Kam Do Restaurant & Bakery 金都餐廳餅店

I love bakeries and freshly baked goods. Among the abundant Chinese bakeries here in Vancouver and Richmond, Kam Do is my favourite for winter melon cakes (alternatively called sweetheart cake). In Chinese, they're called 老婆饼, which directly translates to "wife's cookie". Why such a name for a pastry? There are a few legends that describes the origin of this pastry. One legend says that winter melon cakes were invented by a man and dedicated them to his wife. His wife had sold herself in return for money that was needed for medicine for her father-in-law.

I've tried many winter melon cakes from many different Chinese bakeries here, and I have to say that I fell in love with Kam Do's after the first bite. Be gentle with them as the outside is flaky and delicate, but the inside is filled with a paste that makes it chewy. I think Kam Do does an excellent job of making the outside flaky as well as the taste of the paste and the degree of chewiness. And as you may know, I love chewy food! 

老婆饼 Winter melon cake

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Pho Tan's Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

Basil leaves, bean sprouts, serrano chili, lime

On a chilly day, all I want is something nice and warm in my tummy - fast. My friend and I settled for a bowl of pho in Kerrisdale. I fell in love with pho the first time I tried it. I find that the pho noodles are very unique, love the soup base, and love the beef as well. At Pho Tan's, all of their beef noodle soups (pho) come in a small or large for a reasonable price of $6 and $7, respectively. I ordered the phõ tái sách, which is sliced rare beef and beef tripes with rice noodle soup. (Don't worry, they have a nice and simple description of each one underneath their name).

They also serve each table with bean sprouts, basil leaves, serrano chili, and lime. I've never eaten bean sprouts raw, so when my bowl of noodles came, I put a bunch of bean sprouts deep into the bowl to "cook" it. As you can see as well, the beef is rare and I don't like it to be completely rare, so I'd usually push it down into the hot soup first. While they take your order at your table, I believe customers are expected to go up to them to pay.
This place is a very casual place for relatively cheaper priced, but just as delicious, pho.

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