry Bistro is described as a Pan Asian restaurant but to us it is more than that. It is located at the so called “new Shaunessy of Richmond” which I think is more aptly called London Landing.  I had been through this place many times before when I was training for the Half Marathon and had always noticed the name Blackberry … this place used to be overrun with blackberries but of late a lot of the industrial buildings had been torn down to make this a new waterfront residential area.
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For those who are are familiar with this southern Richmond nighborhood, I want you to know that it’s on 6011 Dyke Road.  It is very near where the London Farm and the starting point of the London Landing dykes.

We had expected a very Asian setting but were quite impressed with the setup.  The restaurant had a decidedly modern setting with high ceilings which is lends to it a sense of spaciousness and grandness.  This restaurant sure put in a lot of planning and thought into it.

There is even sofa and fireplace in the eating area upstairs with plasma TV and all (and not playing HK variety shows!).  We actually did not expect that there were so many customers but were quite surprised that they had a healthy mix of customers.  This is perhaps the only place we had seen so far which serves decidedly authentic Asian food and had more than 50% of the customers who are white.  I like that.

The table setting was well thought out although I think they put in too much effort to making this good.  Case in point … the manually wrap and bind the chopsticks and cutleries.  The menu too is really cute … which for a moment I thought was a placemat!

Their menu is very much South East Asian.  We had the nice juicy Chicken satay for starters.  Having grown up in Malaysia, I know what real good satay are and this is it.  He he he … what this lack is the fatty chicken skin which will make it even more juicier.  The peanut sauce was quite OK except I had wished it had more chuncks of peanuts and a bit of chilli sauce like the way it’s supposed to be.

The best satay in the world is the one in Kajang, Malaysia called Haji Samuri.  Compare the above against this blog entry I made here … looks pretty close, huh?

Suanne had the Laksa.  It is creamy, thick, flavorful but otherwise not overwhelmingly spicy.  It is pretty good and we agree that this is just not one of the run of the mill laksa.  The mere looks of the laksa broth itself tells us that they did not just use any off the shelf paste to make this.

The laksa came with spring rolls.  Taste wise, It was alright but in the looks department it was quite unique in that they gave us a dip which I could not quite figure out what it was.  Looks like some orangey jam but not quite.

I had been on a mission to search for the best Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup of late after some of you reader had been commenting on this topic.  Since, they had this on the menu, I ordered this.  The broth is intense to say to least but lacking in spiciness which I personally like.

The bowl is huge.  As a matter of fact, their servings are very large and are served in unique triangular bowls and plates.

Arkensen had the Hainanese Chicken Rice.  Presentation was good.  It came with FIVE sides … nice!  The all important rice was flavorful.  Hainanese rice is not the normal plain steamed rice but is cooked with chicken broth producing an “oily” chicken flavour rice.

Arkensen did not quite like the chicken because it was made of chicken breast.  Chicken breast meat is generally tougher.  I remember growing up in Malaysia people specifically did not want chicken breast but here in Canada, Canadians pay more for chicken breasts!

Nanzaro ordered some dish where he gets to pick two types of meat.  He likes these kind of food where he gets to choose.  I can’t remember what this is called.  He had the char siu and honey spareribs which came with rice and sides.

I tried Nanzaro’s spareribs, it was great … crunchy and sweet.

Almost all dishes came with at least two sides — some salty-sweet triangular chips and grilled zucchini.  And you know what that means?  We had too many dishes on the table … it was jammed pack with dishes of all shapes and sizes.

George and Ease ordered the Singapore style fried vermicelli.  Unlike ones we see elsewhere this one is chockful of ingredients.  It looked pretty good.

George and Ease also had the curry chicken.  It looked nice and good but I did not taste it.

It was when we finished our meal when the owner came by our table and chatted with us.  I always enjoyed talking to the owner.  In some places we went to, the owners look at us with suspicioun when we whip out our cameras.

The owner, Phillip, told us that almost all of the ingredients are made on their own.  He even said that the wonton wrappers are made inhouse.  It is because they actually own Soo Jerky too and had a R&D kitchen from which these dishes came from.  He told us he would travel to far flung towns in Malaysia to get the original recipe of Kuching Laksa which he claims is the best there is.

Since he talked about Kuching, I asked him about this noodles called Kolo Mee which I had always heard of but never tasted.  You know what happened next?  He asked us to hang on and disappeared to the kitchen and made us his version of Kolo Mee (this is not on the menu).

I am so impressed and knew then and there, this is not just any restaurant.

The Blackberry Bistro has a good selection of gelato and guess what … they made these gelato on their own too.  After all the food we declined the gelato but on their insistence, we tried their blackberry and blueberry ones.  It is certainly one of the best we had tried … not too sweet and tastes like what it is supposed to be … fruity blackberry and blueberry.  We’ll come back again some day just specifically for this.

You MUST try their gelato.

Go Go Tea Cafe in Richmond

The four of us, we don’t normally go to Bubble Tea Houses. It is not that we don’t like Bubble Tea. As a matter of fact, our boys absolutely like it but they told us they will not be caught dead in a Bubble Tea House. I think they are associating it with places where girls hangout … LOL!

We would not had gone in if not for the fact that we have absolutely no idea where to go. You know, it was one of those days when we needed some place to blog about but simply cannot think of one … until we drove past the Cosmos Plaza on Garden City and McKim (in Richmond that is). That is when Suanne said that Gogo Tea Cafe had at sometime ran commercials on the TV.

It is located a floor above the street level. Almost all restaurants in Richmond simply had no views at all and is dark. Well, the view here was not that great but at least it had a lot of light here. It was still winter when we visited Gogo Tea. When spring comes round, there will be more color.

Talking about spring, I just can’t get enough of spring … it is simply the best season of the year for me. It does cheer me up with the longer days. Even driving to work is interesting observing how there are more colors every day.

Gogo Tea is bright … with ceiling to wall windows and white furnishings. On a bright day it could be blinding. Oh yeah, it is a youngster hangout alright but there are a couple of families there too.

Milk Teas are Gogo Tea’s speacialties. Ordered as an individual items, the Milk Teas are $4 and above. However, if you order from their lunch menu, you just need to add $1 for regular milk tea and an additional 50 cents if you want pearls (or coconut jelly, pudding or grass jelly) too.

We love the milk teas. They are absolutely fabulous and I am sure you will like them too. They are uniquely served in really tall glasses. They are so tall that we can’t even drink from the straws without taking it off below the table level to reach the straws!

I had the Gogo Milk Tea which came with coffee flavoured chewy jelly and whipped cream. Suanne had the Matcha Milk Tea which was more green tea and not at all sweet. Arkensen had the Chocolate Milk Tea and Nanzaro the Mocha flavoured one.

The best among all had to be the Gogo Milk Tea … it’s rich, creamy, chewy, sweet. They have a huge milk tea selection and if you don’t know what to order, then go for the Gogo Milk Tea. You won’t be disappointed.

For food, Arkensen ordered the Deep Fried Pork Chop on Rice which costs $7.25. It came with a side dish of edamame, tofu and century egg drizzled with sesame oil.

The Tofu and Century Egg Drizzled with Sesame Oil dish is surprisingly very good. No one wanted the century eggs (not even Suanne) but really, they are great.

BTW, century eggs … I grew up being told that century eggs are all black because they were soaked in horse’s urine for a long time. Is there any truth to it?

Nanzaro ordered the Curry Beef on Rice which costs $6.95. It was pretty disappointing and does not look appetizing for me. To me, only Indians and Malaysians makes the best curries on the planet.

Suanne ordered the Tofu on Hotplate. This is a vegetarian dish but really tasty and served on a sizzling hot plate. The side dishes that came with this is the same as those that came with Arkensen’s Pork Chop Rice. We like this and it’s just $7.95.

Me, I ordered the House Special Beef Soup. Although they serve the non-spicy version, I asked if they can make it spicy hot. Was glad that they did and must say that they did a great job in making it ultra spicy. This bowl costs $5.25.

The total bill came up to $40 including tax and tips. They accept cash only, by the way. We’ll definitely come visit again someday … we enjoyed their milk tea a lot.

They have their website on http://gogotea.ca

Han Ju Tofu Hot Pot in Richmond revisited

We had been to Han Ju Tofu Hotpot a few times before. As a matter of fact, we had blogged about it sometime last year (see here). Since we had some photos from our last visit and that we like it so much, we thought … sure … let’s just share it one more time.

I was confused. I had always thought that Han Ju is a Korean restaurant. Maybe it is because of the name “Han Ju” which for some reason sounded like a Korean name to me. Han Ju is in fact a Taiwanese restaurant.

I know there are two Han Ju’s … one in Richmond and the other in Crystal Mall in Burnaby. We went to the one in Richmond (8328 Capstan Way).

For those of you not familiar with Chinese food, you would probably not have guessed that the above is actually pig ear. In Taiwanese cuisine, it is common for them to serve appetizers in morsels of marinated food.

The Marinated Pig Ear has an unique combination of gelatanious and crunchy texture.

Most of Taiwanese appetizers are served cold. Marinated tofu is another common Taiwanese appetizers.

Bubble tea originated from Taiwan and comes in many flavours. Our favourite is Coffee Bubble Milk Tea. If you had never tried it before you should. Many people likes chewing on the black gummy balls made of tapioca. Otherwise, the drink just tastes like well, milk tea … sweet.

Han Ju Bubble Milk Tea costs only $2.50.

It goes without saying that Han Ju’s specialty is their hotpots. They are unique in that they are served in metal hotpots. You got to be careful handling these scalding hot pots. I think they have something like 6 different types of hot pots.

We ordered the Seafood and Tofu Hot Pot. We like it because they certainly are generous with what seafood they put in there — prawns, squid, mussels, tofu and even an egg. This is really spicy. Combined with the piping hot broth, be prepared to sweat a bit. We get a bowl of rice together with this.

We also had the Sesame Oil Chicken Soup. These are great as winter food.

Nanzaro and Arkensen had been whipping up a large appetite these days. I guess they are at the age that they eat like there are no tomorrow. We normally keep to a budget when we go out each week … Suanne and I had decided to bump the budget up by 30% this year! :-(

As long as it is rice, they are happy.

Taiwan Beef Noodle House in Vancouver

I am not sure about you but we know of only two places that are opened 24 hours. The first was the the #9 Restaurant in Richmond. The other one is the Taiwan Beef Noodle House which is located on the south end of Granville St in Vancouver. I don’t know exactly where it is but if you travel south along Granville St at around the 70th St thereabouts, you’ll see it on the east side of the road. You won’t miss it, especially at night — they have a very bright yellow wrap around sign.

Since we had promised ourselves we will not go to #9 again (service was not only atrocious, but they were somewhat rude), Suanne and I decided to drive across the Oak St bridge for a late night supper. Suanne did not have dinner that night and since it’s a Friday night and there’s no work the next day, we could go out later. Just the two of us, without the boys who were already fast asleep.

The Taiwan Beef Noodle House is very much like a teenage hangout — lots of young people. I have never figured out the lifestyle of these young people and do wonder if our boys will go hangout late at night in these places when they grow up.

I was not particularly hungry and am here more for Suanne. We told ourselves that having two orders will be too much and decided instead to get a snack and for Suanne to get a bowl of noodles.

We like those marinated snacks that we often find in Taiwanese restaurants. They are basically made of animal parts that you don’t normally eat. But let me tell you, they are delicious. We ordered a combination of three choices which costs $7 and gotten ourselves the marinated large intestines ($3.50), marinated sliced beef tripe ($3.50) and spicy pork ear ($2.50). The spicy pork ear is a taste we had recently acquired — from recommendation from WB who swears that they are great … they certainly were.

Suanne ordered a large Spicy Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup but it came small. They got the order wrong but instead of getting them to exchange it for a large one (better value), she decided that she might just as well take this one since it’s supper and we normally do not have a big meal before bedtime.

We like this place. Their food is good, the prices OK and service is polite (not like you-know-who).

Do you know of any other 24 hour restaurant around the Lower Mainland?

Dinesty Chinese Restaurant in Richmond

This is a new restaurant. If my memory serves me correctly, this place had just opened for about 2-3 months now. I really think they have an odd name — Dinesty. I guess the name is a play on the words Dine and Dinasty but somehow I keep thinking they are made up of the words Dine and Sty! Nevertheless, this restaurant is a really classy place.

Dinesty is a modern and clean Chinese eatery. I believe they are more of a Taiwanese style restaurant — I could be wrong. We were surprised how busy it was when we were there at slightly past lunch time on a weekend. We had to wait for 20 minutes before we had a table assigned.

One sign of a good restaurant is their attention to details. The plates and chopsticks were logo’d. I like it because they care about their image.

Here is why I thought this is a Taiwanese restaurant … spicy beef noodles. This must have been one of the best spicy beef noodles I ever had. The bowl is large and had big chunks of beef. For a place like this, $8.95 is quite cheap.

It came with preserved vegetables and green onions on the sides. Normally, these stuff is served on the bowl itself.

Like I said … this is the bestest beef noodles I had. I love the tendons best. Makes me feel hungry blogging this page now.

We saw a lot of people ordering the Shredded Pork with Hoi Sin Sauce. This $10.50 dish came with 6 pieces of freshly made, warm pancakes.

This is eaten like Burritos — pile some shredded pork on the thin pancake, and roll it up. This is really good. If you are here, you simply must try this. However, there are so much shredded pork that we had to order additional pancakes. The additional pancakes is not cheap … it costs about $2.50 or $3.00. We can’t recall at this time.

Seeing other people also ordered Xiao Lung Bau (Steamed Pork Dumplings), we also ordered a basket to try. At least I know now what this vinegar and ginger dipping sauce is for. I still don’t like the idea of vinegar as dipping sauce.

The Xiao Lung Bau costs $6.95 for a basket of seven buns. That worked out to about $1 each. Seeing the size of it, $1 is pretty expensive to me. I guess the high price is because of the manual work that goes into making this Shanghainese delicacy.

Dinesty is located at the strip mall on Ackroyd and No 3 Road in Richmond. You should try it.