604 Foodtography

How I Made Millions Blogging…And So Can You!

Kevin Wu — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 06:49:57 +0000

Now you too can make easy money from blogging just like I do!

John Chow? Mo Cho? He ain’t got nothing on me.

Just sign up for a 30 month free trial and I will teach you all the secrets!*

*Must pay S/H of $1000USD
This is a joke.

Based on all the different currencies, can you guess where I’m going for the rest of this summer? 6 weeks specifically.

Yuji’s Japanese Tapas, Vancouver, BC

Kevin Wu — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:00:59 +0000

Yuji‘s. They don’t have a flashy exterior and they don’t have a very big footprint on West 4th either. They don’t need to because they more than make up for all that with their food!

The interior is clean, well furnished and minimalistic. That sort of seems like an oxymoron now that I read it again….

Our reservation was at 530pm, right when they opened. As a result.. we were the only ones in the restaurant for quite a bit and so it almost felt a little awkward, like they had opened just for us. The servers were certainly attentive, I mean what else could they have possibly done?

The reason why I was here was because Chloe had a Travellers Deck, which is a local company that has made a, to quote from their About Us section, “informed and opinionated deck of our favourite handpicked shops, restaurants, bars and services.” Basically, you can to go a Chapters, pick up one of these decks and get discounts for eats and shopping. Think the Entertainment Book, but a lot smaller and focused on just Vancouver.

Age Spicy Tuna Roll – deep fried spicy tuna roll

Rolled in panko and deep fried till golden brown, the tuna roll itself wasn’t spicy, it was the sauce drizzled on the bottom of the plate that was spicy.

Prosciutto Roll – cream cheese mango rolled in rice and encased in Italian prosciutto

Oooomy, creamy, sweet, salty, umami. Everything rolled in one! A must order if you are ever to eat here, the way everything just came together in your mouth was mmm…gawd, so good.

Kiwi Roll – scallop, cucumber and mayo roll topped with a slice of kiwi

I ordered these because they looked and sounded like they tasted amazing according to Jonathan from Foodandtell. While not as mind blasting as the prosciutto roll, these were equally delightful for the uniqueness. The scallop itself had a sweet taste, something not uncommon in seafood, and the kiwi provided the slightly sour tang. A great ying-yang balance of flavours here.

Aburi Negi Miso Kobe Beef

This is the first time I’ve ever had kobe beef! Sliced about as thin as two loonies stacked together, it just …melted in my mouth. All that nice marbled fat just spread its tentacle-y arms of flavour through the meat and helped it disintegrate in my mouth like it was ice cream on a hot sidewalk.

Watch as the server torches the beef right in front of us.

Green Tea Crème Brûlée

Now this is a dessert that I could finish by myself. The creamy custard like texture of the creme brulee with accents of matcha popping in… also another item I would say is a must order.

Remember the days when the only tax we had to pay when eating was GST.. oh but now it’s the HST.. hurray.

God I loved this place.

The Main, Vancouver, BC

Kevin Wu — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:00:50 +0000

With dim lighting and live music, it’s easy to understand if you’ve mistaken The Main for a lounge or a pub. Rest assured though, it’s not. This local South Main restaurant is a mainstay of this neighbourhood and will continue to be for years.

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Steam Whistle - Mmm beeeer. Look for a future post about Steam Whistle!

Calamari Appetizer – This was just a whole lot of batter on little shrunken squid rings and tentacles topped off with unimaginative and boring red onion slices.

Daily $10 dinner special – Roast Lamb – Don’t know how I completely missed this on the menu or posted somewhere, but Jeff ordered it.

Wow I have no clue what this is at all. Jeff can’t even remember what it is and he ate part of it! I suppose this is deserved because I take so long to post (more than a month later).

Greek Salad that came with my order ..below. Ah the greek salad, so simple but so complex at the same time. The sweet taste of olive oil, the saltiness of the olives and feta cheese combined with the cool crunchy taste of cucumbers and ripe plump juicy tomatoes…. awww yea.

Moussaka – Simply put, this is a Greek version of Shepherds Pie.. with eggplant (aubergine) added. I think there was a bechemel sauce in the pan as well. Anyways, I really enjoyed this and would love to order it again.

Sammy J. Peppers – No. 3 Road, Richmond, BC

Kevin Wu — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 14:00:03 +0000

As a gesture of thanks to Victor who helped me load and throw out a van full of garbage at the Vancouver Dump (which is actually all the way out in Delta), I treated him to a lunch. On the way back to Vancouver, we stopped in Richmond, but neither of us was in the mood for asian, so I pulled over the for the first non-Asian place I hadn’t posted about before.

Bam, Sammy J. Peppers! If you’ve read my blog at all, you would know that I’m not a big fan of chain restaurants, and will not normally choose to eat at one if given a choice..but there was nothing else in immediate sight, we were hungry and I figured why not.

Just after 2pm, we missed the lunch crowd, though I’m not quite sure they really have one, at least this particular location in Richmond. Not wanting to be stuck inside with dim lighting, I immediately requested to sit outside even though it was a partly cloudy day. Damn these seats were comfortable.. and just the right height with the table.

Any hard work deserves a beer, and with $3.50 ICE COLD Canadians on tap, we did just that.

The beer was SO ice cold that the beer itself was starting to crystallize near the head. Canadian is not on the top of my beer list, but when served super ice cold like this, it was actually very drinkable.

With a little prodding from the server, we ordered an appetizer to share and start.

Even though I knew it was $10, I didn’t expect a lot in terms of portion size, but it wasn’t bad. I’d estimate that if all the little cube pieces were put together, it would probably amount to a 7-8oz steak. These were good…and I can see why the waitress recommended it to us.

Garlic Pepper Steak Bites – $10
The lower mainland’s original steak bites. ‘AAA” Sirloin cubes fried then tossed in garlic, pepper & coarse salt.

I gave Victor full run of the menu and he only ordered a burger. If we were in opposite positions, I probably would have ordered one whole page of the menu =D.

Bourbon BBQ Cheeseburger – $13
Beef, honey bourbon BBQ sauce, cheddar, Monterey jack, pickles, ranch, mayo, lettuce & tomato

If I didn’t tell you this was a burger, you might have thought it was a Portobello mushroom. Right?

I love crispy fries like this. Big inch thick fries such as those from Red Robins or White Spot may have their days in the spotlight, but nothing beats a hot fresh fry that has a satisfying crunch.

I strayed away from my tried tested and true burger options and had a sandwich instead. Ordered the cheesesteak and subbed out my fries for a salad instead.

Original Cheesesteak – $13
Shaved ribeye, sautéed mushrooms, sweet peppers, onions & cheddar.

Must be some type of creamy Italian dressing, it was mostly sour but was slightly sweet.. the only thing I can knock is the fact that there was a puddle of dressing at the bottom.

What the hell is this blurry picture doing here. You’re fired Kevin. Unacceptable!
The cheese was still melty and stretchy, and it was all packed tightly underneath the buns.. no complaints at all.

Without any control or attempt to keep track of the bill here, things can really start to add up. I mean, a lunch for two people ended up being $50~.. woooo that’s pricey.

Miki Japanese Ramen – Chow Times Ramen Event

Kevin Wu — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 06:53:32 +0000

A month ago, Chow Times hosted an event. A ramen event to be specific. These days, Ben & Suanne are hosting and setting up events left and right it’s amazing, it’s like Ben doesn’t have a real day job.

This specific event was an exclusive for Chow Times readers and a special menu worth $21 would be offered at $5.

Miki was a little difficult to find for a couple reasons, the street view on Google, as you’ll see below, was not updated as it’s a newish restaurant, the restaurant front space doesn’t occupy much space and there are trees blocking the view! If you are heading East along Kingsway, it’s JUST after Royal Oak Ave.

Small and with a unconventional triangle seating layout due to the shape and size of the building, the owners, Ben & Karen, have done their best to maximize every inch of space inside, and managed to fit 34 of us in for this event.

In attendance were two different kinds of foodies, those who are silent, who probably read or even post on Chow.com, and the vocal ones, such as Ed of EdEdition, TS&JS of eatingclub vancouver and Wendy of Eat ‘n About.

Below is the menu we were given. All this for $5, thanks to Chow Times!

Before the food started to come out, they warned us that because they are not a catering service and thus were not used to pumping out 34 orders at the same time, so there would be some delay. There was only 3 of them working the kitchen as well.

First was a small appetizer, edamame and seaweed salad with soy glaze drizzle, .

Before the event, we were also told that they would be rolling out a new bbq item, beef tongue. However..I feel they sliced it way too thin to really capture the delicious flavours that one desires to taste when eating tongue. The other items on the plate were fine, although served cold, but they can’t be faulted too much here as they had to cook, plate, and serve with only 3 in the kitchen.

L-R, Chicken, Pork, Beef Tongue, Green Beans, Tofu & bonito flakes and grated daikon and ginger in the background.

Shoyu Ramen – Where’s my toppings? I’m not used to not only a tiny amount of toppings but also missing toppings on my ramen! Where’s the corn? Egg? Bean sprouts? Though I suppose I shouldn’t be too picky here, they are offering full servings at only $5/pp.. that’s only $170 total for the night. I thought the shoyu had a good balance of saltiness and creamery from the pork broth, and the noodles were done well. I actually finished all of my soup because it was good, but I shied away from the miso and shio because I found them both equally too salty for my taste.

Sorry, but is strawberry coulis sauce just a fancy name for Nesquik strawberry sundae topping? I’m just being honest and perhaps a bit blunt here, but what’s the point of giving us a dessert like this for a Japanese restaurant/ramen place? Serve us something a little more in lines with the cuisine you represent, such as some matcha green tea ice cream!

I have not ventured far from the ramen epicentre of Vancouver (Robson & Denman) and I really don’t see much reason to if you’re looking for quality and quantity, in various ratios to each other, of course. There are places in Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, but those are really only temporary fixes for your ramen craving. Go downtown, you will and should not be disappointed.

Chill Restaurant and Lounge, Burnaby

Kevin Wu — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 10:54:27 +0000

Chill Restaurant and Lounge is trendy, has bumping music, and is literally one license away from being a club.

It’s got all the fixings of the typical modern Taiwanese restaurant that has become all but a standard here in Metro Vancouver.

The plates here hint that things should be shared, like a tapas place..

Let me draw your attention to the bottom of this list. Desert wing. Jeff, in his study-drunk mode said we should have some dessert wings. Mmmm I love me some salty desserts.

A drink with two ounces of liquor for $7.. that’s pretty decent, no? I wouldn’t know, these are not my drinks of choice.

Neither does alcoholic bubble tea particularly interest me..

Forget the drinks, I’m here to eat. I wasn’t feeling a rice dish and I haven’t had noodles in a while so I went with Tomato Beef Noodle Soup.

For my taste and expectations of Taiwanese Beef Noodles (TWBN), this was very sub-par. While it’s obvious the selling point of this restaurant isn’t this dish, as they kind of have to offer it on the menu if they are to truly sell the restaurant as Taiwanese, I had a hard time enjoying this.. the soup base was off, it tasted overly sweet and sour. The beef was tender though..hard to mess that up.

Lychee Green Tea with pearls.

Margos Red Alert cocktail.

Desert wing. Or as Jeff would say…dessert wings!

Beef with roti crepe.

Cookies and Cream ice cream slushie. God I get a stomachache just looking at this…

I’m sorry but this is a pretty lackluster performance by me.. just not feeling it lately, in terms of writing these posts and all that. I just want to throw up some pictures, type a couple sentences and say voila!

Voila!

Frappe Bliss – Aberdeen Centre, Richmond, BC

Kevin Wu — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 06:05:25 +0000

IKEA as an appetizer, LA Chicken as the main course, and now Frappe Bliss as dessert! Yea, I’m truly a glutton sometimes..but I blame Jeff, Kevin, and Margo.

At Aberdeen Center, there’s a lot of shops and restaurants. Places that I’ve posted about are Tropika and Qoola. There’s plenty more, Chef Hung, Papa Beards, Aoyama Cafe, Northern Delicacy, Guu, 7th Heaven, etc. The food court is really the busiest part of the mall…the rest is pretty empty.

1. Pick your frappe flavour for $2.36.
2. Pick your toppings starting from $0.71
3. ???
4. Profit?

With all the topping options and varieties, we just took the easier route and ordered one of the 9 combos they have already.

This one is the Matcha Delight and we had it with mango ice milk. You get red beans, matcha ice cream and mochi. One thing I didn’t notice till later was that they missed the condensed milk on top.

The four of us shared this.. some more mochi would be nice, there wasn’t enough for each of us to be happy…though Jeff probably got the least. That’s what you get for talking on the phone!

What sets this apart from regular icy plates is that they first off, use “ice” that’s really milk with flavours. Then they shave it so fine that it’s light and fluffy, so literally you feel like you’re eating clouds or puffs of air. It’s awesome really, I don’t think I can go back to regular icy plates anymore now..

IKEA Bistro/Exit Cafe – Richmond, BC

Kevin Wu — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:08:47 +0000

IKEA, which is an acronym of the founders name Ingvar Kamprad and the farm Elmtaryd and parish where he grew up, Agunnaryd, is popular world wide. I’m almost certain you can find at least one thing in your home that’s from IKEA! Most people will go to IKEA to shop, then get hungry and stop by the cafe or the bistro. I do it the other way around though…I eat first then go shop.

The full menu can be seen on the IKEA Bistro/Exit Cafe page..I’ve just taken a screenshot to make it easier for you to view.

I mean really, $2.00 for a drink and two hot dogs. Granted they’re small, but hey, it’s cheap and a decent snack to munch on while you browse the store. Or it can just tide you over till your next meal….which in our case was LA Chicken!

Homemade Banh Cuon

Kevin Wu — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 17:00:39 +0000

After Tung Hing and lazing about at the beach, we came back to Victor’s house to kill some time before dodgeball and found that his mom was making banh cuon!

Sweet, I’ve never had homemade banh cuon before so it was nice to see it being made. His mom went and bought a 5lb bag of plain rice noodles from Hon’s Wonton House, and just panfried some pork, mushroom, shrimp and wood ear as filling. Of course, your fillings can be anything you want to accomodate your dietary needs. She would take a sheet of rice noodles, lay it flat out on the saran covered counter and start making little rolls. Once she filled up a plate, then it would go into the wok to steam for a couple minutes.

Plenty of bean sprouts.

Fish sauce, carrots, sugar…essential!

Deep fried shallots…mm the smell is so fragrant and intoxicating, I would eat this entire bowl of shallots just by itself…

Just pile everything into a bowl, and slop some fish sauce on top, mix and go nuts…I had 12 of these suckers in one sitting.

I would post a recipe but honestly, everyone makes it slightly different. You can save time by buying the rice noodles pre made, or you can take the time to actually make the rice noodles, either in the traditional way of a cheesecloth over a pan, or the more new school way of making it in a teflon coated baking pan. The latter way is how you’ll see cheung fun or ho fun being made now.. such as at the Chinatown Night Market.

Just Google up “banh cuon recipes” and you’re more than set. I found that this thread from Chowhound was MORE than helpful and intensely detailed and descriptive.

Tung Hing Bakery

Kevin Wu — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:33:49 +0000

Before heading out to Kitsilano Beach on a rare sunny day back in May, Victor and I stopped by Tung Hing Bakery for some banh mi. Originally I thought of just going to the normal standby, Ba Le, but having heard good things about Tung Hing from others, why not?

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With bakery in their store name, you can expect that they not only bake their own banh mi bread (aka french baguettes) fresh daily, they also have other types of buns, pastries and desserts.

Simpler than simple, the banh mi menu is painted onto a small black board, and all the prices are tax included.

Pickled daikon and carrots, cucumbers, pork floss, meatball, honey garlic sausage, ghee (clarified butter), pate, meat…etc. Fressssssh.

Horrible picture, in terms of being descriptive and showing what’s actually in the sub. I ordered a meatball, which is all hidden underneath the vegetables. The texture of the meatball, if you can’t already tell by the picture above, was more like sloppy joe ground meat..not exactly a ball as it should be. I don’t really care though, it’s just $3 for this entire sub. The meat was slightly sweet, showing obvious hints of honey being used in the seasoning, but some other stuff that I just can’t pinpoint down..

The crust, hard as wood and crunchy like chips is a huge contrast to the bread inside, fluffy and soft like pillows.

For me, it’s hard to say what’s the better banh mi between Ba Le and Tung Hing, I’d have to eat them side by side at the same time, not on separate occasions. I know Victor would prefer Ba Le, but it’s most likely because it’s just become the comfortable standard and being used to it.