My Birthday Dinner at Blue Canoe with My Family

First, I apologize for the poor quality of these pics. They were taken with my new iPhone, given to me from my dear husband for my birthday. He also took me and the kids out for my birthday dinner at Blue Canoe. This is a family fave, and our favourite table is the table for 4 in front of the fireplace. Perfect on a cold evening.

We started with the 2lb chicken drummettes, half in BBQ and the other half honey garlic. Yum. This is where I discovered the BBQ is my favourite. I used to prefer the honey garlic as it is truly delectable, but the BBQ has the perfect sauciness to it without the taste being drowned out by spiciness.

 This is Mark's entree...the salmon skillet. It had red potatoes and tomatoes. He really enjoyed it.

This is my daughters' entree pick. They split a shrimp pesto linguine. This is truly a great dish. It's my second favourite entree.

And this is my entree, the Sablefish linguine with a tomato and garlic sauce. So yummy!

This is the lemon meringue pie, big enough for the 4 of us to share. I'm so-so with this dessert; but I'm in the minority. My husband and kids seem to love this one and order it whenever they can.

Birthday Cookie

This is the fabulous cookie I recieved. It tasted as great as it looked. It was a delicious gingerbread cookie, hand-made and decorated by Heidi of Heidi's Cookie Creations. Yum...

Browns Social House (Richmond, B.C., Canada)

My friends held a birthday get-together for me on Dec. 8. Very sweet of them. There were 5 of us. My first time at Browns. It was actually very good! Four of us ordered the same thing: Sushi combo. We shared the yam fries.

The Sushi Combo's Dynamite Roll and Cowboy Salad - Very well made. Yummy and filling.

Blackened Fish Sandwich - It looked yummy! Made me wish I had it.

Yam Fries with Chipotle Aioli - Excellent yam fries. The aioli complemented the fries very well.

Shanghai River (Richmond, B.C., Canada)

Ate here with my family and my brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and step-niece (aged 9). The place was crowded since it was Dec. 28, a holiday Monday. Also, it is Shanghai Palace, where they make northern Chinese dim sum items and noodles by hand and from scratch. Everything is so fresh. In fact, when you get there, I highly suggest you order the beef noodle soup immediately. Because the noodles are hand-made, it takes a bit of time. I have to confess here that I forgot to start taking pictures of the food. I was sooo hungry that my stomach, not my brain, took over my actions. But here're the dishes I did get to take some snaps of:



Xiu Lon Bau (XLB) - perfectly made and just the right soupiness.

Wonton in Soup - OK, would not order again. I only ordered it as I'm a wonton fanatic.

 

Yang Chow Fried Rice - Tasty. Love the edamame beans they put added to the fried rice.














Other dishes we ordered were:

• Stir fry pea tips - yum, perfectly cooked, very tender
• Potstickers - great flavour, made fresh
• Beef noodle soup - spicy because I forgot to tell the waitress not to make it spicy. But it was still good. The noodles were al dente.
• Chicken in peanut sauce with cucumber and rice noodle - an appetizer plate. This was so refreshing and tasty.
• Green onion pancake - not as good as other places but decent and made fresh.