I have mentioned that I am un-Chinese Chinese. What does that mean? That, while I was raised with the culture, there are a lot of things, specially traditions, didn’t really “stick” with me. Of course, growing in another part of the world (read: Panama) meant I had to balance things: local vs. background? Of course, moving to Canada wasn’t even in remote parts of my mind back when I was growing… Oh, how things have changed. But, what has not changed is that desire to celebrate the major Chinese holidays. Chinese New Year, Autumn Festival, et al. And with that it means… Food!

Alas, here is one of those strange situations: Since my parents are in Panama, my options are extremely limited, in the sense that I can’t have a family dinner. Fortunately, a lot of times, a family friend drops me a call and, well, I simply tag along. This year, though, for other reasons, I was quite busy and didn’t check; but, still wanted to a meal with roasted pork… Hmmmm… Pork… Granted, I could have gone to Chinatown and buy a pound of roasted pork and cha siu. Had I done some, would it be blog worthy material for Chinese New Year?

Here is a wacky completely non-sequitur note: reflecting the population of Metro Vancouver, over half of the people in my work department are of Asian origin. This meant that before Chinese New Year, there were some plans hatching to have a lunch. Considering that we might be spending a bit too much time together at work, heck, why not. But wait, not just a simple lunch at the nearby Hon’s. No, no, no. We had bigger… BIGGER plans. How big? As in THIS big…

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that is a WHOLE roasted pork. C’mon, people, don’t tell me you didn’t want to see the *real* stuff? Buying a couple of pounds and eat it with other dishes? Once again, doable, but that is something anybody could do on a regular day. I mean, it is not that I haven’t done it myself; for example, when I visited HK BBQ Master. But, for something as significant as Chinese New Year, c’mon, if I am going to blog about it, it has to be overkill or just go home. Taking snapshot of a pound or two of roasted pork just does not cut it! (And, heaven forbid, imagine I start making videos!!!). No, I will be doing a disservice to readers.

But, I am jumping ahead… Before getting that whole roasted pork, there was a bit of logistics involved, starting with… Where? In my case, I work in the West End and there are only that many places that can make it, namely, Hon’s. But, after the downfall of Hon’s even as a regular restaurant (yes, it has gone downhill), the closest “suspect” would be Chinatown. But looking for somebody to deliver (not to mention a “good” place), we started to scout places in Richmond. Alas, to be able to do this, it would require somebody to drive there and, given we are all busy working, nobody was willing to take some time to do it. In the end, we restricted ourselves and plans seemed to fall into oblivion. Fortunately, Mr. Spoon saved the situation by getting a suggestion from his mother-in-law and others pitched in by volunteering to drive. That place ended up being Dollar Meat Store in Chinatown. OK, OK, I am sure that some of you will be laughing at the name but, hey, they would prepare it in sort of a short notice and we were all up for it.

Of course, you could eat the pork by itself but it would sound… Strange? Anyway, we needed some other dishes to go along; but, given all the logistics involved, Mr. Spoon took reign on the situation and only ordered *one* dish to go along: shrimp fried rice from Hon’s. Well, he is the organizer and I will leave it up to him. Before anybody anything, let’s go back what I mentioned about the population: Despite the main dish was pork, some people in our group does not eat pork so that one other dish had to be non-pork based… But, there was still one issue: no vegetables. To “salvage” the situation, at least from a personal level, I ordered some side gai lan.

In the end, everything was assembled and ready to go… Now, I wanted to go directly for the belly but, based on how it was reconstructed… Well, that meant I could only have it in round 2. And, yes, I went back for more pork. Sad reality is, most people were full after their first round. Some fools (me included) went for other rounds afterwards. That brings the next question… How was it?

In the case of the pork, there is never a correct answer, as it depends on how you like your meat. But, overall, I found there was a really nice balance of fat and lean. No piece was dry and there was a thin layer of fatty-like goodness between the craklings and the meat… Ah… On the topic of cracklings, they could have been better; however, I must consider the fact this wasn’t a suckling pig and the rainy day, plus transit time plus wait time, would have impacted in the end result. Not complaining here, as, in the end, it was eaten with major big smiles…

That brings yet another question: Did we finish it? Here I will be saying something that you will hardly read/hear me say: there was too much pork. No, we did not and there were enough leftovers for the following day, something that people went for. Now, notice something… Missing? Being the stereotypical Chinese, we will almost for certain, get the bones, the head and trotters. Some people, on the other hand, were squeamish about it. As a result of that, I ended up packing the bones and trotters for soup. The head? If it wasn’t because I was full at that moment, I would have produced a knife and started cutting the cheeks out. Alas, that was not to be.

Overall, despite there were some odd moments/situations, it was still a good meal. We enjoyed this so much that we were considering getting a lamb from the Greek Festival later this year!

If you thought a street food fare welcome reception wasn’t enough, the folks at FoodBuzz organized a gala dinner as part of the festival. Did somebody say… More food????

The gala dinner was to take place at San Francisco Ferry Building and, given it was just after switch back to standard time, it was “dark enough” for some “interesting” pictures, hehehe…

The “blur” to the left is a ferry to Sausalito

When it was time, we joined the on-going cocktail. And, in a cocktail, of course you will have drinks and some finger food…

Now, I am not usually a fan of cocktails followed by formal dinner because, well, I might end up eating a little bit too much prior to the main event! Anyway, rather than mingling around, I gathered together with JS/TS, Mijune and Sherman instead. Anti-social? Well, let’s just say I was in good company! Eventually, they allowed us to enter the main dining room…

One thing was for certain: Lightning condition wasn’t necessarily an issue as we chose to sit in a really bright area. However, the lightning type also proved to be an issue. I am digressing here! ^_^;;; Anyway, to start…

Roasted bolden beet tart – Crimson beet, feta and currants, wild arugula and basil puree. It was OK and, in no way, I was excited about it. Other than the custard-y feeling of the tart in the tart, the rest felt… Average? A definite pass for me.

Seared scallops with Bonny Doon Vineyard verjus beurre blanc – served with braised fennel and garnished with fried fennel fonds. Before I go to the dish itself, if I was in an actual restaurant, I will have to call foul: There was a ~40 minutes wait between the tart and the scallops. Granted, you had ~350 guests and cooking 700+ scallops is not an easy task. However, they knew we were coming…

Back to business, I will have to admit scallops were well prepared, despite (or because?) it was seared properly on one side but the other side was lightly seared. I was wondering if this was prepared in an oven rather than in a pan, i.e., heat some sheets in the oven, pour some oil (to coat), put the scallop on top and to the oven for X minutes. The fennel was cooked really soft, almost to the consistency of Napa cabbage. The one part that felt slightly below expectation was that of the beurre blanc: I wished the acidic note of lemon or vinegar was more noticeable. Sorry, I know some beurre blanc aren’t made acidic; I just prefer my seafood with a bit of acid hints in it. But, overall, it was a good dish.

Not sure if readers here follow us in Twitter; if not, here is a “conversation” that ensued:

Sherman38: @followmefoodie Mijune, your rack looked so juicy…
followmefoodie: My rack was probably jucier and more tender than the ones you’re used too @Sherman38
KimKiuHo: You are jealous because hers is bigger than yours… RT @Sherman38: @followmefoodie Mijune, your rack looked so juicy…
Sherman38: @KimKiuHo @followmefoodie God, I certainly hope they’re bigger than mine!
Sherman38: @followmefoodie LOL, yah it looks like they Frenched her rack too…

Of course, there were a lot of speculation about this “thread”. Given the hoard of people who interpreted it in some, ahem, interesting ways forgot completely we are food bloggers and we were (obviously!) referring to a rack of lamb! In this case, rosemary and garlic infused rack of lamb, served with local wild mushroom, pinot noir sauce and butternut squash puree.

In a way, the racks served were a bit of luck of the draw. Mijune’s and Sherman’s were definitely smaller than my rack (errr…. that somehow didn’t sound “right”…) and, probably because mine was larger, it was cooked medium rare while Mijune’s was cooked to a medium-well done level. Even at medium rare, it was still past slightly the point I wished it was. The puree and the mushroom were quite good and didn’t “fight” against the lamb but complemented it by providing some sweetness and some earthiness. The one part of the dish that I thought failed was the gaminess of the lamb or the lack of it. We had a discussion about that “issue” and while some people like it that way, I disagreed because, well, that is partially the point (at least for me) for consuming lamb, otherwise, I might order pork!

Finally, dessert: Tarta de almendars with Oranges – Buttery almond cake with oranges and Spanish sherry sabayon. While I am not a sweets person, this one went a bit past that sweetness threshold I could bare. The fruits natural sweetness was fine, the rest wasn’t really the case. Also, the sabayon, if you look closely… Well, it had a really odd consistency.

Once again, if it was paid dinner, I would have certainly based it; however, that wasn’t the case. During the time we were waiting for the next course, we had some fun ourselves. In that case, well, that was sort of worth it. Else, it is what it is… So, to FoodBuzz, thanks for letting me part of your family!

Roaming Dragon
No fixed address – food truck
Vancouver, BC

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Greek Day
3230 West Broadway Street
Vancouver, BC

Greek Summer Festival
4641 Boundary Road
Vancouver, BC

Last year, around this time, I went to several festival (for eample, the Scandinavian Mid Summer Fest, Latin Summer Fest, Powell Street Festival and so on). One that I couldn’t make it was the Greek Day, as it conflicted with another personal matters (as mentioned in my Scandinavian Mid Summer Fest post above). Despite I went to Greek Summer Festival, in-lieu of the Greek Day, well, it isn’t necessarily the same. So, this year, I made sure I went to that festivity, despite the weather was un-summer like. But, hey, weather hasn’t stopped me before! So, without further ado, a small photo essay of this event.

The event took place in Vancouver West Side in West Broadway between McDonald and Bleinheim Street

Greek goodies…

More goodies…

Did I say goodies?

You got to have a stage, right?

I guess there ought to be some people in costumes…

Did I say food??? However, most of the same stands were selling the same dishes…

Preparing gyros

My gyro… Not from the stand mentioned above. It was a fail because it was more in lines of ground meat rather than that sliced version.

I didn’t order this; instead, I took it from somebody else… Without her noticing! Shame? What shame?

I also ordered a pork souvlaki…

I also ordered a chicken souvlaki from a different stand. It was better prepared than the one from the pork soulvalki.

At least Greeks are better than Chinese, from the dessert’s perspective…

Ended up ordering a galaktoboureko, custard sandwich between phyllo with a hint of orange. Yumm!

Now, as the subject of this post suggests, I also went to the Greek Summer Festival. This event will be up until July 11th so you still have a week to go! Now, I went twice already and there are chances I will go again so the pictures below are based on what I have ordered so far. Since I don’t expect things to be that different from last year to this, things like lamb will be… Oh, well, almost the same as last year! But, as for what I have ordered so far this year…

Pork souvlaki dinner, with salad, bread, tzatziki and rice – $14

Greek yoghurt with honey. Disappointed it was scooped out from a commercial container… And charge $3 for it!

Spanakopita (appetizer), served with tzatziki – $4

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email asking for recommendations for an out-of-towner for this past weekend. While I provided some restaurant suggestions, I also mentioned some events around town. One of those events is the BC Spot Prawns Festival, a local event started recently (this is its fourth year) and that involves local chefs (from the Chef’s Table Society) and organizations (like Ocean Wise). Last year, I didn’t attend because, well, I had other plans and I thought it would be a good idea this year!

Originally, I was going to go with Mijune and then Anita. However, due to some change of plans, Mijune had to cancel and Anita and I ended up going there. Now, those who have been to Granville Island know that parking might be a pain and, in my case, in a futile attempt of getting free parking lead us nowhere. In the end, I ended up going for metered parking… Anyway, eventually we arrived to the grounds (or should I say piers) where the event was taking place… Now, some pictures around…

Queue to the piers.

Boats bringing in the spot prawns

Bag of prawns.

Local chefs, part of the Chef’s Table Society, signing Vancouver Cooks 2 books.

How about a food blogger taking a picture of a food blogger taking a picture of food? Here, Melody Fury.

Eventually, paid my $10 for a sample of the day’s catch. That ended up being…

A plate of four spot prawns, with three dipping sauces, Thai, mango and cocktail. Out of the three, I would put them in this order: Mango, Thai and cocktail. The cocktail one taste “artificial”, as if they came out of a jar. The Thai had some interesting flavours in it, including some slight spicy kick and some pungency, courtesy of the fish sauce. However, while it was good in its own ways, the mango one won it because of the sweetness, fruity taste.

Finally, the “good” part of the prawns. If you ever have prawns heads on, you must suck this up. This is the tastiest part of it! Here, it had a light seafood taste, though not as strong as the ones you can find in other seafood. Alas, some people were going only body and missing these completely. In the picture above, a couple from either Quebec or France finished their prawns but didn’t even touch the heads. Believe me, I was so tempted to grab it from their plates… >_< Likewise, I was disappointed I was given without the head but, come to think about it, it is possible they might have given it with the heads on. Finally, by the end of the even (3:00 p.m.), I started to notice that a lot of the orders were four of the prawns, all heads on. Sigh…

So, here is the big question…. While I believe it is really good, specially if compared to tiger prawns, the question is, how does it compare to other forms of prawns? If you checked yesterday’s post of my mom’s cooking, you should have noticed several langostino dishes. It is partially a tough call but, if I have to choose between the two, I will go for the langostino. Part of the reason for this choice is the taste: in the case of the langostino, it had a stronger taste of sweetness and seafood taste in it, which I thought the spot prawns lacked a little bit. Still, here is the kicker: I live in Vancouver and what I can get is spot prawns, not langostino…

In the last month or so, I have been blogging the different festivals in Vancouver and more often than not, I post about it on Sunday. However, this one is slightly different. In previous posts, the festivals were two day (or more) festivities and I usually attend the first day. However, Latin Summer Fest, which is the celebration of the Latin American countries, always take place on a Sunday – this year, August 16. So, in a way, this post is a week late… ^_^;;;

Now, unlike my previous visits to festivals, I asked Ms. H to join me and along was also Drea of TBDFBTI. While waiting for them (I arrived “early”), I went around Trout Lake (the festivities take place in the parking lot of the community centre there) and looked around. So, enjoy this photo essay of the Latin Summer Fest 2009!

Edit: Kevin of 604 Foodtography also blogged about this event! Check it here.

I swear this exactly the same banner used last year, except they “changed” the date.

As in most festivals, you have your usual tents with merchandise.

That poster on the bottom left is NOT of Nacho Libre but Vancouver Latin American Film Festival

In the main stage, there were several presentations, here, a band. Sorry, did not remember the name of the band playing…

And in this case, a one women show….

Which included some tango.

And talking about dances, in between, they played some music and encouraged spectators to join them in the dancing “floor”.

More or less about this time, Ms. H and Drea arrived and, time for food! However, some queues were really long… And what goodies were available?

How about some churros? I took this picture from the very beginning but, unfortunately, by the time we wanted to get some, they were all gone!

One of the stands selling Mexican food. My bias against most Mexican food is well known so I won’t add anything else here, other than the fact the queue was mid size.

This is from the Portuguese stand. Yes, Portuguese as in Portugal rather than Brazilian. Don’t ask… The goodies here is called malasada, which resemble a frybread but sweet instead of savoury. The one at the bottom looked like a brûlée

Patties from the Jamaican stand. The Jamaican stand also had wraps and some slushies/drinks. Ms. H and Drea got some drinks here.

The making of the most popular item sold during the festivities: pupusas. In fact, the long lines from the picture above is from the two stands selling these!

Grilled chicken from the Cuban stand. I wanted to order these but there were other items I was interested in…

Yuca con encurtido, a pickled-like coleslaw. Now, there is an epic fail associated with this dish…

This is the first “dish” we got: pupusas revuletas (?), i.e., pupusas with beans/cheese filling.

I also ordered platanos, i.e., fried plantain chips. Here is where the epic fail occurred: The menu had it listed as platanos y yuca con chicharrón: $5. However, they meant these were different dishes, whereas I interpreted it as one. So, I only got the plantain, not the yuca and chicharrón. Argh!

Meat empanada from the Chilean stand – Empanada Hut, anyboyd?.

As well as some cheese empanadas from the same stand.

We got some other stuff, like the malasada mentioned above and some popsicles. Afterwards, we walked around the “beach” area of the lake and enjoy the sun. Ms. H, Drea, thanks for coming. As usual, good company make things better!

Oh, to finish this post, some pictures I took around Trout Lake before I went to the festival. Enjoy!

It is summer! And, with summer, we have different summer activities, namely, festivals! A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the Car Free Days in Denman Street and Commercial Drive. Last week, we had the Greek Day. Unfortunately, on that weekend, I had urgent matters to attend and would not have been able to make it until late during the day. While it would have been interesting, to satisfy my cravings for Greek food, we still have the Greek Summer Festival starting today! Anyway, for today’s post, I went to another, lesser known festival that happened last week as well: The Scandinavian Mid Summer Festival! So, enjoy this photo essay which includes food and some epic fails! ^_^;;;

If you feel the two pictures above look “funny”, well, truth is, yes, they might be. I did some heavy post-processing because pictures came out really funny that day: at times, it was sunny and it would be cloudy suddenly…

In the main tent, there were different presentations. Here a choir.

I arrived past the noon; however, I haven’t had lunch yet. There was something else I wanted to have but…

I had BBQ salmon ($10), which comes with the (SYSCO) potato salad and a bun. I was given two pieces because “only one would be too small”. Not complaining here! ^_^;;;

Another food stand. Notice that it is relatively sunny.

Example of Norwegian dresses.

And from the land who gave us ABBA and IKEA…

I am not sure if it was a build our own but, regardless, I couldn’t help myself snap the second picture… Sign of summer, anybody?

Of course, there would be a beer area. No, this was not my epic fail…

O RLY?

YA RLY!

NO WAI!

I chose to have “dessert” rather than getting more BBQ salmon. This piece of waffle with some whipped cream was $4. This would be my prelude to my epic fail….

Showing the daily life to life life style of the Vikings. As for the pot above, yes, they were actually cooking a meal for the end of the day. Unfortunately, I did not stay that late to give it a try (not that I could to being with).

Here are some home/hand made toys. Kids, way before X-Boxes, PS3 or Wiis, these would have been YOUR toys…!

And here is my epic fail… Rather than looking around first, I jumped for the BBQ salmon (which was good on its own ways). Had I noticed this sign before getting the waffle, I am sure I would heavily considered grabbing something from this menu, which includes…

Some open faced sandwiches, desserts and meatballs (couldn’t take pictures of the last one). Wait, if I did not ordered these… I took these pictures of somebody nearby who ordered these! ^_^;;;

Overall, it was interesting, something different from your usual festivals, most probably because not as much publicity is given to it (compared to the before mentioned Greek festival) or because it is not as mainstream in Vancouver as other. But, there are some things I can criticize. First, it is almost in the middle on nowhere… Had I driven a couple of clicks faster, I would have missed that place completely. But, somehow, it was more packed than what I thought and, as a result, it forced people to park in the nearby Burnaby Lake Sports Complex. Admission fee was $5 per person, which is understandable given it was not sponsored the same way as others (most shops were handled by small vendors). But, that one thing that really bugged me was that a larger sign was not given for the hot food inside!!! Oh, well… Would I come back? Will see next year!

For the last entry of 2008, I wanted to post a photo essay of one of the jewels of Vancouver, British Columbia, Queen Elizabeth Park, after the White Christmas. At the same time, I would like to thank everybody who have visited this blog. Without your support, this personal project might not have taken off to the current form. So, again, thanks!

 

Happy New Year!