Sui Sha Ya at Metrotown

Rating: **1/2 out of *****

I think that all the best sushi restaurants are downtown. But, that's a little far for me to drive, so I always settle for going as far as Metrotown. I know, I shouldn't sacrifice quality for... distance, but gas prices are crazy high, transit is expensive and parking is next to impossible downtown. But excuses aside, I decided that Sui Sha Ya would be the perfect place to go for Metrotown sushi. We heard about their all-you-can-eat menu after 9pm, and thought that this sounded good considering my family can eat a lot of sushi.
Not the best decision, to stuff your face with sushi or go to Sui Sha Ya. The food was decent, not the best, but the service was subpar. I couldn't believe how grumpy the waitresses were; I mean, they were serving paying customers! They could have at least had smiles on their faces. Our waitress forgot one of our dishes, and was very impatient when we asked for more wasabi. Aside from the crumby service here's what we got...

The ever popular, agedashi tofu and vegetable tempura.

My crab-veggie maki roll

Oyster Motoyaki

Barbequed Salmon cheek, they're really large portions. But who cares? It's all you can eat!

Teriyaki Beef

These soba noodles were really fresh

Fried, battered smelt fish

Okay, so I guess I need to stop eating out and start cooking more at home. I really need to get my busy hands working in the kitchen again. I'm thinking of using my rectangular tart pan for something, not sure what thought. Hmm... but I will make it soon, I promise.

Beef No. 1 Revisited

Rating **** out of *****

Woot! I had an awesome long, rememberance day weekend. And what did my family and I do for rememberance day? What any normal asian family does... go to metrotown. But first, we went out for lunch at a little place called Beef No. 1. The first time we ever had the pleasure of eating at this restaurant was the day we came back from our camping trip. I had never heard of this little Taiwanese noodle and Bubble Tea house before our family friends suggested that we try it out. We did... and we loved it. So here's our return to the fine dining establishment.

My dad ordered the Noodle+Soup bowl combo with deep-fried short ribs. They were really good, not too much fat and very flavorful. Only $7.95

My mom decided to have the rice combo, it came with two small dishes of veggies and the spicy shrimp with peanuts. We all had to try some, it looked so good... and it tasted even better.

Here's the spicy peanut shrimp up-close, the combo was also $7.95

My sister loves bubble tea, and she decided to order their vanilla bean one. I wouldn't have ordered it, but it turned out to be pretty good (I still prefer taro). It's pretty pricey at $4.95

Here's my Noodle+Soup combo with pickled ginger and diced pork. I love my pickled ginger, but this version was a little less sour than I like to have it. At $6.95, it was a good deal and I wasn't even able to finish the whole thing. Both of my sisters also ordered the the Noodle+Soup bowls, but they decided on wonton for the add-in.

Lastly, the pot-stickers. These were really good, and the black vinegar that came with it truly made the dish.

Overall, Beef No. 1 was a really fun place to hang out and just relax. It can get pretty crowded once it hits noon, but it's well worth the wait. The portions are huge and were well priced. We will definitely be coming back for more... and hopefully it'll be sometime soon.

Yeah! A long weekend!

Now I finally have time away from my busy schedule to whip up something good. I haven't made breakfast in a long time, so I offered to cook for my family! My dad, who usually cooks us Saturday morning breakfast was all for it. Now all I had to do was figure out what to make. I settled on the good ol' fashioned crepes. I had never tried my hand at this before, and hearing from a lot of people that crepes were difficult to pull off I was ready for the challenge. I really hoped that this recipe worked, because if it didn't... I didn't have a back-up plan for breakfast! I can't let my family starve :O So I'd better get it right. I used the recipe found here and rummaged through the freezer to find a back of frozen fruits. *Gasp* I know... using frozen fruits is a sin, but it's autumn and all the good fruits are out of season :( I would have loved to use apples with cinnamon, brown sugar and caramel but we didn't have any apples... oh well, maybe next time. The alcohol I used was bacardi rum, I was planning on using the richer Captain Morgan's but alas, we had run out.

Anywho, the crepes turned out wonderfully. My family hadn't had crepes in a long time, I think the last time we ate them was in las vegas about 2 years ago! That's embarassing. We all had a great breakfast of relaxation and were ready for the long weekend to get underway.

Halloween!!!

Don't ya just love the annual "stuffing of the face with candy?" I sure do. My favourite is the O' Henry... mmmm I'm a chocolate and peanut kinda gal. Anywho, this year I would be whipping up a batch of yummy cookies. Last year I made those Martha Stewart Cat Paw Cookies and the year before that I made Candy Corn Cookies... so in keeping with the cookie tradition I decided to make another festive snack. Ginger Molasses Cookies and for the Halloween touch I used Martha Stewart's Stencils to create cool images out of icing sugar. You can find them here; I also printed out cool fonts from my computer to use as templates... pretty cool. Hmmm, I wonder what I'll do next year?