For this cake meet, we had Angie joined Polly and me. Since Angie lives in West Vancouver, we try to meet in Vancouver. We decided to meet at Italia Deli & Cafe on Granville St.

Italia Deli & Cafe is family owned and operated since 2004.

This is a small cafe with about 5 tables and few high seat overlooking the street. There are a few chairs outside the cafe, good for warmer weather. There are also some sofas at the inner side of the cafe with a large TV. It will be great for nights with game telecast. I like the nostalgic black and white photos of old movies stars (I presumed Italian) which decorated the wall.

Angie was late that morning, so Polly and I started off with some coffees and sweet treats.

Polly had a small Coffee Mocha for $2.50 while I just ordered regular coffee.

We ordered two Jewish cookies with strawberry filings for just 50cents each.

We cant believe this slice of Cherry Cheesecake only costs $2.00.

When Angie joined us slightly later, we ordered some sandwiches to share.

This is Grilled Napoli Paninis with Italian ham and provolone cheese and mustard sauce. It costs $5.99.

We also had this Vegetarian Deli Sud for $5.49. It has roasted pepper, egg plant and artichoke.

It was a great to get together with Angie. We should do this more often.

Polly and I revisited Trees Organic Coffee for their best cheesecake in Vancouver. It’s been more than a year since we visited Trees Organic Coffee, our first cake meet place.

Trees Organic Coffee is along the site of the Canada Line construction. The view from Trees Organic Coffee at the moment is not very nice. Nevertheless, the business is still pretty good when we were there.

Trees Organic Coffee is located just at the site where the 440 tonne tunnel-boring machine broke through into the construction site for the line’s Waterfront station. This finishes the second of side-by-side bored tunnels from just south of False Creek to just north of Pender Street on Granville.

Polly and I ordered two slices of cheesecakes and a piece of cinnamon bun to share.

This is a Banana White Chocolate cheesecake. The texture of this slice is fluffier than the second cheesecake we ordered. However, the banana is not as sweet as I expected. Perhaps, it’s not ripened enough.

The second slice is a Cherry Chocolate Cheesecake. This cheesecake is more dense. We can taste the tanginess of the cherry.

We thought of ordering something different for a change and got this cinnamon bun. It is not the type of fluffy cinnamon bun I like. This is a sticky bun with very dense bread and it’s too sweet and sticky.

Polly ordered a grand hot chocolate to enjoy with the cheesecakes.

I had a caramel latte which has a very nice coffee flavour.

The bill came up to $18.88 after a coupon of $5 from the entertainment book.

Polly and I met again for coffee. I found this Cafe In from a Chinese Food Magazine. It has two locations in Vancouver, one at 5707 Balsam St and another in 3335 W. 4th Ave. We went to the one on 4th Ave.

There are banners with the words ‘Award-winning Intelligentsia Coffees on the store front of this cafe. I wonder what it means?

When we walked into this cafe, we noticed there are many signs of Godiva chocolates. First of all, there are two wall shelves loaded with Godiva chocolates.

There is this gold mosaic mural on the wall which represent Godiva’s divine chocolate. The logo was inspired by the popular legend. It tells of the persistent Lady Godiva who rode naked in order to persuade her husband to abolish his onerous taxation of Coventry. This mosaic mural is also found in the washroom but in silver.

We like the simple and yet cozy interior deco. Potted plants are placed at strategic locations which brings some freshness and liveliness to the interior.

I also like these mosaic pieces of coffee art and cup and saucer. It brings out the mood for a cup of coffee.

We ordered three items to go with our drinks.

A blueberry scone, which is a bit on the dry side. I would love to have some fruit jam to go with it.

A chocolate filled pastry, flaky and soft.

A chicken samosa which is served with some plum jam. This is slightly spicy.

Polly ordered a Cafe Mocha.

I ordered a Godiva Hot Chocolate since this place is a Godiva outlet. Frankly, I seldom drink hot chocolate but this one is smooth and chocolaty.

The bill came up to $13.39.

This is a great place for a cup of coffee and chit chat with a friend. It’s quiet and cozy.

I’m so glad that the kids are back to school and we’re back to normal routine. Polly and I take our first opportunity to have a ladies’ day out at the Cucumber Cafe in Richmond. We had a long break in December as either one of us was not feeling well or our kids were not feeling well. Well, winter is the flu and cold season, :(.

Cucumber Cafe is located at 10211 St. Edwards Dr, adjacent to the new Sandman Signature Hotel. It’s a new cafe in the block. The first thing we noticed was the good service. The waiter opened the door to greet us warmly.

The Cafe is cozy and warmly decorated with a real fireplace and the brightly orange coloured seats bring the warm morning glory into this place.

As usual, Polly and I were looking for cheesecake to endeavor. Luckily, there is one in the menu.

We ordered the Creme Brulee Cheesecake for $4.95. This cheesecake is rich and served with caramel sauce.

We also ordered a Warm Apple Brown Betty which is apples baked with brown sugar and cinnamon, topped with streusel and served with vanilla ice-cream and caramel sauce. The warm apples and the cold ice-cream is just a perfect marriage. This dessert costs $3.95.

Polly ordered a hot chocolate while I had coffee. The hot chocolate is served with marsmellow which and whipped cream. The hot chocolate costs $2.95 and the coffee costs $2.30. The coffee comes with free refill.

I would recommend this place for their good service and quite reasonably price menu. Before I shred the receipt, I noticed this printed message that Cucumber Cafe is honoured as one of Canada’s Top Ten New Restaurants in 2007 by Where Magazine.

Polly and I went to Caffe Artigiano for our cake meet. We have no idea that Caffe Artigiano is the home of the Canadian Barista Championships from 2003 to 2006 until I checked their website after I came home. Artigiano also had several medals from the World Barista Championship medals. Not quite gold but silver and bronze … pretty cool.

Caffe Artigiano has 5 outlets in Vancouver in all. They are located on Pender St, Hornby St, West Hasting St, Park Royal in West Vancouver and Kerrisdale. We went to the one in Kerrisdale.

Caffe Artigiano is a very busy caffe as there were many customers come and go while we were there. I wondered why they are called a caffe and not cafe … you have any idea why?

We were quite disappointed in the beginning as we did not find any cheese cake in their buffet. However, there were scones, biscotti, bars, sandwiches and wrap.

We ordered two scones and a biscotti to share. This is the blueberry scones. The serving is quite large. We enjoyed it with some jam.

We liked the second scone better, it’s made with nut and dried fruit. This scones is more crunchy and has lots of nuts and dried fruit in it. The biscotti is not what I expected. This is more cakey like instead of the crunchy type. The scones were $2.95 each while the biscotti was $1.95.

The best is the coffee. I ordered the Caffe Mocha for $3.39. It is very smooth and creamy. The cream formation is so creative.

Polly had the Caffe Latte for $2.99. This is the best coffee we had ever had since our cake meet. For the true coffee lover, you must visit Caffe Artigiano.

Click the link below for more coffee art. You will like some of the prettiest coffee art I have ever seen. Note that the ones below are not from Artigiano’s

continue reading "Caffe Artigiano on West 41st, Vancouver"

Polly and I revisited Diplomat Bakery for our cake meet. This time, we went to the new location on London Road. It is a new commercial and residential area where many constructions are still in progress. The location seems a bit remote now but after all the development has completed, I’m sure it’s going to be a good traffic in the place. London Road is located at the southern end of the No 2 Road. The neighborhood had been expanding for the past few years and it’s just a matter of time when development encroaches into the area east of No 2.

While we were there, there was a good flow of traffic around tea time and just before lunch time by the construction workers.

There was a special offer at the Diplomat Bakery during our visit which is get 4 slices of cakes at $2.95 and you’ll get one free slice. Since Polly and I usually share 3 slices, we decided to get an extra slice and end up with 5 slices, with the free slice offer. Each one of us brought one slice home to enjoy later.

Here are the cakes which we ordered.

A slice Strawberry Cheese cake which is very rich and creamy. Polly had this one to bring home too.

We also had a slice of Chocolate Lemon Cheese Cake. This one is really good. The dark chocolate coating and the oreo base complement the slightly tangy lemon cheese cake marvelously. I would order this one again when I come back.

This is a Blueberry Cream Cheese Layer Cake. The cream cheese layer add some richness to this cake which is very light by itself.

I brought home this slice which is a Peach Creme Layer Cake. Arkensen enjoyed this piece which has a strong peach flavour to it.

I would recommend Diplomat Bakery to any cake lovers. Their price is very reasonable and the quality is good.

After the 12-egg omelette breakfast, we went for a bit of shopping around Bellevue. After all, with the exchange rate between the CAD and USD these days, everything in the US seems like a bargain to us. Before heading back to Vancouver we drove over to the Bellevue Suqare for dessert — Frozen Yogurt in a place called Red Mango.

Red Mango was recommended by Erick who mentioned that this fro-yo chain from South Korea had taken California by storm. The only yogurt we ever had was those Danone yogurt that was sold in small plastic cups at the Real Canadian Superstore.

Locating the Red Mango was a bit of a challenge for us. It was because it was not listed on the Bellevue Square store directory. After walking about for a bit and having asked the info counter did we realize how new this store is. They had only opened just last month.

This Red Mango outlet is small with just a few small tables. We did notice that most of the customers are Asians. Frankly, I know very little about yogurt and never imagined that a popular yogurt chain would actually originate from east Asia.

Froyo, or frogurt, is a low fat alternative to icre-cream. Red Mango claims that they use only natural ingredients in making their “Authentic” frozen yogurt.

Ordering this is easy. The menu is really small. You get a choice of two flavours — vanilla or green tea. And then you choose the number of toppings you want. The toppings are fresh fruits or dry stuff like nuts. chocolate, etc.

We ordered two Red Mango Yougurt to share. The first was the medium sized, original vanilla flavour with three toppings. We chose chocolate chips, golden grahams and cocoa pebbles. This costs $5. The texture was smooth and creamy with a slight sourish taste.

The second Red Mango Yogurt is also a medium sized one with Green Tea yogurt. For this we chose fresh fruits — strawberries, mango and blueberries. This costs $6. I personally prefer this one over the earlier one. It had a hint of green tea.

I am not sure what the big deal is with having live active cultures in yogurts … sorry for the ignorance.

Going northbound is not too bad that day — “just” 45 minutes.

Alrighty … that’s all from me for next week or two. Am going on a blogging hiatus and will be back after Suanne had blogged her stuff. I hope you will enjoy my next series. I had planned a 26 day series of my vacation in New York City.

On our way home from Granville Island, we stopped by Aberdeen Centre to pick up some Beard Papa’s cream puff. This store is the first Canadian store for this Japanese sensation.

The cream puff craves for Beard Papa’s is like the crave for Krispy Kreme in North America, with long line-up. When we were there just after 2pm, we have to line up for 1/2 hour for the cream puff.

The shells of the cream puff are baked in customized ovens placed within visibility of the customers. The custard is filled into the shell just before they pack them up for the customer and I guess this is to maintain the freshness of the product. I remembered seeing a sign which says it’s recommended to consume the cream puff immediately after purchased or refrigerate them and consume within the same day.

There is also a sign posted at the cashier that says each customer is limited to only 1 dozen of cream puff. It is visible from the sign that the original limitation is 2 dozens. That shows that the business is so good that they can’t cope up with.

As for now, only the original custard cream puff is available at the store. It sells at $1.75 each and $9.50 for half a dozen.

The shell of the cream puff is lightly crunchy and the custard filing is creamy and smooth and not too sweet. Ben and I love this but my kids just said so, so.

I’m looking forward for their new products to be introduced in the Richmond store which includes a cream puff that will be dipped in chocolate like an Eclair and a fondant au chocolate which is a single serving of chocolate cake that oozes Belgian chocolate like a lava cake.

It’s cake meet Tuesday again. This time, Christine joined Polly and I to Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery for a sweet tooth fix. This is the first time we come to this place and we did not have a pleasant experience. I’ll tell you why later.

Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery is located at 3150 West Broadway between Trutch St and Balaclava St. The business is geared more on the take out than eat in although they have a tea room for sit in customer.

Our bad experience came to the fact that we are only allowed to eat the cake we purchased at the tea room with extra service charge provided that we get a drink too. A sign posted in the tea room indicated that there in a minimum charge of $3 or $4 with reading.

Anyway. since we were there already, we just agreed on the extra service charge. Moreover, they do not allow photography of their counter displays as they told me that they do not want other people to copy their products. Hmm, what do you think about that comment?

Here is what we ordered. Christine and I ordered coffee which came in a small metal jug. It is somewhat unique. The coffee costs $1.70.

Polly ordered a Hot Chocolate for $2.50.

We got ourselves a small Blueberry Cheesecake to share. It costs $8.95 but with the service charge, it comes to $10.50.

The Blueberry Cheesecake is very sweet. We had to scrape off the thick layer of confectionery sugar on the top as it’s way too sweet. This cheesecake is also not a full cheesecake as it is a cake with blueberry cheese filing. Polly and I would prefer a full cheesecake.

Well, if you ask me if I would come back again or not, my answer is probably not.

Polly and I had resumed our cake meet since the school reopened in September. However, we cant find any new place to go to, so we had been visiting our old favourite places like Le BonBon Cafe and ll Pappagallo Cafe. If you have a favourite place of yours, please share with us as we are running out of ideas of where to go.

We discovered the Diplomat Bakery through the Richmond News Readers’ Choice Award. Even though we live in Richmond, we have never been to this bakery before.

The Diplomat Bakery is awarded with the best bakery and best cake shop and best desserts for 4 years since 2004. We had trouble locating the store because the Richmond News printed their new address on London Road which is south on No. 2 Road, near the Dyke. The Diplomat Bakery will be moving to this new location in the middle of October.

There are quite a number of cakes, tarts, bars, pies and biscotti in the bakery. The prices ranges from $2 to $3.50 per slice.

We ordered three slices of cakes to share. The first one is a Mango Creme Cheese Cake which costs $3.50 per slice. This cake has a very strong mango flavour which is balanced by a light creme in between layers of cake.

This second slice is a European Cheese Cake. I like this cheese cake because it is light and has a light fruity flavour. This slice also costs $3.50.

Since we already ordered two slices of cheese cake, we ordered an Espresso Chocolate Fudge cake for a change. This slice is very chocolaty and rich and only costs $2.

I’m glad that we found Diplomat Bakery and we will certainly come back again. We’ll be visiting their new location then.