Beijing Restaurant

Sorry dear readers....I'm quite upset that I cannot blog on my phone and have to use a laptop. I really dislike this inconvenience of having to use a laptop and transfer the pictures from my phone. I'm in between deciding what to purchase next... an ipad, a new smart phone, a laptop or a puppy. I'll eventually get them all but just figuring out the timing.

Anyways, you're here to read about yummy food. During the long weekend, I went to Beijing Restaurant with my family for Alaskan King Crab. It is starting to be the season so it's a good chance to eat this type of crab. To fish this, it's actually very hard and potentially dangerous for the fisherman. "Alaskan crab fishing is very dangerous, and the fatality rate among the fishermen is about 80 times the fatality rate of the average worker. It is suggested that, on average, one crab fisherman dies weekly during the seasons," as mentioned in Wikipedia. Click here if you want more info. 


If you have not had Alaskan King crab, read this article from the Globe and Mail. It talks more in detail about this: Alaskan King Crab is all it's cracked up to be.


So here is a picture of our 13lb King Crab that my family ate. In Chinese restaurants, they like to show you the fresh seafood so that you know what you are getting. Truth is, I only believe this at reputable restaurants. With other places, I always worry that they will show the seafood to you then in then kitchen, change to something that is less fresh. I don't think that this place would do such a thing. 

Candy Cane Sweet Bread Braid

I borrowed Debbie Macomber's Christmas Cookbook from the library because it was a new cookbook. I don't know who she is but as I was looking for a picture of the cookbook cover to put on this blog, I realized that she is an author.





I decided to try two of the recipes in the book and this is one of them.

Roasted Squash Soup with Apple and Brie

I love soup...doesn't matter from where or what country. Give me a bowl of steaming hot soup and I'm happy!! I think it's because I grew up having soup after supper every night and if there wasn't homemade soup, well, instant was better than nothing. I don't have soup after supper all the time now and miss that so soup is a big treat!!

I'm not so into creamy soups because they are too rich. The only creamy soup I like are New England Clam Chowder and Mushroom soup. Unfortunately I don't know how to appreciate rich soups.

Recently I noticed in the last 5+ years, butternut squash soup and roasted red pepper soup are really popular. I've been wanting to make this type a soup for a long time.

What stopped me was when I looked at the recipes, many asked for cream or sour cream to be added to the soup. I know that adding the dairy product will make the soup silkier and smooth but also more calories. One big pot of this would be too much for me to enjoy.

As well most soups are pureed. I didn't own a blender until recently and Magic Bullet for a big pot of soup would take forever. So that was a major deterrent.

So when I discovered this recipe called "Roasted Squash Soup with Apple and Brie" in my The Rest of the Best and more, I was excited.



Even better was that it required ingredients I already had at home. To make it rich and creamy, the recipe asks for Brie, which seemed optional to me.

Meat & Bread

A friend took me to this place around springtime and I LOVED it. I couldn't blog about it then because my phone battery was dead. I was determined that I would come here again because it was is delicious and also to share with my readers.

Unfortunately I tried coming here on a Sunday and found out they were closed. So this time, I went on a Saturday. They were busy!

The name of this sandwich place is simple. It describes what they serve, Meat and Bread.

ABC Restaurant

At the suggestion of an anonymous comment, I went to ABC Restaurant (愛彼茜餐室) to try out their souffle.

Mr Zhang's Karaoke Restaurant

Initially I wanted to have Chinese hot pot for supper but when my friends and I saw that the price was $25 per person, we decided it was too expensive and tried this new restaurant.

It seems that Northern Chinese food is quite popular. I'm not sure if it's because there are a lot of new immigrants from China and not from Hong Kong or it's a trend but many new restaurants are popping up that serve this type of food.

Bel Cafe

Georgia Hotel finally opened up their cafe. Prior to their renovations, they had an amazing cafe with extraordinary desserts. It was called Senses. After they closed, I haven't found many comparable to that. I would describe their desserts like eating a cloud...that luxurious!!!

So when walking home, I saw Bel Cafe opened and walked in to see their desserts. I was disappointed with the selection since there were only 5 items....cheesecake, various pound cakes, lemon tart, dark chocolate hazelnut raspberry vanilla mousse and white chocolate something coconut. And macarons.

I bought a pistachio macaron. It was ok. I think I've had better. It didn't have enough pistachio taste compared to what I had from other bakeries.

I've started to develop a taste for macarons. Though a bit sweet, I love the airy texture. My favourite is pistachio. Actually it's the only one I've tasted since I find it too expensive to try all the flavours and end up always picking pistachio.

Lin Chinese Restaurant

I went to a Chinese Restaurant for lunch. I've been here a couple of times and have always enjoyed the food. Strangely, I've never been there for supper, only lunch. The restaurant is called Lin's Chinese Cuisine and Tea (林餐館).

Usually this restaurant is so busy that you have to wait for a seat but this time, we got a seat right away. Maybe it's a Sunday.

Cake Pops

I bought Cake Pop recipe book over a year ago (before my New Year's resolution). I've been wanting to try it but timing didn't work. It's got great pictures that I love looking at the pictures.

Muffin, Cake and Brownie

Tonight I felt like baking so I baked. If I had a big freezer and ingredients at home, I'd bake more things. Actually ingredients is no problem since Safeway is opened til 12am so my problem is storage. I don't like wasting food, that unless it is eaten, I can't make more.

Tonight I made three items but will only blog on two of them. I made a pound cake, spinach corn muffin and brownies.

WE Coffee

I was craving Japanese crepe on Tuesday. I've become kinda addicted to it since eating it at Harujuku in Tokyo. It was soo good!! Anyways the Japanese crepe place was closed. I found out that it closes on Tuesday.

So then I decided to have waffles at Michi Waffles but it's was closed. It is no longer operating. Wonder what happened cos it was quite busy?

So continued walking until I reached WE Coffee. WE means West End.

Street Cart Food - Feastro Food

Tried a couple of food stalls this weekend. The one we tried was called Feastro. It's a purple food cart around Coal Harbour.

La Gavroche Restaurant

Recently I went to La Gavroche for supper. It was a Monday night.

Jang Mo Jib Restaurant

I went to a popular Korean restaurant in downtown. It's called Jang Mo Jib. The food is very tasty. They have multiple locations, though I've heard the one in downtown is the best. They can be quite busy and might need to wait to get a table. It's the restaurant I take guests to eat Korean food because the quality is consistent and don't have to worry they had an off day with their cooking. It's almost guaranteed that guests will enjoy!!

Michi Waffle and Expresso Bar

After supper, we had some time before we had to drop off someone to the airport. We decided to try a waffle place. They are often very busy. As a matter of fact, five minutes after we ordered there was a line up and all the seats taken. This place is called Michi Waffle and Expresso bar.

Shrewsbury Cakes

I borrowed a cookbook by Richard Sax called Classic Home Desserts. It interested me because I like old recipes from pioneers and Victorian Era. I find their food very interesting both from survival perspective (pioneers and homesteaders) and extravagance (Victorian house management).

This book is quite extensive. I wouldn't say the recipes are the original recipes from way back when. Rather they are recipes that have been modernized and from hotels or chefs that the author has tried the dishes and begged for their recipes. This book has won the Beard Award, if it means anything to you.

Korean Grilled Pork Belly (삼겹살)

This is probably one of my unhealthiest blog in terms of the food I ate.

I went to eat at Korean Grilled Pork Belly All you can eat restaurant. I dont know the restaurant's name in English as there is no sign except this one:


I think the restaurant's name is Pork Belly Buffet. But not sure.

Brunch at Provence

Today I went to brunch with some friends at one of my favorite brunch places. The place is called Provence. I've been there for brunch a couple of times and supper and really enjoy their food. Good quality and amazing taste.

Penang cafe Again

This afternoon I went to Penang Cafe for lunch. It was really busy. Lucky for us we got a seat right away. I was impressed as the owner quickly cleaned the table and even switched a warm chair to a fresh chair for us.

We were about to order our food when we were asked to move to another table so they could seat a party of 6.

I was ok with it but they were going to move us to be beside the washroom. I dislike being beside the washroom. They can disguise it with sprays but even that type of spray really makes me sick. So we were going to leave cos we didn't want to sit by the washroom (they should serve 1 less table and get rid of that table.)

Anyways, the owner and staff told us to stay and made the party of 6 to squeeze together or wait for a bigger table. I felt bad but I also do not enjoy eating by the washroom.

Anyways, the food was good. A lot of customers are from Malaysia or Singapore so it must be pretty authentic. To me it seems authentic but I only ate Malay food for a couple of days as a tourist so not as accurate as people from that area.

I ordered the following:

Sura Restaurant

On Friday I was in the mood for Korean so decided to go to Sura Restaurant. I went there when it first opened and wasn't impressed. However it's been a while and I thought maybe it would have improved because now it is quite busy. Its popular with Koreans and non-Koreans.