So one night, while driving through Kingsway after an errand, I ran into the eternal question that pops when your stomach starts grumbling: Food, where??? That quickly remind me of a Vietnamese restaurant I was pending a visit. After a couple of turns, I arrived at Pho Viet.

I must mention that I usually have around a week’s worth of post materials and it is possible I won’t post about a visit until a week (if not more) later. More often than not, that is not an issue; however, when you have special promos and you had such promo then it does. Unfortunately, I procrastinated with this one in particular. Why? Because I went to Pho Viet on late June while they had this promo (If they have a similar promo or the same promo, I can’t say).

Anyway, when I walk into the restaurant, I had a really odd feeling. For some reason, I felt as if they weren’t expecting any customers that night (it was in the middle of the week) because they looked a bit startled. I was told I could sit anywhere and… Probably because of their reaction, I chose the worst possible seat: in a somewhat dark corner, when I could sit on anywhere in the restaurant. Feel free to call it epic fail…

Given the prices listed outside, I new I had to had pho. The question was rather what else. Once I made my order, I started my usual round, starting with my infamous… Condiments on the table picture!

There goes your usual suspects!

Since I ordered pho, there ought be a plate of side bean sprouts and some herbs. The usual herb is there (thai basil); however, the reason why I wanted to came was rather than other herb on the top: culantro, aka, saw-leaf herb. This herb is frequently used in Panamanian and other Latin American cuisine; however, some Asian cultures use it as well. While I know what to expect in Panamanian dishes, I wasn’t sure how it would go with pho… (Although we know it is fragrant, in Panama, we don’t eat this herb “as is”).

In addition to the pho, I ordered some rolls, specifically, an order of Chinese salad roll. On its own, this would have been filling enough but, hey, I was hungry! If you had other Vietnamese salad rolls before then you have a good idea of what to expect. Slightly stringy rice noodles wrapped together by the rice wrap, some herbs inside (most notably thai basil) which gives an anise like flavour. However, unlike the Vietnamese salad roll that has shrimp, this one has cured Chinese sausage and some egg omelette strips. While the substitution is quite interesting, I wonder about the ingredient itself. Namely I did not find it savoury enough, as if it was muted by the other ingredients. Those who have had Chinese sausages before, you know that it is quite savoury and small pieces go a long way. And, no, no matter how much dip I tried to use, it didn’t seem to have any impact.

And the pho. This one has rare beef, tendon and tripe. The soup was quite good, I must admit. It felt light yet not watery, still tasty/savoury yet not salty. The noodles were OK, not much to talk about. But the meats… Had I have to pay full price ($8.50), I would have cried foul; however, given that I was paying only $5, I will instead consider it is equivalent of a small in other places served in a large container. But, going back to the topic, I couldn’t find anything distinctive about the meats, that is, it felt… average.

Overall, it was interesting in its own ways. The food could have been better in some aspects but, given the price I paid that night, I don’t think I should be complaining about it. Would I come back? Well, in Kingsway, there are a lot of other Vietnamese shops (including some that do not do pho) and, until I try others (including a re-visit to this place paying full price), I can’t say for certain. Interesting option for pho, not necessarily the absolute best.

However… Instead going to Canada Place directly, I chose to go to Granville Island first. I have written about this place before (check here) and have an idea of what to expect. But why go to Granville Island first? No actual reason! ^_^;;;

One event that has been running this week is the International Jazz Festival. Oddly, it is “running” also in Downtown Vancouver, which I could go after work. But, alas, I haven’t had the chance…

While I was walking around, I noticed a small queue for sample fish. Since the queue was short… (It seems certain blogger’s impatience is starting to influence me), I managed to get a piece pretty soon.

The fish was halibut which, in my mind is a bland fish. The salsa was quite good, though.

However, that small piece was no lunch so, soon after, I went to the Granville Market to find something. In the end, I settled for fish and chips, specifically the one with the longest line. In this case, Celine’s Fish & Chip

My order: the sample platter, described as cod, fried oysters, breaded prawns & calamari with fries and onion rings. However, I found it disappointing: several items were listed as plural but it had only a piece (prawn and oyster). Oddly, I was given two pieces of fish… It wasn’t that good; however, what “killed” it was that thickness of the batter and everything being excessively oily. I guess because it was really busy took its toll.

Some busking (?) activities.

After that, I went to Canada Place. However, I had a small “accident”: on my way out, I stumbled and felt down. Nothing serious, just a small scratch on the knee. Ouch… Anyway, after waiting for over 10 minutes for the bus, I arrived at Canada Place.

This is the display from the Department of National Defence. The plushies are from the families of the DND members.

One thing you have to admit is that members of the military and enforcement, in this case, the RCMP, are quite “cheerful”, compared to my experience with the military forces from certain other countries south of Canada…

One of the several stages, this one in particular with Stanley Park in the background.

If there is something that describes Canada quite well is multi-culturalism. How about a band on stage with Indian and Irish dancers, somebody playing the fiddle? This is from a band called Delhi 2 Dublin.

Somebody will have to explain this to me: Why are these lemonades leave the lemon whole and use a syrup to prepare the “freshly squeezed” lemonade instead?

Hmmmmmm…. Corn on the cob!

I was still full from my lunch and, instead, went for something more “unique”. Here, maple taffee. Maple syrup never tasted soooo goooood! ^_^;;;

As mentioned yesterday, I am proud to be Canadian. However, I will deny almost anything when it comes to people like this…

I left way before the end of festivities, including a parade and the fireworks later that night. I was quite tired, specially considering I kept bumping into people (did I say it was packed?). But, regardless, it was fun! And tomorrow, back to the “normal” schedule. ^_^

A bit over a month ago, a group of food bloggers went to Long’s Noodle House (you can see my post on that gathering here). We agreed we should do this again and the responsibility to organize the next event felt into the shoulders of Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures. But, soon after, other bloggers expressed their interest on joining us and, in the end, we had a relatively large group (in alpha order of their site):

Edit: Links to individual post on Alvin Garden added.

• Kevin of 604 Foodtography - post for this visit, here.
• Christina and ET of Doesn’t Tazte Like Chicken
• TS of [eatingclub]vancouver
• Gigi and Jenkins of Ho Yummy - post for this visit, here.
• Wilson of La Petite Vancouver - post for this visit, here.
• Sherman and Viv of Sherman’s Food Adventures - post for this visit, here.
• Drea of The Best Damn Food Blog There Is™ - post for this visit, here.
• Jessica and M of Yum-O-Rama - post for this visit, here.

And, of course, myself. Absent from our previous gathering were Ben and Suanne of ChowTimes and Angie of Sea Salt with Food, who had prior commitments.

And now, the place… Alvin Garden, listed as bronze award winner by Vancouver Magazine in the Best Casual category. If it is a winner, we ought to blog it, right? ^_^

After everybody was gathered, discussion went sideways: rather than talking about food, some of us were talking about cameras! And, in my case, I was carrying two cameras, my D40 and a Sony Alpha 200 I borrowed from a friend for testing purposes. But, eventually, we decided it was time to make our order. So, here are the dishes we had (I don’t remember the name of all the dishes so I will apologize for that).

Hunan Style Braised Pork. This was really tasty! Soft pieces of fatty pork with a deep soy sauce-like taste. Hmmmmmm… Pork…. ^_^

Duck Braised with Beer. I found this a bit too bony and not the usual duck taste. Feel free to call it acquired taste… Oh, feel free to guess whose finger is that!

Broiled fish in chili soup. I got a taste of this but it was later during the mealso I won’t comment on it…^_^;;;

Pan Fried Spicy Chicken. The pieces of chicken were cut a bit too smal. And, despite all the chili, it was not as spicy as I though.

Mapo tofu. I thought they would make the spicy version but it seems the mild version was ordered instead.

Daily Soup. This was actually quite good: It has corn among other vegetable and was on the sweet side which gave an interesting contrast to the spicy food we were having.

Green beans with minced pork.

Double cooked pork with garlic and chili. Despite it was “double cooked” you could still see chunks of fat around the pork. Hmmmmmm…. Pork! ^_^;;;

Pumpkin cake. Despite this came in the middle of the meal, at least it served to balance all the spicy food I was having at that moment.

Steamed eggs with minced pork. This dish is a personal favourite; however, I found Alvin Garden’s a bit too watery. My mom makes it to the texture of silk tofu.

Lin cod head with chili oil. Others mentioned it was spicy but either I was partially numbed due to all the chilis or my tolerance was a bit higher.

Corn cake, in this case: undercooked.

Despite I was not paying too much attention to food, I found some of the dishes were good; others could have been better. However, while I was sweating hard (I brought some towels just in case!), I was expecting the food to be spicier - it just wasn’t as spicy as I was thought it could have been. (This is considering I was eating the chili from the pan fried chicken!). Regardless, the food turned even “better” because of the great company we had. As for what I think is the most priceless moment of all dinner was at the very start, when all of us started to take pictures. I am sure diners from other tables were looking at us funny. Can you imagine? Over 6 of us snapping their cameras (including, in some cases, flash from Wilson’s Speedlite)! Overall, it was a really fun night, specially considering we were breaking bread with others who share the same passion. I mean, where else would topics like “where is more difficult to park: Aberdeen Centre or Crystal Mall” (Answer: Aberdeen; if you go to Crystal Mall, you park in Metrotown!) or “why do sushi spots in Vancouver focus more on rolls than nigiri/sashimi?” (Question still open to debate) end up being the topic of conversation?

I am sure this won’t be the last of our gatherings and hope looking forward for future gatherings! ^_^

So one night - late night I must add, I was driving down Kingsway. As I had a late snack, I was not starving; however, if I did not eat something in the next hour or so, I would hit that stage. At that time of the night, you only have that many options and was already contemplating going to Wendy’s. But, as I drove past Central Park in Burnaby, I see some people in a bubble tea shop, followed by an Indian restaurant. Wait, what is that? I don’t remember that place being there before… That place was Bambi Cafe.

I checked the menu before walking in. Again, sure, I was slightly hungry but, had they had only heavy dishes, Wendy’s it would have been. Sorry everybody but, despite almost all of us are biased towards fast food restaurants, at the end of the day, they have its place in society. however, they had some dishes that could have fallen into that “light” category so I walked in.

Don’t ask about the bookshelf…

A common “complain” about restaurants ran by Chinese (?) is the service (or lack of). Be it rushing you, not giving you the appropriate attention, dropping the plates, etc., it is not something I care much about (as long as nothing “funny” happens to my food) but might be a deal breaker to other diners. So, when I walked in, it felt strange. It did not feel as if you walked into a HK cafe, rather like a regular sit down restaurant. If it wasn’t because (1) all the staff was Asian or (2) the menu make emphasis on drinks, namely, bubble tea-like drinks, well, you could have easily overlooked this is a Chinese operation.

And talking about menu, I started with this drink: grass jelly drink. I used to eat grass jelly a lot when I was younger. To non-Asians, think of it as our version of jell-o, except it is an acquired taste: unless you add a sweetener (usually in the form of sugar or sugar syrup), it would be almost completely tasteless. Also, it is not necessarily a flavour thing, rather it is a “texture” thing. Anyway, as for this drink, it had a hint of lychee (not sure if it was on purpose or “accidental”) but, more importantly, it was not killer sweet. Similar to bubble tea, every other gulp you would chew small cubes of grass jelly, again, an acquired taste.

For my main, I had pork medallions. Yes, I know I said I wasn’t that hungry; however, in my experience, pork medallion is no steak, meaning the meat portion would be small anyway. As for the dish itself, I had the option of rice or potato and, in un-Chinese way, I went for potato (which happened to had a slightly curry taste). Other sides include mushroom (the two bits to the right), asparagus, a mini baked tomato and, most surprising of all, really thin plantain chips. If you want something different from a chip, my suggestion would be this. As for the pork itself, well, I had low expectations on the amount of food and the two small pieces did not really disappoint (come to think about it, for under $15…). While not totally butter tender, at least it was tender enough. The sauce, however, could have been better. Just that pepper-like sauce works better with steaks; I would have preferred something with apple or just plain butter. But, oh, well, that’s me.

Overall, I must admit it was better than expected. For a light meal, this is a place I would keep in mind. While I would certainly like places like this prosper, I wonder about a couple of things, the main one being its focus. Either I am missing the point or it is a really odd combination of regular restaurant and that of bubble tea shop (namely, Bubble World a couple of doors away). But, sometimes you ought to be creative in this competitive business, right?

On last Friday’s post, I mentioned about the Greek Summer Festival, which opened on, well, Friday. While the ideal situation would have been going there for lunch, my workplace is nowhere near Boundary (not to mention I had already scheduled a lunch with friends), so the only option remaining was to go after my “usual” Friday night activities. And, here it goes, the Vancouver Greek Summer Festival!

The “bad” part was that it was a bit late already, around 10:00 p.m. But, there was still food, right?

By 10:00 p.m., it was already dwindling down for the day…

But tell me there is still food!!!!

So, I just queued to buy my “ticket” for my order.

And, what to order? Here is the menu! (For a larger version, check the Greek Summer Fest site).

Let’s face it, when you are hungry (like I was, after all, it was 10:00 p.m.!) and you are in a Greek restaurant, no matter how large is the menu, you will end up ordering lamb! Unfortunately, I was a bit hungrier than what I thought and did not have that much patience trying to adjust the settings of the camera. Hence the fuzzy picture… I apologize for that. -_-;;;

It was served with Greek salad, rice and bread. The later was, well, not much to talk about. The rice, oddly, was better than most Greek places but not at par of most Asian shops (I am biased on this thought, tough. After all, I am Chinese!). The salad was actually good. The cucumber still had a crunch and the “bitterness” of the feta was still there. Best of all, the salad was not too “wet” (as in there was not too much liquid due to the vegetables). And the most important question: How was the lamb? Actually, it could have been better. The reason is that, given the time of the day, the pieces I had must have been sitting there for a while, hence, slightly dry. Likewise, I felt cheated as the pieces were on the bony side (good for taste; but there was too much bone…). However, that was not necessarily a bad thing because that gave me the option of going for dessert!

Loukoumades, can anybody say the Greek’s version of timbits? ^_^;;;

I ended up ordering bougatsa, a custard wrapped phyllo. It is not that sweet but satisfying…

At this point, I would have called it a day. However, notice something odd from the initial set of pictures? How about the fourth picture, the one of the queue to buy the tickets to order food? If I went on Friday night, how come the picture seems to have been taken in the middle of the day? Well, it just happened that I went there again on Saturday noon! This time, I took my time to take pictures of the cooking area as well as the queues…

Plates ready for the lamb/souvlaki/spanakopita/etc plates.

Souvlaki wraps being made! ^_^

Where all the phyllo based dishes (cheese, spinach, custard, etc.) were kept

Hmmmmm….. Lamb! That’s a lot of lamb!

Unlike other festivals, it seems the Greeks are more than happy to pose for a picture!

And, the queues, hehehehe.

As for me, I did not order the lamb. What?! I did not order what!? What happened is that I dinner plans with fellow bloggers that night and did not want to have a too heavy lunch (HA!). So, this is what I ordered:

Chicken souvlaki with tzatziki. I found the chicken slightly dry for my liking; however, the tzatziki made up for it. Personal preference, anybody?

I also went a spanakopita, spinach wrapped in phyllo. I found this one to be quite good, specially when you dose it with a bit of the tzatziki side. The only problem with the phyllo dishes was that the upper layers if phyllo tend to breakdown too easily making a big mess!

Finally, while I did not have lamb myself, it is needless to say others did not. Like…

Would I come back? At this point, I am not sure. While I don’t mind watching people dance (yes, there is a stand for that!), if I go, it will be only for the food. However, there are so many other festivities in between, mainly Canada Day, it is the question of if I will have time! But, since it ends in July 5th, I might have enough, hehehehe.

If you feel the two pictures above look “funny”, well, truth is, yes, they might be. I did some heavy post-processing because pictures came out really funny that day: at times, it was sunny and it would be cloudy suddenly…

In the main tent, there were different presentations. Here a choir.

I arrived past the noon; however, I haven’t had lunch yet. There was something else I wanted to have but…

I had BBQ salmon ($10), which comes with the (SYSCO) potato salad and a bun. I was given two pieces because “only one would be too small”. Not complaining here! ^_^;;;

Another food stand. Notice that it is relatively sunny.

Example of Norwegian dresses.

And from the land who gave us ABBA and IKEA…

I am not sure if it was a build our own but, regardless, I couldn’t help myself snap the second picture… Sign of summer, anybody?

Of course, there would be a beer area. No, this was not my epic fail…

O RLY?

YA RLY!

NO WAI!

I chose to have “dessert” rather than getting more BBQ salmon. This piece of waffle with some whipped cream was $4. This would be my prelude to my epic fail….

Showing the daily life to life life style of the Vikings. As for the pot above, yes, they were actually cooking a meal for the end of the day. Unfortunately, I did not stay that late to give it a try (not that I could to being with).

Here are some home/hand made toys. Kids, way before X-Boxes, PS3 or Wiis, these would have been YOUR toys…!

And here is my epic fail… Rather than looking around first, I jumped for the BBQ salmon (which was good on its own ways). Had I noticed this sign before getting the waffle, I am sure I would heavily considered grabbing something from this menu, which includes…

Some open faced sandwiches, desserts and meatballs (couldn’t take pictures of the last one). Wait, if I did not ordered these… I took these pictures of somebody nearby who ordered these! ^_^;;;

Overall, it was interesting, something different from your usual festivals, most probably because not as much publicity is given to it (compared to the before mentioned Greek festival) or because it is not as mainstream in Vancouver as other. But, there are some things I can criticize. First, it is almost in the middle on nowhere… Had I driven a couple of clicks faster, I would have missed that place completely. But, somehow, it was more packed than what I thought and, as a result, it forced people to park in the nearby Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. Admission fee was $5 per person, which is understandable given it was not sponsored the same way as others (most shops were handled by small vendors). But, that one thing that really bugged me was that a larger sign was not given for the hot food inside!!! Oh, well… Would I come back? Will see next year!

It is said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. How much? Some even say breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, sup like a pauper. In my case, I usually end up having a bowl of cereal with some fruit (either banana or some berries) and soy milk. Once in a while, some bread or a bagel with jam and a glass of soy milk. Not necessarily a king’s breakfast; however, it gets me there for lunch which, for me, is usually noon sharp… Last weekend, I had a very important appointment for 10:00 a.m. and, while I could have breakfast at home, I chose to have breakfast outside (I was driving anyway). However, I did not want to go to Denny’s or IHOP. I wanted something a bit out of the way, something like Bon’s Off Broadway.

Bon’s claim to fame is their cheap breakfast. How cheap? How about $3.00? No, no typo here, it is $3.00 (actually $2.95…). But, having such cheap eats there will be some compromises, right? Anyway, I got there around 9:00 a.m. and the place was already packed. While that dwindled down during my meal (by then, it is borderline brunch, anyway), it showed you it is a popular place in its own rights. How so? When I walked in, I was told “sit wherever you want”. The problem was that I had to walk around to find an open table! Anyway, after seating, I had to grab the menu myself, as the waitresses were really busy.

Ah, my infamous condiments picture!

I made my order and started to look around. As mentioned before, if you have to pay only $3 for breakfast, there will be compromises. (Other items, though, are on the $4-$6 range). So, it won’t be a surprise that the carpet is really worn out, somewhat dirty and so on. That won’t freak me out (I have experienced a lot worse); this is a caveat emptor to those who expect something “clean”. But, and here is an odd but, at the same time, trying their best with decoration, they manage to give an odd kitsch feeling to the place… Anyway, to the food!

I ordered $3 breakfast special with an large glass of orange juice (something that I also seldom order). Two eggs (in my case, sunny side up), that looks like medium size eggs (again, compromises…), rye toast with some butter, three sausages (one that was over cooked to the point it was starting to be crispy) and some hash, which is made from whole potato. While some parts where not as tasty as it could be (namely, the sausage), the overall meal was better than what I expected. The hash, for example, had the right “bite” (though slightly underseasoned) and the eggs were cooked with the white cooked through but the yolk still runny.

Was it worth the $3? I know of places that charges more (a LOT more) and can’t make it as good as this (of course, they will “decorate/arrange” it better on the plate but, hey, when it hits your stomach, it does not make any difference). In fact, I was so “guilty” of being charged only $3 for the breakfast (and $3 for the large glass of orange juice, for a total of $6), that I paid with a $10 bill and left the change as tip. Sure, no service at all (no “is everything OK”, which was appreciated) but that is not what that matters. This is a place I will definitely come back.

I will have to blame Drea from TBDFBTI on this one. While I won’t disclose the exact details of what we talked about (other than references to on-line activities), the end result was me meeting with somebody I have never met previously in the Starbucks of Davie and Thurlow. After that meeting, I realized it was a bit past my usual lunchtime! So, that gave me an interesting perspective. On a normal work day, while I could walk all the way to this area, I will seldom do this back and forth trip, as it would consume most of my lunch time. (Technically, I have flex hours so I could take a 2 hour lunch if I wanted to, as long as I put my required hours. But, why do that?). This gave me an interesting opportunity… So, after checking the nearby options, I settled for Donair King.

(For sanity sake, although donair and shawarma are not necessarily the same, I will use shawarma to refer to both for the rest of this post).

Although I took the picture *after* my lunch, still, when you see that many people enjoying their shawarma, you can’t help yourself think their ought to be something good there, right? And I am not talking about tourists (though nothing wrong with that) - I am talking about people who might work in the area, your average Joe. This is specially considering there are a lot of these shops in Downtown Vancouver! However, I sort-of had an idea what made their shawarma unique - it was more of a matter for me to confirm if that uniqueness was really that, well, unique.

With the three pictures above, it does not seem to be that different, right? Well, yes, specially if we go through a the duck test (If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck). Regardless of the looks - to an extent of some people calling it “dirty”, I made my order after a small wait. (This was because there was only one person working there, during lunch, out of all times of the day!). As for the order itself, there was one item in the item that I usually wondered how it would taste, yet never actually asked for it because, well, it is not part of your “regular” menu. In Donair King, they call it the “Chicken Mix Shawarma” - in plain terms, a regular shawarma that has also falafel stuffed in it (for $6.95). And here is my order:

Nothing different from your usual shawarmas, right? Wait, why it seems to be slightly “flattened”? And why does it looks like it has grill marks? Yup, you got it! It starts as your usual shawarma but, after it is prepared, he does not hand it to you. Rather, they have three panini grills and will grill them before serving them.

So, how is the end result? At first, I did not notice anything different. However, as I continued eating it, I noticed some unique characteristics. For example, they add pickles (which I am impartial about; however, it gave an unique twist). Also, because of the dry characteristics of the falafel, it “muted” a bit of the chicken flavour (not necessarily a bad thing here). What I found really different here was that you could not “feel” the sauces as much as that of other shawarma shops (where sometimes it seems they want to squirt the whole bottle into the wrap). However, this did not end up being a bad thing, as it allowed me to savour the other components that, otherwise, would have be drowned.

Overall, yes, it was unique and, yes, I liked it. Would I come back? While walking all the way from my workplace just for a shawarma might be stretching it, otherwise, I would grab one from this shop.

South Vancouver is not a place known for late eats. In fact, most places might be closed by 9:00 p.m. (other than some bubble tea spots, which I do not necessarily look forward to). Sure, I could drive farther north to places likes Corner 23 on Cambie (visit pending) or west to Kitsilano. Heck, even Downtown Vancouver. However, when hunger strikes, you don’t necessarily think straight and, instead, you go for almost the first place you can think of and/or run into. That place this time ended up being Takarabune.

This Japanese restaurant is literally a hole in the wall, as it is located in a strip mall in the corner of 49th and Victoria Drive. However, it does not face the corner itself: unless you are driving south bound on Victoria Drive, there is almost no way for you to get to the strip mall. In my case, was it fate or coincidence? I did not care as I was hungry!

When I arrived, it was quarter after 9. Instead of looking at me funny (you know, last customer of the day), they welcomed me in. At this point, I must mention despite (?) the place is run by Japanese, there is almost no miscommunication or lost in translation here. The waitresses spoke in regular English and the menu is in plain English. Anyway, they did mention I had 10 minutes to decide, as it would be the kitchen last call. I must mention, even then, I was never rushed.

As for the menu itself, they have your usual Japanese fare, i.e., teriyaki, sushi and noodles. Since I noticed the itamae was starting to prepare to close, I chose not to order sushi. I did not want to order teriyaki either so, by process of elimination, that left noodles. But… Given the time of the day, would ramen be a good option? No, instead, I went for something else… (Will be back on that topic in a moment). And, to start, I had:

Readers would have noticed that I usually end up ordering this: goma ae. And, obviously, this would not be an exception. However, I was a bit confused. While not overdressed as the goma ae I had in Oyama Sushi a couple of weeks prior, it was under dressed. What made it disappointing was that it had a bit too many stem pieces. I mean, I know that a bunch of spinach will have both; just that, in this case it was a bit too crunchy and no “leafy-ness” behind.

As mentioned, I did not order ramen, yet I ordered noodles. Remember, there is more than one form of noodles! In this case, I ordered a nabeyaki udon, which is, to quote Wikipedia: A sort of udon hot-pot, with seafood and vegetables cooked in a nabe, or metal pot. The most common ingredients are tempura shrimp with mushrooms and an egg cracked on top.. So, from the picture, tempura shrimp? Check. Mushroom? Check. Cracked egg…. Wait, should there be one? Well, it somehow ended up at the bottom and, as a result, it was cooked through rather than poached. Although I could not “break” the yolk, at least it had a good mushroom taste. And, oh, the noodles, kept its al-dente texture. The one thing that I found odd was… The shrimp tempura. Did I miss the point of it being in the soup itself rather than on the top? I mean, once it hit the broth, any crispy texture from the batter is gone.

Overall, despite the small “problems” encountered, I found it was quite good. Not necessarily a Kintaro-like experience but good enough, specially considering this is South Vancouver. Would I come back? Sure, it was a good meal. And, oh, overall it was just $13.