Wednesday, December 1, 2010

(Bo Laksa King's) Bubbles and Bits- Way More Than Bubble Tea

A giant perk of creating a food blog is your friends will start inviting you to their favorite "hidden gem" restaurants. A word of warning- I will blog about it.  Even if you tell me to keep it a secret.  If I agreed to that, I lied.  I will expose your secrets.  Last Friday, the lovely Kyira invited me to her new favorite restaurant- (Bo Laksa King's) Bubbles and Bits.

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Picture by Chow Times. (my night photo did not turn out with my crappy camera)

Honestly, I wouldn't have gone here on my own. I have gone past this restaurant found in a strip under some condos on Hastings Street many times. I thought it was only bubble tea and bubble tea freaks me out a bit. All those pearls shooting up the enlarged straw into your mouth and then bursting, ack!

I am so very happy that Kyira made that first trip in because their food is amazing.

The interior is very sparse in a purple and black theme. They have these fabric panels up on the wall. I am not sure if they serve a purpose, but I liked the fabric. It is a fairly small joint with seating for about 15 people.

They have a double sided menu with a vast offering of the bubble tea options on one side and then the food items on the back side. I am still not certain if this place is 2 types of restaurants sharing one storefront? Since it was a cold night, I ordered the honey milk tea, hot- no tapioca pearls.

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I loved the teapot/cup that it was served in. Kyira also ordered a tea and her teapot was brown with white polka dots. I was a bit jealous. The tea was strong and warm and really tasted like honey. Next time I will try the matcha green tea milk tea. I hope it tastes like Pocky.

We decided to order a bunch of dishes and share. We started with the Laska:
LAKSA $7.50
Your choice of vermicelli or yellow noodle served with tiger prawn, fish ball, tofu puff, hard boil egg, chicken and house make authentic flavour coconuts curry broth.

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Wow. I was really excited about this soup because we had just finished re watching Season 4 of Top Chef where Lisa made a Laksa that was way to smokey and Anthony Bourdain didn't like it. He said he has eaten a lot of Laksa in his travels. If Anthony Bourdain likes it, I am willing to give it a try. (Although, he did eat warthog anus in another episode. Maybe I should rethink that theory....)

It was really spicy and the flavourful. All the meat options were really well cooked and there was a generous serving of noodles. The whole egg was strange to me, but I am not an egg fan.  I look forward to having this dish all to myself next time.

Next was
BEEF RENDONG $8.75
Marinated beef slowly cooked with coconuts gravy and Bo’s special spice, served with rice.

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I am not sure what is in Bo's special spice, but wow, did it have a kick. So tasty. The beef was tender and I loved the sauce.

Kyria insisted that we try the Papaya Salad.
PAPAYA SALAD $6.75
Shredded green papaya, tomato, onions, cilantro, crushed peanuts, fresh red chilli, dried shrimps, green beans, mix with garlic, lime, vinaigrette dressing.

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This dish was the most surprising to me. I have had some boring papaya salad before so I was really amazed at how spicy this was. The shrimp tasted like they were candied (in a good way).

At the end of the meal Bo came out and chatted with us about the food. I really like that touch. He told us they have a special on weekends that is a Spicy Tomato Chili Crab (over 1.5lb) for only $19.99. You need to order this in advance.

This was the best part of the meal:

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All that food for under $30.00! My suggestion- change the name and highlight the food on the windows. That is the money.

(Bo Laksa King's) Bubbles and Bits on Urbanspoon

5 comments:

  1. Another BLK convert, nice! Next time ask for the Burmese pulled tea, you will not be sorry.
    Also try the mango salad, which I like even better than the papaya one. I think Bo is the salad king :-). I love his tea leaf salad (and FYI this is the only place in town you can get this) and his pickled mango salad (though he is out of it right, hard to get I understand).

    grayelf

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  2. Thanks for the suggestions, grayelf. I am most certainly going back so I will try them all!

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  3. I love Bo's Laksa: very authentic! FYI there's a new place called Mamak Cafe in Gastown. They have authentic laksa like bo's but i think Bo's is slightly better. But I suggest you give Mamak's Beef Rendang a try. It's very good

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  4. Is that right in Pub 340? Interesting. I am going to put them on the list. Thanks for the suggestion, anonymous reader!

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