All Entries in the "Dining Out" Category

Washington DC: Breakfast at The Waffle Shop

We slept like a baby the first night in Washington DC.  We had no idea how tired we really were.  We were well rested … well … except that Suanne woke up with a stiff neck.  The pillows she selected at the hotel were too soft for her.

We had a real early start.  That second day in DC is what we call the “museum day”.  Our plan is to cover the places and sights along the National Mall east of the Washington Monument.  We planned on also visiting the White House.

While trying to get our bearing outside the hotel, a tourism ambassador of sort approached us asking if we needed help.  I was really impressed even though Suanne and I looked every part a lost tourist.  We said we just wanted to find a place for breakfast and she promptly said that we should head to a place called The Waffle House just across from Ford’s Theatre, the place where Abraham Lincoln was shot.  Sounds like a great idea.

The Waffle House, located on 522 10th St NW, is just a short walk from our hotel.  It was quite an interesting place to say the least.  There is a newspaper clipping from The Washington Post pasted outside the window that says:

Legend has it that Mr Lincoln really wanted to dine here that bad night, but the missus refused to sit on stools that swivel, so they went to the theater across the street instead …

I thought it was kind of funny.  Actually the article did not say which “Mr Lincoln” and everyone just assumed that it was Abe they were referring to.

Their breakfast special was quite interesting.  This is exactly the kind of place we wanted for breakfast … wow, scrapple!  That is until we went in … and was kind of disappointed that it’s not exactly a waffle place but looks like they are owned by Chinese.

They do serve both American style home cook food and also Chinese American food.

we had coffee and hot chocolate.  They came is small cups, much smaller than I am used to.  It was alright … nothing to shout about.

Since this place is called The Waffle House, we ordered a waffle.  There is nothing special about this anyway.  It’s just waffle.

Have you guys heard of Scrapple before?  I had not.  I ordered that simply because it is something I had never heard of before.  Apparently this is a regional food native to this part of the world.  I bet no one in the west coast knows what a Scrapple is.

Scrapple sounds good but the description is nasty.  It is basically sausage with pork scraps like liver, head, heart and what nots!  Yup, the parts of meat leftover from butchering.  Well, they take these and mush it into a loaf.

How was it?  It looked nasty and it tasted nasty.  Maybe if they did not describe it that way, I might have thought it was good.  Suanne refuse to try a bite of it.  Sorry guys, we were from Canada.

[hmmm ... on second thoughts, I should not have said it's nasty because Chinese dig this kind of food too!]

Suanne stuck with a normal breakfast and opted for the Grilled Chicken, 2 Eggs and Home Fries.  It was great and filling.  We wanted to have a big breakfast and just snack through lunch and so this is just perfect.

We love especially the Homestyle Fries.  I had never seen fries made this way before but they are like hash browns.  They made it crispy.

Suanne’s breakfast came with toasts too.

It was fun eating here.  The owner is very chatty and funny.  Knowing that we’re tourists he asked us a lot questions and we had a great time.  Oh, this is not a tourist joint … far from it.  We see almost all their customers are locals which makes it kind of ideal for us.

Total came up to $21 including tips.  Oh yeah … we were mindful that here in the US, they tip 15% … not 10% like we do in Canada.  LOL!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Washington DC: Sbarro Lunch in Union Station

By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and dropped off our bags it was already past 2PM.  We were not too hungry but decided that we should just get something to eat since we only had cereals for breakfast.  I guess it must have been the excitement that we’re not feeling that hungry.  We asked the hotel’s front desk where we could find food and they pointed us to the Union Station.

The Union Station is an old station built at the turn of the 20th century.  At that time, train travel is the main form of long distance travel.  The city designed and built this station as a ceremonial station and as a grand entrance to the city of Washington DC.  Today it is the main train hub in Washington DC.  We started our day from this station everyday.

Considering this a building of over a hundred years old, it is amazing that it looked so new.  I felt that this station is brighter and better maintained than the more famous Grand Central Terminal in New York City.  Like many other buildings in Washington DC, the ceiling is designed with sunken panels.

Washington DC was unbelievably hot and humid in summer.  We were more thirsty than anything.  We walked around the level where there were a few places to eat and decided to stop by Sbarro.  I saw a lot of Sbarro when I was in New York City and decided to try it.  Sbarro is a fast food joint that serves Italian food.

It was not cheap, I recall.  We just had this slice of pizza and …

… and a side pasta.  This came to almost $10.  We had a quick bite and then headed out to the US Capitol.

Popularity: 21% [?]

Wing Kee Restaurant in Richmond

Suanne and I had just sent off our boys for summer camp.  They will be away for a full two weeks in Vancouver Island.  While they are away, Suanne and I took the opportunity to scoot off on a vacation on our own.

We did not want to go far for dinner because we had to get to the airport in just a couple of hours.  We drove down to Granville in Richmond and found this place called Wing Kee.

Wing Kee (also known as New Wing Kee) is located on the south side of Granville between Buswell and St Albans.  From the outside, it looked very plain.  Not really caring what we wanted we went in … and found a gem of a place.

Wing Kee seems like a Cantonese place as everyone speaks impecable Cantonese here.  I am not sure about you but I swear can make out the difference between a Mainland China Chinese and non-Mainland China Chinese.  Here, the customers speaks, dresses and behaves very much like the “older” generation of Chinese immigrants … i.e. the folks from Hongkong who migrated to Vancouver in droves in the 1990s before HK were reverted to China.

One thing I observed too … that it seems like they are expert foodies here and ordering unique dishes food that we had never quite seen before.

We ordered from the English menu.  I so wished I could read Chinese as the special dishes are pasted on the wall, just like they do in old China.  Expert foodies ordered from these on the wall while we ordered from the English menu.  Sigh … the English menu had chop suey on it.

I leave the ordering of Chinese Tea to Suanne.  She ordered “Heung Peen”.  I can’t really tell one type of Chinese Tea to another.  So … can you tell me your favourite type of Chinese Tea and tell me why you like it?  We will try to order different types next time.

Besides “Heung Peen”, Suanne sometimes orders “Tit Goon Yum” and “Gook Bow” (that’s in Cantonese).

Suanne and I ordered two dishes.  The first one was the Egg White Spinach.  We decided on this by pointing to the neighboring tables and not from the English menu.  It was an excellent dish.

The dish contained a mish mash of eggs … century eggs, salted eggs, and egg white.  We especially liked roasted garlic cloves which balances out the slight saltiness from the eggs.  The broth too was great.  This must have been only of Wing Kee’s specialty as quite a lot of tables ordered this.

Wing Kee boasted that their Hongkong Style Fried Crab is “Best Taste in Town. Guaranteed!”.  It is written on the walls and on the front of their menu.  And since we see quite a lot of tables also had crab, we ordered that too.

This one costs $11.80 per pound.  We ordered 1 crab and it came at almost 3 lbs and also quite meaty too.  It is slightly spicy and surprisingly very moist.  We enjoyed this a lot and highly recommend you try it for yourself.

They gave free dessert which we appreciated a lot.

Besides crabs, I see a few tables ordering lobster too.  I had no idea how much that will cost as it is served in quite an elaborate manner — it came in something like three separate servings.

The meal costs $53 including tips and taxes.  It’s quite expensive don’t you think?  However, I highly recommend Wing Kee.

Alright … starting tomorrow, I’ll start in a new series.  This will be a series of our 2 week vacation to Washington DC, Philadelphia and New York City.  Stay tuned.

Popularity: 43% [?]

Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant in Richmond

One of our favorite weekend restaurants is the Silver Tower Cafe.  For all the times we chose to eat around the neighborhood, we had always went to Silver Tower and ignored the Matsuyama Japanese Restaurant even though it had a more prominent front.

Since our boys wanted sushi, we decided to go in and check it out.

The Matsuyama is located on the eastern end of Alexandra Road.  Parking is terrible around here but we normally could get a spot if we wait for a while.  We almost always have someone pull out within 5-10 minutes max even on peak lunch time.

Looking at their menu, we were wondering why it took us so long to visit this place.  They have lots of choices … not just sushi.  What we like is their prices.

Between the four of us, we ordered two lunch boxes and two sets of sushi.  These Bentos costs only $7.95 each.

The miso soup came together with the bentos.

Their Maki Combos are $6.95 which I felt was quite alright.  See the cucumbers?  Well, our boys does not eat cucumber and they had to be picked out before our boys touches it.  Suanne ends up eating the cucumbers all the time.

They serve the makis on wooden platform “plates”.  I believe this is the traditional way of serving sushi in Japan.

The total bill came to just over $32.  We had originally wanted to order one of their Party Platters which ranges from $26.50 (41 pcs) to $50 (56 pcs) but they needed at least an advance order of 1 hour.  They do deliver free from 5pm to 11pm.

Popularity: 23% [?]

Golden Spring Szechuan Restaurant in Richmond

Since the last time we had Szechuan food at the Golden Szechuan Restaurant, I was was intrigued with the cuisine from the south western province of China.  For many of you Szechuan (or now being spelt as Sichuan), was where the devastating earthquake in May 2008 that killed about 70,000 people.

Here is a little bit of what I learned about Chinese cuisine and where Szechuan cuisine stands.  Chinese cuisine are officially categorized into 10 regional cuisines.  These cuisines are as follows:

1. Cantonese
2. Shanghai
3. Beijing
4. Sichuan
5. Anhui
6. Fujian
7. Hunan
8. Jiangsu
9. Shangdon
10. Zhejiang

Of the above I can only recognize Cantonese, Shanghai and Sichuan.  As you can see, there’s a lot to discover for me concerning Chinese cuisine.

Suanne and I went to this little known place called the Golden Spring Szechuan Restaurant.  Frankly, the reason why we went there was the word Szechuan.  We had absolutely no idea how good or bad they were.

The Golden Spring Szechuan Restaurant is located on 4200 No 3 Road in Richmond.  It is on the east side of No 3.

The restaurant seem quite clean … not too upscale because they don’t use white table cloth.  We noticed that everyone speaks Mandarin here which is good because we see it as a sign that “real” Mainland Chinese eat here.

Since its just the two of us, we ordered two dishes.  The first one was the Chongqing Style Spicy and Dry Chicken.  This one costs $12.95 and has more than enough for two people.

The chicken is cut into small piece with bones intact and is deep fried.  It is so crunchy that the bones are soft and edible (if you want to).

The chili and Sichuan peppercon used here is very, very spicy.  It is so spicy that it’s tongue and lips numbing and I can feel the heat radiating on my tongue for quite sometime.  if you like the spicy challenge, this is a good one to try.

The other dish is simply named Spicy Pork with Brown Sauce.  This one costs $12.95.

All the meat has a thick layer of delicious tender fat and the thick sauce (someone called this “jup”, juice!)  is simply marvelous with steamed rice.

I am not sure why this is called spicy (maybe an error on the English translation on the menu) as it was not spicy at all.

This is served in a bowl and underneath the mound of tender pork cubes were greens.  A nice touch I must say.

The total bill was not too bad.  It’s just $28.25.  We had some of them to go and that says that there is more than enough even for three people.

I recommend this place.  One more place for you all to check out!

Popularity: 23% [?]

Chubby Lamb Hotpot Restaurant in Richmond

I can’t remember where the boys were or what they were doing — maybe they were at the movies with the neighbors.  After all, it was more than a month ago.  Suanne and I found ourselves alone and wondering what to eat for dinner.  We drove around for a bit before deciding to go for hot pot.  This is only our second hot pot dinner.  Our first was at the Posh Sukiyaki Restaurant which we enjoyed a lot.

There are a few Hot Pot restaurants in Richmond but we ended up with one that is located at the restaurant row on Alexandria in Richmond.  We blindly selected this place simply from it’s name.  Chubby Lamb sounded like a great place.

Being newbies in hot pot, we quickly learned that one MUST make a reservation for hot pot restaurants, especially the popular ones.  Actually before we went to Chubby Lamb, we went to another who told us that the next available table is in 2 hours!

Chubby Lamb was better … they told us they can accommodate us walk-in’ers but we have only 1 hour.  Take it or leave it, no choice and sorry, they said.  Not wanting to go to another place and quite bent on having hot pot that day, we said OK.

Mind you, hot pot places are basically AYCE’s (All-You-Can-Eat) places and so you can imagine how rushed we must have felt to gobble down as much as possible before our 1 hour is up.

BTW, Chubby Lamb charges $17.75 per person.

First, we ordered drinks.  They recommended what they call Sour Plum “Soup”.  That is the literal translation for this drink … soup.  We did not quite like it and such a waste too since they gave us an entire jug of it.

For the hot pot broth, they have lots of choices … about 6 to 8 if I recall correctly.  The soup is not free — they charge on top of the $17.75 per head AYCE price.  The hot pot broth ranges from $5 to $12.

We opted for the ying-yang … one plain broth and another spicy.  It surely does look spicy and were warned clearly enough that they are spicy.  To us, it was not too spicy … just alright.

We like their sauces.  They gave us four types … sesame, chili, BBQ and the normal soya sauce.  It was good experimenting what goes well with what sauce.

The problem is that they do NOT have English order forms.  The order forms are in Chinese.  They offered to pick for us but … he he he … we said no lest they give us only the cheap stuff.  We asked the waitress to read each item for us which we can see she was not too pleased because the place was so busy.

We ended up with quite a lot of food.  So much that they had to bring another side table to place the plates.

It was great.  Three things I remember about this … (1) the meat was really fresh, (2) the stock was good and (3) the prawns were huge.  For the price we paid, it was well worth it.

We ended up taking more than 1 hour.  Strange thing is they came and surprised us when they asked if we wanted to order more when our 1 hour is almost up.  They sort of insisted we order more and said that there are still more time.  I think they allowed us more time because we were conspicuously taking pictures and taking notes of the meal.  Being food bloggers have it’s advantages.  :-)

The total bill for the two of us came up to $51.35 ($57 with tips).  I recommend Chubby Lamb even though it is a bit more expensive than Posh’s.  You better make a reservation before you go, especially at peak dinner times.

Their address is 8391 Alexandra Road and their phone number is 604-303-8843.

Click the link below to see what we had.

Popularity: 37% [?]