Chez Meme Baguette Bistro
4016 Hastings Street
Burnaby, BC
Last week, Sherman wrote a post about Dirty Apron Delicatessen and, on that post, Holly wrote a comment about Chez Meme. It just happens that place has been on my radar for quite some time. How far? As early as spring when Jessica (who has been MIA) wrote a post about them. Of course, that comment was a good reminder and, in the end, it was a matter of finding time. So, given I wanted to go, how come I didn’t make time to do so? Because of their schedule. See, they are only open for breakfast and lunch, 3:00 p.m. at the latest, Monday to Friday and open on some Saturdays (as in every second Saturday of the month, though it might be different on that Saturday in January 2011), hours which would be “normal” working hours for me. But, fortunately (?), I had a day off on an otherwise regular working day, I jumped at that opportunity.
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Tagged as:
Burnaby,
Sandwich,
Soup
Dahlia Bakery
2001 4th Ave
Seattle, WA
As I have mentioned in the past, Vancouver, being so closed to the US, at times, it can be trivial for us to go there – border crossing aside, that is. So, with that in mind, I recently did a day trip just to get out of the holidays madness in town. Nothing wrong with it; except that, well, I felt I needed to be out of here. (Or, go from one madness to other madness!).
Originally, I was considering on taking a detour to Din Tan Fung for some XLB; however, when I was told there would be hour long wait, I reconsidered: Do I want to drive to another country just to line up? I would have done it had there been other people with me; no, if I was by myself. Anyway, back to Seattle, I decided to go to that one major point of interest: Pike’s Place Market. But, given I was parked a couple of blocks away and was hungry, rather than walk to the Market and search for (possible) good eats, instead, I went to a backup option which I had a small previous encounter with: Dahlia Bakery. Nope, I haven’t been there previously; rather, I was earlier this year in Lola, another restaurant under the umbrella of Tom Douglas, which Bahlia Bakery belongs to.
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Tagged as:
Pastry,
Sandwich,
Seattle
Boccalone
1 Ferry Building
San Francisco, CA
A couple of weeks before I went to San Francisco, I received an email from a very dear friend telling me “[this picture] is for you! All things PORK! 
”. That “thing” my friend was making reference to was a sandwich board saying “Tasty Salted Pork Parts”. I guess some people really do know me, hehehehe. So, when I was in San Francisco, I made sure I visit Boccalone, this place with this sandwich board!
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Tagged as:
Pork,
San Francisco,
Sandwich
Saigon Sandwich Shop
560 Larkin Street
San Francisco, CA
Once Sherman and I were back from Hamburgers in Sausalito, we took a detour to visit one of the places where FoodBuzz Food Bloggers Festival was taking place. However, while there was a bit of chaos, at least it wasn’t the gong show you would see in open public events like Eat Vancouver! Even then, we were only there to make a token appearance and we left short after. Why the hurry? Well, in a quid pro quo, I agreed to go with Sherman to a banh mi shop in, out of all places in San Francisco, in the Tenderloin area. Considering going to such places does no faze me, hey, why not! The place’s name? Saigon Sandwich Shop.
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Tagged as:
San Francisco,
Sandwich,
Vietnamese
Meat & Bread
370 Cambie Street
Vancouver, BC
Last year, Sherman visited Salumi, which is better known for being a deli shop opened by the father of celebrity chef Mario Batali. In that post, readers bashed him left and right. To quell the horde of people with pitchfork demanding Sherman’s head, sort of a compromise was set up: how about readers point out what was the dish he should have order and, next time either one of us was in that part of Seattle, try to get it. After my visit and Sherman’s re-visit, we came to one conclusion: It is the one sandwich that seems to be THE key dish there, the rest could be hit or miss. That one sandwich was their porchetta sandwich.
However, going all the way down to Seattle, not to mention on that really narrow window where they are open for business is sort of a crazy proposition. Instead, it was rather a matter of finding something in Vancouver that could be equivalent to it. So, when I found out that Meat and Bread, a restaurant which signature dish happened to be *that* one sandwich at Salumi, I was jumping to give it a try…
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Tagged as:
Lunch,
Pork,
Sandwich,
Vancouver
Honey Hole Sandwiches
703 E Pike Street
Seattle, WA
One of the “interesting” features that is seldom mentioned is that of Vancouver being *really* close to the US. Border crossing queue aside, you should be able to go to the US from Vancouver in around an hour (or less). Once there, two or so hours later, you hit Seattle, another major US city. Sure, you could go from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan or Hamilton, Ontario to Buffalo, New York in about the same time but, c’mon, there is no comparison here. So, on Thanksgiving, I chose to do a day trip “just because”. While timing worked great, weatherwise, it ended up being awash: It was miserable and detracted me from some outdoor activities. Well, I was on that side of the border so… Let’s go to eat!!! Originally I had two places in mind: Latin food in the form of La Isla or more “regular fare” in the form of Honey Hole Sandwiches. The later was chosen because, well, it was an odd combination of timing and circumstance. Does not matter how or why, what matters is that I was there and it was time to eat!
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Tagged as:
Pork,
Sandwich,
Seattle
Portland Food Carts @ Mississippi Marketplace
Various stands
Skidmore Street & Mississippi Ave
Portland, OR
Garden State 
The Big Egg 
Continuing with my trip around Portland, specifically that of food carts, one noon, I decided to go around yet another parts of town for that again, street food. At this point, I was wondering if street food was a bit of a misnomer. I mean, they aren’t necessarily sold at the curb but it has been organized to the point some of them are settled on the lots rather than sidewalks, not to mention communal areas/tables for patrons to consume their goods. So, just for sake of consistency, I will assume food carts == street food, despite they aren’t necessarily the same.
For today’s post, I went to a place called Mississippi Marketplace, I assume it name as such because it is located in Mississippi Avenue (interesting enough, there is a Vancouver Avenue; however, I doubt it is named after Vancouver, BC. Most likely Vancouver, WA?). Getting there was a bit confusing for me, as you go through residential sections and suddenly you are in a corner with several restaurants and other services. I have the odd feeling I am getting a bit too used to our city’s layout (or lack of planning)! But, I didn’t care, I was there and ready to eat….
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Tagged as:
Portland,
Sandwich,
Street Food
