White Spot
Several locations in Canada
1616 West Georgia Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
A quick reminder of my background: I wasn’t raised in Canada and, as a result, there are a lot of things “Canadian” I didn’t grow up with. One of those things was White Spot’s Pirate Pack (and come to think about it, I didn’t even grow up having Happy Meals). So, when White Spot sent an email (*) to some of us food bloggers about this event, I was enthusiastic. Hey, why not! (After all, it is for a good cause!). So, on that day, I decided to drop by to “experience” it.
(*) As a personal decision, I do not participate in such promotions or events. If I choose to go to a restaurant, it will be on my own.
Now, this post is a bit different compared to the other post – it is more of a photo essay. How come? Because, well, I have been to White Spot previously and, in this case, things weren’t that different. After all, it is a chain!
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Chain Restaurant,
Vancouver
Kimura Sushi & Japanese Cuisine
3883 Rupert Street
Vancouver, BC
Some time ago, when I went to Chong Lee’s Market (in 22nd Avenue) for some banh mi, I noticed Kimura, a Japanese restaurant “to be open soon”. Of course, having such a restaurant almost in the middle of nowhere would catch some attention. To quote my post on Chong Lee’s:
- Open a restaurant in a weird location/setting.
- Make it ethnic (bonus if Japanese).
- ???
- Profit!
(This of course was inspired by an episode of South Park called Gnomes)
I mentioned this to Sherman and, as usual, our grand plans to get some others to tag along and go on one day never materialized. Until, that is, Sherman drops me a note saying Vandelay and family, as well as Sherman, Viv and family will be going one night and checked if I wanted to tag along. Well, I might be the odd one out on this one (not the first instance either!) but that has never stopped me, specially not for food!
As for the restaurant itself, there is some sort of aura behind it: The restaurant chef happens to be Japanese and spent quite some time in different countries. However, story goes, he decided to settle down in one location and, rather, opening a big restaurant, he chose a small one. One other feature seems to be his love for jazz because that is what was playing the whole time during dinner! (I don’t mind jazz but can anybody imagine reggae?).
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Tagged as:
Japanese,
Sushi,
Vancouver
Old Szechuan Restaurant
10703 – 103 Street
Edmonton, AB
During my initial post of my BC Day/Heritage Day long weekend in Edmonton, I made a remark about The Lingnan, whose claim to include being part of a show called The Family Restaurant: The Quons. In that post, I wrote “I know, I know, this isn’t authentic Chinese…” Now, here is a key detail, based on ingredient availability and taste, it is almost a guarantee dishes will change (in fact, I am looking forward for a book to be published later this year on this topic. Check details about it here). So, on my last night in Edmonton, after a visit to the Devonian Botanical Gardens, a friend of Trinh (whom I am going to refer as “K”) called, which, in turn, checked with me. While initially I didn’t have any expectations as to what to eat or where to eat, this time, I made a selfish request: Can we try a Chinese restaurant? Given K’s background, it seems like a good idea: to find something Chinese but not Chinese Canadian. (Sorry, Trinh, I knew you wanted to try something “Western”!).
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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Edmonton,
Pork
Furusato Japanese Restaurant
10012 Northwest 82 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
When I first started food blogging, at first, there weren’t that many people reading my posts. Well, in a way, that is expected, given that I didn’t really put too much effort in meeting others. After meeting with other food bloggers, let’s just say things started to improve. For the most part, most people commenting were from here in BC. Except for one, whose “name” was “raidar”. Eventually, I found that Chris (raidar’s in-real-life name), who writes Eating is the Hard Part, was from Edmonton. So, not long after I made all the arrangements for this trip to Edmonton, I started to check with people in that province and Chris’ name popped almost right away. So, as with almost any meeting with food bloggers (and, in this case, it does not matter from what province or country, as it happened with Phyllis), what better place to meet than… A restaurant to break some bread! And given that Chris has written so many times about Furusato, and the endless comparison with Vancouver, I suggested we should give this place a try. And to Furusato we went!
Update: Chris’ post is here!
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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Japanese,
Sushi
Tràng Tiên
9449 Jasper Ave
Edmonton, AB
Finally, my posts from Edmonton! As suggested a couple of weeks ago, I went to Edmonton for BC Day/Heritage Day long weekend and, finally, I am catching up with those posts, hehehehe. Actually, at this point, I am starting to wonder if the posts in this month of August will be mostly non-BC based… Other than Minoas Greek Taverna (a min-gathering suggested by Elaine) and Mui Ngo Gai, all the posts so far have been from Tacoma and Edmonton. But, wait, what about the rest of the month, there are still weeks to go, right? Well, yeah… In part! Because, as possibly suggested by some tweets (here and here), I just came back from Portland! (And, yes, there will be some food carts!).
But back to Tràng Tiên… Not sure if you might have or might not have caught up but, when I wrote in last Friday’s post of Mui Ngo Gai, I made reference to “a reader” suggesting order other dishes in addition to pho or banh mi. That reader happened to be Trinh who was my host during my trip in Edmonton. So, putting things to test, I asked Trinh if she could take us to a place she would go for pho or, in her case, bún bò hue. And that’s how we ended up going to Tràng Tiên
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Tagged as:
Edmonton,
Pho,
Vietnamese
Mui Ngo Gai
2408 Nanaimo Street
Vancouver, BC
For quite some time already, I have wondered about dishes representatives of a culture. This is somewhat “important” because, when we go to an ethnic restaurant, we want to go there to have a taste of that culture. So, not sure how or why, in the case of Japanese, it ends up being sushi, though there is a showing of izakaya places lately. In the case of Greek, it shouts lamb. But similar to NY style pizza, chicago deep dish pizza (which, technically is a casserole), St Louis style or California style, each region has its unique version. So in a chain of emails with a reader who prefers not to comment, she made a note that “whenever you (as in food bloggers in general) go to a Vietnamese restaurant, you always end up ordering pho or bánh mì and, in-lieu, we should give bún bò hue a try instead. While I have unknowingly tried it once in Pho Maxima, when I went to Mui Ngo Gai, I consciously decided to give this dish a try instead. So, would it change my thoughts of pho and start ordering this other dish instead (if available)?
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Tagged as:
Pho,
Soup,
Vietnamese
Friesenburgers
308 East 26th Street
Tacoma, WA
Hmmmmm…. Burger…. That quintessential North American sandwich. And I will be more than willing to admit I am at times guilty to have one too many burgers. Something that can be really cheap (and done well) and something where you can also make it fancy for no other reason just because (and, in my opinion, break its simplicity). Despite its bad rap, if done well, it can be a thing of beauty. And, again, who better than Americans for this creation? So, on my last day in Tacoma, on my way back to Vancouver, I had to do a small stop for lunch and what better place, than, well, a burger shop? And that’s how I ended up in Friesenburgers.
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Tacoma
