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…

Saffron Indian Cuisine
4300 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

Another week goes and, once again, I get to meet with other food bloggers for dinner. Just like last time, I got to meet Mijune for some catch-up (let me tell you, she is a busy woman!). Alas, in this, I was caught unprepared in the sense I didn’t really think of a place to eat. Believe it or not, choosing places to eat is not a simple task: there are times where we have way too many ideas; at times, we just draw blanks. Fortunately for me, Mijune remembered Saffron Indian Cuisine, as the name suggests, an Indian restaurant in the Burnaby side of Kingsway. I have been there in the past for their buffet but that was years ago (read: before I started food blogging) so that gave me a reason to revisit it. And who better than with a fellow blogger!

As soon as we arrived, Mijune made an observation about what was next to it: a pizza shop? From what I remember, it seems they are part of the same group, given flyers for one was on one side of the page and the other was on the flip side. But, well, we were there for Indian and there we went.

Here is what I consider to be some issues with Indian issues: if you go by yourself, chances are you will order one dish at most. Probably an appetizer and some naan to eat along. Your could order a second dish but, for the most part, and unlike other cuisines, it starts to get quite expensive. Another issue that I run into is that some dishes are quite similar to each other. For example, butter chicken vs korma vs curry. If not because of an addition of one or other component, you can convert one to the other, which can be counterproductive. OK, it is possible I am oversimplifying things but that’s my feeling and, as a result, I don’t necessarily push to go to Indian restaurants.

I bring this up because a workaround to this (the “solution” at times is to go in a large enough group) is to go to a buffet and Saffron, like a lot of similar Indian restaurants, has a buffet as well. But, having all dishes sitting there for extended periods of time creates issues of its down. Quality down, food sitting there for extended periods of time and so on. Because of this, Mijune and I decided to order a la carte. Alas, being the two of us only meant we can only order that many dishes… And talking about food…

Mango lassi, the somewhat stereotypical drink that appears in almost every Indian restaurant and, what seems to be even freakier, is that, regardless of which Indian restaurant, it tastes pretty much the same. If you had it somehwere else, the one in Saffron won’t be that different. Having said that, the one served at Saffron ran into a small issue as well: I wished it was colder! After it was delivered to our table, I couldn’t help notice this was not that cold. And I am not talking about tolerance, it was almost room temperature. Epic fail? Personal preference? Some could argue it is like this; however, I have had some in a colder form so I had to draw this comparison, unfortunately.

One of those “dishes” ordered in Indian restaurant pretty much every time there is curry or something on those lines is naan – of course, ordering naan with dosa might sound odd. Here we have the garlic and basil naan. While you could taste some garlic, it was really – and I do mean, really – faint. As for the basil, it was visually there but you couldn’t really taste much of its unique taste. As for the texture, these were OK, it was somewhat fluffy and doughy; otherwise, there wasn’t anything really outstanding.

In addition to the garlic and basil naan, we also ordered their Saffron Naan (cook’s special mix), which adds some shredded chicken to the naan (by stuffing it). It was interesting, I will admit; however, that is pretty much it. There wasn’t anything that yelled me I should come back and try this again. Ouch!

As for the entrees, we were shuffling as to how many dishes to order. One of those (yet another) “issues” with Indian food is that you can’t be sure how much food is “enough”. Sometimes, an order can be a really small container, at times, it might be enough. Given that uncertainty, we decided to order two dishes and, depending on how it went, order a third dish. To start off, we ordered something that contained several elements and that ended up being their mixed grill – A celebration of sizzling tandoori delicacies! A melange of Tandoori Chicken, Seekh Kebab, Chicken Tika, Lamb Chops and Jumbo Tandoori Prawn. This was served with a salad, rice and chutney.

The “salad” was just some chunks of iceber lettuce. Pass? The rice was… simple? While there was some fragrancy (basmati, after all), there wasn’t anything else. The highlight though was the mint chutney, which provided some refreshing tones to it.

But back to the meats. While the idea was good, there was a variable that resulted in the overall dish ended up being an epic fail: The sizzling hot plate. What happens is that, as Mijune pointed out, there wasn’t a thick layer of onions and the meats ended up in direct contact. Because of this, they continued to cook and those that came into direct contact ended up charred (not in a good way). As a result, I wasn’t necessarily impressed by the end result. For example, the prawns were bland and borderline chewy not in a good way. The rest of the meats were a bit of a hit and miss, like the chicken tikka which, while still a bit moist, the charred bits took away quite a lot of its unique taste. The one that was able to escape those “issue” was the lamb chops. Probably cooked past a certain level most people would prefer but, otherwise, still some the characteristic were there.

Mijune’s dish of choice: Chicken Madrasi – “Chicken with a South Indian flavour in a coconut and poppy seed sauce“. Here is one of my “issues” – how is this different from a curry? How would I differentiate it? Supposedly, the interesting feature is the use of poppyseeds which we had a hard time finding. Other than that, I will give them some credit that the chicken wasn’t completely dry. As for the sauce, it was a bit tomato-ey but, otherwise, the promised coconut in the description was also MIA.

At this point, I am not sure if is necessary to point out that Saffron didn’t really work for me. Could it be we ordered the wrong dishes (if it is in the menu…)? Could it be it was an off night? Should I have gone for the buffet? Regardless, it goes back to Triple O’s motto: If you are not proud of it. Unfortunately, that seems to cement those general thoughts of Indian food in Vancouver: unless you want “modern” interpretations of Indian food, Surrey is the way to go.

And that brings a topic I wasn’t sure I wanted to bring: Mijune made a brief mention that Saffron was noted to be Burnaby’s best Indian restaurant. If that’s the case, it might be due to lack of competition (I can only recall a handful of such establishments in Burnaby)…

Desi Dosa Madras
8859 120th Street
Delta, BC

Wow… How long it has been? Starting from BC Day long weekend (to those not in BC, that would be August 2nd), I have written only 4 (yes, four!!!) British Columbia related posts: Minoas Greek Taverna, Mui NgoGai, Kimura Japanese Restaurant and White Spot Pirate Pack Day. Yes, the remaining 25+ posts during that period to now are from either Edmonton, Seattle/Tacoma and Portland! Yes, I have travelled a lot in the last two or so months but, in perspective, I didn’t do so much in the first half of the year. For the rest of the year, I still have one more trip (I can’t disclose the location but, for simplicity purposes, let’s call it “Location G”) and, after that, I hope to travel to San Francisco in November….

Does that mean I have a long queue of Vancouver restaurants posts? Well, I do have a small queue but not that long. When I was back, I ended up only going to some usual places, mainly because I was so busy I couldn’t take my time to visit some other. (I did go to one here and there, though). But, most importantly, I was able to finally catch up with some people. For today’s particular post, I was able to catch up with my dear friend Mijune after a long time. Sure, I did drop some goods (namely, Voodoo Doughnut and Saint Honoré Boulangerie) but it was mostly drop some goods, taste and leave. (OK, not really but that’s the general idea). So, one night, I asked Mijune to show me her part of town. Alas, it seems she goes so often to Vancouver that visiting her part of town would have been Vancouver. No, I asked for the physical location instead! I was given many options but eliminated most of them based on the fact I have eaten similar cuisine while on the different trips. However, given the location, with a huge concentration of East Indian population, I thought, hey, why not exactly that? And, rather than the usual curries and what not, we ended up going for dosas, aka, southern East Indian cuisine instead. And that place was Desi Dosa Madras.

The day we went was quite calm yet and it stayed that way the rest of our meal. Oh, well, you can’t have a busy restaurant the whole time, can we? On the flip side, that worked well as well, given I wasn’t in the mood to be shouting either! As for the restaurant itself, I was particularly excited given that I was hoping to try yet-another dosa shop. I mean, there is House of Dosas and Madras Dosa House – both in Vancouver. However, I wanted another place for comparison purposes so Desi Dosa Madras worked quite well!

Given the “specialty” is dosas, we saw no reason not to order that. In fact, we chose to skip appetizers in-lieu for a third dosa! So, without further ado…

OK, the actual dosa in a moment. Suffice to say that, size-wise, these are smaller than the ones from House of Dosas. But, you know what? It does not matter, given that the size is mostly related to “crepe” rather than the filling. On the note of the crepe, compared to the ones in House of Dosas, these were not as thin. Again, it depends on your liking. The ones here worked fine.

Along with the dosas were the sambar and chutneys. I can’t really say the chutneys were memorable; however, they certainly did the job. The coconut one added some nuttiness and the tomato one had some savouriness. The sambar had a problem: I found it was slightly salty. But, otherwise, it served its purpose.

Spinach Masala Dosa – dosa stuffed with shredded spinach and Desi Dosa potato masala. Flavourwise, the spinach didn’t really popped out; it was mostly the spices that made it. Instead, it was, along with the potatoes, for texture. But, then again, spinach is quite mild so I shouldn’t be too hard about it. The combination of spices and texture made it for me so, from that perspective, it worked quite well.

Chicken dosa – dosa stuffed with spiced shredded chicken and herbs. Actually, they have two versions of chicken dosa, this and a second one called nilagiri – the difference been in the spices used. While we would usually be adventurous, we ended up going for the “regular” version instead – mostly due to the description given to us of the nilagiri version: it was a bit too obfuscated. For what it is, it was quite good, as the chicken was able to showcase itself as part of the filling, rather than a blank palette.

Finally, egg masala dosa – egg dosa stuffed with Desi Dosa potato masala. Now, the egg part might be a misnomer. It isn’t a fried egg or hard boiled egg in the filling. Instead, the egg was added to the crepe. You could visually see some of the yolk strand and you could have tasted some egginess if you tried really hard. Otherwise, the potato filling actually managed to stand by itself.

Overall, the food was simple and did quite well what is supposed to do. From that perspective, I think we have a winner. Alas, if it wasn’t that far for me… And, again, thanks Mijune for showing me “her part of town”!

(Oh, Mijune’s post here)

Madras Dosa House
5656 Fraser St
Vancouver, BC

Ever since I went to House of Dosas, I have been wanting to try other similar shops. It is a case similar to that of Chinese cuisine – while we have Cantonese as the predominant one, we know there are other dishes outside from Guangdong. Take for example xiao long bao, a dish that has taken the inverse route, to the point that even Cantonese dim sum places offer it, while we know it is not originally from Guangdong (it is from Shanghai). In the case of dosas, it from the southern region of the Indian subcontinent, while a lot of Indian dishes some of you like (and, in some instances, love) – for example, tandoori chicken and a lot of curries – are from the northern region. And, of course, chicken tikka massala is British… One that I had in my target for some time was Madras Dosa House in Frasier Street for no other reason that it stood out in its own odd ways…

Now, it is not that it stood out in a bad way; rather its location – in front of it is a cemetery. But, then again, John Oliver school is not that far away. Furthermore, down the street (north bound, that is), there isn’t much restaurant activity so, if you choose to go, there, chances are you might have stop before 41st Street (if you are driving north bound). Still, it is not the first time I have been to restaurants located in odd/weird places so I was up to the challenge.

Upon arriving, there were a couple of tables already waiting for their orders, including a table occupied by an Indian (?) family. From that perspective, that was good; however, what wasn’t that good was the dishes they ordered – rather, what they didn’t order, i.e. dosas. I lost track of what was served but the fact they didn’t order it was a bit disappointing. But, then again, should I have expected them to order dosas? Anyway, while looking at the menu, they had your usual curries, biryani and, of course, dosas. Based on all these items, I ended up ordering…

While listed as an appetizer, I asked this to be served along with the dosa. Here, their Chicken 65 – Tender boneless chicken marinated in special spices & deep fried. Here is the sort of curveball: I asked the waitress why a dish was called that way. I mean, they are not a pho shop, where you might order a bowl of pho #42, in reference to that item in the menu. Here, it was just listed as “Chicken 65″. Truth is, similar to the reaction you will get from me if you ask why xiao long bao is called small steaming basket bun (I have absolutely no idea), she just looked at me funny and said she didn’t know. In the end, I ordered it anyway.

Afterwards, looking for me details, including, of course, Wikipedia, mention this about the dish.

While the name “Chicken 65″ is universally used to refer to the dish, there are many different stories for how the name came about. It is generally acknowledged that no one knows which (if any) of these anecdotal theories are true:

OK, that does not explains much but what I can tell about this is that it was OK. While I give them points for using all dark meat, I didn’t taste anything unique out of it. Sure, it had a hint of spiciness, it didn’t blow me away in any form. The dipping sauce had an interesting fruity note – as if it was made out of berries. However, it didn’t change much of my thoughts that the dish was just OK. And that brings the “main”…

In my case, I went for the Spinach Masala Dosa – Thin rice & lentil crepe filled with spinach, potatoes, & onions. (I went vegetarian as my “appetizer” was mostly protein). Similar to what I got in House of Dosas, it came with two chutneys. However, their chutneys, while tasty in their own ways, was a bit more muted, not to mention watery. Now, the taste was there but, I guess, it is a preference thing.

One thing I notice right away, compared to the one from House of Dosas, is the thickness of the “pancake”. Here, the texture is doughier, which, possibly, resulted in it flattening down. Again, compared to House of Dosas, where it was crispier, which allowed it to construct an actual cylinder. Whether it is a good thing or bad, I can’t say; probably it might be an acquired taste. As for this dosa, while I could taste the potato and spinach, I can’t say there was as much spice as the one from House of Dosas. Still, I believe it has some qualities of its own. For one, it was quite hearty and the texture was quite balanced (except for the “crispy” part).

Pricewise, most of their dosas are under $10 so it is not that bad – but, then again, House of Dosas have $6 specials on Monday. So, overall, it has its own unique qualities (and, compared to House of Dosas, it is cleaner). If I was looking for dosas and given these two options, it might end up being a toss up; with House of Dosas having an edge due to the fact it is open 24 hours and the Monday specials. But, I won’t complain much if I ended up going here instead.

East is East
4413 Main Street
3243 West Broadway (location visited)
Vancouver, BC

Sherman (of Sherman’s Food Adventures) is “the man”. It was his turn to organize the next Vancouver food bloggers gathering and he managed to pull out the largest one ever. How large? I was able to get 8 food bloggers (plus guest) us in a Long Table Series at the Irish Heather. This time, he was able to get writers of 15 blogs (plus guests) of us! In attendance….

Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures – Post is up!
Mijune of Follow Me Foodie – Post is up!
Kevin of 604 Foodtography
Jenny of My Secret Eden – Post is up!
Victoria of Victoria’s Food Secrets – Post is up!
Jonathan of Food and Tell
Jessica of Yum-o-Rama – Post is up!
Joyce and Frank of Van Foodies
Wilson of La Petite Vancouver
Anita of La Petite Foodie
Darina of Gratinée – Musings on Food & Culture
Melody of Gourmet Fury
TS of [eatingclub]Vancouver
Angie of Sea Salt with Food (home of the infamous Hasselback potatoes recipe!)

Of course, myself…

In total, we were about ~20 of us. How come I don’t know the exact number? Since our party was so large, they couldn’t really sit us in a long table (a la LTS) or in a round table (a la Chinese restaurant). As a result, we were broken down into two groups. Furthermore, at the end of the night, when we were outside chatting, the manager/owner even came out asking Sherman if everything was fine. O_o

Due to somewhat bad timing on my part, I did not arrive at 7:00 p.m. sharp, the time we were supposed to meet there. But, in the end, we were able to shuffle in the group. I ended up seated with Ricky, Jenny, Kevin, Anita, Mijune and W (Mijune’s guest). Because of that delay, we ordered way after the others. After I was seated, we were presented with these:

These were two mini cups of heavily spiced Chai tea. I drink half of one (there were two types) and chose to stop as it was starting to overload my palette. It was quite interesting but, to me, too rich to start off with. Anyway, once orders were made, I received my drink:

Rangoon Rain, which is a yogurt lassie with peach, lychee, pineapple, coconut and banana. As a drink, it was OK; the problem was that I couldn’t really taste much of the ingredients except the banana. No, not even the coconut! While it did have some texture of some fruits, it was hardly noticeable. My biggest peeve of this drink is its size. At $5 and around 8 ounces, I would expect something more than 8 or so ounces, specially considering this is not an alcoholic drink! (On that note, they did not have alcoholic drinks in their menu to the consternation of at least two bloggers!).  Furthermore, I ordered the large and got the small one instead. When I told them about the error, I was told I could get a “refill”. However, it seems that a refill is not exactly a refill: you pay a full glass. Now, I know this is not pop and unlimited refill, I wasn’t expecting it to be. However, it it was just confusing.

Ricky (Jenny’s guest) ordered Peshawari Bazaar, another lassie which has cucumber, mint, salt and cumin. Salt???? In a drink? Yup, that is no typo, ladies and gentlemen! Now, I have had odd drinks with cucumber in the past and I will have to admit this one tasted really strange. I think it was Kevin who mentioned this tasted like a “drink version of a Tzatsiki”. I think that description suits it perfectly…

Now, to the food! Actually, a small detour here… Before we went there, I checked on-line and, well, I wasn’t sure what to order. When we arrived, the partially dim lights and the joking we were doing with other food bloggers did not help with the thought process. However, somebody said something on the lines of “do you want to not-share?”. I know, this sounds really strange, given that, at times, we do go in group and share our meals because we want to try different dishes. The concept of “not sharing” is foreign to us! I will get back to this topic in a moment; just keep in mind we were “not sharing”, OK?

Anita had the Afghan Nomad which I will summarize it as a lamb burrito. No, really! There was some rice, beans and pieces of lamb inside that wrap. Aside from a strong gamey taste, I found it was OK at best. Sorry not much to comment on this one!

This is Kevin’s order: Khichiri – brown dill rice w/ ground beef, spinach & mushrooms, topped with dehydrated yogurt, tomato & onions. I will have to admit it was a really odd dish at first. Dehydrated yogurt? Regardless of their odd description, at the first bite… Well, if I didn’t know it was ground beef, I might have said it was lamb instead. Why? I had a gamey taste to it! Not sure how they make that but it worked in its own ways. It tasted similar to eating a stew where you added some barley into it and then topped by the yogurt. A dish I might order, if I was there by myself.

Mijune’s dish – It was a form of vegertarian dumpling… OK, let me try again: imagine a really soft version of a spinach ravioli; however, it contains no meat and had a gamey taste. Does that sound like a contradiction? Well, that is because it is a contradiction! It was really soft and that gamey taste was quite good, though I am not sure how vegetarian it is considering the gamey taste. Once again, something I would order.

The following set of pictures is what I ordered. More details in a moment so, please, bare with me, OK?

Eastern Platter

Clockwise from 12 o’clock: lambe kebab, saag paneer,afghan and coconut rice, dhal soup

Clockwise: Lamb kebab, Afghan eggplant and the Afghan rice

Clockwise: Afghan and coconut rice, dhal, lamb kebab and baked salmon

Dishes in the middle: Afghan eggpland and chicken masala (?)

Baked salmon

Thai tofu and, once again… Eggplant!

Eggplant and peas and cheese

Chickpeas

There were three dishes in the menu as part of the Eastern Platter that I did not take pictures: the minced beef kebab (which looks like meatballs), alu gobi and mango butter squash.

Now, here is the “not sharing” portion. According to the menu, the Eastern Platter comes with the two versions of the rice, a roti, salad, dhal soup and two of the dishes above. If eating by yourself, you can re-order any of the other dishes – after all they are small dishes. However, if you are sharing, you are “locked” by your two initial selections. So, as a joke, when we were ordering, we made emphasis on the we are “not sharing”. Figure THAT out. Of course, also as a joke, we were telling Sherman that he took us to an all-you-can-eat!

But, jokes aside, some of these dishes were hit or miss. While I did not take written notes, I have a lot of mental notes. I could write down most of them but that might be a bit of a chore given all these dishes. Instead, I will provide a quick summary:

• Lamb kebab: Really gamey, not chewy at all but weak sauce
• Chicken masala: Dark meat (though, for some reason, my initial piece was white), weak sauce.
  Minced beef kebab (not pictured): In practical terms, meatballs. It had a good texture but, again, weak sauce.
  Baked salmon: Slightly overcooked (still good, though) but, I think I am repeating myself here… The sauce did not do much.
• Saag paneer: The “cheese” did not really work as it was grated on top but, despite its mushiness, it was something I would expect from a spinach dish.
• Afghan eggplant: The winner of the night. Soft eggplant but it was better seasoned. Probably because of the fact it was eggplant?
• Alu Gobi (not pictured): I don’t recall eating this one so… No comments.
• Thai tofu: The sauce did nothing to improve the usually bland taste of the tofu.
• Peas and cheese: Might be a bit misleading here, the cheese is not a cheese sauce or cheese cubes but paneer. It was OK but… Weak sauce?
• Mango butter squash (not pictured): The oddball of the night. To quote Kevin, it looked like baby food. Past that, it was quite decent due to its unique sweetness.
• Chickpeas: Did not get to try.

During the whole meal, we were having funny chats, me blinding people beside me with my Speedlight (though I wasn’t the only one firing their flashes – Sherman’s table was even worst!). A couple on the front where there was a couch were looking at us really funny the whole time while we were shooting. So there you go that sense of wackiness!

As for the food, in general, it was mostly hit or miss. If you try the platter, some of the dishes seems to have been watered down to appeal the masses, though, still there are gems in it (like the eggplant). The non-platter dishes suffer a similar hit or miss. Like the “lamb burrito” above was a dish I thought could have been better but felt flat. On the flip side, both Mijune and Kevin dishes were excellent. If I were to come back, I think I will stick with these more unique dishes instead.

So, Sherman, once again, thanks for organizing this. You have set up the bar way high for the next one!

House of Dosas
1391 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC

It was one of those late nights where I am driving through Vancouver where that usual question pops… Hungry, food… Where??? By sheer coincidence, I was in Kingsway when I remember a restaurant said to be open 24 hours. Whether that is actually true or not I did not double check; but I was hungry and it was open when I arrived. That was good enough for me!

I must mention I did have some hesitation when I arrived. For the most part, the reason I do not go to Indian restaurants is that it is better to go in a group to be able to share different dishes. If you go by yourself, you are mostly limited by the one dish you might end up ordering. Of course, you could go to a buffet but…

One interesting note I must mention about House of Dosas is the fact they advertise themselves as Southern Indian cuisine, whereas it seems most other Indian restaurants in Vancouver happens to be from Northern India. I asked an Indian friend about a more precise difference given they carry similar dishes (curry, anybody?). The answer given to me was somewhat obfuscated but it boil down to type of ingredients used; for example, coconuts (in the South), dairy (in the North) and so on. And, then again, some dishes specific to the region, like tandoor (North) and dosas or sambar (South). OK, anything to try something different!

I started with mango lassi. To be direct to the point, this is among the worst lassi I ever had, not to mention the size/price ratio is also among the worst. Sure, it had that homogenized, almost artificial mango taste, like most lassi I have had (regardless if it is here in Vancouver on in the US!); however, it wasn’t too cold and the consistency was quite thin. Now, I did not expect an ice cream like consistency, at least I wanted something thick. A pass for me.

As an appetizer, I ordered medhu vadai mostly out of curiosity. When I asked about it, I was told fried item, shaped like a doughnut though savoury. Fried stuff? Sign me in! Now, I did not ask whether this was lentil based or potato based; if I had to guess, it was not doughy like gnocchi, instead it was a bit crumbly so I will assume it is lentil based. As for taste… Well, not sure what would be the best way to describe it. I had a hard time finding any particular taste. Fortunately, the two chutneys that came along managed to do something for it. In the case of the red one, which was tomato based, provided a slight hint of acidity while the white one, which was coconut based, provided both nuttiness and sweetness.

My main item. Before I made my order, I was observing a six cover table where everybody ordered dosa. The way it was shaped was a really thin layer folded in a cylinder with some filling in the middle. To eat them, they folded it and eat it like a crepe. It looked interesting and I am sure it would have been a really good subject for some interesting pictures. With that in mind, I ordered their Madras Masala Special Dosa (?) and this is what I got. Feel free to call it “ordered the wrong item”! OK, just kidding, I guess I should have asked first, hehehehehe. Anyway, it came with the same two chutney as the vada which in a way was disappointing. I mean, give me something contrasting!

I should blame myself for this one: the filling was vegetarian, as in potatoes, some spices (I ordered hot) and may be some lentils. However, this is one of those things I should have asked so I won’t blame them for it. As for the taste, well, it felt a somewhat blank palette followed by some potato taste and then the spices kicked in. I can’t say I was able to distinguish which spices were used as the heat started to kick in (this is despite I tried to “cool” that burning sensation with the lassi). Fortunately, they did not overpowered the chutneys so the end result wasn’t one dimensional.

Despite I had some hard time distinguishing some of the flavours, I will have to say it was an interesting late dinner. Some dishes might not be worth it but, for the dosas alone, I will come back – Specially on Mondays as they have a $6 special on all dosas. And, of course, a break from the “usual” Indian fare.

Pooja Cuisine
1075 Easton Avenue
Somerset, NJ

As mentioned previously, in this trip, I wanted to try different types of cuisines. So far, we have had diners, burgers, Latin American (Cuban), Southern/Soul and BBQ – in that order. For this post, though, I will have to break that sequence because of tomorrow’s post. As a sneak peak, it is about burgers (yes, again but… Let’s just say wait until tomorrow). But, other than that small burger detour, I kept that different cuisine line of thought. In this case? Indian food in Pooja Cuisine.

I must admit I did some homework before I went to Pooja. In fact I had another nearby Indian restaurant in mind: Hoysala. The difference between the two? Aside the fact Pooja has several north Indian dishes and Hoysala has southern, Hoysala also serves buffet style after 7:00 p.m. (They open at 5:30 p.m.). Reality is, I wasn’t really in the mood of buffets and endless food available. Then there was that wacky thought of ordering a la carte but having then a waiter go to the buffet and plate the food for me. OK, OK, it is possible they would actually cook it but I couldn’t shake that feeling. As a result, I ended up going to Pooja by process of elimination. (I must add Pooja also have buffet during lunchtime).

After I walked in, I was given the option to sit almost anywhere. Other than another table, it was pretty much the waiters, that other table and me. During my meal, a couple walked in so, pretty much it was a slow night. After looking at the menu and made my order, I got…

Papadum and chutney. These are not complimentary but part of a set dish I ordered (more on that below). I just tried a piece to taste the chutney and… Well, there wasn’t much to comment about. The chutneys did not have much taste at all which I found odd. Wasn’t it supposed to be minty or sweet/spicy? Anyway, since I did not care too much about it, I just let it slip.

To actually start my meal, I went for something… Unusual. Above, their coconut soup or, as per their menu, “Punjabi-style made with milk, grated coconut and nuts”. The reason I ordered it was because I like the taste of coconut and this really caught my attention. The end result was a bit mixed. It tasted like a warm, really thin sweetened coconut milk. It was probably a bit too sweet for my liking but, that aside, it was just weird. This is something I would have as a drink, not as a soup.

I know I am jumping back and forth but that was the order which I was served the meal. In this case, drinks, where I had lassi; however, unlike my previous visits to Indian restaurants, this is the regular lassi, not mango lassi, which explains why it is white rather than yellow-ish. I think I prefer this over the probably-over sweet mango lassi. As for the taste itself, if you ever had plain yoghurt, that is pretty much the taste of it but with a thinner consistency.

And, finally, the main components of my main dish… As you all know, when going to Indian restaurants, short of a buffet, the best approach is to go in a group. The main reason is to be able to order several dishes. But, when you go by yourself, well, the best you can do is hope they have a combination/set menu which allows you to taste several items. Fortunately, Pooja, did have such item and out of the four available, I ordered their house special which include:

Chicken tandoori. The lemon and raw onion was mostly for show as you can easily tell they were not cooked together. As for the chicken itself, taste-wise, it felt somewhat flat and, worst of all, somewhat dry. For goodness sake, it is dark meat!

Vegetable korma. When I first “stirred” the korma, I thought there was something strange, as if it contained something that shouldn’t be there and/or something missing. I did not pay too much attention to it and started eating it with the side naan (further below). Then it hit me… While you can use technically any vegetable to make the vegetable korma, I am used to what is served here in Vancouver, i.e., cauliflower, beans, carrots, sometime potatoes, et al. In Pooja’s case, the cauliflower was missing and instead of beans, it had peas. So, you do the math: peas, carrots… Does it sound like mixed vegetables?! The sauce itself was slightly sweet and creamy though not hot at all (I asked for the food to be spicy hot). So, my thoughts was that curry sauce was at par but the vegetable used was disappointing.

Lamb rogan josh. The sauce was similar to that of the korma, the difference here is that this one felt more oily. Since it is lamb, you would expect it to be game-y, right? Well, it was; however, there was something they did not manage to control: the meat was slightly tough. Now, not to the point you had to chew over and over but you could tell it wasn’t really simmered for a while to the point it starts to tenderize and fall apart…

The main carbs of the meal: rice and naan. The rice was average but did what it was supposed to do. One odd detail was that it was slightly lumpy. Not sure if I was expecting that. Out of the whole meal, I will have to say the naan was the best part. It had its share of butter/ghee on top which gave it an unique oily taste. And it manage to soak the sauce from the korma and rogan josh.

In the end, I was full. Despite it was an order for one, it was a bit too much food for a single person. However, it did not fulfill much. I have had way better Indian here in Vancouver from buffet or even below average Indian restaurants. But, then again, it might be an unfair comparison considering the Indian population here in Vancouver. Still, if I was craving for Indian in that area of New Jersey, that might not be the place I would go to.

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???

India Bistro
1157 Davie Street
Vancouver, BC

Earlier this week, I blogged about the Pride Parade 2009 in Vancouver’s Downtown/West end. Since the parade started at noon and I was there before it started, that meant I was hungry by the time I decided to walk away. Originally, I wanted to eat in one of the several restaurants in Robson or Denman but that posed to issues: one was the fact it was still packed and the other is something related to what shokutsu mentioned: since I work in the area, most of these places would be places I could go for lunch on almost any day. So, instead, I went to Davie Street. The usual question: Where? For some odd reason, I wanted Indian and ended up in India Bistro.

I must admit it was not my first option. I was also curious of Mongolian Grill but given it was completely empty yet I saw some customers in India Bistro… That brings yet another problem, one of the reasons why I seldom go to Indian restaurants: more often than not, it is better to go in a group rather than on your own, as it will give you more dishes for you to try. Of course, there is plan B: a buffet. Yes, India Bistro offers buffet for lunch and that is what I ended up going for.

Although I am not a fan of buffets anymore, I can still apply two criteria I used to use to “evaluate” them: quantity and quality. Now, quantity is not referring to the amount of food you can put on a plate, rather the different offerings. In the few Indian buffets I have been to, there are usually 8 options (not counting salads, naan or papadum), usually rice, samosas, dhal, aloo gobi, pakora, curry, butter chicken and tandoori chicken, here in Indian Bistro, it is limited to six plus the salads. Specifically, we have here: rice pilaf, mixed vegetables, aloo chana, butter chicken, pakora and butter chicken. One thing they did have that was different from the others was a custard (no pictures of that, sorry!), rather than gulab jamun (that dessert that looks like a timbit). That begs question #2: given they have less food to take care of, would it be good?

Naan served with the meal.

Clockwise, from bottom-left, vegetable mix, aloo chana (not really visible), pakora, butter chicken on top of the rice and tandoori chicken.

I will be quick and straight to the point: it was bad. The mixed vegetables and the aloo chana was bland. The naan was crumbly and slightly dry. The pakora… Well, it was not hot, it was not crispy, which, from a fried food perspective, translates into epic fail. The rice served as a base for butter chicken sauce so it did its job. And, since I mentioned butter chicken, I will have to admit the sauce was one of the few good points of the meal – it was creamy, it was sweet. However, the chicken used was white meat which translates into dry pieces of meat. I am sure they chose to use white meat because that’s what people in North American prefers but, c’mon, they could do better! Finally, the biggest fail of the meal: the tandoori chicken. While I understand there will be some compromises here, the problem is what was served in the end: it had some odd smokey flavour to it. Now, I am not talking about BBQ type smoke; rather, I am talking something akin to a plastic-y taste to it.

Overall, while it is true that at $11, the damage is quite low, it does not take away the fact that it left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth (not literally). It does not help either my bias against buffet. Oh, well…

Tandoori Tikka Dog
Waterfront Skytrain Station
601 West Cordova Street
Vancouver, BC

Thanks to Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, almost everybody has heard about Japadog – I myself have blogged their three locations in Vancouver, here, here and here. Last week, some local news sources wrote articles on the new kid on the block (hot dog-wise): Tandoori Tikka Dog. You can find these articles here (24 Hours Vancouver) and here (The Province). While I am not a news source, it does not mean I can’t eat some dogs so, here I go!

I am not sure if it was a bad decision I went on one of the sunniest and warmest day in summer so far in Vancouver. In my case, a long walk from the West End to Burrard Skytrain Skytation and then a quick hop to Waterfront Station. I could have walked the last part but, hey. When I was walking out of Waterfront, I was a bit hesitant: would there be a long queue similar to the ones in Japadog during lunch time? Fortunately, there was a small queue and had to wait 5 minutes at most. I initially ordered the Chicken Tandoori but then he mentioned there was also had the all-beef version. OK, that sounds good so that was what I ended up getting.

According to the articles above, these dogs are basted in a tandoori sauce so I was not sure what I would get. When I got mine after a couple of minutes, I was a bit unimpressed, specially after my experiences with Japadog. In a way, it was naked, i.e., aside from the wurst/smokie and some onions, there was nothing else. Could it be that this place is trying to keep it simple and letting their tandoori sauce (which, according to the articles above, used to baste these dogs) do all the talking? Well, I wasn’t that sure so I added some mustard myself (by default, yellow mustard, otherwise, dijon – never catsup!).

After my first bite, I was not really convinced. I did not taste anything special. In fact, if I compare it to the other hot dog shops in Metro Vancouver, it would be pretty average. And I am not talking about the dog/tandoori sauce itself, I am talking about the overall dog. For example, in other stands, they would usually “toast” the bun a bit along with the wurst/smokie. Here, that was not the case (or at least that was not done with mine).

From this picture, I am sure you would notice that reddish/orange-y colour in the wurst so I will assume that was the result of the tandoori sauce. If that was the case, it worked in the colour side, not on the taste side. Could it be it was such a hot day that I couldn’t really “taste” the tandoori sauce? Hmmmmm….

Overall, I must say I was dissatisfied with the hot dog. I am sure there would be lots of potential but I did not feel it delivered. As mentioned in my posts on Japadog, it is about the toppings that make Japadog different, not to mention they manage to create a contrast between taste (savoury vs. sweet) and texture. Here, there was no such effect. As a result, unless somebody points me where/what I missed, if I am looking for a hot dog, there are a lot of other stands nearby/in-between.