Twisted Fork Bistro

I went to Twisted Fork Bistro today because it is new and I heard many things about it. I was very intrigued.

I planned on coming back to metro van and partying/hanging out for a couple days. but then after I came out, I looked at the weather network and it said that it was gonna snow hella crazy for the next two days. I was in a complete loss of wat to do. With a dying computer (freaking had it for just a YEAR. stupid vaio), I didn't want to be bored, stuck at home on a sat night. My roomie told me to meet up with her after work downtown for dinner and then if snow gets real bad, we would stay over at her home in north van. mmmk..

When I went down, it wasn't snowing yet so I was grateful. We walked on over to Granville and almost got suckered into 3.95 bellinis at Wings but wings is so gross there was no way I would let this happen. The bistro is next to Space lounge HAHA. It's a place I kinda wanted to go for a bit but my friends that have been thinks it was hella gay and forbids me to go. damn

We went inside from the chilly coldness (ps How the FUCK are people going clubbing in heels and booty shorts in this weather?? I can't even walk straight in my boots. crazy bitches) and sat by the windows because I wanted to how bad the weather was going to get..

We ordered a bottle of wine and had two separate appies (crab cakes and ahi tuna salad). Everything was quite affordable.. Wine going as cheap as 30 bucks a bottle, appies around 6-9 bucks? Even the mains were around 24 bucks I think. Good prices make me happy haha :)

The crab cake at first was too spicy for me but then it got pretty yummy, the ahi tuna salad was apparently very good too. We also ordered a dessert, they were 7 bucks I think? Gosh I don't remember anymore, I had more than 3/4 of that bottle. We had the lavender creme brulee. Aside from cheese, it was the only non chocolate thing on the list.. and I am not a big fan of choc desserts. The creme brulee was surpringly yummy. After that disaster at Kettle, I was very content. The creme brulee was well portioned with cookies and biscotti. mmm

The service was really nice and talkative. I hope she doesn't read this but she was a little self involved. me and my friend both thought so.. because she kept telling us about herself while we just wanted to catch up privately. Don't get me wrong, she was super nice.. but this was one of the conversations: "how many classes are you taking next semester?" "5, 4 business" "oh but are they UD though (in a condescending way) " "yes all 400" "oh well, I am doing pt just 3 UD because I need to keep up my open scholarship" "me and my friend do not comment" "ya.. I am hoping to graduate after two more pt semesters" ..i think sometimes this is a bit tmi, please stop sharing your life with us. we talked about the snow and then how we were worried about getting up the mountain her: " Well there's the 135 or 144 you can take or even the N35 (like educating us for the first time how to take buses home)". um.. Obv we know this? we've lived there for about 3 years now? wtf? .

I also think my volume went up two notches for every glass of wine I had.. I am sorry. I am sure the restaurant did not feel like listening to my soap opera life. hah.

We left while the snow was falling like crazy. but since we felt warmth inside from the wine, we wanted to go dance. We contemplated about busting a move at plaza from free cover, but i was lugging my wonky laptop around in my new and beautiful laptop bag. and if anyone spilled alcohol on it I might punch them out, and I didn't feel like seeing a certain bouncer while I was drunk (ok i m tmi now)

we managed to get home, but then I accidentally sent out a mass text to everyone in my phone book. holy crap.. I am soo traumatized. then I deleted most of my contacts, and now I receive texts and I don't know who they are from. doh.

Motomachi Shokudo

I was craving a big hot bowl of something today and ramen seemed to fit the description perfectly. Even though I am not a ramen fan, you know how you don't have something for a very long time and then you think.. oh maybe I'll give it a shot, maybe it wasn't as bad as I remember. and then you eat it and then you go what the hell was I thinking, I didn't like this food for a reason.
sorry that was a random thought. It always happens to me.. with mac and cheese. Ugh. and now, kinda with ramen.

After eliminating kintaro ramen and benkei ramen from the list, we headed off to motomachi shokudo on Denman St. The place is very small but clean and cozy. We really dug the wooden seats with the step stool thing on it. Since I am not the tallest person around (or tallest person ever.) it was good to have a place to put my feet comfortably :) We both ordered a bowl of ramen. I had the charcoal bamboo dark miso ramen and she had the spicy chicken. The food came quickly and the service was so nice. She's like "Sorry for the wait, please enjoy" or something along those lines even though it wasn't very long and I have definitely had longer waits at other places without being apologized to (ahem, below posts).

The bowl of ramen were pretty decent for 10 dollars. Apparently the spicy chicken was very good. The bamboo charcoal was o-k.. except it was a little too salty for me. I didn't enjoy it too much unfortunately :(


Afterwards, we went to gyoza king for deep fried taro yam balls and gyu yukke. The yam balls were... weird.. They were solid balls of taro yam. ok. that wasn't a very good description of the crappiness of the dish because you are probably thinking obviously it is balls of taro yam balls.. given by the name of the dish. But it wasn't what I had expected?? I don't know how to explain, but it wasn't very good. The gyu yukke on the other hand was very yummy. I think it was because I didn't expect the sauce to be sweet and it really balanced out the dish. mm yum. And another plus- no wait today! (but I didn't need to see my waitress put on even more makeup than she was wearing behind the counter).

Asian Food

Last week, I went to Ken's Chinese Restaurant, which is across from Dai Tung. The place is freaking bright as hell and the menu is very very extensive.. with some questionable food. The place had a really asian feel to it, so noodles/rice/asian fare food is the norm. But then there were chicken wings, lamb chops, spaghetti, western fare... I started feeling sketch. Ok, I know that westerinzed food is common at HK cafes, but this one had a REALLY asian feel to it! Nonetheless, I ordered a western combo because I didn't feel like asian. We also ordered half a chicken and beef noodles.

Everything was ok. Even the lamb chops were good. I am still weary though. I don't know why?? Maybe it's because I just saw Kitchen Nightmares yesterday and I read a blog post about worst things found in food (crawling cockroaches? omg) so I am a little uneased.. but like my father says, what you don't know can't hurt you.
The next day I went to get my haircut so I was around Metrotown/BCIT area. We went to No 1 Beef noodle house. It was jam packed with people but the food was quite bland/adequate.

Tonight I met up with a old friend that I hadn't seen in a year (finally got himself out of the valley). We went to Black Tuna and I have to say, it was a huge let down. The place was super empty and it looked really drab as well. The menu was quite unimaginative and the food was bland. The unagi was grilled nicely but the rice was too hard. We also had the chicken karaage that tasted super off and the skin was really weird.. like it was fried for too long. We should have went to Yoshi.

Picnic

Tuesday was SOOO gorgeous in Vancouver. We could not waste possibly the last nicest day of the year on studying coped in our apartment. So we packed up a couple books and went down to English Bay for some tanning and reading. We passed raincity grill and decided to try their halibut and chips takeout (we've always wanted to try but no opportunity). my friend went over to the cupcakes store and got a couple cupcakes and a lamb souvlaki donair from the med grill. All in all, it cost us less than 20 dollars for lunch.

The halibut and chips is a really cute idea since it came with colelsaw and water in a cute brown bag. The fries were too salty in my opinion and the coleslaw was too oniony.

The cupcakes were yummyy and the donair wasn't so good. I've had better. I thought it would be better because I've been here before for a lamb platter and it was delicious.. but then again I was drunk and had the munchies so that might have been it.

All in all, it was a cute day.. glad to have spent the last nice day having a cute picnic on english bay :)

Cactus Club+ Tapastree

Before going to California, we went to the test kitchen for cactus club (also in hopes to see our first local celeb- rob feenie which didn't happen :<) I had the calamari burger and she had the duck sandwich.

The calamari burger was disgusting. It was soggy and I was not a fan of the curry calamari. however the duck sandwich was very yummy. Very good taste starting from duck to bread to everything else

The place is nice, but please take the calamari burger off the menu.

That night we went to Tapastree for wine and dinner. The place inside is kinda stuffy. She described it as the non moving air which is also correct. We just had the lamb chops which were nothing special. The wine was nice. We wanted dessert but they were unimaginative and boring.

Macaroni Grill

Before fireworks, we went to mac grill for some pasta + drinks. I've only been there once before and I had a great time. We had the family style dinner and was absolutely stuffed. This time around.. it wasn't that great.

The place itself is pretty nice. It's a huge mansion with places for large and small groups. I am not a fan of the paper on table but it's cute when they give you crayons to draw on it. hum not this time :P

we had a pitcher of sangria and the complimentary bread to start. They were both ok. I had the bruschetta and I guses it was just 5 dollars. but it looked like crap. Like I could have made it. They toasted 3 baguettes, sprinkled cheese and tomatoes on it. awesome. The ones from timbre are soo much better.
Then we shared the straberry cheesecake.. and it was too moussy for my liking. Also had a baileys on the rocks which came with wayyy too much ice! :(

My friend had the spaghetti and felt like they decreased their portion size.. which really sucks if so. I don't know, Mac grill isn't exactly a top priority on my list/fave place . But the mansion is nice to sit in. and close to fireworks..