Sushi Snob

Since the past year I've been exploring the food Vancouver has to offer. Sushi, or Japanese food, has been my biggest obsession. I've had enough to make some sick but it has definitely heightened my expectations.

After work, I went to I Love Sushi on Schoolhouse in Coquitlam with my dad. It's a fairly casual hangout since its directly connected to a bowling alley. The food was good for my dad but it was just alright for me. We ordered the Tuna Tataki Salad which often is a difficulty (I've noticed) for some places. Tuna tataki is meant to be pan seared raw tuna sashimi, usually drizzled in sauce after. The tuna tataki salad we received was fully cooked tuna slabs that looked like chicken and leafs of iceberg lettuce. They placed dressing of some sort on the side for us to dip into, I guess. My dad ordered a Crunch Roll which basically had prawn & yam tempura roll with crunch bits along the top. He really liked this roll, I thought it was not that great, I could make it at home and it lacked a bit of flavor. I ordered the Yummy Roll which I thought was okay. It simply was a california roll with spicy tuna on top. The spicy tuna was simply raw pieces of tuna with hot sauce drizzled on it. It was yummy and pretty I guess.

Overall, I would come back to this restaurant if I had to but it's definitely not one of the top ten on my list. The service and the price was good though!

Kumare mare!

In Tagalog (predominant language of those from the Philippines) 'mare' is a slang reference to a female friend and 'kumare' refers to close female friends. I guess the name of this restaurant came from the woman who started it. I don't know much about her but she sure knows how to cook and decorate!

I treated my parents after my first paycheck and was pleasantly surprised. Located in Richmond off No. 3 Road, Kumare boasts casual modern dining room design with unique light fixtures and inviting seating. The service was good although the waitress forgot to bring us our drinks. We came in placed our orders and the food came not too long after. We ordered Crispy Fish with Sweet & Sour Ginger sauce which my mom loved. It was impressively still crispy even after the sauce was lathered on and the fish itself was moist which made it seem fresh. I craved Thai so I tried their Pandan Chicken with Pad Thai. As expected their Pad Thai did not live up to my expectations but their Pandan Chicken (barbequed chicken wrapped in pandan leaves) was yummy and moist with a hint of pandan! We also ordered the traditional Filipino BBQ Chicken which we all loved because it was big succulent pieces of moist chicken with absolutely no fat.

Overall, I would definitely come back again. While I was eating, I also observed a lady who looked to be the owner/manager walking around to some tables conversing with the customers. I thought this was nice, it definitely added a homey feel to the place.

Four hours at the Hub

My cousins and I decided to do our ladies night at the Hub in Yaletown. The place was nice though it has a warm, casual and high end feel to it. When I first got there it was filled with older men and then towards the end of the night the crowd got younger. I was seated right near the door and every time I glanced up from my Wet Dream martini (which tasted just like juice =yummy) it looked like the two hostess were glaring at me. I guess they got flustered with the dinner rush and there I was by myself at a table looking like I was just stood up since I arrived a good half hour earlier than my cousins.

When my cousins came we had a feast! I'm pretty sure we tried most (80%) of their appetizers. I think my favourites were the Wok Squid (so succulent and perfectly spiced) and the Yam fries with the curry sauce. The Lobster Wings were a 'meh' I think their name just ups the expectation and it did not pass for me or my cousins. We also enjoyed the Kobe Beef Balls which were quite savoury - I'm not much of a beef person though so you may like it. And the nachos (with banana peppers!), onion rings and scallop potatoes were also good. We also tried the Chocolate Chip Pazookie and Cheesecake for desert -both of which were amazing! The service was generally good. Our waitress was always around topping up our wine glass with the bottles of white we ordered.

The Hub is definitely a must try. Appies are only $6 from 3- 6pm AND they have pretty decent drink specials. Over all it was a tad bit pricey, maybe because it's in Yaletown, but I would definitely go again.

Lazy Photo Blog

So I have taken photos of my food during the past three months with the notion that I would blog about it later and never got it it. BUT here are the photos from the Philippines, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Vancouver =) ENJOY!

Gringos at Joeys

So I had my first experience of a 'Gringo' at Joeys on Burrard and Robson and I totally loved it! It's composed of beer, a frozen alcoholic slush ball thing that melts in your drink and with the lime it is pure perfection! What's even better you may ask? ... These Gringos are only $4.99 at Joeys on Tuesdays!!!

The crowd at the Burrard & Robson Joeys on a Tuesday is actually pretty happening (not sure if I used the idiom correctly) and the waitress we had was super genuine and friendly.

So if you want to go somewhere fun and try something new on a weeknight I would recommend a Gringo at Joeys!

Lessons

Manila- Friday morning after dropping my nephew off at school, my cousin and I headed to Megamall for the Forever 21 (50% off) Sale. It took us two hours to get there because of the traffic, normally we could have gotten there in a minimum of a half hour. It was mentally strengthening for me. When we got to the mall it was SOOO packed (there was also a mall wide 3-day sale) that my cousin got her car valet parked in order to avoid being infuriated while waiting for a parking spot. Once I got into the mall I was so struck. There were soo many people! It was like God dropped a cookie crumble (the sale) and a freaking truckload no maybe more like several dozen cruise ships full of ants (people) were clawing their way to a piece of cookie. I had to practice inhaling/exhaling meditational breathing tactics to avoid pushing people out of the way.

When we finally got to Forever 21 there was such a long line up! While we wandered to the end of that line I over heard people saying they had been waiting for two hours! My cousin and I decided to take turns leaving line for food/break/bathroom so I guess the line up went pretty fast. Once we were given the chance to go into the store it was like a freaking circus. Clothes, although some were still in good order, were thrown about everywhere! People were pushing and shoving and changing in every corner they could find because the line ups to the fitting rooms/ the cash registers were at least meters long. I picked up a couple of items but really I think I was dismayed by the clutter and the havoc. While I like to think I am a patient person, I am not a fan of aggressive crowds. I can never handle sample sales or crazy markets like Divisoria. It became more evident that my cousin and I are truly related because we left without a single purchase hahaha. I realize I can and do say this because of the privileged situation but one of the many lessons of the day: Sometimes, more often than not, sales are not worth it.

After braving that crowd we ate at Café Ysabel. After

finding out that Anthony Bourdain had hosted one of this episodes at this restaurant I made it one of my goals to eat there.

Located on a not so busy road Cafe Ysabel was attached to a culinary school in San Juan

City. It was decorated almost like an Spanish colonial house with pristine white pillars and a Koi pond and fountain. Inside was furnished like a quaint Spanish café while the inner dinning area (which I saw after our meal) boasted large chandeliers and elegant dining tables. I’m guessing that the restaurant was an old heritage house. I ordered Pan Seared Halibut and Four Cheese Mushroom Risotto. Before our meal came their house made bread with secretly made sauce (which I think was balsamic vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and maybe sugar or something sweet—it looked a tad bit more red than the usual). Anyways I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this bread. I actually loved it more than my meal itself. While the Four Cheese Mushroom Risotto was good it reminded me of my cousin's cheese and mushroom and truffle risotto. Ysabel’s risotto made me sad (I miss you!!) BUT my cousin's risotto was actually far better.

When my halibut came, I guess I elevated my expectations of how these dishes should taste. I think my most favorite seafood dish was from Market Market by Jean Georges at the Shangri-la in Vancouver. I still remember having perfect pan-seared scallops and the ArcticChar… soo freaking amazing. So I guess I went in what that expectation and sadly it was not at par. The Halibut was a bit dry, it was only towards the centre that it was moist. And the sauce, which I originally thought was pesto because of its appearance, was actually of some kind of lemony mixture AND was quite limited --- so while the halibut was okay there was really no sense of originality for me with the dish as it kinda lacked any specific flavor besides being halibut.

Dessert, however, was another issue. Their Jack Daniels Chocolate cake was sooo freaking good. It was so rich but not overbearingly sweet that I ate so much of it! I usually don’t have much of a chocolate sweet tooth but I ate all of my share of that one, taking turns with the strawberry shortcake we were treated with by one of the restaurant’s chef.

Divisoria

So I haven’t written in a while and there is a reason for it. I had to give my food spending a break. Although that doesn’t mean that mind has not been racing with thoughts about blog topics! This past week I’ve been staying in, thankfully to my cousin (no sarcasm intended).

During the first day (Tuesday), I went to Divisoria (a plethora of market sales- by market I mean like stalls and stalls and stalls of things like bags, shoes, anything really). I went to buy decorations for my parents wedding anniversary. It was such a gloomy day that started off a bit later than I initially expected and it was raining. I was exhausted after walking through the inside of two three level malls and then throughout the street where I walked in dirty muddy puddles, into sweaty dirty people and inches away from moving vehicles with a tantamount of smog. I initially wanted to hunt down a decent restaurant but after five hours of that madness I settled with a Jollibee yum burger which I think is half the size of any burger in America and some of their Filipino Spaghetti. It was yummy and I was tired. I went home and scrubbed hard with soap and then with alcohol.

Wednesday, I didn’t really do anything all day but download episodes of Glee and Cougartown that I missed AND I also finished reading Eat, Pray, Love. Which the end really wasn’t quite as powerful as the beginning. All of this while spending some quality time with my Lola and Titas.

By Thursday, I was already quite … bored. After staying with my Lola all afternoon and watching her soap operas (or teleseries) I decided to venture outside the house and walk about the village. It was a surprisingly breezy day but it was still quite warm in the sun. By the time I got to the entrance of the village I was so sweaty I felt embarrassed to be in public. I was supposed to buy ice cream and bread for my Tita but in my embarrassment I bought the first things I saw, vegetarian chicharon, peanuts and cooked corn from a street vendor (I felt like such a nut asking him to double bag the three cobs I bought, it took about five minutes for him to understand). It was also getting dark out so I hurriedly walked back home.