Typhoon Bubble Tea Taiwanese Cuisine - Richmond

Typhoon resides in the shadow of the massive Continental Seafood Restaurant so that you might easily miss it. That would be such a shame.

It's a busy little Taiwanese place with several pages of bubble tea choices on their menu in addition to some savoury favourites. We arrived on a Sunday evening to a nearly full house but got seated right away. 

We ordered Deep Fried Tofu to start. It arrived crisp and hot with a spicy sauce and a sweeter Hoisin type sauce. A little salt on the tofu would not have been amiss but the sauce made up for it. 

We had the Five Spice Beef with Chinese Pankade which was also tasty. It was cut into 4 manageable pieces which wanted to unravel but that's OK. The pancake was excellent with a nice chew while the beef was quite tender. 

My choice was the Satay Lamb Fried Noodle. Its arrival was accompanied by the slight scent of fish sauce but that fish sauce blended into the taste of the dish and was not noticeable as a flavour. All of the elements of this were enjoyable.

Marie's choice was the Sesame Oil Chicken Hot Pot. This dish started with a spectacular broth redolent of chicken, mushrooms and the slight taste of sesame oil and ginger. Excellent! The treasures within included fish balls, greens, enoki mushrooms and some very tender tasty chicken. At under $12 this seemed like a bit of a bargain. In fact, everything here is well priced and decent. Service was efficient and to the point if not ebullient. Tables and chairs were comfortable enough even if they are a bit close together.

For what it's worth, we give Typhoon a 3 1/2 out of 5 and hope to come back for bubble tea another time.

Asia Restaurant - Surrey

This time it was Marie's kid's turn to take us out for lunch. I love it when a blog post doesn't cost me anything!

Our choice to go to Asia Restaurant was a combination of convenient location (we didn't want to travel far) and a "someone told me that this place is great" comment. Seems a little risky but we threw caution to the winds.

There was some soup with dumplings involved which was enjoyed.

And Hot and Sour Soup for most of us. It came in a large bowl but our hostess doesn't know the 'nobody touches the food until I've taken a picture' rule! So we made the best of it! This was very good!

I thought that we were doing the Dim Sum thing and this was my choice. The Chicken Feet were tender and cooked with black bean sauce but not exciting.

There was also Siu Mai which was meaty and tasty. I would order this again.

It seemed that everyone else had other than Dim Sum cravings. The Deep Fried Squid was my favourite of the family style plates. These were tender yet crispy and nicely salty as we hoped they would be.

Crispy Chow Mein Noodles. This was tasty enough but again, not too exciting. Decent crunchy greens.

Sweet and Sour Pork. This was not bad and transported me back to my childhood when sweet and sour was the most amazing Asian dish that I could imagine.

The scallops were good and the snap peas were really good but I'm not a straw mushroom fan. If we could get them fresh it would be different but canned mushrooms? I don't remember what this dish was called but it seems fairly obvious.

And someone still had room for dessert. These Deep Fried Bananas and Ice Cream looked good!

So our hostess who looked after us was very nice. I expect that this is a family run thing and she is maybe the matriarch? Don't know, just guessing but she was very attentive. I wouldn't make the trip from Richmond (if that's where I lived) but if you live close by, its a comfortable enough place with lots of choices. The food was not startling but acceptable.

For what it's worth, we give the place a 3 out of 5 (at least .5 is for our hostess).

Happy Day Cafe - Kingsway

We love the HK cafes but the challenge of deciding what to order can be daunting. Best to go on line and figure out before you arrive. We lined up Saturday just around noon. No one is likely to tell you but remember to step inside and give your name to the hostess or you might have a long wait.

We didn't end up waiting too long at all. There are booths, tables and a nice raised counter in the middle of the room where we sat on stools. 

We started with their Salt and Pepper Deep Fried Squid. This was excellent!. Beautifully tender squid onto which we would balance chilis and the rest of the mixture. It was a generous portion also.

One of our meals (not sure which one) came with a drink or soup. We chose the Borscht. I have always been curious as to why Borscht would be an HK cafe thing. It was comforting and tasty enough. I was not aware of any beets as there would be in a traditional Borscht but that is not a complaint.

I wanted to try something off the Western Set page, the baked dishes. They look so good in the pictures. So we ordered the Baked Pork Chop and Seafood on Rice. I have to say it was a bit 'meh' and I will not order it again. I guess I expected the topping to be cheesier. I am not keen on mussels that were frozen in the shell either. The pork chop side was a little tastier. 

Marie wanted noodles so we ordered Shredded Pork Chow Mein which arrived as a surprisingly large dish!. This came with crispy noodles which were fine but the pork in sauce itself was again a little on the bland, cornstarch-thickened side. I think that our somewhat tepid feelings were partly due to poor ordering on my part but they also did not have a couple of my first choices. 

I would definitely not steer you away from Happy Day. I would just suggest that you order the squid and then something other than what we ordered! There is a lot on the menu as is expected in an HK style place. The staff was very friendly with us despite being run off their feet.

For what it's worth, we give Happy Day Cafe a 3 out of 5.

Good Bowl - Richmond

So it turns out that Tsujiri doesn't open until 2:00 pm. This is disappointing but not a catastrophe as far as lunch is concerned. The Central at Garden City is almost the Alexander Road of malls and there are plenty of food choices. Surprisingly, Good Bowl has been on my 'list' for some time.

I am not even sure how Good Bowl got onto my list. Is it a vestigial listing from World Vegan Month back in November? It's not a bad place and frankly, if I worked around here, I would come often for lunch. It could be a source of healthy, inexpensive and tasty meals for someone with limited time. 

Ordering is quick and simple. Chose your base (Marie chose egg noodles and I chose wild rice), your protein (Marie chose Angus beef and I chose Sakura pork)and choose as many vegetables as you like.

Then they quickly stir fry it up on the flat top a la Mongolian Grill (with your chosen sauce, of course)  and there you are with a healthy bowl! These are the $9.95 medium versions.

After, World Vegan Month, I was pretty well done with bowls, but this not bad, especially with a fried egg added!

Everything is fresh and the restaurant is clean and comfortable.

Still not sure why it was on my list but we're not sorry that we went. BTW, they are definitely vegan-friendly and they do juice too if you are into that.

For what it's worth, we give Good Bowl a 3 out of 5.

Elephant and Castle

I have not been to an Elephant and Castle in years. As I recall, there was one at Guildford and one in Bellingham (and others, I am sure) but it seems like this is the only one now , at least locally. It felt unique and interesting at the time. Of course that was long before Cactus Club, Milestones, Earls, Browns Social House and others became omnipresent. It still seems a little unique and British pub-like, here in the beautiful Marine Building at the foot of Burrard.

I was in Vancouver with my boss for a meeting which is usually followed by a free lunch and fodder for this blog. Of course, I only volunteer to go to the meeting for the good of the company and not for the food! How dare you suggest otherwise! So, E&C was not my choice but it was not a bad choice.

For me, it was the Lamb Tacos that caught my eye. Not bad. Flour tortillas, which I would never choose, but tasty lamb. Served with Sambal Oelek which turned out to be a decent choice of accompaniment.  A nice side salad with goat cheese and dried cranberries (all of our lunches had this) which was decent.

My boss had The Reuben, which I would expect to be much more Reuben and much less salad but hey, this is not a Jewish deli! I received no negative feedback so there you go!

Our guest, chose the Shepherd's Pie, a British pub classic, which looked very good.

The restaurant is located in a beautiful, high ceiling space with lots of dark wood and impressive light fixtures. Being a British pub themed place, the bar was impressive also and offered a nice range of libations. Service was friendly and very professional and are food arrived reasonably quickly. The only drawback here is that this place is noisy! I guess that you expect that in a pub!

For what it's worth, we give this place a 3 1/2 out of 5.

Chef Kebab - Surrey

Chef Kabob is right there on Fraser Highway and we've been driving past it for years. We finally stopped for lunch and after wished we had tried this place long ago!

We arrived on a Sunday at lunchtime and we were almost the only ones there and were seated right away. We started with our new favourite thing, chaat! 

We ordered the Chef's Special Chaat Papri. Crunchy fried morsels of naan or roti maybe, with a yoghurt sauce, green chutney and a sweetish tamarind chutney It was very tasty!

Marie had her favourite butter chicken as a lunch special. It came with naan, lentils, pulao rice and a bit of a salad for $9.99, which is a pretty decent deal. The butter chicken was tasty and it turned out to be chicken with sauce rather than the pool of sauce with a bit of chicken that we often encounter. 

I had the Lamb Seekh Kabob Meal, another bargain at $12.99. These were tasty little guys (the kebabs) in the form of ground meat cooked on skewers. You need to try this if you're a fan of lamb!

Finally, there was Paratha. This is a layered bread with what I believe to be a bit of cheese between the layers. It came with hot lime pickle (Love it. Remind me to pick up another jar.) and a yoghurt dip. This went home with us as well as some chicken, kebab etc., because obviously, we ordered too much. All this in the name of research! This is excellent tandoor made bread that reheats well. 

Oh and a Mango Lassi. Delicious! Comfortable place with friendly efficient staff. I am not hesitant in recommending it, especially for the excellent lunch specials.

For what its worth, we give Chef's Kebab a 4 out of 5.

HK BBQ Master

Your meal at HK BBQ Master does not come with a view. They have mercifully covered the windows and doors with brown paper so that you don't have to look out at the dark parkade and circling cars of the pretty good but not Great Canadian Superstore above. Watch your step as in some places the floor inside the little restaurant is a bit of an ice rink. There is inevitably a line up outside the door in the previously mentioned parkade. All of this will mean nothing though, once you sink your teeth into their amazing barbeque!

Actually, the young fellow, who's name I should have gotten, who steers the ship at the front door, has a tremendous grasp on what is going on. He told us there would be a 15-minute wait and it was just under that. If you are ordering to go, he sends you one way. If you are eating in, he gives you a number and counts you down! We were seated and had ordered and received our food all within 20 minutes, I am sure!

Now, I believe that I have had enough Chinese barbeque to be entitled to an opinion. I know HK has been voted number one often but how much better could it be? We have been to the barbeque at Parker Place Meats which always ranks high. We enjoyed the recently opened Chinatown BBQ which has gotten good reviews. And a lot of other places have good barbeque but you can forget all of that! The voters were correct and this is the best that we have had! 

We ordered 2 plates at $12.50 each. The first was barbeque pork and roast pork on rice. The second was soy sauce chicken and barbeque duck on rice.

The first truth applies to all 4 meats and that is, that they were amazingly tender! If you have no teeth, do not be worried! I have roasted a couple of ducks lately and they seem to always have a bit of chew but this duck was meaty and more tender than I could have wished for. The roast pork had the wonderful crispy skin while the others had that lovely sweet glaze. All you can do is come here, put up with some little stuff, sit down (or take out), and try this barbeque. By the way, the staff is amazingly efficient!

When you are done, try not to linger too long. Others are waiting.

We don't rate stuff as 5 out of 5 very often, but HK BBQ Master is a solid 5.