I have mentioned that I am un-Chinese Chinese. What does that mean? That, while I was raised with the culture, there are a lot of things, specially traditions, didn’t really “stick” with me. Of course, growing in another part of the world (read: Panama) meant I had to balance things: local vs. background? Of course, moving to Canada wasn’t even in remote parts of my mind back when I was growing… Oh, how things have changed. But, what has not changed is that desire to celebrate the major Chinese holidays. Chinese New Year, Autumn Festival, et al. And with that it means… Food!
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Tagged as:
Chinese,
Festivities,
Pork
Hida Takayama Ramen
203 – 1610 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Wow… How long it has been? Almost a month already since my last post of Vancouver! Anyway, after I came back, it was time to check with people from right here and food that makes Vancouver sort of well know. One of those is Japanese and, among the different options, is ramen. Given I work near Robson and Denman, I have easy access to the popular ones: From Santouka to Benkei to Sanpachi. And then there are Kintaro and Motomachi Shokudo. However, in a case of “me, too!”, some smaller places have opened and today’s post is one of them: Hida Takayama Ramen, located in, out of all strange places, in the food court at Robson Market.
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Tagged as:
Downtown,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Noodles,
Vancouver
Pho Century (Kingsway and Sperling)
6701 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post on Pho Century. Almost in no time, Karl of The Friday Lunch wrote back a comment about his subpar experience, not to mention they were opening a second location. Curiosity got the best out of me and let’s just say I had to visit it…
Update: Due to some interesting coincidences in life Sherman shokutsu of Foodosophy, wrote a post of this location as well! Check it here.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Pho,
Vietnamese
Elephant & Castle
Chain restaurant, several locations
385 Burrard Street (location visited)
Vancouver, BC
A small reminder from 11 months ago: During the Winter Olympic Games, due to what was perceived as “difference in culture”, some restaurants imposed a mandatory gratuities to the final bill. As a result of that, I banned myself from some restaurants. Whether I will continue not supporting them, well, that might be up in the air; however, for this post, I ended up with PO in Elephant & Castle, one of those restaurants in that said list, for convenience purposes out of all things. Damn me…
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Tagged as:
Burgers,
Lunch,
pub,
Vancouver
Havana Cafe
1212 Commercial Drive
Vancouver, BC
On my University years, my schedule was the usual crazy one for those who were working and studying. In my case, my latest class was 10:30 p.m. and, a lot of times, it mean grabbing something to eat. There were some “usual” 24 hours places and, in one of such places, I always went for one thing: a Cuban sandwich. What I liked about that sandwich was that combination of savoury, sweet (*), sour/acidic and gooey cheesy. While there are great sandwiches here in Vancouver, I haven’t been able to find anything that resembles it yet. Now, it isn’t necessarily a “bad” thing, as I have learned to “appreciate” the other sandwich types. Instead, well, I miss it. When Sherman went to Havana Cafe and mentioned they make this sandwich, I was all up for it. Alas, it partially fell off the radar but, on one night, I was near Brittania Community Centre and that gave me a good excuse to drop by for that Cuban sandwich.
(*) This might due to the use of a braided bread, rather than the traditional Cuban bread.
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Tagged as:
Commercial Drive,
Latin America,
Sandwich,
Soup,
Vancouver
C-Lovers (Pine Tree)
Several locations
108-2991 Lougheed Highway (location visited)
It is funny that, while this region is collectively called Metro Vancouver, everything is focused in Vancouver itself, specially the areas I call the “well known” ones, i.e., Downtown, Gastown, Yaletown, Kitsilano and so on. However, we know there are things around if you know where to look. Such was the case some days before the holidays when I was looking for a new camera bag (the old one was pretty beat up) and a local shop had a suitable one. But it wasn’t available in their Vancouver location. Looking at their other ones, I found out their Richmond location had it… But in a really odd colour: green. Nothing wrong with green but too… Flashy? However, I found out their Coquitlam location had it so a drive to Coquitlam was! Of course, it was way after work which meant early night and also meant… Food!!! The interesting thing is that there were several places I wanted to go but could only go to one. There was Matoi Sushi (not sure if related to the Matoi Sushi in Downtown Vancouver), Chada Thai (which is supposed to be a good Thai places, though not certain it would have been a good idea to go by myself) and some Vietnamese restaurants like Pho Huy and Pho 99. However, I wanted something “different” and that ended up being, out of all things, fish and chips in the form of C-Lovers (and that is despite it is a chain with several locations!).
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Tagged as:
Coquitlam,
Fish,
Seafood
Aladdin’s Cafe
720 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
I have mentioned in the past that Middle Eastern restaurants have been creeping around Downtown Vancouver. While not as “noticeable” as, say, Starbucks, you could easily find one every couple of blocks. And what is not to like? Meat spinning in a spit, carved when order (OK, not always) or falafel, which are then dressed with tahini and hot sauce. Well, aside the fact that a lot of these places are small and tend to be packed. On a day for lunch, I was just walking around and ended up near Robson and Granville. And looking for a place for a quick lunch, I eyed Aladdin’s Cafe, which happens to be right next to a Babylon Cafe
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Tagged as:
Chicken,
Lunch,
Middle Eastern,
Vancouver
