Gluten-Free Archives

In Downtown

Kurumucho: Japanese Taco Shop in Vancouver

May 25, 2018

Kurumucho is a Japanese Taco Shop in Vancouver. M and I wanted to grab a bite before seeing a movie, so we decided to come here for some of their unique tacos. The menu looks very healthy, so it is one of the better options in the area.

Interior

The shop is small and very narrow. There are many seats but its suited for groups of 2 or 4.

Spider Sushi Taco

There is a whole soft shell crab in this tempura seaweed taco shell. There is also multigrain sushi rice, avocado, cucumber, alfalfa sprouts and their aurora sauce. It was pretty good with different textures and not heavy at all.

Soy Garlic Salmon Sushi Taco

In this tempura seaweed taco shell is wild sockeye salmon, multigrain sushi rice, avocado, cucumber, spring salad mix, soy garlic sauce, sesame seeds and nori on top. The quality of the salmon was really good and the taco overall had clean flavours. I enjoyed it.

Pork Brisket Kakuni Taco

This taco is a bit different as it’s on a tortilla wrap. There is pork brisket, spring lettuce mix, avocado, cayenne pepper, cilantro, Jalapeño, tomato, onion, pickled ginger, and a mustard garlic sauce. They highly recommended their taco and it was good.

Chicken Breast Karaage

We shared this dish and it was also delicious. It has the deep fried chicken breast with tonkatsu mayo. On the bottom of the bowl is spring lettuce mix. The chicken was surprisingly moist for chicken breast.

Beets Marble Ice Cream

This ice cream caught our eye and we had to get it. It has coconut milk, soy milk, cane sugar, beets, coconut oil, salt, guar gum, vanilla powder, vanilla extract and lemon juice. It is organic, vegan and gluten-free. We were pleasantly surprised.

Final Thoughts

Overall, the food at Kurumucho was delicious. I like how there are a lot of items on the menu that cater to those who are vegan, vegetarian or gluten-free. The sushi tacos are unique and they do a good job creating those tempura seaweed shells.

We Rate Kurumucho:

Address:
985 Hornby St, Vancouver, BC

Website: https://www.kurumucho.com/

In British Columbia

Terra Vancouver: Unique Plant-based Pop Up Dinners

May 15, 2018

Terra Vancouver creates unique plant-based pop ups in Vancouver, British Columbia. Their goal is to bring together great culinary expertise and passion for innovative dining experiences for gluten-free and vegan lifestyles – perfect for Vancouverites.

These events are currently hosted once a month, each one at a different location, with a different theme, and menu. For the month of May, we were delighted to attend the inaugural pop up at Mission Kits with the meal created by Chef Max Straczek and David from Terra Vancouver.

Canapes

The meal began with beautifully presented canapes which included Beetroot cappuccino lemon verbena foam, vegetable “pirogies” – bean filling / turnip wrapper, carrot tartare, and a sesame spinach gomae. All the canapes are paired with Prosecco.

The perogies has a fresh crispness to the radish with the bean filling. The beetroot cappuccino had a rich yet smooth sweet beet favour. You can see the deep beautiful colour.

The carrot tartare had a nice texture and a crunch in every bite. Also a perfect touch of sweetness too.

The spinach gomae has crispy textures and is complimented with an acidic tangy taste. All the flavours tied in very well together.

Course 1: Cauliflower soup

This dish is themed around the many uses of cauliflower. The flavours were very smooth and every spoonful had a different flavour but each were delicious. The taste of the creamy coconut cauliflower broth did shine through. You can see the crispy cauliflower, mint jelly, pickled grapes and fried capers on the side. This was able to add saltiness, sweetness and texture to the dish overall.

Course 2: Asparagus

This beautifully green inspired dish has asaparagus, charred jus of asapagus, marinated zucchini rolls filled with lemon confit, almond and garlic puree, peas, and quinoa. The dish was fresh yet warm and comforting., like a twist on a traditional risotto. Overall, it has a very mild green pea flavour. The Tannat grape wine from France that was paired with this dish goes well with asparagus.

Course 3

This dish had potato rosti, roasted and pickled turnips, roasted king oyster mushroom, roasted celery roo, vegan demi and truffle duxelle. The flavour were amazing, simply delicious.

Courses 4: “Cheese”

In this dish is nettle crusted grapefruit mostarda cheddar, sorrel, horseradish, and crispy broccoli tips. The cheese is made of cashew milk, which was a great substitute to the real thing as it tasted very real.

Pallet cleanser

The pallet cleaners is made of compressed cucumber with red wine vinegar and sugar. Very tangy but sweet at the same time

Course 5: Dessert

This vibrant dessert has cocoa crumb, coffee crumb, raspberry caviar, a raspberry gel, and vegan chocolate with a pop rock surprise.

Lastly an acorn and peanut butter square.

Everyone went home with a nicely packaged apple jam. A little reminder of this deliciously prepared meal. Hilda was impressed with all the dishes and this meal exceeded my expectations. The food was very fresh and creative. Everything was very well done and she would come back again.

Visit their website – terravancouver.ca for future pop up dinners around Vancouver. Their next dinner is set for June 25th 2018 to showcase the seasonality of ingredients through Spring to Summer.

In Bakery

The Last Crumb Bakery & Cafe: Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows

December 25, 2012

The Last Crumb Bakery & Cafe recently opened on Main Street. My sister was trying to get me out of the house, so she suggested we have lunch here. Since I love trying new places, I couldn’t say no.

It is located on Main and 15th near Burgoo. You can find street parking easily, but during busy times, you might have to park a bit further.

The cafe is 2 floors and is quite stunning. The whole concept of this bakery is to feel cozy and comfortable. It’s a great place to relax and catch up with friends over same good pastries and hot chocolate.

There’s a huge window in the back, so you can see them baking away! And they have a cool quote on their window – “Life is Short, Eat Dessert First”.

They have a bunch of different items to choose from.

They even have a few Gluten-Free items like macaroons, scones, cupcakes, and cookies.

They have a lot of different baked goods, I swear, their kitchen keeps pumping out delicious creations.

They are even whole pies on display. They looked so good.

What caught my eye when we first arrived was the board of hot chocolates. So many different kinds!

Almond Hot Chocolate with Almond Milk (M- $3.95) Instead of regular milk, they suggested to make it with almond milk, they assured me it was delicious and it sure was! It was smooth and so yummy!

Homemade Marshmallow ($0.50) was unlike any store bought marshmallow. Its kinda messy when you eat it, but it really can’t compare to anything found in store. If you have hot chocolate, you must order this!

They have a lunch menu at the back of the restaurant with special creations.

Proscuitto and Brie Sandwich with house made onion marmalade, arugula, pear and walnuts. The bread was baked fresh and was still warm when it arrived. The creaminess of the brie and the salty proscuitto always match perfectly.

Chicken BLT Sandwich with bacon, tomato, arugula and Dijon mayo. This was my favorite since the bacon was really thick and full of flavour.

Wild Mushroom Soup tasted alright. It definitely needed a bit more salt to bring out the flavours of the mushroom.

The food here is good, but not jaw droppingly amazing. The items can get quite expensive if you get a drink, sandwiches, and soup. Nonetheless, it is a great addition to Main St! I love how everything is made fresh and they are dedicated in using preservative-free and artificial-flavouring free ingredients.

We Rate The Last Crumb:

Address:
3080 Main St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.lastcrumb.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=3080+Main+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=3080+Main+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5T+3G5&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Bakery

Cartems Donuterie: Pop-up Shop of Donuts

February 27, 2012

Cartems Donuterie opened up a pop-up shop in Gastown and another near Commercial. A pop-up shop means its only temporary. They sell unique donuts with very unique flavours and cater to people who are gluten-free and vegan.

My coworkers and I have heard a lot of buzz about Cartems Donuterie on Twitter and in the papers, so we decided to check them out during lunch. We also heard they like to be sold out quite fast, so we just monitored their twitter account to see what flavours were coming out next. On their first batch of donuts, they sold out in 39 minutes! So, we waited for their next batch to be ready before we headed out of the office.

They take online orders ( 2 days in advance) as well, just in case you don’t want to run into the problem with sold out donuts or the flavours you want aren’t there. They do free delivery in Downtown too.

Everything is made fresh with local ingredients! They don’t do their baking in the Gastown location since its just delivered to that location. It’s not a bad thing since it’s still fresh!

The shop is very small. When we went there, there were only 2 flavours left. 🙁 They are popular donuts.

It didn’t bother us too much since there were at least some donuts left and the guy serving us was very nice! There are no tables inside, so all the donuts you get at the store are for takeout.

After walking back to the office with our rain-soaked box of Cartems Donuts, we just dug in!

Since there were only 2 types of donuts left, we just grabbed a box of half a dozen ($15). They gave us an extra one since one of the donuts were a bit smaller. I didn’t notice the size difference, but a free donut is a good donut (hehehe…that was my asian side of me speaking).

Cinnamon Sugar Donut ($3 each) was coated with a lot of sugar on the outside. It was beautifully fried! When you bite into it, the outside is crunchy and the inside is spongey. There was a good balance between the ingredients.

Sweet Heat Donut ($3 each) tasted like a slightly dense chocolate donut. The dominant flavour is the chocolate, but there is a very very subtle taste of the chilies.

Overall, the donuts were good, but since I am not a donut fanatic…I don’t exactly have a huge love for them. With $3 per donut, I would probably try more of the other flavours that are more unique.

Since I wanted to try more of their flavours, Angela of Munchkie’s Munchies and I decided to order a dozen and split them during lunch. Such a healthy lunch right? Don’t attempt eating a whole box of 12, since thats really just unhealthy on many levels. The dozen donuts cost $30.

Ordering online was quite painless, choose the donuts you want in multiples of 12 and pay through PayPal. You just need to make your order 2 days in advance. The order arrived on time and I had no issues.

Even though we ordered one of each flavour, we couldn’t try the Bee Sting donut since they didn’t have it. The donuts came in various shapes and sizes. Some were smaller, some were larger.

Triple Chocolate Threat ($3 each) is made with a base of chocolate cake, then topped with ganache and crispy chocolate pearls.

This donut was a bit dense and slightly dry. I liked the texture of the chocolate pearls that complimented the donut.

Flourless Bouquet Gluten-Free Donut ($3 each) but it’s still made in an area with gluten. Eat with caution depending on what your level of sensitivity is towards gluten. The donut has a berry tea glaze on top.

I found the glaze to be quite sweet, but it did have a strong berry taste to it.

Cinnamon Sugar Donut ($3 each) was coated with sugar and cinnamon on the outside. The quality of the donut could have been a bit improved since the shape of it was a bit weird.

What I like about this donut is the crunchy exterior and then the soft inside of it. This donut isn’t super special or unique, but it is good.

Sweet Snow Donut ($3 each) has a white chocolate glaze with large organic coconut shavings.

I’m not a big fan of coconut, but I liked how the taste was subtle and didn’t dominate the flavour. Good balance.

Sweet Heat Donut ($3 each) tasted a little bit different this time around.

The chili flavour was more prominent but not too overwhelming. It just tickled your lips a little. It was kinda a cool feeling.

Earl Grey Donut is infused with organic earl grey tea and a earl grey glaze with edible flowers.

I really liked this donut because it has a good subtle flavour of the tea. Very unique and its a must order.

Breakfast Donut has organic figs, flax seeds, and honey. This was definitely a donut for the wee mornings.

It was quite dense and packed with a lot of ingredients, but it kinda tasted like a bran muffin.

Carrot Cake Donut has carrots in their donut dough with a caramel glaze and topped with candied carrots and oats.

I felt like it didn’t represent a carrot cake since it needed a bit more cinnamon to really bring out that taste.

Classic Donut is topped with a vanilla bean glaze.

I liked the simple taste of the donut. Good fresh ingredients done right.

No Animals? No problems! Vegan Donut has chocolate cake, topped with chocolate ganache and chocolate sprinkles.

I LOVED this donut! Even though it’s vegan, it was so moist and chocolaty. I would definitely order this again!

Overall, there is a bit of a consistency issue with the donuts, but Cartems has a great concept in trying to bring unique flavours and ingredients into their donuts. Plus, they do cater to vegans and gluten-free individuals. I am sure in time they will improve on their products! Don’t forget to check out Munchkie’s Munchies‘s review of Cartems!

Words of Wisdom:

My Favorite: Earl grey, Sweet Heat, Vegan, and Classic
Pricey for just a donut
Order Online to be guaranteed the flavours you want
Free delivery to the Downtown core
Under $10
Closest Skytrain: Stadium
Follow them on Twitter (@cartemsdonuts ) for availability of supply + flavours
Vegan + Gluten-Free Options

We Rate Cartems Donuterie:

Address:
408 Carrall Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://cartems.com/

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In Coquitlam

Garden Fresh Express: Salad Bar in Coquitlam Center

February 9, 2012

I clearly had a week where I totally thought I needed to eat healthier, so I kept going to salad bars. M and I went to Coquitlam Center Mall just to go to the food court for lunch. We were trying to be somewhat cheap too. Students like us are cheap and poor. As M had Arbys, I decided to head to Garden Fresh Express to make myself a salad. It was $1.60ish per 100g.

Its a good alternative if you wanted something decently healthy.

Looking at this, I probably fail at making salads. I definitely needed more greens, but all the other stuff there was so tempting. Everything at the bar looked fresh, so I wasn’t afraid to consume anything.

Words of Wisdom:

Lots of parking
Ok price if you don’t get heavy items

Address:
2702 – 2929 Barnet Hwy
Coquitlam, BC V3B

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In Downtown

Rasoee Indian Kitchen: Not Your Traditional Indian Restaurant

February 8, 2012

Rasoee Indian Kitchen serves up modern Indian cuisine. In a way, you can say this is Indian fast food. This location is on Robson, but they do have a few other locations in Vancouver.

The interior has a few tables, but the turnover rate is quite high during lunch since its quick.

Butter Chicken Combo ($8.49 + $2.49) has tender tandoori-baked boneless chicken in a mildly spiced creamy tomato curry sauce with basmati rice. With the combo I got a coke and naan bread.

The naan bread wasn’t good, I chose the original naan as recommended by the cashier. It didn’t feel very fresh and not very authentic. I wish there was a little cup of curry sauce to dunk the bread into since there isn’t enough sauce on top of the rice. The combo isn’t really worth it.

The butter chicken curry was alright, the sauce was a bit on the thin side and not a lot of chicken.

Lamb Curry ($8.49) is on basmati rice as well. MeatGirl thought it was also alright, but good for a quick lunch.

Overall, I feel this is what Indian Fast Food taste like. The curries were light, but nothing too special. It seems like the taste of the curry was just adapted towards Western culture and lost it’s authentic taste. I guess they are trying to target the general population.

However, they are always continually trying to improve their store, so perhaps it will get better. Their service is really good though! The food came really fast!

Words of Wisdom:

Gluten-Free Options
Very Fast Service
Under $10
Take Out and Delivery Options

We Rate Rasoee Indian Kitchen:

Address:
320 Robson St
Vancouver, BC V6B
Website:
http://www.rasoee.ca/

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In Bakery

French Made Baking: Hot Chocolate Festival

January 20, 2012

French Made Baking finally opened up their store on Kingsway and Broadway. I’ve been waiting for them to open for a while and I finally made a trip down to check out their store for the Hot Chocolate Festival. They are one of the many vendors participating in the month long festival. They feature new flavours everyday till February 14th!

Since I had lunch with Angela from Munchkie’s Munchies , we decided to come here after to chill over desserts and hot chocolate!

Their flavours of hot chocolates change everyday, so do keep an eye on their schedule.

Praline – Milk chocolate | January 14, 20, 26, Feb 1, 7, 12
Yuzu – Dark Chocolate | January 15, 21, 27, February 2, 8,
Vanilla Chestnut – White Chocolate | January 17, 22, 28, February 3, 9,
Passion Fruit – Milk Chocolate | January 18, 24, 29, February 4, 10, 14
Earl Grey – Milk Chocolate | January 19, 25, 31, February 5, 11

Once you walk into the store, you can look through into their kitchen to see them hard at work creating all their cute pastries.

Praline Hot Chocolate ($5.25 with Macaron) had a beautiful smooth texture with little bit of praline integrated into it. This is probably one of the better hot chocolates I’ve had.

I’m generally not a big fan of hot chocolate, but I did enjoy this. The price is pretty good too since other vendors can charge up to $8 for a hot chocolate.

Pistachio Macaron I thought were really good! One of my favorite places for macarons!

Le Caneles ($2.50) is a small pastry that originated from Bordeaux, France. It has a soft tender custard center with a dark caramel crust. I’ve had it in the past, but this time it tasted alright, but I couldn’t put my finger on what was different.

Creme Brulee didn’t have the nice “crack” when you break into the toasted sugar top. I don’t think Angela took much of a liking to it either. We did notice that it was toasted ahead of time, which may have contributed to that.

Another thing we noticed was the use of the paper plates and cups, since we were eating it all in the store, it probably would have been better to have real cups and plates. ** UPDATE: They have now plates, mugs, and cutlery! **

Since they are still in their soft launch of their store, I am sure they will improve on their products in the near future. Nonetheless, the macarons and hot chocolate are super good!

Words of Wisdom: