Richmond Night Market - That Night Market Food Tho

Richmond Night Market is back at it again this year with its insane parking, claustrophobic food isles, cheap cellphone cases, and lively atmosphere.

As much as I hate paying the entrance fee, the disgustingly gross amount of people you have to share space with, and the impossible parking lot, I still return year after year. Sigh.. I will never learn. :P

This year, instead of the Rubber Duckie theme, it's called "Candy Kingdom". Remember, I'm talking about the Richmond Night Market in Bridgeport near Riverrock, not the one near IKEA.

My friends and I arrived at about 7 or 8pm and already there was a ton of people. 

This booth is called Enough Chicken and is basically deep fried deliciousness. Ai reen ordered the Super Big Big Chicken Fillet ($6.50) and said it was really good.

Siu Mai (Pork Dumplings) and Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings) are the common dim sum items to get at Richmond Night Market if you don't eat dim sum often.

The Spicy Fish Balls are available at just about any dim sum booth and costs about $4-5. They make for a great snack! Just make sure you have a drink with you at the same time because those balls are spicy!

Oh, Icy Bar... how I love and hate you so. This booth has got to be one of the most popular stands at the Summer Night Market (for good reason) which means their line up to just order is 20 people long. Their signature mango shaved ice/drink is absolutely delicious and is a must get item when visiting the night market.

The Tapioca Mango Icy ($5.00) contains coconut milk, evaporated and condensed milk, tapioca, fresh mango, and mango puree. SO GOOD.

I think this booth is called "More Fusion Wrap"? I believe they specialize in Asian style wraps made with the flaky green onion pancake.

Ai Reen got the Egg and Shredded Pork Wrap ($6) without the shredded pork. So it's actually just egg and wrap. She said it was a bit bland and only okay, which is to be expected considering there is no saltiness from the pork.

I saw Shaka Shaka Deep Fried Squid attracting a lot of people but I didn't get anything because it seemed a bit pricey.

Mogu is a food truck usually situated in downtown Vancouver but they brought their shop to the Richmond Night Market. They have a really smart strategy of selling only one signature item: their Sweet and Spicy Chicken Karaage ($5/$7/$12).

We chose a Jumbo ($12) to share and it was ginormous! This picture really doesn't do it justice so you'll just have to see it to believe it.

Their chicken is extremely moist, juicy, and fresh off the fryer. Their sweet and spicy sauce is to-die-for. You can go no wrong at Mogu.

All in all, the Richmond Night Market is worth making the trek here for because it's lively 'Hong Kong' street style atmosphere is unlike anything else in Vancouver.

Click to see my previous Richmond Night Market and Summer Night Market experiences.
Click to see my post on Hong Kong street food.

Happy Eating!

 

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Jade Seafood Restaurant - Only Come Here For The Honeycomb Brown Sugar Cake

Funny enough, I've lived in Richmond all my life and I've never once attempted The Jade Seafood Restaurant on Alexandra road. 

This is a popular local spot for dim sum and Alaskan king crab. Their most famous dish (and the dish that I was itching to try) is their Brown Sugar Rice Cake that resembles a honeycomb.

Their dim sum menu at a glance. Prices are around the mid to high range I'd say.

First off, I have to say their service was atrocious and the cleanliness of the tables and cutlery were off-putting. We found dirty cups, tea leaves stuck to the outside of the teapot, dirty tablecloths, and our waiter was non-existent.

Anyways, their Steamed Mushroom Dumpling ($4.98) is one of their most popular dim sum items and for good reason. The abundance of mixed mushrooms and the hint of truffle oil really brought the flavours to life. I loved this dish.

The Steamed Fish Maw with Fish Paste ($5.68) on the other hand, was quite disappointing. They must have overworked the shrimp paste because it tasted bland and completely void of the bouncy texture you get when biting into real plump shrimp.

If they can serve this Steamed Brown Sugar Rice Cake ($3.98) at the food court or another dim sum restaurant... that'd be great. I absolutely loved this bouncy, slightly sweet, honeycomb cake but I wish it was offered at a different restaurant! This is a must try item. The texture of the 'honeycomb' on your tongue is quite the experience.

  

I really liked how the Fried Chicken Knee (~$7-8) was served with edamame. It was fried in fresh oil and had a very clean crisp taste.

I saw another blogger try this so I decided to order the Steamed Rice Roll with Fish Paste ($5.38) as well. The texture was surprisingly soft..too soft for my liking but I can imagine some people enjoying this.

 I had high hopes for the Durian Glutinous Rice Dumpling ($3.98). Unfortunately, it fell short of expectations.

As you can see, the rice dumpling aka 'mochi' is filled completely with whipped cream. I would say in the entire dumpling there was only 20% durian. Such a let down.

All in all, my experience here was quite a let down. Not only was the bad service enough to keep me from ever coming back, 80% of the food we ordered was merely passable. In a highly competitive dim sum market like Richmond/Vancouver, there are so many better options out there.

Check out Western Lake for my BEST dim sum experience ever.

Service Rating: 1/5
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $$

Overall Rating: 2/5

Happy Eating!

 

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Blueberry Matcha Protein Smoothie Recipe

As a lover of the "Mind Over Matcha" smoothie at Booster Juice and an avid smoothie maker, I came to a sudden realization that instead of spending $8 for a smoothie each time, I should try replicating it at home instead! 

The Mind Over Matcha smoothie from Booster Juice contains: "Pure Matcha green tea, vanilla soymilk, blueberries, vanilla frozen yogurt, and whey protein powder. Hey! Whaddya know? I have pretty much all those ingredients. The smoothie (for 710ml contains 446 calories, 3.8 g of fat, 4g of fibre, 28g of protein, and 41g of sugar).

Here is my version of the "Mind Over Matcha" recipe:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp of Kiss Me Organics: Organic Matcha Powder
2 tbsp of 0% M.F Greek Yogurt
1 banana
1 rounded scoop of North Coast Naturals Unflavoured Whey Protein
1/2 cup of frozen blueberries
1 1/2 cup of Silk almond milk

1) Put all the ingredients listed above in a blender and blend.

Feel free to play around with the recipe and substitute where needed. Also the brand of almond milk, matcha powder, whey protein I use is most likely not what you have at home so just use whatever is available to you.

I have to say, the result of this 'experiment' was absolutely amazeballs. It tastes almost exactly like the smoothie I love without breaking the bank (you gotta admit, Booster Juice is not cheap by any means). Not only do you get a caffeine kick from the matcha, the blueberry matcha flavour combination is out of this world. I've also experimented by putting a handful of spinach and chia seeds to boost up the nutritional content and it tasted equally as delicious.

Happy Drinking!

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EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival 2014

Every year since I started my blog, I've been fortunate enough to be invited to attend the ever popular EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival at BC Place. I always love coming with Meta Knight every year because it's a great way to view your favourite food brands and sample their products.

Check out my EAT! Vancouver reviews from: 2012 and 2013.

First up was the "Mexico" travel booth. They were serving up some nachos with a chocolate mole sauce. It wasn't my cup of tea.

There are some outrageous things in this world...A $2,600 bottle of water from Urban Fare being one of them.

Urban Fare also brought a ton of exotic fruit to sell including mangosteens, square watermelon, and durian.

I very much enjoyed the ever-so tiny Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese icing from Bluebird Cakery! You can find their products at Urban Fare.

 I was intrigued by this ramen stand thinking they were giving out samples of ramen! Turns out you need food tickets (which can be purchased inside the festival, on top of your admission fee) so we decided to be cheap and not get any. :P

 KFI had a booth and they were serving samples of butter chicken. Meta Knight and I both didn't get any chicken in our sample so I think they were really just letting you try their sauce (they were selling it at the booth).

 Ra Energy is a company I've never heard of so I was super intrigued by what they had to offer.

They created a topping using a combination of buckwheat, sesame, chia seeds, flax seeds, and shelled hemp. What makes them unique is that they recommend you to sprinkle this topping onto your food three times a day for greater energy, less food cravings, and better sleep.

I tried the garlic flavoured topping on top of avocado and oh my god was it amazing... I can eat this by the buckets because not only is this delicious, you know you're putting good food into your body.

I was also SUPER excited to see Peanut Butter & Co at EAT! Vancouver too because I've heard so many great things about their dark chocolate peanut butter.

They also have flavours like Cinnamon Raisin Swirl, White Chocolate Wonderful, Dark Chocolate Dreams, The Heat is On, and The Bee's Knees. They were selling 4 for $10 which is an incredibly deal.

Even Starbucks got in on the action and gave samples of their refreshers.

 Bruce Cost Ginger Ale is made with REAL ginger (not ginger extract) and is flavoured with a bunch of cool teas and fruit pulp.

I would definitely recommend this to all ginger ale lovers but just know that this is REAL ginger ale, and it doesn't taste anything like Canada Dry. You'll either love it or hate it.

 Liberte and their sample greek yogurt truck.

Oikos being one of Liberte's largest competitor obviously couldn't let Liberte distribute samples without a little friendly competition.

 Bosa Foods gave out free lattes and biscotti.

 I tried this Porcini Mushroom Sauce and absolutely fell in love. Cooking pasta with this sauce will probably give any mushroom lover a foodgasm. No joke.

 Hungry for samples.

Of course, EAT! Vancouver wouldn't be complete without Matt and Steve's extreme bean and caesar sample!

 Ok vegans.. would you ever try Vegan Coconut Bacon?? It's flaked coconut, seasoned with bacon seasoning... :D

 BKH Jerky (as seen on Dragon's Den) made an appearance this year.

 They were sampling out Pork Jerky, Beef Jerky, and Spicy Pork Jerky. All were very delicious and not the least bit tough.

 A ton of people were purchasing them in larger quantities.

Before leaving, every visitor of the festival received a SunRype Fruit Activ Orange Tangerine juice to take home as well as Reggae Reggae Jerk Sauce. Apparently this jerk sauce is the product of UK Dragon Den's winner, Levi Roots.

That's it for this year!

Happy Eating!

 

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