All Entries Tagged With: "Burnaby"
Top Gun Hot Pot in Crystal Mall, Burnaby
I had visitors again at work.
This time it was Martin who is a Project Manager from our office in Toronto. He is here to explore the feasibility of joining our project team which is short of PMs. Although our project teams are scattered around in Atlanta, London, Singapore, New Delhi and Vancouver, we had never had a PM sitting remote from all team members. Frankly, I don’t know how one could manage a project that way despite all the communications technology and all. I had always maintained that no video or web conference facilities in the world will replace face to face meetings.
Anyway, it was two solid days of meetings and planning that the three PMs had. At least we managed to arrive at agreements in many key issues. I must say that the meetings were somewhat contentious because there are a lot of interests that each of us PMs need to protect. At the end of the grueling meetings, we decided to put work behind and go out for dinner. I was determined NOT to talk anymore about work.
I wanted to bring Martin and Gage to an Asian restaurant. Both of them are as white and despite being Canadians do not have a lot of experience eating Asian. While I played safe by bringing my boss to a French restaurant, with these colleagues I could be more adventurous and get away with it. LOL!
I brought the PMs to the Top Gun Hot Pot which is located at the top floor of Crystal Mall. It was perfect because just a short walk from the office.
One thing that I had not quite figured out is why non-Asians generally do not enjoy Asian food. I know I am generalizing here but just humor me for a moment. I do find that non-Asians are suspicious about Chinese and Korean food. However, I find that they are more receptive to Thai and Japanese food. Why is it so?
With Gage and Martin, they are the type of people who will not normally walk into a Chinese restaurant, let alone going to a Hot Pot place. So I asked them about it but did not quite get the answer I understand. They did say that it is the texture of some Asian food that puts them off.
It is their first time going to a Hot Pot restaurant so they were really intrigued with things that I had always taken for granted. For instance, they were quite amazed with the heating surface for the hot pot which could bring the hot pot to boil in seconds.
The ordering was all left to me. To be kind to them, I ordered all the “safe” food (see selection above). I stayed away from ordering things like large intestines, kidneys, liver, tendon, pig’s blood and tripe.
Oh yeah, they did ask me what I ordered but I told them to … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Au Wing Kee Restaurant on Kingsway and Royal Oak, Burnaby
Eons ago, before we started blogging, we used to go for lunch at Au Wing Kee several times a month. Back then our network of friends were mainly in and around Burnaby. It had been a while since we visited this place.
I look at Au Wing Kee as one of the old timer Chinese restaurants. Today, we hear of new restaurants sprouting up every week that often we forgot about the old favourites like Au Wing Kee. As far as Chinese and Asian restaurants goes, gone are the days of the wave of new Cantonese restaurants. What we see a lot of these days are restaurants the likes of Izakayas, Shanghainese, Korean, and Thai. We are spoilt for choices.
For so many years, Au Wing Kee had not only survived but thrived on a quiet stretch of Kingways that is not known for many good restaurant.
The place is exactly the same I remember it. It is not overly clean … but not dirty though, mind you. The place shows the age with some modest renos around lightings.
Service is also exactly the same I remember it. It is very typical old school Chinese style where the waitresses are serious, do not greet you, do not make eye contact, and no smiles. They are there only to clean your tables, take your orders, deliver your food … they are not there to socialize with you. I won’t say they are grumpy. If you want anything, you gotta get their attention and ask.
Despite these shortcomings, Au Wing Kee is a really popular restaurant. After all these years, they still pull in a big crowd.
We decided on getting a few dishes to share between the four of us in the family, instead of individual dishes which the boys wanted. The boys have never said why but they always seem to prefer having individual servings rather than the communal shared dishes that Suanne and I prefer. Anyway, dad is paying and he gets to make the call.
We like hot pot soup. So, we ordered the Chinese Herb and Special Chicken Hot Pot. I know, the name sounded funny and … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Nando’s Chicken on Marine Way, Burnaby
Nando’s wrote to us out of the blue a couple of weeks ago letting us know that Rochelle Schätzl, the world’s foremost authority on Peri-Peri Chili, will be in Vancouver asking if we would be interested in meeting her. Rochelle is an award-winning author and chef from South Africa, the home of the Peri-Peri Chili. She had written a book about it called “Peri-Peri: The Contrasts and Contradictions of the African Bird’s Eye Chili”.
We said yes, because we knew it will be an opportunity to learn more about the Peri-Peri Chili and its exotic flavours … and boy, was that some learnings we had! Never in my imagination could someone share non-stop about everything Peri-Peri for two straight hours. LOL! We had a great time and this is what we learned.
After a few email exchanges, Mark suggested that we meet at the new Nando’s Restaurant in South Burnaby, in the new big boxes shopping mall by Marine Way. We were greeted by Nick, the owner of this outlet, and Mark and Rochelle. Believe it or not, Suanne and I had never been to Nando’s before because we thought that it was just a spicier version of fried chicken.
We found out how different Nando’s is from KFC and Church’s and that it is not quite the fast food the way we know it. Well, it is like a cross between fast food and slow food is how I would describe it. You place your orders at the fastfood style counter and given a wooden block with a number where there will bring the food to your table when it is ready.
This particular store was busy during lunchtime when we were there during a weekday.
Nando’s originated from South Africa in 1987 and is a restaurant with a Portuguese theme. Nando’s operates in 35 countries today with their biggest market in South African and Britain. There were a lot of other facinating stories about Nando’s history and beginings but am not going to bore you with those.
Anyway, this restaurant we visited carries the South African theme with African decor and artifacts. The restaurant was pleasant, clean and tastefully designed.
Rochelle gave a copy of her beautiful book on Peri-Peri. It took her two years of research to write it. It was a privilege to be given the inside scoop of this brilliant pepper and how it is impacting the global culinary landscape. Specialty Food Magazine recently listed the Peri-Peri Chili as one of the Top 10 Flavour Trends of 2009.
From our time with her, we can clearly see that Rochelle is proud of South Africa, it’s food, people and culture. She told us how the tiny Peri-Peri Chili represents very much a way of life of the South African adding that all restaurants in South Africa will have some form of Peri-Peri.
Peri-Peri is the African version of the Bird’s Eye Chili. It is very much like the South East Asian version of Chili Padi or Thai Pepper. This chili packs a punch despite its size. Peri-Peri is used in a dry form and not fresh. Do you know why?
Let’s see a comparison of Scoville Scale (a measurement of hotness) of Peri-Peri Chili against other common peppers:
- Law enforcement grade pepper spray: 5,000,000 Scoville Rating
- Naga Jolikia (Hottest chili in the world): 1,000,000
- Habanero: 100,000 to 300,000
- Peri-Peri: 50,000 to 175,000
- Thai Pepper: 50,000 to 100,000
- Cayenne Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
- Tabasco Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
- Chipotle Pepper: 10,000 to 40,000
- Jalapeno Pepper: 3,000 to 8,000
- Bell Pepper: Zero!
There had been attempts to cultivate Peri-Peri Chilies outside of a small region in southern African but all attempts had failed. Rochelle said that the Peri Peri is a chili with a bad attitude … the harsher conditions and weather, the meaner the chili gets. There had not been much success in cultivating the Peri-Peri commercially.
Suanne and I sampled a lot of food at Nando’s but there is one I love a lot … the Chicken Livers ($7). Oh major yum. I guess it is not for everyone but if can get over the texture and the thought of it, chicken liver is really delicious.
We ignored the bread that came with the Chicken Livers. We can’t help but notice the tempting looking Portuguese Garlic Bread ($2) … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Meok Ja Gol (MJG) Korean Barbeque Restaurant on Kingsway and Nelson, Burnaby
I bet you will find Meok Ja Gol (MJG) interesting enough to want to check it out — we did.
Even though I work one short block away from MJG, I had never paid any attention to it.
This is because MJG is hidden in a recess from Kingway in Burnaby. The best way to find it is to know that it is located east of Nelson on Kingsway. But then the address is not really Kingsway … kind of weird I know. If you are driving and want to get to MJG, the entrance is on the short road almost parallel to Kingsway called Newton St. Forget what I just said … just drive to the back lane on Kingsway!
I feel for MJG. They are a very unique and interesting restaurant and yet the location sucks. What a shame.
MJG is so authentic Korean that they can hardly speak English at all. They were so authentic that they even have loads of Korean magazines and newspapers neatly stacked for the customer’s use. Even the TV was playing Korean serial drama. They asked if we wanted to switch to another channel but we told them we’re fine … Suanne loves Korean love drama with dashing young handsome Korean actors. LOL!
Suanne and I went before 5PM … the place was empty at that time. Actually, MJG had only a couple of tables taken the whole time we were there. We like the cleanliness of MJG and also the rustic villagey feel to it.
They brought is some hot tea in a plastic container just as we got settled down. I assume that Korean restaurants commonly serves tea this way.
They have a really big menu … 16 pages of glossy pages with lots of pictures. Even their take out menu is printed in high gloss and comes in a 16 page booklet. You can’t beat that, can you? If there is an award for the best take out menu, MJG will win hands down.
Without even bothering with the rest of the menu, Suanne and I already know what we wanted. It is on page #1 … the one thing that MJG is known for … the MJG Dinner BBQ Combo. Read on … this is NOT any kind of Korean BBQ you normally see around. This one is high tech. LOL!
Ordering is simple:
- For 2-3 people: $49.95 with 12 (best) items
- For 4-5 people: $99.95 with 13 (better) items
- For 6-7 people: $149.95 with 17 (bestest) items.
With this combo, you don’t need to order anything else. There are more than enough food for everyone — trust me!
We were warned that it will take at least 30 minutes to prepare. Sure, we could wait said … we had all the time in the world that afternoon. I was actually quite pleased with the wait because it meant that good food cannot be rushed.
Since everything is Korean, it was hard to entertain ourselves during the long wait. If you go, bring along a book or something. Let’s talk a bit about ho hum matters. OK … for one, they have one of those wireless service buttons on each table. I was not sure initially what it is because there is no icon or something to indicate what it is. I guess this also acts as a panic button of sorts in case the BBQ flares up.
I can’t get used to Korean chopsticks. They are so flat and narrow that it’s hard to get a grip. Japanese and Chinese chopsticks are easier to handle. Also, you will notice that Korean spoons have very long handles. I think there is a practical reason for it but am not sure why … anyone knows?
The above is their high tech BBQ computerized device (their brochure said so!). It was pretty interesting. It is a complete eating system designed from the ground up not just for table top charcoal BBQ but also for soup, etc! Read on … you will know what I mean.
This is what the wait was about … the charcoal. They need 30 minutes to heat it up. It was a pretty glow-y sight … and very hot. I can feel the heat radiating from where we were sitting.
They do everything for you. When they left the charcoal by the side of the table I thought I am supposed to handle this myself! They opened up the grill and put in the two baskets of charcoal.
Underneath the charcoal is a tray of water. I guess the water serves a dual purpose of moderating the heat and also to prevent the entire BBQ’ing cavity from getting too dry.
The delicious looking meat is put on skewers specially to rotate at a constant speed in the BBQ machine. Our combo included beef ribs, beef ribeye, chicken and prawns. Mind you, I am not even half way there on this blog entry!
Burgers Etc on Hastings, Burnaby
At work, I report to someone whose base is in Atlanta. I don’t see my boss very often. Maybe once every quarter. Last month, he told me he’s coming over to Vancouver and did not state his agenda for the visit. Some of us were uneasy because I know the company had clamped down on traveling during these uncertain times. Who knows, right? For all we care, he could be here to serve Termination Notices! I mean serving of Termination Notices had to be done by the boss and in person too.
Nothing of that sort happened. LOL!
Do you guys ever get worried about losing your job?
I used to read a lot in the papers of some company laying off 10 people here, 1200 there, and 50 in another place. They were just numbers … and it did not hit home until I began to hear about substantial layoffs in Vancouver companies … EA, McKesson, Best Buy and others. All of the sudden, I began to know names of people who had been laid off … they are no longer numbers, they are real people … and people I know. *shudder*
Enough of these depressing thoughts … back to food.
So, the thing is I brought Frank (my boss) and Stevie who are both from Atlanta out for dinner. As much as I would love to bring them to the best that Vancouver could offer in terms of ethnic food, I know the Americans would not really enjoy it. I played safe and brought them to a burger place.
I brought them to Burgers Etc. I could have brought them to a pricier place but as you know, expenses are harder to claim these days and trying to pass a $50 per head dinner is not going to fly. But then Burgers Etc is not exactly really cheap.
Burgers Etc is well known as the “Best Burger in Metro Vancouver” by viewers of CTV News. Burgers Etc is not a big place with just about 10′ish tables or so. I guess this is a place where people come pick up a burger, eat and go. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Tea Cocktail from 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 on following page. Click here to continue reading
Kingsway Sushi on Kingsway and Boundary
Ever since Whitney and Ken moved out from Richmond, we had not been able to meet up as much as we did. A couple of weeks ago they called saying that they would be in town and are looking for the best All-You-Can-Eat (AYCE) sushi. We interpret BEST as in good, cheap and has sashimi. Our favourite remains with Ninkazu in Richmond but since we had blogged about that place before we suggest the one place high on our list of To-Try … Kingsway Sushi.
Kingsway Sushi is easy to find. It is located at the junction of Kingsway and Boundary, just across the street from the unmistakable shoe-shaped building of Telus. Pay parking is available at the basement parking of the building where Kingsway Sushi is located.
It was quite expensive if you ask me. Pay parking is about $2 per hour but Kingsway will reimburse the parking for the 1st hour only. I paid for $4 for two hours and then I realized it was written quite boldly that weekend parking is free. I would not have mind as much until this middle age lady said in such loud voice to her husband that “Parking is free” … THREE times. Her thunderous voice echoed throughout the basement parking area. [Oooi ... honey, you don't have to be so smug and you are embarrassing me in public!!]
We had never been to Kingsway Sushi before.
We were quite surprised how large this place is and how bright it is here. Actually we were expecting this place to be packed on a Saturday afternoon but they did not fill the place. We were wondering if people are beginning to eat out less because of all the economic gloom from the news these days.
Whitney called saying that they were going to be a bit late … “a bit” as in 30 minutes. I was initially kind of worried that we will get harassed because we did not have the entire party there before we got seated. I often hear that these places make money from turning the tables fast and they show their annoyance when we hog a table and start later than normal.
No, they were quite pleasant about it (at that time) when we told them the entire party is going to be late. I think it was because it was still early and they had just started business. They even suggested that we get some little appetizers as starters while waiting. We like that.
Miso soup is like a must as a starter in AYCE Sushi. Tell me now … they serve Miso Soup in a bowl and without a soup spoon. I need someone who is familiar help confirm this. The Japanese drinks Miso Soup direct from the bowl and they are supposed to slurp it down as loudly as possible … is that right?
To the Chinese drinking soup direct from the bowl (not using the soup spoon) is uncouth. Well, at least that was what my mum warned me not to do when I was young.
For the starters, we also had Edamame. It is like young soybean.
I had never quite like beans in general but found that I ate most of it from the leftover pods I had on my plate.
I think the above is called Ebi Sunomono (shrimp salad?). A little sourish and vinegarish with cold noodles in it.
They have two menus available for lunch. One menu was with Sushi ($11.95) and the other one without sushi is $9.95. We went ahead to get the one with Sushi because after all that’s what the kids were looking for.
Before we placed our order, we decided on a strategy to maximize on the meal. So the game plan is simple, there will be a four phase plan of attack:
- Phase 1 (Appetizer): Start with the stuff on the appetizer section (which we just had)
- Phase 2 (Try Everything Once): Get ONE of every item enough for everyone (trick is not to get too greedy on any one item) and note down what everyone like more of. It is handy getting one of their paper takeout menu to mark down what each liked.
- Phase 3 (Gorge on “Likes”): Place order after order of what we like until we are almost full. It is important to stress on the word “almost full” because you want to leave room for Phase 4. 95% full is a good yardstick. This is the phase you begin to sit back and loosen your belt. This is also the phase where the waiters will start getting annoyed with you and do everything they can to make you leave — just ignore them.
- Phase 4 (Finale): This is the phase you will feel really sick and swear that you will never ever do AYCE again. But as a true foodie, you must soldier on to defend the honor of the spirit of AYCE. This is where you make one last attempt to stuff yourself sick … at least with the desserts.
Sashimi was extra but at least they have it.
Start of Phase 2 (Try Everything Once). We got two orders of Sashimi’s. It was just OK. It was not large slices but at least it is not paper thin if you know what I mean. These all went in no time.
The Sushis was the most second most important items on our Phase 2 game plan. The Sushi were respectable. Respectable in that they have nice big slices of fish. So what did we have?
- Kani Sushi (Imitation Crab)
- Saba Sushi (Mackerel)
- Tuna Sushi
- Salmon Sushi
- Tai Sushi (don’t know which is which)
- Inari Sushi (also don’t know which is which)
Their Deep Fried Scallop is pretty good. We ended up ordering a lot of these.
Suanne digs the Salmon Head. I think they call this the BBQ Salmon Head Shioyaki. She’s good at picking up the morsels of flesh from this. I like it too but it’s too much work.
The Chicken Karaage was awesome. Ken remarked why is it that he can never make it like this at home. Indeed … why? I posed that same question to Suanne (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
Ken loves this too … it is called Deep Fried Shrimp Ball. Everyone likes it but not as much as Ken. This is because I noticed he keeps on ordering plates after plates of this.
We ordered all the rolls they have on the menu … every single one of them. There are twelve types on the menu and they gave us only eight types. We said “all” rolls. I think they know that with all the food we ordered, we would not have noticed. But we’re professional foodies … we know such things. I let it slide and not make a fuss about it because we can hardly finish what we had ordered already.
