chocomoo

^ Yep, that's the one! It was pretty good - maybe I'll buy a couple next time they're on sale. I don't really drink pop that often, but I agree, I'd take this over Sprite & 7-Up any day!

You're welcome! So did you end up making a 2nd trip to Richmond last week? There's a supermarket that's in the same mall (Continental Centre) as Vogue that has some pretty good deals on produce sometimes. It's quite a small store, though. I think it's called Hong Kong supermarket. We also frequent the supermarket that's across from the Save-On mall. The produce section is relatively big (though not especially cheap), and their meat section has (in our opinion) quality beef. Sometimes they have really good deals on their beef (I don't remember what cut - flank steak, I think?), but I don't remember the price. If anyone wants to know, I can find out. There's a bakery inside too - the Boss Bakery, I think it's called (it'e related to Maxim's - I think the owner is either the son or son-in-law of the Maxim's guy (Mr. Lai)). I tried a kalamansi lime soft drink that was pretty good (a Filipino brand). I can't remember the supermarket's name in English right now, but the Cantonese name is "Sing Dat".

I had the matcha exotique last month, & it was quite good. The mango & passionfruit gelee was quite refreshing. There were actually bits of passionfruit in theh gelee! I have a picture somewhere, I'll post it later...

Wow that is quite the spread for a 2nd birthday. When I turned 2 I was probably revelling with Jello pudding. ← Haha Try adding another digit after the 2 I actually have some pictures from my birthday party when I turned 2. I think I had a Chinese cake - you know, the sponge cake layered with fruit kind.

There was also the United Buy & Sell Furniture Warehouse (it's now United Furniture Warehouse) commercial. Touted by a big moustachioed man often wearing overalls waving his arms around. Anyways, I'm definitely going to try the steak at Aurora this Saturday (yay, 2nd birthday dinner!). I was torn between the potato-wrapped sablefish & the steak, but I'm gonna go for the steak now. I had a REALLY good grilled prime rib at La Regalade with my family for my birthday last Saturday - slightly charred on the outside, juicy & red on the inside Served with shallots, garlic cloves & roasted potatoes in a giant pan. We order this every time we go! It's only $24.95 for a really big portion (it doesn't say how many ounces it is). Sean, that burger I had at your restaurant a few weeks ago was AMAZING, by the way - I never knew burgers could be that good!!

I think it's "goh", maybe from "dai jap" crabs? What are those crabs called in English, anyway? Nobody's mentioned the "Buddha Jumps Wall" dish yet, it's also an expensive dish. The best shark's fin I ever had was not at a restaurant, but prepared at our home by our family friends (they're both cooks) - the fins were as thick as bean sprouts! I have absolutely no idea how much it cost, but it must've cost a fortune! Wintermelon soup can't be that hard or expensive to make, can it? My auntie makes it sometimes, usually for special occasions. Is it just time-consuming to make because it's more of a "gung" than a "tong"?

My mom & auntie were at China World last week (Thursday?) and they said the stuff there is quite cheap, & apparently they have a large produce section. Surprisingly, a lot of the products are made in Taiwan. We try to avoid buying food products that are made in China, because they have no food regulations over there. Mmm, soy sauce made with hair! I'm not kidding, it was in the news - both the Ming Pao & Vancouver Sun reported it. Apparently they were using the hair as a protein substitute. Obviously we don't get stuff that's as bad here, but you know, the products might contain high levels of chemicals that're bad for you, etc. I think Yaohan actually has a really good kitchen - their cold marinated items are really good, like the soy-sauce marinated beef brisket, tofu "noodles", and as mentioned before, "jai lo mei". There are even periwinkles sometimes! I don't like snails & their related cousins, so I haven't tried it, but they looked pretty good. There are usually about 10 things to choose from. They have a Japanese section as well, with sushi, sashimi, teriyaki chicken (it's not good - there's hardly any teriyaki sauce on it & the chicken is roasted), and yummy Japanese side dishes like those tiny fish, marinated shredded kelp, and Japanese pickles. The sushi goes on sale at night-time - everybody makes a dash for it And no, I'm not one of the dashers

I don't know if you've left on your shopping expedition yet, but you can always pop in to T&T while you're at Yaohan, as it's only the next mall over.

I would go to Osaka, at Yaohan Centre on No. 3 Road. The produce is nice & clean, & not too expensive. And plus there are lots of Japanese snacks The products are mostly East Asian though, so you might not find specific Vietnamese or Filipino products. And plus the kitchen in the back seems pretty clean - they just renovated the kitchen area a few months ago, actually. It's cleaner than the T&T kitchen (and apparently way cleaner than the downtown T&T, inside sources pinpoint that one as the dirtiest ). They have more northern Chinese items in the kitchen now, such as "man tou" (those Chinese white buns with no filling) and soup dumplings. I think they have the best "jai", that sweet & sour fried glutinous...thing. Only the one you get from the display case though (it's not always available), not the kind from the plastic boxes on the display table (squelches oil & is white in the middle).

^ There's a good curry place at Yaohan as well - we used to get the "party size" buckets of curry for takeout sometimes. Have you tried Jade Seafood restaurant on Alexandra Road for dim sum or dinner? I've said it before, but I think some of their dim sum items are pretty unique. About the same pricing as Kirin. Their seafood is quite fresh, as well - last time we went for dinner, we each had a whole abalone, & they had "sugar centres" (apparently that's a good thing). The scallop's were plump & juicy, but they tasted faintly of ammonia, yuck... Nobody else noticed though. I'm a bit sensitive to "gone wrong" tastes though, like rancid oil (eww, I had the worst piece of rancid "lap yook" (Chinese bacon) recently, the taste filled my mouth like a mushroom cloud ).

Lee, you should try "Jeem Jai Gei" or something like that (I don't think it has an English name), across from Richmond Public Market on Westminster Hwy. Their wontons are really good, flavourful with sesame oil & "crisp" shrimp. I also really like their beef brisket & tendon with rice noodles ("ho fun"). Much bigger portion than Mak's, and probably about the same price if not cheaper. It's in the same mall as some seafood market, not the "Alleluia" mall. That shredded pork bun from Xian looks really good! I might have to try it next time I'm at the public market (which is like, once every few months). Those "wo teep"s look weird, I've never seen them in a weird fat finger-shaped log before... I do like "wo teep" a lot though. Speaking of Northern Chinese cuisine, there's some place at Crystal Mall that sells really really good green onion pancakes. It's more bready than the regular ones, & it's about 2 inches thick. So I guess more like a bun, but it's sooooo good pan-seared in the wok Very nicely flavoured - nice blending of some kind of spices. It kinda reminds me of "silver thread rolls" cuz the dough is kinda braided together (or however they do it) the same way. I love picking those apart. I'll find out exactly where this place is later.

Kettle Chips just came out with 2 new flavours: Cheddar & Beer, and Spicy Thai, which were the "People's Choice" flavours of 2005. The cheddar & beer really does taste like aged cheddar & beer. The ingredients included hops & yeast. My sister hated it though, as she can't stand beer & stinky cheese. My dad loved it! Guess what he likes to drink? The spicy Thai isn't too spicy, which is always a plus in my books. I don't know whether the flavour's authentic or not, but I like it better than the cheddar & beer. The honey flavour hits you first, then the ginger, cilantro, and hot pepper flavours (jalapeno & cayenne) join in. One flavour that I haven't seen yet is the roasted red pepper with goat cheese - it sounds really good! My favourite flavour of Kettle's chips so far is honey dijon

Looks like this thread is heading the way of shawarmas. Another really good place is Gourmet Grill, in the cave they call a food court under the Scotia Tower. You can access it by going through the bottom floor of London Drugs or from Pacific Centre. Can't remember how much the shawarma wrap is now, but... I think $3.82? Or maybe it's $5 something. It comes with soup/salad/fries too! Moist roast chicken, tasty sauce (it's not tzatziki though).

I saw them at the grocery store next to Memphis Blues on Commercial a couple of weeks ago. I have no idea whether they were of a good quality though... The persimmons were certainly nice-looking, & not too expensive either (89 cents each).

I also don't understand the hype that surrounds Cupcakes. They're really cute & pretty, but that's about it...

Oh.my.gosh. I had the best burger tonight at Fiction. Best burger I've ever had in my life. Made with braised shortrib meat, it was succulent and really flavourful (I realized that I also thought that Moderne's burger was meh because it wasn't seasoned). The toppings were aged cheddar, leaf lettuce, a roasted tomato, and wild boar bacon. I mean come on, can it get much better than that (I mean, without going into the $30 price-point range)? The burger was so tall I couldn't even fit it into my mouth! And it was only $13!! I almost took a picture (I even took out my camera) but there were some people I didn't know & I didn't want to seem too much like a geek. Oh it was slightly pink in the middle too! And the condiments for the fries were tomato jam & truffle oil aioli!!!

I looooooove this dish It's one of my favourite homestyle dishes, so much so that I make my mom make it for me on my birthday. I don't need any fancy dishes for my birthday - I can eat bowls of this stuff! This and "jai", the stir-fried vegetarian dish. My mom makes it with straw mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bean thread, "faat choi", snow peas, baby corn, cloud ear fungus, & dried oysters. I really need to learn how to make it. Yeah, I know it's easy, but I can't cook.

Mmmm, black sesame... I had a version in Hong Kong that was made with ice cream - sounded good but the ice cream was pretty much melted.

WHAAAT?? Actual pineapple in a pineapple bun? I gotta try this! Maybe I'll make my mom pick up some when she gets off from work...Where is this exactly on Alexandra? Is it a tiny bakery? There's a new bakery next to that "Red Star" (I only know the Chinese name) dim sum place on Granville. It's called Le Patisserie but it's actually a Chinese bakery - yeah, I know, I guess they just wanted something that was French. Apparently their 1000-year-old egg pastries are quite good. They use good pickled (?) ginger too! I don't like "pei dan so"s, so I haven't tried them myself. I heard that their garlic bread is yummy too - I recently realized that the garlic bread from Chinese bakeries is usually more garlicky than at other kinds of bakeries. We bought some Dempster's garlic bread from the Olafson's outlet (on Annacis Island) & it wasn't very good - the butter/garlic wasn't spread evenly, & there was hardly any garlic flavour. I love the garlic bread "sticks" from Mega. I can't eat it at work though, unless I want a 3-foot clearance space around me & my desk.

For some reason when I read that the Family Ties theme song popped into my head, & now I can't get it out... I love prix fixe menus! I almost went for the one at Feenie's ($35!) when I was there a couple weeks ago, but I didn't want any of the mains they offered (duck confit leg, which is good but I wasn't in the mood for; veal osso buco, which I did want but felt I shouldn't eat; and something else I forget). Luckily, they also offer those items a la carte, so I got the wild mushroom tart, which was...wow, just super good. I ended up getting the roast sablefish, mmm...

Oh, haha! Did you finish it in 2 bites? My mom bought a box of green tea scones that were on sale from Yaohan. I always see them on sale, probably because people are afraid to try green-coloured baked goods! I was really surprised that they were actually pretty good - as soon as I opened the box I could smell the green tea! The ingredients lists green tea powder & green tea flavour, along with red beans (which at first glance I thought were raisins, gross! Gross combined with green tea, anyway). You can tell the red beans were pre-soaked/cooked in sugar water first.

^ I like Dem Bones better than Tony Roma's too - basically the difference in the ribs is that Dem Bones' have a nice chew to them, while Tony Roma's is the fall-off-the-bone kind. I also like that Dem Bones' ribs aren't overly sauced. Just depends on what you like. Slightly off-topic here, but the Tony Roma's in Hong Kong is more expensive than the one here.

I always microwave mine too! If they're the Chinese white buns, I steam them in the microwave. Kinda off-topic here, but Daiso carries microwaveable plastic steamers. I'm trying to figure out what an egg crispy is - were they "dan san", that you can sometimes get at dim sum? They're usually thin & longish, & twisted. I feel they're best if they're fresh. I had REALLY bad ones at some cheapo dim sum place, where the COLD syrup tasted like it was made with tap water from a dirty tap. Never again, never again... I loooooove the "Chinese crullers" ("go lik dou sa") at Shanghai Wind Oh & in reference to your long-ago posts about Mega, yep, the buns have gotten smaller. I usually microwave them, then toast them so I get toasted sesame seeds & a crispy top. I was telling my dad that New Town is actually a Filipino bakery, and he said that they're actually Chinese immigrants from the Philippines. I've probably said this before but T&T carries some Filipino baked goods.

THAT's the name of it!! Oh wait, I just did a search on Google & it's actually called Caffe Barney. I'm not a breakfast connoiseur, but I, for one, like Barney's. They only have a few kinds of omelettes though (3 to 5, maybe?). I like the smoked salmon omelette, but I don't like the blobs of cream cheese in it. I just don't like the combination of cold cream cheese with a hot omelette. The toast & breakfast potatoes are pretty good. They used to give you a little mountain of the potatoes, but I guess they figured most people couldn't finish them, so it's down to a more manageable portion now. I can't remember what else I've had, as I haven't been there in a while. Oh yes, the papaya & camembert omelette, which was disappointing. The papaya was a mixture of ripe & crunchy fruit which was unfortunately pretty tasteless. Apparently their benny's are pretty good, although I'm not a big benny fan. Their coffee is from Bean Around the World (no surprise there!).

Not chips, but these Cheeto-like snacks . Since I can't read Japanese & I can't find any other flavours of these kinds of snacks, I'm guessing that Calbee discontinued their other flavours? In Vancouver, we still have garlic toast, bbq, cheese (Swiss cheese, maybe? The flavour is really mild), and bacon flavours. I tried a green curry flavour of these recently, and they were pretty good. Spicier than Calbee's regular curry flavoured chips. I bought a whole bunch of Calbee chips recently because they were on sale, and quite liked the pizza flavoured one. Really interesting that, instead of mozzarella flavouring, there were cheddar & gouda flavours! I could even taste the gouda! The pizza flavour tasted smokier than the bbq ones though! I also tried the gyoza Calbee chips (from one of the pretend 100-yen stores - I say "pretend" because they're anywhere from $2-5) which were pretty yummy.