Archive for the 'Vancouver' Category
Sunday, November 2nd, 2008
Jerry and I decided to meet up and go for lunch one day when I was working downtown. We decided to go to Sciue because it was kind of between our two offices and we wouldn’t feel too rushed during our lunch. I had gone to Sciue once with Victoria quite a while back and went away feeling the pizza was too hard and not too tasty. We suspected at that time it was because Sciue was more of a lunch/day time restaurant and since we went towards closing time, the pizza was no longer fresh. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try it out again with the rest of the lunch crowd.
I decided to order two small slices of pizza so I could try a couple of different toppings. Although the other lunch items at Sciue also looked quite good, the pizza was obviously the main attraction so that’s what I wanted to eat. The available pizzas are all lined up on the counter and you just need to point to which one you wanted. Because the pizza was priced according to weight, you could specify as big or little of a piece as you wished.
I was in a seafood mood that day so I decided to have the smoked salmon and prawns pizzas. Looking back at my pictures, I guess they were both kind of similar since they were both on beds of greens. :) They both had their unique tastes though although next time, I’ll try to pick something more contrasting in flavours.
Of the two, I enjoyed the smoked salmon version a bit more. The creamy texture of the smoked salmon went well with the crunchy greens and the light tomato sauce. The shrimp version had a familiar taste to it, although I had never had such a pizza before. The crust was crisp and light but as I chewed the pizza, the slightly chewy middle of the dough provided a nice contrast.
Along with my San Pellegrino Aranciata drink, my lunch cost around $9. Although not the cheapest of workday lunches, I think it was a good value for what I got. I’m glad that I gave Sciue another try during their peak hours because the taste of the pizza was completely different from the first time I went. Line-ups during lunch were also quite long (we waited around 10-15 minutes in line) so it’s best to go a bit early if you are in a time crunch.
Note: When I was walking through Yaletown last weekend, I saw that another Sciue had opened up at 126 Davie St across from Urban Fare. Although I haven’t tried it yet, I assume it to have the same type of food as the Pender Street one. Leave a comment if you have tried this new location!
Details:
110-800 Pender St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-602-7263
Summary:
Food: 
Service: n/a
Price: $
Posted in Vancouver, Lower Mainland Cities, Italian, Reviews | No Comments »
Thursday, October 23rd, 2008
At Victoria’s recommendation, a few of us decided to meet up for dinner at Plan B in Yaletown when Lawson was visiting. None of us had been to Plan B before so our server helped us walk through the menu. Although there are some meal-sized entrees, most of the dishes at Plan B were tapas style and were best shared.
We decided to each pick one or two dishes that piqued our interest from the menu. I’m always a big charcuterie fan so I decided to pick that. :) The mix of cured meats also came with some lightly buttered crostini, pickles, olives. The salami-type meat on the right (below) was pretty standard but sometimes it’s nice to have something familiar. :) I enjoyed bundling the meat with a pickle and then pairing it with either a crostini or olive…or sometimes even both.
The salade nicoise was another one of my picks. The tuna chunks were lightly grilled and very fresh tasting. My favourite part about this salad was the very lightly cooked egg which served as a salad dressing of sorts. We broke the yolk and spread it over the salad. Although it may sound a bit odd, it was quite tasty and imparted a nice creamy flavour over the salad.
The seared steak was another great choice. We seemed to be on a roll with picking our dishes that day. :) The steak was thinly sliced and served on a bed of spinach with fingerling potatoes and tomatoes. The potatoes were nicely roasted with a slightly caramel-like skin. There was also a small dollop of grainy mustard and a smear of horseradish sauce. I normally don’t like horseradish sauce but it had a very mild taste which I enjoyed quite a bit.
Victoria chose the Croque Monsieur, which came with a side of fries. If you are trying to be healthy, this probably isn’t the best choice. I had Croque Monsieurs a few times when I was in France and it seemed to be a popular street food. This version was fancied up a bit but was basically a French version of a grilled cheese sandwich. The only difference was that the cheese was on the outside. :) I’m not sure if mustard is included in the traditional version of this but I found it gave a slight punch to the sandwich. The fries were lightly seasoned and not too oily, which I liked.
We also decided to order some mussels to round out our main dishes. The mussels were steamed in a roasted tomato and saffron broth. Although this was tasty, I felt that the saffron flavour could have been a bit stronger. The mussels themselves were quite fresh and juicy. The bread was a bit charred but had a nicely chewy texture that prevented it from getting soggy when dipped in the broth.
We were finally ready for dessert. I’m a big lemon dessert fan so I decided to go with the lemon tart. There was also a big dollop of lavender foam, which was separated from the tart by some raw chocolate or cocoa bean pieces. Although I couldn’t taste the lavendar in the foam, its bubbly lightness actually made for an interesting texture contrast with the lemon tart. The slightly bitter cocoa bits actually brought out the lemon flavour of the tart, which I also found interesting.
Victoria chose the coffee and rosewater creme brulee. I can’t remember her exact comments about the creme brulee but she did enjoy it quite a bit. The churros were also something different and its crunchy texture provided quite a contraste with the creaminess of the creme brulee.
John was looking for something on the lighter side that day so he decided to go with trio of sorbets and ice creams. Our favourite flavour was definitely the passion fruit (below left). Its flavour came out very strongly and really made you feel like you were somewhere tropical. We also liked the coconut, although it didn’t even taste like coconut. 
Plan B was pretty quiet when we were there for dinner. If you eat there between 4-6PM, you can also get extra points if you book the reservation through OpenTable.com. The dishes are on the small side though so you should be prepared to order more than one dish per person unless you are not very hungry. They also seem to change up their menu choices occasionally so you may want to check what’s on the menu to see what’s in season.
Details:
1144 Homer St, Vancouver
604-609-0901
Summary:
Food:
Service: 
Price: $$ to $$$
Posted in Tapas, Vancouver, Lower Mainland Cities, West Coast, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
Jenkins and I met up with Jenkins’ parents one weekend afternoon for some dim sum at Golden Ocean in Kerrisdale. Although I’ve come here before, it’s usually for dinner and it was the first time I had been there for dim sum in quite a while. Because Golden Ocean is one of the few dim sum places in the Kerrisdale area, it’s almost always packed during meal times. Lucky for us, that day, we only had to wait about 10 minutes before we were seated.
Jenkins’ mom was responsible for ordering most of the items that day. First came one of Jenkins’ favourites: pan-fried pork buns. It looked quite tasty but the bun part was a bit mushy. The pork part was quite tasty though and went very well with the red vinegar dipping sauce.
Next came the har gow shrimp dumplings. These were nicely steamed with the rice wrapping skin having some nice elasticity to it. It sucks when the skin is over-steamed and it starts to melt away when you try to pick up the dumplings with your chopsticks.
I had never had these pan-fried turnip cakes before but they were one of my favourite items of the day. The toasted sesame seats on top added a nice roasted and nutty flavour and the puff pastry was flaky but not too oily. I’d definitely order these again.
I’m not sure what these are called in English but they are bean curd rolls with minced pork and some veggies inside. Some restaurants make this oilier than it really needs to be but at Golden Ocean, there was hardly any oil and it actually made you think it was healthy. :) (Or should I say healthier…)
The sui mai pork dumplings were also quite tasty. It was a bit smaller than I was used to but the pork and shrimp had a nice crunchiness to it.
These shrimp dumplings also had garlic chives in it which gave the dumplings a mild garlic flavour. It only had three pieces though so the four of us had to share.
The stamed spare ribs with black bean did not have too much black bean taste but had a great garlicky flavour to it. I think it would have gone really well with a bowl of rice.
It doesn’t seem like we ate too many dishes but I’m trying my best not to overeat at dim sum these days. I figure that way, I’m able to go to dim sum more often without it being too unhealthy. :) If you are ok with waiting a bit to be seated or are able to go earlier in the day, dim sum at Golden Ocean is always a good option.
Details:
2008 W. 41st Ave, Vancouver
Tel: (604) 263-8886
Summary:
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Service:
Price: $$
Posted in Vancouver, Dim Sum, Lower Mainland Cities, Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
Jenkins and my wedding date is drawing closer and closer so it was time for us to make a visit to Ganache Patisserie. We ended up picking Ganache and the intrepid Peter Fong to make our wedding cake because of all the places we went to, it offered the most interesting types of cakes and also wasn’t your traditional wedding cake offering.
Even though we tried a bunch of flavours at our first tasting, I still had trouble picking what flavour I wanted for our cake. I also couldn’t decide if I should stick with one or multiple flavours. :) So after our follow-up consultation with Peter to determine the cake design and all the other details, I bought a couple more cakes to try.
I didnt’ remember seeing the tiramisu the last time I was at Ganache so I decided to give that a try. The cake base on the bottom was soaked with a coffee liqueur and the rest of the tiramisu had a creamy texture with the slightest hint of coffee and chocolate. Although this was very tasty, we figured a lot of people have had tiramisu before and we wanted something more unique for our cake.
I don’t remember the exact name of this cake but it was a chai tea flavoured cake. The taste was definitely unique with layers of cake alternated with creamy mousse-like layers. The chai taste was mild but could definitely be tasted.
Both the cakes we tried that day were very tasty, but in the end, we decided to go with the Chocolat-Banane cake. It was unique but not so crazy that our guests wouldn’t want to try it. I can’t wait to see how our cake turns out and how our guests will like the flavour we chose.
Details:
1262 Homer St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-899-1098
Posted in Vancouver, Lower Mainland Cities, Cake, Wedding, Dessert | 1 Comment »
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Despite my less than impressive bubble tea outing at Corner 23, I decided to give it another try and went there for dinner with Ann and Karen. I had noticed from the last time I was there that most people had some food along with their drink, so I figured it would be good.
Ann ordered some deep-fried crispy chicken for the three of us to share. This is always one of my favourite appies to order at Taiwanese restaurants even though it is definitely not the healthiest. :) The chicken was very crispy and had the slightest hint of spiciness.
I decided to go with the three cup chicken with rice meal. Three cup chicken got its name because it is made with three main ingredients: one cup each of soy sauce, sesame oil, and rice wine. I enjoyed this version quite a bit because it was not too oily. The deep fried basil probably was not the healthiest but was very tasty. Several of the meals at Corner 23 also include some side dishes, such as pickled vegetables and broccoli.
I had a blueberry green tea with my meal and surprisingly, this time, it was very good! The blueberry flavour was nice and I think it went well with the green tea base.
Karen was feeling a bit sick so she went healthy with a seafood hot pot with vermicelli noodles. There was quite a variety of seafood included and a swirly egg as well. I’m not sure how good this would be normally but it was quite suitable for a sickish person.
Ann chose the deep-fried pork chop with rice. If I recall, it was about $8 and as you can see below, was enough food to feed a very hungry person.
I must say that this visit to Corner 23 was much better than my first visit. I went back another time after this and the food was still quite tasty. I suppose they’ll have to work on their consistency if anything else, but in general, both the service and food at Corner 23 are a good value for your money.
Details:
4008 Cambie St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-709-9788
Summary:
Food:
Service:
Price: $
Posted in Vancouver, Taiwanese, Lower Mainland Cities, Asian, Chinese, Reviews | No Comments »
Thursday, July 31st, 2008
Tricia and I decided to meet up one day for a cookie baking session but first, we had to grab some dinner. We decided to go to Hawker’s Delight by King Edward and Main because it was a cheap and fast option. I had never been to Hawker’s Delight before because I always tried to go on a Sunday afternoon and it is always closed at at time. Speaking of which, if anyone knows what the hours are, please let me know.
The menu for Hawkers is not too large but has a good mix of items. Most items have pictures posted on the walls, which make the ordering process quite easy. If you look closely at the picture below, you’ll see that most items range between $4.50 to $6.50. The portion sizes are enough to feed one medium hungry person, which is generally good enough for most people.
Tricia and I decided to share a couple of dishes. For most dishes, they will ask if you want it to be spicy or non-spicy. We opted for medium-spicy, which was actually fairly spicy. First came the Mee Goreng, which was a vegetarian fried noodle dish. The egg noodles were stir-fried with bok choy, carrots, bean sprouts, and some other veggies.
Next, we had the Nasi Goreng. This was basically the Mee Goreng but with rice instead of noodles. :) What I liked the most about the fried rice was that it had little chunks of potatoes. The potatoes added a nice texture to the rice. Even though we had asked for medium spicy for both dishes, the noodles were definitely spicier than the rice. I guess this place still needs to get its ISO-9001 certification. :p
I enjoyed Hawker’s Delight quite a bit. It’s definitely grungy and there is definitely better Malaysian food at other restaurants. However, it is great value and the food tastes better than what you would expect for the price. :) It’s also an excellent alternative to other fast food cheap eateries around the city.
Details:
4127 Main St, Vancouver
Tel: 604-709-8188
Summary:
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Service:
Price: $
Posted in Vancouver, Lower Mainland Cities, Asian, Reviews | No Comments »
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