Bo Laksa King

Restaurant: Bo Laksa King

Cuisine: Malaysian/Burmese/Singapore/Thai

Last visited: February 16, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Joyce-Collingwood)

4910 Joyce St

Range: $10 or less

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

Food: 4.5

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Major hole-in the wall
• Located inside Malaysian grocery store
• Specializes in Malaysian/Burmese food
• Famous for laksa and wraps
• Husband and wife operation
• Good for quick lunches – Malaysian wraps
• Fresh, homemade, made upon order
• Half menu made on site, half from main off site kitchen
• Popular to neighborhood/locals in area
• Seats 2-4
• Cheap eatery – not dirt cheap, but reasonable
• Lunch and dinner service
• Full dinner menu only available online from 6pm - pick-up/delivery only
• Dinner - Pick-up before 8pm
• Delivery charges apply
• Open late
• Catering available

**Recommendation: Roti Canai, Laksa, Malaysian style wraps (but I haven’t tried)…also haven’t tried but the Lahpet Thoke (Fermented tea leaf salad) is authentic Burmese food not available anywhere else.

I would have never heard of Bo Laksa king and would have never discovered it on my own. Thanks to Kim (I’m Only Here for the Food) I was able to try this major hole in the wall located in a Malaysian/Asian grocery store. I’m also never in that area so I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to wander around. It’s a total word-of-mouth place and their business depends on this type of advertising.

It’s a husband and wife operation and they’re really nice people. She’s Chinese and he’s Burmese. The recipes are actually very authentic but they also offer a mixture of South East Asian cuisine from Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai and the rare…Burmese! They even have a couple Chinese dishes in there. It’s popular for quick lunches and their full dinner menu is only available online for delivery or pick-up before 8pm. They operate out of the small kitchen in the back of the grocery store and also a main kitchen that is a few blocks away on Victoria. Keep this in mind because the menu is limited if you’re going for dinner and eating in.

Okay so being a major hole in the wall, I have to lower my expectations a bit, however not by much because the food was really good. It’s a hole in the wall with fresh, authentic, homemade, made upon order meals for a good price…what more can you ask for? Overall I was pleasantly surprised. I would go back because I think there’s better then what I had, and I want to try a wrap.

On the table:

Burmese Tea 4/6

• $1.50
• It’s similar to Thai tea but not as strong or sweet. It’s frothy, milky, creamy and a smooth tea.
• It’s still quite sweet though because it’s mixed and shaken with condensed milk.
• The tea is authentic Burmese tea that is steeped and it’s stronger than Chinese tea, but milder than Thai tea.
• It’s made upon order and a pretty large cup for only $1.50

**Roti Canai 5.5/6

• The small is served with beef curry $3.99 Large is served with chicken curry $5.99
• The roti is very hot, fresh and made upon order on a griddle. It’s super fluffy, flakey, soft, stretchy and chewy…but it was a tad oily. We devoured it in seconds though so it didn’t matter. You can watch her toss it and cook it on the spot – it’s almost like watching a pizza dough show.
  

• The curry is their beef curry sauce. It’s very flavourful and slightly spicy. There are little bits of beef brisket throughout and the sauce has a very strong beef broth flavour. They use lots of spices and herbs in there so it’s very flavourful.
• It’s quite oily too though so you really have to scoop up the sauce or you’re just dipping into oil. It’s good though!

Satay Skewers 3.5/6

• Choice from marinated chicken, beef, or lamb served with sticky rice, cucumber & spicy peanut sauce. (3 skewers) $3.50
• The satay skewers are made on a griddle rather than a grill…which I’ll let go because they’re working with limited resources being in a grocery store.
• You wouldn't miss out by not ordering it, but it’s a pretty decent sized appetizer for a $3.50 bargain!
• This chicken is marinated in a curry spice, but I couldn’t really taste it. It was tender and the pieces are big, it wasn’t necessarily anything to rave about.
  

• The sticky rice is almost like a dessert. The rice is a bit sweet and almost like a giant mochi ball sprinkled with dried coconut flakes.
• The peanut sauce is that authentic creamy Thai peanut butter sauce rather than the chunky Malaysian sauce. I prefer the Malaysian version. Bo Laksa King’s is okay but the fish sauce mixed into the peanut sauce was a bit too tangy for me and I didn’t really like the brand they were using – a bit too rancid in taste.
  

**Laksa 6/6

• Prawn, chicken, fish ball, tofu puff, egg, sweet bell peppers and bean sprouts. Choose from vermicelli or yellow wheat noodle $7.50
• The authentic way is to have it with vermicelli – so that’s what we ordered it with.
• We got it to go, so the fancy bowl is not how it’s served.

• It’s loaded with tons on topping and that surprised me.
  

• There are lots of fresh herbs and spices in the broth and it’s really obvious. It had that slow cooked, on the stove all day homecooked flavour. It tasted very authentic with exotic herbs and spices that I’ve never really experienced in laksa before.
• It wasn’t very spicy for me, but just very aromatic! It’s very rich and creamy with the sweetened taste of coconut milk.
• The noodles are al dente! They’re harder then expected, which I like! They were blanched in the soup and packaged in a separate container to ensure they’re not overcooked.
  

Pad Thai 3/6

• Thai rice noodle, eggs, shrimps, extra firm tofu, Chinese chives, dried chili peppers, banana flower, bean sprouts, preserved turnip, stir fry in house made traditional tamarind sauce $8.75
• This is a traditional version of Pad Thai and not the Western version where they make it with Ketchup. This one is made with Tamarind – just like the one at Tangthai Cuisine of Thailand Restaurant.
• It’s one of their popular items, but I wasn’t crazy about it.

• Overall it was still good with lots of shrimp (6 of them); however I really didn’t like the whole peanuts. I usually love peanuts too, but I want them ground up when I’m having it with Pad Thai.
• It was served with a house made fish sauce…which I didn’t like. By home made I mean adding chilies, jalapeños and some additional spices to a bought fish sauce. It was too tangy and rancid…which is expected…but it was almost overly rancid and off. I love fish sauce too! Maybe it was just the fish sauce brand they’re using?
• It was a tangy and spicy Pad Thai with jalapeño peppers. I thought it need more flavour though…I was relying on the lime and the fish sauce (which wasn’t that good)…and also the peanuts (which weren’t ground up)….so everything was there…but also not there for me…
• I prefer the ground peanuts and fish sauce at Thai Basil.

Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant

Restaurant: Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant

Cuisine: Vietnamese

Last visited: February 22, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC

2292 East Hastings (Commercial Drive/Grandview)
Range: $10 or less

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

Food: 5

Service: 3.5

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Popular for pho – famous for soup base
• Popular for spring rolls, chicken and beef pho
• Fresh, made upon order
• Family owned/operated
• Vietnamese owners
• Hole in the wall
• Seats about 30
• Authentic
• Fast/Cheap/Good
• Not much MSG
• Some pictures on menu
• Cash only
• Closed Wednesday
• Open daily 10am – 9pm (except Wed.)

**Recommendation: Spring Rolls, Chicken Pho, Beef Pho, Bún Bò Hue, Chicken Banh Mi (Vietnamese Sandwich)

This all started with Twitter. People were asking me about the best places for pho in Vancouver and to be honest I was a little stuck. I’ve had home made pho before from an excellent Vietnamese mom who worked in a kitchen for years…ever since then I can’t go back to anything else. Home made pho is NOTHING like what they serve you at restaurants.

Anyways people recommended Le Do Vietnamese Restaurant so I decided to give it a try. My expectations were set high because I’ve heard good things about it, and I did my research ahead of time and so far everything was positive. Overall the food is good, but I didn’t think it was amazing. One clear fact I noticed was that they didn’t use that much MSG! Surprising! It was still flavourful too and the noodles are noticeable fresh and the soup is super hot in terms of temperature.

On the table:

**Deep Fried Spring Roll 5/6

• As a side order $1.75 each or 3 for $5.25 – which is the same
• These are actually really good. The only thing is that they’re a bit small. It’s about 3 inches so they’re a bit pricey, yet I would still order them again because they were good.
  

• They’re hot, fresh, crispy and well stuffed with vermicelli noodles, carrots, jacama root, mushroom, ground pork and cabbage. They don’t use the vermicelli as filler either, there’s actually not much noodle in them.
• It was salty and slightly tangy I really liked them.
  

**Variety of Beef Noodle in Soup (Pho Duc Biet #1) 5/6

• Rare beef flank, tripe, tendon, beef balls and noodles in soup M - $5.95 L - $6.50

• It came with 3 slices of beef flank that were really tender, but they cook super fast because the soup is served super hot.
  

• There’s also 2 pieces of tripe, 2 pieces of tendon and one beef ball cut in half – and this is for the medium size. They serve with with black pepper on top and I really liked that.
  

• They give you lots of green onion, cilantro and onions which I really like.
• The broth was good, but still a bit watered down compared to the real deal. It was savoury and not too sweet and it actually pretty clear tasted. It’s definitely made in house but the beef flavour wasn’t as strong as I would have liked.
• I don’t think they use much MSG, maybe a bit because they don’t advertise “no MSG”, but it’s definitely not overwhelming of the most obvious ingredient.
  

• The best part for me was the hot soup and the noodles. The noodles are noticeably fresh and really soft and chewy.
  

**Spicy Beef Noodle Soup (Bún Bò Hue #26) 5.5/6

• Special spicy beef rice noodle soup M - $6.75 L - $7.25

• It came with 3 thin slices of Vietnamese ham and a couple pieces of beef shank with cartilage. It's supposed to come with pig's feet (pork hock), but I don't recall any being in there.
• This is one of their specialty dishes and it’s not available at every Vietnamese restaurant although it is a common Vietnamese dish.
  

• It’s not as spicy as it looks. It actually wasn’t that spicy at all. It was quite mild with a strong lemongrass flavour which made it a bit sweeter. The spiciness was more aromatic than it was spicy. I actually liked this broth better than the standard beef broth although the broth is the same base. This one also has some shrimp paste in it so it's very aromatic and tasty. This broth was just more flavourful overall especially with the chili oil.
  

• The noodles for Bún Bò Hue are not the standard vermicelli noodles. The noodles are those thin round rice noodles. They're good, but it reminds me of eating Chinese soup noodles.
  

**Chicken Bahn Mi 4.5/6

• Chicken (Vietnamese) sandwich $3.00
• This is the sandwich the waitress/owner suggested. That was after she said “everything is good”…so I took it that this was actually a really good item considering when I asked about the sandwiches there was little hesitation to suggest the chicken.
• This was really good, except I wish they gave more chicken. There wasn’t much in there but they gave lots of vegetables like cucumber, carrots, radish, and cilantro.
  

• The chicken bahn mi is different here because the chicken is almost like a chicken stew. They cook and serve the chicken in this tomato stew that’s sweet and sour like – it’s savoury, slightly tangy and sweet. It was very light and it had a ketchup flavour but it was really good and made the sandwich so juicy and flavourful.
  

• The sandwich is really buttery though, but that’s part of what makes is so good. It’s actually lard and not butter so it makes it extra good, but extra bad for you too.
• The chicken is pieces of skinless dark meat instead of the usual shredded chicken they use in bahn mi.
• I could have used a stronger marinade for the vegetables though. It was a bit pickled tasting but I could have used more flavour like fish sauce and sugar.
• I doubt the bread is made in house, but it was better than in looks. It was served warm and it was really crusty and really soft in the middle. With the chicken stew I was surprised the bread didn’t get soggy too.
  

Vietnamese Egg Soda (Soda sữa hột gà) 3/6

• Club Soda, egg, and condensed milk $3.50
• It’s almost like an ice cream float, but richer in flavour, but not in texture and not as sweet.
• I know it sounds a bit different, but it’s actually pretty good.
  

• It tastes like a carbonated custard drink. The flavour is definitely custardy.
• It’s not really creamy, and it’s not too sweet although you expect it to be.
• The whipped egg just makes it frothier and adds a creamier texture to it although it’s not really creamy. An ice cream float or milkshake is much creamier.

Shanghai River - Review 3

Restaurant: Shanghai River - Review 3

Cuisine: Shanghainese/Chinese/Asian/Dim Sum

Last visited: January 24, 2010
Area: Richmond, BC

7831 Westminster Hwy
Range: $20-30

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

Food: 5

Service: 3

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Known as the best/Richmond's most popular Shanghai restaurants
• High end Shanghainese Restaurant
• Hit or miss items - but when it's a hit it's a big hit!
• Busy/Crowded/Line-ups all the time
• Reservations recommended
• Menu in Chinese and English - some pictures
• Shanghainese staff in front and in kitchen
• Very popular to locals/Chinese/main stream/tourists
• Should go with at least 4-8 ppl - how the menu/portions are designed
• Visible "Xiao Long Bao" (famous steamed pork dumplings) making station
• Private dining room available

**Recommendation: Steamed mini pork dumplings "Xiao Long Bao", braised eggplant with chili sauce, deep fried crab with chili & garlic, hot and sour soup, fried rice cake with pork

This is my 3^rd visit to Shanghai River since I started Follow Me Foodie. As mentioned in my previous posts I have been here before I started blogging as well. They been quite consistent on all my visits so therefore my ratings haven’t changed. The more I try the better recommendations I can give you and I can also track if the quality is still there.

Shanghai River is always packed and it’s one of the most popular fine dining Shanghai Restaurants in Richmond and Vancouver. Collecting a wall of awards, this is a restaurant that is familiar to locals and tourists alike.

Speaking of tourists, that is why I came here. I had a friend visiting from Austria and there everything “Asian” is all categorized under “Chinese food,” so I had to show him the difference. It was Shanghai Dining 101…for a European. He liked every single dish except for one…you’ll see which one. He liked the lettuce wraps and surprisingly the hot and sour soup the best!

The food here is Shanghainese; however it’s catered to Chinese, specifically for Cantonese taste buds. Therefore it’s not as saucy, salty or oily as authentic Shanghainese cuisine should be. The food is still good, but if you ask a Shanghainese person – then no, it is not quite authentic. There’s a reason why it’s still packed though so I wouldn’t write it off just because it’s not the real deal.

Shanghai River: Review 1

Shanghai River: Review 2

On the table:

**Xiao Long Bao – Steamed mini pork dumplings 6/6

• A dumpling filled with juicy ground pork meat and pork broth or soup $6.80 for 8 pcs
• This is a staple item when dining Shanghai. I will order it every time I come here and everyone else does the same. The ones here are good, but the ones at Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen have more soup that’s also hotter.
• For more details on these Xiao Long Baos at Shanghai River please click here

**Hot and Sour Soup 5/6

• A small size will generously fill 5 bowls $9.80
• It’s a hot and sour soup made with pork broth, chilies, tofu, shredded pork, bamboo shoots, black wood ear mushrooms, shrimp, carrots, mushrooms, green onions and egg whites.
• The ingredients vary from place to place and so does the level of spiciness. For me, it’s not that spicy and nobody complained about it being too spicy either.
• This soup originates from Szechuan cuisine, but it is often served at Shanghai restaurants. The traditional Szechuan recipe will also have pork’s blood, which I’m not a fan off so I’m glad it’s not in this one. Pork’s blood is solidified and it looks like dark brown smooth slices of tofu when they use it in the soup.
• There are tons of ingredients in this version at Shanghai River. There are more ingredients than there is soup. All the ingredients are different textures of crunchy so you’re chewing quite a bit.
• The soup is sour from the vinegar and spicy from the use of chilies, chili oil and white pepper. It’s not that spicy though, so don’t freak out if you can’t handle too spicy. It would be much spicier at an authentic Shanghainese restaurant in Shanghai.
• The shrimp is not bad and a decent size and we all got at least 2 of them. With the amount of ingredients they used I really think the value is here.
• The bamboo shoots are pickled on their own so it enhances the overall “sour” flavour to this soup.
• The broth is a pork based broth so you still get that saltiness you want in a soup. Great balance of flavours.

Chicken with Wine Sauce 2.5/6

• This is also commonly known as “drunken chicken”. It’s half a chicken that is marinated and steamed in Chinese wine. It’s served chilled. $6.80
• I think they used to do a better job with this. They use to pour ½ a shot of wine/whiskey on it at the table before serving, but they don’t do that anymore.
• This is eaten as an appetizer. This is the only dish my friend didn’t like. Maybe it was because of the way it looks and the taste was unusual.
• The wine doesn’t really cook out in this dish and I think they add a little bit of just the wine before serving. It’s quite boozy and at first it’s sweet and then it gets a bit bitter because it’s too much wine.
• The chicken is very well marinated, but there’s also not much meat. Consequently the meat absorbs the wine easily.
• Since it’s served cold there is a little gelatin on the chicken which is common. It’s supposed to be flavourful, which it is, but the wine was too overpowering overall.

Pan-fried Pork Buns 4/6

• A pan fried bun that is made with homemade bread dough and filled with juicy pork $6.80 for 5pcs
• This is usually an item you would order for dim sum and not for dinner, but since it was Shanghainese food 101 I had to order them.
• These buns are made pretty well and you could pop the bun whole if you wanted to. Just like the “xiao long baos” you dip them in vinegar before eating them.
• I could taste the flavour of the meat in these ones more than the “xiao long bao” because these buns have less soup. The soup comes from the fact that the pork filling also has gelatin so as it cooks/steams/fries the gelatin melts and becomes the “soup” or gravy. There wasn’t as much soup as I would have liked though.
• The flavour of the meat has ginger and garlic aromatics, but they’re extremely minced up so you’re not biting into pieces of anything except for pork. I feel like they could have been using ginger oil because it was so subtle. The meatball is really soft, but also not mushy like meatloaf.
• The bottom of these buns are nicely browned and fried and most importantly not soggy from the soup.
• As well as green onions there should be some sesame seeds served on top of these buns.

Duck Meat Lettuce Wraps 3.5/6

• Stir-fried duck meat and vegetables. Served with lettuce leaves and Hoisin sauce $16.80
• And I thought EVERYONE knew what a lettuce wrap was. Nope! Not the Austrian, so of course, I had to order this “typical” one as well.
• Ok rip to the off! $16.80? The portion was so small! There were 6 lettuce leaves! They gave just enough stuffing for the 6 leaves, but the plate looked empty when they served it. Was it good? Yes. Was it great? No. Was it worth $16.80? Definitely not.
• The best ones are still at Kirin Seafood Restaurant.
• What I did really like was the addition of pine nuts! That was their twist which I really liked. I know they’re expensive, but the price still isn’t justified.
• Everything was really minced up including the duck meat and I like my stuffing a bit chunkier. I felt like I was eating ground pork which is kind of a waste of duck meat.
• It’s stir-fried with water chestnuts, green onions, onions, and carrots. It’s savoury from the marinade, nutty from the pine nuts, sweet from the caramelized veggies and the duck.

**Fried Rice Cake with Pork 5.5/6

• Stir-fried rice cakes with shredded pork, cabbage and pea shoots.
• I love rice cakes, so I maybe a bit biased. I really like this dish and it’s common in many Shanghai restaurants. I still think they do an excellent job here.
• The rice cakes are thin and fresh! They’re not the packaged ones or dried ones you see at the grocery store so they're very soft here. These “noodles” or rice noodle patties are made in house. They’re cut nice and thin so they can pick up more sauce. They don’t absorb flavours though because they’re a thicker noodle. It has a creamy texture, but there’s no dairy. They’re smooth and slippery, but chewy and stick to your teeth.
• I liked the use of pea shoots and not many places will do this. They may not use any greens or if so they will use spinach. The pea shoots made it more “gourmet”.
• The cabbage is stir-fried and combined with the slices of Chinese mushrooms they both add a sweet and juicy flavour to the savoury dish.
• The only thing is that it need more sauce and it wasn’t as salty as it should have been. If it were authentic there would have been more sauce because rice cakes need a lot of sauce. I know it looks oily, but that a common characteristic of Shanghainese cuisine.
  

Dessert

Glutinous Rice Balls with Sesame 5/6

• Sticky glutinous rice balls filled with hot black sesame filling. I don’t remember the price, but it wouldn’t be more than $8 for 8pc.
• I’m not a fan of this dessert, but I did try it. For people that like it, it’s 5/6, but for me it’s 2/6.
• It’s fresh, made upon order, and served hot.
• The sticky rice balls are nutty and sweet because they're rolled in a coating of ground peanuts, sesame seeds, coconut and light brown sugar. The dough is made out of rice flour and it’s the same as eating a mochi. It’s very thin, chewy, delicate and sticks to your teeth, but doesn’t have much flavour without the crumbled toppings.
• The sesame filling is made of ground black sesame seeds and sugar so it’s sweet, but not too sweet.
• The black sesame is smooth but also gritty. It has a really deep nutty thick flavor and it’s almost creamy like a crème anglaise.
• They’re pretty small, so you can eat them whole like a mini cupcake. I like the outside better than the inside filling.
• Overall I’m just not a fan of most Chinese desserts though. I’m sure I’m not the only one.