Update

ah! I miss Vancouver food SOO MUCH. hell I didn't realize how much I miss free TAP water until now!
I miss cheap SUSHI.. Chinese food.. MEXICAN.. etc etc.. hell even RAMEN (which i don't like ). ahhh!! all I eat here are pasta salads and sandwiches and recently this lasagna that is starting to make me want to puke from all the cheesiness and oh ya this grilled chicken for 3 dollars canadian that I devour in 3 seconds. it's really fatty and salty.. but it hits the spot hah

I've been reminiscing with looking at my old flickr pics and these are the things I miss in Vancouver: Phnom Penh and their chicken wings and curry!, Pulled pork sandwich from Burgers etc, Amazing sushi rolls from Sagano and Tomoya, Bi bam bap from ANYWHERE, oatmeal from elixir, brunch from cafe medina, hashbrowns from deacon's, dumplings from cafe kathmandu, calamari from earls, Homely chinese dinners from Deer Garden, late night chinese from Ho yuen kee, Banh Mi from Carolina Deli, dumplings from lin's, che lung bao from Richmond public market, Chip and guac from Lolitas, Gyros from Sfinaki, Butter Chicken from Sitar, Wu gok from Sun Sui Wah, ..

the only thing I surpringly don't really miss atm are desserts.. because of the chocolate overload I am going through this week.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure Europe boasts some of the most fantastic, most delicious food in the world, but I am too poor to take advantage of this. and living in a university town eliminates most of those choices.

Having said that, the chocolates has been fantastic. I've recently picked up Daim Chocolate bar and Ballerina cookies. omfg. SOOO Good. I think they are both sold in IKEAs and I have been absolutely addicted to them. This is how i am gonna get fat. lovely. Before I leave, I am gonna buy cartons of the ballerina cookies and ship it home (because I am not sure if those are in ikea..).
edit* I just went to willys and picked up 3 more daim chocolate bars, I almost went crazy and picked up daim in long package and daim in bite sizes. oi.

Okay, I'll show you some pictures of what i've been eating when I travel.. given, most of my travels consisted of sandwiches I never took pics of.. so it MAY look like I eat lavishly, it's only like.. twice on a trip.. VERY LARGE pic post. :) get ready to drool.

BELGIUM (Brussels/Brugge)
Famous Mussels.. but they were very small and not juicy :(

Belgian Chocolates! I bought some home. Couldn't eat any there due to being sick and chocolate made me cough harder :(

Belgian Waffle. great!

Belgian Fries.. massive amount of mayo there!

LUXEMBOURG (my favorite country)
lovely pastries
HONG KONG (I know.. I am in europe wteff was I doing in Hk.. my brother got married)
My favorite breakfast- hk congee (tang jai jook) with chinese donut (both types) and little bananas. yum!

The toilet restaurant! hah! too bad it was not good.

AMSTERDAM
Dutch pancakes

A Whole Chicken! hah! I love this picture

STOCKHOLM
it was cold pasta..

COPENHAGEN
Pancake with ice cream. yum.

LONDON
Bangers and mash.. really salty.

HELSINGOR (Hamlet's Castle)
Delicious food

ALMHULT (the first ever IKEA)
Delicious!!! except the cinnamon bun was a little hard.

My Town

A sushi restaurant.. the chicken satay was drenched in sauce

Pasta Salad.. my addiction. This is from Coffee break. 55 kroners. great deal I think, if you take away, you also get a free drink :)


More pics, of course, on my flickr :)

Mistral

For the last meal I had in Vancouver before I left to Europe, I chose to go to mistral. It was not only the last vancity meal for a while, but also my birthday meal! which I will be sharing with my family and relatives. I decided on Mistral because I have read nothing but great reviews on them and they have affordable set lunch menus as well. It was probably one of the best meals. My relatives/parents do not usually eat french cuisine, so this was a bit of a risk to go here, but whatever, it was my birthday lunch.

The restaurant is relatively small and ran by a lovely french couple that greeted us warmly from upon entering. Not only do they have a set three course lunch menu ranging from 19 to 24 dollars, they also have a la carte menu to order from. I decided to order off the menu and had the sablefish with mussels. Also had a martini, even though I was hungover and tired. It was very good.

There were a lot of food, and I'll just say that Everything was delicious. I don't think one single plate had a flaw. We were all content and finished every scrap of food on each plate. Everyone was boasting about how the french onion soup was flavorful, steak cooked perfectly, etc etc. The sablefish was cooked perfectly and it had amazing taste. All the desserts were beautiful and delicious. Here are some of the plates we had, if you want to see the rest, they are on my flickr.
After this meal, I think this has become one of my favorites in Vancouver. Thank you so much for the meal and the warm service. I will definitely come back one day.

Afghan Horseman, Kakurenbou, Edge, Ebisu

Afghan Horseman has been on my go to list since I began to eat out in vancouver. Things always came up that caused me to postpone going here, but I knew knew knew I had to come here before I left. As the days before I left came closer and closer, I realized there were many people I still had to say bye to. So going to Afghan Horseman was actually right after my turkey sandwich at White spot, so I was pretty full..

but that did not stop us from ordering the Afghan Horseman Platter, to share with one other friend. We also ordered a drink for two, which we drank from a huge bowl with long straws. But I accidentally knocked my friend's straw out and had the whole drink to myself :D I was tipsy, so it was good times.

First came the appetizer, which was humus and a salad with some pita bread. Delicious delicious. Then the main dish was Boneless Chicken Breast Shish Kebab, Lamb Shish Kebab, Lamb Shoulder, Baked Rice, Baked Eggplant, Dolmah (cabbage roll), Pakawra, & Chaka. *yes I took that right off the website, because I don't remember what I ate 2 months ago*

Since I was bloody full from disgusting white spot, I only ate some bits of the food and I can comment that the rice and potatoes were very very very good! Man, reminiscing about this is making me drool.. because the last couple days, I've been eating not so fresh pasta salads and a shit of a lot free hamburgers. The lamb shoulder and lamb shish kebab (too full for the chicken) were very tender and flavorful.

Now I wish I could go back in time and eat everything else, yes I am also very hungry atm.

The restaurant is nice, the servers are also very nice, asking us how we found the restaurant and if we have been there before blahblah. I will definitely come back again.

The night before my birthday/leaving day, I went to Kakurenbou for a quick dinner because zakkushi was too busy. Kakurenbou is an izakaya restaurant near Robson street. It was pretty full, so we sat at the bar and ordered a couple of dishes. Everything sounded great but prices were pretty high... we ordered the croquette and chips, chicken karrage, a mexican pizza (which was just tortilla with cheese and onions on top I believe), and horse sashimi.. I have never tried, and was excited to. The food came surprisingly fast. Horse sashimi was first, and it was very small. The sashimi tasted a little like beef, but with a more buttery taste. The mexican pizza was not very good at all. it was bland and just very oniony. The karaage was very plain, and the croquette and chips also very plain. Croquette was bland.
I think that peresonally, everything sounded better on the menu, but the food fell short of amazing.

Afterwards, I headed over to Edge to have final drinks/dinner with some others. The restaurant is pretty spacious, we sat outside where the heaters were. friends ordered a flat bread that was apparently very good. I had a couple yummy martinis. Usually I find them too strong, but they aren't here at all. The server was really nice, except I think he was making fun of my accent (when I say words with am/an, I say it very country/hick like.. like d-eaann-ce.. so I ordered a jammy jam (or in my case, a jeammy jeaaaamm) and he came over and either talked JUST LIKE me or was mocking me. It's not my fault, I don't know where this accent came from. haha.
I recommend this restaurant for pre drinks/dinner before clubbing.

Finally, I met up with some other friends at speakeasy and went off to ebisu for some drinks and late night snacks. Since it was my birthday at midnight, we had shot for shots and a slice of chocolate cake, which came and they blared a birthday song on the speakers.. which was actually a little embarassing. We also ordered some yummy yam fries and another fried food I cannot remember. I have actually blogged about ebisu wayyyy too much.. need to try other places..