Friday Night Supper
Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral
154 East 10th Avenue
Vancouver, BC

A lot of times we go to restaurants but, at times, you want something “different” yet keeping the same concept (i.e. food served to you). With that into consideration, for today’s post is a bit of a deviation of “normal” restaurant dining fare. Instead, it is about an event that usually takes place on the first Friday of every month: The Friday Night Supper at the Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral. Why I chose to drop there? Well, as the name suggests, there is food and it seems it is seldom blogged. So, why not!

As mentioned in their site, the Friday Night Supper is a fundraiser for the cathedral. A lot seems to going behind scenes as, on the day I went, even an hour and a half after I arrived, the lines were slow moving! But, you know what? While I do not like to queue up, for a good cause, I am willing to be more patient. The layout is quite simple: Wait in the appropriate line for eat in or to go. In the case of eat in, wait until you are guided to a table and fill up a small form with what you want: one sheet per order! Line up, pay and wait for baba to serve the food!

Of course, that brings the question, what is in the menu? Actually, I had the same question the day I was there. Despite the menu is available on-line, one thing is to read it, another would be to observe what ends up on a plate. So, while queueing up, I notice this on a table…

Matching it to the description on the forms, this would most likely be a mini-dinner, i.e., 4 perogy, 1 cabbage roll, sausage and coffee. No salad was listed but it was served here. Well, it looks decent but not sure if that’s enough food for me, though. As the line started moving, I decided to try as much as possible and ended up getting…

Borscht

Regular dinner part 1 – 6 perogy and 2 cabbage roll (with a rice filling)

Regular dinner part 2 – sauerkraut and Ukrainian sausage (the only meat component in the meals)

To finish, some carrot cake

As for the food itself, it would be a bit difficult for me to assess given my own unique like/dislike and the fact that I have only had that much Ukrainian/East European food. Instead, I will make reference to what the other customers at my table said: “this would be something that my baba would make”. Well, similar to my bias towards my mom’s cooking, I guess with an argument like that, I would rather not argue at all! In the end, it is about the fun you can have, plus food made with baba’s TLC. And the fact that you have contributed to their fundraiser…

Chinese Skewer King
900 W Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC

After been back in town, it was time to tackle the remaining food carts in Vancouver. After all, given my experience in Re-Up BBQ, it was quite possible that my initial thoughts of food carts in Vancouver was mistaken and, actually, there was some glimmer of hope. That brings us to today’s post of another food cart in the Downtown Vancouver area: Chinese Skewer King, which, as the name suggests, has skewers. Can you go wrong with some meat-on-a-stick?

One of the tricks of trying to visit these places is to avoid the rush. If you go too early, chances are they haven’t set up for the day; however, if you go to late, there are chances they will be gone for the day. In my case, since it is not far from Burrard Skytrain Station meant I could try to go after work and still have a pretty good chance they will still be there. If not, well, another day? (Technically they close at 3:00 p.m.)

Their menu is relatively simple: “meat” on a stick. OK, there is a reason why I put meat between quotes: in addition to pork, they also have vegetarian and tofu. They used to have lamb but, I guess, the cost of lamb made it a bit unfeasible in the long run. The day I went, given it was close to closing which meant I only had that many options available, namely, they didn’t have tofu. Furthermore, the operator thought I wanted all of them pork. Under normal circumstances, that would have been a good guess; however, I was there to try as many possible, which meant switching one of them for the last vegetarian one. So, after a shake of their spices (including some heavy dose of cumin), to the grill it went.

Given the time of the day, when business was already winding down, I found the opeartor to be quite enthusiastic. “Special for you, I will make it spicy” (Errr…. That’s one of the options? ) “Want to take a picture of the grill? Sure!”. From that perspective, that was a bit un-Chinese (if I can say so myself); however, camera aside, I guess there was some reasons behind it: since there were no customers, why not entertain the ones in front of him on the ~5 minutes it takes to grill them?

For $6.50 (tax included, take that Roaming Dragon!), you get three skewers plus a bun plus pop. On the day I went, I had the option to take any can/bottle of pop and, in one of those few instances of me being greedy, I ended up grabbing a 710 mL bottle. I know, at this point, you might be wondering, how the hell they can even break even if they were selling it with a 710mL bottle? I think they realized that because on a second visit, they only had 355 mL cans (of course, same price). On the note about price, it is $2.50/skewer, which is not necessarily cheap; however, the more you buy, the better the deal seems to be: 6 skewers are $10, which results in ~$1.66 a piece. Still, I think the $6.50 combo above hits a decent price range spot.

The bun itself was meh, I think I could have lived with out it. But, then again, I might be making too much emphasis on what could literally be a throw in “freebie” (OK, not really, if you get it by itself, it would have been a loonie). That brings me then to the skewers, starting with the vegetarian one. In this case, two pieces of zucchini, two pieces of mushroom and one piece of pepper. Depending on how you like yours, I thought these were nicely grilled: the zucchini were soft but not to the point of it being mushy. The mushroom (technically not a vegetable but, still, can fall in the realm of “vegetarian”) still maintained a slight bite, which I thought provided a some contrast to the zucchini (since it was firmer than the later). The pepper still had some crunch but, since there was only one piece, didn’t really notice it.

As for the pork, the texture of the pork was a bit mixed, some were chewier, some were quite tender, some were a bit subtle, some were gamier. In other words, it was all over the map. Did I care? Not really. One thing worked quite well: while it has different taste and texture, it was seasoned evenly by the spices (specially cumin) so, at least, from a taste perspective, it ended up even.

As mentioned above, on a second visit (this time for takeout during lunchtime), I noticed one thing that can hamper their business model: Since there is only that much space in a grill, if the demand is high, they can only prepare that many skewers at a time. That’s what happened on my second visit: Since it was lunchtime, there were several customers and my order was “lost” in the queue. When they (at this time, there were two people at the car) realized I was standing there waiting for my order, I asked “you order such and such, right?” Hmmmm…. Not necessarily a good impression… But, taking it from a food perspective only, I will have to admit it is on the lines I would expect from such places. Slightly cheaper would certainly sweeten the deal but that is a completely different story.

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.

Abdul’s BBQ
Crystal Mall
4500 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

About a month ago, I wrote a post about Falafel Maison, a Middle Eastern, shawarma restaurant in Downtown Vancouver when reader Koji mentioned Abdul’s BBQ, a similar place in Crystal Mall (overlooking Kingsway). This is a place I have been in the past; however, that was before I started blogging. For some reason, I haven’t been back in a long time and when he mentioned it, I thought, hey, why not!

While I have no yardstick when it comes to such Middle Eastern restaurants, in the past, I usually went for their shawarma plate (nowadays, it is more of a coin toss). Again, since I was ware of the possibilities here, I decided to go for that again:

The twist here in Abdul’s BBQ is that, in addition to chicken and beef as most other places, here they also have lamb. But, depending on the combination, that will set you off accordingly. Anyway, in my case, I decided to go for both chicken and beef ($10.50).

Unlike most other places, where you are given hummus and tabouleh at most, here they also provide coleslaw and a salad. In my opinion, these were unnecessary, mainly because they were subpar. I would have been happier had I had more tabouleh. But, that’s me…

The meats weren’t that exciting; however, the fact I was there late on the day had something to do: in this case, I was served almost the remaining pieces of chicken in th spit. It was warm, yet the meat itself wasn’t that juicy. I have had better in other places… The rice below it is your average rice, not much to comment about…

While the other parts where unnecessary and average, here is the *one* part that makes Abdul’s BBQ different from the rest: their garlic/hot sauce they spread to the pita bread (even in the pita bread served with platter). It had some hint of nuttiness but, even “better”, it was the hot sauce (or I should actually say paste). One of my issues with hot sauce/paste is that, depending on who makes it, the sauce just “burns” your tongue; instead, there are instances of hot sauces that entices you to eat more. In the case of Abdul’s BBQ, it falls in the later category. Yes, despite I was sweating bullets, I wanted to keep on eating!

All in all, it was sort of mixed feelings. The pita bread (or rather with the hot/garlic/sesame pastes) was great; yet the rest was sort of average. On the day of my visit, there were other customers willingly wait 15 minutes for their falafel wrap. I thought, well, if they are willing to do so, I should give it a try, then! And that’s what I did on another day but, to make it “complete”, I ordered their chicken wrap as well.

One thing that Abdul’s is really different from the rest: they prepare the falafel to order, which means they have to reheat the oil everytime. I find this sort of a mixed blessings. Places like Babylon Cafe will make some large batches in the morning and go from there (while reheating them as the day goes). Making it fresh is a good thing; however, the 10+ minutes wait might be an issue to some. Anyway, here is the wrap.

I asked them to make it hot and they did not disappoint. Yes, it was spicy hot! At that point, I was starting to sweat bullets but couldn’t help myself stop eating! The falafel itself was OK but, again the paste/sauce was the star.

To make it overkill, I also had the chicken wrap and here it is with a “closeup” of the pieces of chicken. The same problem that happened to the plate happened here: It was mostly the last pieces from the spit and it lacked some juiciness. Once again, the hot/sesame/garlic sauce/paste salvaged the situation…

In a way, the food was good but disappointed at the same time. In the case of the meat, I wished it was juicier but, for some reason, given its location (and I would assumed demand), it might not be possible. Still, the hot/sesame/garlic sauce/paste… Did I say that again??? Yeah, it made up for a lot of shortcomings. If they would sell them, I would surely buy a tube or two. As for the rest, well, for the most part, it was average. The one issue that was a bit skewed was price. Given the cost of the plate was over $10 and the wraps around $5 and $6; if I were to come back, I will stick with the wraps, as they are better priced (read, price similar to other places in Vancouver).

Gorilla Food
436 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC

In a burger chain ad, a couple is eating there and, while she is having a salad, he is having a burger and calls himself a “meatatarian” (“It is a personal choice!”). I don’t think I would go to that extreme; in fact, I won’t go to either extreme. But, once in a while, having a completely vegetarian meal is not a bad thing. But how about a completely raw meal? That is the premise of Gorilla Food.

Again, I have had vegetarian meals and with some creative use of some ingredients, you won’t even miss the meat. However, when the food is raw, that creates a completely whole different set of problem. How do you mix some of the flavours? What about Mallard Reaction that makes food really tasty?

The truth is that I was not sure what to order. I mean, other than salads, I can’t think of almost anything that I would eat completely raw! But, looking at the menu, I must admit they were quite creative on one side while stretching the truth a little bit on the other. For example, they have “pizza” and “burgers”. But, hey, I am willing to try almost anything! And, to start…

Their Strawberry Fields blended smoothie, which is made of bananas, strawberries, hempseeds and orange juice. I would assume it had milk as well (despite, technically, pasteurised milk is heated). Now, before anybody starts giggling, yes, that’s hempseed, from the Cannabis genus, the same as genus of the plant where marijuana is made. And, no, I am not “high” while writing this post, OK?

I could taste the banana, no problem at all; however, I can’t say the same about the rest of the ingredients. Still, I could say it was not a straight banana smoothie. I think this would be a smoothie I could easily drink. And now, as for the “main”…

I chose a veggie burger, which is made with different seed/nuts, like walnuts, sunflower seeds and hempseeds (among others). I will admit something: it did not taste like such and had some meat patty-like texture. Other veggies, well, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, shredded radish and so on. The “bun”, while techincally the lettuce was supposed to be the bun replacement, it came served with two cookie like wafers. In a way, I did not miss the meat in the meal; however, there is a big caveat: it was not that filling.

Overall, it was an interesting experience. Would I come back again? Probably but not in a while. Sure, I did not miss the meat but the fact that I had to rely on the smoothie as a filler was a distraction at the same time. If I was eating this daily, I think I would have to eat at least 5 meals a day… And, finally, to finish my visit, I had a dark raw chocolate fudge, which was good but slightly gritty. I mean, it is not the same when you can’t conche it…