Christmas Dinner at Penang Bistro on Fraser St., Vancouver

My company had our Christmas dinner at Penang Bistro this year. We booked a table for 8 people more than a week prior to the event. It was a busy time of the year plus it was on a Friday evening. We only managed to get a small round table meant for 6 and seating was tight.

The bistro is decorated from wall to wall with paintings, old photos, food photos and batik.

Their cutlery has the retro cock painting which was very popular long time ago.

Prawn crackers is served as appetizer.

While waiting for our food to arrive, some of us has some white wine brought by our boss. I did not try but those who had it claimed it was a good white wine.

Here are the dishes that we had. The above is Sambal Clam as a starter.

Penang Shrimp Roll.

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Farewell Dinner at Trattoria Italian Kitchen, Burnaby

My boss bought a farewell dinner for one of our team member who resigned. It is sad to loose a colleague but we want to share a memorable farewell.

We had the farewell dinner at Trattoria Italian Kitchen, across Metrotown in Burnaby. It was recommended by one of our colleague who recently dined there with some of her friends visiting Vancouver.

Trattoria Italian Kitchen is known for it’s house pasta and pizza. In the photo above, you can see the pizza oven which is located near the entrance.

Complementary sourdough bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip.

Some of us ordered some virgin cocktails for our drink. The above was some green tea with mint ordered by colleague. (more…)

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Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver

Happy Canada Day to all chowtimes reader. Due to work, it’s getting harder for me to blog. Thank you for all your support all this long thirteen plus years. I will try my best to keep this blog afloat.

My boss bought me and my colleague dinner after work on a week day. Thank you, boss.

We had dinner at Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St. It serve Filipino Chinese cuisine. The place was busy at dinner time. Reservation is advised.

We had the Bihon Pancit. My boss asked for less salt and less oil as she is very health conscious. Despite less oil and salt, it was still pretty good. (more…)

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Cafe Xu Hue on Kingsway, Vancouver

Ben picked me up from work on one of the Friday in March. He wanted to check out the new T&T on Kingsway.

So, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Cafe Xu Hue.

It was past 6:30pm and the place was quiet as it is close to their closing time.

Ben ordered their famous Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet whch is spicy Vietnamese Vermicelli with sliced pork and beef, pork congealed blood in soup. (more…)

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Xian Noodle Restaurant on No. 3 Road, Richmond

My family went out for dinner on a weekend. It is getting rarer for the whole family to eat out together.

Xian Noodle Restaurant has a location on No. 3 Road now, on the row of shops north of Real Canadian Superstore.

The decor is simple and pleasant. We were there early and the restaurant was not busy.

We were handed a Chinese menu and we had to ask for an English one.

I guessed most patrons of the restaurant read Chinese.

Arkensen ordered a Lamb Noodle Soup. (more…)

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Happy Day Cafe re-opened on Mcclelland Road, Richmond

One of our favourite Hong Kong style cafe reopened near the Richmond Walmart at Mcclelland Road. It used to be on Park Road and the whole strip mall was closed for redevelopment.

Happy Day Cafe grand opening was on 20th February, 2019. It was still very busy after almost a month of opening when we visited. We waited about 20 minutes before we got a table, that was before noon.

There is a grand opening promo for a free upgrade of your drink and this offer is until 31st March, 2019.

Nanzaro ordered a Fish Soup Noodle for $12.95. He opted for the curry laksa broth which was quite disappointing because it was very mild tasting.

There is a new option for the noodle which is “yee mien”. There were plenty of suey choy in his noodle soup and he kindly offered me to have them. (more…)

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Friends of Tai Chi Dinner at Shiang Garden, Richmond

Lorna invited me to the Friends of Tai Chi Chinese New Year celebration dinner at Shiang Garden.

This is an annual event for the Friends of Tai Chi group. The master of this group had been teaching tai chi for 20 years. She used to be a member of the Richmond Community Kitchen too.

The event began with tai chi performances by some students.

A duo sword performance.

The master performed a sword performance.

I particularly like above performance where the performer recited the poetic movement along with his performance.

The master ended the performances with a fan performance. I like the sound of flipping open the fan during the performance.

A round of lucky draw before dinner was served.

Dinner started off with a thick soup, “geng”. The above is Fish Maw Soup with Crabmeat. A little red vinegar to cut the richness of the soup.

Duck served in two ways. The server brought the whole duck to the table to have a view of it and brought it to another working table to carve it. (more…)

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Red Star Seafood Restaurant on Cambie St., Richmond

It was Lorna’s special day. She invited me and Marian to join her and her friends on their weekly dine out to celebrate her special day. By the way, her friends do not know it’s her special day.

We had dinner at Red Star Seafood Restaurant at President Plaza in Richmond.

These were the items they ordered. A whole soy sauce chicken. They were juicy.

A tofu dish with scallops and fish roes. The scallops are of good size and the tofu is silky smooth. (more…)

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Angel Cake Cafe on Fraser Street, Vancouver

It’s the celebration of a colleague in the office. We initially wanted to order take out from Panos Greek Taverna but unfortunately, it was closed on Monday.

So, we had to go to plan B and went for Angel Cake Cafe. By the way, the birthday cake above was from Maxim’s Bakery on Fraser St. We always pre-order the cake for the 10% discount.

Here were what we ordered; Prawn and Chicken with Green Vegetable.

Honey Garlic Spareribs for the meat lover. (more…)

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Chongqing Restaurant on Commercial Drive, Vancouver

A few of the participants from the Experience Works program which I attended in early 2018 got together for lunch.

Eva suggested Chongqing Restaurant as she and her gardening group used to dine here. The restaurant was not very busy on the Saturday that we met here.

Elena and I arrived first. She ordered a pork dumpling from the dim sum section to start off as she was hungry. When the rest of the group arrived, she took charge of the rest of the ordering. We had fried rice with shrimp to go with other dishes.

Since Eva is a vegetarian, we ordered one of her favourite dish, Fried Green Bean Szechuan style. (more…)

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