East No 1 Seafood

Finally getting over the stomach flu, I decided that eating out was necessary. Well, eating is important for a restaurant-based food blog! Luckily I keep a nice buffer of posts that come in handy when I'm ill and cannot eat! Well, that really didn't stop me from eating at Codfather's and McD's (twice!) since I figured that since it would come out anyways. I refuse to let the stomach flu rain on my parade! Today, I took full advantage of Rich Guy being around. You see, he's always game to be a dining partner. You think I eat out a lot... He never cooks. Therefore, he probably eats out more than me. Imagine that... We ended up meeting at East #1 Seafood Restaurant for Dim Sum this morning. We really didn't want to head anywhere with a lot of traffic, so we ended up picking a place located in the ever-so-busy parking lot of T&T. Go figure. I decided to avoid the frustration and parked right on Renfrew. Believe me, once you enter that parking lot, you'll be stuck there for a while as people attempt to park in the extremely narrow spots. And when I say narrow, let's just say that it's enough for a car, but not for you to get out.

The one thing you'll notice at East #1 is that they still employ the traditional Dim Sum cart. For some people, this is very important. For me, I'm a bit indifferent. Yes, it's neat to see your food before you order it; but I find that the food deteriorates as it circles the entire restaurant. And... it always seems to happen to me, the shrimp dumplings sell out at the table just before me every time. Scratch that, people run up to the cart, raid it of everything they want and then I get the scraps. Fortunately for us, we did get the Shrimp Dumplings before they sold out. Meh... They were disappointing. The dumpling skin was gummy and overcooked. Same with the shrimp. It was a bit hard and not crunchy at all.

Although the Sui Mai looked good and contained a good amount of shrimp, we thought it was also overcooked. The pork was too chewy and a bit bland. The next dish was a bit surprising. Very few restaurants serve Stir Fried Silver Needle Noodles anymore. Definitely an ol' school Dim Sum dish. Essentially hand-rolled noodles made of rice flour, these are known for their chewiness. These ones didn't disappoint and as you can see, lots of shrimp too. Where the shrimp dumplings failed, the Scallop and Shrimp Dumpling were better. The filling was perfectly cooked with crunchy shrimp and tender scallops. However, once again, the dumpling skin was gummy.

Alright, when I take pictures of soups, stews and congee, I try to take a spoonful of it to illustrate what you can't see. However, as I tried to spoon some ingredients for this picture, there was none. Actually there was, but they were in little bits. So essentially, there was really nothing in the Preserved Egg and Salted Pork Congee. To the trained eye, you will notice that the congee is prepared ol' skool or in a home-cooking way (for those who do it in that manner). What they did here was to put the egg and pork into the congee and cook the heck out of it. The result is a fairly tasty broth; but all of the ingredients have basically melted away. For me, in a restaurant, I'd like some ingredients to see and chew.

We found the Steamed Black Bean Spareribs quite oily. The meat itself wasn't too fatty; but for some reason or another, the "sauce" on the bottom of the plate was mostly oil. I know that oil is a given in this dish; but there was just too much of it. Athough, we did like the garlicky flavour and the meat did have a slightly chewy texture. Looking like it just lost a bar fight, the Beef Rice Noodle Roll was aesthetically poor-looking. Either the Dim Sum chef rolling these was careless or s/he thought that a half dressed beef noodle roll would look sexier. Yah, that's a lot of meat showing, definitely centerfold material... Well, it was a whole lot better to eat than to look at. The rice noodle was soft and there was plenty of tender meat filling.

I gotta say, this was one interesting session of Dim Sum. First, we had the ol' skool Dim Sum carts, that are a dying breed. Second, the Dim Sum itself was plenty ol' skool too in it's presentation, preparation and selection. Rich Guy and I were not really all that impressed with the meal as a whole. Much better Dim Sum could be had just across the street at Bing Sheng. However, I must admit that the pricing here is very reasonable and the portions are large. Judging from the clientele, I think the ol' skool theme is consistent with them as well.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Large portions

The Bad:
- Dim Sum is ol' skool, not carefully prepared or good either
- Lack of servers

Codfather's

*Restaurant is now closed*

So here I am stricken with the stomach flu, which is probably my worst nightmare. Not only am I limited by the types of food I can eat, it comes out shortly like a waterfall (sorry for the visual). Courageously, I dragged myself into work today knowing there was a washroom less than 20 feet away. I'm quite a determined person and something as trivial as a Gastroenteritis won't get me down. I thought of the last time I had the stomach flu and coincidentally, it was roughly a year ago. Undeterred, I defiantly had McD's, Viva Sue Pizza and Beard Papa's. Yes, I figured if it was coming out anyways, I'd eat the greasiest, crappiest and highest caloric food out there. Of course, that came at a price and I will spare you the details. Today for lunch, I convinced Pomegranate that we should go for fish 'n chips. Yes, that's right. Fried, greasy and dipped into tartar sauce, this was my defiance in full effect. I will take this stomach flu head on and show who's boss!

We made our way to Codfather's out in Burquitlam. For a fleeting moment, I considered the AYCE fish 'n chips with bottomless pop... Alas, I am defiant, not crazy! Rather, we both went for the lunch special which consisted of a bowl of Seafood Chowder and 1 piece Cod 'n Chips. We tacked on a side of Halibut for good measure. Ah yes, nothing like a bowl of creamy, fatty seafood chowder for the stomach ailments. I'm sure if my stomach could talk, it would be asking #$O#E$(#U I'm doing? Well, the chowder was indeed creamy and full of scallops and fish. I didn't detect any clams or clam flavour (possibly there weren't any clams or very few?). That would probably be my only complaint, a lack of seafood flavour; but otherwise a solid seafood chowder.

Okay, we were expecting one piece cod and halibut respectively; but when the platter arrived, we were completely shocked at the portion. Look at it. Either they don't know how to count or the owner was extremely generous. My theory is that he noticed my camera and gave us more? However, I could be totally wrong. Whatever the case, the fish was flaky and fresh with a very light batter. I wouldn't say it was devoid of grease (since it is deep fried), but it wasn't too greasy. The fries were pretty good being crispy while still maintaining the qualities of a potato. We weren't that enthused with the tartar sauce though. It was a bit bland and a bit more zing was in order. But other than that, it was a pretty satisfying meal of fish 'n chips.

The Good:
- Light batter
- Fresh fish
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Other than the specials, regular prices are a bit high
- Tartar is a bit bland

Kyung Bok Palace

With Wednesday hockey at Brit on hold until after the Olympics, Polka King and I got our mid-week hockey fix at Richmond Ice tonight. I used to be a regular on Thursday nights here until my son was born. Of course, playing Thursday hockey was not an option when other commitments take precedent. However, when I was asked out of the blue last week to play goal in Richmond, I jumped at the chance. Hey, I haven't seen these guys in nearly 5 years and I really needed the exercise. However, in my twisted world, the most important thing was that now I could take advantage of the late night eats in Richmond! Yes, we've exhausted a fair bit of the late night eats in Vancouver already... Time to move on.

So honestly, where to eat after hockey? There are the usual Hong Kong-style cafes and such. Hey, how about that Korean restaurant right beside #9? I was curious about it the last time I spotted it and with Polka King on board, we headed over to Lansdowne Centre. Gosh, the place was quite busy for a Thursday midnight. Turns out the good people from Samsung had taken up a good part of the restaurant. They are here for the Olympics and by the sounds of their chatter, they were also here for the booze! They seem to know how to party it up!

At first glance, the menu seemed quite consistent with any other Korean restaurant except for 2 things. First, there was an AYCE late night BBQ. Uh... No. Second, there was this special for $19.95. Initially, we were a bit confused. It stated we could pick any 5 items for $19.95. Wait a minute, 5 dishes? That seemed like an incredible value. This menu is apparently available for lunch and late night after 9:00pm. We weren't all that hungry; yet, the deal seemed just too good to pass up.

As per usual, we got the complimentary Banchan prior to receiving our dishes. It consisted of Kimchi, Stewed Potatoes and Marinated Bean Sprouts. Of the 3, the potatoes were a definite miss. They were way too soft and practically falling apart. Not aesthetically pleasing to look at or to put in our mouths. We got the Bibimbap to start and it certainly looked pretty good. Sure, I would've preferred the Dolset Bibimbap but again, for $19.95, I wasn't complaining. The toppings were plentiful; however, the rice was quite mushy. At the very least, it was served hot, not stone-cold like the one from Norboo.

Although the Seafood Pancake was not served on the usual cast iron plate, it was texturally quite nice being fluffy in the middle a bit crispy on the outside. In fact, without the plate, it turned out to be less oily. In terms of seafood, I didn't notice much other than the imitation crab meat. So it was a decent pancake without seafood. At first, when we saw the 5 items for $19.95, we figured that the dishes would be smaller versions of regular-sized portions. The Japchae certainly fit that description being quite small. Hey, I don't blame them for not giving really large sizes considering the price. But my point is that most of the dishes are pretty decent in portion size, which is a good thing. As for the Japchae itself, it was alright, the noodles were a bit softer than we would've liked. Furthermore, it was a bit bland. Although it did have a nice sesame oil aroma. Our plate of Bulgogi was probably the most disappointing dish. The meat was tasteless and quite chewy. Our last dish was the Pork Bone soup. I really liked the large meaty pieces of pork bone. The broth was slightly spicy and a bit sweet. A nice dusting of perilla seeds added aromatics to the soup.

We barely finished all the food we were presented with. The 5 dishes for $19.95 is a very good value. Okay, the good deal does come with compromises. The food itself was pretty average. It doesn't stack up to the really good Korean restaurants such as Hanwoori and Insadong. However, for a late night meal, you can't really beat this offer. Moreover, the service was actually quite friendly, albeit sparse. In terms of the regular menu, I wouldn't pay the regular prices for the food though.

The Good:
- Late night menu is dirt cheap
- Service is actually alright
- Spacious dining room

The Bad:
- Average food
- Food took a bit long to arrive

Tandoori Kona

Alright, you might be wondering why the heck I was in Richmond of all places. Yes, I have a hate-hate relationship with this place; but one cannot deny the gastronomical delights that lay within its borders. It's almost like I have to come here despite the traffic, clueless drivers and utter chaos (otherwise known as #3 Road). Now, you'll be even more surprised that I didn't come here for the Chinese food today. I was here to eat Indian food. Wait, lemme get this straight... You came all the way to Richmond for Indian food??? Don't you have really good Indian food in the Surrey/North Delta area? Yes, that is right. It's almost as crazy as trying to find good Chinese food out in Chilliwack. However, there is this place right next to Continental Restaurant that succeeds in a sea of Chinese establishments.

Actually, I was tipped off nearly a year ago in my Mirch Masala post about Tandoori Kona. Yah, it has taken me this long to finally fulfill my promise to try it. Hey, there are a lot of restaurants in different places! Everything in due time... The first thing that I noticed when I walked in the door was the daily special. For only $7.99, you could get Butter Chicken, Eggplant & Potato Curry and Chickpea Curry with Rice, Naan, Salad and Raita. That sounded too good for me to pass up. However, being a bit curious about the "tandoori" part of the name, I wanted to try it. I wasn't in the mood for Tandoori Chicken since the bones would just slow down my eating. I went for the next best thing in an order of Chicken Tikka which is essentially boneless tandoori chicken on a hot plate. I know it's not exactly the same; but close enough for my purposes.

One look at the lunch special and some people might be wondering where the food is. Not to worry, once you're done with the rice and naan, you'll be plenty full. There is no need for too much sauce, it goes a long way. Much like pasta, it's mostly noodles with just a bit of sauce. Despite being a bit lukewarm, I did like the Butter Chicken, it was creamy and had a nice balance between sweet and tart without being salty. The modest amount of chicken was moist and tender. Both the eggplant and chickpea curries were quite mild and didn't really leave an impression. I really liked the naan. Soft, warm and just a bit blistered, this is the texture I look for when it comes to naan.

When it came to the Chicken Tikka, it looked strange. Now for people who have had this dish before, as you can see, it doesn't resemble it whatsoever. Rather, I think I got an order of Chicken Tikka Masala since it was served with a side of spicy butter chicken sauce. I didn't have time to send it back, so I ended up eating it. It was quite good, with big chunks of tender white meat. However, I would've preferred that they had actually prepared the chicken with some charring. But I guess they don't prepare it that way here. Dipped into the sauce, I ended up with a spicier, more flavourful version of the butter chicken that I had in the special. Overall, I thought the food was pretty decent, especially for being in Richmond. Prices are very reasonable and service is friendly in a clean environment.

The Good:
- Reasonably priced
- Solid food
- Clean

The Bad:
- Lunch special was a bit lukewarm (probably all ready to go for lunch crowd)

Baba Sweets & Shivalik Restaurant

Finally, after a self-imposed ban on Indian food for a little while, I've finally decided to go back to the well. Yes, it is a pretty deep well at that. There are so many choices for Indian food out here along the Scott Road corridor. Don't get me wrong, I love Indian food and I was looking forward to eating it again. Joining me today were L-Pete and Pomegranate, which is a good thing since there would be more variety. Truth be told, I made sure there was variety... I'm so lucky people put up with my antics. Our destination today was Baba Sweets. If I am not mistakened, there is another location on 6th in Burnaby.

When we arrived, there was only a table of high school students. I guess the places doesn't do a lot of lunch business? The reason I mention this is because our food actually took a decent amount of time to prepare. However, that may not necessarily be a bad thing since rushing anything is generally not a good idea. We were originally planning on ordering a la carte off the regular menu; but at the last minute, we noticed their lunch specials. The significance of the specials is that they all include rice and naan. Normally, you'd need to add both naan and rice for an additional cost. Pomegranate decided to add a
couple of Beef Samosas as an appy, apparently not satisfied with his lunch combo. Personally, I thought it would be too much food; but hey, I'm not gonna stop him. He's ordering more food for me to try!

I thought that the samosas were only an average value since there are many more other places around that charge less than $1.00 per item. The samosas themselves were good and bad. The nicely fried exterior was good, the gritty and dry beef filling was bad. I'd like to try the vegetarian one next time. L-Pete went for the ever popular Butter Chicken. If you can see in the picture, the sauce is quite oily. I realize that butter chicken requires quite a bit of ghee, but this was greasy, not smooth. Moreover, the flavour (to me at least) seemed slightly off. Rather than the rich sweetness (and slight tartness from the tomato) that is normally associated with butter chicken, this one was almost like a regular curry.

On the other hand, I did like my Lamb Curry. It had a decent amount of spice and tasted like a rich curry should (as in multi-dimensional flavours). Moreover, the lamb was tender and fairly plentiful. Pomegranate had the Chicken Curry and although it seemed like the same sauce, this one was a bit sweeter and less spicy. Either my taste buds were deceiving me or the different meat made a difference in the flavour. Believe it or not, the best part of the meal was the Naan. It was hot, soft and fluffy. The food here ain't gonna win any awards and to me it was a bit average. But, it was alright and a fairly good value when having the lunch special.

The Good:
- Fluffy Naan
- Friendly service from the only front-of-the-house staff member
- Large dining area

The Bad:
- Food is on the average side of things
- Worn out interior

Tora Sushi

In my quest to try out every single Japanese restaurant in the GVRD, it has brought me to Tora Sushi out at Queensborough Landing. Of course, it'll take me a very long time to eat at all of the Japanese restaurants since there seems to be one every block. Well, #68 of 600 out of the way. LOL... Honestly, I wasn't holding out too much hope for this place since it doesn't seem to cater to the "authentic" crowd. After all, there is a Wok Box within the same complex. Hey, it's okay to have reasonable expectations for all types of food. After all, you can't compare Manchu Wok to real Chinese food, so I'm not going to do this here.

I thought about ordering a la carte; but it didn't seem like the most cost efficient way of doing things. The prices here are actually a tad high. Thus, I went for the lowly bento box consisting of 3 pcs each of California Roll and Dynamite Roll with Teriyaki Chicken, green salad, rice and miso soup. I added one piece each of tuna, salmon, unagi and inari nigiri. I must give it to them, the food came out pretty quick and that suits me fine since I don't have a lot of time for lunch anyways. At first glance, the nigiri looked decent; but #$)#*$#)!!! The sushi rice was awful. It resembled regular rice more than Koko Rose rice. It was hard, cold and devoid of vinegar or sugar. Too bad really because the fish was decent. Tuna was a tad mushy; but it tasted alright.

Of course the bad sushi rice continued on with both rolls. Again, that was too bad since the prawn tempura in the dynamite roll was quite crispy and the California roll filling was decent with fresh avocado. The teriyaki chicken was decent being moist and juicy. Not much to say about the salad and rice; yet, the rice in the box was pretty good. Not sure if that was a compliment or pan in this case compared to the sushi rice.

Now, I gotta be fair here. If you look at the bowl of miso soup, you can clearly see a spoon. Normally, a Japanese restaurant will not supply you with a spoon since they do not use spoons for soup. This alone indicates the intended clientele. Thus, if that is the case, then the food is not bad. If the "authentic police" had a say, well let's just not go there.

The Good:
- Staff are friendly
- Food comes out fast with hot things hot and cold things cold

The Bad:
- Sushi rice is subpar
- Prices are a bit high

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Alright, the last time I paid $12.00 for a bowl of noodles, I felt a bit ripped off. Yes, if you guessed Chef Hung at Aberdeen Centre, you are correct. At the very least, I didn't have to lineup and honestly, the noodles were not bad. But certainly not worth the money I paid. Of course, when you're paying over $10.00 for a bowl of anything, one would expect quality over quantity. Once again, I was faced with paying $12.00 for a bowl of noodles. Creating much fanfare, the newest entry to the ramen scene in Vancouver is Hakkaido Ramen Santouka. Part of a much bigger chain of restaurants originating from Japan, there is much excitement and anticipation amongst ramen lovers in the GVRD. Located in the triangle of ramen down on Robson near Denman (Benkei, Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo), it's the ultimate noodle showdown in one place. Santouka had been open for a little while already during their "soft launch". I decided to visit it on the grand opening date of March 5, 2010; but there was a substantial lineup. You see, lineups and I go together like Conan O'Brien and NBC. We ended up going to Guu Garden instead.

Undeterred, when I heard that Kim was going to visit it for a 2nd time on the following Monday, I decided to see if he would like a dining partner. As always, he's game for that and we met up slightly before noon. Lucky for us, not too long after we sat down, a relatively long line began to queue up. Kim encouraged me to get the Toroniku Shio Ramen which includes pork cheek and toppings served separately from the noodles. I added an Ajitama Egg for good measure. Kim went for a set lunch which included choice of ramen broth (in this case Shoyu), fully cooked egg and a Cha Shu Gohan. A short wait and our food arrived on 2 plastic platters. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be a lot of food for $12.00. But it is deceiving. There is a decent amount of noodles hidden in the broth. And about that broth... Immediately, before I even took a spoonful, I could tell it was nice. The cloudy colour, the hint of pork fat and the "thickness" of the broth indicated slow and meticulous cooking with rendered fat and bone marrow. One sip and it was obvious that the shio broth was indeed very rich. More sweet than salty, the broth was silky with rich meat/fat/marrow undertones. This is probably the best shio broth I've had so far in Vancouver. Although, I must reiterate that I still like Kintaro despite this. The reason is that they are not exactly alike and are good in their own way. But I must concede that the food here is much more refined than Kintaro. The noodles were on the softer side of al dente, which was fine by me. But I have to say that the deliciousness didn't end there. The pork cheek was absolutely divine. Being that it was pork cheek, the meat had a slight resistance in a gelatinous way. However, once past that initial chewiness (which is a good thing), it was very tender with a nice rich pork flavour. As for the Ajitama Egg, this is a picture of it on the second visit. Yes, I actually visited the place again the very next day! I wanted Viv to try and we paid $12.00 for a bowl of ramen again! Good thing too, in my haste on my first visit, I took a bite before taking a picture of it. The shame... Anyways, it was perfect. If not for high cholesterol, I'd have a dozen of these.

As for Kim's Shoyu Ramen, the broth was predictably lighter and since it has soy in it, a tad saltier. His Cha Shu Gohan was delicious. The slow-cooked pork had a "roasted" quality to it (even though its not roasted) and literally melted in my mouth. The rice had a nice consistency and the whole thing wasn't overseasoned so that the pork could do its thing. Honestly, this was a very satisfying meal. I knew I liked it since I wanted to have more of it and had thoughts of coming back once finished. And as mentioned, I did in fact return - the very next day! I got Viv to try the Shio Ramen and she thought it was very good. Her thoughts were that the pork cheek was a bit over seasoned, bordering on salty. I could see that; but it didn't bother me as much. I was lucky to try a previously unavailable product, which was the Tsuke Men. It's essentially a pile of cold ramen (apparently double the amount than a soup version) accompanied by a shoyu "dipping" broth with fatty pork and a fully cooked egg. The broth itself was quite fatty and salty; but it worked with the cold al dente noodles. The fatty pork hidden within the broth was delicious. Exhibiting the same "roasted" rich taste as the gohan, I only wished there was more than one piece and a couple of chunks. I originally asked for the spicy version; however, I think they messed up and gave me the regular one instead. Whatever the case, it was good; but nothing really all that special in the grand scheme of things. I'd stick with the Shio Ramen as the go-to meal here. You know what? I wanted to dislike this place because $12.00 is a whole lot of money for a bowl of noodles. However, unlike Chef Hung, these noodles were not just good, they were excellent. I have to admit that it was worth the price and I would gladly pay it again (which I did). Hey, even Kim likes it and since he hates everything, that means a lot.

The Good:
- Refined broth and food items
- Friendly service (at least that's what we got)
- A good variety of menu items

The Bad:
- Bottom line is that it's still expensive
- Much like other ramen shops, it's cramped