New Dining Terrace (Richmond Center)- It's Finally Open!

Richmond Center finally revealed the new Dining Terrace on Nov 1st 2012 with a grand event filled with Chinese lion dances and congratulatory speeches. It was a much anticipated reveal for me because I've grown up in Richmond so to see my favourite old movie theatre knocked down and built into a brand new food court was pretty exciting. :P

They took the second floor of the movie theatre and turned it into a fresh and modern food court.

Many chains from the old food court such as KFC, Quiznos, NY Fries...etc got moved up but all of them revamped their storefront.

In addition to the regulars, Richmond Center also brought a few new faces along to the Dining Terrace. Pinkberry, Crepe de licious, Umi.... Now it'll be even harder to make a decision on what to eat!

I just stuck with my fav for my first dining experience at the Dining Terrace, VINA. I used to come here a lot for their platters and roll dip. Guess what I got this time? The platter with roll dip. =.= It's called Roll Dip Meal ($6.85).

They were fast, efficient, and friendly so I definitely recommend this place if you are craving Vietnamese eats.

Ta-Da! I know it looks pale and not super appetizing, but to me, this meal was awesome because I didn't feel guilty from eating the deep fried spring roll since it was balanced by the salad and undressed vermicelli. If you can only try one thing from this place, try the roll dip. You'll be lifted into crunchy, meaty heaven.

This is essentially the same as my Roll Dip Meal except with the addition of Beef Stew on top. It undoubtedly has more meat and flavour than mine so it's great for people with larger appetites.

What a great sight. :D

For dessert I headed to the new Pinkberry for some frozen yogurt. I got their Mini with Toppings ($2.95) and it was smaller than the size of my palm. I already have dainty hands so this cup was pretty mini. As for toppings, I went with Almond Roca, fresh strawberries, strawberry pearls, and chocolate balls.

The original flavour was tart, creamy, and all I could ask for in my frozen yogurt. However, the price is quite steep (small cup with toppings will come up to 6 bucks!) so I would only get it seldomly.

Overall, I love the new Dining Terrace and now I will actually have a reason to shop at Richmond Center again!

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

Happy Eating!


courtesy of http://lianyee.com/liondance/

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Griffins- Great Prime Rib, Mediocre Dessert Buffet

I recently went to Griffins with Meta Knight to celebrate his birthday. I have heard some great and not so great things about their chocolate buffet but we both decided to take a chance.

On that day, they were featuring a three course feature menu for $31 and it included a soup, entree, and dessert buffet.

Their business must not be doing very well because there were barely any diners other than ourselves. It kind of hurt our dining experience because we lost that ambiance.

They first started us off with some pretzel bread and foccacia.

Meta Knight went with the Three Course Feature Menu ($31) and he chose the featured soup which was spiced carrot soup. It was clean and refreshing.

He chose the Pan Roasted Filet of Sable Fish and it came with some corn, spinach, and a poached quail egg on top. The chefs did a really good job crisping the skin when pan roasting the fish because it was Meta Knight's favourite part. The sablefish was also extremely tender and flaky. Thumbs up!

I just got the 10 oz Prime Rib ($38) which came with au jus, side vegetables, mashed potatoes, and yorkshire pudding. The prime rib was cooked perfectly medium rare, just the way I like it, and honestly, I think they gave me more than 10oz because it was gigantic! I looked like a beast compared to Meta Knight since I got the giant slab of meat and he went with the dainty fish. Haha.

It was my first time trying yorkshire pudding but I don't think this was done well. It was really hard and crunchy on the outside and oily on the inside. It didn't taste very good at all.

I've heard great things about the dessert buffet but Meta Knight and I were pretty disappointed with the lack of variety provided. I wouldn't call this much of a dessert buffet as there were only about 10 items and many of them were quite similar in texture and type.

The chocolate mousse cake and vanilla & chocolate pudding tasted average. It satisfied the sweet tooth but really didn't give me anything else to rave about. I found all their desserts lacked in creativity and flavours. It was very just one dimensional.

I took four other items start from the top left (clockwise) is a berry cake, Griffin's signature cheesecake, apple crumble, and brownie. See? Very typical and not really original. I was very disappointed with their desserts.

Based on these reasons:

• dessert buffet is going downhill
• prime rib is pretty delicious
• conveniently located in Fairmont Vancouver Hotel

Service Rating: 3/5

Food Rating: 3/5

Price: $$$$ ($30-40)

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!

courtesy of http://dessertfirstgirl.com/2006/02/ispahan.html

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Kang HoDong Baekjeong (Seoul, Korea)- Samgyeopsal To The Max!

When I ate here, I had no idea who the guy in the front is. Apparently, he is Kang HoDong, a famous retired Korean wrestler that started a samgyeopsal franchise. 

I came here with my relatives since they came to Seoul at the exact same time I was there during my exchange! It was such a delightful experience.

They start off by placing hot burning coals in the center and then they poured this type of coffee looking liquid into the side tray. I'll tell you what that liquid is in a minute. It's a bit disgusting but tasted so good.

As always, they give you a variety of side dishes to pair with you meal. What I disliked about these side dishes were the greens. Our lettuce were dressed in dressing but I like them without anything so I can use my hands and wrap the meat around it. The dressing caused everything to get so messy and it didn't taste as clean and fresh as I wanted to.

We ordered a few of these signature Pork Belly, and it was MIGHTY good. This restaurant did all the cooking for us too so it was actually quite nice and relaxing! By the way, now you can see the formation of the yellow thing on the side. Still don't know what it is?? It's egg!! It tasted delicious but it looked incredibly gross in the beginning because it was a yellowish brown colour.

We also ordered a few of these Prime Boneless Short Rib as well and it was really tender. Just look at that marbling on the meat. You know it's good quality beef.

In addition to the egg, we cooked some kimchi and roasted some garlic on the side of the grill.

This is the common way of eating samgyeopsal in Korea. You first take a piece of lettuce, put a chunk of grilled pork belly on it, add your fixins' (in this case, I just added a slice of roasted garlic), wrap it up, and put it in your mouth! *sigh*... I wanna go back to Seoul!

Happy Eating!

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Healthy Pumpkin Pie Recipe- Get In The Holiday Spirit!

What better way to celebrate the holidays than eat a slice of warm guilt-free pumpkin pie!?

Since I've been feeling festive lately, I decided to bake a healthy pumpkin pie to satisfy my sweet holiday cravings. :D This pumpkin pie recipe from oh she glows seemed to be healthy and easy enough for me to tackle so I gave it a shot but made some modifications of my own.

Healthy Pumpkin Pie

(no butter, no oil, soy free, little sugar)

Ingredients:

1 premade pie crust

1/2 cup sliced almonds + 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

 2 cups pumpkin

12 ounces Silken tofu

1/2 cup Sucanat (or brown sugar)

1/4 cup pure maple syrup (for filling)

1.5 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (OR: 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/2 teaspoon ginger; 1/4 teaspoon cloves)

1-2 tablespoons cornstarch

1. Take 1/2 cup of sliced almonds and 1 tablespoon maple syrup and mix in a small bowl. Spread mixture over the base of the pre-made pie crust. Set aside crust while you make the filling.

2. Filling: Blend the silken tofu in a food processor until smooth, stopping often to scrape the sides of the processor. Once that is smooth, add pumpkin, sugar, 1/4 cup maple syrup, vanilla, sea salt, and spices. Blend well. 

3. Pour the filling into the pie shell and place in the oven and cook at 400F for 42-45 minutes.

5. Cool for at least 30-45 minutes and then enjoy with some vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

I actually mixed all of the batter in the blender but you don't have to. I was just lazy and didn't want to transfer it to a mixing bowl.

It'll end up looking like this! For next time, I would cut the sugar by half as I found it too sweet and increase the cornstarch so the filling would be harder/thicker.

This pie was so easy to make and took barely any time. It's great for a potluck because you can easily whip this up and put it in the oven in 15 minutes. While it bakes, you can get changed, get pretty and by the time you're done getting ready, voila! The pie will be done! 

Happy Eating!

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No.9 Restaurant- Not a Bad Choice For 3am in the Morning

I didn't come here at 3am in the morning. But No.9 Restaurant in Richmond is open 24 hours so if you DO wanna come eat at 3am after a long night of partying (or staying in, ya' know, cause it's just as fun :D), you can.

I ate here with Meta Knight only because we finished watching the movie Argo and it was so late that most of the other restaurants were closed.

Aside from them being open 24 hours, No.9 Restaurant is also known for their delicious congee, noodle in soups, and Ying Yang rice.

My favourite section of course. :P All of their noodle in soups are really affordable so I'd recommend this place for a cheap breakfast, lunch, dinner, or late night snack. :P

Meta Knight ordered the Preserved Egg and Shredded Pork Congee ($6.15) because he felt a bit sick that day. All Asians know that when you get sick, congee is the only way to recovery. :)

He enjoyed the large chunks of preserved egg and shredded pork. Overall, the congee was wonderful.

I on the other hand ordered No.9's Special  Beef Brisket Noodle in Clear Soup ($6.70) to warm me up from the cold rainy night.

The clear broth was exactly what I needed on a cold night and I would definitely recommend this dish if it weren't for the overly fatty beef brisket. Apparently, it used to be leaner and better, but the beef brisket I got was almost pure fat to the point of inedible.

Based on these reasons:

• come here for congee and noodle in soup
• open 24 hours (perfect after a night of partying)
• surprisingly, their burgers are fantastic! I got the bacon cheeseburger last time and it was AWESOME.
• watch out for extremely fatty beef brisket

Service Rating: 3/5

Food Rating: 3/5

Price: $ (Less than $10)

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!

courtesy of http://www.ideacouture.com/bears/congee-bear

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Random Thought- You Can Buy Pigs Feet in a Jar at Walmart?! Cool.

Last time I went to Walmart in the states, I did a post on random things I found (link here) and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it. This time I went to Walmart again in search for odd, cool, or just plain weird things and I actually found some!

First up is... PIGS FEET. I honestly didn’t know people sold pig’s feet in jars but this seemed kind of gross, even to me. I say ‘even to me’ because I actually do enjoy eating pig’s feet when it’s cooked the Asian way. It even says ‘semi-boneless’ on the jar too... O.O 

Yoshi introduced me to these Circus Animal cookies, and honestly, these are the most addictive cookies on the planet. He even calls them ‘crack cookies’ (because of their addictiveness) and I agree because you can never stop eating after one. The vibrant pinks and rainbow sprinkles also make them irresistible. =.= If only these cookies could also come in unicorn shapes... ;)

If you like oysters at all, I recommend trying these smoked ones by Great Value (Walmart’s house brand). They taste really good on crackers with avocado.

Last item is the Deep Pore Cleansing Masque for men which I found hilarious. Kirma actually bought this one for my brother and he has yet to use it. I don’t find the fact that it’s a mask for men funny, I find the guy’s face and expression on the cover funny. :P But gentlemen, by all means, exfoliating and doing masks will do wonders for your skin. So go ahead, pamper yourself!  

Happy Eating (And Shopping!)

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