A bit over a year ago, when Tim Horton’s announced their English muffins, I jumped into the opportunity of comparing their sandwich against McDonald’s. In a funny reversal on things that have happened, recently, McDonald’s announced the return of my once-upon-a-time favourite: their buttermilk biscuits (OK, not really, more details in a moment). So, now that McD’s are back into this game, why not a second heads up battle? And, repeating what I wrote on that post over a year ago… (And borrowing that line from Iron Chef:) Whose cuisine reigns supreme?
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Chain Restaurant,
Sandwich
Brenda’s French Soul Food
652 Polk Street
San Francisco, CA
So, now into the final stretch of the trip! (Well, sort of!). So, after our Vancouver food blogger dinner at Incanto with TS/JS, Mijune and Sherman, we were making some final plans in San Francisco. However, despite they were good sports in some things I wanted to do, on this last half day before our flight back to Vancouver, I was a bit selfish and went to do some things by myself, agreeing on meeting before our flight. But, in the usual family Chinese way, “breakfast first”!
Actually, we didn’t have a real breakfast plan considering Sherman and I already had dim sum in Dol Ho (and our initial plan was Yank Sing). So, instead, we agreed to meet and go from there. At first, we wanted to give Dottie’s another chance (the original attempt failed and we ended up going to Taylor Street Coffee Shop) and when we arrived, another 1 hour queue. Seriously??? ARGH!!! So, we started wandering around, going back and forth, including some places closer to Union Square. However, all of those had extremely safe breakfast menu (read: omelette, pancake, hash, sausage, bacon, etc.; basically the same stuff you would be able to get at Denny’s). Then we went to the opposite way and ran into more interesting options, including pho for breakfast (interestingly, with a help wanted sign… In Spanish?!). When we were walking near Polk Street, Sherman’s previous experience in San Fran kicked in: Brenda’s French Soul Food which he had visited previously but was still good for a revisit. Considering this wasn’t the “usual suspect” dishes, I was more than eager to give it a try!
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
San Francisco,
Seafood
Taylor Street Coffee Shop
375 Taylor Street
San Francisco, CA
Ah, San Fran, San Fran… After FoodBuzz Street Food Fare Welcome Reception, Sherman, JS/TS and Mijune, each one of us called it a night. However, since we didn’t necessarily planned to attend all FoodBuzz events for the morning, we decided to tag along for some other activities. In my case, Sherman and I agreed to meet for breakfast and go from there, which included looking for some good eats outside of the San Francisco area. But, that is jumping ahead so, for this post, breakfast.
Here is a bit of a curve ball: while the hotel did offer continental breakfast, how exciting that would have been as blogging material? I guess not much. So, we decided to look for nearby options and option #1 had a somewhat ridiculous queue… At 8:00 a.m.! How bad it was? Imagine a breakfast version of Stepho’s… 1 hour queue? For breakfast??? While walking around, Sherman mentioned Taylor Street Coffee Shop (TSCS) as an option. Sure, why not!
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Pork,
San Francisco,
Seafood
Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe
3292 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC
Following the trend from yesterday’s post, I met with Anita after my long road trip to do some catch up. However, this time, instead of dinner, it was for brunch. Her request was something like a pancake or waffle; however, that would have almost automatically meant something sweet. But, then again, I am not a sweets person so I had to find a compromise. Granted, we could have gone to IHOP or Denny’s and me end up ordering an omelette. No, I wanted something different. That’s why I decided to drive to Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe for pannekoeks. Sure, they are neither pancake nor waffle but, hey, it is “close enough”!
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Vancouver
Renaissance Cafe
1746 Pacific Ave
Tacoma, WA
Back when I was in University, I never had to go through one of those stereotypical late night assignments ending at wee hours of the day and, as a result, the next morning going around for a substantial breakfast. (That does not apply even if you change it to a night out drink). Let’s just say I have my own way on having things done but there was one thing I did have with a certain frequency: After finishing class past 11:00 p.m. (yup, call it crazy!), I went to a mini-mart where they made some killer Cuban sandwich. Alas, last time I checked that place was gone (then again, it has been eons ago). So, when I was in Tacoma, on my last day, I wanted to check some local spots where students would frequent (University of Washington at Tacoma was a couple of blocks away from the hotel) for the same purpose and that’s how I ended up going to Renaissance Cafe. Now, not late night eats but early ones instead.
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Tacoma
To those who do not know yet, last Friday was the opening ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. During the next two weeks, in addition to my regular food/restaurant blog posts, I will try to do photo essays of the city, specially of the Downtown Vancouver/Yaletown area and probably some of the other installations across town. Sorry, no Cypress or Whistler… I mean, you can watch the sport events themselves in TV and news you might not necessarily see the rest that Vancouver has to offer. And that brings the topic of this post…
In the last week or so, I have been receiving emails asking for suggestions on places to eat, things they have to try, restaurant they should visit and so on. And it goes all ways, some for cheap, something they should spare no expense and so on. The commonality of the request is the Downtown/Yaletown area of town. I tried my best answering those emails but, as explained in my response, in my opinion, Yaletown is full of expensive restaurants where the focus is not always in good food. Instead, I suggested expand a little bit more. Based on the couple of emails I have replied, I thought I should compile what I have written and put it in a post.
Update: The topic of price gouging has popped up in the comments section. I thought I should include some links here, as a caveat emptor for out of town customers. I love Vancouver but despise that restaurant owners is taking advantage of the Olympics to obtain additional revenues.
- An article in The Globe and Mail from Alexandra Gill, the newspaper’s food critic.
- A site maintaining a naughty or nice list of restaurants.
- An article (and video) from CTV.
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Dinner,
Lunch,
Olympic Games,
Random,
Richmond,
Vancouver
Fraser Park Restaurant
4663 Byrne Road
Burnaby, BC
A lot of times, accessibility to a restaurant is an issue. If it is near main roads or near transit, chances are people will go there rather than a place located in the middle of nowhere – literally. One day, I was running some errands in Market Crossing, a mall in South Burnaby, almost New Westminster when hunger stroke. Sure, there is White Spot and some other restaurants but they weren’t that inspiring. That’s when I remember a post from Karl (of The Friday Lunch) of a cafe nearby: Fraser Park Restaurant.
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Tagged as:
Breakfast,
Burnaby,
Pork
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games – Where to Eat?
by KimHo on February 14, 2010 · 20 comments under: British Columbia,Comments,Random,Restaurant
To those who do not know yet, last Friday was the opening ceremony for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. During the next two weeks, in addition to my regular food/restaurant blog posts, I will try to do photo essays of the city, specially of the Downtown Vancouver/Yaletown area and probably some of the other installations across town. Sorry, no Cypress or Whistler… I mean, you can watch the sport events themselves in TV and news you might not necessarily see the rest that Vancouver has to offer. And that brings the topic of this post…
In the last week or so, I have been receiving emails asking for suggestions on places to eat, things they have to try, restaurant they should visit and so on. And it goes all ways, some for cheap, something they should spare no expense and so on. The commonality of the request is the Downtown/Yaletown area of town. I tried my best answering those emails but, as explained in my response, in my opinion, Yaletown is full of expensive restaurants where the focus is not always in good food. Instead, I suggested expand a little bit more. Based on the couple of emails I have replied, I thought I should compile what I have written and put it in a post.
Update: The topic of price gouging has popped up in the comments section. I thought I should include some links here, as a caveat emptor for out of town customers. I love Vancouver but despise that restaurant owners is taking advantage of the Olympics to obtain additional revenues.
Read more…!
Tagged as: Breakfast, Dinner, Lunch, Olympic Games, Random, Richmond, Vancouver