It's nice to see that there are quite a few more bubble tea/snack shops opening up in Edmonton. One of them that has now become one of my favorites is Tasty Choice, near South Edmonton Common, in the same complex as Cora's and Melting Pot.
Tasty Choice offers a broad selection of Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Japanese style snacks, as well as BBT, rice/noodle dishes, and assorted crepes. Drooling yet? I dropped by with MBear, and if you don't know that she's a menu hoarder, now you do. LOVE HER LONG TIME!! (Ya all this food is for 2!)
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Left: Condensed milk toast
Right: Icecream with French toast |
Condensed milk toast - ahhhh, a simple classic that's always good - nothing more than fresh white toast with butter and condensed milk. I love making this at home, but there's something extra tasty about it when somebody else makes it. ^____________^''
I wasn't too crazy about the Icecream with French toast, because the French toast itself was already mediocre, and combined with quickly melting vanilla ice cream soon became an oily, mushy mess. Would not order this again...
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Left: Rice rolls with hoi sin and sesame sauce
Top right: Spring rolls with sweet chilli dipping sauce
Bottom right: LYCHEE DUMPLINGS with sweet mayo dipping sauce! <3 <3 <3
The Rice Rolls are surprisingly good, although it is again, another simple dish. The rice rolls are basically flat rice noodles that have been rolled, and are served with hoi sin and sesame sauce. Traditionally, in restaurants, rice rolls served like this are pan fried so that they are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, however these are soft all the way through, very similar to the way they are served from street vendors in Hong Kong. I suspect they are steamed and then reheated in the microwave to order, but they retain a very smooth and soft texture without being over cooked. Definitely worth ordering every time! |
The Spring Rolls were perfectly crispy, but nothing special otherwise.
NOW, the good stuff. <3 <3 LYCHEE DUMPLINGS <3 <3. These babies have SUPER NOM STATUS, you MUST MUST MUST MUST MUST order them. They are essentially deep fried flat wontons filled with minced shrimp and lychee, but they are SO DAMN GOOD. Seriously addicting. They're served with a sweet mayo sauce, which perfectly complements the savory shrimp and the sweet lychee. Every bite is juicy and an orgasm in your mouth.
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| Deep fried honey garlic chicken wings |
I don't know how or what, but the people over at Tasty Choice really know how to use their deep fryer. The Deep Fried Honey Garlic Chicken Wings are another favorite of mine - the chicken wings are perfectly fried: crispy and juicy without being overly greasy. While deep frying may seem like a simple cooking method, it's not! The temperature of the oil has to be just right in order to prevent the food from absorbing too much oil and getting greasy, and the quality/freshness of the oil has to be sufficient otherwise the food will come out with a stale flavor. I like that they give the sauce on the side, so the chicken wings stay crispy and you can decide how much sauce you want to use. A warning though - if you don't like garlic, stay away, because this honey garlic sauce is particularly garlic-y (which I personally love!).
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| Seaweed and pork floss bun |
Next up: Seaweed and Pork Floss Bun - another goodie! (This place is on a roll, seriously!) A lightly toasted baguette style bread, lightly buttered and filled with toasted seaweed and pork floss, then drizzled with a sweet condensed milk/mayo type sauce. As you can tell by now, these snacks are very simple, but comforting, and Tasty Choice does them just right. For those who don't know, pork floss (aka "rousong") is just dried marinated pork that has been teased and then dried in the oven. It has a good balance of slightly sweet and savory components that make it a popular addition to things such as toast, congee, rice, or whatever you desire really.
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| LOOKIT all our plates! NOM NOM NOM! |
I forgot to take pictures of the BBT, but overall they're fairly good. In the times I've gone, I've noticed a lack of consistency in the texture of the pearls and the sweetness of the drinks, but otherwise nothing too serious. I'm a big fan of their Calpis selection. So far, in all the times that I've dropped by, everything has been really good. Unfortunately, I can't really comment on their rice and noodle dishes - sorry! -___-;;
Another MUST TRY that I don't have pictures of is the TAKO YAKI, or Octopus Balls. (No pervert, not testicle balls, but rather, Timbits filled with pieces of octopus ;p). Tasty Choice is the ONLY place in Edmonton that has a very authentic version - all other places use the prepackaged frozen ones (which are good too, but not as good as these).
You can see the sign showing all the crepes behind me - and yes, they make their crepes fresh to order!
Another nice thing is that there are couches and a variety of board games, cards, and other fun little things to keep you entertained in case you decide to stay and hang out.
So? What are you waiting for?!
xoxo
- nattycat
