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 :)

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!!!

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.

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!