Maple Castella - Pork Floss Bread

Restaurant: Maple Castella - Pork Floss Bread
Cuisine: Bakery/Breads/Pastries/Desserts
Last visited: March 7, 2010

Area: Richmond, BC
#1068 - 8700 McKim Way (In Admiralty Cenre)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (6 for hits, 2 for miss)
Service: n/a (biased b/c they know me now)

Ambiance: 2.5

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Taiwanese bakery in Richmond
• Specializes in Taiwanese buns/baked goods (sweet & savoury)
• All breads/buns made on site daily
• Amazing breads and buns - cookies not as great though
• Bread are more on the sweeter side
• Always busy, familiar to locals and Chinese
• Taiwanese bakery not Cantonese - so buns are different than Chinese bakeries like Maxim's
• Closed Thursday
• Smells absolutely delicious inside and outside the bakery

**Recommendation: Pumpkin Bread, Pork Floss Bread, Pork floss bun with the egg wrapped around it

Maple Castella is still one of my favourite Asian bakeries. Sure they have some items that are better than others, but the stuff that is good is really really really good! For example the famous pumpkin bread that I have recommended to everyone – so far I haven’t received any negative feedback from it.

Everything is made daily and seriously the bread (the loaves) sells out as soon as it comes out of the oven. They only make about 12 loaves of each type of bread a day. It’s small bakery with a small operation so believe me when I say PRE-ORDER. Any of their loaves, even their white bread sells out at the end of the day. The pumpkin bread is a guaranteed sell out in like 2 hours on a slow day.

This entry is on another bread that I really enjoy there. The pork floss bread!

On the table:

**Pork Floss Bread 6/6

• $4.00 for half a loaf – don't think they offer them in whole loaves.
• I love it just as much as the pumpkin bread, and it’s quite different so I can’t compare. It deserves a 6/6! It's probably more for Chinese taste buds just because of the pork floss.
  
• The base of the bread is the same as the pumpkin bread. It’s a super fluffy egg and butter based bread. It’s delicious! So soft! It’s not a crumb bread but a stretchy fluffy one.

• It’s interwoven with swirls of pork floss or dried pork fluff.
• Pork floss is pretty much shredded pork jerky. It has a cotton like texture and it’s nice and salty. The pork is marinated and dried in soy sauce so that’s why it’s salty. I love this stuff! Asian kids grow up with it.
• This bread is delicious and it’s savoury bread.

• They bake it with a sprinkle of shredded cheddar cheese on top! It’s soooo good! It gives the bread a salty crust and goes great with the salty pork floss. Even without the cheese the crust is still good! Reminds me of those cheese pretzel breads you eat/ate as kids.
• Their breads are so soft and fluffy I recommend to eat them as is. Skip the toaster…if anything you can microwave them for 10 sec. to eat warm.
• Great as a snack!
  

Au Wing Kee - Burnaby

Restaurant: Au Wing Kee

Cuisine: Chinese
Last visited: March 4, 2010
Area: Burnaby, BC (Burnaby South)
5226 Kingsway
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5
Service: 2

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4

Additional comments:

• 2 locations: Burnaby/Vancouver
• Congee & Noodle house
• Hole in the wall, but popular
• A bit/quite dirty
  
• Quick & cheap eats
• The No. 9 of Burnaby, but better
• Very familiar to Chinese locals
• Traditional Cantonese cuisine
• Famous for congee
• Extensive menu
• Lunch combos 11am-5:30pm
• Great for snacks/late night snacks (9pm-1am)
• Late night
• Open Mon-Sun 11am – 1am
• Cash only
• Dine in/Take-out
• Parking at rear

**Recommendation: Congee, Wonton noodles (they’re popular here although I haven’t tried it yet)

This place has been around for ages! It’s a totally hole in the wall dive that is very familiar to Chinese people. It’s pretty much the No. 9 of Burnaby, but much better. I don’t even mind No. 9 actually, you have to lower your standards for cheap late night, open 24 hour eats...you have to admit the place is packed with Chinese people all the time! It's like Hon's Won Ton Noodle House.

Au Wing Kee specializes in congee and noodles, but they offer everything from chow mien, hot pot, seafood, to late night snacks. They even have a tank filled with live seafood like crab and lobster. The food is fresh, made upon order – not gourmet, but a quick, casual bite that is very easy on the wallet.

This is more or less a tribute review to those suffering from the stomach flu, cold or virus. Too many of us have been hit. I think I was first to catch the stomach flu out of the food bloggers in Vancouver, and since then it has spread like wild fire. Everything we ordered is more or less what older generation traditional Chinese people order when they’re not feeling well. In particular the 2 types of congee we ordered are really high in nutrition and have tons of calcium, protein, and iron.

On the table:

Dried Fillet with Peanut & Spare Ribs Congee 3.5/6

• $4.50
  

• It’s not really for the Western tastes buds, but it is very traditional Chinese food. It would be probably rated higher for Chinese people.
  

• The spare ribs aren’t the Western type of spare ribs that are really meaty. They’re really small and boney and the bones are what they use to flavour the congee.
  

• The meat it does have is pretty chewy and the type of meat is a cheap kind. I’m not a fan, but again it is authentic and for $4.50 you’re not going to get high quality spare ribs.
  

• I loved the dried fillet. Throughout the congee there are pieces of dried fish or “fillet”. It tastes like dried scallops and it’s almost jerky like. It’s salty and has a preserved fishy taste that I like.
• The peanuts are whole peanuts and they’re really soft. It gives the congee a little nuttiness.
• The congee itself is really delicious and creamy. They do a great job with that here. It’s really infused with all the flavours of the ingredients used.
  

Dace Fish Ball & Watercress Congee 2/6

• $4.95 – rating would be much higher for Chinese people
• This isn’t for the Western taste buds either. However for Chinese taste buds, they do a pretty good job with this congee.
• I was not a fan of this type of congee.

• It’s loaded with 8 dace fish balls are very fresh and made in house. It’s a mixture of fish paste, dried orange peel, scallions and white pepper. Very nutritious...but for me not delicious. What I hated was that the fish bones are pureed into the mixture and I could taste and bite into them. It was like scales. However for Chinese people that’s a good thing because it means it’s freshly ground up fish. The orange peel was very strong, but not bitter…but it’s just not for me.

• At the bottom of the bowl is the watercress. It’s thrown in raw, but cooks with the hot congee poured on top.
• The congee base is great. It’s lighter in taste than the spare rib congee, but still nice and creamy.

Sautéed Lettuce in Slice Pepper w/ Preserved Bean Curd Sauce 5/6

• This is again for Chinese taste buds – I really like this dish. It’s acquired though. I just love it as a side dish with congee.
• The myth or truth...is that spicy is good because it kills germs...also it makes you sweat so you sweat out the bad stuff. Chinese and I think Indian also believe that ginger kills germs...so again "sick people food". Spicy also makes you cough, so don't have it if you're coughing...and I don't think spicy is good for stomach flus either...it doesn't make sense to me...?
  
• It’s loaded with long strands of ginger (in photo) and round slices of green chili peppers. It has a preserved salty taste and it’s creamy, spicy (not too spicy) and very aromatic with lots of flavours.

• The green chili peppers aren’t really spicy though. They’re quite mild and I could eat them whole.
  
• It’s a super soupy/saucy dish, but it’s not too oily and I really enjoyed it. There's no actual pieces of bean curd in it, it's just preserved/fermented bean curd sauce - so the flavour is infused in the sauce.
  
• The taste is very pungent. I had the dish at No. 9 and it’s done a bit differently. I liked the one at Au Wing Kee better.

Maple Castella - Blueberry Bun

Restaurant: Maple Castella - Review for Blueberry Bun
Cuisine: Bakery/Breads/Pastries/Desserts
Last visited: March 7, 2010

Area: Richmond, BC
#1068 - 8700 McKim Way (In Admiralty Cenre)
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (6 for hits, 2 for miss)
Service: n/a (biased b/c they know me now)

Ambiance: 2.5

Overall: 5
Additional comments:

• Taiwanese bakery in Richmond
• Specializes in Taiwanese buns/baked goods (sweet & savoury)
• All breads/buns made on site daily
• Amazing breads and buns - cookies not as great though
• Bread are more on the sweeter side
• Always busy, familiar to locals and Chinese
• Taiwanese bakery not Cantonese - so buns are different than Chinese bakeries like Maxim's
• Closed Thursday
• Smells absolutely delicious inside and outside the bakery

**Recommendation: Pumpkin Bread, Pork Floss bread, Pork floss bun with the egg wrapped around it

I’ve written about Maple Castella on a few occasions and have really come to realize that when their breads are good it’s a 6/6 and when they’re not they’re really just okay.

I’m eating my way through all their items and so far, the best is still the pumpkin bread and the pork floss bread.

Everything is made daily and seriously the bread (the loaves) sells out as soon as it comes out of the oven. They only make about 12 loaves of each type of bread a day. It’s small bakery with a small operation so believe me when I say PRE-ORDER. Any of their loaves, even their white bread is sells out at the end of the day. The pumpkin bread is a guaranteed sell out in like 2 hours on a slow day.

On the table:

Blueberry Bun 2/6

• $1.10
• This looks better than it tastes.
• It’s one of their newer items so I was very excited to try it, but it didn’t impress me .

• The blueberry is like a jam with mini whole blueberries in it and it’s not very sweet. I wish there was more becuase I could really taste an blueberry flavour with so much bread. It was kind of like a Taiwanese style Danish.

• The bread part wasn’t even that good. Still quite soft and fluffy but not as much as their loaves. They can do better. It was actually a bit dry and it’s more neutral than it is sweet.

• The bubble like topping should have been more crumbly and sweeter. It’s usually more of a sweet crust made of butter and sugar that gets all crusty and crumbly when baked. This bubble crust was just bread-like.
• For me this wasn’t sweet enough to be a dessert, but more of a snack.

8 Juice

Restaurant: 8 Juice

Cuisine: Drinks/Desserts

Last visited: March 6, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

4151 Hazelbridge Way – In Aberdeen Mall
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 2.5 (Based on their #1 drink only)

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: n/a – in a food court

Overall: 2.5

Additional comments:

• Healthy desserts/drinks
• Fresh fruit
• Made upon order
• Specializes in drinks only
• Fresh fruit juices
• Milkshake/yogurt drinks
• Cash only
• Asian Jugo Juice

**Recommendation: n/a – but if you’re going to go get the #1 house special – Mango + coconut milk + tapioca + pomelo drink

This is basically the Chinese version of Jugo Juice. 8 Juice is located in the Aberdeen food court. They specialize in fresh fruit drinks and everything is blended, shaken, stirred upon order…like a bubble tea place….but they have no bubble tea.

This is pretty much one of the only places in Richmond serving mango, coconut, tapioca and pomelo drink that is so famous in Hong Kong. You can’t even find this drink at many bubble tea places because the “tapioca” is not pearls – the tapioca is “sago” which is smaller and white in colour.

In Hong Kong the most famous place to have this dessert/drink is Hui Lau Shan. I love it! If you’ve had that then this place is really not good. I was so disappointed. To be fair it’s the only thing I’ve tried on the menu…but if it’s their “No.1 House Specialty” then I don’t have much hope.

After Twittering about the mango, coconut and sago drink the last couple days I had a major craving and decided to check this place out. The guy was really nice, but unfortunately my craving is not satisfied and I don’t think it can be because I don’t know anywhere else that serves it.

On the table:

Mango, Coconut Milk, Tapioca and Pomelo Drink 2.5/6

• It’s the “No 1 House Specialty”
• Compared to Hui Lau Shan in Hong Kong it is not good
• It was really watered down, frothey, but almost bland. I couldn’t taste much mango or coconut milk and it was a major 'save money' move.
• The mango juice has a very light mango flavour and they blend it with 2% milk and a touch of coconut milk which I couldn’t taste at all.

• There were small bits of mango in the drink, not a lot though. Some of the mango was hairy though….pieces that were too close to the seed.
• There was even less pomelo. The pomelo is very shredded into each sliver or ‘pocket’ so you have individual “strands” of it. Pomelo is basically an Asian grapefruit. It’s sweeter and not bitter though. It’s quite neutral in flavour.
• It’s a drink that you need to chew with all the fruit and tapioca. However the tapioca is so small you just end up swallowing them unlike the bigger black tapioca pearls.

Dragon Ball Tea House

Restaurant: Dragon Ball Tea House

Cuisine: Bubble Tea/Chinese

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Shaughnessy)

1007 W King Edward Ave
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Drinks: 6

Service: 3 (well it’s pay at cashier and they go as fast as they can)

Ambiance: 2

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Located at major intersection, but neighborhood area
• Famous for bubble tea
• One of the most popular places for bubble tea
• Attracts locals everywhere
• Family owned and operated
• Small operation
• Stamp card available
• Line-ups during peak hours (late night/after dinner)
• Fresh fruit flavours
• Seats 15 or so (very limited)
• About 4 hot rice dishes available (with fried egg style)
• Pay at cashier
• Great price
  
• Very casual/hole in the wall-ish
• Some small snack available: Pocky, instant noodles
• Open late
• Couple parking spaces in the back
• Pre-order/pick-up service available
• Opens daily at 1:30pm
  

**Recommendation: Japanese Green Tea Ice Cream, Supreme Milk Tea, and any of their fresh fruit series – I like blueberry

Next to Pearl Castle Bubble Tea and Peanuts this is also one of the most popular places for locals to get their bubble tea. Everyone loves Dragon Ball Tea House and it has been here for ages! At least 8 years I’d say…maybe even 10? It JUST got a make-over and it used to look even more hole-in-the wall-ish. It’s has very limited seating and it’s super casual and unpretentious. I’d even call it more of a to-go place. I’ve been coming here fore years and it’s my top bubble tea choice in the Vancouver area…although Capstone Tea & Fondue is good too.

Unlike many other bubble tea places, Dragon Ball Tea House really focuses on just bubble tea. They do offer maybe 3-4 hot dishes (which I’ve never seen anyone order) but they really focus on just bubble tea. They do a great job and they have steady traffic and pretty long lines and waits during busy hours…which is usually late at night or after dinner hours.

I’ve tried a lot of flavours here, but I always go back to the recommendations above. You can get drinks sweet/half-sweet/non-sweet/hot/slush/combination of flavours/mixed fruit etc. Almost everything can be customized, but they just don’t advertise it. Everything tastes like it’s made with ice cream here. The fresh fruit flavours are like smoothies. I haven’t had one bad drink. Even the tapioca pearls are great. Besides tapioca pearls they have coconut jelly, grass jelly and I think maybe mango stars as options.

On the table:

Pudding Slush Bubble Tea 4/6

• $4.00 + $.50 with tapioca pearls - $4.50
• This was my first time ordering pudding slush. Again it was like ice cream, they do a good job, however the best pudding slush bubble tea is still at Tri-ty.
  

• This was very good, but I wasn’t a fan of the pudding pieces at the bottom. That’s how it’s supposed to be served though, but I just didn’t like them that much. They’re jello like and not that flavourful for me…so I found it more distracting.
  
• The drink part is a sweeter drink and it tastes like vanilla pudding, but in slushy form.
  
• The pearls are great. Nice and chewy and cooked perfectly. They give you lots too!
• The drinks are pretty big and filling, but they’re delicious!

Top Gun J&C Restaurant - Review 2

Restaurant: Top Gun J&C Restaurant

Cuisine: Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: February 21, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

Unit 2020 Excel Centre, 8766 McKim Way (2^nd floor)
Range: $20-30

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5 (moved up .5, tried more stuff)

Service: 4

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Part of Top Gun Group
• Considered a high end dim sum restaurant
• Traditional and creative dim sum dishes (mostly traditional)
• Japanese sushi and sashimi available
• Cantonese cuisine
• Discount if you arrive before 11am
• Ordering form service
• Busy, but plenty of seating
• Fancy set up
• Private room available
• Breakfast/Lunch 9:30am-3pm
• Dinner 5:30pm-10pm
• Closed Wednesday
• Reservations recommended
• Some parking available

**Recommendation: Steamed Diced Pork & Shrimp Dumpling, Baked BBQ Pork Bun, Deep Fried Fish Ball w/Clam Sauce, Steamed Beef Ball, Fried Vermicelli in Homemade Style, Pea Tips and Geoduck rice rolls, Steamed Sponge Cake, Red Bean Almond Tofu with Amaretto, Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

Top Gun J&C Restaurant is part of the Top gun Group so it is considered a higher end dim sum Restaurant. It competes at the level of Kirin Restaurant and Rainflower Chinese Restaurant.

So I’ve been here numerous times and this was my second visit for a continuation of Chinese New Year brunches.

The 1^st Chinese New Year brunch review at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

The dessert at Top Gun J&C Restaurant.

On the table:

Pan Fried Radish Cake 3.5/6

• Or pan-fried white turnip cake. (Not sure what it’s called on the menu) $4.75?
• This is a traditional dim sum dish to order during Chinese New Year; although it is also a common dish all year around.
• It’s made in house and available ‘raw’ or not pan-fried (to give as gifts) during Chinese New Year and other traditional Chinese holidays.
• It’s a bit sticky and gluey in texture. It’s made of shredded radish of Chinese daikon, which is neutral in flavour. It’s not spicy and not really sweet either. The radish cake is very soft and the flavour comes from the bits of sausage, dried shrimps and Shiitake mushrooms they add to the mixture.
• The ones here are good, but I’ve had better. They’re a little firm and not soft and creamy enough and the edges could be fried crispier. I could also use more Shiitake mushrooms in the mixture.
  

Pan-Fried Taro Cake 3.5/6

• $4.75?
• This is another very common dish to have during Chinese New Year that is also available all year around.
• It’s almost like the pan fried radish cake but it’s a bit drier and starchier in texture. It’s more potato like and not as creamy.
• It’s a savoury cake made or shredded taro root (which is basically a starchier potato-like vegetable), rice flour, Shiitake mushrooms, sausage and maybe some ground pork as well.
• I actually think they did a better job with these than the pan fried radish cake, however I’ve had better of these too. These ones were a bit too firm again. They are firmer than pan-fried radish cakes, but even relative to other taro cakes they’re still a little too firm and a bit too dry.

Scallops and Black Wood Ear Mushroom Rice Rolls 4/6

• $7.50
• This is one of their specialty items and I haven’t seen them offered anywhere else.
• They’re a bit expensive, but that’s because there are huge scallops in them! They’re big white fresh scallops, not dried ones. Although it would taste delicious with some dried scallops in there as well.
• I wish I got a picture, but you can see the big round scallops underneath the rice roll skin.
• I’m not sure if black wood ear mushrooms were the right match – the crunchy texture (cartilage like) kind of threw me off with the soft yet meaty scallops. I would have preferred Enoki mushrooms instead.
• They didn’t have much black wood ear mushrooms in there anyways though.
• I found it a bit bland and the only flavour was pretty much the sweet soy sauce and natural scallop taste.

**Pea Tips and Geoduck Rice Rolls 5/6

• $7.50
• It’s pretty much sautéed pea tips and geoduck wrapped in rice rolls.
• This is another specialty item that isn’t offered anywhere else. It’s their in house recipe and not traditional, but still very good and very gourmet. So it’s a bit pricier again.
  

• The geoduck is a type of clam, so it almost tastes the same. It’s chewy and they don’t overcook them here, so they are still tender. They give you lots too and they’re cut in nice bite sized pieces.
• I really liked the pea tips in here. A unique flavour combination that worked well. It was a very hearty stuffing for the delicate rice rolls, but I still liked it. Lots of textures – soft, chewy, crunchy. I liked it! The ingredients held well with the sweet soy sauce you eat them with too.
• Good example of messing with a good thing…and it actually working.
  

**Fried Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf 6/6

• $10.95
• This is also quite pricey, but it’s good and they execution is done really well.
• It was very fresh and made upon order. I liked the presentation as well.

• It’s a pretty big pot of fried rice with pieces of salted egg yolk, scrambled egg, pieces of white meat chicken, baby shrimp, a few minced up Shiitake mushrooms, and sliced Chinese broccoli stems.
• It was very flavourful rice and has the same flavour as sticky rice. It’s not sticky though and the grains are separate. They did a great job with the frying.
  

• The yellow pieces that look like squash is the salted egg yolk. I love these! It maybe an acquired taste though. It’s very dry and very crumbly in texture. It’s quite firm and it has a very potent salty flavour. It almost has a bean like salty texture and tastes like fermented food. Well it is – it’s a salted duck egg (did I lose you!? I didn't want to say it and scare you off...) but it's a preserved duck egg. It’s the same egg they use in the centre of Chinese moon cakes.
  

**Steamed Sponge Cake 6/6

• $4.50
• This is a very popular Chinese dessert served during dim sum.
• The one here is very good! It’s hot, fresh, and made upon order.
• It’s very soft, light, fluffy, and very lightly sweetened.
• It tastes like egg rolls or Chinese egg balls in sponge cake form.
• It has a slight almond-y flavour and I loved the presentation! I’ve never seen it served like this. I ate the middle part…I usually don’t care for this dessert…but this one was great! A lot of Chinese people love it.