Pambiche
2811 NE Glisan Street
Portland, OR
I don’t recall/remember/know how or when this began but, somehow, I have been deemed to be the subject-matter expert when it comes to Latin American food. Don’t get me wrong, I do really appreciate people think that is the case; however, I am not sure to what extent my expertise goes, as Latin America cuisine goes in almost all directions: from meat in Argentina, to seafood in Peru, to spices in the West Indies. The list goes on and on. But, rather than taking it for granted, I take it as a challenge. So why bring this? Since our showing of Latin food in Vancouver is heavily skewed towards Mexican, other Latin cuisines have been extremely shadowed by it. The only growing sprouts of other Latin cuisine have been Peruvian (El Inka Deli and Mochikas, which I still have to go) and Salvadorean (Rinconcito Salvadoreño) but even then, they are “forced” to serve Mexican dishes because the public “demands” it. But, given I was in the US, with a heavier Latin, non-Mexican influx, I thought I should give these other places a try. And the place is one of the top rated restaurants in Portland and which Sherman heavily recommended me give it a try: Pambiche.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Latin America,
Pork,
Portland
Asado Cucina Argentina
2810 6th Ave
Tacoma, WA
If you got to almost any steak house in North America, if you order your meat well done and people will look at you with a certain degree of disapproval. However, if you choose to go to certain parts of the world, namely South America, specially Argentina, if you order a medium rare, probably they will look at you funny. In my case, I go with the overall general acceptance, except when it is a theme restaurant. And, similar to when I went to Che Pibe, a small Argentinian restaurant in a strip mall in Miramar, Fl, I had a good idea of what to expect. So, when you call yourself Asado Cucina Argentina, I had similar expectations: a good well done steak.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Latin America,
Steak,
Tacoma
Tomate y Amor
Calle 48 and Calle Uruguay
Panama City, Panama
When I went last year to Panama, there was a reason: the wedding of my friend Andrea and her now husband Enrique. If you look at the date of closely, you could easily find out it was around this time when they got married. So, more or less in their wedding anniversary, I took them to dinner. While Andrea was on holidays during those days, Enrique wasn’t. So, despite I was a bit of a foreigner (literally), I took the time to organize where and when. Originally, old schoolmate Jennifer was to join us but things happened and it was only Andrea, Enrique and me. The restaurant I chose? Tomate y Amor.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Latin America,
Panama City,
Rice,
Seafood
Ten Bistro
Calle 50
Centro Comercial Multiplaza (location visited)
Panama City, Panama
There always seems to be a cultural flip when people travel from/to different countries. When I first moved to Vancouver, I was really happy to try things we didn’t have in Panama (or, at least things I considered “exotic” back then). For example, I visited one or two Korean restaurants, then moved to Indian, Vietnamese restaurants, Japanese restaurants and so on. Why? Because in Panama, these weren’t mainstream back then! Of course, things have changed and yesterday’s post of Sushi Itto is a sign of that. Of course, since I was out of the country for so long, that meant I really wanted to try the “local” fare, not things I could also find in Vancouver, as well. Alas, my mom was cooking almost every single day for me and my parent’s friends which limited my opportunities of eating out. But, I had a wild card: meeting my own friends. As mentioned yesterday, I went out with GN and the meeting place was a mall where we had a light snack in Sushi Itto. Later that day then, it was time for dinner and the question was… Where? In the end, we went to Ten Bistro; however, believe me, there was a bit of thought process behind it!
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Beef,
French,
Latin America,
Panama City,
Seafood
The Lion’s Den Cafe
651 East 15th Ave
Vancouver, BC
Not sure where the idea came originally. It might be thanks to a comment from jlomein in my Delicias de Alicia post or probably because he wanted to go there from the very beginning but Karl organized a mini-gathering of sorts in The Lion’s Den Cafe. Originally, it was supposed to be Sherman, Karl and myself; however, since Jessica joined us last time in Royal City Thai, we thought we should check on her as well. And, guess what? Elaine asked if we were up for lunch on the same day and we told her of our plans. Result? An additional person in this mini-gathering!
Of course, it begs the question: what is so particular about Lion’s Den? Well, it has Caribbean food! Wait, that is not all… How about Japanese food as well? Yup, Lion’s Den has both Caribbean AND Japanese in the same menu! (Or, as they call it “Japaribbean”). With such odd combination, one of them quite popular in Vancouver, the question is how well would both combine…
Update: below are the links for everybody’s posts!
Elaine
Jessica
Karl
Sherman
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Caribbean,
Curry,
Jamaican,
Latin America,
Vancouver
Guantanamera Restaurant and Bar
334 Sixth Street
New Westminster, BC
A couple of weeks ago, I visited Delicias de Alicia for some Cuban food. I really wanted to like the restaurant, given the lack of such restaurant types in Vancouver but, in the end, I thought it failed to deliver. In the comments for that post, reader yoyo mentioned a new Cuban restaurant in the New Westminster area. So, to show some love to that part of Metro Vancouver, for the third time this week, I went to Guantanamera Restaurant and Bar.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Latin America,
New Westminster,
Pork
Delicas de Alicia
4854 Imperial Street
Burnaby, BC
I have complained a lot of times in the past that we do not have non-Mexican, Latin American eateries. While you have gems like El Pulgarcito, El Inka Deli (here and here), i.e., given the large land mass that is Latin American, these restaurants are just a spec of what that part of the world has to offer. Of course, me being raised in one of those small regions, makes me crave that food in a way quite different from the usual Vancouverite. Try cooking it myself? Well, I wish… Unfortunately, I didn’t really learn… So, when I found out Delicias de Alicia (literally, Alicia’s Delight) opened, I was more than excited to give it a try.
Read more…!
Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Latin America
