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Damso Modern Korean Cuisine: Yuzu Snowman Sorbet

March 24, 2012

Damso Modern Korean Cuisine is located on Denman street and they serve up some delicious Korean dishes with a modern twist.

Jay of Coma Food Truck invited a few of his loyal customers that supported his food truck to Damso to say thank you. It’s sad to see Coma Food Truck go, but I see a great future for Jay and in his future ventures.

You start off with a trio of little items – spinach, bean sprouts and radish kimchi.

Seafood Waffle ($8.25) has prawns, scallop, squid, bacon, and scallion. This was so good! Imagine the traditional Korean Seafood pancake, but in pancake form. It was really good and probably the best I’ve had so far. Yum! It’s a must order!

Ddok-Kalbee ($6.85) are beef meatballs with king oyster mushroom, scallion salad and jalapeno pickles. The meatballs were really delicious with great flavour and a slightly sweet sauce. I could definitely eat these all day.

Chicken Gizzard contains stir-fried chicken gizzard, roasted garlic, scallion salad, with mustard vinaigrette. Surprisingly the gizzards were not tough at all, but a bit chewy. It can be a strange thing to eat, but it tasted good.

Pork Skin ($6.75) has sautéed with chive, onion and spicy Korean chili sauce. It wasn’t too spicy, but I really didn’t like the texture of the pork skin. It was limp and tasted like fatty jelly. I much prefer my pork skin crispy.

Kalbee – Korean BBQ Short Ribs ($15.95) is their signature dish. It has grilled AAA beef ribs marinated in housemade Korean BBQ sauce. It comes with rice too. This is an amazing dish! The meat is so tender and just falls off the bone. Wongers just wanted to steal this sauce since it was so good. Highly recommended!

Chicken Kalbee Ddok-Bokki has sautéed chicken, rice cake, and sweet Gochujang sauce. It was a bit spicy, but not my favorite dish. It was still a bit traditional.

Meat Party Platter ($34.95) comes with 24 hr slow cooked pork & medium rare grilled marinated AAA beef steak. I wasn’t a fan of the slow cooked pork, but the medium rare beef was so delicious. Meat!

Yuzu Snowman Sorbet is super cute and tastes really good. It tasted like citrus. It was a great way to end the meal. We felt kinda bad eating this little guy.

Overall, I was quite impressed by the quality of the dishes. I never expected to see modern Korean cuisine done well until now.

Words of Wisdom:

Seafood Waffle, Korean BBQ Short Ribs and Yuzu Snowman Sorbet
Free parking on street after 6pm but super limited
Multigrain rice options

We Rate Damso Modern Korean Cuisine:

Address:
867 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
http://www.damso.ca/

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In Aboriginal

Tomahawk Restaurant: Established in North Van Since 1920s

March 23, 2012

The Tomahawk Restaurant has been around since the 1920’s. It’s been featured on ‘Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives’ and also ‘You Gotta Eat Here’, which are both shows on the Food Network.

With so much buzz going on about this place, Amy, Angela, Anita, Kathy and I decided to trek all the way to North Vancouver to check it out. It was an interesting drive to this place as I kept trolling Angela by not putting my hands on the wheel as we drove on the Highway. Was she ever freaked out. hahaha.

As you walk in, there is a mini gift shop where you can buy souvenirs and other sweet treats. The wait was quite long for a table for 5 people. I think it was about 35 – 40 minutes. Seeing that there were so many awards won by this restaurant, we knew that this place was something special.

Near the couches, you will be able to spot Guy Fieri’s trademark emblem when he visits restaurants.

There’s also a mini pond with rubber duckies.

The inside was actually quite small. From the videos from the show, it seemed so much large for some reason.

Their placemats are quite interesting too. Theres a whole map of Canada and a few things that are fun facts about each province.

Coffee is a must for me when you make me wake up before noon. Free refills too!

Tomahawk Style Beep Dip has slow-roasted organic Baron of Beef, shaved on toasted French baguette with a homemade au jus in a cup. Amy chose fries as her side. Check out The Food Queen to find out what she thought about it.

Chief Dominic Charlie Burger has Lettuce, organic ground beef patty, grilled Yukon-style bacon, aged cheddar cheese, tomato and Tomahawk special sauce. Angela chose fries as her side.

Check out Muchkie’s Munchies to find out what she thought about it.

Organic Roast Beef Dinner has slow-roasted Baron of Beef, hand-carved and served with a thick gravy, mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and thier world famous Yorkshire pudding.

The beef has a nice thick cut, but at time it was a bit bland and tough. It’s just a personal preference since I like my beef a bit rare. The gravy did make it taste so much better. The yorkshire pudding was also ok. I found this dish to be a bit expensive. Probably a bit too hyped up from the TV show.

Side of Fries thats a lot of fries for just a side order.

Side of Onion Rings

Overall, the Tomahawk Restaurant was ok. The prices are a bit steep for certain items and the food is so-so. I think it really depends on this dish that you order. It has a lot of rich history in this establishment .

Words of Wisdom:

Long waits during peak hours
Decent food
Around $10 – $18 dollars for lunch
Lots of free parking around

We Rate Tomahawk Restaurant:
Address:
1550 Philip Ave
North Vancouver District, BC

Website:
http://www.tomahawkrestaurant.com/

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In BBQ

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ: $7.95 Lunch Combo and Happy Hour

March 11, 2012

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ is a new Japanese restaurant that opened up Downtown. It’s located beside Relish Gastopub and below Guu Garden.

They have a lot of good lunch combos and even a Happy Hour special. They sell Japanese BBQ grill dishes, noodles, rice and other dishes. You can have a good lunch for under $10 after tax.

The interior is really quite nice and there’s lots of space. Perfect for games too since they have a projector.

Fried Chicken Karrage (Reg. $5.50 | Happy Hr. $3.50) this was really delicious! I’ve had a lot of chicken karrage in the past and this is my favorite Karrage at the moment. The chicken meat is very moist and the fried exterior is crispy and perfectly flavoured. There is also mayo and lemon if you need extra taste.

Spicy Tuna Volcano (Reg. $6.95 | Happy hr. $3.95) comes with 4 pieces. The rice is deep fried with tuna and a wasabi sauce on top.

The rice inside was actually moist looking normal rice. The tuna was tender and had a good texture. The thing that some of us didn’t like was the wasabi sauce. If you aren’t a wasabi person, ask for the sauce to be removed.

BiBimBap (Reg. $7.95 | Happy Hr. $5.95) was not very good. Unlike typical Korean BiBimBap, there wasn’t much oil in the stone bowl, so a lot of the items just burned. MeatLover really didn’t like this dish.

If you order some lunch combos, you will get an additional salad or miso soup.

The salad was good and refreshing with egg, cucumbers, greens, pepper, radish and a mild sauce.

The miso soup was quite standard. Nothing too special

Chicken Karaage Bowl Combo ($7.95) comes with miso soup and salad. The chicken karaage is similar to the appetizer but with seaweed, mayo and green onions over rice.

Kuppa ($7.95) comes with salad. Don’t get this confused with Koopa from Mario. It has a rich broth soup with rice, beef, egg, and some other items. I liked it because I have this weird fascination for soup and rice.

Overall, price-wise was good and affordable for lunch. The Happy Hour deals were a bit confusing since it says you need a minimum of $15 spent per person. For all of our appetizers, we expected to pay the regular price, but to our surprise the happy hour price was applied even though we did not spend $15 per person.

Words of Wisdom:

$9.99 pitchers of beer of Canucks game day
Some items are a hit and miss
Under $10 lunch specials
Happy Hour Lunch deals

We Rate Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ:

Address:

888 Nelson St
Vancouver, BC

Website:

http://www.gyu-kaku.com/

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In BBQ

Raging Bull Mesquite Grill Food Truck: Open for Breakfast and Lunch

January 3, 2012

A new food truck has popped up on Granville St & Dunsmuir St called Raging Bull Mesquite Grill.

They only use prime cut sirloin and organic chicken. Its smoked with mesquite wood. They are open quite early at 8am and sell breakfast!

Here is a look at their menu. They only have a few items available, but caters to vegetarians too. This is a first time I’ve seen a food cart offering breakfast.

Chicken Fajita Wrap ($7.50) has salsa, spanish rice, beans, corn, cheese, chipotle sauce rolled up in a soft tortilla shell.

The wrap was pretty large and had very unique flavours inside. I loved the grilled chicken, it had lots of mesquite flavour and it really was the star. Certain ingredients in the wrap were warm and then some other were really cold. The cold salsa annoyed me and made the wrap get colder faster.

Overall the wrap was alright with some good unique flavours!

Words of Wisdom:

Offers Breakfast
Under $10
Delicious mesquite smoked meats

We Rate Raging Bull Mesquite Grill:

Location:

Granville St & Dunsmuir St (Outside Shoppers Drug Mart)

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In BBQ

The Red Wagon: Amazing BBQ, But Why The Asian Plates?

December 30, 2011

The Red Wagon on Hastings is a neighbourhood joint that serves up delicious diner food. The interior is very retro, but their food packs some amazing flavour.

Flo and I were on Trinity Street checking out some Christmas lights and got quite hungry. I chose to take her here because it’s a bit of a dive, but it does have some pretty interesting food.

Recently, Guy Fieri of Diners Drive-ins and Dives came to film a segment on his show for the Food Network. According to the show, he ate the Pulled Pork Pancakes.

If you missed it, it should air again on Dec 31st at 4pm! I check out this blog (http://dinersdrive-insanddives.blogspot.com/search/label/British%20Columbia) to check when shows are airing.

Pulled Pork Sandwich ($10.25) is served on a portuguese bun served with coleslaw and fries…but Flo just substituted it with their soup of the day.

Soup of the Day

Flo really enjoyed the taste of the Pulled pork and it’s taste can even rival Reup BBQ’s pulled pork. Since she didn’t like coleslaw, she ordered it on the side and made me eat it. hehehe. The coleslow was good and lightly dressed.

Crispy Pork Belly Sandwich ($10.50) has pickled vegetables, jalapeno, cilantro, mayo on a baguette with a side of chips.

This sandwich was good, but it was SO OILY. The pork belly contains quite a bit of fat, so when you are eating this, it drips all over your hands and plate. To counteract this, the pickled vegetables and cilantro try to balance it out. I used about 7 napkins to soak up the excess fat. The jalapeno was quite strong too, but it made me grab a glass of water to quell the burning.

This isn’t a sandwich for everyone, the overall taste is good, but depends if you can handle the fattiness and sting of jalapenos.

The chips on the side were pretty good, but I was all oiled out when eating the pork belly sandwich. Tastes super good with vinegar!

Did you notice something in each of the photos? ASIAN PLATES!

Overall, good place for a brunch or a late night meal. I still think the best item is the Pulled Pork Burger. It’s not on the menu, but sometimes it’s a special item. You can also ask the chef to make it.

Words of Wisdom:

Good food
Anything pulled pork is amazing
A tad expensive depending on what you get
Free parking on adjacent streets

We Rate The Red Wagon:

Address:

2296 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.redwagoncafe.com

Twitter: @redwagoncafe

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/redwagoncafe

In BBQ

The Red Wagon: Pulled Pork and More Pulled Pork

July 18, 2011

M and I were craving some pulled pork, but going all the way downtown to ReUp was out of the question since we were in Burnaby. M looked around everywhere to find somewhere close by, but no luck for him. I started digging around and I looked at my “To Eat” list and discovered The Red Wagon doesn’t just sell breakfast, they sell dinner too! AND they sell pulled pork!

The inside is very rustic and looked outdated, but I guess thats the look they were going for. It was very simple and quite relaxing on a hot day.

They have a few strange things to look at! I think I was blind because I couldn’t find the red wagon anywhere.

Since Pulled Pork was on our minds, M ordered the Pulled Pork Pancakes ($12.50). It is layered with 3 buttermilk pancakes and pulled pork, topped with Jack Daniels maple syrup. Ya, you heard it right! JACK DANIELS MAPLE SYRUP, something Epic Meal Time would be proud of.

M thought the pancakes were amazingly fluffy, perhaps even the best he’s ever had. The pulled pork was very tender and matched beautifully with the pancakes. The syrup did not taste super potent at all. The only negative thing he had to say was that it was a tad expensive for pancakes.

There was a special deal going on – Pulled Pork Burger with a PBR Beer ( $14.00). I really wanted a beer on a lovely Friday, so I got the special.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer arrived with it and I did not like the beer at all. It was a bit too bitter for my liking. I am really used to Japanese Beer.

When the Pulled Pork Burger arrived, I was drooling. I had to take 2 pictures of it so you would really see how delicious this burger looked. When I ordered it, I thought it would just be a pulled pork sandwich, but no, it was a burger!

This had mayo, mustard, ketchup, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pulled pork and a beef patty. It came with a side of fries too. The patty had a very nice taste and the pulled pork was also tender and juicy like the ones on the pancakes. YUM!

The fries were quite extraordinary too! They were very crunchy! I love crunchy fries!

The bill arrived and that was the damage for dinner. It was definitely a pulled pork day. You also get this peach candy with the bill. Take that mints….peach candy > mints.

Words of Wisdom:

Good food
Anything pulled pork is amazing
A tad expensive
Free parking on adjacent streets

We Rate The Red Wagon:

Address:

2296 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

Website:
www.redwagoncafe.com

Twitter: @redwagoncafe

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/redwagoncafe

In BBQ

M’s Food Court Corner: Gourmet Barbeque

June 10, 2011

Hello to another Mark’s Food Court Corner! Today I will be reviewing Gourmet Barbeque in Lougheed Mall Food Court. Guess which mall I live close to? No not Lougheed, but I do find myself there quite a lot.

Gourmet Barbeque isn’t a chain as far as I know, it has a similar looking food court restaurant right next to it, so I figure its owned by the same person. Gourmet Barbeque when I first saw it looked sketch; I think the sign and menus threw me off a bit. Don’t let the appearance fool you, this place is awesome!

Gourmet Barbeque serves everything from Greek to Chinese food. I sometimes get their Lamb Pita, because their lamb has a nice unique smoky taste. However, today I decided to get, what I always get, the Chicken Curry on Rice ($5.49). Awesome value for a plate of rice with generous serving of chicken curry. The curry itself is unique. It’s not straight up Chinese curry but close to it. Chicken is boneless, which is a bonus, and it also has carrot and potatoes. Not spicy at all, but pretty flavourful. $5.50 for a big plate of rice and curry from a food court? Definitely a must get!

To switch things up, I got their Spring Rolls ($2.99). Nothing special here, but has a nice chewy/crunchy texture. Eating both dishes I was stuffed out my mind!

So if you are at Lougheed Mall, don’t go straight to a chain food court restaurant try out the Gourmet Barbeque!

M’s Words of Food Court Wisdom:

Curry Chicken a must!
Great value, good food.
Get a medium Coke from the fountain with the Curry, matches perfectly!

M’s Food Court Corner Rating: (Not to be compared with Design Girl’s “real” restaurant rating.)

Gourmet Barbeque Locations:

Lougheed Mall

In BBQ

Hog Shack: Burnt Ends Adventure

May 22, 2011

One day, I was in class and I get a message on Twitter from @Kathygko about an EatUp at Hogshack. She heard they had the burnt ends available, so she grouped a bunch of people together to chowdown on the tasty treat.

I’ve always wanted to go to Hogshack but the drive down to Steveston is always so daunting. It’s 1 hour away from where I live, so it’s always unappealing. Since I knew I would be in great company for the famous burnt ends, I really couldn’t say no to the opportunity. Plus, it was a very nice sunny day! I took M with me after class at SFU and we headed all the way down there. Since I am foreign with Richmond Highways and roads…we did indeed get lost twice. There was even one point where we started heading back to New Westminster. (In my defense, highways are tricky).

Eventually we made our way to Steveston, wow! Honestly, I never knew this place existed since last year. I am a horrible Vancouver-ite. Hogshack is located in Steveston with lots of other amazing restaurants around it as well.

We had the Burnt Ends with 2 sides ($15.95). Burnt ends do not sound very appealing at all, but are ok tasting. Burnt ends are the fatty meat parts of rib ends. They have a nice smokey taste to the burnt ends. A few sides you can have with the dish are coleslaw, mashed potatoes, yam fries, baked beans, Spanish rice pilaf, vegetables, potato wedges, fries and corn bread. I was in a healthy-ish mood, so I got the Spanish Rice Pilaf and the vegetables. M on the other hand got yam fries and the rice pilaf. I didn’t particularly like the sides, they were quite bland and could have used a bit more salt.

The first few bites of the Burnt Ends were really good! Nice tender and fatty! Mmmm! After a while, I noticed some pieces were not as tender as others and the BBQ sauce was a bit overwhelming. I don’t think I am a BBQ person. Heck, I don’t even like BBQ chips. The whole sweet and salty tastes don’t work well with me. That’s just my personal taste, so don’t disregard this as a bad dish at all. After a bit of discussion, some of use actually prefer the BBQ at Memphis Blues over Hog Shack.

Evie and Jen were the latecomers, so they ordered something different since they were not too hungry. They had the Pulled pork sandwich ($12), which has pulled pork, coleslaw, BBQ sauce in a nice bun. On the side, they had the poutine. It has hand cut fries, gravy and curds. They both said theses were really good.

(L to R): @jamtjr , @makukiko, @foodologyca, @kathygko, @VVLao and @jen_chu7 .

With all this food, we were indeed in good company! We had lots of laughs and crazy discussions. Thanks Kathy for organizing!

Overall, I found that the burnt ends were ok, but not super amazing or anything. One thing I want to do is try their Flatliner Challenge. Perhaps next time I will try this out. If anyone else wants to do the challenge too, please let me know and we can be gross together!

Words of Wisdom:

Free parking on streets, or pay near the parking lot
Flatliner Challenge, eat in under 5min and its free
Burnt Ends

We Rate Hog Shack :

Address:

160-3900 Bayview Street
Richmond, BC

Website:
www.hogshack.ca

In BBQ

Peckinpah: BBQ House in Gastown

April 15, 2011

Mandu and I wanted to grab some lunch, so I gave her a list of random restaurants and she chose Peckinpah because it was close to the office and wouldn’t break our wallets. Peckinpah is a BBQ house located in the heart of Gastown. They specialize in Carolina style BBQ and offer a wide selection of beer and alcoholic drinks.

The service was quite slow during their lunch hour and less than half the restaurant was full. We probably spent 30 minutes waiting when our lunch break isn’t really that long. 15 mins to order + 30 min waiting – 1 hr lunch = 15 mins of eating. We ate fast! Mandu ate so fast that she got stomach pains after.

Mandu ordered the Jalapeno Pork Sausage Sandwich ($ 8.50). It is a Pork sausage with roast peppers and onions in a french style bun.

She didn’t expect it to be basically a hot dog. Having the combination of the bun and the sausage posed problems for Mandu. She suggested that this would be better if they sliced up the sausage and then put it onto the bun. She did enjoy the taste of the sausage, very meaty and had a good kick of heat from the jalapeno.

We did also get a choice of a side and she chose the hush puppies. These are not shoes but rather deep fried cornbread balls. Embedded inside the ball were also bits of corn. We both liked the hush puppies and it seemed like it was a very popular dish since everyone else close to us ordered it too.

I ordered the Oyster Po’boy ($11.50). It is a sandwich with deep-fried oysters on french bread with lettuce, tomato, and mayo. I remember my first time having an Oyster Po’boy at The Kaboom Box (AKA Fresh Local Wild) Food Cart and I enjoyed it!

I did not love this version of oyster Po’boy at Peckinpah, the bun was difficult to eat, so the filling would fall out, so I used my knife and fork. I really wanted to go down and dirty with the sandwich but it was way too messy. The oysters were a bit on the small side so it was hard to enjoy their full flavour and the texture of the oyster.

For my side I ordered creamed corn. Pretty average and nothing special.

Overall, I would not go back to pay those prices since there are better alternatives in the neighbourhood. The french style bread did not work very well with the sandwiches and made the eating process very difficult.

I would come back if I was in the area late at night. They have really good deals from 12am to 2am on Fri and Sat. This either means you gotta be living close by or partying it up in a nearby club/ bar (Fabric, Post Modern, Lamplights, Blarney….etc)

Words of Wisdom: