2013-01-10 Lunch @ Le Tigre Cuisine Mobile Food Truck

Alberni Street & Thurlow Street, Vancouver, BC

778-990-2853

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Street food and a deal voucher, pretty much the best combination for someone like me.  For $10, Buddha Girl picked up a $20-voucher at Le Tigre Cuisine Mobile Food Truck.  Sounds quite a bit, doesn't it?  Well, considering that I ended up with $25-worth of food...yes, it was a lot, even for a big boy like me.

With five rotating locations, the truck was only nearby on Thursdays.  As soon as I got my food, I hightailed it back to the warmth of my office.  I was not too pleased that the operator didn't have any bags for larger orders.  Half way back to the office, I accidentally dropped the box of chicken.  Considering that I ordered four items, I was lucky that I only lost the mayo.

The Finger Licken Popcorn Chicken was actually quite good.  The chicken was well marinated and tender.  The nuggets were nicely crisp, as good as what I can get at Tapioca Express 品客多時尚餐飲 (when they use fresh oil).  Not exactly sure if the mayo was needed, but I'm sure it would add another notch in taste.  The presence of basil acted only as a garnish, I would've preferred if it was fried with the chicken to extract its fragrance.  This was a dish that I'd order again. 

Since I already ordered the popcorn chicken, I had pork belly for the Kick Ass Rice.  The egg was sous-vide poached and it's used more as a sauce.  Once I broke the yolk and mix it with rice, the bowl became a rich mix of rice, yolk, mayo and pork fat.  Although the pork wasn't melt-in-your-mouth tender, it was good enough to enjoy.  Nice to see that they weren't shy with the meat here.

Next, the Angry Tiger Balls.  These fried balls were a mix of rice, bacon, kimchi and garlic, then topped with mayo and nori.  The balls were crispy and the spicy mayo gave it a nice kick.  Unfortunately, these were a bit too heavy for me.  After two balls, I started pawning off the rest to colleagues.

My least favorite was the Homemade Dan Dan Pork Wontons.  The wontons, on its own, were meaty and decent in flavor.  However, the flavors of garlic, ginger, chili and sesame were all lost in that heavy peanut butter sauce.  The sauce was so thick to the point that it felt gross.

Yup, I had enough food for two people.  And yes, I admit, I ordered too much.  I enjoyed everything, with the exception of wontons.  I think Buddha Girl would enjoy the food here, well, except the wontons.  With the help from Buddha Girl, I'm planning to try all the other items on their menu, even the healthier items.

2013-01-04 Dinner @ The TRUE'STEA Restaurant 淳上生活小品

#180 - 8400 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC

604-207-8469

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Buddha Girl loves group-buys.  This time, she purchased a Groupon voucher for The TRUE'STEA Restaurant 淳上生活小品, formerly Estea Beverage Club 生活小品.   When she told me that it's $60 worth of food, I was ready to go to town, it was just the two of us.

As much as it's not currently in season, the Watermelon Juice 西瓜汁 (left) was fresh, refreshing and not over-sweetened with syrup.  Buddha Girl's Red Date Longan Tea 紅棗桂圓茶 (right) was tasty, but it was a bit too sweet for me.  We both enjoyed our drinks, although both took a while to be made.

Buddha Girl had a hard time choosing between twice-cooked pork 回鍋肉 or Dry Squid & Shredded Pork With Chili Pepper 客家小炒, or Hakka stir-fry.  Yeah, usually, knowing us, we'd just end up ordering both.  This time, we took our server's advice and went with the latter option.  Although this dish lacked some classic ingredients, it was an enjoyable dish.  This was a simple stir-fry of squid, scallions, pork, mushrooms, tofu and chili pepper.  There was meat, but it wasn't in abundance and it had me wondering how much meat would have come with the other dish had we ordered it.  There wasn't anything special about the flavour, but with ample wok-hei 鑊氣 (or 火侯, in Mandarin), it was a well executed dish.

The Deep Fried Pork Chop With Rice 炸排骨飯 came with sides of lotus root and daikon, neither were memorable.  The chop failed.  With thin cuts of pork, once fried up, texture was lost.  On top of that, the coating was "chalky" and heavy.  I believe these were fried at an overly low temperature which caused the oil to retain in the coating.  The flavour itself was muted by how bad these chops were done.  Do not waste your money on this.

Whenever I visit a Taiwanese joint, there's always a few dishes that I like to try, and three-cup chicken is one of them.  The common and classic flavors of a Taiwanese-style (also known as Hakka-style) three-cup chicken should be mainly basil, soy, sesame oil, wine, ginger, garlic and sugar.  The three-cup chicken here, known as Sweet Chicken 三杯雞, was not only bad, it was nasty.  Buddha Girl said the flavors tasted like Wuxi spareribs 無錫排骨 with loads of black vinegar.  We gave up after a few bites.  Usually, with three-cup chicken, the sauce thickens from the chicken fat and cartilages.  Here, they used thickener.  We saw ginger and garlic in the dish, but we couldn't taste any.  To add more insult, after digging through the pot, we found only one sprig of basil.  Yup, one.

Salty crispy chicken 鹽酥雞 is another must-try whenever I visit a Taiwanese restaurant.  I fell in love with this snack since the first time I visited Taiwan with Buddha Girl.  Locally, only Tapioca Express 品客多時尚餐飲 in Richmond comes close to what you can get in Taiwan.  Don't waste your money with the Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets 炸鹽酥雞 here at The TRUE'STEA Restaurant 淳上生活小品, it was miserable.  Not only the chicken was cut in overly large chunks, the coating was, similar to the pork chop, "chalky" and heavy in oil.  The flavour was there, after you bite through that thick and disgusting coat of batter.
 
I was very disappointed during our last trip to Taiwan.  We went to the original restaurant where coffin bread was created, but they were closed for renovations.  Driving all the way south from Taipei only to find it closed?  Not happy.  Anyways, the original version of this in Tainan was said to be a cream based sauce/soup.  If you go to the one in Shilin Night Market 士林夜市, where I frequent whenever I'm in Taipei, it's an egg-white mixture.  The Fried Toast with Assorted Food 臺南棺材板 at The TRUE'STEA Restaurant 淳上生活小品 was neither.  The sauce/soup had ample ingredients of ham, peas, potatoes and shrimp, but, unfortunately, the sauce/soup was way too thin and way too sweet.  The bread was cut way too thick and heavily soaked with oil, just like the pork chop and/or the chicken nuggets.  I think there's a problem with their deep-fryer.  The temperature was set too low so anything and everything deep-fried turned out pretty gross.

This experience was truly disappointing.  I didn't even bother eating until I was full...yes, that's how bad it was.  Of course, our bill was over $60 and thank goodness we had Groupon.  The table next to us, also with the same Groupon voucher, ordered below $60, but were told that if they didn't order $60 worth, their bill would have to be bumped up to $60 and they would have to pay the taxes accordingly.  Pretty ridiculous.

With a Taiwanese wife and my love for Taiwan (and my wife, of course), The TRUE'STEA Restaurant 淳上生活小品 wasn't Taiwanese food to me.

2013-01-03 Lunch @ Haroo Korean Homestyle Cuisine

8580 Alexandra Road, Richmond, BC

604-284-5596

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Elaine (O My Sweet Tooth) came back in town for Christmas and we met up for lunch to gossip.  After visiting the International Buddhist Society 國際佛教觀音寺 and Ling Yen Mountain Temple 靈巖山寺, we headed over to Richmond's famous food street and looked for eats.  We stopped at House of Tofu Soup only to find it closed for the holidays.  We then drove over to the next available Korean restaurant down the block, Haroo Korean Homestyle Cuisine.

Soon after we ordered, we were served five Banchan to share: kimchi, bean sprouts, potatoes, broccoli and kelp.  Immediately after, we were each served a House Salad and a Maeil Biofeel.

We ordered everything to share.  The Seafood Tofu Soup was disappointing.  There were seafood alright, but beef?  We didn't notice the meat until later.  We asked for spicy and there was a tiny kick, however, the soup was rather bland.

Next was the Seafood Pancake, which had very crisp surfaces.  Honestly, I couldn't recall what types of seafood were used because I was too busy chatting with Elaine.  But I do remember that this was less oily and less dense than most of the places I tried.

We wanted Tteokbokki (rice cake with meat and vegetable in spicy sauce), but I think they mistakenly gave us the Gunjung Tteokbokki (royal court rice cake with marinated beef).  Not there to make a scene, I immediately asked to pack this one for home (for MomJ and Buddha Boy) and requested another one with anything but beef.  The second dish (below) came with seafood...well, minimal seafood.  The rice cakes were a bit too soft for me.  Was it spicy?  Nope.  Was it worth the price?  Absolutely not.

Simple, homey and welcoming...the three words that came to mind when I walked into this second-floor corner restaurant.  Service was humble and courteous.  Going a-la-carte was quite expensive.  Don't get me wrong, the food was decent, just not worth the price tags.  I'd suggest to only visit at lunch and stick with their featured lunch sets.

2013-01-01 New Year's Day Brunch @ EBO Restaurant

4331 Dominion Street, Burnaby, BC

604-453-0788

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Ever since I met Buddha Boy, I've participated in their family's tradition of having new year's day brunch buffet at a local hotel, usually in downtown.  Unfortunately, that tradition was interrupted a few years ago when the prices ridiculously skyrocketed to over $100/person after tax (or taxes) and mandatory gratuity.

 

Thanks to a twitter suggestion from Sean (Sean's Adventures in Flavor Town), this year, we retrieved the tradition and had the brunch buffet at EBO Restaurant on the first day of 2013.  Mr. & Mrs. Little Lee, Seto-San and Yip-sen joined MomJ, Buddha Boy and I for the occasion.

I booked the first-seating at 11am and we arrived approximately ten minutes early.  Staff were all pretty busy transitioning from breakfast to brunch.  We were seated at a beautifully set round table at the back, next to the private room.

Selections might have been limited, but all the necessary common items were present.  For breakfast, there were hashbrowns, eggs benny, bacon, sausages, eggy bread (French toasts) and an omelette station.

For lunch, there were mixed vegetables, pasta, salmon, har-gow, siu-mai, Chinese BBQ pork, lamb satay skewers, deep-fried shrimp wontons and 28-day aged strip-loin.

Cold stations had decent selections of sushi, salads, cured meats, smoked meats and shellfish.  Little Lee and I really enjoyed the snow-crab claws...hehehehe!

Good dessert selections.  Unfortunately, I was already too full to enjoy the sweets.  Buddha Boy, on the other hand, went against his diabetes and attacked the desserts.  BAD!!!

After my first round of visit at the buffet circle, I did plan to leave some tummy room for desserts.  But, on my second round...things changed.  What?  Fresh handmade roti canai at a buffet?  At EBO?  Mrs. Little Lee, Buddha Boy and I, literally, waited right at the station with plates in our hands.  We were ready to grab as many as we can...hahahaha!  So Chinese huh?  After two plates of buffet food and two plates of roti canai, I was officially done.   As we were leaving, John (the roti chef) offered me a roti tissue to go.  The tissue was thin and extremely crispy.  It was sweet and was sprinkled with shredded coconut.  Oh boy, it was delicious.

John, a kitchen staff at EBO, also runs a sideline business with his wife.  In fact, the lamb skewers offered at the hot station were John's products.  It was a wonderful gesture that management allowed John to display his business cards by the roti station to promote his business.  Props to EBO! 

Coffee, tea and juice were included in the price of $53.34/person ($42/adult plus HST and 15% mandatory gratuity).  While service was a bit stretched, it was pleasant and energetic.  Everyone enjoyed the experience and, of course, the price.