Curiously Carmen

Chuncheon Dakgalbi

Over a year ago (maybe even two years at this rate…), Maki and Nigiri told us about Chuncheon Korean Pan BBQ in Port Moody. This restaurant is quietly tucked away in Port Moody, and I haven’t heard much about it before. I was really excited to try it because Maki loves their Korean ox bone soup here and said I absolutely had to try it!

The restaurant was really quiet when we came with Maki and Nigiri on a Saturday night. The restaurant was spacious, and the tables were distanced. It felt clean and COVID-safe here.

Chuncheon is actually a city in Korea, known for dak-galbi, which is a shared spicy dish that comes with chicken, rice cake, sweet potatoes, cabbage, and more. The Korean food served here is Chuncheon-style, hence their restaurant name.

Banchan: It was nice to have a bowl of salad with the banchan. We all really enjoyed the mashed potatoes, which were dairy free! They made it with mayo. A lot of people are surprised to find out that mayo doesn’t have dairy. Mayo contains eggs though.

Ox bone soup: The ox bone soup here did not disappoint, and was so delicious! You can see how clear the soup is, but it was so flavourful. I am glad that I was finally able to try the ox bone soup, and would gladly make the drive here for it again.

Chicken hot plate: The husband and Nigiri split the chicken hot plate, which was gigantic. The easiest comparison would be to Sooda, which is more popular. However, we found the hot plate at Chuncheon to be a lot better. The hot plates at Sooda are the same price (if not more), but you get a lot more here too. You can see Maki’s ox bone soup bowl in the corner, and can use that to compare the size of the hot plate!

I believe they ordered the cheese dakgalbi. The sauce was spicy, with a bit of sweetness to it. All of the ingredients inside, especially the rice cakes, soaked up the sauce nicely. The menu said that this feeds 2 people, but it could definitely feed 3-4 people because we had leftovers!

Overall, our dinner at ChunCheon Dakgalbi was delicious and I am looking forward to my next visit. Both dishes we ordered were great, and the service was nice as well. This place is a hidden gem in Port Moody! After dinner, we finished the night with Vashti Rose Ice Cream a few minutes drive away. The line is shorter than Rocky Point Ice Cream and the ice cream at Vashti Rose is just as good!

TangMaRu

I have been wanting to go to a small ice cream shop in Port Moody called Vashti Rose for awhile. Since we were coming to this area, I thought it was a good time to see what else was around here and saw a Korean restaurant by the name of TangMaRu.

Our favourite Korean place, Jong Ga, has sadly shut down, we have been wanting to find a new place to go when craving stone bowl rice.

We also spontaneously asked Sangria and Lager if they were free to join, so the 4 of us went together!

TangMaRu is easily missed if you aren’t looking for it. They are in a strip mall that has parking, but it was full when we went and parked a couple of blocks down.

While waiting outside, you are instructed to take a look at the menu and decide what you’d like to order. When you’re ready, you go inside and put down your name, # of people, and the item # of what you’d like to order.

The process was a bit confusing to us at first and not explained well by the server.

Ox bone soup: I was happy to see what they had stone bowl here for no extra cost. Most places charge an additional $3-4 for stone bowl. When the stone bowl rice comes, you should first open the lid and spread the rice evenly to the top of the bowl so that you can have more crispy rice. Then, leave it closed for about 8-10 minutes to crisp the rice, while eating other things.

My ox bone soup was good, and I had no complaints about it. You add in your own salt and pepper as with most ox bone soup.

Beef short rib soup: Sangria ordered the beef short rib soup. Compared to the ox bone soup, beef short rib soup is more flavourful and you don’t have to season it with salt. There is usually a more garlicky and deeper flavour with beef short rib soup.

Sangria had no complaints about it and found it delicious.

Spicy pork bone soup: Lager ordered the spicy pork bone soup. He enjoyed it and had no complaints.

Beef bulgolgi soup: The husband had a really good beef bulgolgi soup at Wang Ga Mah, so he wanted to compare it. Unfortunately, he didn’t like the beef bulgolgi soup as much here.

Overall, I enjoyed the food at TangMaRu. The service definitely could have been improved though. The main server lady was not really nice, and didn’t explain the ordering process to us clearly and seemed exasperated.

Also, as we were finishing up our meal, she came by to tell us that there was a line outside. A few minutes passed, and we were getting ready to leave and finishing up our water, when she came again and told us rudely this time, that there was a line and that we had to leave. We thought it was really rude of her to rush us out when we were already gathering our things to go, and that soured our experience a bit.

Tang Maru Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Sing Sing

I have been curious about Sing Sing for awhile now, ever since they opened over 2 years ago. What sets Sing Sing apart from other pubs in Vancouver is that they serve Vietnamese food as well. I haven’t seen this unique combo but I was also hesitant to try pho served at a pub. Bellini had a good time here before, so Bellini, Martini and I came for dinner one evening.

We came in the early evening around 5pm, and the restaurant was already at full capacity! They don’t take reservations here either so I recommend coming earlier. The atmosphere was lively and bumpin’. The entire front of the restaurant opens up to a patio too.

Beef pho: I ordered the beef pho which came with beef balls, brisket, and rare steak. To be honest, my expectations of pho served at a white pub weren’t super high, so I was pleasantly surprised when I enjoyed it. It’s not the best pho, but it’s decent. The pieces of brisket were very thick and big, reminiscent of brisket served at BBQ restaurants.

There were a lot of chopped green onions on top, as you can see. Usually, pho is served with a side of beansprouts, basil, etc but it was already included. There were only a few pieces of beansprouts. My one complaint was that when I asked the server to have cooked beansprouts, she gave me a b1tchy and judgy look *eyeroll*.

Dumplings: You also don’t see dumplings at a pub often. Bellini ordered the vegetarian dumplings, which was topped with a mountain of green onions and fried onion (or garlic?) pieces. She enjoyed the dumplings and didn’t have any complaints about it.

Pizza: Martini ordered a pizza. It was a smaller pizza and probably suitable for one person only.

Our only complaint was that the service was quite cold. I mentioned above how our server rolled her eyes at me when I asked for cooked beansprouts. Another complaint about the service was that Bellini and Martini decided to see if they could another drink at 6:03pm, happy hour ended at 6pm. Prior to ordering, they asked the same server if they could still have the happy hour price. The server said she wasn’t sure and could try. They both asked her to come back and tell them if the HH price wasn’t possible. The server never came back, and was replaced by another server so we thought all was good.

When we got our bills, they were surprised to see that they were charged regular price for the drinks. The new server said that the old server informed her of the situation, and it took some pushing to have her change it to the happy hour price. If the old server had come back and said the HH price wasn’t possible, they wouldn’t have ordered it.

Overall, I am really glad that I finally tried Sing Sing and I would definitely be back. Despite that rude server, we still had a good time here. The atmosphere was great, and I loved the variety on the menu.

Sing Sing Beer Bar Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Kanadell Japanese Bakery

Kanadell Japanese Bakery is a place that I’ve seen a lot this year, and was wanting to try it. They started out in local farmer markets, and have opened up a storefront earlier this year.

I follow them on Instagram and their baked goods tend to sell out each day, so the hype is real.

Back in the summer, Maki and Nigiri were kind enough to bring some of their pastries over for us to try!

Matcha melon pan: I love melon pan! Melon pan is a type of Japanese bun. There isn’t any melon in it, but the outer layer resembles a melon hence the name.

The matcha melon pan was delicious! There was a light matcha flavour and it wasn’t too sweet. The bread was enjoyably soft and fluffy.

Earl grey melon pan: This was my favourite melon pan that we tried that day. The earl grey flavour was fragrant and floral.

Regular melon pan: This is their regular melon pan, which is just brushed with sugar I believe. The matcha and earl grey melon pans were better, but I also didn’t mind the regular melon pan. The regular melon pan doesn’t have caffeine unlike the other two, so this is a better choice if you can’t have caffeine.

Fresh bread: Maki and Nigiri kept raving about their fresh bread, saying how delicious it was. They were absolutely right. Their loaves of bread were the most pillowy and soft bread I’ve ever had. This bread was good enough to eat plain. I recommend eating this within 2 days or else the bread wouldn’t be as pillowly and soft. Bread seems so simple, but the bread was my favourite out of all the things we tried that day.

My only complaint would be that I wish it was sliced!

Bear bread: I’m not really sure what this was called, so I’m just going to call it the bear bread. Kanadell is known for their cute, cartoon style bread. This was alright, but forgettable compared to the loaves of bread and melon pan. It wasn’t bad, but there are better pastries to try here.

Kanadell Japanese Bakery did not disappoint. I will definitely be back, especially for their fresh bread loaves. I understand the hype for this place!

Vashti Rose Ice Cream – Two visits

This post is a long time coming, because I’ve wanted to try Vashti Rose for a long time now! I started to receive Facebook ads awhile ago. Targeted ads work people!!! Lol.

Vashti Rose caught my eye because they had just as many vegan flavours as regular dairy flavours. We finally went to try it and ended up going twice in a week, because we were in the area both times!

Vashti Rose is a very small ice cream shop in Port Moody. It’s a bit odd because they share the space with a kickboxing or martial arts facility. They are quite easy to miss because the sign is a bit dark and it’s not really in a busy area.

The best way to describe where Vashti Rose is, is that it is beside the Shell gas station.

The flavours change daily, but here were the flavours on our first visit. We came a bit later on the second visit, and some flavours were crossed off.

Banana fudge caramel walnut vegan: You know a vegan flavour is good when dairy ice cream lovers order it! I had decided on this already, but Sangria and Lager also decided to get it because it was that good. This was a flavour I haven’t tried before, but it was really good! There were some crunchy walnuts in there too.

The top dollop was a sample of the vegan peach crumble and blackberry jam. Sangria couldn’t decide, and the staff were nice enough to give her a tiny scoop of it.

Cookies and cream: The husband really enjoyed the cookies and cream ice cream. In particular, he noted how generous they were with the cookie chunks. The cookie chunks were really big, and he even found a whole Oreo chunk in there!

Mint vegan: I couldn’t decide on one flavour, and went with two scoops. The mint kinda tasted artificial, but I didn’t mind that much. The chocolate chips they used in here were probably 90%+ dark chocolate, because it was extremely bitter! The bitterness contrasted too much with the mint ice cream, and I was not a fan of the chocolate chips.

The bottom scoop is the banana fudge caramel, which you can read about above.

Lemon curd: We came a second time with Maki and Nigiri. Maki really enjoyed her lemon curd ice cream. Although lemon isn’t normally a flavour she usually gravitates to, she was pleasantly surprised at how much she liked it. There were also lemon curd pieces in there which reminded her of lemon cheesecake pieces.

Mini egg: I was really jealous of Nigiri’s scoop. Much like the cookies and cream ice cream, the mini egg ice cream had a very generous amount of mini egg chunks in it. Nigiri enjoyed his ice cream a lot.

Salted caramel: The husband decided to try the salted caramel flavour this time. It was also just as good as the cookies and cream, and did not disappoint. However, he prefers the other flavours with stuff in it (such as cookies and cream or mini egg) because they are so generous with it.

I’m really glad that I finally tried Vashti Rose, and brought some friends who also enjoyed it. I will definitely be back for my ice cream fix. Rocky Point Ice Cream nearby is the more popular ice cream shop in Port Moody, but Vashti Rose is great too, if not better!