All Entries Tagged With: "Chinese"
Breakfast at California Cafe, Lansdowne Mall in Richmond
Alright, quick … tell me … if you are looking for breakfast at 7AM in the morning in and around Richmond, where would you go?
I can only think of #9 and Kam Do. OK, maybe also Lido but McDonalds and Tim Hortons does not count for me. We so wish that there are Dim Sum places that opens at that time.
Driving around looking for breakfast two weeks ago, we found out that California Cafe on Lansdowne Mall actually opens at 7AM. We had rarely been to California Cafe but had blogged about that place once before. That was because it used to be closed by the health authorities for some reason I cannot recall.
Have you ever stopped going to a restaurant once you learn that they had been closed by the health authorities … even though they had cleaned up their act and was allowed to re-opened? For no rhyme or reason, we “sometimes” do. It depends on how popular the place is to us. LOL! For California Cafe, we stopped going.
But we decided to go back in and give them a try again. We were letting bygones be bygones … simply because there were no better choices for breakfast.
The California Cafe is another of many HK Style Cafes peppered all over Richmond. The interior is the same as I remembered it except that the grand piano is no longer there. I had always thought that the interior is kind of stylish with a main raised platform area. Beyond the structural design, the place is still quite haphazardly organized, very much like many Chinese restaurants.
We were there at 7:30AM. Suanne was still fuming that I dragged everyone out for breakfast so early during the weekend. She just wanted to sleep in but me, my biological clock is tuned to Atlanta and London time for months already. So, for me waking up at 6:30AM is like waking up at 9:30AM for Richmondites. Actually Suanne has a choice. She either could wake up at 6:30AM to make breakfast or she could wake up at 6:30AM and go out for breakfast. Being a sensible person she is, she chosed the latter.
BTW, just so that you know, I don’t even know where to get the toast spread in the kitchen at home and also do not know how to operate the coffee machine too. I really am not domesticated for these tasks at home. LOL!
On a more serious note, I really think there is a dearth of early breakfast joints in Richmond. Even at 7:30AM, California is already filled with customers.
They have very good Pineapple Bun here. In Cantonese, they are more cutely referred to a Bolo Bun. Seeing other tables having this we ordered one to sample. You got to know this … how good a Bolo Bun is is sometimes used as a yardstick to determine how good the restaurant is. Serious, I am not kidding.
Their Pineapple Bun costs $1.10. It is denser than the ones in Lido which makes the best Pineapple Buns this side of the planet. We like softer fluffier ones but we decided to give them the thumbs up because it tastes really good, particularly the crusty buttery topping.
California Cafe has a large menu which lists all kinds of combination that it is so confusing. We had this combination that is called Mix-n-Match which allows you to select two meat items for just $7. Along with this too includes two eggs, a bun and a beverage of your choice.
If you like meat, this will delight you. I selected Seared Chicken Leg and Seared Pork Chop. The chops are at least 4″ by 4″ each. I wonder how they make money by selling this for $7.
I love their buns. I had the eggs made sunny side up because I could use the yolk as a spread on top of the butter. Nice. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Koon Lock Seafood Restaurant on Fraser and 47th, Vancouver
Koon Lock and Koon Bo – I had always heard of the names of these two restaurants before. Depending on who I speak with, I hear different stories. How these two restaurants were related and owned by brothers. Someone told me that they were owned by two brothers, yet another told me they are feuding and rival restaurants with a same origin.
Does anyone know the story behind these two famous restaurants?
Whatever the stories are, Koon Lock is one of the Chinese restaurants that appears to have a long history. While still popular, it had seen better days having been surplanted with the new Chinese restaurants that sprouted throughout the Metro Vancouver.
Koon Lock is located on Fraser and 47th. We went just before lunch time when they had a lot of tables empty. This quickly changed and by 12:30PM there were already a line waiting for tables.
We had wanted to come here for a meal of their more famous dishes like roasted squabs, honey garlic spareribs and crispy chicken skin. Unfortunately, they do not serve those kind of items for lunch as they are only available for dinner. What they have for lunch time is only the common Cantonese food items like congee, noodle and mixed rice dishes. We were disappointed and half wishing to leave — and making our way back here for dinner some other time. But we stayed.
We decided to order a dish from each section of the menu …
The first one was the Beef Brisket with Vegetables. This simple dish is surprisingly very well made. It is served steaming hot on a bed of steamed fresh vegetables. The meat was tender and has a noticeable fragrance of star anise. Eating this with steamed rice is nice particularly with the juices from the dish. This dish costs $7.25 which is cheaper than I expected. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Wonton King on SE Marine Drive, Vancouver
ChubbyPanda and his wife came up to Vancouver during the Memorial Day holidays. We had known ChubbyPanda for a long time — in blog years it had been a long time.
Both Chowtimes and ChubbyPanda food blogs started at about the same time. That was in early 2006. I recall in those days, the most prolific food bloggers are those from California with just a handful of Vancouver area foodie bloggers holding the fort.
ChubbyPanda contacted us saying that they wanted to meet up again for dinner. The last time they were here almost two years ago, we met up at Tropika in Richmond because he wanted to try Malaysian cuisine. This time, they left the choice of restaurant to us.
It was easy to decide where to meet. I had at the top of my to-try list the Chinese restaurant who won the “Best Soup” award in Vancouver last year. It was won by a restaurant which I felt had one of the unimaginative name … Wonton King.
Wonton King is located on SE Marine Drive, near the intersection with Fraser St. Wonton King is more an upscale modern Chinese Restaurant than you would imagine from a place with the name of Wonton King.
The service is immaculate. I am pretty sure it is because of our kick-ass cameras which we both fished out even as we sat down — as it always had been. LOL! We were attended to by someone who I assumed to be the captain of the restaurant. I say this because of the authoritative manner he was speaking and that he has a vest on.
We did not even look at the menu when I told him what we wanted. We were there to try the Wine Chicken Soup. For a moment he was not sure what we were asking for. I think it is because he could not associate the English name with the Chinese one. This dish was not on the printed menu, so we learned. If you want it, you had to ask for it.
When he realized what we wanted, he excused himself midway taking our orders and went to get the kitchen to get started on this. He said they need at least 20 minutes to prep this. I timed them … it came 35 minutes later.
When it came, I asked for the steamed rice to be served. You know what … the captain refused to serve us that. Wow, the nerve of him! I ALWAYS have rice with my soup. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Long’s Noodle House — Revisited with Food Bloggers
I am a procrastinator … it’s in the genes. I know that. But the thing is that I remember what I said I would do. It might take me a long while but I will eventually get down to it. Like saying “let’s do it in a couple weeks” … and carrying it through in seven months. That is me. That is Ben.
I had been talking to Christina and ET (Doesn’t TasZte Like Chicken) about organizing a gathering since last fall. This time I carried through. So, I organized one with the bloggers that I had met at one point or another before. Being the organizer, I went with the choice of a restaurant that I know will work … that I had been there before, knows the menu, not too expensive and will meet the demands from bloggers.
So we met at Long’s Noodle House. See my previous review here. Suanne made the reservation a few days before. With Long’s you want to make sure you make a reservation because they are always packed for dinner. Moreover, their restaurant is small. When Suanne made the reservation, she tried to order some of their dishes that need to be ordered at least a day ahead but they were too busy to entertain her at that time. It was no big deal because all their other dishes are pretty good.
Wine Chicken … $6. This is my favourite dish in Long’s. I’ll not expand on this as I had already blogged about this dish before.
The dish above is the one which won the “Most Innovative Dish” award last year. It is Crispy Rice with Salted Egg Yolk. It is an unique dish but is somewhat simple dish too to me. I am quite surprised that a dish of such simplicity could have won the most innovative dish award.
Chuan Xiang Ge Szechuan Restaurant on Westminster Highway, Richmond
There is this thing about the Mao Tai Restaurant (with its distinctive garlic bulb and chili pepper logo) that I was curious about. No, this post is not about Mao Tai but the new restaurant that is now in its place. As far as I know there were at least three Mao Tai’s in Richmond throughout the years. I think there is one last one still operating on Park Road. Something tells me they have a colorful story behind that name, you know like the saga of Koon Lok and Koon Po restaurants in Vancouver. Does anyone know about the people or story (if any!) behind Mao Tai?
We had on our list to visit the Mao Tai on Westminster Highway but it’s gone now. In its place is a new Szechuan Restaurant called Chuan Xiang Ge Szechuan Restaurant. At one point they were called Mascot Enterprise until the signboard came up. This is located in the same strip mall as Tsim Chai Noodles and Banzai Sushi House.
Parking had always been a challenge here for us. However, the turnaround time is quite quick because most people who parks here goes for shopping groceries, meat, fish and produce.
Chuan Xiang Ge is new — they are four months young. The decor is simple but importantly it is clean and organized. Being organized and having everything in its proper place is a sign that gives us confidence that it is also the same in places we do not see … the kitchen and storeroom.
They were not extremely busy when we were there. It was half full at its peak. I thought that perhaps that they are new and many people does not know of this place yet.
They speak perfect Mandarin and had trouble communicating in English. That is quite fine by us because their menu was quite user friendly anyway. The translation on the menu was pretty good and does describe accurately what the dish is. They do feature their specialty with pictures at the bottom of every page. Our selection was based on those pictures.
Most of their main dishes like meat, fish, soup, and tofu ranges from $10 to $13. A number of them ranges as high as $30. However, they do have a lunch menu too which is really cheap — just $6.50. So the lunch menu should be worth checking out but not for this time.
We had chrysanthemum tea as our choice of tea this time. I like their plates and cups.
They recommended this dish above. It was absolutely superb. They call this the Marinated Chicken with Spicy … yup, you read it correct. It is called “Marinated Chicken with Spicy” on the menu.
It is listed on the Appetizer section. I thought the dish is more of a main than an appetizer. It came in two serving sizes, small for $9.50 and large for $17. We ordered the small one expecting it being a small appetizer. It was more of a main dish.
The chicken is served cold. Perhaps that explains why they consider this an appetizer. They told us they only use free range chicken for this dish. Not only is the boney chicken delicious, but the main character of this dish is …
Point Zero Four Fusion Restaurant on Alexandra Road, Richmond
Suanne and I never learn. We know that we almost always end up regretting having AYCE (All You Can Eat) and yet we go back again and again.
We had always passed by this place with the bright yellow signboards each time we go to Alexandra Road. They have the brightest signboard along Alexandra for sure. The name too — I can’t quite figure out what it really means. It is called Point Zero Four Fusion … it could mean to read as Point Zero, Four Fusion or .04 Fusion. Whatever it is, the tagline says that they serve Beijing Style Cuisine.
The place is large and takes up the space of three normal shop lots. The decor is tacky as expected. The tables were raised a few inches off the ground because of the gas pipings to each table. See the legs of the chairs … they even had to have the legs extended. Pipings or not, I think they did not maintain them because some of the built in stoves did not work. Ours didn’t work and they used a portable burner instead.
Service is rude. Should I say service is rude by western standards. Not everyone can stand for this but Suanne and I learned to look away from this. They are rude as in not making eye contact, giving mono-syllabic answers, grabbing utensils in a haste … you know. I believe they think they are projecting a professional and efficient image but buddy, that it rude here in this part of the world. Smile … please … because that translates to tips, dum-dum.
You got to ask for the 2-page order form in English. By default they hand you one in Chinese.
The Hot Pot AYCE is $18 per person. What is not stated is the “extras” … the soupbase is an extra charge. The soup base ranges from the no frills $5 pork soup to $15 drunken chicken. There is quite a variety to choose from. The Dips and Sauces are free for the first order. They will charge 50 cents for the second order.
You can upgrade the AYCE Hot Pot to include BBQ Skewers (another of their specialty) for an extra $6. We thought it is a bit too much having Hot Pot AND BBQ Skewers.
Looking at their faces, they are of no help to us in deciding our order. We ended up ordering almost one of every item.
The “suen moi tong” drinks are a deal. The above is just $1 per person with unlimited refills. Cynical as we are, we thought the reason it is so cheap is because they wanted us to fill up with water instead of the more expensive meat items.
I made a mistake asking question about exactly what this is made of. The waitress just blurted, while turning her back to me and walk away, “for drinking”. Oh please … I know that. There goes your tips, baby.
The soup base we selected was the Szechuan. They were spicy hot. I got to hand it to them … they smell absolutely marvelous and fragrant. There are a lot of spices in the soup base … especially with the lips numbing peppercorns. Nice.
They were MSG laden too as we confirmed after the meal. We were thristy.
Round one was the meats. We ticked every single meat item except for the pork blood. I am not sure how they decided how much to give us but it was a lot of meat.
At least it was all thinly sliced and does shrink a lot once it is cooked.
Round two was the seafood. The same strategy applies … we ticked every single item. We did not opt for the Geoduck because it was $12 extra … per dish!
Actually they smell very fishy. I can picked up a waft of it when it was brought to the table. It was not stale or rotten or anything like that. It had a smell of a fish market.
But once cooked, it should be OK.
Anyway, the strong fragrant soup base overpowered any fishiness once the seafood is in the pot. Absolutely loved the soup base. It was really good during the meal. It was the after effect from the MSG that is not so good. As much as the soup base is important to the hot pot, equally as important is the …
King’s Chinese Cuisine on Main and 29th, Vancouver
It was one of those weekend mornings again. Suanne had a subtle way of hinting that she does not want to prepare breakfast but not wanting to say so. I don’t know how to describe it but I can pick up the vibes — unmistakably.
I did not know where to go and the boys keep asking me what’s for breakfast. When I don’t want to answer, I just tell them “it’s a secret”. It used to work because they like surprise … not any longer. They now follow up with another question … “where are we going?”. They hate it when I drive across the bridge because it meant a 30 minutes drive, at least.
I did cross the Knight St Bridge and headed up Main Street in Vancouver. Then at East 29th, I saw a queue outside of the orangey restaurant. It is definitely a dim sum place … and a cheap one too. I can tell because many of the customers are seniors or with large families.
I thought we will not go wrong eating here since there was a queue even though the walls outside was all defaced with graffiti.
This place is called King’s Chinese Cuisine and is located on the intersection of 29th and Main.
The wait was not too long, about 15 minutes. We had to walk right into the back of the restaurant to deposit our name for a table. It is a large place and so they are able to turn the tables very fast. It is also a mad house … the hustle and bustle here is very typical of a neighborhood Chinese Dim Sum place. It’s noisy and obviously very popular.
This is a place where they use plastic sheets for table cloth. With these, cleaning up a table for the next customer is just a matter of seconds. Pull up a layer, tie it up in a bundle with all the left over food and bowls and the table is all ready. Function over form is how I describe it.
Even before we got seated, we were already asked what tea we wanted. I have no idea and I always kept my head down and pretend not to hear … I always left it to Suanne to decide. She had no idea herself too. So she always blurts out a name that comes to her mind. This time it was Tiet Guan Yin (Iron Goddess of Mercy). One of these days, we got to learn the finer points of Chinese tea.
They also passed us the order sheet. This is not just an order sheet but also double up as a receipt! The prices were printed at the top of the order sheet. So, for $2.30 to $4.75, they are cheap.
I see a lot of tables ordering the Fried Rice Noodles. It must be their specialty and they looked good too. You can tell when you see parts of it charred … meaning that they have “wok hei” when they did this.
Kind of hard to explain what “wok hei” means — anyone wants to give that a try?
The Fried Rice Noodle was good on it’s own. But the sweet sauce imparts a lot of flavour to it. Their sweet sauce is done perfectly … not too thick and not too light … just perfect. No wonder so many people ordered this. This is categorized as a “special” dish and costs $4.75.
They serve their Gai Lan kind of dry. Normally in other places it is drizzled with oyster sauce but here they serve the oyster sauce in a small saucer on the side. The stems are big and tastes a little bitter’ish. It was a lot of it. Since the boys did not want to have anything to do with green food, Suanne and I had a tough time finishing it all. $4.75.
We like this next one. It is simply called Jelly Fish. However, it is more than just jelly fish. It is topped with bean curd roll filled with mushroom, pickled daikon and carrot. You can imagine the variation of texture in this dish (soft jelly fish with crunchy daikon).
The light vinegar was just the right dipping sauce for the cold, almost bland bean curd. We like this a lot and it is $4.75.
