shanghai house: another visit of many

yes, my mom and i still come to shanghai house even though there's better in richmond BUT it is convenient and not too busy! we now order some different things and i honestly think they're pretty dang good. 

salted duck ($6.98) - cold duck that is actually delicious and probably my favourite place for it. a lot of breast meat, not overly salty and not filled with those splinter bones. you can taste the natural duck flavours which is the best. 

4.25/5

spicy beef noodle in soup ($6.98) - this is my new favourite dish here. it is quite spicy but very flavourful at the same time. they give quite a bit of meat which is not too fatty. the only thing i dont love is the noodles which are very "normal" compared to hand pulled noodles.

4.5/5 

xiao long bao ($4.98) - better than visit one: skin wasnt as chewy and was thinner. as you can see in the picture these were FILLED with soup but the pork texture is still not the best.

3.75/5

better choice of dishes makes for a better experience but overall, still a solid choice for shanghainese eats! 

mount bakery cafe: eggs benedict on a waffle...best idea ever

on a trip to the states, my family decided to stop in bellingham for a quick breakfast since we were a bit too early for the outlet to be open. having urbanspoon'd all the breakfast possibilities before leaving, i decided on mount bakery cafe. 

dungeness crab benny: poached eggs with cheese on dungeness crab, asparagus and belgian waffle served with roasted potatoes ($14.95) - this was on a board and my dad loves seafood so we ordered this to share. it had beautifully poached eggs and a nice serving of hollandaise sauce but the best part was when you had every single layer with a bite of waffle. AMAZING. this idea is genius and should be done everywhere! 

4.75/5

bowl of fresh fruit ($~3-4): nothing special..expensive for the amount of fruit and cut strangely. there were pineapples, strawberries, bananas and grapes.

2.5/5

overall: the eggs benedict were amazing and i would definitely return to try their other breakfast items. they also have a case full of pastries that looked delicious! 

corner 23: spicy spicy noodles!

quick post! corner 23 after church on a Sunday afternoon and we were STARVING. 

still pretty busy around 3 o clock but were seated quickly and served quickly as well. 

beef with spicy noodle soup ($7.95): my go to at all taiwanese restaurants. executed quite well with nice thick pieces of beef shank (NOT BRISKET!!! :D :D :D) and the typical taiwanese noodles served just a little softer than al dente. the soup wasnt TOO oily but had a nice spicy kick to it. as i mentioned before, i was starving and finished the whole thing...

3.95/5

deep fried chicken nuggets ($6.50) - i didnt try this but there was quite a large portion for the appetizer size and my friends said it was good! 

overall: a good place for typical taiwanese food. portions aren't huge but food is tasty and match the price that they are given. 

3.95/5

peanuts bubble tea: custard-y wheels!

 looking for dessert after lunch with my mom, we hit up richmond public market and seeing that peanuts bubble tea is raved about, i wanted to try their bubble tea. 

along with that, we got 4 different custard wheels which are basically little buns filled with a custard cream flavour of your choice. 

they had many choices including chocolate, vanilla, red bean and peanut

my mom's red bean wheel: she really enjoyed it, still warm from the display. light and fluffy batter with a center that is not too sweet! 

my nutella (or chocolate...) i dont remember which it was but it was quite good! i loved the actual wheel as it was light and fluffy but had crisp edges. the filling was not as smooth as i had hoped but was just the right amount of sweetness.

4/5 

at a price of 4 for $2.25, these little wheels are a delicious treat especially when eaten warm!

on the other hand, i was not very pleased with the bubble tea. 

matcha...something (~$3-4): i ordered something that was written on a chalkboard and labelled as matcha. i asked for half sweet and it was basically flavourless. it tasted like matcha powder mixed not even with milk...but with water. it was tasteless and i DO NOT recommend this.

1/5

overall: maybe i made a bad choice but peanut's bubble tea was a let down. the wheels were delicious though and i would definitely return for them. 

one heart garden: teppan-yummy noodles

big city perks deal again! :) this time it was only $13 for a meal at one heart garden in richmond. their concept is a lot like bubble waffle cafe or even cattle cafe with pick your own combo noodles but this time, there was a choice for teppanyaki as well! 

make your own teppanyaki: thick noodle, sausage, chicken steak with homemade sauce (originally $7.75) - i was pleasantly surprised at how much i enjoyed this! the sauce was not too salty but flavourful and there were lots of veggies beneath the noodles! they werent stingy with the ingredients and it was delicious! 

4/5

make your own noodle combo: tomato and pumpkin soup, rice noodle, sliced beef (and 1 more ingredient that i do not remember...) (originally $7.75) - this was not as good as the teppanyaki. the soup was a bit sour from the tomato and very thin as well. there were some bits floating (as seen in the picture) but there were still lots of veggies and meat which was good.

2.75/5

the combos also came with a hot drink each while my mom ordered a hot milk tea (normal), i added 2 dollars to get honey green milk tea with grass jelly. it was very filling but good. 

3/5

we also added a bubble waffle order for only $1 and it came nice and hot. crispy but fluffy in the middle, these were some delicious bubble waffle! 

4.5/5 

(ps this deal also came with curry fish balls) 

overall: at only 13 bucks (+3), this lunch was a steal and we had leftovers too. the teppanyaki and bubble waffle were great for their prices but the soup of the noodles left a lot to be desired.

3/5