July 2013

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/