Downtown Archives - Page 22 of 22

In Downtown

Re-Up BBQ Foodcart

September 25, 2010

Re-Up BBQ Foodcart is one of the new foodcart vendors in Vancouver. After hearing all the buzz about this foodcart on Twitter and Urbanspoon, it was time to see what the hype was all about.

One day after work, I headed over to visit the small place. Even though it was a rainy and cold afternoon, people were still lining up for their BBQ sandwiches.

At first I was skeptical about the size and taste of the sandwich but my view would soon be changed. As I was lining up, I realized I had no cash…apparently it is cash only, so I went across the street to HSBC to grab some cash.

I rushed back into the line before more people lined up. Looking at the small menu, they had pulled pork sandwich and 3 different drinks. Small necessarily does not mean bad, it just means they specialize in that one product.

I obviously ordered the Pulled Pork Sandwich ($6). They first take a hoagie type of bread and cut it in half, add the pulled pork, add sauce, and put in a layer of flavored coleslaw. They make it in front of you, so you know it’s fresh and what are the items the put inside.

This sandwich was FAT! If you are hungry for lunch, this will fill you up! Look at the pictures! It’s huge. It was pretty messy eating it because of the sauce and coleslaw. Perhaps I was eating it incorrectly and trying to take pictures at the same time.

I also chose the Southern Sweet tea ($2) to go with the sandwich. It was hard to make that choice, so I asked the guy what he recommended. It tasted good! Better than Nestea or Brisk. I enjoyed it and I would get it again.

After HST, this drink and sandwich came to $9. I guess it’s an ok price since it fills you up.

Words of Wisdom:

Bring cash
Contents of this sandwich may fall on your clothes

If you are near the Vancouver Art Gallery, stop by this little place at the corner of Hornby and Georgia Street. For under $10, the Pulled Pork Sandwich will stuff you!

We rate Re-up BBQ Foodcart:

Find them at:

Downtown
700 Hornby street
Vancouver, BC V6Z

In Chinese

Roaming Dragon

September 19, 2010

I heard about Roaming Dragon through Twitter when they followed Foodology. They had some very nice branding, so I decided I should try it since it’s pretty close to where I work.

Roaming Dragon specializes in Pan Asian Cuisine and ARE ON WHEELS. If you stand on West Georgia and Thurlow intersection, look out for the red truck because that is the sign of the Roaming Dragon Truck!

When I saw it, I was so excited because there was a long line up and face it, the truck is really cool compared to the other street carts.

The menu had 5 different items – Fried Rice Ball, Chicken Karrage, Korean Tacos, Soba noodle Salad, Duck Salad and Pork Belly Sliders. These are $6 each, 2 for $10 or 3 for $15. They also have a drink menu to quench your thirst!

You order by going to the window and tell them your order, before you order; you can look at their display to see what the food looks like. They are small portions, so you probably want to order more than one to get full unless you just want a snack.

Once you order, you wait on the left and wait for your name to be called.

We ordered the Japanese Chicken Karrage, Korean Short Rib Tacos, and Roaming Dragon Fried Rice Balls.

TaiwaneseGirl had the Chicken Karrage, and they are quite different from what you would find at a Japanese restaurant. This chicken is basically marinated chicken, then fried and covered in passion fruit and plum sugar sauce. At first it looked really cool and nicely put together. The taste was very interesting because the chicken was sweet due to the sauce. TaiwaneseGirl didn’t like sweet flavour of it. I tried a bit of it and the texture was alright but the sauce made the chicken feel colder. TaiwaneseGirl commented that the dish tasted very non-asian.

CanuckGirl had the Korean Short Rib Tacos, which contained braised Korean short ribs, mushrooms, spinach, carrots and kimchi. We all agreed the tacos were pretty good and it did have the asian taste to them unlike the chicken karrage. The meat was tender and had flavour to it!

I had the Roaming Dragon Fried Rice Balls, it was better than I expected! It has Chinese sausage, dried shrimp, chicken, bamboo shoots, mustard greens, and rice. Then its breaded and fried. After, it’s topped with Curry and Teriyaki Sauce. The balls come on skewers so its easy to each with minimal mess. I did enjoy this a lot and if I passed by the street again, I would pick it up.

3 smalls dishes for $16.30 is quite steep especially for such small portions.

Try Roaming Dragon out if you pass by, but if you are looking for a large meal, this is probably not the place to go. The Fried Rice balls are worth trying!

We rate Roaming Dragon:

Check out their website: www.roamingdragon.com

In Chinese

Chinese Skewer King

September 19, 2010

I saw Chinese Skewer King on my way to work and I thought it was the funniest thing because they abbreviate is as CSK, which is my friends SFU e-mail name.

On our street food vendor adventure, we decided to stop by after going to Roaming Dragon. You can’t miss this place because it is super red and yellow.

They had a few types of skewers – pork, lamb, tofu and vegetable. I wish there was chicken or beef but I guess it’s a bit harder to cook. They were almost sold out by 12:30pm so we just hurried and got lamb. We could even choose the degree of spicy we wanted on our skewer. I love having options, make me feel involved with the food I get to eat. We order “a little bit spicy” for ours.

The 3 skewers came out to be around $5. I guess if you compare it to HK or any other asian country, this is obvious expensive. I am waiting for the day when Vancouver will have $1 or $2 skewers. But with inflation, I doubt that will happen.

They gave us the skewers in a brown bag and then an extra Styrofoam container…really a waste of resources…especially in Vancouver where it’s all sustainable and stuff…lies…

I found the skewers to be very tasty and I couldn’t figure out what spices were on the meat, but TaiwaneseGirl said it was some asian spice. Our choice of “ a little bit spicy” worked for me, but apparently not for CanuckGirl, she got a large granule of spice and basically felt like her tongue was all numb and ON FIRE.

Overall I think the taste of the skewers were nice an authentic and asian. I would go again if I pass by! For $2.50 per skewer, it’s a bit expensive but where else downtown can you find skewers for $2.50? If you are in the area, stop by!

We rate Chinese Skewer King:

Check out their website: http://www.chineseskewerking.ca/

In Downtown

Japadog

September 17, 2010

JapaDog crossed my path as I went to the Advanced Screening of The Town starring Ben Affleck. So, I decided to grab one because it’s quick and always satisfying. They also have several flavours at all their locations so it’s kinda like a scavenger hunt to try all the different types.

One thing I noticed from a few months ago is that they got a new cart, which seems more shiny and cleaner than before!

The Burrard and Smithe is the original locations of the world famous Japadog. It’s so famous that even my relatives in Hong Kong know about it. The line ups during lunch times is really long, so its best to avoid the lunch time rush.

I ordered the oroshi, which starts with a Bratwurst smokie, which is pork. For the toppings, it has grated radish, green onion and soy sauce. It’s very simple but it a major improvement on the traditional hotdog. I love really thick smokies since it does have a lot of flavour compared to those small dinky hotdogs. The grated radish adds a nice texture to the Japadog. After a while, eating it was quite a drag because it was the same flavour. I should have added a bit more sauces to this…perhaps some wasabi mayo or more soy sauce.

Overall, good experience and good fast food!

They also have super unique types of japadogs such as the edamame one where the sausage has beans. They do have regular hotdogs too, but why have that when you can have a JapaDog!

For about $5 to $6, you can get a japadog of you own! No need to go to a regular hotdog stand when there are JapaDog stands springing up all over downtown Vancouver!

We rate JapaDog:

Visit their website: http://www.japadog.com/

In Downtown

Nuba (Hastings)

September 6, 2010

Nuba is a fantastic Lebanese restaurant and even does catering for events Downtown! The first time I had a taste of Nuba was at Marketer’s Night – SFU’s Marketing Networking Event where they served appetizers.

After this day, I vowed to visit here one day. 9 months later I did!

CanuckGirl, TaiwaneseGirl, BigBaby and I were just in the Downtown area and used the Yelp App on the Iphone and this was on the list of most popular restaurants!

The restaurant was located almost near the sketchy part of Hastings so we were walking past the Scientology building and got really weirded out … then saw a few Hemp shops but we got there alright.

When we got there, we really didn’t know what to choose since there were so many options to choose from. We were in a sharing mood so we had the La Feast and Le Grande Feast. The waitress said it would fill us all up and we would be able to taste the varieties of the menu.

I started of with the Organic Sangria, which was really nice since it was made out of Cono Sur Organic Carbernet-Carmenere Wine, OJ, Lemon Juice, pomegranate and a hint of cinnamon. I really wish I could have had more.

Everyone else had the water but this was no tap water, or lemon water, this was CUCUMBER WATER. It was really refreshing and unique. I know this other restaurant – Le Cobre that does this too.

When the Le Grand Feast arrived and it contained a plate of – Hummus, baba ghanooj, taboulleh with pita bread. I personally liked the Hummas a bit more because I am in love with garlic! Thats why the vampires don’t ever come close!

I didn’t love the Baba Ghanooj because of the citrus flavour but it was still a good dip which others at the table liked more.

The next dish that arrived with the Feast was the grilled lamb chops and chicken. The lamb chops were medium rare as requested which was fantastically done. It had an incredible flavour and you could taste that there was a mint aftertaste to it.

The last one with this combo was the roasted potatoes, salad and Najib’s Special.

The Najib’s Special is crispy cauliflower tossed with lemon and sea salt served with tahini. It was surprisingly really good but looks really awkward.

The roasted potato was nothing special, it was what normal roasted potatoes would taste like.

La Feast came and boy, this was a FEAST! There was so much food that it did not fit on our table. We had an additional plate of hummas, taboulleh and baba ghanooj! The waitress even gave us extra pita bread for our left over dips.

For the main feast, there was more cauliflower, eggplant stew, falafels, olives, feta and so many other things that I have no idea what they were called.

We were so stuffed after the platters that we could not continue eating.

If you are looking for authentic Lebanese, go to Nuba! There are 3 locations, so there is no excuse to not eat here. The staff is very helpful when choosing your dishes because you probably won’t know what to choose!

We rate Nuba:

Check out Nuba’s Website: http://nuba.ca/

In Downtown

Market by Jean-Georges

August 27, 2010

Two of my friends and I decided to embark on a journey to The Market, this was no market indeed. This was The Market by Jean-Georges in the Vancouver Shangri-La. We knew it would be a bit pricey during the dinnertime, so we opted to go during the lunchtime.

The Market I located on the third floor of the Shangri-La so you will need to take the elevator or the stairs up from the main floor. The little area that we were seated in reminded me of the 70’s. The green furniture worked with the decor but if you put it into your living room, it would be quite awkward.

For the Appetizer, we started off with the Beef Carpaccio Pizza, which was quite unique and super delicious. But, I’m not quite sure if you can still call it Carpaccio is it’s a bit cooked? I’m not sure either but it was yummy. If you are not a big fan of raw food, you won’t even notice the raw beef on this pizza. The Parmesan, arugula and mushroom balance this dish out so it is very flavorful.

For the main dish, Taiwanese girl ordered grilled salmon with a side of fries. It seemed like she really enjoyed the salmon especially the sauce that came with it since she kept dipping her fries into it. Apparently, your salmon can be rare, medium rare, medium, or well. I really thought this was only for steak or lamb, but salmon too. The green peppers on the plate seems like it could be super spicy but when you taste it, it was not anywhere near spicy. Very mild and had a nice taste.

CanuckGirl ordered the Grilled MARKET Burger. It was a very nice tasting burger with the regular stuff plus Russian dressing and a cool Onion Ring. The burger had 2 patties of meat! A very meaty burger if you are a carnivore. Also, you can choose what type of cheese you can have on your burger! Swiss and cheddar are the ones I can remember off the top of my head,

For my main dish, I had the halibut which was so soft and delicate. it came on a bed of boiled spinach with a nice creamy sauce. It was so yummy that I was so tempted to lick the plate.

To finish it all off, I had the chocolate pudding! This was by far the BEST part of the meal. If you look at the picture, the green part is the cup. For the longest time, we were staring at other tables thinking there was cool jello under neither the pudding. On top was a softly whipped cream and crystallized violet. As you dig deeper into this pudding, you find a nice piece of cake in the center and it just really gives the dessert a bit more of a texture.

If you are looking for a fancy place to eat, this is the place to go! Everyone must try this place at least once … or twice in their lives because it is just so delicious!!!!

We Rate The Market: