Jenkins and I hadn’t been to Shota Sushi in a while so we decided to drop by Kerrisdale one evening to check it out. Shota Sushi’s claim to fame is that it’s probably one of the first restaurants in the Lower Mainland to come up with the concept of “fancy” rolls. These rolls are generally more fusion-like and combine several popular sushi ingredients into one. These days, most sushi restaurants have some kind of fancy rolls available on their menu.
To start off our meal, Jenkins and I started off with some edamame. If you look closely in the top left hand corner, you will see that they were a bit heavy handed with the salt that day.
Then we shared three fancy rolls, which all came on one plate. That was good because I was able to compare the taste of all three rolls at once. Sometimes, my short-term taste memory is pretty bad so having them all come out at once helped. 
The first roll I tried had salmon tempura and avocado in the main rolled up section and had crab meat and tobiko eggs on top. This combination was good but at the same time, a bit predictable. Shota used to drizzle some special sauces over some rolls and I think it would have helped this particular roll we tried. I believe it was called the Red Roll.
The next roll we had contained tuna tempura with avocado and was topped with spicy tuna and bonito flakes. I liked this roll more than the first one because the spicy tuna added a bit of zip to the roll.
One can argue that the spider roll was the least fancy of the three rolls we had that day; however, it was probably my favourite. They were quite generous with the soft-shell crab and we could definitely taste the crab meat. Sometimes, the taste gets lost in the midst of all the batter in some poorly-made spider rolls.
Overall, I would say it was an average outing at Shota. I used to be wowed by all the fancy rolls there and could never get enough. But of these three rolls I had, I was only impressed by a couple of them. I suppose that still gave me a 66% success rate for that day. :) The restaurant was busier than I remembered though and I did notice a lot of people ordering items other than the fancy rolls. Perhaps I will have to give their other menu items a try the next time I’m there.
Details:
5688 Yew St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-263-8068
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Price: $$
Jenkins and my wedding date is drawing closer and closer so it was time for us to make a visit to Ganache Patisserie. We ended up picking Ganache and the intrepid Peter Fong to make our wedding cake because of all the places we went to, it offered the most interesting types of cakes and also wasn’t your traditional wedding cake offering.
Even though we tried a bunch of flavours at our first tasting, I still had trouble picking what flavour I wanted for our cake. I also couldn’t decide if I should stick with one or multiple flavours. :) So after our follow-up consultation with Peter to determine the cake design and all the other details, I bought a couple more cakes to try.
I didnt’ remember seeing the tiramisu the last time I was at Ganache so I decided to give that a try. The cake base on the bottom was soaked with a coffee liqueur and the rest of the tiramisu had a creamy texture with the slightest hint of coffee and chocolate. Although this was very tasty, we figured a lot of people have had tiramisu before and we wanted something more unique for our cake.
I don’t remember the exact name of this cake but it was a chai tea flavoured cake. The taste was definitely unique with layers of cake alternated with creamy mousse-like layers. The chai taste was mild but could definitely be tasted.
Both the cakes we tried that day were very tasty, but in the end, we decided to go with the Chocolat-Banane cake. It was unique but not so crazy that our guests wouldn’t want to try it. I can’t wait to see how our cake turns out and how our guests will like the flavour we chose.
Details:
1262 Homer St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-899-1098
It was my grandma’s big 80th birthday back in June and we celebrated it the way our family knows best: a big Chinese dinner at Fisherman’s Terrace in Aberdeen Centre. :) My aunt pre-ordered a banquet menu for us so all we needed to do was pretty much show up and chow down.
First came a mixed cold appetizer platter. I found the duck (pictured below on the far left) to be on the oily side but the other items were quite tasty. The roast pork skin was nice and crispy and I also enjoyed the jellyfish.
Next, we had a scallop dish with snow peas and some seaweed strips. Although the seaweed was an interesting twist, it quickly got soggy from the juice created by the scallops and peas.
The deep-fried crab claws weren’t too bad but I felt that it was a bit over-fried because the skin was quite oily. I dabbed some of the excess oil off with a paper napkin.
The shark fin soup had chunks of crab in it as well. I always like to drizzle a bit of red vinegar in my shark fin soup.
The lobster was obviously a hit with my Uncle Jack, who insisted on being in the picture with the lobster. :) I felt the sauce was too creamy and would have gone nicely with some noodles or something to balance out the sauce.
The abalone and mushrooms were quite tasty. I always like eating whole abalone and then using the juice afterwards with my noodles, rice, or veggies.
Roasted squab is one of my favourite dishes but I found this squab to be on the greasy side and a little too salty. For those of you new to squab, it is young pigeon and has a stronger taste than duck.
The yee mein noodles were overcooked and also somewhat oily. I like my noodles to be slightly al dente and these definitely weren’t.
The lotus leaf flavour came out quite strongly in the lotus leaf-wrapped rice but it was hard to taste the other flavours, even though there were dried scallops and pork. The rice also seemed to be a bit on the mushy side.
As is customary with Chinese birthdays, we had birthday buns shaped in a peach and filled with lotus paste.
The red bean soup was too sweet and watery for my taste.
I hadn’t eaten dinner at Fisherman’s Terrace in quite a while but I was a bit disappointed with the quality of food. There was also a wedding going on at the same time, so it was possible that they neglected us a bit in order to tend to the wedding guests, but then I’m just making excuses. :) Fisherman’s Terrace is also on the pricier side in terms of Cantonese restaurants so they really have no excuse to be skimping on the quality of their food. Service was quite brisk and attentive though so I have no complaints there.
Details:
3580-4151 Hazelbridge Way, Richmond
Tel: 604-303-9739
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Price: $$$
Despite my less than impressive bubble tea outing at Corner 23, I decided to give it another try and went there for dinner with Ann and Karen. I had noticed from the last time I was there that most people had some food along with their drink, so I figured it would be good.
Ann ordered some deep-fried crispy chicken for the three of us to share. This is always one of my favourite appies to order at Taiwanese restaurants even though it is definitely not the healthiest. :) The chicken was very crispy and had the slightest hint of spiciness.
I decided to go with the three cup chicken with rice meal. Three cup chicken got its name because it is made with three main ingredients: one cup each of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine. I enjoyed this version quite a bit because it was not too oily. The deep fried basil probably was not the healthiest but was very tasty. Several of the meals at Corner 23 also include some side dishes, such as pickled vegetables and broccoli.
I had a blueberry green tea with my meal and surprisingly, this time, it was very good! The blueberry flavour was nice and I think it went well with the green tea base.
Karen was feeling a bit sick so she went healthy with a seafood hot pot with vermicelli noodles. There was quite a variety of seafood included and a swirly egg as well. I’m not sure how good this would be normally but it was quite suitable for a sickish person.
Ann chose the deep-fried pork chop with rice. If I recall, it was about $8 and as you can see below, was enough food to feed a very hungry person.
I must say that this visit to Corner 23 was much better than my first visit. I went back another time after this and the food was still quite tasty. I suppose they’ll have to work on their consistency if anything else, but in general, both the service and food at Corner 23 are a good value for your money.
Details:
4008 Cambie St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-709-9788
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Price: $
Tricia and I decided to meet up one day for a cookie baking session but first, we had to grab some dinner. We decided to go to Hawker’s Delight by King Edward and Main because it was a cheap and fast option. I had never been to Hawker’s Delight before because I always tried to go on a Sunday afternoon and it is always closed at at time. Speaking of which, if anyone knows what the hours are, please let me know.
The menu for Hawkers is not too large but has a good mix of items. Most items have pictures posted on the walls, which make the ordering process quite easy. If you look closely at the picture below, you’ll see that most items range between $4.50 to $6.50. The portion sizes are enough to feed one medium hungry person, which is generally good enough for most people.
Tricia and I decided to share a couple of dishes. For most dishes, they will ask if you want it to be spicy or non-spicy. We opted for medium-spicy, which was actually fairly spicy. First came the Mee Goreng, which was a vegetarian fried noodle dish. The egg noodles were stir-fried with bok choy, carrots, bean sprouts, and some other veggies.
Next, we had the Nasi Goreng. This was basically the Mee Goreng but with rice instead of noodles. :) What I liked the most about the fried rice was that it had little chunks of potatoes. The potatoes added a nice texture to the rice. Even though we had asked for medium spicy for both dishes, the noodles were definitely spicier than the rice. I guess this place still needs to get its ISO-9001 certification. :p
I enjoyed Hawker’s Delight quite a bit. It’s definitely grungy and there is definitely better Malaysian food at other restaurants. However, it is great value and the food tastes better than what you would expect for the price. :) It’s also an excellent alternative to other fast food cheap eateries around the city.
Details:
4127 Main St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-709-8188
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Price: $
After my birthday dinner at Bistro Sakana, we decided to continue the evening and go for bubble tea. We were all in the mood for something new so Lucy suggested Corner 23. She had bubble tea there the other day and said that it was pretty good. Corner 23 is a new-ish Taiwanese eatery that opened at the corner of …you guessed it! West 23rd and Cambie in Vancouver.
I decided to try the malt milk tea with pudding chunks. I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this. It didn’t taste milky at all and had cereal-like chunks floating around. The pudding was actually kind of interesting but since I didn’t like the milk tea itself, I wasn’t able to actually enjoy the pudding. This was the first time in a while but I didn’t even finish my drink!
Lucy had a pudding milk tea with pudding chunks. She had the same thing a few days earlier and said that one tasted way better. The pudding milk tea was overly sweet and also had a strange consistency to it.
Samantha had a strawberry milk tea. She had ordered this initially because she thought it was made with fresh strawberries but it was actually made with strawberry powder. It was too sweet for her taste although she said someone who enjoyed really sweet drinks may have liked it more.
Jenkins had a lychee green tea slush with half coconut jelly and half pearls. He also noted that the lychee slush was quite sweet and the lychee flavour was a bit artificial tasting.
The one saving grace about Corner 23 was that their drink straws are individually wrapped. It drives me nuts when people touch all the straws in a bucket before finally selecting the one they want. I think more places should have individually wrapped straws…although I suppose this may not be as good for the environment. Perhaps they can wrap it with paper similar to what is at MacDonald’s and Starbucks.
The four of us wondered if the spotty quality of the bubble tea was because it was late at night and everyone was just eager to go home. Or perhaps the regular bubble tea maker didn’t work the night shift. For whatever reason, I think it will be quite a while before I try the bubble tea here again. The service was also really slow. It took about half an hour for our drinks to come and the restaurant wasn’t even busy! The servers were quite polite and nice though. I did go back a couple of weeks later to try their food and I have to say that was pretty tasty. Check back later to see my food review on Corner 23.
Details:
4008 Cambie St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-709-9788
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gigi lives in Vancouver and is always up for trying out new & interesting restaurants. This is a very yummy food blog.