hayasaka.k

Joie, we do have Kopiko here...I actually had a "few" the other day. The T&T's have a great selection and whatever you don't find there is available at any candy/snack store (Tong Guo Sing and the like) in the Asian malls. I don't bother sticking to a "list" when I go in there, it's no use.

Che wan fan la~ Lol, I also had lots of Taiwanese friends in high school so I'm a hodge-podge of Chinese. I seem to be the rare traditional CBC (Canadian-born Chinese), meaning that can't read simplified like my CBC friends that take Mandarin in university, or read enough traditional like the recent immigrants, only understand certain terms in one of the three languages but can't interchange in my head to explain in any of the others. My entire brain will switch languages, it doesn't think-translate-speak. I also experience a lot of culture shock (especially food-related) because no one culture is fully ingrained. The first time dining with my 2nd-gen-CBC boyfriend's family is something I will never forget. I must have looked so horrified! Some things still pop up now and then that upset me. lol My dog really only listens to me because everyone else can't remember which commands are in which language. I could never keep pets for long in my childhood (I tried to keep chicks and ducklings) because they would invariably end up in the dinner soup. Okay, my dad says PoPo is from "4 9 kuy". Does this mean anything to anyone?

All this talk makes me hungry! And my usual haunt isn't open for another hour. Looks like I'm out of the race to upload a pic first. I always order the hahm tse fan (sticky rice, yao t'ieu, pork floss, salted preserved veg) by simply asking for tse fan, but lately I've noticed that the server asks whether I want the salty or sweet one. Does anyone know what's in the sweet kind?

Waa!Haha~ I'm so happy to have found this thread! So many memories of my PoPo cooking her batches (huge, stuffed plastic bags of each variety enough to feed 5 other families for a week) from morning 'til late at night in each go. All the smells of lap cheong, doong guu, chong, dou see, haw mai ji, ham yuu ji; and she'd always fry up a batch of prawn chips for me when she had to fry other things! I remember her gok was slightly sweet too. And no other woon doi goh is ever good enough for me now, she'd always put a half of a hung jo on top (it's been too long since I've heard anyone call it that!). My mum spent most of her youth in HK where she lost her accent and the "old ways"(so I understand Cantonese and Toisan wah), but my PoPo would always let me help her in the kitchen. She let me watch her prep all the ham and showed me different ways of how to wrap each type of tay so they wouldn't fall apart, how much filling I could put... My little fingers couldn't handle the bigger ones and she'd let me make baby ones for myself instead. She's back in HK now, but very much alive and kicking. I remember when she was 90 she'd walk around Burkeville (on Sea Island) twice every day, work non-stop all day sewing, cleaning, cooking and still have energy to chase me around the house when I was misbehaving. I was always proud because I was the only child of all the other Chinese families that could understand Toisan wah. This was in the 80's in Richmond, where being Chinese at all was a tough shtick. I've only been back to our village once when I was young, and I loved how every night my uncle had to chop the wood for the stove and boil the water for our baths. And the first night we got there a ton of the surrounding villagers joined us for dinner. Must get someone to scan those pics of the stove for you all. Thank you so much for this thread! I will check back on our geographical specs, but I'm the grandchild of a Wong.

On Saturdays it's lunch only, and on Sundays dinner only.

I've had an on-going pizza craving because of a long-established doubt there exists a "safe" pizza place in Richmond. There isn't, is there? I'm putting untold mileage on the bf's car in the name of tasty eats. Of course he shares in the spoils too. Edited to add: *yay* We made the trip out for lunch today and shared a penne gorgonzola, the osso bucco with mushroom risotto and a prusciutto et funghi pie. The risotto was too mushy for my liking; but as satisfying as the pizza was, the penne stole my heart. Nothing like basking in the afterglow of simple perfection. The noise level (of 3 tables plus a couple waiting for takeout, ourselves included) was a morning dim sum equivalent condensed within its tiny quarters. Service is top notch. Made me wish I were Italian so I could throw the server a kiss and shout "Ah honey, ciao!" from out the door.

Ugh, I long for the demise of those big top "gorge shops". Kiyo is my only Richmond sashimi place. Heads up Keith: they are closed on Mondays. Not sure if they have changed their selective weekend hours. I frequent Sushihan (#2+Blundell) for the usual rolls, and Sushi Ten (#1+Moncton) for homestyle rice bowls. Please do share your favourite Richmond dining destinations (or is that venturing into a new topic?). Trying to find (and keep) good ones leads me to become a better cook at home.

I suppose I wouldn't handle dog or cat too well, and I'd likely draw the line at insects. Never thought to prepare it on my own but I've had horse sashimi on several occasions at Yoshi (on Denman). I found the slightly grassy dipping sauce rather amusing.

BGBY - Singed myself all the way down with dan dan noodles, Eastern Szechuan chicken and tofu, chili string beans, and of course the xiao long bao. Turns out Mrs. Yi/Yu recognized my dinner date, good friends with his mum since he was apparently much tinier when she used to work at a dim sum place on Broadway. Didn't catch the name. My mandarin isn't up to par. I've been having terrible luck the past couple of weeks; I keep hitting restaurants on their day/time off (Cafe de Paris at 2:00pm, Ajisai on Monday, Kiyo on Monday). Ended up grabbing take-out from Sushihan to tone down my fishy cravings. Got some tempura, hotate-mayo sushi, tuna+sake sashimi, oshinko and alaska rolls. Never really effective but hey, means more sushi for me! Tomato Cafe - I keep praying for the day they fall in love with some corner spot a block or two from my house. Bf got a cup of Mexican bean + beef soup, the portabello burger and dill potato salad. I got a cup of Indonesian squash soup, Italian countryside cold sandwich, grilled tomato club, dill potato salad, and a big raised eyebrows from our server. Word got around quick as dear bf wondered what pregnancy might one day do to my appetite. Thems were good sangwiches (okay, so I got some help, but fought to the end for the last chunks of taters ).

Correction: hayasaka.k's boyfriend! Do I look that old? Agreed. I'm interested in what you all define as a "good" burger experience (waitresses not included). I look for: Bun - Soft, lightly toasted; no sesame seeds (my own quirk) and best if seedless; I think of it more as a receptacle for my meat and toppings, a supporting player to sop up the juices. Toppings - Cooked mushrooms (so their juices run off with the meat juices somewhere down my wrist ); cooked onions (does anywhere do caramelized?); lettuce; tomatoes; melted cheese; ketchup and mayo. In consideration of toppings and my miniscule mandible I prefer a burger of greater width to height. Patty - Good compromise between lean and fatty beef; juicy, lightly charred and slightly greasy; doneness is an iffy issue, as sometimes doneness also means cardboard. Fries - Waxy potatoes, lightly battered and thinly crisped. I like vinegar with my fries, and starchy ones just don't work. They had: Bun - Very toasted, remained so to the end (I had some juices at the bottom of my foil packet). Toppings - Just-cooked/raw largely-diced onions; just-cooked mushrooms (not on menu); my cheese actually resembled perfect little rectangles, I've never seen shredded cheese like this so someone please explain; 1/2" thick wad of lettuce; thick slice of tomato; and what seemed like every hotdog condiment (sorry, I'm a conservative). Patty - Good charred taste but unfortunately dry. They definitely favour height to width here. Spiffy burger-flipping showmanship, . Fries - Waxy and nicely crisped; did notice the bitterness but only slightly. Also had a chili fries option, but someone else will have to comment on that. I also had the pleasure of meeting RO's root beer float. The vanilla ice cream was a little grainy (icy?), but melted cleanly. It tasted pretty light (fat/vanillin/sugar) but this didn't affect its foaminess. So, is Vera's next? Joyce

Ba Guo Bu Yi - this will be a regular for me now. Had staple dumplings and sticky rice roll, plus the lamb dumplings (in broth), and my new staple there: dan dan noodles! Good kick, not over-salty (the death of most I've tried) and peanuts remain as a supporting cast. I never understood what was so great about them 'til I dipped my chopstick into my bf's bowl. Burgoo - went here after I found out Ajisai is closed Mondays. Shared the Fonduemental (brie, black pepper, herbs served with bread and red grapes) for one, and it still did me in. I was way too conservative a dunker at the beginning, which left a good amount cheese for my moist Country Chicken sandwich but not enough room in my tummy for my Moroccan Lamb Tagine. Couscous was strangely crunchy; BBQ Beef sandwich had soft and flavourful braised beef. Tasted great the next day; nothing spectacular, just their usual stewy comfort. Rodeo Drive In - my burger club pre-burger! I had a juicy cheeseburger with mushrooms, others had the Rodeo and Double. We all shared lightly battered fries (not quite as good as Costco), crisp deep-fried mushrooms, very thickly battered and super crunchy onion rings, and what everyone agreed was Costco gravy. We'll all take the drive out again.

Ooh! Yes! Yes! Ba Guo Bu Yi is the place! Thank you Ling, Eric, Tricia, Deb, and Arne! *whew*

Sushi Ten - homey rice bowl mom&pop place near work. Sushihan - my mom&pop haunt for the usual. Okay, I'll need some help with this one. I *thought* I saw this restaurant in the Vancouver Mag Eating and Drinking Guide, but now it's disappeared (insert chills here). No but really, it's on Park Rd in Richmond, just off of #3 Rd. The Romanized name is 4 words long and starts with a "B". It's the lone Chinese restaurant across Park Rd from Happy Date. I went (somehow very specifically) there for a late Saturday lunch and there was one man running the room and this younger girl that just ran food. The menu is pretty incomprehensible even if you can read Chinese , and you can't always trust the English bits either (ie "dumpling with dough gathered on top" which I understood as the mini steamed pork dumplings shao long bao, turned out to be shiu mai once read in Chinese). We were in and out of there in less than 1 hour, and saw five tables served with incorrect dishes (in amount or in entirety). We joked that even the chef couldn't understand the server's dialect. But damn, I've never had better steamed pork dumplings or sticky rice rolls anywhere else. Their dumplings have excellent filling-to-skin ratio, with nice thin skins (no hard lump of dough where it's gathered on top) that fill your mouth with hot meaty juices when pierced, and a good lump of pork inside. I've had so many sticky rice rolls made with old or improperly cooked rice (dry and hard), old or refried and oil-soaked Chinese donuts (why are they called that?) and barely any preserved veg or pork floss. Not this baby. Soft and glutinous sticky rice wrapped around a crispy Chinese donut (with soft, steam-cooked centre) and crunchy preserved veg in every bite. We got to sit by the window where you can watch the guy that wraps their dumplings (some that we couldn't identify were HUGE, he was using a buffet serving spoon to portion the fillings). They also offer the usual dim sum fare (there weren't any carts when we were there), soup noodles, rice, etc... We also had soy milk (but not the kind with milk in it, just the pressed beans like mum used to make ), shiu mai, chicken feet, shrimp dumplings, braised beef rolls and the bill was just over $20 for two. It's my "sticky-rice-roll-and-pork-dumpling-craving go-to" place. But with your help, it can have a name again.

I should have noted that my dad hasn't had real tarte tartin before, but he loves anything with puff pastry, so that's probably why he liked his dessert. ← I had the salad (during which I realized the ravioli was a better choice), ribs and tatin. I agree that the food seemd to lack flavour and development. My puff was more a solid sheet of dough just bordering on cooked; the cinnamon ice cream saved the meal. Our server took a solid 20 min after dropping off the bill to pick it up again, by which time I was ready for another plate of ribs.

$12 S/H to Canada.