Mazazu Crepe- Not Very Impressive

I don't know why, but Aberdeen Center food court is always my go to place whenever I want a snack, quick lunch, or when I can't think of where to eat. On one particular day, Trixie and I headed over to Aberdeen food court (once again) to get a snack at Mazazu Crepe.

Mazazu Crepe is known for their unique Japanese style "cheesecake" and "brownie" crepes. I've had them before and I didn't find them amazing to be honest, so I just normally stick with their normal crepes.

No matter how many times I've seen this display, I always take a second glance whenever I walk by. :P It's just so captivating!

Chez Meme- You Gotta Check This Place Out :D

Chez Meme is a tiny little bistro on Hastings in Burnaby and they serve mainly breakfast and baguettes for lunch. Their hours are quite limited (they're only open till 3pm on weekdays) and because the restaurant seats very little, you may have to wait a bit for a table. Their service is also slow but that's because they only have one server.

I ordered the Schnitzel ($8.75) baguette and it comes with either a side salad, fries, or the daily soup. I heard about their famous "Onion Soup" beforehand so I upgraded my daily soup to the onion soup for an extra $3.00.

The Schnitzel baguette consisted of fried pork loin, lemon caper mayo, lettuce, tomatoes, and grainy dijon. The combination of all ingredients made for a delightfully light and fresh sandwich. The grainy dijon mustard gave great flavour to the sandwich and provided a slight "crunch" if you will, to each bite. And the baguette... it tasted like it was fresh out of the oven with it's crusty exterior and soft interior. Probably the best baguette I've ever had!

Birthday Freebies Woot Woot!! Dennys, Blenz, and Sephora

So I am very excited to write this post because yesterday was my birthday and I was determined to try something new this year! I've always heard about getting freebies at certain places during your birthday but I never actually tried doing it before....till yesterday! It wasn't a total success but I was still very satisified nevertheless with my stash. Hehe

Our first destination was Denny's because they advertise a "free birthday grand slam" on their website. I normally don't go to Denny's but since it's free, oh yeah baby! I went with FW because we coincidentally have the same birth date :)

We both ordered a drink just to be safe because we weren't sure if a purchase was necessary. I ordered a Chocolate Milk ($3.29) and FW ordered the Groovy Mango.

Yayy!! Our grand slams! Everything was awesome except for the eggs. They tasted powdery and fake but oh well, they're free so I shouldn't complain. :P By the way, remember to bring your ID or you can't get it.

No.1 Beef Noodle House- Get Their Enormous Beef Brisket + Tendon + Wonton Noodle In Soup!

Because I've seen this place being blogged about many many times (see on urbanspoon), I decided to come here one day with Meta Knight after a long and late night of school. No.1 Beef Noodle House is located on Willingdon.

We arrived at about 9:30pm and the place was pretty empty except for a few full tables. I heard about the parking here being horrendous but I guess because we came super late, it gave us absolutely no trouble.

We ordered a Strawberry Black Tea ($3.75) as our beverage and it did not disappoint. The drink was not overly sweet which is always my main concern whenever I drink green or black tea. It had good strawberry flavour and the pearls were cooked perfectly which resulted in chewy, springy, carby goodness. :) Definitely recommend!

Of course, since we are at a restaurant with the name "No.1 Beef Noodle House", we cannot NOT try their beef noodles! Both Meta Knight and I ordered beef noodles but he ordered the traditional Beef Brisket Noodle in Soup ($7.25) while I ordered something else. 

Just look at those noodles! Meta Knight thought they were delicioussss! It had the perfect texture and the beef brisket pieces were extremely tender. 

Taco Luis- Taco Salad and Crispy Burritos!

Taco Luis has been operating at the Lansdowne food court for quite a while now. I've heard of this place for as long as I can remember but never got around to trying it for some reason. During the summer, my friends brought here to try their taco salad and I've been in love with them ever since!

When you get a Taco Salad (~$5.00) to go, they will put everything together and then wrap it in plastic wrap.

It may not look like it has a lot of ingredients but there's actually quite a bit! It contains ground beef (or chicken), shredded lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded carrots, a pump of sour cream, and a pump of guacamole. You can also get jalapeno peppers, banana peppers,  and onions but I didn't choose them for mine.

Cattle Cafe- Burnaby Location = Disappointment

I was super craving noodles in soup today (my lovee!) so I asked Meta Knight to come with me to eat at Cattle Cafe in Burnaby.

This Cattle Cafe is located on the intersection of Nelson and Kingsway. The size of the restaurant is relatively smaller than the one in Richmond.

Meta Knight and I waited in line for about 20 minutes before we got a table. And this was at 2:30pm!! 

I saw many people eating this dish called "Pork Chop in Cream Onion Bacon Demi-Glaze With Rice" and it looked super yummy. It is roughly $8.25 and it comes with two giant pork chops. Meta Knight wanted to get this but at the end decided against it.

We both ordered the Noodle Combos Of Your Choice ($7.50) and each noodle comes with a drink, as always. Cold drinks are a dollar extra. Meta Knight got the Lemon Iced Tea and it was ordinary. Nothing to rave about.

Sweet Chili Tuna Avocado Salad Recipe

I recently saw a salad recipe on bodyrock.tv called "Chunky Light Salad" which contains tuna, kidney beans, avocado, feta cheese, apples...etc and it inspired me to create a salad similar to the ingredients used in their recipe. I wanted to make a salad that included less ingredients so I came up with this! It is called Sweet Chili Tuna Avocado Salad.

This salad is super duper easy to make and it is absolutely delicious!! Even Meta Knight was surprised at how good it tasted. :) All you need are three ingredients. A ripe avocado (but not too ripe where it just turns to mush), one or two (I used two) cans of Clover Leaf Flaked Light Tuna in "Spicy Thai Chili", and a few handfuls of spinach.

Chop Steakhouse- Beautiful Decor, Great Prime Rib

Chop Steakhouse is one of my favourite restaurants to eat prime rib because they make it really amazing 90% of the time. On one particular visit, my prime rib was horrendously raw but it was because I ate super early (like 4:30-5pm) and their prime rib hadn't been in the oven that long when we ordered.

This time, I went with a bunch of girl friends including Rae, Trixie, Pooh, FW and others for a birthday celebration. The lamp above our booth was so beautiful I just had to take a picture!

I ordered the Sparkling Sangria (around $8.00) and it was topped with a scoop of orange sorbet. It was very tasty and the alcohol content isn't very high which is nice if you don't like that strong kick of alcohol taste in your cocktail.

Rae ordered the Pink Lemonade (around $8.00) and she said it was pretty tasty. I love how the drink is so girly!

Flo Tea Room (Richmond)- Starting To Like This Place More And More

If you have read my post on Alleluia Cafe, you may have noticed that I called it my "ex-favourite hk style cafe" because of their increased prices and slower service. Nowadays, whenever my family wants a quick and cheap breakfast or lunch, we come to Flo Tea Room instead. Flo used to be 'Ginger and Garlic' which also used to be "Honolulu". 

By the way, this post composes of various visits to Flo (since I come pretty often). This is the Pork Chop in Instant Noodles ($5.50). This is from the breakfast menu and it also comes with a drink.

 This is the breakfast menu, you can click on the pictures to enlarge it.

The pork chop they give you is pretty darn big! It was very juicy and tender, but I don't know if it's just because they put meat tenderizer into it. 

Seto Sushi- Sigh. If Only You Weren't So Pricey

I've been to Seto Sushi once before but I didn't find them amazing or affordable enough to return again. One day, Meta Knight and I wanted to go to Nan Chuu on Alexandra road, but they were closed (they close every Wed) so we had to think of somewhere else to eat. Since Seto was across the street, we decided to give it a try since I haven't been back in a few years anyways.

Seto Sushi is next to Bistro the Home (my post) located near the end of Alexandra road (the road of a billion restaurants and no parking).

We ordered the Ikura Chazuke with Salmon Roe ($7.00) which is essentially "tea on rice". I knew about this dish from Follow Me Foodie's post on Seto and I'm glad I did because it was a really unique dish! We were served a bowl of rice and a pot of green tea.

The bowl of rice contains crispy noodles, seaweed, and salmon roe. It's not a really big serving, but surprisingly it is quite filling. 

Here is an action shot for ya'll! I know.. it's hardly dramatic lol but anyways, you're suppose to pour the green tea into the rice. It seemed like such a weird concept because I imagined eating just really bland watery rice.

Paul's Kitchen- Cheap Breakfast Underneath Superstore

Kirma (my mama) and I wanted to do some early grocery shopping at Superstore a few days ago so we decided to stop by Paul's Kitchen, a small family owned restaurant underneath Superstore. At first, I was reluctant to go but my mom insisted they have good breakfasts for a pretty cheap price.

It doesn't look too good from the outside, in fact, it's pretty much a hole in the wall. Paul's Kitchen is definitely not a restaurant I would normally want to go into when passing by. But surprisingly when we went...

...it was packed! Kirma and I were lucky to grab the last table when we arrived. I guess this restaurant must have something special to attract this many customers in such an odd and relatively undesirable location.

This is their all day breakfast menu. Every item is quite cheap and it comes with a hot drink (cold drinks are an additional 50 cents). Weirdly enough, we both ordered breakfast items not on this menu (it's from the previous breakfast menu). You first have to order and pay at the counter, before sitting down. They will then come and bring you your meal.

Kirma ordered the Peanut Butter and Condensed Milk Toast with Milk Tea ($2.25). Wow, what a steal! If you are looking for a small inexpensive breakfast on your way to work, I suggest this. I saw many businessmen coming in to just buy a toast or sandwich and leave.

As simple as this was, just peanut butter and condensed milk, it was really tasty. They toasted the bread perfectly and I liked the crunchy peanuts in the peanut butter.

Breakfast with Kirby- Omelette? Quiche? Frittata!! Recipe

I realize not a lot of people know what a frittata is because when I mentioned it to my friends, all I got were confused faces. O.o A frittata is essentially an egg based dish that is like a quiche without the pie shell. The Italian word frittata derives from fritto, which means "to fry", and was originally a general term for cooking eggs in a skillet, and could range from fried egg to omelette. Instead of flipping the eggs over like an omelette, you let it sit and cook on low heat until the underside is set and the top is still runny. Then the traditional way is to put it in the oven to finish it off. In my version, I choose to put the lid on and steam it instead of baking it in the oven.

I wanted to put in so many things so I kinda went all out with my 'add on' ingredients as you can see. I included one tomato, some turkey bacon, havarti cheese, and baby spinach.

I like my eggs a bit more smooth and fluffy so I added a dash of milk to my 3 egg mixture. If you always wondered how to make omelettes really fluffy and light, the key is the dash of milk and whipping it really hard to create a lot of air.

Maurya Indian Restaurant- Piping Hot Delicious Naan Bread!

During a casual dinner, Pooh recommended this restaurant and said they have a fantastic All-you-can-eat buffet for lunch. Her restaurant recommendations are always very good so I instantly wanted to come here and try it! :D I initially wanted to eat here with her and a few friends but since the plan fell through, I came here with Meta Knight instead.

The exterior doesn't look too shabby. Especially when compared to the only other Indian buffet I know, Himalaya Restaurant (urbanspoon link) in Richmond which DOES look quite shabby.

I heard from Pooh that the lunch buffet is $13.99 but when I got there, the sign said $14.99. They must have raised the prices... darn. Meta Knight said this is probably the second time they raised the prices because the "$14.99" sign is the second piece of paper to be covering the original price. :P

The main dining room is very large and has a high ceiling. The buffet section is at the back and is surprisingly small.

When you are seated, the first thing you get is a basket of hot (refillable) Naan bread. These were absolutely delicious! They were so hot when brought out, I could barely hold on to them and eat it.

Aoyama Cafe- Serves Filipino Dessert?

It was Cupcake's birthday and we decided to celebrate it at Aoyama Cafe, the Japanese restaurant that serves UCC coffee in Aberdeen. 

When we arrived, I instantly noticed this advertisement introducing their latest dessert, Halo Halo. I found that weird because Halo Halo is a Filipino dessert and Aoyama specializes in Japanese cuisine. Perhaps the owners of Aoyama are Filipino? Does anyone know? :P

Meta Knight didn't feel very hungry so he ordered the Seafood Rice Pizza ($9.50). It is a new menu item as I never heard of it before. Sounds pretty interesting right?

The first thing everyone noticed was how small the portion is. The tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, and seafood (it had squid, scallops, shrimps) laid on top of a bed of flattened crisped up rice. Or so I thought. I tried a bit and the rice was actually not crispy at all. It stayed intact but the rice was very soft, so it didn't feel very pizza-y to me. Meta Knight liked the abundance of seafood on top but overall thought it was average.

La Patisserie- Mooncake Only for Durian Lovers :)

As we all know, Mid-Autumn festival is coming up in a few days. Here is a wiki link of Mid-Autumn festival if you are interested. 

Just a few days ago, Rae introduced me to this durian mooncake she bought from La Patisserie. We both love durian and she was sure I was gonna love this mooncake. She said they were quite expensive but well worth it. I tried a bite and... oh gosh, she was right. Fresh, soft durian danced around my mouth and I was in heaven. Needless to say, the next day, I went to La Patisserie and bought one. :D

This is the Durian Mooncake ($4.50) and it is quite expensive for a size that is roughly the size of your palm. But again, it is worth every penny. They also sell frozen mooncake in other flavours such as chocolate, taro, mango, black sesame, cantolope, etc.

As you can see, the mooncake is completely frozen when you buy it. I definitely recommend thawing it a bit in the fridge until it is not frozen anymore before eating it. This will greatly enhance the flavours of the durian.

I am not sure what they used as the skin but it held everything together wonderfully without every cracking or falling apart. As for the filling, it seems to be 100% pure durian but they could have added something in the mixture.