Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle

I remember walking by this restaurant last year in Aberdeen and seeing the hoards of people lined up outside. I thought to myself that this must be a good Taiwanese beef noodle house. I've been wanting to try this place and finally decided to eat there with a few of my friends. The great thing about going a year later is that I get to avoid the lines!

Chef Hung's noodle restaurants was established in 1995 and he has also won the National Beef Noodle Contest award for 3 consecutive years. The restaurant in Aberdeen is his first North American location to open.

And again.... I forgot my camera. I should always remember to carry my camera with me. But I sometimes forget... So, again, we had to use the Iphone4's camera.

Open kitchen! You can watch the chefs make noodles.

Read more - Om nom nom

Kintaro

On a cloudy, cold, rainy Vancouver day, the best thing to eat is a bowl of ramen! In my opinion, Kintaro is the best place to get ramen. The soup there is made from pork and is rich and flavourful. The noodles are just the right consistency and the BBQ pork there is tasty.

Tucked away on Denman street, Kintaro is a relatively small restaurant and going in large groups is not recommended. Arrive early for dinner, before 7pm, to avoid the lines. If you are in line, expect to wait about 15 - 25 minutes.

There are 6 different types of ramen available at Kintaro: Miso, Shio (sea salt), Shoyu (soy sauce), Cheese, BBQ Pork (extra pork!) and Vegetable. First you choose your ramen, second you choose the richness of the broth (rich, medium or light) and then lastly, if you got BBQ pork, you can choose the cut, lean or fat. And the great thing about Kintaro is that everything is made in house. The noodles, broth and pork!

Vats of pork broth simmering away

Read more - Om nom nom

La Belle Patate

Fries, gravy and cheese. The best combination ever! Whenever I have the craving for poutine, I would usually get my quick fix from New York Fries. That poutine is okay at best and cannot compare to the poutine that I had in Montreal. Montreal poutine is sooooo good and I was unable to find any here in Vancouver until La Belle Patate opened!

When I saw that La Belle Patate does Montreal style poutine, hot dogs and smoked meat sandwiches, I was excited to try it. The menu there is extensive. 26 different types of poutine, hotdogs, grilled cheese and of course, smoke meat sandwich.

I went to La Belle Patate on 2 separate occasions. The first time I went, we ordered 2 medium poutines: Poutine Extreme (beef, bacon, mushrooms, onions) and Smoked Meat Poutine, and a couple of hotdogs.

Poutine Extreme

Beef, Bacon, Mushroom, Onion

Read more - Om nom nom

Bonchaz Bakery

My friend always raves about Bonchaz and how good the pastry buns there are. Every time he talked about it, I would always want one cause it sounds so tasty!

A Bonchaz is a brioche-like bun with a milk filling and a crispy top. It comes in many different flavours: Original with Sea Salt, Banana Walnut, Chocolate Truffle, Apple Cinnamon, and Matcha Green Tea. I decided to try the Matcha Green Tea one and he got the Original with Sea Salt.

The buns were fresh out of the oven and were soft and warm. I like the softness of the bun and the slight crispiness of the topping. There was also plenty of filling in the buns! The Matcha Green Tea Bonchaz filling had a slight green tea taste and wasn't over powering. I really liked the coconut topping that it had. The Original with Sea Salt was also tasty! Over the 2, I think I like the sea salt one better.

Original with Sea Salt

Matcha Green Tea with Coconut Topping

Overall Impressions: I will definitely visit Bonchaz again to try all the other flavours! I really like the softness and crispiness of the buns and how it isn't too sweet.

Bonchaz Bakery

www.bonchaz.ca

426 West Hastings

Vancouver, BC

Phone: 604.626.7215

Japadog - Robson

When I saw that Japadog was opening an actual store back in February, I was excited because walking to the Robson store from my work place would be closer than trekking out to the Burrard and Smithe stand.

One lunch hour, my co-worker and I decided to try out Japadog. The menu at the store is slightly different than the one at the stand. They have the standard Terimayo, Oroshi and Okonomi and also some new hot dogs: Love Meat, Negi Miso, Tonkatsu, Yakiniku Rice and dessert hot dogs! They also have shaken fries on the side and you can choose from a variety of flavours: Aonori (seaweed), Teriyaki, Japa Shio (sea salt), and Butter & Shoyu.

Read more - Om nom nom

Empire Chinese Cuisine

It was my mom's 60th birthday over the weekend and we decided to go to the Empire Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Richmond. My mom wanted to go there because they had a special going on for one of their set menus. It's a pretty good deal. $398 for 10 dishes and it includes abalone, shark fin, lobster, squab and dessert. The only catch to this deal is that you can only book a maximum of 2 tables (20 people).

Read more - Om nom nom

Pearl Castle (Richmond Centre)

We were wandering around Richmond Centre, and decided to stop in at Pearl Castle for some bubble tea food. The place was pretty busy but we managed to get seated right away.  We had forgotten our camera so we were stuck using my iPhone 4 camera instead.

Read more - Om nom nom

Food Cart - ReUp BBQ

In the mood for pulled pork and wanting to sample some of the new cart vendors that have popped up as a result of Vancouver's street food initiative, we decided to head to ReUp Barbecue in front of the Vancouver art gallery.

The line up was pretty long and we ended up waiting for 10 minutes or so before we were able to order. The menu is nice and simple. A pulled pork sandwich will set you back $6 plus HST. You can add a homemade sweet tea or soda for $2 plus HST.

Read more - Om nom nom

Dinesty

I had a craving for some Shanghai food and wanted to eat some shanghai buns (xiao long bao) and some beef and green onion pancake. I remember the beef and green onion pancake being really good at Dinesty and wanted to go eat it.

We ventured out to Richmond and made our way to the restaurant. There are a couple of things that I like about this restaurant: 1) The decor and 2) Open kitchen. The decor is modern and well placed. You don't feel crowded when sitting at your table like in most Asian restaurants. With the open kitchen, you can see all the food being made and you know what's coming out of the kitchen.

The restaurant was surprisingly busy for a Monday night! But we were seated quickly and the menus were handed to us. I noticed that the menus were English friendly, being that all items were translated in English. I've been to Shanghai places before where the menus were partially translated. On the Dinesty menus, there are pictures and also a letter/numbering system for each dish which makes ordering easy if you do not speak the language. After debating on which dishes to order, we decided to order 7 small dishes: xiao long bao, vegetable dumplings, shiitake mushrooms wrapped in bean curd, beef and green onion pancake, radish cakes, wine chicken (or drunken chicken), and cucumber with garlic. About 5 minutes after placing our order, the first dish came out which was the xiao long baos.

Xiao Long Bao

The xiao long bao came out hot and exactly like how the dumplings are supposed to be: thin skinned and soupy. The one thing that I didn't quite like was that it tasted a bit greasy.

Read more - Om nom nom

First Post - Lumiere!

I love food, I love to eat and I love to share these experiences with everyone.

I figured I'll start my blog off with the best meal that I've eaten to date! That would be at Lumiere. I've always wanted to try Lumiere ever since I've heard about it years ago. Lumiere is a French fine dining restaurant overlooked by Daniel Boulud and run by the youngest Grand Chef, Dale Mackay. There are only 160 Grand Chefs in the world! And who wouldn't want to dine at a restaurant run by one of the 160 talented chefs?

When I finally went, I was blown away by everything. The ambiance, the service, the food, and everything about the dining experience there was wonderful and perfect. The servers were friendly and knowledgeable about the food. Each dish that arrived was explained and any questions we had they all had the answers to.

When arriving at Lumiere, we were promptly greeted and seated. We were the first people in the restaurant and little did we know, we would be close to the last ones to leave. Initially, we were thinking of trying the 3 course Prix Fixe Special. But after browsing through the menu and taking into account of what our server told us about the 9 course Grand Tasting Menu, we opted to try the 9 courses. We figured that since we rarely get the chance to dine here, we might as well try everything! And surprises are always good as the 9 courses would be the Chef's selection. 3 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 3 desserts. Each dish that came out was beautifully presented and a work of art.

4 hours and 16 dishes later.... See more after the cut!

Read more - Om nom nom