Curiously Carmen

Zakkushi on Main

March 20, 2019

You ever have one of those meals that was so good, you couldn’t stop thinking about it the next day? That was Zakkushi on Main for the boyfriend and I!

I had heard of Zakkushi before but kind of forgot about it until my uncle recommended it one night. Ever since going to Tokyo and having delicious yakitori, we have been craving it sooo badly again.

I’m happy to say that Zakkushi surpassed our expectations and brought us back to Japan!

What is so special about yakitori, aka grilled meat? The meat is cooked using special Japanese charcoal, called binchotan. The charcoal is much higher quality and hard to find, but it produces amazingly grilled meat.

Tofu skewer: I love my tofu, so naturally I wanted to try it here! The tofu was grilled perfectly and full of smoky delicious flavour. After trying this, we were so excited to see how the meats tasted, if the tofu was already so good!

From left to right: 1x chicken thigh with sea salt, 1x chicken thigh with teriyaki, 2x Kurobuta pork

Chicken thigh w/ sea salt: Oh my GOD. The chicken thigh was so incredibly juicy and full of smoky flavour. This one was just seasoned with simple salt, so the focus was more on the smoky flavour. This was my favourite skewer!

Chicken thigh w/ teriyaki: The teriyaki skewer was good too, but the sauce took away from the grilled taste. I would recommend the sea salt one so you can get full flavour of the barbeque.

Kurobuta pork: Kurobuta pork is a type of high quality meat, akin to Wagyu or Kobe beef. It was also simply seasoned, probably only with salt as well? Nonetheless, it was delicious. It was more on the lean side but still very juicy.

From left to right: 2x duck breast, 2x pork belly, 1x chicken thigh with sea salt

Duck breast: The boyfriend’s duck breast skewer! He loved it and had no complaints about it.

Pork belly: The boyfriend’s favourite skewer of the night, pork belly! The pork belly was fatty and also came with some Japanese leeks to balance it out.

Garlic beef: For our second round, we tried the garlic beef with teriyaki sauce! The garlic beef was amazing as well. Very juicy with crispy garlic flakes.

Oropon beef: The boyfriend really likes ponzu sauce, so we were intrigued with this beef skewer that came with daikon and ponzu sauce. The flavours went well together and the juicy beef also had the grilled, smoky taste.

Edamame beans: There was a special deal on Yelp, where you can get a free appetizer if you check in! The appetizer that night was the edamame beans. No complaints about the edamame beans.

Saikyo miso beef: We wanted to try this due to the miso sauce. The miso was a bit sweet and went well with the beef, but it was nothing special. The beef was still delicious though.

Cheese tsukune: Tsukune is a chicken meatball! I was going to order one without cheese, but was too full after many chicken thigh skewers. Since I wasn’t going it, the boyfriend ordered it with cheese! He said it was delicious and had no complaints about it.

Needless to say, we left extremely satisfied and happy. I should warn you though, that it can get pricey real quick if you’re ordering many skewers! We came with a budget price in mind and went over. Also, they are a cashless restaurant and only take card.

Zakkushi reminded us of the yakitori place we tried in Tokyo, and we are so glad that we finally checked this place out! I’m sure we will be back.

Special pic of the tiny place in Tokyo that made us fall in love with yakitori… Forgot the name but we will be back! <3

Brown Bites – Boba Essence

March 17, 2019

Brown Bites is a mini series on my blog featuring places the boyfriend has tried without me, so it wouldn’t be my own review. Why the name Brown, you ask? It is named after the Japanese LINE character, Brown. Brown is a cute, shy, emotionless cartoon bear but secretly full of love, and we adore him to pieces!

One night while hanging out with Maki, Nigiri, and Burger, we were craving bubble tea (what else is new? bubble tea is life) so we decided to order delivery.

My stomach was acting up (again, what else is new?) so I opted out that evening. I didn’t miss out on much because they were all quite disappointed with this place!

The actual store is located in Olympic Village. It is one of the only bubble tea shops in this area. Since we ordered delivery, I can’t comment on the store or service.

Roasted milk tea with pearls: The boyfriend ordered this, but was disappointed. While it had a decent tea flavour, it was wayyyy too sweet to enjoy. The straw was too small for the pearls, so he had a hard time getting them.

Oolong milk tea with pearls

Hochija milk tea with pearls

Earl grey milk tea with grass jelly

The rest of them did not enjoy their bubble tea either, commenting that it was way too sweet.

When I asked everyone if they would have it again, everyone said they rather go order from somewhere else. If they were in Olympic Village and happened to walk by, then possibly if the bubble tea craving was strong enough. Otherwise, there are a lot more and better options in Vancouver for bubble tea.

Glad I opted out for once!

Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ

March 13, 2019

For Valentines day, the boyfriend and I wanted to try something different… so I did a bit of restaurant researching, and found Gyu-Kaku which looked super enticing! We really love yakiniku so jumped at the chance.

There was a problem, though… it seemed like everyone else had the same idea and the reservations were fully booked for all 3 of their locations (unless we wanted to eat dinner at 9pm). So, we waited 3 weeks for our reservation and were really excited to try it!

I would definitely recommend that you make reservations, or else you wouldn’t get a table or have to wait awhile. I overheard the host quoting 30-45 minutes for non reservations!

We went to the location on West Broadway, which is located on the second floor of the building. There was a parking lot but it was full, so we found some paid street parking nearby.

The restaurant is long and narrow, but able to fit many tables and it did not feel cramped. It had a lively atmosphere too, perfect for eating out on the weekends!

They have set BBQ menus which seemed like a good deal. However, due to my digestive problems, I wouldn’t have been able to eat a lot of the set menu things so we ordered a la carte.

Melon soda float (alcoholic): The boyfriend had his eyes set on this drink even before we got here! We miss Japanese melon soda and wish that more places sold it here. The melon soda is not actually Japanese melon soda, it is Bols Melon which is a melon liqueur. It was topped off with a scoop of ice cream, which he really enjoyed!

Sadly, I was not able to try some with my sensitive stomach.

Spicy tuna bowl: To start, the boyfriend ordered a spicy tuna bowl. He enjoyed it, but probably wouldn’t order it again because he rather save room for more meat. He said that a plain bowl of rice would have sufficed.

Gyu-Kaku Kalbi Short Rib: One of the two beef plates that we got! Out of the two, we both liked this one more. The beef was melt in your mouth soft, and buttery. It came marinated with a tare sweet soy, which was made up of pear juice, soy sauce and ginger (couldn’t taste much of the ginger).

?? Mysterious meat LOL, we can’t remember if this was the New York Steak??

New York Steak: The New York Steak was thicker than the short rib. It was yummy too, but not as buttery since this was a leaner cut. The sauce that it came with was the miso and soy sauce.

Assorted veggies (see above): We thought it would be better to order some veggies too because the meat don’t come with any! They took a bit of time to grill, so we ate them near the end. They had a very small amount of sauce, which I couldn’t really taste.

The corn normally comes with butter, which I sadly can not have. But the corn was still sweet!

Chicken thigh: I love my chicken! The chicken came with yuzu sauce, which was delicious! There was a slight zesty tang at the end which made it different from other marinated chicken.

Duck breast: Duck breast isn’t something we normally see offered in restaurants, so we gave it a try here. It came with the shio white soy sauce, which was a combination of garlic, salt, and soy sauce.

I wasn’t expecting duck breast to be that fatty, I thought it would be more lean. Taste-wise, it was delicious!

Pork belly (no photo): The boyfriend loves pork belly, so this was an obvious choice. Due to my digestive problems, my stomach can not handle that much fat unfortunately. The pork belly came with the shio white soy, which was the same as the duck breast. He had no complaints about the pork belly!

All in all, we left very satisfied and could see why this place is so busy all the time! It’s delicious. Service was a bit slow because it was so busy, but they were friendly.

ZenQ – Burnaby Location

March 10, 2019

ZenQ is a Taiwanese dessert chain that opened in the Vancouver area a bit over a year ago. Since their first store (I believe in Richmond?), a few other locations have opened up around town. I live closest to the Burnaby location and went once last year, but thought it was time I write about it.

This post also contains a delivery order with Maki, Nigiri, and the boyfriend! (my stomach was acting up that night so I didn’t order anything, sad).

The location is clean and new, less than a year old. Surprisingly, there aren’t many bubble tea places along The Heights so they don’t have much competition. Parking is easy to find and free along the streets.

Hot grass jelly pudding with Q balls and pearls: Grass jelly is made from a Chinese plant, with other herbs added inside. The result is a healthy dessert, usually served cold with other toppings such as syrup, pearls, mochi balls, or ice cream.

I ordered the plain one when I had a sore throat, but this time, I ordered one with toppings! My go-to is the hot version with Q-balls, pearls, and red bean. The Q balls are chewy, mochi balls which come in yam, sweet potato, and matcha flavour.

The pearls add a nice sweetness and more chewiness to the grass jelly pudding as well! This is such a guilt free dessert and I am still able to eat it with all my digestive problems, which is a win for me!

Milk tea with pearls: The boyfriend really enjoyed his milk tea. There was a strong black tea flavour and not diluted at all, which is evident of their quality.

Cold grass jelly dessert: This is from a separate delivery order with Maki and Nigiri. It was the cold grass jelly with vanilla ice cream, mochi, and pearls. It looked delicious and they didn’t have complaints about it.

Jasmine green milk tea: While Maki and Nigiri ordered a food item, the boyfriend went with the Jasmine milk tea. He noted the strong Jasmine flavour and quality this time too.

ZenQ has been around for a year now, and I suspect that we will be back more often, whether it’s for dine in or delivery!

The grass jelly is high quality and made in store, while their teas are fragrant and delicious. What’s not to love about it?

GUEST POST: Brown Bites – Ramen Gaoh

March 7, 2019

This is a special Brown Bites post, because it is a guest post written by the boyfriend!

Welcome to another edition of Brown Bites. I am Carmen’s boyfriend, finally back with another guest post.

In today’s edition, we have another ramen joint: Ramen Gaoh. They are a part of the ramen chain that also consists of The Ramen Butcher and Ramen Gojiro. Carmen and I have been to Ramen Gojiro in the past, so I was not hesitant to give Ramen Gaoh a try. You can read Carmen’s Ramen Gojiro review here.

Ramen Gaoh’s menu consists mainly of miso ramen, along with appetizers like gyoza and chicken karaage. The menu is simple and easy to understand. It gives you the option to add more toppings to your ramen, but doesn’t give you options to select the richness of your broth or fattiness of your chashu as some other ramen places do.

In my visit, I arrived a little after they just opened, around 11:40am, and was actually the first customer there, but the restaurant did start to fill up as it got closer to lunch.

AKA MISO RAMEN: I ordered the Aka Miso Ramen, which is red soybean paste broth. The ramen comes with bamboo shoots, wood ear fungus, bean sprouts, and a single slice of chashu topped with green onions and ginger. The noodles were perfect: good texture and decent portion.

The broth was not for me though. Since I prefer my broth as plain as possible to get the chicken and pork flavour from the stock, the aka miso overpowered the other flavours of the stock. It was a mistake on my part. The chashu was good, if nothing special.

ORIGINAL GYOZAS: The gyozas were part of the ramen combo for an additional $3. The skin was thin and pan fried to a nice crispiness, and filling was tender and juicy pork. Definitely worth trying in their other flavours.

ORIGINAL CHICKEN KARAAGE: If you have been to Ramen Gojiro and tried the chicken karaage, then you will not be disappointed here. The chicken is the same garlicky, crispy, and juicy chicken goodness you can get there.

This was a lot of food for one person so I ended up taking the chicken karaage home for later.

In conclusion, I’m glad that I finally tried Ramen Gaoh. I would come back for their chicken karaage, instead of making the trek to their sister restaurant, Ramen Gojiro in downtown, or the gyozas.

Thanks for reading my guest post! Now I will hand it back to Carmen.