Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from Holy Duck Chili Oil except that some part of it should taste like duck. I was also curious about their no-duck vegan version, but that 266 ml of chili-and-duck oil was already $20 so I figured I'd just try their original recipe first. Just the oil was a highly flavourful concoction. The heat creeps up on you but doesn't get to a level where you're yelping for water to rescue your tongue. There's definitely duck flavour, similar to roasted duck, but also something that reminded me strongly of star anise. Depending on how much you like that latter flavour, you might find there's maybe too much of it -- I personally feel it competes too strongly with the duck oil flavour. For additional oomph you can stir up the concoction to get at the stuff typically sunk to the bottom. This adds a pleasant crunch, but also predominantly a strong bitterness that's possibly fried garlic, and that threatens to overwhelm your experien

The only bottles of Bobbie's Boat Sauce at Lucifer's House of Heat were all well past their Best Before date. Which of course hints at their popularity, although their rather unfortunate appearance may have unfairly contributed to this. Nevertheless, despite being over one year past their Best Before date, the salesperson assured me it was safe to consume as it had no eggs and such which might be an issue. The bottle certainly looks like something you might discover on a boat, but it also looks like something someone illicitly mixed in their secret boat brewery and then pasted on an amateurish label they printed themselves. Nevertheless, the product is not bad. The "hot" version I would rate as mildly spicy. Notes of anchovy, ginger, and tumeric jumped out at me. Certainly not your typical hot sauce, but also not to be casually used as it brings it's own flavour. So maybe more useful for something that's on its own quite bland, like fish or chicken that has

T&T Supermarket does stock some oriental flavours of Lay's potato chips , but not Roasted Fish Flavor  (the localized label however reads "Lay's Crispy Baked Fish Flavoured Potato Chips"). At a mere 70 grams, this was priced at $5.99 at Dank Mart before tax. Although this price looks steep, some Chinese Lay's chips at T&T are also priced over $5 and you certainly want to compare prices with T&T in the case where T&T also stocks the same product. The initial taste impression was a sweetness and saltiness close to your typical "BBQ flavour" chips, but also a clear flavour very reminiscent of the crispy skin of a baked fish. Novelty? Yes. Winner? Not necessarily. I definitely think there's a strong possibility of this being an acquired taste. * This was one of my three Mother's Day buys: My mom likes chips and chili, so for Mother's Day I looked around for some hopefully products I was reasonably certain she wouldn't be able

I tried their "Roti Prata with Curry Chicken" special meal ($13.75). What they served was some kind of roti, but it certainly wasn't Malaysian style roti. In fact, the roti looked suspiciously like supposedly  Indian style roti you can get raw in the frozen food section of Superstore . You can sit pretty much anywhere in Crystal Mall while waiting for your order because they give you a beeper that sounds an alarm when your order is ready.

Tendon Kohaku basically specializes in tempura on rice and drizzled with a sweet "tendon sauce". Nothing wrong with the tempura, and it does come with the proper crispy batter, but also nothing really special here for the price. The presentation makes it look like they overfilled a bowl but that is of course just an optical illusion to make the portion look bigger than it really is. Nevertheless, there is a decently filling amount of rice underneath all that tempura. Orders come with a small bowl of soup to start. Pretty much everything had tempura prawns (which I have to avoid because of my gout), so I went with the vegetarian one, which has a vegan tendon sauce option (and which didn't really stand out for me; I just drizzled more regular tendon sauce and chili powder on it). Vegetarian Tendon ($16.45) Rice Kohaku Tendon Sauce, 1 Kabocha Pumpkin, 1 seaweed. 1 green Bean, 1 Shiitake Mushrooom, 1 Lotus Root, 1 Enoki Mushroom, 1 yam, 1 Baby Corn, 1 shishitou pepper For a

Gave this place a go for lunch with a couple of friends. They ordered pad thai, one fried rice. I asked the server for what might be "weird" or "interesting" on the menu and she suggested a not-on-the-menu yellow curry with noodles and chicken. All three items together were just over $60 after tax and BEFORE tip. Presentation is lacklustre. Dishes are plain, as if done with the minimum number of ingredients. Maybe this makes them "authentic", but if you have to spend $20 on a plate, get something more interesting than food court quality food. And in a food court you wouldn't have to pay tip programmed at a minimum of 15%. I would have given them 2/5 for mediocre food but price and tip pushed this experience even lower. Menus are all online and you scan the QR code at the table. If you don't have data on your phone, you can try connecting to the wifi from (no joke) the Sutton Place Hotel across the street. There's conference room wifi with a