chocomoo

I was so excited when I saw the sale a couple weeks ago! I got: - Creamy nougat with pistachios - Apricot jelly - Creamy chestnut - Elderflower - Cashew & pineapple - Pear + orange I had to get more safe flavours because I was sharing with my family. Aside from the elderflower (which I've bought several times before), the cashew & pineapple was my favourite. The difference is that it contains pineapple juice as well, so the pineapple flavour really comes through. The apricot jelly & chestnut were a disappointing, as I couldn't really taste the apricot (although the jelly texture was nice) & chestnut (which tasted more rummy than chestnutty). Same deal for the pear + orange. There was a general fruity flavour, but not specifically pear or orange (although you could tell by the texture that there were pears in it). What does rowanberry taste like? Wikipedia just says it tastes bitter... Got my chocolate fix! Now all I have to do is wait for the Japanese bakery to re-open....

Elly at Continental Centre (one of the Chinese malls on Cambie) in Richmond also does a great roti canai. It's Taiwanese-owned, but the owners may have lived in Malaysia before. Anyway, the chicken satay is among the best I've had. Juicy chicken with noticeable bits of ginger & maybe lemongrass on the chicken. The dipping sauce is nice & chunky. The level of spicyness in their food varies - one time, the laksa made my eyes tear, nose run & face redden (mind you, everybody else was ok, so it was a little embarassing) but other times, I have no problem. Since they're Taiwanese, they also offer some Taiwanese dishes like 3-cup chicken, which they also do really well. Their fried tofu topped with bonito (I think they just call it "shredded fish" on the menu) is also a signature dish of Elly.

Here's Re-Ment's US website. It's linked to the map of stores that carry Re-Ment products. I have the Smores set! It has lots of small parts: the stove itself consists of 4 components. Did you notice that one of the smores has a bite taken out of it?

WHAT?? What kind of stupid rule is that? So there's basically no way to avoid getting doubles because they're blind-boxed (ie. you don't know which set you're getting)! Argh! I hope the Police concert was also worth the trip!

I was at Aberdeen Centre last weekend and was reminded of this thread. While they didn't carry the F-Cup cookies, MG (or something similar to that) Cosmetics sells F-Cup tea It's sits next to the diet teas MG is located next to the kitchen wares store and at the present has a big poster of Ayumi Hamasaki in the front of the store.

So exciting! Hopefully the opening act isn't Fergie... Let us know if you end up buying the Kyoto set!

If you don't get around to Tokyu Hands in Kobe, Kiddyland probably carries it too.

Were you looking at this one? As is the case with all Re-Ment products, I like how you can take all the little wagashi out of the boxes. Update: I got my hands on the entire MegaHouse "Import Foods" set! I think it might be discontinued (it says MegaHouse 2006) though. My friend & I had fun laughing at all the changed product names (the aforementioned "Bullshit", "Best Feel Mayonnaise", "High-Roller Beer" (Heineken), "Linda 85% Chocolate" etc).

Is the french patisserie on Arbutus you are referring to the Pastry Club Dessert Cafe Ltd - which is on 41st... so obviously, you are not. Ha! Have heard good things about Pastry Club. Also have very good things about the morning croissants from Chef Bryan from Nwyles. ← Is the French patisserie La Petite France? On Arbutus near Broadway? I wonder if the new owners are French like the previous owners... Hmm, I'll have to check out Pastry Club Dessert Cafe...

I bought my set at Kiddyland in Harajuku - it's kinda across the street from Omotesando Hills. I think they have all the Re-Ment sets, including the fridge, shelving units, display cases (for the pastries & baked items), kitchen, etc. I think the Re-Ment sets are generally better than the MegaHouse sets - there seems to be more attention to detail. For instance, my friend got a MegaHouse set that had salt & pepper grinders. The salt grinder was painted white, while the pepper grinder was painted black. I think Re-Ment would have at least gone to the trouble of filling the grinder with white sand & grey & black sand. Anyway, minor quibble! I really REALLY want this set: Natukasi. My friend actually has this exact same toaster.

I was pleasantly surprised by the price of the Pierre Hermé set - I think it was something like 2670 Yen? I like all the little details they put into the sets, like differing textures, movable parts, etc.

Great, thanks!

No-one else?

I Googled it too! You mean these ones? I think you get different search results from Google depending on where you're searching from.

The Pierre Hermé Paris mini-collection You can click on the black & white pictures for detailed pictures of each set. Almost every set comes with a Pierre Hermé box & shopping bag! Everything that comes in a container (macarons, cookies, etc.) can be taken out of the containers. I bought the entire collection This one is a set of imported foods: "Import Delicious Foods". They changed all the names of the brands - take a look at what they changed the name of "Boursin" to (the 5th black & white picture) Here's another company that makes mini food sets: Re-Ment's Japan site. I also have this entire set from Re-Ment: Mom's Happy Kitchen! There are sets like stewed kabocha (complete with the mise en place of 1/2 an uncooked kabocha, a measuring cup with mirin (?) in it, a bowl of soy sauce, a bowl of flour, & a bowl of more mirin (?)). And Re-Ment's US site. Re-Ment currently has 5 American-themed sets: - Mini-Sweets (I have the "Happy Birthday Surprise" (which comes with a description in English with fun facts about birthday celebrations, including the 2 sisters who penned the "Happy Birthday" song) & the "S'Mores" set (#9 should be labeled as "Strawberry Shortcake" & 10 is "S'Mores") - Fun Meals I think the Japanese site says that if you flip over the "raw" meat, it's cooked on the other side - Bread & Butter - American Kitchen The cereal & gum dispensers actually work! - This one's for our Hawaii contingent! I Love Hawaii

While I was in Tokyo in December, I tried: - tiramisu (Oops, sorry - top row, 2nd square from the left) My favourite! It was dusted with cocoa powder on top & had a sponge cake bottom. - affogato - good, but more creamy instead of the intense espresso flavour I had hoped for - bitter caramel - surprisingly good! I normally don't like caramel-flavoured things because they're too sweet for me Other flavours I wanted to try in Japan were: - kokuto & kuromitsu (Japanese black sugar & black sugar syrup) - crème brulée (I wanted to find out whether there was actually a crispy sugar topping!) - the "crispy" ice cream sandwiches in rum raisin flavour (it's the 3rd tab on the gold menu bar) In Hong Kong, I tried the strawberry & chardonnay flavour. I was surprised that I could taste the chardonnay flavour! The non-fruit flavours I tried in Japan were still my favourite though. I love how Haagen-Dazs comes in cute little single-serving containers in Asia!

In addition to Rare & Metro, are there any restaurants extending their dates for Dine Out this year?

I'm trying to choose between Ocean Six Seventeen, Marmalade & Abigail's Party. Marmalade's menu looks interesting (one of the desserts is "Lotus Flower Filo Dessert with Orange Creme Anglaise, Lychee & Mandarins, topped with Candied Orange Peel" & there's venison on the menu too ), but I don't know anything about them. I should mention that it'll probably be a largish group of people (maybe 8-10?). Which place should I go for?

Moomin!

For Calorie Mate, I'd try Izumiya, the supermarket at Yaohan (now known as Osaka), Candyland (I'm loyal to the original one at Yaohan, but there are other locations at Aberdeen & in Burnaby), & Konbiniya. I've never seen F-Cup (I highly doubt you can find it here) & don't recall seeing Diet Water. Although, you might want to check Izumiya & Konbiniya for Diet Water, as they seem to carry drinks that regular convenience stores don't carry. Izumiya is where I got special bottles of Dakara that came with little Beatrix Potter figurines.

Looks like we'll be in HK at the same time! I'm leaving next Wednesday & I'll be there for about 3 weeks as well. Seems like LOTS of people are going to HK this season - thanks Oasis! Unfortunately, I will not be as diligent as you about taking pictures I'm actually more excited about going to Tokyo than Hong Kong though (will be there for 4 days)

Unfortunately, King Fortune has since closed. Then came Shota, which was very good (I don't know whether they served dim sum at night). Sadly, Shota has also now closed. Hope they open up another decent dim sum place there soon! What about "The Place" on Granville & 64th? It's kinda dingy, but it's another option for Shanghainese & Northern Chinese dim sum. On another note, "Xian Heng" (or whatever the name was in Mandarin) in Richmond has closed. It was in that mall that houses Staples, on No. 3 Road across from Richmond Centre.

Maaaaybe...if I'm not too lazy! I'll also have to see whether my parents & sister will be patient enough to let me take pictures before they eat the pastries! I still haven't posted my Toronto pastries report (5 pastry shops in 1 day! For the record, my favourite was Clafouti)

Normally, yes. But not when I have to stand in line for an hour! Plus, I'm going to Hong Kong & Japan soon, where there are Beard Papa shops everywhere

What is a fake yolk? What is it made of? ← I think it's mainly flour, colour & flavouring. I thought real egg yolks aren't uniform in colour - there should be a thin outer layer to the yolk that is lighter in colour, and as you get get closer to the centre of the yolk, it should get harder & become a darker orange. The centre shouldn't be crumbly. Thanks for your input. I think the word you are looking for is "craftsmanship." BTW, what is the Chinese pronunciation for moon cake? (I only know the Japanese pronunciation--"geppei.") ← The Cantonese pronunciation is "yeuet bang".