soup Archives - Curiously Carmen

The Fish Counter

September 29, 2015

Before summer ended, I spent the afternoon with Gin exploring Main Street. Both of us had been wanting to try The Fish Counter for a long time, and couldn’t find a better time to check it off both of our lists.
The Fish Shop serves up sustainable seafood, and all products are Ocean Wise. The place reminded me of a cool, local seafood shop.

Since it was a nice and sunny day, the windows were all open and so was the patio. The sun was coming in, the air was fresh and warm – what more could you ask for?

It took us quite a while to decide on what to order as everything looked so delicious! We ended up splitting three items for lunch.

The first thing we ordered was the special that day, the Greek fish taco. This caught my eye because I am a HUGE fan of Greek food and I can’t pass down anything with tzatiki sauce. Seriously, I don’t normally tend to finish all my dipping sauces with my food but when it’s tzatiki sauce… I’ll gobble it up so fast before you know it was there!

Everything tasted really fresh but unfortunately, we both found this taco to be lacking in taste and very plain.

We were torn between the chowder and BC bouillabaisse, and ended up deciding on the latter. This soup was seriously amazing and was a seafood lover’s dream. There was an extremely generous amount of seafood – with every scoop we had, there was an abundance of fish, clams, shrimp, etc that came along with it.

We really enjoyed the soup and would order it again in a heart beat! I must warn you though, if you’re not a seafood lover, you might find this soup a bit too ‘fishy’ but we thought it was absolutely perfect.
The last thing we ordered was the crab and shrimp baguette, or pretty much a shrimp/crabcake baguette 😉 Again, all the ingredients were really fresh and the flavours went well together. The baguette was nice and soft too, while the side salad came with fresh and crunchy vegetables.

I would recommend squeezing a bit of lemon juice on top to further accentuate the flavours!

Since this place is mostly self serve, you clean up after yourself once you’re done eating.

Overall, we really enjoyed our first experience at The Fish Shop and I would recommend this place if you’re a seafood lover. All the ingredients they use are really fresh and the quality of the food is definitely there. Since the seating area is a bit limited, this would be a good place to order take out as well. The staff are also extremely nice and welcoming.

On the other side of the restaurant is their actual fish shop! We didn’t buy any seafood to bring home to cook that day, but the option is there for those who want to.

Thanks for reading!

-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

Al Porto Ristorante

December 8, 2014

Al Porto Ristorante is an Italian restaurant in the heart of Gastown, located in the basement of one of Gastown’s many beautiful historic brick buildings. Al Porto had a fancier feel to the restaurant, but I wouldn’t describe it was fine dining. It is certainly a restaurant that to go to when you’re not in a rush. I thought that this place would be great for romantic dates, but after reading a few reviews and hearing some stories from friends, seems like this place gets quite noisy in the night time and it’s hard to hear the person across the table from you.

The main entrance to Al Porto is located off the side of the building, towards the train tracks. There is a sign out front with a big arrow, so it’s pretty hard to miss the entrance. The picture above is the entrance to their second floor loft. I came with a few of my coworkers for lunch. The restaurant was pretty empty when we arrived, and were seated quickly. I liked how we got one of the round tables for the five of us, it made conservation easier and it was nice to see everyone without having to lean forward or anything like that. I wish more restaurants had circular tables =P Like Chinese restaurants!

Right after we ordered, our bread came! If I was going to be picky, it would have been nice to have the bread warm, but oh well. I’m not sure what the bread on the left was called, but it was very doughy and chewy, with subtle garlic and herb tastes to it. I liked how it was chewy and I am a big fan of herbs so this bread was an obvious winner in my books. I wish I could say the same about the right one, but unfortunately I found the outside to be rock hard and bland tasting.

My side of caesar salad was better than I expected it to be, which is always a great surprise! That, or I normally don’t have great experiences with side salads. The lettuce was very crunchy, as were the croutons (and not in a bad way like the complementary bread above). It had a great garlicky flavour to it. Everything tasted really fresh and tasted like what a delicious caesar salad should taste like! There was also bits of crushed pepper, which added more dynamic and a hint of spice to the salad.

Soup of the way was a white bean, tomato and basil soup. It had a thick texture to it, and was a bit starchy due to the potatoes. However, all of the flavours in the soup complemented each other really well and I didn’t find the soup to be extremely salty (I’m looking at you, Olive Garden). I try to stay away from soups at Western restaurants because I find them to be very salty, but this wasn’t the case. I added a bit of pepper to the soup to give it a bit of a flair too. Yum!

For myself, I ordered the tagliatelle buongustaio ($10.95). Tagliatelle is the type of pasta, which is a flatter and wider noodle. My plate came with chicken, sweet pea, and mushrooms in a garlic cream sauce. The tagliatelle was cooked al dente, and had a good bounce to it. The sauce was delicious as well, it was very creamy without being too heavy, and had a subtle garlic and butter taste to it. The chicken chunks had a slightly grilled and smoky taste to it, and was juicy. I love my pepper, and requested for extra in my plate which completed my dish perfectly. I sprinkled a bit of Parmesan cheese, which melted a bit due to the warmth of the everything else.

With all that said, one thing I found a bit off was their service. The service wasn’t bad or rude… it was just a bit off. I wasn’t feeling well that day and had a cold, so I asked for a warm honey water to maybe give my sore throat a relief, and so that I was actually able to talk with my coworkers because I was about to lose my voice. She seemed very confused about it and looked a bit annoyed. The rest of the time, I felt bad and uncomfortable asking her for more water, which I don’t think a server should make you feel especially at a restaurant that is known to be a bit more upscale. So I sucked it up and took Halls like there was no tomorrow.

Going to a restaurant is not just about the food, it is about the ambiance, service, and overall atmosphere. Al Porto really hit the points high with their food, but I think their service could use a bit more work, or maybe the two staff were having an off day. I don’t think I would come back for dinner since I know it gets pretty busy and is a popular tourist destination, but I wouldn’t mind coming back for lunch (if there is better service).

-Carmen

Beefy Beef Noodle House

December 2, 2014

Asian restaurants have the most creatively absurd restaurant names, don’t you think? I’ve always had a good chuckle reading the sign whenever we drove by. I came here back in high school but don’t really recall much, I just remembered it was pretty average. My friends and I decided to come here late one night, as we didn’t want to stay in Richmond anymore and wanted to be back in Vancouver. I had a decent experience, but my friends? Not so much. Read on to find out why.

Walking in around 11pm with six of us (soon to be eight, other two were running a bit late), the restaurant looked about 75% full and was mostly preoccupied with groups around the same size. We asked them for a table of eight, the servers looked very confused and told us it would be a bit of a wait. Guess we should have seen that as a warning sign. Which was weird, because right in front of us were two tables that fit 4 people each. We asked them if they could just move the two tables together and they looked very puzzled… so we kind of motioned with our hands what we meant and they understood. Even when they were moving the tables, they looked very confused, which confused us because moving two tables together shouldn’t be that hard?

I had a hard time deciding on what to order, but decided to get the noodles in soup with Taiwanese chicken nuggets to share with the boyfriend. The noodles were cooked al dente and had a perfect bounce to it, they were delicious. The broth was very flavourful and clear, we’re still debating if it was canned stock or not but either way, it was very satisfying on a cold night. The veggies in the soup were also washed clean, and were fresh and crunchy. The Taiwanese chicken nuggets had a nice crispiness and the usual seasonings, nothing new there but they do cook it well and it tasted authentic. My food also came at least 15 minutes before all the other orders, by the time that I finished my food, some of my friends had just received theirs while our other friend was still waiting for her food.

We all ordered drinks, and disappointingly, they were out of pearls. I ordered the passion fruit calpis juice, but received a peach calpis juice instead (pictured here). My friend ordered a peach calpis slush, so we weren’t sure whose drink they messed up on LOL. Turns out we were right, they had messed up and gave me peach, which I didn’t really mind. The peach calpis was very syrupy and overwhelmingly sweet, I felt that if I drank this in one sitting my chances of getting diabetes would increase dramatically. So I tried to ration myself (even though it was so delicious!) and brought it home for the next day. Just like the food, my drink came first (even though they messed up) and my friends ended up waiting at least 15 minutes after mine for their drinks. We weren’t sure why the drinks weren’t coming out all at once, since we all ordered at the same time. At this point, my friends were not impressed with the wait time, seeing that the restaurant had died down a bit.

So, after waiting around fifteen minutes between my bowl of noodles AND the other main courses (which were just like mine and stir fry dishes), we ended up waiting another fifteen minutes for the buttery condensed milk toast. My friends had asked the servers if they had forgot it, but they apologized and just said it was “on the way”. When it finally came, everyone dug in and man, was the toast heavenly. The bread was extremely soft, fresh, and sweet, covered in a rich layer of thick condensed milk.

Even though our food (when it actually came) was delicious, Beefy Beef was very disorganized and I’m not sure how they operate their restaurant in that manner. We received our food and drinks in long, staggered periods even though we all ordered at the same time. My soup noodles and drinks came first, then a couple dishes and drinks came out after fifteen minutes, followed by the next and so on. Why couldn’t we just receive all our food at the same time when we all ordered together? I felt bad for my friend, who waited almost a hour for her food. She ended up packing her meal to go, since all seven of us were done eating by the time her food came. That was also when she had checked on her food, if she didn’t check, who knows how long the wait would have been.

If their food was average, I probably would not have come back due to how disorganized the restaurant seemed. But since I enjoyed their noodles a lot and it is a convenient location to go to if I crave Taiwanese food, I wouldn’t mind coming back- my hopes would be that they have some kind of standard concept of organization going on.

Fiesta Fridays- Nesters Market Deli Review

June 11, 2014

Hello Fiesta Friday-ers! I forgot to mention that EatMunchLove invited me to the first party, so thank you for introducing me! After my pleasant visit to Urban Fare, I was craving deli eats again. This time, my mind wandered to Nesters because I was at school, and there was a location on the mountain. I also didn’t want to deal with a rush of students in the main cafeteria, so decided that the walk there would be worth it. Fortunately, my friend agreed so we went in between our classes.
Nesters deli was pretty standard. There were many delicious looking items to choose from that day. I wasn’t super hungry, and felt a slight tickle in my throat so settled on getting a small soup and slice of pizza ($4.50). There were 3 types of soup that day, I got the chicken potato soup with chorizo sausage. It was very flavourful and had a generous amount of veggies. There wasn’t much chicken in it and the chorizo was very soggy, I don’t think I want chorizo sausage in my soup again. Usually, after having Western style soup, I am left parched but I did not find myself needing a massive amount of water, which is good.
The pizza was warmed in the oven. A there was only one type to pick from. The dough was very thick, soft, and chewy- I loved it! There was also a lot of deli meat topping and veggies on it. My friend got the soup and sandwich combo and a samosa, which I forgot to take a picture of. He said the samosa was a bit dry but enjoyed his ham sandwich. If I had time to spare on campus and wanted a quiet spot to eat, I would come here again.

I hope you enjoyed the post! Happy Fiesta Friday, I look forward to reading everyone’s posts! 🙂

-Carmen