vancouver Archives

In British Columbia

Vancouver Food Cart Fest 2014: Last Day Today

August 31, 2014

Vancouver Food Cart Fest gathers about 20 of the top food carts in Vancouver. It happens every Sunday near the Olympic Village till August 31st. If you haven’t made it down there yet, it’s their last weekend! It runs from 12pm till 5pm. Entrance is free to Vancity and Car2go members, this year it is also free with a non-perishable food donation to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank Society. Or else, you have to pay $2 for the entrance fee.

Some of the participating food carts include:

Blue Smoke BBQ
Aussie Pie Guy
Chili Tank
Didi’s Greek
Dougie Dog
Festro the Rolling Bistro
Finest at Sea
Guanaco Salvadoran Cuisine
Holy Perogy
JJ’s Trucketeria
The Juice Truck
The Kaboom Box
Le Tigre
Mogu Japanese Street Eats
Mom’s Grilled Cheese Truck
PazzaRella
Roaming Dragon
Soho Road
Street Meet
Tacofino
Taser Grilled Cheese
The Reef Runner
Vij’s Railway Express
Yolks

Not all of them are there at the same time, but you can always check with the Vancouver Street Food App to see who’s there.

Le Tigre is there and they serve up modern Chinese food. They always serve up some pretty amazing food, so I just had to stop by to have some.

BBQ Pulled Pork Steamed Bun has BBQ sauce, leaf lettuce, cabbage slaw, and fresh herbs.

Crack Salad has cauliflower, brussel sprouts, lemon juice, cracked chili, capers and parmesan. It reminds me of the brussel sprouts from The Flying Pig. This was a tad oily, but it was really good and addictive.

Johnny Pops was there and they are one of the most popular little carts there. They have delicious artisan popsicles. Most of the fruits and ingredients are locally sourced and made in Vancouver .

Mixed Berries and Mint Popsicle was absolutely fantastic. Great for the hot summer weather and packed full of flavour.

Some food carts definitely have long lines and with the hot summer weather, it can be a bit of a pain. Since the Food Cart Fest is open till 5pm, try avoiding the busy times around noon. I came here around 2pm and the lines were quite manageable.

There are white tents in the centre to eat your food in the shade. On hot busy days, everyone wants be be under there. You may need to stalk people for tables.

Website: http://www.foodcartfest.com/

In Canadian

The Keg: Great for Birthday Celebrations

July 21, 2014

The Keg is one of my favourite restaurants to go to. I am not ashamed to say it because I have many fond memories of this place for celebrating milestones. This particular occasion was my little sister’s birthday. She loves steak and it’s the only thing she will eat mass quantities of.

We made reservations on Canada Day and celebrated here. This particular Keg is located beside BestBuy.

Filet Mignon (7oz – $32) is one of the specialty cuts they have to offer. The tenderloin is wrapped in applewood smoked bacon. It has the ultimate tenderness and cuts through like butter. I got the roasted garlic mashed potatoes for my side. It also come with beans, red pepper and a sauce.

It was delicious and now I always get the filet mignon in medium rare.

Filet Mignon (7oz – $32) was what my little sister ordered. She ordered mixed vegetables for her side and she got sauteed mushrooms, peppers, zucchini and asparagus.

Atlantic Lobster ($41) has two succulent Atlantic lobster tails served with hot butter. My dad ordered his side of baked potato with the works.

Prime Rib (10oz – $25) with the twice baked potato as the side. The prime rib is aged for extra flavour and tenderness, rubbed with a blend of spices and slow roasted. It is served with horseradish and red wine herb au jus. There’s also crispy onions. This was ok, but we felt there was a lot of fat and tendon in the cut. Wasn’t as good as previous times.

Overall, the food is good and you can’t go wrong with filet mignon

We Rate The Keg:

Address:
130 – 2991 Lougheed Hwy
Coquitlam BC

Website: http://www.kegsteakhouse.com/

In Downtown

Fat Duck: Sinfully Delicious

July 9, 2014

Food trucks are mighty delicious and one of my favourites are Fat Duck Mobile Eatery. They are now outside Waterfront station, but can move around during the week. If you do happen to pass by, make sure to stop and have a sandwich.

They serve up sandwiches and tacos.

Le Cochon ($10) has pork belly, braised pork, cabbage, scallions, spicy pickle slaw, swiss cheese and chili mayo. This sandwich was dripping in fat and flavour. Really good! It a bit messy to eat, so make sure to have lots of napkins.

With the sandwich, you get chips! The chips are thickly cut and very very crunchy! Yummmmmmy!

Duck Confit Philly Style sandwich has marinated mushrooms, pickled red onions, scallions, swiss cheese and truffle/parm mayo. My coworker loved it. It wasn’t great for her diet, but sometimes its nice to indulge.

Since last year, they have changed up their bread and menu items. One thing they still do well is making mouth-watering sandwiches with a punch of flavour. Follow them on Twitter or check them out on the Vancouver Street Food App to find out where they will be next.

We Rate Fat Duck:

Location:
Varies

Website:
http://fatduckmobileeatery.ca/

In Japanese

Manna Sushi: New Sushi Restaurant near Olympic Village

June 25, 2014

Working near Science World means very limited food choices. There are some great choices near the Olympic Village, but my coworkers and I have been to all of them. When we heard Manna Sushi opened on 2nd and Ontario Street, we just had to check it out. I’ve seen so many of my coworkers flocking to Manna Sushi for lunch. With the abundance of Japanese restaurants in town, I wanted to see how this really compared. Mags and I look our lunch break here in search of some good food.

The interior had lots of seating with very simple decor.

Chicken Teriyaki Bento ($9.95) is only for dine-in customers only. I chose this item because it was more affordable that some of the items on the menu. It was either this or one roll of specialty sushi. Of course I chose this. It has a few pieces of tempura, chicken teriyaki over rice, a salad, California roll, 2 deep fried gyozas and a miso soup. The bento box was average and nothing special.

Mags got the Pork Katsu Don ($9.95), which I forgot to take a picture of because it took so long to arrive. Other people got their orders before she did. It turns out, they thought she wanted it for takeout…which was weird because she would be watching me eat. I really wish I took a photo of the don because it look super disappointing. The katsu was heavily breaded, so there was really thin pork inside. She felt cheated because she really wasn’t getting her moneys worth. It’s a fairly simple dish too, but the rice was flavourless and didn’t have enough sauce.

Overall, it’s subpar food. Manna Sushi is quite new, so they are probably working out the kinks and looking for feedback. In the meantime, I don’t think I will be coming here anytime soon.

We Rate Manna Sushi:

Address:
6 E 2nd Ave
Vancouver BC

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/mannasushivancouver

In Downtown

Bellaggio Cafe: Happy Hour

June 24, 2014

My coworkers and I came to Bellaggio Cafe in the Convention Centre for a few drinks and snacks after work. I’ve always walked past this place when I’m near the convention centre, but I never really noticed this place.

When we arrived, we found out that there were 25% off appetizers until 6pm. Seeing that we arrived at 5:50pm, we had to get our order in right away. It sounded like a great deal! It was a nice day, so we sat outside on the patio.

A few of my coworkers shared a pitcher of Sangria and it was perfect for 4 people. There were a good amount of berries inside to add some sweetness.

Crispy Calamari ($13.95) has the crispy fried calamari with tzatziki sauce and a lemon wedge. It’s a great size for sharing and the pieces were large.

Smoked Salmon Flatbread ($14.95) has cream cheese, crispy capers and onions on top of the house made flatbread. The flatbread wasn’t exactly flat as it was quite puffy. It was expensive for what you get.

With the 25% off on the appetizers, the prices were not too bad. The service though was not very good at all. It was hard to a server out on the patio in a timely manner since most of them were indoors. Grabbing the bill was quite painful.

We Rate Bellaggio Cafe:

Address:
26 – 1055 Canada Place
Vancouver BC

Website:
http://www.bellaggiocafe.com/convention/con-index.html

In Filipino

Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck: Flippin Fantastic

June 17, 2014

Mags and I were finding a place on Main street to eat lunch and then we stumbled upon Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck. It’s one of the newer food trucks to hit the town and we just had to try it. They are usually on Main street on Saturdays, but it may change, So check out their schedule before going to the location.

Their menu has a good amount of items and everything sounds delicious. I personally love Filipino food, so I was very excited.

The aroma coming from this truck smelled amazing.

Flippin Adobo ‘Fili’ Cheesesteak ($12) has shaved prime ribs sauteed in Adobo sauce, melted provolone cheese, smoked chipotle aioli and crispy leeks served on a hoagie bun.

This was so good and there was plenty of meat. It was very tender and full of flavour. Highly recommended.

Long Silog Rice Bowl ($12) has cured pork sausage, fried egg, slaw, crispy leeks, garlic fried rice and a sriracha aioli. It was a good portion size and Mags enjoyed it so much, she bought a second box for her boyfriend.

Calamansi ($3) is what we washed our meal down with. Mmmmmm goood!

Overall, it was great. The wait wasn’t too long and the food tasted SO GOOD. I would highly recommend this food truck. If you see it, so grab some food!!

We Rate Fliptop Filipino Fusion Food Truck:

Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FliptopTruck

Twitter:
https://twitter.com/FliptopTruck

In Airplane Meals

Air Canada: From Beijing to Vancouver

January 20, 2014

So close to home, yet so far. After a 2 hour layover in Beijing (PEK), we boarded Air Canada. It took about 11 hours to get back. I definitely packed enough music and TV shows to last me through those hours. It wasn’t easy, but lots of naps were needed.

We first started with a snack. We got Pretzels and our beverage of choice. I asked for a can of tomato juice and they were kind enough to give me the whole can, usually if you don’t ask, they just give you a glass. I always get very thirsty on plane rides, so I make sure I drink a lot.

A few hours later, dinner was served. It was fried rice, steamed vegetables, and chicken in hot and sour sauce. It also came with pudding, a salad, bread and water. It tasted ok, but I wasn’t very impressed.

After this, I got bored for a very long time. Kids were crying, people were snoring, and I was just glad I had noise cancelling headphones. At some point I think I fell asleep.

Breakfast time! We had fruits, bread with jam and butter. The main item was scrambled eggs with mushrooms and potatoes.

The alternative item you could have gotten was congee. Both options sounded good, but I really just wanted eggs.

Overall, the food was ok, but not super impressive. After travelling Air Canada for a few years, the food is pretty standard and doesn’t really vary too much. It changes depending on your destination, but there are the same pieces.

In British Columbia

EAT! Vancouver 2013: Food and Cooking Festival

May 25, 2013

Eat Vancouver is back for its’ 11th year. It’s a food and cooking festival that brings together food lovers in Vancouver with some amazing exhibitors. It’s held at BC Place on May 24th – 26th. Entrance is $14 (online ticket) and $16 at the door. Buy the ticket online if you want to save $2.

Here are some old write ups about the past 2 EAT! Vancouver festivals that I’ve been to:

Even way before starting this blog, I remember coming here in my University days. It has evolved over the years to have different activities for everyone.

This year there are about 250 exhibitors. Lots of sample to taste and some booths charge $1 – $5 for special types of samples. You either pay cash or in the form of tickets that you can purchase.

Urban Fare has a large booth sampling various items like quinoa salad. They were giving out coupons for free coffee at their stores too. Their booth is like a mini-store, so you can purchase anything here. They have a variety of pasta, salads and fruit.

You can even purchase items that they have displayed on the shelves. Look carefully at this picture, you’ll find some very odd sounding cereal.

Near the Urban Fare booth, they were also giving out samples of Cloud 9 Gluten free baked goods.

Coconut Bliss was giving out ice cream samples. Surprisingly good! I can’t believe it’s dairy-free, soy-free, gluten-free and non-GMO. Their ice cream is usually a bit expensive, but it’s good you can take some $1 off coupons to use for later.

Kitchening & Co. was there selling their delicious macarons and cookies. They are the only macaron booth here. The creator Carly wasn’t there when I went, @wongers and @apwong was there representing.

No samples at this booth, but you definitely should grab some of their macarons and cookies. They are softer in texture but has a lot of flavour and depth.

Snackbox was promoting their subscription-based snack box service filled with organic and gluten-free snacks. I’ve done reviews on some of their snack boxes before and they are definitely worth the money. They aren’t selling them at the event, but you can sure win one.

Rain City Soups was giving out samples of the ginger carrot soup. It wasn’t my favorite soup that they had but their other soups are pretty awesome.

A Good Portion was sampling their variety of pistachio nuts. I love pistachios and what I enjoyed about these is that it’s not too salty.

Hopcott Premium Meats was sampling their sausages and jerky.

Bosa Food always has a large variety of samples like risotto, cheese, crackers, and sauces. It’s one of the popular booths.

So many beverage samples!

You know when you get thirsty from all the food samples, you come to these booths to get a refreshment.

Peanut Butter & Co. has crazy peanut butter flavours. I dare you to try the spicy one.

There’s so many booths at EAT! Vancouver. There’s no way I would be able to visit everyone and tell you where has the best samples of food, but there’s a large variety. There’s also a handful of booths that aren’t even food related… like jewelry, car services, and phone services.

Free Cheese Seminars

Besides eating all the samples, they have cheese seminars. You should line up early so you are guaranteed a spot. It is usually filled by the time the seminar begins. It’s presented by the Dairy Farmers of Canada, so you’ll probably learn everything you need to know about cheese.

Schedule:

Saturday May 25th
12:00pm, 1:30pm, 3:00pm, 4:30pm, 6:00pm, 7:30pm

Sunday May 26th
11:00am, 12:30pm, 2:00pm, 3:30pm

Culinary Classes

Culinary Classes are $28 each and you have to buy tickets in advance online. Most of the spots are sold out, but its pretty cool that you can learn how to sharpen knives, bake cakes, learn about brunch, gluten-free baking, and other stuff.

Demonstrations

Some booths had demonstrations of their own. They must have learned something interesting.

Food Network Celebrity Stage

This was my favorite area. You can see a few of the Food Network Celebrities take the stage and do some demonstrations.

The Celebrity Chefs that will be there are:

Rob Feenie
Chick Hughs
Bal Arnsen (Spice Goddess)
Anna Olson

Celebrity Chef Throwdown

Celebrity Chef Throwdown was pitted 3 amazing chefs together to cook an entree in 20 minutes using a secret ingredient.

Competitors:

Rob Feenie – Executive Chef, Cactus Restaurants Ltd.
Anna Olson – Host of Food Network Canada’s Bake with Anna Olson
Trevor Bird – Chef/Owner of Fable Kitchen & Runner Up on Top Chef Canada Season 2

Erin Cebula of Entertainment Tonight Canada hosted the event and chose the secret ingredient to be Ninja Ginger Beer from Granville Island Brewing.

After a fierce 20 minute battle, the judges – The Spice Goddess and Erin declared Rob Feenie the winner.

I thought it was pretty cool seeing them in real life. It’s always one of my highlights of Eat Vancouver is to see them. I watch a lot of Food Network when I’m bored.

Bites of Vancouver

Beside the Food Network Celebrity stage is a section called Bites of Vancouver that features 16 different local restaurants.

The list of restaurants are:

BeaverTails Pastry
Bella Gelateria
Cafe Kathmandu
Dunn’s Famous Restaurant
Ebo Restaurant
Establishment Lounge
Frankies Italian Kitchen & Bar
Glowbal Restaurant Group
Gramercy Grill
Jamaican Pizza Jerk
New India Buffet
Noodle Box
Secret Location
Spice Up Indian Cuisine
Siddhartha’s Indian Kitchen
Tacofino

You will need to purchase a sheet of tasting tickets 20 for $10 or 10 for $5. Some items can use up a lot of tickets, so make sure to browse the booths before you buy your tickets. You might need more or less depending on what you want to eat.

Siddhartha of Siddhartha’s Kitchen was there serving up Butter Chicken and their spinach paneer.

If you’ve read my reviews before, you know I love their spinach paneer. You must get that if you’re here.

Tacofino was serving up some beef tartare tacos and Chilled Avocado soup.

I got the chilled avocado soup and it was pretty darn tasty. The presentation was good too. The downside is that it was for 8 tickets. It gobbled up a large chunk of my tickets.

The Glowbal group was serving up large meatballs and mini New England Clam Chowder. It was really cute, so I couldn’t resist.

It tasted ok and I wasn’t disappointed.

The verdict, if you’ve been here a few times before, you may not enjoy it as much as some other years. There’s a lot of repeat vendors, so you may not be as enthused as you would have been before.

If you’ve never been to EAT! Vancouver and you love food, it is definitely an event for you. Plus, it’s awesome to see the Food Network Celebrities there.

Website: http://eat-vancouver.com/

In British Columbia

Pizza Hut Canada: New Hot Dog Stuffed Crust

December 12, 2012

Pizza Hut Canada finally introduced the Hot Dog Stuffed Crust after a successful launch in the UK and US. When the Vancouver Social Media Awards committee got together for a whole day meeting, we decided to order some pizza. We were browsing a few sites and saw this new creation.

We are adventurous eaters, so we decided to order it. We were a bit skeptical at first about this, but we would soon realize how delicious it would really be.

A bunch of Angus beef hot dogs are placed inside Pizza Hut’s stuffed crust. In the past, the stuffed crusts would be filled with cheese. You can have the option of the pizza being stuffed in any medium or large-sized pizzas. Eating the stuffed crust was similar eating the ‘pig in a blanket’.

It comes with a few packs of ketchup so you can dip the crusts into.

There are Honey Mustard Dips too for the crusts.

Chicken Lover Pizza (Large) has grilled chicken breast, peppers, onions, mushroom, and mozzarella.

Meat Lover Pizza (Large) contains pepperoni, italian sausage, mild sausage, beef, ham, bacon, and mozzarella.

No matter which pizza you order with the hot dog crust, it shouldn’t matter too much since the toppings isn’t directly in the proximity of the crust.

Have you tried this yet?

In Food Tour

Vancouver Foodie Tours: Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Tour

May 24, 2012

Foodology Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Tour, but wasn’t pressured to write about it. I thought it would be informative for tourists and locals to try these food tours for a change.

Vancouver Foodie Tours was founded by Michelle Ng three years ago. They are currently offering a new tour called “Guilty Pleasures Gourmet Tour”. Where foodies embark on a 3 hour journey through 5 courses, 12 tastings, and 8 unique stories. As a local, I really was not sure what new experiences I would get from the tour, but I did learn to appreciate Vancouver a bit more. Since I was born in Vancouver and eat out quite often, I tend to forget how amazing our city truly is.

Our meeting place and our first location was at Kirin Restaurant on Alberni Street. The decor is very beautiful and the service was really good. We were seated at a table and shared a few items. We tasted:

Steamed Prawn and Pork Dumpling (Sui Mai)
Sticky Rice with Pork and Dried Scallop wrapped in lotus leaf (lo mai fan)
Jasmine Tea

The sui mai tasted alright, but I liked the lo mai fan because it was packed with so much filling, thus making it nice and savory.

Our second location is the Sutton Place Wine Merchant on Burrard Street. We were given a tasting of:

Domaine de Chamberton Bacchus

It was paired with some crackers and spicy jam. The white wine paired quite well with the jam and completely changed the flavour of the wine when they were eaten together. I am glad it was white wine since I really dislike red. The wine was sweet and very enjoyable. I may actually go back to purchase that bottle of wine too since it was good.

Our third location is Ensemble Tap, which is owned by Top Chef Canada Winner- Dale MacKay. They have some good ol’ comfort food with a large variety of beer. As we arrived, everything was already laid out for us. We sat at the bar and began snacking way on:

BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich
Red Truck Ale

If you never watched Top Chef Canada, the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich made Dale MacKay win one of the challenges in the show. The pairing of the beer was good as well. I wasn’t a fan of the pulled pork sandwich, perhaps it was because of all the hype I kept hearing about it. What made this portion of the tour super cool is that they showed us around to the kitchen! Unfortunately, Dale wasn’t there but it’s still awesome seeing where all the magic happens.

We then went to Shuraku Sake Bar and Bistro, which was only a few minutes walk. I’ve only been here for lunch, but it’s always nice to try other items on their menu that I would not usually order. We were given tastings of:

Artisan Sake Maker’s Osake Junmai Nama
Agedashi Tofu
Spicy Wild Salmon Tartar

The cup of sake was quite large, I had a hard time drinking it because I just never liked sake. If you love sake, you’ll love this portion of the tour since they pour a lot of it! I was in love with the tofu and the tartar because of their great tastes! Out of all the restaurants on this tour, it was my favorite. What can I say, I just love Japanese food!

Our last stop was Bella Gelateria on Hastings Street. We were given a few samples of different gelato and then James gave us a rundown on their processes and a bit about what they do. It was so informative that even a little boy was “adopted” into our tour. He clearly had as much fun as we did. We also got a tour of their “laboratory”, where they create the gelato. After that tour, we were given a cup of:

Salted caramel gelato
Meyer Lemon Sorbetto

I’ve never had these flavours before and after this experience. I can never stop having lemon or hazelnut flavoured gelato. True story, sometimes I wake up and start thinking about it. It sounds super weird, but i’m not kidding. I wasn’t a fan of the salted caramel since I found it too sweet. The other people on the tour loved it, so it really comes down to personal preferences.

Overall, it’s a pretty good tour if you are new in town and want a taste of a few cool places with a bunch of other strangers. They keep the numbers low to keep a nice intimate vibe. We even got to see a few hidden sites on the tour too. Food tours aren’t for everyone and can get expensive depending on which ones you do. $69 for the tour is a bit steep and I would rather use that all up for one awesome meal. I did learn a lot from the tour, but as I have lived in Vancouver all my life, I would not normally think about doing a food tour. These types of tours are good if you love food, but have limited time to eat at all the amazing places in Vancouver…and are probably from out of town.

Michelle was a fantastic tour guide and made sure everyone was happy and enjoying themselves. She is very knowledgable about Vancouver food and has been running these tours for the past three years.

Check out Vancouver Foodie Tours here for more information– http://foodietours.ca/