August 2015

In British Columbia

Starbucks: Cold Brew Coffee

August 31, 2015

Starbucks has launched their Small-Batch Cold Brew Coffee this summer. I usually get their regular iced-coffee but the staff suggested I try this as it is stronger and more flavourful than their regular iced coffee.

It is cold brewed for 20 hours to create a smooth tasting coffee. The beans that they use is a blend of coffee beans from Latin America and Africa.

I added a bit of milk and sugar to my drink since I didn’t want it to be too strong. The cold brew coffee that is balanced and smooth. You will taste subtle hints of citrus and chocolate.

It is definitely a lot stronger than their regular iced coffee since I couldn’t really sleep at night.

Even though it is strong, I’ve had stronger at some other local coffee shops around town with bolder flavours.

In British Columbia

Nice Vice: Vancouver’s Dairy-Free, Plant-Based Micro Creamery

August 30, 2015

Nice Vice is Vancouver’s dairy-free, plant-based micro creamery. I first saw them at the Vancouver’s Farmers Market in their Nice Vice Van. They sell premium, dairy-free vice cream to Vancouverites with various flavours.

When I was there, they had 4 flavours:

Chocoholics Anonymous
Strawberry Fiends Forever
Tripped Out Tropical
Lemonhead

4oz for $5 or 16oz for $10

I went with the Chocoholics Anonymous (4oz – $5). I chose this flavour as it is a good base test to see how it compares to chocolate ice cream.

Their containers are made out of straw so they are 100% sustainable, recyclable, and compostable.

Since the ice cream was still pretty cold when I got it, they advised us to let it sit for 10 minutes to soften before eating.

Once it thawed a bit, it was not bad for dairy- free ice cream definitely better than others.

Since I can eat dairy, I would still prefer the regular stuff. For those that do have a dairy allergy, it is a good option. From my dairy-free friends, they have said it’s a good relief to have something close to ice cream so they aren’t in pain afterwards or have to pop lactose pills.

If you don’t catch them in their van, they currently have a temporary shop at McArthur Glen Designer Outlet in Richmond until September 7th.

Website:
http://www.nicevicecream.com/

In Cafe

Gain Wah: Hole in the Wall in Chinatown

August 29, 2015

Deep in the heart of Chinatown, there is a hole in the wall restaurant called Gain Wah. Once I stepped inside, it felt like I was transported back into the 90s, or perhaps even before then. At first I was a bit skeptical coming here since it was pretty empty. Mags brought me here for lunch since she saw some decent reviews online. Since I’m always up for an adventure, I had to come here.

Their menu is quite typical of a Chinese Cafe, but they also have roast BBQ here too if you just want a bunch of meat and rice.

Century Egg Congee with Pork ($4.25) was comforting. I really love congee, so it really hit the spot. For the price, it was really good. There was a good amount of ingredients in it too.

Duck Leg with Noodle in Soup ($4.25) this has a good amount of duck! Look at that leg!

Lunch for 2 for under $10 is pretty awesome. It is cash only, so make sure you get some before coming here. I was quite impressed, so I’ll be back again. Staff are friendly and service is pretty quick.

We Rate Gain Wah:

Address:
218 Keefer Street, Vancouver

In Delivery

Culver City Salads Delivered by Foodee

August 28, 2015

Since it’s a beautiful summer, a few of my coworkers decided to order a group lunch from Foodee, a Vancouver food delivery service for corporate offices. There are lots of restaurants to choose from and it’s pretty hard to choose a place to pick from. Everything looks good.

A delivery fee of $15 is added to the bill, but if you have a large order divided up by the group, it’s not too much. We had to make a minimum order of $40 as a group.

We decided to get salads for lunch from Culver City Salads. Their mission is to provide the city with a healthy, whole, nourishing meal while creating the smallest impact possible. They work to reduce food waste, repurposing and composting every last bit of trimmings. You’ll notice they use 100% compostable and biodegradable containers and packaging, and use local produce where possible.

Quinoa Salad ($11.55) is vegan and gluten-free. The salad features seasonal greens with quinoa. It’s a good-sized salad and you will get full from it for lunch. My coworkers really liked it. There were carrots, avocado, lettuce, beans, pumpkin seeds and other things.

Vermicelli Noodle Salad ($11.55) is also vegan and gluten-free. It features seasonal greens with vermicelli noodles. There were chick peas, cabbage, carrots, kale, radish, avocados and other veggies.

Both salads were good and felt super healthy. It’s too bad there are only 2 options on Foodee.

We Rate Culver City Salads:

Website:
http://www.culvercitysalads.com/

Location:
Varies

In British Columbia

Starbucks Canada: Clover Brewing System

August 27, 2015

When I was at the Starbucks near my workplace, I saw that they had this big clover brewing machine. There are only a few locations in the Lower Mainland that are using this machine.

It was originally created by Coffee Equipment Company, a Seattle-based manufacturer of coffee equipment, but was then bought out by Starbucks. Thus that’s why all these Starbucks locations has the Clover brewing machine.

The Clover brewing machine is used on the different Starbucks Reserve coffees. If you’re getting the usual Pike, it won’t be brewed with this machine.

The Clover brewing system uses Vacuum-Press technology to create the perfect cup of coffee.

You watch as a stainless steel filter lowers into the brew chamber. Hot water is added at a specific temperature to brew the coffee for an ideal length of time.

It controls brew time and temperature digitally based on the type of bean you put in. Apparently even small changes can dramatically affect the taste of the coffee. A thermal blanket surrounds the brew chamber to keep water within 1 degree Fahrenheit of the ideal temperature.

After the coffee brews, it is pulled through a 70-micron filter. The resulting grounds are pushed out of the top of the machine. The coffee itself flows into your cup – hot, aromatic and flavourful.

Since it was a hot day, I got it as an iced coffee. To cool it down, they fill the cup with ice.

Having it as an iced coffee was still quite strong. But then again, I did get the Sumatra single origin roast coffee. It is a full-bodied dark roast coffee with a smooth mouthfeel and almost no acidity.

It’s a lot different that their regular coffees.

All the Starbucks Reserve coffees are selected for their quality and carefully roasted to bring out their individual flavours. So you can be sure they really shine when brewed using the Clover brewing system.

Besides it’s flavour, it’s pretty fun to watch the barista use this machine. In short, it uses a brewing method similar to a French press along with a vacuum system to separate the liquid from the coffee grounds.

Website:
http://www.starbucks.ca/coffee/learn/clover

In Anaheim

Disneyland Bachelorette Party on a Budget

August 26, 2015

Before getting married, one of the items on my bucket list was to go to Disneyland. What better time to go than with your besties. We planned to be here for 2 days so we could go to both Disneyland and California Adventure Park. Since we were all adults, we knew we didn’t need any additional days since we could get through each park effectively in a day.

When budgeting, the top 3 items that would be most expensive were transportation, tickets, and accommodations. I didn’t want my friends to go broke celebrating my bachelorette. We agreed to try to save wherever we could without being too cheap.

Transportation | Airfare

Being from Vancouver, Canada, we needed to take flights down to California. I prefer direct flight, so I’ll do what it takes to get a good price for them. We could have drove to Bellingham and then taken a cheaper flight, but it’s a hassle.

I like to use Google Flights to track flights to see if the price drops. I’ve had some pretty good luck using it. I would track it a few months in advance of the trip for the flights I wanted. If I’m lucky, I can save 50%.

Transportation | Sign up for Uber and Lyft using Promo Codes

Getting from LAX to Disneyland is going to be an expensive taxi ride and other options would still be pricey or take too long to get to Anaheim.

We took an UberX using a $20 off the first ride coupon that we found online. There’s tons of them around, so make sure you find those codes. From LAX to the hotel, it was just under $40. With the coupon applied, it was $20 in total, which was then split among 4 of us. This is a quicker and cheaper option than taking the Disneyland shuttle.

Uber also has a referral program where you get $20 and your referee gets $20. We kept referring each other, so we could maximize the amount we spent. It’s very useful and we saved over $150.

Lyft also has free credits too, so make sure you utilize it.

Tickets | Free Admission Tickets

Finding cheap tickets as a tourist is a hassle. Only buy tickets from authorized sellers or else you will be SOL when you discover they are fake. There are some online discount sites like Official Ticket Center, Undercover Tourist, and ParkSavers, but you usually have to spend more to save a bit. Some people have said you can get discount tickets at AAA or Costco, but we had no interest in hunting at either of those 2 places down before doing to Disneyland. We were on a tight schedule.

Our group of friends found 2 alternatives to get free entrance to Disneyland, thus saving our group over $500 in admission tickets.

1. Find someone who works for Disney or sister companies

Disney and some of their sister companies give employees free entry for family and friends. Usually, the employee has to be present when bringing you in for free. Luckily, one of my friends knew someone who had a shift during the day we were going, so she brought 3 of us in.

2. Apply for Media Accreditation

Having a food blog definitely has it’s perks.

Qualifying media can request two Park Hopper tickets, good for one day at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Parks, once every 12 months. Just contact their public relations department to apply. You will need to provide them stats from your blog like unique monthly visitors, amount of Facebook./Twitter followers and other engagement metrics.

Accommodations | Indigo Hotel Anaheim

Indigo Hotels in Anaheim was our go-to location for a budget stay close to Disneyland. It is about a 15 minute walk or 6 minute drive to and from Disneyland. It’s an older hotel that recently got renovations done, so it is clean and modern. This came highly recommended from a coworker of mine. It’s a lot cheaper than staying in the Disneyland resort.

With 5 girls, we crammed ourselves in a 2 Queen-sized bed room. It’s supposed to only hold 4 people, but we made a bed with a chair and a bench. Seems weird, but it was still comfortable.

At $113.99 (USD) per night, it was a good price to split amongst 5 people. Check-in is at 3pm and check out is at 11am. It’s close to Anaheim Gardenwalk and a CVS. Easy access to booze since you won’t find alcohol in Disneyland.

Dining | Snack, Snack, Snack

We didn’t end up spending a lot on food while we were inside Disneyland and California Adventure Park. Since we were so preoccupied with taking selfies, lining up for rides, and finding Disney characters that we mostly ate snacks or smaller meals.

You can’t leave without having a corn dog, turkey leg, Dole Whip and churros. All these items were well under $10.

We didn’t find that there were any other sit down restaurants that we wanted to dine at. We kept finding quick and simple meals at the parks. For our larger meals, we decided to eat closer to our hotel later in the evening. You can find the full list here.

Have Fun!

We didn’t dress up all bachelorette-style for this portion of our trip (we saved it for LA), but we had so much fun for 2 days! It’s fun being a kid again. We saw other bachelorette parties here too.

The best time to go would be in the Winter or Fall. Just remember to avoid any major holidays. It’s not fun if the parks capacity is at it’s maximum. We went in early February and the lines were quick and not too crowded.

If you have any money saving tips, please share!

In British Columbia

McDonalds Canada: Mighty Angus Burger

August 25, 2015

McDonalds Canada released the Mighty Angus Burger for a limited time. I love trying we things from McDonalds as they do have a lot of limited time offers.

At a whopping 790 calories, its better not knowing the nutrition breakdown of this. Lets just pretend I didn’t see that.

There is the 100% Angus beef sourced from Canadian farms, a smoky Angus sauce, hickory smoked bacon pieces, crisp leaf lettuce, tomato, processed cheese and grilled onions, served on a sesame and poppy seed bun.

The smokey angus sauce was a great addition to the burger, but other than that, it just reminded me of the regular angus burgers on their menu.

It seems like every year they have a twist on the angus burger. Last year it was the Mighty Angus Burger with Jalapeños.

Website:
mcdonalds.ca

In American

Little Caesar’s: Bacon Wrapped Deep Deep Dish Pizza

August 24, 2015

I haven’t been to a Little Caesar’s in over 10 years. I usually go for any pizza place that delivers, since Little Caesar’s doesn’t do delivery, I never eat their pizza. M was intrigued to try Little Caesar’s again since he hasn’t had it in a long time as well.

Bacon Wrapped Deep!Deep! Dish Pizza is what we ordered. At the location we went to, it’s $13.99 for a large size. The order was ready in seconds as the only had to pull it out of their oven. I was quite impressed since I thought I had to wait a while for the pizza to be ready…thus their slogan – Hot-N-Ready.

We added a combo with crazy bread, dip and a 2L pop for an extra $5.

Bacon Wrapped Deep!Deep! Dish Pizza comes with 8 squares. There is lots of cheese piled on top with pepperoni and bacon bits. Along the edges of the pizza, you will find 3.5 feet of bacon wrapped around the crust.

The bacon is a bit thin on the edges, but it does maintain its crispiness. Since it’s so thin, it doesn’t add too much flavour to it. Mostly texture. The whole pizza was pretty awesome, but we did find it quite oily. You’ll need a few napkins to keep your hands clean.

For $13.99 for just the pizza, it’s so much cheaper than the other pizza joints in town. You really get value.

The Crazy Bread dipped in the marinara sauce was great as well. Lots of cheese and butter smothered each bread stick.

Overall, I did enjoy it. It’s even better when you have leftovers the next day. A good item to bring to a party.

Website:
http://www.littlecaesars.ca/

In Chinatown

Fat Mao Noodles: New in Chinatown

August 23, 2015

Fat Mao is the latest addition to Chinatown. Recently, there has been a bunch of new restaurants opening up nearby like Torafuku and Ramen Butcher. Since I work close to this area, I get super excited when something new opens up.

Chef Angus An’s (chef and owner of Maenam) newest venture serves noodle dishes inspired by a range of Asian cuisines. Recipes at Fat Mao are inspired by Chef Angus’s travels in Asia and his favourite family meals from childhood. Flavourful curries, sauces, and rice and wheat noodles are made fresh from scratch, and dishes touch on Thai, Taiwanese, Japanese, and Singaporean cuisines.

The casual 25-seater is open for lunch and dinner Wednesday to Sunday from 11am. Fat Mao will stay open until noodles run out, or 10pm—whichever comes first. Dishes are affordably priced under $12.

I came here with my coworkers during lunch and we were excited to give it a try.

While you wait for your order, you can read some Slam Dunk comics. If you can’t read Chinese like me…you can just look at the pictures. hahaha.

Century Egg with House Tofu ($7.99) is a nice dish to share in addition with your own individual noodles. I love this dish as the egg and the tofu are perfect matches. We were amazed by how smooth the tofu was.

Braised Duck Noodles ($11.99) comes with a huge duck leg which was awesome. They use rice noodles rolls in this dish. I didn’t like the use of the noodles as they didn’t really match to soak up the broth. The sauce is more thin compared to some of the other dishes. The broth was bland and I didn’t like it very much.

The waitress also suggested to add a few scoops of the hot vinegar sauce. It didn’t really help with the flavours either.

Koh Soi – Chiang Mai Curry Chicken ($11.99) was our favourite dish from the group. The sauce was pretty good, the chicken leg was huge and we loved the added texture from the crunchy bits on top. We would definitely recommend this.

Taiwanese-style Beef Noodle ($11.99) was another good dish according to Anne. Its well-balanced and has a good amount of beef.

Dan Dan Noodles ($8.99) is made with the same noodles as the curry noodles. My other coworker enjoyed it.

In the end, a bowl full of noodles and a shared side dish was just the right amount. Most of the dishes were fusion and the lack of descriptions on the menu may surprise some when the food arrives. The price is good for lunch but you definitely should get the Koh Soi – Chiang Mai Curry Chicken dish.

If you eat all the way down into your noodle bowl, you will find a cute surprise. Meow.

We Rate Fat Mao:

Address:
217 East Georgia Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.fatmaonoodles.com/

In product

Hardbite: Eat Your Parsnip Chips

August 22, 2015

Hardbite is a Canadian company that make amazing chips. If you haven’t hard their regular chips, you really have to.

They have introduced a line of ‘root’ chips that uses other vegetables besides potatoes. With ‘Eat Your Parsnip’ chips, they went with the cream-colored, carrot looking vegetable. It is also made of non-hydrogenated sunflower oil and/or non-hydrogenated canola oil, and sea salt. 3 ingredients, that’s it.

M went to the grocery store to grab me these chips and he knows I like to try cool products. A week earlier he got me Hardbite’s ‘18 carrot gold‘ chips.

The chips were super crunchy and reminded me of the carrot chips, probably because of the oil they use. Good flavour and has a subtle sweet taste to it.

I thought the shapes were so awesome because it’s essentially the cross-section of the parsnip.

Another great addition to the Hardbite line up of chips.

Website:
http://hardbitechips.com/

In Dessert

MELU Juice and Health Bar: Healthy Option in Downtown Vancouver

August 21, 2015

MELU Juice and Health Bar is a new addition in Downtown Vancouver. They serve up a variety of cold press juices, smoothies, nut mylks, detox water, oatmeal, chia puddings, salads and health bars.

They recently opened a few weeks ago.

Their space is quite nice and good for a quick healthy lunch.

The price is a bit high since spending $18 for lunch seems like a lot.

They have a few varieties of salads, but a cool item they have is their Undercover Spaghetti and Meatball, which has zucchini noodles and vegan meatballs.

Cold press is a juicing method that extracts juice with no heat and minimum oxidization, thus preserving all nutrients. In each jar, there are about 2 -3 pounds of fresh fruits and veggies. The juices come in 250 ml or 500 ml jars.

Black Magic – Activated Bamboo Charcoal, Cayenne, Lemon, Himalayan Pink Salt, Agave, Pure Filtered Water
Easy Green – Pear, Grapefruit, Cucumber, Kale, Celery, Parsley
The Hulk – Apple, Romaine Lettuce, Jicama, Lemon, Kale, Mint, Ginger
RADical Detox – Cucumber, Pear, Radish, Kale, Bell Pepper
Grapefruit Heartbeet – Pineapple, Grapefruit, Beetroot, Lemon, Mint
Orange Glow – Carrot, Apple, Pineapple, Tomato, Ginger
Berry Beetiful – Apple, Tomato, Beetroot, Strawberry
Winter Wonderland – Winter Melon, Apple, Kale, Spinach, Celery

All the juices were pretty good and easy to drink compared to the other cold press juices out there in the market. Black Magic stood out as it is completely black but it tastes like lemonade. Easy Green and The Hulk are good green juices I would recommend.

Melu-juices-black-magic

Melu-juices-wall

All their drinks have a legend to show what their benefits are. I love this wall that they have in their store. Pictures are quite cute.

They also have the juices as part of their various cleanse programs too.

Melu-juices-cleanses

Health bars ( 3 for $14 or 6 for $26) are freshly made here and they are available in a variety of raw, vegan, and/or gluten-free options.

Mangolicious Health Bar – Mango, Walnuts, Almonds, Cashews, Coconut Mylk, Shredded Coconut, Dates, Agave Nectar
Kind of a Fig Deal Health Bar – Raspberry, Figs, Coconut Oil, Pecans, Oats, Dates, Himalayan Pink Salt

Cocao Banana Split Health Bar – Banana, Cashews, Walnuts, Coconut Oil, Shredded Coconut, Dates, Cocoa, Himalayan Pink Salt

So Fudgin Good Health Bar – Avocado, Coconut Cream, Coconut Oil, Cocoa, Pecans, Dates, Agave Nectar, Himalayan Pink Salt, Strawberry and Goji Berry Topping

Frosty the Carrot Cake Health Bar – Shredded Carrot, Dates, Walnuts, Shredded Coconut, Cashews, Coconut Oil, Agave Nectar, Lemon, Vanilla, Pumpkin Spice, Himalayan Pink Salt

Lemon Razz Health Bar – Lemon, Coconut Cream, Coconut Butter, Almonds, Dates, Coconut Oil, Agave Nectar, Himalayan Pink Salt, Raspberry, Lemon Rind, Mint and Shredded Coconut

Out of all of them my favourite was the So Fudgin Good Health Bar. The name is just perfect because it was SO good! So addicting. If my office was closer to MELU, I would always order this.

Melu-juices-so-fudging-good

Nut Mylks are made using activated almonds or cashews for an easy-to-digest and convenient meal on the go. Definitely more filling than the other drinks they have.

There’s currently 4 flavours:

The Big Fig Mylk – Activated Almonds, Figs, Raw Vanilla Bean, Agave Nectar, Himalayan Pink Salt

Cacao Monkey – Activated Cashews, Banana, Raw Cacao, Chia Seeds, Himalayan Pink Salt

The Pink Elephant – Activated Cashews, Strawberry, Raw Vanilla Bean, Agave Nectar, Himalayan Pink Salt

Cold Brewhaha – Activated Almonds, Cold-Brewed West End Coffee, Agave Nectar, Himalayan Pink Salt

Of the ones I’ve tried I quite like the Cacao Monkey as it reminded me of a chocolate banana sandwich in a liquid format.

Melu-juices-detox-water

Detox Waters are made with seasonal produce to increase their taste and nutrient value. It’s definitely lighter than their juices and smoothies.

Overall, pretty delicious treats and juices, but it is a tad expensive. They do use quality ingredients in all their juice and drinks, so its one reason why it’s so high. I did find a few of my favourite items like the So Fudgin Good Health Bar, Cacao Monkey, Black Magic, Easy Green and The Hulk.

We Rate MELU Juice and Health Bar:

Address:
1110 West Pender Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.melujuice.com/

In Cafe

Icy Bar: Chinese Dessert

August 20, 2015

Icy Bar has been around for a long time in the Lower Mainland. I remember the first time I had Icy Bar was in the food court of Crystal Mall. Before there were all the other shaved ice places around the city, this was my go to place for shaved ice.

I came here for an evening with a bunch of bloggers to try the different types of desserts that Icy Bar offers at their dine-in locations.

Traditional Eight Mix Icy 八寶冰 ($10) is easily customized with different toppings that they offer. You can choose 8 toppings from the following list:

[one_half last=”no”]

Basil Seeds
Green Bean
Barley
Taro
Black Rice
Red Bean
Peanut
Beans
Chendol
Coconut Jelly
Lemon Jelly
Mix Jelly
Green Tea Mochi
Mango Mochi
Taro Mochi
Original Mochi

[/one_half]

[one_half last=”yes”]

Grass Jelly
Almond Jelly
Pearls
Tapioca
Pudding
Watermelon
Mango
Strawberry
Lychee
Cantaloupe
Pineapple
Honeydew
Mango Poppers
Lychee Poppers
Coconut Milk
Mango Puree
Strawberry Puree

[/one_half]

If you add more than 8 toppings, it’s an additional $1.

They also have premium toppings too like ice cream and durian that costs a but more to be added.

I love this item since you can share with friends or hog it all to yourself. It’s pretty big, so sharing is encouraged. There’s a lot of flavour that the toppings can add to the chunks of ice.

Don’t forget to add the condensed milk to this. If you don’t, you will regret it.

Strawberry Mango Ice Cream Icy 芒果草莓雪糕冰 ($10) is part of their shaved icy series that already have the toppings predetermined. It’s good for those who are indecisive.

Mango Ice Cream Mochi Icy ($10) are for those mango lovers out there.

Tea Egg 茶葉蛋 is probably their only savoury item here. Seems pretty odd to me.

The exterior had a nice flavour, but could be a bit stronger. I just didn’t like the yolk.

Pancake Series 班戟 is a dessert wrapped with their special pancake with whipping cream and a particular filling.

Strawberry 草莓
Mango 芒果
Durian 榴蓮
Taro 芋頭

They taste ok, but I would prefer the whipping cream to be ice cream instead.

Plant Pudding 盆栽布丁 comes in 5 unique flavours below. It’s called plant pudding since the share of it resembles a potted plant. But this version is edible of course.

Original 原味 ($5.50)
Durian 榴蓮 ($6.50)
Mango 芒果 ($6.50)
Oreo 奧利奧 ($6.50)
Tiramisu 提拉米蘇 ($6.50)

I actually quite like the original flavour! It brought be backed to my childhood as there were graham crackers in it.

Black Rice with Coconut Milk 椰汁黑糯米 is served hot and it has a balance of both ingredients.

Chocolate Honey Toast 巧克力金磚 is a tower of toast drenched in ice cream, honey and chocolate. The toast is nice and crisp.

Red Bean Green Tea Ice Cream on Thick Toast 红豆抹茶冰淇淋 it’s not as impressive as the other toast but prehaps it’s because I don’t like red beans.

Tofu Pudding 豆腐花 can be customize similarly to the shaved ice. You can add any topping for an additional cost. I love tofu pudding, but I would keep it simple and add ginger syrup to it.

It’s not a Chinese dessert cafe without drinks right? They have a wide range of bubble teas, slushes, smoothies, etc.

Fresh Papaya Milk Slush is what I ordered. Very good flavour and super delicious.

Overall, a good range of dessert here and they ever had more that we didn’t end up trying. Most people end up getting shaved ice and a bubble tea of some sort.

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited by ChineseBites to dine at Icy Bar and my desserts were comped. All thoughts are my own.

We Rate Icy Bar:

Address:
3618 Kingsway, Vancouver

Website:
http://icybar.ca/

In product

Hardbite: 18 Carrot Gold

August 19, 2015

M was in the grocery store and saw that Hardbite has a new line of chips made out of root vegetables. This one in particular is the 18 Carrot Gold. It’s basically carrot chips that are lightly salted. The other kind that they had were parsnip chips. Also quite interesting, but we chose to try the carrot chips.

The carrot chips aren’t large in size, which I guess is due to the long nature of their shape. The taste of the chips were good and reminded me of the Terra Chips. The carrot taste was not overly strong and worked quite well for chips.

I ended up eating the entire bag quite quickly as there was only 150g of carrot chips. Next time I think I’ll give the parsnip chips a try.

Website:
http://hardbitechips.com/

In Gastown

The Sardine Can: Spanish Tapas in Gastown

August 18, 2015

The Sardine Can in Gastown serves up Spanish Tapas. It’s a small restaurant, so they really can’t hold that many people here. We came here after work around 5:30 and it didn’t get busy till around 7pm on a weekday.

Their sister restaurants are La Buca, Pied-à-Terre, and The Abbey.

Kalimotxo (calimocho) is a drink mixed with red wine and cola. When the waitress suggested this, we had to give it a try. Apparently its a common drink in Spain. It was pretty good as there is a slight fizz to the drink.

Steamed Clams in White Wine with Chorizo ($7) were good. You should order some bread to go with it to soak up the delicious sauce.

Albondigas ($11) are Meatballs cooked in tomato and Rioja. There are about 5 meatballs and the dish is pretty hot when it arrives on the table.

Champiñones ($8.25) are mushrooms in sherry cream sauce. Very delicious! Make sure you order some bread to eat with this dish.

Pimientos de Padrón ($8.25) are Padron peppers with smoked salt and spiced oil. This is a fun dish to order since one of the peppers are spicy while the other ones are mild. Imagine like a Russian roulette. It’s slightly spicy, but not too much.

Crispy Pork Belly with sherry reduction ($11) the skin of the pork belly was crispy but the layers of meat were tough. If it was a bit more tender, that would be better.

Tostas de sardinas ($8.5) are smoked sardines on toast. These are the only items on the menu with sardines in it. It’s probably the most popular items since why would you come to The Sardine Can and not have sardines?

Overall, it was great to try a Spanish Tapas place in Vancouver. There aren’t too many places like these around. I enjoyed the food and it was a great place to hang out after work.

We Rate Sardine Can:

Address:
26 Powell Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://www.thesardinecan.ca/

In Ramen

Torafuku: Modern-Asian Restaurant on Main Street

August 17, 2015

Torafuku is located on Main Street right outside Chinatown in Vancouver. The restaurant is opened by Le Tigre food truck owners Clement Chan and Steve Kuan.

The 48-seat modern-Asian restaurant delivers bold interpretations on flavours traditionally found in Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Vietnamese cuisine. Every plate features seasonal ingredients, straight from local farmers. Torafuku’s menu is designed for sharing. Dishes are playful yet skillfully prepared.

They don’t take reservations, so it’s first come first serve.
Torafuku is open from Tuesday to Sunday for dinner, starting at 5:30 p.m.

33 Acres of Sunshine, Blanche ($6) is one of their beers on top. It is a French blanchè ale lightly hopped with Styrian Golding and flavoured with orange peel, coriander, and anise. It was a nice light beer to go with the meal.

Cocchi-Doodle Cobbler ($12) has BeefEater Gin, cocchi americano, hibiscus, Osmanthus, raspberries, and mandarin orange. This was recommended by the waitress.

Torafuku Ramen ($12) has braised duck leg, bean sprouts, leeks, scallions, seasonal veggies, yummy tonkotsu broth, fried egg. The broth was pretty good and the ramen was really packed with a lot of ingredients. I thought the noodles were ok, but I much prefer firm ramen noodles.

Dr. Octopus vs Mr Tuna ($12) has a pretty unique name, which compelled us to order the dish. on one side there is the octopus salad with tomato, jalapenos, scallions, and crispy nori. On the other side, you have the tuna crudo with romesco sauce.

I enjoyed the octopus as it was very tender. The tuna wasn’t as tasty.

Rye So Messy Chicken Wings ($12) was crowned the 2015 Chicken Fight Best Dish — rye and gochujang marinate, mango glaze, ramen crumble, KFC sauce. You can really taste the stronger gochujang sauce in the chicken wings. The wings were ok, but I left there were too many things going on in this dish.

Calamari Done The Right Way ($10) uses Humboldt squid, onion, tomato, lychee, arugula, and a sweet chilli dressing. The dish was ok, but the star of the dish – calamari fell a bit flat.

Brown Cow ($13) has Shaoxing braised oxtail, tomato, shiitake, cabbage, basil, fried egg, and sticky rice cake. This is comfort food right here. I personally didn’t like the rice cakes since they don’t soak up the delicious sauce from the dish.

Overall, we found the food was very well presented but the flavours were lacking. There wasn’t a a dish that we thought was outstanding. The service was ok, but we did find a fly in one of our beers, so we scooped it out and showed it to our waitress. She didn’t offer us a new drink out of courtesy which was odd.

We Rate Torafuku:

Address:
958 Main Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://torafuku.ca/

In All You Can Eat

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips: All You Can Eat

August 16, 2015

Cockney Kings Fish & Chips in North Burnaby has been here forever! They also have another location in New Westminster. I remember in High School, everyone would come here for cheap all you can eat from Monday to Wednesday and stuff their faces. It never really appealed to me.

M wanted to give it a try since he heard it was good from his friends, so after 14 years of avoiding this place, I saw what Cockney Kings is all about.

We came on a Tuesday, so this place was packed for dinner.

You can also get take-out to avoid the line up inside. We did see a lot of people ordering take out.

All You Can Eat Pollock Fish and Chips ($9.99) is only available Monday to Wednesday. They use pollock, which is a cheaper variety of fish, thus the great price. You can only order this if you dine in.

My plate came with 3 pieces and I found with all them was that the pollock was quite small and its encrusted with so much batter that all you taste is the batter. The pollock is quite bland and not juicy at all.

The all you can eat also comes with pop. A good way to wash down all that batter and chips.

M on the other hand opted to get the regular fish and chips items off the menu. 1 piece halibut and 1 piece salmon. It comes with coleslaw and a soft bun.

It’s part of the combo dinner and it was $16.25 as M wanted to upgrade a piece to halibut. It comes with a bun and coleslaw on the side.

The bun was quite large and has 2 pieces of butter on the side.

The halibut was flakey and juicy. 1000x better than the pollock! The batter is quite thin so you can really taste the fish.

The salmon is also very nice! Cooked well so its still juicy. The batter is also thin.

Having had both all you can eat and the regular menu, I would stick with the regular menu and pay a bit more.

We Rate Cockney Kings Fish & Chips:

Address:
Kensington Square
6574 Hastings Street, Burnaby

Website:
http://cockneykings.ca/

In Burnaby Cariboo-Lougheed

Angie’s Malaysian Eatery: Hainanese Chicken near Edmonds

August 15, 2015

Angie’s Malaysian Eatery just opened up last May and they sell a fusion Hawker-style food from Brunei. I am on the search for the best Hainanese Chicken in the Lower Mainland, so I had to make a stop here. They are a family-run business, so its quite cool to see how they work together.

I came here around 6pm on a Friday and it was packed. Word must have spread about this little restaurant really quickly. It’s great that they were doing so well. We noticed there were a lot of large groups that took up most the tables.

Roti Canai comes with a small bowl of curry sauce for dipping. The roti itself was a bit disappointing as it was not very crispy. Quite doughy. I would of like it if they cooked it for longer.

Despite the texture of the roti, my friend still enjoyed it. I think it was mostly because of the curry sauce.

Curry Chicken Rice needed more meat in it. We mostly got vegetables in ours. It was good, but the curry was quite watery too. The portion is meant for one person, but I think you may need something extra to get full.

Seria Kolomee it has fish cake, BBQ Pork, minced meat sauce, fried shallots, veggies on top of dry noodles. It also came with a calamansi lime and some pickled peppers on the side.

I thought it was pretty good.

Hainanese Chicken is the personal sized dish and probably their most popular item. The chicken is cut up into very think pieces and comes with rice and a chilli vinegar sauce. The portion is definitely a bit on the small side. The chicken was small, so we wanted more.

We got their entree version that has double the amount of chicken.

Buttermilk Tiger Prawn comes with the shells intact with the delicious sauce and sprinkled with fried shallots. It got quite messy trying to remove the shells as the sauce would go everywhere.

Overall,the food was pretty good but I wish the portions were a bit bigger. The prices are reasonable as everything is mostly under $10.

We Rate Angie’s Malaysian Eatery:

Address:
7355 Edmonds Street, Burnaby

In Dessert

Transylvanian Traditions: Desserts That Do Not Suck

August 13, 2015

Transylvanian Traditions is located on Davie Street in Vancouver and they make delicious dessert. No vampires here. Narcisa Stoian noticed the lack of traditional Romanian sweets, which have always been a part of her childhood and her parents’ careers, and decided that Vancouver was the perfect place for her to share her love of Romanian cuisine.

If you miss the taste of Romanian and European desserts, definitely make a visit here. If you look closely, they have vampire mugs here.

They selection of desserts isn’t too large, but you will find something that you will enjoy.

Creames is made with homemade filo pastries combined with vanilla cream cake, covered by a layer of whipping cream mixed with roasted walnuts. I thought it was ok, but M loved it.

Chocolate Eclair is a cream puff filled with special recipe chocolate cream and home-made whip cream. This was so good and really just sinfully delicious. I would order this again.

Profiterole has vanilla cream puffs embedded in fluffy chocolate mousse cake. It is topped with whipped cream and has a chocolate drizzle on top.

Overall, we both enjoyed it and the prices were reasonable. It’s not a super fancy place but it has great taste and awesome to bring to potlucks or parties.

We Rate Transylvanian Traditions:

Address:
1111 Davie Street, Vancouver

Website:
http://transylvaniantraditions.com/