food blogger Archives - Page 11 of 17

Purebread

February 7, 2015

The latest and most popular bakery has hit the streets of Vancouver by the name of Purebread, which also has locations in Whistler. I have been eyeing Purebread since their construction days, as I pass by that area when I go to work each morning.

I remember their clever “coming soon” sign back in the Fall- your breakfast is t o a s t , with each letter in toast printed on a fake piece of bread. I had a feeling it would be hit among Vancouverites, and I was correct!
We came around 2 pm, and there was no lineup but most of the seats were filled up. It took us a bit to absorb all of the seemingly delicious pastries in front of us… there was so much to pick from! I’m glad there was three of us so that we could share and get more, as opposed to just coming alone.
I wish that Purebred would put a brief description on what is included in each pastry item, as I’ll explain below. All the food is behind a tall clear glass and is covered.

I ordered the avalanche bar because it looked pretty good and it reminded me of a rice krispie bar, which I haven’t had for awhile! However, when I took a bite I was a very disappointed. It didn’t specify that it was a peanut butter bar! If I had known, I wouldn’t have ordered it. I do like peanut butter, but not in pastries.

I gave some to my coworkers and ended up packing it back home as the boyfriend is a serious peanut butter addict. He thought this was simply amazing and was on cloud 9 after gobbling the whole thing up (in 5 seconds).

My coworker had a tough time deciding as well, but ended up chosing the raspberry brownie. It was moist and chewy, and wasn’t overwhelmingly sweet. It came with a layer of tart raspberry and custard inside.

I liked this a lot more than my avalanche bar… sorry, I’m still sour over how they didn’t bother to mention it was a peanut butter pastry >=( But I guess lesson learned, I’m going to make sure I ask what’s inside anything if there’s no description offered.

The last thing we got was a whoopie pie, made with two very sweet oatmeal cookies that were hard instead of chewy. The filling and oatmeal cookie went really well together, but it was a bit messy to eat. As you bite down on the cookie, the filling on the opposite size will ooze out.

Purebread is a good place to try out, the quality of the pastries is noticeable and service is friendly as well, with reasonable prices. Just be sure to ask what is inside the pastry if you’re not sure what is inside to avoid disappointment like I did.

However, they’re still relatively new so I shouldn’t be too hard on them – the quality was there, and I probably would have LOVED the bar if I was an avid peanut butter fan.

-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

Vij’s Railway Express

January 31, 2015

Hi all!

While I was walking around on my lunch break two weeks ago, I noticed that the Vancouver Art Gallery had been overtaken by food trucks- Dine Out Vancouver: Street Food City! The next day, I brought my coworker here and we explored all the food trucks. I wasn’t too hungry that day, but we decided to all come back a few days later and have lunch together here.

Well, our luck couldn’t be worse when Friday afternoon rolled around, and it was pouring buckets and buckets of rain. Remember that Friday two weeks ago? Yep. We spent the morning peeking out the office, hoping the rain would have stopped but nope, it had no mercy on a group of hungry office workers.

After making three ~~very indecisive~~ rounds, I decided to try Vij’s Railway Express. I helped out at Follow Me Foodie’s 6 Course Discourse last year, and had the chance to work with Vikram himself (Well, I only helped him set up and change presentation slides, but that was still pretty cool). He was a truly humble, funny, down to earth and kind man- so why not try his food truck?!

When my eyes saw this on the menu, I knew my decision had been made. Seared Pacific cod in a mango-sour cream curry, $12.

For $12 in 2015 and not that big of a portion (this picture may fool you otherwise), we are not talking cheap eats here unless you are a high roller with no lunch budget. But this was worth the mini splurge and I had no regrets.

I guess $12 at a restaurant is average or even cheap, there is a common misconception that food trucks are cheaper but it’s not!

The cod was flaked off perfectly, and was very fresh. It was drowned in the mango-sour cream curry sauce, which was creamy and had a mild spice to it. I definitely tasted the hints of mango, but not the sour cream. It also came with a soft and thin piece of naan bread and a cumin-basmati rice.

Everything extremely aromatic and cooked with quality, the Pacific cod was just perfection. I felt like it this dish belonged on a fancy bone china plate in a upscale restaurant, in contrast to a take out box in the food court. If I was rich, I would order this weekly but sadly, I am not.

Sometimes, it’s worth the mini splurge and to try something you haven’t had before. I’m definitely glad I made that decision and left with a happy tummy.

To end this post on a fun note, here is a throwback picture to January 2014 with Vikram Vij and John Bishop! I met Mijune of FollowMeFoodie back when I used to interview and write articles on university alumni, she then asked me to help out at her Six Course Discourse event.

-Carmen

PS. I made all those sponsorship and chef bio slides! =) So rewarding to see your hard work blown up on three big huge screens, haha!

Hapa Beach- What happened to you?

January 26, 2015

Hi all!

Before I begin: I am doing a Cetaphil skincare set giveaway which is super simple to enter! Details and enter here!

Fun fact- The first restaurant post I ever did was on Hapa Izakaya last year at Dine Out Vancouver. We had an amazing time there, from the delicious food, ambiance, and friendly servers. With that said, we were really looking back to coming here again and I booked our reservation right away.

Hapa Beach, I’m not sure what happened to you. Change in ownership? We left very disappointed, the quality and preparation of the food comparable to all you can eat restaurants, minus the heaps and heaps of food. It was nothing like this the first time, I can’t believe that it is the same restaurant we went to a year ago.

When we first stepped in, we could tell that it was already busy. The hostess was on the phone for a few minutes before she was able to greet us, and we were sat quickly afterwards. We were also reminded a few times of the 1.5 hour dining limit.

For the first choice of appetizers, we ordered the taster appetizer (above) and bagna cauda fondue (below). The taster appetizer came with bok choy gomae, edamame beans, and tuna carpacccio. The bok choy was crunchy and fresh, with a generous amount of gomae sauce.

The tuna capaccio was very fresh and the ponzu sauce was good, but the portion was really small so just a heads up there (Yes, I understand that it’s an appetizer and also DOVF menu). The chilled edamame beans weren’t that great. It didn’t taste fresh and was over seasoned.

Ever since having amazing bagna cauda at Rajio , we wanted to try Hapa’s. The sauce was not mixed well, or it sat out for too long and separated. It was also bland in flavour, and one of the veggie pieces my boyfriend had was bitter.

The second course was the worst and this was when it reminded us of being at an all you can eat restaurant instead of at a nice izakaya. Let’s start with the aburi saba. It was mediocre, there was a slight grilled and smoky taste to it but it was not prepared well at all. Felt like they just slapped a bunch of pieces onto big chunks of rice, then put it on a plate to serve.

The agedashi tofu was drowned in the sauce and floating in oil. It did not look fresh at all, I’ve had better agedashi tofu at all you can eat actually. I’ll let this picture do the talking:

The outside batter of the tofu was slimy and sticky, and came right off the tofu when we tried to eat it. It lacked all flavour and just looked disgusting and pathetic in the bowl. We asked to exchange for the gyozas (the only thing left on the second course menu) instead because we are not eating or paying for this “tofu” . Where was the quality in this?

Although the servers were really attentive and nice, they seemed pretty new and said they had to ask the manager if they were able to switch for us. Fair enough. In the meantime, our main dishes were brought to us- more like being quickly thrown onto the table and having the servers dashing away before you could say thanks. Another point- shouldn’t a nicer establishment like Hapa have better service?

After all the disappointing starters (minus the few bok choy and quarter sized tuna carpaccio), our mains arrived. The spicy pork ishiyaki came with a decent amount of pork, and a raw egg that they stir in for you. The stone bowl is really hot and cooks it, and you’re also recommended to leave the rice for a few minutes so that it can become crispy due to the side of the bowl.

It also came with chives, which did not taste fresh either.

The boyfriend ordered the cho wagyu- four thinly sliced pieces of raw Kobe beef, which you cook yourself with the black stone and dip in ponzu sauce. Again, the portion was really small and thin although from the angle of the picture, it looks like a thick cut. He said it was pretty chewy, althought he made sure not to overcook it.

Again, he said it was pretty disappointing due to the size. I’m glad I ordered the rice bowl and we ended up sharing that.

When we were done our main course, our replacement appetizer came- pork gyozas. The server apologized for the ~~slimy tofu mess~~ agadashi tofu, and said since it was deep fried, that’s why it was oily. No, I know that deep fried food is oily…but the point was that the tofu batter was slimy and tasteless.

Anyways, the gyozas were not your usual gyozas. They came with minced pork, layered with lotus root and then deep fried. This was a LOT better than the slimy tofu mess. We weren’t sure if we actually enjoyed this dish a lot, or if everything else so far was so mediocre or abysmal that this was delicious.

Either way, the gyozas were cooked well and crispy. The lotus root made it really filling and there was a good amount of pork inside as well.

As for service, the entire time, we felt like we were being rushed. Our food was coming really fast and we had servers quickly taking away our dishes. They had told us 3 times about the 1.5 hour seating limit, we were there for a bit under a hour. It felt like the servers were there to just toss dishes on the table.

I’m not sure if I’ll come back but I kind of want to give them one last chance since we had a great time here last year. I feel like there might have been a change in management as the name of the place changed from Hapa Izakaya to Hapa Beach, but I think they’re still under the Hapa Izakaya family. All the more current reviews at Hapa are pretty negative as well.

Read a happier, more positive, and YUMMIER post on our original visit here.

Did you come here for Dine Out or just recently? I’m really curious to see if we just came on a bad day…

-Carmen

Las Margaritas (Dine Out Vancouver Festival 2015)

January 25, 2015

Hi everyone,

First off, have you noticed the domain change? Yep, I have retired my old site and will be posting on curiouslycarmen.com from now on! Same me, different site =)

Dine Out Vancouver Festival is upon us for yet another year! While many people do not like DOVF because they claim you won’t get the “full” or authentic experience, I don’t think it’s a bad idea to try it out. Also, you’re not limited to just ordering off the DOVF menu, you are able to order from the regular menu as well. Some places offer great deals that you wouldn’t see elsewhere.

There were so many restaurants I wanted to try this year, but had to refrain myself or I would be spending waaayy too much money on food. Instead, I asked the boyfriend to pick some restaurants that he wanted to try and we would narrow it down from there. For my first dine out, I went to Las Margaritas, which I’ve been wanting to go for quite some time now!

Las Margaritas is easily distinguishable from the rest of the shops on the block. It was a nice, exterior Spanish design with bright colours. You can’t miss it!

Our reservation was made for 7:30, but the parking gods were on our side that night and we showed up 10 minutes early. The restaurant was really busy, and I overheard them saying the wait for walk in customers would take at least one hour… so glad that we made a reservation. They weren’t ready for us since we were a bit early, and we were seated around 7:35.

One small detail that I appreciated about this place was their tiled tables! I loved the detail and thought it looked really good.

For a place with the name margaritas in it, you better expect that they have delicious margaritas. While we were waiting for our spot, we read the menu and found out that they were famous for their margaritas, so we decided to give it a try. We ordered the melon margarita ($8.95), which came with Sauza Gold Tequila, melon liqueur, pineapple juice, peach nectar and their own sweet & sour mix.

I really enjoyed the flavours of the margarita, and could not taste the alcohol in it at all even though it was a double shot. It was really fruity, and had some pulp in it which was a nice added surprise! It was not exactly a slush texture though and didn’t have a rimmed glass, but I didn’t mind.

To start off, we received complementary salsa and tortilla chips, which apparently they were famous for as well. The tortilla chips were crunchy and tasted pretty standard, but they were served warm which was a nice surprise! The salsa had a strong onion and fresh taste to it. Overall, really good for a complementary dish!

One of the options for the DOVF appetizer menu was the pozole, a chicken and white corn soup simmered in chilies and spices. On the side was an assortment of fresh red onions, dried chili peppers, and oregano. The chicken in the soup was extremely tender and well marinated, while the broth itself was absolutely delicious… I’m getting hungry just thinking about it again.

Adding the oregano, pepper, and fresh onions to the mix, you have yourself a sure winner. My favourite dish of the night.

The second appetizer we ordered (we pretty much shared everything btw) was the scallop ceviche. Everything in the ceviche was very fresh, with a hint of fresh lime juice. The chips were a bit too oily for my liking, however. I ate the cerviche with the leftover complementary tortilla chips instead.

Now, time for the main course! This was the chile en nogada, aka a poblano pepper stuffed with ground turkey meat, sauteed with onions, peppers, tomatoes, and apple. It was covered with a walnut cream sauce and pomegrante seeds, and came with a side of salad and beans. This was our least favourite dish that night.

There was a lot going on in the poblano pepper, but to us, the ingredients didn’t mix well together and was disappointing.
The second entree we had was the chile Colorado. It was cubed sirloin beef simmered in a chile guajillo and New Mexico chile sauce, with a side of white rice refried beans and corn or flour tortillas.

This dish was executed really well! The cubed sirloin beef was very tender, and went really well with the fresh red onion. The rice had some corn in it, so it wasn’t as boring or plain.

We also did not know that this dish came with tortillas, there was around 5 wraps. I guess I didn’t read far enough, I was sold on “cubed sirloin beef”. We ended up making our own “tacos”, filling it with the sirloin beef, rice, and salad/beans from the other dish, and topped it off with our choice of four hot sauces that were brought to our table.

I’m really glad that it came with the tortillas, otherwise we wouldn’t have been really full since the poblano pepper was a dissapointment.

For dessert, I chose the tres leche cake.Caramel lovers will love this cake for sure! It is called a “tres leche” cake because it is soaked in three different types of milk. I personally prefer my cakes to be light and fluffy, I didn’t like how it had a wet and soggy texture to it.

However, the flavour of the cake was definitely there, it’s just my personal preference that I didn’t like the soggy texture.

The boyfriend ordered churros that came with a chocolate dipping sauce. One bite of the churros and I had filled by sugar and dessert quota for the week, maybe even month- I kid you not. It was extremely sweet since it was rolled in sugar and chocolate sauce. All you sweet tooth lovers out there, this one is for you. I’ll stick with my savoury snacks instead.

Have you tried Las Margaritas, and if yes, how did you like it?

-Carmen