We were invited to Perche No (Italian for ‘why not’) by Eric and Kaylea from Singapore! They work for the Prima Taste company – which makes some of the best instant noodles I’ve tried. We got to try some amazing dishes prepared by Chef David – he came and introduced them to us and talked about the ingredients. Was really great – like having a private special dinner. Great company and great food! I highly recommend checking out Perche No next time you’re in Seattle.
Chef David is originally from Malaysia and enjoys creating Italian dishes. Reminds me of an artist who lived near where I grew up – Paul Luvera – an Italian who carved totem poles.
PROSCIUTTO CON BURRATA
House cured ham prosciutto with fresh Burrata cheese
PORTOBELLO FUNGHI ALLA GRIGLIA
Our famous marinated, grilled Portabella mushroom
SPAGHETTI ALLA PESCATORE
Clams, mussels, calamari, scallops, prawns and marinara sauce
Durian fried rice! So good – had a great durian flavor and cili padi through out. Was great – Chef David told us about how people who weren’t keen on the scent of Durian would call the fire department as they thought there was a gas leak!
TORTELLONI DI ZUCCA
Large round pasta stuffed with butternut, amaretti cookie and parmesan cheese. These were topped with white truffle. He brought around a big bowl of white truffles for us to look at – $2000 a pound!
Sole with capers over marinated eggplant and tomato. My mom used to cook sole with capers for my dad years and years ago – reminded me of that.
A durian extract infused aperitif! Chef David had a little bottle of durian extract – strong stuff!
Wild boar with a Belgian chocolate reduction over polenta
Plumcello – made with plums from a tree Chef David has had for 32 years
ARUGULA CON LIMONE E CAPRINO
Goat cheese, marinated peppers and lemon dressing. I could eat a whole plate of just the peppers!
CIOCCOLATA LASAGNE E MASCARPONE
White truffle gelato with carnation flower. White truffle has such a earthy, musty tone to them and made me feel like I was in my parent’s garage on a cloudy was when I was a kid looking at a moth stuck in a spider’s web. Delicious!
Durian filled canneloni – Kit got to really try durian tonight – was good! She liked it! Wonder if I can talk her into us bringing one home from the Asian grocery…
Chref gave the ladies roses at the end of our meal
The kitchen
From left to right: myself, Kit, Chef David and Eric
Look!
A chandelier
Kaylea, Eric and Chef David right before we left. What a great night – was great to hang out with Eric and Kaylea – very nice folks! Never tried all these Italian things before – was like going to school with a Chef, and we had Chef David to ourselves pretty much for 4 hours (yep – the meal literally took 4 hours).. The dishes were served with almost an exact time between each one, kind of like tracks on an album. Special thanks to Aunt Cindy, without whom we would never have been able to attend – she babysat Miles!
A weirdly shaped building; probably full of video cameras pointed at people crossing the border.
A raindy day.
Getting closer!
So they asked us a few questions – who are you, what are you doing, where are you going, for how long etc etc. Then they let us loose in Canada!
I really like tunnels – this one was especially cool as the center lane has little lights.
My sister Sue has come up to Canada before and gotten me noodles in the past. She told me about this place in Richmond… First stop: Price Smart Foods!
This place was amazing – so many varieties I’ve not seen in the USA before – really awesome!
Five – count ’em FIVE bags full of instant noodles! Wow!!!
Then we drove through Richmond to Yaohan Centre – a big Asian shopping mall.
This place looks rad!
So I was planning on going to a couple more stores: T&T and Osaka. Well, They’re one and the same so that was easy enough. They have a huge cooked food section in Osaka Supermarket – check out all the kinds of dim sum! I like the Shepherd’s Purse bun ingredients (click image to enlarge).
We both agreed that these actually smelled quite good.
Wow! Frozen turtle!
After all the noodle shopping, we decided to check out the food court. There were a few places – a curry place which smelled awesome, lots of Chinese and then there was Seoul Express. Sweet!
My cute wife Kitten made it such an awesome day!
She got a BBQ beef combo.
I decided to get…
Bibimbap!!! Been wanting to try this for so long and it’s so good. Comes in a stoneware crucible of fire! The food was sizzling for literally five minutes after it was at the table!
French language on everything – proof of being in Canada!
Okay, I’ve discovered something amazing here. The rice at the bottom of the bibimbap is stuck to the bottom. I found that with the spoon from my miso, you could pry it off in nice little pieces. This is like the bacon of the rice world – this is great! Kit told me that her grandmother would cook rice and do the same thing.
With pugs at home demanding attention (they’re telepathic), back to the USA we went.
I ended up with 55 new packs of instant noodles to review – in addition to the 26 that were already in the hamper, that’s 81! Pretty sure I’ll be good on noodles for a while!
Brand
Variety
Style
Country
Chencun
Rice Noodle Beef With Brown Sauce
Cup
China
Chencun
Rice Noodle Fragrant Peppery Beef
Cup
China
Chencun
Rice Noodle Spicy Beef
Cup
China
Chencun
Rice Noodle Red Roast Spareribs
Cup
China
Chencun
Rice Noodle Braised Ribs
Cup
China
Chewy
Satay Chicken
Pack
Hong Kong
Chewy
Spicy Beef With Chili Flavor
Pack
Hong Kong
Chewy
Taiwan Roast Pork Flavour
Pack
Hong Kong
Chewy
Scallop With XO Sauce
Pack
Hong Kong
Four Seas
Hot & Spicy Mushroom & Beef
Bowl
Hong Kong
Four Seas
Chicken
Bowl
Hong Kong
Four Seas
Japanese Style Pork
Bowl
Hong Kong
Four Seas
Sesame Oil Chicken
Bowl
Hong Kong
Golden Wheat
Shrimp
Bowl
China
Golden Wheat
Spicy Beef
Bowl
China
Golden Wheat
Mushroom Chicken
Bowl
China
Golden Wheat
Stew Beef
Bowl
China
Golden Wheat
Stew Pork
Bowl
China
Golden Wheat
Stew Pork
Pack
China
Golden Wheat
Shrimp
Pack
China
Golden Wheat
Stew Beef
Pack
China
Golden Wheat
Spicy Beef
Pack
China
Golden Wheat
Mushroom chicken
Pack
China
Hao Hao
Mi Goreng Shrimp & Onion
Pack
Vietnam
Itomen
Cinstant Ramen Crab
Pack
Japan
Knorr
Quick Serve Macaroni Wonton
Pack
Hong Kong
Knorr
Quick Serve Macaroni Shrimp
Pack
Hong Kong
Knorr
Quick Serve Macaroni Japanese Pork Bone Broth
Pack
Hong Kong
Knorr
Quick Serve Macaroni Abalone & Chicken
Pack
Hong Kong
Mamee
Oriental Noodles Curry
Pack
Malaysia
Mr. Noodles
Bowl Beef
Bowl
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Bowl Spicy Chicken
Bowl
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Bowl Noodles Kimchi
Bowl
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Spicy Chicken
Cup
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Chicken
Cup
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Beef
Cup
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Bowl Noodles Chicken Kimchi
Bowl
Canada
Mr. Noodles
Bowl Chicken
Bowl
Canada
New Touch
Yakisoba Noodles
Tray
Japan
Nissin
Demae Ramen Kimchi Flavor
Bowl
Hong Kong
Nissin
Demae Ramen Sesame Oil
Bowl
Hong Kong
Nissin
Demae Ramen XO Sauce Seafood
Bowl
Hong Kong
Nissin
Demae Ramen Artificial Chicken
Bowl
Hong Kong
Nissin
Demae Rice Vermicelli Chicken
Pack
Hong Kong
Nongshim
Oolongmen Kimchi
Cup
Korea
Nongshim
Potato Pork Ramyun
Pack
China
Nongshim
Shin Ramyun
Bowl
China
Sau Tao
QQ Scallop Seafood
Bowl
China
Vina Acecook
Oh! Ricey Spareribs
Pack
Vietnam
Wei Lih
Steam Noodle Spicy Sichuan
Bowl
Taiwan
Western Family
Instant Noodles In A Cup Chicken
Cup
Canada
Western Family
Instant Noodles In A Cup Spicy Chicken
Cup
Canada
Western Family
Instant Noodles In A Cup Oriental
Cup
Canada
Western Family
Instant Noodles Vegetable
Pack
Canada
Western Family
Instant Noodles Chicken
Pack
Canada
Only one duplicate that I’ve reviewed before!
This was such an awesome birthday – I have the most awesome wife in the universe! I love you Kit!
When I was a kid, we didn’t have all these games like Call Of Duty or Halo. We didn’t even have the Internet as we do today; everything was dial-up, and you had scant choices of who to dial-up. There was Prodigy, Compuserve, America Online and a couple other big ones, but many hobbyists would connect to BBSes (bulletin board systems), which had messageboards that people could use for local discussion, files that they could download and online games. These were commonly referred to as ‘doors.’ I ran a BBS while in middle and high school. Where I lived, to call the next city over was long distance. A few people in the area started BBSes of their own and hosted games and discussions. The games were very basic as far as graphics go; in this video, you can see that everything is made up of text. Since everything was dial-up, this made things faster. Also, dial-up pre-Internet boom was usually 14,400bps or lower. I remember when I bought a 14,400bps modem at Software Etc. in the early 90’s for $200 – people said ‘why would you need something that fast? nobody will ever support it.’ Nowadays, it’s probably being hosted in a landfill, along with other ancient tech items. I still enjkoy BBS games and you can too – go look on Google for a program called SyncTerm – then use it to check out a Telnet BBS! One thing though – when you’re using it, hit Alt-Enter – it will make it fullscreen and very much like the experience we had back in the day.
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