Restaurant: Ichigo Ichie Izakaya (Montreal, Quebec)

Its been a while since I’ve shared any restaurant visits. I actually had quite a few to share but haven’t gotten around to it. We will do those if the time presents itself, however, this past weekend, I went out for a Bachelorette Party dinner at Ichigo Ichie Izakaya, which is the restaurant portion linked to Yokato Yokabai where I had previously talked about in a Weekly Adventures HERE.

Ichigo Ichie Izakaya

Located in Plateau Mont Royal, the best way probably is to take the Metro to Mont-Royal station and take  few minutes walk over. Ichigo Ichie Izakaya is a Japanese pub so we had reservations for the 10 people and gave us a big table on the side. I can’t say that there’s a lot of good stuff to say about the group seating there as the cushioned seats were too low (maybe I’m too short) and then the ventilation wasn’t quite good so it was very hot as its also quite near the kitchen. They need to add some kind of vents around that spot probably.

Putting all that stuff aside, we’re there for food and drinks and of course, spending time to celebrate our friend’s upcoming marriage so let’s talk food.

Cocktails

Cocktail: Nashi

I can’t remember exactly what was in this drink called Nashi but it tasted a lot like those Lychee jelly that used to come in those little plastic cups which was pretty delicious. There were quite a few very interesting cocktail blends here that I’d definitely want to go back and check out if given the chance.

Main Meals
(shared among 3 people)

Garlic Fried Raisu – Soy and garlic fried rice, shiso, sesame seeds

Garlic Fried Rice was my choice. Its always more substance to have some kind of rice or noodles so its why I chose this one, plus, it fit with what I could potentially eat, which was good because the other carbs choice was one that I couldn’t eat. This one was pretty decent. Simple, for sure but the rice and the garlic and how it was fried had really good texture. There was a lot of garlic and yet wasn’t too overpowering either.

Ebi Mayo (I think) – Jumbo shrimp tempura, crushed almonds & sweet chili mayonnaise

Tempura is the sure fire at any Japanese restaurant. If you can’t get this right, then you can forget about it. This one had 2 jumbo shrimp tempura which was cut into pieces on the bed of crunchy noodles or something. I don’t remember why you call it. Everything worked really well even the spicy mayo that actually gave it a nice kick.

Butabara – Grilled Pork Belly skewer, Japanese curry seasoning

Pork belly is something that I like getting when I go out and seeing as Yokato Yokabai has the option to choose pork belly in their ramen, I figured it would also be a good choice for this section. We spent a little time cutting up the pieces so everyone could share. The Japanese curry seasoning was quite powerful and rather spicy however, it was pretty delicious also.

Carbonara Udon – Stir fried udon noodles, bacon, onsen egg, mushroom, spring onions, creamy sauce

Finally, Carbonara Udon was my friend’s choice which I completely forgot had creamy sauce so I had to skip it. My friends however did enjoy this one. They said that the sauce wasn’t too heavy and it was pretty delicious as well.

Dessert

Matcha Tiramisu

Suffice to say that, I had to skip out on dessert as well, even though there was an option for Yuzu sorbet (but I was pretty full at that point) so my friends got the Matcha Tiramisu to share. It felt like it wasn’t exactly what they were expecting and from what they said the matcha layers were fairly bland but then the matcha layer on the top was too thick.

OVERALL…

I’ve never been to a Japanese pub as Ichigo Ichie is categorized at. The cocktails are really cool and they have a nice selection of drinks. Everyone at our table, who took other drinks also seemed to enjoy it. The service was also pretty good. Our waitress was very helpful and friendly and answered a lot of our questions whenever and happily went to seek out answers when she didn’t know the answer to it. The food itself was pretty decent as well. Its a tad overpriced in my opinion but its meant to be tapas style so meant to share and it all came out to an alright bill at the end. With that said, paying for food is always more enjoyable when you enjoyed the meal and I was pretty happy with the food presented. There’s a lot of interesting dishes on the menu which could merit a second visit.

Fortune Terrace Chinese Cuisine (Richmond, Canada)

I’ve been to the West Coast a few times as layovers. Some of them are also visiting family for a little bit as well. The one thing I always remember other than some of the spectacular scenery is food. In comparison, Montreal has a decent food scene except when it comes to Chinese restaurants. If you want good Chinese food, at least in my opinion, Montreal is not the place to go. Of course, everyone’s tastes are different and that is why there is still Chinese restaurants opening. And yes, there are a few exceptions. Some dumplings shops have opened in Chinatown and they are rather good. There are some more traditional Cantonese-style dinner places that have been around for years and those are pretty good as well. My main complaint really goes to dim sum. My friends and family in Montreal assume I don’t like dim sum because I don’t eat it but I have my reasons (allergies, unpleasant experiences, etc). However, I love dim sum and when I find good dim sum places in Toronto, Vancouver and Hong Kong. I can eat it everyday and it makes me miss it…even now…after its been two weeks, I still miss this restaurant, Fortune Terrace.

Maybe you think its because I’m Chinese so you know, my standards are higher. My husband went to dim sum once in Montreal and he wasn’t a huge fan. Never went back actually for dim sum or dinner or whatnot unless it was obligatory. However, he loved it at Fortune Terrace. For that, thank you to Fortune Terrace if you ever see this post for making dim sum so good that my husband realized what Chinese food should taste like.

I’ve rambled on enough. The star of this post is Fortune Terrace Chinese Cuisine located in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada.

By the time we made it to pick up the luggage, get the rental car and headed to the complex and stopped by T&T to grab some refreshments for the road trip to Kelowna, my aunt, cousin and their friends were already at the restaurant seated and ordered all the dim sum.

First thing that caught my eye was the decor. The ceiling is full of these little lights and butterfly decorations.

And here is the food! There’s the pyramid fried rice and the vermicelli wrapped up in the crusty exterior and ton of traditional and new style dim sum, including the salmon and cheese egg roll and then for dessert, there was a souffle and this sesame covered dessert. Lots of stuff to fill our bellies. Before you get excited, we were probably ten people or more. Enough to justify this much food.

Fried Rice Pyramid

Preserved Cabbage & Bitter Melon & Beef Vermicelli

Traditional Dim Sum

Traditional Dim Sum (Dumpling varieties)

Traditional Dim Sum

Almond Souffle

Salmon and Cheese Shrimp Egg Rolls

Dessert: Chestnut Cake

My favorite was absolutely the fried rice. That was so delicious. The dim sum was also very good. My husband liked the souffle and the salmon and cheese rolls quite a bit. I couldn’t taste those. I believe there was also a Barbecue Pork Buns but they were vanquished and I didn’t take a picture of them. That is a vague memory I have of it. What is really cool is that a lot of their items are with organic ingredients. I didn’t pay for the meal so I didn’t see what it all came down to however my guess is that its a pricier restaurant and they make it worth your while to go there with using better ingredients. It is completely speculating off the menu items.

With our bellies filled, it was time for the road trip to Kelowna! If you missed the Day 1 road trip highlights and scenery, you can check out that post HERE. Tomorrow will be the restaurant we went to dinner for mentioned in the Day 1 post also. These vacation posts might take a while to get through because there is so much to talk about and places I really want to share.

Happy Saturday, my lovelies! 🙂

Lunch: Fried Rice with Shrimps and Yin-Yang style Vegetables

I’m sure we all have that issue at some point or another. Preparing lunch in advance is always a huge difficulty for me.  I usually stick with leftovers and whatnot.  Most of my meals are interchangeable between lunch and dinner.  In this case, one week night, I thought about how I haven’t had shrimps in a long time and I conveniently had just bought some frozen Yin-Yang style stir fry vegetables from the grocery store.  Typically, using overnight rice is the best results but I didn’t have that so we made a tub of rice in the morning and cooled it down so I could cook it at night. I haven’t made fried rice in forever so forgive me if its not exactly presentable.

Fried Rice with Shrimps and Yin-Yang Style Vegetables

Ingredients:

2 bowls Steamed Rice (overnight is the best)
Shrimps, defrosted and peeled
Fresh or Frozen Vegetables (I used Arctic Gardens Yin-Yang Style Stir Fry Vegetables)
1 Egg, beaten
1 tsp Garlic, minced
salt or soy sauce, for taste

How to make it:

1. Heat some oil in a pan. Add some minced garlic. Cook shrimps.  Remove from pan once cooked thoroughly. Set aside.
2. Cook frozen vegetables (or fresh ones) until they are thawed and heated.  Once ready, remove from pan and set aside.
3. Heat up rice and add beaten egg. Mix together until egg is cooked.
4. Add back the vegetables and shrimp. For taste, add in a dash of salt or a bit of soy sauce. Mix it together until its blended.
5. Remove from pan.  Put in a bowl and its ready to eat!

I’m bad at teaching people how to cook.  My mom taught me cooking from improvisation so measurements are more instinctive than exact.  I tried my best to give you approximations. For mine, I forgot to add in the salt or soy sauce so I added that later.  But, please do.  Or else, its going to be really bland. Unless you like the natural non-seasoned tasting.  That works also.

In a fully unlazy me way, I’d use fresh vegetables.  However, improvising me only uses what’s on hand and defrosting shrimps felt like this was the best recipe.  As you may notice, I don’t cook shrimp very often but fried rice is also one of the quickest and easiest ways to make a meal. I’ll try experimenting a little further.  Maybe I’ll be back with chicken and beef fried rice.  Who knows, right? The one I want to learn to make has to be with pineapples and whatnot.

Do you like fried rice? What recipes do you make with shrimps?

Hong Kong Restaurant: Yuet Hin

Welcome to Hong Kong week everyone! I took yesterday to sit down and arrange all my pictures. Actually it wasn’t a lot but you know, time is scarce and all that.  So, let’s start!

Leaving on June 2nd and with a transfer in Vancouver, I arrived in Hong Kong a tad earlier than scheduled.  Taking it easy on the first night, I went to bed early and ended up waking up a few times.  Its normal for jetlag.  It is a 12 hour difference.  Waking up early also means that my aunt, my mom and I went out to eat dim sum for breakfast at this restaurant called Yuet Hin.

I love Dim sum in Hong Kong.  I don’t eat it in Montreal so when I go there, I’m very enthusiastic to try it all the time.

Yuet Hin was my aunt’s recommendation and it has some very nice twists and somewhat Asian fusion style in its menu. Its located in Tai Wai.  Here’s what we ordered for breakfast.

Shao Mai

BBQ Pork and Corn Rice Noodle Rolls

Congee

Fried Rice with Egg

Let me tell you: this place is so good.  The best is that fried rice there.  Its actually Fried rice in Taiwanese style.  Plus, I was never much of a congee person but man, that one was so delicious 🙂

Yuet Hin was such a delight that we went back the day that I left for breakfast dim sum again and tried some more dishes.

Preserved Fish and Chicken rice

Dough Fritter Rice Noodle Rolls

Beef Rice Noodle Rolls

Shrimp Dumplings (can’t remember the exact name)

BBQ pork buns, Sticky Rice and Teochew style dumplings

On the second time, we had one of my mom’s friends who live nearby joining us so we ordered more food.  I’d have to say that they do have really crunch dough fritters rolls.  Those are absolutely amazing.  The Teochew dumplings are quite tasty as well.  I’m always a huge fan of dumplings and this one was very good.

Yuet Hin is a winner for me.  Its a really good restaurant.  There is one little downside to it and that happens sometimes in Hong Kong restaurants is that you get seated with other people on a big table in order to increase the flow of business.  It might bother some people as you end up dining with strangers in a way.  However, it is part of the experience.

Do you like dim sum? Have you tried any of these dishes before?

P.S. You will soon realize my trip includes A LOT of eating this time.  Drop by if you’d like to see more 😉

Toronto Food Frenzy! :)

I’m sure most of you know that I’m a foodie and well, I love eating Chinese food but eating Chinese food in Montreal is really complicated and difficult, not to mention full of MSG and unhealthy.  So, when I get to the awesome city of Toronto, I go all out and try to eat as much as I can! This time with my best friend, we really went completely random and just chose restaurants that we went by or heard of before.

First stop was upon arrival at Pacific Mall on Friday where we got our lunch at one of the fast food kiosks there.  Even these are quite impressive.  I tend to always go to  the same one.

With our meal we get Chicken Ginseng Soup (or Soy milk or soft drinks).  I had my favorite there, Yang Zhou Fried Rice.

Chicken Ginseng Soup

Yang Zhou Fried Rice

I have this unexplainable love for Yang Zhou Fried Rice.  When in doubt, I always pick it.  My best friend chose the Lohan style Vegetable Chow Mein. Sorry for the blur….

Lo Han style Vegetable Chow Mein

At night, after a really awesome horror movie, Rigor Mortis at TIFF (review HERE), we ate dinner back at First Markham Place and we chose Congee Wong. The crazy cold weather in Toronto had made us almost feeling sick so we thought some congee would be good.  Somehow I forgot to take a picture of the congee but we did have two dishes to accompany it.

Chinese Poached Chicken at Congee Wong

Enoki Mushroom with Pea Tips

They were really delicious.  I’m a huge fan of Pea Tips veggies.  These were made so good! The congee was also really good thats why I didn’t even take a picture and it was already gone.

After a good night sleep at the hotel, we went out for brunch/dim sum at Ding Tai Fung Restaurant, a chain restaurant famous in Taiwan (I believe).  Its a bit more pricey than most restaurants but they made awesome cuisine.  I hadn’t eaten there in almost 10 years.

Warm Soy Milk

Steamed Soup-Filled Dumpling

Glutinous Rice Dumplings

Pan-Fried Chive Dumplings (I think)

Fried Rice with Shrimp and Eggs

You can’t get any more feeling like living in Asia than drinking some authentic soy milk, not the stuff out of cartons in the supermarkets.  Plus, this place makes some of the best Steamed Soup-Filled Dumplings I’ve ever tasted (the other place is Asian Legend that I’ve mentioned before a while back).  Our trial was the glutinous rice dumplings.  They were good but just not too tasty, coming from me, thats actually saying a lot because I’m used to eating everything low sodium, low oil, etc.  The fried rice was really to help us feel more filled to go for our shopping day 🙂

That evening, after our shopping, we decided to finish up the leftovers from the previous meals and also grabbed hot dog (for me) and hamburger (for my best friend) at Five Guys to complement everything. We also dropped by a Chinese herbal tea/dessert place called Pun Cao Tong Herbal to grab some deserts.  No pictures of those though…we had a bit of an accident and after the clean up, we just sat back to finish the movie (review going up later) we were watching and eat.  However, here was our very hotel room picnic style dinner setup:

Leftovers with Five Guys at the hotel room

For dessert, my best friend chose Stewed Egg White with Black Sesame Paste.  I chose my favorite Black Sesame Paste (that was also the culprit of the mess).  We also both had bought some Herbal Jelly to take home.

Typing this up just made me miss Toronto food so much. Although I do have something pretty huge planned in the baking department thats somewhat of a fusion.

This trip really helped me get back all the blogging motivation because right now, I’ve started about 10 drafts for the coming week and two ideas churning in my mind that I’m working on 🙂 Definitely back on track and it feels great!

Happy Wednesday! 🙂