Dino Gelato Italiano – Barcelona (Sant Cugat)

November 23, 2013December 10, 2014Leave a comment

My partner school Esade isn’t situated right in city centre, but in a rich and less lively district called Sant Cugat. It takes around 30 minutes from city centre to this little town by train and therefore is something I dread of every morning. There are limited restaurants and cafes in this area, but after school, we decided to grab some gelato! Dino Gelato Italiano has a wide selection of gelatos as well as crepes. We decided to get a large tub to share.

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We chose mango, a chocolate mixed with caramel, and raspberry. My favourite was the mango as it was almost like sorbet and refreshing on the hot, sunny day.

Dino actually has a number of shops all throughout Barcelona as well as other cities in Spain.

McCafe Macarons – Valencia

November 2, 2013December 10, 2014Leave a comment

Before coming to Spain, I was told that the McCafes in Barcelona sold macarons! Pretty cool since macarons are seen as more of a luxury dessert, and who would think of McDonald’s when it comes to something like that! However, we quickly found that Valencia was also selling them! S and I decided we needed to try these out. They are around .75 euros each and come in flavours such as chocolate, caramel, strawberry, lemon, pistachio, and vanilla.

We gave the Pistachio and Chocolate a try. I would say that it is a bit more chewy than usual, but they still have the edges done nicely. The cream inside is also not as luxurious as the ones you usually find, but it is decent for the price of them! Worth trying once, but I would probably stick to paying a little more for some good quality ones. I love how the McCafes all have different items depending on which city you are in. I wish they had them in Canada since our McCafe does not have all these amazing desserts like tiramisu and such. Usually just the boring old muffins and coffee.

Anyways, we also went to Paris and saw these macarons, but they were around 1 euro each! So prices actually vary depending on which city you’re in. I guess Spain has them cheapest!

Cantina Mariachi – Valencia

November 1, 2013December 10, 2014Leave a comment

For dinner, we were on the look for something on the student budget side. We headed to the nearby mall for our hotel again, and spotted Los jueves! Yes, it was a Thursday and my Spanish finally came to use. So on Thursdays at Cantina Mariachi, you can get two tacos and a beer for only 3 euros! Not bad at all!

The place has a bit of a Mexican feel to it, but my god the service here is ridiculously slow. I guess I’m starting to get used to terrible service in Spain, but one would think this restaurant was more of a fast food joint. If you want to get quick food here, think again. The servers here, who are young boys walk ever so slowly and watching them move was just painful.

Anyways, our beers came and they came in some pretty cool glasses. Europeans love head on their beers, contrary to what we Canadians like. We usually try to pour our beer so we get the least possible. Here, they try to get lots. Cold beer was still great for a hot day.

Taco Ranchero, Mariachi Taco, Taco Beef with Cheese

The only thing about the deal is that you must get the same two tacos. That was fine with us though, as we all ordered something different so we could try each others. M got the Taco Ranchero, which had veal cooked with mushrooms , onions and green peppers. This was a very difficult one to eat as it was very soggy. S got the Mariachi Taco, which was beef stew with beans. Also more of a wet taco, but still flavourful. Lastly, I got the Taco Beef with Cheese, which had veal steak with melted cheese. Mine was the easiest to eat and I also really enjoyed the veal steak. It was probably my favourite. Each plate also came with a cup of salsa for you to pour over.

All in all, you can’t expect much here, but the Thursday deal is definitely a steal! Just don’t expect quick service.

Rong Hua – Valencia

October 27, 2013Leave a comment

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Yes..who knew I would be eating Chinese food on my trip in Europe. Well, personally, I had tried to avoid it, but M here clearly cannot live without his Chinese food, and persuaded us to try it. We found Rong Hua while walking towards the old city area in Valencia and it was among some boutiques and shops in the La Xerea neighbourhood.

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Surprisingly, the restaurant was filled with Chinese diners, which is always a good sign. I hope they were locals though, because I could not really tell if they were just tourists desperate for Chinese food. The inside definitely reminds me of a traditional Chinese restaurant and the employees were Chinese as well. They also have Wi-Fi here which is always a plus for travellers with no data like us!

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Fried Rice

Of course M would get his beloved Fried Rice. It actually looked pretty decent and was an okay portion. I believe it was under 5 euros, which isn’t too bad I guess.

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Chicken Curry

S and I decided to share a Chicken Curry and we also ordered some White Rice to go with it. It was nice to finally have some white rice again, but the curry was just…unspeakable. It was basically watered-down curry – probably one where you put powder and water, but it wasn’t even thick. You really had to slather the chicken in the sauce to get some flavour, but even with that, it was really flavourless. It was worse than some of the one’s I’ve had at food courts…

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Caramel Pudding

Lastly, S and I decided to share a Caramel Pudding, which is essentially their flan. This was the best of our whole meal. Smooth and creamy, this totally satisfied me.

All in all, I wouldn’t recommend Rong Hua based on what I had. I sense that the food is catered for the Spanish population, and isn’t traditional Chinese food. Oh, how I miss Chinese food in Vancouver so much!

La Surena

October 24, 2013October 25, 2013Leave a comment

La Surena is inside Centro Commercial El Saler in Valencia. This mall was near our hotel and on a rainy evening, M and I decided to look for nearby food. We ended up in the mall and on the floor where all the food stalls and restaurants were. We came across La Surena and thinking that I knew all the Spanish in the world after just taking Spanish100, I decided to attempt to translate the menu. I read chicken and fish and all, and naively thought that I would be having a fantastic meal for a ridiculous price. Yea right… So our meal came to $11 euros and that included 2 large pints of beer.

And this is really what he had ordered… 7 mini sandwiches and a salad for S (which was also the most expensive item on our bill). So apparently on specific days, you can get mini sandwiches for just 1 euro! Yea, and they were filled with all the ingredients I had attempted to translate…So I hadn’t exactly gotten the translations wrong, I just didn’t know they would be coming inside a sandwich…a mini one to be exact. And although M hates sandwiches, he admitted that these were pretty good! The ingredients and sauce inside really made it delicious. I actually wouldn’t mind having these agin to be honest. Just funny how I sort of tricked M into getting sandwiches when I really didn’t know. The place was packed and their other popular items are nachos which are also dirt cheap. This would be the perfect place to grab a quick snack and a beer. On different days, they also have other deals such as a bucket of beer for a really cheap price.

Thai Son Restaurant 泰山越南牛肉粉

October 16, 2013Leave a comment

My parents asked me what I would like to have for lunch before I left to the airport, and surprisingly, it wasn’t Japanese food, but some pho. I guess I had been craving some Vietnamese food for some time, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get some good quality ones while I was gone. Off we went to Thai Son, which is one of my favourites. We ordered two House Special Phos, Deep Fried Spring Rolls, Salad Rolls, and a plate of Grilled Pork Chop with Egg on Rice. The House Special Pho wasn’t too bad, but we agreed that the broth wasn’t as good as the one at Lan. It was a little less flavourful, but ingredients-wise, there was a good amount and the beef wasn’t old. Both spring rolls were done very well, and the deep fried one came with a fish sauce vinaigrette, while the salad roll came with a peanut sauce. Both were filled with lots of ingredients and would get you really full. Lastly, the Grilled Pork Chop with Egg on Rice surprised us as it was a large plate. Pork chop was grilled to perfection so it was tender and the flavours were right on. I also loved that they topped the egg with some grilled onions and when all mixed together, it was just delicious. And there we had it! My last meal in Greater Vancouver in the next 4 months. I can’t wait to share my food adventures with you guys in Europe now! But I have to say, I miss the variety of cuisines that Vancouver offers, because you can really find any cuisine you want, and they are often of good quality.

Vancuver Food Cart Festival 2013

October 10, 2013Leave a comment

Ever since I left for Europe, I have been traveling so much or so busy with school that I have totally neglected this blog. I feel terrible and now that I have finally settled down and won’t be traveling as frequently, I am going to promise that I post at least once a week or more frequently! I am already more than a month behind, hence I am still posting about Vancouver food I ate before I left…

Anyways, in August, I finally went to the Vancouver Food Cart Festival by Olympic Village. I had wanted to go the previous year, but because they only operate on Sundays from around end of June to end of August, I never was able to attend due to my work schedule on Sundays. Every Sunday, over 20 food cart vendors meet at this area along with other craft food, art, and community vendors. There’s music and also kids activities, so perfect for some family fun. I was here, obviously because of food! There were many that I could find right in the hot spots of downtown, but also some that I had never heard of.

Mogu Japanese Street Eats

First up, we decided to try Mogu Japanese Street Eats. I always see this when I go shopping in downtown, but have never came to try it. They are also featured at the Richmond Summer Night Market this year, so it is actually quite easy to try it. I did find that the pricing is quite high for a burger, but to be honest, most of the food trucks price their food relatively high.

Pork Miso Katsu – breaded deep fried pork cutlet, housemade red miso sauce, Asian hot mustard coleslaw

We got the Pork Miso Katsu Menu, so it also came with two pieces of Chicken Karage and a small drink. People have raved that Mogu has one of the best Chicken Karage, and I did enjoy it a lot. It is sweet and spicy because it comes with a house made sweet chili sauce. Definitely enjoyed it and I would put it as one of my top favourites for chicken karage.

This was the Pork Miso Katsu Burger, and the pork was cooked tender and moist. The bread was also soft and the sauce really made the burger stand out. I didn’t necessarily taste much miso flavour, but you could get the Asian feel to the burger.

PazzaRella

Next, we tried PazzaRella which is famous for the Napoletana Wood Fired Pizza. It takes a little while since they actually make the pizza on spot and fire it in the oven. Pretty cool and one pizza will fill you up. So it’s best to share it with a friend if you want to try other food at the festival.

Prosciutto Pizza

We got 2 Prosciutto Pizzas to share between four, and it was more than enough. They are around $11 each, so you can imagine they are quite large. Extremely thin crust and easy to bite and topped with fresh tomato sauce, arugula and prosciutto. I did find that they burnt the edges a bit, so it was a little bitter tasting at the edges, but other than that, it was fine.

Dougie Dog Diner

Dougie Dog Diner seemed to be a crowd pleaser, so E decided to try it as well. They are famous for their innovative hot dogs and they also have their own root beer. Apparently they were on Dragon’s Den, so I thought that was pretty neat.

Charlie Mac Dog – bacon, Mac and cheese, melted cheddar

E got the Charlie Mac Dog which is loaded with mac and cheese and topped with more cheese. He thought that it was alright, but definitely not worth the price though. It’s something you can make at home if you really want to.

Overall, the Vancouver Food Cart Festival is pretty nice if you want to have a collection of food cart vendors in one area. However, to be honest, it’s hard to try every food cart because each item on the menu is fairly large. It’s basically one whole meal, and it’s also quite hard to share the food. There was also an entrance fee, but you got a discount if you went in a large family. Cool place to check out, but probably just once a year. Parking was also extremely difficult to find, and was mostly paid parking.

Tealips Bubble Tea & Coffee

August 23, 2013Leave a comment

J always craves shaved ice, but doing a quick Google search of shaved ice locations in Richmond, I found that most of the best ones seemed to be at food courts. And others, of course being at typical bubble tea shops, which we’ve probably all been to by now. Since most malls close by 9:00pm, the food court wasn’t really an option for me, so I ventured out to look outside of Richmond. I found Tealips, which had pretty good ratings, and although it was a 30 minute drive to Burnaby, I gave it a shot.

The place actually seems to be Korean-owned, and they offer not only shaved ice, but waffles, coffee, tea, and other bubble tea drinks. The place also has wi-fi so you will see many customers with their laptops. The environment actually reminds me of Blenz, except they serve drinks and food other than coffee. It was quite busy the Friday night we went, but we luckily still found a two-seater table.

After placing your order and paying at the cash register, you are given a buzzer, much like the one at the Cheesecake Factory down in the States. I love how Korean restaurants always know how to utilize technology to their fullest. Super convenient and efficient way and customers don’t need to stand around waiting for their orders to be called.

Matcha Shaved Ice

There were only three types of shaved ice to choose from: red bean, match, and cocoa. As usual, I suggested we get the Matcha. They say that their shaved ice is an “Authentic Korean Dessert called Bing Soo”. And they also claim that there is 100% pure Japanese green tea. And it definitely was. Because even the Ice Cream on the top was just vanilla ice cream, but covered with match powder. and the shaved ice was also mixed with matcha powder. You could definitely taste the flavour of the tea and its hint of bitterness. However, it was fine because it was balanced out with the condensed milk and sweetness of the other ingredients. There were red bean, thinly sliced almonds, mochi, and an abundant of fruits. The fruit included chopped up strawberries, bananas, and my pineapples. I really enjoyed the pineapples and it was really sweet. The mochi was green tea mochi that were orginally a big ball and they were cut up into little pieces. They also sold these mochis separately. I wish that they had more mochi in the shaved ice though.

All in all, the shaved ice was quite delicious and refreshing. It is a very large bowl, hence priced at around $9, but is perfect to share with a friend. I hear that their bubble tea is also pretty good, so I would love to come back to try some.