We were at the Village Taphouse in The Village at Park Royal where NPY noticed the Specials card that advertised a dinner deal: $50 gets you a bottle of wine and unlimited Caesar salad and spaghetti for two people. He thought it was a nice deal but I, and any of you, could easily do better. What do you wanna bet that it’s at best a $17 bottle of wine at the liquor store marked up to $30 at the restaurant and the pasta meal is consequently “only” $10 per …

Cari and I were at the VPD north of Chinatown to pick up/have sent our criminal records to the place we will volunteer. It was a bust because while the station is open until 7, the records office closed at 5:30. I thought I might suggest we go to The Naam or Don Guacamoles, two restaurants I have not yet gone to.
But Cari had recently read about two new-ish Asian fusion restaurants in Chinatown and I picked the one that kind of had better reviews across dinehere.ca, Urbanspoon, and Yelp: …

It’s a pretty good month if I’ve got enough food pictures for a dineout review for just that month, ja? Ja!
Benkei Ramen
We usually get miso ramen because it’s hearty and oh so tasty. But what about the second bowl of ramen we order between the two of us? We are not likely to get the cold noodles but the milky broth elicits both fascination and fear in us. At Benkei, the milky broth was described as being designed for Western tastes and has garlic and butter. I was merely very …

Oh my, another quarter did just roll by before I have a suitable number of interesting photos and experiences amassed for a group review. I just couldn’t wait and did post some themed reviews: my Easter trip to Toronto, three super Dineout Vancouver 2010 meals, and a vegan meal “spree”. This quarterly review will include the rest of the interesting meals.
AoYama Cafe
As much as the idea of Japanese comfort food appeals to NPY, we don’t seem to have tried out the ones that are relatively local to us, like …

I went on a little vegetarian bender for 8 consecutive meals before it was smashed to bits by devouring a sukiyaki beef rice burger at the night market on Saturday night. It was fun while it lasted, and I get to blog about two quite unique meals for my repertoire.
Organic Lives
My friend Cari read about Organic Lives in The Georgia Straight and suggested it as a place we could try. We could easily assume that our usual dining companions, our boyfriends, would vehemently refuse to go to a place that …

Original source: March 17, 2010 Vancouver Sun newspaper, I made just the curry sauce and only half the recipe with mushrooms as the “meat” and instead of whipping cream, the 18% M.F. coffee cream, and omitted the fenugreek
4 cups (1L) whipping cream
1/4 cup (50mL) lemon juice
1 tbsp (15mL) salt
1 tbsp (15mL) dried fenugreek leaves
1 tsp (5mL) paprika
1/2 tsp (2mL) ground cayenne pepper
3 to 4 tbsp (45 to 50) canola oil
3 tbsp (45mL) finely chopped garlic
1 tsp (5mL) tumeric
Combine cream, lemon juice, salt, fenugreek leaves, paprika, and cayenne pepper in a …

I paused for a long time outside the T&T Supermarket entrance taking in the super-cute kawaii poster of something resembling a mushroom soldier with a big green cap surrounded by mini soldiers in different national dress.
To celebrate Dragon Boat Festival 2010 (June 16), T&T created 12 flavours of 糭子(simplified: 粽子; English/Pinyin: zhong zi), glutinous rice bundles wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. Aside from regular Chinese varieties with fine differences to represent China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, more exotic creations represent Asian countries like Korea(kimchi and seafood), India (curry …

So, I only managed to go to three Dineout Vancouver 2010 dinners and I can’t really imagine a fourth one topping the dinners so far, if only because I’m so Dined Out now.
hidden tasting bar + lounge
I was so excited to try hidden, a new restaurant in the centrally located Westin Grand hotel, within a week of it opening, and I knew another couple would be game for the ride. Plus, if it was a real bust, it was only an $18 Dineout (3-course) menu. We joked (not that I …

Dineout Vancouver 2010 actually began on Monday, April 26 and goes full-steam for 12 days until Friday, May 6, ending just a couple days short of the restaurant industry’s Biggest Day of All-Time (Mother’s Day).
This year, over 200 (most ever) restaurants participate in the dining bonanza offering three-course prix fixe menus for $18, $28, or $38. (If you don’t order something to drink–and I don’t intend to if I’m out on a “school night”–with just GST applied to your meal, the dinners come to under $20, $30, and $40.)
Being quite …