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[Roundup] My 10 Favourite Bites/Sips in 2022

Posted in Asian, Beer, Bistro, Brewery, Burger, Canadian, Casual, Chinese, Dessert, Dinner, Favourites, French, Fried, Fusion, Hotpot, Indian, Italian, Japanese, Joyce, Lower Mainland, Meat, Michelin Guide, Neighbourhood Gem, No Reservation, Pasta, Portland, Restaurants, Roundup, Surrey, Sushi, U.S., Vancouver, Vancouver Island, West Coast, tagged 2022 Recap, 2022 Review, Bar Susu, Bluefin Tuna, burger, Butter Chicken, Cascade Brewing, Clove - The Art of Dining, Commercial Drive, craft beer, Durian, Extreme Eatery, Fresh Pasta, Frog Legs, Hei Hei Rice Roll, Hotpot, Linh Cafe, New Mandarin Seafood Restaurant, Oca Pastificio, Parksville, Portland, Rice Rolls, Roundup, surrey, Sushi Hil, tandoori chicken, Tortelli, Yushang Hotpot on January 3, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Hello 2023!! 2022 is a wrap and there’s so much to be grateful for and to celebrate. With things returning to a new normal, I had the pleasure of discovering a lot of new places last year. Many are worthy a repeat visit and of them all, here are my 10 favourite bites/sips. Now keep in mind this list is about the specific item listed, because one can’t possibly like everything at every single place. These dishes just really stood out for me. Interestingly, only a couple of these places were hosted tastings. The rest were paid out of our own pockets. Also remember, restaurants rotate their menu on a regular basis so what I had listed here may not be available anymore (and I will try my best to specify below), but I’m sure you would find something you like if you decide to visit these restaurants sometime soon.

And without further ado, in no particular order, here are the 10 items:

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Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant 金百樂海鮮酒家 – Celebrating Chinese New Year in Richmond

Posted in Chinese, Dinner, Group Dinner, Joyce, Restaurants, Richmond, Seafood, Special Occasion, tagged #RichmondMoments, Celebration, chicken, Chinese Food, Chinese New Year, Chinese Restaurant Awards, Feast, Golden Paramount Seafood Restaurant, Lobster, oysters, Richmond BC, Rock Cod, sticky rice, Sweet and Sour Pork, Tourism Richmond on February 28, 2018| Leave a Comment »

It’s Chinese New Year (CNY) a couple of weeks ago, and us Chinese know how to celebrate — eat, feast, and repeat. Of course, there are many regional Chinese New Year traditions throughout China, and being from HK, the HK tradition is what I’m most familiar with. On New Year’s Eve I was invited to a feast with food expert Lee Man, and it just heightened my appreciation for my culture.

Calling it a feast, obviously it was a multi-course dinner with an abundance of food. We are all about good meanings 意頭 when it comes to choosing the dishes or even naming them for CNY. On Instagram I showed a glimpse of what that means with the CNY dinner made by Mama Lam this year. It’s being realized here once again at Golden Paramount in Richmond.

Food

“Togetherness” is one of the main reasons for CNY celebrations so families often take the opportunity to gather together and dine out during CNY. For that, the restaurant was hustling and bustling and it’s just full of energy! It was a late dinner for us (7:45pm start) and the room was still full and more were being seated as our dinner progressed. And here’s our menu, some background about them, and what they symbolize:
Pan Fried Oysters – Oysters are a homonym for “good”, indicating good luck for the upcoming year. Traditionally we eat dried oysters because it means “good business” 好市 but it does have a more distinctive fishy taste to it and not everyone likes it. This was a Chinese Restaurant Award winner.

Pepah Tofu – Fried food is usually in a golden colour so it symbolizes gold and fortune. The tofu here is shaped into a Chinese lute, Pipa. Fun fact: I learned to play the Pipa when I was in middle school in HK. Not easy to master but it was fun to play. This was later extended to my involvement with the Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble.

Crab Meat and Fish Maw Soup – At a CNY feast you would want to serve some luxurious items.

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0755 Restaurant & Lounge – Don’t Judge a Restaurant by its Cover

Posted in Chinese, Chopstick Fest, Culinary Events, Dessert, Dinner, Joyce, Restaurants, Richmond, Seafood, tagged 0755 Restaurant & Lounge, Chopstick Fest, Coconut Pudding, Fried Rice, Lobster, Loofah, scallops, spot prawns, Toast Box on October 20, 2016| 1 Comment »

Imagine you arrived at a restaurant where the exterior was all wrapped up so you couldn’t see the inside, and all you could see was the LED marquee sign by the door. Then, as you were led into the restaurant the interior décor made you feel like you entered a night club, and you started thinking to yourself, what the heck did I get myself into?!

That’s kind of how I felt when I went to 0755 Restaurant and Lounge in Richmond. As part of the Chopstick Fest preview, a few of us were invited to sample the menu of this restaurant. Frankly I didn’t know what to expect even by the time we were seated inside.

0755

According to the menu, 0755 is an area code in Shenzhen. It symbolizes that the restaurant menu is inspired by the food culture of this city in Southern China.

Food

And we were all pleasantly surprised. We tried a number of savoury items and there were many high points. Some of my favourites were:

Sour Jellyfish Head – Jellyfish head is actually the edge of a piece of jellyfish, so it has a crunchier texture that regular jellyfish. Because it didn’t have much flavour on its own, it really took up the black vinegar and chili pepper in the marinade. It’s quite refreshing and the sourness helped whet your appetite.

Garlic Steamed Scallop – This is one of my favourite ways to prepare fresh scallops. It reminds me of my visit back to Hong Kong where we had a big seafood feast in Tuen Mun. The fresh scallops would be steamed on the half shell with a garlic sauce. If you are a garlic fan, you would really enjoy the prominent garlic flavour. It’s light, but luxurious at the same time.

Braised Spot Prawns – I usually prefer lighter sauces for spot prawns so I could taste their natural sweetness, but this dish really surprised me.

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Richmond now has a Dumpling Trail!

Posted in Asian, Chinese, Culinary Events, Japanese, Joyce, Korean, News, Richmond, tagged #DumplingTrail, Announcement, Chiu Chow Fun Gor, Dumpling, Dumpling Trail, ExploreBC, Guo Tie, Gyoza, Ham Siu Gok, Har Gow, Jian Dui, Mandu, Richmond BC, Shui Jiao, siu mai, Tourism Richmond, Wontons, Wu Gok, Xiao Long Bao on August 26, 2016| 6 Comments »

If you follow me on Instagram, you would see in my IG Stories that yesterday I received a pretty neat surprise at lunch. Tourism Richmond delivered some freshly made dumplings from a number of Richmond restaurants. Why, you ask? There’s now a Dumpling Trail in Richmond!

Dumplings for Lunch

The Dumpling Trail is a self-guided tour of 15 restaurants in Richmond that serve up a wide variety of dumplings.

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[Recipe] Sausage Meat & Snow Peas Stir-fry

Posted in Chinese, Dinner, Home Cooking, Joyce, Meat, Recipe, tagged Bell Pepper, Chinese Food, Johnsonville, Lao Gan Ma, recipe, Sausage meat, Snow Peas, Stir-fry, XO Sauce on August 8, 2016| 2 Comments »

Being Chinese, make stir-fry is in our blood. Stir-fry dishes are always on our dinner table. For our family, we’re not traditionalists, so we often incorporate ingredients and flavours from other cuisines.

This time, we had a pack of Johnsonville Italiano Sausage Meat. It’s most expected to be a pizza topping, or being made into meatballs. Because we also got some fresh snow peas out of my mother-in-law’s garden, we decided to make a stir-fry.

The sausage meat is basically ground pork seasoned with Italian style herbs and spices. It’s like a hack for not having to season your meat. It also means that you have to watch how much additional seasoning you’re putting in this dish – it could get salty.