Fuel

*Fuel is now Refuel*

Quick... When you think of fried chicken in Vancouver, what comes to mind? KFC? Church's? Popeye's? Lee's? LA Chicken? Depending on your preference, you most certainly can get decent fried chicken at these places (well, maybe not KFC). Now I bet not many people would associate Fuel with fried chicken. After all, there is no drive-thru! However, you can get some pretty good fried chicken at Fuel from 12:00pm - 2:00pm every Friday until the end of summer. Mind you, at $19.50 (including beer), it'd better be good! Of course, the fried chicken at Fuel is not something you'd find at the aforementioned restaurants. The organic chicken are sous-vide in buttermilk before they are dusted with seasoned flour and deep-fried (you can watch the video of this here).

I have to give credit to Vandelay for our visit to Fuel. He has definitely been a great resource when it comes restaurants. Rich Guy and Donna Chang joined us for this meal as well. Vandelay and I both ordered the fried chicken, Donna ordered the Pork Schnitzel Sandwich and I bribed Rich Guy into ordering the Confit Albacore Tuna Melt. I promised him a drumstick for his troubles. I really didn't want 3 orders of the fried chicken, I'd have nothing to talk about! Before we got our entrees, we started off with complimentary bread with butter and sea salt. I usually don't talk about complimentary bread; however, the butter was so creamy and tasty. I just had to mention that.

The fried chicken consisted of 3 pieces, one side, a buttermilk biscuit and gravy. The side and biscuit change every week. This week, it was a red onion biscuit and a kale/black-eyed peas mix. The chicken was pretty good. It was very tender and juicy due to the sous-vide process. This involves placing the meat in vacuum sealed bags which are dipped into a temperature-controlled water bath. The chicken at Fuel is cooked for 2 hours in the water bath before they are fried.

One bite into the chicken and I immediately knew this was no ordinary fried chicken. It was so tender and juicy. It was as if the chicken was roasted, rather than being fried. I personally thought that the chicken was delicately flavoured, despite the fact some have considered it salty (have you not tried KFC, that's salty!). One complaint is that the chicken could have been a little more crispy. The biscuit was soft and fluffy with just a hint of red onion. Vandelay and I both dipped it into the gravy and it was very tasty. I didn't like the kale and black-eyed peas very much. It was cooked with shallots and the flavour was light; but I didn't enjoy the texture of the peas. They were done al dente and personally I prefer them a bit softer. However, I'm sure someone else will have a different opinion about them.

The schnitzel sandwich was good, but nothing special. The pork was well-seasoned and it was fried-up perfectly. However, it tasted like any other schnitzel that I've had. The tuna melt was a bit disappointing. The fish was good, but it was overcooked. I'm not sure if it was meant to be this way; but overcooked tuna has the texture of chicken breast meat. If the tuna was undercooked a bit, the melt would've been better. However, the homemade chips that came with the melt were quite good.

We decided to share 2 desserts and that ended up to be quite the gong show. We ordered the Tahitian Vanilla Doughnuts with pumpkin ice cream and house made root beer. Also, we got the Kentucky Bourbon Creme Brulee with spearmint ice cream and cocoa nib biscuit. If you can imagine, sharing the donuts was no problem; but the root beer and the brulee were another matter. Let's just say it was a bit messy in the end. We really liked the donuts, they were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. There's nothing better than warm donuts! The pumpkin ice cream was dropped into the root beer so it became a float. We thought the root beer was very good, it had lots of root beer taste without too much sugar. The carbonated jelly on the bottom was a treat! The brulee was pretty ordinary; yet the top was caramelized perfectly. We like crunchy, caramelized sugar!

Of course, by virtue of having only one lunch at Fuel does not provide a true representation of the restaurant. However, I did enjoy my visit. I liked the open-kitchen, the decor and the ambiance. Moreover, the service was solid. Our server was knowledgeable, attentive and pleasant. Everything came expeditiously and I noticed the little details such as all of our meals arriving at the same time (with help from other staff of course). Although I wasn't fond of all the food, the combination of service and ambiance made it a good experience.

The Good:
- Impeccable service
- Modern decor and ambiance
- Good fried chicken (only limited time though)

The Bad:
- Some of the other dishes were average
- Parking could be an issue

Fuel
1944 West 4th Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-288-7905
fuelrestaurant.ca

Business Hours:
12:00pm - 2:30pm, 5:30pm - close (Mon - Fri)
5:30pm - close (Sat & Sun)

Tasty Sweets & Restaurant

Alright, I was thinking about what I would eat for lunch today. I considered going to Mehfil for their Indian buffet. I decided to throw that thought up on Facebook and almost instantaneously, Nikita makes a comment that I should avoid at all costs. Well, I have heard conflicting stories about Mehfil. Some say it's good and some suggest to avoid it like a full-face-visor-wearing Corolla driver in Richmond. As I was just finishing responding to Nikita's comment, I got another comment from someone else suggesting Tasty Sweets and Restaurant. Well, that idea sounded good since Tasty Sweets is less than 5 minutes away.

Having never been to Tasty Sweets before, I really didn't know what to expect. From what people had told me, I expected it to be some fast food joint. However, it sure didn't look like one. In fact, it was quite nice inside. But, it was quite dark inside since all the blinds were drawn. Moreover, all the furnishings and decor were dark coloured as well. Why does it seem like every Indian restaurant I go to is dark? It makes for difficult photo-taking! Anyways, I looked over the menu and it's the usual assortment of items. Since I was eating alone (gasp!), I decided to get the lunch special for $9.95. It included a choice of Butter Chicken or Goat Curry, Palak Paneer, Tandoori Chicken (2 pcs), rice, naan and Gulab Jaman. There is a vegetarian lunch special for $8.95 which includes 3 vegetable curries, rice, naan and dessert. You'll find similar lunch specials at many of the Indian restaurants in the area. These specials are an excellent way of sampling an array of items from each restaurant. Similar to Mahek, the pop that I ordered was bottomless.

While I was waiting, I picked up a takeout menu. I was told that the prices on the menu were out-of-date. So for reference purposes, add about a dollar to each of the major items and 50 cents to the smaller items. My food arrived on a platter similar to Desi Junction. However, the one at Desi Junction was more aesthetically pleasing. There was ample amount of food for $9.95. There were 2 full pieces of naan that had been cut into halves. However, the naan itself was far from fluffy. It was doughy despite not being very thick. The Butter Chicken was full of large pieces of chicken; but it was super salty. All I could taste was salt and tomato; rather than the smooth delicate flavours that it is synonymous with. On the other hand, the Palak Paneer was quite good. It was a bit spicy, with nice fluffy chunks of paneer (cheese) nestled in creamy-textured spinach. The Tandoori Chicken was quite average. Compared to the flavours at Mirch Masala, it was a bit bland and overcooked. Yet, it was still better than the Tandoori Chicken at Mahek. Lastly, the Gulab Jaman was sweet, but not unbearably sweet. I'm not really a big fan of this dessert; but this one wasn't too bad.

Tasty Sweets was okay, I didn't hate the meal, but it definitely lags behind the other Indian restaurants in the area. Yet, I was intrigued by the good selection of sweets available for takeout. I will return to get a box of those one day.

The Good:
- Good value
- Comfortable surroundings
- Good service

The Bad:
- Food is inferior to other places (at least the things I tried)

Tasty Sweets & Restaurant
12047 80th Avenue
Surrey, B.C.
604-543-9113

Business Hours:
9:30am - 10:00pm (7 days a week)

Sea Harbour

Didn't I just have dinner in Richmond yesterday? Yes I did. Don't you fear Richmond traffic and drivers? Don't even get me started! Why am I back in Richmond again in less than 24 hours? The answer to this is that one of the best places to have Dim Sum in the GVRD is Sea Harbour Restaurant. Yes, the same Sea Harbour that looks like any other run-of-the-mill Chinese restaurants you'd find in a strip mall. Don't let the laughable exterior scare you away, once inside you are treated to a clean, modern and upscale dining room. If you think of Sea Harbour, you also have to consider the competition: Imperial, Victoria, Fortune House, Fisherman's Terrace, Red Star, Sun Sui Wah, Spicy Court and Kirin. All of the aforementioned restaurants are solid choices for Dim Sum, and there is very little to choose between them all. However, taking personal preference and location into consideration, there would be a considerable debate as to which one is the best.

Sea Harbour is definitely one of the best places to have Dim Sum in the GVRD. We'll see if this visit affirms that or not. Luckily for Viv and I, we didn't have to work on the Good Monday; thus we could go for Dim Sum. Knowing that Sea Harbour can get quite busy, we made a reservation for 11:00am. Although there is a decent-sized parking lot in front of the restaurant, it can get full pretty quick. Best to arrive early or carpool. We were pretty early, so we didn't have any problems getting a parking spot. Moreover, this reduces the chance of going insane trying to fight for a spot (see Bo Kong post).

After a bit of thinking, we decided on the following dishes: Shrimp Dumpling, Beef Noodle Roll, Mini-BBQ Pork Rolls, Shrimp Spring Rolls, Beef Tripe & Tendon, Black Bean Spareribs, Pot Stickers, Seafood Yee Mein, Lap Mei Fan, Beef Tripe/Tendon/Brisket/Daikon Hot Pot, Egg Tarts and Steamed Sponge Cake. I mentioned that the shrimp dumpling (haw gow) at Red Star as being one of the best in the GVRD. Well, the one at Sea Harbour is either just as good or better (depending on your preference). The shrimp dumpling were large and bursting with crunchy whole shrimp. The skin was not as thin as Red Star, but it was still good. The rice roll was very good as well. The noodle was so quite thin that you could see mostly through it. There was plenty of perfectly spiced beef filling, with just enough cilantro that it didn't overpower the dish. The spareribs were meaty and delicately flavoured. Unlike Floata (msg overload), I could actually taste the pork. This is one of the differences between a good Dim Sum place and a bad one.

The pork bun was soft; but a tad too sweet. Also, it had onions in it. This, of course is personal taste; however, I don't believe there should be onions in a pork bun. The onion ultimately ends up overpowering the flavour of the BBQ pork. The shrimp spring rolls were uniquely served in a glass. Not only was this aesthetically pleasing, it help the rolls stay crisp. When spring rolls are placed flat, the bottom tends to get soggy from the oil and juices settling on the bottom. Moreover, the residual heat essentially steams the bottom of the spring roll. The rolls themselves were very crispy, even through multiple layers; yet not very oily. In addition, there were plenty of whole shrimp in them. Despite having a very tasty, meaty centre, the pot stickers were pretty average. The skin was a bit thick and it could've been fried for a little bit longer (bottom not crispy enough).

The tripe/tendon/brisket/daikon hot pot was very light; yet still delicately flavourful. Unlike the more rustic, traditional version, the sauce did not have much depth. However, it was less heavy as a result. All the items were just right - soft, but not too soft. The yee mein (Chinese egg noodle that has been fried and then dried), was cooked perfectly, still retaining it's elasticity. There was a decent amount of seafood and the dish was lightly flavoured with soy. The lap mei fan (cured duck and sausage on rice) was cooked in a hot pot and was pretty good. The rice was cooked correctly being a bit dry. Combined with the cured meats, the rice is supposed to be dry and aromatic. A side of sweetened dark soy helps soften the rice a bit and to provide flavour. The best parts are actually the rice that has stuck to the pot itself. The beef tripe and tendons (don't know why we ordered 2 dishes with the same things) were not very good, it was way too sweet.

For dessert, we ordered the egg tarts and the steamed sponge cake. The egg tarts didn't look very good, with too much pastry and a sunken centre. However, they tasted much better than they looked. The sponge cake was much darker than we were used to because they used brown sugar. Taste-wise, they gave the cake a much more richer flavour. However, the cake was not fluffy enough, as you can see, it didn't rise very much while cooking. The service at Sea Harbour was quite good. The servers were always responsive and pleasant to deal with. Overall, I thought the Dim Sum was pretty good. I wouldn't say it is the best in the GVRD; but definitely up there with the best.

The Good:
- Food was not over salted, flavours were delicate
- Unique items for Dim Sum
- Service is pretty good

The Bad:
- Dining room is tight (but nice though)
- Parking spaces can be hard to come by

Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant
3711 No. 3 Road
Richmond, B.C.
604-232-0816

Business Hours:
10:30am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Fri)
10:00am - 3:00pm, 5:00pm - 10:30pm (Sat & Sun)

Dragon Ball Tea House

Heading home from Bo Kong, I decided to take the scenic route home and drop by Dragon Ball. It's on King Edward near Oak, you won't miss the dragon sipping on bubble tea. I seem to be in the mood for bubble tea lately; mind you I've been in the mood for lots of things (gelato, Chinese pastries, izakaya's...). From my many previous visits, I do agree with most people that Dragon Ball is one of the better bubble tea joints in the GVRD. Dragon Ball has the usual choices of powdered bubble teas and fresh fruit as well. Green Leaf used to one of the few that served fresh fruit; but it seems that most places have fresh fruit now.

Although Dragon Ball is good, I'm not convinced that it is incredibly better than a lot of other bubble tea places. I think what sets Dragon Ball apart is its consistency. I've never had a bad experience with Dragon Ball. With that being said, I still think Bubble World (some people may disagree with this) is a good choice for bubble tea as well. When I get bubble tea, I usually go for my favourites: lychee slush, green apple slush (powdered), pineapple slush and strawberry slush. Today, I decided to have something a bit different. I wanted to try the fresh Bartlett pear slush. Of course, with my luck, it was unavailable. So I decided to go for fresh green apple slush. Well, I have to say it was fresh, I actually felt like I was eating an apple. It wasn't sweet, which made the slush quite refreshing. Viv thought it was bland, but I thought it was just right. Some complain that bubble teas are too sweet; however, I find that Dragon Ball is not crazy sweet. I think Dragon Ball is a solid choice when you want bubble tea. It's definitely one of the better ones in the GVRD.

The Good:
- Consistent
- Sweet, but not too sweet
- Fairly clean compared to some other joints

The Bad:
- Cramped store, you may want to just order, pay and then leave
- There is no parking in front, you'll have to park a block away sometimes (not that a block is really that far)

Dragon Ball Tea House
1007 West King Edward Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-738-3198

Business Hours:
2:00pm - 12:00am (7 days a week)

Bo Kong Vegetarian

*Restaurant is now closed*

How I love the Easter long weekend. It gives me some time to relax a bit from my hectic schedule. Moreover, I get a bit more time to go find some tasty treats! It was M & M's (both of their names start with M) son's 1st birthday today and we made the trip out to Tsawwassen in the pouring rain. Why does it seem to rain every Easter long weekend? Luckily, there was a covered promenade outside of the heritage house where the party was held. The kiddies seem to have lots of fun looking for Easter eggs. We took advantage of our location to have dinner in Richmond on our way back home. Vandelay, Donna Chang, Costanza, and Elaine all joined us at Bo Kong Vegetarian Restaurant. Vegetarian?!?!? Has Sherman lost his mind again? Well, we decided to eat something a bit different this time, especially since all of us eat a lot of meat to begin with.

We arrived at Bo Kong in Richmond and got a really choice spot right in front of the restaurant without incident. You're wondering why I am mentioning this... Well, finding a parking spot anywhere in Richmond without an adventure is extremely rare. Either someone will:

a) try to steal it;
b) back up into it even if they passed it;
c) reserved it for someone with either their body or double-park their car;
d) park their car in such a crooked fashion, you can't park in the spot next to it
e) or play chicken with you for that last spot

Costanza and Elaine got a choice spot right next to me and Vandelay parked nearby without any troubles as well. Hell must be freezing over...

Anyways, we were looking over the menu and noticed a dinner for 6 which costs $89.95. We were very interested in this meal; however, none of us other than Viv knew how to read Chinese. Unfortunately, Viv couldn't decipher some of the dishes, so we actually had to get the server to explain it to us. She was very nice and took time to go over every dish and even offered to change the Chinese vegetables to broccoli. Uh... sure we're bananas (yellow on the outside and white on the inside); but we're still somewhat Chinese... We had a good laugh about that. So we actually ended up ordering the set meal and it consisted of: a Cold Appetizer Platter, "Fish" Maw Soup, Fresh Bean Curd Skin with Lemon Sauce, Fried Tofu with "Meat" Sauce, Deep Fried Tofu Rolls and Crispy Seaweed & Soft Curd Roll, Spicy Stir-Fried Green Beans, Yau Choy with Enoki Mushrooms and Assorted Vegetable and Tofu Fried Rice.

The appetizer platter consisted of mock ham, beef and goose. The ham was very close to the real thing, mind you it's more close to canned ham than anything else. The beef was not close at all, but it was still good, being a bit chewy and flavourful. The mock goose, which is essentially bean curd sheets wrapped around shiitake mushrooms, was just as good as larger Chinese restaurants. The soup was very good, it had good depth of flavour without being salty. It had lots of enoki mushrooms, mock ham and bamboo pith. The bean curd sheet in lemon sauce was a vegetarian attempt at Lemon Chicken, and it wasn't bad. The lemon sauce was a bit weak, it probably needed a bit more lemon. However, the fried bean curd had a good contrast of crispy, chewy and soft. The fried tofu with mock meat sauce was very tasty. The bits of "meat" could've passed for ground pork and the tofu was fried perfectly. It was ever-so-soft in the middle while being crispy on the outside.

The fried taro rolls were fabulous. Lightly crispy on the outside, but fluffy soft on the inside. However, the taro was a bit flavourless; mind you there was sweet and sour sauce on the table. It went quite well with the taro rolls. The seaweed curd roll was good; but I think we were suffering from bean curd fatigue by then and no one really said anything about it. I thought the sauce was quite good, it gave the bland bean curd some needed flavour. The spicy green beans were awesome, they were bursting with flavour (spicy, salty & a bit sweet) and they were not overcooked. The yau choy was not overcooked either, they were still a bit crunchy. I also really liked the generous amount of enoki on top. Lastly, the fried rice was excellent. The rice was seasoned correctly and it was dry like it's supposed to be. The addition of roasted pine nuts on top really added to the dish. It provided both aromatic flavour and texture.

Honestly, I really didn't miss the fact there was no meat in any of the dishes. When food is executed this well, you will forget that you are essentially eating a lot of vegetables and bean curd. Mind you, some of the mock meat may not be everyone's cup of tea; yet, if you take it for what it is, the food is good. I will never give up my meat; however, I don't mind the occasional vegetarian meal. The experience was enhanced by the great service we received. It was efficient, attentive and extremely friendly.

The Good:
- Creative dishes that made you forget about meat
- Good use of textures and flavour
- Really good service

The Bad:
- You really can get bean curd/tofu overload here
- Some people may not get the mock meat concept

Bo Kong Vegetarian
#80 - 8100 Ackroyd Road
Richmond, B.C.
604-278-1992

Business Hours:
11:00am - 9:00pm (Mon - Thu)
11:00am - 9:30pm (Fri - Sun)

Amato Gelato

After a very salty (msg!) and unsatisfying Dim Sum at Floata, I really needed something refreshing. The closest thing other than bubble tea was Amato Gelato (aka Mario's Gelato). I guess other than my quest for the best Chinese bakery in town, I'm also on the sub-quest for the best Gelato in town as well. Mario's is quite popular in the GVRD as it supplies many restaurants with their specialty desserts and gelato. However, does popularity and name recognition translate into good gelato and sorbetto? Well, I've had Mario's many times in the past and it's always been pretty consistent. I visit Amato Gelato today to compare with my past visits to Vivo and La Casa. Of course there are many more to visit (or revisit) before I can make a fair judgment.

I'm actually pretty glad I went early in the afternoon to Amato Gelato. There was nobody around (partly because it was cold too) and I could take my sweet time looking over the flavours. I finally decided on one scoop of sorbetto and one scoop of gelato. Just in case you don't know, sorbetto contains no milk products and gelato is made from milk, not cream. I choose the Blood Orange sorbetto and the Aloha gelato (pineapple and coconut). Two scoops cost me $6. In comparison, it's only $4.50 for a large cup at Vivo. I really liked the blood orange sobetto, the flavour was perfectly balanced. It was a bit tart; but it was tempered by the right amount of sugar. It was really refreshing and I really could eat much more of it. Although the pineapple coconut gelato had good flavour, the texture was ruined by too many large bits of coconut. I know this might be a personal taste thing; however, I really don't like really large chunks of anything in my ice cream or gelato. To me, it is hard to enjoy the smoothness of the gelato that way.

Now, talking about smoothness, the gelato and sorbetto were both not very smooth, in comparison to Vivo, La Casa or Mondo. In fact, I found the sorbetto and gelato quite icy. Yet, the flavours at Amato are better than La Casa. I think Mondo and Vivo have a good balance between flavour and texture. I think Amato is actually an okay place to get gelato; however, with the prices they charge, there are better choices.

The Good:
- Flavours are well balanced
- A good selection of products

The Bad:
- Texture is not as good as some others
- A bit pricey

Amato Gelato
78 East 1st Avenue
Vancouver, B.C.
604-879-9011