Ronald-made food!

This post is dedicated to my awesome boyfriend, Ronald :) This post will feature all the food he has made for me!

Cowboy Egg with Starbucks Casi Cielo

Cowboy Egg - cut

Cowboy egg is essentially toasting bread in a pan with butter and cracking an egg in the middle of the bread (after cutting a hole in the center of the bread). It tasted reeeaaaaaaaally good with the butter-toasted bread and a pinch of pepper! I would have this for breakfast everyday. Just perfect :)

Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Spagetti

Cream of Mushroom and Chicken Spagetti paired with Jackson-Triggs' Chardonnay

Hand-Shredded Chicken with Tomato Sauce and Spagetti

Curry Stew with Beef Meatballs

Beef Linguine with Tomato Sauce and Buttery Mashed Potatoes

Minced Beef with Tomato Sauce Spagetti

Lai Taste 瀨之味: Best Parker Place food!

Lai Taste is my go-to place when I am getting food at Parker Place. They are famous for their Portugese Pork Chop Buns (not shown), which costs only $3.50 (or $3.75, I forget) including a drink. It is such a good deal because the bun is enough to fill me up!

My favourite is their fried chicken noodles ($6.00-$6.75) *note: cold drinks are $1 additional. They let you choose from a variety of noodles. I usually go with lai fun (thick vermicelli noodles).
The chicken strips are fried perfectly; enough to give it a slight crunch. The chicken skin has a hint of lemongrass. It comes with a sweet and sour dipping sauce that complements the chicken quite well.

However, most food court food have M.S.G. added, and I suspect this place to be the same. I am always thirsty after consuming their food. Nonetheless, their food is still my favourite in Parker Place.

Steveston Village: Sweet Spot Bakery

Told you I will post soon!

Well, today as usual, I was on Instagram looking at my friends' food pictures. And I came across a picture with couple of macarons with the caption "Sweet Spot Bakery". I immediately looked that up. And oh boy was I in luck! Sweet Spot Bakery happens to be located in Steveston Village (2 minutes drive from my house :P). So I decided to drop by to check out their macarons.

Unfortunately, when I arrived, there did not seem to be any macarons on display. So I asked when they will be done and the lady said in around 2 hours. That was probably a good thing since it gave me the opportunity to try out their other pastries. They have a wide range of pastries to choose from! Ranging from coconut macaroons to tiramisus!

One thing I noticed during my visit was, when the lady behind the counter was picking out the pastries I want, she used her bare hands to obtain the lemon tart. The lemon tart was not sitting on any aluminum foil or paper, which meant she was touching the tart directly. Then she proceeded to ring in my order. The shop should definitely be more cautious about food safety issues!

I ended up picking these 4 delicious looking sweets :) The top is Lemon Tart with Italian Meringue, to the right is White Chocolate Mousse with Lemon Curd and Citrus Shortbread, bottom is Pistachio & Chocolate Opera Cake and lastly Milk Chocolate Mousse with Pecan Brownie and Raspberry Gelée. 

Ronald and I tried the pistachio opera cake and paired it with Starbuck's Casi Cielo. The two really complemented each other. Casi Cielo is a dark roast with "lemon and dark cocoa notes". The cake itself has rich chocolate flavours with hints of pistachio. In between the layers, there are pistachio bits in the fillings. This opera cake is at the appropriate sweetness level and is great with black coffee!

I will be back to try their macarons!

Sakura Sushi: UNI UNI UNI!

Sorry for the MIA! Will be blogging more frequently now :)

This past week, I have been swamped with midterms and quizzes. To finish off a dreadful week AND to start off my reading break, I decided to check out Sakura Sushi's UNI NIGIRI! I have always wanted to try this place after looking at my friend's instagram pictures. I called them in advance at school so I can pick them up when I get to Brighouse station. The location of the restaurant is in Brighouse Station Square near Bob Sandwiches (very convenient location!). Sakura Sushi offers authentic Japanese sushi and sashimi. I believe their chefs are Japanese!

Sakura Sushi always have daily specials. You can always check their facebook page or their website. The day I went, their specials were uni nigiri ($1.50 each), uni sashimi ($9.50) and california rolls and dynamite rolls combo (12 pcs total).

The picture above shows uni nigiri, california roll and dynamite roll combo, Sakura sushi (top box in the left) and chopped scallop (top box in the right). ALL the sushi we got were fresh! I was quite surprised when I tried the dynamite rolls (inside with shrimp tempura). Usually, dynamite rolls consist of close-to-stale shrimps that they drench in batter to cover the taste. But, with this dynamite roll, you can taste the sweetness from the shrimps. Sakura sushi is worth trying as well! I believe it has either salmon or tuna in it along with crab meat and tamago. The roll was well made and did not fall apart.

Uni Nigiri - $1.50/pc

Uni, oh uni. Last time I had uni was at Seto Japanese Restaurant over a year ago! I never really had a "thing" for uni, per say. But, through viewing pictures of uni numerous of times on instagram has spiked my interest again! The uni from Sakura Sushi is fresh. It literally MELTS in your mouth. I would recommend eating it right away. Since I ordered take out, the seaweed became a bit soft and chewy.

Would I recommend Sakura sushi? OH YES.
I think I sense a uni feast with sake some time soon ;)

Sakura Sushi

#4-6390 No.3 Road

Richmond, B.C.

(Behind STAPLES)

Foodie Trip #4: Big River Brew Pub and 007 date

Ronald suggested we should watch a movie on Sunday! We decided on Cloud Atlas but we couldn't make it to the showings. So we settled with Skyfall!

After reading GoodEat Janice's post about Big River, I suggested to give that a try! The pub was quite packed when we arrived. Ronald and I each decided on what we wanted to get and ordered right away. However, we did NOT expect the food to take 40 minutes to arrive. Yes, 40 minutes! The hostess was very apologetic about the situation. She explained that everyone wants to grab a bite before the movie, which was understandable.

Pesto Chicken Penne
Chicken, sweet bell peppers & onions in a creamy basil pesto sauce with parmesan and penne. Served with signature beer bun

Ronald got the penne! The bun on the side is actually a beer bun. The bun was soft and chewy with a strong malt or barley taste. Need to look up recipes on how to make this! Aside from the bun, the penne was average. It could have been served a bit more hot.

BBQ 1/2 Chicken
Half roast chicken smothered in adobo bbq sauce. Served with garlic mashed potatoes & fresh sauteed vegetables

My turn :D I had a chicken craving (again). Scanned the whole menu and settled for this! I was going to get what Janice recommended, but could not recall what she had suggested. The chicken was DELICIOUS! The meat was tender and juicy. The barbecue sauce was rich and definitely brought out the chicken flavour. It would have been nice if there was more sauce for the mashed potatoes as that was a bit dry.
                               

Blonde Ale

Since Big River is a brewery, I wanted to try their beer! I picked the one which seemed like everyone else was getting :P I thought the beer was decent! Definitely better than some of the ones that I have tried.

I would like to visit Big River again, only if I don't have to wait 40 minutes for my food! :(

Big River Brew Pub

180-14200 Entertainment Blvd.

Richmond, BC V6W 1K5

Steveston Village: Outpost Mini Donuts Co.

Yeeeeeeeee! Donuts :)
I have ALWAYS wanted to try this place! Actually, ever since Ronald and I walked passed by the store...:P
The window display of the shop looked really cute and dainty the last time we walked by!

Christmas theme window display

I didn't take a picture of the interior. The store is not too big! When you enter, you can see their open kitchen. On the left there is a fireplace with a sofa. So cozy :)

Assorted mini donuts - some Christmas specials                     

Frying area

My favourites were caramel apple (new, I believe!), cinnamon sugar and homemade maple! You may think this is like Timbits, but NO! Timbits is just coats and coats of sugar.  The flavours are all unique! My sister really liked the wild blackberry!

I highly recommend this cozy donut store! The ladies working there were very nice! Next time, I will definitely stay and enjoy my donuts in the store :)

UBC: The Moon

Update for October - I did not go to any of the places on my list. :( Maybe after final exams...

This was actually my lunch couple weeks ago! I haven't had time to write up a blog post. But here it is!

I got this meal combo at The Moon in UBC SUB's basement. I remember when I was in first year, this meal combo (combo A) was only $3.75. Now it costs $5!

Combo A consists of choice of fried rice/fried noodles and a choice of sides. For sides, they usually have stir-fry veggies, fried chicken wings, sweet and sour pork and something else :P. I go for the chicken wings every time!

The chickens are very crispy. But some times, I don't think the chicken tastes too fresh...and the fried batter masks that taste. So I don't eat this very often! Also, I prefer the fried rice over the noodles as the noodles tend to be kind too dry in my opinion.

This is lunch box fills me up every time! Definitely worth the price (since everything else in the SUB is so expensive...)

Check them out if you are craving for Chinese food :)

http://www.ams.ubc.ca/businesses/the-moon/