Japadog

The last time I visited a Japadog was when I travelled to downtown Vancouver with my sisters during the Olympics. During this visit, we bought our dogs from the stand on Burrard & Smithe and thoroughly enjoyed them... they were delicious and unique and to be honest, my sisters and I simply adore anything Japanese (cuisine, manga, anime, music etc.). Here are some pictures of our culinary experience at the Japadog stand...

Their cute menu board

Their array of condiments... including: sweet chili sauce, mustard, wasabi mayo, Japanese mayo, honey mustard, dijon mustard, sriracha, ketchup and bacon bits

I decided on the Oroshi Dog (bratwurst topped with grated radish, green onions and soy sauce... the sweet chili-sauce and mayo were my additions), while my sister ordered the Okinomi dog (Kurubuta weiner topped with Japanese mayo, okinomiyaki sauce, bonito flakes and fried cabbage). My other sister remained on the less adventurous side and ordered a regular Kobe beef hot dog.

Flash-forward to yesterday, and it marks the day my sisters and I travelled downtown for another Vancouver outing. We were hankering for something to eat that was quick and affordable and as we walked down Robson Street we noticed that the Japadog sit-down restaurant was now open. So, without hesitation we headed towards the wonderful aroma of cooked meat and ordered us some tasty Japadog creations.

Signage outside of the restaurant

Look at all those hot dog buns!! Crazy!

Their Terimayo dog (teriyaki sauce, seaweed and Japanese mayo) $4.75

The Tonkatsu dog (breaded pork patty topped with red cabbage and Japanese mayo) $4.95

Once I saw this on the menu board, I knew I'd have to try it. Their Yakiniku Rice dog (pork dog with grilled teriyaki beef, lettuce and radish sprouts all in a rice-patty "bun") a bit pricey at $6.25, but totally worth it.

My sister's and I have always found that the quality at the Japadog stalls is always top-notch, and although on the expensive side (especially for a hot dog) we're always willing to pay for it. The only thing I'd have to say about the Yakiniku Rice dog is that you must eat this sitting down. Chomping at this baby is kind of a messy ordeal; and if you're like me and enjoy topping your hot-dogs off with "the works" in terms of condiments, then the drippy-soppy-messiness will be tripled. The rice "bun" of the Yakiniku dog is fairly sturdy and soaks up the meat juices and condiments well, but once it reaches its saturation point it will slowly begin to break apart. I went through my fair share of napkins while eating this bad-boy; yet, while it may have been a challenge to eat, it was really good! I highly recommend that if you're in the Downtown Vancouver area, you try Japadog at least once.

Tamara's Block Party '09

Hmmm... what do you do, when you're bored at home and need to beat the summer, mid-week blues?? Head out to your local new-channel's block-party of course :P


On July 15th, my family attended the local news-station's bbq, picnic, block-party, shin-dig hosted by their weather woman. The party was held at Queen's Park and incidentally the weather was perfect, not too sunny and not too cool. Normally, I'm not one to stand in line for 1 1/2 hours to be one of the first 1,500 people to a party but this was a different story. You see, my family can never pass up the chance to get free food :P And if you were one of the first 1,500 people at the party you'd get a free dinner made by Mr. Mike's Steakhouse and Grill. Also, this party was the site of the release of the 3rd collectors pin for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics... and, having already collected pins 1 and 2, we couldn't just pass up the chance to get the next installment! That'd be crazy!

We had no idea how many people would actually be attending this bbq/picnic thing, but when we arrived (an hour and a half before the tents opened) the line up was already about 400people long. By the time the block-party opened it's doors, the line up had grown to triple it's size! The entire park was filled with a really squiggly, swervy line-up of probably more than 1,500 people! I sure hope that everyone who took time out of their day to line-up got at least a pin or a free-meal... I know I would be peeved if, after waiting 2+hours in the sun, I ended up getting nothing.

When I first stepped in-line, at around 3:00pm I wasn't hungry at all. But, by the time we actually got into the "free-food" line-up, it was 5:00pm and the smell of the freshly grilled burgers was tantalizing my taste buds and making my stomach grumble. I had never tried Mr. Mike's before, I often drive by their Langley location but have always brushed it off as being "just another steakhouse". Sadly, they did not serve up steak (I didn't think they would, because that'd mean grilling up 1,500 steaks for free... probably putting them in debt :P). But, they did serve up a mean burger with a side of caesar salad. The burger was "Mike's Classic", an angus steak burger placed on a bbq-toasted garlic frenchbread, topped with cheese, a pickle and an amazing burger sauce (I'd say even better than White Spot's Triple-O sauce! *gasp* I know!). The burger was huge, and I actually needed help finishing it off... the bread was so delicious, and has now made me a fan of serving burgers on garlic baguettes. Great idea Mr. Mikes!! Great idea :) When I move into my condo, I'll be closer to the local Mr. Mikes, so maybe I'll become a regular... I wonder if they'll serve just the french bread just by itself??

AAHHH!! This burger was AMAZING!

Anyways, the block-party itself was fantastic. The musical performers were called "Dr. Strangelove" and they played an amazing array of oldies, but with a contemporary twist. A couple MJ songs were played, some Aerosmith, some Janice Joplin and a couple folk-country-tunes. It was fun to see the little tykes running around the playground and the water-park section of Queen's Park. All-in-all, this was a fun outing for the family... sometimes it's tough to convince my sisters to get their butts out of their computer chairs and get some fresh air :P

Rainbow Butterfly: A Review

It's not often that my family takes a chance and ventures out to try a new dim-sum restaurant, but I guess my parents just didn't feel like having to drive all the way to Richmond for some good old HK breakfast. Instead, we decided to dine at this quaint little Chinese restaurant in Port Coquitlam called Rainbow Butterfly. I'm usually pretty wary of a restaurant that uses strange imagery within their name, but since this place did not use the words "panda" or "dragon" or "authentic Chinese cuisine" I was all for dining there. The following is a picture show of the amazing dishes that they served, with commentary of course :P

All of the dishes below were $2.75, except for the special dishes which were $3.75 or the "Chef Specials" which were $4.75.

As always, we ordered a bowl of congee... nothing amazing, but certainly tasty. It was considered a "Chef's Special" and in my opinion, not worth $4.95

Another dim-sum fave... lor bak gou. Again, tasty but nothing to rave about.

Can't go wrong with chicken feet... I thought these were really flavorful, and not too salty.

Their gyoza was nicely fried and crisp. Although, the skin was more doughy than I would have liked, and it cost $4.75!

I really enjoyed this chiu chow fun quor, it had pork, peanuts and chives... mmmm quite yummy.

Xiao Long Bao, another yum cha classic... my sisters devoured these and literally drank the red vinegar! Crazy kids.

Steamed rice rolls with scallop, $3.75

The beef omasum was soft and gingery

Their satay honeycomb tripe was also very nice and soft. It's one of my favorite dishes and they did not disappoint.

When we first received this dish, we weren't quite sure what it was. Then one bite into it and we could taste the seafood and pumpkin. These were a delightful addition to our lunch

I love my egg-tofu, and when combined with shrimp it's even better.

One of the best dishes at the Rainbow Butterfly has got to be their fried eggplant with pepper, salt, garlic and dried shrimp. They were crispy and spicy and just all-round delicious! And although it was a "Chef's Special" and costing $4.95 per dish, it was totally worth it.

I would definitely get this again, it was AMAZING! These fried bitter melon sesame balls, filled with black-sesame paste were ooey-gooey and oh so sweet!

My sister loves her mango pudding, in my opinion it's not as good as the one our mom makes but it was still better than the cheap, imitation mango puddings from sushi restaurants :P

My mom really loves her baked sago, and so she got one of these warm, rich puddings. I had to try a little, and really enjoyed the taro-paste they filled it with. It was a great alternative to the traditional red-bean paste.

I'm also a sucker for agar-agar. I had to try this chilled lychee and longgan agar-agar cake. It was very refreshing and had a nice, crisp bite to it. The wolfberries inside were a great addition to the cake... I'll have to see if I can make this one at home!

Yes, I called this one as well. I'm a sucker for the dessert section of dim-sum. This rich, flaky butter pastry was filled with a lotus-seed and ginger paste and had a century egg in the center. It was so rich and tasty... I felt so guilty eating two!

All in all, I would definitely recommend a visit to Rainbow Butterfly. The service is friendly and very quick. They are very attentive and accomodating to your requests if you are kind and friendly yourself. They have a great variety of traditional and specialty dim-sum dishes and they are, for the most part, relatively decent in price. I plan on making a return visit to Rainbow Butterfly, and ordering all my favorites plus a few other specialties that caught my eye last time. Sadly, neither my stomach nor my wallet are big enough to accomodate what my eyes beg for me to try :( but that just means I'll be back for more!

Congee Noodle King

Rating: *1/2 out of *****

After an afternoon at Kitsilano Beach, my family wanted to dine out at a simple noodle house for dinner. Having read decent reviews of Congee Noodle King (at dinehere.ca) we thought we'd give it a shot. We walked into the restaurant, and my first impression was that it was fairly spacious, clean and quite... empty. It was 6pm in the evening and there was only one other table being occupied with customers. I wasn't too turned off by the quite atmosphere, sometimes it's nice to not have to elbow other people or squeeze in between chairs. So, once we were seated the waitress handed us a menu. I was a bit peeved at this, because there were 7 of us and she only gave us 2 menus. I could understand if she had done this when the restaurant was busy, but seriously... there was nobody else there. Who was she saving the whole stack of menus for?! So, I helped myself to two more menus and we were ready to order. The menu had a very large selection of congee, noodles and noodle soups... so many that it was hard to choose. Eventually, when we were ready, we got the waitress' attention and she came to take our order. The service at Congee Noodle King is typical of an HK Chinese restaurant; when ordering, don't expect any friendly banter between server and customer and by all means, don't even expect eye contact or acknowledgment that your order was even heard. Maybe it was just a long day for our waitress, but at least have the decency to look us in the face and nod. Once we ordered, the food came out very quickly and the portion sizes were quite impressive. Lots of noodles, soup and meat! ... oh, and lots of fruit flies too... read the concluding review for more juicy details :s

My sister ordered their Char Siew Pork, with noodles in soup $6.95; a large portion of pork, although my sister described the pork as being "flubby"

Wat Tan Yau Hor (Beef and Egg Hor Fun), $7.95; my other sister ordered this. It tasted much like the Hor Fun we order at Hon's, but had an odd after-taste

My sister's friend ordered the Pork Balls and veggies, with noodles in soup $5.95; five large pork balls and a few pieces of kai-lan.

I wanted to try ostrich meat. Having never tried it before, I thought that I'd give it a shot. Here's my Ostrich Meat in Congee, $7.95; nothing spectacular. The congee was nice, with the peanuts and spring onions, but the ostrich simply tasted like beef (I bet it was!)

My mom loves dry egg noodles and loads of veggies; she ordered their beef slices and beef tendon with veggies on noodles $6.95; they gave plenty of tendon and kai-lan and the noodles were not over-cooked

The price of food at this restaurant is quite fair, and the portions that they provide are definitely worth the price. The quality of the food is simply so-so, you could get the same kind of food at Hon's and have the good service that goes along with a trip to Hon's. And just to let you in on an incident that occured at the Congee Noodle King, the saying "the customer is always right" is not followed here. Allow me to elaborate; this restaurant had quite a few fruit-flies floating around, landing on my side-plate and swarming 'round my head. We gave the restaurant the benifit of the doubt, because it was a hot day and they decided to keep the front doors open. But, my sister's friend had ordered the pork-balls with noodles in soup, and by the time she got half-way through the bowl, she had discovered a fruit-fly floating in her soup. So, the normal thing to do would be to request another dish that is "bug-free"... right? Well, the waitress did not think so, and all she said to us was "you have to watch out for the flies!" Well, be that as it may, we have had to deal with the constant barrage of buzzing pests for the entire meal, so we insisted that we get another Pork-ball with noodles in soup dish. Our waitress begrudgingly took the bowl back to the kitchen and returned with a full bowl, which we thought was new. But apparently, they thought it fitting to simply remove the fly from our old bowl and dump in some more soup and noodles... hmmm, not what you'd expect from a restaurant, eh? Oh well, their tip would not be gracious.

On a side-note, this restaurant is "cash only". With our bill coming to $35.95 + tax, and my mother paying in $40, the stingy cashier showed not intention of giving my mother her $3.20 change. I think she thought that the $3.20 was owed to her as a tip, but seriously... who are you to decide how much the customer tips. My mom wouldn't back-down and leave without her $3.20 (way to go mom!) and eventually, the cashier handed her the money. My mom gave them a $2 tip and we were off; with full stomaches, but by no means satisfied with their service, we left for home. The mediocre food at this small noodle/congee house could not over-ride the poor service and rude attitude of the entire restaurant. We will not be coming back anytime soon.

Caramba! Whistler, BC

Rating: ***1/2 out of *****

We chanced upon this Mediterranean-inspired restaurant during one of our nights out in Whistler Village. Just on Main St. and again close to our hotel, this was another good find for casual dining. It reminded me of my past dining experience at Coza; the Mediterranean cuisine, the rustic Italian decor, the lovely patio and of course the complimentary bread...

Good thing they brought the bread out before I ordered; I wasn't feeling too hungry and actually contemplated ordering a side of their house-baked bread for $2.95... but free bread is always great.

Instead, I ordered the flatbread with eggplant tepanade, guac and salsa $7.95

My sisters shared this, and had fun spinning it around (silly kids) ... guess what it is

Well, it's cheesy mac-n-cheese of course; for $13.95, and with the ability to feed both of my sisters it was a great deal. The macaroni was so rich and cheesy that I just had to steal a bite.

My mom ordered their Caramba! Salad $6.95; it contained butter lettuce, chicken, thai peanut sauce and water chestnuts. Nothing spectacular, and I felt that given it's price it would be larger in size

And of course, we had to order drinks... it was a vacation after all.

I ordered the Mad Monkey $7.95; a bit on the pricey side, but utterly delicious. It was made with Kahlua, Bailey's and Banana Liquer... heaven in a glass

This wasn't on the menu, but my mom really wanted a strawberry margarita. Our waiter gladly took the order and my mom was very excited, since she hadn't had a margarita in a long time.

We went to Caramba! Restaurante at around 6pm, and without a reservation we were seated within 15mins. I couldn't exactly understand what took so long for us to be seated, because as we were being seated I spotted numerous tables available... perhaps those were reserved, who knows. Like Black's, this restaurante appeared to be under-staffed as the waiters were hustling around like crazy and the manager was also busy serving customers. Though, unlike Black's, the service at Caramba! was much improved. I guess it could've been a result of being served by the manager, but I felt that our server actually made an effort to make our dining experience enjoyable; often coming back to replenish our drinks, asking us if there was anything else we would like and making friendly conversation.