Curiously Carmen

I love featuring new people to my blog! Please welcome Brie. If you don’t know how I come up with my blog nicknames, I choose them based on their favourite food, or which food item comes to mind when I think of them!

Anyways, while looking for a place to have a catch-up dinner, I suggested Jamjar Canteen. I’ve only had Lebanese food at Nuba, which was two years ago. Plus, I’ve heard some good things about Jamjar Canteen recently so I wanted to check it out.

It worked out well because Brie had heard good things about this place, and wanted to try it too!

Jamjar Canteen is located a block away from Commercial Drive skytrain station. The restaurant looks a bit smaller than it actually was from the outside. I really liked the design in there, especially the mosaic tiles.

But the layout of the restaurant wasn’t great, as I’ll explain after the food review!

Muttabel: The muttabel was an eggplant dip. The eggplant was mashed into a saucy texture, similar to hummus but not as dense. The flavours were light and refreshing. I could taste some herbs and olive oil as well. The eggplant dip was served with 2 large, warm, and soft pieces of pita bread.

Shish tawouk: The shish tawouk was their chicken dish. There actually wasn’t that many meat dishes to choose from on the menu. A lot of things were either vegetarian or vegan.

This was our favourite dish of the evening! The chicken thigh was incredibly tender, soft, and juicy. It was bursting with flavour as well. I am not too sure what the chicken was marinated in, but it was just delicious. There was also a refreshing yogurt dip on the side.

Batata Harra: Although the potatoes were good, they were definitely not worth $7! I can’t believe we paid $7 for a potato.

Shock aside, the potato cubes were crunchy and flavourful. They were topped off with cinnamon, which tasted odd to me and did not complement the other herbs, which were savoury. The dipping sauce reminded me of Nando’s peri-peri sauce, so I quite enjoyed that at least.

I don’t recommend this dish because of the price! Seven dollars for a single potato. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Falafel: Last but not least, the falafel! I’ve only had falafel once at Nuba, and quite liked it. This time at Jamjar was no different.

Falafel is a vegan dish made up of ground chickpeas, herbs, and spices. It is then molded into a ball shape and then deep fried. The result is a crunchy and savoury dish which is filling despite its size.

The outside was crunchy, while the inside was flavourful. The texture inside was light, but somehow still felt really filling. By the time Brie and I got to the last falafel, we were quite stuffed. A little goes a long way with these guys and I was surprised at how full I became after eating 2.5 pieces.

All in all, we enjoyed the food at Jamjar. The service was friendly and attentive as well. My only complaint was that it was very noisy and clangy in there. At times, it was hard to hear each other and we had to talk quite loudly .

As well, the layout of the restaurant was very awkward as you can see from this photo. Most tables were squished near the front. The middle area had no tables, only a floor to ceiling glass wall. Then, there was a hallway with a nice mural which eventually ends up in this other dining area.

It would be better if tables were further apart because it was quite hard to hear each other! If you want an intimate, quite dinner, this wouldn’t be the place to go. But the food was not bad, and it was nice to try a different cuisine than I’m normally used to!

After having a delicious meal at TAKO, the fiance and I took a stroll around the area. We looped around BC Place and stumbled across On Yogurt.

I heard of this place but didn’t realize they sold taiyaki! During our Tokyo trip last year, we went taiyaki crazy. Since then, we haven’t had taiyaki in Vancouver and have missed eating it.

Apart from taiyaki, On Yogurt also sold rolled ice cream, which is not as popular in Vancouver compared to Asian countries. I’ve seen videos online, but never had the chance to try it personally.

Here was my chance to have taiyaki in Vancouver and rolled ice cream!

On Yogurt was carefully curated for Instagram. They featured a cute backdrop for photos and encouraged people to take photos of the ice cream rolling process. There were also some board games and cute artwork to look at on the walls. It was a small but cozy cafe.

Rolled frozen yogurt: I ordered a plain original rolled frozen yogurt. Taste wise, it was like a vanilla ice cream with a hint of yogurt taste. The original flavour was very smooth, creamy and enjoyable.

The frozen yogurt is scooped and then placed on a freezing cold metal plate. The plate freezes the frozen yogurt even more, thus allowing it to be rolled.

I was quite impressed that the rolled yogurt did not melt into a blob while I was eating it. It was pretty cool to eat frozen yogurt in rolled sheets! There definitely was a novelty factor to eating ice cream this way.

Strawberry taiyaki: The taiyaki came with some Asian waffle sticks, which reminded me of my childhood. It also came with rolled strawberry ice cream, which was delicious! The strawberry ice cream had so many chunks of real strawberry in it!

The taiyaki was flaky with an eggy taste, similar to bubble waffle. We found the taiyaki to be thin, and flakier compared to in Tokyo where their taiyaki was more chewy and doughy. Personally, I prefer the chewier and doughier taiyaki.

The taiyaki was also a bit messy to eat because of the flakiness. I’d come back for the rolled ice cream, but not the taiyaki.

All in all, it was a successful spontaneous visit to On Yogurt. Rolled ice cream is pretty cool and although it tastes the same, there is an aesthetic and unique element to it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been to Qoola! This review is on the Richmond location, located inside Central at Garden City.

We love going to Central at Garden City because there are so many restaurants to choose from. Plus, it’s one of the few plazas in Richmond where parking is plentiful and not atrocious!

The flavours vary slightly depending on the day and location, but there is usually something for everyone.

For those who are lactose intolerant or can’t have dairy, they have sorbet flavours although I find them to taste very artificial.

My only complaint about this location was that the fruit toppings looked quite sad and unfresh! I would have put some fruit on top, but none of them looked appetizing.

Original tart and taro froyo: I love the original tart flavour, and usually get it whenever I go to Qoola. I find the other flavours too sweet, or artificial tasting.

The original tart had a nice sourness to it. I added a bit of taro to sweeten it up a bit. The taro was lightly flavoured and not overwhelming sweet.

For toppings, I usually go with Oreo and then a mix of other things. That day, I went with oreo chunks, yogurt drops, and butterscotch drops.

Chocolate and coconut froyo: The fiance went with his go-to flavours, chocolate and coconut. To make the froyo even more coconut-y, he added some coconut flakes on top.

The staff (owner?) was really friendly and helpful that night. She even offered us some of her bubble waffles, which looked like it was part of her dinner. We declined because we were already full from dinner and froyo, but it was nice of her!