Yuu Japanese Tapas

After 2 hours at the Automall signing the paperwork for our new car, Viv and I were pretty enthused about heading home. First, we attempted to take the connector, but with traffic backed up to #6 Road, that was a no go. Then we tried to make it onto the Knight Street Bridge... LOL, ya right. It was pretty clear that we were stuck in Richmond. Noooooo.... Wait. Not so bad. We could just grab a bite and let the traffic subside. Problem being was that we didn't want to head into the heart of Richmond during rush hour, especially with 2 cars. So we pulled into into Continental Centre with the intention of dropping off one of the cars. However, we weren't feeling that creative and settled on something there which turned out to be Yuu Japanese Tapas.

Not knowing a whole lot about the place, I quickly took a gander at Mijune's post and steered clear of the ramen. We ended up starting with the Fried Squid Tentacles which were very chewy and dry. They were crisp though and not greasy. There was a decent amount of flavour from the mayo and sweet chili sauce. Viv didn't really care for it and I had to endure chewing the rest of it. For my main, I had the Curry Beef Cutlet with rice and fried shrimp. Slightly reminiscent of the Hamburg Steak found at the 29th Ave Cafe, this one was slightly better in terms of texture. The meat was moist and juicy while being well-seasoned. The curry was sweet as per Japanese style, however, it had a nice kick as well. I really liked the aesthetically-pleasing fried shrimp. They were hot and crispy.

Viv decided to try the Kimchi Fried Rice which arrived as a set including soup, oshinko and edamame. This was a fairly large portion and ended up to be pretty good. The rice was on the softer side, but was soaked with flavour. It had a nice spiciness combined with enough seasoning. The tender chunks of pork were a nice surprise in each bite. Again, the rice was a bit moist, but the flavours made up for it. Now by virtue of the fact I stayed away from the not-so-good dishes may have not given me a clear picture of the place. For what we had it wasn't bad except for the squid. Now the squid would be one of those "tapas" dishes which is the restaurant namesake. Strange to see that most of the menu was not really full of tapas options though...

The Good:
- Fairly decent portion-to-price ratio
- Okay service

The Bad:
- Jury is still out on whether this qualifies as a tapas joint or not

Mui Ngo Gai (Kingsway)

It almost seems like a ritual for us to go for Pho after Sunday morning hockey (I wrote this awhile ago!). I guess it is the best combination of inexpensive and somewhat healthy. Not really with a destination in mind, we headed to Kingsway in search of Vietnamese food. Naturally, that would not be a difficult thing to do since there is a Vietnamese restaurant practically on every block. That is why we just randomly went to the corner of Kingsway and Victoria. Ah yes, the former location of Pho Bich Nga... We didn't end up going to the restaurant that replaced the offensively and humorously named former occupant. Instead, we found the brand spanking new location of Mui Ngo Gai. If this name rings a bell, it is indeed the same people who run the Nanaimo location. This new place occupies a formerly popular tenant as well - Double Double.

Mui Ngo Gai's claim to fame is their diverse menu which offers cuisine from both the North and South parts of Vietnam. Hence, you'll see a whole bunch of things that are not typical of a Pho joint. However, much like Chinese restaurants that try to cover too many different regional cuisines, things much get lost in translation. With all the choices on the menu, we pretty much stuck to the regular stuff partly because some of the more exotic dishes are not available until after 4:00pm. With that said, they were able to make the dinner entree I had ordered (more on that later). Milhouse predictably had a Combo Platter with vermicelli, BBQ pork, salad roll and spring roll. As you can see, this was a large plate of food with BBQ pork skewers that were slightly charred. Good flavour and very tender. The salad roll was not bad being rolled tightly with a well-balanced dipping sauce. Despite its disfigured appearance, the spring rolls were crispy with a tasty non-gritty filling.

Kaiser Soze took my first choice which was the Bun Bo Hue. Turns out I didn't miss much because the broth was very mild with only slight hints of lemongrass and spice. Noodles were fine while there was no absence of tender meats and pork's blood. No pork knuckle though. Of all the things I could've ordered, I really wanted to try the Pho Dac Biet as a baseline of sorts. In the end, it was decent. The noodles were al dente and not clumpy while the meats were plentiful and tender. The soup base was on the weaker side though. It was mostly sweet with not a huge meat component. Now everyone gave me a hard time for ordering such a "typical" item. So in response, I decided to try a dinner specialty dish being the Thit Heo Kho Tau (Braised Pork & Egg in Coconut Juice). Yes, I ate 2 meals... The things I do for this blog! Wait, Mijune can do 3 meals, so this would only be 2nd course for her. As clearly evidenced in the picture, it is no wonder I could eat 2 meals since this one was super small. Yes, count'em, that's 2 eggs and 5 pieces of pork. Now it did come with a bowl of rice and similarly to a curry, there needn't be a huge portion anyways. For what was there, the pork was super tender and flavourful. Despite the use of coconut juice, I still found that flavour component a bit weak. Loved the eggs though - nice texture combined with a depth of flavour.

As if this wasn't enough food for me, JuJu and I shared an order of the Banh Bot Loc wrapped in banana leaves. These are essentially glutinous tapioca, shrimp and pork dumplings. I found the texture to be slightly soft and the flavour to quite mild. I've had better, but these were okay. We had to share them since we were quite full at this point. Yet, that did not stop JuJu from having a combo plate of his own consisting of Lemongrass Chicken and Spring Rolls with vermicelli. The chicken was super moist and juicy with good flavour and charring. The spring roll were the same as Milhouse's order. In the end, we were pretty satisfied with our food and really appreciated the modern decor. Much nicer than their old location. The food is generally solid, if not unspectacular. We appreciate the diverse menu, but question some of the pricing. It really gets up there with the specialty dishes.

The Good:
- Diverse menu
- Clean and modern dining space
- Decent eats

The Bad:
- Specialty items are pricey
- Trying to represent too many different regional cuisines?

Sunny Noodle House

The Chinese dive. We've all seen them. Those tiny hole-in-the-walls with little more than the bare minimum (and sometimes not even) usually offer up good eats at rock-bottom prices. There used to be many more of these places around. But, just like the evolution of the chain restaurant (see Bino's), many of these places have given way to much nicer restaurants. Imagine my curiosity when I found out about a new place called Sunny Noodle House in Surrey. Now this place is truly a dive. Nothing fancy here. In fact, this place is a one-man show. Really! The really nice dude there takes orders, runs the cash register, cooks, cleans and serves. Not sure how he does it... I mean, if one were to eat here, they really need to put up with the slight wait. There are no other employees! How does he have time to go to the washroom???

Since I was hungry, I decided to go for 2 dishes starting with the Singapore Fried Vermicelli. As the yellow tinge clearly illustrates, there was a considerable curry kick to this. I wouldn't call it spicy, but it was definitely not bland. The noodles were slightly chewy while a touch dry. I would've preferred the shrimp to have a snappier texture while the absence of BBQ pork detracted from the overall flavour. Despite this, I still liked it. For my second item, I had one of my favs being the Salted Fish & Chicken Fried Rice. This was slightly greasy with rice that was a smidgen past al dente. There was a tonne of salted fish which made the rice very salty. I really didn't mind it too much because I've had my fair share of bland versions one too many times.

Not satisfied with only the 2 dishes I had tried, I made a return visit a couple of weeks later. The nice man recognized me and gave me a warm welcome. Yes, it was him running the whole show again. This time, I was the only customer, so things were a little less hectic. I decided to try a bowl of their Chicken Wonton Soup. Well, the positives first - the wontons were pretty good. The filling was light, moist and naturally flavourful. However, the soup was laughable. If a sprinkle of soy sauce into boiling water constitutes wonton soup... For my main plate of food, I went for the Curry Chicken on Rice lunch special for $4.95. This was a good amount of food for the price. Lots of vibrant peppers with tender boneless chicken meat bathed in a radioactive yellow curry sauce completely covered the rice. The sauce itself was very mild while still exhibiting a good amount of flavour (which was on the verge of being salty). It could've stood to be a tad spicier. But hey. I really shouldn't complain about anything. The food is cheap, portions are large and more than acceptable in quality. Honestly, I'm just amazed how this one dude can do everything all by himself: chef, sous-chef, waiter, cashier, busboy and greeter.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Large portions
- Friendly one-man show

The Bad:
- One man show means many areas are lacking (ie. expeditious service)

Hot Pot @ Happy Valley Chinese Kitchen

*Restaurant is now closed*

2 buffets in a day huh? Either I had a death wish or I was training to immigrate south of the border. Well, actually neither. For some odd reason, it just worked out that way. At the very least, the dinner AYCE would be somewhat healthier since it was hot pot. Meeting up with Rich Guy and Toolman in Burnaby close to the New West border, it would seem a bit confusing for some to see us dining on AYCE hot pot (although there are a few nearby). Yah, that's what I thought when I found out that Happy Valley Chinese Kitchen was offering AYCE hot pot. When we first walked into the place, I was pretty skeptical. First of all, we were the only patrons there and that would be the case for the rest of our meal. Second, this was a regular restaurant offering hot pot, which usually means they are not as equipped nor stocked as much as an actual hot pot joint.

Despite my 2 reservations about the place, the owner lady (I assume) was very friendly and made us feel welcomed. Since no one seemed to want spicy broth and the fact I already had Indian AYCE for lunch, we went for just the plain ol' regular broth. On the items checklist, we went for almost everything and it actually too awhile for the plates to arrive. I can only assume that since this is not a hot pot restaurant, the ingredients are not exactly ready to go immediately. When things did start arriving, it came fast and furious. I don't think I ate a bite until 15 minutes later. So many pictures to take! When I finally got down to business, I gave the Shaved Rib-Eye a try first. From appearance alone, the beef looked pretty fresh, albeit it was probably previously frozen so that they could shave it. No biggie though. And just like your typical rib-eye, it wasn't super tender, yet it was tender enough.

We knew for certain that the Shaved Pork was frozen because it came out frozen. Again, no matter, that is pretty standard in hot pot land. When it was cooked, it had a pleasant chewiness to it while not exhibiting any bad "porkiness". However, the same could not be said about the Pork Stomach and Beef Honeycomb Tripe. I found the pork stomach to be rather gamy and tough. The beef tripe was even more tough. They obviously did not tenderize it. When I took it out of the boiling broth and tried to eat it, it was akin to chewing on leather. I actually couldn't break it down in order to swallow it. In the end, I gave up. At the very least, it was not gamy, so I guess they had ran it through water for long enough.

To illustrate my statement about the place not being an actual hot pot restaurant, we can clearly see that the Fish Balls were of the store-bought variety. We find freshly made meat balls in many of the dedicated hot pot joints in the GVRD. It is almost like finding a non-shrimp wonton in a wonton noodle house these days. Rare and frankly inexcusable. At least offer an all-shrimp wonton as an option. I digress. So all I can say about the fish ball was that it was pretty typical. At least it was not frozen, or it was defrosted. The New Zealand Mussels were also pretty typical being the pre-cooked defrosted variety. We also ordered a variety of veggies and mushrooms and they were more or less fresh looking and tasting.

On another plate, we had the Fish Tofu and Squid Tentacles. And once again, the fish tofu was pretty standard stuff. I did like that it was in big chunks though. As for the tentacles, they could've been more tenderized. I found them chewy, even with experimentation with cooking times. With that being said, I could eat them, so they weren't horrible. Moving along to more offal (and I ate all of it since they didn't want to touch it), the Beef Tendon arrived on the same plate as the Beef Meatballs. The tendon was precooked properly where it was soft, yet did not disintegrate in the boiling broth. The meatballs were your typical Vietnamese super pureed and tenderized variety.

We actually had much more items but they were pretty standard and really, there is no reason to talk about them. As you can probably ascertain, the hot pot here is pretty mediocre at best. As mentioned, Happy Valley Kitchen is not a dedicated hot pot restaurant, so expectations have to be reasonable. However, there are other hot pot joints around, in particular Pearl Hot Pot and if you want to stretch the genre, Posh. These are better in my opinion and that is probably why we were the only customers around for the duration of our meal. I guess the next time I wander by Happy Valley, I can give their regular menu a try.

The Good:
- Friendly service
- There's a parking lot

The Bad:
- Hot pot is pretty mediocre in terms of overall ingredients

The Original Bombay Palki

*Location closed due to fire*

"The Original Bombay Palki???" exclaimed Nikita about a year ago when she noticed that it had opened up on Scott Road. Were these the same people behind the former Bombay Palki out on 128th and 72nd? It became Sohi's Incredible Indian Cuisine, then now The Yellow Chilli. Well, we did attempt to try The Original Bombay Palki back then to no avail. It was closed and furthermore, it was exclusively vegetarian. No meat? Yikes. Butter Chicken without the chicken is just not quite the same. It's like a Chinese restaurant without a filthy washroom! So we never tried again. However, just recently I noticed that they now serve meat and to boot, they have a lunch buffet for $7.49. Well, that just beckoned for me to try it out, despite the fact I was scheduled to go for AYCE hot pot later that night.

After I took a seat, I asked the server if they were related to the former Bombay Palki. Apparently they are not and in fact, they just took over this particular restaurant recently. She hurriedly set up the buffet as there were no customers prior to my arrival. For $7.49, there was a pretty good selection. Since they were still setting up the buffet, I started with the few items that were ready. The Mutter Paneer was smooth and creamy. The cheese was soft and pleasant while the entire dish exhibited an underlying spice. Due to my hunger, I may have been too excited and scooped up too much Curry Chicken (they were whole drumsticks). I learned to regret that later when more food came out... This was not bad. It had loads of depth with a slight spicy kick. The last item on my first place was the Palak Chicken. I found the palak to be creamy and smooth with meaty chunks of chicken that were moist. There were bits of spice throughout which added flavour and psychologically felt more tasty. As mentioned, the palak was smooth which was not impacted by the spice bits.

For my next plate, I had the standard being the Butter Chicken. There was a good balance between tomato paste and cream (with a slight slant to the tomato). There was good flavour without the liberal use of salt. But the best thing of all was the use of tandoori chicken which was smoky and slightly burnt. This added a rich flavour that is often missing in some versions of butter chicken. I couldn't be as enthusiastic about the Dhal Curry though. The lentils seemed to be overcooked and the curry was really watery and lacking in depth. The Veggie Pakora was pretty good despite sitting in a warming tray for who-knows-how-long. There was good flavour and it was still relatively crisp.

For my 3rd plate (yes, I was getting full at this point), I had the Chana Masala consisting of chickpeas and potatoes. The chickpeas retained a firm texture which was good. The potatoes were fork-tender while maintaining its shape and integrity. The whole dish was only mildly spicy with some sweetness. Lastly, I had the Green Beans and Potato Masala which was one of my favourites despite the complete absence of meat. Although the beans were no longer firm, they still held up in the warmer. The potatoes were similar to the previous dish. Once again, there was an underlying spiciness. The Naan was served fresh. It was chewy and fluffy with a nice char on the exterior. In the end I ate nearly all of the naan and all 3 of the dishes pictured in this post. I was super stuffed while satisfied at the same time.

The Good:
- Cheap AYCE
- Pretty decent food quality
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- Not sure if they get any busier, but it was pretty empty thoughout my lunch, would the food stay fresh?

Hubbub Sandwiches

It appears that the gourmet sandwich craze just won't go away. In fact, I'm not even sure if it really is a fad after all. In addition to the existing joints and chains, the specialty sandwich shops continue to chug along. I guess it really shouldn't be a surprise. Sandwiches are not intimidating, portable and quick to eat. Oh, they should generally be inexpensive as well; but that is a thing of the past with the addition of premium ingredients and funky storefronts. Heck, even the humble Mexican torta sells for $10.00 and up here at Las Tortas. I guess Vancouverites are willing to pay for Meat and Bread, which incidentally is the namesake of one of the better sandwich joints in town.

And now we can add Hubbub Sandwiches to the mix. Located smack dab in the middle of Downtown, Hubbub is primed to service the lunch hour crowd. With that in mind, Whipping Girl suggested we do lunch since their Prawn Sandwich came highly recommended. All of Hubbub's sammies start with a toasty baguette consisting of pickled jalapenos, creamy garlic sauce, romaine, cilantro and a strip of crunchy caramelized onion. Hence, there is quite the flavour punch due to these ingredients with a combination of spicy, tang, sweet and savoury. I thought the sweet snappy prawns worked nicely in the sandwich, however, there were a few issues. First, I found the baguette to be far too hard which made the sandwich a bit difficult to eat. Secondly, that made the ingredients squirt out, which made for bites of bread with no ingredients. One suggestion would be to double-up on the prawns.

For myself, I ordered the Pork Sandwich that consisted of 24-hour marinated pork which then was slow-roasted. This was a solid offering. The meat was nicely textured and full-bodied in flavour. For me, the standard items in all the Hubbub sandwiches worked the best with the pork. From the sweet crunchy onion to the pickled jalapenos, the pork meshed with everything and was well-balanced in flavour. I think the depth of the meat stood up to the other ingredients. For good measure, I also got the Turkey Sausage Sandwich. They really loaded up this sucker with tonnes of sausage. I do realize that sausage is a whole lot less expensive than prawns, but I think the amount of filling made this sandwich more satisfying. The prawn seemed a bit empty in comparison. The herby and slightly spice sausage also worked well with the standard ingredients. Lastly, we shared a Clean Coleslaw for our veggie kick of the day. It was unique tasting with the combination of 2 types of cabbage, mint, cilantro and sunflower seats. Full of unique flavours and refreshing. Definitely something different. As for the sandwiches, they were solid and as whole, tasty. The one thing I would personally like to see is softer bread.

The Good:
- Loved the standard ingredients in every sandwich
- The sandwich is actually quite filling
- Simple and focused

The Bad:
- For us, the bread is too hard and dry

Draw Winner

Just a quick note that the winner of this years draw is Elyna Foong! Elyna, please email me direct at admin@shermansfoodadventures.com and I'll make arrangements for you get your $50 gift card! Congrats!