Globe@YVR (Christmas Day Brunch)

Other than Asian restaurants, specifically Chinese, there are not a huge amount of options in terms of brunch on Christmas Day. For as long as who knows when, we would go out for Dim Sum if we wanted eats on the 25th. This time around, we figured something different was in order. But where? Ah, hotels! They are open year round including their restaurants. Seeing how we had already done the Burnaby Hilton, Hotel Vancouver, Waterfront and Pan Pacific already, there are only a few left which offer up a respectable brunch buffet. After perusing different menus, we settled on Glove@YVR. Normally quite busy, Vancouver International was quiet on a Christmas morning. With barely any cars on the road in Richmond, it was like Superstore late on a weeknight. Easy to navigate and frustration level at a minimum. The cool thing about Globe is the view of the domestic departure terminal. Nothing like plane-watching while dining. It's interesting to see planes at their gates moving along in an orderly fashion. This is probably the only place one would find any semblance of traffic order in Richmond.

Normally, the brunch buffet is not as elaborate as the holiday themed spreads; however, there are elements which are similar. Regularly, the buffet goes for $26.00. Today? $62.00. We'll get to the expensive stuff later. We were seated right next to what you'd normally find at this type of buffet - the Breakfast Station. Here you got Bacon, Sausages, Roasted Tomatoes, Sauteed Button Mushrooms, Hashbrowns, Mini-Pancakes and Eggs Benedict. Hey, the bacon was lean and crisp while the sausages were large and juicy (too easy of a joke, gonna leave it...). As for the Eggs Benedict, this was done in a traditional style with English muffin, Canadian back bacon, poached egg and Hollandaise. The free-range eggs were poached perfectly while the Hollandaise was not heavy with a nice hint of lemon. To the immediate left of the breakfast station sits the Omelet Bar. It is attended full-time by a chef who makes omelets to order. The available ingredients include tomatoes, peppers, cheddar cheese, asparagus, red onion, scallions, mushrooms, bacon, ham, sausage and shrimp. Pretty similar to any other omelet bar at a number of hotel brunches. Maybe this is wishful thinking; but I would like to see more interesting ingredients used. Could it be due to cost? Demand? Or any other logistical reasons? Whatever the case, I normally do not go for an omelet for the sole reason that it is a "filler" item. Yes, the Chinese in me takes over again. Go for the seafood, ignore carbs, veggies and the sort. However, I was going to be a rebel this time. In front of my parents no less! I got an omelet. Well, I shared it with Viv... LOL...

I ended up with an omelet with asparagus, ham, shrimp, mushrooms and cheddar cheese. I watched as my omelet was being made and I was impressed with the skill of the chef. As you can see in the picture, the omelet was cooked perfectly. It was fluffy and soft with no overcooking whatsoever. To the right of the hot breakfast items was the Fresh Fruit and Cereal Bar. In addition to a selection of prepackaged cereal and milk, there was a selection of pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, whole oranges, apples and bananas. Rounding out the selection was yogurt and hot oatmeal with various toppings. Moving onto the Salads which were incidentally located on the other side of the restaurant. I liked this setup since it prevented any bottleneck. Everything was so spread out, it never seemed like I was lining up for anything. Furthermore, everyone moved along in an orderly fashion. A very strange sight for any restaurant in Richmond. This station was quite extensive consisting of Mesclun Greens with a choice of French Dressing, Soy Balsamic Dressing of Anchovy Dressing, Salad Niçoise, Caesar Salad with Condiments, Smoked Duck Breast Salad with Watercress, Apple and Hazelnuts, Char Grilled Asparagus with Truffle Cream and Chives, Slow Roasted Red Beets with Pea, Honey Sherry Vinaigrette, Oven Roasted Seasonal Mushrooms with Rosemary, Oven Roasted Sweet Potato with Turkey Bacon and Sage, Maple Sherry Vinaigrette, Classic Gazpacho, Greek Salad with Feta and Rosemary, Caprese Salad with Pumpkin Seeds, Basil Purée and Walnut Oil, and Black Olives with Roasted Garlic and Thyme. The highlight from this section for me was the Smoked Duck Salad. Viv thought the duck was rather salty; however for me, it was perfect since it provided all the flavour for the salad. The duck reminded me of a thicker proscuitto.

Now for the star of the show, the Seafood! This plate of goodies saw more action than Ron Jeremy. I gotta give it to the staff for keeping it fully stocked with fresh seafood. You might be wondering why this is generally served cold. Reason being is that seafood gets nasty when overcooked; hence if it is cold, it cannot cook no further. This section consisted of what you see in the picture (Prawns, Plump Mussels, Manila Clams and Dungeness Crab) in addition to Shrimp Cocktail with Spicy Gazpacho, Poached Salmon and Smoked Salmon. I liked all the seafood (overcooked salmon withstanding), especially the dungeness crab legs. They were very meaty and sweet. Love these way more than King Crab legs. The mussels were incredibly plump which were bathed in an excellent lemon butter.

To the immediate right of the seafood was the Hot Food Station. The first item was the Lobster Bisque. It was quite a pale looking soup that did not have a lot of impact. Sure, I could taste the lobster; but it was neither rich or had any depth. It was merely thick and sweet. My dad thought it was rather fishy too. In the next couple of chaffing trays were veggies (Mashed Potato, Brown Sugar Butter Yams & Brussels Sprouts). I skipped it. There were 2 more trays which consisted of Squid Spaghetti with Garlic Basil Rosé Sauce and Fruits De Mer Grilles with Thyme Butter Sauce. Going against the no-carb policy, I got a ramekin of spaghetti. Of course it was far from al dente (buffet, what can you expect?). The squid was excellent though being tender while not mushy. The rose sauce was not exactly that impactful. It did taste okay though. The mix of halibut, salmon and prawns was actually pretty good except for the overcooked salmon. Curiously, the halibut turned out to be decently moist. The beurre blanc sauce was very mild, allowing the seafood to shine.

Moving onto the Carving Station, there was Sage Butter Basted Tom Turkey, Cranberry Preserves, Giblet Gravy, Roasted Corn and Pine-nut, Foccaccia Stuffing, Clove Studded Honey Roast Ham Leg and Tarragon and Garlic Rubbed Alberta Prime Beef Top Side Roast with Yorkshire Pudding. Although the beef wasn't the desired prime rib, it was tender and full of flavour. A clear indication of high-quality aged meat. I didn't end up trying the ham since I had already made a roast ham a few days before (which I ate for many more days after). Viv tried the turkey and it was moist since it was a combination of both breast meat and dark meat.

The Desserts were located in 2 separate stations (fruit already mentioned at the Breakfast Station). There was a table with various cakes and cookies. Directly across was the chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows and honeydew on skewers. A plate of Christmas cookies rounded out the table. I only gave a few desserts a try since I was incredibly full from trying almost everything. The general consensus was that the desserts were decent. Nothing that really stood out; but nothing that made us want to spit it out either. In terms of the brunch buffet as a whole, it had some high points and some lows as well. The breakfast items were good, as with the seafood. Most of the hot food was pretty average while the carving station was respectable. Desserts did their job and we got great service throughout. As mentioned, their regular brunch is much more scaled down and less expensive. Given that we dined on Christmas Day, the prices will naturally be inflated.

The Good:
- Excellent service
- Relaxing atmosphere with an interesting view of the airport
- Solid breakfast items (which is their regular brunch anyways)

The Bad:
- Unless you were here already (staying at hotel or flight), parking is not validated for brunch
- Specific to this particular Christmas Day brunch only - the hot food was mediocre

Seoul House Korean

*Restaurant is now closed*

Okay, I often eat out in Whalley despite its dubious reputation. Honestly, if you look at all the development taking place, this will be a very different place in the future. Alright, with that being said, there are some restaurants that still look quite dodgy. So much so, I'm a tad nervous to try them. Last time, it was nice that fellow bloggers accompanied me to Fireside House of Cheesecakes. This time around, Toolman was nice enough to join me in trying out Seoul House Korean (which was recommended by JuJu, who happens to be Korean). With an exterior that resembles an abandoned Asian supermarket, we were not even sure if it was open.

Yes, it was open and actually decently busy. We were greeted by a friendly Korean woman. Toolman and I wondered if she thought we were Korean. Both of us could pass off as such. Too bad we weren't because a good portion of the menu was written exclusively in Korean! Thus, I had to essentially order in Korean (which is completely laughable). We really wondered if the staff thought we were poor excuses for Korean people who didn't know the language. That happened to me before at Jang Mo Jib at their old Kingsway location. The server was slightly annoyed at me ordering in English and not understanding what she was yakking at me about. I'm a bad Chinese person who looks Korean... Sorry...

So we started off with the complimentary Banchan (actually we didn't, it showed up much later; but whatever...). Pretty good in my books. A little bit different variety than we are used to. We had Pea Curd, Kimchi, Wakame and Mustard Greens (?). For our first dish, we had Japchae. Pretty good portion for the price, although there seemed to be an inordinate amount of veggies to noodle ratio. Not too oily and nicely seasoned, this was good. Doing my usual Korean dishes (well, and the fact we couldn't read half of the menu), we got the Dolset Bibimbap. As you can see from the picture, the veggies were colourful and plentiful. The rice was on the mushier side; but some of it became drier since it cooked some more in the hot stone bowl.

For our last dish, I didn't remember the Korean name and I also didn't have time to Google it either. Thus, I had to ask for it in English which was somewhat of an exercise with the server. Her English was as good as my Korean... We did figure it out. That being the Pork Bone Soup. The bowl arrived packed to the brim with tender pork and a slightly spicy broth. The broth itself could've used a bit more depth, all I could taste was spice. But honestly, I'm nit-picking here. The food is pretty solid and inexpensive. We didn't try the Japanese food for obvious reasons and based solely on the Korean food, Seoul House is a good option in Whalley.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Friendly, if not slow service
- Decent portions

The Bad:
- Exterior looks uninviting
- Food takes awhile
- Didn't try the Japanese food... I guess that was a good decision?

Kam Ding

Once again, we find ourselves in Coquitlam looking for Dim Sum. As I have mentioned many times over, for the prevalent Asian population in the Tri-Cities area, there is shockingly very few choices. Of course there is the default in Kirin at Henderson Centre. Yah, that is too easy of a choice. Furthermore, it ain't exactly cheap either. So what to do when one wants moderately-priced Dim Sum? Not too long ago, I traveled to PoCo for some decent Dim Sum at Rainbow Butterfly. In that post, Ginseng commented that there is another Dim Sum joint out on Anson Ave. Oh yeah, this place used to be a wonton noodle house in the past. When I used to live in Coquitlam, my family would frequent the place quite often until they decided to take some shortcuts... What shortcuts you may ask? How about passing off ground up red beans cooked in simple syrup, thickened with corn starch as Sweet Red Bean Soup??? Uh... No. I can see why it's not there anymore. What's next? Cardboard replacing pork in the wontons? Oh wait, that really happened in China...

So off we headed over to Kam Ding for some Dim Sum at around noon. Alright, I know what you are thinking. "Are you crazy???" I do realize that is the prime time of Dim Sum and my chances of getting a table are as good as getting the last dumpling at a sampling station at T&T Supermarket. However, we gave it a shot. I dropped Viv off and she ran in to check how long we had to wait. Believe it or not, we got a table right away! Wow, I really can get that last dumpling after all... Right. Some old Asian lady would most likely shove me out of the way to get that last dumpling (especially if it were a shrimp dumpling). I should only continue hoping. Anyways, to my surprise, the place employs push carts. Talk about ol' skool. Not too many joints do this anymore. The benefit of push carts is that you can get your food right away. The negative is you end up filling the table too quickly with food and it all gets cold. Oh, and it makes it hard for me to keep up with the photos too!

To start things off in a different direction, we ordered the Shrimp Sui Mai. Normally, these dumplings are made with a combination of shrimp and pork. This version had a mix of shrimp mousse, corn, carrots and whole shrimp topped off with compoy. The result? Mushy. Nothing inherently wrong with the shrimp per se, it was sweet; but the chew and snap textures I normally look for in Sui Mai were not there. Chalk this up to personal preference. From one shrimp dumpling to another, we got the Scallop and Shrimp Dumpling. This was pretty good. They were large with a mix of shrimp mousse and whole shrimp with a scallop on top. The texture was much more appealing than the Sui Mai, having a nice resistance. This was probably a nice preview to the Haw Gow (Shrimp Dumpling). These suckers were absolutely huge. Once again, there was a mix of shrimp mousse and shrimp encased in a slightly chewy wrapper. I thought the texture was fine, just like the previous dumpling; yet the flavour was predominantly sweet and not much else. Hey, that is not a big issue when the darn thing only costs $2.75!

If that wasn't enough shrimp already, we got an order of the Shrimp Spring Rolls. There were actually 4 rolls; but my son was hungry and ate one already. I mean he ate the crunchy parts only and gave me the shrimp. Nothing particularly amiss with this. It was crunchy and there was whole shrimp inside. Now something that didn't have any shrimp - the Beef Meatballs. I'm sorry to say that these were too soft. Normally, the desired texture of the meat should be slightly bouncy. Basically soft while still having some chew. This one was bordering on mushy. Mushy balls, no good. Taste-wise, it was fine with a nice hint of dried orange peel. From balls off to Phoenix Talons or Chicken Feet. These were not bad, the skin was a tad loose and the sauce was a bit salty; yet nothing particularly wrong with it either. The mushiness started all over again with the Black Bean Spareribs. Completely over-tenderized, these had no texture whatsoever. One bite and the thing melted in my mouth. Good if it were chocolate, bad since it was pork (unless it was bacon dark chocolate... which Whipping Girl gave me - Yum!). I did like the flavour though, it was a good combination of black bean, garlic and dried orange peel once again.

Now the my daughter was eating most of the dumplings while my son was merely eating spring roll wrapper. So we got an order of the Pan-Fried Soya Noodles for him. Neatly presented, these were pretty good. They were soft while still offering up some textural chew. I thought they were oily; but then again, they are always a bit oily. My son ate a whole bowl of these, so I guess they were more than acceptable. As for dessert, we got an order of the Steamed Custard Buns. Actually, we also got an order of the BBQ Pork Buns too; but I'm not including a photo because it looks exactly like the custard buns, just with different filling. The bun itself was quite good exhibiting softness without going mushy. I thought the BBQ pork was too sweet; however, the pork was quite good not being fatty. As for the custard bun, the filling was not too sweet and the texture was pleasing. My son ate a whole bun, so I guess that was good too. If anything pleases him, then it must be good! In terms of the Dim Sum at Kam Ding, I would say it is generally okay. Yet, there is really not much to complain about since all of the regular dishes are only $2.75 each. Furthermore, the portions are very good. Of course it cannot compare to Kirin and it doesn't try to. It is a good inexpensive alternative where friends can meet for some eats. With that being said, I think Rainbow Butterfly is better for the same price. Oh, and I never made it out to T&T afterwards, so I didn't end up suffering dumpling theft.

The Good:
- Cheap
- Large portions
- Food comes out fast

The Bad:
- Service was decently friendly, it was just very hurried
- Food is a bit hit and miss
- Prepare to wait in line

Lumière

*Restaurant is now closed*

Okay. If you haven't noticed by now, I've been trying to sample the very best meals in Vancouver. Of course "the best" does not necessarily mean the "most expensive". Case in point, the chicken wings at Phnom Penh. Yet, how do we know if something, that is deemed expensive, is good or not? Simple, go try it out. Naturally, that is not an economically sound endevour by any means. The kids don't need a college fund, right??? So, from the Omakase at Tojo's and Octopus' Garden, the seafood tower at Blue Water, the porterhouse at Gotham, local celebrity chef's restaurants Bishop's and Cioppino's, the tasting menus at Market and La Belle Auberge to the best French food in my opinion, Le Crocodile, I am working my way through. Next up is a place I've been eying for quite awhile. Lumière. The tasting menu at Lumière was one of the best in Vancouver prior to Daniel Boulud's arrival. Tonight, our goal was to see if their Grand Tasting menu would live up to the lofty expectations of a $175.00 per person meal.

There are 3 tasting menus at Lumière with the Grand Tasting a the most expensive. Although it is advertised as a 9 course meal, the courses alternate amongst 2 people. Hence, there are actually more than 9 courses to "sample". As long as you have a cooperative dining partner who wants to share that is. As an amuse bouche, we were presented with a Mini-Pacific Oyster with lemongrass veloute topped with sturgeon caviar. This small little bite packed quite the punch with a sweet oyster enveloped by a very apparent lemongrass kick. A nice little start to an epic meal. As our first courses arrived, I started with a Fraser Valley Venison Pâté with a consume gelée, cranberry, cauliflower and Orléans grainy mustard. The pâté was quite firm from all the large pieces of meat. In this respect, it was more like a terrine. I actually liked this since there was texture and it was quite apparent what I was putting in my mouth rather than the more finely chopped type of pâté. I found the flavour to be quite mild and not gamey at all. The condiments provided some nice sweetness and zing.

While I was enjoying my venison, Whipping Girl was working on the Citrus Cured Hamachi with finger lime, tofu, beets and white sturgeon caviar. I really enjoyed this one due to the sweetness of the hamachi paired with the acid from the citrus. The tofu didn't add much for me and was a bit clumsy to eat. The beets were a nice addition to an otherwise soft textured dish. Moving onto another soft textured dish was the Quebec Foie Gras Mousse with celery root, apricot, hazelnut and brioche "waffle". Foie can generally be quite heavy since it is essentially pure fat. Much like the puffed foie gras at The Apron, the foie mousse had an almost non-foie quality to it. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. It still had the good elements of foie, in terms of taste, buttery smooth texture and melt-in-you-mouth decadency. Yet it was presented as a "sundae" of sorts where underneath lay unsweetened apricot gelée and pureed celery root. The red wine reduction along with the apricots helped cut the richness of the foie. The hazelnuts were a pleasant surprise since I wasn't exactly sure if it would interfere with the smoothness of the foie. In fact, the crunch was welcomed as with the nuttiness. And the fact I'm a sucker for brioche made the accompanying "waffles" a treat to eat.

From the foie, we went back to the alternating courses with Whipping Girl starting with the Cornmeal Crusted Qualicum Bay Scallops with white beans, black truffle and icicle radish. Although the cornmeal crust gave a nice crunch to the scallops, I personally would've been happy with a plain sear. Naturally, the black truffles provided a strong earthiness to the dish. So much so that Pomegranate thought it tasted like the ground. Not in a bad way of course, it just did what black truffles do. All along while Whipping Girl was enjoying the scallops, she was eying what I had - Four Spice Marinated BC Black Cod with smoked hen of the woods, pear, cashews, pork rillon and 5 spice pork jus. She was eying it because we were raving about it. The slow- baked black cod was outstanding. Texturally, it was moist and soft while still being flaky at the same time. Everything on the plate screamed out balance from the sweet pears, mild bacon, mushrooms to the cashews.

The next set of dishes caused quite the commotion at our table. You see, Whipping Girl and Pomegranate were presented with the
Celery Root and Pine Nut Crusted Arctic Char with braised red cabbage purée, celery root spaghettini and black trumpets finished with a red wine sauce. Nothing wrong with that right? Let's just say the dish I was served would be the highlight of the night. More on that later... As for the char, it was very moist, maybe a little too moist. Not mushy by any means; yet it lacked some texture. It could've been a bit firmer in our opinion. I personally loved the trumpets underneath the char, a really woodsy taste that was necessary for the mild tasting fish. The whimsical celery root spaghettini along with more celery root and celery gave a nice textural balance to the other soft elements. But whatever really... Because the Three Squash Spiced Ravioli with brussels sprouts, king oyster mushroom and sage brown butter emulsion commanded our full attention. This was an absolutely OMFG dish. One bite into the slightly past al dente pasta yielded a flavour explosion of squash that I would have never imagined. Being a meatarian, I am not easily impressed by non-meat dishes. However, the squash was a delicious combination of natural sweetness, impactful savouriness finished with a smooth, buttery sweet creaminess that yelled out "heaven".

If we thought nothing could top the ravioli, we were all presented with the Spice Glazed Fraser Valley Duck with Du Puy lentils, beet and apple carpaccio finished with apple duck jus. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of unrendered duck skin. However, the skin was so tasty due to the bold glaze, I had to eat it all. The glaze started off with a pronounced saltiness while finishing off with a sweet kick. That was all the tender duck needed to complete the flavour profile. Mind you, the tartness of the apples were a natural compliment to the saltiness. The luxurious duck jus only helped amp up the flavour quotient. What came next were the "meat" dishes. I had the Roasted Rack of Opal Valley Lamb with artichokes, onion, eggplant and lamb jus. Served without the "rack", the lamb was cooked beautifully and evenly. Whipping Girl thought it wasn't gamy at all. The lamb jus, much like all the sauces we had, was luxurious and had depth without being salty. The fried shallots on top looked like a garnish; but it added a lot to the overall flavour profile of the rare lamb. The lamb shoulder was formed into a "stick" which was much gamier and acted as a nice contrast to the rare lamb. On the other side of the ledger, Whipping Girl started with the a stunning Duo of AAA Prime Beef consisting of a red wine braised short rib, seared rib eye, potato fondant and romaine parcel. First off, the braised short rib was sinful. Atop the tender rich meat resided a gelatinous layer of fat. Coupled with the concentrated Bourdalaise sauce, the piece of meat was a party in my mouth. As for the rib eye, it was very tender and properly seasoned. It was cooked perfectly medium-rare. I loved the potato fondant. It shows remarkable skill to cook a potato to the point of almost melting; yet at the same time retaining its structure and texture. The burnt milk & shallot made the potato extra enjoyable to eat. Although the romaine parcel wrapped in butter lettuce was a neat item, it was just lettuce to me.

By now, we were not really in the mood for more food when all of a sudden a considerable Cheese Plate arrived (along with some fig bread and crackers), consisting of Fourme d'Ambert (cow's milk, Auverne, France), Quince Jelly, Candied Almonds, Comté (cow's milk, Franche-Compté, France), Manchego (sheep's milk, La Mancha, Spain), Le Chevrot (goat`s milk, Poitou, France) and La Sauvagine (cow`s milk, Quebec). The sweet quince was a natural compliment to the gamy Manchego and blue cheese (Fourme d'Ambert). I really enjoyed the triple cream brie (La Sauvagine) with the fig bread. We didn't end up finishing all the cheese since we had to save room for dessert(s). The first one was the Pink Lady Apple Pavé on a speculoos crust with a ginger cinnamon panna cotta on top and bottom. The dessert was thankfully quite light and not too sweet. I found that the apple had quite a profound impact in terms of flavour. The mild panna cotta ended up as a textural compliment to the crunchy speculoos. The small pink lady squares combined with the small rounds of tart apple added another level of tart and sweetness.

Our second dessert consisted of a Hot and Cold Tiramisu Sundae with chocolate cremeux, marscapone mousse, ladyfingers and coffee ice cream. The hot chocolate cremeux was served table side and poured over the sundae, melting the top piece of chocolate accented with edible gold. This was both a decadent and not very heavy dessert all at the same time. I know this doesn't make much sense. True, it was rich with all the chocolate, ice cream and marscapone; yet at the same time, I didn't feel overwhelmed. Rather than being incredibly sweet, the individual components provided a nice coffee and dark chocolate kick. As if all this wasn't enough, we were presented a small plate of Petit Fours consisting of chocolate, macaron, caramel, jelly and meringue. And finally, our last little treat was a basket of Madeleines right out of the oven.

Wow. That's all I can think of to describe this meal. As much as I thought that this tasting menu would be hard-pressed to live up to the $175.00 price tag, it ultimately succeeded. The one thing that impressed me the most was the level of execution with every dish considering the quantity of items and the restaurant was practically full. As much as we demand perfection, it is really hard to attain. Another achievement was the balance of flavours. Not at any time was there an overpowering element to any dish. If it was on the plate, there was a reason for it. Naturally, not all of the offerings necessarily wowed us and honestly, that should never be the case since we all have individual preferences. But if we take everything as a whole, including the phenomenal service we received, it is no wonder that Lumière has just recently been awarded the 5 diamond rating from AAA/CAA for 2011. They now hold the distinction as the only restaurant in British Columbia to be held in such high esteem. I must mention that the service was highly professional and spot on. Yet, it was never stuffy or pretentious. I felt comfortable being myself and that in itself is very important to me. What's worse than feeling uptight during dinner? Of course not everyone can justify spending over $200 on dinner for one person; but if you can, do it at Lumière.

The Good:
- Superb execution
- Top-notch service
- Great balance of ingredients

The Bad:
- Duh. It's expensive

Kim Chau Deli

If Robson can be declared the Ramen corridor, then Kingsway should really be known as the street of Banh Mi. Just drive down the blocks in between 12th and Knight. You'll find Ba Le, Tung Hing, Empress Bakery and Kim Chau among others. So on my ongoing quest to find the best Banh Mi or Vietnamese sub, I stopped in at Kim Chau. It was fairly busy inside and the lady behind the counter asked me what I wanted. I replied, "one of each, except for the vegetarian". Her response was, "we only have #1, we sold out of the others!". Uh... really? How come I see meats galore in the store? That really confused me. Whatever, I got 3 of the "Specials" to go. Otherwise known as the Banh Mi đặc biệt, the sub consists of Vietnamese ham, headcheese, pate, pickled veggies, cilantro, hot peppers, butter mayo and fish sauce on a crusty baguette. I have to say right now that for $3.00, the Special Banh Mi at Kim Chau is one of the best values I've seen to date in the GVRD. Sure, Empress is only $2.75; but it is not remotely as big as the one at Kim Chau. It is easily a third size longer than the one from Ba Le. In terms of taste, it was a bit heavy on the fish sauce. Despite this, I could still taste the ample pate and meats. The baguette was not too dense and very crusty as a result of the "Quizno's"-type oven.

Unsatisfied at only being able to try one of their 6 available subs, I returned the next day. I asked a younger lady at the counter, "are all the subs available today???". She replied, "if I'm here, they are all available!". Turns out she is the daughter and the mom does not like making any of the other subs. Apparently, the daughter had asked her mom why all of the other meats were not used during her time away. Mom had claimed no one had asked for any sub other than #1. Hey! I asked for other subs! LOL!!! All the daughter could do was shake her head... So, I got my wish today and tried 3 more of their available subs starting with the Satay Beef. Although, I found the meat to be on the chewier side, it was very flavourful. It had a pronounced sweetness to it with only a slight hit of spice and saltiness. The result was a very tasty sub since all of the other ingredients were quite mild except for the hot peppers. Oh, and the daughter asked me if her mother had offered me hot peppers. Nope. All she could do was laugh and shake her head... For the next sub, I picked a relatively boring one in the
Shredded Chicken. Not really something I'd chose for myself; yet some people don't want spicy or weird meat. As expected, it was pretty bland. The chicken was tender though and the crusty baguette was the necessary texture needed for such a texturally challenged ingredient. This time around, there was less fish sauce which made the subs less salty. Probably mother liked to load up on the fish sauce too.

The last sub was the Marinated Pork which is actually a prepared pork product that is quite sweet. The texture reminds me of a cross between jerky and spam. I know, that doesn't sound great; but believe me, I like the slight chewiness that is still soft at the same time. Despite being predominantly sweet, the pork worked for me since it contrasts well with the fish sauce, pickled veggies and hot peppers. A nice balance of flavours if you get everything in one bite. Strange that I have never visited this place before, it has been around for 20 years! Well, I guess I'll be returning for more Banh Mi, as long as the daughter is around.

The Good:
- One of the largest Banh Mi in town
- Generally all taste good with the Special reigning supreme
- Uniformly crusty baguette, especially right out of the toaster

The Bad:
- When it's only mom there, you only have one choice of Banh Mi