chocomoo

Lately I've been craving the pork belly with preserved vegetable ("mui choy") from Four Seas on Cambie & Marine. Mmmm, pork belly.... It's kinda oily like almost all the rest of the dishes at Four Seas, but so delicious I've had the same dish at other Chinese restaurants, namely "Two Brothers" on Granville & 70th, but I don't like it as much because they use "lam yue" in the dish. I have no idea what "lam yue" is in English, by the way. I don't even know what it's made from. [Lam=sounds like Cantonese for "south", Yue=sounds like "rain"). The pork belly at Four Seas is soya sauce based.

Thursday Lunch @ Earl's Paramount with co-workers. I had the Santa Fe chicken salad, which was comprised of spicy cajun chicken, avocado, feta cheese, dates (praline-style), corn, & black beans, drizzled with a peanut lime vinaigrette. I expected the chicken to be more spicy, but it worked for me 'cause I'm a wimp when it comes to spicy things. It was tasty, but a bit overcooked - I would've liked it to be a bit more moist. I was surprised by the dates - I thought it would be like eating raisins in a salad (which I don't like), but I liked how the dates were caramelized. I couldn't really tell that the dressing had peanut & lime in it, but all in all, I really liked the salad. And it was HUGE!! I finished it all Saturday Dim sum at (I still haven't found out the English name) Yook Ting Heen in Richmond. We had prawn spring rolls with minced garlic (crisp prawns & the minced garlic was a nice touch), "gon so" (translation=dry flakey?) savoury pastries filled with pork & something (Chinese mushrooms?) topped with a sprinkling of sesame seeds, "cheung fun" (those flat steamed rice noodles) filled with abalone mushroom & cucumber (the oyster mushrooms were slightly sour, but my mom said they're "supposed" to be that way I don't like cooked cucumber - maybe it be better if they used "mo gua"?), fish maw with shrimp, steamed bbq pork buns, steamed sesame paste buns, & red bean "pancake". Yesterday Dinner at Octopus' Garden with a couple of highschool friends. Got caught up on the Magee gossip ("Did you know that so & so aren't friends anymore?") We shared 3 plates - Hot Hot Crab (deep fried soft shell crab), the Pavarotti (stir-fried udon with, in our case, a fried whole head of garlic), & the Skew (panko-coated beef tenderloin, deep-fried, surrounded by a slice of grilled eggplant & a few slices of grilled zucchini, served with a miso gravy. My favourite was the hot hot crab. It wasn't hot at all though, even though the menu said there were cajun (? I think, some kind of hot spice) spices in it. There was a deep-fried crisp garnishing it, which was good - light & not oily. The udon noodles were actually quite good as well - the noodles had a really nice chew to them. It was a bit awkward trying to smoosh the garlic out of the clove, which (of course) refused to break apart because of the skin/membrane holding it together. The Skew was ok - it arrived 20 minutes after our other 2 dishes though, & while the coating was light & non-greasy, the beef inside was overcooked & chewy (because of the deep-frying, I guess). The miso gravy was nice, although I thought it was going to be lighter (both in taste & colour). It was a bit richer & saltier than I would've liked. All in all, I thought it was good, but overpriced. We each got about 1 small piece of whatever dish we ordered, save for the udon, which was also quite a small portion (at $15, I think it should've been double the size. I mean, how much can normal garlic cost?). I could've eaten way more, but couldn't really afford to. It was about $25 per person, including tax and tip. Dim sum the day before was about $8 per person, and I was really full - we even had leftover bbq pork buns & sesame paste buns. Yes I know it's not really fair to compare two entirely different cuisines & yes I know one was lunch & one was dinner, but whatever. Anyway, afterwards we sauntered over to Deserts, where we all emjoyed some ice cream (2 of us had tiramisu My other friend had banana, which she thought was a bit too sweet). edit: Ok, I'll compare Octopus' Garden to Hapa, Chopstick Cafe & Guu - I would've been way more full & happier at the izakayas for the same price... seanw - Where's Samurai on Davie? Is it connected in any way to the Samurai on Cambie?

I love these! First 3 products on the page - they're basically hi-chew with gummy bits . There are a whole bunch of flavours - cola, peach, lemon, mango, cherry, grape, muscat, soda, apple, & maybe some other flavours I don't know about. I tried the soda one on the weekend - it even has fizzy bits in it! So yummy!

I think the squab at Sun Sui Wah is going downhill. My grandma went with my auntie & uncle a few months ago for dinner, & said the squab was really bad - small & dry. And they're supposed to be renowned for their squab too. The squab at Koon Bo [Fraser & 41st, offshoot of Koon Lock on Fraser near 49th (long story short: 2 brothers used to own Koon Lock, but they went their separate ways & one brother went off & opened Koon Bo)] is really good (I think you have to pre-order them) - large, thick pieces, juicy meat, crispy skin (and really hot, the juices are bubbling). Spicy Court (?) near Oakridge also has pretty good squab, albeit not as flavourful or good as Koon Bo's squab. Lastly, Silver Palace (Fraser & 49th) also has quite good squab.

There's an "I Love Sushi" right here in our beloved province - in Richmond, to be exact. It's on Westminster Highway, across from the Richmond Public Market in one of those strip malls. At least, it was there last month... Apparently the sushi's pretty cheap there - I've been once, but I don't remember what it was like.

When I was very young (2 years old?), I was really sick & couldn't keep anything down (or in ) for days, and my parents nursed me back to health with rice water (skimmed from really thin congee). Recommended by my Grandma and our elderly Caucasian next-door neighbour (who sugggested water from some kind of grain).

I had dinner at Adesso with some highschool friends on Sunday. Skipped appetizers, & between the 6 of us, we ended up having 3 dishes. 2 mushroom pizzas, 2 linguines vongole, & 2 dishes of braised short rib stuffata with papardelle. It worked out so that the 2 people who ordered the same dish were always sitting next to each other I ordered the mushroom pizza, which was topped with wild mushrooms, pesto, fontina, & some other cheese. Wonderfully thin, crispy crust and bubbly browned cheese. It was really good, I think I might order this again next time, or make someone else order it & steal some from them I've also had the mushroom pizza at Bacchus, twice, and the first time it was really delicious - the caramelized onions really rounded out the flavour. The second time, they added fennel to it, which I didn't like as much, & there were fewer onions topping it. Adesso's mushroom pizza is way better. On Monday, I had dim sum with family at 10:30 in the morning at the place the old Carianna on Alexander Road. Anybody know what it's called now? In Cantonese it sounds like "Yook Ting Heen". It's still Chiu Chow mixed with Cantonese style food. Dim sum isn't cheap, but if you order before 11:30, you get a discount (20% maybe?). What I like about this place is that their dim sum has a Chiu Chow twist to it. For example, pan-fried white radish cakes normally come as square flat pieces. At this place, they're cubed & pan-fried with XO sauce (they're not spicy, there's just a slight heat to the flavour) & served in a bowl made of a deep-fried spring roll wrapper. Another example of a dish I haven't seen anywhere else is their Chinese-style mochi, made with a yam-flavoured wrapping (instead of the normal...sugar flavour?) and filled with a creamy chestnut filling. In addition to the humongous pile of dim sum, my godfather also ordered the stir-fried scallops with garlic. Really plump & flavourful (although I detected a hint of ammonia - nobody else ever notices though). The seafood here is really fresh - I've been for dinner before and was pretty impressed. For Monday dinner (another family thing), we went to Spicy Court (is that the name? Cantonese pronunciation "Ying Yuet Heen", it's almost kitty corner to Oakridge). The honey garlic spareribs really stood out - big chunks of meat, not over-fried or too dry or chewy. Another thing that really stood out was the (again, Cantonese pronunciation) "King San Dou fu", a sort of "set" tofu dish. I think it's really tofu combined with egg whites, that's steamed, & topped with some sort of soya-based sauce with chicken (dark meat) morsels, chopped up kale & carrots, & Chinese mushrooms. For dessert, we had the baked tapioca pudding with lotus seed paste as the filling. Mmm, Chinese tapioca pudding....

A lot of stores carry Ben & Jerry's, but for some reason, they don't carry most of the flavours, pistachio being one of the flavours I've never seen here. Anybody know why most stores usually only carry, at most, maybe 8 flavours? Always the same ones too: Cherry Garcia, N.Y. Super Fudge Chunk, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, Half-Baked, Cookie Dough, Mint Chocolate Cookie (which I love), a couple of organic ones. I saw ONE new flavour at Safeway the other day - Fossil Fuel. Another chocolate one.... Not that I don't like chocolate, but a little variety would be nice! And then there was that time (last year? couple years ago?) when there was NO Ben & Jerry's available anywhere... What happened there?

Hi Karole, your story about how a thrift store ended up on the corner of 41st and Arbutus is quite true! Great stuff huh! Guess that landlords not too popular... I don't think that Linda is going in to that location as she is still tweeking Picnic and has some plans for remodeling the store as well, but I will ask her as I should see her in the next week or so. Cate ← I passed by the location on the way to work this morning - it's a Sleep Country now I was hoping the Meinhardt rumor would be true...

Can these moon cakes be kept long (because they contain meat inside)? Is the pork more like pork-jerky or the real moist freshly cooked meat? ← The pork is more like pork jerky, so these kinds of mooncakes do tend to keep longer.

I thought "Ha Moon" was the geographical location from which this style originated (or is named after)? Like Singapore style vermicelli. From what I've had before, Ha Moon style vermicelli is made with a sweetish ketchup sauce instead of curry. The sauce is more sweet than vinegary. The ingredients don't seem to differ greatly than Singapore style vermicelli, so Ha Moon vermicelli does contain shrimp, among other things. I could be wrong about the ingredients though, because my family tends to opt for Singapore rather than Ha Moon when we have stir-fried fried vermicelli.

One of the Taiwanese bakeries here sells the savoury kind of mooncake with pork & mung bean filling, along with the more traditional mooncakes. I used to think they were weird ("ewww, meat mooncakes?" ) until I actually tried them. As long as I don't think of them as mooncakes, they're great! I think they're Chiu Chow style, with the paper-thin white layered skin(s?), and crumbly mung bean and chewy bits of pork (spiced with...?) inside. I love peeling off the layers

I was under the impression that "siu yook" (that's the Cantonese pronunciation, by the way) is different from suckling pig. Isn't suckling pig "yue jue" in Cantonese? If so, I believe it's "yue jue" that's commonly eaten during banquets & special occasions. TVB is a Hong Kong network, by the way, hence implying that it would be a Chinese chef doing the cooking.

Like Mr. Kim in The Fith Element! the airborne junk pulling up to your (highrise) window! ← My mom tells me that, back in the 50s & 60s in Hong Kong, they had things called "airplane baskets", where street vendors used to toss up snacks (or whatever) to whichever window you leaned out of in your low rise apartment & then you would lower the money down in a basket or something back down to them. I'll ask her for more details tonight. Edit: Ok, they weren't called "airplane baskets" - the general name for the snacks were called "airplane olives" (same pronunciation as "baskets" in Cantonese). Vendors would either toss their wares up to you or pass them up to you via a hanging basket on a long pole, & then you would bundle your money up in some paper & toss it to the vendor or send your money down in the same basket your olives came in.

I love that haw jelly candy!! I always choose that as my "treat" when I buy Chinese medicine... They also make haw balls now too - slightly crunchy like haw flakes on the outside, soft on the inside. Has anybody else noticed that haw flakes smell kinda yucky? I love white rabbit candy! If you like a stronger milk flavour though, try Peko milk candies I love those lychee jelly cups - are they Chinese though? I've recently discovered aloe & pudding flavoured ones. The pudding ones come in mango, orange, & strawberry flavours - and taste even better frozen! Kinda like mini pudding popsicles. They taste surprisingly good too! The aloe ones have aloe pieces in them - also pretty yummy (bonus points for aloe bits! ) but I prefer pudding.

Has anybody else tried the Smart Choice ice cream bars? They're like swirly creamsicles, with the "sorbet" swirled throughout the creamy vanilla ice cream. I've tried the orange & raspberry flavours - I like raspberry better. There's a thin coating of ice around the bars, for some reason, but I like that it makes the bar a bit crispy. I was intially wary of these because it's supposed to be low in fat & calories, but the ice cream is really creamy, & IMO, tastes better than Skinny Cow ice cream. You can get them at Costco. I have yet to try the Smart Choice fudge bars, but maybe I'll pick up a box next time I'm at Costco... I once had a REEEALLY good popsicle that used to be available at the Chinese/Japanese supermarkets here in Vancouver: I think it was a milky popsicle, with red beans interspersed throughout, & when you bit into the top, something like condensed milk flowed out, & underneath that, there were green tea icey pebbles that were intensely flavourful. Or maybe the green tea ice was the main part of the popsicle & there was a layer of milky popsicle around it. I also really like Japanese honey popsicles - they're like creamsicles, except that that the popsicle part on the outside is lemon honey flavoured! Sooooo yummy!! I recently bought milk tea flavoured popsicles (made in Taiwan) at a Chinese supermarket, & was pleasantly surprised - it even had small squares of black tea-flavoured jelly encased inside!

Are we allowed to talk about other cartoons, like say, Futurama & Family Guy? There's an episode of Futurama where Fry eats a bavarian hotdog (the wiener is filled with bavarian cream) & he says something about it being the perfect combination. Then there's the episode where Fry eats an egg salad sandwich that he got from a vending machine in a truck/ship stop washroom And the Slurm episode, ewww!! In the Family Guy, Peter & Brian visit a Willy Wonka-esque factory where they discover pop that never goes flat.

So I tried the cheesecake Pocky - it had a bit of the sourness of lemon mixed in, which was nice, because I don't like it when citrus-flavoured things have no sour or tart taste at all. I also tried reverse Pocky. Nice crunchy dark chocolate biscuit on the outside, white chocolate on the inside. I still prefer Pocky G though - I like the biscuit to chocolate ratio better, which is why I don't like mousse Pocky that much. Plus, is it my imagination or is the biscuit in mousse Pocky different than the biscuit in normal Pocky? By the way, mango pudding caramel corn sounds yummy!

I really like Kitkat chunky peanut butter. Surprisingly good! Coffee Crisp had/has a Cafe Latte variety, which is not bad - although you white chocolate haters out there will hate it - it's enrobed in white chocolate instead of milk chocolate. My friend bought a whole box from Costco, and then moved to Shanghai, so now I'm stuck with them.... I like to go here for my U.K. candy bar & nostalgic candy fixes.

I went to Shanghai Wind for the first time a couple weeks ago, & really liked it. We had 2 kinds of xiao long bao - the regular pork kind (nice thin wrapping (although I've had better in Hong Kong & Taiwan), flavourful filling, good soup), & the crab xiao long bao. I was a bit disappointed with the crab kind - while there was more soup, it didn't have enough crab flavour - there wasn't a huge difference in flavour with this one & the regular kind, except that it was saltier. There were only slivers of crab meat mixed in with the pork filling, & the sweetness of the crab meat didn't come through. The vegetarian steamed dumplings were quite good, really stuffed with diced firm tofu, chopped Chinese mushrooms, I think spinach (or bok choy, can't remember), carrot, & other things. Thick wrapping, but that's how it's supposed to be. A huge highlight was the "8 treasure duck". It's not normally a dish that's eaten for lunch, as it's a heavier dish. I think it's kinda like the Chinese equivalent of a roast turkey, in that it's stuffed (it's deboned though). There are usually at least 8 things that the duck is stuffed with (hence the "8 treasure" part of the name). This particular one was stuffed with sticky rice, lotus seed, Chinese mushrooms, Chinese preserved meat, Chinese sausage, bamboo shoots, red beans, soy beans, & some other stuff (it was more than 8 things). The duck meat itself was quite good, nicely infused with the flavours of the ingredients stuffed inside, and soft & juicy enough that it melted in your mouth while still retaining the strands in the meat. I've only had this once before, at Koon Bo, but Shanghai Wind's 8 treasure duck is much better - with 8 treasure duck, the stuffing can get greasy & the meat can get too soft (such was the case at Koon Bo). While Koon Bo's has more lotus seed (too much, IMO), Shanghai Wind's has more sticky rice. The meat was also really thick - 2 inches thick at the breast part. We also got the pea shoots in soup stock (is that what it's called?). The pea shoots were nice & tender, not stringy & overcooked. The broth wasn't too salty, nice & subtle. We got a bunch of other things, but I don't really remember them. For dessert, we got the gao li dou sa, which is kinda like a cross between a French cruller & a cream puff (deep-fried, eggy & moist like a cruller, shaped like a cream puff), which was reeeally delicious! They were bigger than any I've seen, & came straight from the fryer, so were piping hot & crispy, & filled with red bean paste. I tried "8 treasure rice" for the first time, & while I don't normally like rice in desserts, this was surprisingly yummy. I think it's sticky rice filled with 8 things (red bean & I don't know what else, nobody knew). There was a syrup that it was drenched in, & I bracing myself for the sugar rush, but I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out that it wasn't really that sweet - I'm guessing the syrupiness of it resulted from the sticky rice.

There's a Chinese restaurant called "Silver Palace" right on the corner of Fraser & 49th. It's in a tiny strip mall that also has a Starbucks. I go with my family all the time, and it's our new favourite non-dim sum Chinese restaurant for lunch. The noodle/rice/etc. dishes are all reasonably priced, and include dishes such as Singapore style fried vermicelli (with thinner vermicelli noodles than I've had before, which I like), fried sticky rice with taro, preserved Chinese meat & sausages, & Chinese mushrooms, and seafood fried rice with abalone sauce. They're really generous with the amount of non-noodle/rice ingredients in the dishes (as opposed to other restaurants I've been to where I've had fried rice that only had a couple shrimp in it), and the ingredients are also good quality (meat isn't chewy/tough, seafood isn't fishy, veggies are fresh). The noodles & rice are also nicely fried, not greasy or clumpy & tasteless. They also have non-noodle dishes available during lunch, things that would normally be served during dinner, except that they're in smaller portions. There's a deep-fried tofu that I really like, made with soft, round egg tofu. The congee is also delicious, and IMO, even better than Vivacity's congee (in Richmond). The consistency is not too watery & the rice just the right texture (not too mushy & not hard). Flavouring is just right too! Plus they serve it piping hot in a ceramic pot - I've never seen congee bubbling in the pot like that before - apparently they heat the pot until it turns a searing red before they ladle in the congee. There are also more pricier items on their menu if you are in the mood (apparently well-priced for the quality), such as whole abalone and shark's fin soup, among other things. Silver Palace is apparently well-known for these pricier dishes which I have yet to try. Lastly, the tea, which is of much better quality than I've had at other noodle houses. I think it's Iron Goddess (aka Ti Kuan Yin, or something).

I remember there being a passing reference to "salmon skin roll" on an episode of Friends. Any care to back me up on this? I only remember because this was the first I'd heard mention of BC roll outside of our province. I think... Once in Toronto I had a craving for sushi & foolishly thought that the closest sushi place nearby would have ok sushi. WORST SUSHI EVER They used Chinese long-grained rice and didn't add any sushi vinegar or sugar to the rice. I couldn't even finish it, and I hate wasting food... I know there are much better places in Toronto though.

Do you mean One Saigon Deli at 979 Hornby? Sounds like the place you are talking about. They offer a good rendition as you have said. They are also very friendly and helpful. I do prefer Au Petit Cafe, but if craving one downtown One Saigon Deli does a passable job. Cheers! ← I just tried One Saigon Deli's banh mi for the first time yesterday, and I agree, I like Au Petit Cafe better as well. I liked how they used pickled chilis though. Lots of veggies, including the standard pickled cucumber, white radish, carrots, chilis (both red & yellow variety), & lots of cilantro. However, I like Au Petit Cafe's pickled veggies better - One Saigon's veggies were less sweet, more vinegar-y, & sliced more thinly (hence had less crunch). I tried the pork sausage sub, which had (I think) the pork sausage that they sell in Chinese bbq shops, the big thick sweet kind that's bbq'd (the sausage in the sub was non-bbq'd). For $3.50, it was a really good deal - they also have vermicelli on the menu ($6.50).

Got a box of Kabaya sticks recently 4th row down, 1st on the left I like the biscuit stick better than the Pocky ones - crunchier! Looks like the flavour is supposed to be cookies & cream? Not too much cookie flavour (the little black bits in the white chocolate are supposed to be cookie bits), & the ingredients said it has red bean as well, but I couldn't taste it. However, these are pretty tasty, even though they don't really taste like cookies & cream! Next up, cheesecake flavoured Pocky! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- edited because I accidentally linked to directly to the pictures, oops!

Origamicrane, this is driving me nuts! You have to explain...either you have some pretty unusual tamago-dofu slicing technology, or you're talking about something else...surely? ← In HK, i've seen the tamago tofu that comes in cylinder like thing, therefore they can slice it. I think. ← Yep, that's the way it comes in the Chinese supermarkets here in Vancouver too. In Chinese restaurants, I've had it pan-fried in a vegetable (carrots, celery, snow ear fungus, cloud ear fungus) stir-fry, & also pan-fried, topped with shredded dried scallops & ground pork in a light soy sauce. It's delicious pan-fried - my favourite way to have tamago tofu