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Posts Tagged ‘ChineseBites’

Tea Wok Asian Cuisine

Posted in Asian, Dinner, Joyce, Lunch, Meat, Restaurants, Taiwanese, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , on August 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »

I was invited by ChineseBites to try Tea Wok in downtown. It’s located just steps away from the BCIT downtown campus. It has a big menu, serving many Taiwanese favourites. On Zomato, the rating isn’t very impressive, so I was curious to give it a try.

Food

We tried a number of things and here were some highlights for me:

The Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets is a staple item at all Taiwanese restaurants, so it would be disappointing if it’s not cooked properly. And Tea Wok didn’t disappoint. The batter was thin, and it’s fried to great crispiness. The chicken nuggets were also flavoured nicely. There’s a hint of Thai basil in the chicken.

Deep Fried Chicken Nuggets

I’m a pretty adventurous eater, and pig ear is one of my favourite snack dishes. The Marinated Spicy Pig Ear was pretty good. The pig ear was sliced thinly, with a crunchy texture. It’s garlicky, and spicy.

Marinated Spicy Pig Ear

The Taiwanese Sausage with Fried Rice seems simple, but it’s executed well. (more…)

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Golden Eats Seafood Restaurant 佳坊海鮮食館

Posted in Chinese, Dinner, Food Bloggers, Group Dinner, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Seafood, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

It started with an express of interest in visiting a recently opened dessert place, then led to a scheduled visit to that place, but we needed a dinner first, so the ChineseBites crew ended up having dinner at Golden Eats on Kingsway near Victoria. For some reason I thought the restaurant has been around for ages and I just never went; turns out it’s only been open for about two years.

Food

We ordered a total of 12 dishes, and here are some highlights:

Served in Hong Kong style, the Peking Duck (片皮鴨) is served over two courses. First, the roasted duck was skinned, and served with crepes and scallion and hoi sin sauce. The skin was crispy, flavourful, but the crepe was a bit too thick for my liking. The highlight of the plate was the bed of lobster crackers. Typically restaurants use shrimp crackers because they come in different colours and more common, but they don’t have much flavour and can get soggy after absorbing the grease from the roasted duck. The lobster crackers here seemed to hold up quite well. They were firmer and thicker, yet still crispy and crunchy, and had some “seafood” flavour.

Peking Duck 片皮鴨

Meat from the duck carcass was then used for the second course, Lettuce Wrap (生菜包). The meat filling had a decent amount of meat. By the time we could dig in, though, the crisp at the bottom had become a bit soggy, relying on the iceberg lettuce to offer the crunchy texture.

Lettuce Wrap with Duck Meat 生菜包

Dark Vinegar Spareribs 銀山鎮江骨 Pan Fried Black Cod with Soy Sauce 豉油皇煎黑魚
Dark Vinegar Spareribs
銀山鎮江骨		 Pan Fried Black Cod with Soy Sauce
豉油皇煎黑魚

The Lobster with Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf (荷香龍蝦飯) is one of their signature dishes. (more…)

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Chang’An Restaurant 品味長安 – Chinese Fine Dining in Downtown Vancouver

Posted in Chinese, Dinner, Fine dining, Food Bloggers, Great Views, Joyce, Meat, Restaurants, Soup, Special Occasion, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 16, 2016| Leave a Comment »

Our friends at ChineseBites invited me to a Chinese fine dining experience at Chang’An Restaurant. It’s located right under the Granville Bridge, where Nu and Stonegrill used to be, with the gorgeous view of the False Creek.

Chang'An Restaurant

It turned out to be an elaborate 17-course dinner. Hold the drool! This is going to be a long and delicious post!

Food

As each table of guests is seated, they would be greeted with Guo Kui Pita 鍋盔. This was like complimentary bread served at western restaurants. The pita bread was served warm, crispy on the outside, and soft inside. I really liked the fermented bean sauce that came with it; it’s nutty and spicy, kinda like XO sauce too.

Guo Kui Pita 鍋盔

But we were all distracted by what’s happening on the table-side. It’s the Chang’an Roasted Duck 長安炙鴨! This was what we came here for. It’s the restaurant’s signature dish, and you must pre-order ahead of time. Why? Because it takes 72 hours to prepare the duck, then it’s roasted in-house for over an hour. According to the restaurant, they actually schedule the cooking time based on your dinner reservation, so it would be served roughly 15 minutes after you are seated, ensuring the optimal tenderness of the meat and crispiness of the skin.

Chang’an Roasted Duck 長安炙鴨

Usually for Peking Ducks, restaurants would just skin the duck and serve it with crepes, etc. Here they actually serve the skin two ways: first of all, they serve the crispiest part of the skin, and skin only with just a thin layer of fat, and you dip it in brown sugar. (more…)

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Chatime Surrey – Customize Your Drinks!

Posted in Asian, Cafe, Casual, Dessert, Drinks, Hang-Out with Friends, Joyce, Restaurants, Surrey, Taiwanese, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 18, 2016| Leave a Comment »

A 5th location of Chatime, a bubble tea franchise originated from Taiwan, has just opened in Surrey. Thanks to our friends at ChineseBites, I checked out the location before its grand opening day.

Drinks

At Chatime, not only do you get to choose from some 80-90 different drinks off the menu, you also get to customize your drinks by adding toppings and selecting your desired ice and sugar level:

  • Toppings ($0.50 each): Pearl / Grass Jelly / Pudding / Coconut Jelly / Coffee Jelly / Red Bean / Aloe Vera / Rainbow Jelly
  • Ice Options: 0% / 80% / Regular (100%) / 120%
  • Sugar Options: 0% / 30% / 50% / 80% / Regular (100%) / 120%

Chatime Pyramid

With that, here are the few drinks I tried:

Mango Green Tea (80% ice, 80% sugar, with Coconut Jelly) – This is often my go-to bubble tea because I’m a big mango fan. I only ordered it with 80% sugar, so it wasn’t overly sweet like most other ones I’ve had in the past. I could taste both the mango flavouring as well as the green tea. Nothing too special because it’s just a mango green tea, but definitely one of the better versions I’ve had in town.

Matcha Tea Latte (80% ice, 80% sugar) – Matcha Latte seems to be a popular item everywhere, including chain coffee shops such as Blenz and Waves. Naturally, I decided to order one at Chatime. (more…)

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Icy Bar – Icy treats for any occasion #ChineseBites

Posted in Asian, Cafe, Casual, Dessert, Food Bloggers, Hang-Out with Friends, Joyce, Restaurants, Snacks, Vancouver, tagged , , , , , , , on September 14, 2015| 1 Comment »

It may already be September but we are not quite finished with the hot weather yet. On those occasional warm days, you would be craving icy treats. Actually for Mr., he would just crave icy treats on a random day, even if it’s cold outside!

So, it’s only fitting that we accepted an invitation from ChineseBites to check out Icy Bar near Boundary and Kingsway. They also have another location at Knight and Kingsway.

Food

As a group tasting, you can imagine the amount of dishes we sampled. Here are some highlights for me:

Mango Ice Cream Mochi Icy – This is like mango heaven! Fresh mango with mango sauce drizzle on top of vanilla ice cream and shaved ice. I like the addition of mochi balls for some chewy texture, otherwise it would be all liquidy, especially when the ice cream and shaved ice starts to melt.

Mango Ice Cream Mochi Icy

Chocolate Honey Toast – This is like a new take on thick toast. The thick toast is cut into cubes, nicely stacked into a pile, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce drizzle. The thick toast is slightly sweetened; the flavour almost reminds you of condensed milk. It’s crispy, crunchy on the outside, and it’s still soft and chewy inside. The thick toast cubes are served warm, so you have to eat quickly otherwise the warm toast would melt the ice cream!

Chocolate Honey Toast

Mixed Icy – Choose from 30 different toppings including red bean, green bean, taro, coconut jelly, lemon jelly, mochi, grass jelly, tapioca, mango, lychee poppers, basil seed and more. (more…)

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