Richmond Dessert Options

Photo Credit : Frank Yeh

 I've always wanted to start a food blog, like those restaurant review blog, because I eat out almost everyday and I love trying out new places. It's rather difficult for me to have a nice detailed food blog though, because of these reasons:

• I'm usually too lazy to include so much information : ( 
• I'm usually too hungry and I'll finish 3 dishes before remembering to take photos 
• I take ugly food pictures, especially with low light

I figure these problem will continue, but I'll try to start something, maybe I'll become accustomed to it and become to best food blogger EVERRRRR :D *that escalated quickly. 

To start, I'll share some of the older desserts I devoured in Richmond and love :  

This is what they called a 盆栽布丁.

I assume its translation would be "Pot Pudding" ? This is Strike (破店) 's signature dessert. Okay, I guess I am only good at eating but terrible at describing what I ate. I'm already encountering a writer's block. So basically, this is a cup filled with cubed pudding, and some white stuff, and covered with chocolate powder. HAHAHA, whatever, take it or leave it, that's the best I can do. 

Point is, I like it. I like desserts that are not too sweet, and this is one of them. The cocoa powder was a tiny bit bitter but it mixes well with the creamy white stuff (hahaha, forgive me), and pudding.The pudding though, is those cubes most BBT restaurant put in their pudding tea, instead of those authentic Japanese puddings I like.

I like Strike's savory foods as well, it's a great place to have a casual Taiwanese dinner while saving some tummy space for this light dessert :) Strike has two locations in Vancouver. I had this pot pudding in Richmond and am not sure if the Kitslano location has it. I prefer dining at the Richmond location as the Kits one has less selection and often run out of their menu items. 

Looks pretty amazing right ? It's called the Honey Toast (蜜糖土司). This is a dessert concept borrowed from the famous Dazzling Cafe in Taiwan. I ordered it at the 0755 Restaurant & Lounge in Richmond. It was different, I prefer the ones from Dazzling, but this is not bad either. The What8ver Cafe in Richmond offers Honey Toasts as well. It's a huge loaf of bread being hollowed and stuffed with its own honey and butter glazed and toasted one-bite-sized cubes. The entire loaf is then covered with ice creams, whipped cream, and fresh fruits. My mouth is getting watery as I type. 

I don't know why 0755 has such a bad rating on Urban Spoon. To be honest, I think their food tasted pretty good. Maybe a little over-priced ? The restaurant has went through some re-branding - it was an up-scale lounge serving expensive alcoholic drinks tailoring to the Chinese population. Now it's a Szechuan family style restaurant that has an upscale lounge/club interior with a huge screen showing Victoria Secret Fashion Shows above a very legit bar. So I guess it's a little weird. Plus the fact that most of its servers don't speak English and they seemed to shy away from customers who can't speak Chinese. I spoke Chinese when I was there and I thought the service was okay but I can imagine English speakers feeling frustrated with the service. All these aside, its food alone, is honestly not bad. It's a place I'd revisit. 

There's not much authentic Cantonese dessert place in Vancouver, and this is a super popular one. It's a nice little shop located on Saba Road in Richmond.  I just found out from blogging this that the shop is actually called Bubble Fruity (果間茶坊).  It's more commonly known as 桂花林 among my friends. Bubble Fruity is always crowded and there's usually a wait due to the small physical space available. I like Bubble Fruity's interior and utensils. It's simple but really reminds me of a traditional HK tong sui shop. They offer very classic Cantonese desserts such as the black sesame paste, tofu fa, and the glutinous rice balls such as those shown in the picture above. The menu is reasonably priced and the service (to me) is homely and pleasant. I find their desserts a bit too sweet, but then again, I do prefer less sweet stuff, so...   But I do crave for their dessert from time to time, especially NOW. I'm getting hungry writing this blog. 

When it comes to dessert options, we usually think downtown - those western cake places. But don't forget Richmond offers some nice Asian options as well !