Jan-chan’s Tidbits

Earlier this month on our anniversary Al took me to the C Restaurant. I’ve always wanted to go there because I heard they have very good seafood. The weather was perfect for dining outdoor, so we ordered a couple of drinks and enjoyed the beautiful view of Grandville Island and the sunset while waiting for our food.

For appetizer, I ordered the scallop tataki. I love scallop and whenever it’s on the menu I usually order it. This is probably one of the most interesting scallop dishes I’ve ever had. The jelly fish and the seaweed along with the thinnly sliced scallop really brought the taste of the ocean to my tastebuds.

Scallop Tataki

Al ordered the lobster bisque. It was very rich but slightly on the salty side.

Lobster Bisque

I ordered a scallop dish for main course too. The potato crusted scallops which came with root veggies and spot prawn were really tasty. I really liked the turnip and the scallops were cooked just right. (Sorry photo is a bit dark as the sun was hiding behind the bridge while I was taking the photo.)

Potato Crusted Scallops

I don’t remember what was the fish that Al had but it was very yummy.

Some fish dish [sorry forgot the name...

For dessert we shared the roasted apples and flower. I picked it because it sounded interested and it was very good. The floral flavored cream filled cookies were actually very light and I love the presentation.

Roasted Apple and Flower

I had a great time dining at C Restaurant. There were also two tasters and some interesting bread served at the beginning of the meal. Here are some more photos.

Oh look! It's spork!

This last photo is an inside joke. Please ignore my silliness.

Last month I treated the twins and their family to a dinner at Zakkushi Restaurant to thank them for take care of me for three weeks during my move to the new place. Usually for Japanese charcoal grill dinners I’d go to Manzo in Richmond but I heard of this place from a friend and since they have a location on Main Street which is nice and close we decided to give it a try.

We ordered a few mixed grill platter which I forgot to take pictures of because they started eating before I can snap a shot with my camera, but I did managed to take these:

Kikizake - a sampler of 3 types of sake. I liked the middle one the most.

Appetizer Sashimi Mori

Tuna Tataki

Pirikara Nikomi - spicy beef stew hot pot

Bukkake Soba - cold soba noodles

Dorayaki Matcha Ice Cream

I find the food pretty good but personally I prefer Manzo’s a bit more. My favourite dish (aside from dessert) is their Mochi Maki – grilled sticky rice wrapped in sliced porked. It’s mochi on a stick, very sticky but very yummy especially since it soaked up all flavoring from the pork. The interior decor is very moder and a great place for drinks especially if you like sake.

Before I end this post I want to post some pictures of Zakkushi’s washroom. It’s one of the nicest and most unique washroom I’ve seen yet. Just look at the photos and you’ll know what I mean:

Zakkushi's washroom - there is a little waterfall along the corner of the wall (can't quite see it here) and um...something to read if you require extra time in the washroom

The water comes out of the bamboo so you can wash your hands...in style? @.@

The red handles is where you turn the water on/off for the sink. I didn't even notice them at first and was wondering how to turn the water on...

When we found out the there is live jazz during brunch at Nu Restaurant, WuWu and I had to go for a visit.

I’ve been to Nu for dinner a few times so I was expecting some great food for brunch. To start off they had offered us a little treat of hot chocolate and lemon scone. There we 6 of us so we got to sample a number of different dishes on the menu. I ordered the Brunch Table d’hôte which includes a fresh fruit salad with mint syrup, choice of omelette, and a drink (mimosa, ceasar or orange juice). I chose the brie and black truffle omelette. It was so yummy. The flavour of the cheese and mushroom worked very well together.

Here are some pictures of the food:

Hot chocolate and lemon scone.

Brie + black truffle omelette.

Dungeness crab benedict

Warm chicken + brie on focaccia

The restaurant had a few large groups so it was a bit loud but you could still make out the music by Melody Daichun in the background. I had never dine at a restaurant with live music before and had enjoyed this experience a lot.

Hope you guys enjoyed (looking at) the food as much as I did.

For the past month Al and I have been attending classes on Saturdays to learn how to make interesting crafts out of clay. Our first project is a Chinese donut and soy milk stand (found in places like Hong Kong and China). Each week we’d learn how to make individual items for the stand and last Saturday we finally finished everything and assembled it all together. Here are some pictures of our finished project:

Almost everything in this project were made by ourselves using clay and paper (for the bags). We both had a lot of fun learning how to make it and were so happy to be able to finish our first project. I’ve taken pictures of Al’s and mine. You can see more photos from my Picasa Albums.

A little note on the course. I first found out about it during Chinese New Year in 2008. The instructor had a booth at Aberdeen Centre during the New Year Festivals. When I saw them again this year I decided to take the course because I want to learn how they make such detailed food stands and flowers. Al and I will be starting our next course in the coming week. I’ll post pictures of project 2 once it’s finished.

The menu cover.

To celebrate a pair of birthdays we went to A Kettle of Fish for dinner. Its our first time there and I heard from several people that the food there is pretty good. They had a special three course menu that night but since I’m more of a shellfish person I got jumbo prawns for mains with pulled pork as my appetizer.

Kurobuta Pulled Pork Rillettes

Wild Jumbo Prawn Pappardelle

Before the start of our meals they offered us a little treat. It was a shrimp ravioli in shrimp broth. It was so good that we were tempted to ask if it could be our main dish. Here are more pictures of the food. I ordered cheesecake since I haven’t had any in ages.