Lunch at Characters Taverna

Last weekend here on the Wet Coast was gorgeous weather-wise, and perfect for patio eating.  I went into the city to hang with my SIL for an afternoon, and she really fancied Greek food.  There is a string of Greek places on Davie St. in the Thurlow area.  I'd eaten at one and had a bad experience, but I couldn't remember which place it was (there are two within a couple of doors of each other), so we thought we'd try out a place I knew I hadn't eaten at yet, Characters Taverna, right on the corner of Davie & Thurlow - 1103 Davie St. to be specific.  It had lots of patio space and seemed to have a good menu, so Shan and I found a shady spot and were attended by an older gentleman who was very kind and who, whenever he came to serve us, called us his "beautiful ladies."  We were amused and thought this was rather charming.

Starting off by quenching our thirst with nice iced tea, Shan decided to order a calamari starter.  And it was great!  We really liked the extra thick, extra yogurty tzadziki sauce the dish was accompanied by.  It was a very good starter.

 

We both decided to order the chicken souvlaki lunch, which, for $10 came with Greek rice, lemony roast potato, Greek salad, and pita bread.  OMG, the souvlaki was one of the best I've ever had!  It made me miss chicken, which I haven't been buying much of lately because it's so expensive.  This souvlaki was grilled to juicy perfection, and seasoned with lemon, garlic, and oregano in just the right amounts.  It was amazing!

Although I was full, I did get pulled into desert.  The server recommended Ekmek, which was described as a Greek tiramisu.  The description said it was "vanilla custard over orange soaked wheat biscuits, topped with freshly whipped cream and roasted almonds."  So I caved.  And man was it ever good!  It was light and not too sweet, and yes, did remind me of a tiramisu in a way.  I am definitely going to have to find a way to make this at home!

So, the food at Characters was fantastic, and so was the service.  The prices were very reasonable for lunch and the setting was very lovely.  I would definitely go back again.  Besides, I didn't mind being called "my beautiful ladies" at all! :)

Lunch at Broadway Station Sushi

This week my friend Barb was in town, and she and I and another friend got together for lunch on Tuesday. The consensus was that sushi was in order (all of us being sushi fans) and our friend, who lives and works near Broadway and Commercial in Vancouver, suggested Broadway Station Sushi (1638 E. Broadway), where she'd had a good experience before.

We met at 1pm and the place was quite busy. But we had hit the tail end of the lunch rush so the place emptied out quite quickly. It took us a while to order because we were all chatty as we hadn't seen each other in about a month. Eventually we decided.

I had two rolls, the Jumbo Dynamite and the Salmon & Avocado. Barb ordered the Spider Roll and the Sunshine Roll. Our friend ordered the Spicy Combo. This restaurant makes sushi with brown rice if you request it, and both of my friends did, but I stuck with regular white rice.

My combo.

Spicy combo with brown rice.

Spider roll - excellent. I tried it and loved it.

Sunshine roll. I believe it had smoked salmon in it and I think the topping was a seaweed thingy. It was also very good.

Great meal! I now have another Vancouver sushi place to add to my list to return to!

Lunch at Topanga Cafe

Finally, Canada has its own version of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! It's called You Gotta Eat Here, and I am officially a fan. Last week, the Topanga Cafe on West Fourth in Kitsilano was featured and immediately it went to the top of my list of Vancouver eateries I had to try out. And on Monday, after a relaxing time with my friend at the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, we were peckish. My friend asked me if there was anywhere I really wanted to go or that I had seen recently featured on TV that looked good. Well, immediately, Topanga Cafe came to mind. It's been around for a few years, and my friend had heard of it because she lived in the neighbourhood years ago and she'd even eaten there and had good experiences. So off we went!

We had missed the lunch rush and were there at about 2:45pm, and we were the only people in the dining room. The menus were at the table and there was a lot of variety to choose from. I remember the Carne Nortegna being featured on the show, and I was tempted because it looked so good, but it was a bit out of my price range. I knew the entrees came with beans and rice, kind of like Rancho Chico in Colville, and I was starving. In the end, both my friend and I ordered the same thing: the chicken burrito. Our server brought us chips and salsa; the salsa was very fresh, obviously homemade, and full of garlic and cilantro - yum!

Our meals came quite quickly and as expected, they were completely filled. Our sever warned us that they were hot because, as I knew from the show, a lot of cheese gets melted atop a lot of the entrees. Here is my burrito:


The burrito is topped with a whack of avocado sauce, which was excellent; I could taste the lime in it and it had a bit of a kick, but was rich and a perfect accompaniment. I knew it would be; I'd noted the avocado sauce on the show and it had looked amazing. And it was. They even garnished the dish exactly as they had on the show, with a little dollop of sour cream and an olive to top everything off like a cherry on a sundae.


The burrito was very very good, chock full of tender white chicken meat and a nice tomato mixture with a bit of spice in it, but not too much, which was perfect since I'm not into spicy. The rice was good and the beans were, too. A very good, very filling meal!

Yep, this is definitely a restaurant to check out in Vancouver. My friend and I had a great experience there and I'd certainly return for another.

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.

Bye Bye LOGS!*

*Y'all remember LOGS, right? The local overpriced grocery store I had to rely on back home in Rossland?

I've been volunteering at a refugee resource centre in the neighbourhood of Hastings Sunrise for a few months now, and I'm really enjoying it there. There's a community kitchen and once a week I make lunch for the staff and clients and do some baking, too. The clients love it; many of them live in poverty. Since this is a non-profit organization that has a small operating budget, I have to keep my meals cheap without sacrificing healthiness, and to facilitate this I've learned where to shop for the best deal in the neighbourhood. And there is a lot of choice when it comes to small, independently-owned markets.

The one we utilize the most is John's Farm Market at 2438 East Hastings. Their produce is hands down the least expensive of all the stores in the three block radius I try to keep myself to when I go out to do the grocery shopping for my meal.

John's is a very cultural experience for me. Right out front, facing the street, is a roaster/display thingy that usually has in it a selection of whole roasted birds and parts of roasted pig. It's touted as "Chinese BBQ" and man, does it ever smell good! Here is a closer look:


Cool, eh?

In addition to produce, John's does a bustling hot Chinese food take-out business that also smells amazing.

Price-wise, they cannot be beaten. I made a big pot of veggie soup for $6. Onions were 99¢ for 3lbs, cabbage was 49¢/lb...And I decided to do some personal shopping there after I was done volunteering, and I got bananas for 59¢/lb, mushrooms for 99¢/lb, pineapples were two for $5, green peppers were cheap...And the place is always busy! Even their canned stuff was cheaper than other places, and I wound up getting all my spaghetti sauce ingredients there for under $5.

I love this place! And I love the fact that it's a small independent business and I don't have to have that whole big name grocery store experience when I go there. I'm so glad I don't have to rely on LOGS anymore for my groceries! The staff are attentive and friendly, and the place has a nice feel to it. I'll be making it a regular stop on my way home from volunteering each week! And I'll have to try the take-out sometime, too!

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!

Pho!

My brother & SIL live in downtown Vancouver, right at Robson & Seymour, and there are like a zillion options for eating out right within a block's radius. It's ridiculous. When I went to visit Jem last Saturday, after our Miura Waffle experience, we decided a couple of hours later that it was time for dinner. Since Jem was very under the weather, he was in the mood for soup, and he recommended a pho joint near Robson & Richards - a mere two minute walk from his place.

Alas, I did not get the name of this pho place! But as soon as I entered it - it was tiny and had two chairs available at a small window front counter for people to eat at, so it's definitely a take-out place - I was overwhelmed by the smell of broths containing star anise. It made my tummy grumble. There was a small menu that included four types of pho, a few Vietnamese subs, and some salad roll type things. My brother opted for one of the beef phos and I had the chicken one. They were all $6.45. I also ordered a Vietnamese salad roll for $2.75.

This is not environmentally friendly take-out, as you can see. You get with the pho three containers: one for the noodles & meat, one for the broth, one for sauce, and then you get a plastic baggie with bean sprouts and fresh basil. You mix all this up at home.


Plus, I of course had a container for my salad rolls. Mother Nature is no doubt justifiably upset.

Guilt aside, the meal was great. The salad rolls were OK (I've had better other places). The noodles were a rice stick, there was plenty of chicken, the addition of the bean sprouts and basil was great. But I had some surprises in store for me. As I was eating the soup, I came across two small eggs. I am assuming by their size that they are quail's eggs. I was not expecting that. I also was not expecting a few large chunks of pale sausage of unknown origin. It tasted OK, but I was a little leary at first. I doubted it was a pork sausage but I also doubted it was a poultry sausage. In the end, it was a mystery. It tasted fine, though.


The sauce that came with the pho was not to my liking. It was actually a brown sauce with a large squirt of a red spicy sauce, so I just skipped that part of it. All in all, excellent meal at an excellent price. I just wish there was a more environmentally friendly way of doing this particular kind of take-out.

Some Vancouver Sushi

During my trip to the coast in March, which was 5 days long, I didn't get any sushi. None. It was very disappointing indeed. During this most recent trip last week, I made sure I got some sushi in. Sushi is ridiculously cheap and easy to come by at the coast. It's everywhere and it's good and it's very economical. Here in this one horse town, I can get a sushi roll at LOGS for about $7 - $8. At the specialty grocery stores at the coast, like T&T Supermarket, which is Chinese, H Mart, which is Korean, and Fujiya, which is Japanese, there is excellent supermarket sushi (and bento boxes and other roll-ish foods) in copious amounts and for super cheap prices. It's like heaven. Seriously.

The first sushi I had was at a place in Gastown called Momo Sushi. I had just had a busy afternoon of shopping and visiting with blog pal Scout of Harper Valley, and after we parted I had some time to kill before my ride went to take me back to Shihtzustaff's place, where I was staying. So, I saw this Momo place along Water Street and looked at their menu. To my shock, I could get a duo of sushi rolls - Dynamite and California - for $7.25! I was in! I got a seat, ordered, and was soon in sushi bliss.

It was absolutely wonderful sushi, and beautifully presented. I couldn't believe how much sushi I got for $7.25! I was blown away when the waitress brought me my board full of sushi.

I highly recommend this place if you're in the Gastown area and in need of a sushi fix!

I used to shop at T&T Supermarket when I lived in Coquitlam when I was in culinary school and it was always such a cool experience. It's like no other grocery store I've been in. There are so many live fish available for purchase that you practically feel like you're at the Vancouver aquarium (no, you don't eat the fish at the Vancouver Aquarium, but you get what I'm saying). T&T has pretty good grocery store sushi, so I got myself a spicy shrimp roll as I was in the store looking for some cooking ingredients I can't find here. This was just OK; not terribly fresh, but tasty enough and it was good enough considering it cost like $4.


Fujiya is where I hit the jackpot with awesome grocery store sushi. In fact, I also got a bento box for good measure. This is a spider roll, made with deep fried soft shell crab. With an exotic ingredient like that, I was super stoked about the pricetag:


$4.95! That is unheard of in these parts! And it was really tasty and fresh, and the crab had a bit of a kick to it in the batter. Awesome!

I also got a bento box for frakking $5!


This was a bit odd, I have to say. The shrimp were great, the rice was great, the green sesame salady thing (top left) was great, but the potato salad (bottom right) was brutal and contained frozen peas & carrots (ew!) and the other seafood items were weird. They included two fake scallops. I have never heard of a fake scallop, but it was much like fake crab meat only scallop-shaped and not pink. There was one deep fried shrimp, which was fine, and then there was a small piece of other fish I couldn't identify. This was accompanied by tartar sauce. Next time, I'd go for something else because this was nothing to write home about and the combinations were really strange.

Believe it or not, that was all the sushi I had. I could have had more, but there are so many foodie options down there it's just too much!

Vancouver Food, Part 1

Busy times! Last week, I returned from a trip to Vancouver to visit friends & family. I have a ton of photos, so it's hard to sort out where to start.

How about Ikea?

What is a trip to the coast without a stop at Ikea? My dad loves Ikea, particularly their food section. He loves their coffee and he stocked up big time. He also likes their bread mixes, and so do I, so he bought a few of those, too. Dad really likes the Ikea cafeteria, for reasons I just don't get. Yeah, it's inexpensive, but I was at the coast - I wanted to have lunch somewhere more "coasty". We compromised by having a snack at the cafeteria (which is oddly very similar to the BC Ferries cafeterias) and going somewhere else for lunch.

So, here is what we had.

My SIL had this chocolate torte thingy that you can buy whole in the frozen section of the food part of the store. She said it was pretty good. She downed it with a lingonberry juice.

My dad had this bran muffin that had an odd shape. He downed it with some of his favourite Ikea coffee. I have been advised that when I go to Van in June (which is in the works) that should I pass by Ikea, I am go to in and buy Dad a huge stockpile of coffee and bread mixes.

I had an Ikea cinnamon bun. It was OK. I've had way better, which you will hear about in the future!