Chew Restaurant - Grand Opening

I was invited by Chinesebites to attend the grand opening of Chew Restaurant on Kingsway a few weeks ago, a new Taiwanese bubble tea and snack place. The place is spacious with very cool decor.

To celebrate the grand opening, a full roasted pig was ordered. This was so delicious, with very crispy skin. Yum!

We started off with fresh water melon and pineapple juice. The presentation was amazing - the fruit was carved out and served on a tray with dry ice. I tried the watermelon drink - very cool and refreshing. It will definitely be something I order during the summer!

Next we had a sharing platter with various Taiwanese snacks. My favourite was the deep fried chicken nuggets. They were tasty with a crunchy outside but moist inside.

Clockwise from top left: Deep fried chicken nuggets, lotus root chips, Taiwanese-style kimchi, marinated pig ears, and deep fried squid.

Next we had three spice stewed chicken, which is a very popular dish in Taiwanese cuisine and some sauteed shrimp.

Another round of drinks! These were green tea and black tea with coconut jelly on the bottom and a cream on the top. It's a very rich drink and had an interesting taste - almost like buttercream!

These dumplings had a juicy morsel of pork inside. A perfect meal for a cold day in the winter.

We also tried some hot pot. One was spicy and one was regular. There were lots of fish and meat balls and glass noodles. Mmm.

Last we had some blanched pork served with green onion and some sauce.

Make sure to check out Chew Restaurant to get your fix of Taiwanese food! The full menu is available on Chew Restaurant’s Facebook page.

 

  
 Disclaimer: The food mentioned above were provided free of charge by Chew Restuarant. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way. 

Taste Of Aberdeen - Food Adventures at the Aberdeen Food Court

I was invited to Aberdeen Mall last week by Chinese Bites to the Taste of Aberdeen media event to join other foodies to sample items from every vendor at the food court. The food court at Aberdeen is smaller than most malls, but there were still twenty, so I was prepared for a night full of eating.

Clockwise from top right:

We started off with drinks from several vendors:

8 Juice House  - special (mango coconut juice with tapioca, mango and pomelo bits)
Estea Express - Milk tea with pearls
Strike - Matcha soy bean
Saboten - Iced Genmaicha (Japanese green tea)
Teppan Kitchen - Iced honey matcha tea
Bubble Waffle - Iced lemon Ribena

I love drinks and I had a hard time deciding which one to choose, but I ended up with the 8 Juice House special. It was a rich and refreshing drink, though I think because the pomelo is out of season, the fruit bits were hard. The tapioca made it quite filling too!

Aji Hana provided us our first dish - a Sakura roll with prawn tempura, avocado and chopped scallop. This was a pretty good roll and I would definitely try it again!

Bubble Waffle Cafe - I usually have bubble waffles at the night market so this one of my favourite treats. We had the original flavour but there are different flavours you can order as well.

Szechuan House - Hot sour noodle. I am not a fan of spicy things and this one packed a punch!

Pan fried Chinese chives with pork dumplings from Chef of Dumplings. They were served with soy sauce and vinegar. Tasty!

Curry Fish Balls from Bubble Waffle. I used to eat curry fish balls when I was in highschool, so I really enjoyed these. They had a mild spicy curry taste.

Clockwise from top left:

Deep fried chicken wings and deep fried squid from Wu Fung Dessert. I love squid so this one one of my favourites. A bit salty though.

Sticky rice from Leung Kee. This was pretty good and a large serving size!

Lung Kee served prawn wontons. It would have been better with some noodles!

Popcorn chicken nuggets from Yougo Chicken. You can't really go wrong with fried chicken!

Kitchen Korea - Chicken bulgogi & pork belly. These were okay, but it was near the end of the meal so I was slowing down.

Drunken chicken hotpot from Tofu Hotpot. This was a really hearty Chinese soup and you could really taste and smell the wine.

Clockwise from top left:

Club house sandwich from Strike. This was a really filling sandwich with so many layers. Egg, sausage, tomato, cucumber, you name it!

'A' grade ribeye teppan with egg and corn from Teppan Kitchen. This was a really large serving size (a lot of rice) so definitely share. The food comes on a sizzling hot plate so you can mix the raw egg in with the other ingredients. Our plate wasn't hot enough, but it was a really good.

Mambo Café served baked pork chop on rice. The pork chops were very tender, however the tomato sauce tasted like it was from a can, so I wasn't that much of a fan.

Egg rolls from Strike. These crepes were filled with an odd combination of egg, corn and tuna. I wasn't a fan of this dish but I think if they changed the ingredients inside, I would have enjoyed it more.

Two types of chicken from Leung Kee - Soy sauce and Long Gong chicken. Both were very good, though the soy sauce chicken was a tad too salty.

Clockwise from top right:

To start off dessert, we had shaved ice ‐ A Dream in Eden (strawberries, kiwi, mango, mango ice cream) from Frappe Bliss. This was one of my favourites of the night.

Choco banana fresh cream mini crepe from Mazazu Crepe. Delicious!

Mini cream puffs and cheesecake stick from Beard Papa's.

Saboten set (prawn, pork tenderloin, pork loin) from Saboten This came with rice and miso soup. I only tried the pork, and it was decent.

Hainanese chicken on rice from Café D'Lite Express. The chicken was good and the rice was very flavourful. If only I wasn't so full...

Matcha Delight shaved ice (matcha ice cream, chewy rice balls, red bean) from Frappe Bliss. I liked the fruit flavoured one better but I can't really say no to shaved ice!

Some of the food were hit and miss but with so many vendors and food choices, there seems to be something for everyone at the Aberdeen food court!

Disclaimer: The food mentioned above were provided free of charge by each of the vendors at Aberdeen. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way. 

Tea Time at Chatime Bubble Tea Shop

First founded in Taiwan, Chatime is a popular bubbletea shop located in 80 cities worldwide, with almost 1200 stores in four continents. Two locations recently opened in Vancouver - 1545 Broadway and 1274 Robson St.

I was invited by ChineseBites to try out some of their drinks. Chatime boasts a variety of drinks on their menu, from milk teas, juices to smoothies and more dessert-like mousse drinks. You are able to customize your drinks with different sugar and ice levels. Eight toppings are available: pearls, grass jelly, coconut jelly, red bean, coffee jelly, aloe vera, rainbow jelly and pudding. Pearls are made fresh throughout the day and had a very soft and chewy texture. They use fresh fruit and fruit juices for their fruity drinks and I particularly enjoyed the mango smoothie, which is in their top 10 list of drinks. It had a rich mango flavour and was very sweet. Others in my group opted for some classic drinks also on the top 10 list: Pearl Milk Tea, Matcha Red Bean Milk Tea and Red Bean Pearl Milk Tea.

We also tried the Taiwan Mango QQ, which had pearls and coconut jelly, Tieguanyin Tea Latte and Kumquat Lemon Juice, which was very sweet - I'll try asking for half sweet next time!

Chatime is located in a great shopping area, so it's easy to pop in for an afternoon drink. I definitely will be back to try some of their other drinks!

Disclaimer: The products mentioned above was provided by ChineseBites and Chatime for review. The opinions expressed in this post are those of Savvy Shopping, Deals and Reviews and have not been influenced in any other way.