The food products reviewed below were sent to me free of charge. I grew all the opinions myself, though. Certified organic from my brains.

I love risotto but I still haven’t gotten it right in the kitchen yet. It’s a science, which is probably why Gordon Ramsay has to yell at so many people when they inevitably mess it up. One of the greatest meals I’ve seen on No Reservations is where Bourdain goes to Croatia and samples a risotto that started long before the sun rose and had been stirred by a man standing next to it for hours on end. Not to say that you need to visibly age every time you make risotto but it’s not exactly macaroni and cheese…we don’t just make it every day.

I was intrigued when I was asked to take a look at Risottoballs, a product from Moccia Urbani in Port Moody that promises all the cheesy, creamy goodness we like about risotto but in crunchy, easy-to-make…balls. They come in five flavors: mozzarella, Italian sausage, tomato and sausage, vegetable primevera and porcini mushrooms. Each box contains nine balls for $7.99.

From frozen, they cook in 17 minutes in a 425C degree oven. Open the box, pour onto a baking sheet and turn the oven on. You’re in Ron “Set it and forget it!” Popeil territory for easiness here. I find you don’t have to worry about overcooking them either. A few more minutes in the oven results in a slightly drier risottoball but the cheese oozes and crisps so it just depends on what you like.

Of all the flavors, I like the mozzarella the best. It seems to be the cheesiest and most moist of the five varieties coming out of the oven. You can keep it simple and enjoy the quality Carnaroli rice or mix it up with a little dip. They taste great with tzaziki, Sriracha and fresh salsa (separately…not all mixed together). I also like the porcini mushroom and surprisingly, the primavera vegetable but the two with the sausage were a little on the dry side. The outer layer of breading forms a nice, crisp crust, contrasting nicely with the creamy risotto center.

They’re not the lightest snacks…I’d say three make a great appetizer…but they’re actually quite good on the health front. Each is 60 calories and there’s labels stating how free they are of MSG and trans fats.

Personally, I would stick to the mozzarella. They’re the best of the bunch and I would prefer them with a bit of grilled chroizo than the Italian sausage Risottoballs. They make great appetizers or hors d’oeuvres.

____________________

If you’d like to check out Risottoballs for yourself, you’re in luck! I’ve got a couple of cases with a variety of Risottoballs to give away to two of my readers! If it’s anything like the box I receive, it contains all five flavors of Risottoballs.

You can enter up to THREE times!

1. FACEBOOK: LIKE Risottoballs and EdEats on Facebook and SHARE this post: http://ow.ly/lifMs

2. TWITTER: FOLLOW Moccia Urbani and Ed Lau on Twitter and TWEET the following:

Win a case of Risottoballs from @mocciaurbani and @edlau! Details: http://ow.ly/lieIy. RT to enter!

3. Do BOTH and get a third entry!

If you already like/follow us, then you just need to share and tweet. That’s it! Shouldn’t take more than five minutes and you’ll be entered to win a heck of a lot of Risottoballs! Contest will run until 11:59PM on May 31st, 2013. Good luck!

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And we have a winner! Congratulations, Bill Kwok!

Thank you everyone for entering and supporting this pokey little food blog. If you didn’t win this time, don’t worry, I’ll have more giveaways next week! (Probably starting Monday)

EAT! Vancouver is back again this year for another three days of showcasing some of Vancouver’s best local restaurants, bakeries, wineries and more. From May 24th to 26th, you can try all sorts of awesome food and drink at BC Place Stadium as well as tons of exhibits, competition, and demos. Oh and several Food Network personalities such as Anna Olson and Chuck Hughes will be there too on the Food Network celebrity stage.

I’m sure by now you’re totally convinced. “How can I get tickets to this wondrous event, Ed, and will it cost us a million dollars?” Absolutely not, friends. Tickets for adults are $14 ($9 if you’re under 16) but why pay when you can go for free?

I’ve got another pair of tickets to give away this year and again, it’s just silly easy for you to win. Just do these two easy things…

1. LIKE EAT! Vancouver and EdEats.com on Facebook.

2. SHARE this post on your timeline.

If you already like us on Facebook, just share the post and you’re entered to win! You have til 1:59 pm on Friday, May 17th to enter! Good luck!

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Hot pot is one of those ubiquitous Chinese meals that have become as much social gathering as meal. Whether it’s sharing one big pot or having individual ones each, there’s nothing quite like it on freezing cold winter days (or summer if you jack up the air conditioning).

However, hot pot is a bit of a chore. It can get quite messy at home because when you’re chopsticking your food out of a boiling pot, there’s bound to be plenty of dripping and that’s even before you get to the various sauces. Depending on how far you go, there could be a few dozen plates and bowls on the table. Going out for hot pot eliminates the need for cleanup but a lot of places are either expensive or terrible. It’s also a lengthy meal since you essentially do all the cooking yourself. What do you do if you want that hot pot experience but in a quick and easy package?

I first got one of these individual, fully loaded hot pots during a trip to Taipei, although the bowls for that meal were weirdly shaped like toilets. They’re steaming pots of hot broth teeming with…well, whatever you want. The pot is often kept at a rolling simmer by small fire underneath, which isn’t quite as dangerous as it sounds.

Boiling Point opened a few years ago, in a Richmond spot that used to be a Malaysian or Indonesian restaurant, if I remember correctly. It’s spacious and clean, a modern look like contrasting colors (white walls, black booths; black tables, white chairs) favored by many Taiwanese bubble tea places. I didn’t know this until I looked it up after but Boiling Point is actually a chain with 7 restaurants in California. Not quite sure why they decided to expand so specifically to Richmond, as that’s their only location outside of Cali. (A look at their Facebook page reveals a Burnaby location is coming soon.)

The menu consists of ten options for hot pot, each defined by their choice of meat and/or soup such as beef, lamb, Korean kimchi (which also has meat) and curry fishball. These are all $11.99 ($10.99 for lunch) while the last three options, Japanese Miso, Thai and Spicy Taiwanese, are $15.99 ($14.99 lunch). The options don’t stop there, though. You can get any of six degrees of spiciness (from “not” to “flaming”) and you can also cram in a number of add-ons like additional meat, seafood, veggies or noodles for an extra charge.

I chose to go with the Japanese Miso ($14.99), which has sliced pork, clams, crab, fishball, fish fillets, Taiwanese cabbage, udon, enoki mushroom, oyster mushroom, and two kinds of tofu. The picture of the whole crab sticking out of the pot in the pictures is an illusion. Reality is a couple of scrawny crab legs too small to be worth the effort. The strange dumplings were also not my bag.

Otherwise, the hot pot is rather enjoyable. The broth is rich with flavor and gets better as the pot simmers away. The pork slices are tender (if you don’t leave them forever) and even the tofu is delicious, soaking in the miso. Each hot pot comes with a bowl of steamed rice.

And a drink! The lemon tea is strong and makes a good value for lunch even better.

No serious complaints from any of my friends, who ordered various different hot pots from the menu. At $10.99, hot pots #1 through #7 are quite a good deal but I question whether the Japanese Miso, Korean Kimchi and Thai flavored options are worth the extra $5 given that add-ons (like the crab) are underwhelming.

As for service, our server was acceptably quick and attentive. However, when he brought my food, he spilled an obviously too full pot right on my lap and my phone. Luckily, I happened to be wearing pants and my phone wasn’t damaged but spilling boiling hot liquid on someone at your restaurant is serious. To his credit, the server seemed genuinely apologetic and concerned that he burned me but I was fine. Still, it’s scary to see bubbling hot liquid heading towards your crotch like giant vats of wildfire in Game of Thrones…and, even though I wasn’t pissed about it, it would’ve been nice of them to offer 10% off for nearly scorching my gentleman parts.

Summary: Boiling Point is good but not amazing. Above average but not something interesting or attractive enough to entice me to make the drive if it wasn’t in Richmond. That being said, at $10.99 for lunch and $11.99 for dinner, which includes a bowl of rice and a drink, you’re getting quite a bit for your money and most folks will leave stuffed. Be warned, however. I didn’t expect summer weather to hit Vancouver this quick (it’s about 20 degrees and it’s still May!) and hot pot in the summer might be a bit too much for beginners.

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And the winner is…Marian Ho!

For more details, check here on Facebook: ow.ly/km3sB

Thanks for entering, everyone! I’ll have another giveaway on Monday!

“You know I write about bacon and bacon-covered bacon, right?”

That was my first reaction when I was told about Snackbox by Foodee, a Vancouver-based snack service that delivers a box of natural, healthy snacks to your door every week. Most of the items are also locally made, vegan and/or gluten-free. It’s no secret that the snack foods we eat, especially here in North America, aren’t exactly good for us and even some of the ones marketed as “healthy” aren’t really.

But snacking isn’t just about eating. Everyone knows certain things are good for you and others are not. I said recently in my look at the 2013 Healthy Chef Competition that if bacon was healthy, there would be no reason to be out of shape. In other words, if something doesn’t taste good, there isn’t going to be a lot of people eating it. I’m not exactly a nutritionist so I can’t comment on how healthy any of this is beyond my layman’s understanding but I can tell you whether or not I would pick any of these things over a bag of Doritos.

Snackbox arrives at your door monthly with a variety of healthy snacks, size depending on which box plan you went with. The mid-sized “Family” package contains 30-40 servings, enough for 3-6 people and sets you back $67 and a “Bounty” box with 50-60 servings is $97.

The “Personal” size that you see here is $33 and contains 15-20 snack servings, enough for one person or two if that first person is particularly generous. I was actually somewhat surprised that the box includes things like jelly beans and cheese puffs. I expected a box full of apple chips and tofu.

First up is Dave Glazed Almonds. No, not Dave’s…just Dave. The line is actually called Dave and Friends made by Left Coast Naturals, a BC-based organic and natural foods company. Each flavor of almonds is given a proper name, like Hiro, the Asian sesame-flavored glazed almonds.

The Daves, er, almonds are huge and the semi-sweet, slightly smokey glaze is delicious. In terms of flavor, these are just as tasty if not better as the “unhealthy” alternatives.

I was most hesitant to try this bag labeled Organic Veggie Krunch, not only because they spelled “crunch” with a K but because it looked like someone left their kale out in the sun and I didn’t really know what to expect of “teriyaki greens”.

The Organic Veggie Krunch is a mix of collard greens, kale, coconut, sesame seeds, tamari sauce, carrots and more. It’s an interesting product and it tastes actually rather good but for a healthy product, it tastes quite salty. I don’t know if my bag was crushed at some point but the Veggie Krunch came in tiny, shattered bits rather than whole chunks. Not bad but just too salty. As of today, this is the only bag left in my household that isn’t completely empty after two weeks.

I like to imagine this bag labelled Hippie Granola is made out of a ’70s Volkswagen van by dudes in tie-dye t-shirts blasting Grateful Dead. I don’t know if the company, Hippie Foods, is actually like that but I’d like to think so.

Hippie Granola, made with brown rice and quinoa (probably the only time I’ve enjoyed quinoa), is another locally made product. The granola clusters are light, crispy and mildly sweet. The popped rice makes it much lighter than granola based on oats, nuts, etc.

Hippie Foods also makes these coconut chips, which I haven’t seen on the market before. There are some dried coconut snacks around but Hippie Foods roasts their coconut meat to make these.

Moar. Give me more of this now. Seriously, I love coconut and if this stuff is healthy, then I’m sold. The coconut slivers are sweet but not in an excessive way…just the natural sweetness of the coconut and a little cane sugar and salt. This stuff is amazing. Highly recommended for anyone that enjoys coconut.

Few foods are as obviously unhealthy as a bag of electric orange Cheetos. No cheese I’ve ever eaten has ever…glowed like that. These Pirate’s Booty (AAAARRRRR!!) Aged White Cheddar puffs are just about the opposite of Cheetos in that they’re all natural and baked, as well as trans fat, cholesterol and gluten free.

The puffs are light and crunchy and while the taste isn’t quite as intense and in your face as Cheetos, there’s still quite a lot of cheese flavor.

I was the most curious about these two bags, jelly beans and gummi bears from Surf Sweets in California. If you’ve ever read the label on a bag of candy, they’re always full of huge, unrecognizable chemicals and ingredients. These, on the other hand, show things like “cane sugar” and “natural fruit juices”.

And they taste fantastic! Just to be clear, they’re not “good for you” in that you’re still eating sugars but at least they’re natural sugars rather than stuff made in a test tube. The other difference is that they actually taste like the fruits they’re made from rather than a vague impression of fruit and overloads of sugar like with most candy.

Lastly, my Snackbox included a paper “can” of C Swiss Hemp Iced Tea. Before you ask, hemp and marijuana aren’t exactly the same and you’re not going to get stoned off this (although the marketing looks like it plays off these implications). Not much of an opinion on this one…it just tastes like lemon tea to me.

Overall, I thought the Snackbox experience is a positive one. You get quite a bit of snack food for $33, although admittedly if you were to purchase equivalent unhealthy snacks, you could probably save yourself a few bucks. It’s no secret that healthy living costs more than the alternative. However, you do save a little money over buying each item individually. It’s also convenient to just have a box sent to your door rather than searching and reading labels at your local supermarket. They change up the mix often as well so you get a bit of a surprise every month.

If you’d like to check out Snackbox, you can do so right now for half price!

Use the coupon code EDEATS to get 50% off your first Snackbox until April 30th!

Or…if you just want one for free, then just follow these simple steps and maybe I can give one away!

Contest!

Prize: One (1) personal size Snackbox ($33 value).

Entry: You can do any or all of these three steps for a total of three (3) entries per person.

1. Like EdEats AND Foodee on Facebook and SHARE this post on your timeline. (if you already like both pages, just share to get the entry)

2. Follow @foodee and @edlau on Twitter and retweet the following:

Enter to win a month’s worth of snacks @foodee and @edlau http://ow.ly/jRRAp RT to enter!

(if you already follow both accounts, just RT to get the entry)

3. Do BOTH for an automatic third entry!

It’s easy…takes five minutes to potentially win a month of healthy snacking from Snackbox. Contest ends 11:59pm on Friday, April 19th and the winner will be drawn at Dot Com Pho on Saturday, April 20th. Good luck!

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I was sick for awhile so I couldn’t eat out for awhile since I didn’t want to give anyone else the flu. However, I’m back out there now and this past long weekend, I went to check out Rainier Provisions, the newest Gastown restaurant from the Heather Hospitality Group.

You can check out all the details over at Vancity Buzz!

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I admit that train station poutine doesn’t sound all that appetizing but I’ve learned from my travels that there are delicious morsels to be found in some of a city’s most obscure nooks and crannies. I mean, Sukiyabashi Jiro (of Jiro Dreams of Sushi), one of the best sushi restaurants in the world is found at the bottom of a Tokyo subway station.

Now I’m not too familiar with the origins of poutine but I believe it started somewhere in Quebec in the mid-20th century. We’ve had it for quite awhile but it’s exploded culturally and culinarily in recent years to become the beacon of Canadiana it is today. Rick Mercer famously convinced Americans that our Prime Minister was named “Jean Poutine” and there’s been a push to officially name it, a humble bowl of fries, cheese curds and gravy, our national dish.

Normally, I’m not sure I can be bothered to head out to New Westminster for fries but we like to mix it up at Dot Com Pho every so often. This time, Stacey convinced us to safari deep into the ‘burbs with promises of “Vancouver’s best poutine”.

The Spud Shack primarily fries up two things: potatoes and fish. They seem to take making Belgian fries quite seriously, listing out a number of rather specific parameters:

• freshly cut, irregularly shaped
• cooked (fried) twice
• fluffy on the inside, crispy on the outside
• a distinct potato taste
• at least 10 mm thick
• preferably served in a paper cone

Right down to the paper cone!

The good news is that Spud Shack delivers with their poutine ($5-$9). These are absolutely stunning fries. Not only are they well-seasoned and delicious but they’re indeed consistently crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

This is important because with most poutines, once the fries are doused in gravy, they become a mushy mess. These fries at the Spud Shack, however, are crispy all the way down to the bottom of the bowl. As Daym Drops would say “when you bite the fry, the fry bites back!”. They’ve got a great crunchy crust on the outside but still maintain a soft potato center. Some places mistake “crispy” for “overcooked” which results in a hard, burnt tasting center of the fries but Spud Shack pulls it off nicely. The gravy is rich and flavorful, thick but smooth and without clumps. The cheese curds are the good stuff, the real deal.

Naturally, if you have “chips”, then you should also have fish. Spud Shack offers a one-piece cod ($11), salmon ($12) or halibut ($13) meal with fries and you can add additional pieces of fish for another few bucks. If you want, you can also swap the fries out for a poutine for a much more Canadian version of fish and chips. The tempura battered fish is deliciously crisp but still a little greasy. The fish is nicely cooked, still moist and slightly flakey.

I got the fish sandwich special ($8.50) which also had a tasty piece of fish and a tangy, light slaw but unfortunately, they didn’t drain the fish enough before putting it in the bun so the bread was quite oily. I’d say just get the fish on its own with a poutine.

Poutine isn’t just poutine at Spud Shack. You can top your gravy-drenched fries with a small mountain of Montreal smoked meat or a handful of bacon fritters, which are balls of crispy bacon dunked in some batter and fried. For people that think nachos with regular tortilla chips are boring, you can get an order of Frite’-chos, which is nachos made with fries if you haven’t figured that out.

I got an order with the fritters and while several other people at the table enjoyed the gooey balls of batter and bacon, I could’ve done without them. It’s not that they aren’t good but I think I would’ve rather had the smoked meat or just a crumbled handful of plain crispy bacon.

A couple other things to note about Spud Shack: they do take-out and they’re open late on most nights. The restaurant has about 20-25 seats but there was a steady stream of people walking in to get an order to go. They close earlier (9pm) on Sunday and Monday but otherwise, they’re open til 11pm from Tuesday til Thursday and til 1am on the weekend. This stuff is probably awesome at midnight after a few too many pints. It’s probably even better as a hangover cure (they open at 11am).

Spud Shack also has a loyalty program going which requires you scan the QR code on their receipts. It’s fairly easy to do and most of the Dot Com Pho crew grabbed a free order of frites on their first visit.

Summary: The Spud Shack Fry Co. is an unexpected gem tucked away on the third floor of the New Westminster Skytrain station. This isn’t your usual fast food poutine. The fries are superb, crispy on the outside and soft, potato-y goodness on the inside. The gravy is rich, smooth and packed with flavor. The cheese curds are top notch, bouncy and fresh. The fish is equally good, maintaining a crisp tempura batter without overcooking the cod, salmon or halibut. It might be a bit out of the way but if you’ve got some time to take a Skytrain trip on the weekend, Spud Shack delivers one of the best poutines around.

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Eating healthy isn’t always easy. In fact, it’s probably the opposite of easy because all the most delicious things are at least somewhat terrible for you. Beer, bacon, red meat, cheese, sea urchin, fois gras…just about everything awesome has some health professional telling us we shouldn’t be eating it. On the flip side of that, things that are good for you often taste like cardboard covered with algae. No one would be out of shape if bacon was good for them.

Organized by the BC Chefs’ Association and the BC Produce Marketing Association, the Healthy Chef Competition strives to show that healthy eating and fine dining don’t need to be mutually exclusive and that you can make stunning, delicious plates of food that won’t make you search for extra notches on your belt. This is my fourth year at this event and the chefs have always put on a good show. As always, they feature the best in local fruits and vegetables to create one healthy entree and one healthy dessert.

Winners:

Healthy Plate Award (Healthy Chef Champion): Chef Romeo Oloresisimo (Prestons)

Best Entree: Tivoli, Executive Inn

Best Dessert: Copper Chimney

Best Table Showcase: River Rock Casino

People’s Choice Award: Art Institute of Vancouver

2013 Healthy Chef Champion Romeo Oloresisimo plates up a serving of the winning dish, a baked marinated sablefish with preserved black bean sauce, “stir-fry” vegetables and forbidden rice, which just happened to be the dish I drew out of the envelope on the table.

The sablefish is delicate and light in flavor. The seasoning highlights the natural flavor of the fish and the “forbidden rice” was a nice complement in flavor and texture. If you’re expecting bold, punch-you-in-the-face tastes, you’re going to be disappointed but as a healthy dish, I can see why this won.

I didn’t try every single dish but I’ll briefly comment on the other dishes that I tried. Some of the other things served at the competition were:

Hyatt Regency (Best Entree): slow roasted beef tenderloin, potato and mushroom pomme Anna cake, crispy mushroom chips and kale.

Hyatt Regency (vegetarian option): Agedashi tofu, finger lime, spring vegetables, and braised red cabbage puree.

Hyatt Regency: blood orange panna cotta, quinoa biscotti, dark chocolate rum gelee.

Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts: steamed halibut on apple/purple potato puree in broth.

I’ll chalk up the halibut cook inconsistency to cooking for hundreds of people but we had a couple of these at our table and while one was well cooked, another was overcooked and chewy.

Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts: angel food cake with toasted coconut, passionfruit and mango compote, coconut infused white balsamic reduction, fresh starfruit, dragonfruit and kiwi and chantilly cream with pineapple.

Arts Institute of Vancouver (People’s Choice Award): sous vide swordfish, tropical fruit salsa, grilled papaya puree with coconut lime rice and pan seared scallop on top of a pickled fennel and asparagus salad.

Delicious and perfectly cooked fish that went great with the fresh, tart salsa. This was my favorite entree of the night.

Arts Institute of Vancouver: Napoleon fruit cake with coconut, lime and watermelon sorbet with banana chips,

Oh man, that watermelon sorbet is amazing. The fruit cake is a slight bit dry but with the sorbet, totally amazing.

River Rock Casino: fish and seafood soup. Prawns, red snapper, and scallops with sweet peas, red bell pepper, bean sprouts, green beats, eggplant, Napa cabbage, carrot, celery, red onion, basil, cilantro, scallions, coconut milk and sambal oelek.

One of my other favorite dishes of the night. Fragrant, creamy coconut broth with fresh, snappy veggies. I could’ve used some more seafood and I’m not a fan of raw bean sprouts but overall, if making healthy food taste good is the goal, this is a success.

River Rock Casino: fruit and coconut jelly nage with rambutan, mango, prickly pear, dragonfruit, mangosteen, starfruit, papaya and pineapple.

River Rock Casino also won the Best Table Showcase award but that was a given when they showed up with a bunch of gorgeous women doing yoga.

Dynasty Seafood: sirloin steak cubes in mushroom beef gravy with fried rice, peas, long beans, butter and corn.

Dynasty Seafood: Goji berry jelly.

I’ve never seen a Chinese restaurant do well at Healthy Chef and I think this is because traditional Chinese food does not translate well into individual plate dining. It’s more of a family style thing so that’s why presentation is lacking. Either way, this is a plate of slop and everyone at the media table agreed that if we had to pay $90 for a ticket and got this, we’d be asking for our money back. Absolutely terrible. It’s a shame because Chinese cuisine has so much to offer.

Prestons: goat’s cheese cake with orange and beet coulis, pumpkin seed praline, and vanilla/parsnip gelato.

Copper Chimney: Indian-spiced rack of lamb with papaya see creme fraiche marinade, roasted cabbage, micro greens, edible flowers, Chilliwack farm egg dumplings and vegetable medley.

Copper Chimney (Best Dessert): European-style Indian fusion mousse cake. Poppy seed mango mousse cake and coconut pitaya fruit cake with a duo of berry coulis, dark chocolate and caramel swirl and Zobrowka vodka.

Tivoli: port poached Bartlett pear with white chocolate cherry parfait and fruit salsa.

I’ve got a mild pear allergy so I didn’t eat much of this but the parfait and salsa are quite delicious.

They didn’t set up display dishes in time so I missed pictures of:
Tivoli (Best Entree Award): CAB beef tenderloin with 9 vegetable ragout and applewood-smoked Yukon gold gratin potatoes.

Grand Dynasty Seafood Restaurant: shrimp with mushrooms and Singapore-style vermicelli.

Grand Dynasty Seafood Restaurant: osthamanthus jelly with osthamanthus flower and goji berry.

Looking forward to Healthy Chef 2014!

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This past weekend, I grabbed a bunch of my friends to check out a new restaurant in Kitsilano called Nosh. Just opened in January, they’re a take-out restaurant serving rotisserie meats and sandwiches. I say “take-out” but there are seats in the restaurant if you would rather eat in (and not wash dishes).

So where’s the rest of the words and pictures? They’re over at Vancity Buzz, where I’ll be contributing looks at new Vancouver restaurants.

You can find a more in-depth look at Nosh over at VCB. I’ll still be writing up all my other culinary exploits (and not just writing) right here and I’ll have links to each one of my posts at VCB as well. So check it out and let me know what you think!

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No, we aren’t visiting Tim Horton’s for their ubiquitous coffee today. Double Double is actually a Chinese restaurant and even stranger, the Chinese name isn’t “Double Double”. Roughly translated, the name in Cantonese actually means “Old Chinese Donut”, which would make a much more awesome and less confusing English name, in my opinion. Old may get people thinking about how the food isn’t quite fresh so maybe Ol’ Chinese Donut?

I’m told Double Double used to be on Kingsway but moved to Richmond after a fire destroyed the old location. While this gets it closer to Vancouver’s modern day Chinatown, they’ve also moved to one of the busiest (and worst) parking lots in town, the same one where you’d find Bone Sushi. You would think now that Hon’s is closed, it would get a little less congested but Double Double could keep that traffic up all by itself. Right now, this is one of the most popular restaurants in Richmond, which says a lot because Richmond is where the 604 goes to eat.

Double Double is perpetually full. I haven’t even passed by before without seeing a full restaurant with a number of people waiting outside. It’s particularly difficult to get a table on the weekend during the lunch rush with about a 15-20 minute wait if you’re unlucky.

Since it’s a fairly new restaurant, Double Double hasn’t had the time to build up that standard issue layer of grease that covers a Chinese restaurant so everything is quite clean. Even the dishes are different from your regular Chinese restaurant bowls, spoons and plates. Nice touch.

The menu gives an overwhelming amount of selection. As you can see above, the Crispy Sweet & Sour Pork is item #229 and there’s still more! I love the little “Editor’s notes” in the menu, emphasizing which dishes are the staff favorites.

Double Double is best known for their Chinese donuts, which are golden brown hunks of fried dough, usually served with congee like croutons on a salad. This is the sweeter variant, known as ngau lei sow or, according to Wikipedia, “ox-tongue pastry” ($2.25). The outside is crunchy while the inside is soft and fluffy. These are top notch at Double Double, made properly and, due to demand, made fresh throughout the day.

This is the yau ja gwai (which literally translates to “old fried ghost”!) or yau tiew ($2.25), which is the savory Chinese donut. It’s slightly less dense on the inside and the outer layer is thinner and crispier, the perfect match for congee. Also very good…a favorite of all Chinese kids.

Another way people enjoy Chinese donuts is in this dish, called zha leung ($4.75). Basically, the donut is cut in half, wrapped in some thin rice noodles. The crunchy donut contrasts with the soft rice noodles, making for a Chinese breakfast favorite. No, seriously, zha leung are usually served for breakfast. Some places make this with leftover Chinese donuts, which result in a very hard and chewy center but the donut here is very fresh.

Right about here we realized that we ordered a TON of fried foods. It’s not our fault! It seems like all the best things on the menu are deep fried in one way or another. The deep fried wontons ($7.50) are a very popular item. The wrapper is nicely crisp and the filling is plentiful, with chunks of shrimp and veggies still recognizable. Despite their fried nature, they don’t taste greasy…like a fine tempura.

The pan fried cuttlefish cakes ($7.95) maintains the nice bouncy texture of cuttlefish. Nicely seasoned and delicious.

Deep frying can make even the most boring foods into little explosions of awesome. Take tofu, for example, which is a mushy, mostly flavorless, white glop before and now they’re crunchy, spicy and delicious. That might have something to do with the hot peppers and fried garlic but still.

These are Chinese radish cakes, which are usually served either steamed (in a bowl like a custard) or pan fried (wok fried…) like this. My dad loves the steamed stuff while I only like it pan fried. The radishes are mixed with some green onion and Chinese sausage then tossed in XO sauce for flavor. While the best radish cakes I’ve had are still the ones from Sea Harbor in Richmond (now by the River Rock), these are also fantastic. Pan-frying the cakes gives them a bit of texture and color…and as Gordon Ramsay says “No color, no flavor.”

The stir-fried rice noodles with beef is another Hong Kong staple, found at nearly ever HK-style cafe in town. It’s no different here except maybe it’s less greasy (surprisingly). It’s easy to stir-fry the noodles into a mush but they hold up well. It’s great but this is pretty much good everywhere.

Another HK-style cafe favorite, fried rice with salted fish and chicken isn’t for everyone. The salted fish smell is quite strong but there isn’t a whole lot of it and adds a lot of flavor to the fried rice. It looks like a rather unassuming rice dish but it’s flavor fireworks all up in your face. There’s a little bit of egg as well as some shredded lettuce for texture.

As mentioned, you will have to go early or expect to wait awhile for a table at Double Double. There’s a lot of people inside and the kitchen is partially open as well. On this visit, they hadn’t figured out the central air so the windows on the inside look like Jack and Rose just went at it.

The food at Double Double is great, as good as if not better than similar Chinese restaurants in Richmond. I’ve been back a couple times now and haven’t left disappointed yet. I’ve seen some people complain about the service but I haven’t encountered anything out of the ordinary just yet. On our first visit, the boss lady was our server and the stuff she recommended to us was spot on. I will say that if you’re going to any Chinese restaurant, expecting good service at all is pretty much futile. We’re all about good food and bad service doesn’t get in our way.

Summary: Solid choice for Chinese food as nearly everything on the menu is not only great tasting but show a bit more care and attention to detail than the usual at most Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately, it’s an incredibly popular restaurant located in the heart of Richmond’s food district so expect not only lineups but bad traffic and parking. When you do get in, get the Chinese donuts in any way you like and the deep fried wontons (or deep fried anything). After that, it’s difficult to go wrong. I hear the congee is stellar.

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I find that the dining experience in most restaurants is tailored for tables of four or less. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule like the large 10-18 person round tables at Chinese seafood restaurants or the long communal tables in some newer, hipper establishments but for the most part, finding a place that can accomodate a reservation for 14 people without tearing the place apart or squishing everyone at an obviously-too-small table proves to be difficult. Sometimes restaurants have private rooms for just this situation but they usually hold 20+, sometimes have a higher cost associated and most of the time, you’re away from the atmosphere of the restaurant. Usually when I’m faced with having to book a table for a large party, I just head to Twitter, ask what restaurants is able to accept half a football team and pick from the ones that respond.

On this occasion, my friends and I headed to Kaya Malay Bistro, a new-ish (I believe they opened in the latter half of 2012), modern take on Malaysian cuisine located on West Broadway. The look is on one hand stark and contemporary and on the other hand, warm and traditional, with Malaysia and Southeast Asia inspired lanterns, statues and decor.

It works and looks great for the most part, although I thought the weird, clear curtains sort of made diners by the window look like they were sitting in a shower.

The menu is a mix of traditional Malaysian and Malaysian fusion. Prices can be generally broken down as noodles/rice at around $10, seafood at $20 and meat dishes somewhere in between. We couldn’t decide so we trusted our enthusiastic, cheerful servers put something together for us. We paid as a set menu but the prices listed below are for a la carte.

This isn’t one of the ten but I’m loving this trend of restaurants serving you a little amuse-bouche drink like we saw last time at East is East. This is a ginger citrus soda, made with fresh orange, lemon and lime juice, soda and either basil or mint. I’m not a big fan of ginger but here it works with the basil for a bit of a herby note to go with the tangy, fizzy juice. Very good. A regular sized one goes for $4.

Otherwise, the drinks menu has a nice, interesting mix of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages like this mango smoothie ($5), which looks thick and packed with enough mango that I could probably hold that mason jar upside down.

I tried a couple of these Blue Buck beers, which is crisp and really well balanced, slightly sweet. There are drinks specials every day of the week.

We started with a couple of vegetarian appetizers, which would normally be against my beliefs but there’s plenty of meat coming up. The vegetarian samosas ($6) have a nice, rich curry flavor and the pastry is excellent and crispy. Could’ve used a bit more filling but a pleasant way to start us off.

The vegetarian spring rolls ($6), made with marinated jicama root, green bean, celery, cabbage and carrot, were just as delicious. Great consistency with the filling. An effort was made to keep things crunchy and substantial. Nothing’s worse than spring rolls made with stuff sent through a food processor.

You know satays ($1.50 each) are good when the meat has a nice char on the outside but remains moist and juicy everywhere else. You can taste the marinade in the chicken.

Our server really sold the roti canai ($6. $7 for whole wheat) and she wasn’t kidding. The pieces are slightly rolled up and lightly pan fried, which results in very crispy bits at the top and soft, fluffy goodness in the middle. Yes, I know that describes pretty much all roti canai but the fact that they scrunch it up a bit first makes the difference. Try it and you’ll see what I’m on about.

The Hainanese chicken ($8 for a quarter, $14 for half) was…not bad. I’ve had better in Vancouver but at places that really specialize in this sort of thing. The chicken is moist, even the white meat and goes great with the accompanying condiments and oil rice. Weirdly, you can get this roasted. Is it still Hainanese chicken if it’s roasted?

The Rendang Beef ($14) is rich and brimming with spices. The chunks of brisket stewed in a coconut milk curry until incredibly tender. Soak some rice in that sauce and go to town.

Yes, you’re right, we haven’t seen any vegetables other than the garnish since the first appetizers. I’m usually not a fan of green beans but you can’t go wrong with the sambal green beans ($10 main, $6 side). Tossed with Malaysian shrimp paste and fresh tomato, they’re crisp and snappy, the natural flavors enhanced by the punchy, savory shrimp paste.

Speaking of things I’m not a fan of, I hardly ever order laksa ($9) but all my friends love this stuff. The broth is actually lighter than it looks and they haven’t gone overboard with the coconut milk. This Singapore-style laksa has tiger prawns, chicken, bean sprout, egg, and fish cake.

On the other hand, one of my favorite Malaysian dishes is the mee goreng ($10) and they make a very good one at Kaya. The fried egg noodles are tossed with beef, egg, shrimp, tomato, bean sprouts, green peppers, and tofu. Even the tofu is packed with flavor and it’s spicy without getting too hot. Great Malay comfort food right here.

We all turned down the warm mango durian puff ($7) because, although it comes with ice cream, no amount of mango can overcome the smell of durian. The stuff smells like death’s bathroom…although I wouldn’t say it smells like a natural gas leak as some folks thought recently at Yaohan. C’mon, white people…

And I’m rather glad we did because the Kuih Dadar ($6) is delicious.

I love coconut and this handrolled crepe, flavored with pandan juice and stuffed with grated coconut steeped in Malaysian palm sugar…is all sorts of coconut awesome. It’s sweet but not overly so and despite looking like a rolled up napkin, it gets checkmarks for flavor and texture.

Summary: Kaya Malay Bistro has a lot of potential and, judging by the quickly filled dining room, it’s gaining in popularity. It’s not hard to see why. The staff is friendly, attentive and service is generally quick although the pause between the appetizers and the chicken was a little longer than I’d prefer. The food is delicious and dishes, especially the rice and noodles at around $10, are a great value. One dish is more than enough for lunch or dinner but if you want to get the most out of your Kaya experience, order a whole bunch of dishes with your friends and share.

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