Staff Party '07

Woot! Another year of working at KFC and boy am I glad it's over... jkjk. Seriously, I love my part-time job at the KFC Chicken Hut :P For our Christmas/New Year's bash we went out for a lovely dinner. Not saying that KFC wouldn't make a lovely dinner, but we decided to travel down to Richmond and my favorite street... No. 3 Rd. What better place to find quality chinese seafood? I had actually never heard of Shiang Garden before but from what my co-workers were telling me, I was in for a real treat. The boss went all out this year, and the staff was treated to a whopping ten-course meal. Last year, we went to the Radisson in Richmond for a "buffet-like" private dinner and the year before that we went to Boston Pizza. I think the boss may be doing well for himself, as you can see the staff parties getting more upscale... hmm, maybe I should ask for a raise :P

Course 1: Assorted Meat Platter, this consisted of duck, squid, jellyfish and pork hock

Course 2: Sharkfin Soup, this was really good... I had two bowls

Course 3: Crab with Noodles, the crab meat was well prepared, very tender and tasty. The noodles on the other hand were very plain and tasted like they came from a plastic container.

Course 4: Fresh Scallops with Vegetables, these melt-in-your-mouth scallops were also well prepared.

Course 5: Was suppose to be the steamed fish, but I guess it wasn't ready on time. So we moved on to the Egg Tofu with Seafood. I'm not sure what they put in the tofu, probably msg, but I was hooked. They were very delicious.

Course 6: Still waiting on the fish, we were served the next course. Probably the only dish without any seafood, Beef with Gailan.

Course 7: Crispy Chicken, yes... working at KFC you'd think we would be sick of chicken. Think again :P This chicken was very moist, and the crispy skin was not too dry but very ... um crispy!

Course 8: The Steamed Fish, after all that anticipation the fish actually wasn't that good. The broth was way too "fishy" and this fish taste/smell was not well covered by any seasonings.

Course 9: Fried Rice, not sure why we ended with this dish... but it actually worked out. I was quite full nearing the final four courses and didn't feel like I missed out on much by not eating the rice.

Course 10: Dessert... that's all the menu said, I guess to create mystery. This red bean tong sui was just okay, I think Hon's makes an even better one. I don't much like the orange essence in red bean soups, but they added some to this one.

Well, another year down and all is well with life. Here's to 2008 and a bunch of new adventures. I can't believe I'm graduating in 2 years!!!

Richmond Candy Finds

I took a wonderous trip down to Richmond a while back and just remembered about these candies I had purchased from "Candy Land". This store is located on the 2nd flour of Yaohan and has the widest array of sweets you've ever seen. I didn't have all the money in the world (darn) or I would have probably bought everything in the store. Some of the candies are priced pretty high, and for good reason. You can only find some of them in little shops like "Candy Land" otherwise you'd have to travel to China to get your hands on things like...

Adzuki Bean Flavoured Kit Kats!!! (They also had the strawberry + almond flavour, but my sister's allergic to nuts) I was actually hoping to find their green tea, melon or passionfruit flavours... but you can't be too picky about these things. I never knew about the crazy world of kit kats before that day, for more info/exciting flavours to try check out the wikipedia webpage on kit kats and be amazed!

Knowing me and my money saving abilities, you can probably guess that I went for some candies that were on sale. This box of various chocolate goodies was originally priced at $2.99, but today I found it marked for $1.99 ... Wahoo!

Inside the box were little triangular packets of chocolate. The banana shaped/flavoured ones were amazing and did not taste artificial at all. The strawberry ones were 2nd only to the banana ones. There were also "smarties" and the chocolate "jimmie-like" candies which weren't anything to rave about. There were 11 packet in all; 2 each of the "jimmies", strawberries and bananas... and 5 stupid packs of the "smarties". Oh well, next time maybe I'll buy one big box of the banana ones :)

Richmond Night Market!! 2007 (Part 2)

Alrighty, here we are at the Night Market... see the sign? :) This year wasn't as packed as last year, maybe because we came a bit early... but still, some of the stalls weren't being occupied by vendors? Last year, I think every stall was full and there were people elbowing each other to get through... well, not literally elbowing but you know what I mean.

Being early to the Night Market has it's perks, you can actually find good parking! If you want to park in the RNM lot, you'll have to fork over $5.50, and if you choose to park in a lot adjacent to the night market it'll cost you $5. But if you're crafty like my family (and a handful of others) you'll park on the road side. Sure it's a bit of a longer walk to the RNM but hey, it's free! You can save your hard-earned $5 on something like a pair of shoes, stuffies or food... which I believe it more worth it.

There was a lot of walking, but we didn't mind. That's the whole RNM experience. Walking around, as if you're in chinatown... except that all the awesome stores are in one concentrated location and you don't have to drive all the way to downtown Vancouver.

I wasn't too intrigued by the electronics vendors (mainly because they were really pricey, and I don't have an Ipod to "trick out"). But me and my sister were eager to hit all the stationary and stuffed animal stalls. We bought quite a couple pens, pencils, eraser and other accessories. They are pretty cheap, but you have to really shop around for the best deals. You also have to know what you're looking for, and be able to spot the cheapo products from the genuine thing.

I don't usually buy clothes at the NM (because you can't really try them on, unless you want to change infront of watchful eyes), but I actually managed to find this really nice top that fit me. I was just walking by this clothing stall and it caught my eye... it was just the right color, style and size and there was only 1 left. It was originally marked for $12, but my mom managed to haggle it down to $10 (yes, she is amazing!).

But of course, since this is a food blog you know that I couldn't post about the Richmond Night Market and not about it's wonderful treats. It took me a while to find what I wanted... usually I get the taiyaki, but this year they jacked up the price! I was appauled, usually they cost $0.50 each but this year they were $1!! I was saddened, because I was really craving something hot and sweet. The NM has a lot of food that's cold and sweet, or hot and savoury... but not hot and sweet. If I had the time/energy/money I would probably open up a stall at the NM that sold all of the tasty South-east Asian goodies... nonya kuehs, tong sui, bulut hitam, pulut inti, etc.

My sister ordered her usual mango bubble tea, while my other sister ate 2 skewers (one chicken and one beef). My mom ordered her sharkfin soup and then tried one of the red bean pancakes (which I admit was actually pretty good, but for $1 a piece I wouldn't buy one). My dad got fresh sugar cane juice, and let me tell you... it tastes nothing like the juice boxes. But I was still in search for my perfect dessert to end off the perfect night.

And then this stall caught my eye. After seeing their sign, I was hooked... the drinks reminded me of chendol... one of my favourite desserts from Singapore. And although not hot, it was deliciously sweet.

Much more tasty than my now sad looking attempt at making chendol. This vietnamese dessert had just the right coconutiness. The only thing they could have improved on was making the shaved ice more fine. There were small ice chunks that I had to chew up and thus it interrupted the flow of the dessert. Taste-wise it was awesome. It had pandan jelly, red bean, white beans, mung bean paste and tapioca cubes... YUMMERS!

I hope that the Richmond Night Market returns for 2008... it would be a sad break in tradition if they couldn't continue it. Apparently, it's because they can't rent out the location anymore... even if they had to change locations to keep it running I would definitely go. Please stay :)

Richmond Night Market!! 2007 (Part 1)

My family makes it a tradition to go to the Richmond Night Market, at least 2 times during the course of the summer. After hearing that this may be it's final year we had to make an effort to go. On Friday we drove down as usual around 5pm... to beat the heavy traffic going into Richmond. And as always, since the RNM isn't fully up-and-running until 7pm, we had dinner at the Richmond Hon's.

Whenever we go to Hon's I always order their wonton soup with thin egg-noodles... you may say, "Why such a boring meal?". But Hon's is known for their wonton and for their noodles; if you have not tried wonton at Hon's, then you have not tried wonton!

My sister loves udon and will eat it plain if she gets the chance (me, I'm not a huge fan... to doughy for my liking). She ordered the udon noodles with soup and fishballs.

My mom and dad ordered the roasted duck on egg noodles, and I may have helped myself to a nibble... tehehe. My other sister isn't a huge fan of egg/soup noodles, so we order some wat than hor for her to eat.

So, there's our Richmond Hon's dining experience in a nutshell... and it's basically the same everytime we go to Hon's. We usually dine at the coquitlam location, but Richmond is just as good (although they seem to give smaller portions). Anywho, I will continue writing about the Night Market in my next post. Stay tuned...

Richmond Dim Sum... See I didn't forget to post :P

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

As I had promised, in a previous post, that I would write about my Yum Cha experience at Neptune in Richmond... I am now ready to fulfill that promise :)

My family loves to go to Richmond as often as we can, and what's one of the places we always go to? You can guess by the title... YUM CHA! We usually end up going to Neptune, which has the best foods for the most reasonable prices. Here are some pictures of what we ordered!

We usually call this lovely trio of goodies. Woo kok (deep fried taro pasteries), deep fried mantou with condensed milk (see close up to the right) and my personal favourite... baked radish pasteries.

How 'bout some shanghai dumplings with red vinegar? Always a classic. Neptune makes really good dumplings!

Law Pak Kow (pan-fried radish cake) is my little sisters favourite dish. These ones were a bit on the soft side :( I like mine more crunchy... that way they don't fall to pieces when you try to pick them up. And they don't leave chunks in your chilli when you dip them! Hehehe

These were different... I really wanted to pick something from the menu that I had never eaten before. So I decided that this time I would order the pan-fried pumpkin cake. It was a bit sweet, and had chunks of sweet potato mixed into it. I really liked it! The texture was similar to neen gao (which I also love) and tasted even better dredged in chilli sauce... yes, I'm a chilli fiend :P

That's about all I have to say about Neptune. Next time I go, I think I'll try out a couple more "new" dishes... it's always fun to sample new foods.

After eating at Neptune we headed next door to City Fresh Market and bought some goodies. Here are some of the pics from the bakery (my fave section in every supermarket!)...

Preparing to make more bentos :)

Hooray... as mentioned in a previous post (click here to see my past bento post) I was determined to purchase some good quality bento accessories. Where better to go than down to the hub of the Asian Culture? RICHMOND!! My family usually goes to Richmond for Yum Cha (either Dynasty or Neptune... but I'll blog about that later, right now is for my bento obsession), so we ended up also going to Yaohan and Aberdeen Mall.

Yaohan had some great finds, on the upper level there's a gift store which sold awesome bento items. I bought: Hello Kitty rice molds, a 2-tier Monokuro Boo bento box, and a Hello Kitty Jelly/Ice mold. Me and my sister, were so excited to go to Aberdeen... cuz you know what that means? DAISO!! We just adore that store, and everything at a great $2... for quality goods. What more could you ask for? Seeing that my bento frenzy has been peaking, I remembered that the last time I went to Daiso I noticed a ton of great items for making great bentos. Well, here's a pic of my great Daiso/Yaohan finds:

At Daiso I picked up some fish-shaped soy sauce containers, a yello 2-tier bento, traditionsl onigiri molds, side dish containers and a madeleine baking pan (not really bento, but I had been wishing I bought it ever since I saw it in the store last month!)

I've been busy using my items and have made 3 new bentos. So much fun!!! I'll be posting them shortly!