Costco: Boba Milk Tea Mochi

 I saw this at Costco the other day:  Boba Milk Tea Mochi.

Boba Milk Tea Mochi

I love bubble tea, and I thought I would buy it and give it try!

It came with 60 mochis, and these taste great!!

These taste authentic and they were made in Taiwan.  I wished that Costco will keep these on the shelves permanently.

Costco: Popcorn M&M Minis

 I saw this in Costco the other day:  Popcorn M&M Minis

It looks very interesting and probably tastes good for kids.  It might be too sweet for me.

New Kumamon Country Ma'am Cookies in Suzuya

 

I saw this pack of this famous Japanese cookies "Country Ma'am" in Suzuya in Burnaby the other day.  In Japan, there are usually many kind of local food and manufacturers will make different taste of cookies in different regions.

Kumamon is a mascot from the Kumamoto prefecture in Kyushu region, Japan.  This box's taste is "Yakimaron".  I supposed that it is chestnut flavor...

Kumamon Kumamoto Country Ma'am

I did not buy it as all import cookies are double or triple priced in Canada.  It is tough to live away from Japan when you love the food there.

New Koala's March: Pokemon Collaboration

 

I found this one new Koala's March in the supermarket again.  

This time it is a Pokemon collaboration!

The box has Pikachu and Cinderace's pictures on it.  The taste is cheese cake.

Koala's March Pokemon with Cinderace

Koala's March and Pokemon

The interesting thing is that on each snack, not only it has different koalas on it, it has different Pokemon's drawing on it.

For example, it has Pikachu, Cinderace, Pinsir, Bewear, Marill, etc.

Koala's March and Pokemon collaboration

Taste-wise, I don't think it is anything special.  The characters are very cute though if you are a pokemon fan.

McDonald's Poutine (Canada) Review

If you are a Canadian, you will know that Canadians love poutine, a dish that originated from Eastern Canada.  It is fries covered with cheese and gravy sauce.  Recently, New York Fries has released different kinds of sauces, making the dish even more popular.

By the way, 'New York Fries' is purely a Canadian company.
It has no store in the USA.  It does have stores in Korea and Hong Kong.

McDonald's decided to cover this market niche, so they release their version recently:

McDonald's Canada's New Poutine Menu

Here is a picture for the poutine.  To be honest, for almost 4 dollars, the amount of poutine is so little.
It is not enough for a snack.  Also, it tastes awful compared to the other stores' poutine.

You can get something double the size with way better sauces from chain stores like New York Fries.
It is not worth it, so I will give it a 4 out of 10 over all.

I will not be surprised that this menu disappears in 3 months.

Olympics Oreo Cookies

My wife found a new product on the shelves in Walmart:  Olympics Oreo Cookies!

Olympics Oreo Cookies

I guess they started the marketing campaigns for the Olympics to sell products.
I think the energy in Vancouver for the Sochi Olympics is not even close to 4 years ago.
Of course, because it is not in Vancouver.  4 years has gone by so fast.
I don't know how 4 years gone by so fast.....what did I do?
Actually, the decade after I started working gone by super quickly.

Is that the way my grandparents felt??

Wedding Anniversary: Restaurant: The French Table in Vancouver

We decided to have our anniversary meal this year when the kids are in school.
Therefore, I took a Monday off in September in order to enjoy our meal together quietly.

The restaurant I picked this year is The French Table on Main Street in Vancouver.
The owner was a chef for the King of Belgium before he moved to Vancouver and opened his own restaurant.  He moved his restaurant from downtown to Main Street a couple of years ago.

The French Table Restaurant in Vancouver

The location is at an odd place beside a bunch of small shops and a famous Chinese restaurant.
Nearby, there is no beautiful parks or attractions or businesses.
However, inside, it has the subtle atmosphere of a French restaurant, with little things decorated like retro maps, wine on the wall, etc.  The restaurant is small but very quiet on a week day.

Croque Monsieur

We ordered Croque Monsieur, Mushroom soup, Moules Frites, Lemon Tart and Chocolate Profiterole.
The Croque Monsieur was so good that it blew us away.  The cheese was just perfectly merged on the toast.  Absolutely delicious.

Murshroom soup french table

The mushroom soup was thick and not like other generic mushroom soup.
It taste like they really had a lot of grind-up mushroom in the soup with olive oil.

moules frites french table

Moules Frites was nice as expected with lots of fries.  We could not finish all the fries and had to pack it home.

Lemon Tart and Chocolate Profiterole

The Lemon Tart was absolutely amazing, too.  I was so surprised that it was not sour as I expected.  Lemon tarts that I had usually are so sour that I don't find them tasty at all.
This one, it had the lemon smell and faint flavor, but with the cranberry cream sauce, it was delicious and balanced.

The Chocolate Profiterole was very interesting, too.  It had many layers.
Fresh cream, almond, Puff, ice cream, etc for 3 or four layers, and it was tasty.
Since you can't buy the taste like this in Safeway or other super market, this is worth the money.
Plus, it was not sweet like supermarket ones...

The location is a little odd but for the food, I would return to this restaurant if I had the chance.

Trader Joe's Garlic Hummus Dip and Corn Chips

We got Trader Joe's Organic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chip Rounds and Garlic Hummus Dip to try.

Trader Joe's Garlic Hummus Dip

We have never try Garlic Hummus Dip before, and it did taste delicious!
The taste of the dip actually merges very well with the corn chips.

I was pleasantly surprised!

Product Review: Trader Joe's 4 Croissants

In January, we got this from Trader Joe's.  4 Chocolate Croissants.

Trader Joe's Croissants

It was interesting because you need to take them out of the box, leave them out overnight, and they will "grow" bigger after you wake up.  Sounds funny....but it is interesting.

Here is the pictures of them.

Then, you baked them...
Then, we get the breakfast with croissants...they are absolutely delicious!!!!
They taste better than a lot of croissant outside and do not cost you 2 dollars per croissant.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons

I found this new Macaron dessert from Trader Joe's during Christmas season.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons

It does taste very good with fresh peppermint flavor!

However, I do like the original macaron better because they have more flavors within the boxes.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons 2

It is good for a Christmas snack with family!

Starbucks: Lemon Cranberry Scone

Starbucks came out with this Lemon Cranberry Scone that my wife loves:

Starbucks Lemon Cranberry Scone

It tastes very good that she looks for them when we go to the malls.

Starbucks: Salted Caramel Mocha

Usually, Starbucks releases its seasonal drinks around Thanksgiving in Canada.

This year, they had a few flavors as well, including Pumpkin Spice Latte and Salted Caramel Mocha.

We tried quite a few Salted Caramel Mocha and love it.  It was available in Starbucks in Safeway for only 2 dollars!

Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha

Tim Horton's Halloween Donuts 2012

Currently, Tim Horton's having these cute Halloween donuts on sale for 1.19 each.

I like the designs (I have seen two types so far.)
They do look cute and colorful with a picture in the middle!

Even though they are just sprinkled chocolate donuts, I will have it for night snack!

Tim Horton's Smile Cookies 2012

Tim Horton's produces Smile Cookies every year comes September.

I bought more cookies for my kids, and this time, they are smiling...haha

Tim Horton's Smile Cookie 2012

Last year, the cookie I got was not smiling...see below:

http://bentochihuahua.blogspot.ca/2011/09/tim-hortons-smile-cookie-or-no-smile.html

funny..

McDonald's Canada: New Caramel Baked Pie

McDonald's release the new Caramel Baked Pie.

I would say it is one of the better tasting pie.
(chocolate banana is still my favorite!)

McDonald's Caramel baked pie

This one has a simple taste but it is a safe bet: Caramel.

I would give it a 8.5 out of 10...not bad for a McDonald's dessert.

I would sure buy this again because we love it and the kids love it.

My Son's 5th Birthday Gifts: Mario Kart Bed Set

My son became 5 years old this August. 
Boy....where did my life go? So fast...

He looooves Super Mario, so we gave him the whole Mario Kart bedset.
He completes his room with mario figures, plush, poster, tissue box, turtle shells, blankets, cover, pillow...etc.
The whole package!!

He was really happy to get his customized bedroom for his birthday!!
(man...I wish I had that when I was young.  All these merchandizes were not there.)


Anyways, here is the Thomas the Train cake we ordered from Price Smart:

My son's 5 year old birthday cake and food

It is a nice cake considering the cake from Costco, Superstore and Safeway are absolutely disgusting and full with sugar.
The cream they use here are better and we get to choose the design!

My wife made a lot of wonderful dishes for him as usual!!

He enjoyed his birthday!
(so good to be a kid...well, as an adult..it is just very hard to enjoy birthdays for some reason. Not sure why.)

Starbucks' New Refreshers Beverages Very Berry Hibiscus

Starbucks released their own new line of summer refresher drink: Very Berry Hibiscus.

I didn't really care for the two raspberries put inside the drinks.
However, the drink tastes pretty good with both berry and hibiscus tastes.

It does have caffeine inside the drink...not sure why.
Maybe they assumed that people always needed to get high when they go to Starbucks.

(even when they are on summer breaks....haha)

Starbucks Very Bery Hibiscus Refresher Beverage

I still wished they can do more.
It was good but I did not need the caffeine or the berries...

Trader Joe's Baked Jalapeno Cheese Crunchies

Last week, we bought the Baked Jalapeno Cheese Crunchies from Trader Joe's.

You can tell from the name and pictures....It is Cheetos in the Jalapeno taste.

For those not familiar with Cheetos:
http://www.fritolay.com/our-snacks/cheetos-crunchy-cheddar-jalapeno.html
(Apparently, the official Cheetos brand has a jalapeno taste product, too.)

Trader Joe's Jalapeno Cheese Crunchies

Here is a picture of the crunchies:

Trader Joe's Jalapeno cheese 2

I have to say it tastes pretty good for 2 dollars.  It makes a good choice of night snack.

Canada Day July 2012 in Coquitlam, BC (Free Cupcakes)

This year, we decided to go to Coquitlam for Canada Day celebrations.

I have heard that they were are holding a well organized celebration around a lake park area near Coquitlam Town Centre.
Indeed, it was well planned and had entertainment for the whole family!

They had lots of food including restaurant vendors and kids play areas.
Here are pictures of some wild birds from a preservation society:

Coquitlam eagle

coquitlam owl

They also had lots and lots of free Canada Day cupcakes donated by a local cupcake company:

Free cupcakes for everyone in coquitlam bc canada

We waited around for 10 minutes with 40 other people and when it opens up around noon.
We all got our free cupcakes!!

lots of free cupcakes in canada day celebration 2012

Here is a close up photo for the free Canada Day cupcake:

canada day cupcake 2012

My kids love this company's cupcakes! 

Mr. Mike's 5 dollar burger

The local restaurant, Mr. Mike's, actually sold a big 5 dollar burger that was wonderful!!
It tastes like a 15 dollar burger and beats lots of other restaurant and fastfood chains' burgers.
It was amazing!! yummy!!

We also tried the Russian House Restaurant's Mushroom Wrap.
It was okay.  However, the food was over priced with the wraps going at 4 dollars....

We also got coupons from a local kids' company called "Koko's".

Overall, the weather wasn't the best but we will go back for more celebrations till the kids are big.

Product Review: Trader Joe's Dessert: Gone Bananas!

I love Trader Joe's, and I looooove their desserts.
Their desserts and cakes are usually reasonable priced and well made.
(Just my opinion because it depends on your taste and the dessert item.)

Today, I found another new item in the frozen dessert section:  Gone Bananas!!

From the picture, you can see the box is very cute with a monkey and well designed!
also....it is only 2 dollars!!!!

After you take it out of the box....

The chocolate is crunchy and tasty.
After you take a bite, the cold fresh banana filling will come out.
The sweetness of the banana is just right and it melts in your mouth!

For 2 dollars, I would buy it again and eat it with my kids!