delicious Archives - Page 3 of 5

Rocket Sandwich Shop

February 25, 2015

Hello all!

I was walking around on my lunch break one day, and noticed a clean, pristine and modern looking sandwich shop that I’ve never heard of before. I then decided to search them up and found out that it was a healthy, alternative gourmet sandwich shop catered for those on the go. I think it’s also relatively new because their website still says “now open!”. A few weeks later, my coworkers and I went to try this place for lunch and here’s how that went!
I really liked the modern, clean, and simplistic design to Rocket- that’s what made me notice this place originally! As you can see, they have a white tile wall with a big rocket ship stamped on it, their company logo. They keep the colours simple and fresh, with a splash of colour- à la baby blue espresso machine. A small selection of pastries are offered behind a clean, streak/thumbprint free glass.

On the other side of the clean wooden counter was the fridge, where their sandwiches are stored. We went around 12:30 on a weekday, and the fridge was looking a bit scarce already. However, the worker told us that they were able to freshly make a sandwich that we wanted if we did not see it there!

The price of one sandwich was $8.50, and I didn’t feel like paying that much for a sandwich although they looked delicious. I opted for the hot egg breakfast sandwich instead, with your choice of one out of four options and was $4. I decided on the prosciutto and cheddar topping.

I fell in love with this at first bite. I loved how savoury, warm, and fresh everything tasted. The cheddar cheese was slightly melted on the prosciutto, while the English muffin was soft and lightly toasted. My favourite part was the EGG though, I’m still thinking about how delicious that egg was. For $4, this is a much better tasting breakfast sandwich with fresh, quality ingredients than getting a breakfast sandwich at a fast food joint for around the same price.

My coworker ordered the spicy shrimp sandwich. She enjoyed her sandwich as well, even though it was a bit on the pricey side for a single sandwich ($8.50 without tax and tip). Well to justify the amount spent on her sandwich, she said it’s not likely that she will craft up a sandwich with this much effort in it on a daily basis – preparing, seasoning, and cooking the shrimp and making the specialty sandwich sauce.

True that, if you were to make that at home it would probably take a long time. Usually, people prepare sandwiches because they’re quick and easy so I guess that the spicy shrimp sandwich at Rocket is worth the splurge.

-Carmen

Earnest Ice Cream – Two visits

February 24, 2015

Hi everyone,

FINALLY! I am so happy to be able to write a post on Earnest… because that means I finally tried it! The reason why I waited so long to try it is because of my pet peeve in lining up at eating establishments. If you’ve been reading my blog already, you know that I hate waiting in line for food.
I actually sucked it up and attempted to go to Earnest twice in the summer. Both times, we drove around the store and surrounding blocks looking for parking, for a good ten minutes before giving up.

Needless to say, Earnest seemed like a faraway, dreamy and distant land that I’ll never be able to go to =( Until now! Their new location had opened up this month right on the outskirts of Olympic Village.
Although I haven’t been to the original location, I’ve driven past it many times and know how small it is. This location is a major upgrade in terms of size, featuring high ceilings and almost floor to ceiling windows. It feels very roomy and spacious due to the high ceilings.

For our first visit, the boyfriend ordered a scoop of the whiskey hazelnut. It was very rich, creamy, and smooth…the epitome of what great ice cream should taste like. There were small chunks of hazelnut in his ice cream as well. The only regret he had was to order the waffle cone instead, he thought that it costed extra!
This was my heavenly scoop of salted caramel. Again, it was very rich and creamy… the caramel taste was perfect. I enjoyed every bite of this and the waffle cone tasted fresh and was crunchy.
I was craving Earnest so much after our first visit that we went back the next day…. whatever! #hatersgonnahate. I ordered the same salted caramel ice cream with a waffle cone, so I won’t talk about how delicious it was again!

The boyfriend ordered the cookies and cream, with a waffle cone this time! Again, it did not disappoint.

Earnest was seriously amazing, and definitely lived up to the hype. At least, I think so, but I would love to hear about those who didn’t like the ice cream here. Friendly, fast service combined with quality, rich, and smooth ice cream… I’m not sure what more you could ask for.

-Carmen

PS. Since both stores are the same and carry the same flavours, here are spoon backs to both locations:

Rain or Shine Ice Cream

February 18, 2015

Hi everyone,

(Disclaimer- I actually wrote this draft last April LOL, I was meaning to publish it once the weather became hotter but I completely forgot!)

I predict that Rain or Shine Ice Cream is going to be the next big ice cream parlour in Vancouver and for outstanding reasons. I mean, come on, ICE CREAM WAFFLE CONE TACOS and ice cream paddles? They take ice cream, which is already a wonderful invention, and find ways to make it more spectacular.

I somehow came across this place while I was reading other food blogs. What caught my eye was that one review said that offer “ice cream flights”. I love beer flights/paddles (Biercraft, St Augs anybody?), so needless to say, I was ecstatic when I heard about this and knew I had to come here. People also said that it was like Earnest ice cream without the line up and popularity.

Upon entering, I noticed that it was a pretty small place. Probably seats around 12 people at most. They had a big cows head statue which reminded me of Marsha the Moose from Big Brother Canada.

The workers let us sample so many different flavours, gave us some history behind the store, and were so patient. Even though they had other customers to serve, they treated everyone equally and had time for everyone’s questions and sampling requests!
We finally decided on our flight flavours. We shared the chocolate, peanut butter, blueberry balsamic, and brown butter snickerdoodle. Ahhhh! All of the flavours were so creamy and rich. The workers told us that they make all their ice cream in the back kitchen with local ingredients as much as possible. The freshness of their ice cream really shines through, and it completely melts in your mouth with every spoonful. It cost $9 which I think was worth it, since it was so fresh and delicious. The following 4 pictures will be a review on each flavour, because I’m that obsessed…
Peanut butter- The boyfriend eats, breathes, and lives peanut butter so it was only natural we got this flavour. Unfortunately for me, I am not a big fan of peanut butter but I still liked the creamy and smooth texture of this. There were also small peanut chunks in the ice cream, which made the ice cream crunchier.
Chocolate- As you can tell, we devoured part of this before I remembered to take a picture. The chocolate was very smooth, and it wasn’t overwhelming sweet.
Brown butter snickerdoodle- This one was my second favourite. As with the chocolate one, this one wasn’t overly sweet other but it had lovely hints of cinnamon spices. IT WAS SO GOOD. On top of the smooth, creamy, cinnamon goodness, there were also generous chunks of cookies inside the ice cream too, which tasted so, so, so, amazing.
Blueberry balsamic- I saved my favourite for last!!! Again, this flavour was very very creamy and delightful. There was a strong blueberry taste to it. There was also generous chunks of blueberries inside which I thoroughly enjoyed. I would definitely recommend trying this flavour!

All in all, we loved our experience at Rain or Shine. It’s definitely worth trying, and if you’re not sure of which flavours to get, try the ice cream flight like we did! Perfect for the indecisive individuals like ourselves. I can predict many Summer nights coming to this place, I better come here more before it gets super popular and impossible to grab a seat or cone (like Earnest)!

-Carmen

Bon Macaron Patisserie

February 11, 2015

Hi everyone!

Maki hopped on a ferry to Victoria over the long weekend, and surprised me with a box of macarons from Bon Macaron Patisserie! I’ve never heard of them as I’ve only been to Victoria once for a high school field trip, and also because I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I also don’t understand the crazy macaron phase that everyone obsesses about but to each their own =)

But enough of me rambling on, I’ll get to what you are all here for =)

First off, can we talk about how cute their mascot is?! It’s a French sir macaron hehehe! After browsing through their site, I learned that Bon Macaron is owned by two good pals who were born, raised, and educated in France, before settling down and opening their store in downtown Victoria.
Inside the mini box were six assorted flavours! They looked so cute and dainty. Maki picked out random flavours for me, but avoided their savoury macaron section. At first, I was a bit disappointed hearing that because I’m sure you all know how much I love my savoury foods over sweets! But she told me they were pretty disappointing and some were really gross, so I guess savoury macaron flavours don’t go well together.
They were all so cute that I couldn’t help putting them all on a plate and making it look nice. Macarons unite! Since we both didn’t know what all the flavours were in the box, I was left to taste test each one and figuring out which flavour it was based on their website. I think I did pretty well, there were only two that I couldn’t figure out exactly but good thing my friend remembered.
The first one I tried was the tangerine chili, it even had sparkles on it if you look closely or open the image in a separate window! I hope that the sparkles are safe for consumption LOL! I loved how this wasn’t too sweet and had a custard filling inside, there also wasn’t much of a chili taste which I preferred. Yum!

When I first bit into the second macaron, my thoughts and taste buds went from weird -> yummy -> weird -> yummy -> I’m not sure how I feel about this anymore. Originally, there was a strong spicy cinnamon and chai taste to it. Then, it started to taste like bananas. I really enjoyed the banana part, but I wasn’t a fan of the strong cinnamon taste. This was either the chai or banana flambe macaron, it seemed like it was a mix of both flavours.
Up next was the chocolate pear, I didn’t see this on the menu but my friend remembered the flavour. I didn’t taste the pear, only the chocolate. They use a dark chocolate filling, so it wasn’t super sweet. I enjoyed this one as well =)

The light pink one was the raspberry. Compared to all the other fillings I had tried so far, this one was a lot sweeter. The raspberry tasted like the candy flavour, instead of the raspberry fruit. I also noticed that the amount of filling that they give here is a lot less than at Theirry’s or Soirette, but that doesn’t bother me!

One of the classic flavours, good ol’ chocolate. If you’re looking for something original and want to keep it safe, this one is the way to go. Just like the pear chocolate above, this chocolate macaron wasn’t too sweet and tasted like it was made with dark chocolate. I liked the lightly dusted cocoa powder on top as well!

Last but not least! I had no idea what flavour this was. I wrote down mini notes on each of these because I figured I’d probably forget and all I wrote for this one was ??? LOL! However, I asked my friend and she said it was the bubble gum flavour. Now that I think of it, there was a slight hint of bubble gum, but it tasted more like a plain macaron except hot pink.

4665958_orig — Picture from EatDrinkVictoria.com

Overall, I really enjoyed the macarons and was left with a happy tummy. Each of the macarons were made with great quality and tasted great even though it had been a couple of days since my friend bought them. The outside shell was slightly hard but when you bite into them, they are soft and a bit moist and chewy. A bad macaron would be super hard, crumble, and crack, leaving you with nothing but a mess and a macaron corpse.

I only had a few small bites of each since I was planning on going to bed soon, but wanted to try them since they were still relatively fresh! I’ll finish the rest of it off today >=). It is recommended that the sweet macarons (ones that I received) should be consumed within three days, and the savoury ones to be consumed within one day.

Special thanks to my wonderful friend Pauline for being thoughtful and surprising me with these treats! =)

What are your favourite macaron places?

-Carmen

{Food Truck Compilation} JJ’s Trucketeria, Guanaco, and Super Thai

February 3, 2015

Food truck invasion! I decided to compile these 3 food trucks into one post as they seemed like it would be three very short posts on their own. These places are a compilation of two visits with coworkers during the Street Food City festival, which was part of DOVF. But, most of these you can have without Dine Out Vancouver. I should have included Vij’s food truck in here as well, oops!

Guanaco is a Salvadorean cuisine food truck, I think it is the only one of its kind in Vancouver but correct me if I’m wrong. I wanted to take a walk around the food truck festival and my coworker decided to come with me as well!

I had already eaten, but I was in the mood for a small snack which is why I settled on this place. My first choice was The Reef food truck, but their Jamaican patties looked kinda gross in the warmer so after walking around three times, I decided to just come here. Ugh indecisiveness.

I ordered two of their snack sized tacos, chicken and chorizo. I felt like a small snack, and felt that $5 would be a reasonable price.

The chicken was tender, while all the vegetables were fresh and crunchy. I liked the addition of fresh onions and loads of cilantro! The taco shell was soft and doughy, with a bit extra powder.

DSC04610-300x168 — Photo credit: Blast Media

Super Thai: On that same day, my coworker ordered the chicken pad thai from Super Thai. I didn’t try any, but she was happy to offer her opinion on it.

She liked how it was warm and comforting on a cloudy day, and said it was pretty flavourful and not watery like other pad thai that she’s had.

However, near the end, a lot of the noodles started to annoyingly stick to the bottom of the take out box, and took too much effort to un-stick. Perhaps it’s the texture of the noodles that makes it do that.

She also thought it wasn’t worth the price she paid. I also think it’s worth nothing that they were sold out on half their menu items by 2 pm that day. I wanted to order the coconut curry rice but there was none left! =(

JJs-Trucketeria-1 — Picture from Follow Me Foodie

JJ’s Trucketeria: While I went to Vij’s, two of my coworkers ordered from JJ’s instead. Funny story, none of us actually knew the name of this place. I didn’t take a close look at the place, and my coworkers didn’t see a name on the truck.. so we just referred to it as the yellow food truck.

I’m not even sure how we figured out the name, LOL! As you can see from the picture, half the name is on the covering which you’re not able to see unless you’re far away, while the other part is covered with their menu.

Flipino BBQ pork, fried egg, and garlic rice. My coworkers were nice enough to share with me as the portion was too big for just one person. The meat was very tender and well seasoned, while the fried egg was cooked perfect and oozed onto the garlic rice.

My favourite part of this was the garlic rice! Although I only had a few bites, I loved the slight garlic flavour. This is perfect Asian comfort food on a rainy day.

Although, I would recommend having gum or mints handy due to the garlic rice.

That sums up my food truck adventures last month, including Vij’s Railway Express!

What are the names of your favourite food trucks? Better question, what is your opinion on food trucks- love ’em, or prefer a traditional sit down meal?

Thanks for reading!
-Carmen