Rocky Mountain Chocolate  Factory is every where. They offer lots of different chocolatey and caramely snacks. From Caramel Apples and Fudge to Nutty Caramel Popcorn and Ice Cream. We stopped by this time after a meal at Splitz Grill, and wanted to kill some time before watching the Avengers.

There’s lots of things in the store, and lots of it is quite expensive. What I really wanted was ice cream, which isn’t too expensive. Two scoops of ice cream on a waffle cone was only $5, which was the same price as COWS. I ordered the Banana Walnut ice cream and it was delicious. You could really taste the different toppings. It was sweeter than COWS and more rich and creamy. You could really pick up the banana flavour, and the crunch from the walnuts was awesome.

One friend ordered the Chocolate Brownie Ice Cream and he loved it. Sweet and creamy and very chocolatey. He enjoyed it more than COWS.

They also grabbed a bag of Caramel popcorn which has all the nuts I’m allergic to. They said it was really good, and it was $6.99 for a decent sized bag. I think the Caramel Apples are rip offs though. We purchased a Skor one and it was about $7 which I think is so expensive for a single apple. I would definitely come back for ice cream though!

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Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company
217 – 4293 Mountain Square
Whistler, BC

(604) 932-4100

http://rockychoc.com 

http://www.urbanspoon.com/e/restaurant_link/1586350

Crepe Montagne was high on our list of places to eat but they are only open during breakfast and brunch. We stopped before we left Whistler to get back to reality. The place wasn’t busy at all, although it was a Monday morning.

They have crepe in the name, so they have to be good right. We all got savoury crepes all of which come with a varying number of eggs, a ton of cheese, green onions, and your choice of ham, canadian bacon and tomatoes. All crepes are made with white and buckwheat flour.

I went for the Slalom – 1 egg, Canadian bacon, 3 cheeses, fresh tomato, and green onions. My first bite was heaven. The cheese blend they use is amazing with the egg. It might be too cheesy for some, but I loved every bite of this. The egg was slightly cooked in between the crepes, and it was topped with the Canadian bacon a the cheese, and some green onions and tomatoes (with melted cheese on top of them too). The green onion helped give it an extra kick and the tomato helped cut through the cheese and added freshness. The bacon added the meaty texture and a bit of salt. Everything together in a bite was so delicious. My friends agreed too, they loved their crepes as well. They both ordered the Rockies which was similar to mine but with an extra egg, and no tomatoes. They wished they had tomatoes in theres, but they made do with some ketchup.

One friend ordered the banana and strawberry waffles which came with a ton of whip cream. The waffles are a bit denser than we like and not as sweet as we would like. We thought it should be more airy and have some extra flavour in the waffle. That said it was still pretty good, but not nearly as good as the crepe.

We definitely will come back for breakfast to try out the sweet and dessert crepes. They have cheese fondue too! They are only open until 2:30PM though.

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Crepe Montagne
116 4368 Main Street
Whistler, BC

(604) 905-4444

http://crepemontagne.com 

Splitz Grill is another one of the places I have yet to try (I haven’t even tried the one in Vancouver). After a day of boarding, we got some hamburgers at Splitz to get our energy back. I ordered the lamb burger because our friend Andy said it’s his favourite. The rest of us ordered the Splitz Burger. Each of ours were different though because you can customize it in many different ways.

I added cheese and mushrooms for an extra $1 each to my lamb burger, and also make it a combo with fries and a drink. When you order from Splitz you can choose your bread (I chose white), and you can pick your different toppings. They have a board right above where they top your food to help you out. I just asked what was good with the lamb burger, and he said Baba ganoosh, and tzatziki would go well, so I trusted him. I added some lettuce, tomato, red onion and sprouts to top it off. I took a seat, and a few minutes later my burger and fries were done cooking. My burger was a good size, and juicy. It was well seasoned and didn’t have a gamey flavour at all. The mushrooms were thinly and sliced but still added texture and flavour. The mushrooms were a bit cold though. I wish that the bun was warmed up a bit too. The fries were nice and crisp with a soft inside. Nicely fried.

Our friends ordered the most popular, which is the Splitz Burger and topped it with different things. One friend liked it a lot, and really enjoyed the Splitz sauce. The other just thought it was OK. The sweet potato fries were also really delicious, although they looked burnt (and some were). They were crisp and seasoned well. Wished they came with some sort of aioli though.

It can get pretty expensive, as my burger combo was $14 (after tax). A combo without any additional toppings is $10.50 (before tax)

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Splitz Grill
4369 Main St
Whistler, BC

(604) 938-9300

http://splitzgrill.com

Cafe de l’Orangerie is a restaurant that serves Japanese style pasta, sandwiches, and other western foods. I was in the neighbourhood, and decided to come in for an early dinner.

I picked Hamburger steak for my meal, which was Japanese style hamburger patty with mash potatoes, and carrots. It also came with a side of steamed rice. The hamburger patty was covered with mushroom demi-glace which was quite sweet. The pork patty was quite thick and got a bit too greasy as I ate. The consistency was closer to a meat loaf rather than a burger patty. It made sense to eat with rice and the mash potatoes because the flavours were quite sweet and rich.

My friend ordered the Japanese style spaghetti with side orders of corn soup and salad. The pasta was again, sweet! Sweeter than the burger as a whole meal because there was so much of it. My friend’s guess was that it was cooked in ketchup, like they would do in Japan. I liked it for the first few bites before it got too much of the same flavour, the pasta was cooked very well at al-dente.

These meals were quite cheap just under and/or around $10 each. I think it’s quite authentic for Japanese style western foods. I really wanted to try their black sesame parfait, and other Japanese sandwiches but I got way too full from my meal. Maybe next time; just not the first and second tuesday of every month though, because that’s when they are closed. Yep, had to find that out the hard way last time before I ended up at Talay thai food near by.

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Cafe de l’Orangerie
8636 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6P5A5

COWS is a staple in Whistler, and is world famous for their Ice Cream and merchandise. I usually go here at least once when I stay for the weekend in Whistler. On this trip we went here for dessert after our dinner at Pasta Lupino. I ordered a Pecan and Toffee Ice Cream in a waffle cup.

This flavour was delicious with huge chunks (some whole) of pecans and caramel. Caramel’s my favourite, and pecans are one of my favourites so obviously I’d love this ice cream. It was creamy and the ice cream was smooth and sweet. The waffle was nice and crunchy and didn’t get soggy. My friends ordered Cowrispy Crunch and Moo Henry which they all enjoyed on a waffle cone. I obviously couldn’t try it because both were crammed with peanuts. We all had to get ice cream even though we were freezing in the evening.

COWS has lots of cool tshirts around, many of which are for nerdy gamers and movie fans. This place is really popular often with lines out the door.

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COWS
102-4295 Blackcomb Way
Whistler, BC
(604) 938-9822
http://cows.ca 

On our first meal at Whistler this past weekend we ate at Pasta Lupino. It’s a pretty small Italian restaurant but it seemed like a fairly popular place. It’s not too expensive (for Whistler) at about $15 for their entrees during dinner time. Lunch time is quite a bit cheaper, but I’m not sure what the difference in portion sizes are.

I ordered the Polpetta di Carne (Spaghetti & Meatballs), and my friends ordered the Chicken Parmigiana, Ravioli de la Casa, and Salsiccia. Each item came with either a soup or salad. Today the soup options were Creamy Tomato and Dill Soup, and Chipotle Chicken Chowder. For salad, it was either Green Salad, or Caesar.

The soup came out nice and hot. It was creamy with a bit of spice, and the dill flavour was just noticeable. I enjoyed it. My pasta was a decent portion with 3 meatballs, and plenty of spaghetti and tomato sauce. The spaghetti had a good texture, and not soggy. The tomato sauce was nice and tasted pretty fresh. The meatballs were only OK though. They weren’t huge meatballs, and were a bit denser than I like and not very big. Decent, but I’d probably order something else next time.

The ravioli was the winner that night. It was cooked perfectly, with a bit of a bite still on it. The stuffing was light but nice, and the rose sauce was delicious (you had to mix the cream into the tomato sauce yourself). The next best was the Chicken Parmigiana. It was crisp on the outside, and moist inside with lots of gooey cheese. The sausage pasta was OK. It was just a whole sausage link with pasta on the side. The sausage was good and juicy, but nothing special, and the dish wasn’t integrated together.

They have a TV in there and were playing some hockey games, and they also have some olive oils, balsamic vinegar, tomatoes, and other stuff which you can purchase from them. As our weekend went by, this place was pretty good, but it was kind of forgettable by the end of our trip.

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Pasta Lupino
4368 Main St
Whistler, BC

(604) 905-0400

pastalupino.com

Do you normally order lunches of staff meals into your office? How about beers or birthday cakes? Now you and your co-workers can get “meals delivered to your office.”

Food.ee is working hard to offer the best & easiest corporate food ordering experience, so we’re offering a free product demo to all interested participants along with Food.ee paying for 50% of your order. If your team is 10 or more people, located in/around downtown and have time for a 10 minute demo give us a call (604-595-2953) or email us at corporate@food.ee

Food.ee simplifies the task of ordering meals for large groups. If you’re tired of the usual pizza or Chinese food deliveries, some of our great restaurant partners include Rasoee, Ensemble Tap, Bonchaz, Notturno Paninoteca, and Hubbub Sandwiches! Celebration in the office? You can also order cake and alcohol delivery! Order now at http://food.ee/

Presented by Well Seasoned, more than 25 different teams will compete for $10,000 in cash prizes. The competition begins Saturday afternoon with a pie and chili contest. Next up is an Iron Chef style contest, BATTLE BACON. Each team will be provided with 5 lbs of Johnston’s BC Bacon and the teams can make anything they want using bacon as the feature ingredient. At 5 pm on Saturday the BACON dishes will be submitted to the judges for evaluation.

After BATTLE BACON teams will start to cook their meat in preparation for the competition on Sunday. Beef brisket and pork shoulder can take up to 15 hours to cook, so the cooks will have to stay up all night to tend to their meat. The main competition starts Sunday at 11am, and every hour on the hour teams will turn in different meat entries to the judges.

Each judge has been trained and certified by the Pacific Northwest BBQ Association. Judges will be evaluating the food based on appearance, texture, taste and flavour. The food is rated on a scale of 1-10 by six different judges. After the teams have submitted their food to the judges, they will pass out samples to the public. Get ready for some of the best barbeque you have ever experienced!
Show Times:
Saturday May 19th
1:00 pm – Pie
2:00 pm – Chili
4:00 pm – BATTLE BACON

Sunday May 20th
11:00 am – Pork Shoulder
12:00 pm – Beef Brisket
1:00 pm – Chicken
2:00 pm – Ribs
5:00 pm – Awards

For more information visit www.cloverdalerodeo.com.

About:

The Cloverdale Rodeo and Exhibition Association is the non-profit organization that manages the world famous Cloverdale Rodeo & Country Fair held every year on the May long weekend at the Cloverdale Fairgrounds in Surrey, British Columbia.

The Association is also responsible for the year-round management of the eight facilities on the Cloverdale Fairgrounds that host over 1,000 events annually, including trade shows, concerts, festivals, sporting events, horse and dog shows, swap meets, flea markets, weddings and meetings.

For more information on the Association and the 66th annual Cloverdale Rodeo and the 124th Country Fair visit: www.cloverdalerodeo.com.

Gulberg Fine Cuisine is an Indian-Pakistani restaurant in the Fleetwood area of Surrey. Looking at the menu, I thought I wouldn’t recognize many of the dishes, but many were the same as what you would find in any other Indian restaurant. I’m not familiar at all with Pakistani cuisine, so I’m not sure how much different it is from Indian food.

We ordered Paneer Pakora (my favourite!) to start, and for our mains we ordered Butter Chicken, Goat Biryani, the Gulberg Mixed Sizzler, as well as garlic, spinach, and plain naan.

The Paneer Pakora was fried nice and crisp, and served with two nice sauces. I enjoyed the ones at Palki better though because it had a better batter, and more flavourful sauces. These were still pretty good though. The Goat Biryani  is a rice dish with vegetables and goat. They used basmati rice, and these seemed way longer than I’ve seen before. I didn’t think there was enough meat in the dish. Although the meat was cut into bite sized pieces, many were still on the bone. Personally, if I’m putting spoonfuls of rice in my mouth, I’d prefer not to have to fight my way around the bone in my mouth. It’s one thing if the meat was separate from the rice, but all of the ingredients were mixed together. The flavours were nice, with lots of spice, but some of the rice also clumped up together.

The Butter Chicken was probably the best main dish. It was rich and the chicken was tender and went well with the plain naan. The Mixed Sizzler was quite a big dish and enough for two people. Our favourite was definitely the tandoori chicken. It was delicious, and cooked perfectly – very tender. However it came with other meats that we didn’t like. We didn’t enjoy the different levels of doneness, the flavours, and some of the textures. Finally, the plain and garlic naans were good, but the spinach naan was way too salty.

Overall the food was OK. I’ve definitely had better Indian food at other places. However the service was really good. Oddly enough they had a couple of TVs on playing hockey. I was happy to watch Washington elimiate Boston from the playoffs in OT here

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Gulberg Fine Cuisine
15950 Fraser Hwy
Surrey, BC

(778) 565-5430

http://www.gulbergrestaurant.com/

My friends and I resorted here for dinner after not wanting to wait at Toshi’s sushi. Nikkyu was just a block away, and getting a table here was no problem as we were literally the second customers for dining in at 5:30pm.

Our dinner included Nakoya roll, Avocado salmon roll, Spicy salmon roll, Salmon sashimi, Main Street roll, Agadashi tofu and Beef sashimi.

I liked the agadashi tofu’s crispy thin batter. It was piping hot, we had to wait for a while to eat it. The salmon sashimi was very fresh and was served at a good temperature. The only thing I liked about the beef sashimi was the tangy sauce it came with.

The rolls were delicious in general.  I ordered the Nakoya roll because it had avocado, mango, and coconut. It came out to be a little disappointing because I felt like they put coconut on the menu as a gimmick to get coconut loving people like me. They were just very dried, and stale coconut bits on top of the roll. The roll turned out to be much more pleasant without the coconuts.

The main street roll was one of the special rolls with tuna, unagi and avocado. This one was tasty, and I loved the creaminess of the avocado.

The service here was very very slow. There was only 1 waitress to bus all the tables and take takeout orders at the same time. Even though the restaurant was not busy at all (only 2 other tables were occupied after us), we waited quite a while to order, and get our bills sorted. At least you can always get a table here it seems.

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Nikkyu
3302 Main St
Vancouver, BC V5V3M6

Mike’s Noodle House in Chinatown, Seattle is my favorite place to get quick and cheap congee and noodles. Consider this place like Vancouver’s Congee noodle house but much smaller.

My regular meal here would include an order of fish or perserved egg and pork congee, an order of wonton noodles and an order of tripe to share with friends.

Yes, tripe, an order of boiled tripe comes with cilantro, ginger, and boiled lettuce with a side of spicy soy sauce. This is the only place that I’d order and eat tripe at, mostly because they have great crunchy texture and that they don’t taste funny.

The wontons in wonton noodle soups are always delicious. The filling has very nice pork and full sized shrimps. You can order the noodle soups with 3 different noodle sizes. I like mine with thick noodles.

This place never disappoints, especially when you have a hangover. If you are looking for a nice bowl of congee in Seattle, this is probably one the best places to go.

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Mike’s Noodle House
418 Maynard Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104

I’ve been meaning to find more places to eat between Bellingham and Seattle for a while. Last weekend I was heading down to Seattle again, and found Grinders Hot Sands in Lynnwood.

This was a pretty cool sandwich shop just about 10 minutes off the I-5 highway. It had a bar / lounge feel. They specialize in hot sandwiches, and none of the sandwiches are small.

I ordered an extra spicy Pulled Pork Sandwich. The giant sandwich came on a plate with a knife and a fork. It probably has a pound of smokey and savoury pulled pork in there. It was also very garlicky with a hint of sweetness. It was super tasty but my supposedly ”extra spicy” sandwich had no heat at all.

My friend had the SauBall; can’t decide if you like meatballs or sausages? Have both and order the Sauball. This sandwich has 2 homemade meatballs and 1 Italian sausage smothered with marinara sauce on perfectly toasted bread. The sausage was delicious but homemade meatballs kicked ass. It’s probably one of the better meatballs I’ve had in a sandwich. If I come back, I’d order the meatball sub straight up.

I’m glad I was able to make a stop here. This was a very chilled place to get some delicious hot sandwiches, a place worth stopping by.

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Grinders Hot Sands
19811 Aurora Ave N
Shoreline, WA 98133

Po Dog is a hot dog joint in Capital Hill, Seattle. There were quite a lot of crazy hot dogs on the menu, props to the creativity.

The Texas dog, Mac and Cheese dog, and Bita dog were my friends choices. The one that really caught my eye was the Pb dog. From the description it said peanut butter and fresh sliced banana. The staff confirmed that this wasn’t a dessert, and that there is actually a wiener in it. Peanut butter and hot dog, I just had to order it.

The hot dogs were all served in brioche buns. There was a lot of melted peanut butter on the Pb dog, and it was very thick and creamy. I could still taste the hot dog itself, and I didn’t taste as much peanut butter as I thought I would. The peanut butter kind of worked, but I wasn’t too sure about the bananas. Would I order it again? Sure, why not.

None of the hot dogs here are small. If you like onions, go for the Texas dog, because it was topped with a lot of deep fried onions. The Mac and Cheese one was the best out of our bunch. The mac and cheese itself was very creamy and cheesy, it combined the saltiness of the hot dog perfectly. It was a carbs overload hot dog, but it was a tasty one.

All the hot dogs were reasonably priced, so, peanut butter hot dog, do you dare?

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Po Dog
1009 E Union St
Seattle, WA 98122

I used to go to the Red Robin in Guildford a lot when I was still in high school and university. But haven’t been back since I started exploring more. However, I still think this is a pretty good place to get a decent burger. I went with my family for dinner here on Friday. One thing it has going for them is that it is very kid friendly, so we can bring our 2-year old nephew here and not have to worry. It’s quite loud in there, and they also provide kids with crayons and stuff to colour. They also have a kids menu.

To start we had the Calamari and the Dry Ribs. The calamari was nice and crisp and had a nice texture. Tender but still with a bite to it. The Dry Ribs were quite dry, but some of them were also quite meaty. They were for the most part crisp. They came with a sweet thai chili sauce.

For our mains most of us got burgers, and they were pretty good. I ordered the new Prime Chophouse burger. The burger patty was juicy and flavourful, but I wish the onion strings were crisper. Some of them seemed to have been either under fried or under battered. Most of them were pretty soggy, but that may be due to the sauce. The mushrooms were also not very noticeable as they were thinner, and cooked down more than it is in there Mushroom burger. The country dijon sauce was also quite strong, and I wasn’t a big fan. I like the idea of this burger, but I’m not sure if I’d order it again. Something was too overpowering. I upgraded my fries to a poutine. I really like the Red Robin fries, but it doesn’t work as well with a poutine. Their gravy is really dark and salty.

My dad said he enjoyed the Fish and Chips because there were was a lot of it when compared to what he would typically get at White Spot for the same price. Mom ordered the Shrimp and Chips, and again, tons of shrimp in there. For my nephew we got some mac and cheese, and brocolli. The mac and cheese is pretty decent too says my family. Really cheesy.

If you sign up for Red Robin’s email, you can get a free burger during your birthday, and also free sundae.

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Red Robin
10237 152 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 930-2415

http://www.canadarobin.com/

I stumbled upon Talay Thai Food while trying to go to another near by restaurant that was closed. My friend and I only stopped by to get a quick dinner, and so we only ordered 1 appetizer and 1 main to share.

For the appetizer, we ordered the Stuffed Chicken Wings. I’ve had stuff chicken wings once before at Lhy Thai and they were delicious. One order of stuffed chicken wings here came with 2 pieces which was not enough in my opinion. These wings were boneless and stuff with moist minced meat and glass noodles. Together with the tangy sweet thai sauce, they make awesome finger food. It would not be a bad idea to sell these on a food truck either.. someone go do it!

For main, we ordered Jungle Curry with chicken. It had loads of vegetables including bamboo shoots, green pepper, mushrooms and green beans.  It was a sour and spicy based curry and it was again, pretty delicious.

To me honest, I was a little skeptical upon walking into the restaurant because it was really empty. But after having the 2 dishes, it has a lot of potential. I would definitely return to try other dishes.

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Talay Thai Food
8369 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC V6P4Z8

On Saturday, me and a couple of friends were looking for a place to watch the UFC Jones vs Evans PPV fight. At first we went to Green Timbers Pub right by my house which normally shows the UFC, but for some reason they weren’t that day. So we quickly drove to the next closest place at Fleetwood Arms. Like most pubs, you seat yourself, and try to get the best view of the TV screens. We ended up sitting in the patio.

I ordered the Perogies and Ukranian Sausage, and a side of Mexi Fries (wow that’s lots of potato). The mexi fries were regular fries topped with spicy beef, cheese, bacon, green onions, baked, and then topped with sour cream and salsa. These were decent, the fries surprisingly stayed crisp under all the topping. The cheese was nicely melted, and there was quite a bit of beef, although not very spicy. The perogies were stuffed with potato and cheese and topped with green onions, caramalized onions, and bits of fried bacon with sour cream. It also came with some slices of garlic sausage and served with a salad. The perogies were slighly fried, but I would’ve liked it a bit crisper and butterier.

My friends ordered wings, hot spinach and artichoke dip, and a steak sandwich. The pound of wings were split into two flavours – honey garlic, and sea salt and lime. The Honey Garlic was really good, but the other flavour wasn’t. I really liked the hot spinach and artichoke dip. They were served with some nice fried flat bread chips that was puffed up, and really crispy and airy. A bit oily, but it was nice. The dip itself was nice and cheesy. They tasted awesome together. The Steak Sandwich was just OK. Served open faced with both onions, and onion rings. The steak was cooked a bit over medium, and it was a bit weird to eat because he said it seemed like he was eating everything separately. Why are there raw onions and onion rings?

On their website you can sign up and get a free meal during your birthday month. They also play every UFC event here, so it’s a good place to go to watch PPV events and other sports.

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Fleetwood Arms
8410 160 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 597-3220

http://www.fleetwoodarms.com/

McJac’s Roadhouse Grille was one of three choices I gave my friend for brunch in BC. She chose this one, because of the distance and the time we had. McJac’s is kind of in the middle of nowhere along King George Hwy in South Surrey. It was quite busy, as at that location, there is just this Roadhouse, their bakery, and a Mac’s convenience store. This restaurant is quite unique with 4 different dining areas with very different decors. We ate in the Retro Room where it was really old school furniture, paint, and posters.

We wanted to try out a bunch of the menu. We ordered a breakfast combo that came with our choice of sausage, ham or bacon with hasbrowns, 2 eggs, and toast. We went for the sausage with scrambled eggs, and sourdough toast. I went for the Raisin French Toast. We also ordered the Grilled Cheese and added ham to it as well as some Corn Bread and Banana bread because they were just $2 each.

The breakfast was pretty standard. The hashbrowns were thicker cubed potatoes, seasoned nicely. A little crisp outside, and airy inside. The sausage patties were moist, but a bit salty. The grilled cheese was nice and buttery and crisp. The cheese wasn’t anything special or particular tasty, but it was decent. The ham was a nice addition, cut the right thickness, but again a bit salty.

The french toast was made with Raisin bread and pretty good. I know a lot of people don’t like raisins in many things, but I’m one that does like it in breads. It adds extra flavour and texture and a bit of sweetness. These raisins were plump, and not too dry. The bread was nice and sweet.

Now onto our favourites. The corn bread and banana bread were delicious. They were cut thick from the loaf, and then placed on the griddle for a bit to give it a nice toast. The corn bread wasn’t too dry, but it was still crumbly. I wish I had some honey butter on the side, but even without it was still really good.

 McJac’s is a really popular restaurant. Our room was packed, and I wonder how packed the others were. They also have a bakery next door with lots of breads, and pastries. They also have a deli and cheese section. I’d go back to order stuff from the bakery because we were too full to take some home last time.

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McJac’s Roadhouse Grille
1781 King George Hwy
Surrey, BC

(604) 531-3167

http://www.roadhousegrille.ca/

The Sushi Bar on west 4th is a Japanese restaurant where you can get fairly cheap sushi rolls. I came here for a quick lunch but instead of getting sushi rolls, I ordered a lunch box instead.

I picked Lunch box B, it had chicken cutlet, gomae, gyoza, 1 piece salmon sushi, 1 piece tuna sushi, 1 piece shrimp sushi with steamed rice and miso soup. This lunch box was just under $7. There was a lot of spinach gomae, and other than the sushi, this was the only thing I liked. However, it was a bit salty. The chicken cutlet barely had any chicken, and the gyoza’s wrapping were quit hard from too much deep frying.

My friend ordered the Chicken Teriyaki Box. There was a lot of food, but the common theme of this box compared to mine was that most of the food in it was salty.

As I mentioned, this was a place to get cheap sushi rolls but the food was just mediocre.

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The Sushi Bar
1822 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC V6J3H3

Me and a bunch of friends went to Boston Pizza in Cloverdale to catch Game 4 of the Canucks vs Kings series. I haven’t watched a hockey game at BP recently, so I looked at Urban Spoon quickly to see how this location is. Turns out some people rate it very bad. That being said, I knew from my last experience I’d stay away from the pasta, and just order appies and drink beer. I know their wings are good!

And that’s just what we did. The bar was completely full with Canuck fans cheering on their team on the many TVs (many TVs were lagging behind the main screen and audio though). We had probably 8 orders of Wings, 2 orders of Cactus Cut Potatoes, Bacon Wrapped Steak Skewers, and Nachos. Another friend ordered a Prime Rib burger as well.

This time we got oven-baked wings. So they weren’t nearly as crispy as what I had before, but they were still very meaty and juicy. The people who had these wings for the first time agreed that they are better than the ones at Wings. However, they are a lot more expensive! We ordered Honey Garlic, Teriyaki, Chipotle BBQ, Whiskey BBQ, and Pineapple Mango. My favourites were the Honey Garlic and Chipotle BBQ. I found the Pineapple Mango to be just weird, and didn’t really go well as a wings sauce. The Teriyaki also wasn’t very teriyaki tasting. There are other flavours that I want to try, and I would come back for the wings. They erally need to have wing specials!

The Cactus Cut potatoes were good. Their cut thicker than chips, so they still are crispy, but have a bit of a soft center. It also has a really good spicy/peppery Cactus dip. The Steak Skewers were pretty good when still hot. The bacon was crisp and added a nice saltiness to the well seasoned steak. The steak was a bit overcooked though, and you could tell when it cooled down. The Nachos were decent. The beef had a strong taco seasoning flavour to it. Note: They now have Nacho Wings, which I kind of want to try…

Overall, the service wasn’t too slow. The bar was packed and we were all content with watching the hockey game and snacking on appies the entire time. I think the manager came around plenty of times to make sure we had everything we wanted which was good. I did hear one table complain about when they were getting their food though, but we didn’t seem to mind or notice if our order came slow. We were to busy enjoying the win.

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Boston Pizza
6486 176 St
Surrey, BC

(604) 576-2677

http://www.bostonpizza.com

Before Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, I was looking for a quick place to grab a bite to eat so I can make it to Rogers Arena pretty early to watch the Canucks pregame warmups. My coworker reminded me of Dunn’s Famous and their Montreal Smoked Meat.

I got their early thinking there would be people downtown watching some of the earlier hockey games (these Playoffs are so exciting and entertaining!). However, when we got there, there only a few people there. Quite dead, and they had 5-6 TV’s playing the Flyers vs Pens game.

Beipas and I ordered the Latkes, and Dunn’s Dip to start. Both were kind of mediocre. The Latkes weren’t what I was expecting as I thought they’d look a bit more like shredded potato cakes like what we had at Carnegie Deli in Las Vegas. These ones were quite dense. It’s a bit different from mash potatoes too because it had a bit of a doughy texture to it. It was crisp, but I wasn’t too fond of the texture. It went well with the sour cream though. The Dunn’s Dip was also not what we were expecting. There was so much smoked meat on top, and just a little bit of the the creamy spinach and artichoke dip. The first scoop actually got us wondering where the dip was. Not a big fan, and I thought the flavours tasted a bit odd together.

We ordered the Reuben, medium fat, to share and it was really big as it was double stacked. Inside the huge sandwich was Swiss cheese and sauer kraut. I took one bite of just the meat, and thought it was a bit dry. When I took a bite with everything together, it was delicious. The sauer kraut added just the right amount of moisture. The meat was really flavourful, but I think I would have preferred a bit more Russian dressing. The sandwich was definitely very filling especially with the added fries.

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Dunn’s Famous
827 Seymour St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 682-8938

http://www.dunnsfamousbc.com/restaurant/ 

After a huge meal at Ichiro Japanese, and a photo walk around the Steveston pier,we went to look for dessert. Mary’s Italian Gelato & Ice Cream was one of the few open that day.

We each got a waffle cone with one or two scoops of ice cream. For 4 people, it only cost a little over $10. That’s cheap! They had lots of different flavours that I haven’t seen at any other place.

We were talking about getting some Screamers from Danny’s Market, but now we didn’t need to. I ordered an oranges and cream, which was basically like a creamsicle (or Orange Crush Slurpee with soft serve ice cream). It was really good, and really tasted like a creamsicle with orange mixed in with yummy vanilla. I really enjoyed it. And for about $2-something, how can you not. There was also a Root Beer float flavour that my friend got (and another possible screamer flavour). My friends also ordered the Praline, and also Almond. Each of them were good.

I’m not around Steveston much, and I’m sure there are other gelato/ice cream places around. This place was pretty good, and I would eat there again. Especially with the price and selection.

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Mary’s Italian Gelato & Ice Cream
120-12240 2nd Ave
Steveston Fishman’s Wharf
Richmond, BC

(604) 277-8210

St. Patrick’s Day was a really busy night downtown, and not a place to be for a party of 11 with no reservations. Our party grew throughout the night, and what started as 8 turned into 11. There was no way we were going to get a place together at a reasonable time. That being said, Pourhouse was able to accommodate us, although way later than we had hoped. They did their best to fit us all together though.

I first learned about Pourhouse from a Van Food Tour. Ever since them, I love to visit this place for a quick sazerac when I’m out in Gastown. This is the first time I was actually able to try the food (besides having a charcuterie plate). Sure we waited a long time, but waits were long everywhere, and they were actually able to seat us in the main dining area – with all 11 of us together.

I ordered the bacon mac and cheese to start, and the braised beef as my main. My friends ordered a bunch of different things – burgers, steak frites, grilled cheese and cauliflower soup, duck terrine, spaghetti and meatballs, and ling cod.

The bacon mac and cheese was pretty good. They used a really different kind of pasta, which was really good at holding the really creamy sauce. It was nice and rich the way I liked it, and the bacon added a nice smokiness. One of the better mac & cheese dishes I’ve had.  The braised beef was really tender, and served with an egg noodle with sour cream and mushrooms. The egg noodles were kind of soft. Not that much texture to them, but very nice and creamy, a bit sour, with some earthy mushrooms in there. Very rich and a good accompaniment to the braised beef.

Most of the food looked really good. The Grilled Cheese was really buttery, definitely something I would have liked, and the soup was really creamy. The Duck Terrine was delicious, and something my friend wasn’t expecting. He also enjoyed the ling cod, but wasn’t a big fan of the white beans, but everyone else loved them. I heard the Steak Frites wasn’t that good though. It was swimming in a lot of sauce, and was quite fatty.

We also got a few desserts – the cookies, brownie, and a tart. The cookies were really warm, soft, and moist. Really good. Didn’t get to try the others.

Sadly no green beer or Guinness can be found here.

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Pourhouse
162 Water St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 568-7022

http://www.pourhousevancouver.com/ 

Last night we were invited to the Grand Opening of the first Famoso Pizzeria in BC. They started in 2005 with many locations in Edmonton and Calgary. Beipas, myself, and Erin Gee were given a tour of the restaurant by the founder, Justin. He told us about his trip to Italy, and how it inspired him to start Famoso.

We were able to order anything we wanted from the menu. Most pizzas can be ordered in regular size which are about 11-inches, or you can order Pizzettas, which are about half the size. Since we wanted to try as many as we could, we decided to order 5 of the latter.

The three of us ordered the the tapenade platter to start, and then ordered the Margherita, Vesuvio, Conforto, Prosciutto Arugula, and Spicy Thai pizzettas.

The tapenade trio came with Kalamata olive tapenade, artichoke tapenade, and bruschetta served with flatbread. I found the flatbreads a bit tough to eat with a fork and knife, so just slather the tapenades on top, and pick it up with your hands and bite into it. My favourite of the three was the artichoke – it was garlicky, and not too salty. The bruschetta was nice too, which was tomatoes, onions, and some basil. Nice and fresh. The olive tapenade was a bit too salty for me.

The Margherita, Vesuvio, and Conforto were tomato sauce based pizzas. The Margherita was delicious, and I think this is due to the fact that the ingredients were really good. It’s the simplest of pizzas – Fior di Latte mozzarella, tomato sauce, and basil. If a pizza joint can make this really good, most of their pizzas should be good. With this pizza, you let the ingredients and the dough really stand out. Here it was really good. I thought the tomato sauce was amazing, and the dough was crisp, but soft in the inside. Many people agreed that this was their favourite. The Vesuvio was a spicy pizza, but really good. The sopressata was awesome and added some spice and saltiness. It also had some cracked chilli peppers on top. Some bites were spicier than others, but I really enjoyed. My choice was the Conforto, but I didn’t enjoy it as much. It  was topped with Italian sausage, roasted mushrooms, and  roasted red peppers. I’m not sure it works well with this style of pizza. It’s more like a regular take out place (which this place definitely is not). There was too much topping on it, and it took away from the overall pizza. It wasn’t bad, but I definitely enjoyed the other flavours more.

The Prosicutto Arugula was a Pizza Bianco, or pizza with a white sauce made from olive oil, garlic, and oregano. I really enjoyed this pizza too. The pizza was baked, and then topped with prosciutto and arugula. They also provided a lemon to squeeze on top to add to the freshness. It was really delicious. The prosciutto was so silky, and could almost melt in your mouth. The fresh arugula leaves added a nice peppery flavour.

The Spicy Thai was considered a New World Pizza. They used a peanut sauce (so I wasn’t able to try it), and topped it with chicken, mozzarella, carrots, beansprouts, cilantro, and crushed peanuts. There was also a lime that they squeezed on. Beipas and Erin said this pizza was really good too, and even spicier than the Vesuvio.

Although, already quite full, we needed to try some dessert, so we ordered the Tirimisu, and Nutella Banana Pizza. The tirimisu was light and airy and pretty good. Not a strong coffee liqueur flavour in it which is good. I enjoyed the Nutella pizza more. It was actually served calzone style, with nutella in the inside, and we added some banana. It was delicious, though the bread was a bit tough to cut into again.

They also have serve gelato from one of the most famous gelatterias in Alberta. We got to sample some flavours, and they were really nice. The blueberry basil flavour was amazing. It was smooth, light, and creamy. To me, it kind of had a lychee flavour in it, which I love.

Famoso really wants to bring the Naples experience to Vancouver, and really focus on using the right ingredients from the right places direct from Italy. I’d have this pizza over your typical delivery pizza any day, and I hope they open a location closer to me. The prices are pretty decent, and aren’t as carb-heavy as regular pizzas so you won’t feel so full. At this location they also have a TV so you can watch sports. We had a really good time at this event, and got to see Ange, Diana, Erin, Tess, and Sean. Sherman even showed up for the second seating at 8:30. Best of luck to the Famoso team!

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Famoso Pizzeria
1380 Commercial Dr
Vancouver, BC

(604) 251-2292

http://www.famoso.ca/

I was at The Burrard Public House with my friends during our dinner break on board games day. Because we hadn’t eaten since breakfast at Cora, we arrived at the pub at 5pm-ish, and not too surprisingly, the pub was quite empty at this time.

The pizzas were on special for $10, so most of us went for the pizza. They were quite good. We shared BBQ chicken, prosciutto, and peperoni (daily special) pizzas. They all had very nice thin crusts. The bbq chicken was really good with moist chicken, cilantro and jalepenos.

We also had a couple appetizers, Calamari and Sweet Thai Wings. The calamari was quiet bland to be honest. The batter didn’t have much seasoning, it came with some deep fried jalepenos that gave some flavour if you eat them together.

The wings were deep fried perfectly. They had really nice crispy crust, the meat was still juicy, very solid pub wings.

My friend ordered and devoured the Short Rib Sandwich. Yup, it was a tasty one for meat lovers.

This is a popular pub for the locals to check out and watch the Canucks game. I’m not in Coquitlam a lot but my friends say it usually gets packed on game days. The staff was friendly, food was solid, I’d return for sure.

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The Burrard Public House
2414 St Johns St
Port Moody, BC V3H2A8

What a find this Japanese restaurant was! I suggested to my friends that we go to Steveston, but didn’t really have a restaurant in mind. On the way there, a couple ideas were shot down because things were closed on Monday. Luckily, we found Ichiro.

We arrived a little before 6 o’clock, and there was hardly anyone there. Lots of empty tables. We had to sit at the Sushi Bar and watch the chef’s work. I guess everyone was smart and made a reservation because at around 6:30PM every table was packed!

The menu was quite extensive, with lots of rolls, and cooked dishes. I loved the variety. The prices were quite high though. I ordered a Tamago Nigiri, Sukiyaki Nabe, and a Corn Croquette. My friends ordered a bunch (well, one friend mostly). Between them they ordered Spicy Salmon Roll, Assorted Sashimi, Chicken Karaage, Ika Karaage, Ebi Mayo, Oyster Motoyaki, Grilled Beef Tongue, Spinach Gomae, and a Dragon Roll.

The tamago was good, but I prefer the sweeter one at Kiriri. The Corn Croquette was nice and creamy, while airy, with a light crispy breading. There were bits of corn in there mixed with the potato insides. It was good, but I think a bit too expensive. My Sukiyaki Nabe had the best broth I’ve ever tasted. It was so delicious. I let all my friends try it, and right after their first sip you could see their eyes light up! Seriously good. It was packed with tons of sliced beef, as well as tofu, mushrooms, cabbage, and other vegetables. I just wish there was more udon. It’s also $15, but it can be definitely be shared. It was really big for one person.

The salmon sashimi was awesome and so fresh. It almost just melted in your mouth. The spicy salmon roll was also amazing. Very different spicy sauce used here. The Ebi Mayo was also the best ever. The Beef Tongue was surprisingly good too. It had a firm texture but it was very flavourful. Oyster Motoyaki was really good too. It had a lot more eggy flavour and kind of custard like topping instead of mayo. Really good, with lots of oyster chunks spread throughout. The Dragon Roll was amazing. Sure it was $15 for a roll, but when you see it you’ll know why. The amount of unagi on top was crazy. It wasn’t thin either.. It was long thick pieces of unagi. Combined it would be close to a foot of unagi on top. And the prep and artistry was here as well. The only dish that wasn’t very good was the chicken karaage. I appreciate that it wasn’t a chicken wing, but large chunks of chicken, battered and fried. The chicken meat was juicy,but it sadly wasn’t crunchy. It could’ve also used a sauce to go with it.

Everything was great here besides the chicken karaage. Service was good. There were 3 sushi chefs working non stop in front of us, but we sadly couldn’t really see their hands at work because of the counter top. The place is really popular too. There’s quite a bit of free parking close by.

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Ichiro Japanese
12011 2nd Ave
Richmond, BC

(604) 277-1150

http://www.ichirojapaneserestaurant.ca/

On Easter Sunday, a few friends and visited Cora Breakfast & Lunch for breakfast to start our board games day off.

This restaurant was a lot bigger than I expected. Walking I immediately saw a big fruit bar right by the door. Every item on the menu had either some fresh fruit or lots of fresh fruit, totally my kind of breakfast.

I decided to try the Sunshine with Ham and cheese wrap. Half of this plate was the ham, egg and cheese wrap, and the other half was fresh fruits. The fruits totally overshadowed the wrap, they were the best part of this breakfast. There were strawberries, banana, cantaloupe, and kiwi. All freshly prepared. The wrap on the other hand had nice melted gooey cheese, but there wasn’t anything special about it.

A couple of my friends ordered Bennies. This dish came with 2 bennies, potatoes and also lots of nicely cut fruits. This was a really big breakfast, neither of my friends got close to finishing this dish. It was a delicious and fulfilling breakfast.

The rest of us ordered Crepomelettes. A Crepomelette was pretty much a breakfast wrap with crepe and hollandaise sauce on top. There was a side of fruits, and toast. Both of my meat lover friends picked non-meat crepomelettes, and they still enjoyed their breakfast.

If you love fruits this is a place to come. There were also a good selection fresh fruit smoothies and juices. If you love fruits for breakfast, this would hit the spot.

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Cora Breakfast & Lunch
3025 Lougheed Hwy
Coquitlam, BC V3B6J6

Another sit-down Filipino restaurant. I’m glad they are around. I enjoy them way more than the restaurants with pre-made food sitting over a warming bath. This place makes food to order (with some dishes like the Paella requiring at least 2 hours notice). I’ve heard some good things about Kulinarya from my friends, so I brought my parents to try it out. I also wanted to compare it to Kumare in Richmond. Again, we ordered a ton.

We ordered Lechon Kawali, Lumpiang Shanghai, Pork Sisig, Beef Kaldereta, Pancit Malabon, Inihaw na Pusit, Sinampalukang Manok, and Garlic Fried Rice.

We started with the Lumpiang Shanghai. Typically, they are served as little spring rolls filled with pork. These ones are quite large and cut into threes. It was stuffed with a lot of meat, which was a lot smoother and softer than I’m used to. The Lechon Kawali was served on the bone and you had to cut it off yourself. Pretty different. Still tasty. Crispy. But I think I prefer it at Kumare. The skin was crispier there. I wasn’t a big fan of the Sizzling Pork Sisig as there were plenty of ears in there. I’m not a big fan of that texture. It just said that it was minced pork served on a hot sizzling plate. The Beef Kaldereta was probably my favourite. The beef was tender and the sauce was flavourful, though I would like a little hint of spice to it. The Inihaw na Pusit was really good too. It was a huge stuffed grilled squid. I have never seen a squid that big, but it was huge, and stuffed with tomatoes, onions and herbs. It was really good. The squid was cooked perfectly, and not too rubbery. I liked the texture. The stuffing wasn’t cooked too long, and still had a bit of freshness to it. The Sinampalukang Manok is a chicken soup served with tamarind leaves. The soup base is kind of similar to Sinigang, but the leaves, and other ingredients change the flavour slightly. It was pretty good, but the meat was a bit tough as they used the chicken breast. Finally, we also had the Pancit Malabon. I wasn’t familiar with it, until I saw it. It’s basically Palabok, but maybe a bit less salty. It’s a noodle dish served with a shrimp sauce.

We were so full from that meal, but we still ordered some Casava Cake, and a Halo Halo to share. I enjoyed the warm Casava Cake, and especially liked the topping. The halo halo was really good too, but seemed to have a bit less ingredients – i.e. no Leche Flan.

I enjoyed most of the food at Kulinarya, and the service was really good. They were attentative, the staff and owner were nice, and the food came quick too. The restaurant is really small though, as there are seats for about 16 people. We went right at noon when it wasn’t so busy. 30 minutes or so later, there were people waiting out the door.

On one hand, I thought some of the food was better at Kumare, but the service wasn’t very good as I think they were understaffed when we went. We seemed kind of neglicted. At Kulinarya the staff was quick to take our order and bring out the food. However, the space is a lot smaller at Kulinarya. Kumare has plenty of dining room. Kumare also has a bakery with much more choices for dessert. I’d recommend both, and luckily they are kind of on two opposite sides of Metro Vancouver.

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Kulinarya
114 – 2922 Glen Dr
Coquitlam, BC

(778) 285-6577

http://kulinarya.ca

Nahm Thai Bistro is a newish Thai restaurant in Whalley. My brother had been a week or two earlier, and said it was pretty good but a bit pricey.

Looking at the menu, they kind of are. Most appies were $9, and the mains were $10 and up. To start, we ordered Chicken Lettuce Wrap ($9), and also Stuffed Chicken Wings ($9). The chicken lettuce wrap was delicious with diced chicken and vegetables served with crispy fried rice noodles. Nice sweet flavours, and good textures. Tender chicken, and lots of crispiness, and fresh lettuce. I just wish they dried the lettuce a bit more. It was quite wet, and it diluted the sauce a bit. At least we know they at least rinsed the lettuce I guess. The Stuffed Chicken wings were OK. I’m not sure how you really stuff a chicken wing, but they were. I guess they took out the bones, and stuffed it with some mushrooms, and noodles. I appreciate that they made their own sweet chili sauce. It was a lot thinner than what you would get in a bottle, and a bit more sour.

For our mains, we ordered the Royal Fried Rice, Chicken Pad Thai, and Red Chicken Curry. My dad loved the royal fried rice. Looked delicious with prawns and an assortment of sauteed vegetables. The pad thai was good too. Not ketchupy, with plenty of chicken, egg and sprouts, and a bit of tofu. Love the flavour. My favourite was the red curry chicken. At first I thought there wasn’t much meat, but there was. They were just sliced really thinly along with bamboo shoots and bell peppers. The sauce had just the right amount of spice for me. I really liked it and poured lots of sauce over my rice while eating. Love the coconut milk in it too.

We ordered quite a bit of food for me and my parents, and my mom mentioned that we ordered a lot of chicken. I guess she was right haha..My dad enjoyed the food too, but did agree with my brother in that it was kind of pricey. He compared it to the price of Lhy Thai near his work in Burnaby. The food is good though, and I’d go back. We had left overs, and the while the curry was still delicious, the Pad Thai does not hold up. It rarely holds up even after 30 minutes because the noodles just suck up the sauce and then gets dry. Make sure you eat the Pad Thai quick!

The location isn’t that far from the Surrey Central Skytrain station, and I saw a couple of students walking over from SFU Surrey.

Nahm Thai Bistro
13650 102 Ave
Surrey, BC

(604) 930-8833

http://nahm.ca 

I’ve walked by Doolins on many occasions but haven’t been inside. It’s quite a large Pub, with many TVs to enjoy lots of sports. You can bet it’ll be a great place to watch the NHL Playoffs here.

We were invited to try out some new items on their menu. There were the Duck Bites which were delicious and wrapped in bacon. Meaty one-bite wonders of tender duck, and crisp bacon, served with salad. We were also able to try many different pizzas served on flat breads. We got to try each of the three options – Duck Confit, Mediterranean, and Crab & Asparagus. All of the pizzas had a nice crisp crust, and plenty of toppings. My favourite was the duck confit. The Mediterranean was pretty good too, but I found it a bit salty because of the olives.

For the mains, we had the choice of Beer Can Chicken Sandwich, Baja-Style Fish Sandwich, Turkey Clubhouse, Mahi Mahi, and Blackened Sesame Salmon. I went for the Beer Can Chicken, which was pulled chicken dressed with a dijon mustard mayo, and topped with crispy onion strings. I think the dijon mustard was a bit too strong, and personally, I think I would have preferred a BBQ sauce. Maybe give the option? But then again, they have a pulled pork sandwich, so it probably would be a bit too similar. I loved the crispy onion strings. The fries were pretty good too, and we couldn’t stop eating them. The Baja-Style Fish Sandwich was like a fish taco sandwich, with Mahi Mahi, cabbage, lime juice, and hot sauce.

Although these new dishes don’t seem very Irish, they do have the old comforting Irish Pub Classics like Guinness Beef Pie, Shepherd’s Pie, and Irish Stew. I’d love to try those ones out.

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Doolin’s Irish Pub
654 Nelson St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 605-4343

http://doolins.ca

So, after a disappointing attempt at getting super spicy food at Nine Dishes, I hand picked another Sze Chuan restaurant to torture my tongue. I brought my spicy loving friends to New Spicy Chili (Formerly known as Golden Spring  Sze Chuan Restaurant) in Richmond.

This small restaurant was very busy, and that’s always a good sign. We were so lucky that we made a reservation because there was a line for tables by the time we got there. I loved their menu book, because each item has a big picture beside it. These pictures were very helpful, especially for a Chinese restaurant, no guessing or surprises involved.

The 5 of us decided to get 5 dishes with a bucket of steamed rice. We had Fish in Chilli Sauce, Beef and Tripe in Spicy Sauce, Pork in Black Bean sauce, Sze Chuan Green Beans, and Mah Po Tofu,  All the 5 dishes we picked ended up to be house specials, and we didn’t do this on purpose.

The dishes came together almost all at once. My favorite was the Beef and Tripe in Spicy Sauce. This was a cold dish with very thinly sliced beef and tripe. It was mixed in with a ton of fragrant cilantro and green onions. Oh my gaawd it was so good. I absolutely loved it.

I am used to Fish in Chilli Sauce to come in a metal hot pot with fire at the bottom, but this simply came in a bowl. There were plenty of fish filets, soaked in chilli oil. The fish was perfectly cooked, it was a perfect dish to go with steamed rice.

The Mah Po Tofu was another dish that goes really well with rice. The tofu cubes still held their shape, and there was just enough meat for the sauce. This was Mah Po Tofu done right.

The Green Beans were really fresh. They weren’t overly fried, they still kept their shape and had a nice crunch.

The pork dish was the one that didn’t impress me that much. It was pork belly slices cooked in black bean sauce with tofu slices, and peppers. I remembered this dish being quite salty.

So, did it have the spicy level that I was looking for? Nope. They were all quite mild. It wasn’t after dinner that we realized we can ask the chef to make it spicier. There were 3 different spice levels, the waitress didn’t ask us, so I assumed they gave us the mildest one. It turned out quite nice because we can really taste each dish.

We had a really nice meal here. Our chatty bunch ended up staying here for 3 hours, and we probably only ate for 1 hour out of the 3..oops. The waitress didn’t rush us out at all. The food was great, I would definitely come back here!

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New Spicy Chili
160 – 4200 No. 3 Road
Richmond, BC V6X2C4

I’ve made this Jamie Oliver’s Jambalaya a couple times already. It has became one of my favorite rice dishes that I can quickly make for my friends or family and impress them at the same time.

Having myself made it once before really helped me with the portion of the ingredients the second time. The first time I made it, I needed a much bigger pot. I ended up cooking 2 pots of Jambalaya with the recipe. The second time around, I knew where to cut back on some of the ingredients. If you never made Jambalaya before, this is a good recipe to follow.

Ingredients

• 4 chicken thigh, 4 chicken drumsticks with skin on.
• 300g smoked sausage.
• 1 large onion
• 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper
• 4 celery sticks
• 4 bay leaves
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 6 cloves of garlic
• 1-2 fresh chillies
• cayenne pepper
• 1 large tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1.5 litres of chicken stock
• 700g long grain rice
• 16-20 raw prawns

• Season chicken with salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper
• Brown chicken with olive oil in a large pot, skin side first, add sausage to pan and brown them as well
• Once the chicken is brown on all sides, add onion, red/green peppers and celery
• Stir and fry unti vegetables are soft
• Add garlic and chillies, stir for a minute
• Add tin of tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme, and chicken stock
• Let everything boil until chicken is soft and can be picked off the bone, remove bones if you want to
• Add rice, put the lid on and take the lid off to stir every few minutes.
• When rice is half done, add in raw prawns and stir.
• Close lid to cook for another 10 minutes, until rice is done
•  chop some parsley for garnish.

This is really easy to make and very forgiving on the amount of ingredients. Both times I used chorizo as my smoked sausage. The second time I used half the amount of chicken and sausages because I didn’t want to make 2 pots again. I also added double amount of chillies because I like spicy.

I do recommend finishing everything right after it’s made. I found the rice to be a bit mushy when I heat it up and eat it the next day.

See complete recipe at: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/seafood-recipes/chicken-sausage-prawn-jambalaya

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We had a few ideas on places to eat for our friend’s birthday but all of them were busy and would require either 30 mins to an hour wait. Hy’s Steakhouse wasn’t actually one of the options, because it is really pricey. But since it was on a friend’s bucket list, we went anyway. Hy’s was actually on the complete opposite side of the village from where we parked, and luckily when we got to the restaurant we were seated fairly quickly.

For my starter, I ordered the Carpaccio, and since I’ve been looking for a Yorkshire Pudding, I ordered the Prime Rib. The carpaccio was delicious – just the perfect mix of ingredients. Love the extra kick added from the mustard. The Yorkshire pudding was good too. A lot better than I’ve had recently. Thankfully not stale, and nice and airy, and still crispy. The prime rib was cooked perfectly, and very tender and juicy.

For starters, my friends ordered the Tuna Tataki, Fresh Oysters, and Shrimp Cocktail. From what I heard, the Tuna Tataki was amazing. It almost melted in your mouth, and didn’t really taste like tuna. It was very meaty.

My friends ordered a mix of different mains. One friend said that his steak was the best he’s ever had! Though the fish dish was overcooked.

For dessert we had Pecan Pie, Creme Brulee, and a Cheesecake, which were all really good.

Hy’s is awesome, and we had such an awesome dinner to recover after a day on the mountain. The staff is really friendly too. I personally like the food here better than Gotham Steakhouse. I’ll have to try a better cut to see if it is really better than my favourite steak (so far) at Del Frisco’s in Las Vegas.

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Hy’s Steakhouse
4308 Main Street
Whistler, BC

(604) 905-5555

http://www.hyssteakhouse.com/hys-whistler.html

A couple nights ago I had dinner Sushiholic Japanese Restaurant, a place my friend wanted me to check out for a while.  This sushi joint specializes none other than sushi rolls. There was quite a selection.

We ordered 3 special rolls, one of them was the Fire Dragon Roll. This was a deep fried prawn roll, topped with lots of spicy tuna. This was my favorite sushi roll of the night.

The second special roll was the Volcano Roll. This crazy looking roll was a deep fried roll with shrimp, and cream cheese. To my surprise, there was also a pile of spicy tuna in the middle of the plate. This was a hit for my friend but a miss for me. Cream cheese in sushi rolls is just not my thing and the pieces were a bit too greasy from the deep frying.

The last special roll we got was the Awesome Roll. This was indeed quite awesome. It was a california roll topped with baked salmon and yam fries. It said yam fries on the menu, but they were more like yam strings. The roll was delicious, and the yam strings had a really nice crunchy texture.

Besides the sushi rolls, there was also quite a selection for sunomonos, probably around 7 or 8. The 3 of us got 3 different kinds; shrimp, seafood, and tako. These portions were big too. The one worth the most getting was the seafood, because it had shrimp, tako, and surf clam.

I liked this restaurant and its food. I over ate and I left with a food coma, a result of tasty food.

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Sushiholic Japanese Restaurant
3311 E Broadway
Vancouver, BC V5M2A1

My friend recently had her birthday dinner at Seasons in the Park at Queen Elizabeth Park. It has a great view of downtown Vancouver. We went at night and the lights looked beautiful (until the snow started coming down – then we couldn’t see downtown at all). We had a pretty big party with 3 tables and a little over 20 people.

I started with the Truffled Mushroom Soup, and chose the 8 oz Rib Eye for my main. The soup was delicious, as it was a dark creamy mushroom soup. It was loaded with mushrooms inside and slivers of truffles. It was very rich and creamy. The mushrooms were plentiful (when scooped from the bottom), and they had a nice bounce and bite to them. Really good mushroom soup. My 8 oz steak was just OK though, or maybe it just wasn’t very impressive and kind of wished I ordered something else for my main. Anyways the rib eye was fairly thick, and the colour was good, but it seemed a little bit dry. It came with some roasted vegetables and potatoes. I wasn’t too fond of the spaghetti squash.

The person beside me ordered the fish of the day which was a Swordfish, and said it was pretty good, but a bit dry. I heard the duo of duck was really good too, and I think most people enjoyed their mains.

Make sure you pay for parking, I only paid for 2 hours of parking, but we were there for 3 hours. And even though the snow was really coming down, still got a ticket lol.

The experience was really good, and most everyone seemed to enjoy the food. One of the servers seemed to have attitude though. I’d go back to try a different main like the duo of duck, which was actually one of the dishes I wanted to try.

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Seasons in the Park
W 33rd Ave & Cambie St
Vancouver, BC

(604) 874-8008

http://www.vancouverdine.com/seasons0experience.aspx 

Ninkazu is our friend’s favourite place for AYCE sushi. He told us about it a long time ago, but it took us a while to want AYCE sushi, and a while to make it out to this area.  Ninkazu is also owned by the same group that owns Tomakazu on Broadway. We went on a Friday night and it was very busy and packed with people waiting for the late night menu. They weren’t very organized at the front as people were putting their names down, so we were placed lower on the list and had to wait until past 10pm to be seated.

At first we were given one order sheet, and we were really impressed by the choices, turns out we weren’t given the late night list, and our menu is definitely smaller.. pretty much half the size actually as one was two pages, and the cheaper one just one page.

The three of us obviously ordered a bunch of food. As for the meat and vegetarian dishes, the ones that stood out for me were the BBQ Chicken Wings, Chicken Teriyaki, Agedashi Tofu, and the Yakitori. The miso soup was pretty weak, and the short ribs were a bit on the chewy side, and were very fatty. Good flavour though.

The sashimi was really good, but cut really small.

In the end, I thought it was better than Richmond Sushi, but my friends were split.

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Ninkazu
4231 Hazelbridge Way
Richmond, BC

(604) 279-9077

http://www.ninkazu.netii.net/index.html

After some snowboard shopping at Coastal Riders on New Year’s Eve, we decided to eat close by at Sushi Avenue in Langley.

I ordered an Oyako Don, Tamago Nigiri, and Deep Fried California roll. My oyako don was fairly large, but there was definitely too much rice for the chicken given. The chicken was pounded pretty thin, and then fried. Since it was pounded so thin, the chicken actually dried out a bit, and wasn’t very tender or juicy. The sauce was good though and added the right amount of saltiness to it. The tamago was light and sweet and the rice was the right texture. The deep fried California roll was one of the better ones I’ve had. The batter was light and crisp, and not oily. Although warm, the roll and rice itself didn’t get soggy or mushy which is really good. The filling was pretty good too.

My friend ordered some Chicken Karaage, Ebi Mayo, Real Crab California Roll. There was definitely real crab in the California roll, and you can notice the difference in taste. It’s definitely better than a regular California Roll, but also almost double the price. The ebi mayo was a lot different from what we are used to seeing in izakayas. It wasn’t fried and crispy. The chicken karaage was seasoned nice, and had good flavour, but I thought it was fried a bit too long, and got a bit too dark and hard.

The place is pretty good, and the staff is really friendly.

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Sushi Avenue
#9 8590 200 Street
Langley, BC

(604) 888-5123

Another breakfast in New Westminster! This time was at Amelia Cafe.

I ordered the breakfast special number 1, which was the usual 2 eggs, hash brown, sausage and toast. This was a solid breakfast. My eggs were cooked perfectly at over medium, there was a lot of crispy hash brown, and there were 3 sausages. Nothing was overly greasy, sausages were surprisingly good. And all this was just under $5.

Breakfast Special Number 3 was French toast with 2 eggs and sausages. The french toast was cooked home style, and quite bland, but this was still a good breakfast for under $5 as well.

Nothing beats cheap and tasty breakfast at a friendly diner, and Amelia Cafe was just that. It is also cash only.

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Amelia Café
538 6th St.
New Westminster, BC V3L5H1

If it wasn’t for my friend, I probably wouldn’t eat at Pho Chung Nam in New Westminster. To be honest, this place looks a little ghetto from the outside.

I ordered a Special Pho like I always do with vietnamese restaurants I’ve never been to. There was only one size available, and the portion was pretty large. The soup was very sweet. If MSG enhances the sweetness in foods, then there were a lot of MSG in there. The sweetness of the soup alerted me not to eat too much of it. There wasn’t a lot of meat, but there was enough. Some brisket slices were quite dry.

My friend ordered the Spicy Pho, which was much better than mine. The level of spiciness was good, it kind of balanced the sweetness of the soup out. It had a good assortment of meats and vietnamese ham. I wish I got this instead.

This restaurant serves both Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine. I didn’t realize that until I looked at the menu. I probably wouldn’t come back here again, there are much better pho options that are worth driving extra minutes to.

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Pho Chung Nam
522 6th Ave
New Westminster, BC V3L5H3

This past weekend we decided to watch the hockey game at Brown’s Social House in Surrey.  I’ve been to the Browns that used to be in Yaletown and enjoyed the food. This place was pretty busy this Saturday night because of the hockey game which was Cody Hodgson’s return as a Buffalo Sabre.

We mostly ordered a bunch of appetizers to go along with our beers. I ordered the General Tao’s Chicken, and Dry Ribs, while my friends got two orders of wings and nachos. Beipas ordered the Royale with Cheese Pizza, and our other friend got the Fish and Chips.

For this trip, the food was pretty bad. The dry ribs, yah were dry, but didn’t have a nice crisp salty layer. It was actually quite bland, and the meat was very dry. I didn’t finish. The General Tao’s chicken was a bit better, but still not very good. It had a sweet sauce, but next to no spice. It was served with fried wonton skins, but it was already soggy from being covered in the sauce. The chicken itself, I think wasn’t seasoned well before cooking.

The wings were quite small, and between the BBQ and the Teriyaki it was actually a bit hard to tell the difference at first. The two eating split the two, and kept forgetting which flavour they were having. I tried it, and did notice a slight difference. They were both kind of sweet and salty, but the teriyaki definitely had a Kikoman like flavour to it. We’d definitely prefer to have wings else where.

The Royale with Cheese pizza was topped with spicy beef, tomatoes, and bocconcini cheese. The crust wasn’t very crisp, but the main thing that stood out was that the beef was very runny and ground very fine, and it was similar to taco bell beef. I wasn’t a fan.

The plan was to order more as the game went on, but after the first order of food came, we weren’t too hungry anymore. Reluctantly, we did order some dessert. From what I heard the key lime pie wasn’t very good. I’m not a big fan of it anyway.

The service was pretty good, but the food was just really bad. I would probably attempt to come again, to try out an entree, but it probably won’t be for a while. They have some pretty stiff competition in Big Ridge Brewing Pub just steps away. We actually went there right after the game for more beer, and some snacks. Definitely prefer that place over Browns.

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Browns Social House
15260 56 Ave
Surrey, BC
(604) 579-0299
brownsrestaurantgroup.com

I was craving for some tongue numbing spicy food for about a week or so, and I got some friends to go visit Nine Dishes with me. I picked this place because almost every dishes on their menu seem to have the spice level that I was craving for.

Our dinner started on a good note with Chicken in Spicy Sauce. It was a cold dish with boiled chicken drenched in spicy oil, cilantro and peanuts. It was very delicious and one of the favorites of the night. It might look very spicy, but it only tingled my tongue a tiny bit.

Next came a wave of the rest of our order, which were Lamb Skewers, Clear Noodle in Spicy Sauce, Eggplant skewers, Beef short rib stew, Deep fried Lotus with mince meat, and Cold noodles in Sesame sauce. Everything literally all came together, and within 10 minutes of putting our orders in. You will get your food super fast here.

The Eggplant Skewers, Lamb Skewers, Deep Fried lotus are the must gets here. I loved them all. The eggplants were grilled perfectly and was topped with a sweet sauce. I am not a lamb person normally, but I liked the lamb skewers here a lot. It didn’t have the gamy taste, meat was grilled to tender, and the spice rub had a nice fragrant taste. As for the deep fried lotus, they were like mini deep fried lotus sandwiches. The minced meat filling was very juicy. They were very tasty.

The clear noodle in spicy sauce was basically the same dish as the chicken in spicy sauce. They just replaced the chicken with the clear noodles. This was also a favorite of the night, and again, it didn’t have the spiciness I desired.

At the end of the meal, we all agreed the food was good here. The prices were very cheap, so you can literally pig out without spending a fortune. I was quite disappointed with the lack of spiciness in the dishes. Maybe I was expecting too much, I should just go visit a Sichuan restaurant to fulfil my tongue numbing wish.

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Nine Dishes
960 Kingsway
Vancouver, BC V5V

Vancouver

We found Green ATS  Bulalohan on the way to the casino. Another restaurant with a great view of the Taal Volcano, and supposedly really good bulalo. The restaurant is mostly outdoors, but covered. We asked for a seat right by the edge so that we could have a great view of the volcano. It was gloomy that day though, so the wind was pushing rain into our booth.

This place had a lot of different dishes, and I chose a few random things such as fried chicken and onion rings. We also ordered fried fish, garlic fried rice, grilled pork, pancit,and of course bulalo. The onion rings were crisp but lacking in batter/breading. The fried chicken was also kind of shocking to see. It was very small, and way over fried, and because of that, quite dry. The bulalo was different from what I’m used to because it came in a really shallow plate. The soup was a bit thicker than other places. Most of the mat was just from the bone, so there wasn’t that much meat. I think the marrow got cooked into the soup, which made it a bit thicker. The meat had a bunch of tendons in it which I don’t like very much. The grilled pork was the same, where it had quite chewy skin. We also ordered some vegetable lumpia, which were kind of lacking in ingredients inside.

This place has a really ghetto bathroom where there’s no toilet seat, and to flush your toilet you have to put water from a faucet into a bucket and pour it down the toilet bowl. It gets a bit wet in there.

Overall, I’d recommend going to RSM because it’s of higher class, and I liked the bulalo better there.

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Green ATS Bulalohan
Tagaytay, Philippines

Tagaytay is a city pretty similar to Vancouver. It’s kind of gloomy, and windy with lots of rain.It’s a place that many people said I’d feel right at home at. Driving through Tagaytay you’ll notice that they are well known for Bulalo. A type of beef soup with a big bone filled with bone marrow. There are many restaurants that line the mountain side with a great view of the Taal Volcano.

Our first stop after a 2 hour drive from Manila was at RSM Lutong Bahay (lutong bahay means home cooking).This place was really cool because they have a really great yard at the back of the restaurant with a really nice view of the volcanoes. They also have a live 5-person band that serenade each table. Of course, you should tip them a little bit.

Anyways, onto the food. My stomach was kind of hurting a bit that day, so I didn’t eat that much. We ordered fried rice, some sweet and sour fried fish dish, grilled pork, fried fish, squid, bulalu, eggplant with egg (torta). I was only really able to eat the grilled pork, bulalu, and the eggplant, as the rest had seafood. The bulalo was really good. It had a nice clean broth, with plenty of meat, and green beans. Sometimes the marrow falls out of the bone because it is boiled for so long, but here, there was still marrow that you can pick out and mush into your rice. I love it! The grilled pork wasn’t the greatest though. I hate when the skin is really chewy. Here I just cut off the skin, and just ate from the fat layer down. The meet and fat was good, but hate the chewy skin.

According to their website, they also have 3 other locations in the Philippines.

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RSM Lutong Bahay
Aguinaldo Hwy Maharlika East
Tagaytay, Philippines

(046) 48-1866

http://www.rsmlutongbahay.com

Yup another Fast Food chain in the Philippines. You can see that they are quite big on that. On our way back to Tagaytay we stopped by Mang Inasal for breakfast. Everything was pretty cheap at about $2 or less for the meals and menu items. They specialize on BBQ items.

I wasn’t that hungry, so I just ordered a Pork BBQ skewer with rice. The Pork BBQ was decent in flavour, but a bit tough. Pretty mediocre when they specialize in Filipino BBQ.

Even though it was breakfast time, I was more looking forward to the Mais con Yelo. Actually all of us ordered the shaved ice dessert. Once they brought it out though, we found out that they top it with peanuts here. So those with peanut allergies like myself, make sure to order it without peanuts. I was able to ask them to redo it, and they did without hesitation. That being said, it was pretty sub par and lacking in sweetness. Give me more sugar!

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Mang Inasal

http://www.manginasal.com/

A few Sunday mornings ago I had breakfast at the Waffle House in New Westminster.

To get the best of sweet and savoury breakfast worlds, I decided to get the Big Waffle Breakfast. The breakfast came with a waffle, 2 eggs, ham and toast. The waffles here were quite thin and didn’t have a lot of flavour. For a place called the waffle house, it was a let down. My eggs were very buttery, there were a lot of residual grease on my ham and plate. Three words to sum up my meal, greasy, bland, and salty (ham).

My friend ordered Steak and Eggs. It was a 6 oz “steak” with 2 eggs any style and hash borwn. It was “steak” because it was more like a beef burger patty, a quite dry beef patty.

I probably won’t return to this place again. As I venture out to New Westminster more, there are better breakfast options on the same street.

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Waffle House
636 6th St
New Westminster, BC V3L

Remember the days when Krispy Kreme was first open and there were line ups 24/7 for these uber sugary donuts? That was about the last time I visited Krispy Kreme.

A day after my Usana reset, I had a sudden mad craving for these donuts, another day later, I was at Krispy Kreme alone buying half a dozen donuts to go.

It’s been years since I’ve been here, and when I said I was alone, I was really alone in the donut shop. The place was quite dead as I was the only customer. Despite the emptiness of the restaurant, the show case was still filled with a large variety of donuts. And there were also stacks and stacks of original glazed donuts in the open kitchen.

I picked 2 orignal glazed, 1 raspberry filled donut, 1 iced kreme filled donut, 1 iced kreme filled glazed donut and 1 maple dip for my half a dozen. I am not a big fan of custard in donuts, so the one thing I like about Krispy Kreme is that they have a cream filled donut option.

I ate 2 and a half of them when I got home.  My first bite of the orignal glazed was so heavenly. The donut was so soft even without me heating it up. My second bite was a reminder of just how sweet these donuts are. I was quite high on sugar after my 2 and a half donuts. At least my cravings were satisfied. So sugary, so good!

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Krispy Kreme
7153 120 St
Delta, BC V4E

I woke up today at 138 lbs again. I’m assuming because at around 9PM I ate a mango, and then tomato with green onions and cilantro. I was so happy to have flavour! I need to try not to eat vegetables alone. Herbs do a lot. Tomatoes are awesome.

At 9:45AM I had my first shake, and I don’t actually hate it. I just can’t wait to be able to have meat and grains. I have a coworker that brings bagels for the office every Friday. Today they smelled extra good from a far, but even more tempting when I went to the lunch room to get some water. I toughed it out, and am looking forward to next week.

My hunger isn’t really there, and I’m eating for the sake of eating. Had my bar at 12PM along with a butt load of raw vegetables. I had my shake at about 2 o’clock and had my last bar at 330. I’m glad I don’t get tired at work.

I got home at about 5:30PM, and didn’t eat or anything. I worked out at 6:30 for about 30 minutes, and then made some dinner. Guacamole! And some cooked mushrooms and eggplant. I will need to drink my shake in a bit, and then I’m done! Just need to wait it out until tomorrow morning. Excited for tomorrow.

I might even go snowboarding.

7AM – 138 lbs – 15% fat

I haven’t been to a Boston Pizza in years. I used to go to this place quite a bit with friends while I was still in university. I didn’t have a job or much money, and also didn’t know any better. At that time, I hardly ventured out of the ordinary. I decided to go back with my brother for lunch one day since it’s been a while, and it was Pasta Tuesday.

Me and my brother split some Honey Garlic Wings, and they were surprisingly really good. The wings were quite plump, and had a pretty crisp skin. The honey garlic was also really nice, sweet, and gooey. They did promote their wings really hard recently and had tons of commercials. Turns out they live up to it. They only problem is that they are $10.99 per order, and our order only had 7 wings. Quite expensive! If it was cheaper, I’d order wings from them more often.

For my main I ordered the Chicken and Mushroom Fettuccini, the dish I always used to get. I used to be a sucker for chicken, mushrooms, and cream sauces. I would typically ordered it baked too, but for some reason I didn’t. And this reminded me why I haven’t been back for a while. The pasta was cooked more than I like. Not overly soggy, but not much texture or bite. The sauce was also a bit bland, and along with the fettuccini, it just felt weird in my mouth. Not sure how to explain it. The chicken seemed to be from frozen cubes of chicken breast. I’m glad it came with some garlic bread, as it actually had flavour!

My brother ordered the Boston’s Smoky Mountain Spaghetti and Meatballs. My brother always gets spaghetti and meatballs (just like Beipas!). I only tried a bit of the meatball and it wasn’t bad. It was pretty light and airy, and had lots of flavour from spices.

I think I’ll be staying away from that dish from now on. The portions are big, and for $10 on Tuesdays the Gourmet pastas will fill you up. If you make your own pasta, it’s only $6.95. The weird thing is that even though their name is Boston Pizza, I think I’ve only had their pizza twice in my life.  I think it’s because back then I thought it was way too expensive. I always forget that they take Air Miles!

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Boston Pizza
4680 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC

(604) 431-6565

bostonpizza.com

My snacks got pushed even further. I need to fix this. First bar at 12PM, and had some extra vegetables around that time too. I’d normally be having my shake this time, and I guess I’ll force it on myself soon even though I’m not hungry.

Had my second shake at 2PM, and finished off my vegetables and had a banana. Not even hungry, just making sure I consume all that I’m supposed to. I had my second bar at 330PM. So glad to be almost done.

I’m not going crazy or being an asshole, like my coworkers think I would be given the food I’m eating. They think they’d be total bitches if they were doing what I’m doing. My energy level is pretty good. I’m not caught dozing off, but then again I’m also busier than normal.

If there’s one benefit of this cleanse, is that it’s gotten me to eat fruits and vegetables a lot more, especially fresh ones. I could go days on just meat and rice or carbs. If there wasn’t any vegetables mixed into my food, I’d hardly eat it. Fruits are few and far between typically. So I hope I continue eating fresh fruits. Raw bananas used to make my throat itch a little, but during this cleanse I’ve been able to eat it. Raw apples too, but I have yet to test it. Weird thing is, is that when I was a kid, I would eat a lot of apples and bananas. I developed an allergy in the past few years to it. Just raw would bother me, if it was cooked (i.e. apple pies, crumbles, fried bananas), I’d eat it without hesitation.

Worked out my arms. For dinner I smartened up and cooked some mushrooms and red pepper (no oil, no salt, no seasonings). That itself made a difference, and it was really good to have something cooked. This was my first non-cold meal in 4 days. One more day left – 3 shakes, 2 bars, and then I can eat normally again, but healthier as well.

7AM – 138 lbs – 15% fat

Intro to Food.ee Corporate Beta from Foodee Invoke on Vimeo.

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Had my first shake at a bit past 9:00AM with really cold water and it was really good. Started snacking on some vegetables at 10:45AM. I’m not as hungry as yesterday, but I’m also being slammed with work this morning. I had an oatmeal bar later in the day today at 11:30, and pushed my “lunch” to 1:15PM. Finished off the rest of my veggies and banana too.

My second oatmeal bar was eaten at 3PM. I even spent time watching No Reservations in Tokyo because Beipas was watching it during lunch time. Chicken sashimi….would you try it? I searched for places to eat right across the border in Blaine for when we go to Beachwood.

Not sure if I’ll have time to workout today. Have to go pick up stuff in Blaine after work, and be back home before 8 for a meeting. I guess I can maybe workout at 9. Who knows. Then again, since I lost 2 pounds since yesterday, maybe I can take it easy.

Yup, got home, and went to the states about 20 mins later, didn’t eat anything. Was hungry while waiting in the border line up. Got back at 7:30 and started looking at all of  our $1400 worth of goodies, and had a meeting at 8PM. Didn’t even have time to have my shake, so I just ate a banana. Finally had my last shake and pills at 9:30PM while watching the hockey game. Since I didn’t work out I hope I don’t lose anymore weight!

7AM – 137.5 lbs – 15%