Alleluia Cafe

Alleluia Cafe has got to be one of the best Hong Kong style cafes in the lower mainland. Apparently, the owner used to own this place called Golden Award, which has since gone out of business. Golden Award was one of the first Hong Kong style cafes I used to frequent. It was kind of a dive, and not particularily clean, but the food was good and prices were cheap. Some damn good HK milk tea too. Anyway, Golden Award was replaced by a place called Silver Tower, which was really crappy. They renovated the restaurant and made it all trendy looking but the food was crap.

I started going to Alleluia and found that their HK Milk tea really was the best I've ever had. The restaurant is relatively clean, though I'd never use their toilets unless I absolutely have to. The service is decent, and it's open until 2AM. Drinks are refillable once, but this is not advertised. I strongly recomment this place as an alternative to western fast food. It really is fast, and there have been times when I would get my meal faster than if I had waited through a McDonald's drive through....and some of these meals are just about the same price as a McDonald's combo nowadays. Better food (and more of it), sit-down service, and almost the same price. When I get some more decent pictures, I'll upload them in another post. Check out some other reviews here. Baked Pork Chop on Rice - $9.25 - This is the dinner size and it comes with a drink and soup of the day. It used to be my favourite, but then, I had a lot of favourites. It's too bad this dish doesn't come with a bit of cheese sprinkled on it, otherwise it would be perfect.....by the way, you'll never finish it.
All Day Mix & Match Special - $9.25 for any three items from a list, served with a choice of steamed rice or spaghetti, plus a choice of sauce from a list, and includes a drink and soup of the day. This one has pork chop cutlet, fish cutlet, and two fried eggs......not the best of choices....
Spaghetti Bolognese - $8.95 - dinner size includes a drink and soup of the day. Another one of my favourites, and since I never finish it, I always have tasty leftovers for lunch.


You can find Alleluia Cafe at 8131 Westminster HwyRichmond, BC, just a bit east of #3 Road. Their telephone number is (604)271-8266 and I think they actually take reservations....but it's really not necessary because it doesn't take long to get served.

Plated McDonalds

Benkei Ramen (Robson)

At long last, there be a decent bowl of ramen outside of Japan! There was a lot of hype when Kintaro Ramen opened on Denman Street in Downtown Vancouver. There were line ups out the door practically every single day. The atmosphere was great - it was a small shop, noisy, not particularly clean, and steamed up windows. I gave Kintaro a try and was severely disappointed. Soft, overcooked noodles, flavourless broth, and chashu that was lean enough to pass as leather. When Benkei opened up, I didn't have my hopes up, but I gave it a shot. I was pleasantly surprised. They could actually put together a half-decent bowl of ramen, despite the gawdy interior decorations (walls are covered with made-in-China katana)
The chashu was nice and thick, and very, very fat, just the way I like it.

And the broth was nice and fat, and nice and salty - which should have you screaming for a cup of water or racing to the bathroom with a bad case of geri. But that's how good ramen should affect your internal organs. At the end of the whole adventure, I even picked up the bowl with both hands and slurped back all of the soup.....so fattening, but oh so good.
The one problem with Benkei is that it's not consistent. Sometimes I will get an incredibly awesome bowl of ramen, and other times (and often times), I'll get the wrong order, or there's something missing, or the chashu is completely non-existent and diced into tiny little cubes.
Well, this'll do until I go back to Japan.

Italian Tomato

Italian Tomato is an Italian restaurant here Richmond ( map ) that makes a pretty mean pasta. I can't honestly say that I've had much experience with authentic Italian cuisine, but I have a feeling that this little shop has it pretty close. Places like Old Spaghetti Factory and Boston Pizza
had been been my only reference to Italian style food for years and years. In comparison to what I know now, I consider their pasta a mockery. I don't know how many times I've told my friends that Boston Pizza serves pasta that really isn't much better than a can of Chef Boyardee, and Old Spaghetti Factory's spaghetti tastes like army noodles with ketchup. I discovered Anton's and my view on pasta completely changed. I was going almost every other weekend and subsequently gained about 40 lbs over a few months. Anton's is pretty damn good, and I still go there once in a while, despite the lengthy line-ups.

Italian Tomato opened a few years ago, and portions-wise, was neck and neck with Anton's. Their prices were only slightly more, but the big difference was Italian Tomato serves their pasta al dente. Anton's pasta is cooked a bit longer and the sauces are all very rich and thick.....yummy.


DaVinci - $19.95 - Chicken breast, fresh tomatoes, fresh spinach, asiago cheese in a garlic cream sauce.
Polpette Bolognese - $20.95 - Traditional home-made meatballs served with meat sauce, and your choice of pasta

I forgot the name of this pasta, but when I figure it out, I'll update this post.

Italian Tomato is a great place to get authentic (at least what I think is authentic) Italian pasta. It's convenient for people who live in Richmond and don't want to drive out to Burnaby, there generally aren't line-ups out the door and I've never had to wait an hour or two to get seated. The only thing that didn't sit well with me was all the prices have gone up dramatically. I realize with the rough economy and all, everything has gone up. Even Anton's has gone up on average by about a buck or two per dish. Italian Tomato's prices have gone up by about $5 or so per dish, which to me is a bit outrageous. That puts the average dish at about $7 or so more than a dish at Anton's. I think generally, I would rather drive all the way out to Burnaby and wait an hour or two in line and eat at Anton's. I'd probably go to Italian Tomato only if I'm craving al dente pasta, too lazy to drive to Burnaby, and too hungry to wait in line.

Making Okashi for Sado

Bacon Wrapped Scallops in the Oven

I usually do these on the BBQ, but it wasn't quite BBQ season yet, so I did these in the oven.  Usually, I get the biggest scallops I can find in the supermarket, wrap them with the fattest bacon I can find, and throw them on the BBQ.  The scallops come out juicy, and the bacon is nice and crispy on the outside, the drippings fall through the grill so you're not eating a mouthful of oil.
Since I usually BBQ these, I don't usually put anything on top, but this time around, I figured I'd do something a little different.  I mixed some miso paste with some Kewpie (Japanese mayonaise) and dropped a dap on the top of each one.




Whenever you bake something with Kewpie, you usually get a nice, golden brown finish, but with the miso paste mixed in, it looks a lot darker in the picture.  Kewpie is usually the magic ingredient for kaki motoyaki (oyster motoyaki or baked oysters with Japanese mayo).  Anyway, in retrospect, I probably shouldn't have used the miso as the bacon was already quite salty on it's own, but they still turned out okay. 

Kingyo Revisited