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November 2013

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Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Hongdae is filled with a variety of speciality cafes and independent shops. There was one place that sparked an interest and that place was the Hello Kitty Cafe. It’s big, pink and has a huge bow. It’s very popular among tourists, so you will see tons of people taking picture in front of it. Sometimes even in huge tourist groups.

We came on  weekday in the morning, so it wasn’t too busy. They open at 11am till midnight.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

They have hot coffee, iced coffee, yogurt, cake and other hot beverages on their menu.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

All their drinks are cute but the prices can be a bit expensive.  Ranges from $3 to $5.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Many types of lattes with many types of characters on top. It’s made by sprinkling coco powder.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Yummy waffles shaped like Hello Kitty’s face.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Cakes with Hello Kitty’s face on it.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

The shop has 2 floors and there are a bunch of seating areas.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Adjacent to the ordering counter is a bunch of loungy seats.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Huge Hello Kitty seats.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

This area is a second area on the bottom floor.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

The second floor is much brighter and open compared to downstairs. It’s better for large groups.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Every little girl’s fantasy.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

When we ordered at the counter, they give you an electronic device with a number. When it begins buzzing, you know your order is ready. Just bring it up to the counter and grab your food and drinks.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Yogurt Ice Cream with Mango Syrup (4,500 won) M thought it was ok, but the mango syrup was artificial and very sweet.

Hello Kitty Cafe Korea

Earl Grey Latte (4,500 won) had the cute hello kitty image on the top. The latte was very sweet and not very good.

We also had the Hello Kitty Mousse cake, but it was decent.

One thing you have to know about the cafe before ordering everything is that the food and drinks suck! The cafe is a great place to take photos and chill with friends, but you will probably not love the over-priced food. It’s still a great place to visit if you are in the Hongdae area. Lots to see in the area and

We Rate Hello Kitty Cafe

Address:
358-112, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu,
Seoul, South Korea

Website:
hellokittycafe.co.kr

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Montana's Ribs

It was M’s Birthday, so he chose to go to Montana’s Cookhouse. As it is a Wednesday, they have all you can eat ribs! I made sure to prepare and wore sweat pants to prepare for this occasion. Trying to figure out what camera to bring to a restaurant is always a pain. As I haven’t used my HTC One yet, I used it instead of my iPhone or my LX7. The last time I went to Montana’s we were able to eat a large amount of ribs. 3.5 racks to be exact, but back then they were much smaller. I was definitely up for the challenge!

If you come here during your birthday, they make you put on a moose hat, sing you happy birthday in front of the restaurant, and bring you a free piece of cake. M of course was too shy, so he didn’t tell anyone it has his birthday.

Montana's Ribs

The interior is very country. It’s family friendly and has tons of seating. There’s some pretty cool things on the ceiling to look at. Like… cars, canoes, antlers, etc.

Montana's Ribs

Water comes in mason jars and you get some crayons to draw all over the table. It’s fun to just doodle as you wait for the food.

Montana's Ribs

For the ribs, you get a bucket for your bones, lots of napkins, cutlery, ketchup, wet naps, and straws for your drinks.

Montana's Ribs

AYCE Back Ribs ($28.99) starts off with the first rack with the flavour sauce of your choice, 2 sides and cornbread. We were surprised to see the ribs were so large and meaty. Each rack has 12 ribs and the meat was moist, plus it had a nice smokey flavour.

As our order arrived, we immediately put in an extra order for half a rack since it took the quite a while to get our first order.

Of all the flavours, our favourite was the Texas Bold.

Montana's Ribs

3 people’s worth of half a rack of ribs. We could only finish 2 more before we had to stop. We were very full after 14 ribs. We asked if we could take it home, but we weren’t able to. I guess that’s a good thing since some people might abuse the AYCE system. We felt bad for over-ordering since we didn’t want it all to go to the trash.

Overall, the ribs were pretty good with the Texas Bold sauce and I would come again for AYCE. It’s a bit expensive, so only go when you have a crazy appetite. Do be warned that the service is very slow. We waited about 40 minutes to get our first order, but we knew it wouldn’t be a quick dinner, so we had our phones with games to keep us company.

We Rate Montana’s

Address:
1046 – 2929 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC

Website:
http://www.montanas.ca/

Montana's Cookhouse on Urbanspoon

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JJ Bean

JJ Bean has open their latest location in False Creek on 1st Avenue.  It’s spacious and has a good amount of seats to just chill and have some coffee or even set up your laptop and study.

There’s lots of natural light that shines through the windows and is very relaxing. They have excellent coffee, but as we already had our morning coffee, we opted for juice and some yummy lunch.

JJ Bean

Curried Butternut Squash Soup (Large) was had it for here, so we got a side of salad. The large size was quite big. Magz had a hard time finishing it, so she had to take it to go.

JJ Bean

Spicy Southwest Chicken Wrap has a spicy chipotle mayo, cilantro chimichurri rice, corn, black beans, tomato, monterey jack cheese and roasted chicken breast in a spinach tortilla. I had the wrap here, so we got a salad on the side.

As a quick lunch and it was pretty good. Lunch with no fuss. It’s a good addition to the area.

We Rate JJ Bean:

Address:
188 West 1st Avenue
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://jjbeancoffee.com/

JJ Bean on Urbanspoon

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Coquitlam-Grill

Heading to Coquitlam early in the morning, what better way to have breakfast than to go to Coquitlam Grill. It has been here for a very long time and is a local favourite. They serve up breakfast, lunch and dinner.

At 10am, the parking lot was packed and you can see some seniors standing around hanging out with their friends.

Coquitlam-Grill

The interior is the same as a Knight and Day because that was the previous restaurant that occupied the space.

Coquitlam-Grill

There’s tons of seats, so its great for large parties. It’s usually packed on the weekends, but we came here early, so there were seats still in the back.

Coquitlam-Grill

French Toast with sausages, eggs, and hash browns. Comes with a side of butter and syrup.

Coquitlam-Grill

European Breakfast with sausage, perogies, sour cream and eggs.

Coquitlam-Grill

Truckers Breakfast has eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast sausage and hash browns.

Coquitlam-Grill

The truckers breakfast also comes with pancakes. It’s a huge meal.

All the breakfast items were pretty solid. Good ol’ breakfast. The portions are huge and definitely worth the price. It’s a favourite breakfast location for locals and you get your moneys worth. You will walk out happy and full.

The restaurant also has free wifi.

We Rate Coquitlam Grill

Address:
108 – 2635 Barnet Highway
Coquitlam, BC

The Coquitlam Grill on Urbanspoon

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Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro is located close to the corner of Robson and Denman street and have been around for a little bit over a year now. They specialize in fusion Chinese Szechuan cuisine. It’s a family run restaurant and Executive Chef Henry has over 20 years of cooking experience from Hong Kong and Canada.

I came here with a few friends to check it out and we heard they have peking duck, so it peaked our attention.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The interior isn’t too large but it has a row of booths, some bar seats, and some tables near the front. It has a lounge feel to this place as there is a large bar.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Peking Duck with 12 crepes is served with green onions, cucumber, and hoisin sauce. On top of the duck are prawn chips. The duck and the crepes are all made in-house. This is their signature dish.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The skin is nice and crispy with a good layer of meat underneath. Probably one of the best quality peking ducks around town. It wasn’t too fatty either. Super moist and yummy.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

You take a little bit of everything and wrap it in the crepe. It’s really good. Highly recommended!!

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The second part of the peking duck meal is the lettuce wraps. The rest of the duck meat and stir fries it. On the side, there are 6 lettuce wraps for you to put to ingredients into.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Just roll it up and begin munching away. Delicious! We definitely needed more lettuce wraps since 6 were not enough.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

The perfect things to pair with the peking duck is with beer! I ordered a bottle of Tsingtao beer. Asian beer with asian food is a good mix.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Chengdu Special Fried Rice ($12) has house special fried rice with shrimp, chinese sausage, onions, jalapeño, broccoli stem in a spicy Szechuan style. This fried rice was definitely spicy with the jalapeño and Szechuan sauce. It’s finally good to see a fried rice that can pack some heat. If you like spicy food, you’ll like the rice.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Ginger Beef ($11) has crunchy beef in spicy ginger kung pao sauce with onions, carrots and fresh ginger. It’s one of their signature dishes and quite popular amongst guests. The dish was decent.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Mapo Tofu ($9) has soft tofu, spicy ground pork, shrimp, onions, chinese mushrooms and water chestnut.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Szechuan Pan Fried Prawns ($12) has pan-fried prawns in spicy garlic pepper oil. We table had mixed review on this item. Some said it was too salty, but some loved how it had a strong garlic flavour.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Szechuan Green Beans ($8) has long green bean tossed in a spicy Szechuan sauce with ground pork and preserved vegetables. This was really good. A bit oily, but good flavours.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Pumpkin & Red Bean Sticky Rice Cake Ice Cream ($6) nice sweet end to the meal. Its sticky, chewy and a bit sweet. It goes well with the ice cream.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Deep Fried Banana With Ice Cream ($6) has a honey glaze around the battered bananas. A fun dish to share.

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro

Of course there is a fortune cookie. Did you know it’s actually an American invention?

The peking duck dishes are pretty awesome here and would recommend it to anyone. I found the other dishes to be quite average and is a bit more expansive compared to other restaurants.

If you are tired of ramen in the area, definitely come here and try their peking duck. You won’t regret it. Yum.

We Rate Chengdu Szechuan Bistro:

Address:
792 Denman St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.chengdubistro.ca

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/ChengduBistro

Chengdu Szechuan Bistro 成都美食 on Urbanspoon

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=792+Denman+St+Vancouver,+BC&t=m&hnear=792+Denman+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6G+2L5&z=16 “]

Adorabelle Tea Room

Adorabelle Tea Room is a little cozy tea room in Steveston that serves up Afternoon tea. I rarely come to Steveston, but had I know there was such a cute little restaurant here, I would make more trips down here. The tea room is in the location of an old courtroom in Steveston. Seems like a weird place, but it’s the perfect location for a girls night out.

Afternoon Tea service is from Wednesday through Sunday. There are designated seating times 11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm and 3:30pm. Reservations are required before you come here as they need to plan in advance. It’s $25 per person, which is a good price considering other places are around $50 per person.

Adorabelle Tea Room

Once you go inside, it is small, but it is the perfect atmosphere to have afternoon tea here.  There are only 5 tables here.

Adorabelle Tea Room

Good intimate atmosphere for a bunch of girls to come here, de-stress, and have a good catch up session.

Adorabelle Tea Room

Adorabelle Tea Room

Our reservation was from 12:30pm – 1:30pm. Each seating is an hour-long, but its a decent amount of time to eat the 3 tiers of treats. If not, you can take then home and enjoy further.

Adorabelle Tea Room

When you sit down, you have your cup ready and your napkin folded like a rose. It’s the small little touches that make dining here great.

Adorabelle Tea Room

You can choose when types of teas you want. It can be a bit of a struggle to figure out which tea you want to try out.

Adorabelle Tea Room

It’s good that they come around to help you choose the right tea. You can smell them all if you like too.

I went with the Cream Earl Grey and my friend chose Paris. Both very good types of black tea.

Adorabelle Tea Room

As your tea steeps, it has a cozy to keep the heat from escaping.

Adorabelle Tea Room

A few minutes pass by and we can enjoy our tea. There is milk and sugar on the side if you need.

Adorabelle Tea Room

Shortly after, our little treats arrive.

For each person, it comes with:

  • five tea sandwiches
  • two fresh baked scones with sweetened cream & strawberry preserves
  • five house-made petite sweets

Adorabelle Tea Room

Smoked Salmon pinwheel, bacon and chive cupcake, egg pinwheel, cucumber cream cheese open-faced sandwich, chicken and waffles sandwich, and lastly the savoury shortbread with asiago and fennel.

This was by far my favourite section of the meal. Every single item tasted fantastic! The two items that really stood out for me were the bacon chive cupcakes and the savoury shortbread. YUM!

Adorabelle Tea Room

Level two is scone central.

There is the regular scone with raison and topped with icing sugar. The next is the orange scone with a nice glaze on top.
I’m not a huge fan of scones, but these were pretty good. Very filling as well.

Adorabelle Tea Room

Sweetened cream and strawberry preserves to go with the scones. You must add these or else the scone will not taste as delicious. So good.

Adorabelle Tea Room

The last tier is dessert time.

Strawberry with cream cheese, chocolate minty cake enrobbed with ganche, ginger molasses cookies and fruit pastilles.
Delicious and was a sweet overload. A good way to end the meal!

Adorabelle Tea Room

Overall, KoreanGirl and I really enjoyed ourselves here. It’s a quaint little place and we will definitely be back. Afterwards, we walked around Steveston and checked out Garry Point Park.

We Rate Adorabelle Tea Room

Address:
12051 Third Avenue
Richmond, BC

Website:
http://www.adorabelletearoom.com/

Adorabelle Tea Room on Urbanspoon

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Paris Baguette

Paris Baguette can be found all over South Korea. You are 100% guaranteed to bump into this place somewhere on the street as there are over 2,900 locations. They have sandwiches, cakes, buns, drinks, and pastries. While I was in Korea, I probably came here almost everyday to get some breakfast or snack. It’s just convenient and sometimes open 24 hours.

They even have a few locations in North America, specifically in California, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Paris Baguette

All the tables are filled with bread. There is even a little seating area too for you to enjoy your baked goods here.

Paris Baguette

Bread, bread, bread.

Paris Baguette

More bread.

Paris Baguette

Cheesy Pizza Bread was heated and sliced into 4 pieces. It was cheesy and a hint of sweetness to it.

Paris Baguette

English Muffin with ham, cheese, and egg. Tasted ok, but I wouldn’t eat it again. Needs more filling between the buns.

Paris Baguette

Sausage Wrap has sweet sauce, cheese, egg and fried onions. This was pretty good too.

Paris Baguette

Grapefruit Juice and bottled coffee.

Paris Baguette

Cream cake was for my birthday. It has layers of white cake with cream and fruit. It was good, but as you can tell, the fruit isn’t ask fresh.

Overall, I would stick with their savoury bread items. Those are my favourites. If you are a tourist like me and have no idea what to bring home, they have a few locations inside the Incheon Airport. Great for last-minute gifts because they have gift boxes of assorted treats.

It’s not the best bakery, but it sure is convenient.

Website: 
http://www.paris.co.kr/

Sashimi House

When we arrived in Seoul for the last few days of our trip in South Korea, M’s relatives took us to Big Room Sushi House (대방횟집 dae bang hwe jip). I clearly had no idea where I was going, so having them lead me to food is just great.

Sashimi House

We got a set meal that came with SO MANY dishes. It was about 20,000 won or 30,000 won per person. It’s a pretty good price since we did get so much food.

When we sat down, there were a few sauces, quail eggs, edamame, and veggies for us to nibble on before the rest of the meal came.

Sashimi House

Assorted sashimi

You won’t find any of the normal stuff here. There was abalone and a bunch of other fish I could not identify. Everything was fresh and tasted great.

Sashimi House

Roasted ginko beans are great to munch on.

Sashimi House

Raw Oysters was all eaten up by me. I like ousters in all shapes and forms.

Sashimi House

Sea Squirt Sashimi tasted like the ocean. Not my favourite seafood by a long shot, but it was alright.

Sashimi House

 Shrimp tempura was deliciously crunchy and light.

Sashimi House

Grilled Prawn were a tad dry and there is a hidden skewer that goes through them, so you have to make sure you don’t eat that. Take it out before you eat it.

Sashimi House

Grilled Mackerel has little bones inside, so its quite hard to eat if you aren’t good at picking the little bones out.

Sashimi House

Vegetable pancake was good! Very simple but satisfying.

Sashimi House

 Hot spicy soup was really good and had lots of flavour. If you aren’t into spicy food, they can make it non-spicy too.

Sashimi House

Cucumber roll with some fish eggs are poorly put together, but tasted fine.

Sashimi-House-grapes

 Kyoho Grape also know as slip skin grapes are very unique and very different than the type of grapes we have in North America. You just put the opening of the grape against your lips and then use your fingers to push the flesh out. It’s a pretty weird process and no one eats the skins.

The flesh of the grape is like jelly, but there are some seeds inside. You just easily spit them out and start on the next grape.

Overall, a pretty good place for a feast. It’s close to the station and has some cool shops near by. I would definitely call ahead to make a reservation so they have everything prepared before you arrive.

We Rate Big Room Sushi House

Address:
349-3
Sindaebang 2(i)-dong
Dongjak-gu, Seoul, South Korea

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SnackBox Delivery

The November Snackbox has now shipped and one delicious box landed at my desk at work. It’s always a treat to receive mail

If you aren’t familiar with Snackbox, it is a local Vancouver company created to simplify the task of discovering new healthy snacks. They take the guesswork out of figuring out whats good. It is an online subscription that delivers you a mysterious box of snacks that contain about 10 -12 items.

SnackBox Delivery

The subscription comes in 3 versions – 1 month ($33 per box), 3 months ($27 per box), or 6 months ($24 per box).

You are most likely to receive these shipments on the 12th of every month.

SnackBox Delivery

There is a little bit of  sweet and savoury snacks to satisfy your cravings. There’s a little guide about each product. If you like a certain product, you’ll know where to pick it up.

SnackBox Delivery

In the box, you won’t love everything, but it’s good to try new things. The first thing I put my eyes on was Sponge Bob Square Pants!

SnackBox Delivery

This month, there were 11 items in the box.

The items inside were:

  • Bella Viva Orchards Pear Slices
  • Arora Creations Gobi Spice
  • Veggie Straws
  • My Smoothie Green
  • Enerjive Quinoa Skinny Crackers
  • Pirate’s Booty Cheese Puffs – Aged White Cheddar
  • La Fourmi Fruit and Nut Medley
  • Cocolico Toffee Coconut Dark Chocolate
  • Lara Bar – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip
  • True To Nature Protein Bar- Chocolate Banana
  • Ito En Japanese Green Tea

SnackBox Delivery

My favourite items in the November Snackbox are the drinks. I’m not a big snacker between my meals and I would much prefer drinking something. It also keeps my fingers clean if I’m typing up an email at the same time.

I love this green tea, while I was opening up this box, I was drinking of a loose leaf tea version of the Oi Ocha green tea.
mySmoothie Green was pretty good too. It’s good for times when I don’t have a juicer or blender around. The smoothie is on the sweeter side, so you won’t be having troubles drinking this.

Looks like I found something I loved in this box. All the other stuff I threw at my coworker.

Website: https://getsnackbox.com/

Use the below coupon code to save $15 off your next order.

Snackbox-Coupon-Code

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

When we took a weekend trip to Busan, we stayed at the Hotel Commodore for one night. It is rated as a five star hotel with 312 rooms. The hotel has been around since 1979 and is 17 storeys high.

The exterior is very gorgeous and has a nice traditional feel. It is centrally located close to Downtown and it is easy to get access to cabs to get anywhere in the city.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

The interior of the lobby is quite ornate and you will spend some time just looking at all the walls.

The hotel has 3 restaurants:

  • Viking Buffet Restaurant (International cuisine)
  • Admiral Yi Western Restaurant
  • Hanguk Kwan (Traditional Korean)

We didn’t get a chance to try out these restaurants, but there is definitely more delicious food out in the markets.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

The lobby seating area has a very beautiful chandelier. It has the colours of korean on it.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

Standard Double Room

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

If you book through their website, it’s about $200, but if you do through websites like Expedia, you can book if for about $90.

The standard room is very simple with a minibar, coffee/tea maker, mini fridge, Air conditioning, and a desk. They give you complimentary water, tea and coffee packets.

You have to pay for wired internet, but good thing we had a portable wifi box we rented from the airport.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

Everything from this room was pretty outdated. The clock is built into the side table. This room did not feel five star at all.

The standard double room was ok and has everything you need to sleep for the night, but is in need of some upgrades. If you want a nicer room, you might want to look into the semi suites but thats a bit more expensive.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

The private bathroom has a more modern feel to it compared to the rest of the room. The bathroom has a shower/tub, the usual stuff and they have small things of Aveda shampoo, conditioner and moisturizer.

Hotel-Commodore-Busan

The view of the room faces the city and you can see all the buildings below.

map

The location is great and close to tourist areas like Jagalchi.

Address:
743-80, Yeongju-dong, Jung-gu,
Busan, South Korea ‎

Website:
http://www.commodore.co.kr/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?t=m&cid=0x1bc59958ec95f2fd&z=16&iwloc=A “]

Onigiri

The Onigiri is a chain restaurant in South Korea that specializes in Japanese rice balls. We came here to grab a bunch of onigiri to go. My last onigiri was a few years ago from T&T  and I’ve never really had a good experience with them as they always had too much rice.

I was so amazed by this little shop and I could tell it would be good. I would really want one in Vancouver. Would definitely make a great lunch.

The Onigiri

The menu board. I have no idea what it says, but the prices range from 2,500 won to 1,800 won. They serve other items like udon and ramen.

So many choices!

The Onigiri

We clearly bought a lot! Having just 2 already gets you full. Don’t underestimate the size of these little babies.

Some of the flavours available are:

  • 스팸데리야끼 = spam teriyaki
  • 매운스팸 = spicy spam
  • 떡갈비 = short ribs
  • 매운 떡갈비 = spicy short ribs
  • 소고기고추범벅 = boiled, mixed beef, Korean peppers
  • 김치날치알 = kimchi fish egg
  • 매운멸치 = spicy anchovy
  • 김치참치, 매운 참지 = kimchi tuna, spicy tuna
  • 아몬드멸치 = almond anchovy
  • 소고기고추장 = beef red pepper paste
  • 베이컨김치 = bacon kimchi
  • 치즈참치마요 = cheese tuna mayo
  • 참치날차알 = tuna fish egg
  • 크래미샐려리 = creamy celery
  • 크래미날치알 = creamy fish egg
  • 참치 마요 = tuna mayo
  • 치즈날치알 = cheese fish egg

The Onigiri

M ordered me the spicy short ribs onigiri and the kimchi tuna onigiri. My favourite out of the two were the kimchi tuna ones.

The favourites that we ordered were anything with the fish eggs, anchovy or tuna.

The Onigiri

Overall, the onigiri were great, you could tell there was lots of stuffing inside. I wouldn’t recommend ordering more than 3, you’ll be so full that you will need to be wheelbarrowed around town.

Website:
http://www.theonigiri.co.kr/

Address:
469-1 Daejam-dong, Nam-gu
Pohang, South Korea

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Bossam Delivery Pohang

While in Pohang, we decided to order in some bossam. Bossam, is steamed pork wrapped in leaves and other ingredients. Imagine it like the Korean version of peking duck.

We found Flower Pig in a directory and decided to try it out. They only use local Korean pigs and the restaurant is open till 1am. We ordered around 6pm and took about an hour for them to prepare and deliver the meal.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We ordered a large order of bossam and it was definitely enough for 5 people. All the component was there to begin wrapping those slices of steamed pork.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

It also came with free cold noodles. It was quite large but it wasn’t very good. The noodles were damp and seemed like very random ingredients were thrown in.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

The steamed pork had a lot of slices.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We had some carrots, lettuce, sesame leaves, peppers and sliced garlic.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

These were salted shrimp, marinated onions, red sauce and some kinda of unidentified liquid.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

We also had a large box of kimchi. There was so much that we didn’t make a large dent into it.

Bossam Delivery Pohang

With the ingredients, you kinda just throw it together to suit your tastebuds.

The restaurant that we ordered from wasn’t very good. The bossam would have been much better if we had it grilled to have a little bit more of a crunch. Next time, I’d probably just have it at a restaurant or make it at home. Delivery is never the same unless you know a good place.

White Spot

The old ABC Country Restaurant in Kensington Plaza finally closed down after years of horrible service and food. When we passed by and saw White Spot opening up, we were ecstatic. Anything was better than ABC.

M and I decided to head over as it was very close in the neighbourhood and we were too lazy to cook.

White Spot

The interior has had a complete makeover that matches their other restaurants. It was bright and welcoming. Lots of booth seating and it was pretty busy on the weekend.

White Spot

The White Spot Club has turkey breast, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayo & chili sauce on sourdough bread. I substituted my fries for their Spot Salad. The spot salad has dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, toasted almonds, greens and arugula with a honey sherry dressing.

I didn’t like the sourdough bread for this particular sandwich because the crust was quite hard and would cut my mouth, but other than that, it tasted good. There was a lot of bacon, so it made me happy.

White Spot

Bacon Cheddar Bigger Burger has a 6 oz beef burger with bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce & tomato with Triple O sauce. M substituted his fries with the Zoo sticks, which as zucchini fries. The zoo stick were very thick, so you definitely get a lot of zucchini.

There was also some coleslaw on the side. The burger was pretty decent.

White Spot

The Spot’s Salad with Chicken also has artisan greens and arugula with honey sherry dressing, cranberries, sunflower seeds & toasted almonds. It supposed to come with garlic panini bread, but I don’t know why I didn’t get any.

Either way, I still really like the salad.

White Spot

B.C. Chicken Burger has chargrilled BC chicken breast, cheddar cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion and the Triple “O” sauce. M also got the Zoo sticks substitute this time too.

Overall, the food isn’t too bad. We left feeling satisfied with all this comfort food. It’s nothing fancy but its good and simple.

We Rate White Spot

Address:
6500 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC

Website:
https://www.whitespot.ca/

White Spot on Urbanspoon

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Storm Crow Tavern

M told me about Storm Crow Tavern and now it is the nerdiest bar in Vancouver. I totally had to tell my nerdy blogging buddies – Gastrofork, FoodQueen, and EatingWithKirby. We are secretly really big geeks inside.

The tavern is on Commercial Drive right beside Grandview Park.

Storm Crow Tavern

There’s a giant cthulhu with a mini skull.

Storm Crow Tavern

There are battle axes, swords and a bunch of memorabilia on all the walls. You definitely have a tavern feel when you get inside.

Storm Crow Tavern

There are also lots of board games to use free of charge.

Storm Crow Tavern

Guns!

Storm Crow Tavern

Mead ($6.50) is an alcoholic beverage made of fermented honey and water. If you play video games, you know this drink pops up a lot.

Storm Crow Tavern

The Wolverine ($9) has maple whiskey, butter schnapps, frothy cream in an adamantium mug and a stick of crunchy bacon. It sounded like a cool drink but it definitely wasn’t for me.

Storm Crow Tavern

The Jack Burton ($5) Jack Daniels with Lager. Dee rolled the 20 sided dice and landed on number 3, which was this drink. We all wanted her to land on 20 to get the Critical Hit drink, but it wasn’t meant to be. I think she just wanted to roll the cool dice.

Storm Crow Tavern

Chickpea Fries ($6) are huge fries made of chickpeas. It also came with vegan gravy. This was the best thing we had here. Definitely recommended

Storm Crow Tavern

With our drinks in hand, we played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity. I think it’s probably one of the most popular games here. It’s an easy game.

Storm Crow Tavern

Crow Burger with gluten free bread ($9) has chicken breast, lettuce, tomato, dijon, mayo, and onion.

Storm Crow Tavern

Thunder Burger ($8 + $3) is a storm burger with a few upgrades. It has a 6 oz beef patty with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, sun-dried tomato aioli, bbq honey sauce, smoked provolone cheese, and crispy bacon on a Portuguese bun. I chose to have salad on the side.

The burger was ok. Lots of bacon, but everything else was pretty mediocre.

Storm Crow Tavern

Elvish Veggie Burger Supreme with Daiya vegan cheese ($8 + $2) has a patty made of chickpeas, lentils and rice. The burger also has roasted corn, black beans, tomatoes and a salsa verde and veganaise sauce.

Storm Crow Tavern

Barbaric Beef Stew ($8) is a savage stew of roasted potatoes, yams, onions, carrots, butternut squash and beef covered in gravy. There is also garlic bread that comes with it. Looks pretty meh and from Dee’s expression, it didn’t seem very good.

Storm Crow Tavern

After our meals, we thought a proper game of Jenga was in order. It’s quick and there really isn’t too much strategy that goes into it. I lost twice out of three rounds and I totally blame the uneven tables.

Storm Crow Tavern

When the bill came, we also got a few magic cards. As I don’t play magic, I just took them home and gave them to M. He’s a big magic fan, so I’m sure he will make use out of these.

Overall, the food is very mediocre and the drinks can be a bit expensive depending on what you order. I wouldn’t come again for the food. I’d come here for a beer and play some board games.

We Rate Storm Crow Tavern

Address:
1305 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.stormcrowtavern.com/

Storm Crow Tavern on Urbanspoon

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Sweet India

Along Bukbu Beach  in Pohang, South Korea, there are tons of things to see and eat. On a Sunday, we wanted to go grab some Indian food, but Namaskar was closed, so we headed to Sweet India. They don’t serve authentic Indian food, but more of a Korean fusion.

Sweet India

The restaurant has multiple floors and we dined on the second floor.

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When you take a look at the menu, you know they are missing a lot of staple Indian food. I was looking for paneer and pakoras, but it was nowhere to be found. If you are looking for more authentic Indian food, definitely check out Namaskar in Pohang.

Sweet India

Complimentary Picked vegetables

Sweet India

Garlic Naan (2,500 won) comes with a huge piece and it looks like its more of a garlic oil on top rather than bits of garlic. Its still good, but it is quite oily when you rip into it.

Sweet India

Original Naan (2,000 won) was large as well. I preferred this over the garlic naan.

Sweet India

Lamb Curry (12,000 won) had a few chunks of lamb and tasted alright.

Sweet-India-veg

Mixed Vegetable Curry (8,500 won) was quite good but the size of the order was small.

Sweet India

Tandoori Chicken (18,000 won) has 4 pieces of chicken legs. The chicken was dry and it wasn’t anything special.

Sweet India

Chicken Tikka (12,000 won) comes with 7 pieces and it is spicy.

Sweet India

Bacon Cream Risotto (8,500 won) was my favourite dish of the evening. It was creamy and super cheesy. Good type of comfort food.

Sweet India

Seafood Tomato Spaghetti (8,500 won) was quite mediocre and some of the seafood could have been fresher.

The food here really doesn’t compare to authentic Indian food and is very mediocre. I probably wouldn’t come here again. The service was quite poor and the waitresses were not attentive at all. People wanted to get refills of water, order or get the bill but we would have to wait a while for a waitress to appear. The servers were mostly behind the counter on their phones. Not cool at all.

We Rate Sweet India

Approximate Location:
1085-3 Duho-dong (5-16 Yongdusan-gil)
Buk-gu, Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea ‎

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://www.google.ca/maps?q=36.064087,129.381906&num=1&t=m&z=16 “]

Gajokjung ramen

Apparently, there is a ramen restaurant in Pohang, South Korea. M’s family was just craving a bowl of ramen and raved about this place. Gajokjung means Family Restaurant.

There’s parking in the front, but we just took a taxi here.

Gajokjung ramen

Gajokjung ramen

The lines can get quite long during peak hours and is difficult to get a spot. You definitely want to come early to grab a seat or wait till it dies down a bit.

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Copy of the menu

Gajokjung ramen

There is complimentary cups of coffee available. It’s weak coffee, so it won’t give you that extra perk that you need in the morning. All the coffee is self-serve, so you can grab as much as you want.

Gajokjung ramen

Pork Tonkatsu (8,000 won) is one of their best sellers. It is extra crispy and delicate on the outside because of the panko crumbs. Highly recommended!

Gajokjung ramen

Combination Tonkatsu Special (9,500 won) comes with pumpkin, fish, pork and cheese filling. I got this to sample all their different kinds. All of them were great, but the best one is the pork.

Gajokjung ramen

Japanese Ramen Miso ramen (7,500 won)  has a miso soup base, with seaweed, veggies, and a piece of pork belly.

All the ramen come with picked radish and kimchi on the side. You can get this refilled if you want more.

Gajokjung-spicy

Koma Karashi Ramen (8,000) is their hot and spicy flavour.

There are 4 levels of spiciness you can choose from:

  • Mild
  • Sweat
  • Tear
  • Volcano
  • Crazy

I chose Sweat as I wanted to enjoy my meal and not regret any decisions. Crazy just sounded crazy.

Both the ramen fell a bit flat compared to the ramen that can be found in Vancouver. It was lacking the full body flavour in the broth and the fatty pieces of pork belly was not evident.

Gajokjung Ramen

Buckwheat Noodles (8,000 won) has 2 clump so noodles. It was ok. Nothing special to it.

Overall, the food was ok. I’ve just been spoiled by all the great ramen from Vancouver. The best thing about this place was the tonkatsu. I would highly recommend eating all the tonkatsu you can. It’s really good!

We Rate Gajokjung

Address:
1104-9 Duho-dong
Buk-gu, Pohang-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do
South Korea

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1379961_10150326997959986_1074829136_n

M and I were watching TV one day and we saw that Pizza Hut Canada just introduced the Crunchy Cheesy Bites Pizza. A large 2 topping pizza is $17.

Crunchy Cheesy Bites Pizza is different from a regular pizza. It has a crust made of cheesy bites topped with crunchy corn flakes. Even though type of pizza is new in North America, it has been around Asian for some time.

You can rip off the bites and eat the separately, or enjoy it in its original pizza style.

Pizza Hut Crunchy Cheesy Bites

When the pizza arrived, it has some resemblance to what you see in the commercials. As I opened the pizza box, I was so excited to dig in.

Pizza Hut Crunchy Cheesy Bites

The cheese does look like it’s oozing out, but wasn’t cheesy at all. The inside of the bite was hollow and the cheese was hard. When you bite into the entire bite, its squishy and doughy. There was not crunch in the crust at all. Maybe the pizza was overcooked.

It doesn’t live up to the hype. It was alright, but I wouldn’t order it again.  I still liked the hotdog stuffed crust they introduced a year ago.

Website: www.pizzahut.ca

 

Angel In Us Coffee

Angel In Us Coffee is a strong domestic brand in South Korea. You can basically find it in any city. It took me a long time to figure out why this coffee shop is named Angel In Us. Apparently it’s supposed to imply that coffee is a god’s gift delivered by angels. They also have a unique roasting process for the beans too.

We came here with some relatives to relax and have a beverage. We were walking for most of the afternoon, so we thought it would be good to take a breather here. All the other cafes in the area were packed like crazy, so we came to Angel In Us Coffee because of their large space.

Angel In Us Coffee

This cafe is 3 storeys tall and can fit large groups. We had about 8 people, so it made sense to come here.

Angel In Us Coffee

We took over the 3rd floor and used it at our own little space. The view from above is the shopping streets.

The ironic thing about coming here is that we didn’t order coffee. I had coffee almost everyday in Korea, so I thought it was time to get some tea.

Angel In Us Coffee

Iced Green Tea was literally a green tea teabag in iced water. There was a subtle taste of green tea, but it wasn’t very strong.

Angel In Us Coffee

Green Tea Frappucino is a nice sweet treat for a hot day.

 Angel In Us Coffee

Ice Cream Waffle comes with a thick crispy waffle, vanilla ice cream, green tea ice cream, whipped cream, and a chocolate and caramel drizzle.

This place was decent, but I’m pretty sure they don’t have the best coffee. It’s a nice place to just chill and have a snack and beverage.

Website: http://www.angelinus.co.kr/