Satay King
1171 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC

On yesterday post, I made reference to “meat on a stick” and where pretty much all cultures have their own version. For today’s post, I went to another food cart that serves exactly that, Satay King. (The first food cart selling meat-on-a-stick being Chinese Skewer King) Of course, that brings the question… From what part of the world? In the case of Satay King, from Indonesia (or was it Malaysia? I got those mixed up when talking to them!). Since I was in CSK before, I think we can do some straight head to head comparison here!

Located in Burrad and Davie, in its own ways, it can also be considered prime. The “good” point is that it has the Davie Community Garden right next to it, which allows some space for you to eat after getting their goods. Alas, compared to Kimono Koi Crepes, food traffic might not be as predominant. But, still, I am sure people will do whatever it is necessary to get there, as long as food is good!

When I arrived around noon, they just set up shop and there weren’t any line yet. Still, there was some grilling action already! After a quick conversation, I wanted to test waters on one detail that Buddha Boy and Buddha Girl mentioned in their post of Satay King: While not listed in the menu, if ordering a meal, they would sell an additional skewer for $1 less. I inquired about if how much would be for a second skewer, the answer wasn’t really straight. But, in the end, I was told he will sell the second skewer for $1 less of the $4.50 regular price. Because of this, I went for their Satay Meal plus a skewer.

It might be an overstatement to say I prefer pork over other forms of meats and this won’t be an exception. So, for the first skewer, I ended up going for the pork version. Not sure if it was good or bad but, on that day, that was the last pork skewer! C’mon, you just started and already running out? :S But, since I got the last one, I am not necessarily complaining! For my second skewer, I could have gone for the over-size, extra plum chicken skewer but, instead, I went for their Lebanese chicken shawarma satay. While it wasn’t as plump looking as the regular chicken one, from a condiment perspective, it actually looked better!

The meal is served with brown rice (there is an option for regular white as well) and small salad. Depending on how you like yours, I found the brown rice to be a bit stickier than usual and not enough “nuttiness”. Now, this is because I am picky about my brown rice; for people who are used to regular white rice with a slight stickiness, this will suit them fine. As for the salad, let’s admit it – it was token at best. In this case, some iceberg lettuce, cucumber and tomato then some dressing on top. I won’t bash it hard because, well, it is a plain salad, for god’s sake!

Moving to the skewers, needless to say they are larger than CSK’s; however, in a direct size/price ratio, they might be about the same, though Satay King might be slightly larger. Condiment-wise, though the CSK one were more spiced, in CSK’s case, you could taste the cumin. In the case of Satay King, I thought the sauces [tahini (I thought I was told that but not 100% sure - it wasn't "nutty" enough) on the shawarma one and peanut sauce on the pork one] failed to deliver. I mean, it provided something but, unless I tried hard, it didn’t contribute much. However, one thing where Satay King definitely beast CSK is the done-ness of the meat. Now, this is not in a bad way; rather, because the meat morsels are larger, it provides a different texture. So, it is good in its own ways.

Even then, I do find that Satay King has one odd point: that of the price: At $4.50 per skewer, it might fall slightly above a threshold of street food; however, by making it a meal, it suddenly makes it more palatable. But, similar to a lot of restaurants, the more you add, the more expensive it ends up, by adding a second skewer, it is suddenly $10, an amount you might as well spend in a sit down or some other places. So, in the end, to me, it is good; however, because it crossed that threshold, it ends up somewhere in the middle.

Nong’s Khao Man Gai
SW 10th and Alder Street
Portland, OR

In a way, it was doomed to happen. Given my (somewhat unfair?) comparison of street food from outside North American to the ones in North America, it was almost certain that I had to visit an Asian one for comparison sake. And that brought the eternal question of… Which one(s)? I mean, given that the US can be as multi-cultural as Canada and, in part, I didn’t want to disappoint, I kept looking and looking around. While searching in other sites (Urbanspoon included), all of them seemd to point to two locations: Koi Fusion, which served Tex-Mex dishes with a Korean twish (take that Roaming Dragon, you are NOT the first! ) and Nong’s Khao Man Gai, a cart that sells one and only one dish. While I am sure a lot of you would think that Koi Fusion would have been a better choice (due to a direct comparison with Roaming Dragon), the fact is that I wanted instead showcase what street food ought to be. And, in that case, Nong’s Khao Man Gai was a better option.

I was quite fortunate to go there on a sunny day. The days prior to my visit were a bit gloomy (nothing wrong with that) but a sunny day provides better light conditions! Now, I am not talking about direct sunlight – for comparison purposes, check the ones I took in Mississippi Marketplace (yesterday’s post), where all the pictures of the food were take in such conditions. I am referring to those where you have some form of natural shading to diffuse the light. And, hey, it was mild, it was sunny, what better conditions to be outside for lunch!

The good part was that I arrived at around 11:45 a.m. I parked a block away and could easily see them. What I wasn’t prepared was the line that already formed. C’mon, I know that a lot of people choose to go for lunch “early” to beat the lunch rush but this was starting to get ridiculous! Of course, it might be also due to the fact that Nong’s Khao Man Gai has a really interesting set of hours: while the opening hours were set to be at 10:00 a.m. on weekdays and 12:00 on Saturday, their closing time were not set. Rather, in a true Asian street food fashion, until you run out of ingredients! I guess that added another incentive to be there early enough.

So, after I queued, I had a small wait and there was Nong herself taking orders in a heavily accented English. I will have to admit, for such a thin petite woman, she can certainly command the people inside that 8×8 cart! What was really hilarious though was what followed. At one time, she had to step away for a moment and her second was in charge of the kitchen. Well, nothing wrong with that. Except that is, they were talking in Spanish! Now, I am not being bias or stereotyped or anything. Instead, I will give them kudos. Despite all it is being said about them, you can’t deny they provide a huge percentage of the workforce, specially those that people otherwise won’t do. Now, I am not saying other race/ethnic groups do not do their part: just that the Latino community is more noticeable than the rest. And, the fact that Nong (according to the site, she is Thai) is another example that proves the case. And now, to the food!

First the drink. Now, I could have easily survived with some bottled water I have in the car (hint: always keep some bottles of water in the trunk of your car), I said “why not!”. So, here is their lychee drink. It was OK, not something I will necessarily be crazy about. At least, it wasn’t crazy sweet!

I mentioned above they serve one and only one dish. Here, their Khao Man Gai or, as Nong puts it, chicken and rice. If you have had Hainanese Chicken Rice, you pretty much have an idea of what to expect here. I apologize for not taking a picture of it in wrapped state (yup, it is not served in a container, just wrapped in butcher paper!). This is one of the few cases I was a bit too excited and opened it right away rather than take the picture first. And, while they serve only one dish, they do have some additions, like chicken liver (hey, you are cooking the whole chicken anyway. You might as well server everything!) and, on that day, fried chicken skin (alas, I didn’t noticed it until after I ordered). Also, they serve it in two sizes: a “regular” size and piset which is more of everything. I ended ordering the later.

The order came also with an order of soup on the side which is mostly a broth. It would be a bit difficult to me to describe it as I gulped it relatively fast. I know I was a glutton when I did it; however, I blame it to the fact I was partially choking myself while eating and the soup was closer than the lychee drink at that moment! (Yeah, shame on me). Still, it does follow the same lines my mom did whenever she prepared white cut chicken or Hainanese Chicken Rice: have a side soup along.

Now, back to the main dish. The cucumber I will have to say it was token, nothing wrong with that. If you choose not to eat it, well, nobody will say anything. The liver was dry as expected; however, it wasn’t extremely dry. Now, it is a bit of an acquired taste (probably “metallic” would be my best description) so, if you don’t like liver (and I am not talking foei gras), you will not like this. The good thing is that, if you don’t, just tell them and they will add more chicken!

I made mention above of Hainanese Chicken Rice and you can have an idea of what to expect, i.e. poached chicken. In my case, a direct comparison on my side can’t be avoided. For one, their dipping sauce was almost sweet (despite they mention it is spicy), which contrasts the often ginger-y, almost spicy tones of the dipping sauce used served with the Hainanese Chicken Rice. And despite I got two such sauce containers, I only used half of one – the chicken was good enough on its own. The chicken was tender and moist; however, I would have preferred the chicken a bit more rare. I know some of you might be looking at me strange right now. Rare chicken? Salmonella?! I am not saying rare in that sense, rather the chicken was cooked slightly past a certain point I prefer. I will assume it was done that way as a cover-your-ass safeguard in the case somebody does get sick. So, from that perspective, better safe than sorry approach work for me. Finally, the rice… Given that it is a staple for several Asian countries, different likes/dislikes have certainly developed depending on the region. For me, I have sort of a “depends on the dish I will be eating it with” but, in the case of Hainanese Chicken Rice, I prefer them slightly broken so that, when I put a piece of chicken dipped in the sauce on the rice, it can easily soak that sauce. Here, the rice was a bit more on the whole grain side. In fact, it still had a slight bite to it. Even then, the rice was quite fragrant and easily eaten. So, while not my top choice, it was still good.

Given the limited seats, when I got my order, I asked somebody who was seated by himself if I could join him. He certainly let me. At that point, the somewhat inquisitive nature of me kicked in and asked how he liked his. He said he really enjoyed it and the fact that he is new to the area (moved a couple of months later) but he has been coming here with certain frequency sort of tells me what I needed to know. And the long queues that was formed outside was just confirming it. To me, Nong’s Khao Man Gai does indeed showcase what I believe street food should be: One, probably two or three, dish(es) made well. Though, it wasn’t the cheapest meal (the regular is at $6, piset for $10), it is still relatively cheap given the amount of food provided and how good it was. For that reason, I will certainly come back without much hesitation (other than the ~650 Km drive from Vancouver to Portland).

Roaming Dragon
No fixed address – food truck
Vancouver, BC

As you already know, the most talked about food news in the last couple of weeks is that of street food in Vancouver, specifically, that of it expanding its offerings and locations (check here). I have written my thoughts about it last week in a post and, for the most part, I am not that optimistic about it. But, of course, there are entrepreneurs who are willing to bet it will be a hit. Among them, that of Roaming Dragon, a food truck that has done its round around town, including the Richmond Night Market. Heck, it has even been featured in local printed media, including the Vancouver Sun. Given my “optimism” about Vancouver street food, I was curious as to what they would be able to offer… And, since I was in the Granville/Robson area on the same day they were there, I thought, oh, well!

When I arrived (around noon time), there was nobody on the line… I guess it was a bit too early? OK, that was a rhetorical answer that was answered later, when I was done with my order. There was a small queue by then. That works both ways in my opinion. Street food is something fast, not something you necessarily want to have a queue. However, at the same time, it is possible that is what they actually want – if people see a queue, they believe something good must be for sale, as a result, it creates that sense of expectation. And what they have for sale?

A couple of days ago, I asked this on Twitter:

Can everybody tell me what is your concept of street food? Confused as to why/how duck confit salad can be considered “street food”…

Truth is, there are things that I have difficulties envisioning as street food. See, in my case, street food should be something simple and that simplicity leads to well prepared food. How? Because by focusing in one or two dishes, they can master it quite well. So, having all these Asian (as in Japanese, Korean AND Chinese) “inspired” (or to quote Sherman, “fusion”) dishes makes me wonder why… Could it be they are following that bandwagon/fad of adding an Asian twist? In the end, I ordered…

Three dishes, which basically means half of the menu. Clockwise, from 12:00, duck confit salad, Korean short rib tacos and Chinese pork belly sliders. Salad aside, had I been with somebody else, most likely would have ordered all of the dishes; the salad was because it was mentioned by the local media.

To start off, the taco – Korean short rib tacos (2): slow-braised Korean marinated short ribs, with sesame sauteed spniach, shiitake mushroms, carrots and kimchi dressing in corn and nori tortillas. Now, first of all, I have mentioned previously that I have no love for Mexican food but, at least, I found La Taqueria to be good in its own ways. So, this is a case of I have something to compare against. To put it bluntly, I don’t necessarily like the Korean twist. Now, had it been something else (i.e., not served as a taco but in a bowl with rice as in a bibimbap), it would have been decent. My problem was that the bean sprouts mellowed the savoury tones. I make an emphasis on savoury as there was some sweetness, probably from the marinate. Furthermore, I don’t think I tasted any of the shiitake at all. Could it be a last minute substitution/switch was made? The portion size was quite generous though so, from that perspective, I won’t complain. However, portion size is not everything; if I rate it against La Taqueria, the later has the upper hand.

The second “dish” was the slider – Chinese pork belly sliders (2): braised pork belly cured in Asian spices, with pickled cucumbers, hoisin sauce, scallions, served in steamed buns.. I guess this is a case of taking a Western recipe and adapt it using Chinese staples, readily available in hand. The emphasis on the pickled cucumber was overrated mainly because any flavour that the could have been added by the pickling process was obliterated by the hoisin sauce used. Similar to what happened with the Korean taco, there was a lot of sweetness, almost ended up being a sweet (from their version of hoisin sauce) on sweet (from the mantou). Compare it to, say, a pork bun. In that case, you have the contrast of savoury vs. slightly sweet. As for the pork belly… Well, it was there based mostly on texture but, again, their version of hoisin sauce was too much. It simply didn’t work for me.

Duck confit salad as street food in #NightMarket is akin to selling ice blocks in the Artic. Sorry, @lexxgill http://tinyurl.com/3345efw

I wrote this when Alexandra Gill of The Globe and Mail wrote about the Richmond Night Market and made emphasis of Roaming Dragon. So, that was the reason I had to order this dish. Again, I will have to admit the green portion of the salad was quite good. I liked the combination of herbs used. The cashews was a good idea but the pineapple and watermelon, while a good idea, the execution was subpar, as they were neither sweet nor crunchy. Had the pieces been larger pieces, probably it would have worked better for me. And finally… The duck confit. At that point, I didn’t really care for it because the greens was taking care of this salad. The reason was that I couldn’t taste much of the duck component, just the saltiness in it.

In the end, the $15 spent on this meal… Well, I don’t believe it was worth it, specially considering my concept of street food. See, at $15, I might as well go to a sit down restaurant! (This is specially considering I had to find a nearby bench for me to put the food down and eat it). Compare it also to some shawarma places – you can get a wrap for as little as $6. As a result, unfortunately, Roaming Dragon didn’t really shake away my “optimism” about street food in Vancouver. While one swallow does not make summer, I only hope this is not the starting point of the street food trend in Vancouver. I can believe we can do better but, otherwise, we might as well not do it at all…

Finally, to close this post, I mentioned I was in Granville Street… Well, part of the reason was that I wanted to quickly check what were the plans for it during summer as they it will be pedestrian only. On that day…

Sorry, didn’t get to try this… $5 for small pakoras…

Azia
990 Smithe Street
Vancouver, BC

There has been a lot of times Sherman has been in Downtown Vancouver for lunch; however, for one reason or another, we can’t seem to agree on the time. I mean, what person who works regular hours have lunch at 2:00 p.m.? Anyway, this time Sherman was in the Downtown area and I checked with him if he wanted to go for lunch – at a *regular* time. By some odd circumstance, he said it should be OK until I realized there was one caveat: There will be some friends tagging along and they might not necessarily be the most adventurous group when it comes to food. That and other unrelated circumstances shot down a lot of options. As a result, I told Sherman: just come up with a place since he knew is group better than me. His choice? Azia.

When I read the email with the reservation for Azia, I told him that place was “NG”; however, since I haven’t blogged about it, I guess at least it would be bloggable material. Now, why that place is “not good”? When they say it will be a “culinary journey through Asia” and will “provide you with an Asian dining experience like no other. From our fresh sushi bar to our fine Chinese cuisine”, I knew it would be some sort of cultural lost in translation (and this even considering I am Chinese with some basic Cantonese and Hakka!). However, that was my perception from a previous visit – the question is whether this visit would prove me wrong.

What the hell is with that bent chopstick?!

I arrived a bit after our agreed meeting time; however, the rest of the party hasn’t arrived yet. That was a good thing, I had to rush from the West End and had to catch my breath. When all the party arrived, the thought process of what to order started. Since there will be dishes some of them won’t eat, we ended up going for a strange approach: Go for the combination menu and everybody orders a dish that will suit their palate. For the most part that work and, to complement that combination order, we went for two sushi rolls. So, to start off, we had…

Spring rolls. They were quite decent. Hot, not oily and decent amount of filling. But, then again, it is fried food; how can you go wrong with these? Oh, wait… Don’t answer that.

In the lunch combination order, for each dish we ordered, we would be given a soup. However, since the party was larger than the amount of dishes ordered as part of the combination (see note about the rolls), we were given some extra bowls. Nice touch, if you ask me. As for the soup itself, which is a broth with some corn and dropped egg was… OK. It had a slight stock texture/gelatinous, though, of course, it could have been other ingredients that account for that. Nothing extraordinary, not much to comment about.

Green curry. Now, I am not sure what are your thoughts of curry but, in my mind, it is one of those dishes that, if you follow the basic recipe, it is really darn difficult to mess up – specially when you are using prepacked/pre-mixed curry. I don’t know if they do that but, regardless, the end result was bland. It did have some coconut flavour but the curry itself was almost absent. The vegetables and the meat, by itself, were acceptable but nothing else and I thought the portion was quite generous.

Beef and broccoli. Visually it looks good; however, you should notice something odd – they are not mixed! I guess when they wrote beef and broccoli, they literally meant beef AND broccoli. They were able to impart some woke hei to it so, kudos for that. The vegetable was crisp in the dish, so again, kudos. However, past that, there wasn’t anything extraordinary. I guess that is what I should have expected from such type of bastardised dish…

Sweet and sour pork. OK, at this point, you might be wondering, WTF?! Please keep in mind, I did not particularly order this but a reflection of the other parties in the group. In fact, I started to understand what are the issues Sherman has to go through when he goes out to it with them! (Not to mention the face he might put up!). Anyway, there is nothing positive to say about this so I will just skip it.

OK, this is the dish I suggested: Ma Po Tofu. This is one of those odd dishes that even if bastardised (to an extent), it will look good in my books. That is because of the combination of tofu, bean sauce and chili oil (and, more often than not, some minced meat) is so simple, it is really difficult to mess. Why it is OK to be bastardised to an extent? Well, not everybody can stand the heat of this dish so, if it is toned down, to make it enjoyable is a good thing… In this case, it was OK for the most part, as the tofu did not crumble down and there were some slight hint of spiciness. Of course, it could be better but, at this rate, given what was served so far, it was starting to fall into a “that’s OK” situation.

Kung Pao Chicken. It was just a stir fry to me, not much to look/comment. OK, exagertaing here. There was some nutiness but, past that, it did not really “wow” me. As usual, it could be better.

In its attempt to try to catch up with all possible Far Eastern dishes, there were some dim sum items and Sherman and I couldn’t help to order one – specifically, xiao long bao. I won’t say it was among the worst XLB I have ever had but it could be a runner up. It had some soup inside and the skin was quite thick. If you never had any experience with XLB, you might enjoy its “juiciness” (thanks to the soup) and won’t burn you (as the soup was lukewarm) – provided you did not stab it while picking it up from the basket. However, having had XLB from other sources, these ones do not even compare. Probably good as an intro but nothing else.

Salmon Mango Roll. Did I mention something about going around Asia? Well, here is one of the two rolls we ordered. Construction-wise, it was decent; from a taste perspective, the mango overpowered the salmon completely. It felt almost as eating a fruit version of a roll rather than having some seafood. If that was the intent, they could have skipped the salmon, call it mango roll and charge several $$$ less.

Spider roll – the other roll that was ordered that day. I am not sure if, by then, they caught up with us and knew we were sharing. If that is the case, I wonder why some of the slices were cut so thin – almost to the size of half an Oreo, specially considering the roll is thick to begin with. It wasn’t a really pretty sight when you try to grab a piece and it falls apart. Furthermore, since it was cut so thin, none of the supposedly qualities of the fried portions of this roll was found.

Now, some of you might say that it was doomed for disaster based on the dishes we ordered. That might be true; however, when some of Sherman friends (who are Caucasians) started to comment that some dishes could have been better (for instance, the blandness of the curry), that is when you start to consider if they went a bit to the extreme to try to appeal to the broader market. And, while the service was good, that did not make up for what ended up on the plates, specially not at that cost. In fact, based solely on the non-sushi type dishes ordered, it might have been cheaper if we had gone to Kent’s Kitchen and got some of their 2 items with white rice dishes (of course, convincing them to go to that area of town might be a challenge in its own ways). In the end, my “NG” thoughts did not change with this visit. But, then again, Azia does not cater people like me…

So, to Constanza Pomegranate, LP and gang, thanks for being good sports and let us take the pictures of the food before you started to dig in. I am sure it is not easy when there is one person taking pictures of the food while everybody is hungry, not to mention there are *two*!

East is East
4413 Main Street
3243 West Broadway (location visited)
Vancouver, BC

Sherman (of Sherman’s Food Adventures) is “the man”. It was his turn to organize the next Vancouver food bloggers gathering and he managed to pull out the largest one ever. How large? I was able to get 8 food bloggers (plus guest) us in a Long Table Series at the Irish Heather. This time, he was able to get writers of 15 blogs (plus guests) of us! In attendance….

Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures – Post is up!
Mijune of Follow Me Foodie – Post is up!
Kevin of 604 Foodtography
Jenny of My Secret Eden – Post is up!
Victoria of Victoria’s Food Secrets – Post is up!
Jonathan of Food and Tell
Jessica of Yum-o-Rama – Post is up!
Joyce and Frank of Van Foodies
Wilson of La Petite Vancouver
Anita of La Petite Foodie
Darina of Gratinée – Musings on Food & Culture
Melody of Gourmet Fury
TS of [eatingclub]Vancouver
Angie of Sea Salt with Food (home of the infamous Hasselback potatoes recipe!)

Of course, myself…

In total, we were about ~20 of us. How come I don’t know the exact number? Since our party was so large, they couldn’t really sit us in a long table (a la LTS) or in a round table (a la Chinese restaurant). As a result, we were broken down into two groups. Furthermore, at the end of the night, when we were outside chatting, the manager/owner even came out asking Sherman if everything was fine. O_o

Due to somewhat bad timing on my part, I did not arrive at 7:00 p.m. sharp, the time we were supposed to meet there. But, in the end, we were able to shuffle in the group. I ended up seated with Ricky, Jenny, Kevin, Anita, Mijune and W (Mijune’s guest). Because of that delay, we ordered way after the others. After I was seated, we were presented with these:

These were two mini cups of heavily spiced Chai tea. I drink half of one (there were two types) and chose to stop as it was starting to overload my palette. It was quite interesting but, to me, too rich to start off with. Anyway, once orders were made, I received my drink:

Rangoon Rain, which is a yogurt lassie with peach, lychee, pineapple, coconut and banana. As a drink, it was OK; the problem was that I couldn’t really taste much of the ingredients except the banana. No, not even the coconut! While it did have some texture of some fruits, it was hardly noticeable. My biggest peeve of this drink is its size. At $5 and around 8 ounces, I would expect something more than 8 or so ounces, specially considering this is not an alcoholic drink! (On that note, they did not have alcoholic drinks in their menu to the consternation of at least two bloggers!).  Furthermore, I ordered the large and got the small one instead. When I told them about the error, I was told I could get a “refill”. However, it seems that a refill is not exactly a refill: you pay a full glass. Now, I know this is not pop and unlimited refill, I wasn’t expecting it to be. However, it it was just confusing.

Ricky (Jenny’s guest) ordered Peshawari Bazaar, another lassie which has cucumber, mint, salt and cumin. Salt???? In a drink? Yup, that is no typo, ladies and gentlemen! Now, I have had odd drinks with cucumber in the past and I will have to admit this one tasted really strange. I think it was Kevin who mentioned this tasted like a “drink version of a Tzatsiki”. I think that description suits it perfectly…

Now, to the food! Actually, a small detour here… Before we went there, I checked on-line and, well, I wasn’t sure what to order. When we arrived, the partially dim lights and the joking we were doing with other food bloggers did not help with the thought process. However, somebody said something on the lines of “do you want to not-share?”. I know, this sounds really strange, given that, at times, we do go in group and share our meals because we want to try different dishes. The concept of “not sharing” is foreign to us! I will get back to this topic in a moment; just keep in mind we were “not sharing”, OK?

Anita had the Afghan Nomad which I will summarize it as a lamb burrito. No, really! There was some rice, beans and pieces of lamb inside that wrap. Aside from a strong gamey taste, I found it was OK at best. Sorry not much to comment on this one!

This is Kevin’s order: Khichiri – brown dill rice w/ ground beef, spinach & mushrooms, topped with dehydrated yogurt, tomato & onions. I will have to admit it was a really odd dish at first. Dehydrated yogurt? Regardless of their odd description, at the first bite… Well, if I didn’t know it was ground beef, I might have said it was lamb instead. Why? I had a gamey taste to it! Not sure how they make that but it worked in its own ways. It tasted similar to eating a stew where you added some barley into it and then topped by the yogurt. A dish I might order, if I was there by myself.

Mijune’s dish – It was a form of vegertarian dumpling… OK, let me try again: imagine a really soft version of a spinach ravioli; however, it contains no meat and had a gamey taste. Does that sound like a contradiction? Well, that is because it is a contradiction! It was really soft and that gamey taste was quite good, though I am not sure how vegetarian it is considering the gamey taste. Once again, something I would order.

The following set of pictures is what I ordered. More details in a moment so, please, bare with me, OK?

Eastern Platter

Clockwise from 12 o’clock: lambe kebab, saag paneer,afghan and coconut rice, dhal soup

Clockwise: Lamb kebab, Afghan eggplant and the Afghan rice

Clockwise: Afghan and coconut rice, dhal, lamb kebab and baked salmon

Dishes in the middle: Afghan eggpland and chicken masala (?)

Baked salmon

Thai tofu and, once again… Eggplant!

Eggplant and peas and cheese

Chickpeas

There were three dishes in the menu as part of the Eastern Platter that I did not take pictures: the minced beef kebab (which looks like meatballs), alu gobi and mango butter squash.

Now, here is the “not sharing” portion. According to the menu, the Eastern Platter comes with the two versions of the rice, a roti, salad, dhal soup and two of the dishes above. If eating by yourself, you can re-order any of the other dishes – after all they are small dishes. However, if you are sharing, you are “locked” by your two initial selections. So, as a joke, when we were ordering, we made emphasis on the we are “not sharing”. Figure THAT out. Of course, also as a joke, we were telling Sherman that he took us to an all-you-can-eat!

But, jokes aside, some of these dishes were hit or miss. While I did not take written notes, I have a lot of mental notes. I could write down most of them but that might be a bit of a chore given all these dishes. Instead, I will provide a quick summary:

• Lamb kebab: Really gamey, not chewy at all but weak sauce
• Chicken masala: Dark meat (though, for some reason, my initial piece was white), weak sauce.
  Minced beef kebab (not pictured): In practical terms, meatballs. It had a good texture but, again, weak sauce.
  Baked salmon: Slightly overcooked (still good, though) but, I think I am repeating myself here… The sauce did not do much.
• Saag paneer: The “cheese” did not really work as it was grated on top but, despite its mushiness, it was something I would expect from a spinach dish.
• Afghan eggplant: The winner of the night. Soft eggplant but it was better seasoned. Probably because of the fact it was eggplant?
• Alu Gobi (not pictured): I don’t recall eating this one so… No comments.
• Thai tofu: The sauce did nothing to improve the usually bland taste of the tofu.
• Peas and cheese: Might be a bit misleading here, the cheese is not a cheese sauce or cheese cubes but paneer. It was OK but… Weak sauce?
• Mango butter squash (not pictured): The oddball of the night. To quote Kevin, it looked like baby food. Past that, it was quite decent due to its unique sweetness.
• Chickpeas: Did not get to try.

During the whole meal, we were having funny chats, me blinding people beside me with my Speedlight (though I wasn’t the only one firing their flashes – Sherman’s table was even worst!). A couple on the front where there was a couch were looking at us really funny the whole time while we were shooting. So there you go that sense of wackiness!

As for the food, in general, it was mostly hit or miss. If you try the platter, some of the dishes seems to have been watered down to appeal the masses, though, still there are gems in it (like the eggplant). The non-platter dishes suffer a similar hit or miss. Like the “lamb burrito” above was a dish I thought could have been better but felt flat. On the flip side, both Mijune and Kevin dishes were excellent. If I were to come back, I think I will stick with these more unique dishes instead.

So, Sherman, once again, thanks for organizing this. You have set up the bar way high for the next one!

Aura Thai
462 9th Ave
New York, NY

Earlier today, my post on Artichoke Basille’s Pizza went up. In it I mentioned my three meal criteria in New York. This post tackles the second criteria, i.e.:

2) Ask a friend who lived/has lived in New York City for a suggestion of a place that will not break the piggy bank.

Now, I was on a business trip which meant I was under a meal allowance. However, that does not mean I should go for broke either. After all, unhappy customers is not good for business. So, for this purpose, I checked with my friend LB. My story with LB goes way back to high-school, though, due to some wacky circumstances, I was her senior at school despite our age difference was just a couple of months. While we kept in touch once in a blue moon, we eventually disconnected from each other, until about a bit over a year ago, we found out we both moved out of Panama – she moving to New York City (not necessarily to Manhattan, though) and me to Vancouver. And that happened about the same time! After reminiscing old times and common friends (yup, that’s you AY and GA!), later that day, we decided to have an early dinner. At that time, we were near NY Penn Station, specifically, in Koreatown and I asked where she would go for dinner with the criteria above. She suggested as Asian restaurant that a friend of hers suggested. It was a small walk (as if we hadn’t walked the whole day already!) and we arrived to Aura Thai.

In the grand scheme of things, this restaurant can be called small. There were less than a dozen tables (each table was for 2 diners) and it felt somewhat cramped. Also, at times, I heard bits and pieces of the conversation from the neighbouring tables. Normally, I wont’ care about details like this but, in this case, since I was talking to somebody else, that might be distracting. And, oh, feel free to call me paranoid.

One thing that we did note was the push to have us order our meals as soon as possible. Now, I do admit we took our time to look at the menu but, c’mon!, if the menus are down, it means we are ready. Looking back, however, I must keep in mind rent the rent in this area wouldn’t be cheap so it is understandable then wanted fast turnaround of the tables. Past that point, though, everything was good. In fact, after ordering and settling the bill, they did not pressure us to empty the table (at that point, there were several empty tables in the restaurant). I guess it was something in the moment…

We decided to order three dishes to share, starting with…

Mango Salad – Green mango with shrimp, red onions, avocado, cashew nuts and ground peanuts in a sweet lime dressing with a side of sticky rice. At $9 and despite the use of lettuce, I will have to admit this dish was quite a deal. The concept was good but there was one major point of failure, which I won’t blame the restaurant for: the mango was in the dead middle stage. Now, those who haven’t lived in tropical countries might not understand this so let me try to explain – we eat the mango when it is either green, where the flesh of the mango is still somewhat hard (think a pear or apple), or ripe, when the flesh has an almost mushy consistency, not that far from an avocado consistency. These two stages are almost polar opposite, as the green stage is acidic and sour (and, oddly enough, it is eaten with some salt and vinegar!) and the ripe stage is sweet and fragrant. The problem here is that, in the “middle” stage, it does not contain characteristics from both extremes other than some semi-soft texture. BL and I thought that, had it been either extreme, this dish would have been a real winner, as all the flavours mixed together very well and each component contributed a bit to the end result. The onions for some of its unique taste, the softness/creaminess of the avocado, the nuttiness of the peanuts, some sweetness of the carrot and peppers, and the acidity of the dressing, mixed with the almost blank palate of the rice. Again, I do not blame the execution as it is sometimes difficult to judge a mango just by the looks. It is a fruit you have to smell and feel and, given the shortcuts required to be able to ship it from tropical countries, something had to be sacrificed.

Dish number two was Pad Thai, in this case, with beef. I sort of pushed this dish (BL, don’t kill me!) as I wanted to compare it to the Pad Thai found here. Right out from the gate, I liked the visuals: it did not have that oily looking texture, not too much sauce at the bottom of the plate and not orange-y/red! After a squirt of the lime and mixed with the legume, once again, it provided an interesting mix of herb-y taste (thanks to the green onions) nuttiness (from the peanuts) and, interesting enough, “beefiness” (think wok-hei but not caramelized to that extent). I wonder how it would have tasted with other meats… One part that I wished had a bit more was fish sauce to make the dish more pungent. That is a “me” preference; again, BL liked it and I am fine with it!

Dish number three was Pad Gna-Prow Scallops (sic?) – Scallops sauteed with fresh basil, chili and garlic with string beans, carrot, bell peppers and hot peppers. If there was something that really disappointed that night it was this dish. In principle, it sounds good, as it had a good combination of vegetables and seafood (OK, only scallops but you get the idea). The problem with the dish is two fold: the scallops weren’t seared and there was that “fishiness” taste to it. I am not sure to what extent having it seared would have affected that “fishiness” but, regardless, the end result wasn’t that appetizing. While we did eat some, in the end, we ate the rest of the vegetables rather than the scallops. On that note, the veggies were nicely cooked and had a spiciness bite in the end.

Aside of the disappointment from the last dish, I will have to say I liked this place (though I must add the company, as usual, “improve” the meal). Sure, it is not 100% authentic (partially in the execution of some dishes plus some shortcuts), but the end results we appetizing. And, if we add the cost factor (total bill was less than $40), I believe this is a really good option. Of course, given there are so many small eateries around, if i am ever back in NYC, I might want to explore those too; otherwise, I might come back.

Beefy Beef Noodle
4063 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

Earlier this year, in summer, when I went to No 1 Beef Noodle House, I noticed they had a sign they were opening a new location near King Edwards. Months have passed and after my visit to Queen Elizabeth Park, I was hungry and needed some food. Well, since it is not that far, I might as well go there!

Located in the same spot previously occupied by Rekados, somehow I have the odd feeling they did not have to spend too much in furniture. They were basically the same! At most they changed the layout and had the whole restaurant open (in my visit to Rekados, only half of the restaurant was open). Anyway, despite it was quite busy, I was quickly seated and given the menu. What to drink? How about some ice water?

I know it is really stupid/pointless to take a picture of a glass of water; however, there was a reason why I did that. Notice the size of the glass – It was under 6 ounces! Oh, come on, it is ice water! Sure, you won’t charge me for it but why not bring a 12 ounce glass??? Or was that a hint I should be buying one of their bubble-teas? Hmmmmmm…

On my visit to No 1, I ordered the chicken wings. I was *this* close to order the same item for comparison purposes, I decided to go for the deep fried chicken leg instead. I will have to admit, on its own, it was quite good. Lightly crispy, still juicy. Yummmmmmmm…. One thing I did not taste was some ginger, garlic or pepper. Had it had one (or more?) of these, it would have been better. But, putting it into perspective, I think I should have order one of their so called specialty: crispy salty peppery chicken. Hey, they proudly put it under the name! Oh, well…

For my “main”, I ordered the beef brisket noodle in spicy soup – the same dish I ordered in No 1. For the most part, it was exactly the same but, visually, this one looked slightly larger. The noodles was slightly past the al-dente texture but nothing major. The same spiciness “issue” I ran into in No 1 also happened here: After a couple of slurps of the broth, I started to sweat profusely. It wasn’t a nice view, as I did not bring a towel and they only provided a single napkin.

Can I say deja vu? The same problem encountered in No 1 also occured here: this is not brisket but shank. C’mon guys, does shank sound that unappetizing that you can’t put it in the menu “as is”? But, an issue I ran into this time was that, compared to No 1, the ones here were a lot chewier. Either the meat wasn’t cooked as long as they wanted or this was a fluke (unfortunately, I am more inclined to the first case). If that was the case, does that translate into “should only be ordered after 6:00 p.m.”?

In the end, it is the same restaurant as No 1 – except it has a different name (I guess No. 2 does not sound that good). If you don’t like No 1, there is little that will change your mind here. If you like it, well, you will get almost an exact copy of what you would have gotten in their Burnaby location. In fact they even run into the same parking problem (as parking spots in front of the restaurant is really limited)! But, in the end, I liked No 1 and, given this is an almost exact copy…

Wok Box
Several locations in Western Canada and BC
1738 Davie Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC

A week and a half ago, I mentioned I wanted to visit Wok Box, an “Asian” chain restaurant. It had more to do with curiosity than anything else, specially considering feedback from other bloggers. The fact their new location is in English Bay, at a walking distance from my workplace, well, let’s just say it made things easy. After several failed attempts, mainly because they kept moving their opening day, I finally managed to pay a visit…

Since I had an idea of their menu – in my previous failed visit, I was able to grab their menu hanging outside their door – by the time I got there, I had an idea of what to order. When I approached the cashier, I felt some really odd vibes: Somehow, I felt all the staff was still in training, hence, things might go wrong. Still, I had to give them a chance… Regardless, while making my order, any preconceived notion of Asian food went out of the window when the cashier asked me: rice or noodles. OK, let’s rewind a little bit. In their menu, I was interested in their stir fry lunches and, out of the items available, I wanted to try the “dan dan”. See, in my head, when you say “dan dan”, I automatically associated “dan dan noodles”. So, when I was asked “rice or noodles”, I was totally confused. It is equivalent to being asked if I want my burger with a (beef?) patty or if I wanted a sausage in my hot dog… So, in a hesitant way, I said “noodles”…

Now, the story does not end there! I asked my lunch to go, as I wasn’t sure what to expect from the dining room (which, actually, is “nice”, more below). So, I sat there reading some news. About 20 minutes later (no typo!), my stomach started to make funny noises so I asked about my order. The reply I got was that: “Oh, they are still preparing it. This is not fast food, you know…”. OK, again, let’s rewind. When I arrived at the restaurant, it was 12:02 p.m. and there were only three other customers, all of them already eating. In other words, I was the first in the (empty) queue. Although I am hesitant sometimes to cook for others, at least I know about stir frying: aside from the prep work, stir frying is a really fast cooking method. You could have everything done in less than 10 minutes, if not 5, provided you have a really good heat source. And, yes, they had their woks and a gas range. So, when I did not receive my order until after 30 or so minutes after I made my order… Let’s just say I was not impressed…

At this point, the only saving grace would be the food. So, I walked to nearby English Bay and started unpacking everything. I can’t help myself ask about the container: I know these are called oyster pails because, well, they used to carry oysters in it. However, what I do not get is how these ended up being associated with Chinese cooking? It wasn’t until I watched them in some (US) TV shows, I would have never associated one with the other. Anyway, after stirring the noodles a little bit and taking the “authenticity” part out (broccoli in a noodle stir fry? Really?!), the food is actually not that bad. There was some garlic-y flavour and a slightly hot (as in spicy) feeling to it. The noodles had that starchy feeling which made the sauce cling to it quite well. There were a couple of pieces of pork but enough for this serving.

I couldn’t help at this point wonder myself: can I let them slip this time because the food was actually quite decent and my initial impression was because they just opened? Rather than “let it go”, instead, I chose to go there again later during week. This time, fortunately, the initial interaction was different, as if the team already started to catch up and learn the process. So, when I went to make my order that “vibe” wasn’t there. However, there was another problem: the cashier (it seemed it was a manager, as his uniform was different from the rest) was a bit too enthusiastic. While I was making my order, he greeted all the customers who walked in… From behind the cash register. Now, I do not mind this; however, is the fact that, hey, I am standing right there, you know. If you shout to somebody who is 3 metres away, what about the person in front of you? Anyway, I made my order and sat in the dining area.

As for my order, this time, I ordered “teriyaki”, again, with noodles. Along, I had their sping roll and drink. Just as last time, I checked the time I sat down and waited patiently. Unlike my first visit, however, I got my order on my table in ~10 minutes! Inconsistency? Anyway, here is my full order.

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Spring roll

Teriyaki stir fry bowl with pork

I will admit that I was slightly confused. OK, what is the deal with the lime wedge? To give it some contrast? It would have worked fine with something like the “dan dan” but not necessarily with teriyaki. And, unlike the “dan dan”, the noodles did not have a dry/starchy texture; instead, it felt a bit slippery (?). Probably as a result, in the end, there was a small puddle of “teriyaki” sauce at the bottom of the bowl – though, of course, it is possible they added a bit too much liquid while preparing it. The rest of the ingredients was similar to what I had previously, not that different from my previous visit. The roll was well fried but that was about it, no other redeeming quality on its own. While it did have some slight pork taste to it, it needed badly the side dipping sauce.

So, what are my closing thoughts on Wok Box? Rather than saying yeah/nah, the answer will depend on what is your understanding of Asian food and stir frying. If you consider this even close to authentic, you will most likely like it. If your concept is different, well, this is a total pass. Don’t get me wrong, the final result, depending on what you might order, has qualities of its own. However, due to several other factors (some of them not even directly related to food), I would rather go to Hon’s…