chocomoo

That passionfruit chocolate mousse cake from Sen5es is REALLY good. The passionfruit mousse layer is not too sweet and even a bit tangy, just the way I like it. If your friend likes pure chocolate, Ganache also has a "Chocolat3", which comprises of "chocolate cheesecake, chocolate biscotti crust, chocolate cake, dark chocolate caramel mousse". Hopefully, the cake that makanmakan mentioned is still available - the website says that it's a Valentine's Day special. If it isn't, I'm getting it for my sister's birthday this weekend! Hmmm, that Chocolat3 also sounds really good....

I tried McVitie's black cheesecake sandwich cookies, and wasn't really impressed. They're not bad, but meh *shrug*. They remind me of Oreo cookies but are less sweet. If you compared them to Oreos, they're way better! However, I couldn't taste any of the "cheese" flavour. I also got some chestnut "bamboo shoot" cookies, but haven't tried them yet.

I completely agree about the shooter. I think if it were more soup-like (either thicker or, thinner like a consommé) and less oily, I would have liked it more. I also found that a couple balls of the caviar with each bite was perfect.

That was a miss with our table as well, when we were there for Dine Out on Thursday. It might have been the lighting, but I think our "leaf juice" was not as brilliantly green as yours. It could have also been the type of lettuce that was used - I think ours had romaine in it, as it was slightly bitter. I liked the chili & lime shooter better, although I didn't down it like a shooter. It was comprised of a chili lime foam with lip-puckering lime juice. My friend aptly compared it to those super lemon Japanese candies that were popular for a while in the early 90s. WOW, that smoked steelhead caviar was amazing! Those smoky salty bursts married perfectly with the cauliflower soup.

Count my family in for 5 more converts!! We went last Friday and they loved it! I was hoping that my favourite non-alcoholic drink would appear on the menu again this year and it did!! Sparkling apple juice, elderflower, and mint. SO good & refreshing. This year's panna cotta was the equivalent of last year's Valrhona pot de creme - so richly flavoured! Another unforgettable dinner at Parkside. Our server was ok, but the other server who brought our dishes (in the blue shirt, with the facial hair) was great! And that bread - crusty on the outside with a sprinkling of poppy seeds, and soft & warm on the inside...

^And it looks as good as the picture on the box! I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but I got some Morinaga cookies from one of the konbiniyas here, and really liked the "Well" cookies (I don't have the box, I'm just reading off the cookie wrapper. They are langue du chat cookies and have 2 flavours: one half of the box were vanilla sandwich cookies with chocolate icing in the middle, the other half were chocolate sandwich cookies with vanilla icing in the middle. The vanilla cookies were a nice golden brown, and not too sweet.

Yep, Tojo's has moved - it's not a 2nd location. I'll 3rd the suggestion about skipping all-you-can-eat. However, I'd like to recommend Yuji's on West 4th Avenue, in Vancouver. Better quality than Guu, and not too expensive either. My mouth is starting to water as I think about their grilled beef tongue. (sidebar: my friend ordered the grilled beef tongue at Guu last week, and said it was very chewy. Yuji's is WAY better). Cheesecake Etc. isn't worth it. I had a really good cheesecake at Beyond Restaurant & Lounge (Century Plaza) that was made with Saltspring Island goat cheese. It was light (and I don't normally like light cheesecake) and you could just taste the lingering goat cheese. If you like hot chocolate, check out Chocoatl in Yaletown. Yaletown Gelato is worth checking out as well (it's only a few storefronts away from Ganache Patisserie). For Chinese dinner, you might want to check out Sea Harbour (No. 3 Road, Richmond), Jade (Alexandra Road, Richmond), or Gingeri (at Lansdowne Mall, Richmond).

^ I just tried the koala - pretty good! The caramel flavour is stronger than I thought it would be, which is a good thing. The biscuit isn't as dark as it looks on the box, but you can taste the chocolate flavour when you eat the biscuit by itself. I just opened the french toast Pretz, and it smells very maple-syrupy. They just taste sweet though - sweet and buttery. Only a tiny hint of maple syrup flavour coming through... They're nice & crisp though. Those strawberry tarts look really good! Is the cookie crisp, buttery (like shortbread), or flaky?

I tried out Central Bistro last Thursday with a group of friends (the group had dwindled down to 6 people). 3 of us had the chilled tombo tuna as the appetizer, 2 had the seafood broth, and 1 had the salad. The tuna was a bit fishy. The avocado & pear timbale didn't add much to it. It was ok. The seafood broth was apparently pretty good. The mains were a different matter. It seems that I was the only one who thoroughly enjoyed my main, which was the cabernet-braised beef daube. I don't remember the double-smoked bacon confit though. The stew had great flavour. 2 of us had the lamb crepinette, which was lamb wrapped in filo pastry. I've had basically the same thing at Felico's, and really enjoyed it. I tried a bit of the lamb crepinette, and the meat was dry, with no sauce. Another friend had the red snapper, and another had the cuvee chicken. Not sure how those were. Everybody had a big rectangle of deep-fried potato, and I think I was the only one who liked it, as I used it to sop up all the juices from my stew. The worst main was the risotto with forest mushrooms & champagne, which 2 of my friends ordered. First off, it was barely warm. Secondly, it was mushy (between the consistentcy of soft rice and congee). And lastly, it was flavourless. All we could taste were the champagne and the mushrooms (which were also devoid of flavour, for some reason). We tried to flag down the waitress, but by now the room had filled up considerably. Soon afterwards, she noticed that my friend had barely touched her risotto and offered to have the chef make something new for my friends. They got the vegetarian pasta instead, which came piping hot. Next up was dessert. 2 of us got the drunken bottoms-up banana cake, which apparently was really good. 3 of us had the French lavender panna cotta. I liked the crumbled shortbread base. However, the lavender flavour was too strong for me - I didn't like biting into the whole buds of lavender that were generously sprinkled on top. Another friend ordered the dark chocolate silk with mango curd (VEGAN option). I think she liked the first few bites, but she couldn't finish it. Admittedly, it was probably because she made the mistake of ordering a vegan dessert (she's not vegetarian). The last person got the pumpkin & quark tiramisu, which I seriously contemplated even though I don't like pumpkin. It was probably the best dessert - the espresso soaked layers were really intensely flavoured. Anyway, I probably won't go back. The service was great (and they comped us the 2 risottos and pastas), but the food was pretty disappointing. We each received $25 gift certificates too (I think they gave gift certificates to all their Dine Out patrons), but I doubt any of us will be back for the food

I got some French toast Pretz and milky caramel (?) Koala no march (top row at the very right) last time at the candy store, but haven't tried either yet. I'll post an update as soon as I try them. I also saw the chestnut Koala no march, but they were made in China, so I quickly passed on those. Also, my friend recently returned from Hawaii with special Hawaii Pretz, Koala no march, and Baby Star ramen noodles. The Pretz were pineapple flavour and really good - I looked at the ingredients and it contains pineapple juice. Unfortunately, I tried the Koala no march after the Pretz, and they were pretty bad in comparison. Also pineapple-flavoured, the cookies had a REALLY fake flavour, and almost tasted... oily. A scrutiny of the label confirmed my suspicions: yep, made in China. The Baby star noodles was "tropical curry with mixed macadamia nuts" flavour, and was ok, but I couldn't taste the "tropical" part of the curry. The nuts were starting to turn rancid I'm really sensitive to rancid tastes though, so other people might not notice. The Pretz were quite yummy and I would totally buy them if they sold them here. I'm still looking out for those caramel apple Pucchos, but no luck yet

My family is Chinese and as far as I know, my auntie is the only one in our whole extended family who has issues with texture. She can't stand pudding, jello, yogourt (yes, even yogourt in Greece) and other similarly-textured things.

Reading the "Movies with Food-Related Themes" thread reminded me of this thread! One of my favourite parts in the movie was when Will Ferrell bought "flowers" for Maggie Gyllenhaal. So sweet!

OH MAN, I have to vouch for these!! I tried one for the first time a couple of weeks ago and it was SO GOOD! Mind you, I had mine at Osaka (in Richmond), but it's owned by the same people. Anyways, there's always a line-up to get these sticky rice things. For the unintiated, the procedure is as follows: 1) While waiting in line, figure out which 4 ingredients you want in your sticky rice roll. There are many items to choose from: -marinated Chinese mushrooms -egg crepe strips -soy sauce hard-boiled eggs ("lo sui dan") -marinated pig's ear -pork fluff ("yook soong") -minced preserved Chinese vegetables (I think it was "za choy" but it could have been "choy po") -marinated spinach (I think) -some kind of beans (likely soybeans) mixed with greens -firm pressed marinated (soy or five-spice, probably) tofu -tofu pockets strips (the kind used to make inari) (for the record, I chose the mushrooms, hard-boiled egg, pork fluff & tofu pocket) 2) Also, you need to decide whether you want red sticky rice, or normal sticky rice, or half & half. I chose the regular sticky rice as I only like red sticky rice in my dessert - I don't like having to chew my rice. 3) Once you chose your rice & filling, the lady puts the filling into the rice and rolls it all up in a chubby little roll and you're ready to go! It reminds me of rolling maki sushi. 4) The best thing is, it's under $5! The great thing about T&T and Osaka is that the deli really packs those take-out containers well. After filling the containers, they continue to pack in the food, stuffing those containers until they can barely get the lids on. *edited for clarity

Does anybody know of any restaurants that are accepting reservations for large parties (maybe 8-10 people?) We've been to HSG the past couple of years and I'd like to try someplace new with the get-along gang.

I believe that this is Quattro on Fourth's dine-out menu.

I saw those Pretz too - I guess I won't need to try them anymore! And about matcha snacks, YES, I definitely have a favourite right now: these Morinaga koeda - dark chocolate on the outside, matcha filling & rice krispies inside. Really nice matcha flavour. My eyes lit up when I tasted these. Hopefully you'll be able to find them there! Also, Morinaga makes this really great matcha caramel that's really good. I can't find a link to a picture of them for some reason but here's a link to the other flavours. The box looks the same except it's green.

If you can find the apple ones get them! I had these a little while ago and I loved them. I normally avoid things with apple flavor because I can't stand it, but a friend gave me one of these and I ended up eating the whole pack, for some reason none of the kids liked this flavor... ← Hehe, I love apple flavour! Maybe your kids didn't like that extra topping (caramel?)

I wouldn't say stupid, per se, but it sounds sort of silly. Meltyblend isn't really any better, except that it sounds less girly.

^ Yeah, I'd think of them as snacks too. I guess they're in the same category as Pocky, which I wouldn't classify as candy either. Forgot to mention that I bought Meltyblend caramel flavour. It actually says "milk" in English but has a picture of a caramel on it. The caramel flavour comes through quite nicely. By the way, what is the difference between Meltykiss & Meltyblend?

I saw a flavour of Puccho (like Hi-chew except with gummy bits inside) yesterday that I hadn't seen before and had to get it - aloe. I haven't tried it yet. OH MY GOSH, I must have these!! Creme brulee & some kind of baked apple?? I'm going to keep a sharp eye out for these! Is that caramel on the top? I bought a box of Pucca (similar name, completely different thing) at the Konbiniya as well. Would they be categorized as candy or snack? They're basically pretzels shaped like fish or octopi, filled with a sweet creamy filling. I got the New York cheesecake flavour yesterday & my sister almost finished the box on our way home from work.

I bought a whole bunch of junk food on Saturday! 3 flavours of Calbee chips: Korean grilled squid (really good! It even had a bit of that "grill" flavour! Not as hot as I thought it'd be though), gyoza (which I've tried before - I really like it), and bratwurst (I haven't tried it yet). Two new flavours of Fran: extra dark & extra strawberry. The boxes looked so slick, I couldn't resist buying them! The strawberry smelled just like strawberry Pocky (so not too promising), but there was a nice bit of tartness to it. I wish it were more tart though. The dark one was ok - nice & dark, but nothing special. Verdict: not bad, but not my favourites.

^ You're welcome, SushiCat! 'Tis always my pleasure! I wanted to get take-out from the Place today but we had leftover yee mein & grilled saba (from Izumi-ya - I love that place! I spent $30 on junk food, shhhh...) instead. I must warn everyone to make sure that the Place's xiao long bao's are fully cooked - my uncle & auntie went yesterday and it wasn't until he took a big bite out of a bao that my uncle noticed it was still pink. Now I'm really craving xiao long bao!!

No, dimsumfan's right, it's the deep-fried kind. I've seen "golden sand" described two different ways on menus these days: - coated with breadcrumbs & deep-fried (as in golden sand egg tofu) - cooked with salted duck egg sauce Mmm, salted duck egg... My mom & auntie sometimes make 3-yolk (chicken, century & duck) omelette or steamed egg and it's sooo good.

My pleasure! I was disappointed with the "wo teep" ("wo tie" in Mandarin?) or potstickers though. Way too rustic - it's like someone haphazardly slapped some dough around some longish balls of meat. Not crispy enough, either. Flavour is ok, but I much prefer the xiao long baos. I'm wondering whether we had the same pumpkin things - I think there are at least 2 pumpkin-related things on the menu. The ones we had were good, but not so good that I have to order them again. They also have siao bing with the 5-spiced thin-sliced beef brisket in the middle - not bad, although the beef could be a bit more salty.

I agree! It's a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant - close to the Petro-Canada on the east side of Granville.