July 2015

In Cafe

Amoda Tea: Pop Up Matcha Bar

July 31, 2015

Amoda Tea had a Pop Up Matcha Bar this week at Eastwood Cycle Sanctuary from Monday July 27th till Thursday July 30th 2015. Only 4 short days but they drew a crowd from the Gastown offices and others in the area. By the time you read this, it will be gone. Hopefully they pop up in another area of town soon. Sometimes they are at the Vancouver Food Cart Fest.

They use 100% pure organic stone ground green tea from Japan. I love matcha.

They served up:

Iced matcha tea
Local blueberry mint matcha iced tea
Matcha lemonade
Raspberry matcha lemonade
Iced matcha latte

The prices are quite good and comes in 2 sizes. Since the weather has been pretty darn warm in Vancouver, you gotta go with the large size.

Iced Matcha Tea ($5) was very good. Refreshing and just plain awesome. Add a bit of sugar for added taste.

Local Blueberry Mint Matcha Iced Tea ($5.50) was also really good. Nice combination of flavours.

Iced Matcha Latte ($5.50) uses almond milk and coconut syrup. My coworker asked for half sweet and it was quite good. We never thought that coconut syrup and matcha would be a good combination, but it was.

Raspberry Matcha Lemonade ($5) was quite sour and muddles the taste of the matcha. The dominate flavour is definitely the raspberry and lemon.

Matcha Lemonade ($5) was quite sour as well and perks you up more than coffee. Still better than the raspberry. The 2 flavours didn’t mesh too well.

They sell their matcha on their online store in different blends. Having this pop up shop gave you a taste of what drinks you can make with their matcha. Check out their Facebook page to see if they will have another pop up in the near future.

Website:
http://amodatea.com/

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/amodatea

In Gluten Free Options

Glory Juice: New Location Near Olympic Village

July 30, 2015

Glory Juice just opened their third location near Olympic Village on 2nd Avenue. Since I work close to this area, I thought I would grab a healthy lunch from this place. I brought along CoquitlamGirl to check this place out.

Also, right around the corner is Earnest Ice Cream. Best place for dessert ever!

They have a few seats inside and it’s a nice open space for lunch time. A lot of people went to grab take out, so it wasn’t too busy inside here.

They have so many juices available, but if you aren’t good at committing to a flavour, you can grab a sample if they have it available. The flavours range from pure veggies to sweet citrus tastes. It’s tough for a first timer to choose.

I grabbed a Small Pad Thai Salad and a small Mixed Citrus cold pressed Juice. I was feeling pretty healthy today.

The Mixed Citrus was one of the sweeter juices that had. It contains orange, grapefruit and lime.You can taste there is a dominant flavour of oranges.The juice is also organic, raw, unpasteurized, with no added water, sugar or preservatives.

The Pad Thai Salad came with a peanut sauce to enrobe all the veggies with its yumminess. There isn’t any noodles in the salad, but it was more like a bowl of thinly sliced vegetables with sauce and sesame seeds.

Overall, it was a good healthy lunch. The price is a tad high, but its understandable since a lot of effort goes into their juices and food, plus its organic where possible.

We Rate Glory Juices:

Address:
78 East 2nd Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://gloryjuiceco.com/

In Cafe

Golden Garden: Vietnamese Food in Chinatown

July 29, 2015

Golden Garden Vietnamese Cuisine / Kim Saigon Sandwiches is an affordable restaurant with amazing items like pho, bahn mi sandwiches, spring rolls, and a lot more. I was introduced to Golden Garden by my coworkers a few years ago and this has become my go-to place for lunch. Take out is quick and I always made sure I get a bahn mi since it’s only $4. Every few months, a couple of my coworkers will have a group lunch and dine in.

When you look inside the dining area, its clean and quite nice compared to other places. It’s not sketchy at all. You will find families, business workers in the area, and some tourists.

Vermicelli Bowl with chicken was what I ordered. It came with a small bowl of fish sauce and I poured a bit over the noodles. I added some hot sauce too for some added heat. It was really good as there were lots of bean sprouts and veggies. I couldn’t stop eating this.

On another day, I got bahn mi for take out. Remember that they can only do debt or credit card transactions for an order $5 or more. If not, you will have to have cash on you. Thats why I ordered a Bahn Mi and a drink to get me to $5.25 so I could use my debt card.

I love how its wrapped up and then tied up in a plastic bag.

I know I could have made this look better, but I didn’t have a knife to cut this in half.

Pate Bahn Mi ($4) has assorted cold cut meat, pâté, pickled vegetable, jalapeno, cilantro and some fish sauce. The bun is crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside.

Overall, a great restaurant in the heart of Chinatown with good food and prices. It’s a comfortable space and not sketchy at all.

We Rate Golden Garden:

Address:
509 Main Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://goldengardenrestaurant.ca/

In Downtown

#Gastropost100: Celebration of Food and Drink

July 28, 2015

Have you wondered why people on Instagram, Twitter and Tumblr tag their food pictures with #gastropost? We’re not crazy, there’s a reason behind it.

Gastropost brings food lovers together by featuring weekly food missions where anyone with an internet connection to participate in submitting their yummy photos based on the mission. Your photos can be featured on their website or even the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers if you’re in Vancouver. They also have this in Toronto, Edmonton and Calgary.

Gastropost Vancouver celebrated their 100th mission by throwing a party at Yew Seafood + Bar in the Four Seasons Hotel. To appreciate Vancouver Gastroposters dedication to the weekly mission, they invited this fun community to snack and enjoy. Eating is what we do best. Nom. Nom. Nom.

For me, it was a great time meeting other fellow Instagramers in Vancouver. We always see each others photos of yummy food online but finally get a chance to meet IRL.

It’s always fun to see everyone pull out their cameras when a new dish arrived on the table. Everyone has their own awesome way of taking photos. There was a mix of smartphones, mirrorless cameras and DSLRs. You don’t need fancy equipment to make food look good.

Yew put together a bunch of delicious snacks featuring OceanWise Seafood and man, were they delicious. You can find some of the items on their regular menu.

Samuel Adams was featuring 3 of their beers – Summer Ale, Rebel IPA, and their signature Boston Lager. They were the exclusive beer sponsor for the event.

I personally love the Summer Ale as it is the lightest on of the 3 beers. The crispy citrus notes pair very well with the OceanWise seafood that was on the menu especially crab, tuna, shrimp and scallops. Refreshing too. I’m personally a beer drinking and prefer it over wine and cocktails.

You can’t have a party without beer right?

Seared Scallop with a Vanilla Bean dressing was one of my favourites. This scallop was pretty large. I couldn’t help but have a few of these.

Albacore Tuna with smoked sea salt and lime soy sesame. Delicious and nicely seared on the outside.

Humpback Shrimp is local and sustainable right from BC. The shrimp is served on a wooden spoon and has a lemon aioli sauce.

You couldn’t just have one…

Dungeness Crab Tacos with red miso, honey, radish and avocados. Another sustainable seafood and it’s on Yew’s regular menu. I love the crunch of the shell and then the delicious crab meat is inside. So good!

Green Garbanzo Bean Relish with parmesan cheese 2 way with cashew nuts. A delicious bite and I loved the parmesan!

Heirloom Tomato Gazpacho was a shot of the summer.

Executive Chef Ned Bell talked briefly about why it’s so important to support sustainable seafood and bring more awareness to OceanWise and SeaChoice. We only have one ocean and limited species of seafood, if we continue to over fish, our future generations may not be able to experience the same seafoods that we have access to now.

I would like to continue having Spot Prawns every year until I am an old granny.

After devouring all the delicious sustainable seafood, we all chatted the night away drinking and enjoying the other snacks that we spread around the room.

Finger food and alcohol is the best. The Samuel Adams Boston Lager paired better with these as there is a nice balance between the malted barley and hops. There is also a crisp refreshing feeling with a good amount of carbonation.

Mini BC Blueberry tarts with housemade vanilla bean soft serve were passed around to end off the night with a sweet treat.

There definitely was no shortage of beer, it just kept on coming.

Fresita is a sparkling wine from Chile. You will notice the distinct aromas of strawberry, cherry and citrus. Nice and refreshing.

Everyone there was Tweeting and Instagramming away.

Gastropost Alberta Community Manager -Brittney Le Blanc and Gastropost Vancouver Community Manager – Adelina Wong kick off the night thanking and recognizing all the awesome Gastroposters in the room.

Cheers to a great night and many more to come.

If you missed the first 100 missions, don’t worry, there are more! Just follow Gastropost Vancouver on Instagram, Tumblr or Twitter to find out what are the next missions. If you don’t have those social media accounts, you can still participate and submit pictures through the website. Sign up for email notifications when the next mission begins.

Website: http://vancouver.gastropost.com/

In Bakery

Cartems Donuterie: Donuts on Main Street

July 27, 2015

Have you found the little donut on Main Street? It’s a bit hidden if you don’t look hard enough.

Cartems Donuterie opened up their 2nd location here. Their other location is on Pender Street Downtown. They have great creative favours that have captured the hearts of many Vancouverites. I’ve had their donuts many times but I always find there are only a few outstanding donuts that I can’t get tired of like their earl grey.

Their space is large and is ideal for long line ups. Usually you have a backlog of people staring at the donuts and not knowing what to order.

With a spread like this, it is hard. It took me a while too since I didn’t want to go with my usual order.

If you aren’t into donuts, I wonder why you would be here in the first place. Either way, they sell Earnest Ice Cream, Tea and Coffee.

I love their wall of donut boxes. A lot of people seem to get large orders and take them to-go. It’s a great item to bring to a party.

London Fog Donut is filled with an earl grey mousse inside with the london fog glaze on top. Since I love their earl grey donut, I thought this would be a no brainer. I didn’t really like it.

Next time, I will stick with my usual earl grey donut.

Cappuccino is what I ordered. There wasn’t a lot of foam, so I should have ordered it extra dry. I wasn’t a big fan of their espresso that they used. I found it to be quite acidic that what I am normally used to.

Overall, Cartems Donuterie makes great donuts, but I would stick with their signature donuts like earl grey, bee sting, etc. The interior is large and has a good amount of seating.

We Rate Cartems Donuterie:

Address:
2190 Main Street,
Vancouver

Website:
http://cartems.com/

In Cafe

Milano Coffee Roasters: Coffee and Pastries

July 26, 2015

Milano Coffee Roasters has a hidden location in the Mount Pleasant area. It’s on West 8th near Columbia Street right across from Jonathan Rogers Park. They serve up delicious coffee, pastries and sandwiches in this awesome area.

It’s an cool space to work or just hang out with some friends.

They also have a patio area for those hot summer days. In our case, we came during on of the rainy Vancouver days in the summer, so the view wasn’t as great as on a sunny day. We didn’t mind since Vancouver really needed the rain.

Also, if you’re out on the patio, it’s a fun place to just people watch.

Latte was what my coworker ordered. Nothing like a delicious latte on a cold rainy day.

Cappuccino is my drink of choice. It has a lot of foam and they make it right here. Some other places make it like a latte. I loved the taste of the espresso and the amount of milk and foam were great.

Blueberry scone has a nice crispy top. It was a good size pastry and goes well with tea or coffee.

Lemon Loaf was moist and had good amount of lemon, poppy seeds and hints of coconut. A good twist on the original lemon poppy seed loaf.

Overall, it’s a nice cafe and enjoyable place to just hang out and have a snack. If I lived closer, I would come here more often. The tradeoffs of living in the subburbs.

We Rate Milano Coffee Roasters:

Address:
156 West 8th Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
milanocoffee.ca

In Cafe

Scent of a Sandwich: Lunch in Chinatown

July 25, 2015

Scent of a Sandwich is located close to Main St and Hastings St. This place always catches my eye because it’s one of the only places near my office to send mail. My coworker and I thought we should try this place out as we were quite curious about it.

They started off as a catering company, but now has a store to serve sandwiches to the Downtown Eastside community. They roast their meats in-house, source local ingredients and bake fresh bread.

There are a few seats inside, but when we were here, most people were taking it to go.

They usually have 1 feature sandwich of the day you can order, or else you can build you own sandwich.

We decided to keep it simple and get the special. They have a bunch of different types of bread you can choose from.

Chicken and Brie on Whole Wheat Sourdough was what I ordered and I had it to go. It was a busy day at work, so I needed a grab and go type of meal. The is the sliced up chicken, brie, spinach and mayo. Then they put it into a panini grill to get the brie nice and melted.

My coworker and I found it to be a tad dry and underwhelming. It could have used a bit more brie too.

We rate Scent of a Sandwich:

Address:
100-418 Main Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://scentofasandwich.com/

In Contest

[Giveaway] Menchie’s Summer VIP Pass #MenchiesMyWay

July 24, 2015

Do you love froyo? I know my husband goes crazy for frozen yogurt. Menchie’s currently has 116 locations across Canada and are planning to have another 9 by the end of the year. They are the largest growing frozen yogurt franchise in Canada.

With over 150 different frozen yogurt flavours, customers love trying all the ones that are available. They don’t have them all available at the same time, but you will find a flavour that you love. Their newest collaboration is with Oreo to create the Oreo cooke frozen yogurt. My personal favourite is the original tart flavour with all the fresh fruit added on top.

Want to win a Menchie’s Summer VIP Pass?

The Menchie’s Summer VIP Pass gives you access to 7 complementary cups of frozen yogurt to any Menchie’s in Canada. To enter, let me know in the comments below what would be your ultimate Menchie’s creation and what would you call it. For additional entries, take a look at the list below in the widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

In Chinese

Prince Seafood Restaurant: Chinese Dinner

July 23, 2015

Prince Seafood Restaurant is located right by Renfrew Skytrain and is one of the top Chinese Restaurants in Vancouver. They always draw a crowd for dinner and dim sum. Make sure you have reservations or else you may be out of luck.

Crab Meat with Fish Maw Thick Soup 金湯鮮蟹肉魚肚羹 ($20.80) it’s always good to start with soup for a Chinese dinner. My family usually orders this type of soup and it’s very delicious. If you don’t know what fish maw is, it’s the air bladder of a fish that controls its buoyancy. The taste and texture isn’t weird at all.

Diced Beef Tenderloin & Mixed Mushrooms with Black Pepper 野山菌黑椒神戶牛柳粒 ($22.80) is another favourite item of mine. I found the beef to be quite tender and had great flavour with the right amount of pepper.

Tofu Skin with Ginkgo & Pea Shoots 銀杏鮮腐皮浸豆苗 ($19.80) is one of my favourite dishes. The pea shoots were cooked perfectly and still retained it sweet taste that paired nicely with the tofu skin. I also love the milky broth.

Sizzling Oyster with Supreme Soy Sauce 鐵板頭抽生煎蠔 ($22.80) was a weird dish we ordered since my dad wanted to try it. The oyster was plump was was cooked quite well. There is a bit of caramelization on the outside of the oyster which has this amazing smokey flavour but its slightly sweet.

Scallops and Snowpeas Medley was cooked well. The snowpeas still had a nice snap to them and the scallops were very delicious.

Whole Tea Smoked Chicken was the last item that arrived at the table. There was a large gap in the service when the last dish arrived. We had to ask the waiter if this dish was on its way.

For dessert, they gave us an assortment of little treats. The almond cookie and mango rice roll things were a nice touch.

Then there is the red bean dessert with tapioca. Better than most places I would say, but I still don’t particularly like this dessert.

Overall, always a solid place for a Chinese dinner.

We rate Prince Chinese Seafood:

Address:
2881 Grandview Hwy
Vancouver, BC V5M

Website:
http://princeseafoodrestaurant.com/

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In Dessert

Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt: Froyo in the Summer

July 22, 2015

After a hike with the girls and M, we grabbed dinner and then headed off to Menchie’s frozen yogurt in Port Moody for a nice treat to end the day. I like the Port Moody location since it’s fairly new and the space is pretty large compared to the other locations in the Lower Mainland.

Menchie’s currently have 116 locations across Canada and are planning to have another 9 by the end of the year.

You grab a cup and stop at the yogurt bar to start trying all the different flavours until you can figure out what you want.

There’s a lot of choices especially for the chocolate lover. I normally go for their original tart flavour, but today, I had to try something new. Their newest flavour is Oreo. They have just over 150 flavours available but the flavours do rotate.

Time to add all the topping. I find that the fruit topping is quite scarce, so there isn’t a lot of fruity selection, but they have tons of chocolates and candies to add on top.

You pay by weight, so the more you put in, the more it will cost.

Then you can sit and enjoy your Menchie’s creation. It was a hot summer day, so everyone else decide to sit outside to enjoy their froyo. We didn’t mind since there was AC in here.

Original Tart Flavour with cheese cake bites, cookie dough, and popping bubbles. M calls this his Strawberry cheesecake creation.

Oreo Cookie Flavour frozen yogurt in a waffle cone with mini peanut butter cups, Reese’s peanut butter cups crumble, and colourful chocolate bits.

I really pilled it on, but sometimes you gotta indulge. I found that it did lack a bit of the signature Oreo flavour in the frozen yogurt. It was more like a cookies and cream. Perhaps I should I put crushed Oreos on top to add more of that flavour.

Overall, Menchie’s has a great space especially this location for seats, but I always get sad at the lack of fresh fruit toppings.

We Rate Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt:

Address:
Suter Brook Village,
146 Brew Street, Port Moody

Website:
http://www.menchies.ca/

In Downtown

Lips Resto: Brunch on Davie Street

July 21, 2015

Lips Resto is a new restaurant that opened up on Davie Street. Besides lunch and dinner, they also serve brunch on the weekends.

The chef and owner Curtis “Lips” Demyon is 17 years into his culinary career, most recently as executive chef at The Fish House in Stanley Park. With each dish on the menu, you can see Chef Curtis Demyon’s innovative twist to each dish that creates the memorable dining experience.

With the million-dollar renovation, it is bringing a fine-dining addition into a neighbourhood famous for casual and ethnic fare. The interior is beautiful and their windows open up so it’s like dining out in a patio, but indoors.

Coffee is a must for brunch if it’s the first thing you do in the morning. I have this bad habit of not even drinking water when I leave the house for brunch.

Muffin ($4) is definitely not what you expect a muffin to look like. It was pretty delicious as it uses the fresh strawberries of the summer. A good start to the meal.

The breakfast ($14) has 2 eggs, house smoked bacon, country sausage, tomatoes, broken potato rosti and toast. This is a good item to order if you just need a greasy hearty breakfast with lots of protein. I got the eggs poached medium and it was spot on. Thats my one important test from a restaurant is if they can get the poached eggs right. It will surprise you that some places just don’t know how to time the eggs properly.

The sausages were flavourful and the smokiness of the bacon was great. I found the rosti to be a tad salty.

Confit Pork Belly, sauteed onion, smoked jalapeno corn bread ($14) is served with broken potato rosti. M loved the generous portion of the pork belly and that corn bread was nice and crunchy to give it extra texture.

M loved the broken potato rosti as it was very different that most restaurants.

Curry Pork Sausage ($5) was delicious and M was amazed by the depth of flavour. The handmade sausages you can tell had a lot of care when they were making it.

Caramelized banana and dulce de leche Smashed Croissants ($14) is their twist on french toast. It’s so good and the perfect ending to brunch. M and I shared this to end off the brunch experience.

The caramelized banana and dulce de leche is a great combination and they didn’t make it overly sweet.

Overall, it was a great surprise to see them making some stellar brunch here. It’s a beautiful space to dine in and make sure to sit by the open windows during the summer. M is already planning his next brunch trip here. He was very impressed.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by Lips Resto to dine for brunch and my meal was comped, but I made sure to tip their amazing and kind staff. All thoughts are my own.

We Rate Lips Resto:

Address:
1143 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://lipsresto.com/

In Downtown

Black Rice Izakaya: Japanese Restaurant near BC Place

July 20, 2015

Every Friday, my friends and I love to spend time eating and drinking at Japanese Izakayas to unwind after a week of work. Since we’ve managed to hit most Izakayas in Downtown, I had to do some reasearch to see if any new ones have popped up.

Black Rice Izakaya opened a few months ago near BC Place and I had to take my friends here. I made reservations ahead of time since we had a large group. As a designer, I had to giggle a little that they were using papyrus font for their logo.

The space is set up slightly odd with a ramp that goes through the restaurant. We found this place was quite packed after work but it was also the One Direction concert during the day I went. The crowd died down around 8pm.

They also have a bar area near the front.

The first items we had to order was beer and sake. Friday night traditions.

The sake cups were housed in this rectangular box. It was pretty cute.

Spicy Salmon Aburo Hako ($11.95) looks a bit familiar doesn’t it? It’s has asparagus, spicy tuna, sockeye, spicy mayo, jalapeño and then it’s torched.

After eating this, we realized this isn’t an authentic Japanese Izakaya, it was Korean run, so we can see the Korean influence in this roll. It was the type of spice they used in it. Also, most of the servers we heard speaking Korean.

Tuna Tataki Salad with Avocado ($7.99) has some nice big pieces of tuna and chunks of avocado. The dressing was light and quite enjoyable.

Aburi Saba Hako ($14.25) has a thick piece of saba, yamagobo, shiroita-kombu and then it’s torches. Very good!

Yaki Udon ($9.95) was delicious. Nice flavours and textures.

Ika Ebi Hako ($10.95) bas chopped tiger prawn and squid, then tamagobo, cheddar, mozzarella, and parmesan cheese. It is then oven baked.

Ebi Mayo ($9.25) came with 5 pieces, but the mayo part was a bit lacking on this dish.

Smoked Salmon and Avocado Maki Roll ($3.50) was very simple but pretty good. Everyone loves avocado.

Galbi Kushi yaki ($3.60 each) is grilled BBQ prime rib. It was a bit tough and not tender at all.

Black Rice Roll ($8.99) has pacific black cod, avocado, cream cheese, and wrapped in black rice. We found that the cream cheese did overpower most of the ingredients in the role, we could hardly taste or notice the cod.

Chicken Karage Nanban ($7.95) was crispy and well cooked. It also comes with this delicious sweet sauce.

Negi Salmon Maki ($3) was a nice twist on the negi toro since we never see negi salmon on a menu or perhaps I’ve been blind. We all really enjoyed it.

Sockeye Salmon Nigiri (2 pieces – $4.40) we got 3 orders of this as there was 6 of us at the table. Delicious and fresh.

Volcano Dynamite Roll ($8.95) has crab meat, prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado, topped with spicy tuna and rolled up in brown rice. It was a pretty massive roll. I didn’t really particularly like it.

Unagi Nigiri (2 pieces – $4.70) comes with 2 pieces per order. It was good.

Overall, Black Rice Izakaya is good but I felt the service to be lacking as it took them forever to seat us, give us water and take our order. An item that we ordered didn’t show up and we didn’t figure this out until after we paid the bill. When we asked, they had no idea what happened to it, so they refunded us the missing item in cash.

They also ran out of serving plates and forks when we were here. We brought a cake and so did some other group that was dining there too, so perhaps that’s what happened.

We Rate Black Rice Izakaya:

Address:
782 Cambie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.blackrice.ca/

In Japanese

Ramen Danbo: Ramen in Kitsilano

July 19, 2015

Ramen Danbo is the newest ramen shop to open up in Vancouver. They are known for their Fukuoka-Style Tonkotsu ramen. Ramen Danbo is a chain restaurant from Japan and the first location in North America.

What makes them unique is that you can customize the ramen you order by selecting

amount of spicy tare sauce
firmness of noodles
amount of lard
thickness of broth

At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of choices.

The interior is simple and there aren’t a lot of seats.

Pan-fried yaki gyoza ($4.75) is a crispy pork and scallion dumpling. Its nice and crisp on the outside and the pork inside is very delicious. Even a little bit of soup comes out.

You can dip them in their gyoza and chili sauce.

Mentaiko Rice ($3.50) has a bed of rice with spicy cod roe, sesame and seaweed. I mixed everything up and there really needs to be more roe. I wouldn’t recommend this. perhaps their Yakibuta chashu pork donburi or yakibuta tanka rice is more flavourful.

Yakibuta Chashu Pork Ramen with soft boiled egg topping ($11.95 + $1.50) it has size chashu slices that are tender and flavourful. The signature tonkotsu broth is delicious. We found the price pretty good since there are six slices of chashu.

If you are still hungry after this, you can order extra noodles for $2 or have a half order for $1.

Negi-goma Tonkotsu Ramen ($11.45) has scallions and toasted sesame with two slices of chashu pork slices. It is in their signature Tonkotsu pork broth.

I got it with firm noodles and standard amount of lard, thickness, and spice. The options were confusing so I stuck with the standard. It was good, but there is a lot of sesame seeds in it. Check your teeth before you head out of the restaurant because you don’t want to have a teeth full of sesame seed.

They also have garlic paste and pepper at the table if you want to enhance the taste.

Overall, I would say it is my third favourite ramen place in Vancouver. It’s quite subjective based on the type of ramen you like. I still prefer Santouka and Jinya.

We Rate Ramen Danbo:

Address:
1833 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://ramendanbo.com

In Chinese

Nu Chinese Bistro: New Owners, New Menu

July 18, 2015

Nu Chinese Bistro is located on McKim Way inside Cosmo Plaza on the 2nd floor. They were formally known as Nu Shanghainese Bistro, but after a change in ownership the name only slightly changed. The restaurant is quite hard to find and with the group of 11 of us, a majority of us took a while to find the restaurant.

As it is on the 2nd floor, it’s not easily seen on the street either.

The interior is quite nice and spacious. They take reservations for large groups, so it’s perfect for large families to dine here.

They also have private rooms that are slightly dolled up.

So, if you have a special occasion with a large amount of people, they really can accommodate. Just be warned that the service is quite sparse and not very attentive. We always had to nudge them to change our plates and refill our tea and water. Pretty typical with some Chinese restaurants, but lets see whats on their menu.

Sautéed Black Fungus 涼拌木耳 is a cold appetizer that we started off with. It was tender, crunchy and had a subtle hint of wasabi taste. It was odd, but I strangely liked it. I was a tad sick this week, so the wasabi cleared my sinuses a little bit.

Traditional Shanghai Smoked Fish 老上海熏魚 is another cold appetizer to start off the dinner. Nicely smoked but it was a tad on the dry side. The sweet soy sauce covering each piece went well with it.

Soy-Braised Kaofu Bran with Assorted Mushrooms 四喜烤麩 was the third cold appetizer that we had. I always had a strange curiosity about the gluten, which are the porous cubes in this dish. Since it’s so porous, it soaks up the sauce nicely.

Xiao Long Bao 南翔小籠包 was the first hot item for the meal. Each bamboo container has 6 dumpling and has a sauce on the side. The dumpling was thin and had ample amount of soup inside. Pretty good.

Clay Pot Wonton Chicken Soup 砂鍋竹笙餛飩雞 is a light soup to kick off the larger heavier dishes for the evening. The pea shoots are nice and sweet and I love pea shoots.

The staff will help portion the soup so you get a little bit of everything. ConstantCravings got a little bit extra in her soup in the form of a hair. Ick.

Special Beef Wrap 撈餅牛肉卷 comes with 6 pieces. it was good but the wrap itself was a tad dense for my liking.

BC Dungeness Crab with Fried Shanghai Rice Cake BC肉蟹炒年糕 was large and has 2 crabs that make up the dish when we were here. The price varies.

We had our silver shell crackers to break open the hard exo skeleton. The crab took us a long time to crack the shell to get into it’s sweet succulent meat. Quite a messy dish but we did have wet napkins to clean the delicious sauce off our fingers. As for the rice cakes, it was ok, but I would have preferred noodles or rice to accompany this dish.

Stone Pot Braised Pork Belly Shanghainese Style 石鍋紅燒肉 was my favourite dish of the evening. The pork belly was nicely braised and full of flavour. There were also knots of tofu in the dish.

Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork 幹煸四季豆（攬菜肉鬆）was ok, but I found it to be tad limp and oily.

Braised Tofu with Seafood 瓊山海鮮豆腐 was a nice break from the heavy and oily items we ordered. The tofu was very silky.

Xiang Jiang Tea Smoked Duck 湘江樟茶鴨 comes with little buns as well. The skin of the dusk was crispy but some pieces of meat were quite dry and use more smokey flavour.

I made a mini sandwich was the meat and the bun.

Beef tenderloin and eggplant with black pepper sauce 黑椒茄子牛柳粒 was good but also quite oily.

Sichuan Style Boiled Fish 蜀香水煮魚 is a typical item I enjoy in restaurants as I love spicy. This particular dish was spicy but enjoyable since it doesn’t scald your tongue with heat for a long time.

The fish was flakey and tender.

Zhenjiang Style Ribs 鎮江骨 was good, tender and had a yummy sauce.

Eight Jewel Sweet Rice 八寶飯 was quite bright in colour with the different ingredients in it. Inside the rice, you can find red bean paste. I didn’t particularly like this dessert.

Overall, their menu selection is quite large and diverse, but I didn’t find a lot of items that I particularly loved or stood out. The braised pork belly was great but thats because I love pork belly in any shape or form.

Since they are still new, they have some kinks to work out from their dishes and service.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to dine at Nu Chinese Bistro and my meal was comped. All thoughts are my own.

We Rate Nu Chinese Bistro:

Address:
Cosmo Plaza,
2170-8788 McKim Way,
Richmond

Website:
http://www.nushanghainesebistro.com/

In Brunch

Farmers Apprentice: Farm to Table Brunch

July 16, 2015

The Farmers Apprentice is located in Fairview and they serve a farm to table style cuisine that uses the best ingredients that our local farmers have to offer.

As per weekend tradition, brunch is a must! Farmers Apprentice has been on my ‘eating list’ for a while. They were named best new restaurant of 2014 by En Route Magazine, Restaurant of the Year by Vancouver Magazine, and so many more.

It just seemed like it opened and instantly won all these awards. Either way, I wanted to check it out for myself.

The interior is rustic and has about 40 seats, but they are quite busy. The atmosphere is casual that you feel like you fit right in.

Their kitchen is pretty open, so you can see what they are all doing. I love it since you know they have nothing to hide. They just want to make delicious food. The best view of the kitchen is from the bar seats. I love bar seats since you can see all the staff in action.

All the dishes for brunch are meant to be shared and it arrives in the order they prepare them.

Cappuccino was our drink of choice to start off our day. It came in these clear mugs, so we can see the contents inside.

Smorrebord (all 3 – $16 or $6 each) is an open-faced sprouted rye bread sandwich. When we dined here, they had 3 kinds:

filet beans, fromage frais, soft boiled egg and roasted onion
beef tartare, mustard emulsion, and pickled shallots
cod rillette, creme fraiche, pickled beets and dill

It’s a great item to share among friends. What I liked most about this item is the bread! I just love the texture of all the seeds in it. All 3 flavours were great, as you can really taste the ingredients that go into each one. But, I felt like the beef tartare was under seasoned or needed a bit more mustard taste to make the beef taste shine through.

Berkshire and tamsworth pork biscuit sandwich with fried egg ($14) this was highly recommended by our server. She says it apparently changes lives when people sink their teeth into this. Definitely brunch worthy. The egg was fried perfectly with a soft yolky centre. The biscuit was damn good too.

Octopus, sieglinde potatoes, pickled radish, charmoula, and poached egg ($15) was just delightful. The octopus was tender and flavourful. The sauce balanced well with all the other ingredients.

When I was eating this dish, you can’t help but adore each bite of each ingredient. The octopus was really good!

The egg was poached soft and made my heart sing. That’s my favourite type of egg to fit a perfect brunch meal. I get angry at other restaurants when they don’t know how to poach eggs.

Confit Chicken, potato has, summer squash, and poached eggs ($13) had a similar presentation to the octopus. Great taste and it felt super clean and healthy.

Overall, you can really classify this restaurant as farm to table with hipster west coast flare if there was such a thing? I enjoyed the meal and you can feel the passion that the chef has for this restaurant and this type of cuisine. Plus, BC grows some amazing vegetables and produce great proteins. I’m sure if you asked the staff about where they source their ingredients, you’ll enjoy the stories.

This restaurant won’t appeal to everyone but it’s great to try at least once. It’s feels healthy, clean and delicious. Usually brunch is associated with being greasy and protein heavy, but it’s a nice change coming here.

We Rate Farmers Apprentice:

Address:
1535 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.farmersapprentice.ca/

In British Columbia

A&W: Sriracha Teen Burger

July 15, 2015

A few days ago A&W Canada had an amazing promotion where you can get their new Sriracha Teen Burger for FREE! Absolutely free, no strings attached. Just grab your coupon here: http://awcoupon.ca/en/sriracha

There’s only 100,000 coupons available and it’s going quite quickly.

It’s only one coupon per account, but lots of people on Reddit or Red Flag Deals have been trying ways to hack the system like using screenshots or by printing out the coupon. Technically, you’re supposed to show it on your smartphone to redeem it via awcoupon.ca. Depending on the location, some staff just don’t know.

After work, I decided to grab a quick bite with M to the closest A&W near our place to use the coupon.

Success! We acquired the free Sriracha teen burger! It’s originally priced at $5, but you can make it a double teen burger for $6. Since we used the free coupon, they wouldn’t let us upgrade to the double teen burger if we paid a bit more. Since the burger was free, I was still happy.

The Sriracha mayo is quite spicy and doesn’t take much like Sriracha at all. It reminded me more of a chipotle mayo but a few notches spicier.

M and I loved the added touch of the roasted red peppers. We loved the Sriracha teen burger and we would order it again.

In South Burnaby

Proline Trading: My Wedding Florist

July 14, 2015

I know this post isn’t about food, but I know it will help someone who is in search of flowers for their wedding in Vancouver or Burnaby on a budget.

It was a month before my wedding and I still didn’t have a florist. I inquired with a lot of places but was always turned off by how expensive flowers can get. It was one of the last things on my mind since I really had no preference. I even contemplated doing the flowers myself but realized it was silly because in the end it would still be a few hundred dollars and I would need to put it together when I had no time. DIY wasn’t an option.

A few people recommended Proline Trading as they are a wholesale wedding florist. Kathleen is very easy to work with and accommodating. She’s very flexible with your budget and can try to make things happen.

Since I didn’t have an idea of what I wanted, she had a few binders of examples, so I just chose one I liked. Besides flowers, they also do rentals as well. It’s really a one stop shop if you need drapes or cake stands.

I ended up getting:

A dozen individually wrapped roses
1 bridal bouquet
4 bridesmaids bouquet
4 boutineers for the parents and grandparents

All for around $370 after taxes but I would have to pick them up from them in the morning. As my wedding was on Mothers Day, we got the roses for all the Mothers to thank them for being so amazing.

The price was very very very reasonable as other places were quoting me around $600.

Proline Trading is highly recommended if you are having your wedding at Riverway Clubhouse since it’s literally a few minutes drive. Since we needed the flowers earlier in the day, we picked them up and brought it to our house. They give you these black buckets to easily transport the flowers so they keep hydrated.

All the flowers were gorgeous and if you asked me what type of flowers were in there, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

Overall, we were all happy with the flowers. Their prices are awesome and I was very happy that I didn’t break my budget.

Address:
102 – 8678 Greenall Ave
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.prolinetrading.com/

In South Burnaby

Riverway Clubhouse: My Wedding Venue

July 13, 2015

It’s been a few months after my wedding and a lot of people have been asking me if I would blog about the wedding since I have a blog. At the time I really had no idea if I would because I was so stressed out trying to make sure I had everything in order. Since I have a bit more free time now, I thought I would share my experience working with Riverway Clubhouse for my wedding ceremony and reception.

Hopefully you find this helpful in making your wedding venue decision.

I was recommended to Riverway Clubhouse by a coworker and it was the only venue I saw. It’s a hidden gem located in South Burnaby close to Marine Drive. The clubhouse offers beautiful wood beam architecture paired with floor-to-ceiling window views of the picturesque course. They used the same architect that designed Westwood Plateau Golf Course, so you will see similarities.

The view in the back of the restaurant was perfect for the ceremony. Once we took one look at this, it was a done deal.

We made our decision right away when we saw it since the it was quite affordable. You pay the price per guest since it is a buffet dinner. You can do a plated dinner, but we were advised that it would be a lot more expensive.

All the Audio Visual equipment is included. Since the venue is very stunning on its own, you just need to add minimal decorations.

The venue is hard to get to by transit so I would recommend driving or taking a taxi.

Since we had our wedding on a Sunday, we had to have a minimum attendance of 120. For Saturday, it would have been a minimum of 150, but I thought 150 would be hard to reach so we settled with Sunday. I think they can fit up to 200 people. No minimum spend required, just minimum attendance.

I was on a budget, so I needed to make sure I didn’t go over. We had to pay Riverway Cluhouse for:

Buffet per guest
Cocktail hour food and beverages
Table Wines
Open Bar
Ceremony Fee

I won’t list the prices since they do fluctuate year after year, but I spent just under $14,000 including taxes. Since they are owned by the City of Burnaby, they do not accept tips/gratuities, which is great because you can easily save money there. I budgeted about $16,000, but in the end it was less which I was very happy about.

The wedding package we chose includes:

Grand Wedding Buffet
Use of the facility (lobby, bridal room, and dining area)
Menu tasting for 2
Use of podium, wireless microphone and in-house sound system
Use of audio visual equipment including projector, screen and LCD televisions
Dance floor
Full set-up and take-down of reception (ceremonies have an additional cost)
Service staff and bartender
White table linens, cloth napkins, table settings
Cake table
Signing table
Complimentary parking
Ceremony rehearsal (space only)
High speed wi-fi internet

Some items may have changed on the list, but you should contact Riverway Clubhouse for the current wedding package prices.

Grand Wedding Buffet was the package we chose and it included:

Warm dinner rolls with butter
Baby organic greens with house dressing
Asian inspired noodle salad
Vegetable medley with garlic butter (can be substituted for herb roasted vegetables)
Herb roasted potatoes
Saffron basmati rice
Penne pasta with puttanesca sauce
Baked free range chicken breast with roasted mushroom marsala cream
Oven roasted wild sockeye salmon with spicy ponzu sauce
Chef attended AAA beef carving station
Chef’s selection of desserts
Riverway Blend 100% organic free trade coffee and premium tea selection

You can make customizations to the menu. We swapped the Asian-inspired noodle salad with a Caesar Salad. Since we are Asian, there’s no way you can have a Asian inspired noodle salad. It just didn’t taste right. Our herb roasted potatoes became scalloped potatoes.

We also ended up getting a free upgrade from the AAA beef carvings station to a Prime Rib carving station. Everyone loved the prime rib! All the proteins were cooked pretty well. A lot of people said the chicken and salmon were very moist.

It was pretty easy transforming the venue under a budget. I went with a more rustic style and made a terrarium centrepiece for each table.

The ceremony was an extra cost, but it was a relief having everything in the same place so you can cut out transportation. Plus, less of a headache so you don’t have to deal with more vendors.

The set up of the ceremony is pretty simple and they try to fit as many chairs in there as possible. They ended up having about 100 chairs there. If you need anything extra, you just ask them for it.

The signing table and chairs are included too. I just love the greenery and the pond in the background. Lets just say many selfies were take out there later in the day. We took our wedding party pictures close by at Fraser Foreshore Park during cocktail hour. It’s about a 1 minute drive away.

They also give you many options to run the bar. You can do loonie/toonie bar or you can have an open bar and choose the tiers of drinks you want available. We went up to Tier 2 where you get a larger selection of imported beers, wines and liqueurs for $6 or $7 depending on the drink.

We also special requested Lagavulin 16 years, which was only available to the wedding party.

Overall, it was an easy venue to work with and the price was right. Even with those positive notes, there were some hiccups like how they forgot to bring out the correct table wine. The wedding venue coordinators at Riverway Clubhouse are very responsive via e-mail. They do weddings every weekend, so they are your go-to resources. Plus, they are very flexible with last minute requests.

At the end of the day, everyone had a great time, people enjoyed the food, and of course I got married to my best friend! I would use this venue again for a special occasion and I would recommended it to brides on a budget.

Address:
9001 Bill Fox Way,
Burnaby, BC V5J 5J3

Website:
https://www.golfburnaby.ca/clubhouses