2011-08-31 Dinner @ IKEA Restaurant

1000 Lougheed Highway, Coquitlam, BC

604-636-1000

Since my mom's visiting soon, we had to pick up loads of candles for her praying rituals.  Buddha Boy and I decided to eat then shop at IKEA.  We got there just a little over 6pm and there was a huge line at the restaurant!!!  Apparently, majority of them were lining up for some kind of "Wacky Wednesday" special...

Buddha Boy had the Meatballs, with mashed potatoes, gravy and lingonberry jam.  Honestly, these meatballs weren't all that bad, similar to the ones found in the frozen sections at supermarkets.  But...one thing that turned Buddha Boy off was...these meatballs were cold!!!  Yup, these weren't even lukewarm.  Buddha Boy's willing to order these again (c'mon, it's only $3.99/order), but he plans to use the microwave by the kiddie tables...LOL!

I had the Vegetarian Pasta.  The lukewarm pasta was overcooked and but the flavor was not too bad.  I guess for $1.99, I really shouldn't complain much.  The fifty-cent stale Garlic Bread was sad...very sad.

This was the "Wacky Wednesday" special for $2.99 (regular at $6.49).  Buddha Boy and I each picked up an order of Haddock & Chips.  This was the first time I tried haddock and I did not like it.  Buddha Boy, who loves anything deep-fried, only had half of a piece then left the rest.  The deep-fried fish was dry and mushy.  It also had a weird texture and taste.  The fries were, surprisingly, crunchy.

2011-08-28 Brunch @ The Pantry

700 Old Lillooet Road, North Vancouver, BC

604-985-4477

I love bacon and eggs and my sweet wife loves French toast.  After reading Colleen & Marv's post on 604 Munchies, I thought this would be a good place for both of us to try...well, I was wrong.  How different experiences can be.

We arrived shortly after 11am.  The tray for eggs benny was empty and I got the last of the scrambled eggs.  Buddha Girl, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky.  Other than the limited scramble eggs and the absent eggs benny, the hot station also had bacon, sausages, fruit crepes, pancakes, French toast, cheese lasagna and hash browns.  We enjoyed the French toasts, nicely coated and crisped.  The sausages were pretty basic, some were quite dry from being overcooked.  The bacon was dry, not crisp.

The cold station had a variety of salads and cold smoked fish.  Three types of smoked fish, all were good.  The potato salad was also quite nice.  There was also a cheese and deli platter.

Luckily, both Buddha Girl and I got bacon on our first round, or else we wouldn't get any.  You see, we were there for 1.5 hours and the eggs benny tray was empty for the whole time (and to add more insult to injury, the tray was refilled as we were leaving).  The tray for scrambled eggs was empty for the better part of an hour.  Now, the bacon, yes, bacon, was empty for approximately forty-five minutes.  Hence our bad experience.

Did we complain?  Not quite.  One server came by to apologize for an earlier glitch with their hosts, we briefly mentioned about empty warmer trays but he just shrugged it off and told us that their kitchen was busy.  Gee...thanks, that really helps me, doesn't it?

Yup, even tables were left pretty dirty for a while before the servers had time to clean it up.  After this horrible experience, we strongly recommend NOT to come here for their brunch, especially at $17.95 per person.

As a follow up, I did write to The Pantry and inform them about our experience.  The manager at the North Vancouver location did get in touch with me, recognizing they were extremely busy that day and they were very sorry for our bad experience.  In the end, we declined to return as his guests.  Buddha Girl and I are not fans of getting a free meal just because we complained...what about all the other poor souls that had the buffet the same time?  I think the restaurant should have recognized the problem at the time, more could have been done.
 
Yup, usually it's my dear wife who's the mean B*TCH, but start me off with a bad breakfast then I won't be easily pleased.

2011-08-27 BBQ @ Chez Marv

Colleen & Marv of 604 Munchies invited us to a BBQ at Marv's place.  We really wanted to bring something, but Colleen said "only one item", so, in the end, we each brought "one item".  I brought "watermelon" (watermelon juice, watermelon sorbet and an appetizer made with white parts of the watermelon), Buddha Boy made Deep-Fried Wontons and Buddha Dog (who's a no show) sponsored the Prosciutto Wrapped Bocconcini.

Sorry...Buddha Boy and I were late for the BBQ so we didn't snap much pictures.  Thank you Colleen and Marv for inviting us.  Thank you to Marv's family for preparing all the food.  We had so much fun!!!

I managed to snap pictures of these adorable Cookie Monster Cupcakes!!!  Guess who made them?  Colleen!!!  Good job girl!!!  Yes, it's true, Colleen can't really cook, but she sure can bake!!!  She made approximately sixty of these, in three different flavors: vanilla, lemon, chocolate.  Colleen, are you taking orders???

2011-08-27 Dim Sum @ Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant 紅日大酒家

3489 Fraser Street, Vancouver, BC

604-568-1288

Yay!  Somewhere other than TG for dim sum!  Hehehe!  Yes, J&C is our canteen, but we're quite turned off by its same old boring menu (both for dim sum and for dinner)...not to mention its friendly but extremely uncreative head chef.  Yup, I'm mean...hahahahaha!

Our most recent visit to this restaurant was for a NPA fundraising dinner (see post 2011-07-20 Dinner @ Fraser Court Seafood Restaurant 紅日大酒家).  No, we're not political, but we were invited by AuntA & UncleE as seat fillers.  At that dinner, there were few dishes that were quite nice, however, most of them ended in disappointment.  My brother's girlfriend, Bella, suggested to try their dim sum, she enjoyed her lunch visits with family.

To our surprised, the Fraser Court Specialty Prawn Dumplings 金牌蝦餃皇 was very good!!!  Crunchy shrimps with extremely light and thin skin...yummy!!!

The Pork Dumplings 飛魚子燒賣 was another enjoyable item.  Usually, the bigger the dumplings, the more fat they put in...but that's not the case here.  Hand-chopped chunks of meat, not fat, were in each one of these over-sized dumplings.  These tasted a bit on the saltier side, but were overall acceptable.

Buddha Boy was disappointed with the Beef Meatballs 鮮竹牛肉球.  Too much baking soda which made the texture all funky...tasted weird too!

The Seafood Pumpkin Pastries 南瓜海鮮餅 was something that "wowed" us in presentation...and that was pretty much it.  The outer skin was crispy, but was quite thick and doughy.  Not sure how much "seafood" should be in the curry-flavored ground pork fillings...all we saw in each "bun" was one chopped piece of scallop...sad, very sad.

Nothing special about the Prawn Spring Rolls 紫菜蝦春卷 other than it's deep-fried and Buddha Boy loves anything deep-fried.

The Deep Fried Dumplings with Dried Shrimps 安蝦咸水角 was crispy on the outside but salty on the inside.  The dumplings were doughy, but each had ample filling.

The rice wrap of the BBQ Pork Rice Flour Rolls 蜜汁叉燒腸粉 was made in-house and was light and smooth.  Good amount of pork in each roll.  The soy sauce was light and was not overly sweet or salty.  This we enjoyed.

Buddha Boy and I enjoyed the Black Pepper Sauteed Pork Stomach 黑胡椒炒爽肚.  The pork stomach was cooked long enough to a soft but chewy texture.  Yum!

The Rice in Fish Broth with Fresh Oysters 漁村魚湯蠔肉泡飯 caught my eyes.  I fell in love with this dish ever since the first time I tried it at some Chaozhou (Chiuchow) restaurant in HK (not sure where, MomJ took us there).  This, unfortunately, was no where close to the one that we had in HK, but I still enjoyed it.  Fish broth was weak but it has a good amount of oyster chunks and ground pork.

Nine dishes for the two of us?  Well, we're big eaters, remember?  LOL!  While there were misses, we did enjoy our visit.

2011-08-26 Dinner @ No.9 Restaurant 九記

5300 No.3 Road, Richmond, BC

604-278-7700

Our day ended with something Chinese...yup, after all that non-Chinese delicacies, I really needed some Chinese in me...hahahahaha!  We ended up at No.9 again since it has the most parking and fastest food delivery.  Yes, we were THAT desperate...hahahahaha!

As always, I wanted something comforting and a bowl of Wonton in Soup 皇牌鮮蝦雲吞 did the wonders.  Buddha Boy's 3 Kind Meats Chow Mein 三絲炒麵 was a good portion for the price, but it was nothing special, just comfort food.

I also had a bowl of Mix 2 Types of BBQ Meats on Steamed Rice 雙拼飯.  I asked for Soy Chicken 油雞 and Honey BBQ Pork 蜜汁叉燒.  The half and half pork was a bit on the saltier side, but good.  The chicken was dry but okay in taste.

Buddha Dog's not an early riser, he was forced to wake up early this morning for the trip.  He was sleeping the whole way down south.  As soon as we got home, he collapsed.  Yes, he's spoiled.

2011-08-26 Chicken McNuggets @ McDonald's

3529 172nd Street NE., Arlington, WA

360-658-7337

Ok...time to walk off all that food we ate.  Let's see, it's approximately 4pm and we've already had Fraser Park, Rocket Donuts, Maximus Minimus, Marination, Facing East Taiwanese and Frost Doughtnuts...no wonder we're fat!

We dropped by Target for some "exercise"...hey, if we're gonna walk, we might as well do it while we shop!  LOL!  After reading Kirby's post on Eating With Kirby, I knew I had to get my hands on one of these peanut butter & jelly mix.  Hehehe!

We picked up some deli meat for Buddha Dog at Target, but this spoiled boy wouldn't touch it.  Instead, he wanted Chicken McNuggets.  Holy, these nuggets were so much cheaper here than back home!!!  I should've ordered some for myself!  LOL!  Buddha Boy had a Frozen Strawberry Lemonade...he thought it was okay, but I didn't like it...it was way too sweet for me.

2011-08-26 Another Visit @ Frost Doughnuts

#102 - 15421 Main Street, Mill Creek, WA

425-379-2600

After Taiwanese food, we made a little detour to pick up some more bacon donuts!!!  Well, we needed to pick up similar donuts from another shop in order to play a fair comparison...hehehehe!

Compared to Rocket Donuts in Bellingham (see post 2011-08-26 Quick Visit @ Rocket Donuts), Frost's Smokey Bacon Maple Bars were larger in size, less dense and less sweet.  While we did enjoy both bars, we prefer Frost over Rocket.  However, Rocket won the points in presentation by using bacon slices.

2011-08-26 Lunch @ Facing East Taiwanese Restaurant 東來食府

1075 Bellevue Way NE., Bellevue, WA

425-688-2986

We had this Taiwanese restaurant on our radar for quite a while now, since we're in Seattle, this was our chance.  We arrived with an hour to spare before their afternoon close.

First up, the Taiwanese Pork Burger 刈包, or Gua-Bao.  With all the right ingredients, plus a fluffy bun, this was bordering on fail.  The meat (pork belly) was dry.  The sour veggie 酸菜 was more sweet than sour.  Buddha Girl's not a fan of the candied peanut powder 花生糖粉, she prefers the simple peanut powder 花生粉.  Not sure why they added hot sauce to the sandwich, this ruined the overall taste.

Next to try was the Sweet Potato Flour Dumpling with Pork Stuffing 古早味肉圓, or Ba-Wan.  The ba-wan itself was sad.  The thick doughy skin wasn't "Q" and the meat mixture inside was pretty disappointing.  What surprised us was the sauce, it was awesome!  It's a miso/ketchup sauce that's commonly used in Taiwan, mostly for the oyster omelet.  This sauce was as good as what I've had in Taiwan, yes, it was that good.

Next was the Five-Spiced Fried Chicken with Basil Puree 鹽酥雞, a direct translation would be Salty Crispy Chicken.  Made just like Taiwan, using white meat, they were able to keep the chicken moist and tender.  And yes, there was basil, a good amount of it too.  Both Buddha Girl and I enjoyed this.

Pork Pottage 肉羹, or Rou-Geng, was the final item to be tested.  I was immediately turned off the second this arrived at our table.  This looked worse than Alishan.  Yup, in comparison, Alishan's was a beauty (see post 2011-08-17 Dinner @ Alishan Restaurant 阿里山品味餐廳).  With just small cubes of daikon and shitake mushrooms, this has absolutely no semblance of rou-geng in Taiwan.

Even when biting into the pork nugget (as what Buddha Girl calls it), it was just a slice of meat surrounded by massive load of fish paste.  There was no incorporation of the fish paste with the meat.  The rou-geng was all around disappointing, we ended up eating only three pieces and left the rest.  Yes, it was that bad.

Overall, this visit ended in disappointment.  Well, we're glad that we tried it so we could cross it off our list.  Not a return for us.