vegetarian/vegan Archives - Curiously Carmen

Vashti Rose Ice Cream – Two visits

October 8, 2021

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!

La Glace Ice Cream

September 16, 2021

After dinner at Yuwa, we decided to go over to La Glace for some ice cream. It was perfect timing because Maki had mentioned this place to me a few days prior, and she really enjoyed it.

La Glace is located in the same small plaza as Yuwa. The space is very girly and cute, something out of a French bakery.

They were closed for dine in when we went, but there were a couple of patio tables and benches around. It got pretty busy and lined up around 7pm, with many families coming here after dinner perhaps.

They have some really nice ice cream to-go jars. They would make for really nice jars to keep afterwards!

Coconut pandan (vegan): I’m not vegan, but I can’t have dairy. Many places have started to offer more vegan/dairy-free flavours in the past couple of years which I am definitely not complaining about. Maki had tried the coconut pandan flavour before, and really liked it. I take it as a good sign when regular ice cream lovers enjoy vegan flavours. The coconut pandan was delicious. It was made with coconut milk, so the ice cream was creamy. I would definitely get it again.

Cookies and cream (vegan): I don’t normally see a vegan cookies and cream, so I decided to order a second scoop. It’s been 2 months since the visit so I don’t remember exactly, but I THINK I found it to be only alright. I think it was not rich enough. I definitely remember liking the coconut pandan one more.

I don’t remember what everyone else ordered, but here are the photos! I tried checking the website but their flavours vary each month.

The husband and Aero both ordered the same flavour. Unfortunately, Aero found a strand of hair in her ice cream. They replaced it with a new cup.

Despite this failure of a blog post of forgetting 1) how I liked the cookies and cream scoop, and 2) what everyone else ordered, the takeaway is that we enjoyed La Glace hahaha.

I wouldn’t make the drive purposely to come here because there are many other ice cream places closer that I enjoy (Elephant Garden Creamery and Earnest Ice Cream to name a couple), but if I was in the area I would come by again.

Peaked Pies – Burnaby Location

March 8, 2021

I’ve heard of Peaked Pies for awhile now but never put it on my list to try. Since I was nearby one day, I asked the fiance if he wanted to try it for takeout.

There are currently two Peaked Pies locations in the Lower Mainland, Burnaby and Vancouver. There is also a location in Whistler. I went to the one in North Burnaby in The Heights. This building used to be a Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy!

Peaked Pies specializes in Australian meat pies, which has gained traction in Vancouver over the years! The pies here are baked fresh in the store.

I’ve tried the food truck, Aussie Pie Guy many years ago and it was delicious so I had high expectations for Peaked Pies. In fact, I keep accidentally calling this place Aussie Pie Guy! Oops.

You order at the counter and can either eat in person or bring it home. There were a few socially distance spots, plus a patio outside. The kitchen also looked really big behind the counter.

Mentil lentil: Yes, mental is spelled wrong on purpose! I actually didn’t want this pie and was disappointed when I got home and realized they gave me the wrong one. I had asked for the vegan pie (vegetable medley) and in retrospect, the worker did seem a bit confused.

I didn’t feel like calling or driving back, so I gave it a try. The mentil lentil came with lentils, zucchini, carrot and celery in a chili basil tomato sauce and ricotta cheese. It was not bad, it reminded me of the lentil tomato soup I make and then put into a pie. The ricotta cheese went well with the lentil and tomato.

Traditional with peak add on: The fiance went with the traditional, which came with ground beef, onions, and gravy. This was simple but delicious and warming.

Both of our pie crusts were delicious and flaky! They tasted fresh and was good quality.

I also added a peak on the fiance’s but it was disappointing. The mushy green peas were very bland and did not taste good at all. It reminded us of awful elementary cafeteria or jail food. The mashed potatoes were also very bland and not creamy. It tasted like someone boiled potatoes and then just smashed it without putting any seasoning or dairy. Good thing I didn’t add this on mine (I was wanting the vegan one and assumed the potatoes had dairy) because we wouldn’t add the addition again.

Overall, we enjoyed our pies despite the mistake with mine. Peaked Pies is a decent place to get Australian meat pies and we wouldn’t mind coming back in the future.

MILA

November 8, 2020

MILA is the newest addition to Vancouver’s vegan food scene that opened a couple months ago in early September. After hearing about it, Avocado and I knew that we had to check it out! I predict that this place will be very popular for vegans and non-vegans alike. Or should I say plant-based because that is the new trendy term for vegan these days? ?

MILA is located in Chinatown. The restaurant was easy to miss because there weren’t any signs except for a small one on their door. I recommend making a reservation because they are quite busy and have limited seating due to the pandemic. Despite it being busy inside, the tables were spaced out and we felt clean and safe in there.

While writing this review, I also found out that they are the sister restaurant to Virtuous Pie, a vegan pizza joint a few blocks away. Avocado and I also tried Virtuous Pie almost 3 years ago and we enjoyed it.

Walking in, we were greeted with loud music (not in an obnoxious way, they had some good lo-fi beats going on) and it was bumpin’ in there for a Sunday evening. It was not what we were both expecting with the dark lighting, music and all. We both thought it’d be a quiet, low-key place. To quote Avocado, it felt like a vegan Cactus Club!

The atmosphere could have easily been seen as hipster, pretentious and snobby (like our experience at Heirloom a few years ago).

If I sense that a place is pretentious, I likely won’t go back. However, that wasn’t the case with MILA. The staff were very friendly and there were no pretentious, hipster vibes detected which was a relief.

Aburi lox: This was one of the most popular items online, so we decided to give it a try. It ended up being our favourite of the evening! I wasn’t sure how I’d feel with carrot being a replacement of salmon, but this roll was delicious for a non-vegan like myself.

Admittedly, the carrot did not replace the texture of real salmon because it lacked the fleshiness of salmon meat (why does that sound morbid?). However, what it didn’t lack was taste. The aburi lox was an explosion of delicious flavour. The sauce on top was incredibly creamy and rich with a nice grilled flavour to it.

There was also more sauce in the middle with shiso leaf, which elevated the flavour even more. I didn’t even mind that this was carrot, that was easily forgotten because of how delicious everything else was.

Bao buns: The bao buns came with hoisin tempeh, pickled onion + cucumber, sambal aioli, cilantro, and crispy shallots. The buns themselves were warm, thick and puffy. I found that some of the bun stuck to the wooden bowl though, so I’d recommend removing the lid and letting it cool down before eating.

The bao buns were not bad either and we both enjoyed it. The sambal aioli and fresh veggies gave the bao buns a lot of flavour, but not enough for me to forget that it was vegan (unlike the aburi lox).

Mushroom and sausage tagliatelle: This dish was also highly recommended online, and I was super excited to try it! Avocado and I appreciated how they split the dish for us already when we told them that we’d be sharing everything.

The tagliatelle was cooked perfectly. The vegan sauce was made up of pistachio pesto cream. The flavours were great, and I also asked for some freshly cracked black pepper which elevated the dish more. My only complaint would be that they could have added more sauce because I didn’t find it creamy or saucy enough for a pasta.

All in all, we left really satisfied with Mila. The ingredients were high quality, and we enjoyed all of the dishes. Service was also friendly and attentive too.

I would definitely recommend this place for vegans! If you’re like Avocado and I who enjoy eating vegan food every so often, you’d probably enjoy it too.

If you’re a die-hard meat lover who refuses to eat vegan food, I would not recommend it because you could still tell that some dishes are vegan.

Say Hello Sweets

October 8, 2020

Say Hello Sweets is an ice cream shop that has been on my list to try for awhile now! I didn’t realize that Avocado wanted to try it as well until recently, so we decided to go check it out together.

Say Hello Sweets is located on the outskirts of Chinatown, beside Andy Livingstone Park by Tinseltown. You may recognize their name because they started out as a food truck. The shop is only open on Saturdays and Sundays, with the rest of the days focusing on the food truck.

The shop itself is very small, with room for perhaps 2-3 people max to sit inside. Due to the pandemic, there were no tables for us to sit inside because I imagine that they only allow a maximum of 3 people or so in the shop. They had a few tables outside so we ordered and had our desserts outside.

Everything offered at Say Hello Sweets is entirely dairy free and vegan! That was the reason it was on my list, since I shouldn’t be having much dairy due to my stomach problems.

Vegan strawberry ice cream: Originally, we came for the ice cream sandwiches, but I saw that they had a strawberry flavour ice cream and I couldn’t pass up the chance to try it.

The strawberry ice cream was absolutely phenomenal. The ice cream was rich and had some real strawberry pieces inside too. Most vegan ice creams are made with coconut milk because of how rich it is. Usually, I find that the coconut milk taste is quite strong but in this case, I couldn’t taste much of the coconut at all.

Instead, it was just a rich strawberry taste like dairy ice cream. Although I can eat dairy currently without issues (HAH, watch this sentence curse me), I would still come back here for their strawberry ice cream.

Marshmallow ice dream sandwich: The marshmallow is their most popular ice dream sandwich flavour, so naturally we had to try it. I forgot to take a photo until after we split it in half to share and Avocado had eaten hers already, so this is just my portion. Oops!

Just like the strawberry ice cream, this did not disappoint as well! It reminded me of a melted marshmallow in a smore, but featured in a a cold, ice cream addition. Very good and a must try here!

Lemon ice dream sandwich: Compared to the marshmallow ice dream sandwich, we found this one to be alright. The lemon sandwich wasn’t as creamy, and reminded me more of a sorbet.

Matcha sesame: Avocado also got the matcha sesame sandwich to go. This is one of their seasonal features I believe.

They usually have a matcha and sesame bar sold separately, but they have merged the two flavours into one bar. She also enjoyed the matcha sesame, but her top pick was still the marshmallow.

I’d highly recommend stopping by to “Say Hello” on the weekends (because they’re closed weekdays). Whether you’re lactose intolerant/vegan/have other dietary restrictions or not, Say Hello was enjoyable and I’m glad that I finally had the chance to try it. It’s a great and delicious alternative to dairy ice cream and I’m happy that I have this option to go to now as well!