Epic Meal Time! The King Crab Feast

As I promised!

Like Christmas this happens once a year, it is King Crab season where the price of crab finally drops down to merely "expensive" status as opposed to "are you crazy!!?!?" status. The season is quite short and normally lasts only 2-4 weeks. Last year I convinced my coworkers about partaking in a crab feast and they obliged, it went over so well that we decided to make it an annual event!

After a team effort of calling around, we settled on going to Western Lake Chinese Seafood Restaurant, it had a reasonable price of $28 per lb (off season this rises to $35-$40 per lb). If you are one of those people who buys the frozen King crab legs at the grocery store and think that it is the same, you are simply a fool. Get your friends together a save up a little for a feast. It is worth it!

Let the feast begin!

A typical King Crab meal is not only a single dish, it is 3-4 dishes, each cooked in a different way. First the service staff will come out with the crab to show to the table...let the pictures begin!

This monster was 15.5lbs! Probably the biggest King Crab I've ever eaten.

The first course is steamed King Crab legs with garlic, butter, and scallions.
Platter 1

Platter 2

Sometimes simple is truly best. The crab (as you can see) is full of meat, and incredibly sweet and delicious, yet simply cooked, it's amazing and beats Dungeoness crab any day!

Next up is the Deep Fried Knuckles with chili and garlic.

Another wow dish, the Knuckles are full of meat and coated with a light batter with chilies and garlic. Simply amazing!

The third dish is Baked King Crab fried rice served in the shell.

Now to be perfectly honest, this dish doesn't contain much crab at all, normally just the leftover bits of meat (no guts, they are not edible and I believe are actually toxic). More of a show than go, but this was incredibly tasty! The fried rice was perfect and the baked cheesy top had shrimp & crab on it. A huge serving, as there was at least 1/3rd of the rice available at the end. Loved this dish.

We of course ordered a lot of traditional chinese dishes, but I only wanted to focus on the crab. The restaurant and clean and friendly, the food amazing. I would strongly recommend you come here and try their wares. The Crab speaks for itself, it was amazing and every part of it was eaten. In the end the crab by itself cost $415 dollars alone (overall 15 dishes of food came out to $64 per head), so I recommend saving your pennies now, you won't regret it!

Slow Week.

Sorry folks, I haven't eaten anything too interesting lately, so here's something small to hold you over!

Giant Walnut Macaron from Beaucoup Bakery on Fir St. Very tasty stuff!

King Crab meal next week, I'll have pictures!

Sushi Night!


You notice that Sushi in Vancouver is abundant & cheap? There are probably as many sushi restaurants out there as there are Starbucks! But not all sushi is made the same, some places don't even use the proper fish. If the only time you eat sushi is "of all you can eat", then this review isn't for you. If your favourite sushi item is "Spicy Tuna", then this review isn't for you. If you don't know what "Escolar" is (trust me, you don't want to know), then this review isn't for you. Etc Etc.

If you enjoy a well marbled piece of Toro and don't mind paying for it, read on...

Debbie and I happened to be in Port Coquitlam for some shopping and were craving some good sushi. Unfortunately living in Surrey there aren't many good choices out there, luckily a co-worker of mine recommended this place to me a few months ago and we've been enjoying it every time were out this way.

Sushi Kamizato

The first thing you'll notice is the place is tiny, there is maybe room for about 20 people overall. 2nd thing is the hard rock & heavy metal music playing in the background and rock posters in the back of the restaurant. The chef has a thing for hair metal. This is gonna be fun!

A lot of the stuff is off menu, or specials, the menu changes quite often.

We start out with Tuna Boconcini Meatballs...

You still there? Please don't leave! I normally consider cooked tuna to be a sin against nature! But this was chopped tuna with a ball of melted mozzarella inside, then deep fried and comes with a spicy & sweet sauce. We wanted to try something different, and it was tasty! Honestly!

Tuna Four ways

This is amazing, it is proper tuna served four ways, Lightly Fried "Karage" style, Spicy, Lightly seared "Tataki" style, and Raw with sweet soy. This is an amazing dish with many different flavours. We happened to be sitting at the bar and got to watch the head sushi chef make this. Simply amazing! This is an off menu item, you need to ask the server for this.

We then got a couple of Maki rolls, the Born 2B Wild veggie roll, a seared Aburi California roll, and a simple Salmon and tuna maki roll.

The veggie roll has grilled eggplant, zucchini, artichokes, topped with fried garlic and balsamic mayo, Debbie really enjoyed this. I hate to admit this but I do enjoy the occasional California roll, and this one was filled with imitation crab & chopped shrimp, topped with a spicy mayo and seared. Pretty darn good for a california roll, I'd order this again.

Special Tempura platter

This was another special, it is skewered prawn wrapped around a scallop and fried! Served with yam fries and a sweet and spicy sauce. I love scallops and prawns! Especially served tempura style! Simple and good. Yum!

Seared Salmon Toro Nigiri

My favourite dish of the night, It is the fatty salmon belly lightly seared and topped with sea salt. I absolutely loved this dish. Sometimes the best dishes are the simplest and this is no exception.

Overall this is a fantastic restaurant, and very busy (make a reservation). The staff are friendly and the classic rock music (and hair metal) playing in the background are a nice change of pace with very good eats! It also is very reasonably priced, and it shows that food doesn't have to be expensive to be good.