Various Chinese Archives - Page 2 of 4

Fu Yuan Fast Food at Richmond Public Market

Post author:Suanne
Post published:April 8, 2013
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:0 Comments

Ben and I were at the Richmond Public Market shopping for ingredients to make Bak Kut Teh for his office potluck. We decided to grab a bite at the food court.

Fu Yuan Fast Food is one store that decorated the store front with color photos of it’s menu. I think this is a great way to advertise and attract customers.

Ben ordered a Spicy Wonton for snacking. It is $5.50.

The wonton is small with lots of wonton skin to absorb the lightly vinegarish chili oil. (more…)

Want Want Hot & Spicy House at Crystal Mall

Post author:Suanne
Post published:October 15, 2012
Post category:Burnaby Sichuan Various Chinese
Post comments:1 Comment

Ben brought me to Crystal Mall for lunch on one of the weekend that he was in town. He knew that I’m too lazy to drive all the way to Burnaby by myself.

The new item in the Want Want Hot & Spicy House stall caught our attention. They serve dry hot pot now. Yeah, my favourite dish.

You pick the ingredients and it is charged by weight. Although the poster above said minimum order is 300g, I remembered the server told us the minimum order is 400g. Besides the ingredients, you have a choice on the main to go with it; ranges from rice to various noodles. You also have a choice of the level of spiciness.

Our plate above came to $11.20. My choice of main was broad potato noodles and the second highest spiciness which is “da la”. (more…)

XO Beef Noodle in Yaohan Foodcourt, Richmond

Post author:Suanne
Post published:August 10, 2012
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese Vietnamese
Post comments:2 Comments

It’s comfort food time. We went to the Yaohan food court for some simple comfort food. Nanzaro wanted to have the Spicy Lamb Noodle from Want Want Hot & Spicy House in the foodcourt.

I decided to try a relatively new stall called XO Beef Noodle. It serves Vietnamese style food.

It also has a section of prepared dishes.

I decided to go for their combo for $7.50 which includes a hot drink of coffee or tea. (more…)

Saboten, Aberdeen Food Court in Richmond

Post author:Suanne
Post published:June 1, 2012
Post category:Japanese Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:11 Comments

Arkensen had a birthday lunch at Ninkazu and he is supposed to meet up with his friends at the Aberdeen Mall. So, Nanzaro and I decided to have lunch at Aberdeen food court after we dropped Arkensen off.

I decided to try out Saboten Japanese Cutlet, a relatively new addition to the food court. Since it’s opening, I had seen long line up the couple of occasions I was at the food court. I hate line up and so, I did not bother to try the food the couple of times I was at there.

This time, there is no line at all.

I ordered the Tenderloin Katsu Sandwich which came pre-packed. The moment I placed the order, the sandwich was packed in a plastic bag and handed to me even before I managed to get my purse out.

The Tenderloin Katsu Sandwich came in three pieces of about 3.5″x1.5″x1.5″ dimension. The pork tenderloin is crispy on the outside with a slightly tangy sauce. It was good except that it is very small.

The Tenderloin Katsu Sandwich is $5.32 with tax.

You can click on the menu to have a larger view.

As for Nanzaro, I could not persuade him to order something from Saboten. He wanted to pick his own food. (more…)

Want Want Hot & Spicy House and Fresh Elements in Yaohan, Richmond

Post author:Suanne
Post published:May 26, 2012
Post category:Various Chinese
Post comments:6 Comments

It’s lunch time on a Sunday. The boys wanted some comfort food and suggested to go to Yaohan Center food court.

It’s been quite a while since we last visited the Yaohan Center food court. The boys went straight to the Curry House stall for their comfort food. Arkensen ordered the Hainanese Chicken Rice while Nanzaro had the Char Koay Teow.

I walked around to look for something for myself. The Want Want Hot & Spicy House caught my attention. The name sounded familiar. Apparently, there is a similar name stall in Crystal Mall.

Upon checking with the server, I was told that this stall had opened for business in Yaohan Center for a year.

My attention was caught by the photos of noodles in hotpot on the wall, especially the red hot on the right.

But, I did not order that. I ordered the Lamb Noodle instead. I love lamb. The server asked me if I want it spicy and if I want cilantro with it. Of course, my answer is yes for both. The lamb noodle is $7.75.

When the server collected payment from me, she asked for $10.75. I looked puzzled … (more…)

Aberdeen Food Court in Richmond

Post author:Suanne
Post published:November 9, 2011
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:12 Comments

Finally, Lorna, Emily, Marian and me were able to meet up to celebrate the September girl’s birthday. We met up at Aberdeen Food Court since the birthday girl has not been to Aberdeen Food Court before and had expressed her wish to go there. Emily also brought a friend to join us.

We’ve got gifts from Marian. The above were peanut candies that Marian brought back from trip to China in summer. Marian, thank you for your thoughts.

The peanut candy is soft and crumbly, creamy and powdery at the same time. The box comes with 3 flavours, original, rose and low sugar. If I read the package correctly, it says these candies are imperial goodies.

Each of us went to get some of our favourite food for the party. I went straight to Wo Fung Dessert for their popluar deep fried chicken wings. There was a small line up already.

I ordered 12 deep fried chicken wings for $12.50. They were crispy on the outside and has 5 spice aroma. I over ordered as there were left overs for me to bring home. Nanzaro enjoyed them a lot.

I also ordered a serving of Deep Fried Intestine to try . This was … (more…)

[CRA 2011] Claypot Chicken and Sausage Rice from James Snack

Post author:Ben
Post published:February 23, 2011
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:21 Comments

Suanne and I met up with Charles of Mamak Cafe a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to show him the claypot rice place and catch up with him after the event we had at his restaurant. We were so busy before and during the event that we did not manage to really chat. Charles said he hardly ever come over to Richmond and wanted to have a closer look at the food scene here.

Moreover I wanted to also blog about another CRA2011 award winning dish. So we met up at Parker Place to grab a pound of siu yook before we walked over to the adjacent strip mall.

If ever there is a food court in Richmond that I would call my favourite, I would say it is this one in the Empire Center. This is where King Buffet, Bushair, Sunway and Shiang Garden is located.

The reason why Suanne and I like this place is because it is relatively unknown. It is slow and quiet(er) than the other food court. We come here when we want a slow leisurely meal.

There are not many stall here and to us that is part of what we like. Even with the lack of stalls, the stalls here are unique and very good. Nine times out of ten, we could come here either for:

the Claypot Rice in James Snack
the Chicken from Choi House (see link)
the Meat Organs from Lai Leung Kee (same link above)

The other stalls we are not quite interested in as much.

Our object coming here is the stall called James Snack. The English name is weird. They don’t serve snacks here. What they are famous for is their claypot rice and also the steamed lotus leaf rice.

You see, the name James Snack is a direct translation from the Cantonese name Jeem-See-Lack. That sort of mean … (more…)

The Richmond Public Market on Westminster Highway, Richmond (Part 2 of 2)

Post author:Ben
Post published:February 14, 2011
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:14 Comments

Alright. This is the follow-up on the previous post where I talked a bit about the Richmond Public Market.

We visited the Richmond Public Market (RPM) over a period of several weeks. So, don’t be surprised over all the food we described here. We are not pigs, OK? Alright, sometimes we are but not this time. 🙂

The RPM Food Court has a total of about 16 stalls. In this post we are going to cover just five of them.

All of the sixteen stalls have something unique to offer. All of them has lots to offer. All of them are really cheap too. And the menu of each stall is not trivial. I would say that if we just consider conservatively an average of 40 dishes per stall, we are looking at over 640 dishes to select from.

However, those of us who had been to the RPM knows that is not the cleanest of food courts around. It is showing its age. At least as far as I know they had passed all health inspections.

XI AN CUISINE

Xi An Cuisine is named after the capital of the Shaanxi province. The city of Xian is one of the cities of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China and the home of the Terracota Army. That is one city I would love to visit one day.

Nanzaro and I often want to get the Spicy Wonton. Suanne and Arkensen are indifferent to this dish. It wasn’t the greatest of spicy wontons but then this is just … (more…)

The Richmond Public Market on Westminster Highway, Richmond (Part 1 of 2)

Post author:Ben
Post published:February 14, 2011
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:15 Comments

This is continuing the series of the Asian Food Courts in Richmond.

It was back in September when I sat down and listed down all the food courts in Richmond. It did not occur to me before that but I soon realized that there are eight food courts peppered all over Richmond. I was surprised. I knew there are a number of food courts but I did not realize there were eight.

Since then I went back to these food courts and had made fresh blog posts about these places:

Parker Place
Empire Center
Yaohan Center
President Plaza
Pacific Plaza
Admiralty Center
Richmond Public Market (this post)
Aberdeen Center

Mind you, it is not like we had never blogged about the Richmond Public Market before. Looking back our archives, it seems like we had at least four other posts about this public market: here, here, here and here.

Way back when our boys were just toddlers and money were tight for eating out, this is the place we often end up with. The food here is cheap and the choices were plentiful. We hold fond memories of this place.

The food court is located on one half of the second floor of the building. Right in the middle of the food court is a bubble tea stall. We remember that stall but it has changed owners already by now. When Arkensen and Nanzaro was just really small, they … (more…)

King Buffet: All-You-Can-Eat Breakfast with 40 Items for $5.00

Post author:Ben
Post published:December 24, 2010
Post category:Richmond Various Chinese
Post comments:26 Comments

Updated 20th Oct 2014; This restaurant is closed.

Let’s cut to the chase.

King Buffet has got to be the restaurant with the cheapest and the most-est breakfast in Metro Vancouver. For quantity, no one comes close at all.

Until now, the places with the best value was Bon’s off Broadway ($2.95 breakfast) and IKEA ($1.00 breakfast).

King Buffet’s breakfast is “better” in that it is all you can eat and has 40 different items … all for $4.95 only.

King Buffet is newly opened. They took over the space left by Hon’s in the Empire Center on No 3 Road. Frankly, I had never bothered to give it a second glance assuming that Chinese buffets can never be good.

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that they had put up a big sign outside. What caught my interest was the breakfast, not the others. For just $4.95, I was thinking that chowtimes readers would be interested to read about it — whether it is good or not. I mean, who can resist checking out a $5 AYCE.

Think about it … FIVE BUCKS!

Five bucks is like loose change. Even knowing it is no where near gourmet quality, what is there to lose, right?

We walked in with low expectations. We were bowled over by how clean the restaurant is.

Why, they even have chandeliers on the ceiling. And also the table tops were heavy marbles. They also have a wine bar at one end of the restaurant which I am not sure if it is a fake and for show only.

Gosh, we were so impressed. This place looks many times better than when it was Hon’s.

The restaurant is as big as it was but there just a few tables taken. At best it was a third full only.

Service was pretty good. They came by to fill the glasses for us and I saw that they also go around chatting with customers (not with us though). However, they can hardly speak English except for one waitress.

When we went in we only knew it was $5. We did not know what they had, nor do we know how many items there were.

Suanne and I went around and counted the number items. It was 40 items. OMG! It is just 12 cents per item if you were to just have an item each. Here is the breakdown of the items:

13 hot Chinese items including congee and condiments
15 Chinese and Western salad including cold noodles
2 types of Dim Sum items
6 types of fruit
3 types of jello
4 types of cakes
4 types of ice-creams

Hey, that is 47 items, not 40.

What do you think? Excited to read more? Here is more … (more…)