rice – Elsie Hui

January 4, 2014January 4, 2014

Best Taste Chinese Restaurant – Oakland, California

For the first time ever, I went down to California in 2013 to celebrate Chinese New Years with my husbands family. We had a wonderful time and one of the places that I remembered really well was Best Taste and they’re known for their Clay Pot Rice, so we went there to eat some, along with other things – but those are just minor things!

We had a chicken clay pot, and the rice was cooked into the pot leaving a nice hard crust that my husbands family craves and loves! There’s really nothing like eating rice cooked from a clay pot – and we just do it normally as it’s a pain to clean afterwards. This dish was excellent and my favourite as it had tons of chicken pieces in it, with the delicious rice and soy sauce!

The other clay rice pot we had was basically a Chinese cured meat one, and it’s got a bunch of Chinese sausages in it, with some vegetables. Chinese cured meat is different from anything else, and I’m not sure if it’s an acquired smell/taste, but I know I love it. Some people do find it too greasy – but it works so well with rice! The rice absorbs the grease with the soy sauce and other flavours that it was steamed with! It’s truly a treat and if you haven’t tried it – now is the time!

Overall, I absolutely loved this place! It’s the type of food I love and I guess my aunt-in-law love this stuff too! I’m so happy they brought me here, and I’m sure I’ll request to go back next time I visit them!

Best Taste

814 Franklin St
Oakland, CA
(510) 444-4983

October 27, 2013October 27, 2013

Banana Leaf Tropical Cuisine – Calgary, Alberta

I’m not sure where it came from, but my husband has had a craving for Laksa noodles, so we ventures to the North and ended up at Banana Leaf Tropical Cuisine The location isn’t hard to find, yet it’s at a strange place. It’s at the intersection of 32nd Ave with 32nd Street, in an area where you would think it’s all automobile stuff. But, this means there’s lot of parking!

We got inside and was seated in no time. They were busy, but they managed it really well. We did order some drinks, and I ordered their Honey Lemon Tea which tasted a lot like a lemon iced tea! Go figure! It was decent.

My husband on the other hand ordered their Soy Milk with Grass Jelly and he really liked it. It’s a combo that we never would’ve thought of, but now, I’m sure I can make it at home too!

The actual food here was absolutely amazing! We ordered to share their Seafood Curry Laksa with their yellow noodles as I thought it was more authentic, but who knows. It’s quite a spicy bowl of noodles with tons of flavours. It was quite amazing if you’re into this kind of Malaysian cuisine!

The other dish we ordered to share was their Hainanese Chicken Rice which was also a hit! It had a big mountain of ginger fried rice, a large piece of chicken, with their sauces! It wasn’t spicy like the laksa, but it was quite delicious. A tad on the greasy side, but overall an excellent dish!

Overall, this restaurant was a great stop! The prices were very reasonable, the food was delicious and the portions, well, they were huge! It’s a small shop with just a handful of employees, so be patient, and hopefully they’ll serve you up something amazing too!

Banana Leaf Tropical Cuisine

3330 32 Street Northeast
Calgary, AB
(403) 450-3880

June 24, 2013

Blue Dragon Tomato & Sweet Chilli Cooking Sauce

I haven’t cooked with my Blue Dragon cooking sauces in awhile now, and today I just felt like trying their Tomato and Sweet Chilli Cooking Sauce and I’ve got to say, it ranks really high in taste for me!

I made a simple dinner with this sauce so I first sauteed my onions with the chicken slices, until the chicken is almost completely cooked.

Once the chicken is almost done, I add the sauce, and mix it completely. Then, I add the asparagus (or any kind of vegetable). I just had fresh asparagus from the market, so it’s what I used for this day! 🙂

Now, I just let the entire contraction simmer away in the wok until the asparagus is at tender crisp – and I claim it done! It’s a delicious dish of food with tons of sauce to serve over rice – that’s how I had it!

Overall, I love this sauce and it’s a great balance of the spice and sweetness from the tomato. I’m sure I’ll buy this again as I’m sure it’s going to be great with noodles too!

September 27, 2011March 17, 2019

Bugis Street Brasserie – London, England

This restaurant is located inside the Copthorne Tara Hotel in Kensington, London and this was the hotel we checked into. After a long walk to the hotel from Trafalgar Square, we quickly went downstairs after putting our belongings down and headed to Bugis Street Brasserie.

We got seated and the staff here are extremely friendly. The waitress spoke to us in Cantonese through the duration of our evening at Bugis Street, which was probably practice for her, as I don’t think too many Asians would eat Chinese food while on holidays to London.

The Hainanese Chicken Rice – 海南鸡饭 that we ordered was quite a large portion, with a big bowl of rice, probably more than a quarter of the chicken, and some sauces that came with this order (which is typical) was really pleasing to the eye and the stomach. This dish was the most pleasing for me, as I had a cold during this time – and a bowl of rice always satisfies an Asian’s belly. It wasn’t hot and warming though – like my next dish.

We ordered the Singapore laksa 辣沙 which is a spicy noodle soup that really originated more from Malaysia in my opinion, even though it`s called Singapore Laska… but it does have a Chinese name – which always always fun to think about the Asian dishes and their names (“laksa” meaning “spicy sand” in Chinese, and this is from the sandy or gritty texture in the sauce from the ground dried prawns). Anyway, enough with my tangent, this belly warming noodle soup was full of intense Asian flavours such as lemon grass and ginger. A hot and spicy bowl of soup right before bedtime makes for a restful sleep. This dish wasn’t so spicy that you’d need to use the washroom during the entire evening, which was wonderful! This bowl of Laksa wasn’t authentic to me, but it was a very tasty bowl of noodle soup!

Finally, we ordered something much more Chinese which was Fried noodles with shredded chicken 杂菜炒面 and the noodles in this dish was really thin and delicate… which meant a lot of short pieces, but the flavour was plentiful, and the chicken slices was generous in portion sizes and slices.

Overall, I really enjoyed this stop for dinner #2 of the evening at Bugis Street Brasserie, after a long hike from dinner #1. It was extremely satisfying to the tummy, the body and the mind! It was a wonderful way to wind down the evening as everything was so pleasing and satisfying.

Bugis Street Brasserie

Copthorne Tara Hotel London Kensington
Scarsdale Place
Kensington
London
W8 5SR
United Kingdom
44 (0) 20 7937 7211

April 30, 2011March 15, 2019

Tang Toasted Subs & Grill – Calgary, Alberta

This morning, I woke up really wanting a good Vietnamese submarine. I didn’t want to go all the way to my favorite place in Chinatown, so I decided to give Tang Toasted Subs & Grill a try.

It wasn’t as I hoped for… as my expectations were really high — however, the sub was flavorful with it’s sauce from the chicken. I had the Satay Chicken, and my husband had the Mega Sub (Sate Chicken and Beef). I think the actual sub bun wasn’t as fresh or something. Usually when you toast bread, it’s got a distinctive taste and smell, which these subs seems to be lacking. The carrots weren’t actually pickled, or it was just really lightly done… or the carrot sticks were too large. You couldn’t taste the “pickled” part of it, which usually adds to the taste of a Vietnamese Sub.

We did see a lot of their customers eating the rice bowls, which really was just vermicelli bowls, and they looked like they were enjoying themselves! I guess if I was in that area, I would go in to give it a try too! 🙂

Regardless, it’s a great place for a quick cure! And, a place I will return to try other selections which I didn’t get to this time.

We were going to get drinks, as both of us love bubble tea — however, they do not use fresh fruits, as you can see the powders they use. Neither of us are fans of powder bubble tea, so we opted out this time. They called these drinks smoothies at Tang.

Tang Restaurant: Toasted Subs & Grill

909 33 Heritage Meadows Way SE
Calgary, AB T2H
(403) 258-1808