Salam Bombay
217 – 755 Burrard Street
Vancouver, BC

It seems to be an odd ritual I have been going through: despite I say “no to buffet/all-you-can-eat”, I end up going to one. Coincidence? Subconscious? Hmmmmm…. While looking different spots in the West End, a colleague mentioned he went to one in Burrard and Alberni – Salam Bombay. However, while he went and ordered a la carte, he mentioned there was buffet during lunch, too. Well, since I could use him to gauge the food, I thought it would be a good idea to tag along. So…

From the picture above, I must mention something: This is one of those places that you won’t notice it is there unless you are looking for it. Located on the second floor, the only indication it exists are a couple of sandwich boards, one in Burrard and one in Alberni. Fortunately, though, a well-known (and interesting enough) buffet happens to be next door: Shabusen. The question is rather, would that work in their favour? That is, given that a lot of people queue there, they should notice it, right?

We arrived after noon and, as expected, there was a queue in Shabusen. Fortunately, it wasn’t as busy in Salam Bombay and we were seated quickly. We were debating if we should go for the buffet or order a la carte. In the end, we decided to go for the buffet, though partially due to my suggestion. Again, as mentioned above, I needed some comparison. Having settled that, we lined up…

They had an interesting assortment of dishes. Now, I did not take notes of the name of the dishes themselves so I will apologize for that. Still, I think I can provide enough details of what I ordered. In this case, in the first picture, clockwise from top-left, aloo-gobi, a dish similar to palak paneer though with mushrooms instead, a black-eyed peas appetizer and lamb curry. And, in the second picture, from left to right, butter chicken over rice, tandoori chicken, the lamb curry again and a chutney.

Of course, some naan was provided. I went back and picked up some more lamb curry, rice and dhal. Now, as for the food itself, there were some ups, downs and sideways. I really liked the dhal, but then again, I am a sucker for beans and lentils. The lamb was good also – it had an interesting “spiciness” to it but the meat failed a little bit as it didn’t have a strong game-y taste. The so-so dishes include the butter chicken, where the sauce was decent, mainly because it was not sweet nor creamy enough and the chicken was mostly white meat; mushroom/palak paneer dish, lacked a bit mushrooms, which would have given a more “meaty” taste; the black-eyed peas, which lacked texture; and the aloo gobi which, well, did not add much. The naan was a bit of a disappointment; however, it was mainly because I prefer the more “fluffy” naan and, in this case, it was more on the crispy side. I think I can call it personal preference. One dish not included but available was a type of shrimp curry. Now, I am a bit confused on how this could work as seafood does not work that well if it is sitting there for a while. I found out right away when the dish itself used shrimps similar to baby-shrimps. At that point, there wouldn’t have much to “taste” from the shrimp, right? The one dish that really went sideways but I really blame the fact it was buffet was the tandoori chicken: since chances are these were done in advance, they would taste “as fresh” as just out of the tandoor oven.

To close off the meal, I had some rice pudding (some fruits were also available). In a way, this was another fail, though for other reasons: either I prefer my rice pudding thicker or it is supposed to be runny.

Overall, despite my comments on some of the dishes, the food was better than a lot of the other Indian buffets I have been. But, I must also mention this place is a bit more expensive than the other ones. In my case, I don’t care that much about the extra cost. The criteria that matters here, though, is that of my colleague. In his case, he thought it wasn’t that different one from the other. Given the case, I guess that sounds like a pretty good deal. Would I come back? I will hesitantly say yes, mainly because I would try not to go to a buffet again… Oh, wait, does this sound like a vicious circle???

So far, in all this thread about Panama, I still have not mentioned WHY I went there. Sure, it could have been a holidays but, no, that was not the reason. (Although I had planned to go there sometime in July/August so this made me change plans). Yes, as the header suggested, I attended a wedding. Specifically, AB’s wedding… A couple of months ago, AB called me and told me she was getting married. Her one wish from me: Be at her wedding. Did I mention she is really sweet? Although her family knew me, again from high school, I won’t call myself a close family friend. And, despite me being thousands of clicks away, she took the time to call me… An actual phone call, rather than an email (so prevalent these days)… How can I deny such request?

So, the day after the call, I checked my manager for approval of holidays, booked the flights, called GN, PU and my parents to tell them I was going for those days. That is, I told almost everybody… Except her. How could I? Of course I could! Being a trickster, a BOFH, I did not give her a straight answer. Instead I kept dallying, giving her uncommitted answers like “I have to check with my manager if the holidays will be approved” and then “my holidays haven’t been approved yet” to “Adding 2 extra won’t throw the invitee list of the reception, right?”. So, the day after I arrived to Panama, I visited her, which would then triggered the events mentioned in my visit to El Ranchito. Feel free to call me mean, but she was really surprised!

Now, this being mostly a food related blog, for today’s post, the food of the reception. Before you proceed, I will apologize for the low quality of some of the pictures. As you can imagine, light conditions (for taking pictures) were really poor but, otherwise, the romantic ambiance was there. Can you tell by just the picture below? ^_^

Here is a really hilarious side note. When AB was asking about setting up the tables (you know, who sit where), I told AB: “Aside from your parents and your brother, I think only one or two of your uncles know me. But, just in case, put me in a table where all the guests are from RZ’s side. That way, if I do something really stupid, you can deny knowing me and say I am a guest of the groom”. Hey, I don’t want to embarrass the bride, not to mention some gossiping as to why somebody is taking pictures of the food!

Although I was not given official permission to put a picture of AB and RZ, I think this picture should not pose any problem. Yes, I am zealous of their privacy: everybody else in the party was fair game. That means this is about the only picture you will see of the groom and bride. And now, the food…

Again, I really apologize for the pictures. Although I was able to snap some, for others, given the light conditions and the fact there was a queue (it was a buffet), I only had time to snap one, two at most, picture of the food. After all, I did not want to face a hungry crowd! ^_^;;;

First, a cheese platter. It was mostly cheddar, though I think there were some feta as well. Despite Panama produces enough milk for its own internal consumption, people are not really into fancy cheeses. They will eat it but most won’t appreciate it. After all, blue cheese is usually an acquired taste…

Some salads. The label at the bottom left says “Mediterranean vegetable salad”. Not sure what they meant with Mediterranean but… As for the other platter, it was a broccoli-type salad.

I have the odd feeling most people won’t guess what this is, though the purple could easily give it away. This is a platter of octopus, almost a ceviche (i.e., seafood marinated in citrus).

Rice. Panamanians eat a lot of rice. In fact, if they don’t have some, they won’t be satisfied. Given the light conditions, I don’t think it is really noticeable but the rice is supposed to be green tinted. I can’t say more as I did not have any.

This was supposed to be a fish dish. However, as you can see, by the time I got there, it was empty. They added more not long after I passed by and did not go back. Again, sorry for the blurry picture.

This was a chicken dish, not that you can really tell. Think of chicken breast in a gravy. Again, it was almost done by the time I got there…

Pork nuggets in a blue cheese. They just added this one when I got there, hence, it is still full! ^_^;

And this is my plate, with some other items I did not take pictures of, like beef in wine sauce at the left and some other veggies to the right.

This is my date’s plate. Again, it was somewhat difficult to adjust the camera settings…

The dessert table, clockwise from top: strawberry mousse, black forest, “crunchy caramel triffle”, flan and sopa borracha – a Panamanian dessert. Think of a sponge cake soaked with syrup and alcohol (in the form of rum or seco, a local spirit similar to rum)

And, of course, the wedding cake.

AB, RZ, thanks for inviting me and I wish the best for you two!

Griffins (at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver)
900 W Georgia St
Vancouver, BC V6C

[Note: This will be a quick entry as I did not take that many pictures... Sorry!]

In my opinion, when it comes to eating at hotels, there is one consistent thing: “cheap” it won’t be. Whether it is good eats or not, well, that’s tricky. A lot of times, we set our expectations way too high and end up completely disappointed. Now, don’t get me wrong, we might not be completely responsible for it. Sometimes, it might be the hotel’s hype; sometimes publications push our expectations higher than what it should be.

When my manager organized a team lunch, several options were given and, in the end, Griffins, a restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver was chosen. Since I have not been there before, it was a good opportunity to try it – without footing the bill, I might say! ^_^

The picture above was a picture a co-worker was trying to take. Did not physically “touch” it to make sure if it is real or artificial. Interesting, nevertheless. As for the rest of the restaurant, I took the picture below, with the caveat that, again, I did not want to take pictures of other customers. On that note, that afternoon, Sam Sullivan, then Vancouver Major was there. No, no pictures nor attempt to take a picture…

During lunch, they had a buffet. It is $24 (an additional $4 if desserts are included). They had a salad section, meat section and the before mentioned dessert. I am not that much of a veggie person but you could see the basics, i.e., lettuce (to create your Caesar like salad), Greek salad, marinated mushroom, potato salad and so on. On the meat side, variety was quite interesting: pork, lamb, “prime rib” (though already sliced hence past already medium rare), chicken, fish and, in an interesting note, breaded (and fried) oysters. Ah, the dessert was well stocked with items like chocolate mousse, cheesecake, rice pudding and egg custard (among others). Of course, to document some shots of the actual food, I grabbed a picture of one of my colleague’s plate:

No, he did not shy…

Overall, I must say the lunch was quite good. You could try a lot of things (which, in its own way is also a liability) and almost all of them were good (some minor issues with some items being over-cooked but that’s almost a given in buffets). At $24/$28, it is not a cheap lunch but it was good nevertheless. I will consider coming back here again.