Taishoken Ramen - Dippin' Ramen

Rae, Fon, and I are Tacofino virgins and Lil Sis was determined to pop our taco cherries on Monday. Sadly, the universe was against us and we found out it was closed since it was 'Easter Monday'. :(

We walked around and urbanspooned all the surrounding restaurants and ended up at Taishoken Ramen. I've always wanted to come here and try their 'dippin' ramen' aka Tsukemen Ramen.

The place seats about 25 people which isn't a lot. We had to wait roughly 20 minutes before our table of five can get a table.

All of us ordered the Original Tsukemen Ramen ($11.75) which came with a plate of hot or cold noodles, soft boiled egg, and a side bowl of deep concentrated broth.

The broth is extremely rich and fat which is great for dipping your noodles in before slurping them up. The flavour clings on to the noodles to give you a delicious bite every time. Also, they put a hot stone in your broth to keep it piping hot during your meal.

All in all, I thought it was a fun and interesting meal! I like playing with my food so it's always fun to do some extra work while eating (am I right, hot pot lovers?) :). I will definitely return in the summer when I want something cool and tasty for lunch.

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

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!


       playing with my food like..

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Memphis Fire Barbeque - Glorious Fatty Southern Food

When I was in Toronto for work, my friends brought me all the way to Hamilton for some delicious Southern Food.

Memphis Fire Barbeque was featured on "You Gotta Eat Here!" and is located far away from really anything, so if you do happen to eat here, it's because you knew about it and purposely made the trek out here.

Their side dishes looked freakin amazing. If I could I would've chosen three to four sides with my meal.

For the meat, you can choose to have it in a sandwich or platter. The prices are reasonable, especially when the entrees come with a choice of two sides.

 My friends said their milkshakes were out of this world and is a must have when eating at Memphis. It was a hard choice between all their flavours but I had to go with their Black Forest Cake Shake.

It's made with chocolate ice-cream, sour cherries, hot fudge, and brownie crumbles. Boy was this delicious. So creamy and tastes like cherry chocolate ice-cream. Two thumbs up!

Rack of Ribs with a side of fries and mac n'cheese.

Being the gluttonous human beings that we are, we also got two side orders of meat. One was pulled pork and one was beef brisket. They were only about 3 bucks each!

Baby Back Ribs with a side of mac n' cheese and chili. The mac 'n cheese was so creamy and wonderful, while the chili packed a huge punch of flavour.

 Baby Back Ribs with baked beans (which had brisket bits in it) and collard greens. It was my first time trying collard greens and I must say, they were very good. I'm glad it wasn't cooked to a pulp where it just became a big mush. Instead, the leafy greens held its shape and was a nice 'clean' side against all the other carby and fatty sides.

Look at that meaty goodness.

 John Catucci was right. You DO have to eat here! If you're into Southern food at all and like big hearty portions for dinner, this is the place to be. It's well worth the drive, and the Southern hospitality will make you feel at home in no time.

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 4.5/5
Price: $$$

Overall Rating: 4.5/5

Happy Eating!


                              Eating barbeque meat like

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American Grille - Picture of Asians Taking Pictures of Food

I love eating out with foodies. There's a kind of synergy that's hard to describe when you bring together a group of people that are passionate about the same thing. We always talk about food, then eat the food (not before taking pictures first), and then we talk more about food. It's great. 

Mel and Grace from Foodporn Uncut kindly invited me along with Vaneats and Gourmetcetera to come and dine with them at the American Grille in Richmond. They won a gift card and were gracious enough to share the reward. :) Being a Richmondite, I've always driven pass this restaurant but never found a reason to go in. I guess there's a first time for everything!

The Roasted Beet Salad ($13) came with arugula, heirloom tomatoes, olive tapenade, goat cheese, and pomegranate vinaigrette. It wasn't exactly what I imagined but it was a huge portion at least? Needless to say I wasn't super impressed.

I didn't get to try the Seafood Crab Cakes ($14) but it looked alright. It was served with a roasted red pepper and lime aioli.

I should've gotten the Honey Garlic Beef Tips ($15) because it looked soooo yummy. It came with thick cut fries and chimichurri.

 That Duck Breast ($34) looked soooo yummy laying on that bed of avocado and veggies.

Blackened Halibut Pasta ($24)

I ordered the Pan Seared Scallops & Prawns which sounded amazing because it comes with pancetta, squash risotto, honey glazed root vegetables, and pomegranate reductions. However, the pancetta was dry, the risotto was undercooked, and the pomegranate reduction was sweet which kind of made the dish off balance.

Their Oven Roasted Rack of Lamb ($32) is their most popular dish. It's visually impressive and they give you a full rack of lamb! They definitely don't skimp on the meat with this entree.

Danish Baby Back Ribs ($28)

The Seafood Feast Bowl ($26)

You know how some menu names don't accurately depict what actually gets served to you? This was it. It's called Xango Cheesecake ($8) and we actually thought it would be a slice of 'exotic' cheesecake. Instead, it was cheesecake wrapped in a tortilla and deep fried. It was pretty good but just overly creamy.

Now THIS was good. It's called White Chocolate Brownie ($8) and it tasted pretty similar to the Moxie's one.

At the end of the day, American Grille isn't a bad choice for dinner if you are around the area. Their food is tasty but to me (and this is my personal opinion), it was just average at best. Many of their dishes need refinement and for the price of some of them, you might be better off going to the Keg or Moxies.

Service Rating: 3.5/5
Food Rating: 2/5
Price: $$$-$$$$

Overall Rating: 2.5/5

Happy Eating!


              Meh..

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Evolve Condominiums & Roaming Dragon Food Truck Media Event

If you are at all into real estate, you would've heard of the high rise currently in pre-development in Surrey called "Evolve Condominiums". What's so special about this condo? It starts at just $93,900! 

Now, I'm no expert when it comes to real estate, but that's dirt cheap. Like ridiculously dirt cheap. Obviously the $93,900 ones are bachelor pads around 300 sq feet, but still. You'll still own property. :P In the Lower Mainland... and not everyone can say that.

So why was I invited to this Evolve VIP Media Event? Because it also features food of course! Specifically, they had the Roaming Dragon Food Truck serve all of us before heading into the sales presentation.

Dat Basil Lychee Lemonade doe... SO refreshing. So good on a sunny day. Surprisingly, (and only because this came from a food truck) the assorted macarons were delicious as well! Thin shell, light custard, not overly sweet. Mmm mm!!

The Beef Rendang Rice Bowl with butternut squash, brown rice, and kale was super filling and can honestly satisfy any appetite. I'd definitely order this again.

Kirma went with the Fish Tacos and a slide of Colourful Coleslaw. 

Now for the condo part. This 35-storey high rise is conveniently located right next to the Surrey Central station and SFU Surrey.

With sales centers popping up all over the place, all looking the same and using the generic marketing tactics, WestStone Group said they wanted to do something different. Enter... "In-Real Dimension".

They introduced to us a revolutionary technology that gives attendees the ability to see the building and layouts in real 3-D. You can move it around, see it from all angles, and get a really good look as if you were holding a 3D printed model.

One thing they really tried to highlight was the community surround this area which I really thought was refreshing. They even did a little beer and cheese tasting (for the bachelors and beer lovers) to spotlight some local businesses.

 One of the bedrooms.

Their den. It's a little small but they did some strategic placement with the mirror and couch/bed. Pretty cool spot to hang and chill in my opinion.

 The kitchen of one of the two bedroom apartments.

It's hard to tell from this picture but this is the bachelor pad that's around 300 sq feet. With this design, they wanted to embrace micro-living and maximize the small living space. For a single guy or girl who doesn't have a lot of physical 'stuff', I think this is okay. For most people however, it still might be a tad small.  

All in all, I think the people at Evolve Condominiums are doing something extremely courageous. They're courageous for lining rooms that are only 300 square feet in the Lower Mainland, but they're even more courageous for pricing them at $93,900 when the average price of a one bedroom apartment is $290,000!! It's definitely an interesting concept that might take over Vancouver as real estate prices continue to climb so I'm curious to see how the public responds to it.

Happy Eating!

                      My reaction when Meta Knight and I bought our 

                             very own apartment.. in VANCOUVER

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Yah Yah Ya Ramen - Exciting New Ramen Place in Richmond

Six months ago, a new ramen shop opened up in Richmond but I didn't hear about it till recently when my brother went. He said they serve authentic ramen and even though the name of the restaurant was a little odd, he suggested I try it at least once.

Meta Knight and I found a perfectly cold night to enjoy some delicious ramen. Yah Yah Ya Ramen is located next to Richmond Sushi and sadly replaced a restaurant I loved called Liu's Taiwanese Restaurant.

The interior of this little ramen shop is super cute. It's not noisy like some other ramen shops in downtown where the waiters and waitresses yell a Japanese phrase to every person that enters and leaves. I for one actually like the quaint atmosphere because this is a restaurant I can comfortably bring my family to.

They specialize in le-kei soup which is their version of the pork broth. In their broth they use pork bone, chicken bone, konbu,vegetables, and they let that simmer for at least 12 hours before serving.

Their menu is really simple. There are only really four 'flavours' to choose from: Miso, Spicy Miso, Shio, and Shoyu. However, you get to further customize your choices by choosing Taste (heavy, normal, light), Noodle (soft, normal, hard), Oil (less, normal, heavy).

We went with the Shoyu and Shio ($9.50) with Heavy Taste, Less Oil, and Normal Noodles. The noodles were perfectly al dente for us and I'm glad I didn't go with the hard noodles even though I usually like firmer noodles.

While I LOVED my Shoyu with "Heavy Taste and Less Oil", Meta Knight didn't like the Shio with the same customizations. Since Shio means 'salt flavour', it was too salty for him. I say, if you get Shoyu, go with heavy taste but if you get Shio, get normal or light taste.

The Chashu (pork) was melt-in-your-mouth and I was so glad they didn't skimp on the meat.

Yah Yah Ya actually reminds me of Kintaro because of all the customizations and I absolutely loved their deep, dark, robust broth. I will be returning for sure!

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating!

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