The Soup Meister's Nephew

Okay, here is a classic spot located at Lonsdale Quay - The Soup Meister's Nephew.  What?  Wait...  Wasn't this The Soup Meister???  Sadly, he passed away, but his nephew took over and is using the original recipes.  That is definitely a relief for me as I've always enjoyed their soups.  There is something homemade about them (because they are), which makes them healthier, but still hearty.  Jackie and I were invited to revisit an ol' favourite on a very wet day in Raincover.

The best example of their soups being less commercialized and "healthier" is with the Boston Seafood Chowder.  I found it to be more broth-like and since it was thickened with starch rather than a roux, it was less heavy.  Sure, it wasn't creamy per se, but I could easily finish the bowl due to this.  This was pretty chunky with tender potatoes, little cubes of fish and clams.  I decided to kick it up a few notches and added hot sauce.  

Filled with more ingredients than broth, the Steak & Vegetable Soup was a homemade version of Chunky Soup.  The broth was meaty, well-seasoned and peppery.  The veggies were soft but still retained some texture.  I could taste the natural sweetness of the veggies as well as the beef in the broth.  About that beef, it was lean, but had been cooked down enough that it was tender.  Texturally, it was on the drier side though, but I guess it was better than overly fatty cuts.

With a squash and root vegetable base, the Winter Harvest was the heartiest soup of the bunch.  So warming and comforting, this was definitely the best for a rainy day.  The natural sweetness of the components were able to shine while being balanced by the savoury herbs and seasoning.  This was the thickest soup by virtue of natural thickeners of the ingredients.  There was also some rice and chicken to compliment.

Lastly, the Moroccan Chickpea was the most exotic-tasting soup.  It was thanks to the spices that gave it an earthiness and aromatics.  Once again, the veggies were cooked through, but not mushy.  The chick peas also had some bite left.  To give more texture, we found some black-eyed peas too.  Another healthy soup the nourished our soul.  Oh, and each soup came with a fresh roll from Cobs next door.  You could choose from white, whole wheat or focaccia.

Of course you can get all the soups to go served hot, but another way to enjoy them is to buy them in packaged containers for you to heat up at home.  They have all their favourites in both small and large sizes.  It can make for a convenient meal or in the larger containers, soup to share!  In addition, they have hummus and salad dressings.  Nice to see the Nephew has kept it in the family and didn't changes things.  We can still get the same hearty soups that also includes a freshly-baked roll.  Can't go wrong with that, especially when the weather is getting colder.  Go check them out!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Hearty, homemade soups
- A bowl is quite a bit of food!
- You can get all their soups to heat up later (from their display fridge)

The Bad:
- Maybe not rich enough compared to other soups, but they don't do it that way  

The Pressure Box

When one has the fried chicken cravings (that is a constant with me), the usual places come to mind like Church's, KFC (not a fan of it) and of course L.A. Chicken.  Of course there are some solid offerings from full-service restaurants as well. Continuing on with the Fried Chicken Challenge, it brought me to The Pressure Box.  Their main feature is their signature sous-vide fried chicken.  Parked in front of 33 Acres Brewing, there just seemed to be an ideal pairing of fried food and beer.

To maintain the integrity of the Not Your Mama's Fried Chicken, I attacked it first. What struck me right away was the firmly crunchy and thick breading (due to being done 2X).  It was appealing and well-seasoned, but the part nearest to the chicken was a bit underdone.  That coincided with the skin of the sous-vide chicken which was not rendered.  As for the meat itself, it was fantastic being juicy, succulent and tender.  With a few drops of their hot sauce, this was a solid piece of meat.  The accompanying skinny kennebec fries were on point with a light crispiness on the outside.

At first, I scoffed at the side of a Warm Potato Salad that was on the menu.  Turns out that I was an idiot for thinking in such a manner.  It turned out to be my favourite item, where the sous-vide potato was full of flavour from the brine.  There was an appealing level of acidity to go with the aromatics provided by the truffle mayo. Moreover, the sear with seasonings and salt helped elevate both the texture and flavour of the potato.  The addition of fried shallots and pickled radish added crunch and further aromatics (and in the case of the radish, more acidity to keep things light and refreshing).

Lastly, I sampled the vegan 48-Hour Beef Stew thickened with rice flour.  As much a the whole dish look strange with the glistening thick "sauce", it ate rather nicely. The chunks of beef were tender to the chew while still maintaining a natural texture. There was no absence of impact from the parsnips and carrots which offered up a certain Earthiness.  Interestingly, I enjoyed everything on the menu, but the chicken was not my favourite.  Not that it wasn't any good, the other items were just better.

*All food was complimentary*

The Good:
- No absence of complimentary flavours
- Well-executed eats

The Bad:
- Chicken skin not rendered   

Peqish

With our busy lives, it's pretty easy to fall into the "fast food trap".  You know, when you are totally short on time and have to resort to grabbing a bite that is usually unhealthy more often than not.  Hey, don't get me wrong here, I don't mind the occasional burger, but it's not a great way to keep nourished daily.  So when I was contacted to check out Peqish and their array of grab n' go items (that didn't include burgers), I was intrigued.  I enlisted the help of Sean and Grace as well as Viv to try more than a few items.

In addition to their selection of salads, sammies and drinks in the display fridge, there was also a warmer that offered up hot soups, sandwiches, baked goods and treats.  We sampled 3 sandwiches to start including the Turkey Meatball Marinara, Veggie Caponata and 5-Spiced Pulled Pork.  These were indeed warm where the bread was a bit dry on the outside as a result of being kept in the warmer. I liked the pulled pork the most as there was a nice mix of five spice and sweet hoisin.  Onto some soups, I tried the Rosemary Minestrone first. I found it quite mild with little nuggets of sweet veggies including carrot, corn and red peppers.  There was a certain wholesomeness to it where it was easy on the sodium.

Onto 2 more soups, we tried both the Coconut Thai Chicken & Tofu Soup and Pumpkin Patch Soup.  Although hearty and substantial, the coconut Thai was a little mild in flavour.  It did taste fresh and healthy though with a certain brightness.  I would've liked to see some more coconut essence as well as a touch of spice. The most memorable was definitely the Pumpkin Patch Soup with carrot and ginger.  I normally look forward to pumpkin soup as much as a vasectomy, but this one was different.  The sweetness of carrots and the sharp spice of the ginger brought the flavours alive as well as masking some of the "vegetable gaminess" of pumpkin. 

Hey, we couldn't get out of there without trying some beverages right?  We sampled (from left-to-right) the Berry Berry Banana Smoothie made with field berries, banana, orange and pineapple juice, Ginger Berry Chia H20, Ice Tea Lemon Crush Chia H20 and Mango Coconut Water.  As much as I was apprehensive about the chia in terms of texture, it wasn't an issue as it went down easy with the drink.  The common theme was that each drink had a certain flavour without being reliant on sugar. My favourite was the Ginger Berry Chia H20 as it was refreshing with only a minimal sweetness accented by a ginger "bite".  I was a bit indifferent with the Mango Coconut Water, not because it wasn't any good, but for me, it was more about essence than actual flavour.

Moving onto some sweets, I had to go for the 5 Berry Icebox Cheesecake (because I love cheesecake...  duh...).  This was a lighter version with a "crumb dust" that wasn't heavy nor sweet.  The cheesecake itself was creamy and not overly dense with only purposeful sweetness.  This was complimented nicely by the semi-sweet and tart berries.  Sean was keen on trying the Crème de la Coconut Brownie.  Turns out, it was pretty good as it was chewy, rich and of course coconutty.  It was decently sweet without going overboard.  However, I'm not sure if I could eat the whole thing by myself as it was quite filling.

With a few more treats, we ended our tasting with a Iced Lemon Scone and a selection of cookies including Old Fashioned Chocolate Chunk, Lunchbox Coconut Oatmeal Raisin and Double Chocolate Super. The scone was kept in the warming display and hence was soft throughout.  It was somewhat light with a sweet lemon frosting on the top.  As for the cookies, I liked the chocolate chip the most as it was crispy with sweet chunks of chocolate.  Naturally, the oatmeal cookie was chewy instead of crispy.  It was fairly sweet, especially from the raisins.  So as you can imagine, the food at Peqish isn't rocket science.  However, it is all made in-house and served fresh everyday.  I especially liked the moderation with both sugar and salt in most of their products.

*All food and drinks were complimentary*

The Good:
- Fresh food made daily
- Easy on the salt and sugar
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- Some of the items kept in the warmer were becoming dry (but we went after the lunch rush)

Tractor

Meeting Choobee for eats can often be an exercise in frustration.  You see, we go through what seemingly is an endless array of options before we settle on a destination.  Furthermore, we then proceed to over-think the menu and take forever to order.  Yes, that is what happens when you get 2 food-crazed people together.  Well, as food crazy as I may be, it took some persistence from Choobee to coax me into finally doing a standalone visit to Tractor.  I've been here in the past as part of a food tour and the eats were good (despite featuring leafy green things that are completely foreign to me).

Naturally, she proceeded to order 4 salads including the Kale with Granny Smith apples, julienned radicchio and white balsamic vinaigrette.  This was my favourite (in relative terms) as it had plenty of crunch and acidity from both the vinaigrette and apples. On the same plate, we sampled the Roasted Cauliflower with chickpeas, radicchio, orzo, feta cheese and kalamata olive dressing.  I liked the crunch of the cauliflower along with the meaty chickpeas. Either there wasn't enough feta or that we didn't get any because it wasn't really apparent.  With even more salads (oh the humanity...), we had the Grilled Asparagus with broccoli, butternut squash, pecans, ricotta cheese and champagne vinaigrette.  This was a fairly "wet" salad, but the flavours were good though with a nice mix of creaminess, sweetness and acidity.  Lastly, we had the Organic Quinoa with kale, fresh blueberries, butternut squash, mint and basil. The firm texture of the kale gave the salad some "meatiness" (had to get that word in somehow).  As the ingredients suggest, there was this herby and sweet balance.

We moved onto all 3 of their available stews including the Morroccan Chicken with chickpeas.  Despite the exotic name, the flavours were quite mild.  I did get the ginger and possibly a hint of cinnamon, but it was lacking in effect in general.  There was a decent amount of ingredients including little chunks of chicken and firm chickpeas. I found the Slow Roasted Pork with chipotle peppers, tomatoes, carrot and garlic to be more flavourful.  It wasn't spicy per se, but it wasn't devoid of spice either.  I felt this had more depth, possibly a direct result of the roasted pork.  As for the pork itself, it was a touch stringy and in small strands.  The veggies were soft while not lacking in texture.

Lastly and begrudgingly, we had the Thai Veggie with organic tofu, cauliflower, chick peas, kale and peppers.  Naturally, without the benefit of meat, the stew lacked body.  However, my main concern was the overall flavour profile - it was somewhat bland.  For something advertised as Thai, I expected more fragrance and maybe more spice.  I'm not sure of their recipe, but I would personally add a good amount of coconut milk.  For the heck of it, we decided to try one piece each of the Albacore Tuna and Steelhead Salmon.  As evidenced in the picture, the tuna was seared ever-so-slightly maintaining a soft rare centre.  The salmon was also slightly rare in the middle ensuring that it wasn't dried out.  They were simply seasoned with salt, pepper and lemon.  Due to the fact we could only eat so much, we skipped the sandwiches (but you can see them here on another post).  Despite my indifference with the stews, I found the food at tractor fresh and healthy.  Hence, by putting a bunch of fat and salt into the stews would've been contradictory.

The Good:
- Fresh stuff
- I felt healthy eating it
- Lots of choice

The Bad:
- Stews lacking in impact (but as I said, adding fat and salt would make it unhealthy)
- Not expensive, but not cheap either

The Snak Shak

The default.  You know, the things we settle for because they are always there and pretty much predictable.  It's much like white paint, vanilla ice cream and chaotic lineups in Richmond.  When it comes to lunch, especially for a quick meal, the defaults are places such as McD's and Subway.  For me, that is usually the last resort because there are so many more interesting things to eat for roughly the same price.  Hence, I decided that a revisit to the Snak Shak as we were in the area. Apparently, since the last time I was here, they have focused on being a Thai restaurant with Western choices.  It was the other way around before.

Much like my last visit 5 years ago, I went with the Wor Wonton Soup.  Admittedly, I should've stayed away from this one since the place is not a Chinese restaurant (and even with that, some Chinese restaurants can't even do it right).  The soup base was mostly beef bouillon which meant there was this MSG-salty thing going on.  As for the wontons themselves, they were rather small where the pork filling was a bit dense and lifeless.  The rest of the veggies were fine though being just barely cooked.  Onto one of their Thai dishes, I tried their Prawn Pad Thai.  This was a fairly large portion that featured many of the usual ingredients such as pressed tofu, pickled turnip, peanuts and bean sprouts.  I asked for spicy and it was only mildly so.  Overall, I found the flavours to be okay for a non-tamarind version.  There was quite a bit of palm sugar though which meant it was more sweet than tart.

We also had the Kong Burger which featured a really thick burger patty.  It was actually quite moist due to its size.  However, it could've used a bit more sear for flavour.  Overall, the ingredients were pretty good, however, the sauteed mushrooms were pretty salty.  The generic fries were prepared quite well being very crispy, yet lacking a bit in potato texture.  The Teriyaki Chicken with noodles was a bit strange looking due to its pale colour.  But it was a pretty typical version with tender chicken in a sweet glaze.  The noodles underneath were a poor choice as they didn't match the dish.  Something like an udon or soba noodles would've been more appropriate rather than Chinese chow mein. In the end, our bellies were filled without much issue.  Not particularly the greatest food, but it wasn't bad either.

The Good:
- Large portions
- Friendly people

The Bad:
- Not as cheap as you might think
- Possibly trying to be too many things

Family Gourmet Deli (Royal Centre)

Lineups.  Yes, you know that thing you stand around waiting for something?  Like at the passport office, grocery store, border crossing and on boxing day...  Well, there must be a reason why we aimlessly loiter for who knows how long.  A sale? Something good?  The toilet at Rogers Arena (well, maybe for the ladies...  sorry ladies...).  Well, that was something I was trying to wrap my brain around when I spotted a large lineup at Family Gourmet Deli at Royal Centre (actually Snake suggested I go try it too).  I asked myself, "self, why are these people lining up like lemmings for sandwiches?".  Were they magical sandwiches?  No, they looked like regular sandwiches with meat, cheese and veggies.

Okay, well being the lemming that I am, I decided to get in line and take my chances.  Ordering was pretty simple, I choose my bread, meat and veggies.  Headed up to the counter and paid.  When my sammie was ready, they called my name.  It was a bit more complex than that since I also put in orders for Chill and Snake as I had arrived in line first. Would that constitute butting in line?  Anyways, Chill decided on the Prosciutto with tomato and lettuce.  Well, what can I say, it was 2 slices of bread with prosciutto and veggies.  He thought the sandwich was okay, but nothing particularly interesting about it.  Snake had the Turkey on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato.  Hmmm...  Is it just me or I could easily replicate this at home?  Yes, I understand that many people are too busy, but really?  

Okay, for myself, I had the Montreal Smoked Meat on rye with cucumber and roasted red peppers.  Am I missing something here?  I ate only half of this because it was just not that appealing.  And it wasn't all the cheap either at over $8.00. I added a side of Clam Chowder which was starchy and not all that creamy.  It was rather bland as well.  Okay.  I know I will be offending a whole bunch of people (because I can tell the place is popular) including the owners, but I didn't get it.  For the price I paid, I could get something more interesting and tastier at one of the many food carts in Downtown.

The Good:
- Lots of different combinations
- A healthier option

The Bad:
- Not really all that interesting
- Can be pricey if you add things

House of Tofu Soup

Here I was. Back at the scene of the crime. Almost 2 months after I first injured my knee in hockey, I was playing with the same group when it occurred. I held no ill will towards the individual who caused it because he's a good guy. But deep down inside, I was channeling Ron Hextall into my body... Okay, I didn't actually give him a 2-hander, rather, I merely played on the same side which meant less chance of it happening again. This was, in fact, my 3rd time playing hockey since coming back and my knee has been fine. As for my conditioning, well, that was another matter. Halfway through the session, I was struggling big time. When I got home, I was in no mood to cook and with frigid temperatures, it was as good as any time to head out to House of Tofu Soup.

Located along the North Road Korean "town" corridor, as their name implies, HoTS specializes in hot stone tofu soups. Not the prettiest of dining spaces, it does the job with the bare minimum. As with most Korean meals, we were presented with a variety of Banchan to start. From the bottom (clockwise), we had kimchi, seaweed, pickled radish & onion and mashed potato salad. These were pretty basic and a bit underwhelming. The seaweed was limp and bland while the potato salad had a weird texture. I guess using Idahoan instant mash potatoes would be the reason why. Although the kimchi was slightly sweet, it still had some good heat and crunch. Since we came here for the Tofu Soup, we got an order with a mix of seafood and meat. Arriving bubbling hot, a freshly cracked egg went into the soup. This was extremely satisfying with soft, slippery tofu pieces, beef, whole shrimp and clams. We went for mild and it had just a hint of spice to go with a good balance of sweet and savoury. The seafood added an extra kick of flavour which was pleasant to the tastebuds. This really hit the spot considering the temperature outside.

Since their menu is pretty simple, we struggled to find things we wanted to order and I guess for no other reason than the process of elimination, we got the Goon Mandu (fried dumplings). These were certainly fried alright. They were very crispy and glistening. However, I wasn't a huge fan of the filling though. It was mealy and dry where the meat was not even discernible. Furthermore, the whole thing needed more seasoning. However, we do realize that, much like other dumplings, the dip provides most of the flavour punch, which was the case here. As for our other dishes, we got the usual stuff starting with the Dolset Bibimbap. The darn thing came burning hot, which partially helped
counteract the slightly wet rice. In fact, the stone bowl was so hot, it was able to form an excellent rice crust (which the kiddies loved). The ingredients looked fresh and provided the textural crunch to the rice.

Lastly, the other usual dish was the Japchae which was a pretty large portion. There was plenty of tender beef and veggies (in particular, broccoli). This would've been a pretty solid dish if it weren't so wet and greasy. I thought the flavour was in good balance, neither being too sweet (which it can be) nor too salty. Overall, we enjoyed our meal here despite its shortcomings. I think if one stuck with the tofu soups and didn't deviate much the other menu items, it would definitely hit the spot (even in the summer).

The Good:
- Satisfying tofu soup
- Friendly, if not sparse service

The Bad:
- Other than the soups, everything else is mediocre (well the bibimbap was not bad)
- Not a place you'd want to linger
- What a tiny parking lot, if it's full you're SOL