Tag Archives: lunch

Acme Café

June 22, 2012 – 9:22 pm

My cousin introduced me to this restaurant a while ago. She recommended that I “have to” try their pies. Of course, as an enthusiastic baker, it automatically went on my list of restaurants to go to. She also has her own list of Gastown restaurants to try as Gastown is a pretty vibrant foodie place. We decided to come here for lunch on a weekday, she also advised me to go after the lunch rush hour to avoid a long wait, so we arrived at around 2:30 pm.

The interior has a vintage feel to it, like a diner. The branding is quite consistent throughout the restaurant with a hipster touch.

Even the typeface of the menu was vintage! The menu offers a variety of comfort food such as grilled cheese, mac and cheese, breakfast, and goodies like pies and cookies.

Turkey Sandwich with Daily Soup — $12

A cup of soup, broccoli almond slaw, or potato soup. I had their soup of the day, which was a spiced peanut and pinto bean soup. I liked the grainy mustard from the sandwhich, it was a great compliment for the turkey. The meat wasn’t very dry and the cheese melted nicely. The arugula also added a nice peppery flavour. The sandwich was grilled and served warm and I enjoyed its crispy outer texture. I also liked the cranberry sauce, a classic combination with turkey. The soup had a nice peanut flavour, I have never had soups with peanuts before, except in Chinese cuisine. The beans had a good texture, and the flavour was a little sweet.

Daily Quiche with Salad and Soup — $10.25

My cousin had the daily quiche (with salami), which includes a side of salad and a cup of soup. It was the same soup that I had with my sandwich. The quiche was quite tasty, the crust was very flaky and the custard was very rich and creamy. The salami had a nice salty flavour, which worked well with the custard. The quiche was rich, so the salad did the job of cutting a bit of the greasiness.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Since my cousin desperately wanted to try the lemon meringue pie, we ordered a piece to share. It seems be a popular pie at the restaurant. We asked the server if they had it, and the pie was cooled down just in time to serve. I think it was a good pie to end the meal, it was sweet and fluffy on the top, sour on the bottom, the flavours were well balanced and wasn’t too rich.

We enjoyed our visit, the food was good, the environment was laid back and relaxing. I can’t wait to try their other baked goods.

Conclusion:

Ambience: 3/5
Food: 3.5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Value: 3.5/5

Tags Gastown, lunch, restaurant, review, Vancouver, yummy workshop | Permalink | Comment (1)

Freestyle Recipes Soup

Easy Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

May 16, 2012 – 2:45 pm

Besides baking, I also love making soups because they are super easy to make and of course they taste much better than their canned counterparts. For me, there is really no reason to buy canned soups when it is so simple to make and it is much healthier. Unless of course if you are taking it to camping. In this recipe, I have used my home canned tomatoes, in which the recipe can be found here. But you can always use store-bought, it would taste just as good. I have also used pearl barley, which needs to be cooked before adding it into the soup. Alternatively, you can also add quick-cooking barley directly into the soup and simmer for a short time until it is tender.

Easy Vegetable Beef Barley Soup

Ingredients

1–2 tbsp. Vegetable Oil
1 lb. Stewing Beef, cubed
4 stalks of Celery, diced
1 medium Carrot, diced
2 medium Onions, diced
1 cup Pearl Barley
500 mL Canned Tomatoes
4 cups Hot Water
2 Beef Bouillon Cubes
2 Bay Leaves
2–4 sprigs of fresh Thyme

Method

Cook barley if you are using pearl barley — I cooked 1 cup of pearl barley in 2 cups of water in my rice cooker.
Dice all the vegetables to bite size.

Heat oil in a large heavy pot or dutch oven on high heat. Sautee stewing beef until browned on all sides — this will give the soup more flavour.
Add diced vegetables and sautee for about 3–4 more minutes.

Pour in the hot water, canned tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and beef bouillon.
Bring the soup to a boil and reduce heat and simmer until the beef is tender.

Add cooked pearl barley and cook for 5–10 minutes.
Remove bay leaves, and thyme sprigs.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Optional: Garnish with chopped parsley.

http://yummyworkshop.com/2012/05/16/easy-vegetable-beef-barley-soup/

www.yummyworkshop.com

This flavourful soup makes a great lunch or dinner companion. I love the chewy texture that is left in the cooked barley and the earthy aroma of the thyme. I’ve used good quality, organic beef bouillon cubes but of course beef stock or vegetable stock will also work well in the recipe.

Tags easy, lunch, recipe, Soup, yummy workshop | Permalink | Comments (4)

Eat Out Restaurant Review

Shanghai Morning Restaurant

March 14, 2012 – 5:13 pm

Interior

I am writing another restaurant located at the Alexander Road, otherwise known as the “Food Street” of Richmond. Shanghai food is another one of my favourite Chinese foods of all times, I like it because it is mild tasting (although Cantonese dishes are even more mild) and it can be found in many places in Richmond! Shanghai Morning Restaurant serves Shanghai style Chinese food, as we entered the restaurant, I instantly saw a familiar face. It turns out that the owner is actually the old owner of Chen’s Shanghai Kitchen located at No. 3 and Buswell. My family and I frequently visited Chen’s so we chatted a little. The owner lady told us that she sold Chen’s and went back to Shanghai for some time and now back in business in Richmond as Shanghai Morning. The restaurant used to be Twinkle Bubble Tea, although I’ve never been to Twinkle, it seems like the new owner hasn’t changed much in the interior of the restaurant.

Self-serve menu sheet

Menu looks almost exactly like Chen’s.

Beef Roll — $4.75

This is one of my favourite dishes, the flour wrapper was tender and warm. There was also enough flavourful beef with the Hoi Sin sauce and cucumbers. It would have been even better if there was more browning and crust on the wrapper though.

Pan Fried Pork Buns — $4.95

Almost all Shanghai Chinese restaurants serve this dish with the bun usually soft and fluffy, but their style is sort of one-of-a-kind as they have a very crunchy crust on the bottom and a chewy exterior — just like Chen’s signature pan fried buns. You can burn your tongue so easily when eating this because there is so much hot juices inside so I usually wait until the heat manageable for me to eat.

“Tan Tan” Noodles — $6.25

“Tan Tan” noodles is originally a Sichuan dish, famous for their spiciness and bold flavours. It always has peanuts in it, which is why the broth is so tasty. Some restaurants, though, don’t even serve it in a broth and there is about a million styles of this noodle dish. In all the versions that I have had, it doesn’t contain any meats. The noodles here were cooked to the right texture and the broth was also rich and delicious. However, it was a bit too hot for me, as you can see from the orange colour of the broth. Otherwise, it was tasty.

Spring Rolls with Red Bean Filling — $4.25

Yes, sweet spring rolls. They were quite crispy and had a nice and warm red bean filling. Filling is probably housemade because of the texture and the added aged mandarin peel flavour. I am a fan of red beans so I enjoyed it.