Cộng Cà Phê

Upon finishing up at Congee Queen for a quick meal before the Jan Arden concert, we didn't quite rush to Massey Hall.  You see, we stumbled upon Cộng Cà Phê on the way there and just had to stop for some bevvies.  Too bad we were rather full after ordering too much food because we were quite tempted by their selection of Bánh Mì.  We did end up visiting them again later on this trip, but that was once again after a meal, so we only did drinks.  One day we will come back for the Bánh Mì!

So the first time we dropped by, we had the Coconut Coffee.  Yes, this was on the sweeter side, but in a good way.  It was so fragrant and aromatic with the classic creamy coconut milk vibes.  Mixed in, there was the strong Vietnamese coffee that was well-balanced by the sweetness of the condensed milk.  Since this was a blended ice beverage, it had an appealing cold temperature (great for a hot day).  Also, it was smooth and totally drinkable.

For our other drink, we had the Coconut Green Rice, which was also served as a blended ice drink.  This and the previous drink is part of their Signature menu.  I found this one very sweet and not as balanced as the coconut coffee.  Now that is my very subjective opinion as I'm not into very sweet anything.  So for those who like a coconutty sweet drink with the nuttiness of rice, this would be great.  Once again, it was blended well and easy to drink.

As we were walking back to our hotel after eating another meal, we stopped by to grab a few dinks.  I decided on the Fresh Lime Freeze.  It was essentially a lime slushy with real lime zest.  It was refreshing and light with plenty of bright tanginess.  The lime zest added some bitterness and aromatics.  Once again, this was blended well and it was super easy going through the straw.  It was very sweet though, so despite the tanginess, it was a full on sugar rush.

Lastly, we had the Saigon Salted Kumquat.  Naturally, with it being a drink rather than a slush or some sort, this went down very easy.  it was fruity and citrusy without being too sweet.  It had just enough salt for it to be noticeable further enhancing the natural flavours.  Great drink to quench one's thirst.  Really wished we tried the sandwiches too because they looked good.  I'll make sure I do so next time I'm in town.  Otherwise, we were pretty happy with the drinks albeit on the sweeter side.

The Good:

- Love the cute space

- People are super nice

- Refreshing drinks

The Bad:

- On the sweeter side

Rad Tea Room

Vancouver needs another bubble tea joint as much as it needs more exotic cars with "N" decals.  But they seem to open up regularly and people flock to them like it is still a new thing.  To be fair, some of them are pretty good and help up the bubble tea (or boba as they like to say in the States) game here in the Lower Mainland.  It has been nice to see the popularization of customizing drinks where one could choose the sugar content as well as the amount of ice.  But to me, even at 1/2 sweet, some places are still pretty sugary.  At 100% sweet, they are not even drinkable in my personal opinion (re: Wintermelon at Gong Cha).  So when I was invited to check out Rad Tea Room by Diana, I was curious to see what they had to offer that was different than the rest of the competition.

Right off the bat, the location threw me for a loop as it resides underground in the Granville Street Skytrain station.  Despite this, the room was inviting and well-lit.  Before we got to the drinks, we sampled 2 versions of their Waffles.  The first came with Matcha Cream and the second was Lavender Chocolate.  I thought the light and airy matcha cream was spot on in terms of taste with a strong enough flavour without being overly bitter.  It was purposefully sweet as well.  The lavender was definitely impactful, but the dark chocolate helped balance it off so it wasn't too floral.  I thought the waffles were decent, but a touch dense.  Onto the drinks, I tried the Mango Frappe first and it was literally like drinking a mango.  This was due to the ample amount of fruity bits of mango as well as the sweet and aromatic taste of the slush itself.  I thought it could've been blended even smoother though as there was some icy bits.

Next up, I sampled a trio of teas including the Classic, Oolong Milk Tea and Lavender.  Made with black tea, the classic was more robust and rich compared to the milder and more floral notes.  Both were more tea-focused in flavour where the milkiness was light and not pronounced.  The sweetness level (at default) was very moderate where it allowed the tea flavours to really shine.  This would be equal to 30% sugar at most other places in town.  Personally, I prefer this kind of milk tea but I can see some who might consider not creamy or sweet enough.  It is purely subjective.  I do know that I wasn't a fan of the Lavender, not because it wasn't good, it was just too floral for me.  This is also a personal preference, so don't take my word for it if you like lavender.

Atop the drink tower we made for an IG pic (of course we did), there was the Wintermelon Tea Cap that was reminiscent of the signature drink at Gong Cha.  However, unlike the one at Gong Cha, this was drinkable.  It was only purposefully sweet with a caramel finish and I could actually taste the subtle flavour of the wintermelon.  I found the one at Gong Cha far too sweet and impossible to finish.  Something lighter and fruitier was the Strawberry Tea Mocktail which was fizzy and refreshing.  I appreciated that it tasted like strawberries rather than a candied-version.  Also, it followed the theme as being mildly sweet (actually not sweet at all).  As you can see, I'm biased towards drinks that are naturally flavoured and do not rely on sugar.  Hence, for me at least, Rad Tea would be my first choice in Vancity.  Only issue is it is nowhere close to me!

*All food and beverages were complimentary*

The Good:
- Quality tea
- Not watered-down and tastes like it is supposed to
- Not too sweet (even for default)

The Bad:
- Not the most accessible location if you aren't skytraining it
- Some might find it not sweet enough (but you can just add for more sugar)

Sugar Lab

If you haven't noticed or have an aversion to sweets, there have been a bunch of Asian dessert shops popping up all over the place.  Some have opened multiple locations such as Snowy Village and Sulmida.  Another hot trend is the Mille Crepe Cake made famous by Lady M.  Now we don't have a Lady M in the GVRD *yet*, but there are plenty of copycats.  Of course we have the first being L'otus in Richmond and also Candy Tree in Burnaby.  Heck, even T&T has them now (but I can't vouch how good or bad they are...).  Enter the newest Asian dessert shop, Sugar Lab in Burnaby, to arrive on the scene with a large variety of mille crepe cake.

We hit up the place right after Whiskey Six, despite filling up on meats and sides.  We didn't waste time and went straight for the Mille Crepe Cake in both Tiramisu and Matcha Red Bean flavours.  In terms of texture, I found the tiramisu to be lighter and fluffier while the matcha was more dense and doughy.  Was it to do with the actual flavour or was it the crepe or was it both?  Flavourwise, I preferred the tiramisu more as it was impactful in a light manner.  It wasn't very sweet (could've been sweeter) but it definitely appeals to the Asian palette.  The matcha was super mild and there was only a hint of bitterness at the end.  When eaten with the sweet and appealing red beans, we couldn't even taste the matcha.

The star of the show was actually the Mango Pancake.  Naturally, it didn't look that impressive before we cut it (and really it isn't that photogenic).  However, one bite and the generously large chunk of ripe mango was delicious with the ideal texture and balance of sweetness and slight tang.  The whipped cream was light (yet a bit greasy) and not overly sweet while the pancake was thin and fluffy with an appealingly ending elasticity.  Lastly, we tried the Serradura Pudding Plant neatly served in a jar.  It was more or less what we expected with a nutty and powdery dust with whipped cream and jello-like pudding.  There was a nice aromaticness as well as a malt-like finish.

A few days later, I returned with the fam to try a few more items including another mille crepe cake in the same Serradurra flavour as the pudding plant. The cake was lightly dusted with serradura which was just right as it didn't greatly affect the texture of the cake.  Again, there was a nutty and malt-like flavour that was aromatic while not overly sweet.  The texture of the crepe mirrored the one in the tiramisu being light.  We also gave their Mango & Strawberry Shaved Ice a go.  In terms of fruit, the mango and strawberries were ripe and generous in portion.  However, the ice itself was not good.  It was grainy and too icy being nowhere close to being fluffy.  

When mom spotted the mille crepe on my IG (yah really), she wanted to try it too.  So off we went for our 3rd visit in a week...  For me, I decided to try the Black Sticky Rice with coconut milk.  This was fairly sweet, but aromatic from the coconut milk.  There was probably a bit too much red bean, but it was still fine.  We also went for the Mango Sago and we lamented that there wasn't any grapefruit.  No matter, it was refreshing and only semi-sweet.  There was quite a bit of sweet and tangy mango.  The soup was a bit thin though. But really, Sugar Lab is all about the mille crepe cake as it takes up most of the menu.  2 of the 3 were not bad while the pancake was surprisingly good.  The shaved ice was not so good though.

The Good:
- Decent mille crepe cake
- Excellent pancake
- Okay pricing

The Bad:
- Grainy shaved ice
- Flavours are generally mild (unless you like that)

TracyCakes Bakery Cafe (Langley)

Let's be honest here.  High tea or afternoon tea is not generally frequented by dads.  More often than not, we see a bunch of girlfriends or mom and daughter sipping tea while snacking on scones.  Yet, that shouldn't be the case.  If moms can enjoy this on Mother's Day or really any other day, Dads should be able to get in on the action too!  I've always lobbied for "Man Tea" where we would find 3 tiers of appies such as hot wings, dry ribs and potato skins served with beer.  

That doesn't exist, but for now TracyCakes is offering a "Dad & Me High Tea" on June 17th and 18th for $20.00pp  that consists of the usual (such as finger sandwiches and scones) with the addition of deviled eggs, sausage rolls and cupcake "burgers" with a side of yes...  beer.  I was recently invited to give this a try along with the family.  We decided to hit up the Langley location on 48th at 216th.  There is also another store in Abbotsford as well.  Housed in a building that dates back to 1932, both the outside and inside were quaint and nostalgic.  Tastefully decorated, the dining room was filled with natural light.  It was a peaceful environment where we could watch all the cars circle the roundabout in front from the 5 corners.

Now I never did have a beer, rather I stuck with the usual tea in the Tropical Green Tea.  This was actually quite mild with a hint of fruit flavours that blended well with the light green tea.  Usually, green tea can exhibit some bitterness, but this was smooth.  Viv decided on the Vanilla Tea which was predictably aromatic.  There was no mistaking the flavour and it was even more impactful with the addition of some sugar.  My daughter chose the Very Berry and it was more floral than we would've expected.  Rather than berries, it tasted more like aromatic flowers.

Onto the actual goodies, we tackled the bottom tier first.  There was an array of Sandwiches that consisted of cucumber and cream cheese with dill, egg salad, pesto tomato and turkey with cranberry and spinach.  We found the bread to be fresh and soft while the pesto tomato was the most impactful.  Also on the plate was a sausage roll and deviled eggs.  The egg was quite good where the whites were not rubbery while the yolk was creamy and light.  It was mildly salted with a hint of mustard.

We moved onto the 2nd tier consisting of 2 types of Scones.  One was made with peaches and the other with strawberry.  They came with the requisite strawberry jam and Devonshire cream.  These were abnormally large where none of us actually finished an entire one.  They were pretty typical being slightly heavy, but still moist and tender (not wet though, even with the fruit).  It wasn't particularly crumbly though.  There was a minimal amount of fruit which was probably intentional as the moisture content would make the scone wet.

The last plate of goodies consisted of Cupcake "Burgers" with coloured frosting emulating mustard, ketchup and lettuce.  These were moist and not as sweet as they appeared.  We also found sugar vanilla cookies and lemon glazed cake as well.  I enjoyed the sweet, yet lemony glaze on the cake as it almost seemed light because of it.  We never did finish all of the cake and the cupcakes because there was more than enough for the 4 of us.  We also had 1.5 scones left too.  Definitely a good value for $20.00pp and loved how they are marketing it for Father's Day.

*All food and beverages were complimentary*

The Good:
- Well-priced
- Quaint spot
- Family-friendly

The Bad:
- A little far for those urban-dwellers
- Eggs could've used more salt

Leisure Tea & Coffee

Ever since Mijune has become famous, it has been increasingly difficult to track her down.  Either she is super busy or she just wants to ignore me - I really hope it's the former.  Well, to my relief (at least I hope so!), she is indeed swamped with her travels and responsibilities.  After another late night hockey game at Richmond Ice, I was able to meet up with her for some late night drinks and a bit of food as well at Leisure Tea & Coffee (with an emphasis on "a bit of food" as the menu is quite limited).

I requested that my Mango Slush be minimally sweet and they came through with just the right amount of sugar.  The slush itself was super smooth and almost creamy.  Whether or not the mango was fresh or not, it really didn't matter as the slush emanated a real ripe mango taste.  I particularly liked the aromatic finish.  Mijune had the Black Sesame Slush and it was aromatic in its own right.  They managed to get the right amount of sweetness here as well.  As much as it was good, we would've liked to see more sesame hit. As for more sweets, we had the Caramel Shaved Ice featuring a creme caramel on top.  It was actually not bad with a rice silkiness (and no bubbles, an indication it was cooked properly).  More eggy than creamy, it was mildly sweet with a slight caramel finish.  The condensed milk and caramel sauce mixture was super sweet, hence, we had to ask for more shaved ice.

As for the limited amount of food on the menu, I decided to try the Club Sandwich consisting of fried egg, ham, cucumber, tomato and mayo.  This was so-so as the bread was not as soft as I would've liked.  Furthermore, the crust wasn't consistently removed on the outside.  The ingredients were fine though, especially the egg, where it wasn't overdone.  I also got the Combo Platter consisting of fried crispy spicy chicken, fried tofu and fried fish cake.  This arrived glistening with oil.  Not sure if the temperature was not hot enough, but each item was greasy and soaked.  Hence, the chicken wasn't all that crispy.  It was moist and juicy though with a moderate amount of spice.  On the other hand, the tofu was plenty crunchy.  As for the fish cake, it was fine except afflicted with oil.

Lastly, we shared the Taiwanese Sausage (yes, insert joke here) and it was sweet and had a nice chewy texture.  The exterior was fried up nicely where it had a snap.  Okay, as you can clearly see, food is not the emphasis here.  Hence, the name - Leisure Tea & Coffee.  However, nothing was offensive and service was good.  Therefore, it offers up an option for late night drinks with a side of whatever to munch on.

The Good:
- Friendly servers (at least that is what we got)
- Drinks are blended well
- Calm, comfortable environment

The Bad:
- Food is not the focus here
- Things came out a bit slow

Capstone Tea & Fondue (Robson)

A random cleaning of the living room yielded scrap paper, opened mail, flyers, an old Rick Astley CD (uh...) and a bunch of receipts. Into the shredder they go!  Wait, what's this?  Another forgotten Groupon?  Drat, actually a few forgotten Groupons...  I picked out the Capstone Tea & Fondue to discover it was expiring in a week. Seeing how I "never want to give it up", I quickly made an online reservation so that I wouldn't lose another Groupon to the dreaded expiry date.

One of the reasons why I bought it in the first place was because of the kiddies.  I thought they would enjoy dipping various fruits, veggies and other items into cheese and chocolate.  Well at least my daughter would because my son doesn't do veggies and fruits...  We started with a few drinks as it allowed us to get some extras with our fondue (more food essentially including a bigger helping of Ice Cream).  We got a Matcha Fruit Tea, Strawberry Real Fruit Frappe and Lychee Black Tea.  All did the job, but were rather pricey. As part of our spread, we got 2 each of the Traditional Swiss Cheese Fondue and Semi-Sweet Dark Chocolate Fondue.

If you can see it in the background, there were sprinkles, coconut slivers, graham cracker crumbs, roasted peanuts, slivered almonds and caramel crumbs for our dipping pleasure. I found the cheese to be rather thick, decently flavourful and good for adhering to the ingredients.  It was not very hot though and the serving arrangements made it easy to tip over.  The chocolate wasn't bad as it was also a decent consistency but it was overly sweet.  As the pictures illustrates, there was a selection of baby carrots, grape tomatoes, grapes, granny smith apples, bread cubes, pretzels, puffs, banana bread, cookies, banana, pineapple and strawberries.

Lastly, we got a good helping of Ice Cream Truffle Centers consisting of Green Tea, Strawberry and Cookies & Cream.  These were frozen solid which worked well with the fondue.  We couldn't finish them all because it was a bit heavy as a final item.  Even though we had 2 kids with us, there was enough food here for a big snack or light meal (but I wouldn't actually substitute an actual meal with it).  If I had to pay regular price, the type of food we got could be considered expensive.  But the whole point is to have some fun and that we did.

The Good:
- A fun activity whilst eating
- It's a social thing

The Bad:
- Not cheap
- The fondue set was cute, but easy to knock over

Soirette

I'm sure it comes to no surprise that the latest food fad to hit Vancouver is the macaron. Don't confuse this with the macaroons you see in the boxes of Neilsons (those are toasted coconut chocolate treats) for around a dollar at Walmart. Rather, the macaron is a French import consisting of a meringue almond powder "cookie" sandwiching a filling of some sort. Despite the vibrant colours, the meringue part of a macaron generally is not flavoured. That is reserved for the filling. In terms of appearance, there needs to be a uniform shape and size with the obligatory "feet" (rough edges around the base of the meringue). Okay, I can go on and on about the macaron, but I'll stop here. As mentioned, it has become quite popular here in the past couple of years. You can find them at places such as Thomas Haas, Thierry and Kitchening with Carley to name a few. Now we can add the newest entry, Soirette, to the mix.

As you might already know, I'm not a huge sweets person. However, I am a sucker for macarons. They just look so darn cute. Did I just say cute??? I meant manly. Wait... Nevermind. Anyways, Rich Guy and I decided to hit up Soirette after Dim Sum. Its location is in a somewhat quieter part of Downtown near Coal Harbour. The place is simplistic, elegant and focused. They only serve macarons and tea folks - a good thing when you want to specialize in one thing. On the day we went, there were 17 flavours to choose from. I decided on a box of 12 and just in case you were wondering what they were, starting from the bottom left clockwise: Raspberry, Malibu, Rose, Pistachio, Matcha, Lemon, Caramel Fleur de Sel, Cappucino, Passionfruit, Chocolate, Pink Peppercorn and Lavender. For me, the highlights were the pistachio, chocolate, caramel fleur de sel and pink peppercorn. I though the texture of the macarons were bang on being crispy and delicate. The flavours were very real while not being too sweet. For example, the pistachio really tasted like pistachio without any hint of "artificialness". For me, these are legit and would be immediately in my top 3 in Vancouver. Dare I even say the best?

The Good:
- Does one thing and does it really well
- Carefully prepared and it shows in both appearance and taste
- Competitive pricing in relation to other places

The Bad:
- I did say they were competitive in pricing, but in the end, they are an expensive treat

Sweet Revenge

After our free meal at the Thirsty Penguin, Emilicious suggested we check out the Arc'Teryx factory sale nearby. Despite incredibly slashed prices, I was not really in the mood to spend hundreds of dollars on outerwear. At that moment, I devised a plan. I promised that I would accompany her to the sale if she went out for desserts afterwards. Milhouse, Boss Woman and Apu were all game for that idea as well. Yah, I'm resorting to gentle coercion for people to do my bidding! So as I pull up to the Arc'Teryx sale, there is this crazy ass long lineup that extended out to the street. We found out it was approximately a 2 hour wait. Uh... no thanks. There are very few things I'd lineup for. Clothing is not one of them. It's even a stretch for me to lineup for food! I do as well in a lineup as a undented car in the Aberdeen parking lot.

At that point, no one, including Emilicious wanted to endure that kind of torture. We proceeded to go for dessert even though we never actually went shopping. It was a win-win situation for me! It was also quite nice that everyone was willing to travel from North Van over to Sweet Revenge out on Main & King Edward. For once, we didn't have to put money in the meters because it was already 10:00pm by the time we arrived. I am so used to putting money in the meter that I almost paid for no reason. Fortunately, Milhouse stopped me and I saved some coin. We ended up waiting for a good half hour for our table since there are not many seats for 6. Well, the table we got was not really for 6; but we made it work.

Apu decided on the White Chocolate Cheesecake. He really liked the smooth richness of the cake itself. I had a taste and it was indeed quite good. It wasn't too sweet and there was a pronounced cream cheese flavour. It was nice that there was plenty of strawberry sauce on the plate as well. It's too bad the portion size was quite small. Gadget Girl had the Apple Pie and she didn't even finish it. It wasn't that it was too big; rather it was way too sweet. Not a good balance of flavours. For myself, I went for the "lightest" dessert they had in the Berry Trifle. It was indeed quite light with layers of strawberry, Grand Marnier-soaked cake and fresh whipped cream. Nothing amazing; yet enjoyable to eat nonetheless.

Emilicious and Milhouse decided to share both the Chocolate Gateau and the Chocolate Mousse Cake. Originally, they wanted the Chocolate Pudding Cake; but they ran out. Both of them really like chocolate, so they liked the cakes off the bat. The hazelnut cream with raspberry jam provided a nice deviation from the chocolate; but it was not enough to make up for the dry cake. The mousse cake turn out to be the better of the 2 with the same rich chocolate taste; but being moist. I also got to try this cake and it was pretty good. I found that the layers of mousse helped lighten the cake somewhat. I say somewhat because it was still fairly rich due to the copious amount of dark chocolate. I found that it was a little less sweet than the gateau, which had jam.

As desserts go, Sweet Revenge is alright. There were some good points mixed in with some not-so-good. It's just one of those places that people associate with dessert and will go there because of that. I'm not much of a dessert guy; so I'm not particularly that picky about my sweets. So Sweet Revenge would be a viable option when you want to do the late-night dessert thing.

The Good:
- If you pick the right one, desserts are pretty decent
- It's got a charm to it
- A decent selection

The Bad:
- Good, but not great
- Very small place, you'll be friends with the table beside you (or share a table)