Beard Papa's WEM : Review

I was hyped and excited to go to Beard Papa's at West Edmonton Mall for some great cream puff. The self proclaim "world best cream puff" originated in Japan and have spread all over the world, boasting great vanilla, macha and daily special flavour including but not limit to: mango, strawberry, and chocolate. However, it was a disappointment at first bite. Here is my review for Beard Papa's at WEM (opposite to McDonald, side entrance of Galaxy land, close to ice rink). I want to apology for not having my camera with me when I visit the place but I took some picture of the cream puff when I got home.

After dinner in chinatown, my gf and I headed to West Edmonton Mall to fulfill the cream puff craving. We were excite to go to Beard Papa's, especially since most of my friends that tried it in Vancouver said their cream puffs are amazing (including my better half). We were there at 8:15, just 45 minutes before it close. The store is clean (should be expected for new store). There was only one store clerk serving the location at the time. Once we approach the counter, she let us know that since the store is closing for the day soon, all big cream puff are only $2.00 instead of $2.59 (?) for vanilla cream or $2.99 for macha cream (green tea) or mango cream (special flavour of the day).

The puff pastry itself looks nice but probably been sitting on the counter for a while. So we decided to get 5 cream puffs, 2 vanilla, 2 green tea, and 1 mango. The clerk promptly filled the cream puffs (2 squeeze) and pretty much try to fill it as much as she could. I don't know if this is how they do it normally, or she was just giving us more filling because its almost time to close. Cream puff were sprinkle with icing sugar and green tea powder. My gf really wanted to eat it right then. I told her to wait until we get in the car because then it will be easier to eat, man was I wrong.

Oozing Vanilla Cream Puff

I was expecting a rich creamy filling for this great looking creampuff (most of my friends told me that the cream is very rich and can be almost ice-cream like). However, the filling end up being quite liquid, as you can see its oozing out when you break the cream puff in half (this is only 5 min after we purchased the puff). We end up making big messed in the car. (＞△＜｡) Thats not the only thing, the texture of the filling is quite grainy and is not very smooth (this is what I would expect to be in a cream puff), especially the green tea cream. I am glad that they gave us lots of filling, BUT overfilling the cream puff did not help with cream explosion.

Cream puff filling

Taste wise:

Puff pastry: Soft, and nicely baked. Would be a lot better if its warm. The texture is still nice and would go really well with heavy cream filling.

Filling in general: not cold, runny liquid, grainy and not very smooth. Worst of all, it will cause big mess all over your hand.

Vanilla cream puff: Quite tasty actually (neglet the texture). Nonetheless, it is not really better than generic vanilla cream puff that you can find from a chinese bakery in chinatown. If factor in the texture of the cream, it is worst. (5/10)

Mango cream puff: Didn't expect it to go well with the puff pastry, but it actually did. The smoothest of them all, and less runny than both vanilla and green tea. Still, not up to par with average cream puff. (5/10)

Green Tea cream puff (macha): I was actually very excite to try this. To my disappointment the cream is SUPER grainy. This could be due to the fact that they put in alot of macha powder. Although the flavour of the macha is there, the cream itself was disgusting and runny as hell. Boooooooo ╮(｡´ω`)╭ (4/10)

Runny green tea cream

Overall : 4/10

What a disappointment. We were expecting good cream puff, but end up with the opposite. The runny cream was not enjoyable to eat. Not only that, both of us got stomach ache right after too. I thought it might be because we had it after Chinese food, but I also end up with stomach ache the next day as well when I ate two more. I don't know if this is what its like at other location (I hope so), or it could be my luck with a bad batch/day or cream puff... I don't know. But, I will never again buy cream puff from this location. Let me know if you have different experience, since you might be able to convince me to go there again. Sorry if my picture make it looks good and make you guys want to go and eat there. Cheers

More pictures below and :

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eternity-ply/sets/72157626244214683/

Big mess

Mango Cream Puff

Other Review:

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/beard-papas-edmonton

Kabuki Sushi & Grill: Review

Hoi ヽ(・o・｡)ノ

Welcome to my second restaurant review :D This week I am writing about Kabuki Sushi & Grill, locate on 109st and Saskatchewan Dr. right by Garneau theater and High Level Diner, right across from Kyoto Japanese Restaurant.The location is not bad for people who are in the walking distant, however, finding parking spot around that area can be challenging. They have complicate system of customer parking which I don't fully understand, there are couple of spot right behind the restaurant, couple of spot in the back alley behind one of the house, and I believe that customers can park in front of the smile zone (Dental office, right next to restaurant) and they will reimburse the parking cost. Still this is too much of a hassle for many.

First Impression:

Kabuki is a relatively new restaurant in Edmonton. I believe they open a year ago. This place is small and cozy, probably seat about 30-40 people, and can feels cramp at time. There are a huge sakura (cherry blossom) tree in the middle of the dining area. If you are lucky you might be seat under the sakura tree and hopefully it will make you feel like spring in Japan (except then you look outside and realize that its snowing and -30c). All jokes aside, this place have a pretty good decor and the color scheme of green tea green and brown go together quite well.

I actually ate here several time before and is one of my favorite place to go with my girlfriend with my friends. The service here is very good but can be slow at times. Many times we have to wait 5 min or more for tea/water, especially when you are in a big group. This could be that there are one 2 servers (I am pretty sure the owners are the one who serve), both of them are very nice and would accommodate various request you have about the food. Once orders are taken, foods come out quite fast but not all at once (common thing with sushi).

This time there were 8 of us eating there. Again, we waited for about 5-10 min before we receive our green tea, and many 10 more minute before anyone come to ask if we are ready to order. I ordered 3 rolls for myself including, chop scallop roll (5.95), Edmonton roll (6.95) and Queen's roll (13.95?). All in all we ordered about 18 dishes or something along that line. I found that the price here is decent for the size and quality of the food here. In general their presentation is still lacking and thus sometime the sushi rice can come off when pick up or tobiko can be all over the place. However their flavour is the real deal. Today I will be reviewing couple of dishes I had.

Takoyaki

Beef Tataki

Whether because we order so much, or because they remember me or might be the power of my camera, they gave us free foods! First they start of with miso soup (which is normal), then they brought 2 serving of beef tataki! We were all surprise and frankly was confuse and question ourselves if we order beef tataki (raw beef with marinated sauce). The server quickly told us "on the house, on the house". We were even more surprise when they brought out two serving of takoyaki (fried octopus ball)! Oh my! Big brownie point for this review :D. Furthermore, this wasn't the first time we get this kind of service. Last time I went there (group of 4), we also got free serving of takoyaki.

( ￣∀￣)o彡ﾟ

Edmonton Roll - $6.95 (8/10) - above

This is a combination of tempura, spicy tuna, and crab (imitated). I am a fan of spicy tuna, and a fan of tempura so this roll is perfect for me. The prawn tempura is crunchy which add that texture to the roll, while spicy tuna add more flavour. (I am not a fan of imitated crab therefore im not going to say anything here lol) For the price this is a pretty good roll. Its about half the size of the big fancy roll. I personally like the half size portion better because then I can try many things :D

Queen's Rolls - $13.95 (8/10) - above

This is a very interesting dish both in term of presentation and combination of ingredient. The description in the menu said "Prawn tempura, smoke salmon, crab, tobiko". I did not expect two kind of smoke salmon o(✿⊙ω⊙)o. When the dish was serve, first thing you notice is the salmon flower right in the middle of the dish surrounded by tempura roll topped with smoke salmon and tobiko. The salmon in the middle is salmon sashimi that been bundle up and 'smoke' with blow torch. The sushi roll itself is very good too, and the smoke salmon on top added a very nice taste to the tempura. Highly recommended.

Chop Scallop roll - $5.95 (5.5/10) - above

Not much to say about this dish. The scallop is chopped, mixed with mayo and tobiko. This is an okay dish, it was good to try once, and I will probably not get it again. To be honest, the favour of mayo overflavour that of scallop.

Empty miso soup bowl

About the free food we got:

Miso Soup - very good soup, but I wish that there are more green onion and tofu.

Beef tataki - another very good dish, better than many other place in edmonton, the beef was fresh and the sauce is very good.

Takoyaki - Here's the thing, takoyaki is one of my FAVOURITE food. The best takoyaki I ever had was made by my friend. Takoyaki at Kabuki is ..... alright. The batter is good, sauce is good, and they fried it pretty well BUT where is my tako? the octopus was so small ლ｜￣o￣ლ｜

Other recommendations:

Beef teriyaki roll - girlfriend favourite (she's allergic to fish ( `・～・´)o彡ﾟ

Spicy tuna roll - very good

Negitoro - tuna belly and green onion

Blazing unagi roll - Unagi roll on FIRE! awesome

Overall - 7.5/10 (8.5./10 due to free food lol)

Another thing I forgot to mention, I love their wood plank for serving. :D

Let me know if you guys have any question :D

Other pictures

Other Review

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/kabuki-sushi-and-grill-edmonton

Nomiya Restaurant: Review

(for recent revisit comment please see http://eternity-ply.blogspot.com/2011/04/nomiya-restaurant-revisit.html)

Hi everyone. This will be my first official food review. This review will be about Nomiya Japanese Restaurant. Now I just want to mention that its because one of my friend on FB, M, who pretty much goes there everyday, and been bragging about it that stir my interest in this place. So thank you M (you know who you are).

Now just a brief background on Nomiya Japanese Restaurant. Nomiya was suppose to be one of Sanpachi Ramen chain (http://www.sanpachi.co.jp/menu.html) base from Hokkaido, which open it first chain in Canada in Vancouver last year. During its construction, it was clearly announce that the restaurant will be Sanpachi Ramen. Due to whatever reason, the restaurant was renamed to 'Nomiya', and is owned by a Chinese family. If i have to guess, I would guess that Sanpachi provided all the recipe for their ramen.

My first impression about Nomiya is very positive. The decor is very nice, new, and the color scheme is quite relaxing. The place is quite small (sit about 30 people or so). I got there are 7pm on Tuesday night and the place was still packed. Luckily my friends were there already, and I didn't have to wait to be seat. The music in this place is very subtle and is not overwhelm the conversation we had. The waitress was quite attentive and the service was good, except that our food didn't come at the same time, and certain item took really long (see below, Saru Soba). One of my friend came late, and the waitress didn't rush us at all, she was very friendly also. Their menu can be a little bit confusing. Food are categorized in type (appetizers, tapas, sushi, and rice), however, ramen menu was on a flimsy piece of paper. I wish that they could have done better than this. The price was not bad considering big bowl of noodle only cost 8-10 dollars, some might find that their sushi can be expensive compare to other place around town.

Menu

Here what I had:

Tantan-men

Spicy Miso ramen

Inferno ramen (friend's order)

Tsuke-men (again, mooched off friend's)

Saru Soba

TANTAN-MEN (first picture)

No, not dark skin man, or anything like that (sorry for my bad pun). This is pretty much japanese style of dan dan noodles (a type of chinese noodle). This ramen contains minced pork, in spicy chilli with sesame tonkotsu soup base (pork-bone). The soup was quite rich and very tasty. For people who never have tonkotsu soup base before might find the soup a bit too thick. Although it was suppose to be spicy I did not find this soup spicy what soever (mind you I am from Thailand and can handle very spicy food). The ramen were cooked very nice and near perfection (was a bit hard). The mice pork was very tasty too. Tantan-men is garnished with green onion, 2 piece of seaweeds and some other thing I don't remember ( I really need to bring a notepad next time). Overall it was a great dish as you can see in the picture below.

( つ￣∀￣)つ Empty Tantan-men bowl (8.5 / 10)

SPICY MISO RAMEN

I love miso base soup ramen. If done right, miso ramen can be one of the most flavorful ramen out there. However, Nomiya failed to capture my mouth with their spicy miso ramen. I have yet to try their normal miso ramen, which can be different. At first this ramen looks just like my tantan-men but don't let this fool you. Miso ramen are lighter than tantan-men, although not by much. The garnish is very similar to that of tantan-men. For some reason i feel like this soup lack the taste of miso. For those of you who doesn't like strong miso taste then this would be a great ramen to try, unlucky for me, I love strong miso taste ╮(ﾟ□ﾟ｡)╭ . On the other hand, this bowl of ramen scored a big brownie point from me for having shaved green onion (awesome) and big think chashu (pork) slice (awesomeeeer). Overall still very good ramen but I couldn't finish the bowl like what I did with tantan-men.

Spicy Miso Ramen (7 / 10)

Inferno Sushi

I only had one piece of this exciting dish. Its pretty much a Japanese mackerel sushi roll, with great twist. Like the name suggest, inferno, the roll were blasted with blow torch in front of you, on the table, inches away from your face. The mackerel is cooked (no not with blow torch |≧ლ≦｡|) For some people that never had mackerel on sushi before, it can be very fishy (again sorry for the pun), and the smell can be quite strong; I love it. The smoky smell created by blasting flame goes very well with the roll. ( 8 / 10) - picture can be seen on my photo album - link below

Tsuke-men

Not much to say about this because I only had one chopstick full of noodle and the soup. This is one of those ramen type that served dry, and can be hot or cold (it was warm at nomiya), with a separate bowl of soup. The soup were tonkotsu base, and somewhat like that of tantan-men. Ramen were served with side dish of kimchi, small slices of chashu, cucumber and boil egg. I will have to order and try more of this dish before making any rating. Guess I will have to try next time I go there. Picture can be view in my photo album.

Saru Soba (5 / 10)

Saru Soba (cold buckwheat noodle)

No there is no monkey in this dish (saru means monkey in japanese). This is the first saru soba dish i tried in Edmonton. I was reluctant to order this dish at first because I haven't find a good soba place in Canada. Now remember I already had Tantan-men and spicy miso ramen before I order this dish, and maybe I was getting full which one could argue to compromise my taste judgement. The waitress was also asking me if I will be able to finish. "yea no problem", was my answer. For those of you who know me, I eat about the same as generic family of four. Anyway, this dish took about 15 minutes before it arrived at the table. This suppose to be a super fast dish, all it need were boiled soba, tsuyu (sauce), wasabi, thinly slice green onion ( and raw quail egg which was not there ლ(＞ω＜ლ). The soba was actually cook quite nicely but there just too much water left over. I usualy preferred having it cool down by ice also. Since it have overload amount of water, the sauce that you dip your soba in will loose it strong flavour eventually. Also I found that the dilution of the sauce is too waterly. Overall not a very great dish, however, try it in the hot summer day and it will cool you right down. (ofcourse, I finished the dish)

Conclusion:

This place is great, no wonder M is there every lunch and dinner. I will have to try more appertizer, and tapas menu next time I am there. But don't get your hope up that I will write a review about their tapas menu, knowing myself, I will probably order more ramen and/or sushi, then get full before order any tapas. I am also wondering what happened between them and Sanpachi Ramen. If anyone know then please let us know :D.

Verdict: Nomiya Japanese Restaurtan 8 / 10

3803 Calgary Tr
Ste 646
Edmonton, AB T6J 2X8
(780) 462-1300 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting            (780) 462-1300      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

For more photo: http://fotologue.jp/ppasarj#/13614992/13614967

Hope you enjoy my first review, and thank you for reading.
Eternity (aka ElephantPly)

Other Review

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/nomiya-edmonton

Visit my "Revisit" post @ http://eternity-ply.blogspot.com/2011/04/nomiya-restaurant-revisit.html

Wish for the best in Japan

As all of you may know, there was an earthquake of 8.9 (some source may vary) just off the coast of northeastern Japan. This quake was the biggest in 104 years. I couldn't even imagine myself being there. Today while at work I took sometime to watch the news on BBC, CNN, and CTV. There are few footage that just have me in awe of sadness. One that I took notice was the one of the Tsunami in Sendai; for those of you who don't know Japan's geography, Sendai is on the northeastern coast of Japan, just 150km from epicenter of the quake. I watched as the Tsunami swept through farmland, houses and car. As the power of the sea wash up on inland Sendai, there were still people driving away from Tsunami. I couldn't imagine being in that situation. That is the real borderline life and death. I hope for the best in Japan and wish that things will get better soon.

I have also been trying to contact many of my friends in Japan. One of my friend live near Sendai and I was especially worried about him, J. Finally he said that his family and himself are fine. I hope that whoever you try to contact with in Japan are doing alright.

Best of luck and Wish for the best.

Eternity

Rehoi

Hoi

For those of you who don't know what 'hoi' means, 'hoi' means hi! You know when you are just typing really fast and your hand slip then you press both the 'o' and the 'i'. Enough of that, so I haven't write a blog in a while and I think that it is a good time to start writing again. This will allow me to improve my overall English writing skill. So if you guys spot any grammatical error then please let me know (include explanation too so that I understand what I did wrong).

Anyway, I think that I will be taking (and talking about) more pictures, rant more about current events and will be doing some foods/restaurants review as well. Please look forward to my blog.

( ＾ρ＾)o彡ﾟ

p.s. I got a cat, his name is Ponyo.