All Entries in the "Cake & Dessert" Category

Ebisu Japanese Restaurant on No 3 Rd and Ackroyd Rd, Richmond

Polly and I went to the Ebisu Japanese Restaurant for lunch during the Olympic weeks as we do not want to go to Vancouver with all the restricted parking. It’s kind of hard to find new dessert places too. Recommendations are most welcome. The only requirement is that it must open for breakfast or lunch at least.

The Ebisu Japanese Restaurant in Richmond is located in the Ackroyd Mall. There are two other Ebisu in Vancouver, Ebisu on Robson and another at West Broadway.

What brought me to Ebisu in Richmond is the above advertisement. I wanted to try their Izakaya items. But, unfortunately, the above are only available at dinner time. What a bummer.

Luckily, they have the lunch special going during our visits. It’s $2.88 per item, minimum order of 3 per person. Polly and I opted for the lunch special since they are light tapas.

Ebisu has clean lines and spacious setting. We were there at 11:30 am when they just open for lunch and I managed to take a photo without the crowd. It was quite full during lunch time. Most of them look like office workers. Service is prompt but not rush.

We ordered the miso soup for 50cents extra. The miso soup has generous amount of tofu and green onions. Just right for the rainy winter day when we were there.

We started off with Sesame Seaweed for appetizer. Love the crunchiness of the seaweed and the mild sesame flavour.

Next, we had the Chikuwa Cheese which is fish cake filled with cheese and deep fried. The melting cheese adds richness to the lightly crunchy fish cake. You have to eat this immediately when served.

The Prawn and Vegetable Tempura came with … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

True Confections on Denman, Vancouver

Suanne likes desserts. She likes all kinds of desserts. It does not matter if it is cakes or pastries or ice-cream or cookies … even Asian type desserts like red bean soup. It does not take a lot to get her to go out to have dessert.

She goes for her dessert fix with Polly every Friday. The problem is she has to go according to Polly’s schedule which is only a couple of hours in at noon. The thing is also most of the better dessert places are opened at night.

After the ramen dinner at Benkei, I suggested that we go to True Confections on Denman since we are already around the area. True Confections is one of the places Suanne often says she wanted to eat in.

There are three True Confections dessert restaurants in Metro Vancouver. The other two restaurants are on West Broadway and North Vancouver.

True Confections is known for their cakes which they say is completely made in the restaurant. They also made sure that they do not have fillers, preservatives but uses only fresh ingredients. So yeah, they take their cakes very seriously.

Specifically, they are known for their very tall cakes. Some of their more popular ones looks like it is 9-10 inches tall. The ones you see above are not the taller ones, but you get the idea.

The restaurant was empty on the Friday night we were there. It was the Olympics which drew everyone away to the Olympic zones. We asked the waiter about it and he said it had been very quiet ever since the Olympics started. They had even extended the restaurant in anticipation of more Olympic traffic — but all in vain. I feel for them. If there is anything we could do to help rally people to come to places like this, we would … we should.

There are cakes, premium chocolate cakes, cheesecakes and stuff like pies and tarts. I knew what Suanne wants … cheesecake. We also cannot ignore their tall PREMIUM chocolates cakes too — they look too good to resist.

We got the simple Fresh Fruit Cheesecake which costs $8.25. They call this a Montreal-style cheesecake. We were  not sure what that means actually. We did observe that is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Wicked Cafe on W 7th Ave and Hemlock St., Vancouver

Polly and I wanted to check out the street car installed for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic which travels between the Olympic Village Canada Line Station and Granville Island from Jan 21 to March 21.  So, we had our Friday cake meet at Wicked Cafe at 1399 W 7th Ave and Hemlock St., which is on the way to Granville Island.

It was a bright sunny day with some chill in the air. When we arrived at Wicked Cafe around 11:00 am., it was absolutely full house. We had to sit at the patio even though it’s a bit chilly. Fortunately, the sun was out and seated at the patio felt like a spring day.

Polly had a Latte for $2.90. It is very common for coffee shop to serve latte with some latte art. If you like latte art, check out this post and click on more for some amazing latte art.

I decided to have a Chai Latte for $3.55 since… More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Where Can We Find Shaobing in Vancouver?

This is a continuation quest for a reader, Michelle who wrote to me to find restaurants which serve Shaobing. I contacted a few of my Taiwanese friends and two of them recommended me to this place which sells traditional Taiwanese Shaobing. So, I made it a point to check out this place during my ladies meet day with Polly.

My Taiwanese friend, Emily told me that Shaobing stuffed with Chinese donut is a very typical breakfast item.

The place that my friends recommended is located on the second floor of President Plaza in Richmond, next to T&T Supermarket and across Aberdeen Center.

It is a stall at a small foodcourt. The stall name is Yung Ho Soy Drink. Apparently, this name is quite famous in Taiwan.

Yung Ho Soy Drink serves various types of shaobing, sweet and savory. Click on the images above to have a clearer view.

Without a doubt, I wanted to try … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Waves Coffee in Steveston, Richmond

Polly and I resumed our ladies meet on Friday after a long winter break. It’s great to have some time off with a girl friend for girl talks.

Arkensen was not feeling too well that morning but he insisted to go to school. I told him if he is not getting better, he should come home and call me to let me know. So, I told Polly that we should go to somewhere in Richmond in case Arkensen comes home and I can get home quickly.

We ended up going to Waves Coffee in Steveston Village. This franchise coffee house began in 2005 at the corner of West Hasting St. and Richards in downtown Vancouver. The Richmond location is located at 12231 1st Ave, Richmond. There are 2 other major coffee chains in the near vicinity like Starbucks and Blenz Coffee. Canadians sure love coffee a lot.

Surprisingly, this place is very big. It has various types of seatings like sofas, counter seatings facing the glass wall and normal table seatings. They even have a kid table with kid chairs. No wonder, there are lots of toddlers here. We also saw some seniors, workers and people having a meeting here at the comfortable sofas. They offer baked goods, sandwiches, hot and cold beverages.

Polly got herself a Belgian Hot Chocolate. You have a choice of dark, milk or white chocolate. Polly opted for the dark chocolate. A small cup costs $3.89. I got something from the African Rooibos Tea section. The small cup of  Red Tea Latte costs $3.29. My homemade Red Espresso seemed to have stronger flavour than this.

We had three baked goods to share. The first item is a Cinnamon Twist. It is very flaky and … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Marble Slab Creamery at Ironwood Plaza, Richmond

Nanzaro reminded me that the Marble Slab Creamery coupon is expiring on the last day of 2009. He is a very persistent teenager and when he wants something, he will keep asking until he gets it. So, Nanzaro and I went for a treat in the lazy afternoon.

The Marble Slab Creamery in Richmond is located at a strip mall in Ironwood Plaza across London Drugs. We learnt from the server that it has opened since August 2009.

With a motto of ‘the freshest ice cream on earth’, Marble Slab Creamery travel far and wide to source the finest ingredients; vanilla beans from Madagascar, cocoa from Holland, to the best dipping chocolate from Sweden. The ice cream is made in the store and never processed or preserved. Marble Slab Creamery is established since 1983.

What differentiate Marble Slab Creamery from other ice cream places is that they have mixins. The mixins ranges from fresh fruits, nuts, candies, cookies and brownies.

The coupon is for a buy one get one free of a regular cone with one flavour ice cream with a mixin. Nanzaro opted for coffee flavour with Nestle crunch. Instead of the regular cone, he upgraded it to a dipped rolled cone which costs $1.45 extra. Marble Slab Creamery also hand-roll their freshly baked waffle scones in each store.
More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Yavis Club Cheesecake in Union Square, Richmond

It is great working four-day weeks for the rest of the year.

Well, my company is now forcing every employee to clear their accumulated vacation days by the end of the year, saying that if we don’t use it, we will lose it. I used to bring forward 2-3 weeks of accumulated leave every year. So in the effort to clear the days, I decided to take Fridays off for the last 7 weeks of the year.

I did not realize that Fridays are also Suanne’s Cake Meet day with Polly. Suanne was so sweet and decided to spend Fridays with me. So, to make it up to her, I told her I will be her Cake Meet date and we could go to visit the restaurants that are opened in the afternoon and evenings.

We went to Yavis Club which we heard so much of their cheesecakes. The Yavis Club is located in the Union Square (along Capstan Way) in Richmond.

Yavis Club is opened from 6PM to late on weekdays. On weekends, they open earlier at 3PM.

Nanzaro decided to tag along on our Cake Meet date. He is just bored to death at home because, well, he had been “discouraged” from playing the PS3 for some “transgressions” (to borrow the word from Tiger Woods).

The 2 year old Yavis Club is painted in a pleasant combination red, black and white with polished concrete floor. It is spacious in here but it also kind of dark.

The place is very much like a hangout for young Asian girls. We are about the only older customer there. Guys will not be seen in this kind of place if not for bringing their girlfriends here.

As for the menu, it does not have a lot of items but for each item, they have written a story behind it. The menu also described how Yavis came about and that the name is an acronym for “Young, Attractive, Verbal, Intelligent and Successful”. That acronym is based on the book “Psychotherapy: the Purchase of Friendship” by William Scofield.

Every cheesecake house is judged by how well they make their plain no-frills cheesecake. They name their cheesecake “The White Romance” ($5.25)

It was very good. It has the rich smoothness which melts in your mouth. Suanne loves this but I find it a bit too rich for my liking. It is presented with a flower made of fruity sauce outlined with chocolate.

Their other signature item is called the “Rainbow After The Dark” ($6.25). It is actually not a cheesecake in the true sense but instead it is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading