Showing posts with label Green Tea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Green Tea. Show all posts

Saturday, July 04, 2015

Saturday, July 04, 2015 cally
1/2 Roll opened not too long ago and is situated on Main street off King Edward St. We were actually planning on going to Hawker's Delight, but because that was quite packed and it didn't seem like it had air conditioning, my friend suggested we go across the street for some sushi.

1/2 Roll used to be Itadakimasu, which is where the sushi in cute little balls (that were surfacing on my Instagram) came from. Unfortunately, I never had a chance to try Itadakimasu and now it has probably changed owners and is now known as 1/2 Roll. As their name says it, this sushi restaurant allows you to order half rolls, which I think is quite nice. If you're just going with one other person (like I did), then that allows you to have more variety. However, it didn't seem like their menu was promoting the 1/2 roll concepts as when the menu came, I totally forgot that we could order half rolls.

We ended up getting takoyaki ($4.95) and a House Combo ($21.95). I don't know what happened to me, but lately I've been shy of taking food pictures. You'd think that the more you do something, the better you'd get. But this has been the other way for me. Anyways, back to the takoyaki... that was a disappointment for me. The order came with 5 takoyaki's and I thought they were too oily, the batter was too sticky, and they were quite small. I'd rather go to the night market and get some there.

On the other hand, the House Combo was quite impressive when it first came. Considering the price, I would say it's a cheap eat. From left to right in the picture: House roll, dynamite roll, spicy tuna roll, California roll, tuna roll, sockeye salmon roll, tuna and salmon sushi. This definitely was able to fill us both up. However, even though the salmon looks good, it had a slight fishy taste to it....which leads me to think that it isn't so fresh.

House Combo
One thing I have to get at a sushi restaurant is green tea. Not only do I love having sushi with green tea, but I think the green tea that they serve can say a lot about a sushi restaurant. (Though, I'm still trying to figure out what it is saying.) Usually, I'd prefer genmaicha (green tea with roasted rice) with my sushi. This restaurant served more of a matcha green tea, which was still very good and tasted authentic. In addition, I really liked their cute ceramic cups.


I really liked the wallpaper in this restaurant. It brought a nice sense of environment that made me feel like I wasn't in Vancouver. I did hear that these were from Itadakimasu, the previous restaurant. Is that true?

One thing I found that was a little unique/weird about this restaurant is this table. It's kind of smack right in the middle of the restaurant and it holds some toothpicks, a plant, candies, and their business card. 


Even though the takoyaki and the salmon sashimi were a disappointment, I'd still come back to this restaurant to try other things offered on their menu. Plus, they have reasonable prices and provided a pleasant customer experience.

Click to add a blog post for 1/2 Roll on Zomato

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 cally
Green tea is not only one of my favourite teas, but also one of my favourite flavours to go to when it comes to bubble tea, ice-cream, mochi, etc. Also, whenever there's the option of matcha, I'd always choose matcha because it has a much stronger and smoother green tea taste when compared to "green tea". This is because matcha is a finely grounded up powder of the leaf, so when you use matcha, you actually have the whole leaf, rather than just the brewed water. Believe it or not, there are many different grades of matcha, depending on the location of the leaves, the grounding technique, oxidation, etc. Today, I'm going to talk about a matcha green tea powder that I've tried - Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder.

Kiss Me Organic Matcha

Matcha green tea is said to 
  • be high in antioxidants (specifically 137 times the antioxidants of brewed green tea for this one)
  • detoxifies the body
  • improve cholesterol (decreasing the "bad" LDL cholesterol)
  • be a metabolism boost - believe to contain a thermogenic component
  • increase energy and focus - yes, there is some caffeine in matcha, but apparently it also contains relaxing properties which counterbalances the caffeine effect (Buddhist monks drank it to remain focussed and calm during long hours of meditation!) 
And specifically this one, it is 

  • USDA certified organic - leaves are lab-tested to ensure the purest form and that they're free from pesticides, herbicides, harmful fertilizers


Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder comes in resealable bags of 113g of matcha powder. In addition, you also get a downloadable recipe book that includes a variety of recipes including cocktails, smoothies, muffins, truffles, cookies, dips, curry, soups, and the list goes on! 

Now, I know some of you may be reading this and doubting all the benefits that I've listed. (I did too, because they sound too good to be true). However, do you really need all of them to be true or to have scientific evidence in order to love matcha? Personally, I think if just 1 of the above reasons is true, then that's already enough. With so many benefits, so many recipes, and the unique flavour, there is no reason to not love matcha. 

Here's the matcha latte I made, super easy!
matcha green tea latte

1 tablespoon of matcha green tea powder
melt the powder with hot water (~4 tbsp)
steam 3/4 cups of milk (hot!)
pour into your cup along with foam
sprinkle with powder
drizzle with honey (optional)


Kiss Me Organic Matcha green tea powder brought a rich, authentic taste into my cup of latte. The aroma from the powder is strong, yet pleasing. There is also a slight bitterness that comes along with it, so do add some honey if you don't like that. Personally, I like that slight taste of bitterness. This was so easy and so deliciously good! You can also easily customize the amount of matcha green tea powder to your liking. 

Since I couldn't do any fancy latte art......

I also made matcha green tea waffles from scratch! 

Kiss Me Organic Matcha Green Tea Powder is exclusively available on Amazon.ca ($29 CAD) and Amazon.com ($25USD)

Disclaimer: I was provided with the product for the review purposes. The opinions and content of this post are entirely mine.