food truck Archives - Curiously 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!

Hamburger 2.85 Food Truck

September 14, 2014

Hi everyone!

Finding new places to eat in downtown Vancouver is definitely not hard, especially with the addition of food trucks popping up on every corner! My coworker and I had a small list of places we wanted to go to, including the famous Hamburger 2.85 food truck.

I was sold and set on going after reading Meaghan’s post on this in the day before, and thankfully my coworker agreed! It definitely did not disappoint.
Hamburger 285 is located on the corner of Granville and Pender. The menu is really basic, so don’t be expecting any fancy add ons or anything of that sort. In fact, I can’t even recall if they even sell pop.

The concept is simple, the title is simple. But their taste is definitely not simple as I will explain below. You can either order a hamburger for 2.85 (yes, you read that right, TWO EIGHTY FIVE whaaat) or a cheeseburger for $3.95. I decided on getting the cheeseburger that day.
I normally don’t go to food trucks, it’s not that I have a thing against them or anything, but I just haven’t really had the opportunity to. With that said, I’m not sure if the wait for our burgers was considered longer than usual than not. We waited around 10 minutes for our burgers afterwards, so in my opinion, that seemed longer than the standard.

They had lively, upbeat top 40s playing, which made the line up go a biiiit faster but I was really anticipating my burger! “Number 33, cheeseburger!” Yes! That was my cue and I was handed what looked like a delicious burger.
After both our burgers came, we walked down to Canada Place to enjoy our burgers….except there was one problem. I had already devoured my burger! The lettuce and tomatoes tasted extremely fresh and crunchy. The bread was thick and lightly toasted, giving it a slightly grilled taste but it had a really soft bite to it. The patty was well cooked, juicy, and flavourful.

The BEST part of this burger was their teriyaki mayo sauce of some sort. I’m not too sure what exactly the sauce was, but I definitely tasted some teriyaki and goodness, did it complete this burger!

I kind of expected that the portion would be smaller since it is so cheap, so I should have ordered a second one. If you are pretty hungry like I was, I would recommend ordering two of these delicious things. Other than that, my quick visit to Hamburger 2.85 was pleasant and I predict I will be back here before my internship ends.

Also, I am definitely going to miss the sunshine as the days get colder, so I included a beautiful view in this post as well.

What are some other good food trucks/restaurants that I should visit around the Canada Place/Harbour Center area? Please let me know in the comments!

-Carmen

Richmond Night Market 2014

September 13, 2014

(Updated Sept 2014) The Richmond Night Market is back for another Summer! I love coming here for the cheap things you can buy, even though a lot of the products are very cheaply made and questionable… and of course, the food! I went with a few friends and it was actually their first time at this night market (the new one by the casino), seeing that they are both here on a working visa from Australia. They were excited and curious to try the different food that the stalls offered. It was my first time trying the S. Korean ice cane dessert, which is basically an ice cream that comes in a “J” shaped cone and made out of cornpuff. It was truly interesting… keep on reading below to see what it looked like and how it tasted!
It was very busy and crowded the night that we went, probably because it was an ideal summer’s night.
Takoyaki and squid! The takoyaki ($6) was very chewy,delicous and doughy. The squid was very good as well. Felt kind of bad for the guy grilling the squid because he didn’t wear a mask, and kept having to hold his breath while he was cooking it. The squid itself ($6.50 for a small) was very good. There was a nice satay sauce, with a hint of sweetness and smokiness.
The famous hurricane potato ($6). Basically a lightly deep friend potato on a stick, seasoned with your choice of flavouring salt. We chose the cheddar, and it was really good. There was also a long line up for this booth, but we didn’t wait that long. There were 60 numbers ahead of us in line, but the wait was only around 10 minutes. Pretty efficient! However, I’m not sure that it’s worth $6 for a potato though, it just looks cool.
The Korean snow cane stand! They were pretty busy as well, and ended up selling out of the duo cane cone right after we ordered. It was $3.75 for the single J shaped cone, which I got below…
The cone is made out of a corn puff pastry and into a tube, which they put the soft serve ice cream into. The ice cream was your standard soft serve. As for the cone itself? I enjoyed it. It reminded me of the cereal corn puffs, only harder and less puffy. Imagine eating corn puffs cereal with ice cream, that’s basically how it tasted. The cone also did not go soggy, as I expected it to and remained crunchy until the end. It was also very clean and not messy to eat. Would I get this again? Probably, I love corn puffs!
My friend’s deep fried Snickers bar ($6). She said it tasted amazing, and loved it a lot. I’m not sure if I’ll ever try one of these in my lifetime though, what about you?
Update: Going back a second time in September, we didn’t order as much. I wasn’t too hungry, but knew I would regret not trying anything new here and end up snacking at home later. So we walked around the food stands until something caught our eyes. I am a big fan of mangoes, and I saw someone holding this mango dessert and decided to order one as well ($5.75). It came with a generous portion of fresh mango chunks and vanilla ice cream under a bed of crushed ice, topped with condensed milk. I loved the freshness and sweetness of the mango chunks, and the juices soaked into the ice chunks! The condensed milk was the cherry on top of a great dessert. I have to warn you though; it’s a really, really cold dessert so you might be cold after you finish eating this, because I sure was.
The second item we ordered was the takoyaki balls ($5.50). It came in original, chili, curry, and wasabi flavour- this one was the chili flavour. I didn’t try this, but I was told that it there a mild spice and did not overpower the taste of the takoyaki. The sauces themselves are only drizzled on the top.
Apart from food from our second visit, I also ended up buying a cute pair of fuzzy fleece socks ($4) too! My feet get really, really cold in the fall and winter so I wanted a thicker pair of socks. I am also a HUGE fan of polkadots and Minnie Mouse (I was Minnie Mouse last Halloween) so it’s a win-win situation. I’ll probably wear these as slippers around the house as the weather gets colder. I’m just hoping that these socks won’t be of horrible, cheap quality and actually keep my feet warm!
Andddd to finish this post off, a picture of some random product stands! Korean socks and iphone case stands were the most popular. Hope you enjoyed the post, now go and try the J corn cone ice cream!

-Carmen

Bella Gelataria Handcrafted Gelato

June 26, 2014

Back when I did not have a blog, I came here with my friend who was stopping in town from Japan for a few days. Prior to him landing in Vancouver, he told me that he had to try this place before leaving, because apparently this place is very well known in Japan. Well damn, if people across the ocean raved about this place, it must be one good gelato place!

We ended up loving our gelato, but to be honest, I don’t remember much of the gelato itself as I was too happy that I was able to reunite with my friend living halfway across the world after a year.

So, half a year and one beautiful sunny afternoon later, I decided to stop by again and enjoy some delicious gelato after a delicious meal at Kintaro Ramen!

Bella Gelatria is located on the main floor of the luxurious Fairmont Pacific Rim, right by the water. There was a line up out the door, and almost around the corner the day we went. In total, we waited about fifteen minutes in line.

The staff working there are very experienced in heavy volume traffic, so they had a pretty efficient system going. There are also awards and framed newspaper articles lined up from top to bottom, so you definitely will not get bored in line.
Of course, if you do not want to read their framed articles, you can take the time to decide what flavour you want to try. I was craving strawberry that day, but unfortunately, the worker told me they didn’t have it. She was then interrupted (in a friendly manner) by the owner and master gelatier, James Coleridge as he informed me that they only make strawberry when in season.
After much debate, I settled with the chocolate belgian brownie. I was in love at first bite. The chocolate was extremely rich, smooth, decadent, and soft. I fell in love with how well-rounded the chocolate flavour was, and how creamy it was.

I have never had gelato, or ice cream, as creamy and rich like this before. You could really tell the difference in quality. Typing this post is making me so hungry now.
Next up (no, I did not order three all to myself, incase you’re wondering) is the Thai coconut milk gelato. Just like my chocolate one, this one was extremely creamy as well. There was a strong and delicious coconut taste. It came with little slices of fresh coconut as well, which added to the freshness of the gelato.
This was the mint chocolate gelato, but I didn’t get a chance to try it. Delicious is actually just an understatement for Bella Gelataria.

Honestly. I’m not the only one that thinks so, either considering that Bella Gelataria has won numerous awards in Italy for their gelato and their rating on Urbanspoon.

-Carmen
PS. Here is a picture of the outside, with their big sign. This picture was taken at my first visit in chilly November (read first paragraph above), hence the jackets.