This post is written upon a package of free sample from Red Espresso. We are not paid for this post.

This came in the mail and oh yeah, its a sample for us courtesy of Red Espresso. Please note we are not paid for this blog post if that matters to any of you.

Actually there is a specific way to write the name of this unique product. It is not Red Espresso …

… it is red espresso. That is what I noticed … they made the word “red” red all the time and spelt them all in lowercases. Weird. But smart. That’s branding at its finest if you ask me.

red espresso is the world’s first espresso made of tea. It is made with Rooibos tea which is gaining popularity around the world and we had read about them before. So when red espresso asked if we would like a sample, we said sure. We were curious and wanted to see for ourselves what the fuss is all about.

What we found out was that Rooibos has all the versatility of espresso coffee. With this you could make latte, cappucino, americano, white mocha and even iced tea with apple juice. They even trademarked the red espresso names so that when you ask for these items below, it means Rooibos tea from red espresso:

• red latte
• red cappucino
• red canadiano (he he he … not Americano!)
• red symphony (is actually white mocha)
• fresh red (iced tea with apple juice)
• iced red (iced tea)

Before I continue, I want to point out that these pictures here are all mine. How did you like it? It is not exactly pro level but I am pretty pleased how they all came out.

Anyway, you can prepare a red espresso in a few ways. You could use an espresso machine, a stovetop espresso maker, a french press or even a drip coffee maker.

I don’t have an espresso machine at home. I had always wanted to buy one but Suanne kiboshed that idea because she said does not have anymore space in her kitchen. So we opted for the next best way to make this. We bought ourselves a stovetop espresso maker (above).

So I did a bit of research. Apparently the Rolls Royce of stovetop espresso makers are made by Bialetti. But Bialetti are so expensive with some fancy models costing over $100.

I found the basic one above in HomeSense. It is less than $10. Cheap but it works the same. He he he … I hope this is safe! OK we admit. We are noobs when it comes to this thingy. So, please don’t roll your eyes as I attempt to explain the basics OK?

With the stovetop espresso maker, you basically prepare your brew on top of your stove burner. The pressure from the boiling water will apply sufficient pressure to express a thick concentrated coffee from the beans. There are three sections: on the left is the boiler where the water goes. The middle part is the metal filter for the coffee (or in this case the red espresso). And on the right is the chamber where the espresso is collected.

It is a simple device. It is also the way the Italians make their espresso as I was told.

The Rooibos tea looks kind of like …
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Red Espresso – Rooibos Tea Espresso (264 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments
Post tags: Disclosures, Food Review

Last month, Rey introduced to us the Chinese Filipino food by bringing us to Little Ongpin in Richmond. In the second leg of the adventure, Rey next introduced us to Spanish Filipino food.

The Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe is located on Denman in Vancouver Westside. We were met by Mari and David, who opened this delightful outlet with their daughter since October 2008. So this place is just 6 months new. Mari and David are both of Spanish descent from the Philippines. Mari told us she is a chocolate lover … and the place was started out of her love of chocolates! She’s so friendly and approachable that I can see that she connects to her customers very well.

I was told by Rey that pure Spanish Filipino makes up only 2% of the population in the Phillipines. Despite the low number, the Spanish has a lasting influence in the Filipino culture having colonized the country for 333 years. That is why most of the Filipino names are Spanish names.

When Rey suggested Dulcinea and raved about their Hot Chocolate, we initially thought “what’s the big deal”? We soon changed our perception of hot chocolates after this experience.

The name Dulcinea came from the name of Don Quixote’s true love in the novel of the same name. We had always thought that Dulcinea was pronounced as Doo-See-Nea. A big sign on the wall says “Doo-see-nay-ah”. You learn something new everyday. The name Dulcinea means overly elegant sweetness — a perfect name for a chocolate cafe.

Dulcinea started off as a Spanish Chocolate Bar in the Vancouver Westside neighborhood. Mari told us that the place evolved quickly since they started six month ago … from starting to serve tapas, then soup, sandwiches … and Dulcinea took life on its own when customers requested for certain food and Dulcinea responded.

We went to Dulcinea at 4PM. It’s an odd hour, I know but Rey wanted us to treat this like a Merienda. I had always heard that the Spanish culture has a really odd day … like taking a nap after lunch, having dinner at 9:30PM and Meriendas in between meal times.

We half expected the place to be empty at 4PM and thought that Rey suggested that time because Mari and David would be the least busiest. We were amazed that even at 4PM, Dulcinea was packed … with people … having … Merienda! The crowd actually taper off at about 5′ish.

This is it … the above is what Dulcinea is famous for. Their signature Hot Chocolate which is called the 1528. It is a shot of thick chocolate. It is like the espresso of chocolates … but much more thicker. Any thicker it would not be drinkable! Even the spoon provided is designed to scrap off the thick chocolates from the sides of the cup.

The 1528 costs $2 per shot. If you have never tried it before, go to the counter and ask for a small sample. They pass out samples and once you take a sip, you’ll probably want one for your own.

Now … if you want a solo cup of the 1528 … listen here … FOR FREE … just go and tell Mari, David or whoever at the counter that “Chowtimes Loves Xocolatl” and you will receive a solo cup of the 1528. Serious! I suggested to Mari and David that they put in a little fun promotion to benefit readers of chowtimes and was surprised to hear a yes from them. I suggest you know what a Xocolatl is (see below) and how it is pronounced (pronounced as choco-latl).

Consider this is like Suanne and I buying you a cup of hot chocolate. :-)

Update 05-Apr-2009: The offer for the free 1528 had now expired. Mari and David expressed their thanks to everyone who had taken time to visit their store and tried the 1528. However, Dulcinea will continue to offer samples of the 1528 (just not a solo cup of it). There could be more offers coming. Just stay tuned. I hope those who had the 1528 enjoyed it!

Oh … 1528 … that is the year that the Spanish took cocoa from Mexico and shipped it back to Spain. That year was the start of Europe’s love of chocolates. Nice name, I thought.

If you’re not into thick hot chocolates, there is the Classico … a more watered down version but still really rich and creamy.

I had the Hot Chocolate with Chai. These are not very large cups like I am used to (i.e. we drink Milo at home and we make really big cups and gulp them down real fast). Here I find that I took my time to savour every sip.

The Xocolatl (how do one pronounce that again?) is quite exciting. I’ve never seen a dried chili served with hot beverage before. This one is a hot chocolate with chili nutmeg and cinnamon. The chili wasn’t that hot. Be brave and go try that one. You’ll probably love the contrasting flavours here.

What’s chocolate without fondue? It’s something about fondue that makes it the favourite of just about everyone. I think it’s because it’s a fun food to have with friends. We noticed that the grapes were frozen … not sure why only the grapes were frozen while the banana and strawberry wasn’t.

Besides the delightful hot chocolates, Dulcinea has absolutely the best cakes and pastries one could find in Vancouver. This is coming from our resident cakes fan, Suanne. Our fav has got to be the Lava Blanco above which is chocolate mousse with white choc inside of it.

Instead of ordering each item by itself, we actually ordered the sampler which gives us a little of everything we wanted.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Dulcinea Chocolate Cafe on Denman, Vancouver (355 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 25 comments
Post tags: Cake, Cheesecake, Chocolate, Filipino, Pastry, Restaurant Review, Spanish, Vancouver

This is an Open Teahouse Cocktail Night by Pearl Drops Teahouse.

I am not much of a tea person, neither is Suanne. The only tea we had ever had on a regular basis is the Ice Milk Tea we get from HK Style Cafe.

So, when we got an invite to a Tea Cocktail event we jumped on this. Pearl Drops Teahouse also extended the invite to readers of chowtimes. We posted the invite a few weeks ago and we were very surprised how well known Pearl Drops is to the tea discerning public.

I tried to rally Doesnt Tazte Like Chicken and Sea Salt With Food to attend this together. Doesnt Tazte Like Chicken came but Sea Salt With Food sent apologies saying she can’t get away.

Suanne and I does not normally travel to this part of town where Pearl Drops is located. They are conveniently located on the junction of Willingdon and Hastings in Burnaby. Locating the place is a no brainer and parking is also easy (free!).

We went early … like 30 minutes before the event started at 7PM. Our plan is to have tea, spend a little time here and then go for a later dinner with Christina and ET. It was a good decision because the place was absolutely packed when the event got started.

The man behind Pearl Drops Teahouse is Phong Vo. He started this teahouse with his wife, Huyen, about 3.5 years ago. They had always been running the business from this location since day 1. It was a great pleasure meeting Phong who came across to us as humble and friendly. He is not only knowledgeable about all things tea but we found out that he also cooks.

I was rather intrigued by the Tea Seminars poster Phong had put up … particularly the one that says Food and Tea Pairing. That’s like wow … $39. I had heard about wine pairing with fine food but with tea? Phong does really take tea to the next level … like making tea a gourmet drink of sorts.

I got to try one of these meals one day. I don’t know what to expect but I just gotta try it! For that kind of money, it better be good. :-p

In this event, Phong was showcasing three of his signature Tea Cocktails. So what exactly is it? To simply put, it is freshly brewed tea combined with fresh fruit … that’s what my impression was. Suanne loves this a lot.

The one above is called the Solar Flare ($6). It is made of Japanese Karigane Green Tea, Fresh Kumquats and Lemon/Lime. It is noticeably very refreshing for a tea.

The crunchy kumquats are edible, of course. It is like miniature oranges except that you eat it whole … the sweet rind and the sour juicy centers gives a nice little contrast to the taste.

Pearl Drops uses only the best of ingredients. Melody showed us a little bit of the Japanese Green Tea they use to make the tea cocktails. We were told that they only use the stem and stalk (not the leaves) which gives the tea the extra mellowness.

Each tea is steeped with perfect timing and at consistent temperature. The process looked pretty elaborate to us.

Also, they use only the minimal amount of sugar to make the beverage taste better, not to make it overly sweet. They do not touch up their fresh fruit with artificial syrups at all.

They also had three types of Hor’ Dourves that night. The Coconut Curry Chicken ($8) is normally served with rice but for this night they served it with baguettes. It smells good and the taste of the curry is fresh. We like this … so rich of spices and yet hardly any need for hotness.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Tea Cocktail from Pearl Drops Teahouse (308 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments
Post tags: Burnaby, Disclosures, Restaurant Review, Tea

We went to the Flo Tea Room located at the south end of Granville Street in Vancouver. We did not know what to expect. We were quite apprehensive that this place will be teeming with Asian youngters hanging out for the night … i.e. it would be loud and noisy.

We found it kind of odd that the Flo Tea Room is located on a row of three bubble tea houses, including a Bubble World Tea House outlet. Since this visit, we are beginning to notice that the Bubble World Tea House has lots of locations around Metro Vancouver.

But it was not at all like what we expected. Why, it was exactly like any Chinese Cafes. Although we did not see any kids around (after all it was 9PM when we were there), there were a lot of people our age or even older. So, we’re OK.

Flo has quite a large menu for their drinks. See pix above … Suanne was perusing the drinks menu which came in in the form of a plastic folder. We were not very familiar with the drinks menu and was stumped by the range of drinks called Calpis. What is that anyway?

I got one of their new drinks. It’s simply called Flo Flurry which is a mix of chocolate slush with grass jelly and topped with Oreo crumbs. $4.95. As I drank this I was wondering how many calories there are here.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Flo Tea Room on Granville, Vancouver (345 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments
Post tags: Bubble Tea, Restaurant Review, Taiwanese, Vancouver

OK … not exactly “All” All but rather All in the Greater Vancouver Area.

What are you doing on Saturday night, February 7th? Specifically from 7PM to 10PM?

I just had an invite out of the blue to attend an Open Teahouse Cocktail Night hosted by Pearl Drops Teahouse. The beauty is that they are extending the invite to all readers of Chowtimes. Touted as “Afternoon Tea Meets Cocktail Hour”, the event will include free (virgin) cocktail samplings and in-house hor’ dourves. It is free, no admission. That’s right … Free with a capital F. As a bonus there will also door prizes to be won.

We had never been to Pearl Drops Teahouse before (neither do we know the owners). From what info we received and from their website, they describe themselves as a one-of-a-kind Asian teahouse by providing modern twists on ancient beverages. Like this one below:

The “Red Lychee” is one of their several signature Tea Cocktails. The range includes names like Golden Sunset and Solar Flare which really makes me want to check them out. These beverages are made with freshly steeped high quality tea, hand squeezed lemon-lime and a garnish of exotic fruits such as kiwi, guava and kumquats … all virgin too.

Suanne and I will be going for sure. If you’re planning on attending, you may RSVP to melody@pearldropstea.ca to let them know to expect the number of people attending. It would be great if you let us know too just so we can say hi to you. Our email is ben@chowtimes.com or suanne@chowtimes.com.

Here are the details again:

Pearl Drops Teahouse
422 Willingdon Ave, Burnaby
Saturday, February 7th
7PM to 10PM
RSVP to melody@pearldropstea.ca

View Larger Map

PS: This is not a paid posting. Just thought we share the fun!

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments
Post tags: Asian, Burnaby, Drink

This is a complementary meal from Qoola.

A week ago, Suanne and I received an invitation to checkout a new frozen yogurt place called Qoola. Since we were going to be in downtown anyway for the Taste BC event on the same night, we decided to pop over. I know it is kind of weird … we were going for yogurt, waffle and crepes immediately after wine and cheese, sushi, burger … all on the same night.

So, Suanne, Angie and I took a short drive to the western end of Denman to where Qoola is. Qoola is actually located at the old location of Cupcakes (1116 Denman).

We were met up front by Warrick who is the man behind the entire idea of Qoola. Warrick came across to us as a bright, energetic young man with great passion in what he does.

Qoola had been opened for just one month so everything is spanking clean. We love the bright greenish interior. Qoola is green … more greener than what we expected and we soon realized how seriously green they are.

We had a crash course, to say the least … much of which went swosh over my head. Too much data and too technical for me after all the wine from Taste BC.

Not really a person who knows what is what, we left the choice to Warrick and his partners. The only thing we asked is that they surprise us. First came their Green Tea Yogurt with blueberry and marionberry sauce. It was good and we like it.

I don’t care much for frozen yogurt. The only time I had frozen yogurt of note is Red Mango which we had in Bellevue,WA. I was told that many frozen yogurt places uses powdered yogurt which contains only about 1 million bacteria. However, Qoola uses only fresh yogurt despite its limited shelf life of a couple of weeks only. Fresh yogurt has 400 times more bacteria than powdered yogurt.

The next surprise is the Original yogurt with apples, cinnamon flakes and caramel sauce. We love this more than the earlier one. I like especially the fresh looking and crunchy apple chunks.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Qoola on Denman, Vancouver (662 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 15 comments
Post tags: Crepe, Disclosures, Restaurant Review, Vancouver, Waffle, Yogurt

Angie (Sea Salt with Food) who is a wine enthusiast joined us. We like that because we are such babes when it came to wine and we wanted to learn from the event. I thought that we would only spend like 30-45 minutes but ended staying for almost 3 hours. We had a great time at the event.

Taste BC is more of a wine than fine food event. The event is presented by the Liberty Merchant Company in the effort to bring together the best of BC wines. All proceeds from the event went to the Oak Tree Clinic of the BC Children’s Hospital. I am afraid we did not take many photos of the wine although I did try quite a lot that night.

Our favourite was simply the Ice Lady ice wine from the Forbidden Fruit Winery. Surprisingly, almost all the food blogs that covered the event also picked this as a favourite. I want to say that no one pushed this to us to blog but for some reason it just stands out. It is made of Pink Lady Apple and is very sweet and fruity. It does not reek of alcohol at all. Suanne who does not drink loves this.

I also like the Victoria Gin. They first gave me a shot of Victoria Gin which was awful, like drinking jet fuel. Then they added Tonic Water which made it like a million times better. Nice.

We also had sake and learned a lot of flexibility of this brew … that how this is about the only liquor that can be served both hot or cold and its ability to be paired with any type of cuisines.

The Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale (from the Howe Sound Brewing Company) was another one I like … it was smooth and light with a hint of honey.

In all, there are over 60 wine and drink participants with an average of 5 types of wine showcased. It was impossible to try every one of them for sure … for us at least. On to food …

The Wild Sockeye Salmon on Artisan Bread was presented by a “baby” restaurant in Gastown. It is interestingly called “2 Chefs and a Table” which had just opened for 7 months.

We like the sushi from Miku Restaurant a lot. As a matter of fact, we went back for seconds … and thirds … and fourths.
More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Taste BC 2009 (219 words)

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: Drink, Food Festivals, Food Review

Suanne and I will be attending the 2009 Taste BC event and was wondering if anyone of you would like to join us. The event will be held on January 22nd which is a Thursday at the Hyatt Regency and it goes to supporting the Oak Tree Clinic of the BC Children’s Hospital.

Suanne and I are not attending this event just because this is a food and wine event but because it goes to supporting a worthy cause. We know first hand the important work of the BC Children’s Hospital because we were beneficiaries ourselves when one of our boys required medical attention some years back. We know the hospital very well and had great respect for the work of the doctors and the professionalism of the workers there. The 2009 Taste BC event this year goes specifically to the Oak Tree Clinic.

On the food side, this event will bring together some of the finest in the food and beverage industry. It would be great if you could come and join Suanne and I and indulge in tastings from some of the finest restaurants, wineries, breweries and cheese purveyors in BC. Along with great food and drink, there will also be live music, door prizes and a silent auction too.

Tickets are $49.99 and can be purchased at Liberty Locations. Just send Suanne or I an email if you are interested in going. It’ll be fun.

Ben

© ben for Chow Times, 2009. | Permalink | No comment
Post tags:

Polly also added some Bee Pollen into the juice. Her kids would not take the Bee Pollen by itself. By adding the Bee Pollen into the juice, the kids can enjoy the benefit of Bee Pollen with their favourite drink.

Bee Pollen is the pollen brushed from honeybee’s back leg. Plant pollen contains the male reproductive material of higher plants. It’s a source of protein which is fed to developing larvae by the bees.

Bee Pollen is a nutritional powerhouse!. It contains nearly all the nutrients required by the human body; including enzymes and all the necessary amino acids. It is especially rich in vitamin B5, B3 and B2. It also contains B-complex, vitamin C, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium and manganese and most importantly, photo-chemicals.

Bee Pollen is a detoxifier and it alleviates hay fever allergies, fatigue, high cholesterol, infertility, impotence, and varicose veins. Its healing properties promote recovery from sickness/surgery. Consuming enzyme-rich foods assist the body in preventing disease such as cancer and auto-immune disorders such as arthritis.

Caution: people who are allergic to pollen should NOT take Bee Pollen.

Click on the link below for the instructions.

More after the jump. Click to read the rest of Strawberry Juice with Bee Pollen (61 words)

© suanne for Chow Times, 2007. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: Drink, Recipe