After the Sun Run, we decided to go for sushi. I knew the boys would have loved it and planned to go to the Sushi Garden located along Kingsway across the street from Metrotown. However, the very popular Sushi Garden was closed. Dashed!

So we walked a few doors away and went instead to a smaller Sushi restaurant. It is called Yakko Sushi (located on 4689 Kingsway). There a quite a few sushi restaurants in this stretch of Kingsway … at least four that I can think of.

I have learned to like Kikkoman soya sauce which is sweet. At Yakko they serve Yamasa soya sauce. I don’t quite like this Yamasa brand. It had a stronger intense taste and a bit too salty for me. Not sure about you but I use the soya sauce to flavor the rice.

Oh, what do you think of the practice of mixing wasabi with soya sauce? I see a lot of people do that but I find that taste strange.

We opted to get one of their Party Trays. Their Party Tray H costs $27.00 which was just enough for the four of us. I felt that it was a bit expensive because I think we can get more for $27 just a few door down at Akasuka Sushi. Anyway we have about 49 pieces in all in this plate.

Oh, I had seen some places where they serve such things on wooden boats. That would have been fun for the boys but this place did not have that. It was kind of boring the way they presented it on the large plate.

The simple Salmon and Tuna Rolls were the first everyone dug into. I think this is because it is the easiest and least messiest to eat. I believe this type of maki is called Hosumaki … simple, small maki with a single filling.

Then there are the Pressed Smoked Salmon. We did not like these nigiri sushi in that they had smoked salmon … would have preferred fresh salmon on it. We noticed that there is a thin nori in between the rice … not sure what the purpose of that though.

Then there are the uramaki, which is basically made of three layers … rice in the outside with fillings in the outside and a nori in between them. I gather that this is not Japanese but rather types of sushi to suit the North American taste (i.e. more meat, bigger pieces and and more importantly COOKED!).

So. those you see above are the California Roll & Smoked Salmon Roll. The California Roll is quite popular in Vancouver. You can get it everywhere. Key ingredient of the California Roll are crab meat and avocado.

Above is the BC Roll & Yakko Roll. The BC Roll is the pride of British Columbia. It is the one on the left. We love BC Rolls. It has salmon which is grilled in a sweet sauce and a bit of cucumber. My boys pull out the cucumber every time — they hate cucumbers.

Futomaki is simply giant maki. They are much bigger but thinner. Reminds a lot of the Korean whatchamacallit sushi which is more coined shaped. This one is a vegetarian style Futomaki. The boys did not touch it, I am a meat person and so guess who ended having to finish this off.

Nice! I think we’ll go for more such type of sushis in future.

Not sure about you but Ramen does conjure images of school days when we could not afford three square meals and all we had was meals after meals of instant noodles. For some reason, I loved instant noodles then. Am not sure what it is about instant noodles and kids … my boys are simply addicted to those stuff too.

We went to Ajisen Ramen not too long ago for dinner with Nanzaro. Since he likes noodles, we thought we should just give it a try. Ajisen is located in the Parker Place Mall in Richmond. It’s on the eastern side of the mall, the part facing Hazelbridge Way. You won’t miss it, driving along Hazebridge.

Inside, it does look kind of Japanese with gaudy coloured pink chairs and all. When we walked in they shouted greetings in Japanese. I’ve never been to Japan before but my impression of how a Japanese restaurant is like is exactly just like that.

Despite that pretense, to us it is a Cantonese restaurant because the people who work there all spoke in Cantonese.

We got seated and was promptly handed the menu. ALL menus should be like these if you ask me. Simple names and pictures to show how it looks like (or at least how it is supposed to look like). I like especially the “Recommended!” notations above some of the dishes. It takes brain work out of choosing from an unfamiliar menu.

The condiments on the tables were interesting. We like roasted minced garlic but what was really exciting was the whatchamacallit chili sprinkles. Boy, they sure was HOT. We can really take hot food but this one has a lot of oomph. Try with caution!

I ordered the Ajisen Spicy Ramen which costs $7.75. When I ordered I was asked the degree of spiciness I wanted it. It was a choice of something like 50, 100 and 150 degrees. Whatever the choices were, I knew I ordered the “150″.

Oh boy! It surely must have been one of the most spicy dishes I had ever tried. I mean, I grew up with spicy food but this one is too spicy for me. My tongue and lips were actually numbed by it, no kidding. I was sweating profusely and felt a tad dizzy. Whew! It was great fun.

If you ask me if I would order this again … I’d say I would.

BTW, what do you call this kind of ramen in milky broth? Hakata Ramen, right?

Suanne and I are beyond speechless with Nanzaro. They ordered (what else?) fried rice AGAIN! Ajisen had Chicken Fried Rice for $7.75. It was quite fragrant. Thumbs up from Nanzaro … he knows fried rice.

Suanne ordered the Tenderous Ribs Rice Set which costs $7.50. Suanne likes food served in many dishes, the more the better.

It was quite good. It was like half tendons and half shanks. Actually, Suanne never liked tendons but ordered this since it was one of the “Recommended!” items on the menu. She had the leaner meat and left the delicious tendons to me.

The total bill comes to $28 including tax and tips. We love this and will definitely visit again some day … I just got to try the 150 degrees ramen noodles again.

Last year’s spring break, Polly and I brought our kids to Tomokasu Japanese Restaurant in Vancouver for birthday celebration of a few of them which fall in March. This year, we did it again, but we do not have to travel so far. A new Japanese Restaurant, Ninkazu has just opened in Richmond. It’s a sister company of Tomokasu.

Ninkazu Japanese Restaurant is located at #205-4231 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond. It is on the second floor of the small strip mall between Parker Place and Aberdeen Center.

This is the view from our table.

The interior deco is very similar to Tomokasu. We were there at 11:30 am when the restaurant just opened and we were one of the first customers there.

We had the all you can eat lunch which costs $9.95 for adults and $6.95 for children 4 to 9. Apparently, this restaurant also serves all you can eat hot pot in the evening. Check out their website for the details.

Here were some of the items we ordered:

For starters, we had the Miso Soup, Ebi Sunomono (Shrimp and Vermicelli in sourish soup) and Goma-Ae (Japanese Spinach Salad).

The star of this all you can eat is the Sashimi. We can only order limited serving of Salmon Sashimi and or Tuna Sashimi per person, so we ordered all that we can. The boys just love sashimi, Salmon only.

The Seafood Motoyaki is served in aluminium container instead of oyster shell.

We also ordered some rolls like California Roll, BC Roll, Alaska Roll, Dynamite Roll and Tomo Roll. Other than the California Roll, I have no idea which is which.

Chicken Karrage, deep fried chicken wing is Polly’s favourite.

Click on the link below for more photos.

continue reading "Ninkazu Japanese Restaurant in Richmond"

Polly, me and the kids celebrated the arrival of spring at Tomokasu Japanese Restaurant on West Broadway, just next to Toy-r-us. Coincidentally, that day was Polly’s family landing anniversary. We also took this opportunity to celebrate the birthdays of our kids which fall in March. There are four March birthday kids in the group.

Tomokasu serves all you can eat; $9.95 for lunch, $21.95 for dinner and $11.95 for late-night. They also have regular menu which goes by the item you order. Check out their website for more details.

We were there very early, just before 11:30 am; their opening time. We were sitted at a Japanese style table where we have to remove our shoes and sat on benches around a square table.

As usual we were served green tea and the condiments like wasabi.

We ordered the Miso Soup, Goma-Ae (Sesame Spinach) and Ebi Sunomono Salad (Prawn Salad) as a starter.

Come along are the Beef and Chicken Teriyaki.

There is a limit of two orders per person for Sashimi. The boys love Sashimi and we ordered all that we can. Apparently, the kids do not quite like the Tuna Sashimi. They preferred the Salmon Sashimi.

Here are the rest of our orders…

Various types of cones like Chopped Scallop Cone, Spicy Seafood Cone, Spicy Tuna Cone and Wakame Cone. Spicy Tuna Cone is Nanzaro’s favourite. Arkensen also ordered one of his favourite which is California Roll.

Polly ordered her favourite Deep Fried Chicken Wings, which is very crispy on the outside and moist inside.

We also the two types of Motoyaki available which is Portuguese Seafood Motoyaki and Regular Seafood Motoyaki. The Portuguese Seafood Motoyaki has a hint of curry taste in it but we still prefer the regular ones.

The Salmon and Tuna Sushi is another of the boys favourite and we ordered two rounds of these.

We also ordered the Tonkatsu (Deep Fried Pork Chop) and Chicken Katsu (Deep Fried Chicken Chop). However, the kids do like these as they are dry and tough.

We also ordered Salmon Maki and other rolls like BC Roll and Alaskan Roll.

This is the Deep Fried Spring Roll served with sweet chili sauce.

Lastly, we ordered the Jell-O for dessert and we were also served some sliced oranges.

It was a good meal as everyone was really full and satisfied. The only draw back was that the service is slightly slow during the peak lunch hour. We had a little trouble getting the attention of the waiters at times. Perhaps because our table is at the very far end.

After the meal, we decided to go to Queen Elizabeth Park for a walk as it was a very nice spring day. Click on the link below for photos from Queen Elizabeth Park.

continue reading "Tomokasu Japanese Restaurant, West Broadway"

I just found this very interesting YouTube video on eating sushi from this site.  I just gotta share it.  Enjoy!

I brought Nanzaro to visit the Petronas Twin Towers. He wanted to go up the middle span which I had blogged on about two months ago. Unfortunately we did not get the chance to get up to the towers because the tickets for the day had all been issued. Too bad.

Nanzaro said that he wanted sushi. We went around looking for one and found a Sushi King outlet in the KLCC Suria food court. There are dozen of Sushi Kings all over Malaysia and is perhaps the most popular chain of sushi restaurant in the country.

Sushi King features what they call “revolving sushi” where customers sit around a revolving conveyor belt and pick the sushi of their choice from a revolving conveyor belt.

I did not want any sushi and so I just waited while Nanzaro eat. He picked the salmon nigiri sushi. He took two plates. I noticed that there are orangey stains in the plates from the salmon. I thought it was weird because salmon don’t leave stains. I think the restaurants colour them to make it look more vibrant. Yew …

Moreover, the salmon slices are so thin.

He also chose a maki … not sure what it is though.

Well, Nanzaro enjoyed it. That three plates costs about RM16 (CAD $5) which I thought was pretty expensive by Malaysian and Canadian standards.

Thanks for enduring my many postings on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia. This is the final posting in this series. From tomorrow I am gonna take a long rest from blogging and pass the baton over to Suanne. It was just a 2 week trip but did manage to blog 28 entries in all. Wow, Suanne had not blogged for 4 straight weeks — that’s not fair!

Joyce treated me to dinner at the Zipangu Japanese Restaurant in the Shangrila Kuala Lumpur. The Shangrila KL is perhaps still the No 1 hotel in KL. It used to have been voted as the No 1 hotel in the world. Joyce had a corporate membership in the hotel. For that she gets 50% off.

We were deciding over whether we should go for the RM$98 (US$ 25+) Buffet or try something different. We opted for the Japanese restaurant because there were a long queue at the buffet restaurant waiting to break fast (it was Ramadhan then).

The entrance were grand. We had to wind our way along walls of wine. Pretty amazing and I was thinking … gosh! how much is this meal gonna cost!!

The restaurant were impressively laid out. We could see the kitchen at work from where we were. This is so authentically high end Japanese restaurant. The service were prompt. They must have the best waiters and waitresses in the entire city. They not only looked pretty/handsome but they do come across as very intelligent and professional.

Joyce and I could not recognize most of what was in the menu. So, we opted for the Set Dinner. Each set dinner costs RM98, same price as the buffet. I went for the Tempura Set Dinner while Joyce chose the Salmon Set Dinner.

What came first was a tea pot for each of us! I initially thought that it was tea.

Opening the lid, we found out that it is soup with piece of meat in it. We mulled for sometime over how we’re supposed to take this. That was when the waiter came over and ever so politely explained to us the dish.

You see, we are suppose to first pour the soup into a small plate and sip from it. Forget the lime on the plate — it’s supposed to be squeezed into the pot.

After the soup’s gone, we picked the meat from the pot and eat it from the plate. It’s basically one prawn and mushrooms. This was really good — great start.

They also served a small bowl of salad. I am never a fan of cold salad.

Next dish looked good until we’re told that it’s duck liver! I wished they did not described this to me because it tasted really good. At this point, I really felt like one of the judges on Iron Chef tasting unique and exotic food.

Some vegetables. Nice and crunchy … don’t know what it is called. I like it even though it is a cold dish.

This is Joyce’s salmon main dish. The salmon fillet looked too small to me. Joyce said it was really good.

Oh yeah, what do you call this? Daikon?

This is my partly eaten Tempura main dish. It was not bad but compared to Joyce’s salmon, I wished I had ordered that instead.

Miso soup … must have miso soup, right? BTW, is it right that the proper way to drink it is to slurp as loud as possible straight from the bowl? I guess it is because they did not give us soup spoons like those we find in chinese meals.

We ended up with green tea ice cream with a dash of red bean paste. It was quite different but would still prefer chocolate anytime!

For Malaysian standards, this meal is really expensive. For Canadian standards, this is a steal. Anyway, thanks for this meal Joyce. It was great meeting up with you again and catching up on old times.

So … here it is … the last posting on my trip to Singapore and Malaysia! What do you think? You think I had fun? At the end of the two weeks I was hopelessly home sick and was just dying to get home to Vancouver.

Recipes for the next few weeks … no more travel … over to you, Suanne!

A glutton is never satisfied.
~ Namibian Proverb

It’s been a while since we had sushi and the boys wanted sushi for lunch too. Suanne also wanted to try the Top Gun Sushi I went to a few weeks ago. So, we made our way to the Top Gun Sushi at the New West Quay.

The all-you-can-eat is more expensive on the weekends. It costs about $11 for adults and $7 for kids age 6-9. He he he … the waiters thought the boys were below 9 years and we kept quiet … don’t ask, don’t tell, right?

All-you-can-eat Shashimi is $2 extra for adults. Norman can just eat shashimi alone. We ordered 28 pieces in all. The pieces are small but rather fresh.

Suanne started off with cold noodles from the salad bar. I don’t know what that means when Suanne said they were “refreshing”. :-) It’s had a bit of lemon and is sourish.

I scooped some fried noodles from the salad bar too. They do look nice and I especially like it that they are not greasy.

We also ordered a lot of nigiri’s. We ordered a few of each types. At the background (kind of blurred) was the fried smelt. They don’t look good but tastes great.

Suanne’s favourite is the motoyaki. She had quite of few of the salmon motoyaki and oyster motoyaki’s.

We ordered the beef teriyaki and ginger pork. It would have been better if they are served with rice. Eating them alone does not seem right. We also ordered the grilled salmon belly and cheek.

And finally, tofu and fried chicken wings.

I am full … no dinner tonight.

If you find no fish, you have to eat bread.
~ Ghanaian Proverb

The folks in the Service and R&R Project teams went to an all-you-can-eat sushi. They selected the one which is called Top Gun Sushi at the Quay. It is located on the second floor of the Public Market at the New Westminster Quay. I have never been there before but I have heard so much about Top Gun Sushi. Although it has ala carte but it is famous for it’s all-you-can-eat.

We went early and arrived at 11:30am to make sure we have a table. It was a great idea because the place was really packed, especially so because it’s a Friday afternoon. We had a great table by the window which overlooks the Fraser river.

The sushi was good, the selection was similar to the many all-you-can-eat sushis in the city. The prices are pretty cheap compared to some other places I went to. Here are the prices:

Adult: $9.95 weekday and $10.95 weekend Child (4-9 years old): $5.95 weekday and $6.95 weekend All-you-can-eat Salmon and Tuna Sashimi is just $2 extra — pretty good deal.

Here are some of the items we ordered (CLICK ON THE PICTURES FOR A LARGER VIEW):

So thanks a bunch for buying this lunch and for being such great project team members. I want to say that you are the reasons that our projects has consistently been successful. We delivered a lot didn’t we?

Health food makes me sick.
~ Calvin Trillian (1935 - )

Today is our anniversary as new Canadians. Coincidentally, this week is also the week we landed in Canada. We decided to celebrate these two special occasions by eating out somewhere more than our regular budget — as we always do every year. I wanted to try out this new Malaysian restaurant (called Cafe D’light) along West Broadway which was featured in the local papers but Arkensen and Nanzaro both wanted sushi, all-you-can-eat sushi! We had all-you-can-eat sushi last year in Sui Sha Ya but we decided this year to go to Richmond Sushi in Union Square along Capstan Way. We have been to Richmond Sushi once before — it was decent and not too expensive. There are a lot of nice restaurants in Union Square.

Well, this place has both ala-carte and all-you-can-eat. We opted for all-you-can-eat. We asked for a pick list and left the first round selection to Suanne. Of course, both Arkensen and Nanzaro wanted to weigh in on what is chosen.

Arkensen asked for a total of 12 salmon sushi! Arkensen loves raw salmon and can eat just that and nothing else. The all-you-can-eat menu does not have sashimi for lunch and so the next best thing for Arkensen is the salmon sushi. Here he is picking off the salmon pieces first:

Nanzaro will eat just about anything except for green peas. Nanzaro started off with his beef udon. His favourite was the spicy tuna rolls. He had quite a lot of that.

Here are some of the pictures of the other selections we made. I wish I could have taken more pictures. The first picture of the teriyaki salmon below is surprisingly good. Other items we selected were miso soup, motoyaki (Suanne’s favourite!), fried smelt, fried rice, yaki soba, grilled salmon head, gyoza and some tofu.

As always, we ended up stuffing ourselves too full. Arkensen was the first one to give up and to our surprise, Nanzaro was the sole survivor! We had quite a bit left over. Suanne left this eye from her grilled salmon head. Here it is looking at you …

Overall damage was $53 (that is inclusive of taxes and tips). We had a walk around the block after the heavy meal. We went also to the chinese market next door and bought some globe grapes (Ben’s favourite). Here are our ratings … from a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best):

Arkensen: 5
Nanzaro: 5
Mum: 4
Dad: 3.8796