Sunway Restaurant- Dead Man's Coffin

One of my very first posts was on Sunway Restaurant, a local Taiwanese restaurant that specializes in a very unique dish called 'Dead Man's Coffin'.

I couldn't find it on the menu last time (how dumb right? I could've asked the waitress...) but this time around I was taking no prisoners! I looked long and hard to find this Dead Man's Coffin dish on the menu and in the end I succeeded!

A lot of people get take out from here because the space is quite small inside. There are only about 5 tables or so.

They have a section in the menu called "Sunway Night Market". Very cute concept as the items in that section are considered very much like 'street food'.

We ordered the Special Deep Fried Tofu ($5.50) and it came piping hot. No, seriously. You should poke a hole to let out some steam or else say goodbye to your taste buds. These were super delicious though once they've cooled.

I remember the Popcorn Chicken ($5.50) being quite tasty last time I came so we ordered it again and it didn't let us down.

The chicken was fried with some basil (traditional Taiwanese style) and cooked to perfection. Good crunch on the inside while extremely juicy on the inside.

Our disappointment of the night was the Wonton in Chili Sauce ($5.50). I honestly have been losing hope when it comes to this dish because I find that most restaurants don't do them justice. Even though it was submerged in what looks to be chili oil, it was not spicy AT ALL.

The Dead Man's Coffin ($6.95) can be essentially described as an Asian style soup in bread bowl. It isn't anything too special in terms of ingredients but it is incredibly troublesome and time consuming to recreate at home.

I was expecting a lot more seafood in the chowder than just the few shrimps, squid, and imitation crab. Even though I've been wanting to try this for so long, I knew it was more of a novelty item than anything.

This is what it looks like afte all the soup has been scooped out. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed eating the box of the bread bowl. The outside was kind of crunchy while the inside remained soaked in the creamy soup.

Last but not least is the Pickled Vegetable Beef Fried Rice ($8.50). Apparently they ran out of beef  for the day so we had to substitute it for chicken. Nevertheless, it was still a very tasty dish.

Based on these reasons:

• give the Dead Man's Coffin a try!
• really good popcorn chicken
• parking is limited 
• very reasonable prices

Service Rating: 2.5/5

Food Rating: 3.5/5

Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Happy Eating!

courtesy of http://www.thehouseofsmiths.com/2011/12/creamy-easy-artichoke-dip-in-bread-bowl.html

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Shanghai House Restaurant - Won't Be Coming Back

I wouldn't say I have very high standards when it comes to food. Sure, I like to eat... but it's pretty apparent that I can enjoy a 4 dollar meal as much as a 40 dollar one. 

I think for me the most important quality is whether the food was worth the price. I'd gladly pay top dollars for amazingly fresh seafood. However, I get super cranky when I have to pay average to expensive prices for low quality food. Which is the case of this restaurant here.

I went to Shanghai House Restaurant in Richmond for Mother's Day. Having heard multiple good reviews, I was pretty stoked to finally be trying it out.

First came our Marinated Jelly Fish ($8.98) appetizer. I think the chef that day had a heavy hand because every dish we had was over salted. This jelly fish was pretty good aside from the overbearing saltiness. Not worth 9 bucks in my opinion.

These Chinese Donuts ($2.98) were done pretty well and would be good with a bowl of congee.

Maybe my expectations were too high after trying the Beef Roll ($5.28) from Peaceful Restaurant, but this in comparison was a complete fail. There was no flakiness in the roti/pancake, it was poorly assembled, and the whole thing tasted like mush.

I enjoyed the Shanghai Wontons in Soup ($6.98). It was over salted though.

Another disappointing dish. We ordered the Wontons in Spicy Sauce ($4.98) which is a traditional Sichuan dish. Normally, the wontons should be soaked in a bed of spicy tangy chili oil sauce but the spicy sauce (as indicated in the name) was nowhere to be found.

courtesy of cookism

This is what 'Wontons in Spicy Sauce' is supposed to look like.

Their Steamed Shanghai Dumplings ($4.98) aka Xiao Long Baos were pretty good with a decent amount of soup in them. Had a funky taste to it but it could have been just me.

Although the Rice Cake with Pork Chop ($6.58) was also quite salty, it was our saving grace. This was the only dish that we deemed acceptable in the entire lineup of dishes we ordered. The rice cakes were soft and drenched in the gooey sauce which made for great comfort food, and the pork chop was fried nicely.

All in all, I cannot foresee myself coming back again to give this restaurant another try. It saddens me because I don't know what happened. Maybe it was an off day for the chef or maybe our family just ordered the wrong items. Although... every item on their menu SHOULD be good enough to be served... so I don't truly believe that.

What do you think? How was your experience at this restaurant? Let me know in the comments below.

Service Rating: 2.5/5
Food Rating: 1.5/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 1.5/5

Happy Eating!


courtesy of http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/25/gordon-ramsay-jokes-memes_n_2935189.html

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EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival

EAT! Vancouver is back again at BC Place bringing together foodies all around Vancouver to try the newest and coolest food products around. Tickets are $14 if you buy online and $16 at the door. Not bad for a full day of food-filled fun.

FYI- this post will be like going to the festival through the eyes of Kirby... a frugal, sample loving Asian chick. Click here for my previous post on EAT! Vancouver 2012. 

They have about 250 exhibitors this year so there are lots of things to sample. As well, you can purchase tasting tickets (20 for $10 or 10 for $5) if you want to sample more substantial meals/appys from restaurants like Tacofino and Siddhartha's Kitchen.

This year, EAT! Vancouver promoted a gluten free brand of nutritious breads and baked goods called All But Gluten. 

Meta Knight and I tried the Vanilla Macaroon and Raisin and Cinnamon Bread. They were pretty good for being gluten free. 

There was a real health trend going on this year with many vendors promoting their organic, gluten free, soy free, Non-GMO, superfood related products. Granola Girl was one of them.

Daiya sells cheese that are dairy free. You may be thinking, 'Wait... how can cheese be dairy free?! What are they made of?!". I googled it for you and I found out that it is made with cassava and arrowroot which are known for their melt-like consistencies. 

They wanted to showcase how the 'cheese' melts so they were grilling quesadillas and grilled cheeses.

The Daiya 'cheese' did indeed melt like real cheese but when you taste it, its pretty evident that its a substitute. If you aren't lactose intolerant, it's probably better to stick with the real stuff.

There were many beverage exhibitors promoting health teas, lemonades, ginger ale...etc so Meta Knight and I visited one whenever we were feeling thirsty from eating all the other food samples. :D GoodDrink had some really interesting bottled tea including Blueberry White Tea, Honey Lemon Green Tea and Mango Tea with Hibiscus and Vanilla.

Matt & Steve's were giving out free samples of non-alcoholic Caesars.

It was way too salty (mostly from the salted rim) but it showcased their spicy pickled bean quite nicely.

You could sample products as well as purchase fruits and other cool things at the Urban Fare exhibition. 

They were sampling gluten free cookies and loafs from Cloud 9 Bakery.

Who else is a fan of the Dragon's Den?! If you watch it quite often like me, you may recognize both of these cereals as they originated and became famous from their pitch on that show. The cereal on the right also has a 'girl version' too. O.O 

I've never heard of this restaurant before but it's apparently a tapas only restaurant called Persona2.

They were giving out very generous amounts of seafood ceviche with tortilla chips. Two thumbs up for taste and generosity!

To finish off our meal of samples, we headed to the OIKOS truck for some greek yogurt. The lineup for this was consistently long throughout the day.

You have a choice of one flavoured greek yogurt and one topping. I chose the Key Lime Yogurt w/ Almond Topping while Meta Knight chose the Strawberry Yogurt w/ Cranberry Topping. 

They give you a good serving size of yogurt so this was actually really filling.

I've never heard of Coconut Bliss but I'm so glad I have discovered them through this festival because their ice-cream was to-die-for. All of Coconut Bliss' ice-cream are made with coconut milk so it is dairy free, soy free, gluten free, and has not been genetically modified (non-gmo). 

How adorable are these little ice-cream balls and makeshift spoon?? We chose the Strawberry Bliss and Naked Coconut to sample and both of them were amazingly delicious. Every bite had an aftertaste of coconut which I love and the strawberry flavour was SO fresh. Nothing artificial about the taste at all.

We didn't attend the Wine, Beer & Spirits Tasting Pavilion because it didn't really interest us but I did hear good things about it. I really enjoyed my second year at EAT! Vancouver and I encourage all foodies and health nuts to give it a try. It's a great way to sample many new products and enjoy a full day of food!

Happy Eating!


courtesy of http://www.memecenter.com/fun/429370/eat-all-the-samples

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Summer Night Market- It's That Time of Year Again

The Richmond Night Market (near Riverrock Casino) and Summer Night Market (near Ikea) is in full swing once again so you know what that means... Meat-on-a-stick, bubble tea, and takoyaki balls are back.

I chose the 'Summer Night Market' over the 'Richmond Night Market' because I felt cheap and didn't want to pay the $2 entrance fee.

I went on a Friday and it was pretty empty. At first I thought maybe the night market started to lose its hype, but on my next visit, it was jam packed and I was bumping into people left, right, and center again.

Corn in a cup is probably the most rip off item you can get at the night market but we just couldn't resist!! I've never had FLAVOURED corn in a cup before so we shared a Large Thai Corn ($3.75) from Cup A Corn.

All the lady did was scoop corn into a cup and dunked a spoonful of the "Thai" butter (probably already infused with all of the ingredients like lime leaves, lime juice..etc) in it.

The corn had a cool twang to it. I thought the lime leaves and red chili pepper flakes really accentuated the flavours of "Thai" cuisine. All in all, its an okay item if you aren't feeling meat-y.

Halal BBQ is one of the more popular stalls in Summer Night Market and they sell... what else? BBQ skewers.

They add a bit of theatrics to it with this awesomely dressed man. He grills the skewers right in front of your eyes and in small batches so don't be surprised if you have to wait a bit for your meat.

We ordered two skewers of lamb and one skewer of chicken. To be honest, these were quite pricey. It's 3 for $7 and we almost thought about not getting any. However, ordering it was the best decision we made that day because these were so freakin' amazing!! The spice rub was heavenly and the meat was oh so tender.

One booth I knew I had to check out was the 'Sweet Zone' because they offered something that I can only dream of having...

DURIAN PANCAKE ($5.50). These sell out pretty fast so if you are a durian lover, hit this booth up first.

The entire thing is pretty much built off of layers of crepe, durian, and fresh cream. Our pancake didn't look as high as the advertised picture but we'll forgive them. :)

They use real durian!! Hallelujah!! This was so delicious we finished the entire thing in less than 30 seconds, no joke.

I didn't take a picture of the food stall but there is one called Dan Dan's Smokehouse. We got a Strawberry Jasmine Tea ($2.50) from them and it was really refreshing after a heavy meal of meat and carbs.

This stall sells 'Noodles-in-a-bag"! The only other place I've seen this being sold is in Hong Kong (post here) so I was quite surprised to see them trying their luck here. 

Even though I only went to the night market for food, I actually left with some goodies that I am very happy about. Korean socks! I love the Batman.

Happy Eating! 

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courtesy of http://everythingfunny.org/funny-gifts-and-gadgets/funny-roasting-sticks-funny-bbq-skewers/

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