Archive for the 'Chinese' Category
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
The first official city of our China/Hong Kong trip was Xi’an. Xi’an is the ancient capital city of China and is home to the terracotta warriors and the tomb of China’s first emperor. The region here is one of the agricultural centres of China and is full of rich farmland and we definitely had our fill of fresh and yummy vegetables while we were here.
To start our meal this evening, we had some Chinese beer. I’m not a big beer drinker back in Canada so I don’t have a point of comparison, but I found Chinese beer to be quite light and mild in taste.
To start our meal, we had a variety of cold dishes. The cold beef was thinly sliced and lightly seasoned.
The cold chicken was pretty standard and regular tasting…although I also found it to be a bit dry.
I enjoyed the cold lotus root quite a bit. It was lightly drizzled with sesame oil and was very crunchy.
The cold cucumber dish was also lightly drizzled with sesame oil. It was slightly salty and very crunchy. I don’t think it was cucumber season back in Vancouver so I actually hadn’t eaten any in quite a while but the cucumbers here in Xi’an were very fresh.
The soup was loaded with veggies and mushrooms…
These green gourds were slightly tangy and also very crunchy. As you can probably tell by now, I have a penchant for crunchy vegetables. 
The chicken and chive dish was great with rice. The chives had a light onion/garlicky taste but was not too overwelming.
The beef and pepper dish was spicy and also very good with rice. Although it had quite a few chilli peppers in the dish, it was not too spicy.
The chicken cubes in the next dish were a bit dry but I enjoyed the cucumber and carrot chunks. Notice how red the carrots are…I suppose this is why they are called red turnips in Chinese?
My mom referred to these veggies as Chinese lettuce. It was lightly stir-fried and very fresh.
I think these noodles were one of the best dishes of the evening. The noodles were freshly made and al dente. The light soup broth perfectly complemented the noodles.
I wasn’t too impressed with these pork dumplings…they looked a bit sad all lined up on the plate like that.
For dessert, we had some steamed sweet rice cakes. These tasted almost exactly like the white steamed rice cakes available in Vancouver but I liked these more because they were a bit chewier and weren’t as watery.
All in all, I enjoyed our first meal in Xi’an. I had been warned previously that the food in the other Chinese cities I would visit were much better but maybe that was why I enjoyed the food here. The vegetables were all very fresh and what I liked the most was that the food appeared to be completely absent of MSG! The service was also very attentive and friendly.
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Posted in Xi'an, Other Cities, Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Friday, March 7th, 2008
Samantha, Lucy, and I went to Szechuan Chongqing one day after work for dinner. It is one of Samantha’s favourite Chinese restaurants and she frequents this place quite a bit with her family. We went to the one on Commercial in Vancouver; there’s also one located on W. Broadway but I’m not sure if they are owned by the same people.
The three of us decided to share a few dishes, as that’s the best way to eat food in a Chinese restaurant. Because most of the items here are Szechuan style, they tend to be a bit spicy but of course, you can specify the level of spicyness when you place your order.
One of Szechuan Chongqing’s specialties is their Tan Tan noodles. Occasionally when Samantha and I come here, this is all we’ll order and we are perfectly fine with that. The egg noodles come in a spicy peanut soup that you really can’t get enough of.
We also ordered some lettuce wraps with duck. You have the choice of duck, chicken, or beef but we decided to go traditional with the duck. The duck filling came on a bed of fried vermicelli noodles and was mixed with a variety of crunchy veggies, including celery, carrots, and edamame.
The mound of lettuce was fresh and big. One thing that I don’t like about the lettuce wrap at some restaurants is that they never give you enough so you always have to ask for more. My one complaint about the lettuce was that it wasn’t dried properly so was quite wet and made eating the dish extra messy. Be sure to have a stack of napkins to wipe your drippy hands!
Lastly, we ordered the spinach with chicken dices in fish sauce. The spinach was really crunchy, which I’m not really used to but was really tasty. The chicken was also slightly spicy, not too spicy, and went great with rice. This was a bit on the oily side though so towards the end of the dish, we stopped eating because all the oil had collected at the bottom.
Szechuan Chongqing is always consistent and the food is different from the regular Cantonese food most people eat when they go for Chinese. Most dishes come in around $10-13 and are of a healthy portion size. We asked for our dishes to be of medium spicyness, which suited us just fine.
Details:
2808 Commercial Dr, Vancouver
Tel: 604-254-7434
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Price: $$
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 1 Comment »
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
Edmonton is pretty neat in that in most major buildings downtown, there are food courts set up for people to quickly order lunch from. I suppose because it is so cold there in the winter, it is way easier to grab lunch downstairs as opposed to braving the elements. Mabel, Dallas, and some others had been telling me about Chicken For Lunch, a Chinese fast food eatery in the Scotiabank food court. This place seemed to be famous for its good food, a lady who remembered everyone’s orders and names, and a huge lineup that circles around the food court at lunch. Mabel and I got there just after 12pm and there was already a long line formed.
Both Mabel and I ordered the medium size lunch for $6.50. For this price, you get rice, noodles, veggies, two types of chicken, and a spring roll. The price was more than reasonable and the portion sizes are pretty huge.
I settled on the lemon chicken and the hot and dry. Hot and dry is a bit spicy but is also the one that came most recommended when I was trying to decide on what to order. The lemon chicken was pretty tasty and had a nice lemony flavour. There was also quite a bit of sauce so it went nicely with my rice. As for the hot and dry, it was pretty good but I’m not much of a fried chicken lover so I wasn’t completely sold on it. It was very crispy though and was spicy without being overwhelmingly so.
Chicken for Lunch was not bad although I have to say I am surprised that people are willing to lineup so long to eat it…sometimes every day! I suppose I am probably spoiled by the great food in Vancouver so it takes a bit more to really wow me. The food was a great deal though and there was a lot of variety in the types of items you could order.
Details:
10060 Jasper Ave, Edmonton, Alberta
Tel: 780-425-9614
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Price: $
Posted in Other Cities, Edmonton, Fast Food, Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
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
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Price: $
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | 3 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
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Price: $
Posted in Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
A bunch of us headed over to the Burnaby Palace for lunch one day. Burnaby Palace offers what Gene refers to as “Canadian Chinese Food”. :) For those of you unfamiliar with the term, I guess it refers to Chinese food such as sweet and sour pork, egg foo yung, chicken chow mein, and other similar type dishes. For the most part, it is authentic food but more suited to the mainstream audience, if I may say so.
There were six of us in total, which allowed us to order a wide variety of dishes. Gene and Christina have been here quite a few times so we left it up to them to pick the dishes for us. First came the hot and sour soup. It was loaded with goodies like mushrooms, carrots, tofu, and bamboo shoots. It was very spicy but didn’t hit you until a few seconds after you swallowed.
For our veggie content, Gene selected the Buddha’s Feast, which was a mixture of bok choy, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, onions, and mushrooms. It had a light taste and the veggies were all nice and crunchy.
Christina’s favourite here is the Shanghai fried noodles, which was thick noodles with chicken, green onions, and cabbage. I normally don’t like these noodles because I find them too greasy but the dish here was actually light on the oil and not too heavy.
The almond chicken is breaded deep fried chicken with almond bits. It also comes with a plum sauce for dipping. This was very tasty and the chicken was crispy although probably not the healthiest thing to eat. :) Some of the end parts of the chicken pieces had a bit too much batter for my taste though.
The plum sauce gave the almond chicken a tangy flavour, making it quite similar to lemon chicken (another popular dish at Burnaby Palace).
The ginger beef must have come straight from the kitchen. It came with sizzling hot and tangy sauce drizzled all over. This dish went great with rice, especially since the kitchen was so generous with the sauce.
The Mandarin-style sweet and sour pork was also quite tasty. However, we found the taste a bit too similar to the ginger beef. It also went great with steamed rice.
We were a bit overzealous with the ordering and probably ordered one dish too many. The portion sizes are Burnaby Palace are quite generous and most dishes work out to around $8-12. Burnaby Palace is pretty popular with the local office crowd and was packed by the time we left around 12:45 in the afternoon. It is best to come here with a group as most dishes are meant to be shared.
Details:
3787 Canada Way, Burnaby
Tel: 604-437-1818
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Price: $$
Posted in Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
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