Curiously Carmen

While on the topic of authentic Sri Lakan food one evening, Lager suggested that we try out Kurumba in Port Moody. Sri Lakan food is not widely found in Metro Vancouver and Kurumba is the most authentic place in Lager’s opinion. So, a bunch of us trekked out to Port Moody and tried Sri Lankan food for the first time!

Kurumba is located in a small strip mall in Port Moody. Port Moody is a pretty sleepy town (city?) with not much going on. I find it easily missed on the way to Coquitlam. Anyways, we made a reservation but we ended up being one of the few tables that night so it wasn’t really necessary, we just played it safe since there was a group of 10.

Although Kurumba is the most authentic Sri Lankan restaurant around, they also had other Asian cuisines such as Thai and Chinese. Apparently the owner is Chinese, but lived in Sri Lanka for awhile.

One thing Lager warned us about was that Sri Lankan food tends to be quite spicy. And indeed, it was! If you’re not a fan of spice, you would find your menu very limited.

Roti canai: We started off with a plain roti, which came with a side of curry dip. The roti was delicious, meanwhile the curry dip was very spicy. Since most of our dishes were spicy, I opted out of the dip and ate the roti plain.

Sri Lankan chicken curry: The braised chicken was incredibly tender, juicy, and full of flavour. It was a very hearty and warming dish. The dish was served bone in, which made it more difficult to eat but wasn’t a huge issue.

Dhal yellow curry: This was a lentil curry, which had the texture of porridge or stew. The flavour was quite plain but enjoyable, and good to cool our mouths down from the other dishes. Apparently this lentil curry is served to toddlers or young kids, because it is one of the few Sri Lankan dishes to not be spicy. It brought back childhood memories for Lager.

Sri Lankan beef curry: The beef curry packed a ton of heat! It was delicious although our faces and mouths were heating up. The beef was braised and served in cubes.

Sri Lankan chili fish: The chili fish came wok fried, similar to Chinese style. The fish was quite spicy and I found it to have more of a tangy spice compared to the other dishes.

Sri Lankan chili prawns: The prawn came in a similar spice as the chili fish. We found it manageable to eat 1 prawn at a time to contain the burning spice.

Kotthu roti: Perhaps my favourite discovery of the night! It is similar to a chow mein or stir fry. But instead of noodles, they use shreds of chopped roti bread! It was incredibly full of flavour and had lots of ‘wok hei’. I loved the texture of the roti too. We ordered both a chicken and beef kotthu roti.

Yellow basmathi rice: A savoury Sri Lankan coconut rice cooked in herbs. I found it delicious and went well with the curry. Although it said coconut, I couldn’t taste any coconut flavours to it.

Ginger beef: This wasn’t a Sri Lankan dish, but Zucchini loves his ginger beef and it is hard to find in other restaurants. As mentioned above, Kurumba also had Chinese and Thai dishes so this was one of the Chinese ones.

Sri Lankan hot buttered calamari: The calamari were a fresh and crunchy delight! The calamari batter itself was not spicy, but it was topped off with some chili sauce that gave it some heat. Even though it was called ‘buttered’ calamari, I didn’t taste any butter.

Sri Lankan fried rice: Last but not least, fried rice! The fried rice was tasty and not super oily. Compared to Chinese style fried rice, I would say this had more of a savoury taste to it.

It was a fun night discovering new foods that I normally wouldn’t know to order myself! Thanks Lager for introducing us to the food of your country.

If you’re looking for a new or different cuisine to try, I’d suggest going to Kurumba for Sri Lankan food!

Another day, another IHOP location! After not having IHOP for 5+ years, the fiance and I went twice in a month. In case you missed it, I wrote a review recently on IHOP Broadway. This time, we went to the IHOP in Richmond since we were running some errands there.

Sadly with most IHOPs, they are quite old. No one wants to build a new or renovate an IHOP these days which is sad to me. The age was quite evident with the Richmond location. This location was quite dingy, small and run down. It had high, pointy ceilings but somehow still managed to feel cramped in here.

We were not expecting the restaurant to be so packed. From the outside, it looks tired, old and quiet… but it was actually bustling inside.

The waiting area was awkward because it directly faced the kitchen (which was tiny and probably the size of my own kitchen). Because there were so many people in line, waiting customers blocked the way of waitresses trying to get food to the tables.

After waiting about 20 minutes, we sat down and ordered. Since we saw how tiny the kitchen was compared to how busy it was, I braced myself for a long wait but was pleasantly surprised when it came at a reasonable time.

Chicken strips and waffles: Folks, I really wanted to try something new for the sake of my blog. No one wants to read chicken strips reviews all the time. But I really love their chicken strips so y’all will just have to read about them again!

The chicken strips here were smaller and skinnier, which was a bit disappointing. You can also see the last chicken strip at the bottom was smaller than the rest. In addition, the outside was a bit over fried, as you can tell with the darker color.

Despite all this, I was relieved that the inside was piping hot and juicy. I definitely preferred the Broadway location chicken strips more since they were bigger and not over fried.

The waffles were delicious and I have no complaints about them!

Colorado omlette: I’m glad that the fiance ordered something different from our previous visit so I have something new to write about!

The Colorado omlette would be perfect for meat lovers. Bursting with ingredients, this omlette came with bacon, sausage, beef, and ham. It was a very filling, calorie dense and hearty omlette.

As if that wasn’t enough to fill you up, the omlette came with a side of pancakes as well! Were we in the states? Because the omlette sure felt like American portions.

Although we left full and satisfied, we wouldn’t come back to this location due to the atmosphere. It was dingy and cramped. Service was also hard to waive down. They didn’t have assigned waiters/waitresses for each section so it was just a free for all. One of them forgot to refill our water too.

I do want to give a shout out to the one hostess/waitress who was really nice though! Her hardwork did not go unnoticed.

Konnichiwa from Osaka, Japan! The fiance and I are back in Japan! I have a backlog of food posts though in my absence. Stay tuned for Japan posts next month!

While looking for a place to have dinner, Applesauce and Jalapeno suggested Dosa Corner. We have never been here and it had great reviews, so off we went!

Dosa Corner is very hidden, quietly tucked away at the end of Fraser Street by SW Marine Drive. This wouldn’t be a restaurant where someone would just happen to stumble upon, as this was an industrial area (unless you work around here I suppose).

Yet, the restaurant was completely full and busy! They don’t take reservations, so we came a bit before 7pm to beat the dinner rush. We had to wait about 5 minutes while they cleared the table. A line was forming during and after our dinner.

Tiger beer: Jalapeno started off with a Singaporean beer, Tiger. We’ve never heard or had it before, so he gave us a few sips. The beer reminded me of a pale ale, which I love. There were also some tropical hints to it. I’d order this if I saw it again!

Chicken masala dosa: You can’t go to a place called Dosa Corner and not get a dosa. The dosa was delicious. The boneless chicken was so incredibly juicy and tender.

In addition, the spices used were so aromatic and tasty. Apart from the boneless chicken, the dosa was also stuffed with some spiced mash potatoes and some sauce.

There were also two sauces and a soup. From the left, the green sauce was a coconut chutney, which helped cool down your mouth. The middle was a sambar – a savoury, lentil based soup. We ended up using it as a sauce because it would be too salty to drink by itself. I am not sure what the second sauce on the right was called, but it was quite gingery.

Chicken korma: The chicken korma was one of their chicken curry dishes. What separated the chicken korma and the other chicken curries was that it contains coconut milk. We decided on this one because we love coconut milk in our curries.

Just like the chicken dosa, the chicken here was also very tender and juicy. It was delicious and I wish I could tell you what kind of fragrant spices they cooked it with, but I am not sure!

This dish also came with a naan bread, rice, and papadum which is a salty, thin, crispy flatbread. At around $14, it was a great value and also very filling!

Spinach masala dosa: Jalapeno and Applesauce ordered the vegetarian spinach masala dosa. Their dosa came in a triangular shape. They enjoyed their dosa and had no complaints about it.

Okra curry: Jalapeno and Applesauce ordered okra curry, which was vegetarian and also came with naan bread, rice, and papadum. They enjoyed their curry a lot as well. I had a bite of the this, and although I am usually not a fan of okra, it was good with the curry.

We left very satisfied and full after Dosa Corner. The food was delicious, filling, and cheap. I’d definitely come back!

Konnichiwa from Kyoto, Japan! The fiance and I are back in Japan! I have a backlog of food posts though in my absence. Stay tuned for Japan posts next month!

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De Dutch has been around for quite awhile! I remember going to the De Dutch a few times in North Burnaby as a kid. They seem to fly under the radar because I don’t see or hear about it often. But it’s time I give them much deserved attention on the blog!

We came here because they had a birthday promotion. If you signed up for their emailing list, they give you a free pannekoek (Dutch pancake) up to a value of $14.50! Since we didn’t get a chance to go during the holidays, we came in the new year because the coupon is valid for approximately 3 months.

The fiance and I went to the De Dutch in Olympic Village, which we didn’t even know existed until looking on their website even though we are in this area a lot! They are located on West 2nd which is a busy street. This just shows how under the radar De Dutch is haha.

The last time we went to a De Dutch location was when we started dating many years ago, when I took him to the North Burnaby location.

The restaurant was about half full when we came on a Saturday morning around 10am. The atmosphere inside was calm and slow, which I appreciated. I’m not a fan of chaotic and noisy environments! The restaurant was clean, tidy, with comfortable seating.

Freshly squeezed orange juice: Marketing worked on me that morning when I saw the OJ being advertised. Their OJ is freshly squeezed and it sounded delicious, so I ordered a glass. And delicious, it was!

The orange juice was pulpy, very fresh tasting and definitely not Minute Maid (although I do love my Minute Maid so no shade being thrown here).

Debakon and eggs breakfast platter: The fiance went with their Dutchmen Platters, and chose the debakon and eggs one. This was a massive, hearty and filling platter!

Debakon is the Dutch twist on bacon. Rather than being in strips, they came in large slices. The slices reminded me of a ham and bacon mix. The potatoes were crispy and delicious. If you look carefully under the debakon, you can also see the two over-easy eggs which were nice and runny, perfect for dipping the potatoes into.

The only complaint on the platter were the fresh fruit. The canteloupe was very bland and flavourless. The apple skin had a strange bitter taste too.

Eggs Amsterdam: It’s unusual that I order the eggs benny, usually it is the fiance who does! After debating between the smoked salmon benny or this one, I decided to go with the Eggs Amsterdam which had ham and Dutch cheese.

The poached eggs were perfect, with a nice runny yolk! In addition, the Hollandaise sauce was deliciously rich and buttery. The fiance who is a huge Hollandaise sauce fan, gave it his seal of approval.

The difference with the eggs benny at De Dutch is that they come on a Dutch rusk, which is a twice baked biscuit. I didn’t like it at first because it was hard and crunchy, but after a few bites and with the delicious Hollandaise, I didn’t mind.

I also found that the fruit was not good. The cantaloupe was tasteless and the apple skin had a bitter taste to it.

Chocolate, strawberry and whip pannekoeken: The reason why we came here! The chocolate and strawberry was the perfect combination for us!

The pannekoeken is quite large. I remembered the pannekoeken being paper thin, almost crepe like, which is why we ordered two breakfist dishes. My memory from years ago proved to be wrong because it was actually thicker. I would say it was in between a crepe and pancake.

You could pick between Nutella, or chocolate sprinkles. We went with the Nutella and it was an excellent choice. They gave us a lot of Nutella, strawberry syrup, and whipped cream.

There isn’t much taste to the pannekoeken, so it relies on the toppings and the powdered sugar sprinkled on top. It also had a slightly chewy texture to it. The combination of Nutella and strawberry was delicious!

All in all, we enjoyed our breakfast and free birthday pannekoeken at De Dutch. It has been many years since we came, but we will be back again in a few months when it is the fiance’s birthday, for another free pannekoeken!