Richmond 365

Have you heard about the latest food blogging stint in Vancouver? Tourism Richmond is looking for a foodie to eat at Richmond's 800+ restaurants every day for a whole year -- 365 days -- and blog about it and communicate via social media like Twitter and Facebook. They are not looking for a food critic but more of a person who can document the stories behind the food.

The successful candidate will receive:

• annual contract salary of $50,000


• daily stipend for restaurant meals


• apartment and living costs compensation for a period of one


• 1 year gym membership at the Richmond Olympic Oval

I mean, this sounds like an absolutely fantastic idea! Imagine, getting paid to eat and blog all day long for a year! 

Here's why I would totally do this:

1. The annual salary is practically twice as much as what my job pays me!


2. Free accomodation for a whole year!


3. I love food, I love photography -- no better way to do this than having to do it for a living!


4. It'll be like living abroad for a whole year without the extensive travelling! 


5. Getting paid to eat? Sure, why not!


6. Opportunity to do many fun things that I probably will never encounter in my lifetime!


7. I speak Cantonese and Mandarin; a great skill to have when ordering Chinese food or reading Chinese menus!

Here's why I would NOT do it:

1.  I still have my job... What would happen after one year?


2. How about my boyfriend? I can't live in Richmond all by myself and still have time to see him...


3. Seriously? 365 days of blogging? I can't foresee that happening.. I already procrastinate enough that I can't even keep up with one post a week...


4. 365 days of eating out? I'll probably become a giant. Even though there IS a gym membership.. But I don't LIKE the gym!


5. Who will have the patience to read the blog every single day for a year?!


6. No car, no talk! Besides, I can't drive.. And we all know Richmond is hard to get around without a car.


7. I don't see myself giving up everything I have for a year and eat my heart out..

Same number of reasons, but I really don't see myself doing it.. It would be a more feasible thing if it was blogging every week for a year.. Then I would so do it! But nah, this would be too much work!!

Nevertheless, very interesting way of promoting tourism! I'm excited to see how this will turn out!

♥ Nikki

Novo Pizzeria and Wine Bar on Burrard St

Guess who's in town! My friend from university, Anna! We both took economics at UBC and haven't seen each other since graduation in 2010! She's visiting Vancouver for a couple weeks and we met up with some other friends from school. One of them suggested Novo Pizzeria and Wine Bar and there we were!



Located along Burrard Street between West 5th and 6th Ave, Novo did not appear to stand out in the quiet neighbourhood. The movie theatre next door had a much more enticing popcorn aroma which caught my attention :P Frankly, I've never been in this neighbourhood as I usually travel along 4th Ave.

We went in and it was a good thing one of our friends arrived early and got a table. After we sat down, we saw numerous people standing by the door waiting for a table, so I guess we were lucky to have made reservations.



The layout of the restaurant was very interesting, with the kitchen along the walls and most of the space was dining tables surrounding a downward staircase leading to the washrooms.



There were a variety of booth seats, high tables with bar stools and regular dining tables. I kind of like this shot of happy diners that show the bar at the other side of the restaurant as well.



The bar looked like a relaxing place, with two big screens showing sports. The restaurant had some upbeat music and everyone was chattering over the noise. It was a casual setting despite the fancy tableware with candles and the low-light atmosphere.

We quickly decided on an appetizer, a pizza and a pasta to share. The food was super fast and came within 10 minutes!



We got the proscuitto and arugula pizza as one of our mains. The crust was thin and fluffy, and resembled the texture of naan, very well done. The tomato sauce base had an amazingly fresh taste of tomatoes but was not too sour and overpowering like some others. There was excellent-quality mozarella, thin silky proscuitto, shavings of parmesan cheese and crisp arugula topping the already-wonderful crust.



For another main, we got the Sausage Orecchiette. Topped with Swiss chard, fennel pollen, toasted bread crumbs and parmesan cheese, this dish was an absolute delight! The orecchiette (which means 'little ears' in Italian) were carefully handcrafted and cooked to perfection, a little more than al dente which gave it a nice chewy texture to it. The sausage was juicy and flavourful and the saltiness of the Swiss chard went well with it. I would have liked a little more sauce to this dish as the little ears pasta had such good potential to soak up more sauce.



A closer look at the serving of pasta and pizza I had.. This was before the appetizer came. Honestly, it didn't matter that the appetizer came last, since the pasta and pizza came so quickly we all dug right in.



We ordered the calamari (fried squid) from the appetizer menu as a snack. When the dish came, I was a little disappointed to see the some of the batter falling off the squid. But when I took a bite, I was taken aback by how fresh the squid was! Tender and juicy, not tough to chew at all. I would have liked this dish to be a little less greasy even though it IS a fried dish after all.



A generous dish of tartar sauce sat beside the calamari, waiting to be dipped into. The tartar sauce was also homemade, I could taste the fresh lemon, dill and parsley that cut the richness of the sauce. It was creamy yet refreshing.

An interesting incident happened while we were munching on the calamari. I noticed a strand of dark red string/fluff amongst the pieces of calamari. Knowing it was not a human hair, I picked it up nonchalantly and flicked it away. A few minutes later, I saw another piece of fluff and it was bigger this time. My friend noticed me picking away at the dish and asked what was going on, and I told her, it's just fluff. She said we should tell the waiter, but there wasn't anymore fluff I could find.

Just as we were reaching the last bits of the calamari, I noticed another piece of fluff. So when a server came to take away our plates, I pointed it out to her. She professionally said that she will go to get our waiter. Our waiter, a lovely chap, came by and we explained to him about the fluff. He took away the plate and said he will look into it.

A few minutes later, he returned with a red cloth in his hand and 1) reassured us it was not human hair, 2) explained that the chef had used the red cloth to clean the side of the plate after plating and 3) said that he had taken the calamari off our bill.

I was truly impressed. This is the top-notch service that I wish more places have. Very professional and polite, our waiter did everything on the checklist: Made menu recommendations, filled our water glasses, checked in with us after we started eating, investigated the tiniest strand of fluff on our calamari dish, and took a lovely picture of us even though the restaurant was bustling at its peak. Here's a shoutout to JACOB, one of the best waiters I have encountered!

Here's the picture he took for us!



Novo has everything I want in a restaurant: quality food, amazing service, great staff! It was pretty busy around dinnertime when we were there, so I'd suggest you make reservations before you go! They also have a Monday date night deal where a couple can enjoy a three-course dinner meal and a pair of movie tickets (for the movie theatre next door) for just $49!

Two thumbs up for this lovely restaurant hidden in a quiet neighbourhood away from the busy 4th Ave! Definitely going there again someday!

♥ Nikki

Cookie Zoo!

Today, I have a zoo of cookies at home!

"Wait a minute, shouldn't it be a BATCH of cookies?" you say.



This is what I'm talking about!

Last month, I went on a cookie cutter craze! I bought some cute mini cookie cutters at Michaels after Christmastime in 2011 and they were so adorable! The price was more than half off since Christmas was over, and I paid $1.99 for them. I never got around to using them; just looking at them made me happy :D After Valentine's Day, I saw a "romance" cookie cutter set at Michaels! With a 50% discount coupon in hand, I bought it right away!



When I got the romance set, I saw a set of Noah's Ark cookie cutters too, which was part of the series of cookie cutters Wilton has. In my mind, I was thinking, "I really don't NEED animal cookie cutters..." But when I got home and saw my two sets side by side, I knew I had to get my hands on that Noah's Ark set to complete the collection. I went back the next day and got it with ANOTHER 50% discount coupon :D



Finally, such a long time after I have bought them, I am putting them to use! The cookie cutter sets come with a super simple sugar cookie recipe that was so hard to go wrong!

Sugar Cookies

• 1/2 cup butter


• 1 cup sugar (you can easily reduce to half a cup, I used 3/4 cup and still found it too sweet)


• 1 egg


• 1 teaspoon baking powder


• 1-3/4 cups flour


• 1 tablespoon milk (I didn't find this necessary)


• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla


• 1/4 teaspoon salt

With my new sieve my aunt got me, I can now sift my flour when I bake! Things will turn out much smoother now, I believe! *I have not been using a sieve since this year since I moved from my last place.*



Step 1: Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large bowl (excuse my pot!).



Step 2: Cream butter (which should be softened to room temperature -- I cheated, I microwaved it for 15 seconds..).



Step 3: Cream butter and sugar together with electric mixer.



This is what it should look like. The butter should not be melting and the sugar should disappear. At this point, my butter/sugar mixture was flying everywhere because the lowest speed on my hand mixer is still too fast and flinging everything around!



 

 

Step 4: Add egg and vanilla extract, mix well.



Step 5: Add the flour mixture slowly in a few additions and continue to mix. At this point, I sifted the flour again because I just can't get enough of my new sieve! Also, cookie dough was flying everywhere with my silly too-fast hand mixer, but I didn't want to use my hands to risk melting the butter too much.



Step 6: Gather the crumbly dough together with a wooden spoon and then finally your hands to shape it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Put the dough into the fridge to chill and rest for a couple of hours.

I did this early in the morning and went out to buy groceries. By the time I came back, the dough had firmed up nicely.



All set and ready for rolling and cutting! *No pictures of the cutting process as my hands were greasy, but perhaps next time! When I have my lovely photographer assistant with me ;)

But I shall tell you about how much fun I had. I found it important to sprinkle flour on the working surface as well as the rolling pin to prevent sticking. I pulled off about 1/3 of the dough and worked with it while putting the rest of it back in the fridge.

For the first batch, I made 4 of each of the shapes in the romance set.



Tulip, bell, heart, butterfly, crinkle heart and flower shapes! :) Bake them at 375 F if using a light-coloured pan, and 350 F if using a dark-coloured pan. I took the easy way out and used parchment paper, baking them for 8 minutes at 375 F!



After baking, these puffed up a little and got a little brown on the sides. I love how the surface is so big and you can dress them up with icing to make them look even prettier! I should make these as wedding favours sometime (if I have the chance to go to one!).

For the second batch, I used the Noah's Ark set and jazzed things up a little. I read about black sesame cookies one day and suddenly remembered I have a tiny jar of the seeds. I put about 1 tablespoon of black sesame seeds in a bowl and pounded away at it for a few minutes with the end of my rolling pin. Then I mixed it well into another 1/3 of the dough and ended up with a lovely specked ball.



I think the black sesame worked really well with the animal cutters, since animals have all sorts of spots on their bodies! Bear, elephant, Noah's Ark, giraffe, dog, lion! My favourite has got to be the giraffe with the spots!



This is how they came out! All chubby little animals! Aren't they the cutest?



These two were joined at the butt! Haha, it cracked me up...



All cooling down on a plate! Don't they look so lovely?





A close-up shot of the cutters.. I still have to try out the Christmas set! And last month, my aunt gave me another set of animal cutters which had 9 different shapes! I also got some nesting cookie cutters so I foresee making a lot more cookies in future! I must also get some cute little bags or boxes so I can pack them up and give them away! :)



And there you have it, simple delicious cookies! These taste and look amazing by themselves without icing, but I'm sure you can go all out for special occasions by decorating them! I shall be on the hunt for more festive cookie cutters! *My house will turn into a cookie cutter museum very soon!*

♥ Nikki

Sushi Garden

I really should have done a post on last Friday's dinner, but some things cropped up and it had to be cancelled, so pardon the emptiness this week. Haven't had anything interesting all week as I mostly cooked at home, recovering from the flu.

Today I went to Metrotown to meet my distant cousin, Jasmine, whom I have never met or heard of until a couple weeks ago. She came to Vancouver a year ago and this is the first time I heard about it. We decided to meet up and chat!

She said there were lots of Asian places to eat behind Metrotown, so off we went! The row of shops behind Metrotown were mostly restaurants and somehow we decided on Sushi Garden, because she said her friend recommended it.

*No pictures of the interior because the waitress stopped me and claimed the sushi chefs didn't like it. I was merely trying to take a picture of the overall atmosphere to show the bustle of the place. Is it me or do some restaurants do not welcome reviews?*

The place was packed when we went in, but somehow there was a table for two and we sat down. We saw everyone's tables with platters of HUGE pieces of sushi and large platters of noodles, tempura and such. We took a long time to decide and finally decided on the sushi combo for two.

The food came almost instantly as there were about six sushi chefs behind the counter who were probably just making everything on the menu that was popular, as it was lunch hour and the place was packed.



This is our 32-piece sushi combo, for only $19.50! That's a lot of sushi and quite a lot of variety if you ask me. Jasmine wanted sashimi but I thought this combo came with it but it did not (sorry Jasmine!). But the nigiri sushi that came was almost sashimi-like as it was so generous and thick!

I shall proceed to talk about each of the kinds of sushi, but I do not have any individual pictures as we were too busy chatting. Probably should have but I was already conscious of my photography from that annoying waitress.

1. Nigiri Sushi

Large, luscious piece of salmon, neatly sliced with a little "tail" at the end. Extremely fresh, one of the freshest salmon I have tasted. Smooth and creamy, the proportion of fish to rice was about 3 to 1, amazingly big if I may say so. Same goes for the tuna, also a HUGE slice of fish.

The shrimp nigiri was also extremely fresh and juicy! Just be careful about that little nub of wasabi secretly embedded between the rice and the fish of the nigiri. The fish roe nigiri was overflowing with the fish roe that half of it fell out when I tried to pick it up! *embarrassed* The fish roe was salty and crunchy, and you could tell it was the good-quality kind that is clearly distinct from the ones they sprinkled on the dynamite roll.

2. Salmon/tuna maki rolls

There were so many of them, six of each of salmon and tuna! The sushi was tightly rolled and showed no sign of falling apart even when biting them in half. The seaweed was not soggy and came apart easily as I bit into it. The rice was cool and sticky with just the right amount of vinegar to it. Very well done.

3. Dynamite roll

Prawn tempura with cucumber, avocado and lettuce wrapped with rice and seaweed, this was also a very large roll! The cucumber was very fresh and the tempura had some special sauce on it, it was pretty good.

4. California roll

There were eight pieces of this famous roll, and the crab meat inside was a little salty but tasted sweet at the same time. I'd like it to be a little less salty but it was also a very well-made roll.

That was A LOT of sushi for the both of us and we took such a long time to finish it! The waiters and waitresses also refilled our tea on quite a regular basis. Customers streamed in and out with a constant bunch waiting on the bench. This is apparently a very popular place and rather worthwhile, if you look at the size of the sushi/sashimi relative to the price. My only complaint was that rude waitress who didn't let me take pictures of the restaurant. She was not polite about it and looked like she wanted to bite my head off.

Good place to go for great quality sushi (assuming they are consistent with their skills) but be prepared for a lineup if you go there! The place showed no sign of slowing down even when we left after 2 p.m.!

Sushi Garden is located at 4269 Lougheed Highway, Burnaby, B.C. (behind Metrotown).

♥ Nikki

Pina Colada (Pineapple + Coconut) Muffins

I love to bake. But half the time, my baking fails. I remember one of the first few times I baked banana muffins in my Gage residence (two years ago), they turned out pretty good.. But my bad habit of not keeping a proper recipe book resulted in the loss of the recipe forever. Hence, in recent months, my banana bread/banana muffins have always turned out too dense or greasy and I haven't been able to make any good muffins in a long time. So this time, I must document the recipe AND pictures AND my notes properly in this blog!

Today, I tried to bake them again (after having failed for the past few weeks). I bought some bananas yesterday, but strangely enough, to come home only to find them missing!!! The phrases "lost your marbles" and "gone bananas" combine to become "lost your bananas" which brings it to a literal level in this case!

Without bananas, I decided to do something with that stash of pineapple in my fridge (bought too much for making pineapple tarts). Google returned all sorts of results for pineapple pudding, pineapple biscotti, pineapple upside-down cake and pineapple muffins.

I finally decided on pineapple muffins because this recipe sounded really good.. Pineapple and coconut, such a tropical feel! Just what I need for a gloomy rainy Sunday afternoon...



They turned out AMAZING! Not too dense, rather fluffy on the inside and will you look at that golden colour from the pineapples! The house smelled absolutely tropical with all that pineapple and coconut flavour, definitely took away some of that rainy gloom!

Coconut Pineapple Muffins (recipe from here)

• 2 cups flour, sifted with 1 tablespoon baking powder (did not sift, muffins could have turned out better if I did)


• ½ cup desiccated coconut


• ½ cup caster sugar (I used regular sugar and reduced to just under half a cup)


• 1 egg


• ¼ cup melted butter (which equalled to half a block of margarine)


• 1/3 cup milk (or use the drained juice from the crushed pineapple)


• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract


• 1x225 gram can crushed pineapple,drained (I used 200g of fresh pineapple, drained)


• ½ cup slivered almonds (I left this out because I did not have any at home)

Instructions:

1. In a large bowl add the flour, coconut and sugar. Stir to mix.



2. Since I used fresh pineapple, I had to manually crush them. I found this easy by just mushing up the pineapple cubes with my fingers, or you could also use a grater. Oops, picture is too bright and out of focus.



3. In a small bowl, place the egg, butter milk (or pineapple juice) and vanilla - whisk lightly to incorporate, then stir in the drained crushed pineapple. I used the pineapple juice because I was too lazy to walk to the store to get milk because I didn't want to waste the juice.



4. Stir this into the dry ingredients until only just combined.



Before mixing



After mixing

5. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin pans and sprinkle over with slivered almonds. No almonds for me.



6. Cook in a preheated 180°C oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and cooked through. I baked it at 350°F and it took WAY more than 20 minutes for my muffins.



After 20 minutes, they were nowhere near done. After 30 minutes, the tops were slowly beginning to brown. After 35 minutes, I stuck a wooden chopstick in and it came out gooey. After 40 minutes, the tops were crusting up and drying out, so I took them out.



Lovely golden brown muffin babies! I think the vanilla essence really contributed to the flavour and aroma. My heart sang as I took in the warm, fragrance of sweet pineapple and coconut.



Here's a close up! I love the rubble-looking texture. I may have left them in the oven for a little too long (because I was afraid the insides were not fully cooked), and they may have turned out a little dry. I will try harder next time!



I tried one after dinner and they were already cool. There was a gooey texture while chewing, perhaps because of the mushy pineapple, but the taste was great! The muffin itself looked really fluffy but taste a little dry. I also tried it microwaved for 10 seconds and it tasted a lot better, but still gooey.

This is a FAR improvement from my failed banana muffins! I will work hard to find the perfect banana muffin recipe and share it with you guys when I succeed! But for now, this recipe's a keeper! I still have loads of pineapples waiting in the freezer :) I'm calling this the Pina Colada muffins, with the pineapple and coconut in there.. I'm sure you can make them truly Pina Colada-y if you add some rum in there!

♥ Nikki

Burger King/Chronic Tacos/HMart all in ONE night!

Sometime ago, we bought a Groupon for Chronic Tacos. The deal was $8 for two tacos, two orders of chips and salsa, and two large soft drinks (a $16 value). On the day the Groupon deal was on, there was somehow a $5 discount, so we actually got the Groupon for $3! :D

On Friday night, we headed out to the downtown location of Chronic Tacos, the only branch where the Groupon was valid. We headed out early, intending to catch the sunset but sadly it was a cloudy day. Nevertheless, I got a great shot of downtown Vancouver..



We walked along Granville Street, enjoying the scenery and the Friday evening bustle.. We passed by Burger King and J.S. spotted a sign -- Free Fries Jan. 27!!!



We headed inside and asked how it worked. They just gave us a small fries for free! No purchase needed or anything! So we sat down and enjoyed our appetizer before dinner!



We were lucky to get a fresh batch of fries, so we enjoyed piping hot, crispy golden fries. It was slightly salted and the inside was fluffy. Yum!



We continued our walk to Chronic Tacos at Nelson Street. I pass by it often on the bus, so I knew what it looked like, but we still almost missed it. On a closer look, it almost looked like a tattoo parlour from the outside.



It was more of a casual, fast food place with unique wall paintings and lights decor. We presented our Groupon and got to choose two kinds of tacos. I chose the fish one and J.S. chose the sweet and sour pork one.



After we placed our order, we got in line to wait for our tacos to be made. There was not a big lineup as we were there around 5 p.m., rather early for dinner. The crowd arrived when we were about to leave; about 15 people just swarmed in.



The guy making the tacos made recommendations of what toppings and condiments to go with our tacos. On the right was my fish taco, a sad, dried piece of fried fish which he did Mahi Mahi style, with some sauce which I do not know the name of, cheese, maybe guacamole and shredded cabbage. On the left, was J.S.'s pork taco, which looked a lot better than my single piece of dried I mean, fried, fish. That was topped with salsa, cheese and lettuce.



I know you can't see a thing in this taco picture, but I shall proceed to talk about them anyway. My fish taco was great, mild tasting and creamy sauces which went well with the fish. Except the fish was too dry and tough; it had the texture of tough chicken instead of soft, flaky fish. The taco skin/shell was bland and tasted of flour, not a very exciting taste for me. The sweet and sour pork taco was nothing sweet or sour -- it was SPICY HOT! The pork was tender in the spicy sauce it was sitting in, and I think they topped it off with even more hot salsa! It was tooooo spicy for me!!!



Here's the chips and salsa that came with the meal. The chips were homemade, I guess, but they were also dry and bland. What made it worse were the VERY SHARP corners of the chips, which could easily cut your gums if you ate it too fast. The salsa was mild and fresh, but all I tasted was tomatoes and onions, and I did not fancy it too much.



This is our two-person meal: two tacos, chips and salsa, and drinks. It was self-serve pop from a fountain and I guess it also meant free refills as nobody was manning the drink station. I would say it is a little overpriced if it was worth $16, but since we paid $4 ($3 Groupon + $1 tax) for it, I have nothing to complain about.

With J.S. still hungry, we headed over to HMart on Seymour and Robson for jajangmyeon (black bean noodles)!! The last time we had this was on Christmas Eve, and it was the best jajangmyeon I had ever tasted!



Very affordable at $4.95, the jajangmyeon served in the mini foodcourt at HMart is a steal. You get a huge bowl of noodles with a generous serving of black bean sauce topped with cucumber strips, with a complimentary side of pickled radish.

This time, the noodles were a little undercooked so I was disappointed. The last time we had this, the noodles were chewy and bouncy, my favourite kind of noodles! I guess it depends on luck. But this will be my cheap, go-to meal if I ever need food around the area!



Here's a picture of B.C. Place and the downtown lights at night, taken from the Vancouver Lookout that evening. A perfect way to end the night of eating out at three places!

♥ Nikki