Maurya Indian Cuisine

I have been facinated about Maurya ever since I saw the episode of Food Network's "Opening Soon". The show showed the restaurant owner's passion and determination on establishing an authantic place for vancouverites. Now finally, after more than 3 years, I go to Maurya for the first time.


I personally is a sucker for raised ceilings, so I already fell in love with the place. Other than that, the decro are very warn and welcoming. Another great thing about the place is the first moment you walk in, the fragrance of herbs and spices immediately tickles you stomach and taste buds - you know you are ready for food.


For $12.99 lunch buffet, I think it was great value. Choices of meats are limited - chicken tandori, butter chicken, and lamb currie. But other vegetarian curries are flavourful and they hit the spot. Even though personally I prefer more heat in my food, the seasoning in Maurya is just enough so it is acceptable to everyone.


At the end of the meal there are desserts waiting for you too. The rich mango mousse is not overly sweet, but I know I should not have too much of it... cuz, you know, to watch my figure :D

I want to fly

I want to fly, no matter it's with the wings of the angels or demons.




Photo by vramak (http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/vramak/3609125770/)

Vancouver getting ready for Olympics

Less than one month away... Really should hurry up and get ready, like, now!

Kinda Sweet

Isn't this kinda sweet?

Recently I have been told that the prefect girl does not exist (and I should not keep looking for her). But I don't think I am looking for the perfect girl - I am looking for my soulmate, my other half.

I know my other half will not be perfect - I am not perfect. But this is what make us a match; our imperfections compliments and completes each other.

缺陷美不是一種缺陷，而是一種美。

(photo source: iPhone app - Backgrounds)

Dinner at Mui Ngo Gai Vietnamese Restaurant

Today's adventure would be at the Mui Ngo Gai. Hear about it from my boss for weeks now and since tonight is another lazy night, I decided to go to this place which is kinda on my way home.




The salad wrap is pretty standard. I think it is pretty hard to mess it up.




The pho looks good. Veggies are crispy and the raw beef slices are showing a beautiful hue of red. And the soup base is not overly "sweetened" with MSG like some other places.




My seafood vermicelli arrived. I have the option of choosing dry noodle or noodle in soup, so of course I choose dry noodles with soup on the side :p Even though the seafoods are just blanched, but the sauce and caramelized shallots worked nicely with all the ingredients. It is quite a light and refreshing dish.




This crepe dish is unlike anything I have seen. It is a crispy crepe with prawns, beef slices, and bean sprouts cooked and folded inside. The way to eat it is to crumble the crepe and sprouts, choose a leaf of either mint or basil, wrap everything in a piece of lettuce, and dip in the Vietnamese fish sauce. The crepe is flavourful, the herb and fish sauce is very refreshing and appetizing, and it is fun to eat with your hands.




The only negative of the night is this caramelized ribs. It is a very salty dish, no veggie at all, and ~13 pieces of bite-size rib ends costed $12. We need asked for some blanched sprouts to go with the dish to wash out the saltiness. However the server was nice enough and did not charge us for the sprouts.

Other than the ribs, the food is great, the servicers are very nice and smiley, and you can tell they have many loyal customers that return to the place over and over again. Overall it was a great experience. Compare to other Vietnamese restaurants, Mui Ngo Gai have a great variey in its menu with things you don't see anywhere else. And it was an inexpensive place that you know you will be back to experience the entire menu.

Kitchen Experiment 02

Ah~ On a lazy Thursday night. Don't want to go into the trouble of cooking many dishes again, so a bowl of noodles is just the solution.

I have braised pork from prior night. So all I need to cook up are some veggies and the soup base. For soup base tonight I just used purple seaweed and dry shitake mushroom plus some daishi (bonito fish concentrate). Then for veggies I have mustar greens, yu tsoi, green onion, soy bean sprout, enoki mushroom, and frozen corn. Plus some Korean snack seaweed, shichimi (Japanese chilli and spices powder), and kimchi, then my bowl of simple noodles is finished.

Overall not bad, edible. But the soup is too light to go with the fatty pork. Maybe I should've gone more Japanese and made a rich Miso base. But the end product looks good, doesn't it!

Brunch at Milestone

Had brunch at the Milestone on Loungheed Hwy just because my brother have a gift certificate for the restaurant. I went to Milestones in Yaletown and Richmond before, and I ordered the Santa Fe Breakfast Burrito the both times. Those were two really enjoyable meals because the quality of the food and service was good and consistant the both times. So today I decide to order something different. I was in the mood for meat so I ordered the Grill Chicken Corn Hash, and my brother ordered the Prime Rib Hash and a Mimosa.

I did not ordered a drink because I will need to drive later. But the Mimosa sure looks good when it arrived.

I was a bit disappointed when the meals arrived, just because I didn't see a big chunk of meat on the plate. But when I started to dig into the food I was happy. The potato hash was crunchy, the eggs were well poached (even though I would prefer maybe half a minute less cooking time so I can get the fully runny yolk), the chicken was still tender even after being thinnly sliced and cooked with the hash, and the while thing was quite well seasoned, kinda tangy and on the sweet side. The whole plate became even better after I drizzled in a generous amount of tobasco sauce... Yum!

I was quite happy with the plate until my brother mentioned that our dishes were probably made of a week worth of left over grill chicken and prime rib (this is just a guess so don't sue me for writing this). However, if this is true, kudos to them for creatively use any excess materials. I am always a fan of creativity and efficiency, and if the food is still fresh and delicious like I had today when, by all means, count me in!

Kitchen Experiment 01

Tortilla wrap, egg with black sesame and green onion, melted Swiss
cheese, and Korean seaweed snack all heated in a pan and roll up while
hot, then topped with Hoisin sauce. Chrispy, savoury, and light.

Hot ginger with brown sugar drink, pour into lightly beater egg - a
warm drink for a cold winter morning.

What do you want in life?

What do you want in life?

To be rich? Famous? Influential? Powerful? Or just to be loved?

How do we know which choices in life is truley right for us? How do we know life is taking us towards our hearts' desires?

If we simply say "I just want to be happy", what choices are there to guide us forward? Is happiness really in the form you see it in this moment? Will love guarantee happiness? Or will happiness grow mature as we get older and people grow in and out of love as time passes?

Love is full of uncertainty, yet loneliness is certain.

Unknown put breaks in life, yet we stumble forward.

(picture from stylem.com - Background iPhone app)