Cafe D’Lite Express

Last week, the weather in Vancouver became unbearingly hot (to me and Wendy!).  Most homes in Vancouver are not equipped with air conditioners so that makes things worse than other locations elsewhere that receive more annual sunshine.  Fans and A/Cs were being swept off shelves during these times.  I couldn’t even go buy a fan for the office because the A/C *FAILED* when it was needed most.  That leaves many of us Vancouverites heading to the mall to escape from the heat.  This time, Aberdeen Centre saved us from the sunlight onslaught!

We were in the mood for some Laksa and Cafe D’Lite was located right beside the busiest food court outlet in Aberdeen, Wo Fung.  Since I hate lineups, I went to Cafe D’Lite instead.

We observed and liked the fact that Cafe D’Lite places a cover on the dishes ready to be picked up.  It’s a little thing but in my opinion, details go a long way. Furthermore, the lady at the cash was quite pleasant to deal with – in contrast to the folks at Wo Fung whom couldn’t buy a smile even if their lives were at peril.

Tropika 星馬印 @ Aberdeen Centre

Malaysian food has always served me well.  I like the seasoning and the spiciness that comes with most of its dishes.  The Tom Yum Gong soup has an unbelievably great flavor that keeps me coming back to it.  We decided to pay a visit to Tropika inside Aberdeen Centre in Richmond.  It’s a nicely decorated venue and would be considered as a ‘above-average’ class for Malaysian/Thai/Singaporean food.  Armed with our Entertainment coupon, Wendy and I set course for Tropika.

A couple of good shots of the place shows the decor to be spacious, well-lit by natural light, tidy and great place to enjoy your meal.  It was on a Friday night.  The place was packed with people with a couple of families waiting for a seat.  The mall was still open until 9PM.  So it’s a good place to eat and shop.  Qoola is also next door, so dessert is only a few steps away.

We ALWAYS order this.  The Roti with curry sauce has been a staple in many Malaysian restaurant for as far back as I can remember.  It’s the perfect appetizer.  Why?  The warm, soft, fluffy, slightly chewy Roti drenched in curry sauce is a perfect setup for the other curry-based items to come.  The sauce for this dish was purposely sweeter than other dish sauces to come.

The Tom Ka Gai Chicken Soup ($12.95)!  We get this every time also.  It’s a good alternative to the usual Tom Yum Gong soup.  It’s a coconut cream and lemograss based non-spicy soup.  It’s very creamy and the flavors, especially the lemongrass, really stands out.  The flavor was a bit weaker this time than usual though, but still darn good.  There were more than enough large pieces of chicken which were not dry or rough at all.  The big bowl here served about 7 smaller bowls.

ellie Tropical Cuisine 耶里流行餐坊 – CLOSED

Update May 18, 2009: This restaurant has since closed down 😥

OMG.  I’ve found the BEST LAKSA EVER (on this side of the world anyways…).

I’ve always wanted to go to Ellie to try their paper hotpot.  However now that I’m here, I’ve realized that they’ve increased their pricing and now I find it a bit too expensive…$9 for a single size hotpot, so I opted for something else, and I’m glad I did~

This restaurant is actually decorated quite nicely.  They have 4 large murals on the walls, and they’re weird, conceptual pictures which I don’t understand.  I felt relatively clean in there, for an Asian restaurant.  Service was prompt and courteous.

We started with the Roti, because Boyfriend loves it.  It was light and fluffy, slightly oily though.  The curry sauce served with it had loads of flavor without being very spicy.  However, I still like the version at Tropika more because there’s a slight sweetness to theirs.  This was $3.50.

Kari House Restaurant

Kari House

Kari House is a malaysian restaurant in Steveston Village.  It was quite packed when we visited, but then it WAS a Friday night so not surprising.  We were promptly seated even though we did not make reservations.  The restaurant’s location is quite near the end of the whole Steveston deck housing the restaurants, so there was good view of the river (Fraser River?).

We started with an appetizer of Wonton Goreng, which is basically deep fried wontons.  It was served with a chili plum sauce.  It costs $4.95 for 8 pieces.

It was not bad, but nothing to call home about.  Typically deep-fried food.  I personally wouldn’t have ordered it but the Boyfriend wanted it.  He always wants the caucasian-asian foods.

For my entree, I picked a noodle dish which I’ve never had before.  We like to do that sometimes when we’re feeling adventurous, and this was one of those nights.  My pick was called Char Tang Hoon.  It’s described as “Stir fried glass noodles with chicken & vegetables in sweet chili sauce“.  It was quite unique as I’ve never had it before.  The sauce however tasted just like how I would expect Pad Thai would taste.  It was just the type of noodles used that was different.  This dish cost $9.95.