Sunday, December 27, 2009

Finch's, Simbas, Pourhouse

I am now homee in bc for another 4 months (maybe more, maybe not, who knows?) I thought I could battle jet lag as if it never happened but holy hell I felt soo sick by the 2nd-3rd days. On the 2nd day being back, I went downtown and met up with a friend for a quick coffee and sandwich bite at Finch's on W Pender. The cafe is famous for their ever so fresh sandwiches so I knew I had to try one (even though they were a tad expensive at around 7-8 bucks). I ordered the Smoked applewood cheddar, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, dijon mayo sandwich on baguette for around 8 dollars. The sandwich was lovely, I liked the presentation of it and will probably come back another time to try a different one.

Then I went to Simbas on Denman for dinner. I was greeted by the owner, but he didn't seem very friendly to me.. =[. The restaurant had nice decorative art around and a few awards he has won displayed in the back. There were many groups of people out to dine. We sat in the back and ordered the chicken in coconut curry and lamb in spinach and spices and ugali (african maize meal) and naan bread. We had a coupon that we had to present when we first came in. I wonder, would the quantity/quality be better if my coupon wasn't presented? i don't know. anyways, the chicken in coconut curry had great taste, but I did not like the lamb. I found the taste to be too overpowering for me but I really wanted to eat lamb, so I just ended up scraping all the spices off. The ugali was different and went well with both dishes, but I liked the naan bread more :)

Pourhouse on Urbanspoon Afterwards, I was feeling a little sick and wanted tea, so we walked and walked and walked allll the way to the pourhouse.. The restuarant, formerly flux, was very posh and dark inside. I felt a little scrubby but whatevs. the only other thing I see open was black frog and I am pretty sure a shot of jager will not cure my sick feeling (although it would make me feel warmer from walking from effing denman to gastown).. and a customer is a customer riiight? The restaurant has a throw back feel to it (well, at least to me). I liked the ambience and the room, with an open kitchen in the back. I think there's a table right next to the kitchen.. secluded from the rest of the dining area.. I don't know if this is an actual table or not but it seemed kinda weird!! The servers were super friendly and talkative, points.
Anyways, we ordered peppermint tea and an apple cobbler for two to share. It comes out piping hot with a side of ice cream. yummy, no complaints. There were a ton of groups and parties going on, but I also think it would be a lovely place for a date. I'll probably come back one day for food =) At the end we saw that they were throwing an nye party with 20s theme. Maybe that's where I got the throwback feel from, it coulddd be fun! but I remember it was pretty expensive.. just like every other goddamn vancouver event going on that night. maybe I am just bitter because I was one of those suckers who paid for an overpriced thing when all I really need was a bottle of riesling, friends, and david guetta and could have had a great night too. lesson learned kids.

Happy happy new year everyone! Hope 2010 will bring even better food than 2009!!!

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Neptune Wonton Noodle

After a hellish plane ride back from heathrow (sitting on a plane for 4 hours waiting for them to de-ice it and not knowing when they were done), the only places left opened at around midnight were neptune wonton noodle or number 9. I had been to neptune before and recall having good congee and so we ventured over there for a late night snack (they are open until 2 and it's cash only)


The room was pretty big, and still had a large amount of people eating. We ordered sweet and sour pork, curry fish balls and pork intestines(?), congee, and squid balls with noodles. I liked the congee, it had a lot of ingredients in it. The sweet and sour pork had too many fatty pieces, and the curry fish balls dish was just o-kay..

At the end it was a decent meal for a decent price, I am not raving but just happy to be eating chinese food again without having to pay over 10 bucks for one dish.

Neptune Wonton Noodle on Urbanspoon

Monday, December 14, 2009

Look at this beauty


ICA had no more turkey breast. so a huge turkey leg it is! hahaha with delicious scalloped potatoes and stuffing. I believe the turkey was 30 sek, which is around 4 bucks.. me and my american friend wanted to recreate some sort of north american christmas dinner.. only to result in scalloped potatoes, stuffing, and turkey leg that looked like it was from the flintstones. amazing.

Alright, here's another European update.. featuring mostly christmas food. I am in LOVE with christmas markets at the moment. They are the most beautiful thing ever.

BUDAPEST (my 2nd favorite country)
Look at this AMAZING hot chocolate. it was SOO thick and I felt like I was drinking a chocolate bar. WOW
Christmas Market selling goose legs and sausages. The goose legs were deliciousss

A Chimney cake.. very popular but it was very large and doughy! Good for a group!

ANGELHOLM, SWEDEN
Very very saucy but delicious nonetheless. We had this before we saw Rogle play against Skelleftea.. Modo was sold out unfortunately :(

TALLINN, ESTONIA
This was from a supermarket.. costing me 32 kroons which was around 3 bucks! The lemonade was yummy.

PRAGUE
Goulash soup in a bread bowl.. this was after walking around a very cold and rainy day.. so it was good.. although it was too heavy for me. I demolished the bread bowl.. although I am not so sure if we were supposed to eat it..

The Full monty at an irish pub.. which was suitable for 4 and more people, but it was just 3 of us.. 2 guys and me. We did pretty well at finishing it.. only leaving the fries around. It was damnnn good. It was steak bites, really tender ribs, fries, fried mushroom caps, fried jalapeno bites, and fried shrimp and chicken wings.. mmm..

A bohemian meal.. that I didn't enjoy but got because I wanted to be authentic. It was smoked meats, pork, bacon, cabbage, potatoes, and bread..
KRAKOW, POLAND
A traditional polish meal apparently.. deep fried pork chop, bacon, and cabbage. it was alright. the pork was such a hugeee piece!
At the christmas markets.. we thought it was fried dough and some sweet dessert.. but it was cheese..

Oświęcim, POLAND
Perogies! I wish I got meat inside instead of potato and cheese..

BERLIN, GERMANY
Dumplings! very yummy, but got too rich at the end, the sauce.. and my pretty christmas souvenir mug :)

A sausage and bun :) I don't know why the sausage has to be bigger than the bun but it was good.

Home, Sweden
I recently discovered Cafe Mondo and I wish I found this over Coffee break because this sandwich was DELICIOUS. It is chicken and bacon baguette.. the sauce was sooo good..

A traditional Christmas Dinner in Swedish.. Christmas ham with mustard, cocktail sausages, Jannson's temptation (potato with onions anchovies), cabbage, and kottbullar... everything was so salty and not good :( For appys we had bread+ cheese, hard boiled egg, beetroot salad, and 3 types of herring.. which my friend kept making gagging noises at me for eating, but watever.. swedes eat it, it can't hurt me. And for dessert we had rice pudding and gingerbread cookies. yums

hejda!

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

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 :)

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Mistral

Mistral French Bistro on Urbanspoon 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.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Afghan Horseman, Kakurenbou, Edge, Ebisu

Afghan Horsemen on Urbanspoon 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..