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In Fast Food

McDonalds Happy Meal: Minions

July 7, 2013

Minions have invaded McDonalds all around the world. Starting this month, you’ll be able to snag up 8 adorable Despicable Me 2 toys. They are available in Canada, Philippines, Indonesia, USA, UK, Austria, Australia, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Romania, Portugal, Latvia, Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Guatemala, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Taiwan. Perhaps there is more, but I have no clue.

It took myself, my sister and a few friends to get our hands on at least 4 of them. Then…someone had to take a trip to the states to find more to complete the set. We were a bit obsessive, but it’s the hunt and chase that’s the most fun. We could have easily bought it the set off eBay for $20 but that’s just cheating. Even people on Facebook are coordinating how to get certain toys and giving each other tips on which locations to go to. I haven’t been this excited about McDonald Toys since the 90s.

Happy Meals have changed since I was a kid. They used paper bags and had a limited amount of options for your meal. These days, you have more “healthier” options (kinda, not really).

Choice of Entree:

Chicken McNuggets (4 pcs)
Chicken Snack Wrap
Cheeseburger
Hamburger
Grilled Cheese

Choice of side:

Mini Fries
Small Fries
Apple Slices with Caramel Dip

Choice of Drink:

1% White Milk
Chocolate Milk
Child-sized Soft Drink
Juice

All meals come with a toy and yogurt. All for $3.99 before tax. No age limit too. I’m a big kid and I totally deserve a Happy Meal once in a while.

The tiny fries are so cute in the little container. It’s really a meal meant for little kids.

This location didn’t have the minion toys which sucked, but I still liked my meal. If you get toys on their own, it’s about $2. If you’re on the hunt for the minions, I think it’ll save your health if you buy the toy without the meal.

The best part of the nuggets is the infamous boot-shaped nugget. It still makes me wonder why they ever decided to make it look like that.

There’s even a website just for Happy Meals: http://www.happymeal.com

What crazy thing did you do to acquire those minion toys?

In BBQ

Chinatown Night Market: Closest Night Market to Downtown

July 6, 2013

The Chinatown Night Market has changed a lot since I was a kid. With the emergence of the other Night Markets in town, the quality of the Chinatown Night Market isn’t as good as it used to be. Despite that, it still attracts thousands of people every weekend to enjoy the festivities. It’s the closest night market to the Downtown core, so it makes sense. If you’re in the area, take a short stroller here and then enjoy the sunset at False Creek near Science World.

The Vancouver Chinatown Night Market is open from May 17th till September 8th, 2013 on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Related Link:

2011 Chinatown Night Market Food Vendors

The market spans from Main Street to Columbia Street on Keefer street. The block is closed off so people can walk freely on the streets.

There are a few stalls that sell toys, jewellery , clothing, and a lot of random stuff.

I honestly never come here to buy things. It’s all about the food for me. But when it was about 10 years ago, I would come here to buy pokemon cards. Nowadays, there’s nothing very spectacular from the vendors.

Bar-B-Q

There’s a stall that sells a lot of skewers. It’s one of those staple items that you must have at a night market.

Bubble Gallo Tea House

There’s bubble tea too. Perfect for the hot summer weather.

Dim Sum Express

The food area is quite popular and the most congested part of the street. There’s even Dim Sum Express, they have a food truck near Waterfront station too.

Potato Tornado

One thing that was a must for MedicalGiraffe and I were the potato tornadoes. You might know them as hurricane potatoes…. depending on where you’ve been. It’s $3.75 each and you can choose your seasoning. They also sell popcorn chicken for $4.50.

This was a popular stall, so the food did take about 10 minutes.

The way that they cut the potatoes is with a drill. Very strange but I guess it gets the job done. Then they deep fry it for the crunchy goodness. The last step is sprinkling on the spices.

We got our ketchup flavoured potato tornado and it sure looked pretty. The taste was ok, but it was very very oily.

Takoyaki

Takoyaki was another item on our mind. It was very very busy at this stall, so it took about 20 minutes to get our order.

They had a lot of people waiting for them, but it took me a long time to figure out something was off about this stall.

All the balls looked ready and perfect to eat, but they took a long time to cook. After watching them for a while, we realized they were frozen store bought takoyaki heated up in these pans.

She wasn’t poking to see if the batter in the centre was cooked, she was seeing if it was not frozen on the centre.

6 pieces for $4.50.

We did feel a bit ripped off since we now know we could probably go to T&T and get a gab of frozen takoyaki for that price.
It tasted passable, but sucks that it wasn’t prepared the way it should be.

Bubble Waffles

There was also bubble waffles too. 1 for $3.75 or 2 for $6.50.

Near the other side of the Night Market seemed a little more Gastown-like with artist, local produce, plants, and jams on sale. There were also 3 Food Trucks there too – JJ’s Trucketeria, Holy Perogy and Ze Bite.

JJs Trucketeria

JJ Trucketeria is a Filipino themed Food Truck. I’ve always wanted to go for a visit but they are usually on Fraser and 43rd. Way too far for me to get to during lunch.

During the night market, they had salads, garlic fried rice plate, panwiches and their market bowls. Their prices are pretty good for a food truck. We really wanted to try their meaty items but we held back and decided to try the market bowl.

Market Bowl ($5) has brown rice, carrots, leeks, caramelized onions, yams, black beans, chick peas with their signature JJ sauce. It is completely vegan, so good for those people with dietary restrictions.

MedicalGiraffe and I didn’t particularly like this item since it was mostly the brown rice mixture with a bit of sauce.

Ze Bite

Ze Bite was there selling their amazing French food.

Nice Pops

Nice Pops were selling some gourmet popsicles with 4 flavours:

Rhubarb and Cardamom
Cucumber, lime and Chili
Strawberry and balsamic Vinegar
Strawberry and buttermilk

The prices are $4 each or 3 for $10.

Cucumber, lime and Chili starts off with the refreshing cucumber and lime flavours but them the spicy chili taste kicks in. MedicalGiraffe’s mouth was literally on fire. She can handle her spice, but this was definitely spicy.

Rhubarb and cardamom was very refreshing. Highly recommended.

On the day that we went, there was outdoor karaoke. Surprisingly a lot of people were fearless and stepped up on the mic. There was a variety of songs sang by people of various ethnicities.

The Chinatown Night Market is not as impressive as the Richmond Night market, so don’t go out of your way to come here. If you are in the area after dinner Downtown, you can just take a stroll over here after dinner.

Website: http://vancouverchinatownnightmarket.com/

In Cafe

Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie: Chocolates Galore

July 5, 2013

Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie is located on Hastings Street in North Burnaby. It’s pretty awesome to see that The Heights is starting to get some amazing shops in the area. Over the past few years, I’ve always complained about how few dessert places we have. My go-to place was always Cumpari’s on North Road.

The interior of Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie is quite small with a few high tables near the windows. Not a great place for large groups, but it s a nice quiet setting for a few friends to catch up over some cakes.

M was intrigued by all the chocolate, so he decided to get one of each. I think he didn’t know which ones to choose, so he got them all. Each piece is $1.40 and is a bit pricey, but they look very pretty.

Noix de Coco et Passion
Praline Amande
Citron et Thym
Pistachie
Mango
Gianduja Dark
Tanka Amande
Kalamansi Framboise
Noix de Coco
Caramel
Gianduja Milk
70% Ganache

He ate them all quite quickly. All those in one sitting. He didn’t even leave me a piece. He said they were pretty awesome.

Besides chocolate they also have a variety of cakes and tarts. We came near the end of the day so most of the goodies were gone. All their treats looked quite cute.

Trio de Chocolate ($4.50) has layers of dark, milk and white chocolate mousse. It’s quite small and it can be easily gobbled up in a few bites, but did taste pretty good.

Box of Macarons ($9.95) comes with 6 flavours. The different flavours that they had were caramel, chocolate, coconut, lime basil, limoncello, maple syrup, passion fruit and pistachio. I have no idea which flavours were in the box since I got it as a gift for MedicalGiraffe. She did say they were tasty.

They also have bars of chocolates too.

It’s a nice change to have such a delectable pastry shop in the area. If you are passing by this area, definitely stop and go inside. Parking is a little bit tricky but there should be some on Beta Street.

We Rate Chez Christophe Chocolaterie Patisserie:

Address:
4712 Hastings St
Burnaby, BC

Website:
http://www.christophe-chocolat.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4712+Hastings+St+Burnaby,+BC&hnear=4712+Hastings+St,+Burnaby,+British+Columbia+V5C+2K8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Deli

Kaplan’s Deli: Smoked Meat in a Jewish Deli

July 4, 2013

I was wandering around Oakridge and needed a place to eat lunch. I don’t come to this area often, so I asked the people of Twitter where I should go. Sherman chimed in and suggested Kaplans or Applause. Since I’ve already been to Applause a few years ago, I decided to head over to Kaplans. There’s always time for a good sandwich full of meat.

Walking through the first part of the restaurant looked like a deli, but in the back there are a bunch of tables and booth seating. The servers were really relaxed and didn’t seem like they were happy.

After a while, we recognized that it was a Jewish deli. It can definitely be seen in the menu with items like matza balls and kosher food.

Lemonade and Root Beer were our choices of beverage to tackle the large sandwiches.

On the table, there are several condiments – ketchup, hot mustard, regular mustard, dijon mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper.

Mega is about $14 .95 and comes with cheese and a pile of meat between house made bread. The tooth pick in the sandwich was definitely necessary or else it would fall apart.

There is also a pickle and coleslaw that comes with it.

Even thought the cross-section of the sandwich is quite thick, it really is just bunched up in the middle. It’s size isn’t even comparable to the ones found in the states.

Norman Norman is chicken pastrami, cheese and sauerkraut sandwiched between 2 slices of buttered bread. It comes with coleslaw and your choice of fries or latkes. M chose the latkes since he loves them.

He thought it tasted ok, but the price was a bit high for what you get.

Overall, the food was ok, and the service was ok. There wasn’t anything that was particularly amazing.

We Rate Kaplan’s Deli:

Address:
5775 Oak St
Vancouver, BC

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=5775+Oak+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=5775+Oak+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6M+2V9&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Chinatown

Bestie: Currywurst in Chinatown

July 2, 2013

My coworkers were looking for a place to have lunch. Near our office, there isn’t a lot of choices, so we were delighted that there was a new eatery in Chinatown that serves sausages. I’ve heard much of the buzz online and suggested this place for lunch.

Bestie was inspired by German street food and specialize in hand crafted sausages and pretzels made with the best local ingredients. They don’t serve beer yet, but once their license is approved, it’ll be a full German experience.

The interior is quite nice but it’s hard to fit large groups during the lunch time rush. There is about 5 booths and some bar seating. I came with 5 of my coworkers, so we knew it would be a tight squeeze. We grabbed a booth and brought over 2 stools. They have a lot of stools around for that purpose.

Bedford’s Ginger Beer ($2.50) it’s non-alcoholic, but it’s refreshing for a hot summer’s day.

Kombucha Wonder Drink ($3) is a small can of sparkling fermented tea. It tastes kinda like vinegar.

Currywurst ($8) is Germany’s most popular street food. You get your choice of sausage sliced up and served with a curried ketchup on crispy fries. Magz chose her curry wurst to have the Classic Pork Thüringer sausage.

Sausage & Sauerkraut ($9.50) has your choice of sausage with warm sauerkraut, house mustard & crispy fries. I chose mine to have the Classic Pork Thüringer sausage too. The sausage is the best! It’s so juicy and the taste has an absolute perfection as you put it in your mouth. The mustard is sure to add a kick of spiciness.

On the table, there is curry powder, salt and pepper if you need a little more spice to your dish.

Overall, there really is only 3 types of items at Bestie – the Currywurst, Sausage & Sauerkraut, and the pretzels. The portion sizes aren’t too large, so you may be hungry in a few hours afterwards. The prices are a bit high for this meal, but you can’t deny that sausage is pretty darn tasty.

We Rate Bestie:

Address:
105 E Pender Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://bestie.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=105+E+Pender+Street+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=105+E+Pender+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6A+2V2&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Canadian

Dishcrawl Vancouver: Exploring the West End

July 1, 2013

Dishcrawl Vancouver invited me to their event focused on West End restaurants. We went to 4 different restaurants in one night, but the catch is that we only knew the first location but the other 3 are a mystery. They try to showcase the best restaurants in this area within walking distance of each other.

There was about 25 people on this particular tour and we headed to Ap Gu Jung, Hida Takayama Ramen, Forage and Capstone Tea & Fondue.

Ap Gu Jung

AP Gu Jung was our first stop. It’s a Korean restaurant located on Robson Street. This place has been here forever. I remember coming here in high school.

The interior has 2 floors and kinda looks like a western pub rather than a korean restaurant because of the playoffs playing on the big screen, jerseys, and a drum kit.

We started off with 4 dishes of banchan, which are complimentary side dishes. There is seaweed, kimchi, broccoli, and potatoes.

On the plate they sampled:

Seafood Pancake
Kimchi Pancake
Chicken Skewers
Pork on Fire
Traditional Beef BBQ
Rice

For people with dietary restrictions, they got some different items. The portions here were pretty good since there were 3 more restaurants to go to. A lot of people couldn’t finish in time, so they did have to pack it to go. We definitely needed more than 40 minutes here.

Hida Takayama Ramen

Hida Takayama Ramen is located inside the Robson Public Market on the 2nd floor. I thought I went to all the ramen places in town, but I was wrong. This ramen joint is very hidden. The prices seem quite fair as it is all under $10.

The owner – Mike Asaoka is very charismatic about the ramen he makes and uses the best ingredients.

Hida Chuka Ramen was one of my favorites. It was simple and representative of some ramen you would find in Japan. The broth is chicken based and flavoured with soy sauce.

White Sesame Ramen was very rich and thick . We ate everything else, but it was hard to drink the broth.

Sweet and Spicy Ramen was ok, but not one of my favorites.

I didn’t fall in love with any of the particular ramen, but I found it very interesting how if you come here on a normal day, the price of the small and the large are EXACTLY the SAME prices. You can get huge bowl of noodles for about $7.

Forage

Our third stop of the night is Forage. I was quite excited about this place because they do have some killer food.

We were welcomed by Chef Wittaker who took us through the farm-to-table concept at forage and let us know what we would be eating.

Nettle gnocchi and brown butter is served in a cast iron pan. The texture of the gnocchi were like little pillows of mashed potatoes.

Foraged and cultivated mushrooms is topped with Okanagan goat cheese and comes with grilled caraway rye bread. I have an addiction for mushrooms, so I polished this dish. Yum Yum!

The Flatbread has pancetta, morel mushrooms, onion béchamel, and Jersey blue cheese. It was thin, crispy and very enjoyable.

Capstone Tea & Fondue

I haven’t been back to Captone in a few years after a bad experience. It’s been a few years and that experience has always stuck in my mind. It was good to see that they rebranded and hopefully this dining experience would be good.

We were given small personal pots of Dark Chocolate Fondue and some assorted items for dipping.

In the bowl were fruit, banana bread, cheesecake, cookies, macrons, and ice cream balls. Don’t leave the ice cream balls till the very end since they will melt. With the hot weather in Vancouver, its best to just gobble them up right away.

It was a nice end of the meal.

By the end of the night, we were all full and ready to have food coma. This is my second Dishcrawl and I still have the same thoughts about these types of events. It’s not an event for everyone. $60 is a little bit steep if you’re a picky eater. Even though they do accomodate dietary restrictions, you may not like certain types of cuisines.

On the bright side, you do get to explore 4 restaurants in one night and are great for indecisive people. Do look out for coupon codes since there are a few floating around for each Dishcrawl tour.

To check out DishCrawl Vancouver: www.dishcrawl.com/vancouver/

In Canadian

Mosaic Bar & Grille: Chefs Tasting Menu

June 26, 2013

Mosaic Bar & Grille is located in the Hyatt Vancouver on Burrard and Georgia Street. They specialize in locally sourced produce, sustainable seafood and choice ingredients with careful and creative preparation.

Related Links:

Chef Thomas Heinrich, their Executive Head Chef created a 5 course Chef Tasting Menu from June 14th to June 28th. He incorporates the freshest ingredients of the season into this menu.

The 5 dishes in the menu are:

Roasted Sweet Corn Bouillon
G B E Heirloom Tomato Salad
Skuna Bay Salmon Sockeye Salmon
Taleggio D O P Italy
Watermelon

It’s costs $45 for the 5 course meal. If you want the additional wine pairings it costs $65. It’s a pretty good deal and he creates these types of menus every few weeks. So, the menu is always changing.

The meal starts off with complimentary biscuits that arrive as you wait for your meal. It’s fluffy and comes with butter.

If you had a long day at work, its good to grab a drink as you peer off into the streets of Burrard street. I find enjoyment staring at people walking up and down the street. It’s weird, but it’s fun.

Roasted Sweet Corn Bouillon has some tomatoes, chanterelle mushrooms and topped with a feta foam. It has my 2 favorite ingredients – mushrooms and corn. It’s a nice start to the meal as the broth was light that complimented the ingredients.

G.B.E. Heirloom Tomato Salad has basil gel, pickled okra, some seasonal greens and topped with aged parmesan. The ingredients were just beautiful and the presentation was just wow. I really like their salads here.

Skuna Bay Sockeye Salmon is seared on the sides and the plate also has sweet garlic gnocchi and sorrel leaves. The salmon was cooked nicely so it just melt in your mouth.

Taleggio DOP Italy is an example of a savory sweet dish. It was a hot bowl of cheese, nuts and dried fruit. There is grilled bread and fig jam on the side.

Watermelon This has the gravity defying panna cotta, topped with a watermelon and pepper mixture and then lemon sorbet and chocolate bits. I wasn’t a fan of this dessert, even though it had a lot of watermelon elements to this dish, it didn’t capture of fresh crisp taste of watermelon. The presentation was definitely cool though.

In addition to the items on the Chefs Tasting menu, we received two extra dishes. This on was seared scallops with seasonal greens above a cucumber jelly. The cucumber jelly didn’t really mesh with the dish too well, but we did like the scallops.

Lamb on lentils. The lamb was incredibly juicy! Easily our favorite dish of the night. Many thanks to Daniel and Michael for making the additional dishes.

Overall, still a pretty good set of dishes for the Chef’s tasting menu. The chef definitely does a lot of cool experiments with the dishes, so you will find something unique about it.

Words of Wisdom:

Follow @CheftHeinrich on twitter, You can be up to date on new menus that he launches at Mosaic
Steps away from Burrard Skytrain
Free Mosaic Chocolate Cake on your birthday
Beef Carpaccio is a must!
Great service

We Rate Mosaic:

Address:
655 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://vancouver.hyatt.com/

In Bakery

Swiss Bakery: Cronut or Frissant in Vancouver

June 25, 2013

The latest craze hitting New York is the Cronut, a hybrid between a croissant and a donut. The trademarked item was the brain child of Chef Dominique Ansel, a French pastry chef at Ansel’s bakery shop in New York. These cronut are in such high demand that they have begun selling in the “black market” for over $100. They have been flying off the shelves and people wait in line for hours just to get a taste of the cronut.

Imitations have begun popping up around the world to catch up on the cronut hype. Luckily, there is one bakery in Vancouver that is selling their spin on the cronut. Swiss Bakery is selling the Frissant. It’s a mix of a fritter and a croissant….thus the name frissant.

Ever since news hit on social media about the Frissant in Vancouver, these puppies have been flying off the shelves. Some people have even been saying they sell out by 10am. Swiss Bakery is located on 3rd and Main right across from Nuba.

My office is 3 blocks away, so I decided to come here with a coworker to grab a few. When we arrived at 9:30am, there were a few people inside and 3 frissants left. They were in the process of making more batches for the day.

Frissants come in 2 flavours at Swiss Bakery – Vanilla and Chocolate. They sell for $4 a pop, which isn’t too cheap, but they do spend lots of time working on the recipe and perfecting each batch. Small price to pay compared to what people in New York have to end up paying on the “black market”.

I decided to grab one of each flavour to see which one was better. I usually don’t like donuts, but I just had to see what was so good about them.

The exterior of the frissant is crispy and the layers are quite fluffy. Hidden inside is the yummy delicious custard. I preferred the vanilla flavour over the chocolate one.

If a donut hater can be convinced that a Frissant is delicious, that means its mighty delicious. It has been hard for some people to get their hands on the Frissant in Vancouver. I’ve heard multiple people being disappointed that its been sold out before they got there. I would suggest going in the morning to get some before noon. Or you can see what the status is on Twitter.

They don’t do preorders are it’s been difficult to coordinate orders. Best to just walk in if you’re already in the area.

Address:
143 E 3rd Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.swissbakery.ca/

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/swissbakery

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=143+E+3rd+Ave+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=143+E+3rd+Ave,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5T+3B8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Downtown

Ze Bite: Savory Crepes on Wheels

June 24, 2013

Ze Bite is located on Cordova and Burrard close to Waterfront Skytrain. The truck is bright and teal, so you won’t be able to miss it.

My coworker and I came here for lunch since we needed some quick shots of food cart imagery, so we decided to grab a bite to eat too.

They sell French inspired cuisine. When we went here, the main items were baguette sandwiches and savory crepes. They also have a few items in the sides menu.

Risotto ($5) contains roasted vegetables, rice and cream.

Ze Tangerine ($10) is a savory crepe and has marinated chicken, lemon, mint, spices, hummus, grainy dijon, and mixed greens. This crepe was quite large and tasted great. It was a bit challenging eating this on the street, but with just be careful that come things don’t fall out. It’s packed with a lot of ingredients.

Overall, Ze Bite has a few limited option for lunch, but their savory crepes are mighty delicious. I found their hours to be incorrect on the Facebook page, so it’s best to check their updated hours on Twitter or the Street Food App.

We Rate Ze Bite:

Location: Cordova and Burrard

Website:
http://zebite.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=898+W+Cordova+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=898+W+Cordova+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Downtown

Fat Duck Truck: Amazing Sandwiches For Lunch

June 22, 2013

Fat Duck Truck is one of the new food trucks to hit the streets this Summer in Vancouver. What drew us to this truck was the name and it’s delectable menu. Their menu is quite simple, all items are $10 and comes with pop and chips. When I went here, they only had 4 items – Duck confit Philly Sandwich , pork belly sandwich, Beef tongue and cheek sandwich, and their creme brulee. Yummy meaty menu, but the downside is that they are cash only.

Watermelon Spritz (+$1) was what I ordered to substitute the pop. It’s nice, refreshing and I’m sure it has less sugary than pop. It tasted good.

Pork Belly Sandwich ($10) has 2 slices of super crispy pork belly, topped with avocado cucumber relish and chipotle mayo. It also comes with house made potato chips. It’s really good, thickly cut and very very crispy.

Beef tongue & cheek “bahn mi” ($10) with a hoisin and soy glaze, pickled daikon & carrots, cilantro and chili mayo. It also has the home made chips and pop. The meat was very tender and it was like a modern twist to a bahn mi sandwich.

Overall, Magz and I really enjoyed our meals. It filled us up and we even had to save some of the chips for an afternoon snack. I would definitely revisit again.

We Rate Fat Duck Mobile Truck:

Location:
Varies, but I found it near the Vancouver Main Post Office. Best to check their current location on Twitter.

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/fatducktruck

Website:
http://fatduckmobileeatery.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=600+hamilton+street+vancouver&hl=en&ll=49.280838,-123.11231&spn=0.003143,0.007639&sll=49.280236,-123.113174&sspn=0.001571,0.003819&gl=ca&hnear=600+Hamilton+St,+Vancouver,+Greater+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6B+2P1&t=m&z=17 “]

In Four Beakers

Marutama Ramen: Ramen with Chicken Broth

June 19, 2013

It’s been a few weeks since Marutama Ramen opened and I’ve been there at least 4 or 5 times. Some may think I’m a little bit addicted, but I am just in love with the yummy seaweed and their gooey eggs. I mostly came with friends to introduce them to this new place. With so many ramen places on Robson street, it’s sometimes hard to decipher whats good and whats not.

The differentiator for Marutama Ramen is that they make their noodles in-house, they use chicken broth for their soup, the yummy gooey egg, and the seaweed.

Hot Green Tea isn’t free, but I can’t recall what the price was. It’s just a pre-purchased green tea packet that comes in hot water in this pot. Nothing fancy.

Kakuni ($5.75) is braised pork belly. It comes with 3 pieces.

From the 2 different visits here, I found the consistency of their kakuni to be very different. The first time I ordered it, it was super fatty and melt in your mouth, but the second time, it was more lean. Perhaps you can ask them for lean of fatty kakuni.

Marutama Tamago Ramen ($10.50) is the top seller. This time I ordered it with a spicy broth. The spicy broth is indeed spicy, so do watch out. If you love spicy food, then you must get it spicy. The ramen contains the soft-boiled flavored egg, aosa seaweed, green onions, 2 pieces of chashu, and handmade noodles in a rich chicken broth.

Marutama Aosa Ramen ($13.25) comes with 2 pieces of chashu, green onions and lots of the seaweed. Their seaweed is really good.

Marutama Zenbu Ramen ($18) has the works. It has slices of chashu, kakuni, aosa seaweed, and the egg. M ordered this since it had everything. He did enjoy it but it was quite expensive.

It’s all about that yummy egg. Their chicken broth ramen doesn’t particularly appeal to some people, but I really like it since it makes the broth more light and not so rich compared to pork based broths.

We rate Marutama Ramen:

Address:
780 Bidwell
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.japanesenoodle.com/

In Four Beakers

Kingyo: Best Japanese Bento Box in Vancouver

June 18, 2013

Kingyo has always been a great place to go at night, but I’ve never been here for lunch. Plus, working so far from Denman street, it would be a bit of a trek to go there, eat, and return to work in under an hour. Luckily Dpang decided to drive Magz and I. I’ve been looking forward to coming here for lunch for a long time.

For lunch, there is only one item that foodies must order – their bento box!

Related Links:

Deluxe Bento Box ($16) is limited to 10 sets per day. It comes with 12 smaller portion items off their regular menu. If you’ve never been to Kingyo or just love everything on the menu, the deluxe bento box is like a sampler of their menu. The price for the bento box is a bit high compared to the other bento boxes in town, but it is a fantastic item to order.

The items in the set do change from time to time, but I’m sure you can’t be disappointed. When we were here for lunch, our bento box came with:

Rice
Miso Soup
Pickled Vegetables
Deep Fried asparagus
Salad
Chicken Karaage
Braised short rib
Tuna tataki
Truffle egg
Sesame noodles
deep fried fish
and one more dish I have forgotten what it is.

We were not disappointed by any of the items that are part of the bento box. You will definitely get full and walk out of the restaurant with a case of foodcoma. Good luck going back to work resisting the temptation to nap.

We Rate Kingyo:

Address:
871 Denman St
Vancouver, BC V6G

Website:
http://www.kingyo-izakaya.ca

In Cafe

Nero Belgian Waffle Bar: Amazing Waffles

June 17, 2013

Nero Belgian Waffle Bar has been on my list of places to eat for a while. I even got 4 emails from readers telling me about this amazing place. If you wrote me an email, trust me, I have never forgotten! Nero is located on Robson street across from the Safeway. It’s a small little place and doesn’t have too many tables to accommodate large parties. The two times that I have went, it was very hard to find a seat.

They serve 2 types of waffles, the Belgium waffle (light and crispy) and the Liege Waffle (Soft, sweet and chewy). You can then choose to have them sweet or savory. I always seem to get sweet since I usually come here after dinner.

Banella ($6.95) with a liege waffle. Banana on top of the waffle with a dish of nutella. It’s a classic combination that anyone would love. FoodQueen ordered this, so check out her blog post soon.

Rudolph ($9) on a brussels waffle. It is topped with whipped cream, fresh raspberries, vanilla ice cream, Belgium chocolate mousse and drizzle of chocolate. This was AMAZING. My absolute favorite. The brussels waffle was so light and crispy like the description. SO good! After this, I will always have a brussels waffle. MMMMmmmmmm.

Mocha ($8.90) on a Brussels waffle. It is topped with vanilla ice cream, 60% dark chocolate, and espresso infused whipped cream. GastroFork ordered this, so you can see it on her blog.

Razz ($7.50) is on a Brussels waffle. It is topped with fresh raspberries and dark chocolate. It was really good as well. After having a taste of their brussels waffle, I’m hooked. Now I can see why they have lineups out the door.

Overall the waffles are great, but the service can be a bit atrocious during peak hours. When I came with Amy and Dee, we were told we were not supposed to save a table before we ordered our food. I totally understand the logic, but there wasn’t a line up in front of us. We just wanted to secure a spot so we didn’t have to get our order and stand up. Putting that aside, I really do love their waffles. I haven’t been able to find such a delicious brussels waffle in Vancouver until I came here.

We Rate Nero Beligian Waffle Bar:

Address:
1703 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.nerowaffles.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1703+Robson+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1703+Robson+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6G+1C8&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Cafe

Strike Taiwanese Restaurant: Near UBC

June 16, 2013

My friend told me I had to go check out Strike on Broadway closer to UBC. There’s a lot of Taiwanese Restaurants in town, but only a handful of them are really good. TaiwaneseGirl kept telling me I had to come here. All of her recommendations to me are pretty solid.

As usual, I can’t say no to trying new restaurants, so we came here for dinner. We found street parking right outside the restaurant and wasn’t too difficult.

Five spice beef wrap ($5.75) comes cut up in 4 pieces. Beware the toothpicks, but other than that, its a decent beef wrap.

Deep Fried Chicken Nugget Rice Combo ($8.50) comes with rice, 3 side dishes and the deep-fried chicken nuggets. The food was well executed and nothing seemed weird at all.

Taiwanese Style Steak with Black Pepper sauce on a sizzling plate with noodles ($11.95) this is probably one of the most popular items. It looks really good and boy was the meat mighty tender. If you’re a fan of black pepper sauce. You should get this.

I don’t know too many Taiwanese restaurants in this area and it seems like a good addition. Most items are under $10 and you get a good amount of food.

We rate Strike:

Address:
3217 W Broadway
Vancouver, BC

Facebook Page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Strike/113553352131031

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=3217+W+Broadway+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=3217+W+Broadway,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6K+4N7&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In Canadian

PHAT: Smoked Meat Sandwiches in Yaletown

June 15, 2013

PHAT is a sports bar and restaurant that is located in Yaletown and specializes in Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwiches. PHAT stands for Pretty Hot and Tasty. It’s a very strange name for a restaurant, but we were very curious about this restaurant after seeing the ‘sandwich head’ around Yaletown skytrain station.

Hot Montreal Smoked Meat on Marble Rye (PHAT Size $9.99) the meat is flown in from Montreal and the sandwich is served with Mustard & Kosher Dill Pickle. The slices of smoked meat were very thin. The sandwich was ok, but it still didn’t exactly compare to the ones in Montreal even though the smoked meat is sourced from there. I still miss the smoked meat sandwiches from Schwartz.

Hot Montreal Smoked Meat on Marble Rye (Skinny Size $7.99). The size between the Skinny and the PHAT size was about the same. Not really sure how much of a different there really was.

My friend designed herself a tuna melt sandwich ($8.49). She thought it was ok.

Overall, the food was passable, but it wasn’t anything spectacular. It has a good location, a heated patio and lots of TV screens if you want to watch the game.

We rate PHAT:

Address:
1055 Mainland St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.phatdeli.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1055+Mainland+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1055+Mainland+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6B+1A9&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Brunch

Fable Kitchen: Farm to Table

June 11, 2013

Fable Kitchen is owned by Canada’s Top Chef contestant Trevor Bird. The idea of the restaurant came about from the episode ‘Restaurant Wars’, where Trevor named his farm to table concept – Fable. When returning from the show, he began working on bringing the vision to life.

They work with amazing local farms to make sure they have the best ingredients to use in their meals. My friends and I wanted some brunch on the weekend, so we decided to come here. There was a bit of a line up, so we ended up spending 30 minutes waiting. We didn’t mind since it was nice and sunny outside.

I spent some of that time staring at the roasted piggy by the window. It looked so good! Crispy skin!

The interior was quite nice, the back wall is a chalk board, so all the imagery is drawn on. The chandelier in the centre of the room has pitch forks. Really nice to bring the concept of farm to table in the decor.

Farmer’s Muffin ($10) has sausage, scrambled eggs, cheddar, tomato jam on top of the muffin. It also comes with salad and rosti on the side. Oh my, this was packed full of flavour and you can’t deny the amazing taste. The sausage was juicy and nicely seasoned and the egg is just so creamy.

Omelette ($11) is made with 3 eggs, bacon, mushrooms and cheddar. It also comes with salad, rosti, and rustic bread. My friend really enjoyed this too. She thought it was a bit on the small side, but after she finished it, her face was beaming because of its great flavours.

Pulled Pork Johnny Cakes ($12) comes with tomato jam, picked jalapeño, a poached egg, and rosti.

Scrambled Eggs ($12) is in the jar with the bacon, spinach, parmesan with the foam on top. There is also brioche, tomato jam and rosti that comes with it.

House Bacon ($4) is one of the side items you can add to your meal. It’s thick cut and quite delicious. It’s a bit expensive, but I couldn’t say no because it was bacon.

Overall, the brunch here is pretty solid. We all had a good meal and left happy. The portions aren’t too large and the prices were ok. It’s not a place for everyone. It’s hard to figure out what item to order for brunch, but if you stick with the eggs, you can’t go wrong.

We Rate Fable Kitchen:

Address:
1944 West 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.fablekitchen.ca/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=1944+West+4th+Ave+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=1944+W+4th+Ave,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V6J+1M7&gl=ca&t=m&z=16″]

In BBQ

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill: Delicious Japanese Skewers

June 10, 2013

Zakkushi Charcoal Grill serves a bunch of tapa dishes and specializes in skewers. They have a few locations in Vancouver and one in Toronto.

M really wanted a good dinner, so I suggested Zakkushi. After all these years, I have no idea why we’ve never gone together. When we got here, we thought the exterior was pretty cool. It’s all covered up in dark wood. Very nice.

Sakura Cocktail ($7) has lychee liqueur, grapefruit juice, calpico and soda.

Toro Sashimi ($9.50) has 5 pieces of the sockeye salmon belly. It’s not the same texture as the tuna toro, but was more chewy. The quality nonetheless was very fresh.

Karaage ($5.80) is deep-fried chicken with an oroshi sauce. It’s different from most places as it comes with a shredded daikon, ponzu, and green onion sauce. Anything fried is delicious.

Tsukune is a chicken meatball and on their menu, they have 5 different kinds, but we stuck with the cheese and norimayo flavours.

Cheese Tsukune ($1.90 each) has white cheese melted on top with some pepper. It was really good! The cheesiness of the cheese and the juicy chicken meatball tasted really good.

Norimayo Tsukune ($1.90) is topped with mayo and seaweed. It’s really good! You really need to try this.

Zakkushi Set ($8.80) has 5 skewers momo (Chicken thigh), umeshiso yaki (chicken thigh with shio leaf and sour plum), Me Maki (garlic shrubs wrapped with pork), p-toro (Crunchy juicy pork), and oropon beef (AAA grade beef with diakon and ponzu sauce). It was a nice set of skewers to order if you are indecisive. You get a little bit of variety from the skewer menu.

Negi P-Toro Don ($7.50) has p-toro pork, green onion sauce, picked veggies, half boiled egg, and seaweed on top of rice. We mixed this all together and it was so good!

We also ordered Oden, but I was too excited about it that I ate it before taking a picture. The sake flight was good as well if you are into sake.

Overall, we had a great time here and will definitely be back. The food and atmosphere are awesome. It’s best to make a reservation ahead of time if you don’t want to wait for a seat. They also have a semi private party area for large groups.

We Rate Zakkushi:

Address:
4075 Main St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.zakkushi.com/

[googlemap width=”620″ height=”480″ src=”https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=4075+Main+St+Vancouver,+BC&hnear=4075+Main+St,+Vancouver,+British+Columbia+V5V+3P6&gl=ca&t=m&z=16 “]

In Fast Food

McDonalds Canada: New Signature McWrap

June 9, 2013

McDonalds Canada launched their New Signature McWraps with 3 different varieties – Chicken & Bacon, Sweet Chili, and Fiesta. A few weeks ago, a lot of the locations were doing 50% promotional deals to tell people about the new product. I was a bit intrigued when they launched this since I would have never though McDonalds would create such a product.

It costs $4.99 per wrap. You can find it at all McDonalds in Canada.

The McWrap comes in a large box and we were initially excited since we didn’t expect it to be that large. For $4.99 it didn’t look like a bad deal.

When we opened the box, the wrap was hidden in the bottom. 1/3 of the box was empty. It reminded me of a bag of chips where the packaging is misleading. No one wants to pay for air.

We chose the Chicken & Bacon McWrap ($4.99) with the option of the crispy chicken instead of the grilled chicken. This wrap also has bacon, tomato, lettuce, monterey jack cheese ,mayonnaise and wrapped up in a whole wheat tortilla. It tasted good and a nice alternative to the burgers at McDonalds.

If you want it to be a healthier option, you should get it grilled.

What you tried this? What are your thoughts?