Let's Talk about Food

No more food writing in favour of Teaching for Apples

2011-06-25T02:42:00.000-07:00

I've stopped writing about food to write children's novels and short stories! Find my latest writing and updates here: www.facebook.com/teachingforapples

If you're wondering about the page name, it's the title of the novel I wrote. Pretty self-explanatory, when you learn the story's premise: A girl likes apples so much that she decides to become a teacher, because everyone knows that's the best way to get free apples. You can find out more at the above link. :D

Last meals in Quebec

2010-06-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

So I'm back in Vancouver -- 15 pounds heavier -- after nine months of living, working, and, of course, eating in Quebec. I've already shown you the foods I think you should try in my previous post on 15 things you must eat in Quebec. Now here's a peek at what I've spent the last few days (and literally my last few days in Quebec) eating:

"Quebec pizza" with pepperoni, onions, and bacon; and a side of italian poutine -- which uses meat sauce instead of gravy -- (see above photo) at Restaurant Chez Marius in Chambly. Its presentation expressed my sentiments exactly -- I "heart"ed it. :)

Ice cream at Dairy King, just beside Restaurant Chez Marius in Chambly. The flavours I chose (see below) weren't so great, so I can't really give the best review. One scoop maple walnut tofu ice cream (bleh! -- tasted like So Nice's version, which in turn tastes like eating soy), one scoop crème brûlée (which tasted nothing like crème brûlée, though I asked the vendor if it did and she said yes), and passion fruit granita, which was really yummy.

I recommend sticking with the sorbets and granitas here, which my friend, K, did (see below for her picks -- lime, apple cranberry, and dark chocolate sorbets). I didn't try them, but I think they were probably better than what I got.

The best part about this place is that you get three scoops of ice cream/gelato/sorbet/granita regardless of the size you choose, which meant we were able to buy smalls and yet try three flavours. Not bad for $3.75. If only I had chosen better flavours *sigh*.

Maple-butter-swirled soft-serve ice cream at an ice cream shop in Saint-Jean-Baptiste. My friend told me they had delicious sucre à la creme (sugar cream fudge)-swirled ice cream at this shop, so I was expecting to order one of those. The ice cream here turned out to be maple-butter swirled instead.

This was way better than the one I tried in Vancouver from Annie's Dairy Bar in New West (see here for my Eat Me post). It had way more maple butter swirled into it, so much that I was able to enjoy a pool of maple butter at the bottom of my cone.

Even better, it offered the option of dipping cones in either milk or dark Belgian chocolate for $1.25 more. I had milk chocolate, and my friend, L, had dark. I think the cones would have been just as good without the chocolate.

"Maple Explosion": Maple, maple, and more maple! One scoop maple ice cream with maple taffy and maple sugar pieces, one scoop maple walnut, and one scoop caramel maple (the former two made by Coaticook, the latter by Bilboquet, two of the best ice cream brands in Quebec) topped with maple syrup and maple butter.

The best-tasting scoop by far was the one with maple taffy and maple sugar pieces by Coaticook. All the flavours were so pure and delicious. I'm not sure if you can find this flavour in Quebec grocery stores, as I've only ever seen maple, maple sugar, and maple walnut.

The other two scoops, I could have done without -- especially the maple walnut -- though my first taste of the caramel maple was actually very good.

I had my maple explosion sundae with extra maple syrup (against the advice of the vendor, who said it would be too sweet), and you know what? I wish I had gotten even more maple added, because maple syrup and ice cream make a truly heavenly combination -- though maple syrup mixed into cold milk is still my favourite maple treat!

I actually had this explosion specially-made for me -- the original "Explosion d'Erable" (maple explosion) comes with one scoop of vanilla and two scoops of maple, topped with maple syrup and maple butter. To be honest, I don't know if it might have been better to go with the original, as I never tried the plain maple scoop.

You can try it for yourself at the maple products cart in Old Montreal.

"Grandma-style" hot chocolate (with marshmallows and cocoa powder) from the Chocolaterie du Vieux Beloeil. It looks good, but didn't actually taste all that amazing. I don't think it was made from real chocolate, or at least it didn't taste like it. The marshmallows melted into the drink after a few minutes, which was kinda cool.

I've tried their trio (made with a mix of dark, milk, and white chocolate) and white chocolate hot chocolates before as well, and they were also just okay.

Hot chocolate, cakes, and chocolate from La Cabosse d'Or.

No pics of the hot chocolate, since it just looked like any old coffee cup, but it was actually the best hot chocolate I've had in Quebec, and I've had quite a few. I've had two versions (at two separate occasions, of course): the Vienna, which is made with 70% dark chocolate topped with whipped cream), and the Aztec (I think that's what it was called), which is made with the same chocolate and added spices. Both are reeeeeeeeeeeeally good.

La Cabosse d'Or is famous even outside of the Monteregie region of Quebec. I advise you to stick with the chocolate products, however. I was lucky enough to come on a day when their freezer was broken and they were offering a buy one get one free deal on their cake slices, and I can't actually remember what I thought of any of the cakes (which is not a good sign).

I think their maple one and their wildberry with white chocolate slice were good. I didn't like the sachar cake. I don't remember what I thought of the one with hazelnut and chocolate, nor the raspberry mousse one, nor the chocolate bombe. They were nothing remarkable. But that's just my opinion.

Their white chocolate with vanilla creme chocolate mouse (see below) was quite good.

Definitely stop by for some hot chocolate!

Seven of July plate (French toast, two crepes -- one buckwheat and one plain -- topped with fresh fruit) and fruit cocktail (made with a mixed variety of fresh fruit) at Chez Cora

I was very pleasantly surprised by this meal: the first time I tried Chez Cora, I was very let down by my meal (a cinnamon brioche cooked in French toast batter) with fresh fruit. The brioche tasted stale.

This time around, everything tasted fantastic, especially the french toast. The crepes were so good they didn't need maple syrup -- which was good, since Chez Cora only offers fake syrup, or "electric pole syrup", as Quebecers like to call it, free of charge -- real maple syrup is extra. I was pleased that they agreed to make my crepes both ways, since they tasted quite different and are both worth trying.

So now, rather than giving Chez Cora a negative review, I am going to say that it is a hit and miss place -- when you get a hit, it's a home-run. Just try to avoid the misses. :P

Waffle ice cream sandwich at a brand-new little resto in Mont-Saint-Hilaire. I know it has "Gaufres" (waffles) in the name, but I don't remember it in full.

This was no ordinary out-of-the-box ice cream sandwich. We're talking vanilla ice cream sandwiched between made-to-order waffles, and, in my case, topped with fruit cocktail. I love Quebec fruit cocktail. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's just defrosted fruit. It tastes super-good though.

I also came back another time and had a meal complete with a crepe stuffed with asparagus, ham, and bechamel sauce, a side salad with miso tofu dressing (yum!), and a glass of fresh lemonade. These were all good, but nothing fantastic.

Crêpes bretonne (Bretagne crepes) at the Crêperie du Vieux Beloeil

These crepes were the best I've had during my entire stay at Quebec (and I've had A LOT).

Two kinds of buckwheat crepes (one stuffed with emmenthal cheese, chorizo sausage, tomatoes provencal, and black olives (see left); the other with homemade apple sauce and strong cheddar (see right) -- two of the specialty crepes from the Creperie du Vieux Beloeil, one of the best creperies in Quebec). My dining partner, M, told me that the quality of the sarrasin (buckwheat) is top-notch, because it is more finely ground than those you would find at most other creperies.

... and then came dessert!

This was made with sweeter batter and filled with chestnut cream and freshly sliced pears, topped with whipped cream.

This is a must-try. The chestnut cream tastes incredible and homemade -- nothing like the stuff you can buy in glass jars from the supermarket. We didn't ask to verify, but I'm pretty sure it was homemade, as they used homemade apple sauce in their apple and cheese crepe. This combination isn't actually on the menu, but was recommended to us by our server.

Note that you can choose whatever combinations you would like for your crepes here, if you are prepared to pay for the extra ingredients.

It is very hard for me to enjoy a restaurant a second time around (it's just never as good), so I give this creperie props for delivering such an enjoyable meal during my third visit. My first two visits were in fact just okay, since I ordered a ham and egg one the first time (not much filling in that), and a banana, caramel, ice cream, and rum flambeed dessert one the second time (forgetting I don't like the taste of rum).

This lunch was my last meal in Quebec. And what a meal.

And so ends my posts about Quebec foods, for now...

Yum! (Or, as they say in Quebec: Miam-miam! =9).

UPDATE: After returning to Vancouver from Quebec, I wrote a quirky children's novel loosely based on my experiences in la belle province. The plot: a girl likes apples so much that she decides to become a teacher, because everyone knows that being a teacher is the best way to get free apples. The setting: Mont-Saint-Hilaire, the apple-craziest town in Quebec. Find more on the novel and new stories I have written at www.facebook.com/TeachingforApples

15 things you must eat in Quebec

2010-03-09T17:11:00.000-08:00

Who'd have thought my first trip to New York would inspire me to write about Quebec food? Six days of stuffing myself with "New York food" -- or at least my definition of it: foods specific to New York (re. NY bagels, pizza, cupcakes, egg creams, bialys, pastrami sandwiches, reubens, etc.) -- made me appreciate all the fantastic foods that you can really only find in Quebec.

While I'm still no expert on Quebec food, I have lived in the province of Quebec for the past six months (including Christmas, during which I was able to sample homemade Christmas-only foods at four traditional Christmas dinners I was invited to attend). Living in a city famed for its apple orchards (and accompanying apple ciders, juices, donuts, pies, etc.), and located just 45 minutes away from Montreal's delicious food scene has also allowed me to sample some uniquely Quebecois foods.

For the most part, for me, "Quebec food" beats "New York food" hands down.

Here are 15 foods that should convince you why:

1. Schwartz's smoked meat sandwiches (sandwich à la viande fumée de chez Schwartz`s -- see above picture). Love at first bite. I've had a really good smoked meat sandwich before (several, in fact), but Schwartz's manages to elevate it somehow. The meat just tastes 10x better. You have to eat it to believe it.

I did have a few issues about my Schwartz's experience however, the biggest being the fact that they gave me a fatty sandwich as opposed to the medium I ordered. Unless I'm mistaken, a medium should not contain three globs of fat each the diameter of a fist. As well, the staff took the order for a large group of people before they took mine, despite me being ahead of the group (did they think I stood in line for over 20 min just to take in the scenery?). The accompanying rye bread was also "meh". However, the meat made it all worth it.

If you're not that into meat, it might not wow you as much as it wowed me. What you see is what a get: two pieces of bread, and a whole lot of meat. Mmm.

2. Poor man's pudding, or pudding of the unemployed (Pouding chômeur). Given the amount of pure maple syrup that goes into the best versions of these cakes nowadays, I don't think poor people could afford to eat this. Watching one being made (I saw the process twice) is insane. Once the batter for the cake is laid down, the maple syrup-based sauce is poured on -- the volume of which is equal to that of the cake itself. Once you take the pan out after baking, however, all you see is the cake, because the sauce has seeped in to penetrate every pore of the cake.

The first version I tried of this cake, at St. Hubert, was actually quite quite tasty, though a bit pricey ($4.95). It was actually better than some of the homemade ones I've tried.

The version I enjoyed most was one that was actually featured in Montreal's Chez Ramezay museum`s exhibit on the top ten Quebec foods (the recipe of which we tried before seeing it exhibited). My friend replaced the corn syrup with maple syrup, and it was like my Schwartz's experience repeated with pudding chômeur. Of course, it could have been due to the fact that my friend is one of the best cooks I have ever met. Everything she makes is better than any other version I've tasted.

3. Sugar cream pie (Tarte au sucre à la crème). Not to be confused with tarte au sucre, which has a completely different consistency and taste. Sucre à la crème (sugar cream fudge) is a heavenly type of fudge made in Quebec (see below for longer description). I actually prefer the sugar cream pies you can find at Quebec grocery stores like IGA and Metro, which have a stronger sugar taste. I find that ones from apple orchards, farms, or outside boulangeries have very little brown sugar in them and therefore end up tasting more like fruit pies than anything else. I prefer my tarte au sucre à la crème plain.

For some reason, I can`t find any photos of this kind of pie online, so here is one that someone claims is sucre a la crème (but looks more like tarte au sucre).

4. Sugar pie (Tarte au sucre). Lighter than sucre à la crème pies. For a while, I thought I didn't like these until I ate a homemade one during a Christmas party I attended. When they are good, they are very very good. You can find these in Vancouver at select restaurants, but they`re just not the same.

5. Sugar cream fudge or maple syrup sugar cream fudge (sucre à la crème/sucre à la crème l'érable). Sugar, brown sugar, and 35% cream make up this delicious quebecois fudge. The best one I tried was at a Quebec food festival that was like Quebec`s version of Eat! Vancouver. Homemade is usually better than store-bought.

6. Ragoût de boulettes (a kind of meatball stew with no English translation I can find). The best are simmered for hours, and I have tried the best. This is a traditional dish that people usually only make around Christmas time.

7. Tourtière/Tourtière du Lac-Saint-Jean.

I still haven`t tried one of these meat pies that wasn`t store-bought (it was the one thing no one actually made for Christmas dinner), but apparently the ones from Lac-Saint-Jean are amazing. You really have to know someone from the area who can make one for you if you want to experience the real thing, though. I wish I`d gotten a chance to try some while I was in Jonquière. :(

8. Apple donuts (beignet aux pommes). I`ve had these done two ways: one featured apples sliced into rings (like pineapple rings), then fried in batter and sprinkled with powdered sugar. The second featured apples cut up into little pieces, made into a dough, then fried. Both are ridiculously good, but must be bought fresh from an apple orchard for maximum tastiness! Lineups for these things are insane (around 20 minutes)! Some orchards offer day-old boxes for half the price (re. Denis Charbonneau).

9. Pure maple syrup (sirop d`érable) and related products. In Quebec, using Aunt Jemima-electricity pole syrup (as opposed to the real stuff) could be likened to a crime. Note that maple syrup comes in many grades, all of which taste different -- all the more reason to taste them all. :P

There are also multiple forms of maple: maple sugar, butter, etc. Tire d`érable or tire sur neige (maple taffy, or sugar on snow) is a must-try -- maple sap boiled past syrup form poured on snow, then wrapped around a wooden stick as it cools. You`re apparently a true Quebecor if you can eat seven of these in a row.

10. Maple syrup or Cabane à Sucre ice cream. Forget Breyers maple walnut ice cream or the kind with pieces of maple sugar throughout. Fake maple ice cream is just plain gross in my opinion. If you must choose a commercial brand, I would go with Real Dairy, which I think uses real maple syrup. For people in Quebec, Bilboquet and Coaticook are among the better brands for maple-flavoured ice cream.

My new favourite ice cream flavour is Cabane à Sucre, which you can find in pretty much any crèmerie (ice cream shop) by the scoop. It has real tire d`erable in it, and is absolutely heavenly for those with a sweet tooth. Apparently Bilboquet has it during sugar shack season, and while I haven`t tried their version, I can only imagine it would be as good or better.

11. Ice cider (cidre de glace). One of the biggest perks of living in Mont-Saint-Hilaire has been all the apple products I`ve been able to try. Ice cider is one of the best among them, and I`ve had more free or $1 award-winning samples than I can count.

`Ice cider ... is Quebec's very own creation ... A number of craft cider producers -- centred in the Eastern Townships southeast of Montreal -- came up with the idea of letting their apples hang late into the autumn. After the frozen fruit is picked, its concentrated nectar is separated from the crystallized water around it. Once fermented, the syrupy liquid yields an ultrarich, amber-coloured indulgence -- usually measuring 12 per cent alcohol -- that's delicious on its own as a dessert drink or as a sublime partner for such fare as sautéed foie gras or a plate of crumbly blue cheese and toasted walnuts. It should always be served cold.``

My favourite is a gold-medal-winning one from the Eastern Townships -- I've forgotten the name though. :P

12. Sugar shack meal. (repas de cabane à sucre). No trip to Quebec in March/April is complete without a visit to a cabane à sucre (sugar shack). There, you`ll be able to try a bunch of traditional Quebec foods, all drenched in maple syrup, with the option of adding more (you`ll find a pot of maple syrup at every table).

French Canadian pea soup, cretons, sausages, ham, omelettes, oreilles de crisses (`Christ`s ears`, salted and fried lard, or pork rind), fèves au lard (pork and beans), sugar cream pie, crêpes, eggs, bacon, and grand-pères au sirop d`érable (deep-fried dough cooked in maple syrup were offered at the sugar shack I visited). Consider yourself lucky if you find one serving eggs cooked in maple syrup, and other cabane specialties.

Menus vary, with some shacks serving as much as 14 kinds of desserts, etc.

Some are buffet-style, while others bring your food to you.

Usually maple taffy is included in the price; sometimes it can be around $4.25 extra. I'm against that.

Word of warning: sugar shacks vary in quality. The one I went to was mediocre (re. the sausages were store-bought vienna sausages, and the food all just tasted okay). I can`t complain because it was free -- I volunteered for a daycare outing. Do your research before you go. Small, traditional, family-run cabane à sucres (serving 30-60 people) are probably best. If you`re looking for entertainment, you could go to a larger one, but the food quality will probably go down with capacity.

Word of advice: Do put maple syrup on everything, and I mean everything. A cabane à sucre is pretty much the only setting where you're actually encouraged to do so, and everything they serve tastes better with more. I recommend adding syrup to a glass of milk -- it was my favourite thing at both sugar shacks I visited, though it was something I mixed myself. Everyone who tried it agreed it was a super-delicious combo. Pure A-grade maple syrup eaten plain with a spoon is also worth trying. :P

13. Montreal-style bagels. Hand-made and baked in a wood-fired oven, these bagels are smaller, sweeter, and denser than New York bagels, and I find them wayyy better. The two major places to buy these are Fairmount and St. Viateur. I prefer Fairmount`s softer texture and greater variety of flavours. Purists will go for sesame or poppy seed, however. My advice: go for whatever`s fresh.

14. Crêpes bretonne style -- These crêpes aren't rolled -- they're folded into squares. I recommend going to the Crêperie de Vieux Beloeil for this treat. You can choose to have it in a savoury traditional sarrasin (buckwheat) form or sweet (sucré). This creperie has the biggest variety of flambéed crêpes I've ever seen, and yes, they do light them up in front of you. I thought mine was just ok, because I ordered a flambéed one with bananas, caramel, and rum, and forgot that I don't like rum. :P

15. Poutine. Heart-attack in a bowl, and perhaps the most famous food in Quebec. In Montreal, La Banquise is known for its huge variety (24 kinds of poutine!), and Patati Patata is known for using wine in its gravy. Having tried both, I actually preferred my poutine at Chez Ashton, though it's probably not even close to the best in Quebec -- the cheese was so fresh it squeaked at every bite. Also, if you ever end up in the Saguenay, Lac-Saint-Jean area, there's a restaurant in Jonquière that makes superb barbecue sauce poutine. Mmm. Fromagerie La Bourgarde at Thetford Mines is supposed to be fantastic for poutine (too bad I didn't learn that until after I finished my tour of and left the town!).

If you want more suggestions for good poutine, check out this thread: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=16788998298&topic=5396

Don't eat this too often!

Some other Quebec foods worth trying:

Yule log (Bûche de Noël -- see above) -- cakes designed to look like a Yule log, served during the Christmas season. I think they taste rather ordinary. I've tried the roll (like Swiss rolls), mousse, and ice cream kinds, and prefer the last version. My friend's version was the best I've tried -- a flourless hazelnut cake with gingerbread trees and bears (see below).

Cretons. A pork spread containing onions and spices, similar to French rillettes.

Ground cherries (cerise de terre) grown in Quebec (I prefer the taste of these to the ones grown down south).

Maple wine (vin d`erable) or Ground cherry liquer (liquer de cerise de terre)

Pommettes d'amour (crab apples in syrup). So simple, yet soooo delicious. Basically, tiny, sugary crab apples drenched in syrup.

Bavette (flank steak or sirloin tip, according to chowhounders). I had a home-grilled one -- best steak I've ever had.

Pâté chinois (Chinese pie). French-Canadian version of shephard's pie (layered ground beef, corn, and mashed potatoes). This actually counts as Quebec cuisine. The explanation for the name I was given was that this was what was fed to Chinese railway workers in the past.

If you think of a food in Quebec that worth mentioning (and worth me trying before I leave the province in June), don`t hesitate to comment and let me know. I would appreciate the tips. :)

Just please don`t tell me I missed BeaverTails (Queues de Castor): those originated in Ottawa, Ontario, AND you can find them in Vancouver, either by that name or by "Whale Tails". :P

UPDATE: After returning to Vancouver from Quebec, I wrote a quirky children's novel loosely based on my experiences in la belle province. The plot: a girl likes apples so much that she decides to become a teacher, because everyone knows that being a teacher is the best way to get free apples. The setting: Mont-Saint-Hilaire, the apple-craziest town in Quebec. Find more on the novel and new stories I have written at www.facebook.com/TeachingforApples

Great eats in the Philippines

2009-07-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

I'm baaack!

Ten days in the Philippines, and I gained 5lbs -- that's only possible when you're me! :P I was only able to check off three things on my to-try list (espasol, taho, and the Spirals buffet at the Sofitel hotel again) -- but that's okay, because everything I did have more than made up for it.

My many awesome relatives know the Philippine food scene even better than I know Vancouver's, and between visiting and hanging out with them all, I sampled much of the best foods -- at the best places -- the Philippines has to offer.

My first dinner there featured the best roasted chicken (see above) in the Philippines, from Savory Chicken`s Chinatown location. I thought it was amazingly good even before my aunt told us this as we ate it at her kitchen table (I'd thought it was homemade). It was juicy and flavoured with this excellent marinade -- but I liked the saba (fat bananas) chunks that came cooked with it even better; at first I thought it was weird that they'd cook the chicken with the saba, but the sauce made them super-tasty.

There was also homemade bicol express (a stew made with long chilies, coconut milk, shrimp paste, onion, pork, and garlic; see above), fried bangus (milkfish; see below), and more -- a great way to start my trip.

Breakfast featured a different menu every day. There's no way I'll be able to cover everything I ate over ten days, but some of the best foods I had for breakfast included liverwurst with bread (I forgot the brand, but it way better than the liverwurst I had in an open-faced sandwich at the Scandinavian festival in Burnaby last month), bola bola siapao and congee from Ling Nam, misua (salted Chinese noodles made from wheat; see below), fresh pandesal from Pan de Manila, atis (a delicious fruit also known as a sugar-apple, or sweet sop, that's way tastier than a soursop, which I also tried), leftover wedding cake from my cousin's wedding (a carrot fondant cake), and turon (not a breakfast food, but made the morning we left so we could try some).

Freshly-made turon -- saba (plantain) and jackfruit wrapped in a lumpia (springroll) wrapper, dipped in brown sugar, then fried (see below) -- is sooo good. The ones we had at my aunt's were double the length of the ones featured, and way better than any of the ones I've tried in Vancouver.

Lunch involved a lot of tasty home-cooked meals and eating out. One of the best places we ate at was the Highland Steakhouse (reputedly the best steakhouse in the Philippines, exclusively open to Tagaytay country club members) in the Tagaytay Highlands. Unfortunately, in a sudden lapse of judgment, I ordered fish (doh!) for my entree, because I was sitting next to my aunt, who I didn't know at the time didn't eat beef, who was inquiring about all the other menu items and made me forget that we were in a steakhouse. :S I think I will be kicking myself about not ordering a steak for a long time to come. :(

I had a bit of the best prime rib and barbecue baby back ribs I've ever tasted off my mom and little sister's share plate, and some pretty good lamb chops from my aunt. I had the cheesecake below for dessert. It wasn't particularly good, and neither was my fish (I think it was a pan-fried Mexican sea bass), which was bland, and came with pasta in a sauce I didn't like. It didn't taste any different from the fish I eat at home, but apparently, it's (according to our server) the best thing out of all the restaurant's non-beef options -- bottom line: order the steak!

The two salads we ordered to start (a garden salad and a smoked salmon caesar), which had vegetables and fruit fresh from the gardens of Tagaytay, were both really tasty.

I also had a taste of my cousin's clam chowder, which the restaurant is also apparently known for, and a scoop of my aunt's pumpkin soup. The clam was creamy and quite good, but I liked the pumpkin soup better. I love pumpkin, and the soup wasn't so rich as to make me feel slightly queasy like most cream-based soups do.

Another really good place we ate at was Ristras, a relatively expensive new Mexican restaurant, where I actually really enjoyed the food.

If you read my post on Dona Cata's Mexican Foods in Vancouver, you'll recall that I'm not much of a Mexican food fan. In fact, I tend to end up disappointed every time I go out for Mexican, no matter what I order. From tacos, fajitas, mole, and enchiladas, to deep-fried ice cream, nothing (apart from the delicious torta subs at Duffin's donuts and lamb meat in the lamb tacos at Dona Cata's) I've tried has ever really made me go "mmmmm".

At Ristras, aside from the sugarcane lemonade (made from fresh sugarcane and lemons), which I thought tasted weird and didn't really enjoy, I thought everything was delicious, especially the gigantic burritos they are famous for (see below for one of the fajita burrito options with the chicken and cilantro rice).

For fillings (see below for a making-of-a-Ristras-burrito photo -- I got hungry just watching one after another being put together), you can choose from two different kinds of rice (cilantro lime or chorizo brown rice) and four different kinds of meat (steak, chicken, pork, or beef) -- high-quality and deliciously marinated, and opt for black beans (a regular burrito) or sauteed green peppers and onions (a fajita burrito), and red or green chili, or have all the choices in a fajita burrito bowl like I did.

I actually don't recommend doing this; instead, I'd go with a friend, order a burrito with two meats and one kind of rice, have it halved, and split it with my friend, who I would have order a burrito containing the alternative fillings. The tortilla they use for the burrito is excellent and really complements the fillings, and you get a better chance to taste all the ingredients mixed together when ordering them wrapped than when eating them with a fork out of a bowl -- which is great, since everything goes together so well.

Check out the photo (taken from another site, so I can't account for the wonky date -- November 25, 2009?!) below to get a sense of just how huge these things are -- the burrito bowl's on the left and the two halves of the person's burrito are on the right.

The soft shell tacos (basically the same as the burrito, only you get the ingredients on a plate and make them into a taco yourself) were my favourite. The quesadilla (see below) was gigantic and delicious, as was their enchilada, the albondigas soup (steaming, hearty, and filled with meatballs and vegetables), and their yummy nine-layer dip nachos.

I'm happy because now I finally know what good Mexican food tastes like (Canada's just doesn't cut it). The restaurant's chef is famous in the Philippines, having already opened very successful Greek and other restaurants. Though the prices are pretty high for Mexican food (290 pesos for most mains, which is equivalent to around $7 CDN -- veeery expensive in the Philippines, where a burger, soft drink, and spaghetti combo at Jollibee -- a fastfood chain that's more popular than McDonald's in the Philippines -- costs just 80 pesos, or ~$2 CDN), Ristras is the place to be for Mexican food in the Philippines right now, and I thought the food was worth it.

Note: You might say that my review is slightly biased, as two of my cousins are part owners of Ristras (which is why I got to eat so much -- they treated us to almost everything on the menu! :)), but I'm surprisingly not up-playing anything (at least not intentionally). I was actually both excited (because it apparently got great reviews from Philippine food bloggers, like this one, which I read before I went) and scared to try the place, for fear of being let down like I had at so many other Mexican restaurants and having to blog about how it had failed to impress me. My point: If I hated the place, I probably would have just left it out of my post. :P

I also went to the Spirals Restaurant buffet for a second time (hooray!), this time for lunch. Unfortunately, it was not as good as I remembered. The selection was (understandably) smaller, and all the French cakes I had been unable to try the last time I was there (such as Opera cake and Saint Honore cake, with the most delicious caramelized profiteroles) and other desserts like taro pudding weren't available. I did, however, try some of their delicious paella and a mango and banana crepe, and some really good white chocolate mousse. I won't go into this meal, since I already elaborated on the restaurant quite a bit in my last post.

One of the first dinner spots I tried was Max's Restauran t, where fried chicken is the specialty -- so much so that the restaurant's tagline is "the house that fried chicken built." The fried chicken (see below) was fantastic (some of the best I've ever had), but all their other dishes were just okay.

Their halo halo (a popular Filipino ice dessert that literally translates to mean "mix mix") contained red mung beans, leche flan, ube (purple yam), gelatin, bananas, macapuno (coconut) balls, langka (jackfruit), grated cheese, pinipig (crushed rice), sago (tapioca), and maybe more. I had the halo halo special, which means that it came with a scoop of ice cream -- in this case, ube-flavoured). When it was served, it looked like the one below, but halo halo is meant to be mixed, so it got pretty messy after that. While it looked amazing, it unfortunately didn't taste nearly as good. The leche flan didn't taste like what it's supposed to -- it was too hard and way too sweet.

I had halo halo at three other places at the Philippines (some make-your-own-halo-halo at Spirals's dessert buffet that my little sister made, one at Razon's (see below), and one at Chowking.

The one at Spirals was just okay. The ice wasn't very good, as it was pebbly instead of finely shaved. There also wasn't that great a selection in terms of ingredients.

The halo halo at Razon's and Chow King were much better. Both are known for having some of the best halo halos in the Philippines, and both versions are extremely different, so I can't really pick a favourite -- they're both delicious!

Razon's serves its halo halo with shaved ice, leche flan, macapuno, sweet banana, and milk (see below). Their leche flan is to die for -- creamy, melt-in-your-mouth... the best I've ever had. I was sad when I mixed my ingredients and the taste was lost. Razon's claims that you don't even need to put sugar in the halo halo, believing it to have the perfect blend of ingredients. I think it's funny that anyone would need to add sugar to a halo halo, but it's apparently a very Filipino thing to do. A lot of my relatives do it.

Chowking's halo halo (see below) had pretty much everything that the one at Max's had (minus the ice cream, since I didn't pay extra for it), only it tasted much better.

In the Philippines, halo halo costs just a little over a dollar, sometimes going up to $2. In Vancouver, it can go anywhere from $2.99 at Pinpin's (unless they raised the price) to $5.50 at Josephine's and Goldilock's -- and their versions are not anywhere near as good as the ones they have in the Philippines. I wish that Kuya's in North Van were still open (I think it closed just this year) -- their halo halo used homemade ingredients and was pretty fantastic (especially at only $3.50).

If you've never tried it before, I'd suggest forgoing the ice cream (the halo halo special). It takes away from the flavour of the other ingredients, and vanilla flavoured ice cream is often the only option (since ube ice cream is so much more expensive in Canada, while ube and vanilla are the standard flavours offered in the Philippines).

I found this post on the top twenty Filipino desserts as voted by Filipinos, and am happy to report that I had 13 during my trip, including maja blanca, cuchinta, sapin-sapin, puto bobong, puto, ice cream (including Selecta-brand Queso Real), sans rival, buko pandan, pastillas de leche, bibingka, turon, halo halo, and leche flan. The only ones on the list I haven't tried before are banana-cue and halaya ube -- maybe next time.

I recommend every one of the desserts I tried. Mmm... when they're done right, they're soooo tasty! There's a reason why sans rival translates to "without rival" (think crispy, sweet, baked meringue layered with sugared butter and chopped cashews; see below). Fresh pastillas de leche are also melt-in-your-mouth good.

Other desserts I had included lots of baked goods from Red Ribbon (one of the best bakeries in the Philippines). I tried their ensaymada and cinnamon rolls, as well as two roll cakes -- ube macapuno (purple yam and young coconut strings; see below) and halo halo. I also tried the mocha mamon and ensaymada from Goldilocks (the other really famous Filipino bakery). Definitely try an ube macapuno cake from Red Ribbon if you get the chance, and the halo halo cake if you like langka -- they're really tasty and stay soft even after several days.

There were so many good dinners I had that I don't know where to start. We had some fantastic, apparently authentic, Italian wood-fired pizzas -- Al Quattro Formaggi (four cheese) and a seafood one -- and pastas (one with pesto sauce, which I like very much, one with carbonara sauce, and another I don't remember) at Amici. Unfortunately, I had to forego the gelato, as I had an infected stomach and wasn't supposed to be eating at all that day. :(

I also sampled two gourmet pizzas and steak at Chelsea's during another night, where I had the best shaken iced tea ever, blended with real peaches and served in a glass that was as tall as three mugs placed on top of one another. We finished off dinner by splitting a light lemon meringue-like cake, that was ever so tasty.

I also bought a red velvet cake cupcake from Cupcakes, a bakery in Makati. It looked and sounded authentic enough, as it was bright red, made with Belgian cocoa and glistening with cream cheese icing. It was good, but didn't taste like chocolate at all. A friend who's tried it in the States tells me that it's not supposed to taste chocolately, since it's only supposed to have a minute amount of cocoa in it. So yay, I guess I tried real red velvet cake (which I blogged about in a previous post). It wasn't particularly amazing or different.

Other memorable foods I had included some of the Philippines' best pancit palabok from Pancit Malabon (see above), fresh steamed lapo-lapo (or grouper, the national fish of the Philippines), fried pigeon, fresh buko (young coconut) juice, and real lechon , featuring an almost-whole roasted pig -- the head and legs were there, but the body was cut up and ready to serve buffet-style (see below for a photo of a whole lechon).

We visited quite a few Chinese restaurants (including one famous for its peking duck two times), but I won't discuss them since Chinese places don't interest me very much, however good they may be. A difference I will note is that lapo-lapo seems to replace black cod as the fish of choice in Chinese restaurants in the Philippines, and tastes exactly the same when steamed.

I think that the biggest surprise for me during my trip was learning what a huge deal kid's birthday parties are in the Philippines. If you think their hotel buffets sound lavish, you should attend a child's party. My cousin celebrated her two sons' birthdays at the Philippine Convention Centre (not unlike our Vancouver Convention Centre).

The way a birthday party works is, you choose a theme (in this case, Pokemon), hire entertainers (in this case, a magician/balloon animal maker/game show host), hire caterers with food similar to what you'd find at lavish hotel buffets (complete with a full kiddie section and an adult section), and buy lots and lots of great party favours and prizes (enough to last through the more than seven games played, where at times over 20 children might receive one, including huge boxed action figures, and even some transportable chairs, which quite a few of the adults snagged). Check out the photo below that my little sister snapped of the main stage area of the event, during one of the games the kids participated in (a relay race).

Buffet food included spaghetti, kebabs, spring rolls, and hotdogs on a stick for the kids, and rice, inihaw, lechon, tempura shrimp, some kind of chicken, and a seafood and vegetable mix for adults, with a salad bar and misua, and a dessert section featuring maja blanca (corn pudding), leche flan, seven kinds of really tasty mini cakes (including mocha, strawberry, vanilla, raspberry jam, marble, chocolate, and pandan), coconut cupcakes, mango crepes, and the yummiest buko pandan (see below) I've ever tasted.

Before the buffet even opened, kids and adults alike could line up at three stands serving cups of fresh, warm taho, small containers of nachos topped with melted cheese and ground beef, and mini sugar cones of three kinds of homemade ice cream -- cheese, ube, and cookies and cream.

I was especially happy about the taho stand -- my cousin's husband had told me that some peddlers put plaster of paris in their taho as filler, or burn the sugar so that the taho smells better, so I'd never have gotten to try it off the street. It was too sweet for me, and because I don't particularly like white bean curd, tapioca, or brown sugar, I didn't really like it. See below for a photo of the traditional version of this tofu dessert (mixed with a brown sugar and sago (tapioca balls) syrup upon serving), and a Baguio version made with strawberry syrup, which wasn't available, as it's a specialty of the city of Baguio. Next time, I'll have to go out to Baguio city and see if the their version is any better.

The end of the event featured a cookie tree made up of giant cookies on sticks that looked like lollipops featuring various Pokemon, such as pikachu and squirtle. I snagged one, and it was really tasty: a sugar cookie covered with my favourite -- hard icing, like the kind they use at Goldilocks to make the flower decorations for their cakes.

When I first moved to Canada, it took a while for me to get over the fact that cakes from Western and European bakeries make their cake flower decorations from the same icing they use to cover the cake -- it's just not the same as hard candy flowers, which I sometimes like even more than the cake itself. If you have a sweet tooth, you've got to try one. They're individually embedded to the cake with a toothpick.

The Philippines never fails to surprise me each time I return, and I can't wait to come back. Maybe I'll get to try a real inihaw platter (see below) this time -- I love the one at Pinpin Restaurant (6113 Fraser) in Vancouver, so the ones from the Philippines can only be that much better.

If you're from the Philippines or know a lot about Filipino food, let us know what to try where from the Filipino restaurants in Vancouver, or in the restaurants in the Philippines, for when I visit again. :)

Candy-gram: Gone eatin'

2009-07-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm off to the Philippines, and will be gone from June 8 to 20. Whether or not I end up posting on my eating adventures there will depend on how often I'm able to access the internet, and how packed my schedule is.

On my list of things to try are taho, ice desserts from Ice Monster and Jollibee, espasol, saba con hielo (see above for a photo), masareal, dodol, kalamay, bukayo (see left), and Lety's ube and buko pandan pies.

I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to eat at a five-star hotel buffet -- in the Philippines, they trend toward featuring tons of "multi-cuisine open cooking stations", where you can see many delicious items made in front of you, including mouth-watering, made-to-order crêpes (which I tearfully had no space left in my stomach to try).

The buffet I went to two years ago at the Spiral Restaurant at the Sofitel Philippine Plaza (Pasay City, Metro Manila; see here for a menu) was one of the best buffets I've ever tried -- the photos this blogger took don't even begin to capture its vastness.

Below are two of her pics of some of their dessert stations (they had like six or seven devoted to desserts, which included six kinds of ice cream, a halo halo station, about ten kinds of whole French cakes, a bunch of individual cakes and mousses, four kinds of crêpes, three kinds of crème brûlée, fresh fruit, white and milk chocolate fondue fountains, and more!).

This is also a great post about the buffet. At P1950.46 - 2196.11 (depending on the day) per adult, it works out to be $48.76 to $54.90 CDN for dinner. If you're ever in the Philippines for even just a day -- which was exactly how much time I had the last time I was there :( -- I recommend eating there, unless you're on a diet... in that case, stay far, far away! :P

Anyways, if I don't end up posting anything while I'm at the Philippines, I'll be blogging in spirit, like I do at every place I visit.

Check out the caricature I had done a few weeks ago, below. It doesn't look a thing like me -- especially now that I've had a good chunk of my hair lopped off -- and I'm not one to go "Mmmmm" over a boring ham, but that's me, alright -- always ready to talk about food! :)

Let me know if there's anything else you think I should try!

Eat me!: Deep-fried ice cream

2009-07-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

The things I do for my readers!

Over a span of six days, I've tried three different kinds of deep-fried ice cream -- on a full stomach -- just so that I could give you accurate comparison of the three.

My somewhat painful taste test unintentionally began last Saturday, when, after giving up on ever trying deep-fried ice cream at Belgian Fries (1803 Commercial Drive) -- they never have any available when I'm in the area -- I dropped by Andales Mexican Restaurant (1175 Davie St.) and had some chocolate ice cream fried up Mexican-style, with a coating of cornflake crumbs. It was a ball the size of a fist, served in a glass cup, and looked like the one below, minus the whipped cream.

I had it with three friends, and none of us liked it very much -- out of the many things we had to eat that day (which included green tea shaved ice dessert, hamburg, saba, tuna belly donburi, and pumpkin banitzel) it was the dish we liked the least -- S. thought it was too greasy; K. and I didn't notice the grease, but still didn't think it was very good. Deep-fried cornflakes just don't taste that great.

The restaurant had both chocolate and vanilla ice cream options. The chocolate Baskin-Robbins ice cream we went with was the best part, and tasted better alone than mixed with the crunchy cornflakes (which got soggy as the ice cream melted). For $4.99 (plus tax and tip), it wasn't really worth it -- but I was happy because I finally got to try deep-fried ice cream.

So I was super-annoyed when I arrived at the Richmond Night Market today and saw that not one, but two stalls were selling deep-fried ice cream, for far lower than the $4.99 price both Belgian Fries and Andales charge.

I wasn't going to buy any -- given my disappointing first experience, and the fact that I had no one to split the ice cream with, since the friend I was supposed to come with couldn't make it --but it seemed like everyone I passed was talking about the deep-fried ice cream, either to comment about it, to talk about getting some later, or to buy some there and then. I felt obligated to try some just so that I could tell you about them.

By the time I'd decided to do my deep-fried ice cream taste test, I'd already consumed a green tea tiramisu, black sesame crème brûlée, and "red bean sherbet" (a shaved ice dessert with red beans, fruit cocktail, rice powder condensed milk, and strawberry syrup). So I was pretty darn full. (Note: Going to the Night Market without an eating buddy or two is a baaad idea.)

I tried the Japanese/Chinese-style fried ice cream first. The stall was selling two kinds -- strawberry and vanilla. I opted for strawberry, knowing that the other stall only offered vanilla.

Watching ice cream being fried is somewhat disturbing. The ice cream was coated in a white dough that the vendor described as "butter and bread", and then dipped into a huge pot of oil, where it was dunked repeatedly until it was cooked to form a crisp, golden shell. The dessert was served in a cup with a piece of napkin in it to soak up some of the grease, and the grease was very visible when I first got it, though it sank into the dough and disappeared after awhile. I can't find anything that looks exactly like it -- it's kind of like a rectangular pillow of tempura, with no garnish of whipped cream on it or anything. The pic below is the closest one I can find.

I didn't think it was going to taste very good -- it's essentially an ice-cream-filled donut, and when you eat the sections individually, neither part is that great. But when you get just the right amount of each together, oh my is it good.

I recommend doing away with the spoon and just biting right into the pastry and ice cream, as the spoon is really only good for scooping up the ice cream part. It was worth the $2.50 I paid for it. This was advertised as the "promotional price for today only" -- the vendor said that they would be raising the price to $3.50. The signs didn't look like they'd been changed from any other day, however, so if you end up going to the Night Market sometime this summer, let us know if the price really does go up.

Feeling slightly queasy from eating so much rich, sweet stuff, I waddled back to the dessert place where I'd gotten my first two desserts to try their deep-fried ice cream. It was $3 for one dessert, or 2 for $5, so I bought a "dragon" fried ice cream and chocolate-dipped pistachio cheesecake. That stall gives a coupon for free dessert at the Boathouse Restaurant in Richmond for every two desserts you purchase, so I came away with two free dessert coupons.

I had initally thought that their deep-fried ice cream was coated with cornflakes, but the vendor said it was coated with a mix of things. I think those things might have been cookie crumbs. The ball came topped with whipped cream and two chopped quarters of strawberry.

How good their version of fried ice cream tasted was also a matter of getting the right mix of everything in a bite -- without the strawberries and whipped cream, it wasn't that great, but with it, it was quite tasty -- at least better than the one at Andales.

When it came time to go home, I met my little sister, T. outside, and it turned out that she had opted to buy a deep-fried ice cream too -- the vanilla tempura version that I hadn't tried, so I had a bite of that as well. Unfortunately, all I got was a lump of dough with a spot of ice cream melted into it, so I wasn't able to gauge how good that was. T. thought it was alright.

So now I've tried every kind of deep-fried ice cream there is: coated with cornflakes, tempura batter, and cookie bits, with chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla ice cream. Of the three, I'd have to say that the one made with tempura batter was surprisingly my favourite -- I say "surprisingly" because I almost didn't buy it because it looked so unappetizing. It doesn't help that you see it being made right in front of you, so that there's no fooling yourself about its fat content.

The tempura-batter guys don't have a store, and I don't know where else in the city you can get deep-fried ice cream made in that style, so if you're hankering to try some, you'd better head over to the Night Market sometime this summer before they're gone.

While you're there, I recommend trying one of the desserts at the other stall -- I.C. Desserts. Their mini-desserts are all $3 each, or 2 for $5 (with some on special today for $2, as a Canada Day special). I thought their green tea parfait and black sesame crème brûlée were amazing. They torch the crème brûlée right in front of you.

The chocolate on the chocolate-dipped pistachio cheesecake was really good, but I couldn't really taste the pistachio cheesecake. That could very well have been due to the numbing effect all the sweet stuff I'd already eaten before might have had on my tastebuds.

Anyway, I recommend that stall. The photo above is taken from their Facebook site, and all three of the items I mentioned are pictured.

And just so you know, the shaved ice dessert I had at the Hurricane Potato Fries stall was good, but not fantastic, because the ice was more like small pebbles than fine shavings -- and the ice makes all the difference. The toppings were great though -- a huge scoop of red beans, some fruit cocktail and strawberries, a small scoop of rice powder, with big squirts of condensed milk and strawberry syrup on top, all for $3. It was a smaller portion than you'd get at a restaurant (about a cup and a half?), but given the amount of eating you'll probably end up doing at the Night Market, it's not bad.

If you've been to the Night Market (in either Richmond or Chinatown) this year and tried anything particularly good, tell us about it, and if you try either or both of the fried ice creams there, be sure to give us your take.

As well, if you've tried any other deep-fried desserts -- like deep-fried Oreos or deep-fried Coke -- let us know if they're worth trying!

I can attest to the yumminess of deep-fried mars bars and fried jam sandwiches!

Make sure to leave a good chunk of stomach space for them! :P

Who knew: Canada on a platter

2009-07-01T16:18:00.000-07:00

Happy Canada Day, folks!

Time to bust out some maple syrup for your pancakes, opt for a 100% Canadian beef or salmon burger, and treat yourself to a big, chocolately nanaimo bar for dessert.

I don't know what qualifies as "Canadian" food (here's Wikipedia's take), but I did have fun getting food to represent Canada for an art exhibit I made back in high school.

The fast food meal above consists of a burger, some fries, an English muffin, and a straw, all served on a platter.

If creating art were one of my talents, you'd probably have an easier time seeing how it's linked to Canada and attempts to capture all four of my exhibit's themes: optical illusions, hidden images, word play, and Canadian pride.

The burger: Nothing shows Canadian pride like sewing a Canadian flag on your backpack -- unless you're an American trying to pass for one of us (and who can blame them?).

"French" fries and "English" muffin: Bilingualism and our French/English background rock.

Straw: Paired with an English muffin/puck, this hockey stick is just the thing for a game of one of Canada's two national sports, hockey!

Platter: So it doesn't look exactly like a beaver tail, but it beats the one below (though that BeaverTail sure looks tasty!).

Hope you were able to sample some tasty Canadian treats today; let us know if you had anything particularly interesting -- flipper pie, nougabricot, and bakeapple pie come to my mind.

Ask, and I will find: A good paella place

2009-06-24T18:54:00.000-07:00

J said...

Find me a good paella place, preferably in the cheap-moderate price range, good value, family atmosphere, etc :)

May 27, 2009 9:40 AM

According to studyspanish.com, "Paella is a traditional dish of Spain. Its home is Valencia, but variations exist in the different Spanish provinces. A colourful mixture of saffron-flavored rice and various meats, paella's name comes from the paellera, the flat, round pan in which it is cooked. Traditionally, the paella is cooked out of doors, over a wood fire."

I don't know what makes a "good" paella (I've never had an authentic, homemade one before), but I highly recommend the paella at the Diamond Alumni Ce ntre (SFU Burnaby Mountain -- on University Drive East at the north end of the SFU campus, overlooking Indian Arm and Deep Cove), where I tried my first one.

I loved every bite -- from the yummy seafood (mussels, shrimp, etc.) and veggies to the yellow saffron rice. The lemon-blueberry cheesecake I had for dessert was also amazingly good (see below for someone else's photo of it), and I hardly ever find a cheesecake I really like.

I know that the great meal I had at the DAC wasn't a fluke because I attended a wedding reception catered by the restaurant a few years later, and found the food there to be better than any I've tried at other Lower Mainland buffets -- including several more-expensive ones at hotels. I enjoyed every one of the desserts they had available (and there must have been around 20 different kinds!), especially one of the cheesecakes, which was up there with some of the best I've ever had. But I digress.

The Diamond Alumni Centre is one of my favourite secret spots, and not only is their paella super-tasty, it's also one of the least-expensive in the Lower Mainland.

Sadly, I don't think that paella is a regular menu item anymore. I know that the DAC still serves it, because a menu from a Mexican-themed lunch buffet it had back in May listed "Spanish paella" as one of the entrees, but I'd call to check whether or not and when it's available.

I've had paella at La Bodega Restaurant (1277 Howe Street) as well, which neither I nor my dining companion liked. Although the restaurant is known as one of Vancouver's most authentic Spanish tapas places, we found its paella to be dry and unflavourful, with only a small amount of seafood. To the left is a photo of La Bodega's "Paella de la Casa" from its website.

The only thing I liked about the paella was the price -- I remember that it wasn't too expensive -- maybe around $10.95? Back when I had it, reviews described La Bodega's paella as "lacklustre" and "oversalty"; however, I've also seen other reviews that have been more positive, so it wouldn't hurt to try it yourself, as it's quite affordable.

To get a more holistic view of Vancouver's paella offerings, I looked through reviews of pretty much every restaurant serving paella in the Lower Mainland. Sadly, I haven't found one place that garners consistently good reviews about its paella.

Here are some of my findings:

Latin Quarter (1305 Commercial Drive): Apparently, their $45 paella (meant for two people) is their house special. Here's what o ne reviewer from Feb. 2007 had to say: "Disappointing -- flavourless -- boring!! ... My partner and I shared the paella which is their signature dish -- which I guess at $42 [old price] just means it's the dinner with the most profit in it for them. Mussels undercooked, shrimp overcooked, rice flavourless, empty clam shells -- If they think that's how paella is meant to taste they had better go back to cooking school -- I won't go on -- but I definitely won't be going back to this sham of a restaurant. I think enough said about this place -- you have been warned! There are plenty of great choices on The Drive but this one is certainly not one of them." Later reviews and comments all appear to show that nothing has improved over time.

Baru Latino (2535 Alma St.): Their $20 "Paella Classical" consists of "Spanish chorizo, mussels, prawns, chicken and halibut, rice, fresh cilantro and smoky tomato salsa, served with homemade flatbread. One reviewer from May 2008 commented that "... Baru's paella tasted more like jambalaya than it did paella."

Me & Julio (2095 Commercial Drive): Their $18.25 paella consists of "smoked chicken, red wine poached chorizo, poblano peppers and fresh local seafood steamed in a spicy tomato and saffron stew, [accompanied with?] crispy chili plantains." Of the many reviews I found on it, none made it sound particularly good:

From May 2009: "The paella entree was probably the weakest of the items we chose. However, my dear husband liked it. It had nice, fresh seafood and decent flavour -- I just found it had too much broth for my liking."
From August 2008: "The food is good, but I must say I was a bit underwhelmed each time. On my dinner visit we tried the tortilla soup (sopa de tortilla) and paella –- both which were a bit light on the spices..."
From May 2008: "[the paella] was bland and uninteresting. It seemed to cry out for salt, but at the same time one knew that would simply change it, not improve it."

Other restaurants that have had mixed or no reviews about their paella include --

Chivana Restaurant Bar Lounge (2340 West 4th Avenue): They have two kinds of paella. Their Havana-style paella ($21) is a "fresh mixture of shrimp, chorizo sausage, scallops, black tiger prawns, chicken, mussels and daily catch with saffron, pineapple and lime, coconut sauce", while their vegetarian paella ($14) is a "fresh mixture of green peas, broccolini, sugar snaps, snow peas, baby carrots, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, and saffron, pineapple and lime coconut sauce."

Century Restaurant & Bar (432 Richards St.): Their $18 Spanish paella consists of "saffron rice, halibut, mussels, clams, prawns, seasoned chicken, chorizo sausage, lemon, green peas, and sweet peppers."

Senhor Rooster Restaurant and Catering (850 Renfrew St.): This Portuguese Restaurant serves paella that's a whopping $29.95 -- a "rice casserole with mussels, clams, prawns, pork, chicken, and chorizo."

Senova Restaurant (1864 West 57 Avenue): This Portuguese and Spanish restaurant dishes up seafood paella every Sunday. From the description of the Spanish paella they served during their Spring Paella Festival this May, it likely consists of "clams, mussels, shrimp, calamari, chicken, chorizo and porti."

Senova's owner and sommelier, Manuel Ferreira, was invited to prepare pael la for EAT! Vancouver 2009's International Culinary Stage -- which might indicate that Senova's paella should be particularly good -- but I haven't found a single review that mentions Senova's take, except the following review, which also discusses Senhor Rooster's paella:

"I have heard really good things about the food [at Senhor Rooster] from some of my friends. It's not the greatest 'hood but not bad. I also heard that he will make things that are not on the menu if you call ahead and a friend of mine says that the Paella there is fabulous (you have to call ahead for it I think) which is great as someone else told me they were really disappointed in the Paella at Senova. Having said that, isn't Paella a Spanish dish?"

La Masia (19209 Fraser Highway) also serves paella, though you won't find it on the menu. A Spanish friend of a colleague of mine said that the paella there was very good and was authentically made by a Spanish family, so I emailed them about it, and here's what they had to say: "We serve paella when people ask for it when they come for dinner; we make it for two people or more; it is a seafood and chicken paella and it is $30.00 per person."

In the end, I still recommend trying the paella at the Diamond Alumni Centre. I can vouch for its great taste, and it meets all of J's criteria: It's moderately priced, set in a great atmosphere (with a gorgeous view), and delivers great value.

Now that you have a list of the great majority of places serving paella in the city, you can try whatever sounds good to you.

If you have a favourite paella place or have had a poor paella experience, let us know.

Menu review: Marcello Pizzeria and Ristorante

2009-06-23T16:56:00.000-07:00

I don't normally make repeat visits to restaurants. Usually, it's never as good the next time I try it, and if I didn't like it, it doesn't get any better -- even if I really, really want it to be.

So I was a bit skeptical about giving Marcello Pizzeria & Ristorante (1404 Commercial Drive) a second shot, as I wasn't impressed by it the first time I went, despite having heard very good things about it (both from a friend and from online reviews).

Marcello is known as one of the best pizza places in the city -- apart from Lombardo's Pizzeria and Ristorante (1641 Commercial Drive, and 970 Smithe St.). Lombardo's and Marcello actually used to be owned by the same guy -- Marcello Lombardo -- until his ex-wife was awarded Lombardo's as part of their divorce settlement. Apparently, Lombardo wasn't a very honest guy: "... Lombardo had secretly skimmed almost $300,000 from his previous Commercial Drive restaurant, Lombardo's Restaurant and Pizzeria, which he ran with his wife Patricia for years before they separated. Marcello used $200,000 of the money to start Marcello Pizzeria a few blocks away in 1999, the judge found earlier."

Both places have pretty similar menus, and both use wood-burning ovens, though I'm sure Lombardo's oven can't be as cool as the one at Marcello (see below).

The first time I went, my friends S, K, and I split a medium pizza ($13.95). We had one that was half "Marcello" (tomato sauce, mozzarella, anchovies, black olives, capers, and onion -- see below for another blogger's pic of this pizza), and half "Palermo by Night" (tomato sauce, mozzarella, salame, inferno sauce, and baking cheese -- see below for yet another blogger's image of this pizza type).
I was intrigued by the anchovies (which I had never had on a pizza before, and which ended up tasting pretty much like sardines) and the baking cheese. We had one slice of each kind of pizza apiece, and they were good, but unmemorable.

We also shared a small "al quattro formaggi" gnocchi ("traditional Italian home-made potato & egg dumplings sauteed with 4 mouth-watering cheeses and broiled to perfection"; $12.95). I can't find anything that looks exactly like it, but if you picture the gnocchi below without the black specks, with more uniform shapes (a rectangular/squarish, tubular shape) and a whiter sauce, you'll get an approximation of what it looks like.

It was the first time I had ever tried gnocchi, and I was excited, because a friend who had eaten at Marcello had said it was really good. Unfortunately, none of my dining party particularly liked it, although we all agreed that it was interesting. It was just okay, and very rich (we had quite a bit of it wrapped up, since we had to save room for some dessert on the Drive!).

Fortunately, today's meal at Marcello was one of the few times when my second dining experience was much better than the first; from appetizer to dessert, it was all delicious.

I let my dining companion, the talented writer DB, lead the way with the ordering, since he's dined at Marcello many times, and has lived in Venice (though he's not Italian). We started with a red wine and an "insalate pomodoro e cipolla" (a tomato and onion salad with gorgonzola dressing; $9.95).

I actually enjoyed the wine, which surprised me, since I generally don't like reds; I don't know what kind we had though -- from an online list of their wine offerings, it may have been a "Tommasi, Amarone, Veneto".

It's too bad that I can't find any pictures that come close to capturing the salad, because it didn't look any other I've ever seen before (apart from when DB made it during a dinner party, with boccocini instead of gorgonzola cheese). Basically, it was three huge wheels of juicy tomato with gorgonzola cheese smeared on top, on thick white rings of onion, submerged in a pool of balsamic vinegar, with one slice of some of the tastiest foccacia (normally 95 cents for one slice) I've ever had. I'm glad DB suggested it, since I never would have thought to order it, as it sounded quite boring on paper. I did find a pic of one of Marcello's caesar salads, however, with a wedge of foccacia on the side (see below).

Next came the pizza ("thin-crust pizza baked to perfection in [Marcello's] wood-burning oven"). DB was adament that we stay away from the half-and-half option -- stating that it was something introduced for Americans -- so we stuck with a single option and shared a medium "al due formaggi" (tomato sauce, mozzarella, ham, salame, baking cheese, and mushrooms).

It was one of the best pizzas I've ever eaten. I think it had a lot to do with the baking cheese -- DB explained to me what it was but I can't remember anymore, so maybe he'll comment and let us know what it is if he ends up reading this. The Palermo by Night I'd ordered the first time I came to Marcello was supposed to have had baking cheese on it, but I don't think I'd had any on my slice. I feel gypped now that I've actually tried some.

Baking cheese is sooooooooooo yummy. I don't know how to describe it, but it's even better than mozzarella. I wish it had been more evenly distributed on the pizza, as one of the slices on our pie today didn't have any baking cheese on it either.

I can't find a shot of the exact pizza we had, but it looked as good as the professional shot of a Marcello pizza featured below. The crust, toppings, and everything looked and tasted soooo good, and DB thinks it's because we ordered our food right when the lunch rush ended (after 1:30pm), which gave the chef time to get our pie just right.

That's something to keep in mind if you decide to head to Marcello -- the first time I went was during a busy Saturday night; sometimes it pays to eat later during the day.

Our waitress asked if we wanted dessert, telling us that the tiramisu (it's called something else on the dessert menu, but I don't remember the exact name; $9.95) was amazing. Since they were all out of their white chocolate dessert (boo!), and I'd never had an authentic tiramisu before, we split one.

It didn't look like the cake I was expecting -- it came in a wine glass, and consisted of two layers of marscapone with chunks of lady fingers in between, soaked in Frangelico at the bottom of the glass. It didn't have the sprinkling of cocoa on top that I've come to associate with tiramisu. It was very good -- better than all the other tiramisus I've ever tried -- but I wasn't blown away. DB pronounced it very good. I would not recommend getting one on your own, as it's extremely rich.

Along with dessert, DB had an expresso and a grappa, and I had a caffe mocha. DB thinks that there's nothing like a coffee and grappa to end off a meal.

Grappa is "a fragrant grape-based pomace brandy of Italian origin, made by distilling pomace and grape residue (mainly the skins, but also stems and seeds) left over from winemaking after pressing... It was originally made to prevent waste by using leftovers at the end of the wine season... [and in] Italy is primarily served as a 'digestivo' or after-dinner drink."

DB let me take two sips of his grappa (which I'd never even heard of until today), and it was really interesting -- it felt like drinking liquid echinacea, making my nose tingle -- and left a pleasant aftertaste.

The mocha was okay, but I wish it had tasted more strongly of chocolate, because I couldn't detect a hint of it in my drink -- to be fair, I think that the taste of coffee seems to overwhelm my tastebuds whenever I have it, regardless of what it's mixed with.

Overall, it was an excellent lunch -- DB pronounced it as being perhaps the best lunch he's had in years.

Contrary to the dinehere reviews I saw just before my meal, the service we got was excellent, our pizza was perfect, and I was very happy with all aspects of my meal.

My second experience was more in line with those of Yelp reviewers and the people on tripadvisor.com, which is a good thing.

DB tells me that the pizza at Lombardo's is actually better (their pizza options sure look more intriguing), while Marcello is better for the ambience.

This post on which place has better pizza seems to favour Marcello.

I'd say try them both yourself. I still need to try Lombardo's!

Note: I just remembered something not so great about our otherwise fabulous meal -- we found a hair on our pizza plate, and since neither I nor DB have short brown hair, I don't think it was from us. Hmm...

If you've had anything at Marcello and/or Lombardo's, let us know what you thought -- and if you know of an even better pizza place, be nice and share your pizza-expertise, please! :)

Who knew?: Ronald McDonald, lady's man

2009-06-19T20:27:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, that creepy-looking fellow up there is Ronald McDonald the First, starring in McDonald's first commercial.

He may have been beaten out of the role of the national Ronald McDonald by this dude:

(he blames his chubbiness), but he did get quite a few perks, including this: "Women would offer themselves to me. I actually had groupies who followed me from gig to gig."

For a string of fun "Who Knews" about McDonald's (e.g. Did you know that more than 50,000 students from all over the world have graduated with "Bachelor of Hamburgerology" degrees from "McDonald's Hamburger University"?) check out the following Pop-up Video-style mockumentary of four McDonald commercials. The last commercial is particularly awesome, especially if you're a So You Think You Can Dance fan like I am!

Be sure to watch till the end -- there's a surprise! Let me know what you think.

Ask, and I will find: Latvian food

2009-06-16T16:55:00.000-07:00

Rosanne said...

So my mother wants to know about Latvian food. Is there any in Vancouver?

May 22, 2009 7:05 PM

"Truly Latvian cooking" has been described by aboutriga.net and numerous other sites as --

consisting of very cheap, self-grown ingredients (such as dried peas and cheap cuts of meat, such as pork hocks or bacon)
having few or no spices (as imported spices were expensive and normally only available in Latvia's major cities)
being high in calories (to ensure enough energy for the Latvian people's daily, backbreaking labour!)

"Hearty" and "typically quite basic, without the fancy sauces and ingredients found in other places in Europe ... [Latvia's dishes have] much in common with its neighbouring countries -- Lithuania, Poland, Russia and the Ukraine -- and ingredients such as potatoes, cabbage, eggs, pork, wheat and barley feature prominently."

Heavily influenced by German, Swedish, and Russian cuisine, "a typical, truly Latvian dish would be something like boiled black peas with small snippets of bacon".

Today, a "Latvian dinner at Lido" would look something like the meal featured above; from left to right, there's "Russian-style kvas, a gherkin, a cotlette, pot-cooked cabbage, sour milk (kefir) and cold beetroot soup."

A dessert might include "Rupjmaizes kartojums" (see below) -- "a parfait of rye bread layered with whipped cream."

Some national Latvian dishes include --

Janis' cheese (Janu Siers -- see below)
Latvian bacon buns (Piragi -- see the first image on this post)
Latvian sour cream soup (Skaba putra -- see right)
Latvian beet soup (see below)
Latvian potato salad (Rasols -- see right)
Latvian kringel (Coffee cake)
Latvian-style cheese danishes (Biezpien maizites)
Latvian manna (Buberts)
Latvian fruit sauce or fruit jelly (Kiselis)

My search of all the European and Eastern European restaurants in the Lower Mainland has revealed that there are no Latvian restaurants or restaurants of any kind that serve Latvian food in Vancouver.

My findings have been confirmed by all my "Latvian food contacts" -- great people who participated in my search for Latvian food. These included members of the Lutheran church where Vancouver's Latvian community congregates, a member of an Estonian church, participants in this year's Eurofest (where Latvia was represented), friends from the Russian community, and the online Latvian community, Latvians Online.

As Andris Straumanis, editor of Latvians Online explained,

"Few Latvians live in British Columbia, so you will not find any Latvian-specific shops or restaurants. Your reader might have better luck finding a Russian or East European shop (which probably would be run by Russians or Ukrainians) that might stock some Latvian imports, such as sprats, chocolate or bread."

With Andris's help, I discovered one Latvian food that you can find in select stores throughout the Lower Mainland: authentic Latvian Riga Sprats.

According to the BBC, "'Riga Sprats' have been produced in Latvia since the 19th century, [and] have become one of the country's most famous brands.... The Baltic sprat is a small, herring-like fish, found mainly in the Baltic Sea.... While other countries along the Baltic coast also catch and smoke the fish, it is Latvian sprats that have become a byword for delicacy and sophistication -- the gourmet's choice.... and it is the Russians who are still their most enthusiastic consumers. At big celebrations, when the food's laid out, a party is not a party in Russia without a can of Riga Sprats."

At Latvians Online, they "really, really like sprats" -- enough to create a Sprats Index: "a guide [on] where to find sprats and -- more importantly -- how much you should expect to pay for a 160-gram tin."

According to the index, Pavel's Food Store (3740 Chatham St.) in Steveston, Richmond is one place where you should be able to find it.

Another place I've found that sells them closer to home is Euro Food Plus (1688 Robson St.), which, according to one Yelp reviewer, has "at least 10 different kinds of canned sprats." A phone call to the store and a talk with my new Russian friends has confirmed that Euro Food Plus is the place to go for sprats in Vancouver. The store also used to sell Latvian bread as well, but not anymore. :(

If you're thinking of trying sprats but aren't sure of how to serve them, the following suggestion is apparently "bloomin' marvellous":

Lightly toast two slices of rye bread
“Butter” with a good mayonnaise
Add a layer of sprats to both slices of bread
Add some slices of celery or cucumber for texture
Add some chopped parsley, coriander/chili, or dill
Squeeze some lemon/lime and shake a few grounds of pepper on to finish

Try it, and let us know how it is!

If you know of a place that sells Latvian food that I haven't found, or of another location that sells sprat that's not already listed on the Sprat Index, tell us -- you'll make not one, but several people very happy. :)

Menu review: La Grotta Del Formaggio

2009-06-15T18:08:00.001-07:00

La Grotta Del Formaggio (1791 Commercial Drive) is known for making some of the best sandwiches in Vancouver, so I had high expectations when I tried my first one today.

Unfortunately, I was kind of let down.

Letdown #1: The size. Sandwiches come in small ($5), medium ($6), and large ($7.25) buns, or in half ($6.50) or whole ($11.50?) focaccia buns. The small is small -- slightly larger than a dinner bun, the medium is a six-inch, and I have no idea how big a large is, since they were sold out by the time we got there (2pmish). I assume it's the best deal.

JW2 (I just realized I have a LOT of friends with the same initials) and I split half a focaccia sandwich, since she was still full from a big breakfast and I was still feeling the after-effects of an excellent potluck I attended the night before.

Since neither of us were hungry to begin with, our sandwich left us stuffed. I have no idea how filling it would have been otherwise, since our sandwich-maker was neither skimpy nor super-generous with the fillings. My half of the sandwich looked pretty much like the one below, only with different meat:

Letdown #2: The enthusiasm of the staff (or lack thereof). "What's your favourite sandwich? I asked the two girls behind the counter.
Girl #1: It changes all the time!
Girl #2: I'm sick of these sandwiches!

Since most food people I've talked to tend to be super-enthusiastic about the stuff they sell (most usually reply, "EVERYTHING!"), Girl #2's comment kind of put a damper on my own enthusiasm.

Letdown #3: The taste. Don't get me wrong. It was a good sandwich -- but it wasn't a spectacular one. The main draw to La Grotta sandwiches, in my opinion, is the veggies you can add to them. Clockwise from below, starting from the right, you'll see that you can choose to put in tomatoes, roasted red peppers, marinated artichokes, chopped green olives, hot peppers, eggplant, red onions, and lettuce -- a step above your standard sandwich fillers.

I was super-excited about those toppings, but I think they're what let me down the most. The flavours did not each individually pop out, and they suffocated the flavours of the condiments that JW2 and I chose (pesto mayonnaise, honey mustard, and olive oil) for our sandwich . I couldn't taste any of the condiments at all, so they felt like wasted calories. I don't know if I tasted the eggplant at all, which was weird, since I had asked for extra eggplant. JW2 discovered she didn't particularly like marinated artichokes. If you have a more refined tongue than me, the veggies and condiments are actually probably very tasty.

On top of unlimited veggies, you can get two meats and one cheese, if you go with a meat (as opposed to a cheaper vegetarian) sandwich. I liked the fact that the meats aren't pre-sliced, and you can watch the counter people use a meat shaver to slice your meat selections for you. It would have been nice to have more exotic meats to choose from though.

We settled for a Montreal smoked meat and ham sandwich with provolone cheese. From what I remember, other meat choices included turkey, prosciutto (add $1) or roast beef (add $1), and other cheeses included cheddar, edam, emmental, and havarti.

The meat didn't impress me, and the portions were not particularly large. What we were served didn't look anywhere near the amount this guy apparently got:

Maybe the guy ordered extra meat, paid an extra dollar for the more expensive stuff, or opted to go without cheese. The guy in line ahead of us ordered a roast beef sandwich with no cheese, and seemed to have a whole lot more meat in his sandwich than we did.

I'm a meat-a-tarian (not a carnivore, but just about) so I like my sandwiches with a lot of tasty meat. Too bad for me.

We had the option of toasting our sandwich, so of course we did. Nothing beats melted cheese on grilled/toasted bread.

Overall, it was a good sandwich -- and a very good-looking one at that -- but does it deserve the title of Vancouver's best sandwich? I don't think so, but a lot of people out there do (re. The Georgia Straight readers, Yelp reviewers, and more).

Try one yourself, and if you already have, comment and let us know how you liked it.

Or, recommend another Vancouver sandwich shop/vendor/deli/restaurant for us to try. There are soooooo many options out there!

Food 'file: Wine Diva Daenna Van Mulligan

2009-06-12T09:42:00.000-07:00

When I first met Daenna Van Mulligen at EAT!'s volunteer appreciation party, I had no idea I was talking to one of Canada's biggest names in the wine industry. As her numerous online bios indicate, "In Canada, Daenna has become the go-to person for online wine knowledge."

Her two sites, Wine Diva (her tongue-in-cheek approach to wine) and Wine Scores (her response to constant requests to score wines out of a 100-point scale), together pull in a combined 735,000 hits per month.

If that weren't enough, Daenna's also incredibly active in both the Canadian and international wine scene.

You name it, and this wine writer, wine educator, accredited sommelier, and Vancouverite has probably done it. In addition to regularly contributing to Canada's Vines Magazine, the BC Liquor Stores' Taste Magazine, and Foo d Vancouver, she reviews wine each Saturday on Terry David Mulligan's radio show The Tasting Room, and makes regular appearances on CityTV's Breakfast Television and Lunch Television.

Daenna has also had significant roles in Vancouver's restaurant industry and at many top wine and food events: Among other things, she's developed and consulted on wine lists for numerous Vancouver restaurants, hosted the wine stage each year at Eat! Vancouver and Eat! FraserValley, and presented and served as a panelist at Cornucopia, Whistler's premier wine and food extravaganza.

Daenna's wine expertise has also been sought to help judge wines for such events as VinItaly (the world's largest wine fair), and ViniPax in Portugal.

Now, she's here to give us the exclusive on how she got started, what it's like to be a Wine Diva, and much, much more!

---

What drew you to wine, and what led you to specialize in it?

I began seriously drinking wine in 1995 when a friend (now my husband) introduced me to Wolf Blass Cabernet during a trip home to Manitoba for Christmas. We both grew up in Brandon, Manitoba. I still say he wooed me on Wolf Blass.

I was fortunate enough to visit the winery in Barossa Valley this past February.

From that point on, we made it a point to travel to local wine regions (BC, Niagara Ontario, and Oregon) and learn as much as we could -- tasting, trying new wines and reading. It was when we moved back east to Toronto in 1999 that I lucked into taking the sommelier program at George Brown College and became an accredited sommelier. I had previously worked in restaurants and knew that I was not cut out for that line of work, so my goal was always to write about wine (and food initially).

I had taken journalism and writing night courses at Langara in Vancouver and Ryerson in Toronto, so I had some writing experience, but very little. And having very little experience makes it hard to be hired, or to be taken seriously as a wine writer, so I started teaching, public-speaking and lecturing about wine part time.

How did you come to be a “Wine Diva”?

When my husband and I returned to Vancouver in December 2003, I knew it was an opportunity for a fresh start, and I wanted to fully immerse myself in wine -- not just enjoy it as a hobby (collecting thimbles would be far cheaper than collecting wines for the cellar).

So, in February 2004, I told my husband I wanted to start a website to write about wine -- after all, no one was going to hire me, because no one knew who I was. I told him I wanted to called "Wine Diva" (after drinking several bottles of wine).

He didn't like it -- he thought it had bad connotations. But I insisted, and we bought the site name and launched a simple blog-type site, decorated with my own hand-drawn illustrations that I filled in with tasting notes from bottles we bought and tasted. I gathered names and started a newsy-letter I sent out every two months.

Meanwhile, I was working in a wine store in Kitsilano called Vintropolis, and I was also the sommelier for the attached wine bar of the same name.

I had 75 hits the first month I launched WineDiva.ca, which was very impressive (or so I thought). I never, ever anticipated that, five years later, I would be getting nearly 750,000 hits per month... especially since I had no computer abilities. Seriously, my website was virtually my first foray into the internet.

Winediva.ca looks like such a fun site! How did you think up the concept for it? Did you have it all mapped out in your head, or did it emerge bit by bit? When did it all come together?

It was without a doubt, a process -- don't let anyone tell you differently. But I had a couple things in my favour: one, I love colour (high impact) and two, I was a clothing designer in my previous career.

Visuals are very important: colour, balance, lines, and recognizing trends and the speed at which they change. From my early days living in Paris (when Grunge was just taking off across the world in Seattle), I saw the world of fashion begin to change. No longer was Paris couture dictating the fashion world -- street wear, and urban dissent were.

I worked between Asia and Vancouver for several years, designing clothing and watching trends. People were getting busier, and with more magazines, websites, technology and information bombarding us every moment of the day, who had time to stop and read or peruse all that? In fact, here I am blathering on, and it's way, way too wordy!

I watched the shift from ten-page Vogue spreads to “sound bites” of colour in new magazines -- one page with brilliantly-coloured snapshots of the hottest shoes, bag, dress and lipstick, designed to appeal to the masses and give as much information in as little space as possible.

Basically my site evolved to do just that -- provide impact, colour, pictures and easy-to-read reviews for the 98% of the population who are not wine geeks.

How about winescores.ca? How did that come about?

There are two camps of wine drinkers. Those who love to recite wine scores from famous wine critics, and those who don’t give a da*n.

I've always said WineDiva was not about “scores” and I had no intention of that changing. But, after constant requests to score wines out of the 100 points scale that has become the accepted international scoring method, I started to capitulate.

My business partner/husband and I worked on a plan for about eight months. The plan was two-fold: 1) to build a secondary site with serious content and wine scores on all of my wine reviews that would benefit WineDiva readers who wanted more or who were becoming more knowledgeable, and 2) to show that I was not a pink flake who really knew nothing about wine.

I have never needed to prove to my peers what I know about wine -- in fact, I go out of my way to hide it. Yammering on about your wine knowledge often makes you a bore, especially when you are yammering to other wine geeks. I call it “talking to the mirror”.

WinesScores.ca proved to critics that I knew what I was talking about, it gave score lovers something to reach for and, in the end, it also gave me a fabulous outlet to write about my wine travels.

What’s it like to manage two websites at once? What made you decide to make two separate sites instead of putting all the content into one?

I think I answered that above. But having two sites is simply double the work...

What’s it like having more than 500,000 hits a month on your page? What do you do to maintain and increase that number?

A surprise, but a pat on the back for a lot of work.

The sites are now pulling in a combined 735,000 hits per month and growing.

To maintain and increase my number of visitors involves providing quality content and information, and making the sites more user-friendly. Word of mouth is how we got here -- now we work hard on keeping and maintaining the momentum.

How did you get into doing interviews with radio and TV stations? What’s it like?

Same thing -- through word of mouth and a solid five+ years of writing about wine on WineDiva.ca.

People see my sites and hear about me via other mediums, and it's a snowball effect. I have never gone out and promoted myself, except by simply showing up and doing my job.

I have never been a nervous person in front of crowds. Give me a mic or a camera, and I am happy as long as I am familiar with my subject matter. Wine is second nature to me now, and no matter how much more I could (and want to) learn, I am comfortable enough in my knowledge right now to jump in front of an audience and talk wine at a moment's notice.

I like to make it fun, like to be funny and like it when people get that “ah-ha” look on their face. It means I have shared something with them they did not already know.

How do you like judging wines?

It’s very, very good training and important to understanding quality, typicity and character in wine. There is no better way to become a better taster once you’ve gotten to a certain level in wine.

Of your many wine-related jobs, which do you enjoy most? Which aspects do you like best?

The freedom to choose what to write about and to work for myself and choose my own hours.Where have your journeys as a wine writer taken you?

In the last year, all over the world. Italy twice, Germany, Portugal, California, Australia, South Africa, Chile and here in British Columbia of course...

Between September 2008 and February 2009 I was in wine regions on five continents.... but prior to that, other regions in Greece, France, Washington State, Oregon and Niagara Ontario.

So you get paid to travel the world, drink great wine, and eat great food. How awesome is that? How exactly does it work? How long did it take you to get to the point you’re at now?

There was no single “starting point” for me. You could suggest it was 1993 when I worked with wine in restaurants or in 1995 when my husband really turned me on to wine. Or, when I became a sommelier in 2001 or when I started my site in 2004....

Basically it took me three years after WineDiva.ca was launched to get enough notice worldwide that I was going on trips -- first just within BC, then Washington State, then further abroad.

But it's not about “free stuff”, being a writer -- a mistake most wannabes make. You have to prove your worth, have people follow your writing, and prove you are not only capable, but easy to get along with. Most important of all, you must be reliable.

I just kept chipping away, giving my all, and producing... the rest fell into place as people began to notice that I was serious and hardworking.

What’s the best work-related trip you’ve ever been on?

I cannot say. I honestly love all the regions I have visited for different reasons: Germany's stunning, steeply-planted Riesling vineyards, South Africa’s rugged beauty and old-world/new-world charm, Australia’s laid-back allure and incredibly varied terroirs, Portugal’s tradition, uniqueness and captivating stubbornness, Chile’s purity and incredible scenery, California’s quality and diversity, and Italy... well, Italy’s pure romance...

What’s the most interesting food you’ve tried during your wine travels?

Regional diversity -- the cuisine of each region paired with its wines -- is always the most interesting. The dishes are not always to my taste, but they have interesting history and are often subtly tweaked from place to place -- Italy's food is a classic example of subtle shifts in cuisine from province to province. It could be how they prepare the cingale (wild boar) or if they use risotto or pasta as their starch.

In Portugal, cod is a mainstay (even though cod has been fished to extinction in their own waters, they buy it from Sweden) along the Atlantic; in Bairrada, suckling pig is the favoured dish, and in Alentejo, porco preto (or black pig) -- similar to wild pigs -- is the meat of choice; all pair well with their regional wines.

In Australia, food is fresh, simple and modern with strong Asian influences, and in Germany, the schnitzel and potato dishes and copious spargle (white asparagus prevalent in May to June) topped with Hollandaise, are perfect with a Riesling...

What’s your secret spot to enjoy a drink in the city?

At home, usually -- especially in the summer. My husband and I are early day people, so we tend to go out in the afternoons and have wine with lunch. I love Nu for the views, but anywhere I can get a glass of bubbly in a nice, quiet atmosphere is great.

What’s your favourite wine, and where can we find it?

Whatever I am drinking at the moment -- it’s summer so I am all over summer sippers -- Roses, Gewürztraminers, Pinot Blancs and of course my favourite -- Rieslings!

---

Rieslings are some of my favourite wines too!

If you have any questions for Wine Daenna, now's your chance to probe!

Cheers!

Candy-gram: Happy one-month anniversary!

2009-06-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Just checked the date of my first post today, and whaddaya know? Let's Talk about Food is a month (and a day) old!

Thank you everyone for being a part of it!

It's hard to believe that what started out as me randomly rambling about food has turned into a food/drink/restaurant review and ask-and-I-will-find service, not to mention a place to peek into some great careers in the food biz.

This isn't a blog -- it's a magazine in a blog format (because I haven't figured out how to make a website yet :P).

And heads up: we might be moving over to wordpress, because blogger is not the most friendly server to work with. [If the spaces in this post are out of whack, blame blogger! grr...]

A food-related post on this monumentous event is coming soon; I just thought that the occasion deserved a post of its own!

Happy anniversary, my lovely readers!

Did you end up trying a new place/food after reading? How was it?

Was there a post you particularly enjoyed? Let me know, and I'll try to make more like them.

Thanks for reading! You're all #1. :)

Menu review: Doña Cata Mexican Foods / EAT Vancouver volunteer appreciation party

2009-06-08T10:22:00.000-07:00

I'm still on a high from last night -- great food and great people do that to you. In roughly three and a half hours, I sampled more than twenty as-close-to-authentic-as-you-can-get-in-Vancouver Mexican dishes and drinks, and talked to people with seriously sweet jobs in the food biz.

The venue was Doña Cata Mexican Foods (5076 Victoria Drive -- it's on 35th).

The occasion? EAT Vancouver's volunteer appreciation party -- and what a way to be appreciated.

Arriving right on time at 5:45pm (the restaurant normally closes at 5pm on a Sunday, so the entire place was reserved just for us EAT! people), I noticed that a lot of people had already arrived and helped themselves to the pitchers of sangria and margaritas laid out on the drink table, where a nice selection of wines and a variety of Mexican pops (including Jarritos, apple pop, and bottled sangria) were also available.

Having made my way through the great majority of these drinks as the evening progressed, I can say that they were all very tasty.

I can't really comment on the alcoholic drinks, since I'm only a social drinker and have limited knowledge and experience to work with, but the margarita was one of the better ones I've had -- slushy and refreshing, and not tasting too strongly of alcohol -- and the sangrias were tasty.

I loved the Jarritos. I managed to try pineapple, mango, grapefruit, and tamarind (the guayaba and mandarin ones were sadly nabbed before I had a chance to pour a sample), and I especially liked the pineapple one, though they were all really good -- the grapefruit was a surprise, since I don't normally like that flavour. I wasn't a fan of the apple pop of another brand. I definitely recommend going for a Jarritos the next time you go out for Mexican food though.

The standout drink was probably the horchata (rice and cinnamon mixed with cold water), which they introduced later in the evening to replace the margaritas. A number of people commented that it was exceptionally good (not too watery or sweet), though the sweetness apparently varied from pitcher to pitcher.

I've only ever had horchata at El Caracol Café, a place just a block down from Doña Cata, at 5190 Victoria Drive. The one at El Caracol had a different texture to it -- more solids in it (I think I remember sucking up actual pieces of grain) -- but I remember it being equally tasty. I'd recommend ordering a horchata if you haven't already tried one before.

Based on the reviews I've seen, El Caracol (and El Caracolita next door, which is run by the same owner and focuses more on Mexican food) are two places worth trying, so if you're looking for "good" Mexican food, the 35th/36 street area is one you might want to check out.

The staff at the restaurant probably don't normally do this, but one of the makers of EAT! was literally slicing the caps off wine bottles with a knife, which made for an interesting show. I tried a Hungarian sparkling white wine and a riesling, both of which were quite nice. I don't think these are on Doña Cata's menu, though.

In terms of food, the restaurant made sure that we were fed, with plenty of non-meat options available on top of their many varieties and versions of meat dishes.

To start, each table was given a small bowl of handmade nachos (I've seen reviews with people complaining about the size of the portions, and actually seeing it, I can understand why). It held probably no more than a cup of nachos. However, besides the fact that those nachos are normally free, you probably wouldn't want to fill up on them anyway, when there's so much more to try.

The nachos are a good way to sample the restaurant's extensive sauce and salsa options (10 different kinds, all homemade), which include "a sweet (and not spicy) Tomate Verde, a very spicy Mexicana (a mix of tomato and jalapeno) and Cacahuate (peanut)". I liked the guacomole best.

Appetizers included two kinds of taquitos (pork and cheese) and refried beans, veggies, and sauce on hard taco shells (sorry, I don't know the name of this dish). They were all crunchy and tasty, and not too greasy.

About half an hour in, they started offering a huge variety of tacos, including lamb, pork, beef, chicken, beans and cheese, carnitas, and cactus. Yes, I tried them all. Yes, my stomach was not very happy with me by the end of the night, but my tongue sure was. :)

I'm not going to use Mexican names for the food, since the staff described them in English to us, but if you're interested, you can check them out on the restaurant's menu.

As I mentioned in my first EAT! Vancouver post, I don't care much for their chicken tacos (they're quite bland), but I love love love their lamb tacos. The others were just okay. But then again, I don't really eat a lot of red meat, so you might enjoy them. The beef and pork ones had chunks of fat in them, which I hate to find in my food. The cactus was interesting -- I don't really know how to describe it. It looked like slices of cucumber the colour of lima beans, and the taste wasn't memorable enough to stick with me.

Cactus salad was offered as well, which I ended up having to eat an entire plate of, since they were overly-generous with the serving. It was not bad -- slick with oil and something different, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it.

I thought I hated refried beans (ironically, I think they might ruin the taste of Mexican dishes for me), but I didn't hate Doña Cata's. They were actually quite good. But I am definitely not an Mexican food expert.

I also really enjoyed the Mexican rice. And I don't normally like rice.

Besides the lamb tacos and select Jarritos, however, the only things I really loved were numerous alambres they had available. They don't list them on their online menu, but apparently they have 30 different kinds. They had them buffet-style on large plates, on rotation, with about six varieties at a time, but we weren't allowed to serve ourselves -- instead they had someone scooping them into corn tortillas for us. To save much-needed stomach space, I got her to put a bit of each on a plate for me.

Since I hadn't been planning on reviewing the place, I didn't take down any of the names of the alambres, but as this review mentions, three of the kinds include "the Mexicano" -- "a combination of pork, onion, jalapeno ratas, corn and cheese", "the Pinguino" -- "a mix of bisteck, bacon, and cheese", and "the Vegetariano" -- "a combo of mushrooms, onion, tomato, and cheese".

Among my favourites was one that had a mix of chicken, bacon, mushroom, and cheese -- I had seconds of that!

They also had interesting ones that didn't sound too Mexican to me (e.g. "Hawaiiano"). Recurring ingredients included pork chop bits, cheese, pineapple, and mushrooms.

You should definitely order an alambre if you decide to eat a Doña Cata.

Even better than dessert (I doubt anyone would have had any room left for some anyway), the restaurant surprised us with a live performance by a Mexican guitarist. He was fantastic. It really set the mood and matched the restaurant's festive, colourful ambience. A girl at my table even started singing along.

A waiter who jumped in every once and a while with some unique "vocal accompaniment" was equally awesome. We never knew what to expect -- an enthusiastic yelp? A perfectly timed "ow, ow, ow!"? (You had to be there.)

Bottom line: If the guitarist ever becomes a regular performer at Dona Cata (or is he already one?), definitely try to time your visit to coincide with a show.

Between eating and eating and eating -- and drinking and drinking and drinking -- I also met and talked to some super-cool people. If you're one of them, "Hello and welcome!" You're the ones who really made my night. There's nothing I like more than talking to people who love food as much as I do!

The coolest part? Almost all of them agreed to be featured on my Food 'files!

These people have some of the coolest jobs ever.

In the coming weeks, you can look forward to interviews from --

-one of the country's top three wine writers (you know those people who get paid to travel around the world to wine and dine? --- that's her)

-one half of the brains behind EAT! Vancouver (we're talking the boss himself)

-one of the folks behind the World Culinary Travel Expo (how can you resist this tagline? -- "Promoting Global Travel through Gastronomy")

-a chef/caterer who's catered for the movie industry and such Hollywood stars as John Travolta

-the folks who help keep our stomachs happy at some of the city's biggest festivals and events (including Greek Day, the Caribbean festival, and Alcan Dragon Boat festival), by meeting all their cooking show staging service needs

---

I want to give a shout out to everyone I met -- thanks so much for your insights into the food scene in Vancouver and beyond. From foodie to foodie, you all rock! And if any readers ask about foods in your realms of expertise, expect an email from me! ;)

Anyone who's tried Doña Cata -- give us your take on the food. I've never been to Mexico or tried Mexican food in the States, so your opinions are likely more insightful than mine. I've heard that it's one of the more authentic places here, though.

Also, share your favourite Mexican places with us -- one person has already verbally put in a request for "the most authentic Mexican food in Vancouver". Tips would be appreciated. :)

Candy-gram: Now, anyone can comment!

2009-06-06T20:18:00.000-07:00

Till this very moment, only people with google accounts could comment on my posts.

(My apologies to those who couldn't post comments in the past -- I hadn't realized that I could open the section to the public).

Now, anyone can comment!

Now we can start a real conversation!

Sooo.... what are you waiting for?

Be sure to leave a name or initial or something I can recognize you by -- and if I don't already know you, introduce yourself!

I only bite food. :)

By the way, I had been planning to do one final EAT! Vancouver post on the cheese seminar I attended (which was, as I mentioned, the highlight of the event for me), but am thinking of skipping it and moving on to finally really trying to tackle those requests you made a while back, for Latvian food, the best paella, and haggis.

If you really want to learn about cheese, comment here to let me know.

Eat me!: Maple Twist cones

2009-06-05T09:06:00.001-07:00

In less than three months, I will be just a bus ride away from one of Canada's hottest food spots -- Montréal!

For nine whole months (from September to May), I'll be working as a "Language Assistant" in a region that's apparently just south of the city.

It will be a time of exploring the culinary delights of York, Waterloo, and Toronto during my breaks -- MJ and Tiff, you'd better start preparing lists of places to eat at!

For the most part, however, I'll probably be stuffing my face in Montréal, with the best crème brûlée (from Au Pain Doré), smoked meat sandwiches (from Schwartz's and La Roi du Smoked Meat -- how's that for franglais?), poutine with barbecue sauce (this variant is fabulous!), sugar pie, Montreal-style bagels, tourtière, maple syrup pie, and much, much more.

For an authentically quebecois treat that you don't have to travel to the East Coast to experience, head to Anny's Dairy Bar (722 6th Street) in New Westminster to try out the restaurant's maple twist cone.

Think rich, creamy soft-serve made with real cream (not ice milk!), swirled with 100% real Canadian maple butter (see above).

The owner, Anny Faucher (pictured below) apparently brings in all the cone's ingredients from Quebec, including the ice cream, as well as fresh maple butter from her family's own sugar shacks.

Anny owns the BC patent for the "maple injector" (invented by her former boss at a Quebec ice cream shop, to inject a swirl of real maple butter into a soft serve ice cream cone to create "La Crème Glacée à L'érable").

This means that Anny's is the only place that serves this treat in the Lower Mainland.

Ninety-nine percent of Anny's customers come for the Maple Twist. "Because it's good. And it's unique."

I tried the cone last Saturday, and personally don't quite understand the hype.

I thought that the parts with maple butter were quite tasty, but considering that 90+% of the ice cream was just plain vanilla, I was rather disappointed.

Maybe I'm just not used to eating really rich ice cream -- the texture may have taken away from the taste -- but I didn't really find the vanilla to be flavourful enough. I spent more time probing for maple butter than actually really getting to enjoy the treat.

I should, however, mention that I have a ginormous sweet tooth and actually prefer less rich and creamy foods, so if your tastes lean more toward high-fat, low-sugar desserts, this may be just the treat for you!

This reviewer appears to agree that the cone could use more maple butter, while this Yelper loved it as it was.

The only way to find out which way your tastebuds swing is to try it!

As the sign hanging above Anny's -- which lured me into the shop in the first place -- indicates (as does an article run by the Vancouver Sun last year), Maple Twist cones are only available in New Westminster.

If you're planning on trying it and can suppress your ice cream urges for just a few more days, I should have a list of other New Westminster must-trys up by then: Having just started volunteering for the Tourism New Westminster's Visitor Centre as a "Visitor Centre Counsellor" (the "counselling" meaning giving advice about the city), I've been scouring the city restaurants and shops, and there's actually a lot of great food finds available -- if you know where to look.

Anny's also has a selection of French-Canadian fare -- one reviewer mentioned it has "the best Montreal (authentic) smoked meat sandwiches", "delicious poutine with homemade thick-cut french fries and real cheese curds ... directly imported from the province of Quebec" [see example of real poutine from Quebec, courtesy of Google, below], and "fresh, homemade cheeseburgers". The review is two years old, but two New Westminster residents have told me that the food really is quite amazing. They have "Quebec"-style hot dogs as well (it's all in the toppings), and apparently even the pastrami Anny uses in her sandwiches has been brought in from Quebec.

With La Zizanie closed, I'd suggest giving Anny's a try if my potential future posts on Quebec food start inciting cravings for delicious French-Canadian food. There are a number of other French-Canadian restaurants dotting the Lower Mainland, but I have yet to hear of any that are particularly amazing.

If you end up getting the Maple Twist cone or have already tried it, be sure to give us your take!
Also, drop me a line if you know of any other "secret spot" in New West -- just last night, a friend told me that she'd heard that the city could very well be home to the most authentic Mexican restaurant in the Lower Mainland. If that ends up being true, I'll definitely be writing more on that later.

À bientôt!

Food 'file (aka EAT! Vancouver Part 3): Jane from EAT! Vancouver

2009-06-03T18:45:00.000-07:00

She helps run the show at EAT! Vancouver, but for Jane Tang, "[her] job really isn't that exciting. It's the finished product, the on-site festival that is glamorous and exciting... everything pre-festival is just a lot of hard work."

I'll let you decide.

Working year-round to help plan and run some of the Lower Mainland's biggest foodie events as the Administrative Coordinator for Executive Event Production -- the brains behind EAT! Vancouver, Taste of the City (July 18), EAT! Fraser Valley (Sept. 11 to 13), and West Coast Christmas Show (Nov. 27 to 29) -- Jane is the perfect candidate for my first-ever Food 'file: profiles of people with sweet jobs in the food industry sharing their inside look at things that we, the public, don't often get to hear about.

You heard my take on EAT! Read on to get some insights and advice from a real EAT! pro.

---

How did you get involved with EAT!? What's it like to be a part of it? Is everyone on the team a huge foodie?

My professor from BCIT’s Tourism class recommended me to the job. It was perfect timing since I was on a temporary hiatus from working, and was trying to figure out the next step in my career. Working here is probably the best experience I’ve gotten from any job. My bosses are industry experts and I’m forever shadowing them, trying to learn new things. It’s a small office, so everyone is always up to date and is aware of what’s going on. And yes, everyone LOVES food. There’s such a diverse background from all our staff members that we’re forever trying new foods that we either bring in or pick up from Chinatown! If I’m not working, I’m stuffing my face.

What is your exact position, and what does your job entail? What do you like most about it? Do you get any special perks (re. free samples or invitations to food events, rubbing shoulders with Vancouver's big-name chefs (e.g. Rob Feenie, Hideki Tojo, etc.))?

[I actually don’t have a job title, since when I started, we were an office of 3 people, lol, but for the sake of this..] Administrative Co-ordinator – Ensuring exhibitors have all forms and information necessary, posting ads online, scouting for new potential leads, recruiting volunteers…I’m an expert at Excel now with mile long lists of things to do and keep track of!! One of the best parts is because I spend a lot of time reading up on restaurants or new products/ideas, I never run out of new places to try out with my friends. Free food is always a good perk, so I’m not complaining. One of the most memorable celebs on our stages was Lynn Spence, home decor expert at our West Coast Christmas Show. She flew in from Toronto, and we drove her in and around town but she was so down to earth. We took her to HomeSense and as she bought some last minute accessories, she gave us decorating tips – it was like having a private consultation!

It know it's only your second year with EAT!, but can you tell us a bit about how EAT! got started and how it's evolved over the years? How did the other festivals come into being?

Executive Event Production is the company that founded EAT! Vancouver 7 years ago. The producers of the show realized that there was a demand in Vancouver for new products/ideas that were food related but there wasn’t anything truly food specific and consumer driven, and they wanted to act on this opportunity. Vancouver is such a thriving metropolis with a diverse population, it’d be a waste not to showcase this! And it’s growing every year, this year it was at 31k! And it was an exceptionally sunny weekend, so it was a real feat to have so many people choose to stay indoors at our festival instead of enjoy the sun.

The other festivals were created for the same purpose. Vancouverites had EAT Vancouver, but what about everyone in the Fraser Valley? There’s 1.5 million people there and who doesn’t love to eat! The West Coast Christmas Show is a holiday show that showcases new eating, entertaining and decorating ideas. Both are in their 2^nd year.

How do you determine which exhibitors to target/feature, and which countries you focus on for the year?

We always look for new companies who want to gain some ground in the marketplace, but it’s equal opportunity for everyone. There’s always going to be successful companies who want to promote a new line of products and family run businesses who have fantastic products but need more opportunities for exposure. We try to keep a balance so that visitors get a bit of everything. The Travel Culinary Pavilion is growing at a rapid pace as more people are leaning towards experiential travel, and food is definitely a important part of any country’s culture. I know when I plan vacations, I have an infinite list of places I want to try out.

What's your favourite part of EAT! in general, and this year's event in particular?

It’s a toss-up between the Wine, Beer & Spirits Pavilion. It’s loud, rowdy and fun! Everyone in there is wanting to try out new types of liquor and who can blame them when it’s super cheap! This year, I really enjoyed the Master Chef Competitions because every time I walked by, the aromas from their cooking made me super hungry!

You have exactly one hour to spend at EAT (you can choose what day and when). How do you make the most of that hour?

Sunday, before closing. I hit up all the Asian booths only because I’m partial to their food. I never miss out on Kozy Shack (pudding) and the Salmon Farmers (grilled salmon) because their samples are super tasty!

Why is it worth driving over to the Fraser Valley to attend the other festivals and events you put on?

Because the Fraser Valley has just as much to offer as Vancouver! They have a lot of restaurants/companies that aren’t found in the Lower Mainland, so you’d be missing out if you don’t want to head out that way.

What lineup of restaurants can we expect for Taste of the City?

It’ll be a diverse mix, but you can expect the menus to offer a huge variety, from green tea parfaits to citrus thai chicken salads to blackened seared ahi caesars. Don’t miss out!

Just for fun:

What's your secret dining spot/the best place we've never heard of in the Lower Mainland?

I really like The Place on Granville [and 60-something street, you’d hafta google it, it’s by the Granville Bubble World] … It’s a hole in the wall, but if want the most juicy, fresh Shanghai dumplings, that’s the place to go to. Then walk down the street to Bubble World and grab a watermelon slush.

What's your favourite dish, and where can we find it?

One of my favourite dishes is from Empire Seafood Restaurant (Richmond) for fresh, soft egg tarts. But if you go too late for dim sum, they run out!

---

Thanks for the great tips Jane! I knew those last two questions would be worth asking!

If you have any thoughts or questions about EAT! or the other related festivals (or want to probe Jane's Asian-food expertise further), be sure to comment, and I'll do my best to get your responses to her -- maybe even get Jane on here to respond to you personally. :)

EAT! Vancouver Part 2: 21 Ways to Make the Most of Your EAT! Experience

2009-06-01T08:54:00.000-07:00

EAT! Vancouver has raised its ticket prices again -- and for $15 (plus the cost of food tickets), you'll want to maximize your experience.

The best advice I can give is to volunteer for the event: in addition to that warm, fuzzy feeling you'll get from giving back to your community, you'll also receive two complimentary tickets to the event. :)

If volunteering won't fit into your schedule, here are my suggestions for making the most of your EAT! experience:

1. Before the event even begins, buy your ticket online -- it's cheaper ($3 less this year).

2. Come early. By mid-noon, the whole stadium becomes packed and stays packed. If you arrive when it opens, you won't have to waste time in lines. You'll also be guaranteed to get a goodie bag that way (this year it contained a bag of nacho chips and Mott's Clamato juice). I know from an inside source that there were around 20,000 bags to give away and over 30,000 people in attendance. You do the math.

3. Stay late. At the end of the day, exhibitors need to get rid of their perishable goods -- and that's when the prices get slashed. I don't know if this is limited to Sunday, since it's the last day of EAT!, but I got a jambalaya, samosa, mango juice, and papadam for free, mango lemonade for 50 cents, chocolates from Schokolade Artisan Chocolate & Cafe for 50 cents apiece, and other great deals.

4. If you don't want to stay the entire day but want in on the great deals at the end, you can just leave and come back. Be sure to get your hand stamped on your way out -- you'll need to show the stamp to be re-admitted.

5. Circle the place more than once (make return visits to various vendors) -- some change their samples throughout the day, and you could be missing out on some great stuff.

6. Watch some of the stage shows and cooking competitions. Among the many chefs that come, Rob Feenie (formerly of Lumiere and Feenie's, and now the concept artist for Cactus Club Café), is a mainstay of EAT! and is guaranteed to make an appearance. This year, Tojo (inventor of the California roll and owner of Vancouver's best sushi restaurant, Tojo's) also came to talk about 21st Century Seasonings at the International Culinary Stage. Black box cooking competitions -- where chefs are given a box of mystery ingredients to work with to create something magnificent -- are particularly interesting.

7. Try to squeeze in a cheese seminar. You get to try a plate of seven different cheeses (including award-winning, hard-to-get varieties), learn about the qualities to look for in a good cheese (including appearance, smell, texture, and taste), and take home a bunch of cheese-related swag. Unless you're lactose-intolerant, this seminar is not to missed, but fills up super-quickly, so check the schedule and line up 20 minutes early. This was the highlight of my day.

8. Check out non-food related booths. Some have neat stuff available, from free info books and magazines to chances to enter draws for cruises and more.

9. On that note, pick up a copy of Vancouver Magazine and Western Living Magazine -- their booths are side by side. VanMag retails for $5.99, so there's half the price of your (online) ticket right there. You also get to enter a draw for a cruise if you to put your name on their list to receive more info on the mag. The copy they distribute is their coveted Restaurant Awards edition -- a guide you can hang on to and refer to for the rest of the year, when you want to find out where Vancouver's upper class prefer to dine.

10. Bring a friend, or two or three. You can split your samples so you can try more and save space in your stomach.

11. Bag the non-perishable samples for later (e.g. tuck away those free full bottles of Fuze and packaged almond clusters). They'll taste just as good later. Vendors are, however, getting smarter and opening their packages as they hand them out, to ensure that you eat them there and then.

12. Wait to purchase your food tickets, or start with only a sheet or half-sheet. You can always buy more, and you don't want to be stuck scrambling to use them up at the end of the day like I did.

13. Look for coupons. The 55 cent-off coupons Kozy Shack has every year help satisfy my yearly pudding cravings, and some of the other savings to be had are not bad.

14. Even if they're not advertising samples, ask if you can try their food anyway. The kiwi juice guy was giving samples of the drink away for free -- if you asked -- even though they were advertised as being one ticket per sample.

15. Skim the website quickly before you go and make note of offerings on your must-see/do list. Plan your day and schedule accordingly.

16. Drink less. I'm not talking about your alcohol consumption (though this can apply to that too). At drink stations where vendors pour samples in front of you, ask for half-portions. I think I personally ended up drinking more than I ate, and in addition to filling you up, these samples can cost you time making washroom trips (and waiting in spilling-out-the-exit-door washroom lines).

17. Look at what other people are eating. If you see them snacking on a dish or sample that looks appealing, ask them where they got it (both the location and vendor, if they can remember).

18. If you have a pet, or know someone who owns one, be sure to grab a few pet food samples. (Rosanne -- I have some premium dog food for Timmy, if you want it!)

19. Bargain with vendors. It works, at least later in the day on Sunday. You could try earlier too. People are pretty nice about helping you spend that last ticket.

20. Talk to the vendors you especially like and find out more about their products. Listen to what they have to say. This is your chance to discover some cool new foods and food spots you might otherwise never have heard about.

21. Lunch/dine there. You can easily fill up on samples alone, but the prices of the food available for purchase are quite reasonable as well, for the most part ranging from 2 to 8 tickets ($1 to $4). I only found one item that cost one ticket -- a sample of birch sap toffee (which I purchased and found tastes pretty much like regular English toffee).

So there you have it. The next time EAT! rolls around, you'll tackle it like a pro.

Happy EATing! :)

EAT! Vancouver -- Part 1: The Samples

2009-05-28T08:56:00.000-07:00

EAT! Vancouver happened this May 22 to 24, and I just so happened to be there for almost all of Saturday (as a customer) and Sunday (as a volunteer at the Grapes and Hops Pav illion).

For those unfamiliar with EAT!, it's "Canada's largest consumer food, beverage and cooking festival ... featur[ing] hundreds of food, beverage and kitchen goods exhibitors along with wineries, breweries, restaurants, cooking demonstrations, wine and cheese seminars, cookbook authors, and chef competitions." It takes place every year during the month of May at BC Place Stadium.

For $15 (adult price) at the door, or $12 online, attendees could watch black box cooking competit ions; see food celebs like Rob Feenie at the Foo d Network Celebrity Stage; sample and learn about che ese; spend more money on food tickets ($10 for 20 or $5 for 10) to use for sampling items at the Bite of Vancouver restaurant pavillion, Grapes and Hops pavillion, and other booths selling snacks; and sample lots and lots of food and drinks -- even getting to take some home for thei r pets, too!

For those who missed this year's fest, over the next few posts (this one counting as Part 1), I'll be giving you the full scoop on what was served up.

First up: the samples!

Samples are no doubt one of the main draws to attending EAT!. This year's offerings were enough to ensure that no one went home hungry.

Among the most-grabbed items, I'm sure, were the chocolate samples. Green & Black's offered more than eight varieties of chocolate squares (including Mayan Gold, White, Butterscotch, Ginger, and Caramel), while Nestlé NOIR had four kinds of dark chocolate (including two filled with mousse) available to sample. Being partial to white and milk chocolate, my faves were G&B's white chocolate and Nestle's chocolate-mousse-filled milk chocolate square.

Four Kozy Shack ladies kept busy opening and distributing sample individual-sized regular and sugar-free varieties of their rice, tapioca, and chocolate puddings. Having already tried all the regular versions, I went for all the sugar-free ones. My advice? Stick to the regulars -- the sugar-free ones are, for the most part, tasteless and just don't cut it.

Stoneyfield Farm gave out two different kinds of yogurt -- pomegranate-blueberry and peach-mango. Both were creamy and delicious. One teenaged girl must have really enjoyed it -- I saw her ask the food demonstrator to take a photo with her (with the company's logo in the background), and overheard her telling him afterward that he'd "made [her] day". No, I don't think the man's "yumminess" was a factor.

One booth had over 10 varieties of shortbread cookies, including lemon, maple, rosemary, and original. My faves were apricot and raspberry -- so yummy!

Island Farms started charging two tickets for ice cream samples this year (boo!). On the plus side, their booth hardly ever had any lineups. I tried three flavours in one cup (melon, black forest, and peach cobbler -- their fourth flavour, coffee crunch, was all gone at the time), and they were all quite good, especially melon. They're all new flavours, and I recommend giving them a try.

Aquafina Plus had new flavoured water flavours on offer (here's an interesting review), including fuji apple pear. Interesting fact: as a natural health product, Aquafina Plus can't be given away for free, so the demonstrators got would-be samplers to grab pennies and nickels from cups full of change and got them to drop them back in to bypass that law. Oh, the loopholes.

Fuze had to abide by the same rules, and, since I didn't have any change with me, I sadly missed out on their offerings -- no new strawberry-melon juice for me :(.

Pasta from Olivieri; salad with italian dressing and pear and blue cheese dressing from Renee's; kimchi, korean cookies, garlic tablets, and tea samples from the korean section; and miso soup, two kinds of miso-based dip with tofu, rice with medium-hot curry, flavoured teas, and more from the Japanese section, and many other food and drinks were available to try for "free" at various booths throughout the stadium.

Over at the Jamaican booth, I was lucky enough to get a sample of Jamaican rum cake -- the demonstrator didn't start sampling those till the afternoon -- which I've read are one of the things to bring back as souvenir gifts from cruise trips to the Caribbean. It tasted like fruit cake or plum pudding to me -- nothing special -- but I'm glad to have tried it.

Antigua and Barbuda offered a type of coconut fudge made by the representative herself.

Spain sliced wafer-thin pieces of jambon serran (the country ham) before our eyes to let us sample. Had my digital camera not malfunctioned, I could have scored a picture, which many onlookers were doing when the carving first started. It looked kind of like the ham featured above, only far more appetizing and clean-looking.

The Turkey booth had a limited quantity of Turkish delights to give out (rose, lemon, and lime) -- and if you've tried the real stuff from Turkey, you know they're as good as they made them out to be in The Lion, th e Witch, a nd the Wardrobe.

There were two booths with coffee (I think only one was giving away freebies). As well, there was also rice and soy milk, regular cow milk, granola cereal, chocolate bliss and pumpkin bliss balls, and birch sap (it tastes like maple syrup) available to try.

Arthur's Fresh was sampling pretty much all its smoothies (sooo many flavours!). I wasn't a fan of the Goji berry one, and the carrot one tasted more like mango.

What else was at EAT!?

Chai, butter chicken, kiwi juice, three different kinds of bread from Silver Hills Bakery, four different kinds of ginger snap cookies... the list goes on.

I love frozen foods, so I couldn't get enough of the vodka-infused spiked ice (re. freezies!) at the Black Fly booth at the Grapes and Hops pavillion. I had all three -- Cranberry/Blueberry, Strawberry/Rhubarb, and Black Currant/Blueberry -- for $1 each. Those were so good!

For the most part though, I stuck to the food pavillions, and so don't have much to say about the alcohol. A perk of being an emptier-of-spit-buckets was getting free samples from some of the drink exhibitors :). Nothing really stood out as particularly amazing to me, however.

Over at the "Bite of Vancouver" Pavillion, there were some pretty good food deals going on -- with all items going for $1 to $4.

At the Sweet Chili Café booth, I tried the bami goreng (Indonesian stir-fried noodles; see below for an approximation of what it looked like; $2.50) and nasi goreng (fried rice; $2.50), as well as a cantaloupe-mixed-with-honey-and-lime drink ($1) and a cendol drink (coconut milk, palm sugar, and and starch noodles; $1.50). The cantaloupe drink wasn't that great -- my family's recipe -- which just uses cantaloupe, sugar, and water -- is loads better.

I also went for a stick of chicken seekh kebab (it looked like one of those featured below; $1) from Ashiana Tandoori. It wasn't bad (my companion, H, enjoyed it), but it seemed really greasy to me.

Birch sap toffee (indistinguishable from English toffee; $0.50); a california roll-sushi cup (nothing special -- just sushi ingredients layered in a cup; $3); jambalaya from Big Al's Soul Food (free at the end of the event at closing time, but just tasted like vegetable soup on rice to me); brownie explosion and strawberry-banana gelato from Mamma Mia Gelato (I wasn't too impressed; $3 for a large); some cupcakes from Goldilocks (not too impressed with these either; $2.50 each or $2 each for more than one); samosa, papadam, and mango juice for free from New India Buffet -- or was that Maurya -- at closing time); and tacos (ground pork, chicken, and lamb -- I loved the lamb but didn't really like the chicken) from Dona Cata (I got them for $5 altogether at closing) were just some of the things I tried.

Sadly, I missed out on the Indonesian booth offerings: tumpeng (a cone-shaped mound of rice surrounded by an assortment of Indonesian dishes), which looked kind of like a mini-version of the one featured below, only with different and less-elaborate sides (including a garden salad, chicken wing, and tofu/veggie mixture)) and pisang goreng (fried bananas) with condensed milk and chocolate ($3). I couldn't find the booth until my break was over on Sunday, and so didn't have the time to wait for them to make me a rice cone :(.

You can check out the list of participating restaurants here.

Note that the list isn't entirely accurate. I was sad when Cassis Bistro was nowhere to be found -- I had been hoping to try their ratatouille, which they offered last year. I hope they'll come next year.

So there's my take on the food samples at EAT! Hopefully this post gave you enough of a glimpse of EAT! Vancouver to whet your appetite for next year's event!

Did you attend? Was there anything I missed that you particularly enjoyed? Comment and tell us about your experience! I know I haven't covered everything!

Stay tuned for my next post, where we'll move on to a more useful subject that I might revive when the next EAT! rolls around: tips on how to make the most of your EAT! admission fee.

Eat me! / Menu review: The Clubhouse Restaurant

2009-05-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

Before heading to bed to rest up for E AT! Vancouver tomorrow,I feel compelled to stay up and let you in on an old "secret spot" of mine I'd forgotten about until today, when D. stopped there to grab some dinner and I came along for the ride (literally, since she was driving me home from hot yoga).

I first discovered The Clubhouse Restaurant (255 West 2nd Avenue; see dinehere.ca for reviews) back while I was interning for WHERE Vancouver Magazine -- a shopping, dining, and entertainment magazine housed on Spruce St., just a few blocks away. It was one of my coworker's favourite dining spots. So I gave it a try.

It was so good, I created a new listing for it under the magazine's Japanese restaurant category.

I still remember exactly what I had. My friend, J., and I ordered and shared the beef okonomoyaki (one of the specials that day, on for only $6.95), the oh! avocado (baked avocado with seafood & cheese -- kind of like oyster motoyaki, only with avocado; $5.95), the "rockin' ross" cream cheese sushi roll (prawn tempura, sweet potato, BBQ salmon skin, cream cheese & asparagus; $5.75), and the azuki red beans with ice cream dessert ($3.00 or $3.50 -- I can't remember).

All of the dishes were delicious.

Nowadays, you can find okonomiyaki (Japanese-style pizza) at numerous places. The selection at the Clubhouse, however, is particularly huge -- there are 17 different kinds (including natto {fermented soybean}, mochi, pork gyoza, scallop, and mixed meat), with the option of paying extra to add kimchi, mochi, cheese, or yakisoba. The beef version we had was our favourite dish of the evening. Please note that the image featured below wasn't taken at The Clubhouse (I didn't dine there today, but it looks very similar to what we were served).

In terms of the cream cheese roll, I must say that adding that tiny dollop of cheese to sushi makes all the difference. I definitely recommend trying it at least once -- if not here, at least at another sushi restaurant.

But the real point of this post was to talk about the dessert item that is, sadly, no longer on The Clubhouse menu: sweet azuki red beans atop a huge dollap of vanilla ice cream.

I must admit, when the dessert first arrived at our table, I was a bit disappointed by the simplicity of its appearance -- $3.50 for just a scoop of ice cream and some beans?

Those red beans ended up being some of the best I've ever tasted. Larger, sweeter, and far tastier than any of the kind I've had served on the numerous ice desserts I've consumed (and I've eaten a lot!) or I've seen sold ready-made in plastic sachets or glass bottles at the grocery store, they were perfectly complemented by the mildly sweet and refreshing vanilla ice cream.

Noticing its absence from the dessert menu while waiting for D's order of sushi to arrive, I learned from the owner, Karen, that it had been taken off the menu because too many of the restaurant's customers don't like red bean and kept asking for vanilla ice cream alone, and because the dish is so labour-intensive.

It takes four to five hours to make!

Apparently, making those beans involves a long, complex process that begins with buying the right beans. They buy special dried dessert red beans and take care to choose only those of the right size (not too small or too big). They then have to take those beans and soak them for around four to five days, changing the water twice a day. When they're finally ready to cook, they need to be boiled for upwards of five hours, and then mixed with three types of sugar (white, brown, and "Chinese" sugar). After that, the cook has to determine how sweet the beans should be, bearing in mind that their level of sweetness will fade after being stored in the cooler.

While Karen was kind enough to share this recipe with me, she emphasized that I'd probably have to make the dish many times before hitting upon just the right proportion of sugar, water, and beans.

So, it's safe to say that I probably won't ever attempt it. ;)

All that work for something that sells for only $3.50!

I'm glad I got to try it before it was pulled. I turned down Karen's generous offer to make some for me for a future visit -- if it's really that hard to make, I'd rather have her make it for a much larger group to make it worth her while.

So, if you like red beans, are planning a large gathering, and have The Clubhouse on your list of places to try, consider calling ahead for the red bean and ice cream dessert.

Sometimes those items that look sweet and simple are some of the most complex and satisfying dishes you can try, and I'd definitely say that this dessert fits the bill.

Before dessert, go for the tuna steak ponzu and agedashi tofu. Karen says she can eat them every day, and that some people come just for the tofu.

The Clubhouse has whole menus of daily specials every day -- be warned though: my quick comparison of Friday's daily specials and the regular menu revealed that some of their "specials" are the same price as what they go for regularly. The restaurant used to post its daily special menus on its website, but seems to have taken down almost all the information it used to have. Guess you'll just have to come down and see the specials for yourself!

If you've tried The Clubhouse or know of another place that offers great red bean desserts, fill us in!

Candy-gram: Introducing.... headers!

2009-05-21T14:21:00.000-07:00

If you've been keeping up with my posts and happen to look back on past entries, you'll notice that I've added some nifty new headers to help you find your way through the buzz of food conversations that will hopefully start taking place very soon here (*hint hint*). Here's a breakdown of what's available so far.

Eat me!: Posts about specific foods (e.g. cheese ice cream) or food types (e.g. ice desserts) that I think are definitely worth trying.

Ask and I will find: My concierge service -- ask me for that food you long for, and I will do my best to find it or, if -- heaven forbid -- I can't, I will suggest related items you might enjoy instead that are available in or near the Lower Mainland.

Menu review: Food-focused restaurant reviews -- I'll highlight the particularly intriguing items (that you'd be hard-pressed to find anywhere else) on the menu, and note anything else that stands out about the eating establishment being covered.

Who knew: Informative entries about fun and/or interesting things you might not know about what you eat.

Candy-gram: Updates about new features and functions I've added to help sweeten your time on my page.

Coming soon...

Drink me!: Similar to Eat me! -- posts about drinks that I think are worth trying.

Foodie 'files: Profiles of folks with cool food-related jobs, sharing their specialized knowledge and secret dining spots with you.

---

Check back on this post if you need help navigating the page -- I'll be adding to the entry as I come up with more "convo-fodder". If you have any in mind, I'd be glad to hear them!

Who knew?: Coprophagy, or, eating poop

2009-05-20T08:53:00.000-07:00

Me: Guess what I won't eat?

AA: I dunno... manure?

Me: Uhh... that too, but...

I was all set to write this post on the things I won't eat (based on another conversation I had with AA about eating not-quite-dead animals), but of course my train of thinking led me to write instead on this far more intriguing topic -- coprophagy/coprophagia, or, the consumption of poop/feces/manure/two four-letter-words/you-get-the-picture.

Though my initial reaction to AA's response was "Who on earth would eat poop?", my mind immediately flashed to a scene from the film Fast Food Nation, which revealed that -- get ready for this -- fast food hamburgers contain cow manure. As the cow's guts are being removed during the butchering process, the poop spills out of the intestines, and gets mixed in with fast food-grade meat.

So --I'm sorry to break it to you -- but if you've eaten a hamburger from a fast food place, you've likely eaten poop.

Don't feel bad though. Apparently, we all have, at one point or another, eaten poop. "One of the main ways that diseases and parasites spread is through the consumption of food and water contaminated with feces. This happens because people don't wash their hands carefully after pooping or changing a diaper or scratching their butt. It can also happen through careless disposal of diapers."

What I find most interesting is the fact that there are people out there who eat poop on purpose. It could even be/have been you.

"In rare instances, people with severe developmental and psychological disorders practice pica, the consumption of non-food items, including coprophagy, the ingestion of feces. The behavior may also be observed among very young toddlers."

"Coprophagy is also listed as an unusual sexual practice in the encyclopedia of that name. Some people who practice sexual coprophagy say that only a lover's poop is good to eat; all other poop (including their own) makes them gag."

And, as you're probably imagining, "you can definitely get sick from eating poop, even in minute quantities! Although urine emerges sterile from the body (unless the person has an infection), poop emerges loaded with bacteria and sometimes other life forms. Many diseases, including food poisoning, cholera, and typhus, are spread by fecal contamination. Many parasites, such as the notorious tapeworm, can be spread through deliberate or accidental ingestion of poop."

Some parasites, such as pinworms (found in the large intestine), depend on people eating their own poop to keep the population up.

Talk about disturbing: "The females emerge from the anus at night to lay their eggs. Their activity makes the anal area itch. The person scratches the itch (often doing so in his sleep), procuring a small amount of fecal matter and eggs under his fingernails, and then puts his fingers in his mouth. Once the eggs are consumed, the person is infected with a new generation of pinworms."

This raises the question: are these people all sleeping in their birthday suits, or are those parasites just that eager to get out of our pants?

Apparently, almost everyone has pinworms.

If you want to find out if you do indeed have them, get someone to gently touch around your anal area with Scotch tape while you are sleeping. The worms will stick to the tape and you'll be able to see them.

For more information than you probably ever want to know about poop, check out the Scoop on Poop.

Any thoughts? Interesting personal experiences? Feel free to share! ;)

Ask, and I will find: red velvet cake

2009-05-17T23:13:00.000-07:00

Tiffany said...

Do you know any place in Vancouver that sells red velvet cake by the slice? I know two places that occasionally make red velvet cupcakes. They make cakes too but then you have to buy the whole cake which is too much to eat.

Thanks in advance!

May 17, 2009 8:55 AM

"A Red velvet cake is a type of rich and sweet cake, with a distinctive dark red to bright red or red-brown color." The red colouring comes from beets or red food colouring.

Some recipes/reviews I've encountered have said that real red velvet cakes should contain a whole bottle of food colouring. I think that's a great way to speed up the onset of cancer, since I doubt that most bakeries are using this stuff.

But hey, we're young, so, as Marie-Antoinette has been misquoted as saying, and which I will now misappropriate, "Lettuce eat cake."

Red velvet cake can come topped with either butter roux icing (also known as a cooked flour frosting) or cream cheese frosting. The cream cheese version is apparently ever so much better.

There don't appear to be any bakeries or restaurants that sell red velvet cake by the slice in Vancouver. I checked the great bulk of the Southern restaurants, "fancy" restaurants, and bakeries in Vancouver, and none of them carried it.

Red velvet appears to be a special occasion item that that mostly shows up around Valentine's Day. I know that P a ci fic Institute of Culinary Arts (aka PICA) had them as part of a post-Valentine's Day theme. Maybe they carry them occasionally during other times in the year?

I suggest you make a reservation at PICA around that time in February (come with me!) -- there's a 2-for-1 three course meal-deal that happens during the months of January and February (which I know you've already done, and which everyone else should take advantage of -- it's equivalent to $12 for lunch and $18 for dinner). Right now, they're offering the same promotion every Monday.

La Baguette et l'Echalotte on Granville Island used to carry red velvet cake five years ago (alas, no longer).

Waterloo (where Tiffany currently resides) also appears to be red velvet-free.

I did (correct me if I am mistaken) manage to locate the two cupcake places you mentioned.

Cupcakes -- now with five different locations -- describes their version as "red cocoa cake topped with cream cheese frosting and dusted with white sugar".

Butter Baked Goods on 4321 Dunbar St. also sometimes has red velvet cupcakes on rotation.

Based on the reviews I've seen, neither rendition is particularly spectacular.

If you want the good "to-die-for" stuff, I think you have to be willing to drive down to the States. Aside from the fact that red velvet cake is a Southern specialty, the mere existence of a post about the "best red velvet cakes in Seattle" (there are seven on the list) points to the fact that you should be planning a trip to the States now (how's that for a mini-honeymoon?). There, they even sell red velvet cupcakes at Target!

The best is supposed to be at The Kingfish Cafe (602 19th Avenue East), where it "co mes in slices as big as your head" for around $9.

If worse comes to worst, definitely look into this: According to weddingchannel.com, red velvet cakes are sometimes given as a groom's cake in Southern USA. "Intended to be a gift from the bride to the groom, the groom's cake is usually dark (often chocolate or liquor-soaked) and designed with a nod towards what's traditionally considered "masculine" (i.e., no rosettes in sight)."

My advice: splurge on a tasty treat for your husband-to-be! (Aren't newly-weds supposed to share everything?)

Or, even better, start a new tradition -- the bride cake. ;)

Believe it or not, pictured below is a Spiderman Red Velvet groom's cake. How awesome would that be?

In the meantime, since "[a] Red Velvet Cake is really a Devil's Food Cake that has red food colouring added to it," I suggest heading to True Confections for a slice of their devil's food cake "with dark chocolate layers, chocolate filling, and marshmallow icing."

I liked it so much the first time I had it that I actually had it again :o. Make sure you get it fresh -- it's not as good the next day. It's definitely worth trying if you haven't already.

If you don't mind BIY (baking it yourself), just ask if you want some good recipes for red velvet cake. Be sure to specify exactly what you're looking for -- I've come across sooo many (gluten-free, vegan, all-natural, all-artificial (just kidding) etc.).

Bon appetit!

UPDATE: Wow, you made it this far -- and not for nothing anymore, either! I have found a place that sells red velvet cake in Vancouver! Unfortunately, I don't think it actually tastes all that good. You can buy red velvet cake by the slice at WE. Coffee (1696 Robson St., a few stores to the right of Robson Public Market). The girl working the counter said it was her favourite cake slice, so I was expecting extreme deliciousness!

It looked like this:

I took it home to share with my mom and little sister. I also picked up half a dozen cupcakes from Cupcakes (one of which was red velvet), for comparison purposes.

I have to say, I was very disappointed with the WE. version. Inspired by this post, I'd made a point of trying pretty much every red velvet cake and cupcake I came across during a trip to New York, and the WE. version was on par with the worst of them. The cake part was extremely dense and not very flavourful, and the icing was a plain white one that tasted like the crummy store-bought kind. To be honest, I was quite surprised, given the $5.75 price tag for the slice. All three of us agreed that the version from Cupcakes was superior by far.

Cupcakes' red velvet cupcake was moist and delicious, complimented perfectly by their cream cheese frosting. I think the Cupcakes version is a much better value for your money. If you like dense, rich cakes, however, feel free to give the WE. version a try and let us know what you think of it.

Other places you can find red velvet cake/cupcakes in Vancouver:

Superstore. I've heard great things about their PC Red Velvet Cheesecake, but haven't had a chance to try it yet myself. I haven't found a reviewer yet that wasn't impressed by it.

Cassia Cupcakery (1706 Commercial Drive). I tried their mini red velvet cupcake for $1 and thought it was pretty tasty. The bakery itself doesn't look like it's gotten very good reviews overall though... I can't give my thoughts because the mini was all I tried (I was already full of other stuff from the Italian festival that was taking place that day).

Super Valu (1645 East 1st Avenue, just off Commercial Drive) also sells big red velvet cupcakes in packages of four. I haven't tried those, but I did try a strawberry frosted cupcake by the same brand, and that was delicious.

I'm sure there are a lot more places that sell red velvet cake nowadays, as it's gotten pretty popular... I just haven't been looking all that hard since I had my fill of them in New York City. A lot of the cupcake shops in Vancouver sell cupcake versions, while WE. Cafe is the only place I've found that actually sells red velvet cake by the slice.

One last note about WE. Cafe -- I had their famous Mariage Frères Marco Polo tea there the same day I picked up my slice of red velvet, and felt quite ripped off by it. Mariage Frères is supposed to make some of the best teas in the world. It smelled so refreshing and appetizing in my cup, but had next to no taste whatsoever. I think that the barista didn't steep the tea bags for long enough. Unfortunately, I couldn't simply wait for the tea to steep longer, because the cafe's policy is to remove the tea bags before they bring your teapot to you. So I basically paid $5.99 for a nice-smelling pot of flavourless water.

But that is the subject of another blog post that I will probably not get around to writing, because I have given up food writing to write quirky novels and short stories. My first novel, which I am now looking to get published, is called Teaching for Apples. It's about a girl who likes apples so much that she decides to become a teacher, because everyone knows that being a teacher is the best way to get free apples. Too bad none of her students will give her any!

You can find out more about the novel and even read some of my stories by liking my Facebook fan page: www.facebook.com/TeachingforApples.

Menu review: Breaking the fast at Seb's Market Café

2009-05-17T13:58:00.000-07:00

Banana bread French toast, elk medallion bennys, scrambled eggs with caribou meat and sundried tomatoes, bacon and caramelized apple omelettes... for interesting takes on traditional breakfast fare, look no further than Seb's Market Cafe on 592 East Broadway (about five blocks east of Main St.).

Eager to sample elk for the first time, I selected Seb's for this Sunday morning's breakfast date with three friends -- D, KK, and J. Opting for an early get-together, we arrived at Seb's well before the morning crowd, at 9:15am, and were seated immediately.

Seb's has a bunch of interesting smoothies and juices on their menu, including a melon celery drink, I believe. D had carrot, celery, and ginger juice (she likes her mom's fresh-made juice better, but will now ask her to add ginger too); KK had the coffee, and J and I settled for waters, all of which arrived promptly.

I ordered what I came for -- the elk medallion benny ($10, up from $9.50, which it apparently was just last month): two decent-sized disks of medium-rare elk, served on yummy savoury biscuit halves, smothered in sauce, with a side of homecut fries (not too greasy), and fruit (watermelon, honeydew, strawberry, and pineapple, which I thought was a nice touch). The bennys were a bit on the small side -- about the size of my fist.

Seb's offers three different sauces for their bennys. I think they must change their sauce offerings from time to time, since I've heard they've had such flavours as blueberry chipotle and curry pineapple on their menu.

The waitress was kind enough to let me have my benny halves with two different sauces. I went with her suggested pairings of havarti sauce and chipotle wildberry (they also offer thai curry coconut). D, who had a benny with pan-fried sweet peppers, onions, and basil ($9; featured below), also had the chipotle wildberry sauce. Neither of us enjoyed this particular sauce very much. I don't think it pairs well with egg, but to be fair, I'm not a fan of berry-flavoured things.

Since I'm not much of a red meat fan either (I only eat chicken and fish at home), the elk was just okay to me. It tasted a bit like beef (I won't get into its gamey-ness, since I haven't eaten enough red meat to be able to authentically distinguish what counts as "gamey"). I did really enjoy the egg and biscuit though (far tastier and richer than a plain old English muffin would have been).

The Havarti sauce was quite tasty. I would definitely go for the thai coconut curry sauce in a future hypothetical visit though (it's my policy to eat at restaurants just once, so that I can try more of them).

My favourite dish was what KK ordered -- a crab and avocado omelette (I can't recall the price, but it should have been in the $9-10 range; see below), which came with two thick pieces of toast, homemade preserves, and the standard sides (fries and fruit). The egg was delicious. He's a big foodie though, and he thought it was just okay.

J's order was the most intriguing of them all -- banana bread cooked French-toast style ($8.50; pictured below). It tasted exactly like you would expect -- like banana bread -- and came with two little pots of strawberry preserves and maple syrup, as well as side of fresh fruit and potatoes. KK and I thought it was okay; J and D seemed to enjoy it.

The French toast tempted D so much that she accidentally took J's leftovers with her after he dropped us off for dragonboat practice (note the lack of quotes around "accidentally", since D would never intentionally make off with another person's leftovers ;P).

The consensus was that Seb's has a great ambience and is a cool spot to hang out in (the decor is hip and casual at the same time, and KK liked the environment), but the food is just okay.

Still, it's been referred to as a "hidden gem", "the busiest place that no one has ever heard of", and "Vancouver's best-kept secret", so why not give it a try and see for yourself?

It's open weekdays from 6:30am to 4pm and weekends from 7:30am to 4pm.

If you've dined at Seb's before and have anything to add, please lend your perspective.

Thanks a bunch to D for the cellphone pics! Being one of the few people who still prefer and use good old film, I forgot to bring a digital camera *sheepish face*.

Ask, and I will find: treacle sponge pudding

2009-05-16T22:14:00.001-07:00

Rosanne said...

You know what I want. Treacle sponge! My research hasn't turned up any in Vancouver...

May 16, 2009 3:29 PM

Rosanne is referring to treacle sponge pudding, which Wikipedia describes as "a British dessert dish consisting of a steamed sponge cake with golden syrup or molasses cooked on top of it, sometimes also poured over it and often served with hot custard".

In this case, a picture is worth 31 words.

I'm pleased to report that I have located the said dessert.

In Vancouver, it's sold at some British convenience shops (let me know if you want the names), but if you want it like you had in England, head to The Diner -- "an authentic English-style Diner, complete with kidney pie and and mushy peas. Breakfast is served all day".

It's not on the regular menu, but they'll make it for you as a special request if you call ahead 24 hours before you want it. The owner, Stella (a very sweet lady), estimated that it will cost around $7 (I asked about how much it would be for one to two people, so I don't know whether it's a one or two person serving she was referring to).

I've eaten there before, and it seems like the real deal. I went for the steak and kidney pie, and my friend went for the fish and chips. She really enjoyed her dish; as for me, not so much -- kidney just isn't my cup of tea, but the owner had warned me to go with something more traditional since I wasn't a British native, so I'm not complaining. On the menu were baby liver and onions, bangers and mash, shepherd's pie, and more.

Shall we make a pudding date, Rosanne? I need to go back and try their bread pudding!

Have any of you tried treacle pudding or something similar? I've heard it's insanely sweet, but I do have a massive sweet tooth. What did you think of treacle pudding? If you haven't tried it, now's your chance!

It's recommended that you try their British breakfast (I haven't yet). It's a really homey place and is worth checking out.

The Diner is on 4556 West 10th Ave. I think it's closed on Sundays (because I was supposed to eat there with another friend once and had to go to Burgoo instead because I hadn't checked ahead to see if it was opened).

Keep the questions coming!

Ask, and I will find!

2009-05-15T22:08:00.000-07:00

Do we all know what a concierge is?

It's my dream career, and the thing I love most about it is that involves knowing everything happening in the city and sharing that knowledge with people, be it recommending places to shop and eat to getting impossible-to-get reservations for hotel guests.

I've decided to turn this blog into a concierge-like service, pertaining to food, with you being my "clients".

What this means is that I want you to tell me what food-related item you're interested in finding, and I will research the topic and find all the best places for you to get the item (and probably tell you places to stay away from).

We'll see how it goes. I haven't quite figured out what I want to do with this blog yet.

Thank you so much to my regular readers for your great input though. Now's your chance to get your burning food questions answered! :)

Who knew?: Bugs for breakfast!

2009-05-12T08:56:00.000-07:00

I'm starting my FOODSAFE training in just five minutes, so I anticipate being able to share some interesting facts about food safety - most likely a couple of gross food handling stories, etc.

The worst personal story I can recall at the moment was one time when I was eating a rice and bean dish in a restaurant in the Philippines and saw something that looked like neither a bug nor bean. Turns out, the "bean" was really a small beetle. It was really tiny, so if I hadn't been looking closely, I would have probably just eaten it.

Eating a bug in a meal really shouldn't bother us, since there's bug bits in practically everything we eat. Back when I used to have a membership at Science World, they had a special members-only night in conjunction with the opening of the OMNIMAX film Backyard Bugs, where they had all kinds of foods that contain pieces of bugs for attendees to eat. Up for grabs were bags of chips, peanut butter, bread, popcorn, etc. The take-message was that every time we eat a chip, there are probably crushed bits of ant or grasshopper in them.

And we apparently end up eating an average of eight spiders in a lifetime -- they crawl into our mouths while we're sleeping. Don't quote me on that though -- I quickly googled it to make sure the statistic is out there, but some sources say we eat 10, and I also don't know how on earth they measure that!

There are also all the bugs that eat by choice. My dad used to eat honeybee larvae and said they taste like candy. During the Science World night, they fried up mealworms (the larva form of the mealworm beetle) and I think also served honeybee larvae, but I wasn't brave enough to try either at the time (I was only in elementary school).

Then there are the novelty insects you can buy at candy stores. One day I will try some. They're really expensive though, for less than a handful of bugs!

If you know anywhere in the Lower Mainland that sells insects/bugs (e.g. termites, chocolate covered ants, etc.), or if you'd tried any cool insects during your worldly travels, please enlighten us with your insights!

Eat me!: Queso (cheese!) ice cream -- sarap (yummy)!

2009-05-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Today, in celebration of mother's day, my family and I went over to my aunt and uncle's house for dinner. Since a big chunk of my extended family (12 of them) had just come back from an Alaskan cruise and the dinner had been planned literally on the day of, there was sadly no sugary lasagna or yummy homemade Filipino desserts on the buffet array (I guess I'll have to save those subjects for another time).

Luckily, there was one particular item on the dessert table that I often talk about and don't get to eat enough of -- queso (cheese) ice cream!

Heart2Heart describes queso as "The Pinoy's version of a cheese desset (sic). Fresh cheese blended in creamy, milky sorbetes (sic) and dotted with "cheese" bits as how Pinoys know and love it."

The first time I encountered cheese ice cream, I had the same reaction as what you're probably experiencing now. "Cheese (and corn) ice cream? Seriously?" (This was a Magnolia-brand ice cream not featured above, and was basically the same ice cream dotted with corn bits). It was soooooo good. Unless you hate cheese or are lactose intolerant, you need to try this flavour. Heck, try it even if you don't like cheese -- it's that good. Everyone I know who's tried cheese ice cream has been instantly converted. It's now one of my favourite flavours of ice cream.

Of the three brands I've mentioned (Selecta, Magnolia, and Arce Dairy), I think that Selecta is the best by far (just look at the picture!!). My mom attests to it, and she's grown up with the brands.

Selecta is an offshoot of Arce Dairy. I don't know why, but it's soooo much better than its parent company. Magnolia is super-popular in Asia. Apparently, people from Hong Kong buy lots and lots when they visit the Philippines, and bring it back with them by packing it in boxes of ice (the flight is short enough for it to last without melting away).
Today was my first chance to try the Arce Dairy version of queso ice cream. It was very good, but it doesn't have the yummy cheese bits and rich creamy texture that Selecta has.

The only place I've seen that sells the Selecta and Arce Dairy brands of queso ice cream is my uncle's dollar store (the 99 cent store, across from the McDonald's located across from Landsdowne Mall in Richmond). I think that they go for about $11.99 for a litre, and it's well worth trying!

Mais-Queso ice cream by Magnolia is much easier to find -- it's in a lot of the small Filipino shops around Vancouver. If you want just a scoop, you can go to Rekados on Main Street, where I think they sell three scoops as one of their dessert items, one of which is queso. I have no idea what brand it is, however, and it's pretty pricey (over $5). The advantage is that you get to try ube and I think langka-flavoured ice cream as well. I would go for the tub. Look for this, if the thought of corn and cheese intrigues you:

**I will qualify this post by mentioning that a colleague just caught a glimpse of my post and commented that queso ice cream "is nasty and tastes like nacho cheese". I beg to differ, but be warned -- you might not enjoy it as much as I and my relatives do!**

Mango, ube (purple yam), macapuno (coconut), ube-macapuno (purple yam and coconut marble), and langka (jackfruit), are other flavours I would recommend trying.

Are there any interesting/delicious flavours/brands/kinds of ice cream that have particularly impressed you?

La Casa Gelato (the gelato place on Clark and Venables with the insane amount of flavours) has closed, so if you can recommend other spots for neat flavours, please do so!

Bon(jour)/ Appetit!

2009-05-09T17:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the never-ending story of my adventures with food -- and the chance to talk about them and your own food adventures.

Friends, acquaintances, and even people I've just met have always been telling me to give food writing a shot -- I'm always talking about good/interesting foods (take note that those terms are not always interchangeable) and places to find/try/buy them -- so I've finally decided to get on my ass and try it!

Here's where I'll get all my thoughts and experiences down (in possibly the most random fashion possible), to help you discover new dishes, recognize vendors who wouldn't catch your eye otherwise, and maybe even be persuaded to choose something entirely different the next time you eat out/go grocery shopping/stop for a snack.

I mean it in the broadest possible sense when I say that I am interested in any and all kinds of food. I'm by no means a gourmand, or even someone who eats out regularly. When I say food, I mean anything from restaurant meals and fast food snacks to interesting flavours and brands of everyday items like chips, chocolates, cookies, jams, milk, bread, juice, etc.

I like hearing others' food suggestions and favourite dining spots as much as I like sharing my own, so I would love to get your input on any topic I happen to hit upon - whether your knowledge be first- or second-hand.

I usually do A LOT of research about foods and food places before I try them, so I often end up talking about places I haven't yet tried but plan to visit. However, I'll always indicate whether the information's directly from me or from other sources.

Ultimately, I would like this to become a conversation about food - one that we can continue the next time we meet for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, snacks, or brunch; so, without further ado, let's get the ball rolling.

Let's talk carbs, or specifically, pasta. For someone who wrote an article on the harmfulness of lowered carb intake (aka the low-carb diet), I rarely go for the high-carb options when I go out to eat. I'm just not into rice, bread, and pasta. Generally, I haven't been too impressed with any of my pasta experiences, and it's just occurred to me that I've never specifically sought out a fantastic place for Italian-style pasta (to me, it's weird to think of Asian noodle dishes as pasta, even though they usually rightfully belong to this category).

I think it's time to ameliorate my "poor pasta" situation.

Part of the reason for my lack of a "wow" experience is high standards. For the longest time, I used to think that lasagna was my favourite food, and tried it at a bunch of places before I realized that it wasn't; it was my aunt's lasagna that I loved, and what I loved most about it was *shh* her secret ingredient -- sugar, and lots of it! It's apparently "a Filipino thing" (maybe a Chinese-Filipino one?), and it's just the thing to turn a mediocre pasta into what my friend Isabelle calls a "party for your mouth". It doesn't hurt that my aunt's lasagna also has about a full centrimetre's worth of gooey mozzerella cheese on top. Other lasagnas and pastas just don't match up once you've tried sugared pasta. Don't knock it till you try it - it's amazing! But I digress.

I've had spaghetti and lasagna at the Old Spaghetti Factory, lasagna at Red Robin's, chicken pesto/wine sauce pasta and turkey tortellini at Anton's Pasta, some kind of pasta at Da Pasta Bar (I honestly can't remember anymore what kind), fettuccini alfredo at Earl's, four-cheese gnocci at Marcello's, and some kind of chicken pasta dish at the fancy La Terreza in Yaletown, and none have really wowed me.

I haven't been to any of the really high-end places (with the exception of La Terreza), but also hope that there are some reasonably-priced pasta places out there that will fulfill my need for some good pasta. I'm planning to hit up The First Ravioli store on Commercial Drive sometime to try a bit of each of their different (uncooked) pastas. They're supposed to be really tasty.

If you have a favourite Italian pasta place/experience, please share it with me so that I and any other readers can make my/their stomach happy with a yummy pasta dish!

Cheers to the dreaded first-date food! :)