VANCOUVER: Kintaro

Should be the most popular Ramen restaurant in the Lower Mainland. Whether it's in the cold miserable winter or sunny Vancouver, the restaurant always seems to be able to gather a little crowd outside their doors on Denman. Their hot steamy bowls of ramen on a cold winter day is always welcoming, their cold ramen on a sunny Vancouver afternoon will never be rejected.

The freshly made ramen comes with a rich vegetable and pork broth. You can have your choice of lean or fatty pork. The flavours vary between the traditional Miso, Shoyu, Curry or even CHEESE! Yes, CHEESE.. I love it! I must say, it will not disappoint cheese lovers. As the menu says "The ladies loooo-ve it!" Boy, do they ever know what ladies LOVE! Heavenly!!

The noodles here are nice and springy, but not overly chewy nor soggy. The soup is to die for, though you really can't have it more than once a month or you'd really probably die of cholesterol. The portions are big enough for a grown man, too much for a lady, especially the cheese ramen, really fills you up.

VANCOUVER: Cannery

Mmmm.. how I love the aroma of the Lobster Oil at the Cannery.
The drive into the restaurant builds up anticipation as you drive through the cargoes, you feel like you are in the middle of an action film, you have to pass on a secret code to an intercom at the entrance, driving through hundreds, if not thousands of cargoes.

As you arrive at the restaurant, you find yourself in what appears to be the inside of a fishing boat, with nets and anchors at the entrance. You have a gorgeous view of the water and a relaxing atmosphere that makes it very comforting while you dine.

As you are seated, a basket of bread is placed in front of you, the server comes along and pours out a orange oil, take a deep breath, is that lobster? Yes. Their renowned lobster oil. I cannot get enough of it. I usually stuff myself up before my appetizer comes.

We went for the Dine-Out Vancouver promotion a few years ago. Good timing for me to introduce them now as they are now taking reservations for Dine-Out this year. (I know, I am missing out!)

We started with the Roasted Parsnip and Fennel Soup with smoked Queen Charlotte sable fish. The soup was creamy, a little on the rich side, surprisingly the cream soup didn't overpower the fresh flavors from the sable fish.

The other entree we ordered was the Ahi-Tuna Carpaccio seasoned with wild paprika, lemon gelee, chili oil and avocado salad. Very fresh and the tuna was grilled ever-so-lightly, keeping the juices and freshness. Mmm.. sooo good.. The chili oil was an excellent choice.

The main courses just stole the show.

1.) Grilled Swordfish Filet brushed with arugula and almond pesto, chipotle pepper sauce.
- Meaty texture accented well with the sauce, I love how the flavours aren't too strong, hey, it's healthy too!

2.) Slow-cooked Pork Shank glazed with tandoori demi, served with tiger prawns, sesame seeds and cilantro.
- Sooooo tender and the tandoori sauce was such an excellent choice instead of the usual boring sauces.

3.) Grilled BC Salmon over oyster mushrooms and baby shrimp in a scallion basil cream sauce.
- The salmon steak was a medium rare. Didn't ask for my preference but that is what I always prefer. I loved it. The sauce wasn't that good to be honest, I didn't think the cream sauce was that special, something you could get anywhere, however, I did love the mushrooms.

Desserts...

Orange Cheesecake over coffee crust, semi-sweet chocolate sauce. The cheesecake was far too heavy, and not very orangey. I prefer my crust crispy, unfortunately theirs was not.

Velvet Chocolate Tower filled with brandied cherries and raspberry coulis. The name and description left me with high expectations of an actual "tower", turns out to be a regular-sized dessert. Chocolate mousse on the outside, was not exactly "filled with brandied cherries", but chocolate was rich. Can't go wrong with chocolate.

Their prices are reasonable relative to other restaurants in the same category. Overall, the Cannery is one of the best in Vancouver in terms of everything... it is unfortunate that this place is relocating in 2010, I've got to return before then.

TAIPEI: Pepper Buns 胡椒餅 @ Shi Lin Market

Pepper buns are a Chinese traditional snack from Fuzhou, then imported to Taiwan due to the popularity. This Chinese snack became a traditional snack in Taiwan. The strong flavour of black pepper is from the pork filling, being marinated with black pepper for hours, thus "Pepper Buns". Jia Xiang is one of the most renowned vender's in Taichung, winning the award “The best vender’s store in Taichung” in 1996. The pepper buns there are highly popular and have expanded to outside of Taichung to all over Taiwan.

Every bun is hand-made and then put into a special stove. After that, they will use their unique marinating methods to marinade the pork with dried chopped green onions. Sesame is placed on the top of the bun and charbroiled for 15 minutes.

The time and temperature in stove have to be precisely 280°, the oil of the pork will be absorbed by the skin due to the high temperatures. The skin would also become golden and crispy. Charbroiling the buns will make the buns less oily and more crispy.

Although the store I tried wasn't Jia Xiang, this was the next best thing. First time having it in Taiwan, regret not having the opportunity to try it in the past. If it wasn't for my friend that lives in Taiwan, touring me around the night markets, I would've never had found this delicacy.

HONG KONG: Dumpling Yuan 餃子園 : Traditional Pekingnese Restaurant

You'd be quite surprised to be able to find such a restaurant in the middle of Central; where all men wear Prada shoes, all women are carrying Hermes Bags. It's a small dinky restaurant, dimly lit, not the cleanest place, a large table in the middle of the restaurant where you have to share with 8 other strangers.

Small but nonetheless busy always. THey serve very traditional Pekingnese dishes, nothing like the renowned Peking duck, more like simple vegetarian noodles, marinated cucumbers and simple food you would actually find in an average Beijing home. The portions are small but the prices relate to the portions as it IS located in the ultra-expensive Central district in Hong Kong with one of the highest rentals in the world!

As the name of the restaurant suggests, their specialty are their dumplings. They have a whole page on their menu dedicated to the different dumplings, veggie, pork and veggie, lamb, beef. If you're not kissing anyone that evening, I'd suggest the chives and pork dumpling. Always fresh, and always flavourful. The dough on the dumplings are not too pasty like most places, it doesn't fall apart when bitten into. The lamb dumplings are also worth a try.

Another dish that you'd wan to avoid kissing afterwards is their Pork with Garlic. It's delicious. Chilled pork with a dark sauce and lots of garlic on top. My only comment is that it would taste better if they chopped the garlic up a little more so there aren't chunks of garlic.

Zhen Jiang Ribs were extremely flavorful, must say, the presentation of this dish was not really appetizing but very flavourful. The ribs however were not tender enough. Good enough for a couple bucks.

HONG KONG: Thai Simple Kitchen

Christmas and New Years have come and gone, time to get back on track and target better restaurants this year!

It's hard to decide which restaurant to start writing about first as all I've been doing this winter vacation have been eating non-stop.

Let's start with Thai food. Random enough? So we tried a restaurant called Thai Simple Kitchen in the hustling and bustling Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. The entrance is a small little corridor outside of a theater that brings you to an elevator and when you reach that level, you'd be quite surprised to find at least 15 people in the waiting area. It's quite a big restaurant with a large patio decorated with small Christmas lights. The menu is diverse with a separate vegetarian section, and alot of the dishes are rather creative. We ordered the typical traditional Thai food, just so we could give their quality a try. A Pad Thai, BBQ Pork's Neck and the most untraditional one, we ordered a Tom Yum Gong Steamed egg. Most dishes are in a sizable portion and are great for sharing.

The BBQ Pork's neck was delicious, very crispy on the outside and the sauce it came with was superb, not too spicy yet tangy.


The Pad Thai was decent. It didn't surprise us at all, had the typical texture to the noodles and flavour was good, not too exciting. This Pad Thai however came with large shrimp. Not being a huge fan of large shrimps, i wasn't too impressed, it did add to the presentation though. Very nice presentation in fact.

The Tom Yum Gong Steamed egg was very creative. Kept the juices from the soup, and had more texture than the original soup. It's great for sharing and for trying something new. The flavours were nearly as good as what the traditional Tom Yum Gong soup would be like but I do admire the chef's sense of creativity. Sure adds a variation to the already-much-explosive-flavoured-soup.