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In Delivery

ZenPop Japan: Ramen Subscription Box Review

October 29, 2019

ZenPop Japan is a Japanese Subscription Box Service from Osaka, Japan. They have 4 different types of subscription boxes:

Ramen – 7 bowls of authentic Japanese noodles
Sweets – 15 different kinds of weird and wonderful Japanese sweets
Ramen + Sweets Mix – 2 bowls of noodles and 6 – 7 sweet and savoury snacks
Stationery – 10 kawaii and high-quality stationery products from Japan’s top brands

When ZenPop Japan approached me to review their subscription box service, I knew I wanted to check out their box dedicated to ramen. I am all about the ramen life.

Pricing

The plan starts at $27 USD with free international shipping. It’s pretty good that shipping is included as other subscription box services charge for that extra. With 7 ramen inside the pack, it is just under $4 USD per noodle.

It is more expensive than what you would find in a grocery store, but depending on where you live, Japanese ramen noodles may be hard to find. Plus, it’s exciting to try something new that you wouldn’t normally pick up.

Ramen Pack

The box I got was for October 2019 and the theme was Southern Japan. There were 3 varieties of Tonkotsu, which is from Fukuoka. Then 2 bows of Chanpon, a regional dish of Nagasaki, and then one from Osaka.

CupStar Tonkotsu Ramen

From the packaging, I wasn’t expecting much but this was one of my favourites. It has onion, garlic and ginger with the rich pork bone broth. It has a depth of flavour which I really enjoyed. There is also diced pork bits, roasted sesame seeds, scallions, and wood ear mushroom for added flavour and texture. I would definitely get this again if I saw it in a store.

Maru-uma Tonkotsu Ramen

This was surprisingly good. You get the aroma of the pork bone and veggie extracts when it’s cooking. The toppings – wood ear mushroom, sesame seeds, scallions, and red pickled ginger was very enjoyable.

Hyoubanya Koku Tonkotsu

The broth is light flavoured compared to the other ones in this package. It is topped with chashu bits and scallions. You can even make a boiled egg and add it into the bowl.

It was a decent ramen, but not my favourites as I personally prefer richer broths.

Men Dining Chanpon

This is a Chinese inspired noodle dish from Nagasaki prefecture in Kyushu. The noodles are smooth and in the rich soup with white and black pepper. There are also bits of cabbage, kamaboko, and wood ear mushroom. It was decent, but hard for an instant noodle to recreate the felling of this dish.

Seimen Yasai Chanpon

The noodles have a different texture that is soft and chewy. Just make sure not to overcook this instant noodle. The broth has pork, chicken and seafood so it’s unique. You’ll also find toppings like cabbage, onions, scallions, snap peas, carrots, squid, kamaboko, and wood ear mushrooms. To enhance the taste, they suggest adding a few drops of spicy sesame oil if you have any.

Sugo Negi Miso Ramen

This is the most popular ramen from the Sugomen collections. They have a special process of making the noodles and it’s not fried like other ramen noodles on the market. The noodles has a nice texture but the broth wasn’t my favourite as I generally tend to not love miso based ramen broths. Just a personal preference as I find it too salty.

Okonomiyaki Sauce Yakisoba

This was fun to try out as it was different than all the ramen in the pack. Very fancy packaging and way to prepare this. It’s a dry noodle, so you need to pour out the water after the noodles cook. Then all the sauce and toppings go into it.

It definitely had the aroma of okonomiyaki with the ginger and cabbage pieces.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it was an adventure going through all the noodles. 7 ramen was perfect for the month. The subscription boxes aren’t for everyone, but its great for those who are instant noodle fanatics who don’t have a good amount of selection in their local grocery store.

Where I live, I have tons of ramen options, but they don’t carry all the instant ramen from Japan. ZenPop was a great way to discover some new styles and brands. Instructions were easy to follow and made for a quick meal.

Now, I’m ready for my Japan trip, which is just a few days away.

Website:
https://zenpop.jp/

In Delivery

Blended For You: New Parents Sanity Pack Review

October 25, 2019

Blended For You delivers blended, frozen, and ready-to-use smoothies across the Lower Mainland. As a mom, there are days where I barely have time to eat since all the attention is on Baby E. The freezer is my best friend because I can easily heat something up or whip something up.

When my friend connected me with Blended For You, they told me they had a ‘New Parents Sanity Pack’ of smoothies. I was intrigued.

Delivery

As they are based in Vancouver, they currently only to the Lower Mainland.

Vancouver- North Vancouver- West Vancouver- Lions Bay- Squamish- Whistler- Burnaby- Richmond- Surrey- White Rock- Delta- Maple Ridge- Coquitlam- Port Coquitlam- Port Moody

It arrives at the door and if you don’t want them to knock or ring the door bell, you can put in that request too. It was great for us because baby was sleeping when the delivery arrived.

New Parents Sanity Pack

The pack of smoothies comes with 8 different smoothies which give parents some nutrients back in their diet. When baby cries, you’ll do what you can to calm them down. I had days where I didn’t have time to cook, so the thought of turning on the stove was very difficult. I was really excited to give this sanity pack a try just to eat something that wasn’t take out. Especially when baby is sick and you’re sick, anything easy is helpful.

The 8 smoothies in the New Parents Sanity Pack were:

Maca Energy
Maca Java
Green Beginnings
Be Green
Inside & Out Acai
The Athlete
Nutty Banana
Greens Daily Dose

Ways to enjoy it

They suggest 3 different ways to enjoy Blended For You smoothies.

Blending it
Shaking it
Spooning it

Of course with having a baby, you know, turning on the blender is a no-go. Shaking up the thawed packet and mixing it with your liquid of choice was pretty good. If you have a shaker up, you can use that. But, if you don’t, any container with a lid works too.

The Green, Green Beginnings, Inside & Out Acai, and Green Daily Dose were my favourite mixed with a bit of Oat Milk.

My favourite method was actually spooning it right out of the pouch. It was extremely delicious if the ingredients contained banana and or almond. butter. Nutty Banana, Maca Energy, Maca Java, and The Athlete.

Giving Back

I also love how they give back to the community. They have a fundraising initiative for November and December where 15% of all gift pack purchases got to BC Women’s Foundation.

Final Thoughts

I’ve tried a lot of smoothie delivery companies but I do really enjoy Blended For You as there are many ways to enjoy the smoothies and they have combo packs suited for different occasions like getting well, good food gratitude, celebrations, student care, and new parents.

Website:
https://blendedforyousmoothies.com

In British Columbia

Gomae Meal Prep: Vegetarian Meals Delivered to your Door in Metro Vancouver

March 4, 2019

When I was pregnant and developed gestational diabetes, choosing smart meals was very difficult as everything has carbohydrates in an amount greater than what I should be consuming in one meal. When Gomae Meal Prep approached me to try out their service, I had to give it a try. They are a plant-based, zero waste, locally made, healthy and convenient meal option. Great to have another meal delivery service for customers to choose from.

Their mission is to make healthy food more sustainable and accessible. If you order take out or use other companies to deliver meals to you, there is a lot of waste in terms of paper and plastic which all can’t be recycled depending on the grade of material.

Use promo code ‘Foodology’ to get 2 free meals on your first order.

Gomae Meal Prep uses food containers and can be reused over and over again without any waste. They ensure the containers are clean and sanitized before the next customer uses it. Even the sauce containers inside are compostable.

Delivery

They schedule the deliveries on Monday so you can get your meals for the week. I got mine delivered at home, but alternatively, an office would work too. If you need to be available for the delivery, they will give you a 30 minute window, but if not, there is a cooler pack inside to keep the meals fresh and chilled.

The Meals

The meals do rotate, so you won’t be stuck with the same set of meals each week. We went with these 4 items for the week :

Macro Bowl
Almost Poke bowl
Shnitzelonim Salad
Black Bean Bowl

All the meal were pretty good and make for perfect portions for lunch or if you skip one, it can become dinner too. I like how on the website it states how many days it can stay fresh for so you can choose which meal you eat on which day.

My personal favourite were the Almost Poke Bowl as it has a delicious sauce and all the right texture to trick yourself into thinking it is poke when it’s not. I was very surprised and highly enjoyed it.

My second favourite was the Macro Bowl since the sauce was delicious and the vegetables used in the dish had the right combination of textures.

What do you do with the containers after?

After you’re done all the meals for the week, make sure you wash all the containers and they will schedule a time for pick up of the cooler bag, ice pack and the containers so nothing goes to waste.

I rinsed my containers and then threw them into the dishwasher but you can do a quick wash in the sink too.

Where do they deliver?

Surprisingly, their delivery route is quite large and can deliver to most parts of Metro Vancouver – Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Moody, Delta, Ladner, Surrey, and Langley. If your area isn’t on the list, let them know and sometimes they can make it happen.

Website: https://gomaemealprep.com/

In British Columbia

truLOCAL: Sustainable Meat Delivered to Your Door

January 2, 2019

truLOCAL is a monthly meat delivery service in Ontario, Alberta and British Columbia. Buying the best local products from farmers and butchers doesn’t have to be hard, but it can be if you don’t know which places to go to or trust, you’ll just default to your usual grocery store.

I love supporting local farmers and butchers, but sometimes it’s a bit out of the way to go straight to the source. As I am from BC, they source their products from places like Organic Ocean Seafood, Farmcrest Farms, Two Rivers, Hopcott Farms, Georels Bone Broth, among many others. I was able to enjoy a few of my favourite local producers and discovered a few new ones. All the suppliers are very transparent about their processes and how they raise their animals and it’s now more important than ever.

Delivery

The box is delivered straight to your door in refrigerated coolers so the items inside stay frozen until you get home. Inside each box is a brick of dry ice, so it is very very cold. It stays very cold up into the late evenings, so if you don’t come home around 5pm, you have nothing to worry about. Everything inside will stay very frozen.

They can deliver to houses, apartments, the office or even the gym. Just provide detailed instructions so they know what to do when they arrive.

What’s in the box?

Inside the box is all the meats that you ordered for the month as well as the dry ice, so be careful handling it as it is very cold. You can choose a small box or regular box for the month.

Each portion of meat is individually packaged so you can easily throw this into your freezer and defrost each item as you need.

Pricing

The small box comes with up to 18 individual portions for $125 with free delivery. This is best for one individual. The regular box with 40 individual portions for $249 with free delivery as well and is intended for 2+ people.

You can pause, skip or cancel at any time if you need a break if you’re on vacation or whatever else comes up. It’s very flexible, so you just need to make changes to your account to make sure its reflected.

Quality

We got a selection of seafood, sausage, pork, beef, and poultry in our box and used it all up over a span of month. We mostly had the meats for dinner. The quality was pretty good and everything we had contained a lot of flavour even though most of the time we just used salt and pepper to season.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we were really impressed with truLOCAL and the prices are fair for the convenience a well as the ability to support local farmers and producers. Their subscription service is very flexible and easy to pause and start again whenever you need to.

It was very convenient to whip out a meal knowing I always have some meat in the freezer to use later in the evening.

Website:
https://trulocal.ca/

In British Columbia

Empanada Papa: Fresh Empanadas Delivered in Vancouver

December 17, 2018

Empanada Papa serves up hand made empanadas with unique flavours using fresh, high-quality ingredients. Ian, the man behind Empanada Papa delivered a bunch of savoury empanadas to the office with their sauces to give us a taste of these Spanish treats.

You can find them crafting up empanadas at Commissary Connect, which is a shared commercial kitchen between some of Vancouver’s most talented and delicious small businesses.

Empanadas

The size of the empanadas are good and it’s not too small. I found for myself, eating 2 was enough for lunch. If you’re a large eater, then maybe 3. They also sell salads too if you want to balance out your meal.

As all the empanadas look the same from the outside, they stamp one of it with a number and it corresponds to the flavour inside.

They offer a few different savoury varieties:

1. Papa’s Empanada: Maple pulled pork, onions and roasted red bell peppers.

2. Smith Empanada: Shredded beef, carrots, corn and celery with aromatic seasoning.

3. Tarone Empanada: Shredded beef, orange, onions, peas and rice are seasoned with tropical herbs and a spicy kick.

4. Celine Empanada: Sweet honey-maple-cinnamon ham and Jarlsberg cheese.

5. Abuelos Empanada: Authentic Mexican with shredded chicken, mole sauce and grilled corn and zucchini.

7. Chula Empanada: Shredded chicken, with a full bodied flavour of coconut, curry and peanuts with roasted onions.

8. Hank Empanada: Vegan friendly. Peas, beans, and broccoli with sensational seasoning.

All of them were actually really tasty. The exterior was crisp, the dough was thin, so there was a good amount of filling inside.

Of the flavours, our top favourites were Papas, Smith, Chula and Hank. This was mostly because of the combination of flavours and spices.

Sauces

They have two sauces that go with the empanadas – Spicy Tomato and Sweet Mango. The sauces compliment the empanadas very well with it’s depth of flavours. Smoky Tomato was our favourite as it reminded me of a very flavourful marinara that isn’t too sweet. The mango was also good as it add a complimentary tang to the empanadas.

Where to get Empanada Papa

There are a few ways to get a hold of Empanada Papa.

You can get them catered if you have a large order and you can directly contact them with more information about your event or party.

You can get it delivered to you as they work with delivery companies like Foodee, Uber Eats, and Door Dash.

You can order for pick up for their freshly baked or frozen empanadas.

The last option is visiting select supermarkets for them like Spud.ca and Meinhardt.

Final Thoughts

Overall, we really enjoyed the empanadas and it’s not like everyday we have them either. It’s pretty hard to find really good ones around town. It’s great there is another option in Vancouver to get empanadas. If you are craving some empanadas, definitely give them a try.

Website:
https://www.empanadapapa.ca/

In British Columbia

Hanai Family Table: Spam Musubi and Fried Okinawa Sweet Potato Mochi Delivered in Vancouver

September 7, 2018

Hanai Family Table serves up delicious Hawaiian treats – Spam Musubi and Fried Okinawa Sweet Potato Mochi delivered to your doorstep. This was started by Tess and Tom, who were born and raised in Hawaii on the island of O’ahu. With a culinary background, they decided to create Hanai Family Table to share these Hawaiian treats in Vancouver that will put a simile on your face. They can deliver outside of Vancouver, but send them a message to double check if it’s possible.

I saw them on Instagram and decided to put in an order of each item. I ordered 48 hours in advance, filled out the form and paid online. I then got a confirmation email and email to find the best time for delivery. Tess texted me the day of to let me know she was on her way with the delivery and when she arrived so I could meet her. Pretty easy process.

Spam Musubi

The spam musubi comes in a pack of 4 and are cut in half so you get 8 pieces. A classic Hawaii snack that is so damn addictive when done right. The spam has a shoyu ginger glaze, sushi-style rice with furikake, wrapped in nori. This is their twist to spam musubi and it works.

You want to eat these fresh and pop them in the microwave for 10 – 15 seconds. It’s delicious when its a little warm.

Fried Okinawa Sweet Potato Mochi

These were my absolutely favourite item. This is their version of fried poi mochi in Hawaii. It has a super crunchy exterior and chewy mochi interior with Okinawa Sweet Potato. It’s vegan and gluten-free, which is awesome.

When I took my first bite, I could hear the crunch of the outside and saw the beautiful purple colour of the Okinawa Sweet Potato.

You want to eat these fresh to retain their texture and deliciousness.

Final Thoughts

They do the Spam Musubi and Fried Okinawa Sweet Potato Mochi very well and I’m actually glad they kept their options small so they can focus on quality. They put their own spin on their product and it’s awesome. The price is a bit higher than what you would normally find in a store, but it’s delivered, the quality of ingredients is good, tastes amazing and you’re supporting a local small business in Vancouver.

Website:
https://www.hanaifamilytable.com/

In British Columbia

5 things about Uber Eats in Vancouver

December 22, 2017

Uber Eats has launched in Vancouver! They held their launch party at Juke Fried Chicken. It was a night of comfort food, flowing cocktails and chatting with foodies and Uber reps.

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Here’s 5 things I learned that night about Uber Eats in Vancouver:

They have 150 restaurants listed already. Juke was one of the first restaurants they got onboard which is why their party was hosted there.
They already have 200 drivers. Not surprising given how flexible the gig is and how many of us are trying to figure out side hustles given our cost of living.
The delivery zone includes Downtown Vancouver, Kits, Arbutus Ridge, Mt. Pleasant and parts of East Van that are west of Nanaimo. More succinctly, the delivery zone is everything in Vancouver proper that is north of 33^rd between Blenheim on the west to Nanaimo in the east. Except Stanley Park. Sorry Third Beach.
You can be a bike courier for them! Exercise and get paid, hey that’s not bad.
Their Vancouver office is a solid team of three. So far. While it seemed the party had about as many bloggers and media as there were Uber staff, only three are based in Vancouver.

Vancouver already has a bunch of food delivery services, what makes Uber Eats different?

After trying it with Diana for lunch the next day, I realize it’s the app that makes a difference. Just like Uber’s car service, you can see exactly where you food is on a map and how far away it is.

For people ordering from work, that means no wasted time going downstairs to wait for your food. Or worse, when your delivery comes but you aren’t there to pick it up.

Cool, now when are we getting the regular Uber?

P.S. Juke has amazing cocktails. Try the Street Life for something fun and light – Gin, thai basil cucumber, citrus, bubbly or NY State of Mind for something sophisticated and boozy – beet bourbon, sweet Vermouth B&B, bitters.

In Contest

Trying out Skip the Dishes + Contest

November 25, 2017

Now that the weather has dropped, it feels like the cold has sapped me of all motivation, to leave the house, to scavenge for food, etc. Luckily for me, Skip the Dishes reached out to us last week. They must have intercepted the cry for help that I sent out to the universe when it was -10 in Toronto as they they kindly offered me the chance to try their meal delivery service.

Contest open to Canadian residents. Contest ends Wednesday November 29, 2017 11:59pm EST.

Comment below with which restaurant on Skip the Dishes would you order from.
For additional entries, check out the widget below for more ways to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Skip the Dishes

Skip the Dishes offers meal delivery services across North America, including Toronto and Vancouver. You can access their services either through their website or the app. Personally, I like the option of using the website version (because who needs another app on their phone). I simply entered my address and a long list of the nearest restaurants comes up.

I liked that the service offered a diverse mix of cuisines (Italian, Indian, Chinese, etc.), local restaurants and chains, plus a several options for “hangover food” (Smoke’s Poutine, Burger’s Priest or Fat Bastard Burrito) . You can choose delivery (which may be free above a certain amount, or have a flat rate) or pick up. Then you choose your preferred time, so if you’re super organized, you can order at work and have it delivered as soon as you step through your door. The website and app tracks your order status and let’s you know where your driver is with your food. I chose the delivery time of “ASAP” and the food was delivered to my friends and I within the estimated delivery time (45 minutes on a Friday night in downtown Toronto – not bad).

Levetto

Since it was a frigid Friday night we decided to embrace our carb up. We ordered from Levetto, a fast casual chain Italian restaurant that makes their own homemade pasta and fresh pizzas. Right off the bat, we noticed that the portions were massive, more than enough for the three of us (even considering that my friends and I are all prone to overeating on the regular).

Romano Pizza

We kicked off the decadent carb-fest with a Romano Pizza. We had the Patate and it was delicious with thin slices of Yukon Gold with rosemary, green onion, grana padano, ricotta and lots of white truffle oil. We really liked their crisp, olive oil glazed, foccacia-like crust.

Carbonara

Next came our pastas…The Carbonara was piled high with smoky bacon, grana padano and scallions. The creamy sauce was a bit stiff and dried out given that carbonara is served best straight off the stove. But the many chunks of thick bacon made up for it. And the fact that the Carbonara could have fed three people alone.

Cavatelli Pasta

The Cavatelli Pasta was with a pea pesto, roasted red peppers, baby spinach and topped with ricotta and a drizzle of truffle oil. Mmm, in my mind, pesto + ricotta + truffle oil is the ultimate pasta trifecta.

Trecce Pasta

Finally, we had the Trecce Pasta which was a sundried tomato lover’s dream. It was also infused with garlic olive oil and topped with arugula and tons of goat cheese.

Final Thoughts

Overall, it’s definitely a convenient service for those meals where you can’t be bothered to face the cold, the lines and the wait. Skip the Dishes is offered all across the major Canadian cities, so if you would like to stay in and try the service yourself, Skip the Dishes has offered readers $7 off their first order of $25+ with this referral link.

In Delivery

Les Cocottes: Genuinely French Delivery in Vancouver

February 19, 2017

Les Cocottes is a new Canadian subscription box for delicious French treats right at your door step. This is based in Vancouver, BC and founded by two French ex-pats -Margaux and Lorena. They carefully curate each box with 5-7 of the best French products the duo can find that fits the theme of that particular box.

Whether you have a sweet tooth or you crave savoury treats, their boxes are curated to please everyone. I received a box a few months ago to give it a try.

Inside the Box

Inside are 7 handpicked items to share with friends and family. This particular box had:

Foie Gras from Edouard Artzner
gingerbread crisps from Edouard Artzner
2 chutneys from Ducs de Gascogne (onion and fig)
Fleur de Sel from Le Paludier
Prince Vladimir tea from Kusmi Tea
Chocolate truffles from Truffettes de France

It comes with 4 recipes to recreate a French Christmas dinner as it was their December box, but you can also create your own super fancy charcuterie board with these items. A French Christmas is just an opportunity to gather around the table with loved ones. Everything in the box is a product from France.

All of these items were very delicious and made me sad when I finished it off since I didn’t know when is the next time I would be able to repurchase the items I love.

We started off by boiling some tea and when that was ready, we put a charcuterie board together with the chutney, foise gras, crisps, and the salt. Then to end it all, we devoured the cocoa truffles.

Final Thoughts

Check out their next box as it will bring you back to life in France. Also, don’t forget to grab your favourite items to pair with the items inside the box. Most importantly, wine.

Website: http://www.lescocottesbox.co/

In Delivery

foodora: Food Delivery in Vancouver

December 11, 2016

foodora is a new food delivery company in Vancouver. They expanded into Canada and so far only service Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. They have some pretty good restaurants on their list that isn’t the usual Chinese, Pizza, or Indian food. The restaurant chosen have heathy options. The company plans to expand to offer 100+ restaurants by January 2017.
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It was a stormy day outside, so we decided to order some lunch back to the office instead of going outside. You can order it the day of and it takes 30 minutes to deliver or you can pre-order your meal a day ahead of time.

foodora deliveries are available between 10 a.m. to 10 p.m, but also depends on the restaurants too. The delivery zone so far covers only Downtown Vancouver, but they are looking to expand.

From the list of restaurants, I went with Poke Shop located in Gastown. I inputted my order, paid, and then I can watch every step of my meal’s journey. There was a $3.50 delivery fee for orders $30 or more and $4.50 per order under $30.

They use bikes to deliver the meals, which is nice and environmentally friendly.

For our lunch, we ordered 2 poke bowls and 2 drinks from the Poke Shop. I placed my order a day before to be delivered at 11:45am, but it did arrive a bit early at 11:30am.

The meal arrived quickly, so all items were still nice and cold. The only thing we noticed was there was little bit of spillage with one of our drinks. It was really minor.

With the many delivery companies out there in Vancouver, what stands out the most for foodora is their selection of restaurants in the Downtown area.

Check it out if you want to see what food options are available to your doorstep.

Website: https://www.foodora.ca/

In British Columbia

Chef’s Plate: Food Delivery‎ Review

September 30, 2016

Chef’s Plate has been a popular food delivery service in Toronto, but has now expanded their services across Western Canada. You go on the website and select which meals you want to order for the following week.

They deliver portioned ingredients and detailed recipe cards for nutritious meals.

Delivery

They offer convenient delivery, so if you are away at work during the day, the box will be waiting at the doorstep. All you have to do is choose the day that you want the box to arrive. This works great for people with homes, but if you live in an apartment building or complex without a concierge, you don’t want this sitting freely in the lobby where anyone can snatch it.

Inside the Box

When I opened the box, there was a welcome letter and the 2 recipes that I chose for the week.

You open up the top and you can see the 2 bags of meals I ordered. Each bag has 1 recipe.

Under that is the protein sitting near the ice packs. By the time I got home around 6pm, the meat will still decently cold, but not as cold as I would have liked it. Since the beef was vacuumed sealed, I didn’t think it would spoil.

Recipes

The difficulty of the recipes definitely vary, but didn’t seem too hard. Even though I choose the Steak Provencal, which has a hard difficulty. Following the recipes were ok, but some of the steps were inconsistent or confusing.

Steak Provençal

Looking at the ingredients that came out of the bag, the tomatoes were squashed and the yellow squash was a tad bruised. I guess all the tossing on the airplane ride took its toll on these veggies. When looking closely at the package of beef, it kept saying local, but it’s local to Ontario rather than BC.

They do claim “Locally sourced specialty ingredients that are fresher than the supermarket”, but I didn’t get the sense when the ingredients arrived. Talking to a few friends in BC that received this too…their produce wasn’t fresh.

Even thought the produce wasn’t 100%, I still went ahead and cooked it anyways. I think I did a pretty good job. I really liked the smashed potatoes. A pretty good idea and I’ll most likely copy it for future dinners.

Poricini Mushroom

The produce for this was definitely better than the Steak Provençal. With this recipe, I found that it required to many pans, and also too many steps. I would have been able to create something similar using just one pot.

I found the sauce to be a little bit sparse, but thats just me.

Overall

I am pretty torn about this type of service. It’s convenient to have a pre portioned recipes arrive at the door and not worry about being at home to receive the package. But, on the other side, the recipes aren’t too overly complicated. If it’s your first few times cooking, this might be for you.

What annoyed me the most was how the produce wasn’t too fresh due to the plane journey. Also, their claim of locally sourced products, but you don’t know where they are actually from. If you’re on the West Coast, their local is different from our local.

The price is decent and I can see it being helpful for those who don’t have time to shop for groceries or meal plan.

Website: https://www.chefsplate.com/

In Delivery

Crumb Sandwich Shop: Lunch near Main Street

August 16, 2016

Crumb Sandwich Shop is a small shop serving sandwiches, focaccia, soups, and salads during lunch or for large corporate orders.

You can order through Food.ee in Vancouver or straight from their website. Best to make the order ahead of time if you can.

I was invited by Crumb Sandwich Shop to give a few of their sandwiches a try.

They don’t have a branded storefront, so they are in a commissary kitchen near Beta 5 Chocolates. There’s a row of stores, so head down to the very last one to find Crumb Sandwich Shop. If you see Commissary Connect, you’re in the right place.

Curried Pork & Grape has roasted pork loin, black currant, pea tendrils, caramelized grape, fennel, curry aioli on the organic multigrain. What made this sandwich unique is that curry aioli, it was very nice and added a lot of flavour to the sandwich.

Fried Chicken has buttermilk fried chicken, pea sprouts, radicchio, apple, cilantro, lime, chili, and honey. Nice crunchy chicken with a good amount of breading.

Prosciutto & Pear has caramelized pear, prosciutto, onion jam, arugula, triple cream blue brie with a fig and walnut bread. Reminds me of another restaurant that has a similar sandwich. This is still a good sandwich, but the onion jam threw me off a little bit.

Chicken & Bacon has roasted chicken, avocado, double smoked bacon, butter lettuce, cherry tomatoes, onion jam, five spice aioli on the milk & honey bun. It was like a super good BLT, but with chicken and all the good stuff.

We also tried the Beef Brisket sandwich, but the Szechuan braised brisket tasted so strong of the Szechuan peppercorns, I really didn’t like it.

Overall, it’s a nice option for lunch in the Main/Terminal area as there really isn’t too many lunch options around. Majority of the sandwiches are good, but prices are a tad high. Sandwiches are around $12, but there isn’t any seating here.

We rate Crumb Sandwich Shop:

Address:
401 Industrial Ave, Vancouver BC

Website: http://www.crumbvancouver.com/

In Bakery

The Cycling Croissant: Breakfast Delivery Service in Vancouver

August 8, 2016

Grab pastries for an early morning meeting is pretty tough if you love your sleep. For those busy bees, The Cycling Croissant is here to help us get pastries delivered right to our door.

The Cycling Croissant showed up at my office before one of my meetings so I could share it with my coworkers. I love a nice sweet treat to begin the day with a cup of coffee or tea.

In the box were croissants, chocolate croissants, almond croissants, mini palmiers, and a raisin danish. They also have apple turnovers, but I didn’t try it.

By the time that it arrives, it isn’t very hot or crispy. So, you will need to pop it into a toaster oven if you have one. Sadly I don’t have a toaster oven in the office, so we ate it as is.

The croissants had a good amount of buttery taste and richness. Of all of them, I liked the almond croissant and the mini palmiers.

For delivered pastries, it wasn’t bad. If I really wanted a superb croissant, I’ll definitely go out of the way to acquire it.

You can make any combination in your order as long as it has a minimum order of $15. It arrives between 7am – 12pm, delivery is free and they will send you a text message before they arrive.

They only delivery to Downtown Vancouver and some parts of Vancouver, so it’s not available to those living outside of those areas.

If you’re ever stuck in a bind and need pastries delivered to yourself or a friend, The Cycling Croissant is for you.

Website:
https://www.thecyclingcroissant.com/

In British Columbia

EnRoot Meals: Quick Delivery Meals in Vancouver

January 18, 2016

Enroot is a local Vancouver company providing meals on demand in a few minutes. Their lunch and dinner menus are prepared locally and are delivered within minutes. No prep, clean up or hassle on your part. Instead of ordering pizza or Chinese food, this is definitely a great alternative. The meals that they offer have great variety for their lunch and dinner meals. Enroot’s curated menu and made-from-scratch meals use only fresh ingredients available in season, including local and organic whenever possible. Each enroot meal is priced between $7 and $12 (+tax), which is a good price range.

When they approached me to try out their service, I was a bit skeptical as no delivery service ever has been able to get me food in under 30 minutes. I got them to deliver a few meals to my office so my coworkers could experience the service too.

Ordering

Simply go onto enroot’s website and with a few simple clicks you select your meal, pay with a credit card and your meal will arrive within minutes. You can do this on your phone, tablet or desktop computer.

Sadly, you can’t look at the menu a few days in advance unless you are putting in a large order for a group. Their menu changes daily and the next day’s menu will be posted on their website the evening prior. Their chefs are always sourcing the best ingredients and perfecting their menus every day.

Their lunch order begins at 11am, but sometimes the time can slip a bit and menus can change last minute.

Notifications

Once your order is in, you will get an email with the confirmation about your order. When they are 4 minutes away, the driver will text you to meet them at the curb. You better put on your pants before meeting them or else it might get awkward. They will text you again when they arrive. I was a bit slow, so they texted me twice.

If you don’t get an email or a text, your order probably didn’t go through properly. This has happened to a few of my coworkers.

Delivery

Look out for the enroot vehicle. Just walk up to the vehicle and tell them your name.

The Food

Tandoori Chicken sits on top of ginger lemongrass jasmine rice pilaf, broccollini, and pieces of bread.

Pulled Pork Mac and Cheese was everyone’s favourite. The pulled pork was tender and the meal was a good size to get you full for lunch or dinner.

Turkey Bacon Avocado Sandwich is all wrapped up ready for you to enjoy. Looking at the picture on the website everyone who ordered this wasn’t sure if it would be enough for lunch.

Upon opening it up, it was a great size for lunch. Lots of turkey inside for sure. Its a lot better than any sandwich I can make for lunch. Avocados were perfectly ripe.

Glazed chicken noodle salad is loaded with fresh vegetables. One of the more healthier options of the day.

They do have sides, drinks and dessert for their orders. It’s a nice way to supplement the meal if you are a large eater.

They also sell SIP Soda in 4 flavours – Lavender Lemon Peel, Corriander Orange, Rosemary Lime, and Berry Cardamom. Instead of selling soda, they serve this healthy alternative that is made of cane sugar and only 25 calories per bottle.

Fresh couscous salad was a side dish on the day we ordered.

Dark Chocolate Mousse was the dessert that day. I love chocolate mousse, so it was the perfect way to end lunch.

At the end of the meal, you can compost all your containers that came with the meal. Enroot is committed to environmentally friendly practices and is proud to use premium 100% compostable packaging and cutlery.

Some of their packaging look like plastic, but they are actually made out of corn fiber. They encourage you to help keep food waste out of the landfill by placing your food scraps, packaging and cutlery in your compost or food scraps recycling bin.

Delivery Zone

Enroot’s delivery zone varies from lunch to dinner. They have launched their service to Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant, Fairview, Cedar Cottage, Gastown and Strathcona neighbourhoods, near where their commissary kitchen is located. They have big plans to grow this year and expand across the rest of the city.

Overall

Overall, I am pretty excited about what enroot is doing to change the on-demand food delivery model. On busy day at work, its great that they are an option for healthy food at reasonable prices. As Vancouver is notorious for rainstorms, it’s great that they can deliver in minutes so you don’t have to venture outside to find a quick lunch for take out.

The food quality is good for what it is. It’s obviously not the same as a sit down restaurant where it comes piping hot, but it is decent.

I would use their service again.

Website: https://enrootmeals.com/

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited enroot to try their service and my meal was comped. All thoughts are my own.

In Delivery

Le Tigre: Delivered by Foodee

September 9, 2015

Since Vancouver rains for most of the year, it does get a bit depressing to go out and hunt for food. I love Le Tigre but sometimes their truck is too far away from the office, so when we saw that Foodee delivers for them, we definitely had to do an office order. The minimum order is $40 with a $15 delivery fee. It’s not too bad if you can get a lot of your coworkers to order it with you.

Le Tigre serves up culinary inspired Asian street food and they deliver their most popular items like Kickass Rice and Crack Salad.

“Crack” Salad ($8.15) has brussel sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, cabbage, capers, cracked chilies, lemon juice and parmesan cheese. It is vegetarian and gluten-free.

It’s such a sinful salad! I love the balance of savoury, sour, salty and spicy.

Angry Kitty Squares ($5.80) has crispy fried rice, kimchi, chilies, basil, spicy mayo and nori. It comes with 4 pieces and its also pretty darn delicious. The texture of the crispy fried rice is amazing.

Another item you should definitely order is their Kick Ass Rice With Pork Belly ($11.55). I forgot to take a picture, but it’s a larger dish. It’s cooked in sake, butter, dashi and topped with a perfect poached egg, fresh herbs and thai chilies. Most of their dishes seem to have chilies, but when I tried my coworkers dish, those Thai chilies are painful.

We rate Le Tigre:

Website:
https://www.food.ee/restaurants/vancouver/le-tigre

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 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 Delivery

India Gate: Delivered to the Office by Just-Eat.ca

May 6, 2014

Sometimes my coworkers and I never leave the office. We eat at our desks and its a horrible habit, but the truth is, it gets busy.

Just-Eat.ca is a Vancouver food delivery service , where you can order online with their website or their mobile app. They invited me to try their service and save me a $50 voucher to use. I totally didn’t mind since I’ve used their service a bunch of times before.

I did a quick search of which restaurants would deliver during lunch time close to the office and there were a good handful of options for Downtown Vancouver. The most common places were Indian, Chinese, Sushi, Pizza, and Thai.

Once you have your order in and pay, the usual wait time is anywhere from 45 minutes to 1 hour. We went with Indian Gate as it was one of the few places open at 11:30am that would deliver.

The expected delivery time was 12:35pm, but somehow it arrived right at noon! The delivery guy was really nice and friendly too.

The food arrived and it was time to dig in with my coworkers in the boardroom.

We ordered:

Vegetable Pakora
Vegetable Samosa
Naan
Sheekh Kabob
Palak Paneer
Butter Chicken

All of this plus $6 delivery fee, tips and tax came out to be $56.70. This fed 5 of us for lunch.

Butter Chicken ($15) has the option of choosing the level of spiciness, so we chose medium to add a little bit of a kick into the meal. It contains boneless chicken marinated and cooked with fresh tomatoes and cream. It also comes with rice and papadum.

Palak Paneer ($15) is a vegetarian dish and it’s basically spinach and indian cheese. It also comes with rice and papadum.

Papadum is a thin, crispy, and delicious seasoned dough. I couldn’t stop eating this for some reason. It was addictive.

Rice is pretty standard and has some peas. As it comes with the saucy dishes, you don’t need to order any additional rice.

Naan ($2) we ordered to go with the dishes. It was ok and nothing unique.

Sheekh Kabob ($6.50) were ok, but we didn’t expect the dish to look like this. I imagined skewers or something.

Vegetable Pakora ($5) is always my favourite. It’s pretty decent.

Vegetable Samosa ($4.50) was unimpressive. Tasted ok.

Overall, the food was pretty average. It was decent for a delivered lunch. Delivery was a nice option to go get Indian food while still staying in the office.

We Rate Indian Gate:

Address:
616 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.indiagatefood.com/