One night. Wanted to try something healthier and lighter. Thought about this “Omega 3″ restaurant near Kennedy and Hwy7. (What a weird name for a restaurant - sounds like I’m eating vitamin supplements.) Got there around dinner time. The restaurant was at this Chinese plaza, facing Kennedy Rd. Went into this place at a cold cold night. The wallpaper looks like an aquarium. The tables were quite far apart. Looked like something was missing. Yes, there’s no separator (e.g. plants, glass dividers, etc.) in the restaurant. Sometimes I’m quite amazed how human perceives space, design and concepts… I guess we are all “preloaded” with ideas and concepts. When something doesn’t fall into the norm, it just doesn’t look right.

Anyhow, I wasn’t very hungry that night. The menu was very simple. There weren’t a lot of items to choose from. The price range was great. Besides the vermicelli/soup rice, they offer a few side dishes/desserts (on the 1st picture).

We ordered two bowl of vermicelli. One was “Fresh fish, cuttle fish and chicken balls”, the other one was with the “Sliced sea snail and sliced beef”. Tried a piece of the sea snail. Wasn’t impressed. However, the portion was overall large. We kinda regretted that we ordered two bowls - but it would look a bit strange if we are sharing 1 bowl though… The soup was good. Saw they put “no MSG” on the board. I would say the food did taste a bit bland.

We also ordered the grilled fish. Lots of small bones. Was ok.

Second time. I went there with my mother. She ordered the same thing that I had before (3 types of fish/meal balls) but with the addition of “sliced sea snail”. With this additional ingredient - price went up by $1.60. Feel kinda fun to do this - counting the dollars and cents - which I normally don’t do and hate to do. But I feel like an accountant or a business analyst somehow. Was the marginal utility that I got from the “sliced sea snail” able to justify the additional cost of $1.60? The answer was… No. The taste of the sea snail wasn’t that great. Not sure if that’s because they’ve boiled the snail for a long time.

I ordered the rice with soup. I like that they use wild rice - which is still a bit chewy even after being soaked with soup. However, this time, we both find the taste was stronger (and quite salty). Quite different from my first experience (again, inconsistency in the quality of food). The service was really slow. One lady looking after all the tables. She forgot to give us tea, the vermicelli came w/o the sea snail, and took a long time to get us the bill. Don’t get me wrong - the lady was polite, but restaurant didn’t have a good flow/allocation of staff.

I would say it’s probably worth trying it once (for the fish soup and the healthy part of it), but I don’t think you’d like to go back.

FYI: Omega 3 魚湯米線
Unit A05-8362 Kennedy Rd, Markham, ON. L3R 9W5
Tel: 905-940-1688

Food Journal (fragments in Nov) - 1

November is the most uneventful month of the year. In this month you also get the least sunlight. In addition to the calories from food, I also run on solar energy. i.e. I’m more energetic when there’s sunlight. All these account for the reason why I haven’t been actively blogging in the past 30 days. I know there’s THE Remembrance Day, and one of my friends gave birth to a baby boy, which really added some color to this November. There’s the US Thanksgiving - but this year I didn’t go to the States.

Tried serveral places this month, and would like to share with you. A few of these places were trialed more than once. I think that way the feedback would be more fair.

1. A La Kitchen (阿拉廚房) that is located on the new area beside First Markham Place. They have commercials on the Chinese radio - saying that they are offer new style Shanghainese food. It was a Friday the first time I was there. The location is convenient - didn’t need to fight for parking like what you have to do everytime you go to First Markham Place. Two persons - we had to wait a bit. The waitress was relatvely polite compared to some other popular small restarants.

The design was nice, with the red and the bamboo steamers. I’m really tired of the Asian Legend-like decor.

The first time we only order a Steamed Pork Dumplings 小籠包 (4), a Fried Egg White with Scallop 賽螃蟹, a Fried Shredded Fish 苔條魚柳, and a steamed bread 銀絲卷. Overall the food was good.

So, the 2nd time. Also a Friday. As usual we go out for lunch together. Suddenly I thought about Ala and there we go.

It was quite difficult to order for a group … and it usually takes a long time to order individually for the group. So, we saw that 6-person combo and we decided to go for that plus another bowl of noodle and 3 steam-cases of steamed pork dumplings.

Usually, if we were elsewhere, a 6-person combo + the other dishes should be more than enough for 9 people. But I think this place’s portion is “normal”. So, the portion was a bit tight (felt a bit sorry for the group -_- failed to notice this.)

First of all, we had the cold appetizers. Not bad.

Tofu seafood soup - not my favourite. Next time I would go for …

Steamed Pork Dumplings - not bad either. One of the colleage ordered a hot and sour noodle 酸辣湯麵 but it wasn’t good… kinda bland.

Then, here are the main dishes - Beef with green onion 蔥爆牛肉

Chicken 醬爆雞丁 - Very tender, but at the same time can’t taste much chicken taste.

Sweet and sour fish fillet 糖醋魚片.

Veggie Dish 冬菇毛豆素雞 - I like the beans - very soft (綿).

Last but not least, there was a pork dish 鎮江排骨 (I think they put too much soy sauce 老抽). For $88, you get all these (excl the steamed pork buns) - i.e. a soup, an appetizer, 5 main dishes, 1 fried rice and a dessert (pan-fried red bean pastry 豆沙鍋餅).

Overall, 9 person, we paid $14 each after tax and 10% gratuity. I would say… Next time I would go for something else, not the combo. The dishes in the combo are not outstanding. I think I’d give it one more chance…

FYI: Markham Ala Kitchen 阿拉廚房
Unit 18, 21 Fairburn Dr., Markham
Tel: 905-946-7990
Free delivery for orders over $25 (cash, before tax)
*Not sure about the delivery area

It was a Friday evening.

It was a Friday evening quite a while ago. I think.

It was a Friday evening when I didn’t really feel like eating. I know.

There are only a few places that I’ve eaten at Pacific Mall. One of them is the Japanese restaurant on the 2nd level; and there’s this one. Outside of this restaurant, you see the noodle being freshly made. With the increasing popularity of processed food and quick/instant/fast food, I start to appreciate the fresh food - especially those that are made from scratch. On a similar theme, I agree with the philosophy of the slow food movement - good, clean and fair food. Everyone wants something quick and cheap and good (well, some just want quick and dirty). I guess today’s relationship isn’t an exception. But can instant loving substitute (slow) love?

Around 8pm, when the mall was closing, we were the last customers. I liked the noodles. They weren’t special. But if I can personify them, I would say these are “honest people”. You feel comfortable staying with them and you can just be yourself.

While finishing my last mouth-full of noodle, I saw the staff was looking at us from the noodle place. I got it. He was waiting for the bowls. He tried to look “normal” so we wouldn’t feel pressured. So, I signaled him so he could come collect the bowl before we finished everything including the dessert. I appreciated his considerations.

Got a take-out menu from there. Surprisingly, they have a website - a pretty nice website for such a small store. I didn’t expect that.

FYI: Sun’s Kitchen

Those of you who work/live in the Richmond Hill area should have already noticed the new Chinese restaurant located at the Commerce Valley. The unit used to be occupied by Crazy Sushi and another Japanese restaurant called Yura. However, I have never been to those two restaurants since both of them “looked” like they were unauthentic and over-priced. I know it’s not fair to have that assumption, but it’s all about the impression - especially I hadn’t heard anyone who’d been to those two restaurants and given good feedback.

One Friday afternoon, Me and 5 colleagues of mine came to this restaurant. I’ve decided to try it out. (Didn’t let them choose - actually it was just that none of them had any preference. :p) When we arrived it was already around 2:30ish. There were a lot of space in this already large dining area. I really like the warm pink/plum color theme of this restaurant. There were booths on the window side, round tables at the front (as far as I can recall), rectangular tables that could be put side by side (chairs on one side and bench on the other), as well as three rooms on the inner side of the restaurant. When you look at the ceiling, you’ll see some nice decorative “up-side-down benches” - nice looking but when I thought about it I was afraid that they’d fall down.

The servers were welcoming when we first got in. While we were waiting for one last person to come, they came by several times to check if we could order. (Maybe it was also because it was already past their peak hour.)

We asked if they had any lunch combo/special. However, the answer was NO. They suggested the lobster noodle that costed $18.99. According to them the lobster weighted 1.3lb to be exact. [How could they be so exact :)] So, here are what we ordered:

1. Fried dough wrapped with rice noodle (炸兩) - the portion was a bit smaller than we thought. The fried dough was relatively fresh.
2. Fujian fried rice　(福建炒飯) - so-so, nothing spectacular
3. Turnip cake (炒蘿白糕) - compared to the ones @ Congee Wong or Congee Queen. This one was less spicy and lacked the “kick”.
4. Seafood congee (海鮮粥) - very nice. There were salmon, shrimps, scallops, crab meat (fake ones), white fish, etc. It was very similar to the one we had @ Congee Queen last time.
5. Sweet and Sour pork (糖醋里肌) - we all thought this would be different from the usual sweet and sour pork (咕嚕肉) because the Chinese name is different. I believe 里肌=tenderloin, correct me if I’m wrong, but this dish is total the same as the usual sweet and sour pork that you get at chop suey place. It was ok…

Overall, the restaurant was so-so. Price vs. Portion - It’s a bit more expensive than other places such as Congee Wong. I think it’s because of the location and also because it has quite a lot of customers from the surrounding business areas. (Can’t help comparing them because they are insdeed quite similar.) Something came into my mind when I saw this restaurant - looking at this name… I wonder if there is any connection between Tang and “Sugar 大有名糖”.

FYI: Tang Chinese Cuisine (大唐盛事)
Unit 9, 230 Commerce Valley Dr E, ON L3T 7Y3
Tel: 905-771-3988

I have heard about this restaurant for the longest time, yet haven’t had a chance to try it out until a Friday night. After work, I was thinking of where to eat. Originally thought of the Malaysian restaurant, but this restaurant popped into my mind. (Maybe it was also because of the previous posts by BM.) Therefore, I quickly gave JW a holla and found out where exactly the restaurant is located. It’s actually very easy to find. It’s on the East side of McCowan Road, between 16th and Hwy 7. Exact intersaction is Raymerville Drive and McCowan Road. When we got there, I believe it was around 7:00ish. It was FULLHOUSE plus a lineup for a few table. We were asked if we mind sitting near the entrance with other people. Well, I was hungry, so it didn’t matter. Upon seated, we were given 2 huge folders of menu. They have a huge selection of dishes - Yunnan Vermicelli in Fish Broth, Malaysia Curry, Baked Rice/Spaghetti/Macaroni, HK Style dishes and other Toasts/Sandwiches. I believe the best seller is the Steamed Chicken w. Ginger Sauce.

It was a challenge to decide what to order from this menu. When we were about to order, someone came and wanted to sit with the group beside us. Therefore, we were kindly asked to move to the booth on the side - which was even better - More privacy and better angle for pictures.

I ordered the HK Style Tea with no ice (nice!) and RL ordered the mango milkshake. Both were good.

For the main dish, we ordered the Steamed Chicken with Ginger Sauce and the Yunnan Vermicelli with Fish Bean Curd in Fish Broth. The fish broth was milky in color and very home-y. The vermicelli was just the right amount and good for someone like me (who’s been sick forever since the new year). I liked both dishes. The chicken was tender and flavourful. Very good portion. Both of us were full.

One thing I’ve noticed was that all the servers there are quite energetic and self-motivated. They came by to check if everything was ok, yet in a non-intrusive manner. They were very polite and was thankful that we could be relocated to another table. The food was prepared quickly so I didn’t have to starve. The price was good. (Vermicelli costed less than $6 and the Chicken rice costed about $7-8)

At the end, when there were fewer people, I took a picture of the restaurant so you get a sense of how it looks like in there. Overall, it costed about $20ish if I remember correctly. There are still a lot of items that we would like to try - e.g. their in-house desserts. We went again another day - let me check and see if I’ve taken any picture. Can’t remember now. With the food quality, customer service (of course, you gotta compare them with restaurants around the same price range), and price points, I can understand why this restaurant is getting more and more popular.

FYI: Phoenix Restaurant 金鳳餐廳
1 Raymerville Drive, Unit 10, Markham, ON.
Open: 8am - 10pm
Tel: 905-471-6536