Noodles at Bubble Waffle Kerrisdale

Another Chinese Bites dinner! I had just finished my review of our last one at Boiling Point, and here we are off again! No complaints though, I wanted to give this new Kerrisdale location of Bubble Waffle Cafe a try. First to come to the table was the namesake of the restaurant, Bubble Waffles! We tried quite a few different flavours, including Matcha, Oreo, Chocolate, Cheesecake and of course, original, which was my favourite. The edges were crispy and the insides were appropriately chewy. Yup, this hit the spot.

This is their Fish Sui Mai, and it looks like they were cooked on a skewer. I wished they have served it that way. The texture was really soft, almost mushy, but there was a strong fish flavour to each one. I could have had a bit of chili sauce here too. Anyone who's been to Chinese Night Market should know this, Takoyaki. I am not usually a fan of this, but for some reason, I enjoyed these here, and the bits of octopus were plentiful. I can't get enough of katsuobushi either! Perhaps it was because I didn't have to eat it standing up? Or because it wasn't drenched in mayo? In any case, this was pleasant and I'd order it again. More seafood in the form of balls, Deep Fried Shrimp Balls. I enjoyed these...balls and a stick...hmm. The outer coating had a good bite to it, and the inside was piping hot, juicy and although it had good shrimp flavour, it was rather one note. One tip, to eat balls on a stick, use two sticks to anchor the ball; trust me on this one.

Not much explanation needed here...where there are balls, there must be Sausages, right? Not much to say about these...a bit on the sweet side, sort of honey ham like flavour but with the texture of dry Bavarian sausage. 

These are the Taiwanese Popcorn Bites, essentially chicken nuggets. I liked these, they weren't too oily and had a good crunch. It's not something I would not order myself, but I'd definitely steal one or two if someone else orders them!
We all got to choose our soups, some of opted for spicy, which they have various versions of, from Thai, Laksa, and even Sichuan! The one above by Sherman includes tripe, quail eggs and fish balls. MissVancouverPiggy ordered the traditional House Soup, a fish based soup make with halibut heads. We all tried the soups prior to placing our order and this was one of my favourites. It had a mild fish flavour and a creamy texture.
I ordered the Preserved Egg and Cilantro soup with fish, beef, fish ball and fresh bean curd. My only regret is that I didn't get some quail eggs too! This was loaded with chunks of the egg, and the flavour of cilantro permeated the soup, it was delicious! NomNomYVR ordered the same soup and loaded it with different toppings. The enoki looked too as does the fried fish cake.

If you enjoy customizing your own food, then this place is perfect for you. On a cold and rainy Vancouver day, this place would be one of my top three spots for dinner.

Incidentally, this place serves bubble teas as well. It's done in the Pantyhose Style, with a sheer filter, made to order, and the pulling action is to incorporate air and body into the teas. The tea they use is actually a blend of five different types of Sri Lankan teas. Try it next time you're there and see if you can tell the difference from other tea houses!

Chinese Bites: Golden Ocean Seafood Restaurant

This Chinese Bites dinner found us in the heart of Kerrisdale, at Golden Ocean, where I had only frequented for lunch/dim sum. I was very excited to try some of their signature dishes, though we would also be treated to some Dim Sum as well. Joining us today were Rick, Janice, Sherman, newcomers Sean and Amy, as well as Diana, Alvin, and of course, Raymond of Chinese Bites.
Dim Sum for dinner? I don't see why not! This is the Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant, and it's a dish that I used to hate as a child. I recall eating the shrimp paste and then pawning off the eggplant to my sister or mother. Over the years, I have grown to appreciate the dish in its entirety. The Shrimp mousse was plentiful and had a good sear on the outside. Once you bite into it, you get a nice bouncy chew from the shrimp itself. The eggplant was cooked to a soft pulpy consistency, which is what I really like. 
Another shrimp stuffed dish was the Deep Fried Tofu. As with the first dish, the shrimp mousse was generous with a great texture. The sauce accompanying this dish had a bit of a tang to it, giving the otherwise blander tofu a punch. 
Slicing both of the dishes in half, you can see a good Stuffing Eggplant/Tofu ratio here. They definitely didn't skimp on the toppings. 
For our final Dim Sum offering, Golden Ocean presented us with their Shrimp Dumplings. Wow, three shrimp dishes in a row. Could this be a theme? As mentioned, I've been here for dim sum before and have had these many times. The dumpling skin is thin and delicately nestles the abundant shrimp filling within. This was no different than the other times I've had it here.
Now, onto the dinner time dishes. First up was the Steamed Tofu with Egg White and Seafood. Loaded with shrimp, scallops and mushrooms, this dish was is a classic. The tofu and egg are steamed to a creamy velvety texture and the seafood is mildly seasoned to accompany this delicate dish. It's saucy and creamy, and a mild way to really kick off dinner. 
The next dish I tried was the Crab in Signature Sauce with Egg Noodles. Although you can't see it below the crab, there is a bed of noodle under there, soaking up all the delicious juices from the crab and the sauce.  This dish was as visually stunning as it was tasty. The noodles are a bit clumpy, but persevere and you'll be rewarded with a bowlful of well-seasoned noodles. Coated in the sauce, half the pleasure of eating the crab came from gnawing on the shells themselves. Yes, feel free to use your hands, they have plenty of wet napkins for you to clean up with later.
Our next dish was Stir Fried Beef with Steamed Buns. Considering how large our portions were with the Steamed Tofu and the Crab, this dish seemed a bit light on the beef. The beef was well marinated and cooked to a nice tender morsel, along with some peppers, onions and green onions. Considering they gave us steamed buns though, I would have thought that the dish could have been saucier, so as to help keep everything moist. 
And yes, more Shrimp. This dish was a rather oddball combination, with Honey Garlic Spare Ribs in the middle and a ring of Deep Fried Shrimp Mousse on the outside. As with the earlier incarnations of the Shrimp Mousse, these were good, obviously from the same batch. The spare ribs are lightly coated in a batter with a gentle honey garlic glaze. Not a standout in my books but nothing inherently wrong with it. 
Our next dish was seafood again, but this time, it was a Deep Fried Sole. The head and tail are kept and served as part of the dish, with the body having been filleted and deep fried separately. Then everything is reassembled with a ring of broccoli around it. This looked quite pretty, but the fish itself was just a touch overly oily. Either they didn't drain the pieces properly or they didn't cook it long enough, something was amiss. 
After all the deep fried goodness and the many dishes of seafood, we had a simple vegetable dish of Pea Shoots with Enoki Mushrooms. The lightness of this dish was welcomed after all the different flavours we've already had. The whole garlic cloves on top were really sweet and gave the dish a deeper flavour profile. 
Our final savoury dish of the night was the Deep Fried Duck in Taro. This dish is very similar to the dish we had at Grand Dynasty, but there, it was with Chicken (versus duck) and the topping was Sticky Rice (instead of taro). The taro was light and fluffy, and the duck was meaty. Surprisingly, this dish wasn't as oily as the fish, and I really enjoyed it. The taro and duck is a great combo. 
We were served a few desserts at the beginning of this meal, and this Deep Fried Pastry with Coconut Sprinkles was one of them. I found this to be a little too sweet, and the honey glaze made everything just a bit too soggy for my tastes. 
Ah, the Egg Tarts, though these looked good, I was really too full for desserts. From comments around the table, the pastry was a bit tough, but perhaps it was because it had been sitting out for our entire meal.
One interesting dessert that I couldn't resist was the Fried Sesame Paste Dough Balls.
Although the Martian Green is quite striking, what was inside was worth breaking into. The sesame paste was smooth and piping hot, and not too sweet. One thing though, these were a bit oily, but I used my napkin to soak up some of the excess oil and it was just fine after that.
The other dessert was the Fresh Soy Pudding. Unfortunately, because this was made earlier in the day, the texture was a bit dry. The pudding itself should be wet throughout, with a bit moisture as each layer is removed. Unfortunately, this isn't the case here.
One final dessert followed, the Baked Tapioca Pudding which is an irresistible classic. Hot and creamy, this is like having oatmeal for dessert.
I enjoyed trying some of the dim sum dishes that I hadn't tried before, but the dinner seemed oddly Shrimp-centric. I really enjoyed the Signature Crab dish and will definitely be back for that. The Taro Duck was also a homerun, so those two dishes would be on my To-Eat list for sure.
**Golden Ocean hosted Chinese Bites for this tasting but my opinions are my own.**


More reviews available here for Signature Dishes Tour Dinners. 

Dim Sum at Golden Ocean

I know most of you probably head into Richmond for Dim Sum, but sometimes, fighting the "L" & "N" drivers on a Saturday morning just isn't my cup of tea. So instead, one weekend morning, we decided to check out Golden Ocean in Kerrisdale. Now I'm probably going to regret this, but they do take "phone-ahead-line-up", so if you know you're heading down, it's best to call ahead. They will still make you wait, but it's a different line that the "walk-ins". Another great thing about this place is that it's one of the few places that still have the carts! So although you can still order what you want from a waiter; sit there long enough and someone will "drive" by with something to tempt you with a dish that doesn't jump off the order sheet.

The first item we got was the Deep Fried Bean Curd Roll, and it's stuffed with diced shrimp and veggies. The top one had the most crunch, seemingly having spent the most time being deep-fried. The other two on the bottom were good as well, but missing the browning of the top one. The filling is good, after the crispiness when you first bite into it, you are then biting into tender shrimp mixed with some Asian veggies. So a little oily, but the inside is nice and piping hot. 

So, after the slightly overly oily first dish, we flagged down a cart carrying Steamed Spare Ribs. The serving was a healthy portion, but I'd have the say that one piece at the 6 o'clock position bothered me. And, overall, it was a bit too bland for my taste. For those of you who don't appreciate black bean, this could be your dish, since it's mildly flavoured with garlic and not much else. You'll always get some fatty pieces along with the meaty pieces, but I found the ratio to be good overall.   

I've never been a huge fan of Spring Rolls, probably because most are stuffed with ground pork and way too greasy. The only thing that makes them palatable is the Lea & Perrins you dip into so as to cut the oiliness down. However, I wanted to try these ones because they were filled with shrimp, sans the mayo dressing that most shrimp ones come with. Yeah, deep-fried shrimp and mayonnaise isn't my thing. 

I'm glad I gave these ones a try, because as you can see, they aren't overly greasy and stuffed with a fair amount of shrimp meat. Oh, and judging by the flakes all over, they were sort of nice and crispy too! 

One my my go-to dimsum dishes is the Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf. When you order these, you never know if you're going to get one "big" one or three "mini" ones. I personally prefer the mini ones because I always find the Big ones to be very poor in terms of Meat vs Rice ratio. They stay nice and hot in the wrapper, so take your time trying out other things before opening these babies up. 

Unwrap these and you're rewarded with a meat filled rice dumpling. The rice should cover the filling entirely, but I don't mind if the filling spills over a a bit, like the one here. The filling is usually a mix of ground pork/chicken, chinese sausage, shitaake mushrooms and the yolk of a salted duck egg (my favourite part and I always leave this to the end), with an oyster sauce based concoction. These were nice and saucy and great meat to rice ratio. No complaints here! 

After the Bean Curd and Spring Rolls, we decided to go the route of less fried greasiness. One of my comfort food as a child is Rice Noodle Rolls. So we got one with shrimp (whole shrimp, not shrimp meat/paste). I loved to play with these as a kid, unrolling the noodle, dipping the shrimp in hot sauce, and then rerolling it. Yes, it was labour intensive, but it was good! The shrimp here kept falling out of the roll when I picked it up with my chopstick, but it didn't stop me from engaging in my childhood past-time. Steamed and splashed with some soy sauce when they bring this to your table, this really lets the ingredients shine. I liked it quite a bit. Oh, and there were three rolls with the order, I started playing with one before remembering to take the photo! 

And no, it's not that I don't like the traditional "Har Gow", but since we'd already had a few shrimp dishes, we decided to go with the other must have, the "Sui Mai". I've always liked the fish roe topping on these little open-face pork dumplings, but wow, they really spread it on unevenly here. Not sure if that is because these are made in-house, but I have to say, I grabbed the two with the most roe on top! Poor other soul who was left with a rather naked dumpling.
So if you're in the mood for dimsum and want to try a few new things...head to Golden Ocean and their push-cart style service. At least you can take a peek at what you're getting rather than ordering it off an order sheet!