Miyabi

While planning our trip to San Diego, I decided to try 2 scenarios: how much would it cost if we left from YVR compared to SEA? Well, it was no comparison. Our airfare would've been doubled if we chose Vancouver International. I eventually got airfare for 4 and 8 nights at the Marriott Courtyard for $1600.00 inclusive of taxes and fees. That seemed like a really good deal. Hence by virtue of leaving via SEA, we had to drive down to Seattle and ditch the car at Park 'n Fly. With $800.00 worth of savings on airfare alone, the gas and parking fee was well worth it. Of course we needed to eat before our flight which got me briefly thinking of Downtown. However, with the variables of traffic, we settled on somewhere close by at Southcenter. Seemingly out of nowhere was this strip mall with 3 Asian restaurants: one Thai, one Vietnamese and lastly Japanese, which was Miyabi. Seeing how Vietnamese would be too fast of a meal and that my kids wouldn't necessarily eat Thai, we went to Miyabi. Now don't let the location fool you. This is a legit Japanese restaurant from the owner down to the chef. In fact, the current owner is Masao Kida who played briefly for the Seattle Mariners. The chef is Masa San who has worked in Tokyo.

In that case, I guess we shouldn't have been surprised at the prices, which were on the higher side. To change it up a bit, rather than starting with sashimi, we had the Seafood Sunomono instead. It consisted of 2 pieces each of tako, salmon, scallop and one ebi & hokkigai with wakame and pickled cucumbers. The seafood was certainly fresh and we enjoyed the wakame and cucumbers. There was lots of acidity in the ponzu dressing; yet maybe a little salty. We got 2 maki rolls starting with the Seafood Jumbo consisting of tuna, albacore, salmon, yellowtail, tobiko, imitation crab, scallop, shiso and avocado. At $12.00, it was a bit steep for roll sushi; however, there was a lot of fresh ingredients and very little rice. The rice wasn't too bad, maybe slightly gummy. We also got an Unagi Roll which was simply unagi and avocado drizzled with unagi sauce. This particular roll was more rice heavy and with a modest amount of filling. Nothing particularly amiss with the roll; it was just very typical and served to help fill us up.

At first, when we were looking over the menu, it was a bit difficult to find the items we wanted to order. You see, if you check out the PDF menu online, it almost appears that a 2-year old pieced it together. Very colourful; but with chunks of items here and there and not really making sense where they are located. Okay, enough of that. One item I did find was the Assorted Kushikatsu. As the name implies, this was several different types of kushi (ebi, eggplant, ton and zucchini) deep fried in panko. This was very good where the batter was crispy while the proteins and veggies were moist and juicy. Now where the kushikatsu was fantastic, the Tempura was not. It was quite obvious from its appearance that there was far too much tempura batter. Therefore, the batter immediately below the exterior was slightly undercooked and mushy. This was not very pleasant and spoiled the excellent ingredients underneath (especially the ebi).

Seeing how the kiddies are on this Yakiudon kick, we decided to find it in the menu. Despite not being on the menu, they made it for us anyways and it turn out to be pretty good. This was no plain yakiudon. It had lots of tender chicken, carrots, mushrooms and cabbage while topped with bonito flakes, nori and beni shoga. The result was a good mix of flavours, albeit still being mild. The udon was a little soft, possibly due to the amount of ingredients; yet it wasn't terribly so. Overall, our visit to Miyabi was pleasant. I thought the service was excellent being attentive and courteous. The food was a little on the pricier side; but the quality was quite good. Pretty respectable for Seattle and actually pretty good for anywhere really.

The Good:
- Quality ingredients
- Generally well-executed
- Courteous service

The Bad:
- On the pricier side
- Modest portion sizes

BBQ Competition @ PNE 2011

Okay, I know this is a little late and in fact, incomplete (read here for the other 2 BBQ stalls). Hey, there is only that much BBQ one can eat in one day! But better late than never right? I knew the one thing I had to hit up at the PNE this year was the BBQ Competition that pitted (nice pun eh?) 5 BBQ joints against each other. With practically the same menu and pricing, it seemed to be a fair fight. Now, the main reason it took me almost to the end of The Fair to do the porkfest was that the concert for the night would be Hall & Oates. Apparently, everyone else thought it would be a great idea as well. Boy was it ever packed! Good show though, really good times. Some of the young ones there seemed a bit confused as to who exactly was Hall & Oates. If you don't know, then either Youtube it or just move on...

Viv and I had entered The Fair earlier in the day and hit up all the usual things like the prize home, Whales Tails, Foot Long Hot Dogs and lost a bunch of money trying to win little useless stuffed animals. For lunch, we gave Gator BBQ a shot first. In order to do a proper assessment, we got the Vegetarian's Nightmare platter consisting of Pork Side Ribs, Pulled Pork and Beef Brisket. Hailing from Florida, their booth was full of accolades and awards. I found their ribs to be dry and chewy in some spots due to the use of side ribs. Unfortunately, we got the wrong end of the rack where there was little bone and lots of cartilage. The pulled pork was super moist and not stringy. Now as for the beef brisket, it was dried out and rubbery. The BBQ sauce had a nice consistency and was quite sweet.

Later on in the day, Rich Guy joined us for the Hall & Oates concert and helped try 2 more of the competitors. We decided to hit up the 2 with the longest lineups. Hence we ended up missing out on Crazy Canuck Smokers and QN4U BBQ House. The longest line belonged to Smoke & Bones and it took me 30 mins to get my food. I got their Seymour Platter consisting once again of Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork and Pork Side Ribs. Inexplicably, they used a smaller styrofoam box which barely fit all of the meat. Anyways, the beef brisket was actually hand-pulled rather than sliced. Consequently, it was slightly stringy. It still was moist though. The pulled pork was good, equally as good as Gator in my opinion. It was very moist, in large strands and the accompanying BBQ sauce had more smokiness and zing than Gator. Once again, we got the wrong end of the side ribs and the meat was slightly chewy, but more moist and tender than Gator. Being a bit redundant, Viv got the Pulled Pork Sandwich. As you can see, it was a large amount of the same tender pork with crisp coleslaw and tangy sauce. She thought it was good and a great value at $7.00 (it's that much outside the PNE!).

The next longest lineup belonged to Prairie BBQ which we were fortunate enough to snag the last few ribs since they were still smoking the next batch. Not sure if they were trying to rush the Ribs or not, but they were chewy and appeared to lack cooking time. At the very least, we got the right side of the rack this time with the whole bone, rather than cartilage and fat. Despite its dry appearance, the Pulled Pork was moist and flavourful. We would've preferred it be in bigger strands though. The best part of this platter was the Beef Brisket. It had a nice bark which was smoky. The meat itself was melt-in-our-mouths tender. We liked this brisket more than Gator and Smoke & Bones. As for the limited amount of BBQ sauce (Rich Guy didn't notice any squeeze bottles around from Prairie), it was a bit hard to taste it. From what we could gather, it was smoky and not as sweet as the other 2. So there you have it. We tried 3 of the competitors and concluded that brisket = Prairie, ribs = Smoke & Bones and pulled pork = Gator or S&B. Overall, a great value since all of the pulled pork sandwiches are $7.00 and the meat platters are $22.00. At the end we didn't care since the Hall & Oates concert was awesome. We turned from ribeater to maneater (the song! for those pervs...).

Thierry Patisserie

Vancouver can be such a fickle place sometimes. For such a major metropolis, there are surprisingly limited options for late night desserts. Do people not like sweets here? I'm pretty sure that is not the case. Of course there are many places in town that do have baked goods and desserts, but they are not open at night. That leaves us with such places as Sweet Revenge, True Confections, Death by Chocolate and an assortment of other places where we can satisfy our dessert cravings at night (other than actual restaurants). Without counting gelato or ice cream joints, we don't have a tonne of options. With the recent opening of Thierry Patisserie on Alberni, there is now a new option (until midnight!). Following a similar model as Thomas Haas, Thierry offers up baked goods, desserts, chocolates, sandwiches, macarons and beverages. As the namesake implies, Thierry is headed up by award-winning pastry chef Thierry Busset formerly of Cin Cin.

I must admit, the place itself is très chic and the macaron display makes one want to try them all (which I did by the way). Naturally, with a central Downtown location and the name, the prices are on the higher side. With that being said, it is less than one would pay at a fine dining establishment. In fact, the prices are not far off the aforementioned dessert places. Originally, I had my heart set on the Apple Tart, but they sold out. So I settled on the Raspberry Tart. This was a pretty good tart. The pastry was crispy, firm and had a buttery-nutty flavour. I really liked the tart shell. Hidden inside was a semi-sweet custard that had a perfectly silky consistency. The raspberries were fresh, sweet and tart. Mr. X had the Opera Cake which had "O-P-E-R-A" interestingly scribbled on top. The first thing I noticed was coffee syrup which gave a liquor-type flavour to the cake. The chocolate ganache as well as the buttercream was smooth and only slightly sweet. This was surprisingly light considering the components. Within the same week, I returned to Thierry with Viv, Costanza and Elaine. I finally got to sample the famous Apple Tart. Apparently, this is THE thing here. The first time I had it, I liked it. I've had it again and I'm not convinced with all the hype. Don't get me wrong, it's not bad, yet I'm not sure if it is better than anything Thomas Haas produces.

Costanza wanted something chocolatey and went for the Chocolate Trio. Obviously, by its namesake, there are 3 different types of chocolate mousse layers in the cake. Sandwiched between layers of moist chocolate cake, there was dark chocolate mousse with another layer of milk chocolate mousse on top. Lastly, a white chocolate mousse was the icing on the cake so to speak. Despite the plethora of chocolate, this was not an overly sweet cake. In fact, it could be considered "light" if you can believe it. Really not hard to eat at all, it was that smooth and airy. Not sure if he was aiming to eat 2 desserts or not, but he also got the Pistachio Eclair. I thought he was sharing with Elaine, however, I swore she barely ate any. Hidden inside the perfectly executed choux pastry was actually the standard vanilla custard filling (which was beyond standard in quality). The pistachio part of the eclair sat on top of the chocolate as candied pistachios. That added a nutty crunch which was a nice textural contrast of sorts. This was good. For my son, he's not really into the dessert thing. So he opted for a plain ol' Croissant. Well, like everything we have tried here, it was solid. The crisp, aesthetically pleasing exterior yielded a butter inside. I wouldn't say it was overly buttery, it was just right. However, I like the one from Faubourg more.

As for the Macarons, I got a pack of 7. From left to right was coffee, passionfruit, raspberry, lime, lemon, blackberry and raspberry again. These were noticeably bigger than most macarons which made them a decent value for $1.75 each (or $11.95 for a box of 7). Now, for a disclaimer of sorts - my first ever experience with macarons was with Pierre Herme. That is akin to buying a Ferrari as your first car. With that being said, these macarons were not bad. However, I would go for Thomas Haas over these. The exterior was crisp and they were chewy throughout. I would've preferred less chewiness. The buttercream fillings in the all of them except for the passionfruit (which appeared to be a combination of chocolate ganache and passionfruit) were a tad weak. However, a nice little surprise lay within in the form of jam or piece of fruit. The one thing that had me thinking after the fact was the a particular aftertaste in a few of them. Was it the food coloring? I would like to believe it wasn't, but I swear it was. Maybe someone can enlighten me if I am wrong.

All-in-all, the desserts we tried were not bad. I liked the decor and vibe of the place. It definitely has style and an air of class (I guess that is what I can call it?). With that, there comes a cost and a high one at that. I did mention that Thierry is generally less expensive than fine dining restaurants. Yet, that doesn't mean it is cheap either. I guess it really depends on one's preference and their threshold as to how much they are willing to pay for premium desserts and chocolates.

The Good:
- Acceptable pastries
- Nice environment
- Cheery staff

The Bad:
- Pricey
- Macarons need some tweaking

Ikura

Whenever Marshmallow returns from Taiwan for the summer, it calls for a reunion of sorts. That means we gather with friends we haven't seen for awhile for food. Hey, that sounds really good to me. Who cares about the friends, let's bring on the food. Better yet, let's salivate over the variety of eats since it means a big group. We already did that on my revisit of Sun Sui Wah for Dim Sum; however, a few key people were not available. Oh, that's no problem... Let's just meet up again... for food! There was one hurdle this time around though. Due to scheduling and locational issues, we had to pick a Japanese restaurant near South Granville. At first, Applause came to mine; yet that would be impossible since it is super busy during lunch and it's not a very big restaurant. Finally, we settled on Ikura on Granville near 70th. I originally called the day before at 1:30pm to make a reservation for 12 people at 1:00pm. That was an exercise in frustration because the person on the phone didn't seem to understand me. Well, apparently she didn't because they thought the reservation was for the same day at 1:00pm. Uh... How can that be possible when I'm calling at 1:30pm??? Do we turn back time? Okay, where is the Hot Tub Time Machine when you need it. Okay, fine, they can't tell time, that's forgivable. After all, no harm no foul.

Finally settling in, we went about our ordering. Viv and I ended up not sharing any food because we weren't sitting with each other. I usually do not order a bento box when we have such a large group; but with sharing not really an option, I settled on Bento Box D. Postman also had the same box and we were both a little confused why our tempura was missing. The box was already filled up with food, so there was really no room for the tempura. I inquired about the missing tempura with our server and she looked rather confused too. We finally got our tempura as we were almost finishing up our box. We did have a large table, so it is understandable things could be missed. As for the items in the box, the sashimi was not bad. It was texturally and visually appealing. The same could be said about the nigiri where the fish-to-rice ratio was good. The rice itself was a tad dry; but decent. The aforementioned tempura was pretty good as well having a light batter which was crispy and not too greasy. Viv had the Bento Box A and it is worth mentioning that the Teriyaki Chicken was pretty dry and thin. She did like the fact the rice was chewy while there was not an obscene amount of sauce on the chicken.

For the kiddies, we got them an order of the Yakiudon. When it arrived, our server was once again confused. She declared it was a yakisoba and served it to ML500 who had ordered it. She looked at our server and stated it was not yakisoba. Viv and I chimed in by saying it was our yakiudon. Our server didn't seem to believe us and checked with the kitchen. After that fiasco, she finally gave us our yakiudon and the yakisoba to ML500. Well, the wait was not really worth it as the yakiudon was kind of wet and bland. The Yakisoba was marginally better with more colour and flavour. It probably helped that it was less wet too. Despite all of the other food we had at our table, it was impossible to try it all. So, the only maki roll that I sampled was my own being the spicy tuna roll. It was decent with above-average sushi rice and tuna which was relatively spicy. Postman ended up ordering the Pink Lady which definitely warranted the name. Consisting of cream cheese, avocado and salmon with tobiko and smoked salmon on the outside, it only elicited an "okay" out of Postman. I guess it was average? For me, I'm not a huge fan of cream cheese in sushi, so I would never personally order this. In general, the food didn't offend too much and in fact, on most levels, was decent for the price. As mentioned earlier, I'd hit up Applause instead; but Ikura can fit the bill too in this area. The one thing they might want to consider is to either hire more capable staff or at least train them better.

The Good:
- Reasonably-priced
- Acceptable eats

The Bad:
- Thoroughly confused staff
- Some of the cooked items are average

Casual Gourmet Bistro

Face it. It is very difficult to avoid an ethnic restaurant in Vancouver. I've been told that I do far too much Asian food and yes that is true. But... That is merely a reflection of the actual percentage of restaurants that are Asian! Think of it, that includes Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean, Cambodian, Filipino and a few others! These cuisines can actually be further dissected into regions as well! Then we get into European, African, South American cuisine which leaves us with very little "non-ethnic" food. What further complicates things is that "local" food is largely represented by Chain restaurants and fast food outlets. Hey, I don't mind the occasional meal at these places; but it doesn't make for an interesting read if I keep doing it over and over again. So imagine how difficult it is to actually find an independent restaurant serving non-Asian or even non-ethnic food? So there you have the prevailing stats on why I have blogged about so many Asian restaurants. With that in mind, even my parents wanted something other than Asian for lunch. That got me thinking and I remembered Casual Gourmet Bistro in North Van within the Save-on-Foods complex.

I decided to try their Gourmet Burger which consisted of 100% prime rib beef with butter lettuce, tomato and avocado. I added some gorgonzola as well. By virtue of using prime rib and proper execution, the burger was very moist and flavourful. It leaned towards being salty; however, the fact that I added gorgonzola was partially to blame for that. On the side was their hand-made crisps which were like waffle chips. They were very crunchy and fresh. Viv went for the Ahi Tuna Burger which was the same as mine except for the 4 oz. piece of tuna. At first, I was concerned by the thinness of the tuna; but it was cooked perfectly as evidenced in the picture. The result was a moist piece of fish. This was good with fresh lettuce, tomato and ripe avocado. I would've liked a bit more creativity in the bun though. Even with that, this was a much better Ahi tuna sandwich than the one offered at chain restaurants such as Joey. For the kiddies, we got them an order of the Spaghetti Bolognese which at first glance seemed like a variation of the classic Bolognese sauce. The pasta itself was al dente while the sauce was a little on the saltier side. It was hearty though with lots of meat and in quantity as well. There seemed to be more sauce than pasta. In the end, my kids ate it; but for me, it was overseasoned.

My mom decided on the Prime Rib Beef Dip which in her mind was excellent. There was plenty of moist prime rib that had been lightly seared to warm it up which actually added a nice flavour and textural contrast. The baguette was fresh and crunchy. As for the jus, there was some thyme adding another layer of flavour. The jus was not salty while exhibiting natural meat juices. My dad ended up with the Turkey Breast Sandwich which consisted of house-roasted turkey with tomato, lettuce and cranberry sauce. This was a solid sandwich since there was so much moist turkey meat. Again, the fresh ingredients really helped. Since we only went for lunch, many of their specialties were not available such as the Schnitzel and Lamb. We found the prices to be on the higher side and one look at the dinner menu had me a bit concerned since many entrees are around $25.00. However, their commitment to fresh and quality ingredients has given me reason to return.

The Good:
- Fresh, quality ingredients
- Good execution on proteins (for what we tried)
- Excellent service

The Bad:
- On the pricier side
- A little heavy on the salt
- Place is what the name implies - a bistro, very small

New Age Chinese Cuisine

Ever since our last Chowdown, Tweetup or whatever you call it at Kalvin's, there seemed to be interest in another get-together. Karl was nice enough (or brave enough???) to organize the next one. This time it was at New Age Chinese Cuisine. Mainly a Taiwanese joint with a little bit of Szechuan, this place is located within the Best Western on Kingsway in Burnaby. It really didn't look appealing outside; but on the inside, it had this modern bubbletea-like decor (think Pearl Castle). Originally, we were expecting over 10 hungry eaters; yet it withered down to 7 (including Karl, Ben & Suanne, Angie, Grayelf and Rey). No matter, more food for us!

Prior to the dinner, Karl had reserved some items and sent out a menu. We had to take off a few things since we were hungry; but not that hungry. Besides, Mijune wasn't there to clean up. We did keep the Taiwanese Hot & Sour Soup though. Now, there is a difference between the Taiwanese and Cantonese version. The Taiwanese version is light in colour and much heartier. So, there was plenty of pork, tofu, carrots and wood-ear mushrooms which made the soup quite filling. I found the flavours in this soup muted. It was more savoury than hot and sour. Next up was the Chicken in Xiao Sing Wine Sauce. This was prepared in a roulade sort of manner without the bones. Therefore, it was much easier to eat and uniform in texture. I found the meat to be sufficiently moist while there was plenty of wine flavour penetrating the meat. In addition, the wine was not too strong either where it was balanced off by a good amount of sweetness and saltiness.

Now, one of the dishes that we pre-ordered, was the Peking Duck (2 courses). For the first course, we had the usual crispy duck skin and steamed crepes. The skin itself wasn't bad. It was indeed crispy and was pleasing to the eye with a rich colour. Moreover, the layer of fat underneath wasn't too overwhelming and in fact, some pieces had the fat scraped off. The few pieces that had the breast meat attached were moist. Now, all of this was completely wasted because the crepes were plain awful. They were steamed far too long and as a result were stuck together and to itself. I couldn't for the life of me unfold one without it completely breaking apart. Epic fail. Thus, this became more of a Peking roll than wrap since that's all we could do with the crepes. From duck, we stayed with fowl in the form of the 3 Cup Chicken. At first, I was impressed with the generous amount of meaty pieces of chicken. I've had this at many places that had more bone than meat. And one bite into the dark meat revealed generally moist, properly cooked chicken. However, there was a lack of flavour. I didn't get any tang from the wine nor did I get a whole lot of sweetness. It was actually kinda bland.

Moving away from poultry, we had the Fish in Spicy Sauce served atop a chafing dish. Curiously, this wasn't all that spicy. In fact, there was a pronounced 5-spice slant to its flavour profile. If this was 5-spice fish, this would've been perfect. However, this was supposed to be spicy and it was not. On the other hand the Basa fillets were cooked perfectly and held together from spoon to plate. Then we moved onto another pre-ordered dish in the Fried Tilapia. Okay, lemme preface this first. I'm not a huge fan of tilapia. The soft, mushy texture of the flesh does not exactly fancy my tastes. Now, even with that disclaimer, the tilapia here was not very good. I found it even mushier than usual and the flavours were not very clean. I think Karl said it best, "the fish tasted muddy". Hence, the entire dish was not that pleasing to eat.

Arriving and looking like it meant business was the Chicken with Chili Peppers. However, it was more an illusion than anything else. It did have a kick; but not in any way reflective of how hot it appeared. With that being said, there was nothing particularly wrong otherwise. The chicken was boneless (which is not a given these days - see New Szechuan), moist and flavourful despite the lack of heat. If one didn't have the expectation of it being very spicy, there would be not much to complain about here. Now for one of our pre-ordered dishes - the Braised Pork Shank. This was executed quite well as the skin was gelatinous and appealing in colour and texture. Most of the meat was fork-tender and moist. Furthermore, the shank itself was a fair size portion (although it was $26.00, so it better be large). A small section was a bit drier and stringy; but that is pretty normal as there is not as much fat in that area. Unlike the one I had a New Szechuan, the majority of the meat was edible. On the other hand, I did find the starch-thickened sauce to be on the bland side and not exhibiting any depth or richness. The colour was there; yet there wasn't particularly any taste.

On the topic of no flavour, I found that the Fried Tofu with Spicy Salt to be muted as well. I mean, look at it, you can readily see peppers and chilis. That in itself would indicated a punch, a kick or an outright uppercut to the tastebuds. But no... Instead, we got a plate of perfectly fried tofu which was properly seasoned while mysteriously missing spiciness. It was like they were trying to play a trick on or confuse our sensory systems. So I'm sure you get the picture here. The meal as a whole was actually very good despite the lack of heat. If one wanted mild-tasting food, this would ace that request in spades. So despite our disappointment in the lack of spice, the food was good. Now, if you look at it from the angle that the food should have some pop and impact, then there was something definitely missing here. I guess how one judges the food will be specific to their personal tastes (which is generally the rule with any restaurant anyways).

The Good:
- Generally well-executed food (except for the really bad crepes)
- Spacious, clean and modern dining space
- Lots of parking!

The Bad:
- Where's the heat? ( I guess one could ask for more though)
- A little pricey (but there is a discount on Mondays)