Diurnal Pabulum: Famous Hakka

Family dinner tonight and we decided to try the Hakka restaurant just next to Aberdeen Centre. Going back to our roots :)

We ordered 2 chicken dishes - one cold (appetizer), the other warm (main). They were good, especially the warm one.




Under the recommendation of the owner, we also ordered the clay pot fish. The mix of tofu and veggies in the flavourful broth is delicious!


And a certain someone favourite food - Yang Zhou Fried Rice :)


On the healthy side - Gai Lan. The sauce was perfect, and veggies perfectly cooked to the right softness.


More carbo next - Fried Kwe Tiao


This dish was really good, with each strand of rice noodle evenly coated with soy sauce and seasonings.

Mentioning that it's our first time here, the owner also gave us all a bowl of dessert...white fungus with date in sweet soup. A really sweet ending!


Definitely worth another visit!

Famous Hakka
190-4200 No. 3 Road
Richmond, BC V6X 2C2
(604) 278-3555

Bai Yu Lan

Where shall we eat tonight...that's been the theme all along during this wonderful Xmas season. What really matters is family time right ;)

Tonight, we ended up at a Shanghainese restaurant, famous for their Xiao Long Bao - juicy little steam pork dumplings. These dumplings are either super good or "you are eating the last one...", and according to my bro, this restaurant serves the best he had tried so far in his fledgling culinary journey.

So here's what we ordered for the five of us, including 2 of my bro's friends...

Fried pork wraps/biscuits...



Taste so so, much like those sold in fast food place, but a bit tastier on the skin...almost flaky like pastry, but felt like tortilla to the tongue.

And the famous XLB...



As promised, they were really really good :) Not that I've tried many outlets for these little buns, but these were the best I've had. Skin was perfect, thin enough that you only need to pressure it slightly with the lips to burst it, yet thick enough for the chopsticks to not pop it. The flavour and intensity of the filling and juice oozing out as you munch at it...goodness.

An of course a certain someone must have the Yang Chow Fried Rice :)...



For the love for carbs, traditional stir fried rice cakes noodles....



This brings back good memories of Chinese New Year back home...and how I miss them...

Just to top it up, Chinese pot stickers...



These are so much better than gyozas with their crunchy skins, juicy filling, and fragrant chives.

Definitely a good place for night time snacks!

Bai Yu Lan
8095 Park Road,
Richmond, BC, V6Y 1S8
Phone:604-304-8288

Alleluia Cafe

Continuing on our daily feast, we went to Alleluea Cafe tonight. Bro and his friends visit this place quite often, while it's the 1st for me.

The place is set up like any other HK coffee house, and with similar menu. The only difference, this place seems a bit dim, not sure if it's the design or they're just being skimpy on the lighting o_0.

Bro had his "usual" grilled steak and fried pork chops. He just loved pork chops...


I guess the same thing can be said to me for my love of noodles. There just ain't any decent chinese noodle place in GP...how I wish we can teleport...here's the beef brisket with thin noodles



Had a few pieces of the pork chops and I can taste why bro always order those here...they are so tender and juicy! Lots of meat, and less on the batter, how pork chop should be. My noodles, they are ok, but it did satisfy my craving for now.

Alleluia Cafe
8131 Westminster Hwy. #188
Richmond, BC
Tel: 604-271-8266

Kim Ga Nae

Korean AYCE BBQ - Kim Ga Nae! This will my 1st time here, but bro said it's awesome. Decided to bring my roomates here for lunch.

Here are what we ordered...






The menu is pretty small, but more than enough! All the favourites are there (for me anyways!); the only lacking ingredient is the seafood (only squid available...). Guess Korean is big on red meat.



Last but not LEAST - the stuff!


Finally, a decent and well priced Korean BBQ :)

Diurnal Pabulum: Nachos

Had a celebration at Earl's today. With big crowd comes big platter.

Didn't get a chance to get all the food down, just the Nacho plate...


Nachos...always a great finger food, especially with the trio of guacamole, sour cream, and salsa dippings.

And to cool off those jalapenos, a big bottle of San Pellegrino sparkling water...


And the flame was doused...

Earl's
9825 100 Street
Grande Prairie, AB T8V 6X3
(780) 538-3275

Golden Star Restaurant

A colleague of ours, Mr S had decided to leave us come February '09, and work down in the head office. Had only been here 6 months and quite a few departures already...but this time it's for good as Mr S will be reunited with his family :)

For his farewell lunch, we decided to go with chinese, and off to Golder Star we went.

Since there were a bunch of us, we decided to go with 6 dishes to share, instead of individual orders.

First off is the soup...I had the sour and spicy soup.


Not much ingredients, except for threads of veggies (carrots, mushrooms and parsnips) and chunks of tofu. Tasted like Tom Yum soup, except milder.

2.5/5

Next is the honey garlic pork


The pork was juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside, nicely done. But they had use to much batter I find, and the sauce was not well mixed in.

3.25/5

The next one is the old time favourite sweet and sour pork


Nothing much to say here, taste and texture is average.

3/5

Next up is the Fried Chicken with noodles in soy sauce.



This dish is ok imo, but everyone else seems to fancy it a lot (that's the last piece shown there in the pix, and I was lucky I was able to grab it :)). The sauce is just plain soy sauce, mixed with corn starch (likely) which gave it the sticky texture. Noodles are again soggy, and the chicken...tasteless.

2.5/5

Next up is the Noodles with prawns in cream sauce...



This dish didn't taste as good as last time when we had it, and the prawns were much smaller this time (winter season = smaller prawns?). Also, they weren't as cripsy. I was looking forward to this dish, but was very disappointed...

2.5/5

Finally, a veggie dish for the health...Stir fried veggie with beef



Maybe it's because the rest of the dishes weren't as good, but I sure voted this one for dish of the day. The veggies were fresh (esp. the Snow peas), and the beef were tender (as it should be).

3.5/5

Not a very satisfying experience this time round, guess it's time to try another chinese restaurant for comparison. In any case, we wish Mr S. all the best!

Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3.5/5


Golden Star Restaurant
10112 101 Avenue
Grande Prairie, AB T8V 0Y2
(780) 532-7546

Jackpot Bar & Grill

December is a month of celebration...or so they say. Apparently, lots of treats over the month, and they sure didn't lie :)

Got the invitation to Jackpot Bar & Grill for some hors d'œuvre... Being the foodie that I am, can't miss it!

The place itself is set up like a bar and lounge, and food was served buffet style...I like. Picking a bit of everything, here's what I came up with (in my 1st of many rounds..haha)



The satays (chicken and beef) were good, especially the chicken one, which was seasoned with peanut butter base. The roast beef rolls (top left of plate) was a dry though, and tough in fact...almost like chewing on leather. The fried shrimp was so-so, could've been better if they use panko as batter. Just to balance the meat, the usual veggies go on the side :)

3.5/5 (Satay)
2.75/5 (The rest...)

Now the star of the show...


Spinach Dip!! Who doesn't love this stuff?! Sometimes I wonder why these are called Spinach Dip when there's obviously a 1:100 Spinach to Mayo ratio :) But no complains, delicious as expected.

3.5/5

I've been told by a few colleagues that they serve lunch buffet as well, might be worth a try in the future.

Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 3/5

Jackpot Bar & Grill

10904 92 Avenue, Grande Prairie, AB T8V 6B5

Telephone : 780-538-1255

Best Western Grande Prairie Hotel

It's only been a few months since I've been here, and yet I have to say my first farewell to our beloved manager. Guess the saying is true that people come and go over here, but let's hope that's not the case while I am here, coz we are a great bunch as it stands :)

The venue for the farewell dinner was down at Best Western Hotel, and it was a buffet style dinner, just what I needed after a long day at work.

So here's my full plate on the 1st round..



And a close up of our main star...Roast Beef


The veggies were nicely glazed and seasoned, especially the carrots and parsnips mix. The roast beef is nothing to shout about, but given my hunger, it was really good, moist and tender (tip: pick a slice near the sides). This is also the first time I tried horseradish on my beef, and to my surprise, I actually like it! Gravy is of course 1st choice, hands down a must :)

3.5/5

Next up are desserts, the best thing in a meal! Just like anything in life, always end it in a sweet note...something I always tell myself when deciding if dessert is worth the extra calories :)



The unique cylindrical chocolate cake...


The peanut butter squares, nanaimo bars were regular. To this date, I still find nanaimo bars too sweet for my taste. The chocolate cake, looks nice, but tastes ok...slightly disappointed by the dryness of the cake. The outer chocolate layer is good though.

3/5

Service: 4/5
Ambience: 3/5

Best Western Grande Prairie Hotel
10745 117th Ave
Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7N6
(780) 402-2378

Delta Lodge - Day 2

One last round of meeting, more serious, less games today. But we all gotta eat right ;)

Breakfast Buffet...



Love my cold cereals, and hot breakfast. Can I have both...o yea!

Lunch Buffet...

Really delicious cheese grain and salad. Entrees were mostly sandwich and the salmon bagel on my plate.

Time for dessert...


The ever irresistible Apple Crumble with whip cream...ahhhh


Delta Lodge
1 Centennial Road
Kananaskis Village, Alberta
T0L 2H0
(403) 591-7711

Delta Lodge - Day 1

Had a huge gathering with teams from Calgary for the new organizational structure. This is Day Uno.

Breakfast buffet...

The hilite - warm moist banana cake...this is lovely!


Lunch Buffet...




Dessert time...


Orange mousse in orange flavoured chocolate popsicle. Cute and tasty!


Delta Lodge
1 Centennial Road
Kananaskis Village, Alberta
T0L 2H0
(403) 591-7711

Diurnal Pabulum: Earl's

Driving down to Kananaskis for a 2-day gathering of the new team as part of our company's reorganization. On the way to there, the ops team decided to drop by Earl's for dinner.

With Mr. G around, appies are always a must...here are the Sushi Plate and the Chili Chicken.




Rolls were ok...really liked the thinly sliced tuna and salmon wrapped around them. The chicken were good, cripsy exterior with juicy and tenderness inside; plus the sauce was delicately portioned.

Here's the seafood linguine a colleague had...(looks tasty, but not as much seafood as the one in Madhatter's)


As for myself, the Cedar Planked Salmon...


Perfectly grilled, delicious sauce, and moist brown rice (close to being risotto but drier). Absolutely loved it!

Earl's
10640 MacLeod Trail SE, Calgary
(403) 228-4141

Don's Dining

Our beloved Mr. S decided to take us to lunch today - 3 of us altogether - to a nearby Chinese restaurant. Don's Dining...simple name, plain layout, familiar menu (one that is common in many Chinese restaurant here in GP).

Mr. S ordered Combo A - sweet and sour pork with a bowl of rice.

It sure looks good...

Another colleague ordered Combo B - lemon chicken with fried rice.

The lemon chicken looked very generic...chicken pieces fried in batter, drizzled with lemon-tasting sauce.

As for me...the Singaporean style vermicelli.

As good as it looks and sounds, it was one of those experience I'd rather forget. The vermicelli was dry, and there were chunks of it that were completely tasteless. There was barely any meat, with plenty of veggies. The curry taste just wasn't there...it was like vermicelli sprinkled with curry powder.

1/5

Service: 2.5/5

Ambience: 2.5/5

Don's Dining
106-9840 97 Avenue

Grande Prairie, AB T8V 7K2

Telephone : 780-513-2888