Lunch at Big Ridge Brewing Co.

Yesterday I got together with my brother and SIL for an afternoon of shopping and a late lunch. My SIL was craving a burger and my brother and I were fine with that, but we couldn't agree on where to go. We were at Guildford Centre so there was lots to choose from. I was all for White Spot, but they both shot that down. My brother wanted to go to Red Robin but my SIL wasn't into that. I was at a loss, so I called my roommate and asked her what she recommended. Then my SIL remembered a pub she'd eaten at located near the head office of the company she works for.

Located in south Surrey, Big Ridge Brewing Co. was the choice. Though it sported many large screen TVs showing various sporting events, I didn't feel I was in a sports bar because the dining room was very nicely decorated and was actually quite a serene space.

The menu was huge, both physically and content-wise. There was a lot of typical pub fare on there, but there was also a lot of different stuff available, most notably a large Asian section of the menu that looked really tasty. It was a tough choice for sure. Both my brother & SIL went with the burger, accompanied by fries. I wanted something lighter so I went with the grilled prawn clubhouse with a side salad. My SIL ordered onion rings as a starter.

I have to say, I'm not an onion ring connoisseur at all - I like them but I'm not ga-ga for them - but these were quite fabulous and you could tell that they were made with a homemade batter (beer, I believe) that was very light.


My brother and SIL liked the burgers a lot and I liked how they were presented with the fries in a separate cup. It reminded me of the Lunchbox Laboratory.


As for my grilled prawn club, it was good. There was an avocado mixture in it I really liked. I just think it could have used a few more prawns for the price ($13.99). But the salad was interesting, actually. It looked fairly simple, red leaf lettuce, finely diced tomatoes, a tangy vinaigrette, but the salad was studded with little green bits that looked suspiciously like capers. I hate capers. But these had been deep fried, I think, and they were great! They were little tiny bits of crispy saltiness. I loved them and I had never seen anything like that before, so I was kind of impressed with that small detail.


Would I go back? Sure, the menu was intriguing and the service was excellent.

Splitz Grill

Today I had the opportunity to go out and about a neighbourhood new to me in Vancouver, Main St. between about 12th Avenue and Kind Edward. It's a nice neighbourhood with lots of shops and eateries, a bit hipster-ish, but not too bad. We started out with a hot drink at Cafe Rustico, where I had a very bad iced mocha drink that cost too much, and after poking in and out of various cool stores, it was time for something to eat.

As a group we decided on Splitz Grill, 4242 Main St. because we fancied burgers and the prices were excellent. For the uninitiated, and that was us, the menu is located on a big board and you order at the till. The order gets printed out and yelled out to the cook and a tray with your order on it goes to the grill, which is open for all to see. From there, you get to personalize your burger with one of six or eight sauces, then you get to choose your toppings, they take your name, you go sit down, and, in our case, since it wasn't busy, they brought the food to our table.

The menu consists of a variety of burgers, including a lemon & garlic marinated chicken breast burger, a bison selection, and even a wild salmon. For vegetarians, there is a spicy lentil burger that I was assured by my vegetarian friend was not painfully spicy. The burgers were reasonably-priced, and for an extra couple of bucks, you can have a combo which means your burger comes with fries and a drink. If you want special toppings like onions, mushrooms, cheese, or bacon, those are individually priced on top of the base burger price. Also, Splitz does milkshakes, sundaes, banana splits, and stuff like that.

There was a turkey burger special on today as well as a tuna burger special, but I opted for a bison burger with cheese and mushrooms. For sauces, I chose the Splitz sauce, which was a tasty mixture of garlic, dill pickles, sour cream, mayonnaise, Tobasco sauce, and Worcestershire sauce. I was informed that this is their most popular sauce - and no kidding, I thought it was really good. For toppings, I chose lettuce, onions, and dill pickles (because you can't have too much dill pickle deliciousness).

The bison burger was fabulous. I have always enjoyed bison meat, and this was very well done (and well done). The fries, hand cut, obviously, and deep fried how they're supposed to be (blanched in oil first then deep fried again - you can tell when places don't do this), and the Splitz sauce had a great kick to it with that touch of Tobasco. And the burgers were huge! I finished mine, but my friend with the lentil burger could only eat half of hers it was so monstrous.


My only critique is that I would have preferred to have my cheese melted onto the burger rather than piled on with the other toppings.

Considering the location and the price of food in the city in general, Splitz was a really good deal price and portion-wise. I certainly had no complaints and I really liked the open kitchen idea so I could see the cooks doing their thing. Everything was fresh and well-prepared. I'd definitely go back.

Splitz also has a location in Whistler, too.

Two Words: Lunchbox Laboratory

Also, what happens in Seattle stays in Seattle.

The decor is mainly retro lunchboxes:
Some have a sense of humour:

So, I will not be writing much in this post because it might reveal too much about the number of visits Jodi and I made to Lunchbox Laboratory in my past two trips to that fair city. I'm just going to post a whole bunch of pictures and let you come to your own conclusions. But come to this conclusion: the food there is freaking incredible, as are the milkshakes. Oooooooh, the milkshakes - served in beakers - were a wonder to behold and taste. OK, enough! Onto photos!

Gourmet salt selection...

Reese's Peanut Butter Shake

Kool Tang - Koolaid & Tang

Santa Fe Slammer Burger

Turkey On Mars: sliced turkey breast (the good kind) Swiss cheese, marsala onions, pesto mayo

Oreo Cookie Shake

Truffle Love Burger (beef burger, bacon, a huge slab of some kind of cheese I can't recall right now, caramelized onions, white truffle mayo)

One of Lunchbox Laboratory's famous Boozy Shakes. The "spikes" come in a little test tube because the alcohol will affect the freezing of the shake. This is the caramel macchiato spiked with caramel vodka, Bailey's and Khalua.

Country Club Sandwich: turkey breast (again, the good kind), ham, bacon, Swiss cheese, mayo. Side was tater tots with white truffle mayo.

Mini corn dogs.

Gabacho's Nachos: heap of tater tots & lots of other stuff.

Two more milkshakes; the one on the left is the Drunken Elvis, the other is the Caramel Macchiato again.
The Tokyo Drift Burger; churcken burger (chicken & turkey), teriyaki mushrooms, Havarti cheese, roasted garlic mayo.

Yeah, just go here! Their menu is here.

A Couple of Miscellaneous Vancouver Meals

There is one chain restaurant that without fail pleases me every time I go there: White Spot. Call me crazy, but I love White Spot! And when there is one in my vicinity (none here in the Kootenays) I make a huge effort to go to one for a meal because I just love their food. It's comfort food at it's best. They make great breakfasts, they make great burgers, they make great milkshakes, they make the best coleslaw ever, and they're just a comfortable place to go for a casual, yummy meal.

I ate at White Spot three whole times in the 8 days I was a the coast. Terrible, I know, but also awesome! I didn't take pix of all my meals there, but here is the BC Chicken Burger, which is one of my perennial faves.

Now onto something a bit more refined but just as casual and yummy. I had a visit with a blog friend on the Saturday morning I was at the coast - the day with the best weather on the trip, BTW - and we headed into the city from Maple Ridge to Granville Island. I adore Granville Island! It's a quintessential Vancouver experience and I try to get there every trip. We only had a short time for lunch, but luckily there are lots of quick places to choose from at their food fair. I knew I was going for waffles at Miura shortly with my brother and also that he and I would be having dinner, so I went for something small and light: a bagel with cream cheese & lox. Yum!

And this was our view from outside the market, where we sat in the sun to munch:

Incidentally, I was there during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and one of the fancy bakeries in the market was selling all kinds of these, which looked great:


Very cute, but I didn't buy one. That Saturday was one awesome day of food for sure!

Magazine Monday #71 (Yes, a day late): Asian Pork Burgers with Hoisin Mayo

I really am enjoying the subscription to Food Network Magazine my mom got me for my birthday. I've been craving a burgers lately, and a recipe in the most recent issue of FNM caught my eye. It's actually a recipe for Asian meatball subs, but because I'm not in the mood these days to putz around making finicky things like meatballs (or at least making meatballs seems like a rather finicky activity to me right now) I decided to turn these into burgers. I think ground pork makes such excellent burgers - moist, juicy, and the flavour of the meat is mild & neutral enough to add all kinds of flavourings to it that work very well. You might recall the Curried Pork Burgers I made a while back; they have become a favourite of my brother & SIL. They might like this pork burger, too, as might you!

The recipe is here.

Frakking fantastic! Now, I made some adjustments. I didn't use any bread or milk or eggs as filler in my burger meat; I have moved away from doing that after reading Bobby Flay's burger book, and quite frankly, I think the burgers are better without all that stuff in them. I've never had a burger fall apart or crumble during cooking so I don't think it's necessary to add eggs & bread crumbs etc. I also didn't use the Asian chili sauce, and I broiled my burgers instead of frying them.

I loved these burgers so much I totally indulged and ate two! The Asian flavourings were wonderful, and I loved the crunch of the chopped chestnuts in them. I loved the bean sprout topping, too - also crunchy and tasty. As for the hoisin mayo...OMG...AMAZING! It was one incredible burger for sure, and that mayo was the cherry on the proverbial sundae.

Definitely give these a try if you're looking for a change in your same old, same old burger repertoire!

Magazine Monday #60: Curried Pork Burgers

Canadian Living strikes again! When I got the new issue last week, I knew I had to make this recipe. I really like using ground pork for burgers because the burgers are always so nice and juicy, and the mean it a neutral enough flavour that you can do what you want with it seasoning-wise.

I made these last night for my family and they were a huge hit! The grilled red onions were a perfect accompaniment. I will definitely make these again!

The recipe is not up on the site yet, but I'll post it for you here.

Curried Pork Burgers

1lb lean ground pork
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1/3 cup crumbled feta cheese
2 tbsp curry paste (I used Patak's mild curry paste, which I always have on hand)
2 tsp minced gingerroot (I used about 1 tsp dried ground ginger)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded & minced (which I skipped because I don't like them)
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp each salt & pepper

1 red onion sliced, drizzled in some vegetable oil

buns, lettuce, etc.

Simple instructions: mix all the meat, the feta, and all the seasonings together & form burgers. Grill. Grill onions until nice & soft. Serve on buns. Bob's your uncle.

Delicious!

Lunch at the Sunshine Cafe

It's been a while since I've had the pleasure of having lunch at Rossland's best lunch place, the Sunshine Cafe, but I got to go last week, and as usual, I was not disappointed!

I dined with my brother & SIL. Shan had the wrap special, which was Greek chicken, and the soup of the day, which was tomato & rice. The soup was so hearty she couldn't finish it all.My brother had a chicken burger with Swiss cheese and grilled onions, accompanied by the salad of the day, which was a Sweet Thai chicken pasta salad. He said it was awesome.I also opted for a chicken burger, wanting a change from my usual, which is the clubhouse sandwich. I had Swiss cheese and grilled mushrooms on my burger, and I had a side of fries because I was in a foul mood (it's amazing what a load of decent fries will do for grouchiness!). It was a great lunch!Again, the Sunshine didn't disappoint! I love this place!

Oyster Time!

Here is my latest NaNoWriMo update! I'm happy to report it's going well - better than I anticipated! And just so you know, the posts you are reading now were written a while ago and set for scheduled publishing. So no, I am not cooking and writing!

OK - I love oysters! My first taste of this sensuous sea creature came when I was young, at Christmas time when my mom used to buy canned smoked oysters. This was one of the items we'd only get at this time of the year, so it was a real treat. My brothers and I really liked them, though I don't recall my mom ever eating them and my dad is repulsed by fish so he wouldn't touch them. I do remember our cats getting excited about them, though...

Anyway, when I was in my early twenties, I went on a camping trip to Galiano Island, and we went for dinner at the Hummingbird Pub. On the menu was an oyster burger, and I was so intrigued by the idea that I had to order it. Until this experience I'd never had a fresh oyster, and let me tell you, when I bit into that burger, I thought I'd bitten into heaven.

Since then, I've had oysters on the half shell - fantastic - and other oyster burgers that have been good, but not as good as that one at the Hummingbird. Here in the interior, you get these things as they're available. And last week, LOGS (local overpriced grocery store) had oysters on sale: 8oz for $1.99. I couldn't resist! I bought a container and a nice bun and decided to make an oyster burger for myself!

When I opened the container of oysters, I found that I got 8 HUGE suckers in there and I was thrilled! Not only would I get a nice burger out of this, I would get some extra oysters too eat as well! The due date on the container was the next day, so I knew I had to use them that night as I had another plan for the next night.

So here's what I did.

I laid the oysters out and just sniffed in their sea-fresh aroma. It was heady, let me tell you!After doing that for a little while, I gathered up these ingredients: bread crumbs, cream, and Old Bay Seasoning. My plan was to shallow fry the oysters. I was going to buy buttermilk, but I had cream left over from the apple tart I'd just made, so I decided to use that. I usually use buttermilk when I go to make calamari, so I figured this method would work for oysters, too.I poured the cream over the oysters and mixed them around to cover them all very well. Then I dipped them in bread crumbs mixed with the Old Bay (I love this stuff; thanks to Pierce for recommending it to me) and fried them in a bit of oil until they were nice and browned.
Now, here is a caveat: DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS RECIPE/METHOD WITHOUT A GREASE SPLATTER SCREEN!!! There is a lot of liquid in an oyster and they splattered like hell when I put them in the oil!

The result: YUM! HEAVEN! OH MY GOD!They were so wickedly amazing! The burger was great, but eating the left over oysters just on their own was even better. I savoured every bite, let me tell you! This was so good!It's so nice to have a treat like this once in a while!

Restaurant Review: Funky Mexican Monkey

Last week, Dad and I took another trip to Nelson, and after deciding on one place to go for lunch, we ended up going somewhere completely different on a whim. This new eatery in Nelson, Funky Mexican Monkey, was on our walk to the other place we were going to, but it looked cool from the outside and we decided to give it a try.This location used to house a very excellent restaurant called Kas, but alas, Kas has closed shop and instead we have here a small burger joint that also sells Mexican food. Some of the links on the site aren't working, but if you go here and scroll down, you'll be able to find the entire menu.

The inside is small, a tad cramped, but on the cozy side, complete with a huge collage of monkey photos and even a tree covered with stuffed monkeys. The menu looked good and it was hard to decide on what to get, but I was in a burger mood. The menu states that all burgers are served with "a heaping amount of hand-cut fries" so I was pretty stoked about that. I chose the Funky Monkey Burger, which was essentially a cheese burger that had the addition of a homemade pineapple relish. My dad started out with the Azteca soup, which is a spicy, brothy soup topped with tortilla chips, guacamole, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream - touted by the sign out front to be the local critics' choice for "best soup in Nelson." Dad thought it was really good. He followed up the Portobello Burger, which came topped with Swiss Cheese, roasted red pepper, sauteed red o onions, sliced avocado, and spring mix. He loved it.
The fries were totally excellent and probably the best fries I've had in a long time!

This lunch for two came to about $30. Totally a recommended eatery if you're ever in the Nelson area. Next time, I intend to try out the Mexican food!

Rossland's Seven Summits Café

I had a chance run-in with a former co-worker the other day, who happens to be the new operator of Seven Summits Café, which is attached to Rossland's only gas station, located across from the museum.

For some time now, the status of the café has been unknown. When I first moved here, it was an amazing burger joint selling gourmet burgers named after the local Seven Summits in addition to some excellent Mexican dishes. Then those people pulled out and a swankier Mexican restaurant called the Mazatlan went in, after the original Mazatlan in Nelson burned down. Then the Mazatlan moved from Rossland to Trail, and after that the restaurant space at the Seven Summits service station was a bit up in the air.

My former co-worker is now running the place and doing all the cooking & prep. When I told Shan & Jem about it, they were surprised to hear that something was actually going on in that space because they eat out a lot (the Mazatlan is a favourite with them) and hadn't heard boo about the new café. This is a small town, and news that there is a new eatery in town would normally become well-known quickly.

Well, last night, Jem, Shan, and I went to the Seven Summits Café for dinner to give it a try.

It's a small space, which is a huge drawback, though a lot of the previous businesses who called this place home thrived on take-out service. As for the menu, it was very small and very limited, and is quite typical fast food/truck stop fare: burgers (including a veggie burger, because this is Rossland, after all), hot dogs, smokies, fries, poutine, chili dogs, chili fries, and onion rings. Also on offer is the cook's homemade potato salad and maraconi salad at $4.50 per container. The prices are very reasonable and the entire menu is a la carte with combos available for larger groups & families.

I chose a burger with the works - bacon, cheese, grilled onions - and a side of onion rings, which I haven't had in ages. With a large fountain drink, my meal came to $10.50. Jem & Shan each had the same thing: burgers with the works and poutine. Their meals came to a similar amount.

The cook, W, makes her own burgers and cuts her own fries. The burgers were excellent, I must say - perfectly grilled and perfectly seasoned. We all enjoyed them! My onion rings (not homemade) hit the spot and were very good, and Jem & Shan both liked their poutine. My only real complaint was that my burger came fully dressed with mustard, relish, and ketchup, and I really hate mustard. Luckily, there wasn't much on there so it wasn't too obnoxious, but I'd have preferred to dress my burger myself.

It was a nice meal and spending quality time with my family is always a good and fun thing for me to be doing. I really hope the Seven Summits decides to advertise a bit, because there is a huge market for them out there just waiting to be tapped into. People just need to know it's open. (It's hours, by the way are daily from 12 - 8pm.).

I wish my former co-worker all the best with her new endeavour!

Salmon Burgers

OK, I've had some serious cat drama for the last several days, so I'm very behind in my posting and commenting. I do have several things coming down the wire, I just need to get my act together and my anxiety under control so that I can sit down & write the posts.

Here, however, are the burgers I made to go with my homemade burger buns the other night, burgers I had to abandon in mid-meal because I had to rush Juno to the vet.

Basically, ground salmon, formed into a patty & seasoned with salt & pepper. I grilled them on the old George Foreman, and served the burger with a lemon garlic aoli, sliced avocado, and on the side I had a nice spinach salad.
Hopefully, regular food-blogging will resume shortly.

Magazine Monday #41: Hamburger Buns

Despite having a seriously ill kitty over the weekend, I still managed to bake, and I chose to make hamburger buns. The recipe came from this month's Gourmet magazine in a feature about making the ultimate burgers and accompaniments all from scratch. The recipe looked simple enough but the high cream and whole milk content is what drew me to it. I was intrigued with how they might turn out using such ingredients.

The recipe is here. You can also make your own hot dog buns with this dough.

Man, were these ever fan-fracking-tastic! They are probably the nicest buns I've ever made in my life. The cream and whole milk made them incredibly rich and buttery, and the higher sugar content gave them a nice sweetness. I used a 3 1/2-inch cookie cutter rather than a 3" because I felt that the 3" one would have been too small.

The burgers I made to try my buns out will appear in a future post.

Shrimp Burgers with Stuff

So, I have this book that's been taking up valuable space on my bookshelves for years and years and that I've rarely used. It has a recipe for shrimp burgers that I'd always wanted to make but never got around to it. In the original recipe, you lightly batter the shrimp whole and fry them, then make a cocktail sauce. For some reason, and I have no idea what that reason is, this recipe came to mind this week, and I gave it another look. I decided I didn't want to fry my shrimp whole, so I made a shrimp patty, loosely following the recipe and this is what I came up with.

I took about 15 or so raw shrimp, two green onions, two cloves of garlic, and a handful of cilantro and pulsed this all together in a food processor. I then added enough bread crumbs to bring the mixture together so it would form a firm patty. I grilled the patties on my cast iron grill pan and made a simple aoli with mayo, lemon juice, and garlic powder. I served the burger with asparagus roasted with homemade balsamic dressing and the remainder of my homemade dill pickles.

Super meal, actually! The burgers were a bit strong on the cilantro side, and, as you can see, they're very green, but that's OK with me. It was a simple dinner to put together and tasted great. I'll definitely make these again.