Posts tagged as:

Seafood

Central City Brewing Co.

by KimHo on October 8, 2010 · 12 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Central City Brewing
13450 102 Ave
Surrey, BC
Central City Brewing Co. on Urbanspoon

Bacon… Let’s face it, almost everything taste better with bacon (assuming it was prepared correctly, that is). In fact, I don’t know anybody who, after eating a well prepared piece hasn’t gone back for more. Yes, it is fatty, it might not be the healthiest of options. But, with some moderation, ahem, it is a thing of beauty. With that in mind, a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Pho Tam, Sherman made mention that Central City Brewing Co. had a bacon tasting menu. However, on that day, it was not to come true so I mulliganed it for a while. Until three weeks ago, that is. Since it was a monthly special (as in September, which means it is no longer available. However, we ordered other dishes!), I thought it was a now or never situation. In a try to get others to join, I dropped an invite to fellow bloggers; however, due to short notice, only Elaine and Sherman ended up joining me on this bacon adventure, huahahahahhaa!

Update: Elaine post here and Sherman’s post here.

Central City Brewing, Central, City, Brewing, Surrey, Surrey Central, SFU, beer, bacon, corn, cake, corncake, pork, fat, terrine, bread, maple, chocolate, nut, cheese, cake, mussel, fries, chicken, fried, pizza, margharita

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Tagged as: Chicken, Pizza, Pork, pub, Seafood, Surrey

Twisted Fork Bistro

by KimHo on September 22, 2010 · 16 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Twisted Fork Bistro
1147 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC
Twisted Fork Bistro on Urbanspoon

On Monday, I made reference to karma, the fact that what goes around, comes around. That one time, it was me paying my dues; this time, it was the other way around. As thanks, my dear friend PR (whom I took for dinner at Mistral French Bistro), asked if I could to join her for dinner. Well, does that really require too much convincing? :D Anyway, there was one small problem: I was out of town so I didn’t have much of a chance to check where, not to mention make reservations. So, I let her with the task of finding a place – preferably somewhere I haven’t been. She thought Twisted Fork Bistro was a good idea so, sure, why not!

Twisted Fork Bistro, Vancouver, Granville, mussels, fries, french, yam, sweet, pacific, atlantic, salad, arugula, pear, beet, asparagus, boccocini, balsamic, duck, jam, raspberry, tuna, salad, lamb, curry, biscotti, parfait, chocolate, terrine, mousse

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Tagged as: Dinner, Lamb, Seafood, Vancouver

Cardero’s

by KimHo on September 17, 2010 · 12 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Cardero’s
1583 Coal Harbour Quay
Vancouver, BC
Cardero's on Urbanspoon

At the company I worked for, there are some “interesting” practices. For new employees, there is one that particularly stand out. Rather than throwing you into the fray, you are assigned a “buddy”. When three new employees joined at the same time, I “volunteered” to be one. Part of the reason was that I had just been assigned a long project which side effects include me to be “grounded” for the rest of the year. So why not! Now, there is a follow-up unwritten policy: you are entitled to two “free” lunches – one of them when you join. You can guess which is the other one! So, given I had “seniority”, I was assigned to the task of organizing this lunch. I wonder… Anyway, between the buddies we argue back and forth as to where and, in the end, we chose a “safe” place, which ended up being Cardero’s.

Carderos, Coal Harbour, pier, quay, marina, steak, salmon, seafood, mussel, frites, New York, mushroom, vegetable, rice, mash, potato, bread

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Tagged as: Downtown, Fish, Seafood, Steak, Vancouver

Sala Thai (Downtown)

by KimHo on September 15, 2010 · 11 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Sala Thai
3364 Cambie Street
888 Burrard Street (Location visited)
Vancouver, BC
SalaThai on Urbanspoon

After weeks of travelling, it was time to meet once again with former co-workers. After all, never burn the bridges! The fact we were all working in the Downtown Vancouver area, made things slightly easier; however, there was still the usual question… Where? Given my reluctance of going to places like Cactus Club or Joey’s made things slightly more “difficult” (as it is usually a safe option, thought safe might not necessarily work for me). That threw a wrench to the organizer but, eventually, a place was decided: Sala Thai.

Sala Thai, Burrard, Cambie, iced, coffee, tea, curry, tom yum, mushroom, chicken, pad thai, chicken, pork, beef, larb, larb nua, poh tun, seafood, squid, fish, prawn, mussel, chili, green curry, gaeng keaw whan, poh tun

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Tagged as: Chicken, Downtown, Pork, Seafood, Thai, Vancouver

Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse

by KimHo on June 24, 2010 · 8 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse
34902 Pacific Hwy South
225 SW 7th Street (Location visited)
Renton, WA
Jimmy Mac's Roadhouse on Urbanspoon

I have told people a couple of times that, when I am on a business trip, I have a meal budget (a topic which was briefly mentioned in Tuesday’s post of Shiro’s Sushi). While that is all good, truth is constant business travelling is not as glamorous as a lot of people believe it is – specially not in North American airports. Sure, some expenses are paid for; however, you still have to deal with a lot. For example, security check-in, customs checks, dealing with different time zones and then there is the travelling itself component (delayed flights, among a long list of things that can go wrong…). In my case, depending on the customer’s hours and the project itself, I can be out of their office as early as 4:00 p.m. (mainly because all the office start work early due to commute) and as late as 9:00 p.m. (needed things done). That is why, a lot of times, I do research of places I want to go ahead of time as well as backup plans. On one day, I had to stay in the office until late because, well, it was a case of things needed to be done and didn’t leave until it was close to 8:00 p.m. At the time of my visit to Seattle, it was technically spring but it was so close to the solstice (which was this past Monday), that, having still that sunlight gives you some desire to go outside and venture. However, rather than venturing to Seattle as previous nights, I decided to go to the areas near the hotel, namely, Renton. Alas, a couple of wacky turns lead me to nowhere and, when I finally found the place I wanted to go, it was sort of a disappointing looking fast food restaurant. It was a mixed blessing as that gave me an out but, at the same time, that meant looking for another place to eat. That’s how I spotted Jimmy Mac’s Roadhouse and just went in for something to eat…

Jimmy Mac's, Roadhouse, Renton, Tukwila, steakhouse, peanuts

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Tagged as: Seafood, Seattle, Steaks

Shiro’s Sushi

by KimHo on June 22, 2010 · 14 comments under: Food,Restaurant,Travel

Shiro’s Sushi
2401 2nd Ave
Seattle, WA
Shiro's on Urbanspoon

If you were to go to a sushi restaurant, how much are you willing to spend? I am sure that most people won’t be willing to fork more than $30. At that price point, some say something on the lines of “I might as well go to an all-you-can-eat”. To those who plan to bash me for saying that, I will admit, I used to belong to that group. Used to is, of course, the key phrase. I have learned that food that you can’t prepare yourself and have some level of enticement will lead big $$. Of course, like most of you, I have a budget and going to a restaurant that will require me to go for a filet-o-fish afterwards isn’t something I would consider either.

But, going back to the sushi restaurant question. I have observed that, for most people, sushi equals to makizushi or rolls. For the most part, I won’t argue with you if you like it that way; however, it takes away the skill of the chef. After all, if you throw in a jagged/below average cut of fish in a roll, chances are you won’t notice it (unlike, say, sashimi or nigiri sushi). However, I will give them some points due to the fact it can be more “shareable” compared to nigiri sushi, which I usually end up getting, as I usually go out by myself.

That brings then the issue of economics. Between $3 to $10 a roll, most people will be satisfied to a certain extent. Satisfied their sushi craving and ready to move on. But, given the commonality of such dish in Vancouver (are there more Starbucks or sushi restaurants in Vancouver, anyway?), one way to entice customers is to lower their price at the expense of quality. But, when the majority of customers accept that compromise, at times, there is nothing preventing these restaurants to go even lower (usually by lowering quality) to satisfy the customer’s demands. At one point, if people see a piece of nigiri sushi for $4, they might say you will be nuts to pay for that single morsel…

Finally, summarizing all this, it brings me back to the sushi restaurants I have visited: for the most part, these are Chinese or Korean owned, which follows the consumer demand/quality trend mentioned above (some more towards one side than the other). Of course, I have been to Japanese owned and operated, as well (Shima-Ya). However, I also believe I should try something “better” (short of travelling to Japan, like ET and Christina of Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken did). And, in a fortunate turn of events, I was in Seattle with a meal budget and decided to visit a Japanese owned and operated – Shiro’s Sushi.

Shiro's, Sushi, Japanese, Seattle

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Tagged as: Japanese, Seafood, Seattle, Sushi

Prestons

by KimHo on June 11, 2010 · 11 comments under: British Columbia,Food,Restaurant

Prestons
1177 West Pender Street
Vancouver, BC
Prestons on Urbanspoon

Here is something I usually don’t like to mention because I do not believe is an issue: I get a lot of invites to events. The reason it is a non-issue is that I seldom, if ever, I go to one. I will admit I have been to them when it is a fellow blogger who ask me to go along or it is not necessarily a restaurant event. Furthermore, I make no promise I will blog about it. For example, just prior to the Olympics, I attended an event organized by Tourism Vancouver Island, which was blogged by fellow bloggers – I was only there to take pictures.

So, it was quite interesting that I received an invite from Kate of Urbanspoon for an opening, rather than the restaurant itself. This is because I am a (somewhat?) active member of Urbanspoon and, well, I thought there is a reason why I was sent that invite. I was borderline choosing not to but I sense a level of obligation to do so, that is, the “why me” factor. Furthermore, when I asked if Sherman or Mijune if they were going, there was a flip-flop going on and, in the end, my decision was sealed when I said “if one of you are going”. So, which restaurant is this opening for? Preston’s.

Preston's, Vancouver

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Tagged as: Burgers, Downtown, Seafood, Vancouver

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