Bubble Tea & Noodles @ The One Restaurant 美味關係

I had heard a lot about The One Restaurant 美味關係  but ever really had the chance to try it out since it's all the way in Burnaby. As appealing as their super tall bubble teas sound, I live in the land of bubble tea (I mean for the Vancouver area).


We weren't that hungry so we shared an appy and a dish. The One green onion egg roll ($3.75) was recommended on Foursquare as being cheap and delicious. Indeed it was quite reasonable for less than $4 and pretty good tasting. It was kind of like a really eggy crepe.

We opted for the fresh strawberry slush ($6.25), which is $0.75 more expensive than the regular non-fresh variation. They actually serve this with an extra glass, and it was definitely enough for the both of us to share. Although it looked pretty cool, the slush tasted more of sugar than strawberry, and I was mildly disappointed. The pearls were a bit undercooked as well.

We shared the Taiwanese style fried rice noodle (台式炒米粉, $9.50) as well. It was definitely a good idea to share since it was enough for the both of us, and I even had the leftovers for lunch the next day. the toppings weren't particularly exciting, but the vermicelli noodles were well separated and al dente. Price-wise, The One is a bit more expensive than the typical meal at Taiwanese restaurants but the portions are huge. Food-wise, not the most exciting but decent.

The One Restaurant 美味關係 
5908 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
(604) 569-1866

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New York: Hidden Doors & Stormy Weather @ Angel's Share

Whilst in New York, one of the things I had to do was go to a speakeasy. Thankfully our friends there were knowledgeable and listed several for us to try, including Angel's Share.



This is what a real speakeasy looks like. Angel's Share is hidden away inside a Village Yokocho around the NYU district.



After heading up the stairs to the Japanese restaurant and making a left, a wooden door separates you from the speakeasy.



It's so classy. I really enjoy it.



We each had the stormy weather ($14), which Jason said was the drink to get. In it was:  apple and cinnamon-infused rye whiskey, fresh lime juice, ginger flavoured wine, ground ginger, and ginger ale.
They even had a blurb about it in the menu. It's really cute: The fuji apple infused whiskey was conceived after many trials and experimentation. Served in a chilled bronze mug, we are proud to present this truly unique cocktail. This was a really interesting and delicious drink. It was pretty strong, but nicely balanced with the apple. The cinnamon part was a bit faint though.



I really enjoyed Angel's Share. I whined about going back for the rest of the week I was in New York, but



For your reference, this is a not-so-real "speakeasy" near our apartment in Hell's Kitchen. I mean, it says "speakeasy" in neon lights.

Angel's Share
8 Stuyvesant St
New York, NY
(212) 777-5415

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Steak & Cake @ Black + Blue

Since it was Mama Leung's birthday and I had the $100 gift card from doing the Glowbal passport, I took her out to Black + Blue for some birthday steak.



Although it was a weekend, it was surprisingly busy. We ended up sitting upstairs, which had a nice view of the chandeliers hanging above the bar on the lower level.



For the amuse bouche, we had crab cakes. Not bad and reasonably sized, but it was a tad salty. Meh.



We shared the hot rock ($16), which are raw beef brochettes served with a hot Himalayan rock of sea salt to grill on. The pieces of meat were not bad, but it was really the meat grilling experience that made this dish more enjoyable. Although they were served with a sauce, the sea salt added enough flavour to it already.



It's really hard to make a burnt piece of meat attractive. I had the P.E.I. blue ribbon beef tenderloin (8oz, $39) cooked, well, black and blue -- charred on the outside and raw on the inside. I figured that the name of the restaurant meant that I should probably give this a shot. The outside was really quite burnt indeed, and I didn't find it too pleasant, which is totally not the restaurants fault. It was just a matter of personal preference that I didn't like the strong flavour of carcinogens.



However, the inside was really delicious and the steak itself was quite juicy and tender. Good stuff.



My mother had the P.E.I. Blue Ribbon New York Strip (12oz, $39) in medium rare, which was a bit more cooked than the blue part of my steak. This one was less tender but had more flavour to it.



The steaks are served by their lonesome on a large plate, and one has to add sides which cost extra. Since we weren't that hungry and already had starters (although no vegetables, but whatever), we didn't add them. The steaks are served with a trio of sauces: chimichurri, horseradish, and steak sauce. Although the chimichurri was good, we agreed the steaks tasted best by themselves.



We also shared 20 layer chocolate espresso cake ($12) which was very rich. I enjoyed it, though I found it a little more chocolatey than espresso-y. All in all a decent meal.

Black + Blue
1032 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 637-0777

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Portuguese Beef Brisket & Rice @ Gold Stone Bakery Restaurant

Since it was a fairly sunny day, our team speed walked to Chinatown, without any particular restaurant in mind. We ultimately decided on a HK style cafe, or cha chaan teng -- Gold Stone Bakery Restaurant 金石餐廳餅店.




As with most cha chaan tengs, the dishes come with a choice of coffee or tea. I chose to upgrade mine to an iced beverage for an extra $0.50. The cold milk tea was okay, at best. It was not that creamy nor did it have a strong tea taste. The size of the glass was pretty small as well compared to most cha chaan tengs. Disappoint.



I had ordered the "Portuguese sauce with beef brisket on rice" (葡汁牛腩飯) thinking it was the same thing as "Baked Portuguese beef brisket on rice" (焗葡國牛腩飯)... but no, not the same thing. Instead of the yellow curry and coconut based sauce, it was more of a stew -- kind of reminded me of Campbell's Chunky beef soup... a lot. There were also five pieces of macaroni pasta in it; not sure why, since it came with rice:



Overall, it was pretty salty though filling. For $8+, the meal was not the greatest. I could have had Campbell's Chunky Soup with rice for way cheaper if I wanted to. Sure, there was a bit more beef that is not as processed as the canned variety, but still. I should've opted for the baked pork chop rice that most of my coworkers did, but I really wanted to diversify. Boo.

Gold Stone Bakery Restaurant 金石餐廳餅店
139 Keefer St
Vancouver, BC
(604) 688-9328

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Food & More Food @ Sura Korean Restaurant

Irene and I headed out to Sura Korean Restaurant on Robson during our lunch break since she raved about a $15 lunch set. I checked it out online and indeed there were very many dishes.



The Lunch Set Course SU ($15 per person) consists of nine dishes, as well as three side dishes, rice for two, and a Korean rice punch for dessert.



To start: the green salad and dong–chimi. The salad was fairly standard and not anything too special, though I did appreciate that it was a bit more decorative than what you would normally see at an Asian restaurant. The dong-chimi was something new that I haven't tried before. The internet tells me it is a "radish water kimchi" -- are you supposed to drink the water? I'm not sure, but apparently it can be used as a broth with noodles. I drank some of the cold liquid anyway, and it was pretty good. Tasted pretty much like kimchi.



The tang–pyungchae or mung bean starch jelly salad was one of my favourite dishes of the meal. It was a refreshing cold noodle dish and it kind of reminded me of the Chinese jellyfish dish, except with less crunch. Nicely seasoned and very interesting texture.



The grilled Atlantic croaker was alright; it had a really strong fishy taste to it and wasn't particularly crispy. The potato pancake wasn't really that delicious either and reminded me of hash browns, especially since there was a bit of gochujang on the side. Kind of like Bob's hashbrowns with sriracha.



The bulgogi was marinated pretty well, but as I find with most restaurants, the beef was a bit overcooked and tough.



The tang–sooyuk, or  sweet, sour, and crispy pork was interesting. I haven't really seen this type of dish before, but then again, my knowledge of Korean dishes is limited. The exterior was not particularly crispy per say, but it kind of had that crunch that popcorn kind of has. The pieces were mostly batter rather than pork. The 3 kinds of side-dishes when we went were peanuts (or beans?), eggplant, and of course kimchi. That's pretty unique and different from the standard bean sprouts and daikon, which I appreciated.



The doenjang jjigae or Korean soybean paste soup was pretty good as well. Somehow I feel like no Korean meal is complete without a hot boiling soup, even on a summer's day. It's a bit different from the more common kimchi soup and not as spicy; also choked full of ingredients, but I tried to get to the soup more than the filler.



The bossam, a roasted pork, was pretty good as well and Irene's favourite. It was a bit on the greasy side, I thought, though the gochujang made it go down just a bit easier.

According to the menu, there was also supposed to be yam mousse, which we didn't seem to get. The Korean rice punch which we got as we were about to leave was decent. I had only a small sip of it and it was fairly light and refreshing. Overall, if having ten dishes for lunch for only $15 sounds good to you, check Sura out. I felt pretty much like Korean royalty that day and Sura offers some interesting dishes that you would not normally notice on a typical Korean menu.

Sura Korean Restaurant
1518 Robson St
Vancouver, BC
(604) 687-7872

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Red Bean & Cream Korean Fish Waffles @ Five Loaves Two Fish

Since it was a rare occasion for me to drive up to SFU Burnaby, I decided to try out this waffle food cart located next to Hannam Market on North Road, seeing as it's quite a short drive from campus. I've heard about this cart quite a bit and tried coming here before, but it's actually closed on Sundays.



People call this the "mysterious Korean food cart that sells waffles" but actually, on the bottom left it does indeed have an English name: Five Loaves Two Fish -- a very familiar name! There was a "Five Bread Two Fish" at the Richmond Night Market last year, also a Korean vendor, but I'm not sure if they're associated with one another.



Although they offer sweet and vegetable pancakes, I came for the Korean fish waffles, which come in three varieties: red bean, vegetable, and cream. All items are $1 except for the red bean fish waffle.



The fish waffles are pretty cute and each the size of my hand. The exterior of the waffles were light and had a slight crispiness to them. They kind of reminded me of the che lun bing from Peanut's Bubble Tea in Richmond, but without the glutinous mochi part. The fish waffles here have a slight charred taste to them.



The filling for the cream one was also pretty much the same as the che lun bing -- both are this nice custard-like cream, which I have come to love so much. If I knew where I could buy this stuff on its own, I would just eat it everyday. In comparison though, the che lun bing are filled to the brim with custard, whereas there was some hollowness to the fish waffles. I'm pretty sure the volume of custard is the same, but there's something about a dessert that is filled to the brim that is so much more satisfying.



The red bean one was cheaper and pretty good! It's more of a mash of red beans rather than a fine purrée, which was fine by me. This fish seemed to be quite packed with red bean too, which was good. Overall, not a bad find in the Lougheed area, but I still prefer the mochi-ness of the che lun bings from Peanuts more. (And they're cheaper too!)

Five Loaves Two Fish Food Cart
4501 North Rd
Burnaby, BC

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Salmon & Saba Aburi @ Sushi House

Since we wanted some sushi, I had a quick look online to find some sushi places in Richmond that we hadn't been to. Sushi House had been on my wishlist for a while, so finally we made it there for dinner.

Although it was a fairly small restaurant, it was actually quite packed that evening, so we sat at the counter. We got there just in time, since there was actually a line that quickly formed afterwards.



The tuna and salmon combo ($8.30) with salmon and tuna nigiri as well as rolls was the first to arrive. The quality of the fish was decent and seemed quite fresh. The rice balls underneath the nigiri were nicely formed and not too loosely packed.



Rarely do I see aburi sushi on the menu, so I really wanted to try out the salmon aburi (~$9). They were plain battera rolls with avocado in between and topped with salmon lightly torched and topped with masago, scallions, and sauce. I found the rice to salmon ratio to be a bit off -- the rice could have been half of what it actually was in height. And although it's pretty much comparing apples to oranges, I will have to draw a comparison to Minami, which was far better but also a bit more expensive at $14. This one just lacked the umami flavour that Minami's aburi had. I guess if I don't take the Minami experience into context, this aburi here was alright. I think I would probably opt for a nigiri instead just because the rice was so disproportionate.



The saba aburi (~$9) also had the same issue with the rice; too much rice! Otherwise, it was decent. I liked the salmon one more, but overall the meal was not bad. The prices are fairly good for what it is, and we were quite stuffed by the end of the meal. We could have probably had a cheaper meal if we skipped out on one of the aburis and still be satisfied.

Sushi House

#2182-3779 Sexsmith Rd. 

Richmond, BC

(604) 233-1015

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