Sky is falling!!! In my last post, I wrote about Excellent Tofu & Snack, a dessert tofu shop in Richmond next to Aberdeen Centre. Going there wasn’t that much of an issue; after all, it was late night (*) and I was already in Richmond in YVR. However, the issue is going to Richmond during the day where all hell break loose!

(*) Just because it is night does not preclude from tweens driving expensive cars taking over the parking lots of most strip malls!

But, in this case, Chris, Sarah and Bin wanted to go for some Chinese eats and to Richmond it was… However, there was sort of a reason…

We arrived at Yaohan Centre and the experience I was hoping to show Chris and Company happened almost right away: The crazy Richmond drivers. See, one of the things that some of us have complained about Richmond, aside from the narrow parking spaces, is their drivers. Truth is, people there do NOT know how to drive. I am not talking about just hitting the gas or brake; people don’t know know how to maneuver nor want to walk an additional 100 metre. Instead, they would rather double park (and don’t give a damn in the process) or stop, holding all the traffic while waiting for somebody who is starting to load his/her car, rather than turn around to the next open spot. In fact, in the two trips to Richmond, I think Chris and Company saw a bit of everything. In the particular case of Yaohan, I was turning around and had the right to take a parking spot. However, a SUV speeds up trying to take that same spot. Nope, I didn’t budge! Just because you have a bigger car does not mean I will yield to you, bastard!

But back to the trip. Once in Yaohan, we went to Osaka Supermarket (aka, T&T in disguise) and then a peek at their food court. Alas, we arrived a bit too early and several of the shops there was still empty. So, we took a quick drive to the mall across the street to Aberdeen Center. First thing I had to show them? That insane turn at the entrance. To those who haven’t driven there, as soon as you enter the building (driving, of course), you have to do a sharp right turn and, less than 10 metres later, a sharp left turn which leads you to the parkade. Here is the problem: as mentioned above, people do not want to walk an additional 100 metres and, given there is only lane up and one lane down, they would hold all the cars while waiting for somebody to leave. Going to the next level? Not a chance! “Fortunately”, we were still relatively early and managed to snag a spot almost right away.

Taking them to a small tour to what this mall has to offer, we went to our intended destination: their food court. Now, I must mention that I offered to drive to Burnaby, specifically to Crystal Mall as an alternative but, I guess due to time (despite it was noon, remmeber the one hour time zone difference), we decided to look for options at the food court. So, it was Chris and Sarah, Bin by himself and I by myself, buy something and meet back in ~15 or so minutes. In the end we got…

Chris seemed to be hypnotized by the siu mei and ended up getting not one or two but *three* dishes from Leung Kee Cantonese Food, from char siu pork to rib and Chinese sausage on rice and curry. All of these came with a small soup.

On Bin’s side, he went to Cafe D’Lite Express and got an order of Hainanese Chicken with rice. To me, it was OK. For some reason, I felt there was something… Missing? Probably I didn’t scoop too much of the sauces? Maybe…

And, finally, despite people have said it has gone downhill, chicken wings from Wo Fung Dessert (my previous post here). Has it gone downhill? Well, I will have to say that, probably a bit less of that ginger marinade like taste it had in the past but still delicious in its own ways.

And here is a plate with a bit of everything.

To me this food is more on the lines of “comfort” food, not necessarily fine dining or anything on those lines. After all, hey, this is a food court! As for the food itself, aside from too much carbs/rice, I won’t necessarily call the best (for example, for pork only, I would have gone to HK BBQ Master) but, for variety and quick fix, this definitely does the job. Is this food court better than the other ones? Well, it is a hard call. Aberdeen’s have things that Yaohan does not have (Frappe Blisse) and vice-versa (congee in Yaohan). Likewise, these do not have something that Crystal Mall has (XLB at Wang’s Shanghai Cuisine) and, once again, vice-versa. In the end, it is a matter of whether you want to travel to these places, else just what is available in the closest place and enjoy what you can get. As for myself… Well, while most of the stuff here are things I can find alternatives without driving down to Richmond so unless there is a good reason, like driving out-of-town friends to visit them, I will stick with what I can find in either Vancouver or Burnaby. As for Chris’ thoughts? How about you check his post!

Oh, one another thing I really hope happened is that Chris, Sarah and Bin now know what mean when people like me and Sherman says “Richmond”! Why? Because, when leaving the parking lot, what I described about Aberdeen Centre parking lot actually happened: long line from the entrance, almost bumper to bumper. As soon as I signaled, there was a car right next to mine waiting to take my spot. At least they were using the blinkers!

Zabu Chicken
1635 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

I might be overstating the obvious here: Restaurant business is a cuthroat business. Even more so in Vancouver where restaurants seems to come and go. Restaurateurs blame the economy, HST, drinking laws, etc. However, what they forget is that eating out is not a necessity; is a luxury. If you can’t make people come to your restaurant and generate revenue and income, probably you are doing something wrong. While I do miss some restaurants that are long gone, those empty spots are usually filled up by something else down the road. Or, in some cases, just close for a week and reinvent themselves. Fuel, in Kitsilano, for example, turned into Refuel. Am I digressing here? Maybe; however, thoughts like these came to my mind when I saw Zabu Chicken…

Wait, what is the deal with Zabu Chicken, isn’t it a new restaurant? Maybe? It might be a case of Deja Vu. Long time ago, way before my days of food blogging, 1635 Robson Street, across from Robson Market and next to Capers was home to Roscoe’s, a home cooked type, European restaurant. For some reason, despite living really close, I didn’t feel it was welcoming. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure their culture is; just that, the exterior didn’t reflect it and, as a result, I never walked in. Fast foward, to summer 2010. After some remodeling, an izakaya was supposed to open here. It’s name? Kosetsu. However, some wacky scheduling on their side prevented me from going there and, instead, I ended up going to Guu Garden. A couple of weeks later, it was suddenly closed and, wala!, a new restaurant pops out. This time? Kim Bob Chun Gook, which I went for lunch with PO. Yes, yes, it is gone and now it is occupied by Zaku Chicken. At this rate, one can’t help but wonder if this spot is cursed or the new tenants are avoiding the Canada Revenue Agency by closing and reopening (wacky thought, most likely no, as the bill from Kim Bob Chun Gook and Zabu Chicken both had the Kosetsu business name in it). But enough back story, now to this visit.

First, I am not completely unfamiliar with how Korean fry their chicken. Granted, I have not been in Korean nor will claim any expertise. However, what I can say is that, after my experience in Red Chicken and Chicken Party, at least, I sort of knew what I was up to. The question is whether Zabu would deliver.

Once again, partner in crime PO and I arrived at just after 12 o’clock, just to find a somewhat confused wait staff, as if they weren’t expecting any customers. Now, I could say that would have been “possible”: before this actual visit, we tried to go there a couple of instances just to find out they weren’t open yet. Let me try again: their original (hand written) hours were Monday to Thursday, opening at 2:00 p.m. Yup, this is one of those “WTH?” moments. What is the point of opening at 2:00 p.m. if the lunch rush is way gone? Or could it be Koreans eat later during the day? Anyway, we were seated in the dead middle of the restaurant and given the menu.

At this point, you can guess their menu is quite straight forward: Fried chicken. They have it in three different possible iterations: “original”, which meant either whole or half chicken; “sitcks” referring to drumsticks; or wings. You could also order a combo which is a mix of wings and “sticks”. Similar to Chicken Party, they have “flavours”, from the generic “fried chicken” to their soy original, hot oraiginal, lemon and “soy sal-sal”. Anything else? In addition to booze, a “zabu chicken katsu” and “zabu chicken salad”, you can say that is about it. And probably in sort of lack of judgement we ended up ordering 12 pieces of their soy wings and 5 pieces of their drumsticks, plus a salad to share. After making our orders, we got…

Now, I know that a lot of us are used to banchan – those small side dishes; here, we got a small coleslaw-like “salad” and some radish. You know what? I am OK with this. As for the radish, I thought it was a bit too acidic but, otherwise, eaten as an appetizer, it was a sort of good starting point. As for the coleslaw, too much dressing for me. On that note, it was a creamy type dressing, not too different from a ranch dressing, though without that acidic taste behind it.

From there, things went downhill… OK, to those who haven’t fried food, it is, in a way, a test of patience. Vegetables are quite forgiving because you can appreciate if they are still a bit raw, while, if overcooked, well, still edible because it is covered by the batter (or something else). Meats? That’s when it gets tricky. Depending on the oil temperature, you can end up with something that looks burnt outside but still raw inside. And then there is the timing: it has to be cooked through while the exterior is still nice and crispy. Given how much emphasis they were making about their chicken, I thought, well, they might do it old school, which might require 20+ or so minutes for it to fry. And how long it took for our food to arrive at the table? How about 30 minutes after ordering? In fact, by minute ~20, PO and I were starting to debate about how the food will be presented. I.e., plump pieces? Or some run off the mill pieces? Or, as they say “we cook the freshest, not frozen chicken”. Hmmmmm…. Will see if that’s true. Anyway, the first dish to arrive was (at the 30 minutes mark already)…

The chicken salad. Why the hell we were ordering this? Probably because we needed vegetables? I will go outright and say this salad is a sore disappointment. In a way, it can be considered to be the coleslaw salad it was given the us original, with some extra lettuce, chicken and in a larger portion. That is because the dressing used here was basically the same. What didn’t help was that they didn’t hold back in the dressing. At times, I felt slurping it. Darn… But, one thing was decent: the chicken pieces were crispy, though, wished it was juicier. Then again, chicken breast, should I have expected more? Regardless, it was that dressing overkill… Come to think about it, I prefer the chicken salad from Costco to this. In a way, I guess that basically tells the story.

Shortly after the salad came the wings. Looking at them I had to chuckle a little bit. At just over $12 the order, we are talking ~$1 a piece. It would have been OK if it was a regular size wing. But, alas, it wasn’t. I was wondering if these were cut out from baby chicken or some specialty type chicken because these were small. Compare it to places where it is sold per pound (Wings, House of Wings, et al, or a Beaver and Mullet visited recently), these were definitely losers in the pricing category. But, wait, the proof is in the taste, isn’t it? So, how was it? Meh. From a “soy” perspective, I didn’t notice anything soy-ish there. In fact, I was wondering if this was borderline a honey garlic type “sauce”, more on the lines of honey than garlic. Furthermore, if that wasn’t enough of a killer, there was the fact it felt overfried. See, wings is one of those cuts that stand overcooking quite well because of the fat/skin ratio to meat compared to other cuts so, unless overcooked, the meats can still “flake” out and/or keep itself juicy. Alas, these were extremely crispy, which means overcooked wings…

Moving to the drumstick version, we ordered the hot version. I was a bit hesitant because it could be a repeat of what happened at Red Chicken, i.e., a chicken so spicy that cold liquid didn’t really help. Here, I was wondering if they used a sweet chili sauce because spicy it wasn’t. As for the meat, similar to the wings, it was starting to get crispy “inside”, while the outside part, given it was layered in sauce, was a slightly better but not by much. At one point, we were wonder if the skin was removed because we couldn’t determine why it was so dry. Alas, skin was on. So, as a result, don’t ask me what is going on here.

At one point, we wondered if we should have ordered a whole fried chicken instead. While we did “argue” about it, in the end, had it been the whole chicken, there were parts that wouldn’t have helped anyway. The chicken breast, for example, considering how the wing and drumstick were dry. But here is the one killer: timing. Why it took so long for the food to deliver? It didn’t feel it was fried to order, specially considering neither the wings or drumstick were pipping hot (temperature wise). So, did I miss something? Probably the moola we had to fork? Total bill was in the $36 range (tax included) and we paid $40. At the risk of alienating readers for saying it but, for that $$$, we could have easily bought a rotisserie chicken with some sides at Safeway (< = $20) or, in a fried chicken comparison, I might have even gone to KFC or Church’s. In fact, we joked we should have done exactly that! Yes, I know people will ask for my head for making this comparison but, when the food was so sub-par, even to KFC, such statement is not overkill and might hold some truth in it. So, once again, Zabu Chicken is a no for me…

Chicken for Lunch
Scotia Place
10060 Jasper Ave NW
Edmonton, AB

At first, this was sort of a tongue-in-cheek visit. C’mon, should I go to Chicken for Lunch? OK, one step back. What is Chicken for Lunch first? It happens to be a restaurant in Scotia Place food court in Downtown Edmonton. The food they serve is the typical Canadian Chinese food; however, as the name suggest, they emphasize more on chicken than other proteins. OK… So, what is the big deal then? It just happens it is the “extension” of sorts of The Lingnan, a “Chinese” restaurant in Edmonton… Which happens to be the “featured” one in a TV show called The Family Restaurant: The Quons. Yes, that was part of the reason for the tongue-in-cheek…

But, you know what? Let’s give them a break. Edmonton is not Vancouver and, similar to other places in the world, cuisine is adjusted based on ingredients availability and adapted to local tastebuds. It does not matter at times how authentic or traditional it is: If your patrons do not accept it, chances are business will go down. If they are happy with the food served, should we judge them? Having said that and putting it aside…

Part of the call to fame of Chicken for Lunch, aside from the fact it is featured in TV, is that the portion seems to be ridiculous. And there is Amy Quon, who runs the place. In a way, she seems to be a character of her own. If you are a frequent customer, she will remember you and, chances are, you will be given some “extras”. And, you know what? It works for her. In that food court, there are a handful of restaurants and, aside from Chicken for Lunch, the only one that I saw some business was Subway. Wow, talk about rough! Of course, this is Scotia Place’s food court. If you want to, you can easily go to the food courts of the neighbouring towers/centres via pedway so it is not as if they are the only option. But, let me assure you they do have their clientele.

But back to Chicken for Lunch. Knowing they close by 2:00 p.m. (more or less, don’t know about the exact time) and knowing that there might be long queues during peak lunch hour, I chose to arrive really early, as in around 11:00 a.m. local time. Set up was pretty forward: with rice, rice noddle, some vegetables, spring rolls and, well, chicken in different forms and iterations. But, wait! They also have an a la carte menu with other more Chinese Canadian diner staples, like sandwiches and what not. I skipped those, of course. But, here is the kicker of the “popular” dishes: Because of the line, they have the “base” prepacked (as in rice, rice noodle and vegetables) and you would then choose the proteins. It seems to work for them so I will leave it like that. Do they allow customization (for example, no rice noodles)? Not sure…

On the day I went, the two chicken options I chose were the kung pao chicken and the dry spicy chicken. Both were supposed to be spicy but I didn’t break a sweat with either one. Could it be my heat tolerance has increased lately or it was because it was cold outside (as in -30C cold before wind chill)? Anyway, the kung pao had a gravy/sauce of sorts which “moistened” the otherwise plain white rice. That sauce felt slightly starchy, but it is a case of it is what it is. The meat itself was OK. As for the dry spicy chicken, it felt that batter was a bit thick but, otherwise, tolerable – not too moist and borderline dry. Now, one thing I noticed about the chicken is that it is deboned dark meat. From that perspective, no complains!

As for the rest, the brocoli was quite al dente so I will leave it as person preference. The rice noodle… Well, it was a bit odd. It was plain and didn’t seem to contribute too much compared to the rice. OK, the gravy/sauce helped the white rice. But, in the end, I would have prefered more vegetables. And, finally, the spring roll. It was OK, slightly oily but, otherwise, nothing to write home about. Still, I would call it a bonus rather than being judgemental.

If I were to try to compare it to Vancouver offerings, Chicken for Lunch would face an extremely steep battle. Take, Kent’s Kitchen for comparison purposes. They have more variety and they are cheaper… WAY cheaper. (In Chicken for Lunch’s case, that meal was almost $8; compare it to just over $5 at Kent’s Kitchen or maybe $6 in some other similar spots in food courts). As for the food itself, if I don’t consider it “Chinese” but Canadian Chinese, it is edible but not something I am in a hurry to go back. But, again, this is Edmonton and not Vancouver so I would be really biased here. From an Edmontonian perspective? Sorry, didn’t ask but I am sure they have their fans.

Aladdin’s Cafe
720 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC

I have mentioned in the past that Middle Eastern restaurants have been creeping around Downtown Vancouver. While not as “noticeable” as, say, Starbucks, you could easily find one every couple of blocks. And what is not to like? Meat spinning in a spit, carved when order (OK, not always) or falafel, which are then dressed with tahini and hot sauce. Well, aside the fact that a lot of these places are small and tend to be packed. On a day for lunch, I was just walking around and ended up near Robson and Granville. And looking for a place for a quick lunch, I eyed Aladdin’s Cafe, which happens to be right next to a Babylon Cafe

How come I went to Aladdin’s Cafe rather than Babylon? My experience at their other location (namely Robson Market) has been inconsistent. Depending on who is preparing your dish (either wrap or plate), time, humour, position of the star or what not, the dish served can be paltry or loaded. While this is a different location, there are no guarantees the experience will be the same. Instead, I chose to try “something else”, which ended up being Aladdin’s Cafe.

Upon walking in, you could see the spit there spinning and cooking the chicken. Ah… I would hate to work in that area considering you will spend the whole day smelling food. Anyway, I went to the back of the restaurant to make my order. One thing that was noticeable right away was that prices were a bit wacky: Prices of wraps (or donair or… Whatever you prefer to call it) are similar to that of other nearby similar shops. However, the plates are easily over $1 if similar comparison was made. Given the plate provides all the components from the wraps and more, I went for this option.

Wait! Not only that, I went overkill here! Normally, one would order either a falafel plate or a chicken shawarma (or, as they have it spelled, shawerma). However, they also offer a combined version called “shawafel”, i.e., it has both falafel as well as chicken. Given it would be just $0.50 extra… Why not?

One note about the falafel. This is an odd beast to tame. While most of us would prefer food to be prepared fresh, in the case of the falafel, except for some limited places (Babylon if they are just making their batch for the day or Abdul’s), chances are you will be hearing that microwave beep. I have no issues with this one if it wasn’t for one issue at Aladdin: they were bone dry. Now, I know some falafel might not be moist and that is fine, that’s why you have the sauces on top. No, in this case, it was dry beyond salvation… >_<

The chicken, while it was cooked fine, I felt it was sliced a bit too thin and somehow ended up a bit dry. While the sauces were partially able to salvage the situation, in the end, it was to no avail: the chicken itself was “lost”. It is funny this happened as it can be easily addressed, which brings the major question: Did they even realize the “issue”?

As for the rest of the components, it was a bit of hit and miss. The salad was a bit odd in the sense the lettuce was shredded way too thin for my liking. On the flip side, the rice was decently flavoured, but was similar to the parboiled version. And then the hummus. Now, I like mine a bit thicker, the way it was served, for a restaurant of this type, it is OK. The pita wedges it was served along was from a bag so not much to comment about.

In the end, I felt a bit cheated. After walking from the West End, still with a lot of other options, I was disappointed with the food served, specially considering its higher price, compared to similar businesses. Would I go back solely for their wraps? Well, considering how the meats/falafel were served, I think I would rather go to Babylon instead, if not be adventurous and try other options instead.

O’Doul’s
1300 Robson St
Vancouver, BC

Sometimes, there are restaurants that might be in front of us but, for some reason, we just choose to disregard and/or skip them for no good reason. That’s what has happened in a way to me with O’Doul’s. Not sure if it is the fact that can be considered “fancy” or some other similar reason but I have walked countless amount of times but have just kept on walking rather than stopping and give it a try. But, while check with PO about dining options in the area, I casually mentioned it (which was, interesting enough, another restaurant suggestion before we went to Town Hall) and we agreed in “sure, why not!”. So, to O’Doul’s it was!

This restaurant is known in its ways yet maintain a relatively low profile in others. For example, they participated in local cook offs yet, past that, and probably because in its Robson/West End location, it does not draw the same crowd as Gastown/Yaletown. With that in mind, when we walked in, I am not sure if I was surprised there was a professional feeling behind the wait staff, rather than a more hip or “young” that the areas mentioned above.

PO and I browsed the menu outside the restaurant before we went in and I already knew what to order almost at first sight. When we were given the menus, we both noticed that one of the dishes wasn’t really in the menu so we inquired. It just happened they were part of the dinner menu; however, they would be willing to make it for us. Now, that’s what I call classy. Having said that, these are the dishes we inquired:

The Land Trio and the Ocean Trio. At $13 each, I thought these were quite a good deal for restaurant of these type! For the Ocean Trio, it was composed of: Organic Ocean’s Cold-smoked Wild Salmon, frisee and peat shoot salad, Vancouver Island Mussels, Merridale cider, leek and tomato julienne, Dungeness Crab and Pacific Shrimp Cake, preserved lemon aioli

The salmon had a smokey, yet slight sweet taste to it, with a flaky texture and didn’t really need sides. By itself, it was good. The mussels were plump but didn’t taste much of the other components. No problem here as the star was the mussel. The crab/shrimp cake was a bit of an odd ball. I was expecting a bit more of shrimp (cheaper ingredient of the two) than crab. However, I ended up tasting a bit more of crab than shrimp. In fact, the shrimp snappy texture was MIA. It had a crispy exterior and the only thing I wished was it to be slightly warmer.

Poplar Grove Tiger Blue Cheese, stone fruit compote, Grilled AAA Beef Tenderloin, sauteed organic mushroom, Oyama Sausage Selection, grainy dijon

The blue cheese was a bit of an odd ball here but, considering there was meat and more meat, probably wasn’t that bad of an option. Despite the name, it was quite mild. Either that, or I am getting used to stronger cheeses… The tenderloin was the winner here, given specially the portion served. It wasn’t perfect, again, as I don’t recall the desired done-ness was asked or not and I am sure PO would have gone for a rarer doneness than the medium-rare, leaning towards medium. But, details, minor details… Finally, the sausage was interesting in its own ways as it was cured rather than just a sliced of cooked sausage. Depending on your likes/dislikes about this, it could go either way. In my case, I thought it was good.

Moving to entrees, PO ordered the house-smoked chicken and grilled vegetable flatbread – Okanagan goat cheese, Haida Gwaii chanterelle mushrooms, hazelnut pesto with choice of today’s soup, market salad or house-cut fries. For the side, he went for the soup, which, for that day, was a mystery ingredient (the waitress wasn’t sure and we didn’t dig in too deeply and we were guessing between cauliflower or pumpkin), carrot and ginger. Despite ginger can be quite strong if not added correctly, we were both surprised it was quite light in taste. In fact, the dominant flavour was the carrot.

As for the sandwich itself… Well… I am not sure. It was a good sandwich, I won’t argue with that; however, $15 is in a certain price bubble that I have mixed feelings about. But, then again, I didn’t order it… I think the best way to describe this would be a slice of chicken pesto pizza found in some places, where, instead of using a tomato sauce as base, you would be using pesto. As for the cheese or mushroom, they didn’t shine much – it was mostly pesto or chicken.

As for myself, I had mussel and fries. Some of you might that, didn’t I have mussels as well in the appetizer? Well, who said I couldn’t have it again??? Here is my first question: What is the deal nowadays with mussels and fries having the fries served on top of the mussels rather than on the side? This happened to me also not long ago in Twisted Fork! C’mon, people, if I eat mussels, eventually the fries will hit the broth which is a bad thing as it will make the fries soggy which, in turn, defeats the purpose of having fries! As for the mussels, as seen in the picture, were really plum so no complains. The broth were average, nothing outstanding at least it didn’t detract from the main star so it is fortunately not a con.

In the overall grand scheme of things, I feel that, while O’Doul’s is at a higher scale than a lot of restaurants a couple of blocks radius, their dishes are also considered to be “safe” in comparison, i.e., tried and true dishes first. And, truth said, there is nothing wrong with that, specially considering their customers I have seen in the restaurant while walking outside tends to be of an older age gap or you want something solid. Now, doing a direct comparison to, say, Joe Forte’s, I will have to say I prefer O’Doul’s over it and indeed I would be interested in coming back.

Poke’m
790 Hornby Street
Vancouver, BC

Well, it seems this is a trend for me in the last couple of weeks: Working my way through the different food carts, with a post per week. Except for the lemonade stand in English Bay and still-haven’t-seen-it-yet-it-is-supposed-to-exist Licious Living cart (once, again, supposedly between in Granville between Dunsmiur and Georgia), I think I have pretty much visited all of the food carts in Downtown, which means I have to start tackling those outside of this area, namely Panda Bakery in Yaletown, Eli’s Serious Sausage in Cambie (near Broadway), the falafel shop near Main and Terminal (which, according to James of Vancouver Street Eats, opened and closed, destiny to be determined) and the mysterious noodle cart in 49th and Cambie. (There is also a mysterious one in Robson Square which hasn’t opened yet). So, for today’s post, one of the remaining carts: Poke’m.

Part of the reason it took me so long to visit Poke’m was because they closed down for a while to re-set their cart for the incoming fall weather. But, now that it is back! Now, notice something… Interesting in the picture above? Yes, the cook in the yellow suit. I am not sure if that was part of a Halloween motif but he was wearing something that would have resembled Pikachu of Pokemon fame (Poke’m -> Pokemon? And, balls -> Pokeballs?).

OK, I could have a field day making bad puns and jokes about this; instead… Nope. I will just leave it as is, OK? (Who knows, Sherman, might be doing so!)

So, how this cart works? Choose a meat type (chicken, beef, tofu, fish fritter, cuttlefish and fish) and choose a sauce (Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Caribbean and one called traditional curry fishball – the last one not sure if it would be a sauce or a straight dish per se; Indian wasn’t available at the time). That leaves us with 24 different combinations plus the traditional curry one. So, which one I chose from the possible combinations?

Order #1 was the cuttlefish in Japanese sauce. I don’t have the exact description of this but, if you have had Japadog‘s terimayo, you will have a really good idea: It had a sweet sauce on top, some savoury seaweed and, unlike the original terimayo, there was some wasabi hints. As for the cuttlefish meatball, once again, if you have had Asian style meatballs (specially those found in Asian supermarkets), you can have a good idea of what to expect: with a bare hint of meat but with an interesting bouncy texture. I think that, for this dish, the best way to think the cuttlefish is to think of it being a blank palette for the sauce.

Order #2 was chicken with the Caribbean sauce. Again, don’t have the exact description but, what end up served, was a spicy sauce of sorts plus caramelized onions. The sauce was actually spicy at first but not enough to start make me sweat. As for the chicken… Taste like chicken? OK, if you didn’t tell, I might have said it was some form of generic meat…

The orders actually took a bit of time to make, come to think about it, about the same time to prepare a wiener for hot dogs. I.e., after the order is made, they slice the appropriate meatballs and grill them. Then, smother the sauce before serving. So, from a timing perspective, they falls slightly short. And that brings the main question: is it worth it? From an eating perspective, they were good in their own ways, specially if you have had Asian style meatballs. From a value perspective, that’s when things might go sideways: as a snack, one order ($3.75) seems to be well priced; however, as meal (i.e., lunch), forget it. I can easily eat three of these orders and might still be hungry. As for me coming back, well, it is the question of whether I want a snack – if that’s the case, this seems to be a good option.

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…

Dajia
836 Denman Street
Vancouver, BC

Three weeks ago, I wrote about Taiko on Denman and made reference to the amount of sushi restaurants in the are, with an over-emphasis on the cheap/affordable side. While we can blame restaurant owners in this dog-eat-dog type situation, at the same time, that is driven by customer demand. One of such restaurants in the area is Momo Sushi where I mention I didn’t really like it; however, I know of co-workers who flock to this place for their large servings. Oh, well, if quantity serves as an incentive…

Also mentioned in my Taiko on Denman post, I made reference to the shifting look of Robson and Denman with shops coming and going. One of the places that “died” down was Denman Rooster’s, a place that I thought was a perennial fixture; however, it was replaced by Pomegranate Lounge which, I will have to admit, the food was quite decent. Alas, with the popularity of nearby izakaya, it didn’t last (for weeks, I noticed it was closed) and it has been replaced by, you can guess it, another Japanese restaurant. Don’t we have enough already in the area? Sure but, still, I need to give it a try before jumping into conclusions…

For this visit, I “recruited” my friend RC, whom I went with to visit Tony’s Beef Noodle some time ago. In his case, there were two criteria: Make it cheap (which suddenly sounds similar to Momo Sushi’s crowd) and make it under an hour as he had an appointment later. OK, I will take my chances…

After we walked in, one thing was noticeable: the layout and/or didn’t change much . I mean, I mean was the last time you were served tea in a Japanese restaurant in a mug? Well, personally, I don’t care, as long as it serves its purpose! But, moving to the food side, we were having a bit of a debate. See, I found out one unique situation with RC: He does not like fish. Now, I have gone several times with him for lunch but it wasn’t until now that I realized that fact. Was I overlooking the obvious? If that’s the case, how he agreed to come to this place??? Well, let’s just say he knows his ways and order this:

Now, to entice the lunch crow, Dajia has a combo special: three rolls/cones special plus miso soup for $8. Basically, it is a pick and choose several items from the list and that’s what you get. RC was a bit curious whether he could order the same one roll/cone which partially perplexed the waitress. I mean, don’t you want variety? In the end, RC ordered two rolls of Dynamite Roll plus a scallop cone. Well, it seems he is fine with shellfish but not with fish. Oh, well, his loss, I say. But, my loss was that I didn’t get to try the scallop roll; I traded a piece of the Dynamite Roll for a component of my dish – more of that in a moment. But, at least, from a visual perspective, I will have to admit it doesn’t look bad!

Just for kicks, we also a dish for share and, take a twist for the odd, we ordered yakitori – here, two chicken skewers. These were decent; however, it lacked some charring and the sauce didn’t add that much. I guess this is a case of adding a dish because of public demand. I won’t necessarily order it again but I can foresee people liking it.

Moving to my order, I went to a lunch box #3 which includes a tuna roll, tempura, salad and unagi on rice. For just under $10, I thought this wasn’t that bad of a deal. Granted, no soup as other places but, still, this was a lot of food.

The salad was OK, not much to comment about, except probably the amount of dressing. At least it didn’t feel oily so I will give them a pass. The tempura was a bit… Strange. Specifically, that spring roll. WTF?! Anyway, I didn’t have the spring roll as that’s what I used to trade for a piece of the Dynamite Roll. When RC had it, he made mention that it was pork based rather than only vegetables. If that’s the case, well, it is quite good. As for the rest of the tempura, it was serviceable.

Given the simplicity of the tuna, I will admit it was better than what I thought, specifically they didn’t make it larger by stuffing it more with rice; instead, it was a decent piece of tuna for such roll. The rice could have been more seasoned but, otherwise, it was quite good.

Finally, the eel/unagi… This was a bit mixed, though leaning to the “good” side. First, it had a bit too much sauce but, fortunately, there was the bed of rice below to soak most of it. Furthermore, the sauce wasn’t extremely sweet but, still, somewhat… Oily? The mix part came from the eel itself: I felt it needed a bit more grilled (assuming it was grilled) because the flesh was still soft. However, if that was the intent, then I must say I liked it. If you are used to the sweeter version found in a lot of restaurants, then you will be disappointed; however, if you look at it as not overly grilled fish, it actually hit the spot.

All in all, I can’t help but admit it was better than what I thought and would certainly come back if I am not aiming for high-end sushi (or even higher grade found at izakaya). As a middle of the road, it certainly hits the spot. As for RC, he confessed ever since our initial visit, he has been there at least once a week. Well, he seemed to like it so I will leave it at that…

The Reef
4172 Main Street
1018 Commercial Drive (location visited)
Vancouver, BC

On Monday’s post of Luda, I made reference to a failed initial attempt. What I did not mention was that, to salvage this epic fail, Sherman and I were mulling about what to do next. In our cases, we were drawing blank until Sherman suggested we drive to Commercial Drive and go from there. We did and, even then, we were walking around and, for each suggestion, it was either me been there previously, Sherman been there previously or too shady for Rich Guy. Well, to badly misquote Sherman, there is a reason why he is “Rich Guy”, right? Fortunately, in our group was Viv also and, at least, she was the voice of reason when she gave sort of an ultimatum: establish up to what block to walk.

In the end, we ended up turning back and let Rich Guy decide: Britannia Sushi (which none of us have been but wasn’t too enticing at that moment) or, its next door neighbour, The Reef. While both Sherman and I have been to The Reef (my previous post here), we weren’t there for dinner so we opened to that possibility.

Update: Sherman’s post here. And, just for kicks, Elaine post here as well!

After we sat it in and the menu given to us, that argument of dishes to order and what not began. Hey, we want to cover all the basis, you know! Eventually, we decided on the dishes and, in-lieu of complimentary bread, we were given these:

Johnnycakes or journey cakes or whichever iteration you want to use. At first I was confused why Sherman called it as such but that’s because I am more used to the flat version. But, past that initial confusion, I thought it was quite a good substitution for bread. It had a denser consistency compared to fluffy bread and the honey (?) coconut butter was a great compliment to it. The only danger of these is that it could end up quite filling, specially if you start drinking a lot of liquid. One per person? Good way to start.

We ordered some appetizers, starting off with plantain chips. For the most part, these were good; however, from personal preference, I would have preferred them crispier. That’s nitpicking though. We were debating about the dipping sauce and what was in it but, in the end, we just agreed that it was good!

We ordered two patties: a beef version and a vegetarian version. From visuals alone, it would have been quite difficult to tell one from the other. In fact, even from the texture perspective, they were about the same. When we got the second one (the supposedly vegetarian one), we kept mulling if they made a mistake. But, after a while, given the amount of spices and small texture differences (this pointed out by Viv), we concluded the second one had to be the veggie one. As for the crust, it was flaky, thick in some parts, slightly overcooked but, otherwise, good.

Moving to the main, here is Rich Guy’s: jerk chicken. I only taste a piece of the chicken (white meat, in this case) and it was actually quite moist. It was good but not sure if I would order it… Now, not for that reason; instead, it is because of the other dishes.

In my case, ackee and saltfish, that stereotypical Caribbean dish. And, while the name would suggest this to be a salty dish, it ain’t. Aside for the dried fish texture (think a tougher, flaky version of canned tuna), for the most part, it had a slightly fruity taste (difficult to describe, though). Would I order this again? Certainly but, unlike the jerk, there might be a bit of acquired taste for this dish so, some people might not necessarily appreciate it.

Viv’s dish: oxtail. Sorry about this picture: I didn’t try to take a second picture as Sherman and I were blinding Viv a little bit. This dish was both a winner and a loser. The meat was tender; however, it was also well seasoned – Probably a bit too seasoned. So, while it was good for me, to Viv, she thought it was a bit too salty, and depending on your tolerance, it might be the case. However, it might also be the broth at the bottom, as the rice soaked it.

Finally, Sherman’s dish: lamb, served with mashed potatoes. The lamb itself was OK, though Sherman did make mention it was slightly overcooked. The mash potatoes, on the other hand, was quite well seasoned. We were guessing if they used milk, cream or buttermilk, as it had a unique taste. However, what really made it was the curry-like sauce served with the lamb. Its coconut-y taste gave an additional, unique layer of flavour to the mash.

One part I didn’t really make reference was the rice and beans and the sides. For the most part, it worked quite well for me, as it is something I grew up eating. Now, I could say they could have used coconut water/milk to prepare it but, nah, that, again, would be nitpicking.

Before hitting my last thoughts about The Reef, there were two instances during our dinner that I have to make mention: First, it was the vegetarian patty. While we ordered the patties together, the vegetarian one came a couple of minutes later (~9 minutes). According to them, the original order was overdone so, rather than serving it that way, they decided to make a second one. Something similar happened with Sherman’s lamb: It seems there was a mix-up and, rather than making us wait for having that ordered re-fired, they served the remaining dishes (~17 minutes after the second patty) and, to make up, they served an additional plate of the oxtail. At this point, we were wondering if all this extra service was due to the fact of both Sherman and I taking pictures (with flash, I must mention). I mean, some of the dishes, namely the lamb, is not something you can re-cook in 15 or so minutes! (On that note, the oxtail plate came ~10 minutes after the other dishes were served). So, let me put it this way: Were they trying to sway us with extra service/food? I can’t help but help but wonder considering all the dishes require a lot of heads up preparation (stewing the oxtail, soak the saltfish, braise the lamb and so on).

But, putting that aside, I thought the food was actually good. Of course, I can’t help but wonder how much of this might be due to what was mentioned above. So, think of it as a good but with a small caveat…

KFC
Hundred of locations around the world
1147 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC

In the past, I made reference to things that we wish and long for just due to the fact it is at a somewhat arms reach but it is too troublesome to go and get it/them. Wait, what’s that again? OK, let me put a really simple example: When the original iPhone came, it wasn’t launched in Canada but people went to extreme to find unlocked versions in the US. In the case of food, Krispy Kreme was almost a commodity… Until a store was opened here. The list goes and goes. When KFC released their Double Down sandwich, aside from the hype it generated as being one of the most unhealthy sandwiches (there are worst), it was done as a US only item. But, thanks to some ingenuity, some people made their own version, including a Canadian version. In my case, living in Vancouver, with border crossing at a relatively short drive, it was a matter of if I *really* wanted to do it. For the most part the answer was no; until, that is, I was in the US for business trip and, well, why not, get not one but two of such sandwiches! You can check my post here.

Fast forward to the present: In a case of demand (or hype or success, which ever you think is true), KFC in Canada was to release this “sandwich” on October 18th and available until mid November. While I already had the “original” version down in the US, well, why not try the local version as well!

Working in Downtown, I was a bit surprised there is only one KFC in the West End. Of course, given KFC rap, this could swing both ways. Knowing there will be some hype behind it, I decided to leave around 11:30 a.m., hoping to arrive at that KFC in Davie Street before any line formed. To my surprise that small location was packed when I arrived! Now, not everybody ordered that sandwich; some of them went for the regular KFC fare. However, as soon as I made my order, people behind me were ordering three or four of such sandwiches. (Including a shameless news reporter who was asking for other customers for a chance to take pictures. C’mon, take a picture of *your* own sandwich!). What was even more surprising is that by noon, it was sold out and there was a wait until 2:00 p.m. Call it initial success?

As for the sandwich itself, I already had a good idea of what to expect. I mean, it is not that I haven’t tried it before. As for this one… Well, despite the way it is constructed seems “better”, my initial thoughts a couple of months earlier haven’t changed. It is a darn messy “sandwich”. Here is the reason I thought this was “better” compared to the US version: the chicken had more juices in it, compared to the US version; however, I can think of a reason why this is the case: given the rush of orders, these would be recently cooked; whereas in the US, since the hype was long gone when I had it, it could have been sitting there for a while.

As for the rest of the “sandwich”, well, it is what was promised, cheese, some dressing and bacon. The bacon wasn’t crispy and the cheese was… Actually, it wasn’t bad but, then again, it was a lot of fat. The overall combined package… Well, the same issue I ran into in the US version was encountered here too: This monstrosity had an extremely salty feeling in it and had to wash it down with a glass of pop – Did I mention I didn’t finish it? Even then, I was still feeling that salt in my mouth for hours to come. You thought MSG was bad?

Now, without the bread, it brings another question: how filling it is? If you are a light eater, this might be good enough; however, for somebody who might be a heavier eater, you can easily eat two of these. In my case… No…

Given this is my second time having it, at least I think I can make a judgement… And, (un)fortunately is the same one that I had when I first had it: It is over-rated in all possible aspects. And while it ain’t the worst meal healthwise, it will certainly be a runner up. It was fatty (the wrap was starting to be oily already), it was salty (as mentioned above, had to drink a lot of liquid after a couple of bites). For the price ($7, sandwich alone; $9 in a combo), I would rather get a rotisserie chicken. If you really want fried chicken, you might as well get some individual pieces and assemble it yourself. Heck, don’t even “assemble” it as a sandwich, eat the meat “as is”. But, if you want to say “I had it”, by all means, be my guest. Just make sure you have a contingency plan in regards to your health!