Indo Mexicana

In a city full of different cultures, it is no surprise we have our fair share of fusion restaurants. Of course, the word "fusion" itself is polarizing. You have the purists crying foul while some don't really care about authenticity. For me, if it tastes good, I don't really care who made it and what cuisine the food is supposed to resemble. Okay, so fusion is supposed to represent the combination of 2 or more cuisines into one. So what do we call a restaurant that serves 2 cuisines independent of each other? The last time I encountered this was Crystal Elephant Range in North Delta. They do Thai as well as Italian food. A strange marriage of cuisines for sure. Imagine my reaction to Indo Mexicana while I was driving up North Road... Indian and Mexican? I was hesitant. However, someone emailed me urging me to try it. Oh fine, why not. I gathered up Big D, Slick and Red Light for a food adventure in New West.

In a way, I was disappointed that they didn't try to fuse both cuisines. A butter chicken burrito would've been tasty in my books. However, they really do only serve Indian and Mexican food independently of each other. I decided to get the Combo which included a choice of 3 items from the Indian menu (also included choice of naan or rice). I went for Butter Chicken, Shahi Paneer and Chicken Curry. The Butter Chicken wasn't exactly creamy nor was it heavy on the tomato paste either. It had a nice spice and certainly wasn't bland, but was a touch salty though. The Shahi Paneer was probably my favourite of the bunch with big fried pieces of cheese in a spicy and sweet sauce. The Chicken Curry was also quite tasty with plenty of depth and definitive spiciness. There was good hits of coriander and ginger. However, the big chicken thigh was a bit clumsy to eat. As for the Naan, it was not even remotely close to the real thing. It was more like pita bread. I guess with no tandoor on site, that was expected. Red Light and Slick both had the combo as well. The non-duplicated dishes were the Chickpea Curry, Lamb Curry and Beef Curry. Honestly, there was little difference in the flavour of all 3 except for the main ingredient. They resembled the chicken curry (beef was a bit chewy as with the lamb).

Big D took one for the team and ordered the sole Mexican item at the table. He went for the Enchiladas (one beef and one chicken). I'm sorry to say that these were pretty sad. The meat inside was soggy and cold. It seemed like they were cooked from frozen. I must give them props for using real shredded beef rather than ground though. The mediocre enchilada withstanding, the Indian food was actually quite decent. We liked how they didn't let up on the spice which in turn made the curries flavourful. Sure, the food ain't gonna win any awards (especially the Mexican), however with reasonable pricing and good portions, the lunch crowd will continue to fill the restaurant.

The Good:
- Decent Indian eats
- Good portions
- They did not shy way from using spice

The Bad:
- The one Mexican item we had was subpar
- Don't expect any ambiance (hence the low prices)

Max's Restaurant

With the large Filipino population in the GVRD, it is somewhat surprising that there are so few Filipino restaurants. I posed this question to Rich Guy and Rich Gal (she is from the Philippines) in hopes of finding an answer. The explanation went like this: since Filipino food can be cooked at home, more often than not, people won't spend the money to go out to eat. With that kind of thinking, I guess it was no surprise that Rekados didn't stand a chance, especially at their price points. Well, that is all fine and dandy, but that really puts a damper into my curiousity about Filipino cuisine. Rich Guy merely laughs at that fact since he is not a huge fan of Filipino food. What the heck did he eat while he was living there then???

Despite this, he did tip me off about Max's Restaurant (a popular chain restaurant in the Philippines), which has opened their 2nd Canadian location on Kingsway in Vancouver (the other one is in Toronto). Originally, we wanted to check the place out during its soft opening, but with lineups 20 parties deep, that was quickly quashed. However, with softball being cancelled due to rain, I was left without a game and food for a Monday. Not to fear though, Bear and Milhouse still wanted to go for eats, which led us to Max's. The first thing that caught my eye was the Crispy Pata. For those who are unfamiliar, it is a deep fried pork knuckle served with soy-vinegar dip. We only went for the mid-size which was still quite substantial. It could've have been crispier, yet it was still plenty crispy. We were pleased with the ample amount of moist meat underneath.

Now a visit to Max's would not be complete without their famous Fried Chicken. Somewhat similar to Chinese fried crispy chicken, their chicken is fried without batter. Hence, the fat is rendered in the frying process leaving a crispy, flavourful skin. The chicken was mostly dry and only certain parts of the skin was crispy. It had a subtle flavour which we didn't mind. It was alright for what it was, although it was not very big. For me, I like the simple things and the Pancit Bihon would be one of them. It is simply a dish consisting of rice noodles stir-fried with veggies and meat (chicken, pork and shrimp in this case) with soy (this one had fish sauce as well). The noodles were cooked nicely exhibiting some chew while the veggies were still crisp. From the first bite, it was obvious that there was fish sauce. There was no absence of flavour and for me at least, there seemed to be a good amount of MSG.

By virtue of being considered a national dish, we had to order the Pork Adobo just because. In reality, there is nothing really all that special about the dish because it is merely pork stewed in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce and a few other ingredients. For some, they love it and for others, it's "meh". I fall into the "I don't mind" category. The one we had was actually not bad. I loved how they used rib meat where it retained a slight chew while being mostly tender. The flavour was pretty mild with only a small hit of vinegar. Lastly, we decided to try one breakfast dish being the Tapsilog. I've had tocilog before and this was pretty much the same except for the meat. This one was beef rather than pork. As with any silog, it includes fried egg and garlic rice. We found the meat to be rather dry, yet flavourful. The egg was fried beautifully with a runny yolk while the garlic rice was a big clumpy and not that garlicky. We found the service to be quite good despite all the poor reviews. In terms of the food, it wasn't bad. On the other hand, it wasn't exactly super impressive either.

The Good:
- A little bit of home for those from the Philippines
- A bit out of the ordinary for most other people
- The service has seemed to improve after a shaky start

The Bad:
- Not sure if the price points reflect value
- Food was okay, but nothing special

Good Friends

If we can refer to Kingsway as the Banh Mi Highway or "AutoBanh", then North Road should be considered Jap Chaeway (that is a really bad pun I know...). With so many choices for Korean food along the Burnaby-Coquitlam border (Burquitlam to be exact), Rich Guy, Rich Gal and I met up for lunch at Good Friends. For some reason or another, that was the first thing that came to mind. Was it the cool green signage in front? Or was it the non-Korean sounding name? I really am not sure. Sometimes, my choices are made irrationally where my fellow eating companions pay the price (both money-wise and food hazards). Whatever the case, we committed to it and there was no going back, even though construction in front made me enter through the back to get to the parking lot (which was an adventure, not sure if I would've not hit anything if it were dark).

Obviously, the previous restaurant that occupied the building was not Korean because the layout and seating was a bit strange. Moreover, it didn't help the already sparse service because each side of the restaurant was hidden from the staff. Don't get me wrong, the service was friendly, it was just not readily available when we needed it. When we finally got our order in, the Banchan arrived. This had to be one of the most one-dimensional array of banchan we've ever had. Each and every one of them were very similar in terms of appearance and taste. Sprouts or stewed potatoes, where did you go??? To be fair, we did get some stewed potatoes a little later (possibly they were not ready yet as they were pretty underdone).

For our mains, we had the Pork Bone Soup first arriving bubbling hot. Within the broth lay 2 massive pork bones with tender meat. The broth was only moderately spicy and was actually not bad. It exhibited a bone marrow creaminess which gave it body and depth. Normally, we'd get the dolset bibimbap, but we couldn't resist their lunch special. The regular Bibimbap was only $6.00 and when it arrived, the darn thing was huge. A very good value indeed. As you can clearly see, there was no absence of ingredients presented to us in what was the size of a medium mixing bowl. The rice was a touch wet (but that is our fault for not getting the dolset) while the ingredients were all the right textures. Not the best bibimbap we've ever had, except it was one of the cheapest.

When the Bulgogi was presented at our table, we were confused. What was with this wet mess on a cold hot plate? An oxymoron? No, it really was the bulgogi. Lacking in meat and in flavour, this was a fail. We couldn't figure out how to wrap it in the thin pieces of romaine hearts either. Huh? Yah, that pretty much sums up our experience here. It was "alright". I think if the prices weren't as reasonable, it would be a different story. With all the other choices for Korean food in the area, this would not be my first choice.

The Good:
- Decent portions
- Decent pricing

The Bad:
- Although kind, the service is lacking

Via Tevere

Where? A Neapolitan pizza joint on Victoria in a predominantly residential area??? That's what I thought when my sister-in-law mentioned it to me in passing. This was actually over a month ago when Via Tevere had not even opened for business. For some crazy reason, I thought it would be a great idea to go visit the place on its opening night right after Friday night hockey. Fail. We waited in line for about 20 minutes before deciding to ditch the plan. However, we all agreed that we'd try again some other night at a later date. So after Friday night hockey a month later, I suggested we give it another shot. Low and behold, Emilicious had already been to the place twice in the past week! *Gasp* She food cheated on us! Twice! Fine, we quickly forgave her since one could only hold out so long right? Well, it turned out for the better since her positive experiences convinced people to stay and wait for a table this time around.

We finally got a table after waiting for about 45 minutes. Lucky that we made the cut since they were just about to run out of dough. Since we had a big group of 9, only half of us were seated first. Emilicious, Gordo, Ginseng and myself went ahead and ordered things to share, in total disregard for the others (who were still outside waiting for a table). Hey, it's a dog-eat-dog world! Or in this case, it was only pizza, no dogs were involved. Rather than ordering 4 pizzas, we went for variety starting with the Frittura Neapoletana for 2. This appetizer platter consisted of fried pasta, potato, risotto balls and meatballs. For myself, I liked the fried pasta squares. It reminded us of fried mac 'n cheese. The noodles were sufficiently chewy while flavoured by the minimal amount of sauce. The risotto balls were crispy on the outside while the rice still had a very slight chew. They were crispy and cheesy on the inside. I wasn't a huge fan of the meat balls though. They were not really all that flavourful and the texture of the meat was quite soft.

Onto their specialty, we went with the classic Margherita which arrived with beautiful leoparding on the crust. The middle of the pizza was tender, yet not mushy while the edges were crisp, chewy and nutty from the burnt portions. The pizza dough was well-seasoned almost bordering on salty, yet not that overbearing. We really loved the San Marzano tomato sauce as it was balanced and flavourful. For our second pizza, we went with the most expensive being the Capricciosa consisting of prosciutto cotto, salame, artichokes, mushrooms and olives. Naturally, this was a collection of flavours which included the salty-tartness of the olives, Earthiness of the mushrooms and saltiness from the meats. Normally, I'm not a huge fan of so many toppings on a thin-crust pizza, but I did like this one.

In addition to the pizzas, we had the Pasta del Giorno which was the Penne Arrabiatta. With al dente pasta and just enough sauce to coat, this was a surprisingly good attempt (despite not being a pasta joint). There was a decent amount of spice to kick things up a notch while still maintaining a fresh tomatoness about it. Lastly for dessert, they ran out of their donuts, so we settled on the Risotto Pudding and Tiramisu. Although I'm not a huge fan of rice pudding per se, I didn't mind the Risotto Pudding. It was semi-sweet with real vanilla bean and orange zest (which also added some floral qualities as well). The rice was still chewy and overall, it was surprisingly "light". When we took a look-see at the Tiramisu, it appeared promising. Unlike many of the "cookie-cutter" pre-made frozen variety, this tiramisu was fresh and well-made. With lady-fingers soaked with a just-sweet-enough espresso hit and a balanced amount of marscapone cream, this was a much better than average tiramisu. At the end, we all agreed that Via Tevere was well worth the wait not only for the pizza, but for the great service and vibe as well.

The Good:
- Wood-burning oven, the right ingredients = good Neapolitan pizza
- Attentive service
- The place has a nice vibe

The Bad:
- The place is not very big, hence you most likely have to wait
- Parking in the area is not that great

Hi-Nippon

Other than softball season, I don't make it out to Kitsilano very often. However, we were in the neighbourhood and an eating opportunity awaited us. From all the great choices, we settled on Hi-Nippon. Huh? Seriously? Yes, we did. Why? Well, the kiddies like cooked Japanese food and hence, they held the trump card. Believe me, we tried to find something more interesting. Driving up Arbutus almost to Kerrisdale, then down Broadway almost to UBC, we couldn't decide on something. Finally, we just gave up and parked in front of Hi-Nippon. Don't get me wrong here, I have nothing against the place. It's just that when we have to settle on plan D or E, the excitement just isn't there.

By virtue of arriving pretty early for lunch, we got one of the window seats which allowed for good lighting. Believe me, Japanese restaurants and good lighting generally do not fit into the same sentence. Feeling less than inspired, I pretty much ordered whatever, beginning with a sushi combo which included a Spicy Tuna Roll and 2 pieces each of tuna, salmon and tai Nigiri. We found the sushi rice to be rather dry. On the other hand, the conservative use of the rice in the roll helped alleviate some of the textural issues. The rice was somewhat flavoured which also helped the cause. The fish was pretty good except for the tai (snapper). We realize that it is a chewier fish, but this was unusually tough. For good measure, we got their House Roll as well. Again, there was not a lot of sushi rice and plenty of filling (well, mostly imitation crab meat). Not a bad roll in the grand scheme of things.We had to get our usual order of Assorted Tempura because our kids love it. I mean they love the batter. Maybe we should just get them to give us a plate of tempura bits next time... Anyways, the tempura was light and crisp, however it was greasier than a Chinese kitchen floor. There was literally a pool of oil on the plate. Furthermore, the ebi was gummy and not that appealing texturally.

Now for the fail of the meal - the Tonkatsu Don. On appearance alone, it looked good with a huge pork chop and egg on top. But much like Jay Davidson in The Crying Game, wait... bad analogy... Okay, the pork chop was actually soggy, dry and chewy all at the same time. In fact, the coating slid off the pork. Furthermore, the pork and rice were not that flavourful except for some sweetness.The dish we got for the kiddies turned out much better. Arriving sizzling and bubbling, the Chicken Yaki Udon exhibited good caramelization and did so further on the hot plate. We liked how it wasn't wet where no liquid could be found on the bottom. Also, the noodles were chewy and well-seasoned. There was a good noodle-to-vegetable ration as well. The chicken was not exactly prepared properly though because the batter was mushy and clumpy.Hi-Nippon, to me, is somewhat of a curiousity. Looking at some of the reviews online, one would conclude that the stuff is fantastic. This was hardly the case. I wouldn't say it was bad per se, however, there is much better elsewhere. Funny thing is that all the food looked the part, but some just didn't cut it. I thought the sushi was much better than the cooked food. So it is quite possible a better overall experience could be had if one stuck with the sushi and sashimi.

The Good:
- Prices are decent for the area
- Service is friendly and attentive
- Sushi is okay

The Bad:
- Cooked food needs some work

Kwan Kee Noodle House

Unless you live in Surrey or you really love to travel for food, you'd never know about the Guildford T&T food court. I like to call it the mini-mini version of the Crystal Mall food court, except with a less-frustrating parking lot. Inside, you'll find a location of Ba Le, 2 Chinese food stands, a Korean stall and a wonton noodle joint. Since Mrs. Spray Bottle was under the weather, I promised to get some take out and bring her back a steamy bowl of wonton soup. And yes, I made my way out to Kwan Kee Noodle House which is within the T&T food court. The place is pretty much a one-man (actually it is a one-woman) show. So patience is needed while one waits for the food to be prepared. I decided to get a little of everything to sample their wares.

As mentioned, I got a bowl of Wonton Soup for Mrs. Spray Bottle. Unlike many wontons found in the burbs, these were comprised of shrimp only. They did look a little weird in colour and slightly strange in texture too. However, they were not bad since the shrimp filling had the proper snap texture. They were on the smaller side though. The broth was quite light while not being bland either. For myself, I went for the Sui Gau Noodles in soup (to be a little bit different than wontons). In actuality, the sui gau were pretty much the same as the wontons except being slightly bigger and with the addition of wood ear mushrooms. Hence, they exhibited the same qualities as the wontons with the added snap of the mushrooms. The wonton noodles were cooked al dente with a pleasant chewiness.

I also got the Assorted Offal as a side and honestly, I was a bit taken aback at the portion size. Not a whole lot for almost $8.00. Furthermore, it wasn't really all that good either. I found the tripe to be woefully overcooked, practically melting into nothingness. On the positive side, the spleen, lung and brisket were good (mmm... spleen...). Yet, the one thing that left a bad taste in my mouth (literally) was the sourness of the braising liquid. Not pleasant. Lastly, I had a bowl of Preserved Egg and Salted Pork Congee. Now this was pretty good. The congee base was thick and remained thick until the last spoonful. It was only lightly seasoned and did not reek of MSG. There was plenty of preserved egg and pork, which made the congee hearty. The pork had a nice texture, yet it could've been saltier.

I dunno. Is it just me? Maybe I'm just getting pickier. People swear by this place and in all honesty, the food was not bad for a food stall. However, some things could be better and I couldn't get over how awful the offal was (sorry for the pun). However, the place serves a purpose and the rest of the stuff is reasonably-priced and more than edible.

The Good:
- Convenient for take out
- Pretty good choice for a small food stall
- Not bad for its location

The Bad:
- Some items seem expensive for what you get
- There is better, but not necessarily nearby

Cindy's Palace

Ah yes, I remember Cindy's Palace. This is the place my mother-in-law refused to do a re-visit. There is a story behind this. You see, she had asked Viv to go out for Dim Sum one day. Instead of going to her standby (which is Fortune City - not that great by the way), she wanted to go somewhere different. Viv pleaded with her to not go somewhere new since I wasn't available to go. That way, we could all go to that "new" restaurant together. Nope, no can do, she insisted on going to Cindy's Palace, which incidentally is run by the former owners of Golden Phoenix (now Phoenix Garden). However, she assured Viv that she would gladly go again so I could try it out. Then on the day we were all supposed to meet up for Dim Sum, she suddenly had a change of heart and insisted we go to Fortune City! WTF? Her rationale? Cindy's was "meh". And Fortune City is good??? I swear she is bi-polar. Well, not trusting her thoughts about Cindy's, we made plans to go for Dim Sum with Guy Smiley and Girl Smiley to see for ourselves.

We arrived a touch past noon on a Saturday and of course there was a lineup. It wasn't bad though, only about 5 parties deep. Unfortunately, when we did get seated, it was the table right near the entrance. To say the seating arrangements were tight would be a huge understatement. The table right next to us couldn't get out unless one of us got up. To further complicate things, they do it ol' skool here with push carts. Consequently, we got our food almost all at once which completely cluttered up the table. I guess we could've not ordered everything, but c'mon, how could we resist? The first thing I took a picture of (yes, only picture-taking, no eating for me until that is done) was the Shrimp Spring Rolls. These were cut diagonally and plated nicely. It is hard to tell from the picture how big these really were. These were easily 1/2 times longer than most typical spring rolls. Furthermore, they were bursting at the seams with filling. It was a mix of chopped shrimp and mousse. The rolls were crispy and not greasy. Pretty good overall.

Next was the Blackbean Pork Spareribs which were on the chewier side. They were mildly seasoned with a predominant garlic flavour. The pieces were mostly of the rib variety with only a few that were cartilage. These were not bad. Something that was sorta bad was the Fried Squid. The darn things looked lifeless and unappetizing. And with one bite, yes, they were pretty awful. They were chewy and hard with a dense batter. There was hardly any flavour or spice. Only good thing about them was the lack of grease. Although I suspect that the batter merely soaked up the grease while the plate sat around getting cold.

Making us forget about the squid was the absolutely enormous Haw Gow (shrimp dumpling). These things barely fit into the bamboo steamer and had to be extracted
carefully. The dumpling skin was a touch firm whereas the shrimp filling had the proper texture. It was "bouncy" and had a nice snap. It could've used a touch more seasoning though. The Beef Meatballs continued the enormous theme as they also barely fit onto the sauce plate in the bamboo steamer. These had a good bounce texture where the meat was tenderized without becoming mushy. In addition, they were balanced in flavour where it was neither too salty nor too sweet (and just enough green onion). With the 2 large portioned dishes we just had, it was no surprise that the Sui Mai (pork & shrimp dumpling) was equally big. Again, these were crammed into the bamboo steamer and were actually stuck to each other. Unfortunately, much like Ron Jeremy, the only good thing about these was its size. First of all, the pork was over-tenderized and soft. Furthermore, the entire dumpling was loose and practically fell apart after the first bite. To top it all off, the shrimp didn't have a snap to it (albeit they were large whole shrimp). It did have a decent flavour though with a good mix of sweetness and savouriness.

Moving along to a non-gargantuan item was the Beef Rice Noodle Roll. The rice noodle itself was thin and soft without losing its structural integrity (did I just say structural integrity in reference to food?). Also, the beef filling was tender while retaining a meat texture. Something that we don't see that we don't really order anymore are the Fried Glutinous Rice Dumplings. It's not that we don't like them (in fact we love them), they are just not that healthy. Usually, these are pretty greasy since the glutinous rice flour absorbs a significant amount of grease. But with push carts coming around with them, well... resistance was futile. These were actually not really that greasy and were crisp and had a pleasing texture. the one thing we would've liked to see was just a bit more of the well-seasoned and non-gritty ground pork filling.

For some strange reason, the Soy-Fried Rice Noodle Rolls were nowhere as good as the steamed ones. These were very greasy and not all that appetizing. Yes, the colour was decent due to proper pan-frying and use of dark soy. However, the rolls themselves were hard, mealy and lifeless. Oh well, at least my son ate them. For once, we didn't order any offal, which made me feel offal (LOL... Sorry bad pun). On the other hand, we did get the Phoenix Talons (chicken feet), so the "odd food to some" quota was maintained. It was too bad that these chicken feet were pretty average. Most of them were not fried enough, so they were hard including the cartilage and gelatin underneath the skin. Therefore, it was hard to eat and really not appealing texturally. At the very least, the flavour was pretty good with lots of garlic.

Since the Dim Sum service was via push carts, we could somewhat control the food expedition. Hence, we got the Egg Tarts near the end of the meal as a dessert (not an appetizer, like most other Chinese restaurants...) These were light in colour in both the egg custard filling and flaky pastry. Therefore, the pastry was not as good as it could've been. It was still flaky in parts, yet in others, it was slightly doughy. The custard filling was a touch bland, but I like it that way more than being too sweet. These were alright. In general, Dim Sum at Cindy's was better than alright, yet there were some definite misses. But, based on the portion size and price point, Cindy's does offer good value. Of course there are compromises that need to be made, such as a lineup during peak hours (where the entrance really has not a whole lot of space to wait). Also, the seating arrangements are pretty tight due to the constraints of the existing building. Ultimately, our visit to Cindy's does prove one point though - it is better than Fortune City. So take that mother-in-law! LOL...

The Good:
- Large portions
- Reasonable pricing
- Push carts, if that is what you like

The Bad:
- Mostly decent eats, but some real misses
- Seating arrangements are not that spacious