Ethnic Eats » Taiwanese

Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants

degan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 22:52:37 +0000

So I’ve dedicded to start a new project for dining in 2010. The tagline of this site is “Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver” and so instead of of traipsing around Vancouver’s culinary delights in the random way I have been for the last (almost) 2 years, I am going to present my finds country by country.

I still have a bit of a backlog of reviews, so I may post those interspersed with the project and if I feel really keen, I may even post some recipes.

First stop on the grand tour: North America. Got any favorites you’d like to recommend?

Bubble Tea Quest Stops at Sammi’s

degan — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:35:08 +0000

Isn’t it always the case that you want what you can’t have? I haven’t gone to our company Christmas party for the last 4 years, but now that we’re not having one, I totally want to go. Similarly, I go to Dragon Ball Tea House somewhat regularly, but now that it’s closed for a MONTH, I want to go for bubble tea every day. Or maybe it’s just that the need is compounding.

So I’ll review my favorite bubble tea place later. Luckily there is still some bubble tea around to satisfy my craving, Sammi’s Bubble Tea in Tinseltown Mall manages to fill the void admirably.

Bubble tea is an interesting thing to explain to anyone who hasn’t tried it. A milky/juicy drink with tapioca balls/jelly or slush that comes in flavours from wheat to watermelon and that you have to drink with giant straws? Yeah, that’s weird. It is also delicious and the first summer I ever had one I tried to make my way through a huge menu of strange brews. I never made it to the end, but the fierce affection hasn’t abated either.

I’m generally not a fan of the really sweet ones, so Tofu pudding with pearls (always with pearls for me, even though I often come close to choking on them) is a favorite, as well as lychee, but I’ve had the papaya as well. The powder-based ones tend to be much sweeter than real fruit, so go with those if you prefer a less sweet drink. Most are only $3.75 which is quite reasonable for the size you get. It easily lasts me all the way back to Yaletown, even with my addiction.

The shop is in a food court and it feels like a food court. Actually, it feels like the kids’ ball room in a food court, with all the bright colours and cartoony lettering, but there’s nothing to do about it other than get your bubble tea and go.

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Sammi’s Bubble Tea
88 West Pender, Vancouver (in Tinseltown mall)

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Dragon Ball Bubble Tea House – will be open in December
1007 W King Edward, Vancouver

Foraging at the Richmond Summer Night Market

degan — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:32:28 +0000

It took me a while to get to the Richmond Summer Night Market this year. They almost didn’t secure the space for the market, then the food section started off a bit stunted due to water problems and then well, then my weekends just seemed suddenly full. But I finally made it there this weekend for one of my favorite kinds of moveable feasts; the kind where you are the one wandering through the crowds and stands, searching out new delicacies and old favorites until you’re quite full.

We started off with the basics, Har gow and Siu Mai ($3) with a Quail Egg wrapped in bacon for good measure. Then some Sticky Rice wraps with Chicken ($3):

Mixed up the palate a little with some Nutella, Custard and Red Bean Car wheel cakes, apparently from Taiwan ($1 each):

Personally I thought the red bean paste was by far the best (the others were too sweet), but predictably, they were the ones that no one seemed to want. Nutella was in high demand:

Then some deliciously juicy Beef and Spicy Lamb skewers (6 for $10):

The BBQ Squid (below) is defiinitely a favorite of mine, but this time we tried the flattened whole squid instead. It was tasty, but rather on the chewy side, almost like squid jerky.

Then finished it off with some Dragon’s Beard Candy and bubble tea before rolling ourselves back to the car.

The dragon’s beard candy is pulled sugar dusted with glutinous flour and wrapped around chopped peanuts. The texture is not unlike cotton candy. They had quite the assembly line going here, with the old man pulling sugar, the middle woman wrapping the nuts and the last woman boxing it all up, but it was very popular and we ended up waiting quite a while. By the time we got the candy I was done my (disgusting) bubble tea and were definitely ready to leave.

I didn’t have room for takoyaki (the non-octo variety), the fish-shaped waffles filled with red bean paste (top), spicy curry fish balls or custard. And I need to go back to the better bubble tea place that was out of pearls this time around.

Good thing that I can probably make it happen since it doesn’t shut down until October 5th. Yay!

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Richmond Summer Night Market

12631 Vulcan Way, Richmond