Teaching English in Korea Blog

Everybody loves dessert and sweets, right? Well, if you ever venture into Aberdeen Mall in Richmond, as “Asian” mall, you will find one of the hottest franchises that have touched upon the shores of Vancouver. Some of you may have already heard of this chain, especially you foodies out there. It’s called Beard Papa’s, the makers of “fresh’n natural cream puffs” or also “The World’s Best Cream Puffs”.

The franchise started in 1999 in Japan. Since then, its popularity has exploded and there are now over 300 locations around the world, including stores in China, Hong Kong, Korea (I don’t know where the location is–someone fill me in), Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, the USA, and others. The location at Aberdeen Center has been constantly busy, with long line ups on the weekends. We were lucky enough to find the Beard Papa’s location without a line up during the week. Let’s take a closer look to see just how good these cream puffs really are.

Here’s the front of the Beard Papa’s location…right at the top of the escalator leading to the food court:

There was a mini line up, which was pretty surprising because the past few times we visited Aberdeen the line ups were absolutely atrocious–the lengths some people go to for a cream puff! It reminded me of the line ups outside the Cino’s Cheesecake locations in Seoul. Notice how there is a 2 dozen limit…TWO DOZEN! Who the heck can eat two dozen cream puffs? I hope it comes with a stomach pump!

Even though the line ups are long, they do move relatively fast. One person pumps the whipped cream custard into the cream puffs, then another sprinkles icing sugar, then another helps box the cream puffs and work the register. It’s just one long assembly line…

So let’s take a closer look. Their cream puffs are larger than normal and there is a lot of filling. I think after eating one, you are done for the next few hours.

After taking my first bite, I do have to say these Beard Papa’s cream puffs are damn good! The pastry has a crunchy outer shell yet once you bite into the middle it’s soft and flaky. The custard cream filling is chilled, creamy, and has a nice hint of vanilla flavor. Although it was really good, I don’t think these things are going to help your waistline!

Here’s a rare sight…no line up outside Beard Papa’s in Richmond!

Just what the heck is behind the Beard Papa story? Click here to watch the full story…

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t much time to update my blog as I’ve been really busy lately. The last time I told you about our travel plans that included NYC, London, and Dubai. However that has recently changed gears as I recently got hired to work with one of the school districts in Vancouver! So that means we’ll be settling down here for now. Don’t worry as I will continue to keep the updates coming, but I’m not going to post randomness for the sake of posting. Laters!

Everybody loves dessert and sweets, right? Well, if you ever venture into Aberdeen Mall in Richmond, as “Asian” mall, you will find one of the hottest franchises that have touched upon the shores of Vancouver. Some of you may have already heard of this chain, especially you foodies out there. It’s called Beard Papa’s, the makers of “fresh’n natural cream puffs” or also “The World’s Best Cream Puffs”.

The franchise started in 1999 in Japan. Since then, its popularity has exploded and there are now over 300 locations around the world, including stores in China, Hong Kong, Korea (I don’t know where the location is–someone fill me in), Taiwan, Indonesia, Australia, the USA, and others. The location at Aberdeen Center has been constantly busy, with long line ups on the weekends. We were lucky enough to find the Beard Papa’s location without a line up during the week. Let’s take a closer look to see just how good these cream puffs really are.

Here’s the front of the Beard Papa’s location…right at the top of the escalator leading to the food court:

There was a mini line up, which was pretty surprising because the past few times we visited Aberdeen the line ups were absolutely atrocious–the lengths some people go to for a cream puff! It reminded me of the line ups outside the Cino’s Cheesecake locations in Seoul. Notice how there is a 2 dozen limit…TWO DOZEN! Who the heck can eat two dozen cream puffs? I hope it comes with a stomach pump!

Even though the line ups are long, they do move relatively fast. One person pumps the whipped cream custard into the cream puffs, then another sprinkles icing sugar, then another helps box the cream puffs and work the register. It’s just one long assembly line…

So let’s take a closer look. Their cream puffs are larger than normal and there is a lot of filling. I think after eating one, you are done for the next few hours.

After taking my first bite, I do have to say these Beard Papa’s cream puffs are damn good! The pastry has a crunchy outer shell yet once you bite into the middle it’s soft and flaky. The custard cream filling is chilled, creamy, and has a nice hint of vanilla flavor. Although it was really good, I don’t think these things are going to help your waistline!

Here’s a rare sight…no line up outside Beard Papa’s in Richmond!

Just what the heck is behind the Beard Papa story? Click here to watch the full story…

As you’ve probably noticed, I haven’t much time to update my blog as I’ve been really busy lately. The last time I told you about our travel plans that included NYC, London, and Dubai. However that has recently changed gears as I recently got hired to work with one of the school districts in Vancouver! So that means we’ll be settling down here for now. Don’t worry as I will continue to keep the updates coming, but I’m not going to post randomness for the sake of posting. Laters!

Remember how at times I felt like I was still in South Korea back home? Well today you’re going to see us eating our first Korean meal back home–something we decided to do on the weekend! Yes, that’s right, we had some Korean food–by choice!

Vancouver is home to a large Chinese minority, with the majority of them congregating in Richmond (I like to call it Ricemond or Hongcouver). Well, there is also a well-sized Korean population that has populated Coquitlam, which is 45 minutes east of Vancouver. Here, as you will soon see we were dazzled by signs in both Korean and English. It was pretty neat being able to read some of the signage!

The intersection of Lougheed Highway and North Road is where all the action is. Running along North Road you can see the Korean-inspired lamp post banners.

Here we have a small shopping village, Korean inspired of course! Let’s see if we can decipher the text here…the 3rd banner down says “meg she gen chee ken; hop-uh” which is “Mexican Chicken - HOF”–very interesting (Korean fried chicken is awesome)! What else…below is the norebang! Need glasses? Look no further than Namdaemoon Optical! Want some naengmyeon? Got it! There are also a couple big supermarkets which we didn’t get a chance to visit. There is an H-Mart located here for all you fans out there!

Rogers Wireless–in Korean! It’s the perfect place to get your “hand-pone!”

Wait a minute…this sounds familiar. Is this the same California Sushi in Seoul??

So we met up with my sister’s boyfriend who works in Coquitlam for a quick afternoon snack (of course you knew that food would be part of this post, right?). We went to this restaurant and saw their “Business Hours” on their door. I had to pause for a moment to figure out the hours, because it said they were open from 11AM-12PM on some days! Soo, they’re only open for one hour during the week? Now that’s what I call flexible hours! This sign reminded me of the store hours sign inside Homever–which also had the hours written down incorrectly. Maybe this is a Korean thing…

We enter the restaurant and we are greeted by the Korean waitress/host. After being seated, I drop an ????? bomb on them. They immediately think we are Korean! haha. I tell them that I am Chinese but she continues to speak Korean to me anyways! It’s like I was back in Korea. Then she dropped a “handsome” bomb on me (which was the case all the time in Korea–what can I say, haha). Okay, awkward moment, but we move on and check out their menus.

So we are looking at their extensive Korean/Japanese menu. Boy, they sure do have a lot of items here–at outrageous prices compared to Korea! Naengmyeon and LA galbi for $9.95?! Dude, I was eating refillable naengmyeon for 2900 won ($3US) in Seoul! I ordered the naengmyeon, as I wanted to compare the flavors to the noodles in Korea.

…and this is what arrived! Yes, this is not naengmyeon. Shortly after my order the chef comes out (I assumed it was the chef–he had flour all over his face like that commercial where the dad sprinkles flour on his face after making a batch of Rice Krispies squares for his kids) and explains that it’s not naengmyeon season. Would I like to try the Japanese equivalent instead? Me: “Uhh….sure.” So here we have it…some soba noodles on ice. They were okay, but I was still pretty hungry after this!

Devante ordered some “shun doh boo” or a soft tofu soup in a kimchi broth. It actually tasted really good, but was a bit on the salty side. Of course, when she ordered the jiggae, our waitress immediately responded in broken English, “good choice, very health”…haha…the magical wonders of kimchi baby!

What did my sister and her significant other order? None other than the Korean-Chinese noodle dish, the dish eaten on Black Day, JA JANG MYEON! Noodles with black bean sauce and bits of “fork” (pork). This one came topped off with a fried egg and wasn’t too bad.

Hey, every meal in Korea had side dishes. Where the heck are ours?! We see the table beside us get their sides but we did not get ours. So instead of pressing this button below (which you are all familiar with) which sends out a ringing bell tone, I call out a more appropriate “cho-gee-yo!” and wave my hand. haha, I am sure they got a kick out of that.

She arrives and I say that we did not get side dishes. So she leaves and comes back with literally empty side dishes! Then she clued in and quickly ran back with our sides. Her excuse for forgetting them in the first place was because I was “so handsome”…haha…I should try that line sometime.

Check out this video of the restaurant…I should’ve ordered the “hway-dop-bab” like the table ahead of us–darn it!