Gino's

"I don't want any Indian food nor other Asian food for all that matters", exclaimed Fussy Boy. "Uh, we're in Surrey you know...", I replied. The only choices we had were the chain restaurants and honestly, that wasn't really in the cards. What to do now? Well, we had to drive over the Patullo Bridge to find that non-Asian, non-chain restaurant that he was looking for. Oh, to complicate things even more, it had to be reasonably-priced as well. One more thing, it was snowing too. Thank goodness I drove the SUV. Where did we end up? At a completely random place called Gino's. If I had to describe the place, it is in the same ilk of a Gigi's or Neighbour's. You know, a little bit of Greek, a bit of Italian and some North American food to boot. That was partly what drew us to the place since we needed variety.

Fussy Boy went for the Greek food in the Beef Souvlaki. This was a neatly constructed plate of food as evidenced in the picture. The beef was slightly chewy, yet not overly so. It was grilled with a nice char which looked good and provided some smokiness. The rice was rice where it wasn't mushy and the Greek salad was vibrant and fresh. There was just enough dressing on top to provide the acidity and olive oil to go with the feta and dry herbs. Although the potato was not of the roasted lemon variety, it was perfectly textured being soft while retaining its shape. For myself, I went for my standby in the Roast Lamb. It was a fairly decent portion considering the price. I found it very moist and tender with only some parts of the exterior being dry. The meat was well-seasoned with hits of garlic. Similarly to the souvlaki, the other items on the plate were good. I liked the tzatziki as it was thick with plenty of cucumber.

Mrs. Spray Bottle went for the Gyro which arrived stuffed with tender beef and lamb, shredded lettuce, red onions, tomatoes and tzatziki in a warm pita. She enjoyed this very much since the pita was soft while the ingredients were fresh. The meat was flavourful and when combined with the thick tzatziki, there was a good balance of textures. Rather than the regular side of fries, she opted to substitute with a Poutine. Although the gravy was rich and flavourful without being salty, the generic fries didn't do it for us. If they had used fresh cut fries, it would've been better. Furthermore, the cheese curds were of the soft mushy type rather than the more desirable "squeaky" ones.

Lastly, Immature Girl had the Veggie Burger. Yes, the veggie burger. I'm not trying to hate on veggie burgers, but for restaurants that don't feature a diverse vegetarian menu, it can be an iffy experience. Whatever the case, they did their best to spruce up the vegetarian patty with plenty of mushrooms and cheese. The result was a surprisingly tasty burger. She didn't miss the meat and there was no absence of flavour. For what it's worth, Gino's is not a fine dining establishment. As such, the food should be judged fairly. For us, the prices were more than reasonable for the amount of grub on the plate. Furthermore, the food was above-average for this class of restaurant. Combined with friendly service and a decently comfortable dining space, it ain't a bad choice to grab a bit in the area.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Decent dining space
- Friendly service

The Bad:
- It ain't gourmet dining, so don't expect it to be
- Some of the proteins were not very large (but considering the price...)

Sawasdee Thai

Finally. It has happened. No, it's not world peace nor have Chinese restaurant washrooms become clean enough where we can walk barefoot. Rather, my Friday night hockey games are starting at a reasonable hour. That in turn means we can actually go eat at most restaurants afterwards. So for the time being, no more wonton noodle joints, 24-hour "last resort" restaurants and generally sub-standard food. However, despite our earlier games, some restaurants remain out of our reach due to their relatively early closing times (on a Friday no-less). Originally, we were planning on hitting up Bob Loves Thai Food (which has been on our to-eat list forever), but they close at 9:00pm. Not only does this prevent us from going after Friday hockey, that time never worked for our Softball team either since our games ended at around 8:30pm. So as a second choice of sorts, we ended up heading to Sawasdee Thai.

Long considered an above-average Thai restaurant in Vancouver, Sawasdee changed hands not long ago and the reviews have been mixed. With 6 people, this was a good way to see for ourselves if the food was up to snuff. Actually, we almost lost Milhouse since he separated his shoulder during the hockey game. However, he was a gamer. Despite this, he was able to come out to eat since he didn't need his shoulder to chew. He did leave a trail of water on the restaurant floor as his ice pack leaked. For those not in the know, it appeared he had a bladder issue... Okay. Onto the food, we started with the Chicken Satay. There was a decent amount of moist breast meat on the skewers. It was well-seasoned and the char marks added a nice flavour. However, we were not impressed with the dip as it was very sweet and overwhelmed the chicken. The side of cucumbers did add some brightness but they were curiously bland. Our second appie was the Spring Rolls which were very large and stuffed with bean thread and mushroom. These were fried up beautifully crisp and none-too-oily. The filling was slightly dry, yet properly seasoned. Again, the dip was quite sweet and we only used it conservatively.

For our mains, Emilicious chose the Roasted Duck Curry which was a fan favourite. Served in a large square bowl, there was an abundance of tender duck slices, bamboo shoots, peppers, tomatoes, basil and pineapple. We liked how there were no duck bones, which made the eating experience that much better. Flavourwise, the curry was smooth, sweet and only mildly spicy (as per the table's request, if it were up to me solely, I'd go for super hot!). The dish I chose was the Gai Yaang (Thai-style BBQ Chicken). The chicken was served in large pieces which ranged from moist and tender to dry and dense. It really depended on whether one got the dark meat or the white meat. With that being said, the white meat wasn't inedible, it was just not juicy. The chicken was pretty mild on its own, however, the accompanying sauce added the necessary flavour. It was mostly sweet with some zing and spice.

Sweet Tooth originally wanted some red curry dish but since we already had the duck red curry, she settled on the Gai Pad Ma Khua. This was a stir-fry consisting of eggplant, chicken, peppers, basil and black bean. It was mostly mild and predominantly sweet with nicely texture eggplant which was not mushy nor "styrofoamy". The chicken, on the other hand, was quite dry and lacking in flavour. Due to liberal use of palm sugar, the black bean was not even noticeable, as with the basil. Next was the Pad Kee Mao which was another stir-fry dish of beef, baby corn, peppers, basil and fresh chili. Although the dish looked vibrant and appealing, the beef was nothing but. It was dry, chewy and barely edible. The rest of the dish was fine with crisp veggies and a solid basil hit. Much like the other dishes, there was no holding back in the use of sugar.

As for the starches, we got the Pineapple Fried Rice and a Traditional Pad Thai. The fried rice consisted of onion, tamato, egg, pineapple and dried shrimp. The rice itself was slightly wet, yet that was okay considering the ingredients. Again, common to the entire meal, the rice was pretty sweet. We were a bit indifferent with it. The Traditional Pad Thai was on the paler side, yet that was expected since we chose the tamarind version over the ketchup/sweet chili sauce type. Texturally, the noodles were good being chewy and not wet. The shrimp had a good snap texture while there was a curious absence of ground peanuts. We were expecting a touch more tang in this and once again, it was predominantly sweet. This was acceptable, but had the potential to be much better. Overall, we were satisfied with our meal despite various issues. One thing that we all agreed on was the level of sweetness of the food - it was excessive. Now, this might have had something to do with us requesting a mild spice level, which would allow for other flavours to be more prominent. Bottom line is we've had better Thai food before. Yet, Sawasdee does the job for a reasonable price with decent portions in a relatively nice dining space.

The Good:
- Okay pricing considering everything
- Decent portions
- Pretty good service

The Bad:
- Everything was a bit too sweet

Red Card Sports Bar + Eatery

"You heading to the Auto Show this year?", queried Costanza. "I think so, but I'm not sure if I can go early", I replied. Turns out that he was thinking about a later time as well since he had to take his son for swimming lessons in the evening. For me, I had to wait for Viv to get home first. I decided to ask if Rich Guy and Vandelay wanted to join us and at first, both were hesitant. For Rich Guy, he had to take his daughter to her swimming lessons as well and Vandelay had to put his youngest to bed first. Yikes. How times have changed. Gone are the "last-minute-drop-what-you-are-doing-and-go" activities. I knew this a long time ago, but seems like we are all in the same boat. Well, since we were all out of our respective households, it was a good opportunity for us to grab some late night eats afterwards.

Trying to stay within the Downtown core, we took a stroll over to Red Card Sports Bar + Eatery. It seemed like a proper venue for 4 dudes right? Yah, well, imagine the banter when we decided to order 4 balls to share? Well, to be clear, they were 4 Arancini balls described on the menu as fried risotto balls stuffed with mozzarella, peas and prosciutto cotto with marinara. These were pretty good with a nice crisp non-greasy exterior kissed by some Parm. On the inside, the risotto was moist and flavourful maintaining some texture. It was certainly cheesy and zesty. Next up was the Portobello Fries. These reminded me of the ones at The Fray, but not as good. The biggest issue here was the crumb coating - it was far too thick. Hence, the mushroom got lost and in fact, didn't fully cook either (which is not too bad considering that overcooked would've been worse). The dense coating was quite crispy on the outside and once again kissed with Parm. However, it was a chore to eat and it felt like we were eating fried dense crumbs.

One thing that really stood out on the menu was the Red Card Poutine consisting of mild chicken curry, shredded mozzarella and hand cut Kennebec rosemary fries. I wanted to like this really badly, but in the end, it was kinda goopy and too mild for my tastes. Now, I completely understand why they didn't amp the spice level since they need to appeal to a wider audience. So I'll cut them some slack there. The bottom line was it did taste pretty good as a mild sauce. Now, I only wished they were a little less aggressive with it because most of the fries underneath soaked it up and became clumpy. The use of regular mozzarella was not the best choice either as it became lost in the curry. Moving past the appies, the other most prevalent item on the menu was the Neapolitan-style pizzas. As I quote Vandelay (who has actually been to Naples) from his previous visit (and this one too) at Red Card: "they have all the tools and ingredients to make a great pizza, but something gets lost in the process".

This was perfectly illustrated in the Margherita. From the looks of it, it was pretty legit with a crust made with caputo tipo "oo” flour topped with Fior di latte, San Marzano tomato sauce, fresh basil and sea salt. We enjoyed the great tasting tomato sauce along with the cheese and fresh basil. The problem? The crust just didn't exhibit enough leoparding aka charring and blistering. Hence, it didn't have that rich nutty taste nor was it able to stand up to the wet ingredients. This was further exacerbated by the use of more toppings on the Hat Trick with Sausage, sopressata, bacon and mozzarella. It had great flavour but the crust just wilted and died on this one.

Trying to get a feel for the entire menu, we had the Italian Spiced Pulled Pork Sandwich. The meat itself was quite nice being in big chunks (which kept it both meaty and moist). The sauce itself was quite sweet while the coleslaw had no impact in terms of flavour nor texture. The bun held up quite nicely to the wet ingredients though. We also loved the fresh-cut Kennebec fries on their own rather than the poutine version. Lastly, we had the Rigatoni with a slow-cooked spicy ragu. This was actually not bad considering where we were. The pasta was al dente and the ragu was very meaty and spicy. There was actually quite a lot of meat hidden within the pasta. In the end, the food was hit and miss. However, if we take into account that Red Card is more than just about the food (like catching the game and/or for some brews), the overall experience was decent.

The Good:
- Pretty nice dining space
- A good place to hang out and catch the game

The Bad:
- Food is hit and miss
- Service was friendly, but was rather confused and forgetful

King's Chinese Cuisine

"Hey, my mom wants to go for Dim Sum tomorrow", Viv yells out from the living room. For the love of... Shoot me now will you. Better yet, just feed me some recalled beef products. That way, with a heavy dose of e-coli, it would give me an excuse not to go. "Oh and she wants to go to Dung Sing Chin again", Viv adds. OMFG. No offense to the place, but must we always go to the same place??? It's either there or Fortune City. I guess they are really set in their ways. As an alternative, I suggested that we try somewhere new or at the very least some place we haven't been to in awhile. Ultimately, my mother-in-law decided to veto almost every restaurant that we could come up with. Excuses ranged from "too far" to "too noisy". WTF? Dim Sum is not Dim Sum without some old lady screaming at the top of her lungs at the next table! Wait, that would just be my mother-in-law at our table... Anyways, I finally threw a hissy-fit that would make Veruca Salt look docile. That, in turn, allowed us to head over to our first choice, which was King's Chinese Cuisine. Apparently a local favourite, their draw is reasonable prices and decent eats.

The kids, Viv and I arrived a bit early which allowed us to snag a table in the relatively small dining room. 15 minutes passed and no sign of the MIL. I was partly annoyed and mostly hungry. I hate watching other people eat. Since the kiddies were hungry, we decided to order first. Well, I was hungry too... Once again, we started with dessert in the Egg Tarts. I realize that it is not as easy as it seems when it comes to food expedition during Dim Sum service. However, it is annoying to eat sweets first. Then again, my kids didn't mind, so what do I know? As for the tarts, the puff pasty was doughy and dense seemingly almost underdone. The egg filling was nice though with a smooth texture and the right amount of sweetness. Deviating from his usual rice noodle rolls and/or rice hot pot, my son actually requested the Fried Taro Dumplings. These were not bad with a good mashed taro-to-
pork filling ratio. However, the pork was slightly dry and pretty bland (as was the taro). At the very least, it wasn't oily and was basically acceptable. Right on cue, my son went back to his old ways and we had to get the Soy-Fried Rice Noodle Rolls. As evidenced in the picture, these were not all that deep in colour nor was there a whole lot of caramelization. The result was pretty much bland rice noodle rolls that needed an extra side of sweet soy. Furthermore, the noodles were missing that pan-fried flavour. Rather, it was as if they had tossed it in luke-warm oil and light soy sauce.

When my MIL finally arrived, she ordered a few of her favourites including the Jellied Chicken Feet. Yes, sounds delish eh? Well, it is more of a textural experience than anything else where the skin and gelatin are usually prepared so there is a certain resistance and snap. The one we had here was a touch on the undercooked side and slightly bland as well. My MIL proceeded to berate our server regarding the dish's deficiencies to our utter horror and embarrassment. Tact is not one of her strengths... Did she really want our food to arrive with "extra" ingredients or worse... "sauce"??? A very good reason to avoid eating out with her. Anyways, another one of her choices was the Deep Fried Smelt tossed in salt, garlic and chilies. This was a pretty decent attempt with lots of smelt with the requisite roe. The batter was slightly heavy, yet not terribly so. Despite the appearance of plenty of chilies and garlic, the dish was actually quite mild tasting and according to Viv, not impactful. I didn't mind it and appreciated the lack of grease.

Moving onto the Shrimp Rice Noodle Roll, it was pretty stiff and doughy. The shrimp were pretty small and despite being properly textured, had very little impact. Continuing on the topic of shrimp, the Haw Gow were pretty average. The dumpling skin was wet and gummy while the shrimp/shrimp mousse filling was a touch soft. There was not much in the way of a snap from the shrimp mix. On a positive note, they were large and seasoned properly with a good balance of flavours. On the other hand, the Sui Mai were more of a one-note taste wonder. All I got was sweetness and little in the way of savouriness. The meat was dense and not really all that bouncy in texture. At least it wasn't very fatty, which in theory could've contributed to the dense texture. Furthermore, they were a touch pale looking, which does matter since we eat with our eyes first.

Now something with good texture was the Beef Meatballs. This is not as easy as it appears. Properly textured balls are a work of art. Er... Wait that's a bad analogy, unless we were talking about art history in Europe. Let me rephrase that. To achieve the desired "not-naturally-occurring" bounce meat texture, corn starch and baking soda plus a whole lot of food processing are involved. I'm sure you could in theory bounce one of these meatballs on the ground. Actually, I once dropped a Vietnamese beef meatball and it literally bounced across the kitchen (mind you, that is a totally different texture). Makes you wonder how unnatural that is... Enough of my random blabbering, the beef meatballs here were the proper texture with a good mix of water chestnuts and green onion.

Now if you look at exhibit A, you will find a crime scene of severed Chicken Feet. Yah, I know it is a typical Dim Sum dish, but really, these were terrible. So much so, it resembled more like butchered chicken feet than something we'd want to eat. These were pale and obviously not fried correctly. Usually, chicken feet are fried in all of the old oil because there is no need to use new oil (I bet you didn't want to know this...). Hence the dark colour is a result of that oil. Sometimes you can taste it, if the chicken feet aren't prepared properly. These pathetic things were scrawny and bland. Probably one of the worst versions we've ever had.

Okay, I'll admit it. I am a glutton for punishment. Why? Well, why else would I order Xiao Long Bao at a Cantonese Dim Sum service? It could be plain stupidity as well... Whatever the case, we had low expectations. These XLBs pretty much met those expectations with very little soup (which was more like melted fat). Furthermore, the meat filling was one-note in flavour (pork tasting) without any ginger hit. However, the dumpling skin wasn't too thick nor was the meat too gritty. Therefore, for what it was, it was a decent dumpling (just not an XLB). For our filler item, we got the Sparerib Rice which included another chicken foot and a stalk of yau choy. There was a good amount of meaty pork spareribs on top, however, they were on the softer side with little chew. They were well-seasoned without being salty. The rice was mostly dry and chewy except for a few wet spots.

Lastly, we got the Shrimp Spring Rolls because he loves the fried wrapper. Yes, he doesn't prefer the filling so much. Well, there wasn't much issue here since the spring roll had barely any shrimp inside. And the ones that we found were completely lost in the crunchy wrapper. If they were going to be so skimpy with the shrimp, they should've just offered a regular spring roll consisting of veggies and pork. At the very least, the rolls were not greasy. As you can clearly ascertain, the Dim Sum at King's was pretty hit and miss. Of course, with such a small restaurant, it would be unfair to expect top notch Dim Sum. With that being said, we've been to some small places (such as Good Choice) and they've been better. Yet, with reasonable prices and decent service, King's serves their local clientele well.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Decent service

The Bad:
- Hit and miss
- A bit dark inside

Dim Sum @ Gingeri

Whenever Goose is back in town, he often suggests that we head for Dim Sum. However, it usually means a visit to Victoria Seafood Restaurant at Royal Centre. Hey, I don't mind the place and in fact, that was the place Viv and I held our wedding banquet. On the other hand, with sentimental thoughts put aside, there are better choices to be found in the GVRD. So I proactively suggested we try some place different, particularly in Richmond. Richmond? Why? Well, it is the mecca of Chinese food in the Lower Mainland after all. That almost negates the driving issues... Almost... Since we had to pay Toys R Us a visit anyways, I figured Gingeri would be our best bet. We had made a reservation which more or less we got it on time. A major feat for any Chinese restaurant I might add (for Dim Sum service that is).

So what did we start with? The Egg Tarts of course! Dessert? Hey, it's a new fad, reverse eating. You must try it sometime. Instead of a appetizer, why not a lava cake or a baklava? Of course I'm kidding, but then again, we've seen stranger food trends... You see, in a Chinese restaurant, food expedition (especially during Dim Sum) is pretty random. Sort of whatever is ready goes out of the kitchen. Anyways, the Egg Tarts were not exactly my cup of tea (pardon the pun considering Dim Sum is AKA "yum cha" or drink tea). The tart shells were more of the butter doughy type rather than the puff pastry version. Hence it was denser and to me at least, did not go with the soft egg custard. Too bad really since the custard was silky and not too sweet. Next up were the Rice Noodle Rolls (we got one each of the Shrimp, Beef and Ja Leun). The rice noodle was soft while not sticky nor loose. Each roll was neatly prepared with plenty of filling. The large shrimp had a good snap as well as exhibiting a natural sweetness. I particularly liked the beef filling as it was soft, yet still meaty. The salty donut in the ja leun was crisp and went really well with the soft noodle. It was too bad the darn thing was so small that we had to get 2 orders.

Something that I normally do not prefer in Haw Gow are bamboo shoots. I don't think they add much in texture since they get limp in the cooking process. Furthermore, when not prepared correctly, the smell and flavour of bamboo shoots overwhelm the delicate shrimp. Well, apparently, they did a fine job here since there was no stinky aroma from the bamboo shoots despite its obvious existence in the shrimp filling. In fact, the shrimp and shrimp mousse filling were sweet with the essence of sesame oil. The texture had a snap while the dumpling skin had good elasticity. On the other hand, the Sui Mai were not as successful. They were pale and full of chewy pork which did not have any bounce or snap. This could've partially been attributed by the use of lean meat and not much in the way of added fat either. With the lack of fat, meager amount of shiitake mushroom and the some conservative seasoning, the dumplings were pretty bland too.

Much like the beef filling in the rice noodle roll, the Beef Meatballs were just as good (probably because they originated from the same mix). There was a good bounce texture combined with a level of meatiness. The water chestnuts added a nice crunch and brightness to the well-seasoned meat. Another solid dish was the Black Bean Spareribs. Despite the fact you'd need a search party to find the black beans, there was plenty of flavour in the form of garlicky savouriness. As evidenced in the picture, most of the rib pieces were attached to bone which are the best parts. The meat was slightly on the chewier side yet still easily eaten with little effort. Something I really liked was the puffed tofu at the bottom which soaked up all the flavours (and fat). I know it ain't rocket science, but something other than pumpkin made it interesting.

Now for an epic fail - the Phoenix Talons (chicken feet). For those familiar with this dish, if you look closely, it is obvious that the chicken feet were not fried properly. They were so under-fried, they could've passed for boiled if not for its colour. Hence, the skin was hard and the cartilage underneath was inedible. The only saving grace was the abundance of flavour from the black beans and jalapeno peppers. Normally, the Shrimp Mousse Stuffed Eggplant is fried and then laced with a black bean & bell pepper sauce. The version here was tempura-battered and fried. As a finishing touch, it was dusted with chili garlic wok salt. This was pretty good. Due to the batter, the eggplant remained very moist as well as the shrimp mousse. Hence there was a wonderful textural contrast between the crispy exterior and the moist ingredients. The chili garlic wok salt was aromatic and flavourful. It complimented the sweetness of the shrimp.

Normally, we get at least one offal item, however, when there is the Offal Hot Pot, we go big or don't bother. Who can resist a whole pot of lung, tripe, tendon and spleen??? Although it is generally a good idea to braise the meats until tender, this was taken a bit too far here. Most of the pieces were far too soft. It was a big bowl of mushy offal. The tendon and tripe were particularly textureless. At the very least, the seasoning was good with a surprising hit of spiciness. Okay, onto something more universally appealing - the Shrimp Spring Rolls. No offal in here! In fact, these were fantastic. They were crisp, not greasy and full of whole shrimp. Great texture on the shrimp as well as a nice crunch from the addition of wood ear mushrooms. To top it off, there was plenty of seasoning in the form of garlic and a good balance of salt combined with the natural sweetness of the shrimp.

Lastly, we got a filler dish to ensure our fullness. We ordered off the regular menu and ended up with the House Special Fried Noodles. This was served with the fried noodles separate from the ingredients and sauce. The premise behind this was to keep the noodles crisp. However, this was a moot point since the noodles were not all that crispy. Rather, they were greasy and lacking the slightly burnt noodle ends that we are accustomed to. Oily noodles withstanding, the sauce with all of the ingredients was very good. It consisted of BBQ pork, sliced chicken thigh, shrimp, basa, squid, scallops, sliced carrots and yau choy.

I actually left out 3 items from the meal which were some buns and the pan-fried noodle rolls. Just too much to talk about. However, I'm sure you get the gist of it from all the aforementioned food in this blog post. Generally, Dim Sum at the Gingeri is solid with only a few exceptions. Now, you can look at it 2 ways. For the relatively higher prices here, one would expect no duds. On the other hand, we can take the position that there will never be perfect meals, consequently, if over 75% of the food is good, then it is a good meal. For me, I happen to agree with the latter.

The Good:
- Our reservation was somewhat close to being honoured (which is a success in a Chinese restaurant)
- Food is above-average
- Plenty of parking and waiting in the mall for your table is a bonus

The Bad:
- Prices are higher than average
- Service wasn't bad, yet it was rushed too