Ken's Restaurant

Earlier before, in our first post I believe, I mentioned how I had my wisdom teeth pulled out and thus we did not go all out to celebrate our 1.5 years together. Well, because of that and that I had to work that day. But nonetheless, we decided to do at least something, and ended up just planning to have a simple dinner of congee and wonton noodles.

I actually do not know of many congee and noodle restaurants in Vancouver. Whenever I want congee, I instantly think of Hon's, Kwong Chow, and Congee Noodle House (never going back, after a really bad experience there... I will tell another day). Aside from those, I really have to scratch my brain to remember where they would serve congee and what type of restaurants would. My friend had recommended me to try Congee Noodle King, but it was way too out of the way for us, it being all the way along Joyce Street. After some minimal research, I found out that Ken's Restaurant serves both congee and noodles and is very close to home as they are located at 1097 Kingsway.


I have eaten at Ken's several times before due to the convenience of the location. However, I have never had their congee before, so this was a new experience. Ken's Restaurant is a Hong Kong style restaurant with a lot of Chinese people eating there throughout the day. Auntie prefers this place over Sun Fat's, which is just across the street, because of the high turnover of customers, and thus conclude they have fresh ingredients all the time even though it is a little more expensive. To me, it would not have made much of a difference because a restaurant with a higher number of customers means that they just order in much larger quantities. So overall, it is the same thing if they do not end up using all of their ingredients "in time." I usually don't consider this at all...way too much thinking.


Anyways, on to the food. Leek ordered the Wonton with Noodle Soup. I think the dish was $5.50. The dish came in a really large bowl, but it was just full of soup. There were maybe about 6 pieces of regular sized wontons and just a handful of noodles. The rest of the bowl was laddled high with soup. I do not think this was worth $5.50, and Leek agrees, he still prefers the wonton noodles at Nancy's (his favorite restaurant for wonton so far). Actually, I prefer the noodles at Nancy's more. The wonton is about the same. Oh, Leek LOVES wonton noodles. Whenever we go out to eat, and wonton noodles is on the menu, there is a 99% chance he will be ordering that dish! True, very true, but its more like 99.9999%.


I, on the other hand, the one with only half a jaw, ordered their Minced Beef Congee for $4.50 a bowl. This came in the same size bowl as the noodles did and there were actually quite a few pieces of beef in it. But because they did not mince up the beef evenly, there were still some rather large pieces in it, so I just gave those to Leek to polish off. The taste of the congee was alright at the beginning, but as I ate more and more of it, it started getting more and more bland! That was weird, first time I have experienced that before. I found the congee a bit watery, and the beef was ok. Overall, it was pretty decent. Definitely, it wasn't the best congee I ever had.

Overall, I think we paid $11.00 with tax and tips. The food was just okay, nothing to wow about, but I will definitely continue to come here out of convenience. Some of their other dishes are fairly nice though, and their restaurant is fairly clean with a nice ambience.

Oatmeal Cookies

Today we are finally going to post our first recipe! Whenever I bake and ask Leek what he wants, he always asks for either cupcakes or cookies. Whenever it is cookies, he always asks for oatmeal cookies, nothing else will do. So over the time I have been with him, I have actually tried out a few oatmeal cookies. So far all of them are alright, but none of them made me want to keep the recipe except for this last one I tried two days ago!

I actually got the recipe from BITTERSWEET1 at allrecipes.com, but tweaked it a teeny bit to fit what I had on hand. I like this recipe because they stay in the form of cute little cookies instead of flattening out into huge disks. It stays chewy even after a few days too, and they are definitely a tasty treat. Yummy. After taking it out of the oven, I couldn't help it but to eat half a dozen of them myself! Talk about spoiling lunch!

You only need a handful of ingredients from your cupboards, so it is convenient in that there is no need for an extra trip out to the grocery store (unless of course you are out of something). I halved this recipe and had a yield of about 24 small cookies, so the amount of ingredients called for here should make about 24 regular to large sized cookies!

• 1 cup butter, softened (I used margarine cooled to room temperature)
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups quick cooking oats

1. Cream together the margarine, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Stir in the vanilla extract.
4. Combine together the flour, baking soda, and salt. (I did this in a separate bowl)
5. Pour the flour mixture into the margarine mixture and mix until there are no more traces of flour.
6. Mix in the quick cooking oats.
7. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill the dough in the fridge for at least one hour. (Mine stayed in the fridge overnight)
8. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit (190 degrees Celsius).
9. Lightly grease cookie sheets. (I greased one of my batches and not the other, both came out fine, so next time I think I will skip this step)
10. Roll the dough into the desired size. (Mine were about 1.5-2 inches in diameter)
11. Place the dough 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
12. Using a fork, slightly flatten each ball.
13. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
14. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring onto a cooling rack. (Important to do this because it is still cooking a little on the hot pan even after it is out of the oven!)


Hope you enjoy this recipe as much as Leek and I. Delicious~

Oui oui, introductions!

Its time for my introduction too! Sorry for the late post, I was preoccupied yesterday. I am Leek! I am the more silly of the two, and sometimes (or often, depending on your interpretation), what I say may not make sense at all. Still, I joined Tamato in this blog due to our love of food and to each other!

I do like to eat, but certainly not to the degree that Tamato does. She is far more willing to try new things than I do, but I usually go along with what she tries. However, I am allergic to nuts, so it may bias my ratings toward nut-containing foods. More or less, as long as the food does not contain nuts, and my friends aren't dropping dead from eating it, I will try it out as well.

My favourite foods are virtually anything containing noodles (unless it has nuts in it, then blah). I also like Transformers and the game Halo, but I won't recommend you try eating those.

As both of us are poor university students, we really can't afford very expensive meals. Also, we tend to spend more time with our studies than going out to eat (in theory). Nonetheless, we will still attempt to review decently-looking stuff. So, for any readers out there, Tamato and I hope you will enjoy reading our blog!

Introductions, now where to begin?

Hmm, it seems we are little due for an introduction of the people behind this tiny blog, Tamato and Leek! Since this was all of my fantastic idea anyways, I guess I will do the honor of introducing myself, Tamato, to you first.

As one can probably tell from the blog, I love food (almost as much as I love Leek)! However, despite my love for it, I am a fairly picky eater too (which I think is fairly contradicting... welps, that's Tamato for you)! I do try to force myself to try new things at times, but I am always scared that I would try it and end up not liking it and then having wasted $___! This is a problem because I like to watch my wallet as much as possible, squeezing as many pennies out of it as I can! Oh boy, you should see me when I hit a deal! I rave on and on about them for the longest time ever, you can confirm that with Leek =P

But yes, money aside, I really like to eat, and at times when I am feeling not too lazy or feel like I want to please some people, I like to cook too! This blog will soon be filled with many more food reviews and recipes! We have yet to post up the first recipe, but hopefully that will come soon, when Leek and I get together on what recipe to first post!

Just for this blog, Leek and I have decided to venture more! Meaning instead of eating just what we like best at the restaurants we frequent the most, we have decided to try a variety of foods at different places! We also need to get into the habit of snapping the photos of the food before we dig in! We get super hungry at times staring at the food staring back at us!

Speaking of photos, I do sincerely apologize for the quality of the pictures on this blog! I try, but I am just not built as a photographer! I guess it does not help that my camera is of a low quality one, so please bear with the pictures and just imagine them a little less blurred and slightly more yummy and such =)

Anyways, I guess that is it for my little blurb today, feeling a bit tired after a long day. I will add more maybe in a future posting, but hopefully this has helped you to learn a teeny tiny bit about me! Looking forward to Leek's post tomorrow ^_____^ <3

Bakudanyaki Tenku

Heylo everyone! Today, I Leek (and I Tamato in the red fonts) will review this bakudanyaki place (sorry Tamato forgot the name) (Bakudanyaki Tenku). Interestingly enough, it is located virtually in the middle of nowhere - in a parking lot beside a vase place (even weirder) just off some road in Richmond (7100 Elmbridge Way). They are like a block, or so, North of the Richmond Hospital.


On the other hand, they apparently sell their bakudanyakis at the Richmond Night Market, or whatever its called nowadays... (Richmond Summer Market).


Perhaps unsurprisingly, their entire menu consists of, you guessed it, variations of bakudanyaki! I am not really the adventuous type, so I stuck with plain old original. Of course, there are other flavours you can choose from (like curry, chili mayo, wasabi mayo, mustard mayo, and pizza).



It comes as a huge ball in a rather nice-looking (Chinese) take out box. I think it is pretty cute, and simple. It even comes with a napkin and chopstick holder with a little handle to carry it if you decide to wrap it up to eat or finish later on!

However, since it is located in a parking lot, you are pretty much stuck to eating it in the comforts (or discomforts) of your own car. Leek forgot, but they do have a little tent hiked up to fit maybe a couple of people if you really insist on not going back into your car.


The bakudanyaki was quite nice. It was a pretty huge portion - enough to fill me (and I tend to eat a lot!). They certainly didn't go light on the ingredients either; it was filled up with seafood and other stuff....(tamato help me out here...). Cabbage, shrimp, calamari, squid, rice cake, fish cake, and quail egg. I wasn't too fond of the sauce though, and it took some getting used to. The sauce was actually alright for me since I love takoyaki, but I did find that they put a squirt too many of the mayo (I am not a fan of mayo be it Western or Japanese mayo). I actually found the insides of the bakudanyaki to be a little bland, it definitely could have used some more salt or something. Yuckily enough, it is also through this experience that I discovered I do not like the taste of quail eggs. It seems I may be fairly picky when it comes to eating eggs (although I adore chicken eggs, yummy)!


Overall, I recommend trying this place out, if you can find it. Talk about visibility... Well, come on, it is only $5 for a ball about the size of your hands clasped together! And once you google map it, it is fairly simple to find! It is just not very accessible for the two of us since we rarely step into Richmond together and we rely on public transport. On this particular day, my daddy was nice enough to chauffer us around Richmond since I had the day off work! So lucky of us! I had been craving to try one of these since I read about them! Hehehe.


Oh! The guy who served us was nice enough to ask us if we had a stamp card too! According to the stamp card, for every 7 bakudanyakis you buy from them, you get 1 free! Just like those stamp cards you receive from bubble tea places. And I know that we all love free stuff!

McDonald's Teriyaki McChicken

Heylo everyone! Leek here with a review - this time on the Teriyaki McChicken currently offered by a McDonald's near you! Normally I would not order food like this (plus I'm notoriously bad at ordering stuff at McD) but Tamato generously offered me one while on break between classes. To say the least, it was a change from what I usually eat during lunch.


When I first learned about the burger, I had high hopes. I am quite fond of teriyaki sauce, and combined with McChicken, I felt there was something awesome in the making. Unfortunately, I found out otherwise.


On the whole the burger was....ok at best (perhaps I had too high an expectation). My greatest grievance was that the teriyaki sauce failed to mix with the mayonnaise. Pretty disappointing when the key ingredient that you pretty much bought the burger for fails to mix with the rest. The chicken was nothing spectacular, but then, it is McDonald's. More or less, it was simply an overpriced McChicken burger with a random sauce thrown in.


Overall, I won't recommend this burger unless you are feeling particularly adventuous. Stick with what works McDonald's! I agree with Leek, it was definitely overpriced at a little over $4 for a single burger when I can get a whole Junior Chicken meal for just a few cents more! I think I will stick with the Junior Chicken or the original McChicken. However, for me, eating at McDonald's means eating a super cheap meal, so unless I have those buy one get one free burger coupons they so sparingly mail to you these days, I usually stick with the Value Meals! (Although I have cravings for their chicken nuggets every now and then, hehehe).

Seasons in the Park

Hello,
Leek and I decided to start a food (and everything else) blog in lieu of celebrating our 1.5 years together <3 Unfortunately I had the wisdom teeth on the left side of my mouth taken out on Friday, so my meals as of the last couple of days includes mush and we did not have the opportunity to go eat out. Instead our first blog post will be of my birthday dinner which my sweetie Leek had planned so nicely for me~!


Seasons in the Park is located in Queen Elizabeth Park (Main Street and West 33rd Avenue), near The Bloedel Conservatory and the fountains. We made reservations for 5:30 that evening as we wanted to take advantage of their Sunset menu which is only available Monday to Thursday from 5:30-6:00pm.

When we arrived, we were greeted, then told to wait for our server in the lobby. I thought this was an unnecessary overlay considering the restaurant was practically empty (except for a few patrons on the patio and many employees). After being seated outside, we were given menus and ordered drinks. Boyfriend and I are easy to please, we do not drink alcohol so we stuck to Coke and Sprite.


Soon after our drinks came, we were served bread and butter. No, we were not only served two slices of bread, we just so happened to forget to take a picture of it before munching down (we were starving)! The bread was warm so it was easy to spread the butter over it and watch it melt. Delicious.


The Sunset menu ($25) starts off with a Mixed Seasonal Greens appetizer. However, because neither Leek or I eat salads, we had the salad packed to go (for my family) and instead ordered the Grilled Calamari Steak on the side ($13). The steak was absolutely yummy. But, I did find the warm Sicilian caponata stuffing to be a little too sweet. Even though we ordered it to share, the chef was nice enough to split the dish into two plates so we did not have to make a mess of ourselves!


Next came the entree. For the choice of entrees on the Sunset menu, you can choose between the Seafood Bouillabaisse (which I had, above) or the Grilled 7 oz Sirlion Steak (which boyfriend had, below). The bouillabaisse definitely had quite a few pieces of seafood and potatoes, and an abundance of onions. By the time I finished the dish, it still looked half full because of the amount of onions piled up in the broth (I do not like onions, so I tend not to eat them).


Boyfriends dish looks very meaty, however, when I tasted the glaze, yuck. To me, the glaze tasted like thick burnt soy sauce! I guess that means I should stay away from bourbon green peppercorn demi-glace upon all future meetings. Leek liked it quite a bit though, and managed to finish the whole plate by himself!


Last but not least, our dessert came! We were served their Double Belgian Chocolate Truffle and Fudge Cake. It tasted as rich as it looked. Even though boyfriend does not like chocolate, he managed to polish off the whole slice of cake himself! I do not know if he did it for me, but either way it made me so proud of him! It was the first time I have seen him taking in such a large amount of chocolate without me having to force him!


Overall the dinner was very nice. Plus, we had a very pretty view of the park and the city. I think overall including tax and tips and our pop and bottled water, we paid about $85. It was a very nice dinner, thank you honey ~<3