Hubbub Sandwiches

March 25, 2012April 25, 2013Leave a comment

Pork Sandwich

Marinated for 24 hours to be spicy and tender, then perfectly slow roasted.

Such a lovely day in Vancouver, but still pretty chilly. Went downtown to try Hubbub Sandwiches since people have been talking about these gourmet sandwiches. And of course I go on my food expedition with Steph! It was actually their 1st anniversary last week, which is when I went so they were having daily promos and giveaways all week! That day, if you bought any item on the menu that had chicken in it, you would be entered for a chance to win a gift basket! Unfortunately, Steph and I had come here hearing about the pulled pork sandwich and desperately wanted to try that! So no contest for us… Anyways, their concept is that there is “the sandwich” and then your “protein.” So basically, every sandwich starts off with the same base: pickled jalapenos, creamy garlic sauce, romaine lettuce, cilantro, and crunchy caramelized onions on top of a toasty baguette. And then you choose your protein, which they offer pork, turkey sausage, chicken breast, veggie or prawn! You would think how special can a pulled pork sandwich be, but believe me, it was amazing. First bite, i thought the baguette was a little tough and hard for my liking, but the pulled pork which was moist worked well with the tougher bread. It became easier to bite afterwards, and oh did it get really spicy too! I can’t usually take spice, and I could literally see jalapenos in my sandwich, but I still chewed on. The spice gave such a nice punch to the sandwich and the marinade had such a good flavour to it! They even had cilantro and onions in it, which I was never a big fan of, but I ate everything. All the ingredients just worked so well with each other. Now I know why they can just use the same base for every sandwich they make. Portions were also quite filling, as I only shared one sandwich with Steph and was already quite filled. So definitely go try it out when you’re in downtown since it’s extremely close to the shops and skytrain too. $9 for a sandwich is pretty pricy, but it’s definitely worth it.

Miura Waffle Milk Bar

March 22, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Cookies & Cream Waffle
oreo, whipped cream & chocolate sauce

Banana Caramel Waffle
banana, whipped cream, cookie crumbs & caramel sauce

Tiramisu Waffle
cream cheese custard cream, coffee jelly & chocolate sauce

Finally got to try the well talked about Miura Waffle Milk Bar! They are apparently family owned and operated, and upon entering, we were greeted by a very friendly waitress. I believe they are Japanese owned. They basically offer both savoury and sweet “waffle sandos,” which basically means waffle sandwiches in Japanese. They also specialize in flavoured milks and drinks, which I never got a chance to try. I did a little digging on their site and found that they have flavoured milks and yoggy milks. It’s pretty cool since they actually have milk that are flavoured with real fruits and juices, and the yoggy milk are yogurty milk drinks that are thicker than plain milk. Next time, I will definitely try. All my friends got sweet waffle sandwiches since we were really look for a dessert place. However, I believe that their savoury ones are quite popular since most customers had ordered them… I never got to try the Banana Caramel, but I did prefer the Cookies and Cream to the Tiramisu one. I found the Tiramisu to be a little bland since the coffee jelly was not strong in flavour. The Cookies and Cream actually had a good crunch to it and was much more flavourful. Overall, they were still very good, and I would love to try their savoury waffles and drinks next time. The store is quite small, but people seem to always be going in and out, so that’s a good sign!

Aoyama Cafe

March 20, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Seafood Curry Japanese Spaghetti

Seafood Salad

Went to Aoyama Cafe at Aberdeen Centre to have a small little birthday dinner with the girls, and the restaurant was surprisingly quite empty on a Saturday night. I’ve been here a few times when it had just opened and I think they had more customers back then. I had the Seafood Curry Japanese Spaghetti and it was alright. Had a good portion of seafood and had a hint of curry flavour that wasn’t too strong. Nothing too special though, and I’ve had better spaghetti. My friend had the Seafood Salad, which actually looked quite appetizing amongst all the greens. Overall, I think it’s decent for some unique Japanese fusion food, but I think it is a little overpriced for the portions and overall taste. I think I’ve had better pasta, but I have to say, I am always pleased with their service since it’s quick and friendly. They also have awesome desserts and drinks, so I would definitely recommend going for that. It’s worth a try if you haven’t been, but definitely isn’t my go-to place.

The Pit Burger Bar (UBC)

March 19, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Mushroom Burger

I’ve been going to the Pit Burger Bar a lot for dinners when I have exams at school on a late night, and decided to try the Mushroom Burger. Usually they have specials each day which comes along with a drink and fries for around $5, but I didn’t want that day’s special so ended up just getting the burger on itself. It’s okay – probably just really typical A&W style burger, but it was loaded with mushrooms. I guess I was really hungry, so it tasted pretty good to me.

Thomas Haas

March 17, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Caramel & Chocolate Brownie Cake
Chocolate pecan brownie, caramel cremeux and caramel Bavarian

Totally haven’t been updating since I’ve been so busy with school and exams! But I’m back! I’m guessing they usually have specials that they have for a certain time, since they had a chalkboard with specials written on it. And of course I decided to try something new and special! Here’s a Caramel & Chocolate Brownie Cake. It’s supposed to look much nicer than this, but unfortunately I had probably swayed the box around too much, which I guess wasn’t the best idea… But hey, it still tasted great! The caramel made it a little more special than just regular chocolate cake, although I found it a little sweet for my personal liking.There were also pecans at the bottom which gave the cake a great crunch. Be sure to try it out before they aren’t on the menu anymore!

If you want to read about my first experience at Thomas Haas, check out the previous post: http://everydayisafoodday.tumblr.com/post/16270765615/thomas-haas

The Sweet Spot Bakery

March 5, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Friend of mine brought me some sweets from The Sweet Spot Bakery! I’ve been talking about trying this place for ages but they’re closed on Mondays, and somehow I always end up in that area on a Monday, so never got the chance to try it out! I don’t know what the names of these sweets are on the menu, but I’ll give a guess to what I think are in them. Top Left hand corner was a dark chocolate cake, that kind of had mousse in it I believe? Whatever it was, it was delicious! The bottom left hand corner was a hazelnut cake. The bottom was crunchy as it had some type of wafer at the bottom, and a few nuts (I believe they were pecans) along the bottom. Also very good, but I would choose the dark chocolate cake over the hazelnut one! On the right, we have a homemade ice cream. It’s called Malted Kulfi, according to the label, and I really had no idea what it was. So I did some googling, and found that Kulfi is an Indian dessert, that is quite like western ice cream, except that it is not whipped, and therefore is much more solid and dense compared to ice cream. It is also the reason why it doesn’t melt as quickly as western ice cream. No wonder it took forever for me to even be able to grab a scoop! The colourful little grains are what I believe are malted candies. It had an interesting flavour, maybe not something that I’m extremely fond of, as it almost tasted like licorice. But then again, it was interesting! I have never tried a dessert quite like this before. Now I really want to go to the bakery again on my own to see all these wonderful desserts!

Mom’s Grilled Cheese

February 28, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Mom’s Classic: Marbled Rye with Havarti and Double Smoked Bacon
2 Shots of Roasted Tomato Soup – topped with basil mascarpone
Pineapple Pop Shoppe Pop

Sunny day in Vancouver the other day! Okay actually, weather has been acting weird here, with hail and snow in end of February… but this was before that crazy weekend happened…So it was actually a nice sunny day, but windy and cold! Decided to head downtown to try out Mom’s Grilled Cheese! I have heard such great things about them, and who can resist grilled cheese sandwiches… I can just never get them cooked perfectly at home! Did a little google mapping, and realized that it was so close to Pacific Center! I guess I just never walk on that side of the street normally! We approached the truck with a lot of people surrounding it waiting for their food. Apparently, they are only open on weekdays during lunch hours. Steph and I shared a Mom’s Classic, where we got to choose our choice of bread and cheese. We chose the Marbled Rye with Havarti, and added $1.50 for some Double Smoked Bacon! Mmmm, mouths were already watering with the aroma coming from the truck! While we were waiting in the freezing cold, we saw other customers buying shots of Roasted Tomato Soup, and thought it would be a great idea to warm up! Good choice because it was so delicious!!! I’m not sure if it’s just because I was freezing cold, but the basil mascarpone topped on the soup made everything so much better! We waited for probably 5 minutes or more til our food came since there were a lot of people ahead of us, but when it got to ours, they had forgot to put bacon in ours. They however, quickly apologized and redid our sandwich. Something about their friendliness didn’t make me mad about the wait though. It seemed like they had regular customers as they knew each others names, and everything seemed so personalized when they presented your food with your name. They seemed like such fun and friendly people to talk to, and they even joked with customers that they are always illegally parked here, and to look out for the cops… I don’t know if they were joking or what, but they gave me a good laugh. We went back to Pacific Center to eat since it was freezing cold, and yum! It was so good! They also came with two pickles, and potato chips at the bottom that had the Ms. Vickie’s texture, but I think they are homemade. Also tried the Pineapple Pop Shoppe, which was actually pretty good! Reminded me of Jones Soda, with the colour and cool, vintage looking bottle. Really fizzy though, and probably not the healthiest thing. I will definitely be back for some Mom’s Grilled Cheese! I just wish they opened during the weekends!

Trees Organic (Richmond)

February 26, 2012April 25, 2013Leave a comment

Plain Cheesecake and Blueberry Cheesecake

I was craving for some cheesecake the other day on a random weekday afternoon, but everywhere was closed during that time! So I ended up going to the library to buy some cheesecake for Steph and myself so we wouldn’t starve ourselves during our meeting. And by library, I mean the Richmond Public Library, where there’s a little cafe you see everytime you walk by. It’s called Trees Organic, which is also the same one that is in downtown, Yaletown and Gastown! They say that they’re Vancouver’s Best Cheesecake, but I think that might be a little overrated. Definitely not the best I’ve had in Vancouver, but not bad! I’ve had the one in downtown before, and it was pretty good. I had the mango one back then, and at this location, they only had three flavours to choose from. There was the Plain Cheesecake, Mocha Cheesecake, or Blueberry Cheesecake. I always have trouble deciding what to get, so I just decided to go by how many pieces were left in the fridge. The less pieces left must mean that they’re the best sellers… well at least I like to think so! So I ended up with the Plain and Blueberry flavours, with whip cream on the side. The lady working was very nice, although service was a little slow since she was the only one on shift. After a long ride to UBC, I open the containers up to see my whip cream had totally smushed everywhere. Not so appealing, but it was still pretty good! I think I prefer the plain one to the blueberry one, but I think the mango one I had last time was better than these two… Not bad! At least it satisfied my cheesecake craving!