Ho Yummy

Review: Congee Noodle King

I reviewed Congee Noodle King back in July, but this time, I will actually talk about congee. It is located at the corner of Kingsway and Joyce St and serves mostly…surprise! congee and noodles. They also have a variety of fried rice and Chinese BBQ items.

Both Victoria and I ordered congee. It was a cold day and it was nice to have something to warm you up. I chose my favourite congee, which is preserved eggs with sliced pork and Victoria picked a chicken and mushroom congee. When our bowls came, they looked pretty much the same…with peanuts and thinly sliced green onions on top.

Both our congees were very tasty. The salty peanuts went great with the congee and I had very generous helpings of sliced pork and preserved eggs in mine. Yum!

I also like to eat my congee with a Chinese doughnut. Basically, it is fried (sometimes sweet) dough and is traditionally eaten with congee. As with most doughnuts (or fried dough for that matter), it is not the healthiest but still very good.

Steve went for the fried noodles with beef and peppers. He spied the table next to ours eating this and they looked to be enjoying themselves. The plate of noodles was huge and a great deal at $7.50.

Yet another satisfying lunch at Congee Noodle King. You always know what to expect there. The only thing you need to watch out for is to make sure you don’t eat too much and fall into a food coma once you are back in the office!

Details:
3313 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-435-6670

Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 6 Comments »

Review: Kingford Seafood Restaurant

It was late afternoon on a sunny weekend and Jenkins and I were wandering down No. 3 Road in Richmond looking for a place to eat at for lunch. I was pretty hungry so wanted to go to a place where the wait was short or non-existent. We decided to stop in at Kingford Seafood Restaurant at the corner of No. 3 Road and Westminster Hwy and were pleased to see that although the place was busy, there was no line-up at all!

Dim sum is always one of my favourite types of lunches. Jenkins and I had to remember not to order too much since it was just the two of us.

First came the congee with preserved egg and salty pork. I found this to be a bit bland but Jenkins liked the taste of it. There were generous helpings of the preserved egg and pork throughout the congee, which was quite nice.

We also ordered pan-fried Shanghainese pork buns, which is one of Jenkins’ favourite dim sum items. The pork filling inside was unlike traditional pan-fried pork buns in that there was quite a bit of crunchy vegetables as well. I enjoyed dunking this in the red vinegar.

One of my favourite dim sum items is the pan fried egg plant with shrimp paste. This was a bit on the greasy side and the shrimp paste was distributed unevenly over the eggplant. So some bites would have a lot of shrimp and others would just be eggplant.

Next came the steamed BBQ pork rice rolls. I drizzled some sweetened soy sauce, which came with the dish, over everything and it was quite tasty. Jenkins’ only complaint was that the pork filling also had cilantro, which he hates…but I didn’t mind it too much.

Of course no dim sum would be complete without har gao (shrimp dumplings) and siu mai (pork dumplings). The siu mai came out piping hot…so much so that it steamed up my camera lens. It was one of my favourite dishes of the meal. The pork dumplings were huge and the pork and shrimp had a nice crunch to it.

Here is what it actually looked like after the steam dissipated…hehe.

The har gao was good, but not as good as the siu mai. The shrimp was crunchy but Jenkins noted that it lacked some of the “har gao flavouring” that gives har gao its special taste.

By this point, we really should have stopped eating…but I couldn’t resist dessert. We tried to be (relatively more) healthy by ordering the steamed egg cake. The best steamed cake I’ve had is at the Top Gun restaurant in Richmond and this definitely was not as good. In hindsight, we should have stopped before dessert.

The service here was great…which is not always the norm in dim sum joints. Our server was very attentive and cleared our plates regularly and kept the teapot topped up. For the two of us, this cost $35 after tips and tax. I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of dim sum and the good service.

Details:
200 - 5890 No. 3 Road, Richmond
Tel: 604-270-8888

Summary:
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Price: $$

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »

Review: Bubble World

It was Friday afternoon again and Louis, John, and I headed over to Bubble World on Kingsway to wind down after a busy week at work. As I’ve mentioned before, Bubble World is not one of my favourite bubble tea houses due to its tiered pricing but it is close to my work so it always ends up being the defacto place to go.

Although it was cold outside, the inside of the restaurant was hot and muggy so Louis and I both decided to go with cold drinks. I wanted a mango milky green tea but the server seemed to have misunderstood me so gave me mango milky red tea instead. The drink had a creamy, milky taste and definitely fills you up. It was pretty good…although I do wonder how it would have tasted differently if green tea was used instead.

Louis decided to go classic with the pearl milk tea…without the pearls. :p

John has been on a hot drink spree lately so he settled on the honey chrysanthemum tea. This came in a little tea pot and looked like just the thing to warm you up on a cold day. Check out the action shot below of Louis pouring the drink.

I have to admit that the drinks at Bubble World are not bad. Now if only they not charge you for the popular drinks and give you the same amount of drink if you eat-in as take-out and it would go back to the top of my list of bubble tea places to go.

Details:
1-4300 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-434-5551

Summary:
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Price: $

Posted in Drinks, Asian, Reviews | 2 Comments »

Review: Pho Century

It’s been a while since Connie and I met up for lunch…so we decided to do so last week over some pho. We went to Pho Century, which is located in the mall at the corner of Willingdon Ave and Kingsway…the one with the IGA and Shopper’s Drug Mart. The pho is not bad and the restaurant is cleaner than most pho places.

One disappointment with this place was that they had no Vietnamese subs! Derek and Victoria put in to-go orders for subs and unfortunately, they didn’t have any. Connie and I decided to just go with the pho. Standard stuff.

I ordered the special pho which had everything in it: meat balls, beef flank, beef steak, tendon, and tripe. Yum. In fact, I was hungry enough and the pho was good enough that I forgot to take a picture until part way through the meal. Connie’s pho had beef flank and beef steak.

Because we were both famished, we also shared an order of spring rolls. As far as spring rolls go, this was sub par. The outside was crunchy enough but the inside was all soggy and didn’t seem fully cooked. The crispy shell was also oilier than I expected.

Overall, the food was acceptable…but definitely not one of the better Vietnamese places I’ve been to. However, the overall cleanliness of the place does make it quite appealing overall…especially when compared to some other pho places along Kingsway in Burnaby.

Details:
14-4429 Kingsway, Burnaby
Tel: 604-439-9786

Summary:
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Price: $

Posted in Vietnamese, Asian, Reviews | No Comments »

Review: Joey’s

After our dinner at Memphis Blues BBQ House the other day, Pick, Grick, and I headed over to Joey’s across the street for some dessert. In hindsight, I’m not sure why seeing that we were all stuffed from dinner…but it was fun nonetheless.

Pick and I both decided to get some tea to go with our dessert. It came on a nice little tray. I ordered the peppermint tea, which was very fragrant and a nice way to wind down the evening.

The three of us decided to share a couple of desserts. First off was the chocolate sundae for $6.95. This came with some peanuts, rainbow sprinkles, and chocolate sauce…each served in small little bowls. The sundae itself had scoops of chocolate and vanilla ice cream with caramel sauce and a generous heaping of whipped cream. This was ok, but I’ve definitely had better. I could even taste a some icy chunks in my ice cream, which would suggest it had been in the freezer for a bit too long.

We also shared an apple galette with vanilla ice cream. I liked this more than the the sunday. The flaky crust of the galette contrasted went great with the toasty walnuts and apples. As if you couldn’t ask for more, the whole thing was topped by a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Details:
1424 West Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-732-5639

Summary:
Food: (dessert only)
Service:
Price: $ (dessert only)

Posted in Dessert, Reviews | No Comments »

Review: Memphis Blues

Pick and I took Grick out for dinner last week for his birthday. Since I was going for dinner with two guys, what better place to go to than Memphis Blues BBQ House? Although the Memphis Blues restaurants have been in Vancouver for a while, I have never been here previously. It was time to see what was in store for us. We went to the one at Granville & Broadway.

We decided on the Memphis Feast, which is supposed to serve a group of three. I had to put my foot down and prevent Grick from ordering the Elvis Platter, which is supposed to be for six people. :p The Memphis Feast has a good sampling of all the meats offered at Memphis Blues: pulled pork, beef brisket, pork ribs, rib ends, Cornish game hen, and smoked sausage. As if that wasn’t enough already, it also comes with cornbread, coleslaw, bbq beans, potato salad, and fries. Oh, and I forgot to mention that you also get a big bowl of bbq sauce to dip everything in.

My favourite meat items in the platter were the pulled pork, beef brisket, and rib ends. The pulled pork was smoky and soft…kind of like pork floss that you can get in Asian grocery stores. The beef brisket was also very tasty. It fell apart when you poked it with your fork and all the fat had been cooked away but it wasn’t dry at all. The rib ends did not seem to have as much fat as the regular pork ribs but still had the same great taste.

All this meat also went great with the cornbread and fries. I wish the platter came with more cornbread than fries though. At least it gave the semblance of being healthy. Other than that, I was not too impressed with the other non-meat items.

In all, Memphis Blues is a great place to go with a small group of friends (i.e. 4 people or less). Because the restaurant space is quite small, it would be quite difficult to fit too many people around the small booths and tables. You order your food at the counter and it gets brought to your table quite quickly. The servers were also very friendly and the restaurant as a whole had a laid back and casual atmosphere. Our meal for 3 cost $39 before tips and tax. Not bad for an extremely filling dinner!

Details:
1465 W. Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-738-6806

Summary:
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Price: $

Posted in Barbecue, Reviews | 5 Comments »