Before I start on this week’s Friday Finds, just a little plug for Ho Yummy! Along with other food bloggers including Sherman, Vancouver Foodster, and Eating in Vancouver, Jenkins and I were featured in the March issue of Vancouver View magazine! Now I just need to go look for a hard copy to frame up. Thanks Noa for the terrific write-up.

And now, onto Friday Finds…

Vancouver Food Carts: This link about the Vancouver food cart scene, was sent in by Lucy. By now, many of you have probably heard about how Vancouver will get another 12 food carts in March. Although we don’t know which 12 carts it will be, this article lists some of the applicants so you’ll have an idea of what we may be able to look forward to.

Cupcake ATMs: When I first saw this article, I was like, what? But yes, I did read right: the famous Sprinkles cupcake chain will be opening its first cupcake ATM at its Beverly Hills location on Mar 9. I had my first encounter with Sprinkles cupcakes when I visited Palo Alto last spring and although pricey, they were indeed quite delicious. This is an interesting concept though and I’ll be watching to see if this trend catches on with other cupcake outlets.

It had been a really long time since I last met up with Chris. When he suggested that we meet up for lunch at Italian Kitchen, I thought it was a great idea. I had only been to Italian Kitchen one other time but didn’t have my camera with me so I didn’t write a review. I thought this would be a good opportunity to do a revisit. I arrived just after noon and although it was bustling, there were still a few tables available. Our server took us to a nice window seat upstairs so we were able to do some people watching while we ate and caught up. While I perused the menu, I quenched my thirst with a cranberry soda.

I always found the Global Group restaurants’ Lunch 45 options to be a fairly good deal and I always liked how they were served quite timely so I decided to go for the porchetta panini, which came with a pesto nocciole salad.

The pork in the porchetta was more tender than it looked but I would have liked for there to be the crispy cracklings that is generally present in porchetta as well. Instead, most of the crunch came from the buttery grilled foccaccia. The quince flavour was actually quite strong and provided a hint of sweetness that went pretty well with this sandwich but I thought the pork could have had a little more flavour than just relying on the quince.

The pesto nocciole salad was interesting. The little pieces of what I’m assuming are nocciole pasta exhibited a nice chewiness and the diced cucumbers provided the requisite crunch. Although the pesto was good, the olives were too salty for my taste and ended up overwhelming the delicate pasta.

Chris ordered the spaghetti and spicy kobe meatballs. Although he didn’t mention much about it one way or another, he seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and didn’t have any complaints.

I had a nice time catching up with Chris. As with my experience at most Glowbal Group restaurants, the food was acceptable but not necessarily spectacular. For the price you pay, you can probably find something better elsewhere but the ambience is pretty good and has offerings that appeal to most people so it is easy to organize a dinner there for larger groups.

Details:
1037 Alberni Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-687-2858

Summary:
Food: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

It had been a while since I last met up with Kiyo and a few others from school. We had a dim sum lunch all planned out and for one reason or another, people ended up not being able to make it and it turned out to be just me and Kiyo left. Rather than going to dim sum with just two of us, we decided to do something else for lunch instead. I had really wanted to check out Bel Cafe and since Kiyo had never been there either, we decided to meet there for lunch.

We arrived shortly after noon and although it was bustling inside, we were able to snag a table from a group who was just leaving. We decided to order a couple of sandwiches to split and luckily for us, Darren happened to be dining there as well and he gave us a couple of recommendations to try out. The spiced pulled chicken sounded interesting so that was the first sandwich we ordered. The sandwich came on some toasted ciabatta and was only slightly spicy with some lettuce, peppers, caramalized onions, and provolone cheese. I liked the non greasy but crispy exterior of the sandwich and the sweetness of the onions actually went quite well with spicy chicken.

Of the two sandwiches, I liked the roasted berkshire pork sandwich more. The pork was flavourful and tender, which contrasted really well with the crunchy red cabbage and tangy house mustard. The menu indicated that there was jalapeno in the sandwich but it was really quite mild overall. I’m not sure if it was the mustard flavour that I picked up but the cabbage seemed to be slightly pickled as well. Both sandwiches came with a lightly tossed green salad with a very mild vinaigrette and some gerkins.

Although really tasty, the sandwiches were a tad small and both of us were quite hungry that day so we also indulged in some dessert. As a huge lemon dessert fan, I was really intrigued by the double lemon tart and Kiyo decided to try the same. This was one of the best lemon tarts I’ve ever had, with a deliciously crispy but not-too-sweet crust which surrounded a smooth, tangy, and very lemony filling. The lemon flavour was tart but slightly sweet, which leads me to think that Meyer lemons may have been used. If you are a lemon fan, this is definitely a must try.

Bel Cafe is a great little cafe with a wonderful selection of lunch options. I’ve been back quite a few times to try their hot chocolate selections during the recent Hot Chocolate Festival and thoroughly enjoyed each weekly hot chocolate offering they had. I definitely want to come back to try some more sandwiches as well as their delicious selection of pastries and macarons.

Details:
801 West Georgia Street, Vancouver 
Tel: 604-673-7000

Summary:
Food: 4 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

It’s been a while since my last Friday Finds article so I thought I’d try and resurrect it. As usual, if you come across something interesting you’d like to share, please let me know!

365 Days of Dining: This link was sent in by Snoopy, who alerted me to the City of Richmond’s quest to find someone to embark on a year-long eating adventure – and then blog about it. Since I found out about this, many more people have recommended that I apply. Believe it or not, I think I would actually get tired of eating out every day for an entire year but if you are interested, the City of Richmond started accepted applications on Mar 1. Check out the link for more details.

How to pair pasta with a sauce: For those of you who never know what type of pasta to match with a particular sauce, this useful video from America’s Test Kitchen shows what types of pasta shapes work best with which types of sauces. The guidelines are pretty straightforward but may be a good refresher nonetheless.

When we were in Toronto, we took a day trip of sorts to Niagara Falls. It turned out to be more fun than I expected and before it was time to head back to Toronto, we wanted to have dinner first. Since we were only in the area for one day, I wanted our dinner to be nice and to also have a view of the falls. As you would probably expect, it was difficult to find a reasonably priced location with a view of the falls that also had good food. After a bit of searching, it seemed like most people recommended The Keg at the Embassy Suites Hotel due to their great location and view and since The Keg is a chain, you pretty much knew what to expect.

When I called ahead to make reservations, I was told that they did not take reservations but given that we were arriving early (around 6pm), there should be no problem to snag a window seat. However, when we arrived, we were told that other parties had all reserved the window seats already so we were resigned to sitting almost at the window. I was a little confused by the contradictory messaging but at least half of our party had a great view of the falls.

We decided to start with a few of us sharing the crab, parmesan, and spinach dip. The dip was pretty similar to the spinach and artichoke dip at Milestone’s actually and was pretty thick and creamy. Due to the delicate flavour of crab in general, I found that it was pretty lost in the dip due to the strong flavours from the parmesan and spinach.

At this point in our Eastern Canada trip, we had been eating out for quite a while and believe it or not, I was starting to get a little tired of it all. I also knew my vegetable intake was nowhere near to what I normally ate at home so Jenkins and I also shared a mixed greens salad. It was a fairly simple offering of, you guessed it, mixed greens along with cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and red onions. The vinaigrette dressing was just a basic balsamic and although unspectacular, the veggies were all pretty fresh so I was satisfied at least with the nutritional content of my salad.

I really wasn’t feeling overly hungry that day so rather than order my own main, I decided to steal a little of Grick’s and Jenkins’ orders. Grick decided on the prime rib, which came with fried onion bits and a twice baked potato. I can’t remember which size of prime rib Grick ordered but as you can see, it was a healthy portion size. He ordered the prime rib rare and it was very flavourful and tender. Eaten with the crunchy deep fried onion bits, the prime rib was pretty good. The highlight of this dish for me was actually the twice baked potato, which had bacon bits mixed in with the potato flesh, which was then piped back into the potato and baked. This was definitely not healthy but the potato was very creamy and had plenty of bacon flavour.

Jenkins opted for the honey BBQ ribs along with a twice baked potato as well. The ribs were tender although not of the fall-off-the-bone nature and although tasty, I would have liked for there to be more marinade. It was a good thing that they supplied a little dish of sauce so we could up the flavour component of the ribs a little more.

I know I said I wasn’t overly hungry that day but somehow, I still found room for dessert. Grick, Snoopy, Jenkins, and I decided to share a Billy Miner Pie, which is basically a mocha ice cream cake with an Oreo crust, hot fudge, caramel, and toasted almonds. Mocha ice cream is one of my favourite flavours so I really enjoyed this dessert and the toasted almonds added a nice amount of crunch. I also appreciated the fact that they didn’t overdo it with the caramel and hot fudge sauce.

Our dinner at The Keg was pretty standard and it pretty much met our expectations. The service was pretty prompt, which we appreciated since the restaurant was pretty busy and was actually serving many large groups that evening, including ours. I actually don’t eat at The Keg very often even in Vancouver so it is a little difficult for me to compare the food, but I was fairly satisfied with our mains and a little less so with our appies. I do have to say that the awesome view more than compensated for any potential deficiencies in the food but you just need to know what you’re getting yourself into.

Details:
9th floor, 6700 Fallsview Boulevard, Niagara Falls, Ontario
Tel: 905-374-5170

Summary:
Food: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$

I happened to be working out of our Burnaby office one day and was able to meet up with Christina and Mabel for lunch. It happened to be a nice day so we took advantage of the opportunity to stroll over to the new location of Pho Thai Hoa at a little strip mall close on Kingsway just west of Boundary. I had never been to Pho Thai Hoa’s original location further west on Broadway but Mabel told me that it was worthwhile to check out as they were well known for their delicious pho broth.

Pho Thai Hoa has a really extensive menu and much more than your usual offering of pho and rice plates. My eyes were definitely bigger than my stomach and I toyed with the idea of ordering multiple dishes so I could try everything out. However, I decided to stick with the pho and come back for a future visit instead of trying everything at once.

I ordered a small bowl of the pho dac biet, which is my go-to pho dish mainly because it has a little of everything. I sampled the broth first and as Mabel had noted, it was very flavourful with a hint of sweetness and not too much MSG. There was also a large abundance of miscellaneous beef parts but I would have liked for there to be a couple more pieces of tendon. The noodles had a bit of a bite to them although they did get a little soggy towards the end but that was mainly due to me eating slowly.

Christina decided to go for the bun – there are many options available at Pho Thai Hoa but Christina opted for the one with spring rolls and prawns. I didn’t get a chance to sample this but Christina enjoyed it quite a bit, noting that the crunchy vegetables went really well with the noodles. The spring rolls were also fried nicely and had a good flavour to them.

Mabel had the rice rolls with pork, which I ended up trying at Pho Thai Hoa’s original location so I will blog about that at a later time. Also, I forgot to take a picture of it so you’ll just need to wait.

I had a good time at Pho Thai Hoa and really enjoyed the pho there. Many times, I find the broth overly sweet which doesn’t really work well with the overall savoury profile of the broth but the mix of flavours in the broth of Pho Thai Hoa was nicely balanced. The prices are slightly higher than some of the other Vietnamese places I go to but not a lot more and their dishes are quite tasty and varied.

Details:
3524 Kingsway, Vancouver
Tel: 604-568-8884

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Jenkins and I live pretty close to Provence Marinaside and we often go there for a nice brunch when we feeling like jazzing things up. I used to go to Provence for dinner a lot more frequently before I moved into the neighbourhood but for some reason, I never blogged about it even though I had written about my brunch experience before.. Since we were going to dinner at Provence Marinaside to celebrate Jenkins’ mom’s birthday, I thought it would be a nice time to also do a review.

Shortly after we ordered, we were presented with a basket of bread. There was an assortment including baguette slices and focaccia. The focaccia had some herbs on top so I was able to eat it plain but for the baguette, I spread a little bit of tapenade on it to give it an extra flavour kick. Sorry about the blurry picture but it was fairly dark in the restaurant.

It was a dark and stormy evening…so I was in the mood for some soup. I started with the soup of the day, which was a cream of tomato with basil oil and basil chiffonade on top. The acidity of the tomato was balanced with a little cream and I really enjoyed the strong tomato flavour emanating from this soup. It went really well with the bread.

Sablefish is one of my favourite types of fish and since I hadn’t eaten it in a while, I decided to order the herb crusted sablefish for my main. The fish itself was perfectly cooked and despite the herb crust, the skin itself was still quite crunchy so I was able to eat the skin as well. The buttery flakes of fish was pretty rich and the accompanying broccolini added a nice hint of bitterness to the dish. I also liked the al dente lentils which picked up the flavour of the chorizo that it was also cooked with. Although this dish did not look huge, it was quite filling.

Jenkins really likes the seafood linguini at both Provence restaurants so that is what he ended up choosing for his main. As you can see below, there was a lot of seafood included in this dish, including clams, mussels, salmon, halibut, and prawns, which were tossed in a light garlic and tomato sauce. The seafood was all excellently prepared but my favourite was the crunchy prawns, which Jenkins let me sample. When I was in university, I used to order this dish from Provence Mediterranean Grill on 10th a lot…partly because it was one of the cheaper things on the menu at $18 (back then) and also because it was just so tasty.

I was pretty full at this point but Jenkins’ mom and dad’s meals came with dessert and since they were also full, they said we should all share their desserts. One of our choices was the dessert special, which was a raspberry tart. I enjoyed this one quite a bit since it was pretty light, with the sweet yet tangy raspberries going well with the vanilla cream filling for the tart.

The other dessert we chose was the double chocolate kahlua cake, which was definitely the favourite for everyone else at our table. It was very rich and definitely very chocolatey. Surprisingly, I couldn’t really taste much of the kahlua flavour though but that did not bother me. This cake was really dense and would appeal to any chocolate fan out there but I would have liked a little more berry coulis to contrast with the chocolate.

It was Jenkins’ parents’ first time at Provence Marinaside and they enjoyed their dinner there. There are a lot more high end dining places now than there used to be when Provence first started out but I think they are always a reliable place to go for a nice dinner out. I don’t know if I’d necessarily classify their food as Provencal these days but it is is well executed and the service is always great.

Details:
1177 Marinaside Crescent, Vancouver
Tel: 604-681-4144

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 4 out of 5 stars
Price: $$$

My team at work had a volunteering event one morning at the Vancouver Food Bank and I was in charge of picking a place for us to have lunch at afterwards. I tried to choose a location that was relatively close to the Food Bank’s sorting depot in East Vancouver and decided that it may be a good opportunity to check out Au Petit Chavignol. I wasn’t sure if they would take reservations for lunch but I called in anyway and luckily, they were able to accomodate our group of about 8 people.

I had worked up a pretty good appetite from a morning of food sorting and took some time deliberating between the Mr. Crunch sandwich and the cheeseburger. In the end, I decided on the cheeseburger because I thought that would be a little more filling. It turned out to be a pretty popular option as many other people in our group ended up ordering the cheeseburger as well. I had my choice of cheese and decided on the 3 year raw milk cheddar. The cheese had a really strong flavour that lent itself well to the burger and I think it worked out well that I did not add any additional toppings. In fact, I found it a little difficult to pick out the flavour of the secret sauce because the cheese was quite strong but I didn’t mind that. I found the patty to be a little thin and I think that ended up making things a little drier than I would have liked.

I could have chosen fries for my side but decided to balance the relative unhealthiness of my burger with a green salad. The arugula salad came lightly tossed with a lemony vinaigrette sauce the overwhelming flavour in this salad came from the peppery arugula and radishes. I really liked how the pepperiness cut through the richness of the burger though and thought it ended up being a really good choice of side.

Although I initially thought my burger looked a little small, this turned out to be  a good portion size for lunch and I was pretty full once I had finished my burger and salad. However, I was pretty tempted by the dessert options and it wasn’t difficult to convince the rest of my table to share the petite chocolate cookies for dessert. We all thoroughly enjoyed the warm chocolate cookies which were moist, chewy, and extremely chocolaty. I remarked that this would have gone great with a glass of milk.

I really enjoyed our lunch at Au Petit Chavignol and definitely want to come back one day, especially to try out their cheese and charcuterie options. As you may already know, it is right next to Les Amis Fromage on East Hastings so that is a good place to pick up some of the cheesy goodies you try out at the restaurant. I also hear that Les Amis Fromage sells a pretty good bacon jam and I think that’s as much of a reason as any to make another visit out to the area.

Details:
843 East Hastings Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-255-4218

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

I had been a while since I last met up with Miguel so we organized a dinner one evening and joining us were Cedric, Louis, and Dustin. It was more convenient for the majority of us if we met downtown and since I was tired of being the designated restaurant chooser, I left the decision up to the others. We ended up meeting at Cafe Luxy, which is on Davie Street close to the Shopper’s Drug Mart. For some reason, I had never noticed it so I was looking forward to checking it out.

Cedric had described Cafe Luxy as a downtown version of Anton’s so with my expectations adjusted accordingly, I checked out the menu. We all ordered pastas, which also came with garlic bread. It was pretty standard tasting but there was a nice amount of butter although a little more garlic may have been good. I had wanted to eat a part of my garlic bread with my pasta but it took forever for our pastas to come out so I gave up.

The pastas also came with a Caesar salad but I wanted to be a little healthier that day and asked if they had a regular green salad instead. My green salad came with some balsamic dressing and as you can see below, it was fairly lacklustre. The carrots seemed to be shaved with a vegetable peeler and the tomato was a little sad looking. The balsamic dressing was also a little acidic for my taste but I like for my balsamic dressing to have a little more oil to balance the flavours out.

As I mentioned earlier, it took a really long time for our food to come out and I’m not sure if they were understaffed that evening or if it was typical. Cedric noted that the kitchen staff seemed to be different from the regular crew that he normally encountered so I’m not sure if that was why the food took so long to come out. Cafe Luxy has an extensive pasta-centric menu and after some deliberation, I decided to have the linguine con chorizo, which came with bell peppers, baby corn, and chorizo in a spicy tomato cream sauce. The flavours turned out to be a little odd and I didn’t feel that the baby corn went very well with the chorizo and there were a little too much bell peppers. The tomato cream sauce wasn’t bad but it wasn’t spicy at all and I felt that the pasta was a little overcooked.

If you are just looking for a large quantity of pasta at fairly reasonable prices, I would say that Cafe Luxy is a good option for you. It’s definitely not the place to have authentic or dare I say even well-made pasta. The pasta isn’t bad but just not the type of pasta that I normally like to eat and I think it’s intended to appeal to a certain part of the population. From a value perspective, it isn’t bad though as the portion sizes are definitely generous and I had enough pasta for lunch the next day as well. If you are an Anton’s fan and are looking for a similar option in downtown, check out Cafe Luxy.

Details:
1235 Davie Street, Vancouver
Tel: 604-669-5899

Summary:
Food: 2 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars
Price: $$

Jenkins and I met up with Jenkins’ mom for dim sum one sunny weekend afternoon. Jenkins’ dad was supposed to come as well but there was a slight mix-up in coordinating the date and our original lunch for four ended up being just for three. I had previously reviewed Top Shanghai Cuisine a few years ago but it had been quite a while since my last visit and I had never actually been for dim sum before.

Jenkins’ mom was pretty flexible and decided to let me and Jenkins do the majority of the ordering. We thought we weren’t very hungry that day but we ended up ordering a good mix of dishes anyway. We started with the spicy wontons. I kind of expected them to be similar to the Cantonese version but the Shanghainese version was completely different. The small pork wontons came dressed in a sweet and spicy peanut and chilli sauce that was delicious. The peanut flavour was further heightened by the crushed peanuts on top. I would say this was a fairly spicy dish but it didn’t bother me at all. This dish was quite a hit at our table and we ended up saving the sauce as a condiment for some of our later dishes.

One of Top Shanghai Cuisine’s specialties is obviously the xiao long bao so we definitely needed to order some. I thought that the skin was slightly thicker than my previous visit but still gave way easily to the juicy pork filling inside. I think this place still ranks among the better xiao long bao eateries in the city.

One of Jenkins’ favourite dim sum items is the pan-fried pork buns. Nothing out of the ordinary with the offering here but it was well made nonetheless. The bottom was quite crispy and the filling seemed to be the same as the pork filling used in the xiao long baos. Even though the pan fried buns were not as juicy as the XLBs, they were definitely juicier than the version at many other restaurants, which I liked.

In hindsight, we probably shouldn’t have ordered the pan-fried dumplings because they tasted like a cross between the pan-fried pork buns and the xiao long baos so we really didn’t get a lot of variety. The only comment I can make here is that they were fried nicely, with the bottom being nice and crispy. Similarly, the filling seemed to be very similar (if not the same as) the filling for the XLBs and pan-fried pork buns.

We also wanted to order a filler item so we perused the noodle section of the menu for some options. I really like the sticky rice cakes so I wanted something that had that and Jenkins settled on the Shanghai rice cakes with vegetables and pork. I thought the sauce was a little on the salty side but the rice cakes are generally pretty bland so it soaked up a lot of the flavour so the saltiness wasn’t overwhelming. I enjoyed the chewy consistency of the rice cakes and the veggies provided a nice crunchy contrast.

Overall, we had a pleasant lunch at Top Shanghai Cuisine. As I probably noted in my previous review and as many other people have noted, service really isn’t the best here so you have to go in with fairly low (if any) expectations. That being said, the service at lunch seemed to be slightly better than what we’re used to during the dinner service. The food here is quite good though and their dim sum menu is a nice change from the usual Cantonese dim sum fare that I’m used to.

Details:
5880 No. 3 Road, Richmond
Tel: 604-278-8790

Summary:
Food: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Service: 2 out of 5 stars
Price: $$