lunch Archives - Curiously Carmen

Blue Dog Kitchen, New York City

December 26, 2016

Is there really a blue dog in the restaurant? Not exactly, but Blue Dog Kitchen is still worth visiting if you’re ever in New York City. I found this place on Yelp in the morning before my mom and I headed out for yet another day of wandering around the concrete jungle. I am glad I came across this place because it did not disappoint!

The restaurant is pretty small and located on the main level of an apartment building (or maybe it was an office building? don’t remember). The only downside to the restaurant is that it is really cramped.

We’re talking almost elbow to elbow room and if you’re sitting beside the wall, you need to move your table in order to squeeze by or you risk knocking over stuff from the next table!
Blue Dog burger, $16.50: After ensuring that the burger had no dairy in it, I was good to go! The Blue Dog burger consists of a custom blend brisket-chuck beef, fried egg, applewood bacon, veggies, and fries. I asked for the burger to be cooked well done, as I am a bit wary of eating raw ground beef.

The burger was really juicy and flavourful, while the veggies were nice and fresh. The egg and bacon was a fantastic addition to an already delicious burger. The bun was also lightly toasted and slightly sweet. Overall, a really delicious burger!
Free range chicken burger, $15.50: The ground chicken burger was delicious as well! Even though it looks pretty simple, the patty was bursting with juicy flavour, much like the beef.

Our fries were also piping hot and crispy! I wanted to have more of the fries, but was already really full from such a big burger.

Overall, we really enjoyed our lunch at Blue Dog. I would love to come back here should I visit NYC again. The service was really attentive, friendly, and very knowledgeable about their food.

Yay!

Thanks for reading!

Carmen

Peqish – Healthy fast food sandwiches

June 10, 2015

Hi everyone!

I first noticed Peqish in January after our office had moved closer to this area. My coworkers came here one morning, and arrived back at the office with piping hot, melt in your mouth, freshly made chocolate cookies. We decided to try this place out for lunch a few months ago in February.
As you can see, Peqish is pretty small. The concept behind Peqish was to provide people with healthy fast food on the go. Each of their items are made fresh daily. With emphasis on the express, the place has a mere 5 bar seats which is pretty narrow. You also order your coffee/drinks on the computer and pay there, similar to restaurants that I’ve seen in Tokyo with the same system.
The shelves are filled with healthy sandwiches, wraps, mini salads, and smoothies. This is a picture of their hot food section, while 3/4 of the other items are stored in a fridge. There were so many to pick from and took us all awhile to decide on what to order. So many decisions.
I settled on the “bohemian wrapsody” – shwarma beef, hummus, tahini sauce, peppers, and carrots enveloped in a Middle Eastern style flatbread. I also got one of their “protein booster” chicken snacks and the green smoothie made with kale, coconut, and pineapple. This was a lunch combo for $10.

I found both the meat in the wrap and protein snack to be extremely dry. It took me awhile to finish because it was so dry, which was disappointing. Aside from that, the vegetables were fresh and sauces were flavourful. There is a lot of potential in the wrap, but sadly the meat was just too dry to be edible.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the smoothie and think I’ll be back in the future to get this. The coconut and pineapple were really strong, and it tasted refreshing! Much healthier and cheaper than going to Starbucks, haha.

My coworker ordered the 5 spice pulled pork wrap from the hot shelf (mine was from the fridge shelf). Like my meat, the pulled pork was extremely dry.

For her side, she chose the orzo pasta salad cup which was really good. It had a good amount of herbs and the vegetables tasted fresh.

She ordered the berry smoothie, but said it was disappointing because all she could taste was the banana. It tasted exactly like a pure banana smoothie but berry coloured… but bananas are easily over powering in smoothies so it’s important to get the ratio right!

This is a close up of my coworker’s pulled pork wrap, since the previous picture is just covered in condensation.

Overall, we were disappointed with the wraps since the meat was so dry and inedible, but I liked the green smoothie and she enjoyed her pasta salad cup. I’m not sure if we will be back for the sandwiches, but I did enjoy the smoothie and wouldn’t mind having another one!

Thanks for reading!

-Carmen

The Truffle House & Cafe

April 12, 2015

Hi everyone!

I know this is a bit late… but I hope you all had a good long weekend! I sure did, I spent the weekend discovering new restaurants and playing tourist in my own city. There are so many little nooks and crannies in the Lower Mainland, you can’t possibly be bored here on a sunny day.

Urbanspoon told me that The Truffle House had really good ratings, and was a popular place for brunch so we decided to stop by here!

The restaurant is easy to miss, it is located in Dundarave Village on the main stretch of stores. The Truffle House was quite narrow and long too, and was full when we arrived. Luckily, they had their solarium open for overflow and we took the last spot there. The entire place was very clean and service was very friendly throughout our whole visit.
Are you surprised that when I saw smoked salmon on the menu, I ordered it right away? You shouldn’t be because I am the biggest salmon lover ever! West Coast benny – house smoked salmon, two poached eggs, hollandaise sauce and home fried potatoes.

There was a generous amount of smoked salmon, and it was delicious. I requested my eggs to be poached medium-hard and it was perfect to my liking. As well, the hollandaise sauce was buttery and flavourful. The home fried potatoes were quite good as well – crispy, and well seasoned with a lot of herbs! I was satisfied and full after eating this.

The boyfriend ordered the eggs benny – which was the same as mine but with smoked ham instead of smoked salmon. What looked good on paper unfortunately did not apply to what tasted good in his mouth – sadly, the ham was very bland and lacked flavour. I gave it a try and agreed that there was no flavour to the ham at all.

I’m glad that we got to try this place, as the service was very friendly and atmosphere was spot-on. My smoked salmon benny was delicious, but unfortunately the eggs benny could have done better with flavour. With that said, we wouldn’t mind coming back if we were in the area but the boyfriend would probably order something else instead.

Smoked salmon or smoked ham – which one do you prefer? =)

Have a good day and thanks for reading!

-Carmen

Forage – Foodie Brunch

March 13, 2015

Hi hi hi hi hi!

Last month, I met up with fellow food bloggers Naomi from Pink Marshmellows and David from Picky Diners Club. We went to Forage and for a weekend brunch in downtown, and it was quieter than we had expected inside!

Luckily, we had a reservation and only ended up waiting around 5 minutes before we were seated. Forage is located deep in downtown, near the end of Robson Street. It is around a 12 minute walk from Burrard skytrain.

I ordered the classic benny, which included back bacon, free range eggs covered in hollandaise served with a side of crispy potatoes.

The muffin was nice and soft, while the back bacon had a thick cut and smoky flavour to it. My eggs were poached perfectly to my liking and covered with a generous and delicious amount of creamy hollandaise sauce.

The potatoes were very crispy on the outside, and bursting with a savoury herb flavour. Half way through, it started to taste really salty but that didn’t stop me from devouring the whole plate. We made sure to have our water constantly filled.

Naomi ordered the special benny that day, the pork belly benny. It was the same as mine, but without the back bacon and pork belly instead. I had a bite and her benny was delicious as well, the pork belly was very tender and rich.

David ordered the corned bison hash which came with a sunny side up egg, toast, kale, house-made sauerkraut, and IPA mustard hollandaise. A plate with a German twist, which was delicious as well. All the flavours in this dish went perfectly with each other. I just wish the egg yolk wouldn’t have fallen or the picture would have looked nicer!

The toast also came with a side of homemade blueberry and strawberry jam. Since David couldn’t finish everything, we gladly helped him finish the toast. The toast was lightly buttered as well.

All in all, we had a great time at Forage. Our server was attentive and friendly, and had a sarcastic sense of humour. I really liked how the restaurant did not feel cramped and had a simple, modern wooden interior, nor was it too busy.

Have you been here before? How did you like it?

-Carmen

The Flying Pig (Olympic Village)

March 9, 2015

Happy to announce that this will be a guest post by le boyfriend. We tried The Flying Pig for the first time but we left disappointed, read on to find out why. Thanks for reading! – Carmen

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Hi everybody! Welcome to another guest post. Carmen really wanted another post from me, but I was hesitant at first. I originally intended to write my post on Fable Kitchen as part of the Dine at Fable event, but that went nowhere as evidence by the lack of a post. So here is a review for The Flying Pig, at their newest location in Olympic Village. Carmen had really wanted to try The Flying Pig for a long time, and one night we decided to visit the aforementioned location.
This location does not have big signs or bright lights on the outside of the building, and it was quite difficult to locate in the dark. Once inside, we were greeted and seated promptly. The restaurant was about 75% full when we arrived, but I found that the table we were seated at was pretty cramped. Our server was very friendly, and rang off the specials of the day for us.
For an appetizer, we ordered the Bone Marrow Cheezy Bread. Carmen heard from a friend that the bread was a “must try” item, and it did not disappoint. It was warm, fluffy, and loaded with cheese.
For her entrée, Carmen ordered the Veal Piccata. It consisted of a parmesan risotto in a lemon caper butter sauce, served with veal slices. The risotto was creamy and cooked perfectly, but that’s about as good as it gets.

The veal, while tender, was underwhelming and bland. The lemon capers gave it an overly lemony taste, which required a lot of salt and pepper to mask. It also had a slimy texture that was very off-putting.

Overall, Carmen did not enjoy it very much, and I switched dishes with her only because I could tolerate it a bit more. We both agreed, it’s not worth recommending.
Next up is the entrée I selected: The Flying Pig Signature Pork Rack. It really sounded good on paper but was sadly another uninspiring dish. The pork rack consisted of one piece of pork chop attached to the bone, served with a side of pulled pork poutine, with an apple cider reduction sauce and seasonal vegetables.

The pork was cooked very well, being very tender and juicy, but just like the veal, it was bland and poorly seasoned. Carmen tried a piece and was not impressed either. Sadly for this dish, the best part was the side of pulled pork poutine, which you can add as a side to other dishes as well. There was a generous amount of pulled pork layered on top, and the pulled pork was absolutely delicious.

Considering how poorly seasoned the rest of the meats we had that night were, this was an absolute delight. There is also a generous topping of cheese curds and gravy.

Our first experience at The Flying Pig was, overall, not a very positive one. Most of our food ended up being very disappointing, and for what we paid, we felt like it was definitely not worth the price. We also agreed that it would be worth revisiting another time.

Carmen did in fact go back to The Flying Pig (albeit their Gastown location) and had a much better experience during their happy hour. You can expect that review to be up pretty soon after this one. Until next time, thanks for reading!