L.A. Grill and Bistro

August 20, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Curry Penne served with Garlic Bread – olives, tomatoes & onions in curry cream sauce

Grilled Chicken Pesto Sandwich – toasted whole wheat bread with grilled chicken breast topped with house-made pesto, melted mozzarella, served with roasted potatoes & green salad

L.A. Grill and Bistro used to be a place I went with my friends back in high school. It was cheap with large portions, and their daily specials always attracted us back when we were students. Especially since I’ve moved away from that neighborhood, I haven’t been to Blundell Mall for quite a while. It’s kind of out of my way, but since I hadn’t had it since..probably high school, J and I decided to revisit it.

I got the Curry Penne, which was alright. The curry soup is definitely not the curry you get at Asian restaurants. It’s the westernized curry, which isn’t my favourite compared to Asian curry, but still not bad. All that pasta totally filled me up though.

You can’t expect any high quality food at L.A. Grill and Bristo, but the portions are definitely filling for the price you pay. It’s also got a very nice casual environment, and I think they offer some pretty good deals for late night snacks now too.

Banana Leaf

August 19, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Curry Boneless Chicken – boneless chicken breast simmered in creamy curry with lemon grass, coconut cream

Coconut Rice in Banana Leaf – rice wrapped in fresh banana leaf cooked with coconut milk

Singapore Laska – rice noodle in coconut soup base made of dried shrimps, chili, garlic, lemon grass & turmeric with bean sprout, cilantro, tofu, egg, chicken, fish-cake, squid & shrimps

After hitting up Bella Gelateria, we went on Davie Street, since I wanted to try Thai Basil. Sadly, it was going to close in about an hour or so, and the seating was very limited. So off we went to explore what food there was to eat on Davie. And there was a lot! Such a busy street. We ended up at Banana Leaf, since it was still sort of Thai/ Malaysian – well it’s supposed to be Malaysian, but close enough. It was actually already pretty late for dinner time, but the place was still quite full. It’s dim inside, and you get a pretty Malaysian feel to it.

I got the Singapore Laska, which was actually quite delicious. I’m always kind of unsure about places that seem pretty westernized, just because I feel like the food may not be as authentic and probably just catered for the Canadians. But the laska was actually quite comparable to many of the laskas I have tried at other Asian restaurants. I loved the tofu puffs and fish-cake, and there was a large abundance of ingredients. The soup was really nice with a hint of coconut flavour, and wasn’t so spicy that I couldn’t eat it.

Good food and service! I believe it’s a chain restaurant, so there are a few more around Vancouver.

Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato

August 16, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender

Espresso ‘La Futura’ – Milano Coffee

J got me a gift card to Bella Gelateria Handcrafted Gelato, and I must say it was my favourite gift card out of all of them! I didn’t even know of this place, but I looked on Urbanspoon after and found it was one of the top places! I was extremely excited to try it since my favourite dessert is ice cream! And so why not get three flavours at once…I wanted more, but the biggest size only contained three flavours, unless I wanted to get a second cup… We got there around dinner time, but it was packed! There was a line up, but it moved fairly quickly as they make you pay first, and then you can try and decide what flavours you want.

So many flavours to choose from, but I knew I wanted to try the Matcha Organic Green Tea, Earl Grey Tea, Lavender, although I still want to try the sesame flavour. Next time! Anyways, The Matcha was definitely my favourite. My next favourite was the Lavender. I personally love anything lavender, as I think it smells so good! It had a strong floral flavour to it, and I found it really interesting. I don’t think J really liked it though. The earl grey was alright too. Not my favourite, but pretty interesting. I find that earl grey flavours are usually pretty bland for most desserts though. J got the Milano Coffee, which was pretty good. It was really strong in coffee flavour.

Bella is a great place to get genuine Italian gelato, and although it is a bit pricey, it is definitely worth it!

Dragon View Chinese Cuisine

August 15, 2012May 5, 2013Leave a comment

Chinese Donuts Wrapped w/ Rice Rolls

Steamed Shrimp Dumplings

Steamed Chicken Feet in B/B Sauce

Deep Fried Squid Tentacle

Mini Sticky Rice Wrapped w/ Bamboo Leaf

Lychee, Goji Berries and Chrysanthemum Gelatin Dessert

My parents decided to grab some dim sum for lunch, and since we were already at Continental Centre, we decided to just go to Dragon View Chinese Cuisine. I’ve been here a few times, but not recently, so I had forgot what it was like. Food was typical and I quite liked it. My family and I both felt that the chef seemed to cook most of the food with less feisty flavours. Most of the dishes were on the bland side, but not to the extent that it was terrible. I actually quite liked it since I don’t like to eat too flavourful stuff sometimes. My favourite was the dessert! It was a gelatin dessert that had lychee, goji berries and chrysanthemum in it. So refreshing on a sunny day!

Service that day was really well. This lady, who I believe was the owner, was extremely friendly and quick. A few days later though, I went back for dinner with some family friends, and the service was just plain terrible! Our server was extremely rude, and in the middle of taking our order, he just told us to hold on and he walked away for like 5 minutes. What kind of service is that? He was also extremely unfriendly when we asked questions about the menu, and he just seemed arrogant. Definitely was disappointed the second time.

Cora’s Breakfast & Lunch (Ironwood)

August 13, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Fruit Cocktail

Jo Construction – 3 eggs (easy over), 3 sausages, and bacon

Toast that came along with Jo Construction

Eggs Ben et Dictine – two poached eggs and ham on an English muffin covered with Hollandaise sauce, served with roasted potatoes and fresh fruit

My parents normally don’t go out to eat breakfast, unless it’s dim sum, but we decided to head down to Ironwood to check out Cora’s since it had opened not too long ago. The service there is…interesting. The people are really friendly, but a little overly friendly that it seems almost fake. They seem to just recite these lines, and it’s almost a little awkward.

But anyways, my dad decided to try their Fruit Cocktail of the day, which was supposed to consist of 5 fruits or something like that. I don’t remember which fruits she said, but I took a sip, and it was alright. Just a bunch of fruits blended together I’m guessing, but not a smoothie texture for sure. It was much more light and watery. For myself, I got the Eggs Ben et Dictine. I seem to always get the eggs benedict at breakfast places, but that’s cause I feel like I can’t easily make that at home. Or at least I don’t feel that I’m skilled enough to do so! It was presented really nicely with fruits covering the plate in a nice presentation. Apparently, at Cora’s, their selling point is that their breakfasts are supposed to be extremely healthy because of all the fruits they add to the plate. But the funny thing was that my roasted potatoes were the last thing I would call healthy. They sure were roasted… Some of them were so burnt that you pretty much couldn’t even take a bite from the side. It was just pure black. I swear I had 1/3 of the potatoes left on my plate because they were just clearly inedible.

Other than that, everything was decent. Surprisingly, the portions weren’t as large as I had imagined. I think it’s probably because 1/4 of your plate is full of fruits, so it’s not as filling. So I would say Cora’s definitely has smaller portions compared to places such as IHop. I was also quite surprised that on a weekday morning, there were actually quite a few tables of people eating.

Hime Sushi

August 13, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Complimentary Edamame – cooked green soy beans

Red Dragon Roll – inside: crunch, prawn tempura, cucumber; top: salmon & avocado with house sauce

Oshinko Roll

Ankake Tofu – deep-fried tofu with mixed vegetable topping

Ebi Mayo – deep fried prawns & yam with house mayo sauce

Crunch Munch – inside: prawn tempura, crunch, tobiko, cucumber; top: grilled unagi, avocado with house sauce

J’s birthday was a while back, so yes this is from a while back too. Anyways, S and I had a whole day of fun planned and of course that included some delicious food! We had a beer tasting fundraiser for Sauder Africa Intiative (which by the way is something everyone should check out!), which was on Main Street, so we had to look for something nearby since we had to go set up as well. We remembered J liked Japanese food, so I did some urbanspooning and off we went to Hime Sushi. It’s a tiny little Japanese shop with pretty much all seats occupied during dinner hours, which is a good sign.

After placing our orders, they offered us a small plate of Edamame beans, which was great to munch on while waiting for our food. We ordered the Ankake Tofu after peering over at the table next to ours, and it was a good choice. It was a great alternative to Agedashi Tofu, as it was sill fried, but felt much more healthy. The vegetables and sauce covered the tofu and was a good change to the usual. S had her Oshinko Roll as always. I chose to get the Red Dragon Roll. I really enjoyed it as there was a crunch to it and it also had my favourite salmon sashimi. Yum! J chose to get the Crunch Munch. I found it to be sort of similar to the Red Dragon Roll, actually just because they both had that crunchy texture. It had grilled unagi on top, so I wasn’t as fond of it. We also got the Ebi Mayo, which I really enjoyed. The batter was light and not oily, which is always a plus. I also liked the crunchy noodles that the shrimps lay on.

Overall, Hime Sushi was not bad. They have some pretty interesting rolls and their food seems to be quite consistent. Not bad!

Cartems Donuterie

August 12, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

On our way to Nicli Antica Pizzeria, we drove by Cartems Donuterie, which is said to be one Vancouver’s best donut shops. S and I knew we had to stop by after desserts, and so we did. And of course we had a little adventure while heading over. We left the car at our paid street parking near the pizzeria, and started heading towards the donut pop up shop. It’s literally only 2 blocks away, and short blocks too, but did it ever feel like the longest walk ever… I have to remind you this is on the edge of Gastown, and not to be judgmental, this area is full of homeless people. And so S and I began to speed walk. Or more like run. We were so desperate for these donuts that we sped down that block to avoid all the sketchiness. We were literally panting when we got there, or at least I was. Shows how much I exercise…

Anyways, we were greeted by a friendly man, whom I’m guessing was the owner. S and I were just staring at all those donuts behind the window. So many choices! But we had just ate. So we decided to choose two! The man saw that we were kind of confused staring at all those donuts, so he offered some help. We told him it was our first time, and asked what were the most popular donuts, and he said the Earl Grey and the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. And so we got those two. He was really nice, and actually gave us two Earl Greys. He said that he had made a batch of them that were smaller than usual, and so he gave us two of those instead. But when I looked at them, they were still pretty big! So nice of him. Anyways, I forgot to take pictures of them, since I was too excited to eat them, but you can see what they look like on their website. We basically ran back to the car again…excited to try these donuts.

The Earl Grey was oh so delicious! It’s a cake donut infused with organic earl grey tea, topped with earl grey glaze and a sprinkling of rose petals. I’m a fan of earl grey or green tea when I go for high tea so this was perfect for me! The earl grey wasn’t too strong, and I liked that, and the rose petals on top were perfect with the hint of floral aroma. Floral teas are also one of my favourites, so this was like full of goodness!! Next up was the Maker’s Bourbon Bacon. Bacon? Yes Bacon on a donut. (I’m still waiting to try Bacon Gelato by the way…) But yes, bacon on donut is now one of my favourite donuts! The donut was glazed with the Maker’s Mark bourbon glaze and topped with double smoked house cured candied bacon. So delicious! I love how it was sweet and salty at the same time, but it just worked all so well! Another note to keep in mind: these donuts are gourmet and expensive. They use local ingredients, and are priced at $3.00 a donut! Yes, that’s triple the price of the donuts and Tim Horton’s…

So worth the sweat and run to get these donuts though…

Nicli Antica Pizzeria

August 10, 2012May 3, 2013Leave a comment

Chili Oil and Rosemary Oil

Margherita di Bufala – pomodoro, grana padano, buffalo mozzarela, basil

I hadn’t gone on a food adventure in a while with Steph, so after a school meeting, we decided to go grab some food. I had a gift card for Nicli Antica Pizzeria, so I decided to bring her there to check it out. The pizzeria is located in the edge of Gastown, and although there are very nice looking boutiques and such around the area, the people in the area are still somewhat..sketch if that’s nice to say. We parked on the sidewalk in front of the pizzeria but there were some creepy men murmuring to us! A little scary… Anyways, when we got in, the place was totally different from the outside. The outside looks all antique and vintage, but the inside was clean and modern. I loved how everything was white with pops of red. So pretty!

We didn’t exactly know what to order since after reading the menu, we were still pretty confused. Most of the ingredients were in Italian, and I was just plain confused. We decided to ask our server what she would recommend. She suggested us to try the Margherita di Bufala as it was one of the most popular, and so we did. Basically, they make Neapolitan pizzas, which I’m still not too sure what exactly it is, since I didn’t really do much research. I read it briefly somewhere online though, and I think it has something to do with the crust and how they actually heat it using a special oven or some sort. And wow, the crust was actually so thin! The ingredients were also extremely fresh. You could tell the tomato sauce and the buffalo mozzarella were fresh. When you take a bite with the basil leaf on top, it was really good too! I did find that the crust got a little tough at the bottom after the pizza sat for a while. You could tell especially, when you tried to use a knife to cut it, and it became really difficult to slice. Parts of the crust were also a little burnt, which gave it an ashy taste, that I didn’t quite like. But other than that, the pizza was extremely delicious. The pizza is also large enough to share with 2 – 3 people, although we saw many tables ordering one pizza for each person.