Long’s Noodle House
4853 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

A couple of weeks ago I received an email from Ben of Chowtimes, where, he along with Christina of Doesn’t TaZte Like Chicken suggested we should have a food bloggers meeting. They were graceful to reschedule the initial scheduled date, as I was travelling to Richmond… OK, before I continue, here is a really funny joke. A friend also check with me to have dinner on the day following the scheduled date. So, I casually tell him I could not as I would be on my way to Richmond. There is a small pause and then he says “6:00 p.m., it is then?”. What happens is that, for us here in BC, Richmond means Richmond, BC (where, technically YVR, the airport, is located); I was going to Richmond, VA! (Yes, there will be some posts on Richmond, VA coming soon). Something similar happened when I told my friends in Panama I went to Sydney, everybody thought I went to Sydney, NZ, whereas I actually went to Sydney, NS – not to mention there is also a Sidney, BC. I am digressing here…

So, other fellow bloggers who came to this event included, in addition to Ben and Suanne of Chowtimes, ET and Christina of Doesn’t Tazte Like Chicken:

• Sherman and Viv of Sherman’s Food Adventures
• TS of [eatingclub]Vancouver
• Angie of seasaltwithfood

And the location suggested? Long’s Noodle House, which Ben and Suanne have visited previously and blogged. Well, they have been there and it is highly recommended so, hey!

You ought to love stock pictures; I completely forgot to take a picture of the exterior before walking in…

Since Ben has already been there, we basically left the ordering to him (though he did ask – in my case, “anything is fine”). I will admit I did not pay that much attention to the name of all the dishes so I apologize for that. And here is what we got:

Wine chicken – pieces of poached chicken in wine.

Pig’s feet, with also a hint of wine. Sherman thought the wine taste was stronger than the wine chicken. I thought the opposite was true.

Wheat gluten with wood ear mushroom (?). It had a slight, sweet taste to it, which was good to contrast the wine taste of the previous two dishes.

Xiao long bao. It was quite “juicy”, if you know what I mean. However, as the waitress kept saying “eat them now, when it gets cold it won’t be as good!”. And, don’t dare to break the skin (and, as a result, all the broth will go to waste)…

This is the dish Ben mentioned won the Chinese Restaurant Awards for innovative dish. It is called “Crispy Rice with Salted Egg Yolk”. Think of rice crispies with a salt egg taste to it. While I think it was interesting, I am not sure to what extent I will call it good… Probably because I would rather have a meat dish??? ^_^;;;

Fish slices with ear wood mushroom. The fish light texture was contrasted by the light “crunchiness” of the ear wood mushroom.

Not sure of the exact name of this dish – it has slices of beef with bean thread noodles. This dish made me sweat… Yes, you guessed it, this was spicy (but not burning, right away spicy, it was more of a long-lasting spiciness). Aaaarrrr!

To tell you the truth, I am not sure what was this dish!

Some mixing action of the dish above.

We had to have some leafy greens, right? Well, here it is… ^_^;;;

Stewed pork. Enough said!

Of course, it had to be shredded first, right?

Finally, dessert.

After dessert, we overheard somebody asking for a table of 10… Which basically meant our table. At that point, we decided to not hang around and pay the bill. Instead, it was suggested we should go to a gelato shop in Kerrisdale. Since I seldom go to that area, hey, sure!

Despite some wacky comments, the food above was quite good and the company made it even better. We learned more about each other and our thoughts of food, not to mention some wacky things about each of us. Ben, Christina, thanks for suggesting it about this and, Ben, for organizing it! I look forward to the next meeting!

Edit: Sherman’s post is up. Check it here!
Edit #2: Ben’s post is up. Check it here!

Kiss Yo Mama
4926 Imperial St
Burnaby, BC

To me, Jamaican cuisine is a paradox: it is familiar yet it is foreign at the same time. On one side, for dishes like patties, rice and beans (or rice and peas) and escoveitch fish, there is a Panamanian equivalent. On the other hand, you have jerk chicken, curry goat and ackee and saltfish, well, there are none. So, in a way, it is akin to have Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde as a friend. With that in mind, I went to Kiss Yo Mama.

I will go straight to the point: it took me a couple of tries to finally eat in. No, it is not related to the location (it is near Metrotown), rather, it was their schedule. Officially, they are open from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. plus brunch on Sundays (11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.). However, in an occasion, it was closed without notice and, in another, it was not locked but was told they were not going to have service that night. Call it odd if you want… Anyway, after a couple of attempts, I finally managed to eat in.

On the night I visited the place, there was only one person running the restaurant, Chef Liza Brown herself. Talk about streamlined operations… One thing I should mention though, the pictures above do not make a good representation of the decoration of the place. There were a lot of pictures of artists with Chef Brown. I thought I shouldn’t take picture of those…

Now, the food.

For drinks, I had Ting, a Jamaican soft-drink. The best way to describe it would be something similar to Squirt or Fresca. It was OK but not something I would order again.

A garden salad that came with my entree. It was OK, though I wish I had the option for vinagrete rather than the creamy, ranch-like dressing. Personal preference.

And some chips. Not much to talk about.

Finally, the main item… Goat curry, which comes with a piece of bread, rice and peas and a slice of watermelon. Oh, notice that reddish sauce at the bottom right of the plate? That’s hot sauce! Just in case, a close-up of the curry goat and rice and peas…

The food was excellent. Though a bit bone-y, it was really tasty. The bread was really soft and served well to soak the left-over curry. The rice and peas was similar to the rice and beans I had in Panama and, despite how it looks, it was not dry at all. Both the hot sauce and the curry were hot! I was sweating bullets when I finished the meal.

Overall, I really enjoyed the meal. It had some really interesting flavours and brought some memories. If I have to find a problem with my meal, I will have to say it is the price. At $14.50, I will not call it a cheap meal (nor $3 for the glass of Ting). Feel free to call me cheap if you want; is the fact I have similar dishes in Panama (rice, beans and beef) for cheap. Would I come back? Not sure! At this point, there are other Jamaican restaurants I want to try and will decide after that.