Archive for February, 2008
Tuesday, February 26th, 2008
It was Valentine’s Day so Jenkins and I went to Alleluia Cafe. :) Alleluia is a Hong Kong-style cafe in Richmond that is well-known for their cheap and tasty dishes. We had only been here once before and had enjoyed it a lot but because of its long line-ups, we never ventured back. I guess most people were out having fancy Valentine’s Day dinner so Alleluia was actually quite quiet that evening. 
We ordered two dishes to share and they came with our choice of drink and a soup. For the drinks, Jenkins chose a cold lemon tea and I chose a warm honey lemon drink. With the lemon drinks at HK-style cafes, the lemons come sliced but you have to break up the lemon with your spoon to release the flavour into the drink.
Jenkins and both chose a clear vegetable soup because it seemed more healthy than the other cream-based choices. It came with some small chunks of bok choy and carrots.
The first dish that arrived was the grilled meat item. One of Alleluia’s specialties is their grilled dishes. For $6.95, you get a choice of two grilled items (such as chicken, grilled oysters, and minute steak), a choice of rice or spaghetti, vegetables, and a choice of sauce (including pepper, garlic, and curry). For $8.95, you get to pick three grilled items…pretty unbeatable. :) Jenkins and I chose the pan-fried chicken, grilled beef tongue, and spareribs for our grilled items and a pepper sauce for our dish.
The spareribs were very tasty and didn’t even need a knife to pull the meat away from the bone. I also liked the grilled beef tongue as it had a nice crunch and was very juicy. The chicken was standard but nice and crispy. We didn’t use up all the sauce that came with our dish…Jenkins noted that it didn’t go too well with our meat choices so maybe we will have to pick something else next time.
We also ordered baked pork chop with rice as that is one of our old standbys. The baked pork chop here is huge and we ended up only eating half! Lucky for me though because I brought the leftovers for lunch the next day. :) There was quite a bit of sauce here and the rice was a bit overcooked for my liking. However, the pork chop was very tasty and overall, it wasn’t too bad.
If the line-ups at Alleluia weren’t always so long, I would definitely come here more often. The food is tasty, the portions are large, and the prices really can’t be beat. Another thing I like about this place is that they don’t charge extra for cold drinks, which is what some places do.
Details:
188-8131 Westminster Hwy, Richmond
Tel: 604-271-8266
Summary:
Food: 
Service: 
Price: $
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Jenkins and I will be travelling to China and Hong Kong for the next few weeks! While I won’t be able to blog, my good friend and fellow blogger Keith will be posting some reviews I have written up beforehand and will also monitor the comments. Thanks Keith!
I will be sure to have many updates and reviews when I am back!
Source: www.panoramino.com
Posted in Updates | No Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2008
Jenkins and I continued our cake hunt at April Cakes in Vancouver. April works out of her house near Cambie & 16th and was Keith’s cake baker for his wedding a couple of years ago. When I told Keith that I was looking for a wedding cake, he recommended April and told me that he liked her cakes so much that he booked her right on the spot! April organizes her cake consultations on her website and you sign up for a block of time, which can be booked by multiple people (I think). While you are waiting, you can chat with some of April’s friends, who are also in the wedding industry. She does tell you this upfront so I was not caught off guard and actually got some tips from the wedding vendors.
April presented us with a plate of cake samples while we waited so that by the time we met with her, we would be able to discuss our favourite flavours right away.
The strawberry shortcake (top left) was a vanilla cake with strawberry compote, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries on top. I liked the contrast of the fresh strawberries with the moist vanilla cake and thought that this would make a good cake, especially in the summer.
Next, we had the white chocolate ganache with rasberry preserves (top right). I felt that the white chocolate was a bit too sweet and heavy for my taste and Jenkins agreed.
The lemon curd and cream cheese (middle right) was one of my favourite cakes that day. I loved the tangy lemon curd with the cream cheese and vanilla cake. When lemon desserts are done right, they are SO tasty! I kept on nibbling away at this cake, which suited Jenkins just fine because he was not too crazy about it. Unfortunately, this probably wouldn’t be one of the winning choices because we need to pick something we both like.
Last on this plate was the chocolate ganache with hazlenut buttercream. This was Jenkins’ favourite and you could really taste the hazelnut and the rich chocolate ganache. I liked this one too but I still thought the lemon one was the best.
Next, we also got a generous slice of chocolate cake with rasberry truffle filling. For me, this was my second favourite choice after the lemon and creamcheese. Jenkins also liked this one a lot! The cake was super moist and went great with the rasberry. If I recall correctly, this was also Keith’s favourite flavour and one of his choices for his wedding cake. (Sorry for no picture, I did take one but don’t know where it is now!)
April also had a plate of fondant leaves for us to nibble on. I’m sure most people don’t like the taste or consistency of fondant (I certainly don’t) but these fondant leaves actually tasted like marshmallows and were pretty good.
April was very friendly to meet with and her cakes were certainly delicious. She does only take 2-3 cake bookings per day though so if you want to book her for your wedding, you better do so quickly. Of the traditional cake places we have tried so far, this was one of my top choices. Her cakes range from $7-10 (and up) per slice.
Details:
Tel: 604-837-3441
Summary:
Food:
Service: n/a
Price: $$
Posted in Cake, Wedding | No Comments »
Sunday, February 17th, 2008
My last Dine Out of the year was with Derek, Connie, and Wendy. I was in charge of picking the restaurant so I chose Mistral Bistro because this was on my list of places to try. Also, the menu looked pretty good so I figured it would be a good pick. Mistral is located on W. Broadway right next to Feenie’s and Lumiere. Mistral is a French Bistro that opened up fairly recently and I had heard quite a few good things about it. Evidently, a lot of other people had heard the same thing because there was a huge crowd waiting outside by the time we left the restaurant around 8:30pm.
After we placed our orders, we were served some yummy French bread and whipped butter. I love whipped butter because it’s so light and airy and you don’t need to put a lot on the bread. The French bread was still a bit warm and was crusty on the outside and chewy and yummy on the inside…just the way it should be.
I started with the salmon tartare. The salmon was mixed with some citrus cream and crunchy cucumber chunks on top. I found it hard to really taste the salmon because there was too much cream. However, I found the cucumber to be a nice contrast to the creamy salmon.
For my main course, I had the duck confit with navy beans, beets, and lamb sausage. The duck was moist but not too fatty, which is sometimes the case with duck. I also liked the beets because they were not too mushy and had a nice sweet flavour. Although I thought that the navy beans and lamb sausage were also quite tasty, I didn’t feel that they went very well with the duck. I would have been happy with just the duck and beets…and maybe the beans.
I felt that my dessert was the best dish of the evening. I chose the dark chocolate mousse, which was very creamy and full of chocolate flavour. I only had two scoops for my dish but I really wish there was more…although my waistline may thank me that there wasn’t! Derek thought that the presentation left something to be desired, but the taste more than made up for it.
Here are some pictures of Connie’s and Wendy’s orders. I can’t remember their exact comments on their dishes but they did enjoy them quite a bit.
Wendy picked some pork cheeks with olives, winter vegetables, and pea cakes for her main course…
…and a waffle with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, almonds, and nutella cream. I was trying to decide between the waffle and the chocolate mousse…they both looked so yummy!
For Connie’s main course, she had the prawns, mussels, and daily fish with veggies and a saffron aioli. Although she liked the prawns and mussels, she noted that her fish was a bit fishy tasting.
Although my dinner at Mistral was quite good, I felt like it really could have been better. Just like Unwine’d, it fell a bit short of my expectations although the desserts really saved the day. The prices for the regular menu also seem to be quite reasonable so I would really like to come back here for a non-Dine Out experience. Despite them being quite busy that evening, our service was prompt and friendly.
Details:
2585 W. Broadway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-733-0046
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$ (we had all had the $25 dine-out menu)
Posted in French, Reviews | 2 Comments »
Thursday, February 14th, 2008
One of my and my co-workers’ favourite places to go to for lunch is Curry King on Kingsway in Burnaby. We used to go here almost every week, but in recent months, we haven’t been as much because the food doesn’t seem as tasty as before and some portions seem to be smaller. However, when I found out that another location opened up on Cambie St in Vancouver, I had to give it a try. It is located where Hugo’s used to be, right down the street from Gloucester’s Cafe, which is closed for the duration of the RAV line construction.
Upon going inside, most of the decor is the same as it was when it was still Hugo’s but there was a fresh coat of orange paint. Jenkins and I weren’t very hungry that day so we shared a baked spaghetti with pork chop for $10.95. This dish is huge (I think there are 2 pork chops here!) so especially if you are not too hungry, this is more than enough for two people.
The sauce on top is a basic HK-style tomato sauce with onions, mushrooms, and baked cheese on top. The pork chops are also cut into manageable slices so that makes the whole eating process less messy. Even though baked spaghetti is never al dente, there is something about it that I can almost never get enough of.
I had a bit of a cough that day so I also ordered a hot lemon tea with honey. The good thing about this was that when I finished my drink, I just poured more of the free tea into my cup, crushed the lemon to release some juice, and poured some honey in. It was almost like I got three cups of lemon tea for the price of one! :p
I have to say that the Curry King on Cambie is much better than the one on Kingsway. Jenkins has never been to the one on Kingsway before so I told him that the Cambie location is basically the Kingsway one back in its glory days. We have gone back several times since and have always been pleased with our selections.
Details:
3250 Cambie St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-872-3618
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 13th, 2008
It was Dine Out season again in Vancouver so it was time to hit the restaurant circuit again. To be honest, I am not a big fan of Dine Out the past couple of years, just because I feel that you don’t get a true indication of what the restaurant is really like and you also have to deal with the crowds and rushed service that inevitably comes with Dine Out. Nonetheless, I go because it is a reason to go for dinner with friends and catch up on what’s going on in our busy lives.
Jason and I met up at Unwine’d restaurant downtown during a weeknight. It is located right next to the Holiday Inn on Howe St. The reason I picked Unwine’d was because I heard rave reviews about its Dine Out menu last year, which was also only $15 for a three-course meal. This year, it was raised to $25 but it still looked interesting enough that I wanted to give it a try. When I was making the reservations, I was given several restrictions so I thought the restaurant would be quite busy. However, when we got there, it was only about 1/3 full.
In Dine Out, you are generally asked to pick all three course selections right at the beginning. I chose the crab cake to start my meal. It came on a bed of mixed greens and was topped with some flavoured mayo and pears poached in red wine. The crab cake was crispy outside and packed with crabby goodness inside. The poached pears were still a bit crunchy, which is just what I like and also complemented the crab cake nicely.
For my main course, I had the Beef Wellington. I was actually debating between this and the Ahi Tuna but Jason said that since I have never had Beef Wellington before, I had to give it a try. I also bumped into some people from work when I first got to the restaurant and they told me that I should specify to the server how I like my beef since they don’t really ask. With this in mind, I asked my server to make sure my Beef Wellington was medium rare. When my dish came, the puff pastry outside was nice and fluffy but the beef inside was medium or medium well throughout! 
I was a bit disappointed with this as I really don’t like my beef to be overcooked. To be fair, I suppose it is hard to judge the wellness of the beef when it is encased in a puff pastry but my co-workers later told me that their Wellingtons were rare! I suppose quality control issues still need to be worked out here. My side of rosemary yams was also a bit cold although the potatoes were pretty good.
Last, I chose the key lime cheese cake…mostly because I have a weakness for citrus desserts. Jenkins always likes to say that my citrus dessert choices only have a 50% success rate and unfortunately, this turned out to be one of my duds. I could hardly taste the lime flavour and the cheesecake was drizzled with some multi-coloured fruit coolies coulis which did not go with the cheesecake at all. Even more odd, there were some chunks of cheese on the side of my plate that I thought were actually mango chunks. Biting into the saltiness of the cheese really shocked my palate, which was expecting something sweet.
I have to say that I was disappointed by Unwine’d. With the exception of my crab cake appetizer, my meal really didn’t meet my expectations. However, the regular menu did look interesting and I did hear rave reviews from my friends who attended Dine Out here last year so I would still be willing to give this place another try someday. In the regular menu, most items seem to be under $20, which seems to be fairly reasonable.
Details:
1180 Howe St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-682-5225
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $$ (both our menus were $25 for 3 courses)
Posted in West Coast, Reviews | 3 Comments »
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