Minority Troubles

Growing up in a town with one black kid I would never have thought I would spend the majority of my career as a minority. Nursing is rampant with Asian and Middle Eastern cultures and between the Filipinos and the Iranians you will never go hungry.

In about two hours at 0400 it is Nowruz, Persian New Year. And what better way to get through night shift by celebrating with take-out? We hit up the newly opened Cazba at Davie and Thurlow (in the old Characters location) and stuffed our faces with some tender meats. Then me at the only other white girl got even whiter by listening to 90's Alternative all night long.

Peaceful Noodle Update

I love telling people about Peaceful Noodle. I love taking people there, surprising them, forcing them against their will, whatever it takes really. Easily my new favorite restaurant of late. 
These are all amazing-

Seasonal Pea Shoots

Spicy Wontons

Shanghai Stir-Fried Noodles with Pork and Cabbage in Soy

Vegetable steamed Dumplings

Pan-fried Veggie Gyoza

The American CheeseSteak Co. - Surviving Sedlack

I've been impatiently waiting for this place to open since the spring. Perfect example of why you simpy put "COMING SOON" in your window, verses "OPENING SPRING 2011". Spring was 7 months ago, either we've waited a really long time for something amazing, or you couldn't get your shit together.


Anyways. After bailing on the Corner Suite Bistro De Luxe project Anthony Sedlack hasn't really done anything noteworthy. Que 'The American CheeseSteak Co'. Situated on Davie near Howe, this venue houses a medium-sized communal table and is heavy on the brick and subway tile deco.


It's easy to hate a couple things right from the get-go, the oddly infantile artwork (crayon? pencil crayon?), the verbose menu, and most of all the 20 min wait. But when it comes down to taste the Philly CheeseSteak redeems itself.  I've had The Philly with American cheese and The Classic with provolone, both with onions and both tasted remarkable. It's unlike anything I've had in Vancouver to date. Made to order; the meat is well seasoned, the cheese is gooey goodness, and it all comes together in a flavor explosion in your mouth.
This isn't something you'll soon forget, it will linger on your tastebuds and in your subconscious for days.

Random fact - apparently 85% of Americans have Cheese Whiz on their CheeseSteak. Gross.


This place is another great concept to jump aboard the Vancouver sammich train. If The American CheeseSteak Co. can survive the self-destructive Sedlack ego and doesn't sell out, it seems original enough to make it.

Peaceful Noodle: You Had Me At Harrow!

It is well known that I love a good noodle, particularly the handcrafted variety. I had heard great things about the Peaceful Restaurant on Broadway, but being a downtown snob I never bothered to go out of my way to check it out. Then the other day I was riding my bike home from the gym, saw that a second location opened on Davie and got a wee bit excited. I skidded to a stop and bounded in sweaty and starving.  Seriously, do the Dan-Dan. After being satiated by the spicy Dan-Dan sauce, chewy textured noodles and perfectly cooked greens; I made a return trip two days later. There are so many things on this menu that I need to try, I forced myself to narrow it down to the Beijing shredded pork dish, and it didn't let me down.

Peaceful has so many things going for it and they pull it off with a quiet ease. Lovely service, fresh ingredients, tasty hand-made noodles, huge flavor, and Schezwan spice. It won't be long before it's a neighborhood favorite and packed. I can't wait to go back!

Davie & Granville

 Beijing "Zha-Jiang Mian" Noodles 

 The Dan-Dan.
Seriously.
Do it.

I'd Eat That: 100 Nights

It's gotten shit reviews, so I'm not sure if the food is as rad as the decor. Don't get me wrong, I'd still eat there.  Formerly 100 Days.

I'd Eat That.

Apparently Davie & Howe is getting a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich shop. Way to take over a crappy Mr. Sub location.

Pho Central

Pho Central easily makes my top-ten list of locations frequented in my neighbourhood, and even though the banh mi was an epic fail, it hasn't deterred my loyalty. Especially since the rainy season is imminent, I predict many upcoming steamy noodle-slurping moments.

Everything that I know about Pho I have learned from my friends:

Trevy taught me about asking for the meat on the side, especially if you like it on the rare side, that way you get to put it in at your own pace (careful you don't wait too long and the boiling broth turns to luke-warm piss water that won't cook the meat at all).

Jordan showed me the hoisin sauce on your spoon trick, that way your broth doesn't get all hoisin-y.

 Mattchew introduced me to the house-made chili oil (prior to this I was all about the cock sauce in my attempts to increase my spice tolerance).

This little place on Davie between Thurlow and Bute is small, drafty, and generally dingy, but the service is lovely and I always leave feeling warmed to soul. Pho Central perfectly slides into the "dives" category.

Blah Blah More Brasserie

You know, just in case you've missed my blathering obsession with La Brasserie.

The Suckling Pig.

The Friday Boulliabase.

 

 Jody's heavenly Mushroom Ragout over Spaetzle

Screamers!

Slurpee + Soft-Serve Icecream = Screamer.

My newest favorite thing on Davie.

You can get them from Baguette Time (between Bute and Jervis), just don't get their baguettes. Gourmet Sandwhiches MY ASS.

Kam's Place

Ordered in some group take-out while on nightshift and can finally cross Kam's Place off my list of Davie restaurants to conquer. Never To Return.

When you fill your gut with shit that looks like this, you inevitably feel like a big bag of barfy shit. I refuse to blame this feeling on my decision to forego sleep for lake-side party times.

Instead I am going to blame it on Red Dye #76 and Mee Goreng, which apparently is a Singaporean dish of spaghetti noodles with ketchup.

Death by Banh Mi

So on my lunch break yesterday I made the mistake of thinking that my favorite pho dive would make a great Banh Mi Vietnamese sub thingy.

Little did I know that this puppy was laced with shrapnel-like shards of Jalapeno peppers that would set fire to the roof of my mouth and numb the right-hand side of my face.

BUCK-A-SHUCK!

What? I'm talking about The Brass again? I know, it's not all that hard to believe, considering I have a huge boner for this place. In my quest to eat at all the places on Davie and Denman I can admit that I've gotten a little distracted by the shiny turquiose chairs at Corner Suite Bistro, the tacos from La Taqueria, and the cute boys at the Brasserie. But fuck it, this is MY Choose Your Own Adventure book.  And I'm not just going to mindlessly plough through all the food out there because that would be boring, I'm looking for the whole package. An intimate venue, servers who remember your name, deserts worth fantasizing about, and a menu that I have a hard time picking from because I WANT IT ALL. I'm looking for a place that makes my small-town ass feel welcome and serves food that tastes like heaven. That's not too much to ask right? 

So headed out on a Wednesday night with some girls from work to share the experience of buck-a-shuck. A little wine and poutine later, and as usual, I was not dissipointed.  

Mis Trucos

The phyllo-wrapped, deep-fried shrimp


The spinach, chestnut, raisin and parmesan dip with crostini's


Braised chicken with porcini mushrooms on papardelle

Don't let the Spanish confuse you, Mis Trucos ("My Tricks") is not the latest bordello on the block but rather the new eatery on Davie. The house that was formerly the Davie Village Cafe now has a new coat of paint, minimalist decor, semi-douche furniture, and extra-dim lighting. According to the website, Kits native Chef Kris Barnholden wanted to create a cozy venue with Mediterranean tapas influenced by French, Spanish, and Italian cuisine. In actuality the theme wasn't entirely cohesive; but the service was earnest and the place is trying to be that something-just-a-little-more-sophisticated that this end of Davie needs.

Not feeling like wine, I had the gin-gin cocktail which was gin, ginger beer made in house, mint, and something else, and it's freshness was very mojito-like. Although there were a couple of solid entrees, the menu is divided into single-servings and sharing platters of appies. This gave the meal a sharing, finger-food, lets!try!a!million!things! feel, as a tapas place should. Started out with the deep-fried phyllo-wrapped prawns with aoli dip, then moved on to the spinach, parmesan, raisin, and chestnut dip with some super salty crostini's. Finishing it off with the risotto with white truffle oil, creme fraiche, and seared scallops; and hands-down my favorite, the braised chicken with porcini mushrooms in handmade pappardelle. Kudos for the homemade pasta, fresh ingredients, and rich flavors. Reasonably priced, I felt like it was great quality without breaking the bank. This is the kind of place that I would go to for some tasty appies and creative drinks before heading out for the night.

I'm usually big on saving room for desert, or at the very least drawing out the meal with a few more drinks so that I have enough space to shove something sweet down my gullet. BUT. I didn't even look twice at the desert menu, I was set on trying the buck a shuck oysters (after 9pm) and indulging in a creme brule at La Brasserie. Have I told you yet how much I love this place? The creme brule has a super thin dish to optimize on the burnt sugar surface area, and is straight-up just vanilla, no shitty "mocha" or "berry" twist on the original. The perfect way to end the night, every night. So stoked that La Brasserie is now opened for lunch and half a block from where I work.

Ps. Don't check out the Mis Trucos menu online and get your hopes up, the ingredients are seasonal and frequently change, whereas their website does not.

Pss. Please forgive me for the crappy quality photos, it's hard enough to do discretely, never mind with flash.

La Brasserie

This intimate venue is a very amicable union of German and French dining. When I asked the owner/chef why he chose those two regions specifically, he explained that his background was German and that they were looking for a continental feel for their menu. Usually there's a moderate wait on weekends, I recommend going during the week and reading the menu ahead of time to pick your Plat du Jour (I'll probably go back on a Monday - Rabbit!). I went with my lovely friend Laura, simply on a mission to have an authentic French Onion Soup and Creme Brule, which we had been salivating over incessantly at work. Not exactly heart-healthy, for good measure we had a couple glasses of red wine from their reasonably affordable list, and threw in some Steak Tartar and Bratwurst with onion jus and pommes purre (which I tipsily learned is not applesauce, but mashed potatoes). 


Second best thing of the entire night, if you have the option of sitting at the bar, DO IT. Not only do you get to watch your food being made in front of you, but you get to watch two gorgeous men make the food in front of you! Equally delicious, the best thing of the night was the Creme Brule. Retardedly fantastic, perfectly crisp on top, I had a hard time not inhaling the entire thing. Next time I will not share. The service was personal, the atmosphere soft, La Brasserie pulls off a continental menu with a local neighborhood feel. I will bring first dates there, I will go there with friends, and I will go there when I am desperately lonely and need to stare at the chef eye-candy while indulging in Euro sweets.

My newest favorite wine, the Minervois.

The steak tar tar.

The masterpiece, the creme brule.

Sushi III

It's official. I have been converted! I actually like a sushi roll, make that plural, two rolls. It all started with a little visit from Kimmi and Naka on my lunch break, I was perusing through the shinny new menu at Downtown Sushi, the sun was streaming through the smudged windows and all of a sudden I saw it. THE DESERT ROLL, accurately titled "The Honeymoon Roll", was deep fried banana topped with sliced kiwi, strawberry, mango, and drizzled honey. And the dipping sauce? Whip cream! SO DELICIOUS. No gagging involved, nothing lodged itself in my esophagus, I didn't have to spit it out into a serviette, it was a magical moment. Round two was the spicy tuna roll from Kadoya. And I don't even like spicy food!! Now I might be brave enough to attempt the inari roll, who knows?


Honjin Yaletown Sushi Restaurant
Waaaaaay down at the end of Davie, in the heart of Yaletown. The best service I've had yet. Best Miso soup. Best salmon sashimi. Great atmosphere, totally loved the place. Nothing to possibly complain about, just a little to far from home for me to be a frequent flyer.


Jako Sushi
This place is a dive on so many levels. It gets nominated for worst renovations ever, weakest green tea on the face of the planet, and most frequented by bridge-and-tunnel douches. I was HANGRY (too hungry = angry), so I jumped the gun and tried the inari roll when I should have just stuck with my gut and gotten inari nigiri, which is my sushi no-fail dish. That's right, the Japanese junk food, the bean curd sac. My new-found love of rolls has been crushed and basically I reverted into my old ways and ended up eating only the inner contents of the inari roll. The service was nothing special, the place was hideous, the menu was greasy, but the reason that it was relatively busy? Everything was dirt cheap. Real crab sunomono salad was like two bucks and change, and it didn't taste half bad.


Yamato Sushi Restaurant
I am nearing the end. At this point there are only three venues left to visit, and before I have even finished this category, I am debating which one is up next. I am definitely looking forward to changing things up.

I dragged Naka to yet another hole-in-the-wall in the strip-mall of sushi restaurants between Granville and Seymore along Davie. This place had only 8 table settings to sit at and about the same number of bar stools. Don't let it's small size deter you because it is usually packed during peak hours. Theoretically, if a place is popular it's probably good, but it's also annoying when the server asks you every five seconds if you're ready to order and it feels like the people who are waiting for take out are hovering over your shoulder, watching you eat like it's feeding time at the zoo. It probably didn't help that I ate half of a patient's meal while at work, but anyway, in my second dinner of the evening I had salmon and tuna sashimi, inari nigiri and miso soup (I know, surprise surprise). Very yummy very salty miso soup. I had the innards of a couple rolls, apparently they are very fresh and a good bang for your buck. Tasty, cheap menu, cute atmosphere, persistant but bubbly service. This place gets an 8 out of 10.

Cafe Luxy

Okay so I may have had a wee bit of a stressful night-shift last night but three things cheered me up this morning on my walk home after work (if you can't already tell I'm a list-kinda person):

1. The fact that I don't have to go back to work till Monday.
2. The mild-ish-ness of my first winter in Vancouver.
3. The impending first lunch meeting of the Ex-girlfriends Club!

What I love most about Italian food, is that by the end of the meal, between the pasta and the garlic bread, I'm in a carb-coma. Downright sit back and sigh serotonin satisfaction. Today's lunch at Cafe Luxy on Davie was no exception. I havn't eaten at all of the Italian restaurants on Davie and Denman, and being a naturally impatient person I am picking a favorite before I've tried them all. I've been to Cafe Luxy now twice for lunch and once for dinner and it is definitely making my top-ten list. The dinner portions will last you several meals, the pasta list is endless, and all the options for lunch are only $7.98 with salad and garlic bread. I might not be able to hold myself back if someone dared me to try all of the pasta dishes on the menu. Today I had the Penne alla Luxy, which was penne with sundried tomatoes and assorted peppers in a rose sauce. After picking out all of the green peppers (they give me heartburn), I can't wait to wake up tomorrow morning and have my leftovers for breakfast.

Mongolian Grill-a-licious!

I am seriously dedicating a whole entry entirely to The Mongolian Grill. There are so many things that I love about this place, it's cheap, I can walk there on my lunch break, the service is cute, it's entertaining to watch, it's fast, and it can be relatively healthy if you make the right choices. I always have the Big Bowl Lunch Special for $6.95 because the small bowl is too small and even though it's only a dollar more, who needs the all-you-can-eat option? (Tiny side-note here, I have seen people go back for seconds and thirds, and it's not pretty) You have to get there before 4:30 or else they change it to "dinner" prices, and I've never been there for dinner, but I've heard that the only addition to the smorgasbord is pineapple.

So for those of you who have never been it's simple, you get your bowl, pick your meat (lamb, chicken, pork, or beef) I'm personally a beef fan, pick your noodle (white or off-white (I don't really know what the difference is!)), then your veggies, then your sauce, then the man at the grill fries it all up for you with his long tongs. This is all self-serve, and while you wait the server brings to your table a little bowl of rice and a little bowl of soup.

So my tips are:
1. Obviously go for the Big Bowl Lunch Special, it's the best bang for your buck.
2. If you're a meat lover scoop the frozen meat slices into your bowl, then use your fist to squish it to the bottom, your body heat melts the slices slightly and makes more room for more meat. If needed repeat!!
3. Don't pick tomatoes, they get fried up all weird and end up soggy and stringy.
4. Put your noodles on last because they can heap up nicely, whereas the veggies slide off when your bowl gets too full. So order should go meat, veggies, noodle, sauce.
5. Don't follow the sauce recipe guidelines, they don't really work and it's usually way more than necessary. As long as you have one scoop of an oil option and about two scoops of a sauce option you're good to go.
6. DON'T GO TO THE MONGOLIAN GRILL ON DENMAN! I had my first Mongolian grill experience there and it almost ruined me. The little bowl of soup had the flavor and consistency of mucus. Stick with the one on Davie.