The Usual at Kim's Restaurant + Aladdin

Earlier last week, I found myself around Carling Avenue when running some errands. There are two restaurants that I like around there, Rice Pea and Kim's Restaurant.




On this adventure, I was craving the smoky stir-fried rice noodles with chicken (FN-04) at Kim's Restaurant. When I asked for the bean sprouts to be substituted with chinese greens (gai lan or choy sum), the owner told me that the dish didn't have bean sprouts. It was great news to me.

These were just as smoky as I remembered. The chef, who looks like the character on the menu, seasoned it perfectly. It was a solid dish which reminded me of House of Gourmet.


The order of deep-fried shrimp balls (A-11) came with only 3 shrimp balls instead of the usual 4. I've tried some of their other appetizers and some of their dim sum, but I always come back to these.


I was super full after lunch, but I couldn't help grabbing a few meat pies for the family. Aladdin Convenience & Bakery is located across the street of Kim's Restaurant. A quick run across the street and BOOM -- a bag of spicy meat pies.

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Addresses:

Kim's Restaurant Revisited

I've tried to suppress my rice noodle cravings, but a combination of being sick and the cold weather made me break. I needed something to boost my energy. I was thinking stir-fried rice noodles. The one with sauce. It has been quite a while since visiting them.

Out of all the Chinese restaurants in Ottawa that I've been to, only Kim's Restaurant makes the stir-fried rice noodles with enough smokiness. I've only experienced only one so-so rendition of the noodles here once out of the 10ish times I've eaten in. We've done takeout twice and the food didn't taste good at all. Speaking of not tasting good; Grandpa ended up trying this place with my parents sometime earlier this year. Or was it last year? The point is, he wanted to see what the hype was after I repeatedly told him that that dish was great. Let's just say that they left the restaurant unimpressed. I wasn't there, but he said that the noodles were terrible because they were black. Dad agreed and said that it was way too smoky. I got a bit defensive when I heard the news. What? Their noodles are great! How was it too black?

Determined to prove them wrong Wanting to confirm that the restaurant still made a solid plate of rice noodles with chicken, we headed out to dinner.

We pick and chose the three dish meal which included soup, rice, and dessert. There was a tepid bowl of black eyed beans, chicken feet, and pork soup to start. Other than that, we had the fish fillet with black bean sauce, shrimp with eggplant, braised beef brisket, beef with asparagus, and rice noodles with chicken (replaced the bean sprouts with choi sum).. I really enjoyed the fish fillet. I know they use a cheap fish like basa but the fact that they didn't drown it in the sauce made it better because it kept the fillets crispy. There was plenty of sauce for rice too. As for the braised beef brisket, we were all deeply disappointed in three things. Firstly, there wasn't enough flavour infused into the beef. Secondly, the dish was watery and didn't have the thicker gravy sauce. We really enjoy the New Hong Shing's version of the braised beef brisket (the one in the pot). Lastly, the daikon tasted sour so we asked the owner. She took away the dish and let us choose another dish to replace it. The beef and asparagus was the dish that we chose. It was very salty, but when eaten with plenty of rice or rice noodles, it was fine. Of course, I wasn't surprised when the rice noodles arrived with a delicate aroma of wok hei. There wasn't enough of the sauce sadly. Since there were dishes like the black bean fish fillet and the salty beef with asparagus, it all worked out.

As we're enjoying dinner, I had to ask the question: How do the noodles taste? My parents' answer: good.

Huzzah! 

To cap off the night, we were given some warm silken tofu for dessert. Apparently my parents had the silken tofu last time they dined with Grandpa. This was new to me. Mom didn't say the exact words, but essentially said that this was the best silken tofu dessert it Ottawa. The dessert was silky and fragile, and when drizzled with the simple syrup, that was lightly imbued with ginger, the warm dessert was like a warm fuzzy hug.

Tasty Back to Back Dinners: 2 of 2 Chinese Food

After an exhausting day at work last week, Andrew and I headed over to Sea King for an early dinner. We had planned to go the previous night, but things changed and we had Phnom Penh noodle soup instead.

So we arrived at the restaurant around 5:30pm. There were a few people eating early too.

"I'm drooling." Andrew commented as he flipped through the menu. He was clearly more hungry than I was. I wanted "my noodles", aka rice noodles with beef and chinese greens, but ultimately left it up to him.

"Do you want the dry noodles or the wet one?"

"We've been eating the dry one a lot recently, so let's have the one with sauce." He reasoned.

"Fine with me."

While we were trying to decide what else to order, he asked if I was working the next day. "Cause if you are, we could just order another one or two dishes and then bring the leftovers for lunch." Done. A couple of dishes were added to our order.

First up, rice noodles with beef and choy sum with extra sauce. While I usually ask for gai lan (aka Chinese broccoli), we opted for the one in the menu. Choy sum is more tender anyway, so it was good. When we ordered the noodles, it occurred to me that it could be a hit or miss. It's risky to order it everywhere but the House of Gourmet. Even at Sea King. It even happened in one meal once. Sometimes the dish smells smoky but the sauce tastes bland. I'd rather have it seasoned correctly without any smokiness to the dish.

When the plate arrived, I couldn't detect any smokiness from the dish. Andrew started first. He took a bite and smiled. Since there wasn't any wok hei, it must've been seasoned properly. Then I filled my bowl and took my first bite.

Bliss.

"I could go home happy now." I declared happily.

Despite not having extra sauce as we requested, the dish was solid; the sauce was properly seasoned, the tenderized beef was good, and the choy sum still had a bite to it. If it wasn't missing the smoky dimension, it would actually be on par with the House of Gourmet. It was close to the House of Gourmet standards -- and I hold their version of the dish on a pedestal. Then Andrew said something to the likes of, "what if there's another dimension that the House of Gourmet doesn't have?" It was great food for thought.

We both inhaled our first bowl of noodles. It took a lot of self restraint, but I wanted to wait for our other dishes. There was a longer wait for our second dish, the Cantonese beef with onions, because the kitchen was pumping out food for one of the private rooms.

Andrew really liked how tender the beef was. Because of the sweetness, he couldn't eat too much of it though. I told him to eat it with the rice noodles like I was doing at the time. Ah well, more for me.


Since we had ordered two meat dishes (the other one was on the way), Andrew wanted some veggies so we ordered the vermicelli noodle with vegetable casserole pot. I requested that they leave the bamboo off. It seemed like my message was received.

I wafted the steam over to my nose. Bamboo... lame. Andrew gave it a try and mentioned that the flavour wasn't as strong as the buddha's delight that we ordered last time. I still wasn't a fan.


The final dish that we ordered was pork spare ribs with black bean sauce. Andrew and I both assumed it would be fried and ladled with the glossy black sauce. We received this. Really? It was probably two orders of the dim sum dish without the taro. It was disappointing.

Despite the complaints, we really enjoyed the spare ribs anyway. How could you get angry and something when it smells and tastes so good? We agreed that we shouldn't assume anything and ask the staff next time.

"Are you going for another round?" I asked Andrew. Dinner was winding down and I was trying to decide if I should eat a bit more. It's usually the point where the correct answer is usually 'no'. After some hesitation, he said he'd eat one last round. Then I would too.

So I look over to the plate of noodles. I planned to have some noodles and one last piece of Cantonese beef. I brought over my bowl and filled it up.

Why is the bowl so small? How did I fill it up so quickly? I thought to myself as I filled up my bowl with noodles. Then I snap out of it.


Wooow. So fail! I actually filled my empty tea cup with noodles. Now, throughout the dinner, Andrew and I both lost our train of thought multiple times. We couldn't finish sentences. We were just mentally and physically exhausted from a busy work week.

Did I leave the noodles uneaten though? Hell no! As I chuckled, I fished it all out of the tea cup into the bowl and tried to get rid of the tea leaves. I washed out my tea cup with some hot tea and filled it up -- with tea this time. It was if nothing ever happened. Except you know, I've now shared it with you.


As planned, we packed some of the leftovers for lunch.

So what did the dinner teach me? I'll be ordering the rice noodles with choy sum a lot more often. That and maybe not having that last round.


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Mont Tremblant, Montreal, and Blueberry Lake Resort

When Aunty and my cousin from Hong Kong visited us back in October, my other aunt had booked a few days at a cabin at the Blueberry Lake Resort. We had a plan to go up with the family, visit Mont Tremblant, have a steak dinner at the cabin, do a day trip to Montreal, and then rest up at the cabin. The weather could not have been any nicer. The leaves already began to change and the sunny warm weather was out during the weekend of our trip.







On our way to Mont Tremblant we dropped by McD’s for a quick bite. Bic Macs, McChickens, and Quarter Pounder meals were shared.





Pâté, brie, another kind of cheese, and crackers were brought out of the car for those who didn’t want to eat McD’s. The sun and heat melted the fat in the pork pâté. Sad.



We walked around the busy Mont Tremblant village. Someone was nice enough to give the guys a couple of free passes to the second gondola. I got this shot on the way down.

Later that night, the steak dinner was made to feed the large family. I’m missing the photos from that night.






The following day, we drove to Montreal and found lunch at the Kei Phat Restaurant (inside the Marché Kei Phat). I noticed that the menu was smaller than usual, and then I saw the words “Menu du Mardi” which translates to “Tuesday’s Menu.” We were told that the main chefs had Tuesdays off.



That didn’t bother me. I went with the Phnom Penh noodle soup.



MT’s usual dish, rice noodles with beef, was not on Tuesday’s menu. She lost her appetite. Someone ordered some shrimp spring rolls for her to snack on instead.





Fast forward to dinner. We went to a restaurant in Chinatown located somewhere at the end of the pedestrian street. The last time we ate at the restaurant, I remembered that the fish was really fresh, really moist and tender. The stir-fried rice noodles were great too. I lost their business card so I can’t tell you which place we visited. Woops. It’s past the AYCE place and it’s across the bakery (which is located at the corner of the pedestrian street).

Cousin E and Aunty chose the dishes that night. We started off with some fish maw soup. A plate of dried scallops with greens came soon afterwards.





Steamed oysters with black bean sauce. I really liked the sauce that went with the oysters. The steamed oysters, themselves, were alright.



Double cooked oysters (battered and deep fried, then stir-fried).



Stir-fried vermicelli.





Steamed fish with soy sauce. This fish was great! It was super fresh and cooked perfectly. The meat was tender and sweet with no hints of fishiness or muddiness. You should definitely order a steamed fish at this restaurant (whatever it’s called). I’d probably ask the server which fish is the freshest or in season.





Finally, a plate of rice noodles with beef and Chinese broccoli (aka my noodles) with extra sauce. This was really disappointing. Some of the noodles were undercooked and the sauce was flavourless. Grandpa assumed that it was the “second chef” who cooked the dish. Whatever the case may be, I was disappointed that the noodles weren’t even decent. We ended up packing up the dish.





After dinner, we visited the bakery across the street and picked up a few things before driving back to the cabin for the night.

We had a little snack of some coconut buns and tea before or after soaking in the hot tub and playing a few rounds of pool and ping pong. I can’t remember.






This was the view in the morning. The weather was looking great and the cabin smelled like a bakery.



Check out this spread for breakfast. Nice, huh? These were all warmed up in the oven. Croissant, hot dog buns, coconut spiral sticks, and cookie-topped custard buns were pretty damn tasty. The cabin was filled with the perfume of buttery pastries.



I picked up a few of these for Dad, but it turns out that everyone enjoyed these because the cookie-topped custard buns were made so well.



MT absolutely loved these. I asked her to show it off between bites.

We slowly packed things into the cars and headed back home. It was a very nice couple of days up at the cabin.

Dim Sum Overload - Oct. 8th

One of my cousins from Toronto had been working in Ottawa for about a year. She was moving back to Toronto that weekend for a new opportunity and wanted to treat everyone to lunch. There were 12 of us there.

Round 1:

We had ordered quite a bit at the beginning - or so I thought.

Rice noodle rolls with youtiao. The youtiao wasn't soggy this time. They served it with some Hoisin sauce and sweet soy sauce. There wasn't any peanut/sesame sauce in sight, unfortunately.

Squid tentacles that were dipped in a batter, instead of the traditional dry coating.

Shrimp ha gow. They were a bit over steamed. The skins fell apart when you tried to grab one.

Seafood chow mein. By the time I took this picture, most of it was gone. 

My cousin also ordered a plate of my noodles (aka rice noodles with beef and chinese greens), but I forgot to take a picture of it. The sauce was very bland. The only thing saving it was a hint of smokiness and lots of soy sauce that was on the table.

Fried turnip cakes.

Rice noodle rolls with shrimp. As you can see, they were stingy with the sweet soy sauce. Does anyone know how they make it? I've read that all they do is add sugar to regular soy sauce, but I don't think that's the case.

Deep fried shrimp balls. They were alright. I still think Yangtze makes it the best, but I haven't been there in ages, so I'm not so sure if it's still good.

Deep fried taro dumplings with minced pork filling.

Pork and shrimp siu mai, along with some deep fried glutinous rice dumplings filled with minced meat.

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Round 2:

My cousin ordered some more items, as everyone inhaled the first round rather quickly. More of the usual: siu mai, cheun fan (steamed rice noodle rolls), etc.

Lo mai gai (lotus leaf wraps).

Scallop ha gow. The scallop had been pureed and mixed with shrimp. I wish there had been more scallops, maybe even chunks of scallops.

Some desserts were ordered at this point, as everyone started slowing down.

Egg tarts.

Steamed buns filled with "custard", and red bean paste filled glutinous rice balls. The "custard" wasn't a proper custard, but rather a moist eggy cake. Disappointing.

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Round 3:
One of my uncles dropped by from work. Since we didn't have many savory dishes on the table, my cousin ordered even more! Everyone was full at this point. Just keep this in mind.

Steamed squid.

Chicken feet in black bean sauce, siu mai and another plate of my noodles was ordered, among other dishes. This time, the sauce was flavourful and a lot more smoky. Unfortunately, I had no more space in my stomach. With a few more bites, everything was finished.

And that was lunch. Everyone left with full stomachs and a bit of a waddle.

I'm going to miss my cousin, but she's only down Highway 401. Thanks for an awesome lunch!

~*~*~