New Town Bakery

The Chinese bakery. It is a staple of the Vancouver food scene. Sure, it ain't sexy and quite often dive-like. However, the lure of BBQ pork buns for less than $1.00 (well, most places) usually seals the deal. I have to give props to Whipping Girl (see Morton's), for reminding me about New Town Bakery. In my previous post about Pine House, I originally left out New Town. It's probably out of sight, out of mind for me. I haven't been there since I was a lot younger. I've been on a steady diet of Maxim Bakery products instead. Yah I know, shame on me. Maxim was once the king of the hill; but with so many better choices, it can only be seen as the McD's of the Chinese bakery world.

I revisited the Chinatown location on my way home from downtown. There are 3 other locations on Cambie, Richmond and Surrey. The outside of New Town is definitely old school; no fancy or trendy decor here. Also, the buns and pastries have a traditional old school look to them as well. What I noticed right away was that the buns and pastries were larger than most other places. Thus, the price is a bit higher too. Naturally, I was afflicted by the usual "order too much" syndrome again. I think I got like 18 buns and pastries. I got the Bor Lor Bao (pineapple bun), Gai May Bao (cocktail bun), both Baked and Steamed Char Sui Bao (BBQ pork bun) and Dan Tat (egg tart). The really large egg tart was steaming hot and I ate one right away. The crust was flaky and thin, while the egg filling was semi-sweet and very light. This is one of the best egg tarts I've had lately. The cocktail bun was the full-size type, unlike the mini ones that exist at most of the other Chinese bakeries in the GVRD. The bun itself has a slightly chewy consistency, which reminds me of my youth (man, that sounds like a line from the original Iron Chef!). The filling was sweet coconut goodness! The BBQ pork bun had adequate filling and again, the bun was slightly chewy. I thought the baked BBQ pork tasted quite good, it was not too sweet like many other places; in fact, it has a bit of savory taste to it. The steamed BBQ pork bun had the same filling; but encased in a fluffy steamed bun. The pineapple bun (even though there is no pineapple in it, the top just looks like a pineapple) was very good, the topping was a bit crusty and not soft (I hate mushy pineapple buns). It was crumble-all-over-the-place goodness.

On a return visit, I got some of their famous Apple Tarts. Flaky, not too sweet and filled with apple bits, these are a must eat. Another fan favourite is the Dai Bao (or big bun) which has an interesting mix of pork, veggies, salted duck egg yolk and ham. It's big as the name implies and very filling. Despite the fact you are paying a bit more at New Town, it is well worth it. The size and taste of the products are superior to many of the new bakeries around. Visiting New Town Bakery is like visiting an old friend; you're always happy to see them, it's familiar and it brings back good memories.

The Good:

- Buns and pastries are large

- Everything looks and tastes the part

- It has that old school feel to it

The Bad:

- A bit more expensive than other bakeries

- Not a huge selection when compared to other bakeries

New Town Bakery

158 East Pender Street

Vancouver, B.C.

604-681-1828

Business Hours:

6:30am - 8:30pm (Thu - Tue)

6:30am - 7:00pm (Wed)

Green Leaf Natural Food

Don't let the "Natural Food" part confused you into thinking this is a natural food restaurant. It's not. The only food you'll find here are curry fish balls, instant noodles, chicken wings and toast - a bachelor's feast! Most people don't come here for the food; rather, they come for the bubble tea. I've been frequenting this place for a long time, over 10 years! However, it appears that they have not updated the place for that long as well. I have to be honest, this is one of the most run-down looking bubble tea shops in the GVRD. If you look in the dictionary under minimalistic, you'd probably find a picture of Green Leaf in there. The chairs seemed to have been reupholstered; but it looks like that layer of upholstery has had it. The only decor you'll find in here are the video game and vending machines. Fortunately for them, most people purchase a bubble tea and then go on their merry way.

This is one of the few bubble tea places that uses fresh fruit in their bubble teas (thus the natural foods). Moreover, there is ice cream bubble tea, cheesecake bubble tea and GASP... durian bubble tea! I think you would need a gas mask to drink that one. Anyways, their selection is vast and their prices are reasonable. But how does it taste? Well, I must've went on an off day because my Pineapple-Orange bubble tea with coconut jelly was not very good. It was not very cold and it was slimy. There could be several reasons for this. First, they were quite busy. Second, there might have been a bit too much jelly in my drink; thus making it slimy. Viv's bubble tea was not much better. She had the regular Milk Tea bubble tea and it was warm. The tea was probably just made and was steaming hot. No amount of ice could cool it down. This was a bit disappointing, because the drinks here are normally quite good. Let's just chalk this up to a bad day.

So, based on my previous visits, I would say check out Green Leaf. But based on my current visit, I would say if you want to play on the safe side, go to Bubble World, Pearl Drops or Dragonball.

The Good:
- Very creative bubble teas
- Fresh fruit

The Bad:
- A hole-in-the wall bubble tea joint
- This visit was not good

Green Leaf Natural Food
5756 Fraser Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-327-8766

Kim Ga Nae

*Restaurant is closed*

Congrats to my cousin and his wife, they had a baby boy on April 1st (imagine the birthday/April fools for a lifetime). My uncle and aunt flew in from Hong Kong for the birth of their first grandson and I bet they're very proud grandparents. I don't get to see much of my uncle anymore and we decided to take him out for dinner. We decided to try this Korean restaurant (Kim Ga Nae) that Herbie the Lovebug had recommended. He was so enthusiastic about it, he called me on my cellphone immediately after eating there. Strangely enough, the day he called me, I had just ate at No. 1 Shanghai, which is directly across from Kim Ga Nae. I was curious about Kim Ga Nae, since it was an AYCE (all-you-can-eat) place. There are not too many good Korean AYCE places around in the GVRD. Naturally, to do some research, I paid a visit to Urbanspoon to see if any of my fellow bloggers have eaten there. Sure enough, Wendy from Eat 'n About had dined there and blogged about it too. The review seemed mostly positive, so I decided that we should check it out.

We made a reservation for 5:30, well before the dinner rush. By the time we left, there was a huge lineup. Unfortunately, due to "Richmond" traffic, we were a bit late. My parents, who arrived on time, were warned that there is a 2-hour limit. We finished on time, but we felt a bit rushed to cook and eat everything quickly. The order sheet is a bit odd, as it doesn't indicate how many pieces you get with each item. We found out that the servers will count how many people are at the table and will allocate one piece for each person. There is good and bad to this system, the good is that you'll never worry about not having enough to go around; the bad is there is way too much food, even if you didn't want that much. So if you are looking at the picture of the raw meat, there was actually TWO platters of meat for 6 adults. Well, at least you can't complain that Kim Ga Nae is stingy with their AYCE!

The BBQ grills are built into the tables and there is proper ventilation. The grills themselves are a bit slow (not good if you have a time limit); but at least they don't burn your food. The quality of the meat was actually very good. The 2 types of beef ribs (beef rib, beef short rib) were all very tender and meaty. The chicken was a whole de-boned thigh and they were quite large. This was the same for the boneless pork rib as well, it was like a really big pork chop. The rib eye beef was sliced thin and was quite tender. We also tried the ox tongue, squid and pork belly. All were pretty good as well. Unlike some other AYCE Korean places, Kim Ga Nae offers other Korean specialties as part of the meal. The Seafood Pancake was not very good, it was a bit stiff and there was really not much seafood in it. At least it was not very oily, but then again, a seafood pancake is not a seafood pancake if there isn't a pool of oil beneath it. The Japchae was pretty good, the noodles were a bit chewy still and it was lightly flavoured. However, it was served cold and I'm not a big fan of cold Japchae. The Stone Pot Rice (Bibimbap) was served in a hot stone pot and it looked very appealing (sorry for the crappy picture, it didn't turn out). Mixing it together with the kochujang (chili sauce), it turned out to be quite tasty.

A Korean BBQ meal would not be complete without the Banchan (various small side dishes) and there were the usual suspects: kimchi, stewed potatoes, marinated bean sprouts, marinated broccoli and pickled daikon. They were all pretty good; however, I'm not that picky when it comes to those little dishes. Also available was lettuce, rice and bean paste, so you could create your own lettuce wrap. Too bad they didn't have the slivered garlic and chilies, that completes the wrap (be sure to cook it slightly on the grill first, raw garlic is quite strong). One really surprising item was the pork bone soup, it was a very flavourful and a bit spicy. I recommend that you try it. One more tip, do not order the yam, it takes forever to cook on the grill, it was ready when we were about to leave.

The service at Kim Ga Nae was friendly; but it was excruciatingly sloooooow. I think it's because there are not enough staff and there is not enough people in the kitchen to pump the items out fast enough. However, I still enjoyed my meal very much for $20. It's a fantastic value. Late night only costs only $12.95 (from 9:00pm)! In terms of Korean BBQ, I still enjoy Insadong; but for AYCE, Kim Ga Nae is a good value.

The Good:
- It's run by Koreans
- They are not stingy
- Food is pretty decent for AYCE

The Bad:
- Slow service
- Time limit of 2 hours forces you to eat and cook fast
- It was hot in there (sing it like Nelly)

Kim Ga Nae
4260 No. 3 Road
Richmond, B.C.
604-273-4747

Business Hours:
11:30am - 11:00pm (Sun - Thu)
11:30am - 12:00am (Fri & Sat)

Marcello

Having an early hockey game has it advantages. However, the main advantage in my opinion is that there are more restaurants open when we finish our game. So, taking full advantage of this, I suggest to my teammates that we should go to Marcello. Everyone seemed quite pleased at this choice since it was a break from our usual Asian late night fare. Marcello is located on Commercial Drive or "The Drive" as it's known locally. I've been to Marcello before; but it has definitely been awhile. So after our game, we went to meet up at Marcello. It took all of us at least 15 minutes to find a #)$*#)# parking spot. Finally, after endless circling, I found one right next to Marcello. I
guess patience and blind determination paid off.

We spent quite a bit of time looking over the menu trying to decide what to eat, there are so many delicious options. Finally, Emilicious suggested we share everything, like a true Italian meal. That was music to my ears, I could try everything! I have more to blog about! So we ordered 2 pizzas, the Carpicciosa and the Prosciutto e Funghi. In addition, we had 2 pastas, Chef Tagliatelle and Spaghetti Alla Vongole, and Frittura Di Calamari. It took a long time for someone to come take our order, it was probably 15 minutes. Then it took another 15 minutes for our drink orders to arrive (they were only beers and pop). THEN, it took another 40 minutes to get our food! No kidding! When the food arrived, the pastas were between cold and lukewarm. That was too bad, because the pastas were quite good.

The Chef Tagliatelle (mushrooms, black olives and capers in a creamy tomato sauce), was excellent. The home-made egg pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce was a perfect balance of creamy and tomato. I could have eaten a pound of this easily, it was that good. However, the portion size for the pastas at Marcello are quite small. It is definitely quality over quantity. This may not be an issue with some people since a large quantity of mediocre pasta is not necessarily appetizing (see Anton's). The Spaghetti Alla Vongole (clams in a white wine sauce w/tomato) was also very good, the spaghetti was also al dente and there were fresh in-the-shell clams as garnish. The flavours of this pasta was very delicate and there was just enough sauce to coat the spaghetti. The calamari was executed very well. The squid was not tough; yet it was not mushy either, just the perfect texture. It was not oily and the pieces were the right size, not being too small (would become too crispy) or too big (won't fry easily becoming mushy).

The pizzas were also very good, the thin crust was crispy and light. There was a perfect amount of toppings, cheese and sauce to give the pizzas a good flavour without making the crust soggy or making the pizza itself salty. I especially liked the Carpicciosa, there was a good combination of ham/salami (salty), artichokes/olives (tart) and mushrooms (earthy). The Prosciutto and Funghi was very similar, minus the artichokes and olives. I like the food at Marcello, the flavours are right and the atmosphere is inviting; however, the service is slooooow and the portions are a bit small. I know you are not paying for quantity here; but for me there are plenty of other places you can spend $18 for spaghetti and clams.






The Good:
- Flavours are good
- Great atmosphere
- Pasta has good consistency and is cooked correctly

The Bad:
- Pricey for what you get
- Slow service
- Hard to find parking

Marcello
1404 Commerical Drive
Vancouver, B.C.
604-215-7760

Toko

When we used to live in Yaletown, there were so many places to eat. You could either walk out into downtown or a short drive would yield a plethora of restaurants. One place we frequented nearby was Toko. It is definitely off the beaten path, right amongst warehouses, collision repair shops and offices. In fact, Toko itself is mainly a noodle manufacturing plant. They use the narrow storefront as the dining room for the restaurant. It is hard to categorize Toko because you can't really say it's Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malay or Thai. Rather, it's a combination of all of them (then it could be an Asian restaurant I suppose). It's really strange that we went there so often before since in retrospect, it wasn't authentic in any of the aforementioned cuisines. The problem with having a menu that is so diverse is that nothing will be spot on. Instead, you'll have versions of ethnic dishes that are close, but somehow are either missing something or may not taste like it should. Now, this may not be necessarily a negative since variations of traditional dishes can be good.

So we paid Toko a visit today on our way back from Science World. It has been awhile and we noticed that the menu had changed. One of our favourite dishes, the Moo Shu Chicken Wrap had disappeared. It is now replaced by a similar dish that is a lettuce wrap instead of using steamed flour wraps. If they still made it like they did before, this dish was pretty good. Today, we ordered the Tan Tan (Dan Dan) Noodles, Beef Udon and Chicken Green Curry. The Tan Tan noodles came swimming in peanut sauce with a chili oil slick on top. Either I am used to the traditional version or the version at Toko was terrible. The traditional version does not actually have peanut sauce, the one at Toko was mainly peanut sauce with a bit of pork and lots of chili oil. That wasn't the only problem, the noodles were very mushy and glutinous. I really didn't like this version of Tan Tan noodles. The udon was a bit strange too. The soup base was nothing like the mild Japanese version (dashi, soy and mirin); rather, it was very robust and flavourful. Actually, I didn't mind this, it tasted quite good. In addition, the beef was very tender and flavourful as well. Not being authentic didn't hurt this dish. The same cannot be said about the green curry. Although the chicken and various veggies were cooked perfectly, the eggplant was a horror show. A quick way to cook eggplant in stirfries, hot pots and curries is to deep fry it first. That's not a problem because many restaurants use this with a lot of different vegetables. However, the eggplant in this case was heavily battered in something that resembled tempura. Imagine this fried eggplant soaked in a curry. Yes, the batter became gummy, not the best texture if you are eating curry. The curry itself was quite mild and creamy due to the coconut milk. It was pleasant to eat, but the eggplant destroyed it.

So, was my meal at Toko not good? Well, based on my previous visits, I don't think I've ever had a "terrible" meal here; but in hindsight, the food is not very authentic. However, I don't think Toko makes excuses for not being authentic. They seem to do their take on many different ethnic dishes with varying degrees of success. The service and ambiance is pretty good, so that probably put me in a good mood already before I actually ate the food. With that being said, the food isn't cheap here, so I guess if you're looking for authentic, this would not be your choice.

The Good:
- Fresh noodles, they make em in the back
- Extensive menu
- Service is good

The Bad:
- Nothing seems to be authentic here
- Dining room is a bit tight
- Prices are a bit high for this type of food

Toko
223 West 7th Avenue
Vancouver B.C.
604-879-0701
www.tokofoods.com

Business Hours:
11:00am - 6:00pm (Mon - Wed)
11:00am - 9:30pm (Thu & Fri)
5:00pm - 9:30pm (Sat)

Costco

Costco??? I know what you are thinking... Sherman has really lost it this time, why in the world is he talking about Costco? No, I'm not talking about their frozen food (some are tasty though); rather, I'm talking about their fast food stand. Before anyone makes a quick judgment about the food, please hear me out. First of all, please do not expect gourmet food here, after all it's a cafeteria-style joint. But there are some decent eats here.

First of all, the Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich is pretty good for $5. It will never be confused with a real deli sandwich from NYC, and I have eaten real deli sandwiches in NYC. I can honestly say, that this is not bad for the money. The meat is melt-in-your mouth goodness with lots of flavour (you can see there are a lot of peppercorns and mustard seeds). However, the bun (not sure why they use a bun) is a bit too chewy and big for my taste, but hey it's $5. The Ribs and Fries is a very good deal at $8. You get a large half rack of side ribs and crispy fries for that price. Again, you won't confuse these ribs for real Southern BBQ. In fact, the ribs are the boiled variety and the sauce is a bit generic. However, for $8, you get a very meaty half rack of ribs that are really not all-that-bad if you consider where you got it from. The fries are quite good too, if you like fries that are starch-covered. They are very crispy. The pizza is alright, it's pretty much generic slice pizza which is a bit oily. That goes the same for the hot dogs, they are large, but... they're hot dogs. The only time I would rave about a hot dog is Japadog. So what I'm saying here is, the next time you are in Costco, do not be afraid to try the selections at the food stand. They're not bad and it's a good value.


The Good:
- It's cheap
- Food is actually not bad
- Good portions

The Bad:
- It ain't authentic (for that price, what do you expect?)
- Ambiance, uh... it's Costco

Costco (Various Locations)
3550 Brighton Avenue
Burnaby, B.C.
604-444-9600

Business Hours:
11:00am - 8:30pm (Mon - Fri)
9:30am - 6:00pm (Sat)
10:00am - 5:00pm (Sun)

Qoola Yogurt + Fruit

Well, after a very filling meal at Gyoza King, I needed something refreshing and light. Nearby was a place I've been meaning to try out. Located at the old Cupcakes storefront is Qoola Yogurt + Fruit, which serves up fresh, all natural frozen yogurt. In addition, there is a wide selection of toppings such as fresh fruit, various nuts, cereal and even mochi. Looking around the store, I noticed it was very clean and the decor was pleasing to the senses. I think the operators of Qoola really capture the spirit of freshness and "green-ness" as their motto suggests. The staff at the front counter were very pleasant and took time to explain the product and the available toppings. I was impressed at the attitude of the staff because there are far too many establishments that exhibit an indifference towards their customers.

At this point, even if the yogurt was not good, I would have still been a happy customer. However, the yogurt was very good and that made the experience complete. Now you might be asking, "It's frozen yogurt, how excited can one be with that?" Well, I mean it didn't blow me away; but it was definitely pleasing to eat. I had the chocolate frozen yogurt with pistachios and fresh strawberries. The yogurt itself was not icy; rather it was quite smooth. I didn't find it too sweet either, which is good since the toppings can be sweet as well. The pistachios were crunchy and not stale. The strawberries were very fresh and of good quality. Vandelay had the green tea yogurt with mango. I was quite impressed with the mango pieces, they were very fresh and sweet. The yogurt itself was also very light, and there was just enough green tea flavour.

Other than the frozen yogurt, there are many other interesting items at Qoola. There are waffles, crepes, smoothies, Qrush (slush mixed with frozen yogurt) and Quoi - açaí, which is a dietary supplement (marketers claim to have a multitude of health benefits). I really enjoyed my frozen yogurt at Qoola and I'm definitely going to return to try some of the other items. However, I want to temper that enthusiasm since anything that is over-hyped will only lead to unrealistic expectations from others.

The Good:
- Everything is fresh
- Friendly staff
- Yogurt tastes good

The Bad:
- If you add a lot of toppings, it can get up there in price

Qoola Yogurt + Fruit
1116 Denman Street
Vancouver, B.C.
604-801-6338
www.qoola.com

Business Hours:
1:00pm - 10:30pm (Mon - Thu)
1:00pm - 12:00am (Fri)
11:00am - 12:00am (Sat)
11:00am - 10:30pm (Sun)