Zawa

Since I was at the Bombay Sapphire Speakeasy event, I had to miss softball. I must admit it was a difficult decision to make since that meant missing out on eating out afterwards. However, Boss Woman wondered why I couldn't attend both the event and join the team for eats. Great Scott! How come I didn't think of that??? Eating back-to-back is not a foreign concept for me. In fact, let's bring Mijune along as well! She's the queen of eating over and over again. Well... and she was a bit tipsy from the event as well. So, instead of getting in her car, she tagged along with my team for dinner. At first, our original choice was the Red Wagon; but it was closed. Fine, we'll try the Brave Bull. Nada. With people becoming annoyed at driving from one location to the next, we finally settled on Zawa on The Drive.

I've always wonder about this place. By the looks of outside, it's hard to predict what type of food Zawa serves. A peek at the menu and there is a Greek/Italian slant to it along with standard bar-type food items. In the end, this worked for us since we had a big group with varying tastes. Silent Bob was the first to receive his order which was the Lemon & Garlic Chicken. Visually, it was messily plated while looking appetizing at the same time. He thought the chicken was a bit overcooked since he could not cut into it without shredding the meat. On the other hand, the veggies and potato were cooked perfectly. Furthermore, the lemon & garlic sauce was flavourful which in turn made all of the components on the plate tasty. Silent Bob also brought along his significant other who we will refer to as Bumpkin. She ended up with the Garden Burger. She enjoyed it; but thought the edges of the bun were too hard. She ended up picking those parts off.

Milhouse also went for a burger in the Santa Fe Chicken Burger. Similarly to Silent Bob, he thought the chicken was dry; but he didn't mind it much. In the end he liked the burger. He substituted onion rings for fries and fried perfectly. They were crispy and rigid; but not overcooked. Mijune went for something a bit different in the Zawa Vegan Burger. Honestly, I was a bit shocked, since we are both meat lovers. Well, we all know Mijune loves her meat... Ahem... Her reasoning was that The Drive has a lot of good vegetarian options, so this burger had to be good. And you know what, she was absolutely right. At first, it looked like a big piece of fried dough. However, hidden inside was a delightful mix of chickpeas, green onions, parsley, dill, basil and garlic. The contrasting crunch of the exterior was a perfect balance for the surprisingly airy filling. For someone who loves meat, I really liked this burger. It had texture and flavour while being substantial as well.

Miss Y had the obligatory pasta dish which was Z's Lasagna. Reminiscent of the type you'd find at places such as Neighbours and Gigi's, this was a solid offering. No, it ain't gonna compete with more authentic Italian eateries; but it was cheesy, meaty and not wet. For myself, I had the Roast Lamb. Frankly, I wasn't expecting too much to tell you the truth. Imagine my surprise when the lamb was super juicy and moist. Practically the whole piece of lamb was uniformly tender. I am not afraid to say that this is one of the better roast lambs I've had in awhile. Now, that only refers to the texture. The one issue I had was the lack of seasoning. Sure, I could taste the rich roasted lamb flavour; but I could not detect enough garlic, salt, rosemary, lemon or anything else. If they could just be more aggressive with the seasoning, this would be almost perfect. With that in mind, the tzatziki was bland as well. It need much more garlic and lemon. On the topic of bland, I had a big issue with the rice. It was plain white rice which was hard and chewy. Fail. And that was the same for Judes' Prawn Souvlaki. She couldn't of cared less for the Minute Rice. The first prawn she ate was a little overcooked and almost rubbery with the rest being okay. The Greek salad was meh. It was basically washed and dumped onto the plate with barely any olive oil or spices. She liked the potato and was more accepting of the tzatziki than myself. In the end, she didn't think the dish was worth $16.00.

While I was ordering my lamb, I initially had the idea of adding a side of Poutine just to try. I didn't end up doing so because Bear got it instead. According to him, the poutine was very good, perhaps not authentic, but much to his liking. The waitress sold him on it by saying the fries were fresh cut and the gravy was "probably homemade". He couldn't verify the gravy was homemade, but he didn't get any allergic reaction to it as he would for pre-packaged powdered gravy full of artificial colour and thickeners. The poutine was a little light on the gravy, but it turned out to be good as the fries stayed crispy. He'd go back just for this. For me, I tried it as well and basically agree with his thoughts; however, I would've preferred the "cheese curds" to be less melted. Bear also had a burger and I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. Fortunately, Boss Woman got the Deluxe Burger too and it was more or less the same - which was woefully overcooked. Boss Woman needed to add copious amounts of ketchup to eat the darn thing. As a public service announcement of sorts, be warned that the pop here is NOT refillable. The waitress asked us if we wanted refills without informing us that there was a charge. Not cool in my books. In fact, Judes was so choked, she vowed never to return. Now, despite some sub-par items, there were some surprises as well. So if you have a large group, this place can offer up a wide variety of food. However, there are many better options on The Drive.

The Good:
- Unlike many restaurants nearby, Zawa is large and spacious
- Inexpensive drinks (unless u want a refill with pop)

The Bad:
- Not informed of refill charge
- Food is mostly miss with some hits
- A bit pricey

Mei Yee Bakery

For the longest time, there was not exactly a huge selection of Chinese bakeries in town. We were at the mercy of Maxim's and a few other ones located in Chinatown. Now, we can choose from Pine House, The Boss (affiliated with Maxim's), St. Germain, T & T and many other independent establishments. So, for me at least, I much prefer these smaller shops. I find they are a better value since they don't skimp on the ingredients. One of my favourites is Karmony Bakery on Victoria Drive. I've been here countless times already. However, it was time for me to try something new. In fact, the place I did end up visiting is only up the street from Karmony. Across from London Drugs and Maxim's, Mei Yee Bakery is not really all that small. When I walked into the place, it was quite spacious with an impressive selection of goods.

In fact, rarely seen items such as large baked tapioca pudding with red bean paste was available. I was tempted to pick one up; but there was no way we'd finish it. And besides, my son would just pick off the sweet topping and leave the rest alone. On the topic of sweet topping, he actually eats the whole Pineapple Bun now. Yah, he used to pick off the topping and leave the plain bun for either myself or grandpa to eat. Talk about enabling... Anyways, my son dusted off the bun and it was pretty good. I think the pastry dough is not as good as Karmony; but absolutely better than Maxim's. I find the buns at Maxim's dry and lacking in substance. And hey, I love substantial buns! Er... So naturally, the BBQ Pork Bun was better than average as well. I particularly liked that there was a good amount of BBQ pork inside. It was not fatty and the glaze was a good combination of savoury and sweet.

Egg Tarts are a must when visiting a Chinese bakery. It is a good indicator of competency. This one was not bad. I would've liked the shell to be flakier; but it was not hard by any means. I found the filling to be on the sweeter side while being silky. I actually ended up with more than 16 items; but many were of the "pineapple bun-type", so I'm not going to talk about them. However, if I take everything into account, I would say that Mei Yee is a solid place for Chinese bakery items. Much better than Maxim's while a shade below Karmony.

The Good:
- Lots of selection
- Lots of stock (big store)
- Reasonably-priced

The Bad:
- I guess lack of parking in the area?
- Over abundance of "Pineapple Bun" type pastries

Pho An

I often wonder if we are really scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to late night eats in East Van. Yes, there are many options left in Downtown and Richmond; but it appears not everyone is open to heading to those destinations. Hence, we resorted to visiting a completely random Vietnamese joint on Kingsway. I honestly wouldn't have known this place existed or that it was open late if I hadn't driven by it one early morning. I took a mental note and saved it for an emergency. So much like breaking the glass to pull the fire alarm, I did so by suggesting we eat at Pho An.

The first thing I noticed when we arrived was the brightness of the place. Unlike many Pho joints in town, I didn't have a problem with lighting for my pictures. That's good too. Didn't want to use the flash. Drawing attention to myself during late night eats can sometimes be unnerving. Gordo, Milhouse and Sweet Tooth all ordered Salad Rolls to start. They felt bad for me and let me try some. Aw... such nice people! Sadly, these rolls were a complete fail. From the lack of ingredients (they only used shrimp and lettuce) to the entirely too loose wrap-job, there was nothing much good about them. No one could even keep them together in order to use the dip. At the very least, the dip was a good balance between hoisin and peanut.

For myself, I settled on the Pho Dac Biet; however, the picture is of Gordo's bowl of beef and meatballs. I got lazy and just took one picture of the Pho. As you can see, the bowl of noodles is somewhere in between meager and sparse. Sure, the price ain't expensive; but the amount of meat and noodles was not exactly overwhelming. The meats were good though, sliced thinly and easy to chew. The beef broth itself was on the lighter side. I didn't get too much meat flavour. It was on the sweeter side.

Milhouse decided to do the BBQ Pork & Spring Roll Vermicelli Bowl. I should've ordered this instead. So much more food at roughly the same price as my Pho. He remarked that the meat was tender and well-seasoned. The spring roll was pretty good despite the use of a wheat wrapper. Pho An is pretty much a place of convenience. It's open late and when there is not much in the way of choice, it fits the bill. However, there are much better places for Vietnamese food during regular hours.

The Good:
- Open late
- Friendly owners

The Bad:
- Food is mediocre
- Pho is meager in size

Taste of Punjab

While we were at Frasers Bistro, I was tipped off about Taste of Punjab out in Whalley. Well, it really wasn't new to me since I pass by the place often. However, I merely brushed it off as another Indian restaurant in Surrey. However, Mary and Jeremy kept raving about their food, especially the spinach-stuffed naan. Okay. Fine. I will have to see for myself. And I did go all-by-myself... I tried to get Mijune to go; but she is apparently a very busy woman and all. From her tweets, it appears she is always eating. Go figure eh? Busy with 5 Guys in fact. She apparently likes 5 Guys more than In-N-Out. Well, imagine the tweet I did in response...

Anyways, I ended up eating alone and went for the Lamb Biryani. This particular version was thoroughly mixed with peppers, onions, tender lamb and spices. I asked for spicy and it delivered in that respect. I wouldn't say it was tongue-numbing; but it might be too much for some people. Despite being spicy, I still could taste the other components. I thought the rice was perfect in texture as it was chewy in an al dente type of way. I really enjoyed this dish. As a side, I got the Spinach & Cheese Naan. This was also very good. I found the naan to be warm and soft with the right combination of spinach and cheese for flavour. I liked how the filling did not compromise the texture of the naan. However, I would've liked the exterior of the naan to be a bit more charred.

Seeing how this visit didn't give me enough of a sample to adequately make up my mind, I went again. But, Mijune finally decided to join me and that allowed us to order a bit more food. She is awesome to eat with since she has a bottomless pit of a stomach. So we decided to go with our server's recommendation of the Chicken Jalfrazie which is a combination of boneless chicken marinated with fresh ground spices sauteed with tomatoes, peppers and onions. From the colour and smell, it was obvious that there was the usual Indian spices of turmeric, coriander and cumin. It was moderately spicy which gave the entire dish a yellow curry-type of flavour profile, except the other components added an almost "Chinese" slant to it. You see, Chinese curry is yellow and has peppers and onions in it; thus the similarity. This was a good dish, especially with the tender chicken; but it wasn't remarkable. In addition, we shared the Dinner Combination that included Lamb Curry, Butter Chicken, Dal Makhani, Basmati Rice, Raita, Kheer, Saag and Tandoori Chicken. I thought the lamb was extremely tender, to the point it required very little effort to chew. It had a richness to it and the usual Indian spices were present (such as cumin and coriander); but it had very little impact. I found the butter chicken to be somewhat flat. The sauce was a bit thin and the flavours to be muted. I neither found it creamy nor tomatoey. It was somewhere in the middle, which is not necessarily a bad thing if people like that. The chicken itself was in very large chunks which kept it tender. I really enjoyed the lentils. They were creamy and there was no shortage of flavour. The same could be said about the saag. Again, the familiar Indian ingredients resulted in a creamy spinach concoction which was delicious. Too bad there was no paneer. I love paneer! The one thing that kinda brought the whole combo down was the tandoori chicken. To be fair, it was the breast and we were expecting it to be dry; but it was really dry. Furthermore, it wasn't really all that flavourful either. I loved the colour and the slight char; but it didn't translate into any impactful flavour.

We also had a side of regular Naan and as you can see, there wasn't significant charring. That in itself didn't make the naan bad; but I just personally like it with more colour and slight burnt portions (sorta like Neapolitan pizza). Now, with all my criticisms about the food, you might think I don't like the place. On the contrary, I still think the food is more than acceptable. I particularly like the friendly people who run the place. However, with that being said, there is still plenty of choices in Surrey for good Indian food.

The Good:
- Friendly staff
- Extensive menu
- Clean and comfortable

The Bad:
- Food is a bit hit and miss (you need to know what to order)

Latitude

*Now El Camino*
Over a month ago, I quickly did a same-day post about my meal at Mis Trucos. Was it because the food blew me away and I just had to write about it quickly? Well, not really. Although the food was not bad, that was not my inspiration. Rather, it was the playoff series with Chicago that got me going. Believe it or not, Viv and I were at dinner missing out on Game 6. Turns out that I got home in time to see the Canucks lose in OT. That capped off 2 blowout loses including the game prior. They did come back to win Game 7 in dramatic fashion thanks to Alex Burrows. Now here we are in the Stanley Cup Finals and after building a 2 games to none lead, the Canucks got their lunch handed to them via an 8-1 drubbing. No matter, it's only one game. A loss is a loss. Now, it is time to move on. I have confidence that they will return to their winning ways and that is why I had to post this in a relatively expeditious manner (however, they go on to lose again 4-0 in game 4... deja vu anyone?). Therefore, this post had to go up now since I really don't want to talk about this when the playoffs are already over! So, after the depressing loss, Bear, Milhouse, Emilicious and Hot Chocolate met up with me at Latitude for some after game eats. It was normally our softball night and we've been so conditioned to eat out afterwards, there is always and empty feeling if we don't.

We ended up at Latitude since it was somewhat central to everyone and it wasn't Asian. Yah, we're a bit tired of the Asian food thing; but that is almost an inevitability in Vancouver. There really are so many more Asian food options compared to everything else. Somewhat removed from all the "action" along Main Street, Latitude serves up mainly Latin-inspired food in a hip dining space. We decided to mostly share everything except for the Arepas, which are small round white corn pockets filled with choice of ingredients. Not conducive to sharing, we ended up having one each. I went for the Chorizo with avocado and confit tomatoes. This was a messy proposition. Everything was falling and dripping out. I didn't mind though, it had a nice kick from the meaty chorizo and a cooling effect from the smooth avocado and tart tomatoes. I found the corn "pancake" to be dense while still easy to eat and crisp on the outside. Emilicious had the Wild Prawns with arugula and smoked paprika mayo. It was bursting with crunchy prawns and mayo which made it as messy as my arepas. She really liked the smokiness and thought everything worked well together. Milhouse and Bear both had the Braised Beef with black bean, queso blanco and tomatillo salsa. They seemed to like it; but didn't say much about them. Hot Chocolate had the Smokey Pulled Pork with feta, pickled fennel and jalapeno. She as well thought it was pretty good with a good combination of flavours.

After the arepas, we shared a few items starting with the Baja Fish Tacos served with cabbage, chipotle creama, pickled sweet onion and red salsa. I really like the fact the fish was fried rather than being grilled. This way, the taco was much less wet and the crispiness of the fish added texture. Personally, I would've liked more heat in the taco; but in the end, it was flavourful enough with the pickled onions. Next up was the Calamares which was served with a citrus aioli. The squid was fried pefectly with a light crisp exterior while being tender on the inside. The batter itself was quite mild while the aioli didn't add much in the way of flavour. For me at least, it went so much better with the smoked paprika mayo that accompanied the Chickpea Fries. The flavour of the paprika mayo was more intense and impactful, which in my opinion helped with the flavour-challenged calamari. The chickpea fries themselves were not as crispy as I would've imagined. Rather, they were "cardboard-like". Personally, that was a texture that I did not enjoy; but again, chickpeas have their limitations as to their texture. I did find the inside to be quite good though. It was well-seasoned and fluffy. We also shared the Chicken Wings "Anillo de Fuego" because it was on special. Hey, we'd never pass up a daily special! Initially, we were expecting hot wings and nothing else; but we were pleasantly surprised that their house hot sauce which was quite good. There was a nice balance of smoky, sweet and tang which really amped up the perfectly fried chicken wings. And about those chicken wings, they were big, moist and juicy. There were 12 of them and it sure looked more than 1 pound. Strangely, a few nights prior, we had "1 pound" of wings and there were only 8 (and roughly the same size too) at the Thirsty Penguin.

After all the appies, we shared 2 entrees. The first was the Boneless Beef Shortrib served with Colombian papas chorreados and onion gravy. Despite being fork tender, the shortrib was dry and stringy. It was okay still. Just not as moist as we expected. The gravy was alright. I found it to be slightly sweet with only a modest amount of salt. This was a very mild tasting dish. The papas were pretty good being super soft on the inside while nicely roasted on the outside. Interestingly, we could all see the cheese on the potato; but it didn't have much of an impact. An okay plate of food, if not unmemorable. Lastly, we had the Paella de Mariscos consisting of smoky tomato saffron arborio stew, prawns, mussels, fish and chorizo. We found the rice to be slightly overcooked; but it wasn't short on flavour. Plenty of smoky and savouriness from the chorizo with a touch of the sea. We didn't detect any strong saffron essence though. For $20.00, we felt this was a tad expensive considering the size of the dish (although it did have a decent amount of ingredients).

By virtue of having Bear at the table, he exerted his sphere of influence which resulted in Emilicious and I sharing an order of Tres Leches Cake. As the name suggests, it is cake that is soaked in 3 types of milk - evaporated, condensed and cream. We both thought this cake was a winner. Prepared correctly, the cake was not soggy despite the generous soaking of milk. It had a nice consistency and texture while being only slightly sweet due to the condensed milk. However, what really put the cake over the top was the smashed candied walnuts. It added another layer of flavour as well as a crunch. Good textural and flavour contrast.

Milhouse and Bear ended up ordering the same dessert being the Chocolate Banana Bread Pudding. Man, they make it hard for me! Ordering the same thing again!!! Anyways, I gave the bread pudding a try and I found it to be rather dry. Furthermore, I didn't get much in the way of banana. In fact, the chocolate flavour was not really all that intense either. At the very least, that resulted in a modestly sweet dessert, which I prefer. Although I really liked the Tres Leches Cake much more. Overall, it was a fairly decent meal at relatively reasonable prices. As always, there were some highlights and some not so memorable items. That's normal for any restaurant. Latitude is a decent option for late night eats and drinks along Main Street. Maybe we all need a drink after the the back-to-back deja vu loses to Boston. Hey, they came back to win the Chicago series, so you never know. Keep the faith, that's all we can do anyways.

The Good:
- Decent drinks
- Food is not bad
- Hip interior

The Bad:
- Very limited menu
- Very limited space inside

Argo Cafe

For the longest time, I've had Argo Cafe on my "to eat" list. Problem is, it is only open during breakfast and lunch on weekdays. Secondly, for the times I could go, no one wanted to go with me... especially Rich Guy. Yes, his disdain for dives is almost legendary. Leave it up to Vandelay to save the day. Not only is he a willing participant, he suggested we go. So with this opportunity, we made it out to this lunch time favourite on Ontario Street. The place has been around since 1954; but in 2004, Chef Denis Larouche and brother in-law Kirby Wong transformed the menu into something I would call affordable gourmet diner food. Now, this is not necessarily a foreign concept anymore with the newer joints such at The Red Wagon. However, Argo Cafe has to be one of the pioneers of the concept in the GVRD.

The regular menu is pretty much standard with items such as burgers, pasta and sandwiches; however, the daily menu is where it's at. With almost gourmet items at reasonable prices, this is the main draw here. For myself I went for the Argo Plate. It included a soup, which was Turkey & Beef Borscht. Slightly tart, somewhat sweet and full of beets, this was a pretty typical non-sour cream version of borscht. I thought it was pretty appetizing. I only wished it was served a hotter temperature. Vandelay ended up with the other soup of the day - Creamy Tomato Dill Barley & Chicken Soup. As advertised, it was creamy. Not really all that tomatoey though. I could barely detect any dill and all of the ingredients were in little bits. Despite all this, I still thought the soup was pretty good.

Now back to my Argo Plate. It was basically a mix grilled that acted as a sampler. From left to right, we have the lamb chop with peppercorn sauce, meatloaf, beef short rib and coconut curry chicken. Served on the side was mashed potatoes and fresh veggies. The highlight of the dish was surprisingly the chicken. It was moist and the coconut curry was fantastic. The curry was well-balanced with rich coconut milk and mild spice. Very aromatic and tasty. I also liked the short rib, it was fork tender and the accompanying gravy had a nice richness to it. I liked the lamb chop; but it could've stood to be more rare. As for the meatloaf, I found it crumbly and kinda strange. As you can see, the veggies were vibrant and not overcooked. Vandelay went for the Spaghetti Carbonara. It was very creamy, thick and smooth. No egg clumps anywhere. Also, there was just the right amount of baconess. Moreover, the noodles were not overcooked (not quite al dente either). This was a solid carbonara.

Lastly, we shared a Boneless Beef Short Rib Sandwich topped with wasabi, cheddar cheese and balsamic reduction. Just like the short rib in the Argo plate, the meat was super moist and tender. I thought the "horseradish-like" effect of the wasabi added a unique kick to the sandwich. In a strange way, it complimented the tart/sweetness of the balsamic reduction. This cut the heaviness of the short rib. I would've preferred if they used something more creative than a hamburger bun though. Although the food didn't necessarily blow us away, it was thoroughly solid at a reasonable price. Definitely a little gem in a hidden location. It won't be for long though. It'll be featured on the Food Network in the fall.

The Good:
- Inexpensive
- Interesting menu items
- Got that cool divey thing going on

The Bad:
- For those who don't like dives...
- Can get busy (which is good for them)