June 2014

In Four Beakers

Minami: Minami Zen Lunch Set

June 30, 2014

Mags and I wandered to Yaletown to get a sandwich, but ended up going to Minami, which was the best idea ever. We just needed a taste of their delicious Salmon Oshi Sushi. If you’ve had it before, you know its pretty damn delicious. It’s always one of my favourite dishes in town.

Minami is the sister restaurant of Miku, which made famous the Aburi style or flame searing technique to Vancouver’s thriving sushi scene. I always find they use quality ingredients and have Ocean Wise seafood options.

Mags and I both had the Minami Zen ($28) which includes:

miso soup
Aburi Tuna
Tofu Salad
Chicken Nanban
Beef Tenderloin Skewer
5 pieces of Signature Aburi sushi

It’s a perfect set to really try a bit of everything off the menu. The price is reasonable and you get the most value out of it.

The first 4 items are served in a traditional Japanese hinoki box.

Aburi Tuna is lightly seared with a wasabi masatake sauce on top. It is also garnished with radishes and seaweed. There are 3 pieces of tuna and it tastes really good.

Tofu Salad is topped off with wonton crisps and a umami soy vinaigrette. It was light and refreshing and the wonton crisps really give it a nice texture.

Chicken Nanban has a sweet and sour soy sauce with an asian slaw. It was ok, but the chicken inside was quite bland and missing some flavour.

Beef Tenderloin Skewer has a sweet soy glaze and has tsukemono, which are pickled vegetables. The skewer was quite large, but it was hard to chew some parts.

Miso soup came in a large bowl and it has tofu, enoki mushrooms and seaweed. Yummy.

The 5 pieces of signature aburi sushi did include the widely popular Salmon Oshi Sushi.

Salmon Oshi Sushi is pressed BC wild salmon, jalapeno, and the secret miku sauce. The BEST!

I don’t know what this one was but I think it was Toro. It was melt in your mouth delicious! None of the aburi items disappointed. Mmmm Mmmmm Mmmmmmm!

Overall, the lunch was more than I would normally have spent, but it was so delicious. It’s always nice to have a treat at the end of the week especially when it’s pay day.

We Rate Minami:

Address:
1118 Mainland St
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://minamirestaurant.com/

In American

Mamie Taylors: Food and Taxidermy

June 29, 2014

Mamie Taylor’s is one of the newer restaurants to open up in Chinatown across from Phnom Penh. It’s usually busy in the evenings and there is pay parking in the streets. They serve up modern American food on their menu and have a wide selection of drinks and cocktail. A perfect place to go after work with coworkers.

The inside is very nice, but it’s creepy when you start looking at all the taxidermy on the walls. It definitely gives this restaurant character.

Sapporo ($6) was my choice as usual. I’ve always liked it’s light crisp taste.

Japanese Whiskey Flight ($20) has nikka super, nikka from the barrel and nikka black. My coworkers enjoyed trying the different types and how their taste differed from one another.

Corn Bread & Biscuit ($4) comes with a jalapeño bourbon butter. These two items were very delicious! Full of flavour and quite enjoyable.

Fried Olives ($4) has blue cheese, currants, and sherry. I do love olives surprisingly and it was a nice way to add some crunch to an olive. It is a small dish, so these olives can go quickly if you are a quick snacker.

Pimento Cheese ($5) comes with cannoli, espellete, and salad o’ celery. This was yummy! The delicious cheese paired with the crunchy cannoli was perfect. I could eat a few of these.

Tuna Melt ($6) the tuna is cured & smoked, has potato salad, and cheddar. There’s some small onion on the side too. This was a yummy tuna melt.

Turducken ($6) has scotch egg in the centre. It is accompanied with tomatillo sauce and a garlic mayo. It’s not exactly what I imagined for a turducken but it’s their fun twist to it. It tasted alright.

Overall, we ordered all their snacks but didn’t stick around for dinner since we all had alternate plans after drinks. I’ll definitely be back for dinner since their entrees looked pretty damn awesome.

We Rate Mamie Taylors:

Address:
251 East Georgia St.
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://mamietaylors.ca/

In Late Night

Maji Restaurant: Taiwanese Restaurant in Richmond

June 28, 2014

Maji Restaurant is located in Richmond on Alexander Road with all the other delicious restaurants on that strip. I came here for dinner with a few friends and I was excited to try this place. Maji serves Taiwanese food and are only open for dinner till late.

There is parking in the back, but during peak hours, it’s really hard to find a spot. You may find yourself having to park further away.

The interior is unique and the bricks on the walls look quite neat. It is a bit dark inside, but it sets the mood for late night snack and drinks.

If you know Taiwanese Beer, this beer is pretty delicious! I haven’t been able to find it at any other restaurant till now. It’s very light and has a crisp taste.

Stir Fried Gai Lan ($6.25) was delicious! It is stir fried with garlic. The downside is that it’s a bit oily.

Taro Chicken ($8.99) is once of the dishes our friends suggested. It has a good amount of chicken and taro. Some of the chicken had bits of bone, but the sauce was very good. I would get this again.

Rice was ordered so we could eat it with the dishes we ordered. Since I don’t eat a lot of rice.

Overall, the food was pretty good. M and I shared these items and we still had to take some of it to go. The portions are perfect and price is great.

We rate Maji Restaurant:

Address:
1180 – 8391 Alexandra Rd
Richmond BC

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

In Bubble Tea

Shang Noodle House 尚麵館: Snack and Ramen

June 27, 2014

Shang Noodle House is a restaurant of the Kirin Group. We actually wanted to go to Kirin in the Starlight Casino location, but sadly their last call ended for Dim Sum, so our only option was to try Shang Noodle House. They share the same kitchen as Kirin, so you will find similar quality in food. I find the food items a strange mix of Hong Kong Style Cafe and Japanese Ramen Shop.

The interior is nice and has a lot of seating. As it was around 2pm, this place was pretty empty.

Mango Calpis ($3.50) was what a few of us ordered and it comes in the big bubble tea cups.

Steamed Shanghai Pork Dumplings ($4.58) comes with 4 pieces. The quality was ok, but still isn’t as addictive as Dinesty or Din Tai Fung.

Deep Fried Crispy Tofu ($4.28) has a lot of pieces for the order. Great for sharing.

Slider of Sliced Braised Beef Shank with Pan Fried Onion ($4.28) comes with the 2 sliders. It’s deliciously crispy on the outside.

Sliced Braised Beef Shank ($6.88) has 12 pieces and another great dish to share.

Roasted Pork Belly ($6.88) is yummy! The skin is very crispy and it’s dripping with flavour.

Malaysian-style Traditional Ramen with Chicken, Prawn and Squid in Spicy Laksa Soup ($9.88) was a huge bowl, but the overall taste was nothing like ramen or laksa.

Deep Fried Chicken Fillet Japanese Ramen in Pork Broth ($9.88) was what M ordered and it was good that all the fried items came on a separate dish so it does not get soggy in the ramen.

M had similar comments with the ramen not even close to being Japanese style. It was a still a big decent bowl of noodles.

Traditional Ramen with Spicy Meat Sauce ($7.88) had large portions too.

We found all the snacks to be great value and tasted really good. When we had the noodles, it was pretty unimpressive. I would stay away from the noodles and share a bunch of snacks…kinda like dim sum style.

We Rate Shang Noodle House:

Address:
350 Gifford Street
New Westminster BC

Website:
http://www.shangnoodlehouse.com/

In Brewery

Main Street Brewing Company: Beer and Snacks

June 26, 2014

Main Street Brewing Company is located on 7th and Scotia street, just off Main Street. It’s close to the residential areas and it’s a pretty awesome place to hangout after work. I came with a bunch of my coworkers to just chill after a long week.

There is a tasting room, so you can buy a few pints of beer or even try a tasting flight. You can also purchase growler sized beer too.

The building is of a 1913 Heritage building, so you can see the unique charm of this space.

If you look further on the right side of the tasting lounge, you will see all their equipment used to brew the beer.

When I was here, they had their 3 staple beers – Main Street Pilsner, Seasonal IPA, and the Brown Ale. They also had 3 casks available. It’s a good selection of beer.

They do sell food to munch on. All of them are perfect pairings with beer. Pepperoni sticks! Beef Jerky! Meat and Cheese Plate! Etc.

When you order food, you get a big empty beer bottle, a wooden spoon with a number.

BC pork liver pate board ($12) with fig jam, pickled, and bread. Mags thought it was pretty average, but not the best pate she’s had.

I ordered the Tasting Flight and asked them to choose the 4 lightest beers for me.

Main Street Pilsner
Seasonal IPA
Brown Ale
Belgian Hybrid Ale

My favourite was the Main Street Pilsner. I liked the flight because it was a nice way to try all their beers.

Overall, it was a great place to go to with good beer. We still couldn’t figure out why they had these holes in all the tables.

We Rate Main Street Brewing Company:

Address:
261 E 7th Ave
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://mainstreetbrewingcompany.com/

In Japanese

Manna Sushi: New Sushi Restaurant near Olympic Village

June 25, 2014

Working near Science World means very limited food choices. There are some great choices near the Olympic Village, but my coworkers and I have been to all of them. When we heard Manna Sushi opened on 2nd and Ontario Street, we just had to check it out. I’ve seen so many of my coworkers flocking to Manna Sushi for lunch. With the abundance of Japanese restaurants in town, I wanted to see how this really compared. Mags and I look our lunch break here in search of some good food.

The interior had lots of seating with very simple decor.

Chicken Teriyaki Bento ($9.95) is only for dine-in customers only. I chose this item because it was more affordable that some of the items on the menu. It was either this or one roll of specialty sushi. Of course I chose this. It has a few pieces of tempura, chicken teriyaki over rice, a salad, California roll, 2 deep fried gyozas and a miso soup. The bento box was average and nothing special.

Mags got the Pork Katsu Don ($9.95), which I forgot to take a picture of because it took so long to arrive. Other people got their orders before she did. It turns out, they thought she wanted it for takeout…which was weird because she would be watching me eat. I really wish I took a photo of the don because it look super disappointing. The katsu was heavily breaded, so there was really thin pork inside. She felt cheated because she really wasn’t getting her moneys worth. It’s a fairly simple dish too, but the rice was flavourless and didn’t have enough sauce.

Overall, it’s subpar food. Manna Sushi is quite new, so they are probably working out the kinks and looking for feedback. In the meantime, I don’t think I will be coming here anytime soon.

We Rate Manna Sushi:

Address:
6 E 2nd Ave
Vancouver BC

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

In Downtown

Bellaggio Cafe: Happy Hour

June 24, 2014

My coworkers and I came to Bellaggio Cafe in the Convention Centre for a few drinks and snacks after work. I’ve always walked past this place when I’m near the convention centre, but I never really noticed this place.

When we arrived, we found out that there were 25% off appetizers until 6pm. Seeing that we arrived at 5:50pm, we had to get our order in right away. It sounded like a great deal! It was a nice day, so we sat outside on the patio.

A few of my coworkers shared a pitcher of Sangria and it was perfect for 4 people. There were a good amount of berries inside to add some sweetness.

Crispy Calamari ($13.95) has the crispy fried calamari with tzatziki sauce and a lemon wedge. It’s a great size for sharing and the pieces were large.

Smoked Salmon Flatbread ($14.95) has cream cheese, crispy capers and onions on top of the house made flatbread. The flatbread wasn’t exactly flat as it was quite puffy. It was expensive for what you get.

With the 25% off on the appetizers, the prices were not too bad. The service though was not very good at all. It was hard to a server out on the patio in a timely manner since most of them were indoors. Grabbing the bill was quite painful.

We Rate Bellaggio Cafe:

Address:
26 – 1055 Canada Place
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.bellaggiocafe.com/convention/con-index.html

In Italian

Novo Pizzeria and Wine Bar: Burrata and Creme Brulee

June 23, 2014

Novo Pizzeria is located in Kitsilano near Burrard and West 5th Avenue. There is street parking and underground parking as well. Novo Pizzeria serves up Neapolitan pizza created in their wood burning oven. Owner Carmine Paradiso opened Novo in 2011 because he loves Neapolitan pizza and couldn’t find any authentic ones in Vancouver.

M and I decided to give Novo a try after work one day. We have been to a bunch of other pizza places in town and wanted to see what people were talking about.

The interior has a comfortable and relaxed setting. You ca see the open kitchen at the back of the restaurant. It’s pretty fun to see them making pizza and preparing all the other dishes.

Burrata ($14) is served with arugula, oven-dried tomatoes, and house made bread. Oh boy, was this delicious! It had a soft texture, so, when you put it on the bread, it just oozes all over it. Highly recommended.

Sicilian Meatballs ($10) also is packed with currants, pine nuts then topped with reggiano and marinara sauce. The meatball were a nice size, but M thought it was just an average meatball. Nothing is noticeably different.

Ravioli ($19) has roasted pecans, gorgonzola pear balsamic cream sauce, and prosciutto.

I wasn’t a fan of the dish because it was rich and had a sweet taste. When you take a bite with prosciutto, it helps cut away the sweetness.

Novo DOP Margherita Pizza ($20) is made with DOP (denominazione di Origine Protetta) marked ingredients. These items have been made it it’s traditional ways to set a high quality of standards of produce in Europe.

This pizza is made with imported DOP San Marzano tomatoes, DOP Bufalo mozzarella from the Campania region of Italy, basil, Frantori Cutrera DOP, cold extracted olive oil, DOP parmigiano reggiano, and pesto.

Clearly, there is a lot of love and passion for quality ingredients that went into this pizza. You can really taste the freshness of the ingredients.

Tartufo ($21) has fior di latte, truffled mushrooms, fennel sausage, and truffled oil. This pizza was ok and I was surprised it didn’t have a strong truffle taste.

You can ask for chili oil for your pizza. It’s not spicy, but it adds a bit more flavour to the pizza.

Toasted Hazelnut Creme Brulee ($9) has Frangelico ganache under the creme brulee, rosemary and pinenut cookies, and a orange granita. Best creme brulee that I’ve ever had! The flavours were great and I could eat this over and over again.

Cappuccino was ordered at the end of the meal to finish off the evening.

Overall, there were items that were a hit and a miss. I didn’t find their staple items – pizza or pasta exciting. But, this is based off the few items I tried. My most favourite items are the burrata and the toasted hazelnut Creme Brulee!

We Rate Novo Pizzeria:

Address:
2118 Burrard Street
Vancouver

Website:
http://www.novopizzeria.com/

In Italian

Famoso Neapolitan Pizzeria: Pizzetta Lunch Special

June 22, 2014

I never take many trips to South Surrey, but while I was in the area, my coworker took us to Famoso Neopolitan Pizzeria in Morgan Crossing for lunch. I’ve been to the Commercial Drive location a few years ago and I remember the pizzas being pretty decent.

Once you are seated, there are menus at the table. You will find pencils and note pads on the table to write down your order. It helps you remember you are ordering when you go up to the counter.

I always thought this was a weird concept that you would have to go up to the counter to take your order and pay. Why can’t they just come and take your order? It’s part of their service-style across all their locations. I personally find that it just cheapens the experience.

Pizzetta is their lunch special and you can choose from a small pizza, which is half the size of their regular pizzas with an optional side.

I chose the Don Andreas pizza and the Napoli Salad ($12).

Don Andreas pizza is recently new on their spring and summer menu. It has creme fraiche, fior-di-latte, roasted chicken, corn and chipotle salsa, avocado, chopped cilantro, lime wedge, and served with a side of Valentina hot sauce.

Napoli Salad has field greens, ripe cherry tomatoes, diced red onions, carrots, chickpeas, and a balsamic vinaigrette.

Having the salad and the pizzetta was a good size for lunch. The quality of the food was pretty average.

We Rate Famoso Neopolitan Pizzeria:

Address:
15865 Croydon Dr Surrey BC

Website:
http://www.famoso.ca/

In Cafe

Turk’s Coffee Bar: Iced Americano and Banana Bread

June 21, 2014

Turk’s Coffee Bar is located to Commercial Drive and has been serving coffee since 1997. They serve Milano coffee since that is their parent company. It’s not a bad things since they have good tasting espresso beans. Milano Coffee has won several international awards for their espressos. I came here with Mandu to get a taste of their coffee.

The interior is quite and during peak hours, this place is packed with people. A lot of people have mixed feelings because of the poor service.

After I ordered my drink, a few items came out but everyone was confused who’s drink was who’s as they looked similar. Because the staff were so busy making drinks, no one noticed the customers trying to ask them questions.

Iced Americano is what they had instead of generic iced coffee. I just added some milk and sugar for taste. It tasted great and perfect for the hot weather.

Erin Ireland’s To Die For Banana Bread was being sold here. It took me so long to finally try this. It has a top crust of macadamia nuts and chocolate chunks. It is quite moist and flavourful. You can taste the prominent banana and the nuts and chocolate add great texture.

Overall, good coffee and snacks on The Drive. Too bad the service wasn’t as friendly as I would have liked.

We Rate Turk’s Coffee Bar:

Address:
1276 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.milanocoffee.ca

In Cafe

Dolce Amore Gelateria: Artisan Gelato on The Drive

June 20, 2014

The Drive has a lot of amazing shops and most importantly delicious treats. Dolce Amore Gelateria is a family run business and is now run by the fourth generation of the Grippo family. They also sell pies, sorbetto and cakes.

I was on Commercial Drive for a special event for work, so I decided to stop in here for some gelato with a few friends. Best decision ever. The summer sun is best paired with a few scoops of gelato.

The shop isn’t very large and does have limited seating, but since it’s a nice day in the Summer, you’ll probably want to be out in the sun on The Drive. There’s a good amount of flavours and treats to purchase in the shop.

Peanut Butter Gelato in a waffle cone was really good. The peanut butter taste is strong and the fragrant peanut butter really shined through. Also, there were little bits of peanuts in it. The quality is definitely there.

If you are on The Drive, stop by Dolce Amore Gelateria for some cold treats.

We Rate Dolce Amore Gelateria:

Address:
1590 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://gelateriadolceamore.com/

In product

Häagen-Dazs: Gelato Edition

June 19, 2014

Häagen-Dazs has released a new line of Gelato. It is now in sleek black packaging rather than it’s regular red and gold colours. I saw this at Safeway in their single serve portions. I didn’t feel like committing to their regular 500ml tubs. So, these 118ml cups would have to do the trick.

There are 7 new flavours – Black Cherry Amaretto, Cappuccino, Dark Chocolate Chip, Limoncello, Salted Caramel, Stracciatella and Vanilla Bean.

At my Safeway location, I could only find Dark Chocolate Chips, Stracciatella, and salted caramel in the smaller portions.

M tried the dark chocolate chips and stracciatella and he loved them. I thought those two flavours were good and not overly sweet.

Salted Caramel seemed like it would be a contender, but I found it to be really sweet. I’ve had their regular salted caramel and that tasted a lot better than this gelato version.

I don’t think I would get the Salted Caramel again. Dark Chocolate Chips and Stracciatella are good and we would consider getting them again.

Website: http://www.haagendazs.us/

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Value Picks Menu

June 18, 2014

Sometimes I have craving for McDonalds and I can’t help but get a taste. It a quick and cheap meal. I work right across the street, so it is quite convenient. This time, instead of getting a regular meal, I got whatever was on their Value Picks menu. I didn’t feel like drinking a coke.

The two items featured are the Bacon Ranch Junior Chicken and McDouble. Each burger was $1.99, so it didn’t hurt my pocket at all.

Bacon Ranch Junior Chicken has a McChicken patty topped with thick cut Applewood smoked bacon, melted white cheddar, crisp shredded lettuce and mayo, served on a classic bun.

McDouble has a slice of melted processed cheddar cheese between two beef patties, topped with pickles, onions, ketchup and mustard on a toasted bun.

None of the burgers looked pretty but all the ingredient are in there somewhere. The burgers never look like the advertisements. Can’t complain for such a cheap meal.

Website: http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en/menu/full_menu/value_picks.html

In Filipino

Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck: Flippin Fantastic

June 17, 2014

Mags and I were finding a place on Main street to eat lunch and then we stumbled upon Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck. It’s one of the newer food trucks to hit the town and we just had to try it. They are usually on Main street on Saturdays, but it may change, So check out their schedule before going to the location.

Their menu has a good amount of items and everything sounds delicious. I personally love Filipino food, so I was very excited.

The aroma coming from this truck smelled amazing.

Flippin Adobo ‘Fili’ Cheesesteak ($12) has shaved prime ribs sauteed in Adobo sauce, melted provolone cheese, smoked chipotle aioli and crispy leeks served on a hoagie bun.

This was so good and there was plenty of meat. It was very tender and full of flavour. Highly recommended.

Long Silog Rice Bowl ($12) has cured pork sausage, fried egg, slaw, crispy leeks, garlic fried rice and a sriracha aioli. It was a good portion size and Mags enjoyed it so much, she bought a second box for her boyfriend.

Calamansi ($3) is what we washed our meal down with. Mmmmmm goood!

Overall, it was great. The wait wasn’t too long and the food tasted SO GOOD. I would highly recommend this food truck. If you see it, so grab some food!!

We Rate Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck:

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

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FliptopTruck

In East Village

Kessel & March: So Damn Good

June 16, 2014

Kessel & March is one of the newest restaurants on Powell Street. It’s right beside Odd Society Spirits. They offer private events here as well, which worked out for us because my coworker decided to book out the entire place for the night. Seeing that there was about 25 or more of us, there would be no way they could seat of for a regular evening.

The offered us a 3 course set menu for $28, which is a pretty good price!

They also have a Family-Style supper every Wednesday, which you need to reserve ahead of time. It looks like a good deal.

The kitchen is viewable for everyone to see and its’ pretty fun to see them work their magic.

They have seating on the bottom floor.

Then there is a staircase at the back of the restaurant that leads you to the seating upstairs. The tall shelves are pretty to look at too.

Chicken Liver Pate served with toast and a side of marmalade. Mags said it was really good! She gobbled this up quite quickly.

Tuna Tartare with crostini was great! It has slice of orange to balance the flavours. It was a great dish as well.

Lamb Meatballs with White Beans & Rapini was so good! Probably one of the best meatballs I have ever eaten. I would eat a dozen of these if I could. So GOOD!

Sticky Toffee Pudding was surprisingly amazing! I usually don’t like sticky toffee pudding but this one was s good. The pudding wasn’t overly sweet and it was perfect.

I loved eating everything here. Nothing disappointed. The portions are small, but if you order 2 or 3 dishes, you will be satisfied. Sometimes its good to share a few dishes with some friends so you try a little bit of everything. I’ll definitely be back!

We Rate Kessel & March:

Address:
109-1701 Powell Street Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.kesselandmarch.com/

In Canadian

Odd Society Spirits: Tasting and Tours

June 15, 2014

After work, my amazing coworker took us on an adventure in the East Village. We stopped at Odd Society Spirits for a few drinks and a tour of their distillery. On a Friday evening, this place was lively with people socializing and having a few drinks.

Odd Society is a small-batch craft distillery on Powell Street and they are dedicated in combining Old World distilling traditions with New World ingredients to create their signature whiskey, vodka and gin.

You can try some of their creations on their menu. It’s not a large list, but you have a good amount of items to choose from so you can get a taste of what they produce.

Razzle basil (Pitcher- $24) is made with East Van Vodka, cassis, lime, basil and soda. This was sweet and refreshing! A great item to order in the summer.

East Side Sunrise ($9) is made with East Van Vodka, an orange infusion, eastern spice, orgeat, lemon, egg white and blood orange soda. Some say this taste like a creamsicle, but I have to disagree. The eastern spice threw me off.

Some people really love it but it wasn’t for me.

Once we had a few drinks, we decided to take a tour of the distillery. It’s not a large space, so they can only do it in groups of 10. It was definitely cool to see the process of how it all comes together.

Tours begin Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 4pm and there are no reservations needed. It’s also free. Just ask them kindly and you’ll be able to see the distillery and get a tour.

Canadian Single Malt Casks can be seen on a bunch of shelves and it will age at the distillery for 3 years until it’s ready to be bottled. It’s 30 litres and costs about $1,350. As 3 years is a long time, they give you the opportunity to follow the aging process and taste the product periodically during tasting events.

Their signature East Van Vodka looks pretty cool. It is made from 100% malted barley from Prince George and malted in Armstrong. Then, it’s sent here to be distilled twice in small batches. It is lightly fragrant, sweet smelling and tastes smooth.

When you are looking through the distillery, you will see their beautiful 350-litre copper pots used in the distilling process.

There are a lot of crazy contraptions. If they ever make you taste the liquid going into the bucket, it’s like 90% alcohol. It’s crazy strong!!!! We dipped our finger into it to taste it. Some of us thought they were making their own moonshine.

Overall, it was a great place to go with friends for a drink. It’s definitely unique and not the typical place to go to.

We Rate Odd Society Spirits:

Address:
1725 Powell St Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.oddsocietyspirits.com/

In North Burnaby

Clancy’s Meat Co: Easy Dinner

June 14, 2014

Clancy’s Meat Co. is located in the Kensington Plaza in North Burnaby. M and I are always disappointed when going to Safeway a few doors down for meat. So, we decided to go see what Clancy’s Meat Co had to offer. Imagine it like M&M Meat Shop but different. They sell fresh and frozen meat products, and ready-to-eat meals in stores. Everything is organic and preservative-free.

There’s no butcher shop close to our place that opens after 6pm, so it’s hard to find good meat products after work.

The store has a simple layout with the fresh item in the counters and the frozen stuff in the fridges.

A lot of the steaks are pre-marinated, so you don’t have to do any of the thinking at home. They do have a few selections than are left unseasoned.

Same thing with the chicken breasts. You will find a lot of different flavours. My favourite is the Out of Control chicken breast, which is the yellow one in the photo.

One of our favourite items are the stuffed mushrooms. So good.

The rest of the food and a majority of the seafood products are frozen. I guess if you are looking for a quick dinner with little preparation, this might be for you.

They also sell sauce to go with the meal.

Two Can Dine ($19.99) comes with 2 sirloin steals, 2 shrimp skewers, 2 stuffed mushroom caps and 2 stuffed potatoes. Since it’s just M and I , we thought it would be good to give it a try.

All the items come with cooking instructions. You can find it online or get the staff to let you know the best way to prepare the items.

The stuffed potatoes are all frozen. There are many flavours to choose from but we got the Bacon Cheddar Stuffed Potato and the Parm, Herb and Garlic Stuffed Potatoes. We stuck them into the oven at 350’F for 50 minutes.

Voila, dinner is served. We made a simple salad just to add some more vegetables to the meal. The baked potatoes were surprisingly good, mushrooms were so good, steak was tender and full of flavour. The shrimp was ok, but not the best.

It was an easily meal to make since most of the items we just threw into the oven. It’s kinda like a full proof plan if you don’t know how to cook.

We do go to Clancy’s quite often because it’s convenient and still cheaper than eating out. On another night we got Greek marinated Chicken Breast ($3.98) and a bacon wrapped chicken breast with asparagus, ham and cheese.

‘Out of Control’ marinated Chicken Breast ($3.98) and a bacon wrapped chicken breast with asparagus ham and cheese.

Surprisingly, the marinade was not spicy at all.

3 Pepper New York Steak ($4.98) and a few of the stuffed mushrooms ($1.98 each).The best stuffed mushroom is the Thermador Stuffed mushroom has the white mushroom caps are stuffed with lobster, cream cheese and some spices.

Another time we got the stuffed Zuchinni, Out of Control Chicken Breast and the tilapia stuffed with lobster and cream cheese.

Overall, it’s a decent place to go if you want something easy to make for dinner. For M and I, this a quick meal to create after work. The shop is convenient and the prices are reasonable. I just wish there were more variety of fresh items.

We Rate Clancy’s Meat Co:

Address:
6556 Hastings St. Burnaby BC

Website:
http://www.clancysmeatco.com/

In Brunch

Calabash Bistro: Brunch Bash with Booze

June 13, 2014

Did you know Calabash Caribbean Bistro serves brunch? Every Saturday and Sunday, you can get a taste of their brunch menu from 10am – 3pm.

I was invited to a preview of their new brunch menu to see what they were offering up. Since I am still on the hunt for the best brunches in town, I couldn’t pass up this opportunity.

Calabash Bistro is well know in the community for their deep roots in the local music and art scene. They always have events in their downstairs area.

The main dining room is upstairs but all the events happen downstairs in their basement. It’s a pretty cool space.

Pistachio Lassi ($7) is a traditional Indian drink made with yogurt, fresh fruit & spices. I’ve never had pistachio lassi before since I usually get a mango lassi. It also contains mint, rosewater, honey, cardamom, and pistachio. It was really good and I would definitely get this again.

You can really taste the depth of flavours and it works really well together.

Coconut dumplings can be found in their menu and it’s really good. They remind me of donuts but not too sweet.

The exterior is crunchy and the inside is warm and soft.

Your choice of mango or guava butter is served with it. Both the butters were really good and tastes so much better than regular butter. hahaha.

Escovitch Fish ($14) is a traditional Caribbean breakfast with pan-seared fish, tangy Escovitch sauce, fried plantain, fresh cucumber and rice & peas. The fish was nicely cooked and the tangy sauce complimented nicely, unfortunately, the rice wasn’t very good.

Passion Fruit & Guava Mimosa ($7) has Pares Balta organic sparkling wine, passion fruit juice, and guava. It was paired with the Escovitch Fish dish. It was nice to have a different type of mimosa than the regular.

Oxtail Stew Brunch Bowl ($13) has two poached free-range eggs, rice and peas, fried plantains, and a coconut rundown hollandaise. The oxtail stew is full of flavour and it is a bit spicy. It doesn’t look spicy, but it is. The combination of the runny egg with the stew is yummy but I still didn’t like the rice in this dish.

Calabash Dark & Stormy ($10) is their most popular drink and a lot of people say this is their favourite drink. It has ginger-infused Goslings rum, house-made ginger beer, Angostura bitters, and ginger syrup.

Salara French Toast ($12) has fresh-baked salara, fresh-cut fruit, house-made banana cream & spiced mango maple syrup. It’s a sweet brunch item and is very different than the traditional french toast.

Coconut Jumby ($11) contains El Dorado 3 year old rum shaken with coconut water, agave syrup, muddled lemongrass, mint, and lime zest.

All their drinks were pretty strong and definitely worth the price. It was definitely a boozy brunch. Overall, the food was ok, but wasn’t for my tastebuds. It’s all a personal preference since I do find it weird having rice for breakfast.

We Rate Calabash Bistro:

Address:
428 Carrall Street
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://calabashbistro.com/