Vancouver Part 1~ Snacks & Fast Eats!

This past weekend I was in Vancouver with my family and relatives for my cousin's wedding. Super excited to be back in Vancouver. The last time I was there was at least over 10 years ago... I get to see all my relatives PLUS the Chinese food is spectacular!

This will be a 3 part post. There's wayyy too much food to fit into one. All we did was eat! (What else is new... hahaha)

Snacks and Fast Eats:

Pearl Castle
3779 Sexsmith Rd, Ste 1128
Richmond, BC V6X 3Z9
(604) 270-3939

We went there the last time we visited Vancouver. It was still very brand new at the time. Now it's become a popular bubble tea and Taiwanese food destinations for many people. It was still as good as I remembered from 10 years ago!

Fluffy Cream Thick Toast (with toasted almond slices on top) $3.50~ I LOVE THICK TOAST. I dream about this stuff... Something about the fluffy toast with different spreads on top. Asian breads are so awesome. This did not disappoint! Fabulous!

Bubble Tea (milk tea with tapioca balls). Very authentic. Reminds me of Taiwan.

Green Tea Latte. This was awesome. Even better than the milk tea. I wish I had time to go back and get another.

Beef Noodle Soup. Nice thick noodles. Good flavor. Better than anything we can get here in Dallas...

Spicy Fried Rice. Eh... not the greatest.

Fried Pork Chop. Taiwanese style...one of my favorite foods of all time. The flavors were pretty good.

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Chicco Japanese Dessert Cafe
1504 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
(604) 633-1286

One of my cousins found this place and told us about it. He said they had epic parfaits. Sounds interesting...had to check it out. Super cute and small place. They had pictures on the walls... everything looked awesome. And their cakes and ice cream displays just made me drool. haha. Really pricey tho. Definitely need to experience but probably can't frequent often. haha.

Black Sesame Parfait (black sesame and vanilla gelato, green tea macaron, red bean, green tea jelly, sponge cake, rice cake, green tea sable, green tea stick, cornflakes and whipped cream) $7.75~

The black sesame ice cream was freaking amazing. It was a pretty epic parfait. The top half was the better half. I would've preferred them layer some of the cream thoughout. By the time we reach the bottom, it was pretty dry... And don't knock the cornflakes. Simple but genius. Added the crunch texture and nuttiness. The macaron was no good tho. Everything else was yummy. The ice cream and mochi in particular.

Green Tea Parfait (green tea and vanilla gelato, green tea mousse cake, green tea jelly, sponge cake, rice cake, green tea stick, cornflakes and whipped cream) $7.75~ Also pretty awesome.

Mango Strawberry Parfait $7.75~ I can't eat mango so I didn't get to try, but all my cousins said the mango ice cream was spectacular.

Green Tea Cake $4.75~ SUPER cute!!!! Not as epic as the parfaits but still good.

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Thierry 1059 Alberni Street
Vancouver, BC V6Z 2V6, Canada
(604) 608-6870
www.thierrychocolates.com

I met up with a friend of mine that I haven't seen in over 5 years. He drove up from Seattle. He totally recommended this place. So we went right after parfaits! hahaha. The cakes and chocolates and pastries looked amazing. Of course we had to try some.

Chocolate Trio Cake (white, milk, dark chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge) $5.75~ The best pick of the bunch. Perfect textures on the mousse. Super velvety, rich, decadent but yet still light.

Tiramisu Cake (mascarpone sabayon, coffee/kahlua soak). Fluffy cream, really light. The dark chocolate squares around the sides were not too sweet and paired really well with the cake.

Raspberry Tart (almond crust, lime, local raspberries) $4.75~ Fresh, but super tart. I had difficulty eating this one. I don't like too sour.

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Kim Wonton Mein Saga
8788 McKim Way, #1180
Richmond, BC V6X4E2
(604) 270-6632

This is a Cantonese style noodle shop. The name is kinda funny haha. But totally legit. The flavors are all authentic.

Braised Beef Brisket/Tendon/Wonton Noodle Soup $5.95~ Yummy!

Thousand Year Egg and Shredded Pork Congee $4.85~ This was my favorite. It had really good flavor. So comforting on a cold day.

Sauteed Water Spinach $13.95~ Super expensive, but then again they gave us triple the normal portion at other restaurants. haha.

Singaporean Rice Noodles. Slightly different flavors than I'm used to but still good.

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Motomachi Shokudo
740 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 2L5, Canada
(604) 609-0310

My cousins wanted to take us to Kintaro Ramen but there was a long line and it was really cold out. So we went half a block down to Motomachi. It was also supposed to be really good. Cute decor. Very small and crammed...but it provides the appropriate ramen eating atmosphere. hehe.

Spicy Miso Ramen with Organic Chicken (chicken, cabbage, lotus roots, carrot, bean sprouts, spinach, chinese chive, onion, snow peas, bamboo shoots, angel-haired Japanese leek, green onion, corn, olive oil, sesame oil, chili sauce) $9.65~ This wasn't really spicy. It had a lot of veggies though, which I liked. But the massive amount of veggies overwhelmed the noodles. The chicken was pretty good but there's not very much of it. It was aight...

Bamboo-Charcoal Dark Miso Ramen (angel-haired Japanese leek, bamboo shoots, soft-boiled local organic egg, green onion, BBQ pork, thinly sliced chili pepper, white pepper, seasonal green vegetable, chili pepper powder) $9.75~ The broth had a lot of flavor. Quite salty though.. Actually all of them were very salty. I felt the need to drink a lot of water after the meal. The pork was nice and tender and fatty. And the eggs were cooked well.

Nama-Shoyu Ramen $8.95~ Pretty standard shoyu ramen.

Butchigirin Gyoza $3.75~ Tasted like Chinese potstickers. haha. But it had a good crisp on the skin.

The food was ok. Not the best ramen I've had for sure, but wasn't terrible. Maybe we should've waited in line at Kintaro...

~~ CHOMP CHOMP ~~