The post Merry Christmas 2019 appeared first on chowtimes.com.

The bistro is decorated from wall to wall with paintings, old photos, food photos and batik.

Their cutlery has the retro cock painting which was very popular long time ago.

Prawn crackers is served as appetizer.

While waiting for our food to arrive, some of us has some white wine brought by our boss. I did not try but those who had it claimed it was a good white wine.

Here are the dishes that we had. The above is Sambal Clam as a starter.

Penang Shrimp Roll.

Vegetable Spring Roll for our vegetarian colleague.

Sambal Bee Hoon, my boss favourite.

Beef Rendang, the sauce is great with steamed rice. A little accident happened in the middle of our dining as someone knocked down his wine glass as the table is too small with all the dishes and the broken glass fell into the above half eaten dish. The restaurant is courteous enough to replace the dish.

Assam Fish; the fish is fried to crispy on the outside and the tanginess is quite appetizing and great with steamed rice.

Sambal Jumbo Prawn.

Sambal Fried Wing Beans. A number of my colleagues have not tried wing bean before and they quite like it.

A vegetable curry served in claypot for my vegetarian colleague.

The highlight of the dinner is the above chicken dish. The roasted chicken was roasted whole, with head and tail standing up.

The standing roasted chicken is presented at the table with a song. Click on the video for the song. That song can be heard several times during our meal as the chicken was brought to a number of tables. The tune somehow stuck to some of our heads.

After the song played for a few minutes, the server took the chicken back to the kitchen. Then the first course of the chicken dish was served. It was chicken slices served on a lettuce with some chili and a brownish sauce with crushed peanuts. We were asked if we have peanut allergy prior the above being prepared.

One of my colleague was curious to what happen to the rest of the chicken after the chicken wrap was served. Then, later the rest of the chicken was cut up and served, with the chicken head too.

A complementary dessert is served at the end of our meal. It was “kueh talam” (coconut tray cake) made with rice flour and coconut milk.

After the dinner, we played a game of Kris Kringle gift exchange. Each one of us brought a gift of minimum $25 value. The wrapped gifts were placed on the table. Each of us picked a number. The person with the lowest number will start first. He/She will pick her gift from the pool. He/she will have to open the gift for everyone to see. Then the next person will have a choice to steal the gift from those open gifts or pick one un-open gift from the pool. A gift can only be stolen once. The person whose gift is stolen will have a chance to steal from another of pick a new gift from the pool. If the first person’s gift is not stolen from him/her, he/she will have a chance to steal from another person as the first person did not have the chance to steal. It was a fun game. Thank you boss for a wonderful Christmas dinner.

The post Christmas Dinner at Penang Bistro on Fraser St., Vancouver appeared first on chowtimes.com.

Below are some fall photos that Ben and I took before then end of a beautiful season. Hope you will enjoy them too.

Fall is such a colourful season. It is a last showdown of all shades of warm colour before going into dormant in winter.

The post Fall Scenes 2019 appeared first on chowtimes.com.

The above is the entrance to the Lighthouse Park; one of the National Historic Site of Canada. It was a busy day and the parking lot was almost full. The weather was just perfect, lightly cloudy and not too sunny.

We found a picnic area with a couple of picnic tables with a great view of the Burrard Inlet, looking across Vancouver and the Lions Gate Bridge. Ben in-charged of getting bahn-mi from Bahn Mi Saigon. The price has gone up from $5 to $5.50. The buy 10 get 1 free is still valid.

After our late lunch, we walked down to the rocky area next to the water.

Most of the members of our party climbed up the rocks to enjoy the view. The younger kids have no fear, running up and down the rocks.

Then, we made our way to the Point Atkinson Lighthouse.

The lighthouse is not accessible; only view from the gate. I love the effects of the clouds of the photo of the lighthouse.

There is a small patch of garden near the lighthouse.

A single pumpkin, ready for Thanksgiving.

Some dark purple tomatoes.

Wild black berries bushes.

As we walked back to the car park via one of the trails, we came upon some old growth trees.

After the hike, we decided to have dinner at Amay’s House Burmese and Asian Cuisine on Victoria Dr., Vancouver as most of the kitchens of the families will be closed for the day.

I had the Char Kway Teow, which is stir fry flat rice noodle, flavoured with mixed soy sauce, chili belachan; It has beansprouts, prawn, egg, Chinese sausage and Chinese chives (more like green onions). It tasted like Malaysian Penang Char Kway Teow with the Vietnamese/Thai style rice noodle, a thinner version.

Ben had the Pork Belly Curry which is marinated pork belly slow cooked with traditional spices. Some of the pork belly was really fatty.

The pork belly curry is served with a serving of steamed rice.

The above was ordered by a neighbouring friend; some kind of dry Burmese noodle.

It was a fun day of outing with friends. We enjoyed it so much that we will do it again next summer.

The post A light hike at Lighthouse Park at West Vancouver appeared first on chowtimes.com.

We arrive at the food court just after 11:00 am. It is just perfect timing before the rush lunch hour. Getting a seat is a problem at all at this time.

We decided to try the Master Jia Braised Food instead of our favourite spicy noodle from Chao Shou Wang.

Ben got the Spicy Pork Feet to share. I think it is $12. There is generous portion of pork which has a hint of spiciness. The item beside the pork is tofu puff.

It came with a daily soup with daikon and carrot.

There is even two slices of oranges to end the meal.

We supplemented our lunch with a bowl of savoury tofu pudding bought from Healthy Soyfoods from the market place downstairs, another of our favourite food at Crystal Mall.

Our lunch came to $14 cash. Great value for money.

The post Master Jia Braised Food at Crystal Mall Foodcourt, Burnaby appeared first on chowtimes.com.

We had the farewell dinner at Trattoria Italian Kitchen, across Metrotown in Burnaby. It was recommended by one of our colleague who recently dined there with some of her friends visiting Vancouver.

Trattoria Italian Kitchen is known for it’s house pasta and pizza. In the photo above, you can see the pizza oven which is located near the entrance.

Complementary sourdough bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip.

Some of us ordered some virgin cocktails for our drink. The above was some green tea with mint ordered by colleague.

I had something with grapefruit or pomegranate. It is refreshing with mint in it.

I shared a pasta platter with another colleague so that we can sample a variety of pastas. In the platter are Spaghetti and Signature Meatballs, Rigatoni Bolognese, Crab and Lobster Ravioli and Fusili Lunghi (I think). I’m not sure about the pasta used in the Fusili Lunghi as it is a long curly strand, with a good chewy texture. I like this pasta for the texture and the creaminess of it. The Crab and Lobster Ravioli is very good too.

Our vegetarian colleague ordered the Bruschetta antipasti which include tomato bruscetta, chickpea spread, Macedonian feta, marinated olives and forno bread.

She also ordered a side of Fingerling Potatoes with rosemary, garlic and lemon.

Another two colleagues who also ordered the pasta platter to share, ordered a Beet Salad to share too. The Beet Salad is made with roasted beets, arugula, Valencia almonds, Macedonia feta and sweet mustard vinaigrette.

Another colleague ordered Lamb Chops as she was very hungry. The lamb chops are served with creamy Parmesan polenta, seasonal vegetables and salsa verde.

My colleague who ordered the lamb chops also ordered a side of forno bread after sampling a slice from the colleague who ordered the Bruschetta antipasti. She likes the crispiness of the bread.

After dinner, we just ordered a slice of Tiramisu to share as we were all full.

There were some leftover pastas to go.

We sincerely wished our leaving colleague to have a great summer and all the best in her future undertakings. You will be dearly missed.

Thank you boss for buying the farewell dinner.

The post Farewell Dinner at Trattoria Italian Kitchen, Burnaby appeared first on chowtimes.com.

My boss bought me and my colleague dinner after work on a week day. Thank you, boss.

We had dinner at Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St. It serve Filipino Chinese cuisine. The place was busy at dinner time. Reservation is advised.

We had the Bihon Pancit. My boss asked for less salt and less oil as she is very health conscious. Despite less oil and salt, it was still pretty good.

My colleague ordered the Pusit Sisig; her favourite dish. She ordered this dish every time she visits Pinpin. Pusit Sisig is diced spicy squid served on a hot plate. It is slightly tangy and it goes well with steamed rice.

We also ordered a vegetable dish to have a complete meal. We had Sitaw at Kalabasa sa Gata which is string beans and squash in coconut milk. The squash was very creamy and melt in your melt. The curry sauce is also good with steamed rice.

After dinner, my boss also got us some cassava cake to take home, She loves cassava cake and she wants to some home for Ben. How thoughtful. I will make her some Malaysian style cassava cake to try one day.

The post Pinpin Restaurant on Fraser St., Vancouver appeared first on chowtimes.com.

Ben suggested a couple of places for Nanzaro to choose and he picked Shine Valley Lamb Soup.

The decoration is very traditional with wooden tables and benches. The benches were a bit hard on the bum.

Chinese tea is served.

We had some grilled lamb as appetizer. Six skewers for CAD9.

We ordered the large lamb soup to share. The soup came with vermicelli, suey choy and thin slices of lamb. I think you can have the option to have the suey choy or not. All of us enjoyed it.

The soup came with two complimentary pancakes. We had a five spiced and a red bean to try.

The pancake is flaky and a bit dry.

The lamb with green onion is the boys’ favourite.

We intended to order a green bean dish but somehow Ben ticked the wrong box and we got the above instead. It is candied floss sweet potato. It turned out pretty good.

The server told us to dip the candied sweet potato into a bowl of cold water before eating it. The cold water makes the sugar coating more crunchy when we bite into it.

Credit card is accepted here for order above $50, otherwise cash only.

Some discount for big spender; I think only applicable for the next visit.

Restaurant business hour.

The post Shine Valley Lamb Soup on Garden City Road, Richmond appeared first on chowtimes.com.

So, we had dinner at a nearby restaurant, Cafe Xu Hue.

It was past 6:30pm and the place was quiet as it is close to their closing time.

Ben ordered their famous Bun Bo Hue Dac Biet whch is spicy Vietnamese Vermicelli with sliced pork and beef, pork congealed blood in soup.

I cant recall what I ordered but the noodle was unique. It’s thick and slightly translucent and chewy. I like the texture of the noodle.

The complements for our noodles were fresh even it’s the end of the business day.

The menu is small which is good. You wont have a dilemma in picking a dish.

Cafe Xu Hue accepts cash only.

The post Cafe Xu Hue on Kingsway, Vancouver appeared first on chowtimes.com.

Paulik Gardens Neighbourhood Park was known as Lulu, a Memory Garden.

This park is about people’s experiences of gardens. It has a wide variety of flowers which are in bloom in spring. I totally enjoy taking photos of the flowers for your enjoyment.

I hope you enjoy the garden as much as I do. At the end of our walk, I remembered long time ago, a friend did bring me to this park to pick blueberries. Since then, I heard that blueberries picking is not allowed any more.

The post Paulik Gardens Neighbourhood Park, a secret oasis in Richmond appeared first on chowtimes.com.