vancouver food file

One week ago at this time I was looking at whales and dolphins at Vancouver Aquarium. Now, I'm on the sofa in sweltering SoCal, binge-watching Mr. Robot and remembering all the fun food places I visited in Vancouver. Here are the food fotos!

Once we'd landed at YVR (that's the airport code for Vancouver if you need it for your Expedia search) and gotten checked into The Burrard, we realized we were starving, and considering we were basically surrounded by water, decided to go eat fish. So we went down the street and around the corner to a recommended sushi restaurant - Shizen Ya. They are known as the only place in Vancouver to use only organic brown rice. While it looked a bit odd, it's stickiness actually made the rolls a lot easier to eat. We ordered Spicy Tuna and Salmon Avocado rolls + Quinoa vegetable cones and SAPPORO! (You have to have eaten at Tokyo Delves in NoHo to get that last reference.) And yes, it was only lunchtime, but by then it was 5pm on the east coast and we were on VACATION!

After lunch, we went to Granville Public Market, which was full of food and had a bunch of restaurants and wine bars outside the market. I wanted to buy all of these towers of strawberries that greeted me almost as soon as I walked into the market, but alas, even I can't eat that many strawberries in two and a half days...

I could, however, eat some really yummy strawberry swirl gelato while listening to a local singer/guitarist play on the pier as small children chased pigeons all around him. He deserved every tip people dropped in his guitar case. 

For dinner, we also took a friend's recommendation and when to The Mexican Antojitos Y Cantina. Sadly, you don't get free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurants in Canada. You do get really good margaritas though. And okay food... I mean, they are a whole United States away from Mexico. And I was born in El Paso, TX, which has its own Mexican food brand named after it, so I have kinda high Mexican food standards.... I ordered enchiladas with the chile sauce. To me (and everyone in Texas, New Mexico and most of California) that usually means a green chile sauce. Not in Canadia though... lol.

Canadian Mexican food

Breakfast almost every day included a stop across the street at Starbucks because a) I'm a chai tea latte addict and b) I didn't have to deal with foreign transaction fees on my pre-loaded Starbucks app. Starbucks' cup lids (which you put on yourself if you want one vs. the barrista doing for you automatically, which to me seems a bit dangerous, but maybe Canadians aren't as clumsy as Americans. They are definitely more polite.. but I digress.) Starbucks cup lids illustrate one of the really lovely things about Canada. Everything is in two languages.. English and Le Francais. Even the "Caution Hot"  warnings :)

The next night we again took recommendations (from the hotel and my financial adviser) and went to The Flying Pig in Yaletown. We were immediately drawn to all the appetizers so we ordered a bunch of those instead of a meal -- the BC Salmon sampler, crispy brussels sprouts and the TO DIE FOR truffled jumbo macaroni. (Sorry no photos.. it was too dark inside.)


Combined with cocktails and catching up with one of QBall's friends now living in Vancouver, this was a fun and yummy Friday night.

Saturday was nature day -- walking across the Capilano Suspension Bridge Park and a bike ride around the Stanley Park Seawall. But in the middle of our bike ride, we stopped for lunch at The Teahouse in Stanley Park. It was kinda fancy, but there were lots of people in the middle of nature days too. (The waitress even offered to store our bike helmets for us.) I was kinda looking forward to afternoon tea, but The Teahouse is a restaurant, not actually a tea house, thus no afternoon tea service. But they did have (mmm) hot tea that I ordered to go with my AMAZING Belgian Waffle covered (and I mean COVERED) in fresh fruit! 

Mmm hot tea with a view of the Pacific Ocean

There are actually two Belgian Waffles buried under all that kiwi, strawberry, blackberry, banana and grapes. This became not only my lunch but my dinner too. #foodcoma

QBall ordered the Kassler Pork and Apple Sausage Benedict. I had some of the sausage to counteract my sweet waffles with some savory protein.

After walking across bridges and riding bikes all day, we stopped on the way home for some beverages and to watch Team Canada beat Team Russia in the semi-finals of the World Cup at Elephant & Castle Pub in the historic Marine Building.

On our final day, we went to brunch before going for massages. Yelp named Twisted Fork one of the best brunches in Vancouver, and it was just down the street so we headed over ... and then waited 45 minutes for a table. But it was worth it. They make their own crispy Asagio scones and preserves, which Qball ordered that comes with a giant fruit salad. I was craving eggs and ordered the first thing on the brunch menu - the "Green onion, mixed bell peppers and zucchini Scrambled Eggs served with toasted sourdough and housemade jam, roasted roma tomatoes, rosti and sauteed spinach".... make that garlicy spinach. It was delish! As were the roasted tomatoes.

This was our view (sitting on one of the breakfast bars) as we waited for our food. Pretty. 

time in taos

Earlier this month my second-to-youngest cousin Josh married a lovely girl named Emily in Taos, New Mexico. Here are some of the non-wedding memories..

Sopapillas

Stop #1 on any trip to New Mexico for my family is to a "real" Mexican food restaurant for some sort of really spicy mexican food followed by the most amazing dessert ever... sopapillas! For you poor eaters who've never experienced a sopapilla, it's a piece of fried dough, that's puffed up so you can poke a hole in it and fill it with honey, then squish it together and devour it. It's amazeballs! And why no Mexican food restaurant outside of Texas and New Mexico serves them is a travesty to humanity! 

My sopapilla from Tomasita's in Santa Fe (on the road to Taos). Just looking at this makes me hungry.

The "Gorge Bridge"

New Mexico has some of the most beautiful scenery you'll ever lay eyes on. It's also home to the Most Beautiful Long-Span Steel Bridge in the U.S, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. Located about 20 minutes outside of Taos, it also happens to be the 7th highest bridge in the U.S., which I can now attest to based on the nervous feeling in my stomach as I looked over the side of it. It's a gorgeous view as long as you look out, not down ;)

Ahhhh! 

Kit Carson Home and Museum

Who is Kit Carson? I knew the name, I knew he was a frontiersmen, but that was about it. Well, he lived in Taos, and his house is still there, which you can walk through after watching a documentary about the man who helped map the Oregon Trail. (Note: While not air conditioned, the house/museum is an old adobe abode, and therefore much cooler than walking around downtown Taos to shop on a 95-degree afternoon ;) 

The courtyard of the home, and entrance to the museum.

The other side of the courtyard. That window is to the kitchen, where food was passed in and out.

The other side of the window -- the home's kitchen.

The "living room"

Pretty Nature

New Mexico calms me... it's quiet and beautiful. See :) Ahhhhh. 

red o es delicioso

Happy Cinco de Mayo! This is a day that people traditionally eat great Mexican food and drink margaritas. But -- being the non-comforming Aquarian that I am -- I did that earlier this week cuz I have a rule to never go to a Mexican food restaurant on Cinco de Mayo or an Irish Pub on St. Patrick's Day. (It allows me to avoid the drunken fools that tend to use these "holidays" as an excuse to act like drunken fools, who I have zero patience for.)

My Mexican food restaurant of choice? Red O on Melrose Avenue, which features menus designed by renowned chef Rick Bayless, and is one of the "places to eat" on my 2013 list of things to do in LA. It also happens to be down the street and around the corner from my pal Marleine's awesome new place. So she joined me for Girl's Night Out. She'd been to the restaurant before and recommended the margies and that we split a bunch of stuff rather than just ordering individual entrees, and as usual, her recommendations were spot on.

Here's what we enjoyed:




La Dama Margarita 
(Karma tequila, serrano chile, mango grenadine, lime juice, a drizzle of  pomegranate liqueur. Garnished with fresh pomegranate seeds. Begins sweet & finishes with a bite!)

This was delish, even though it tasted more like a sweet cocktail than a margarita. I was worried the serrano chile would make it too spicy, but it didn't -- just gave it some nice spice, so that the sweetness wasn't too overpowering.

And I loved the pomegranate seeds floating around :)

Classic Guacamole 

(Freshly made, chunky, sundried tomato, onion, with warm chips & salsa)

This was good but nothing spectacularly different. I didn't even notice the sundried tomato, which is what would set this apart from normal guac. But you can't really go wrong with chips and dip. 

Pork Belly Sopes
(Niman Ranch pork belly, black beans, salsa negra, sesame)

These were something totally new to me and I really liked them. The salsa negra was amaze-balls! And the pork belly was seasoned and cooked just right.

Fresh Corn and Goat Cheese Tamales
(Fresh ground corn masa steamed in corn husks, roasted poblano chiles)

I've never met a tamale I didn't like and these were no exception. Really loved these actually. The goat cheese plus corn mesa was a totally new and very yummy taste combination.

 

Red Chile-Braised Short Rib Enchiladas
(Red guajillo chile sauce, melted Sonoma Jack, black beans, frisee, watercress)

All the enchiladas on the menu sounded really good, but I settled on these because short rib tacos are the best item on the Kogi BBQ menu (which has nothing to do with Red O except they have made me think good things about short rib ;). These were good too, but what really stood out was the chile sauce and the cheesy gooey goodness.

Mexican Chocolate Torta
(Mexican chocolate mousse, canela ice cream, caramelized almond crunch with local berries)

Choosing a dessert was really hard. After I ruled out the options with coconut (which I can't eat) and cheesecake (which I don't really like), we might as well have flipped a coin. Our waiter helped us narrow it down by telling us the three most popular items on the menu, and from that we chose the chocolate torta. The mousse was great, the cinnamon ice cream was soooo good, and once again pomegrante seeds made an appearance, adding a crisp tangy texture and taste to the soft sweet mousse and ice cream.