café de A

Since I was picking up my car from DRX down on Hammersmith Way, I felt it was an opportunity to try out the new Hong Kong-style cafe that replaced Danny's Wonton in Ironwood Plaza.  I actually made 2 visits here since both times, there was only 2 of us.  Coincidentally, the second visit was when I dropped by DRX once again for their 10th anniversary car meet.  I guess this is where I'll eat from now on if I have to go to DRX!

The one thing I want to discuss right off the bat is the service.  When they aren't busy, it is proficient and decent.  Some servers are friendlier than others though.  But once it gets busy, then you will be lucky to flag anyone down.  That was the case for both visits.  Onto the food, we started with a choice of soup and for myself, I had the Cream of Ham & Corn with a side of garlic toast.  This was pretty typical, but good nonetheless.  It was semi-thick with the sweetness of milk and of course the corn.

For our first dish, we had the classic Baked Pork Chop Rice.  It was a decent portion where the fried rice base was dry (in a good way) and nutty.  It was the perfect recipient for the tomato sauce.  I found it to be rather mild-tasting in need of a bit more tanginess.  Possibly a bit more tomato paste in conjunction with ketchup would do the trick.  The viscosity was on point and the smattering of real shredded cheese was welcomed.  The pork chop itself was thick and tender while not being dry.

We also had another usual HK-style dish in the Baked Portuguese Chicken Rice.  This was quite good as the sauce also had the desired viscosity where it was just thick enough without being goopy.  It was creamy and aromatic from the coconut cream/milk and had that hint of curry.  Nice sweetness that was not over-the-top.  The pieces of chicken were tender while the potatoes were deep-fried first which prevented them from falling apart.

They also have Chinese BBQ available and we got the 3-Item Platter with BBQ Duck, BBQ Pork and Roast Pork.  Gotta say this was all legit.  By virtue of being the pork belly, the roast pork, was juicy, buttery and tender.  It was nicely dry brined where the salt penetrated the meat while the crackling was crispy and light.  The BBQ duck had a nice lacquer colour with crispy skin.  The meat was moist and tender where the star anise brine was present.  Lastly, the BBQ pork was also good being sweet and savoury with a moist texture.

On my next visit, I had to go for another typical HK-style cafe dish in the Spaghetti Bolognese.  This was decent with al dente pasta topped with enough meat sauce to coat.  It was thick and rich with a mild tang and meaty notes.  I could get the natural sweetness of the onions as well.  Once again, the melted real shredded cheese added nuttiness and of course, stringiness.  

Also tried their Clubhouse Sandwich and it as fully-loaded with bacon, fried egg, ham, chicken steak, cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Of course it was served on toasted crustless white bread.  Things were prepared properly with crispy bacon and juicy chicken.  The Cavendish fries in the middle were fried perfectly until crispy.  Overall, the food at café de A is competent with a few real stars (BBQ and the Clubhouse).  Would come back if I'm going to DRX.  However, the service does give me pause.  Not that they are rude or anything, but it just gets difficult to flag someone down when it gets busy.  That delays getting things packed and the bill.  I think for their benefit, they might want to get people out the door more quickly too as they do have lineups starting around 11:00am.

The Good:
- Competent food with some highlights
- Lots of parking (unlike many other Richmond restaurants)
- Fair portion sizes

The Bad:
- Service is fine when not busy, but when it is busy, it is hard to get any

i-Cafe Express (City Square)

For the longest time, i-Cafe resided upstairs on the Southwest corner of Broadway and Heather.  If you have been around for awhile, you will remember that location was Jukebox Johnny's in the 80's.  Now we find i-Cafe as a food court stall in City Square right beside Dumpling King.  They are now known as i-Cafe Express and I really do think this concept lowers the overhead with less staff and of course, less retail space.  They have most of their favourites on the menu while offering a slightly lower price point.  I was able to take out once and eat in another time for this blog post.  

On my first visit, I took home some of the Hong Kong-Style Cafe essentials including the veritable Baked Pork Chop Rice.  This was a decent portion consisting of the necessary fried rice base topped with a good amount of fried pork chop on top.  The pork was tender and meaty without too much fat.  The abundance of sauce was quite textbook being thick from the roux and exhibiting a balance of tanginess and sweetness.  This was a competent version of the dish.

Another classic dish that needs to be included is the Spaghetti Bolognese.  Depending on the version, it can get pretty close to the Italian dish.  This one here was certainly meaty and was the beneficiary of the sweetness from the onions.  Lots of depth and richness from the creaminess added to the sauce.  There was enough of it too that it coated all of the al dente spaghetti in the tin container.

So the Curry Beef Brisket may not be as vital as the previous 2 dishes when assessing a HK-Style Cafe, but it is a menu staple nonetheless.  This one was actually decently spicy with a good amount of earthy curry hit.  The coconut milk/cream provided plenty of creaminess and aromatics.  The beef itself was quite tender and so were the potatoes.  The side of rice was a generous portion.

On another visit, I actually sat down to eat and went with 2 dishes.  The first was the Laksa that was stuffed to the top of the plastic bowl with bouncy noodles and coconutty broth.  I wished it had more spice and brininess as it was aromatic but bland.  However, the plethora of components made up for it as I was eating for awhile to actually make a dent.  I liked the little details were there such as the soft-boiled egg (not cooked to oblivion).

I originally wasn't going to finish my second item in the Chow Kway Teow, but it was so good, i finished it too!  It was a good sized portion that was the beneficiary of solid wok hei.  Hence, there was smokiness and caramelization.  The noodles were nicely chewy while not clumping together.  Seasoning was adequate being a bit spicy, a bit earthy and plenty savoury.  They didn't skimp with the ingredients too.  Solid dish.  Overall, the food at i-Cafe was like it was before - solid and dependable.  I like the concept of them being in a food court as it lowers their operating costs and hence, the prices are reasonable.

The Good:

- Dependable decent HK-Style cuisine

- Reasonable pricing

- Decent portion size

The Bad:

- Well, being in a food court, you lose the restaurant experience, but you would find something like this at Aberdeen Centre as well

- The Laksa could be more flavourful

JJang Korean BBQ and Social House (AYCE Menu)

As mentioned in my previous posts and by many news outlets, AYCE (all-you-can-eat) has made a stunning comeback in the past 2-3 years.  It is mostly driven by the unpredictable economy where we see rising food prices.  With discretionary spending going down when it comes to dining out, customers are choosing more wisely.  So many restaurants, such as hot pot and DIY grill, are moving towards the AYCE model to give more value for every dollar spent.  One place that has just adopted this strategy is JJang Korean BBQ out near the Olympic Oval in Richmond.  I've been here before and quite enjoyed their set meals.  This time around, we were going to see if their AYCE is worth it or not.

There is one inclusive price where adults pay $48.99 (Mon-Thurs) and $53.99 (Fri-Sun & Public Holidays).  This seems quite reasonable given that their items are exactly what they served on their a la carte menu (except for the short ribs).  Much like any Korean BBQ meal, we were served some Banchan including stewed potatoes, sprouts and kimchi.  We also had the requisite romaine lettuce (to wrap our meats and rice), along with sliced garlic & jalapenos as well as bean paste, salt and dipping sauce.  I thought the Banchan were solid and we could get as many refills as we wanted within the 2 hour limit.

Onto some of the cooked items first, we were impressed that they resembled the a la carte version and ate very much like it.  The Spicy Soft Tofu Soup was bubbling hot and featured silky tofu in a spicy and flavourful broth.  Equally good, the Gamjatang featured large and meaty bones topped with perilla seeds.  The the broth was meaty and full-of-depth.  We also got the Bibimbap and it was also a full order with all the toppings in including beef, fried egg and gochujang.  It was pretty good!  The only smaller items was the Cold Noodles and Kimchi Fried Rice, which were served in a regular bowl.  It was okay too with ice to keep it cold while the noodles were al dente.  The fried rice was chewy with just enough kimchi for flavour.

There was a wide selection of meats and I got nearly all of them including Marninated Galbi, Lamb and Chuck Flat (Black Pepper, Onion Sauce and Original).  These were sliced thin and cooked up quickly on the hot grill.  As a result, these were tender and crisped up easily.  I thought the most impactful flavour was the onion sauce as it caramelized on the grill.  The other 2 weren't that noticeably different.

Next we had all of the Beef Tongue (Black Pepper, Garlic & House Special), Ribeye and Premium Short Ribs.  Normally, beef tongue can be quite tough, unless you have braise it first.  Well, the ones we had here were raw and sliced thin.  Surprisingly, they were buttery tender.  The garlic sauce had the most flavour here.  Our one small piece of ribeye steak (you can order more than this, but we didn't want to over order) was tender, but a bit hard to keep medium since it was such a small piece.  As for the boneless shortribs, they were buttery, beefy and tender.

Continuing on with the beef theme, we had all the of the available AAA Sliced Beef options (Original, Black Pepper, Garlic & House Special).  These were beautifully marbled and sliced thin.  Due to the fat content, these crisped up even better than the chuck flat.  Also, it ate very soft due to the fat and of course, it also tasted more beefy.  My favourite of the bunch was the garlic sauce once again. 

Surprisingly, we found smoked Duck slices and they were fantastic.  Soft and full of smoky duck flavour, these were worth ordering again.  The big pieces of Chicken chicken thigh were good, but really needed the dipping sauce and/or bean paste.  The small slices of Pork Belly were meaty with just the right amount of fat.  Would've been better as a bigger slice, but with AYCE, it was understandable.  We also really enjoyed the Unagi as they seared up well on the grill with caramelization.  Nice buttery texture on them.

Continuing on with the menu options, we also had the Beef Finger Meat and Black Pepper Beef Cubes.  Being the meat in between the beef rib bones, the finger meat was fatty and had that tender chewiness.  Really thought the beef cubes were excellent being soft and full-flavoured.  The Mackerel was good but hard to cook perfectly without making it dry.  Being reformed Scallops (from smaller scallops) didn't hurt our eating enjoyment.  They were bouncy and sweet.  The cut-up pieces of Abalone were good, but once again, would've been nice to have a whole piece.  Head-on White Shrimp were pretty typical, they had a nice snap and were sweet. 

Onto some veggies (and one fruit) for the AYCE, we had the Zucchini, Oyster Mushroom, Enoki and Pineapple.   Nothing amiss with these as they were fresh and the doneness was up to us.  We wanted some char, so we cooked them longer.  As for the pineapple, yes, they were canned, but hey, they caramelized well on the grill and were sweet.  Overall, the AYCE at JJang was good quality.  In fact, the cooked items were indistinguishable from the a la carte versions.  Would come back.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Wide selection of meats

- Good quality

- Cooked items were like a la carte versions

The Bad:

- Wished some items weren't cut up into such small pieces (maybe could ask?)

- Free parking downstairs is only for 90 minutes

Pokerrito (Morgan Crossing)

Back in 2012, when the Poké craze initially began to take shape in North America, I was trying to keep up with all the new spots opening all over the place.  Seeing how it was growing exponentially, I decided to give up as I couldn't maintain the pace.  Predictably, many have come and many have gone as the market did get saturated.  However, quite a few have survived and are still doing well.  One particular chain is Pokerrito, which surprisingly I've never had a chance to do a visit.  With a menu tasting in hand, I finally got my chance at the Morgan Crossing location.

For those who aren't familiar, Pokerrito offers up classic poké bowls as well as some fusion bowls.  But as the name implies, they are known for their Poké + Burritos = Pokerrito.  Think of it as a really large sushi roll with all the goodness of poké inside.  In the picture above, you will find the Diamond Head   It was particularly impactful with the combination of spicy tuna, spicy seaweed salad, crab meat, ginger, masago, jalapeno, furikake, crispy onion and sweet chili.  Lots of spice with sweetness and tang.  This was the most flavourful of the ones we tried.

As for the Hawaiian Classic, it was much more subtle with marinated tuna, seaweed salad, sesame, radish, pineapple, sweet corn, pea shoots, tempura bits and shoyu.  As you can imagine, this was mostly sweet with some saltiness from the shoyu.and Hawaiian Classic Pokerritos.  In this picture, you will notice the nori casing and a thin layer of sushi rice. That meant we could totally taste the ingredients even more so than the bowl version.  Also, the textures were more apparent.

Now we had two different Pokerritos that resided at each end of the spectrum.  With the the Hanauma, we found something that fell somewhere in the middle.  We had it in both pokerrito and bowl form and they ate very differently.  The bowl version had much more rice, which in turn made each individual ingredient less apparent than the pokerrito.  Now it wasn't as if there was no impact.  In fact, it still tasted great with the buttery salmon, sweet imitation crab salad, ginger and wakame salad. I personally ate less of the ginger as it was sharp with a spicy and tangy bite.  In the pokerrito form, it was harder to pick out and that overshadowed the fish somewhat.  But then again, it was further enhanced by the lack of rice.

The North Shore Bowl had some elements from the Hanauma Bowl as well as the Hawaiian Classic.  Instead of salmon, we found fresh tuna with wakame salad, radish, edamame, pineapple and masago.  This was fresh-tasting with subtle flavours.  The addition of pineapple added sweet brightness and the imitation crab salad provided creaminess.  I think this would be good in pokerrito form since there would be less rice.  The tuna and pineapple would stand out even more.  Also no ginger would allow the other components to shine more so.

Onto something that was a bit different than the previous bowls, we had the Torched Ahi Tuna Bowl with soba.  Naturally, this added smokiness and varied texture within the tuna itself.  We had some slightly cooked bits while most of it was still raw and buttery.  By virtue of employing soba and seared tuna, this ate much more like a composed restaurant dish rather than quick service.  Really enjoyed the chewiness of the noodles combined with the crispy tempura bits.

If raw fish isn't your game, they also have some cooked bowls too including the Torched Miso Glazed Salmon Bowl.  If you are wondering, yes, this piece of salmon was fully cooked.  Despite that, it wasn't dry though, so it was flaky and moist with a sweet and salty sauce on top.  Nice smokiness due to the torching and lots of bite from the ginger on the side.  That was the only competing flavour in the bowl since everything else was mild.  Personally, I would've liked a more rare piece of seared salmon for this bowl, but not sure if that could be done?

Here is where we start to see some Korean fusion with the bowls.  First, we had the Torched Bulgogi Bowl.  This was aggressively sauced and then torched, which further intensified the sweetness.  We really had to mix this into the rice as it packed quite the flavour punch.  The ample beef was sliced thin and tender.  Some kimchi on the side provided some tang and mild spice.  Another variation was the Beef Bul-Dog.  So essentially bulgogi in a hot dog bun with some greens and crispy tempura bits on top.

Our last bowl was the Torched Spicy Pork Bowl.  This was just as saucy as the bulgogi bowl while adding the element of spiciness.  Once again, we had to mix this quite well to distribute the sweet and spicy sauce.  There was ample amount of pork that was tender and moist.  To compliment, we found some edamame, cubed tamago and kimchi as well as spring mix.  Great alternative for people who don't eat raw fish.

We had one more thing at the end and it was their Matcha Tiramisu.  Sure, it was a prepackaged item, but it turned out to be quite good.  The masacarpone was creamy and light while purposefully sweet.  With just a slight amount of bitterness, the matcha flavour was present but not overpowering.  Overall, the stuff at Pokerrito is solid and there was so many options available.  I love how you can have your poké as a large roll too since it not only allows for a different flavour and texture experience, you can actually have your poké and eat it too while on the go.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- You can have your poké as a handheld
- You can also have it classic style too
- Cooked items available

The Bad:
- The sauces for the bulgogi and spicy pork were rather aggressive, best to ask for it on the side 

Hakka Momo Corner

I'm sure you are aware there are many many Indian restaurants in the GVRD.  Hey, that is a good thing since I love Indian food!  However, if you are familiar, most of them feature Punjabi cuisine.  That is mainly due to the influx of immigrants from the Punjab region of India.  This is not unlike the plethora of Cantonese restaurants here due to many of the immigrants originating from Hong Kong during the 80's and 90's.  So whenever I see an Indian restaurant featuring something different, I am so interested in trying it.  This is the case with Hakka Momo Corner.  With their Indo-Chinese cuisine combined with a dash of Southern Indian, they are the only place to find Dosas in Richmond.  For those who are not familiar, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) used to have a large Hakka Chinese population of about 25,000 before the 1960's.  Therefore, Indo-Chinese cuisine is a thing and one of the lasting legacies of the influences from those Hakka Chinese.

We began with something that would be quite familiar to Chinese palates in the Sweet Corn Soup with prawns.  This was essentially a cream of corn soup that was a bit creamy and aromatically sweet.  The pops from the niblets was enjoyable as with the pieces of meaty prawns.  Even though Honey Mustard Wings are not an Indian nor Chinese dish, we wanted to try them anyways.  They were good with crispy rendered skin and meat that was still moist.  The honey mustard was subtle-tasting as there was only minimal sauce on the wings.

Staying on the same theme, we had the Chicken Lolipops that were very different than the honey mustard wings. Being Frenched, the wings had the bulk of their meat at the bottom of the drumette.  It retained more moisture and hence it was almost juicy.  The skin was crispy and coated with a slightly spicy and earthy sauce.  Of course we had to try their Steamed Momos and we got it with a chicken filling.  These were really good with a medium-thick dumpling skin that was delicate and not dense.  Inside, the moist and fairly light chicken filling was slightly sweet.  It was served with a spicy chutney that also had some tang and sweetness.

Sure, Butter Chicken originated in Dehli, but there is a version from Kolkata.  It is generally sweeter and definitely creamy like the original Delhi dish.  Since we were there on a Monday, it was actually on special for only $16.00.  This included rice and naan.  I found this one here creamy and rich with a few spices that weren't familiar compared to the Punjabi version.  It had a nice sweetness that helped temper the spices and tang.  Since they do not have a tandoor, their naan was more of the soft pita-like version.

As you can clearly see in the picture above, there was an egg in the Chicken Biryani.  This is distinctive to the Kolkata version.  Also, you will also notice that the overall look of the dish seemed to be lighter.  That was intentional as the Kolkata dish has less spices, hence it was more fragrant and subtle.  This was definitely the case here where the rice was fluffy, but not wet while the flavours were aromatic.  The large chicken leg was fork tender and naturally sweet.

We ended up trying one rice and one noodle dish that truly encapsulates the Indo-Chinese cuisine that originated in Kolkata.  We had the Chili Garlic Fried Rice as well as the Street Style Hakka Noodles.  Of the two, my preference was the noodles as they were perfectly textured being chewy and not very greasy.  In terms of taste, there was good smokiness from the wok hei and caramelized sweetness.  There was some mild spice and a bit of earthiness.  As for the rice, it was more flavourful with more spices and heat.  The rice itself was nutty and dry which was the desired texture.

We moved onto a few dishes including the Chili Prawns.  All of these dishes could be had with your protein of choice or be prepared vegetarian.  I really enjoyed the flavours of this dish was it paired well with the side of included basmati rice.  It definitely showed its Sichuan influences with spiciness and savoury-sweet tanginess.  The large prawns were perfectly cooked with a nice meaty snap.

One of my favourite dishes of the meal had to be the Crispy Honey Chili Garlic Fish.  This reminded me of the dishes I used to eat at a Sichuan restaurant out on Denman called Won More.  It was spicy, sweet, savoury and plenty aromatic.  Definitely a dish that needed plenty of rice (which was included).  The ample pieces of fish were still a bit crispy despite being wok-tossed in the thick sauce.  The meat was flaky and moist.

Okay, before you bring the pitchforks out, there was a method to the madness in ordering the Kung Pao Chicken.  It might sound like some Westernized dish, but rest assured, it is authentic (as long as it isn't ordered in a mall food court).  This was was garlicky, plenty savoury and somewhat spicy.  The chicken was in large chunks and plenty tender.  The flavours had pentrated into the meat.  Once again, a bowl of rice on deck was the perfect compliment.

As a bonus, we were served some true Southern Indian cuisine with the Dosa (with potato curry), Idli, Vada and Sambar.  The typical Southern Indian breakfast all on one plate as the Dosa combo.   The dosa featured a thin and crispy lentil crepe filled with a lightly spicy potato curry.  Hence, it was vegetarian.  The vada was crispy with a firm and spiced interior while the idli was also firm with its classic spongy texture.  Naturally, these were accompanied by Sambar, which was mild with some tanginess.  On the side, we found the classic coconut chutney which had some spice, aromatics and hits of ginger.  Right beside it, we found another common chutney in the red chutney that was the spicier of the two.  Overall, the food at Hakka Momo Corner is solid and well-priced.  Definitely something different and completely unique for its location.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Classic Indo-Chinese flavours featuring a combination of Chinese and Indian spices

- They have Southern Indian breakfast (Idli, Vada and Dosa)

- Well-priced

The Bad:

- Wasn't expecting them to have a tandoor for one item, but the naan wasn't my favourite

Gamamaru Shokudo

Normally, late night spots dishing up eats that go well with beers and the sort are reserved for Downtown Vancouver or small enclaves of restaurants on Main and Fraser Streets as well as Central Richmond.  So when we found out that Gamamaru Shokudo is doing that very exact thing, but in Fleetwood, it piqued our interest.   In addition to soju and beers, they have a menu that is a mix of Japanese and Korean late night favourites.  We ended up trying a bunch of dishes to go with our soju.

On the topic of Soju, we had a bit of a sampler consisting of peach, grape and mango.  Really dangerous as these went down easy.  I liked the mango the most as it was lightly sweet and tropical.  This went well with the Kushikatsu including baby crab, cuttlefish nugget, snow crab, pork belly, garlic beef, scallop, cheese menchi and teriyaki menchi.  These were really good with the 2 menchi skewers being the most flavourful.  The meat was tender and hey that slice of processed cheese!  Made it taste like a cheeseburger.  Crabs were crispy and briny while the snow crab was delicate.  Scallops were buttery soft despite being fried.

We had 3 different Oshizushi including Saba, Salmon and Unagi.  The one thing that they all had in common was the generous amount of the main component.  They were sliced a bit thicker than usual which resulted in more impact and texture.  The rice itself was a little on the denser side, but it wasn't a deal-breaker.  Nice torching on the top and for me, the salmon was my favourite with smokiness and sweetness.

On the menu, they have a section of share plates that included the LA Galbi.  This was a decent portion of meaty shortribs.  I really liked how they had marinated these so they were tender but still retained a considerable amount of chewiness (in a good way).  Too often, these are over-tenderized and hence, are too soft.  In terms of seasoning, they were a good combination of savoury and sweet with good caramelization from the grilling.

One of my favourite items was the the Clam Nabe.  The broth was so clean and pure tasting with the natural sweetness and brininess of clams.  The clams themselves were plump and buttery.  They were just barely cooked through.  All of them were open and the broth was not sandy.  We also had the Tako Bomb which was colourful with its combination of green onions, octopus, salmon, garlic chips, diced tsukemono and quail's egg yolk.  As expected, there was varied texture and flavours when mixed together.  We ate this with strips of nori.

We got a bunch of carbs to round out the meal including the Mentaiko Yaki Udon.  This was a good version due to the perfect texture of the noodles.  They were prepared properly where each strand was chewy with a nice rebound.  Beyond the great mouth-feel of the noodles, the creaminess of the dish was also on point.  It was creamy without being too heavy.  Of course the cod roe was at its fishy briny best completely flavouring the dish.

So I'm sure you've heard of Omurice before, but how about Omusoba?  Same concept but with noodles instead of rice!  The yakisoba was covered with a soft omelette while aggressively drizzled with yakisoba sauce and kewpie mayo.  As much as it looked like to much sauce, it was actually not that noticeable after mixing everything together.  The soba, much like the udon, was perfectly cooked with a springy chewiness.

We got the Sukiyaki Nabe for good measure and being a nabe, it was not as salty and sweet as the regular version.  Hence, the soup was drinkable and lightly flavoured.  The beef was marbled and hence was tender while the veggies added some relief from the heaviness of the other items.  Last dish was an Unagi Don and yah, they loaded up with so much buttery unagi, that we couldn't see the appealingly chewy rice underneath.  The unagi was evenly seared and drizzled with just enough sauce.  Simple, but well-executed.  As you can see, the food is pretty solid here at Gamamaru.  The prices are also quite reasonable, so you can order lots to share without breaking the bank.  Nice addition to the Fleetwood neighbourhood of Surrey.

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:

- Well-prepared eats

- Reasonable-pricing

- Open late and lots of parking

The Bad:

- Sushi rice could've been less compacted in the pressed sushi