Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts on West Second Ave, Vancouver

Polly and I resumed our cake meet after a long break due to her change of work schedule. I saw a review on the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts in the Vancouver Sun some time ago and decided to give it a try.

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The Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts is located at the entrance to Granville Island. This school has a restaurant which serves three course gourmet set menu prepar3ed by the students. The menu ranges from $24 for weekday lunch, $26 for Saturday brunch to $36 for dinner from Monday to Saturday. The restaurant has a great marina view overlooking the North Shore mountains.

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The institute also has a Bakeshop and Cafe which serves specialty breads, pastries, gourmet cakes, light lunches and dinners for dine in or take away. This is where Polly and I indulged our craving for cakes.

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We ordered three items to share. It is just too tempting looking at the array of items offered at the Bakeshop & Cafe. Those with chocolate cost $3.25 while the rest cost $2.95 a piece. (more…)

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Fook Po Tong (Chinese Herbal Shop) in Yaohan, Richmond

Polly and I went to a Chinese Herbal Shop for dessert soup instead of cake. We went to Fook Po Tong in Yaohan’s foodcourt in Richmond. We had passed by this small lot many times but have never try the food there before.

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Fook Po Tong is a shop which specializes in herbal tea and jello. The shop’s specialty is Guilinggao or Herbal Jello.

The shop is decorated with large banners of its menu in Chinese. It also has displays of Chinese herbs on shelves which lined the walls. An old fashion clock which chimes every half an hour brings back memory of my old home which also had a similar clock.

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The tables and stools in the shop has an old fashion feel to it.

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Cream Puff Cafe on Broadway

Update: 1-Jun-09; this cafe is closed according to urbanspoon

Polly and I had visited four cheesecake shops and believe it or not, I think we have run out of cheesecake shops to visit. Well, not quite right … there are tons of cheesecake places all around the Lower Mainland but most of them are opened only in the evening. Polly and I could only find time for lunchtime.

But there are a lot of other places too. Last month, I found a Cream Puff place in one of the blog links I had. I am not sure where I found it at, could be tasteof604.com or Urban Vancouver or FoodVancouver. This place is simply called Cream Puff Cafe. It is located on 3416 West Broadway in Vancouver.

The Cream Puff Cafe is a small and cozy neighborhood cafe. It was easy place to find even though we don’t normally go by this side of the city. Anyway, one can never get lost along West Broadway, can they? The Cream Puff Cafe is a corner store with a very distinctive greenish sign.

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The Cream Puff Cafe has only been opened for a few months. This is a small and neighborhoody cafe place with about four or five tables. It was very quiet when we were there. When we walked in there was only a lady buying scones to go.

They charge by the number of cream puffs you buy. I can’t remember how much it was but it was like the more you buy the cheaper it is. We want to try everything. They have a Sampler which includes every kinds of cream puffs. There are 15 different types in all and the Sampler box costs $12 (about 80 cents each). A bit on the expensive side but they do look very delicious.

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Each of the cream puff is delicately hand made and perhaps that’s why it costs so much. Below is the Brazilian Real Coffee Buttercream cream puff.

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Le BonBon Cafe in Richmond

Updated 11 Sep 2009: This restaurant had been closed.

This is our fourth cake meet. Polly and I had to postpone last week’s cake meet due to the snow storm and deep freeze.

This time, we visited Le BonBon Cafe in Richmond. It is located at 170 – 3031 Beckman Place which is on Bridgeport Rd and No. 4 Rd.

Le BonBon Cafe offers a number of cheesecakes and gourmet coffee. It also caters for birthday cakes for kids like ice-cream cake and mud cake such as Portuguese Creme Caramel, sponge cake in various flavour like chocolate, vanilla, coffee and lemon, butter cake and banana cake.

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Le BonBon’s cheesecake is all homemade by the owner, Jenny Felgar. Le BonBon’s cheesecake is famous for its rich and intense cheese flavor, yet smooth but not too sweet. Jenny told us that she uses 1 kilogram of cream cheese to make a 9″ cheesecake and it takes 13.5 to 15 hours to make one from preparation to its readiness. Each cheesecake is slowly baked to its perfection with passion and dedication.

We were overwhelmed by the varieties in the display shelves. To name some, Le BonBon’s original. Blueberry Swirl, Strawberry Swirl, Chocolate Truffle, Bailey’s Coffee, Italian Tiramisu, Green Tea, Green Apple, Mango, Pear, etc.

Jenny recommended we try the Le BonBon’s original cheesecake which is the New York Style cheesecake as it gives us the original cheese flavour. It is indeed very rich and creamy.

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Polly ordered the Green Tea Cheesecake which has a very subtle green tea flavour and still very creamy.

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Il pappagallo Caffe – Home of Ultimate Cheesecake

With the recommendation from Stephanie, Polly and I went to Il Pappagllo Caffe at Hastings St and Sperling for our third cake meet. It was quite a long drive from Richmond.

Pappagallo Caffe is a small, cozy caffe with lots of retro posters decorating its walls. The caffe has a good flow of customers.

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There are a few cheesecakes to choose from; blueberry, strawberry, caramel, turtles, tiramisu, etc.

Polly went for the turtles cheesecake. It was topped with chocolate, caramel and nuts. It is a very rich tasting cheesecake. The crust is quite thick and crumbly though.

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Death by Chocolate

Updated 14th Jan 2011: This location had been closed according to Urbanspoon.com.

It’s cake meet time again with Polly. We continue our quest for the best cake place in town.

This time, we decided to try Death by Chocolate in Metropolis. We were there around 10:30 am and we were the only customers there.

We were quite disappointed with the menu as there were only about five to choose from instead of the many we saw in their website. We ended up with Heavenly Dilemma which has both chocolate and cheese in it.

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The Heavenly Dilemma is served in a pool of white chocolate sauce with dollop of milk chocolate sauce. The crust has a very intense chocolate flavor. The cake is topped with some dark chocolate icing too. This thin slice of cake costs $7.95.

We enjoyed the cake with a chai tea and hot apple cider.

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Trees Organic Coffee – Best Cheesecake in Vancouver

A few weeks ago, Polly invited me to join her in search for the best cheesecake in Vancouver. We both loves cheesecakes a lot. So, we did some research and found this place called the Trees Organic Coffee from the internet. Polly’s friends also recommended this place.

Trees Organic Coffee is located on Granville between West Hastings and Pender in Vancouver. The shop was decorated warmly with tables inside and outside of the shop. It is a trendy boheniam cafe. We decided to sit inside at a window sit to enjoy our cheesecake as the weather is a bit too cold for us that day.

Yup, they did put up a sign saying that they have the “Best Cheesecake in Vancouver”.

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We were there before 11:00 am and there was not many customers at the time. After browsing through the cheese cakes on display, I decided to order the New York Cheesecake. The New York Cheesecake was really creamy and just melted in your mouth. Most of the slice cheesecake cost $5.60.

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