Rosamunde Sausage Grill
2832 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA

OK, OK, final stretch of San Francisco post. Aside from this one, for Friday’s post, I have Boccalone located in the Ferry Building (more details on that one when time comes) so, until I have another trip to San Francisco…

As for today’s post, so far, almost all posts I have had for San Francisco have had a companion/partner-in-crime component. Once again, I have to give Sherman thanks for being a good sport and tagging along. From taking the ferry for Hamburgers to going to a dim sum dive-y place to agreeing to go to Incanto (located not necessarily in a main street) rather than some more popular restaurant. Of course, there were things that I wanted to do by myself and, in those cases, I chose to break apart from the main group. So, on the Sunday after dim sum at Dol Ho, Sherman had plans with his cousins at Foreign Cinema and I had plans to visit Boccalone (again, Friday’s post). After that, I was planning to do some sightseeing, walking around. One of those places was the Castro District – the equivalent of Davie Village in Vancouver. A very dear friend of mine made mention about it so I decided to drop by. Of course, crappy weather slowed me down a little bit but, still, I managed to drop by. On my way back, I decided to stop by one of the BART stations to get some food. The interesting thing is that, near the Mission BART stations, there is a certain level of Latin food but, oddly, I chose not to go that route. Instead, I went for something more… Mundane? Basic? Something that “normal” people can identify? Namely, meat in a tube? (OK, that sounded strange…). That’s how, I ended up going to Rosamunde Sausage Grill.

While the name of this place has “sausage” and “grill” in it, one other things is pretty obvious: This is local watering hole of sorts. There were your stereo for music, TV for watching games and, to add that locality point, it is a self-serve shop! Nothing wrong with that, if that helps the food served faster and things moving, I am good with it!

As for the food side, OK, their name is straight to the point: They serve sausages. (< — feel free to, ahem, insert any jokes here). In my case, I looked at the menu and was starting to get confused with the list of options. In fact, some of them sounded a bit… Esoteric? Anyway, I pulled a trick from Mijune’s book and asked for their recommendation hoping they didn’t say anything on the lines of “everything is good”. Alas, they did say something on those lines but ended up choosing the one they mentioned first along with something I ordered myself which ended up being…

Currywurst. I know this sounds confusing: Given the area, i.e., surrounded by Latin influence, why would I ordered a German dish? Well, aside from “it is in the menu”… But, let’s face it, how this can go wrong? A curry powder + tomato/catsup like sauce over sliced sausage, your definition of simple can’t go further. Well, in this case, in several ways. The sauce felt mostly like plain tomato/catsup sauce, without any hints of curry at all. The second part is more of a finer point note: Rather than having the sausage completely sliced and tossed into the sauce, I would have preferred it “whole” with slits into it. By having it tossed into the sauce, I felt it “cheapened” the end result. In other words, imagine a batch made sausage stew of sorts. The red peppers topping didn’t really get into the way and, at least, the bun was decent but, then again, for currywurst, the bun is secondary.

Sausage #2 was the suggestion given to me that day: The Sicilian – pork, bell peppers provalone & romano cheeses. Here is the opposite effect compared to the currywurst: This was served as two smaller sausages. Again, that would be fine if it worked. Alas, the flavours were too mild for the toppings (chili and sauerkraut) and it ended up lost in the mix. On that note, the chili was actually quite decent, I wouldn’t have mind a bowl of that some other time.

Despite my wacky thoughts about the sausages, actually, this would be a place I won’t mind coming back to hang out. (But, then again, this is a big IF considering this is San Francisco). It has that vibe of being an extension of your home if you just want to have a good time, some basic food and so on. However, as you all know me, that’s not usually why I go to restaurant: I’m only there for the food!

Al-Watan Tandoori
6084 Fraser Street
Vancouver, BC

I am not sure about my fellow food bloggers but, more often than not, when people find out I food blog, the usual tendency is to ask for restaurant suggestions. Of course, the issue is that, what might be good for me, might not be good for the rest. So, rather, I give them a general blanket list of places with some caveats. For example, a week or so, I was asked for non-Japanese seafood lunch restaurant in Downtown Vancouver within a certain budget. Unfortunately, the only place I could think of were Joe Forte’s and Coast, so I mentioned it with warnings (i.e., Joe Forte’s being predictive, Coast being expensive and slow – among other things). What it is really odd is for non-blogger to check with me if I want to go to a restaurant. What? You want me to tag along, spend countless minutes taking pictures of the food while it gets cold? Well, that’s what happened when EC drop me a note for exactly that, as she wanted to visit Al-Watan Tandoori in Frasier Street…

If you were to drive around Frasier Street, chances are you won’t notice this restaurant. That’s because it is “hidden” behind a bus stop and, unlike its neighbour Pizza Hut, it is not as bright. However, in my visits (yes, more than one!), I noticed that customers tend to be people who already knew of its existence rather than somebody who randomly found it. And that was the case with EC, as it was suggested to her as well! In our first visit, EC2 was along so that gave us enough bodies (ahem, no pun intended) to try at least three dishes, starting off with…

Aloo-Palak or creamed spinach, potato, herbs and spices. Well, you have to have your share of vegetables, don’t you? I won’t say it was really spiced up but, for a vegetable dish, I can say that it did its job. And, as you can expected from “creamed” dishes, it was really soft, while the potatoes served mostly as a filler (there were only a couple of chunks, which fits our party breakdown quite well).

Lamb Karahi (?) – Lamb cooked with fresh tomato, green and red pepper, onion, ginger, garlic and spices. Now, I am not sure to what extent the “cooked” part it is. OK, let me rephrase that: the time between ordering and serving was less than 10 minutes, which begs the question of how well the flavours “blended” together. But, you know what? I didn’t actually mind that, as in this case, I preferred the sauce to have characteristics of its own, in this case, slightly acidic and sour. As for the lamb, it wasn’t as game-y as it could have been but something I am starting to notice as of late, i.e., it is getting less and less game-y, which, is partially disappointing to me. Oh well…

Nehari – Spicy beef curry with special herbs & spices. Truth is, I was confused at first about it, as it reminded me of some forms of beef steak I used to have in Panama (bistek picado), where a steak would be cut in strips and stir fried. Of course, in this case, it was in a stew-like form. Aside from some hints of ginger (which EC isn’t particularly fond of) and some level of spiciness (which EC was immune), I liked the fact the sauce had a slight gelatinous consistency. Not necessarily the most tender cut of beef but it served its purpose.

Chicken biryani – basmati rice cooked with chicken, onion, green and red pepper and exotic spices. If there was a dish that failed to meet expectations would have been this one. In a way that was because it didn’t have the “cooked with” feeling, rather, the meat cooked separately and the topped with the rice. The chicken was… Chicken? Not the highlight at all; as for the rice, it had that basmati nuttiness but, otherwise, I can’t say there was something exciting about it. From a Chinese perspective, it can serve as a rice filler but, for that, I guess I could easily order the “regular” version, i.e., sans meat.

And, of course, naan. Given the shape, we were wondering if this was made in a tandoor oven but, regardless, it served is purpose.

At this point, I won’t say the food was extraordinary but, given the price (~$9 was the most expensive among the ones we ordered) and the decent portion size compared to other Indian eateries, it has some redeeming qualities. With that said, in the first visit, EC and I hold ourselves back because we weren’t sure how adventurous EC2 would be and there were some unique dishes we were interested in trying. So, a couple of weeks later, EC drops me another email if I would be interested in re-visiting it, specially considering that EC2 changed his mind… So, for this re-visit…

EC ordered a mango lassi and, while I didn’t try it, her thoughts about it were… Familiar… I have mentioned a couple of times that mango lassi taste homogenized, no matter which Indian restaurant I go, hinting the fact they might use canned to ensure sweetness and consistency. EC’s thoughts? “It taste as if they came from a can”. However, she liked it because it has a sour taste… Yup, EC is unique and “special”, as she is one of the few girls I know who prefers bitter over sweet.

We ordered rice again, this time just plain rice, not biryani

Last time we ordered the regular naan but this time we ordered the garlic and onion naan. The garlic one was meh, as I couldn’t really taste any garlic, though EC2 mentioned he did. Oh, well. However, the interesting one ended up being the onion naan. Visually it looks strange, as if it was baked (which, at that point, I didn’t care much about); rather, what made it “onion” rather than just plain naan.

If you have been to one-too-many Chinese restaurants, you would easily say “green onion pancakes!”. Yup, it indeed tasted similar to a crustier, harder version of green onion pancake. Of course, if you don’t like onion (or green onion), this might not be for you. Just that the twist caught us completely off guard.

For our vegetable dish, we went for navrattan korma – fresh mixed vegetables in a sauce with herbs and spices. Well, at least it didn’t look like frozen vegetables… As for taste, one thing stood out right away: unlike a lot of vegetable dishes, it was on the lines of sour rather than sweet. Because of this characteristic, EC liked it immediately. As for me, it was OK, nothing particularly exciting but, hey, I got my serving of vegetables!

Now moving to the “interesting” dishes, here, paya – beef foot with spices soup or, in Latin American tradition, sopa de pata. While probably not at the same extreme as me (thought she could be…), at least I will give credit to EC and say she has guts: not everybody will be willing to try this, even order it (yup, this was her dish!). However, this is a case of you don’t know what you are missing. Aside the negative the soup had a bit of an oily feeling, it was well spiced (as in spices, not salty), with an almost gelatinous consistency resulting from the collagen of the foot. People, don’t be afraid of it, if you like your chicken soup (or almost any stock!), it is that collagen that makes the soup have that consistency and taste good! The fact it had some light “chunks” of the remaining gelatinous parts of the foot topped it all. This is a dish I can see myself coming back for, specially in those cold days…

At this point, you might be wondering what’s the deal with the name of this post. I mean, Al-Watan Tandoori is the name of the restaurant but what that has to do with brains? Sure, it is Halloween but? Huahahahahahaha!!!! See, I am a person who is willing to try literally anything and in this case, it wasn’t an exception. Still don’t get it? Well, in this restaurant, there is a dish called brain masala…

Yes, BRAIN masala! Brain cooked with special herbs and spices. Hmmmmmm…. BRAAAAAAINS!!!! Huahahahahaha!!!

OK, back to the regular schedule… C’mon, if I were to serve you this and tell you it is tofu masala, most people would it eat without thinking too much about it (I guess after I have told you this, nobody will eat tofu masala if it was me who served it!). That’s because the brains in the dish were texture than anything else. Almost all the flavour came from the spices – one of the most noticeable ones included some cardamon pods on top.

The second visit was more for fun. Overall, again, based on the portion size, price and how it tasted, I would say it was fairly priced, specially if you do not go with high expectations. As for myself. again, it is the soup that I would for certain come back… AND BRAAAAAAAINSSS!!!!

Funny note: I sort-of organized an outing with fellow food bloggers to visit this place. Even when given the option to reschedule it for another day, a lot of them chickened out and nobody officialy confirmed (there were some “interesting” reasons). They know who they are…

Podnah’s Pit BBQ
1469 NE Prescott Street
Portland, OR

Yesterday, I wrote about Slabtown Ribs and Barbeque and how I left slightly disappointed. So, for dinner, I thought… Should I give another BBQ place a chance? Hey, why not! So, yeah, a vegan/vegetarian nightmare!!! Huahahahaha! OK, enough taunting… I had more than one place in mind: Russell Street Barbeque and Podnah’s Bit BBQ. I ended up choosing the later because, well, given my affinity for holes in the wall, I thought this might be a place I would like more.

Getting there was a bit of a strange drive. In fact, it wasn’t near a major street but somewhat inside residential areas. As a result, I though I was going the wrong way, not to mention, when I finally got to the correct area, I had to circle around. I simply couldn’t find it! Anyway, when I finally found it and walked in, I was given the options to sit anywhere. I was so tempted to sit outside but, given there was a larger party behind me, I ended up inside in a table for 2. Hey, I am not such a jackass and horde those large tables for the sake of better light, you know!

I initially read in their menu they have Boylan soda but when I said “diet Coke or Pepsi”, I wasn’t expecting they would serve this. It was quite interesting, I must say. I was almost like drinking sugar cane juice. Oh, notice the small jar? Yup, rather than serving you a glass and refill as you go, how about just give you a jar and a glass and, when you are (about) done with the jar, refill the jar instead? Efficiency in my mind, I will have to say!

Here is a challenge of mine. Since I am usually dining by myself, there is only that much I can eat and, at the same time, it might be unfair if I try only one dish (or, in a BBQ place, only one meat). Yeah, I admit it but, as I say a lot of times, if it isn’t good (enough?), don’t serve it! So, I ended up ordering the two meats option and, for kicks, I added some ribs (their special of the day, that night). Yup, that was A LOT OF MEAT!!!!

First the sides. Given all the meat I have been (and would be) eating, this is my token side of greens. Though, of course, a bit more on the side of “yellowish, almost brown” greens. Yup, here is collard greens. It was slightly bitter but something I like. What was more interesting was the random pieces of bacon in it! Yup, I indeed liked it, hehehe. However, as mentioned, if you are used to not so bitter vegetables, this might not have been for you.

Beans, yup, more beans! I know a lot of people might think twice about eating so much but, again, I grew up eating this so I am used to it. Similar to the collard greens, it had some random pieces of meat which, as usual, it is good. Now, depending on you like yours, there wasn’t that much sweetness (think molasses added); in fact, it was almost on the soup-y side. Furthermore, it was chalkier than the ones I had earlier in Slabtown. I won’t list it as an issue because, again, I am used to it.

And, of course, some corn bread. I will have to say these were quite good! It had some pieces of corn kernels baked in and, in the argument of all cornmeal vs. flour + cornmeal, it felt they used all cornmeal, which resulted in a crumblier cornbread. It would have been better had they baked in bacon or something like that but, hey…

The brisket. It is quite obvious that the brisket here is different from the one I had in Slabtown. On one side, it wasn’t as pink and there is a more noticeable smoke ring. Depending on how you like yours, these were average. In fact, if I had to do a more direct comparison with the one from Slabtown, these were slightly overcooked and somewhat on the bland side. So, alas, there were no overall winners in the brisket department… >_<

Pulled pork and one of the ribs. First, the ribs: these were NOT in the falling off the bones category… However, that was because of the membrane on the back was still holding it together. But, you know what? I didn’t care about that fact because it was really tender and smoke-y. Almost pure pork goodness! Some of the side sauces (in the squirting bottle) did add some different dimension but those weren’t really necessary. By itself, it was good.

As for the pulled pork… Ah, it was a thing of beauty, pure pork goodness. It was still juicy and, once again, similar to the rib, it had its hint of smoke-y taste. In fact, the pulled pork was what I finished first!

Given my bias toward pork, I guess I was “doomed” to finish it first so, from that perspective, that says a lot. The “bad” was that I had so much food that ended up packing it to go. And guess what was packed? Yeah, the brisket only. The following morning, I had that brisket as breakfast and, after they being nuked (yeah, blasfemy!), they were actually not that bad, thought slightly salty by then.

In the end, it was a bit of hit and miss – overstating the obvious, beef was the miss and pork was the hit. But, again, my bias towards it… Would I go back? Well, that might be a contention issue: given it is somewhat out of the way, I might not necessarily do so but it might also depends on the one other place I didn’t go. So, until I visit Russell, I will leave it as a question mark.

Slabtown Ribs and Barbeque
2606 NW Vaughn Street
Portland, OR

Let me ask you this: whenever you see smoke coming out from a restaurant (hopefully, from the exhaust), what comes to your mind? Good food, doesn’t it? So how about when it comes from a smoker? Or how about it coming from a smoker on the street at 7:00 a.m.??? Yup, that’s what happened when I passed by Slabtown Ribs and Barbeque during my stay in Portland. Every morning I passed by, I could see that smoker parked in front of the restaurant (which, otherwise, I would have passed by without noticing!) and wondered myself: “wow, that’s starting early!” And, of course, given you see actual smoke rather than the pressure cook/boil the meat, grill it, toss it with sauce and serve it (like, say, Montana’s Cookhouse), that was incentive enough to try to have some (real) BBQ goodness…

Unlike most of my other meals on this trip, I was fortunate (?) enough to be able to come here for lunch. Hey, you know, one more post for this trip! But, as experience tells me, the lunch menu at times can be slightly skewed toward easily made dishes compared to dinner ones (i.e., lunch rush crowd). However, as I say, if you can’t handle it, should you be open (in this case, for lunch)? Anyway, the dishes offered was quite simple but, then again, BBQ, by then it is just a matter of chopping and plating.

As for the food, the special that day was beef ribs but, when you are fully suited, ribs might be somewhat dangerous. As a result, I ended up ordering other dishes, namely…

OK, first the side dishes, starting off with baked beans. It had a smoke-y taste and a slightly chalky texture. Depending on how you like yours, it might be a detraction or you might like it. One note is that it wasn’t sweet so, if you were expecting yours that way, it might not be for you.

Mac-n-cheese. Actually this was quite interesting. It was creamy (though not extremely cheese-y) and the noodles could almost be “slurped”. The “bad” was that there wasn’t any other tones. Cheese and noodles and that was about it. One thing that might swing both ways is that the cheese startled to curdle a little bit. Depending on the person, he/she might like it or not.

OK, finally to the meats. I chose to go for their Texas plate, which has hot links and brisket. Here the sausages with the side sauce. In this case the Kansas City Classic. Yeah, I know I partially shot myself here. After all, it is supposed to be Texas BBQ, why should I try a Kansas type sauce? Oh, well… But back to the sausage, I wasn’t impressed at all. It wasn’t bad (for instance, it had some “snap”) just that there wasn’t anything that made it outstanding. In fact, it felt… Average?

Finally, the brisket. Again, when sauce was given as an option, I was hoping for it to be on a side, not necessarily smothered. Oh, well. As for the meat itself… No, it didn’t work for me. It was tender, fine; but I couldn’t taste any smokiness in the meat. In fact I was wondering if there was a mistake but when I didn’t see a pronounced smoke ring, I basically just considered it as braised-like brisket instead.

Overall, I can’t say I was enjoyed it. Granted, it filled my stomach just that, after seeing the smoke while walking to the work created that sense of anticipation. Alas, it didn’t deliver…

Afghan Chopan
104 – 12888 80th Avenue
Surrey, BC

For the X time, it was time again for a food bloggers dinner! This time, the task to organize this event felt into the hands of Jenny and her suggested place was a bit… Different. Sort of following the trend of visiting non-Chinese places (let’s face it, there are enough, let’s check other restaurants!), Jenny chose an Afghan restaurant… Nope, not Afghan Horsemen near Granville Island. Instead, it was Afghan Chopan in Surrey out of all places!

In addition to Jenny (and R), coming along for this visit were TS and JS and Sherman (who invited Miss Y as well). I guess the fact it was in Surrey was a bit of detraction for people to go. C’mon, people, it isn’t THAT scary, not to mention not all good eats are concentrated in Vancouver or Richmond… *shakes fist!!!*

On the day we went, there was *something* going on on the space next to the restaurant. A wedding? I am not sure if the restaurant was really prepare for this because, at one time, the circuit breaker tripped and left us in the dark! Furthermore, I am not sure if they left enough staff on the restaurant side, as things were quite sparse…

Oh, one really important note: We notice at least a table where the customers were wearing burka (sp?) and… Let’s just say Miss Y felt she was showing a bit too much skin… So, caveat emptor… Anyway, to the food!

JS and TS chose to order tea. I won’t say much about this because they were seated at the other side from where I was seated and I didn’t ask for a sample… Yeah, shame on me…

We started with several appetizers to share. In this case, their bolani (?). Now, here is a small detail: when it arrived at the table, there weren’t enough pieces for all of us. So, another order was made… Except it never came… Did I mention sparse service? Fortunately, somebody chose not to eat their piece and, when I had mine, well, it was just a crispy piece of “bread”. Given I ate it not it is optimal conditions, I won’t say much about it…

Raita and “chatnee”

Mantu and anshak; basically dumplings, the difference being the filling. The mantu has a meat filling; the anshak has a chive filling (though, oddly, a meat sauce on top so it is not necessarily a vegetarian dish). It was OK but, given it was quite similar to a Chinese dumpling, it would be an unfair comparison. However, if I were to compare it to the one I tasted at East is East… Well, I thought that one was better. Not sure if it was because it had a gamier taste but even when it was vegetarian. Oh, well…

Qabeli Pallow – Tender pieces of beef shank beneath Afghan steamed basmati rice with raisins and carrots served with your side order of the day. If you asked me, I would have said “biryani”! Some of the components here, namely the raisins and carrots were token at most. For the most part, it was the beef shank… OK, for some reason, I didn’t think it was beef shank, as it was quite bone-y to be shank and I wasn’t sure it was even beef because of the gamey taste! But, putting those details aside, this rice dish was quite good! Again, as mentioned, if you like biryani, you will like this. Just it is not as heavily season compared to the Indian counterpart.

Served with the qabeli pallow was Afghan naan. Now, this is not a single order. We also got these from our main dish. It was quite… Interesting. It is a bit difficult to compare it to Western type bread because it wasn’t that fluffy; however, it had borderline savoury. If you like crispy breads, this will work well for you; if you prefer fluffy ones, you will not care too much about this.

Another side was eggplants; in this case, it resembled almost an Italian version… Regardless, it was a quite well cooked eggplant dish. Miss Y even asked for “permission” to clean it up! (Darn, I am starting to sound like Sherman and giving Miss Y a hard time!)

Ordering individually was a no-go right away so we focused in ordering a “large” platter. I was suggest the House Special Combo but that got “overruled” (too much food). So, behold, their chef’s table. Truth is that’s a lot of meat! To be more exact, 3 skewers of tekka kebabs (chunks of top beef tenderloin), 3 skewers of chicken kebab, 3 skewers of shami kebab (ground beef), 2 skewers of Chopan kebabs (chunks of lamb) and 2 pieces of chaplee kebab (marinated ground beef). Now, I know the the shami kebab and the chaplee kebab sounds similar but, well, they are not. Now, based on visuals only one is shaped like the regular skewer, while the other was shaped originally in the form of a patty; otherwise, the difference in terms of taste would be that the shami was more heavily spiced.

So, if I had to “guess”, from 9:00 o’clock clockwise, they would pieces of the chopan skewer, followed by chaplee, shami, chicken and tekka. Out of all these, the one I liked the least was the chaplee (lamb): It was a bit too overcooked for my liking. As for the one I liked the most, that would be the shami, as mentioned above, it was more spiced compared to the other.

Now, here is a big curveball: Miss Y asked for catsup! OK, it wasn’t actually her who ended up asking the waitress, it was me. What happens is that the waitresses ended up MIA for a while and, in the meantime, it became sort of a running joke. I mean, catsup? Really? However, we ended up eating our words (literally), as the catsup they served was more of the vinegar-y variety and it gave a sharp contrast to the meat.

Overall, the food was quite interesting and, based on what was served, the big caveat would be that it looks that if you do come, it might be a good idea for you to come in a small group (like we did). Had I gone by myself… Well, it is just that, solely on description, trying to find out which skewer is “better” is sort of a challenge and ordering a plate like this end up working “better”. So, by myself, my answer would not necessarily, else, it looks like a good option!

Montana’s Cookhouse
Several locations across Canada
1046 – 2929 Barnet Highway (location visited)
Coquitlam, BC

After that hike in Diez Vistas, DVP couldn’t join me for dinner as she had to attend something unexpected. Alas, me “stranded” in the middle of nowhere and starting to get hungry (despite eating several handfuls of cashews before the last portion of the trail). So, while driving out of Buntzen Lake, I chose to drive through Coquitlam Centre rather than the “easier” route of Port Moody. Why? I have absolutely no idea… Could it be because I came driving that way? When I hit that mall, I remembered there was a Montana’s Cookhouse, as well as Chada Thai, I chose the former for one reason: Meat! I mean, I was darn hungry and all I could think of was meat… NOW!!!

At this point, if somebody is going to chastise me for going to Montana’s for their “BBQ”, please don’t. Me as a food blogger will go to almost any extent to try different restaurants, be it perceived good or perceived bad. To me, it is an adventure and a discovery process based on what I like (and dislike). Chances are, yours will be different than mine. The key here is enjoying the (eating?) process. But, back to Montana’s, the key here is that, unlike other restaurants, they don’t call themselves a BBQ place, instead it is family restaurant with emphasis in ribs and steaks. It won’t be that different from saying Red Lobster and a family restaurant emphasizing seafood or Red Robin emphasizing burgers. So, please, keep that in mind.

After being guided to a table and given the menu, my debate was… Should I go for the all-you-can-eat ribs or should I order one of their dishes? Now, had it been a heavy meat eater like Sherman, chances are both of us ordering the all-you-can-eat ribs (different types, of course) and sharing it. Had it been somebody lighter like Mijune or Anita, that might not necessarily be the case. OK, probably bad example with Mijune… She can be a heavy eater as any big guy! But, being by myself and despite I was really hungry, I chose the option of one of their ribs + other meat dishes mainly because I wanted variety. And that one “other meat” ended up being chicken:

Here, their beef rib + quarter chicken, and, for sides, I chose coleslaw and baked beans. One thing I am not sure if I should be surprised (or should have expected it) was the speed which this was served. I think it took them less than five minutes between ordering and serving it to my table. Truth is that is about right. I mean, it is not like some other cuisines that dishes are made to order. These dishes ought to be prepared in advance and, at most, a matter of plating them. So, from that perspective, they did what they were supposed to do…

The coleslaw was average but, then again, since chances are this came from a bag with some dressing thrown in, should I have expected anything else? The cornbread… Well, I will have to say it is among the worst I have ever had. It was too sweet for my liking plus it crumbled down way too easily. It was as if there wasn’t anything holding them together.

The other side, the beans, was a bit of a mixed bag. It wasn’t that sweet, didn’t have much of meat taste (actually, I don’t mind much this part); however, what detracted me was the fact it had a bit of a gritty feeling. It was fine as well but, again, I have had better. Oh, on that note, the sauce on the back was supposed to be Texas bold but… Aside from some odd taste, I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Anyway, the proteins tasted fine without them.

And, talking about proteins, here is the chicken. I will have to admit it is quite decent. Now, not the best of this type but at least it had some unique characteristics still. For example, in no way it was dry and was brined long enough before cooking. But, then again, it is chicken… Oh, by default you get dark meat; if you want white meat (not sure why you would), it is extra.

Finally, their “BBQ” ribs. OK, there is no point on hiding this: if you don’t know by know, these aren’t really “BBQ”. Instead, they are boiled/parboiled/dry cooked/braised, probably grilled before serving/plating and then drenched in sauce. As a result of this cooking, the bone was literally falling off; however, the meat still had a “bite” in it. So, comparing this to any “real” BBQ might be comparing apple to oranges. However, I have absolutely no problem with these cooking methods because the result has qualities of its own. At least, in this case, the sauce served its purpose of “hiding” some imperfections associated to how they were cooked…

So, if you were going for “authentic” BBQ (whatever that means as everybody has his/her own opinion about this), don’t go to Montana’s. You will be disappointed. If you overlook that, what’s served is still edible.

Tony’s Beef Noodle
5710 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC

Some people have considered me to be a bad influence. How so? Well, how about “convincing” them to start a blog??? That is in part what happened to RC. He had a domain parked for the longest and, after he found out I was food blogging, that was the spark needed for him to start using that domain – Yummy Review. And, while he has taken baby steps, that didn’t stop me from doing what a food blogger does best: check if he would be good to visit a restaurant! As usual, there was the question of where. To make thing “easy” for both of us, I chose a restaurant that would be somewhat equidistant for both. And that place ended up being Tony’s Beef Noodle.

Here is a bit of background: just like me, RC is Chinese; however, unlike me, he was raised in Vancouver so that brings some different perspectives as well.

Upon arriving, the first thing I thought was that it looks quite similar to Lao Shan Dong. OK, not exactly the same staff but rather it is a really informal restaurant. Unfortunately, since our party was odd sized (5 of us), I ended up seated in the end of the table of four. Oh, well… Now, with the phrase “beef noodle” as part of its name, the decision as to what to order should have come quite easily. Still, given there were several of us, the other question still remains: what the others will order? We decided to start with some small dishes which ended up being…

Kelp seaweed. I am not sure if there was some level of expectation but both RC and I were disappointed with these. We both thought they could have been crunchier (probably we were drawing comparison to the seaweed served in Japanese restaurants) and it was somewhat lacking in the taste department. For $3, I will just let it slip.

Fried food always taste good, right? In this case, we went for deep fried tofu. I will admit something – visually, these are among the worst fried tofu I have seen in a long time. Specifically, they looked just like regular cubes! But, then again, visuals are not what I care for in the food, rather how it tastes. In this case, it was darn bloody plain. Not even with the side dipping sauce (which was similar to a plum sauce) helped it a single bit. Acquired taste? Taiwanese style? No matter which one was the case but I think I would have been able to live without them.

Following the same line of thought when I went to The One, I suggested we ordered their “Crispy Salt Peppery Chicken”. Salty? Yes. Peppery? Maybe. Crispy? Almost there. Good tasting? The One makes better. Granted, it was $5 but, then again, portion was smaller. Now, it is not that it is bad – if I had to compare it to something like KFC, these are certainly better. However, comparing apples to apples, they are just plain average.

Almost at the same time the last appetizer arrived, our mains started to arrive. I don’t certainly mind having all this food shoved at the same time, just that, because I was tasting the appetizers by their own first and the food being subpar so far, I wasn’t sure what to expect for the bowls of noodle. Something better, hopefully?

RC and family ordered (top down) the hot and sour soup with noodle, beef + noodle in soup and Taiwanese Fried Rice Noodle. The hot and sour soup was… Strange. I didn’t think it was bad in anyway, just that it didn’t have the characteristics I would expect from such soup. There was no fiery spiciness (unless the “hot” part was referring to temperature), while I didn’t taste any sourness in it. Had it been called just a tofu/vegetable with noodle soup, it might have worked better from a naming perspective but I am not sure if many people would have ordered it…

As for the beef + noodle, there wasn’t anything particularly outstanding. The broth was leaning somewhat to the sweet side but, past that, it was just “meh”. Even the most average iteration from LSD was superior to this. I didn’t get to try the meat but, from the reactions, it wasn’t spectacular in any way. I don’t have a decent picture of the fried rice noodle but, if you have seen a chow mein dish with thin rice noodle, well, it was not that apart from one of those. Tastewise, they were OK but I thought it was a bit mundane…

As for myself, given that the usual suspect was already ordered, I went for the sliced beef + noodle in special soup. Unless “bland” soup means “special”, there wasn’t anything unique. In fact, the soup tasted just like really light clear broth. May be there was something lost in translation? As for the beef, granted, it was sliced but, again, I don’t see anything “special” about it. There were just plain slices of shank. Supposedly, it should be dipped with a plum-like sauce; however, having to rely on that was a bit of a let down.

Finally, the noodle… The reason I didn’t comment about it in the other bowls is because we all ended up ordering the same type of noodle, which is supposed to be made in store. If there was a saving grace, it would have been this one. The noodle had an interesting bite to it and a light starchy coating – in other words, they were well made. However, that alone didn’t really served to salvage the soup that was served along…

As I have mentioned several times, for the most part, it was the people I was sharing the meal that managed to “save” it. As for the restaurant itself, there wasn’t anything wrong in general, just that the food wasn’t outstanding in any way. Instead, it was mostly below average, specially given the hype I have heard previously about this place. So, as for me, next? The question then is… What would RC write in his blog, hehehehe.

Nimby Burger
2210 Cornwall Avenue
Vancouver, BC

What? Another burger place post? Well, true, I wrote about Five Guys Burgers and Fries last week but, considering that the rest of the posts for this week would have ended up being that of Asian restaurants, I thought, nah, this might be “worth it”…

Now, Nimby Burger (as in… Not In My Back Yard?) has made some noise in the last couple of weeks, including what I believe is the best method of testing if the restaurant (as set up) works: serve their food free. I mean, why should I pay a restaurant if they are still tweaking things? Aside from that is the fact it imitates principles similar to that of a well known burger shop in the US, In-n-Out Burger. While I haven’t been to In-n-Out, at least I know how I like my burger. With that in mind, I went there the weekend after they opened.

I arrived about 15 or so minutes after noon. It was a drizzling that day but not enough to discourage me from ordering outside. Yup, you order outside and have fun finding a place to eat them! But, of course, before I even consider it, is the process of ordering and wait for your order.

My order of fries being, well, fried!

I ordered a dooblay, which is two patties and two slices of cheese, along with some fries and a drink. I wanted to go overkill and order the milk shake as well; however, I was a bit too early and they weren’t ready to dish those out. After almost ten minutes, which I consider was somewhat long, I got my order and walked to the nearby beach. As in *this* beach…

Yes, alas, it was cloudy…

As mentioned, a dooblay and fries. Some noticeable things right away: Unlike a lot of burger shops, the burger wasn’t completely wrapped. That is double-edge sword: if you are not planning to eat it right away, it gets cold really easily; however, since it is not fully wrapped, it does not get “steamed” inside by the heat of the beef patty. I would assume most people would buy it and eat it right away so that won’t be an issue.

Before moving to the burger, let’s go to the fries. When Sherman visited Nimby Burger, he made mentioned they were “limp, oil-soaked and lifeless, they need to be better”. After he made mention of it, Nimby Burger’s management mentioned they had “fixed” it. So, did they fix it? Well, it wasn’t limp nor oil-soaked or lifeless. Instead, it was just starchy and devoid of any taste… Part of the problem is that, since they are made to order, it can’t really achieve that fluffy inside, crispy outside texture. Furthermore, it seems they held back some seasoning so… No.

Now, back to the burger, it wasn’t as heavy as the one I had at Five Guys. The meat had a soft texture while also showing some slight char taste. From that perspective, it was good. Since the patties were thin, I wasn’t expecting too much in term of juices; however, in the end, other condiments made it slightly damp. Not necessarily something I would have expected; instead, it had mixed feelings. It add some more taste but too much liquid detracted the overall eating experience. On that note, I didn’t see a bacon option and no mention was made about lettuce or tomatoes so I assume these are “by default”.

While I want to compare it to Five Guys, reality is that I can’t. Part of the reason is the price difference, as each dooblay is $5.50. On its own, it is decent, just you have to answer the question of whether this small, somewhat light burger is worth that price. However, the rest… Not necessarily so. Did I mention the fries were $2.50 and pop was $2.75? ($3 for milk shake). If we keep that in mind, suddenly the price gets closer to what I paid at Five Guys which would make Nimby a loser from that perspective. So, to me, in the bigger scheme, while it has some qualities of its own, in the end, I believe there are better options. Burger Burger anybody?

Ten Bistro
Calle 50
Centro Comercial Multiplaza (location visited)
Panama City, Panama

There always seems to be a cultural flip when people travel from/to different countries. When I first moved to Vancouver, I was really happy to try things we didn’t have in Panama (or, at least things I considered “exotic” back then). For example, I visited one or two Korean restaurants, then moved to Indian, Vietnamese restaurants, Japanese restaurants and so on. Why? Because in Panama, these weren’t mainstream back then! Of course, things have changed and yesterday’s post of Sushi Itto is a sign of that. Of course, since I was out of the country for so long, that meant I really wanted to try the “local” fare, not things I could also find in Vancouver, as well. Alas, my mom was cooking almost every single day for me and my parent’s friends which limited my opportunities of eating out. But, I had a wild card: meeting my own friends. As mentioned yesterday, I went out with GN and the meeting place was a mall where we had a light snack in Sushi Itto. Later that day then, it was time for dinner and the question was… Where? In the end, we went to Ten Bistro; however, believe me, there was a bit of thought process behind it!

Prior to even meeting GN at that mall, we were considering different options. The fact that neither one of us had a car in Panama (while I could rent one, Panamanian traffic is not something I am willing to deal with anymore), plus the fact that public transit is a pain and cabs are another pain in their own way, meant the meeting place had to be somewhere manageable. For her, another important detail was that the place had to be somewhere with A/C – after all, the temperature on those days were ~33C and over 75% humidity! For me, as long as there was a good restaurant, hehehehe. We ended up going to Multiplaza, a local relatively big sized mall with the intent of going to a restaurant afterwards. The problem was that GN was a bit enthusiastic on some American chains! For example, she wanted to visit originally places like Bennigan’s or TGI Friday’s – and I will admit that 10 or so years ago, it would have been fine to me… ^_^;;; By the time we finally chose to go to have dinner, we were a bit lazy to go out of the mall which left us which a limited number of options. Following that initial non-North American chain line of thought, I “convinced” GN not to go to Tony Roma’s and Benihana. And, while my wish to go to a more traditional Panamanian restaurant was partially squashed as well (there weren’t any in the mall), we ended up in a compromise to go to the first non-North American restaurant, non-food court restaurant we could find. And, somehow, we ended up going to Ten Bistro. OK, I fib… On our way there, we pass through two other restaurants; however, (1) We thought they were part of the same restaurant and (2) we didn’t want to sit outside, despite it had cooled down a little bit by then.

I know these two restaurants names (next to Ten Bistro) do not mean a lot to you but, if you watched the Panama episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations…

However, visiting Ten Bistro, has its own share of pros. While in the past I had gone to traditional Panamanian restaurants (Mi Ranchito, El Trapiche, et al), I was also curious as to what would happen when a French trained chef takes the local Panamanian ingredients. Sure, I want my sancocho or ceviche but, at the same time, you want to expand those borders. So, in its own odd ways, I had my share of enthusiasm coming to this place.

Now, it wasn’t GN’s first visit – she went there a couple of weeks prior to my visit to Panama. In her case, she went during an event to that similar of Dine Out Vancouver was going on. OK, just in case to those who are also NOT from Vancouver: During a two week period, local restaurants have prix fixe menu (ranging from $18, $28 or $38 in 2010) to entice customers to visit restaurants. While that sounds good, I have mentioned in the past I have doubts about it. Specifically, the experience in such events does not necessarily reflect what you get in a regular (in our case, weekend) dinner night. With that in mind, we sat down and looked at the menus…

Because of the “snack” we had prior to visiting here, I wasn’t really that hungry so I devised a plan of my own: order two small dishes. On GN’s side, she wasn’t sure what to order either and, eventually I decided for her by choosing a dish I would have ordered had I plan to eat a full meal. However, there was a small problem: they weren’t sure if that dish was “ready” yet (more details in a moment), so the waiter had to go to the kitchen to verify. When he came back, he mentioned it was but, it might not be at its optimum. GN had her share of doubts whether to go for that dish or another she was pondering about while the waiter was checking with the kitchen. Eventually, I “convinced” her to go for my option. But, here is the kicker… After her order was taking and I made mention I wanted two small dishes instead of one, the waiter asked GN if she was interested in another dish (i.e., appetizer), since mine would be served one at a time and she would then have something at the same time. Well, it seems that was the only push she needed, as she ordered it on the spot! Yes, I will admit the waiter did quite a good job selling the menu…

Now, I know I was a bit vague about the dishes so let’s jump to it, starting with GN’s first dish (the one she had originally in mind)…

Crema de Zapallo or cream of squash, though the translation of this name will have a small caveat: that of using “squash” as a generic term, not as a specific type of squash. I managed to have some of this soup and I will have to admit it was pretty darn good. It was quite thick, though not necessarily due to dairy but partially due to the squash itself, as if they used a lot of squash to prepare the soup, blend it and then add some dairy to call it a “cream” rather than add a heavy dose of cream. Not necessarily a complain… Furthermore the squash taste was heightened by a heavy pinch of nutmeg. It could have been borderline overpowering but it did quite a good job.

As for me, I ordered a cold lasagna, with oxtail meat and ravigote sauce. Based on the description, I was expecting something meaty and, from that perspective, it didn’t disappoint. Oxtail meat? Hey, sign me in! Unfortunately, that was the end of it. I won’t argue the meat was tender; however, the dish had a acidic, sour taste to it. Now, it wasn’t rotten or anything like that, instead, it was mostly due to vinegar/mustard in ravigote sauce which gave those tones. While I don’t have issues with eating/drinking bitter dishes/drinks, I found this one way past what I would normally like, hence I didn’t even finish half of it. On that note, when our second dishes were served, our waiter dropped by and wanted to confirm if there was anything wrong… (The dishes were taken away by a different waiter).

GN’s second dish was osso buco (though the restaurant has it listed as “Ozo buco”), which was served with chickpeas. Before going to the meat, the chickpeas weren’t as soft as it could have been and, flavourwise, additional seasoning would have helped a lot. However, I must keep in consideration that we were warned that they were just finishing and additional resting period would have helped. As for the meat, it was a really large serving, not to mention it was fall off the bone. It had a somewhat heavy tomato taste, which I didn’t mind, though I felt something to balance the taste could have helped a lot. Not disappointed overall, though, again, there was a bit of room for improvement.

My dish was sauteed octopus with potato aioli. While dishes like rice and beans is the core of more traditional Panamanian cuisine, given the abundance of seafood in Panama, dishes like octopus this would be something you would see when you go out on a weekend night. And, in this case, it didn’t disappoint – it was the most tender octopus I ever had. Sure, some people look forward to that “snap” when eating octopus but, here, it was as soft as if it could be. OK, no melt-in-your-mouth feeling but it had the texture of shrimp, i.e., a slight inital resistance and then soft afterwards. The potato didn’t do much (it felt like a mashed version of a potato salad) but, fortunately, it didn’t get into the way of the main star.

GN didn’t finish her dish; however, I managed to convince her to order dessert. OK, there wasn’t too much convincing required, after all, girls love their desserts… Last time she was in Ten Bistro, she ordered profiteroles and, for comparison purposes, I suggested it. So, we ordered one to share. If I compare it to the one I had at Bistrot Bistro, I will have to say there weren’t as good. The main problem was that the choux was baked crisp in some parts and, as a result, a bit difficult to break into. GN commented it wasn’t like that last time she had it so it seems there is a bit of consistency issues. As for the ice cream was average but, at least, managed to “soften” the crisp choux pastry. I won’t say it was the best in the world but, at least, it got the work done…

One thing that really (and I have to emphasize on really) impressed me was service. While it wasn’t overly attentive (we had to “chase” them down for the dessert menu), at no times the glasses were empty and dishes were cleared in a timely manner. And the fact that I was asked about any issues because I didn’t finish my dish topped it all. I wanted to mentioned this because, in the past, service was (still is?) one of the main issues in the hospitality industry in Panama. So, from that perspective alone, kudos to the restaurant.

Overall, despite some things went sideways, I like the direction the restaurant takes. Sure, it completely overlooks traditional dishes (there were no rice and beans or ceviche – for the later one, I should have gone to one of the restaurants outside Ten Bistro), it still prepares dishes locals are still familiar with a foreign methods. Granted, the average Panamanian might not go often to this place (think of it as somebody in Vancouver going to Market by Jean-Georges every weekend) but I found it was worth while. Finally, just for comparison purposes, other than the osso buco, which was $15, the rest of the dishes were less than $10.

Lam Hoa Quan
5073 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC

On a weekend, I had a long list of things to do and, after having done with most of them, I was up for an early lunch. The problem is that a lot of places do not really open “early enough” and trying to find something might waste a lot of times. One of my to-do list things was in Victoria Drive, I decided to stay in there and just have lunch. That meant going to Lam Hoa Quan, mainly due to a post by Anita.

In a post last week of Pho Saigon, I was wondering if I should start ordering Vietnamese dishes other than pho. Yeah, maybe one of these days… Yes, that also means I ended up ordering pho this time! Now, there was a reason: In Anita’s case, she ordered pho ga – or chicken pho. While that would have worked, the problem was that I needed something more “heavy” so I ended up going for sort of a mix of both. But, first…

I ordered some spring rolls. When it showed up, the first thing I noticed was the skin and its yellowish colour. In the past, when these were served, it would have a brown colour but not like this. It makes me wonder if they use some spices, like turmeric or curry. If I had to guess, it would be turmeric as I couldn’t taste anything else in a curry.

As for the rest of the spring rolls, it wasn’t back extremely tight; however, it wasn’t extremely loose either. The mix itself would be more on the chunkier side compared to the ones I have had recently. Overall, I would say they are average.

And here is their pho, as mentioned above, a mix of chicken and beef pho – pho tai bo ga, house special rare beef with chicken noodle soup. The first obvious thing is that the beef is not that much sliced as seen in other pho shops but looks like a piece that has been pounded a couple of times. I personally don’t mind the beef be served that way, it just that it was strange departure from what I have been used to. As for the chicken, I was started to wonder if this was a corn fed chicken, or even free-range chicken. That is because the chicken was actually chewy and had some actual chicken taste rather than the bland chicken found elsewhere.

As for the broth, that is where things went in wacky ways. I can’t say it is a chicken soup, specially if I compare it to the one I had in My Chau. I can’t say it was a beef broth either because it didn’t have that meaty taste. Instead, I would say it was a mix of both with some heavy ginger in it. While I am good with beef plus ginger or chicken by itself, this mix didn’t really work for me.

In the end, I had mixed feelings about this combination but, because of the chicken used, I also believe the product they produce can be a good one. I might try this place again in the future; however, if I do, it will be a straight version rather than a mix.