Taste of Vietnam

Is there a difference between Westside Pho and Eastside Pho?  I posed this question to Rich Guy as we were having lunch at Taste of Vietnam.  Really, there are not a whole lot of Vietnamese restaurants on the Westside of Vancouver.  Of course the cost of rent and doing business is one reason and another could be the demographics.  Then, realistically there should be, at the very least, some tweaks in the menu to appeal to the locals.  That basically will lead me into my usual rant about how restaurants tailor their menu to the common denominator. They are not really all that interested in pleasing a few bloggers, food snobs or haters in general.  They are out to make money (to feed their own family) and will do whatever it takes to attract customers.  So as we ate our meal, we tempered our expectations.

We started with the Banh Mi which was somewhat similar to the ones from Viet Sub in that there was some sweet sauce slathered throughout.  Rich Guy wasn't fond of it and longed for a more Ba Le type version. I personally didn't mind it as there was enough butter-mayo and plenty of crunch from the carrots (were a bit bland though) and cucumber.  Furthermore, the bread was toasted nicely being crunchy and airy. The amount of meat was chintzy though.  Arriving with considerable sauce, the Fried Chicken Wings were not what we were expecting.  However, it turned out to be pretty tasty with a sauce that had all the flavours including salty, sweet, tart and spice.  The wings themselves were moist and juicy, but the amount of sauce made the skin wet.

For our mains, we shared the Lemongrass Chicken on Rice first.  This looked pretty typical and did the job.  The portion size was decent with 2 pieces of boneless chicken.  It was charred properly, tender and flavourful.  Nothing exciting, yet nothing bad either.  And of course we'd get a bowl of the Pho Dac Biet.  Well, at least I did and Rich Guy had some.  He was pretty full at this point...  Pfft...  Well, the broth was pretty light and didn't have much impact.  We got a bit of sweetness, but not much else.  There was a modest amount of rice noodles and meat. It was pretty average. In the end, Taste of Vietnam did the job at a reasonable price (considering its location).  Obviously there is better Vietnamese to be found on the Eastside and in Surrey, but they are a serviceable option for the lunch crowd.

The Good:
- Okay food
- Reasonable pricing considering the location

The Bad:
- Pho is pretty average
- And of course due to the higher operating costs, portions and prices can't compete with East Van joints

Sen Bistro

*Restaurant is now closed*

If one wanted to find some good Xiao Long Bao in Vancouver (and I mean only Vancouver, because there are just as good or better in Richmond), then Lin Chinese Cuisine would come to mind.  Yah, the place is pretty basic with its dark Creamsicle-coloured walls, super tight seating and overall afterthought decor.  That is somewhat ironic when you look at their latest venture.  You see, they took over the old location of Posh on Broadway at Burrard and did little to change it (including the big exhausts above each table because they still offer Sukiyaki?!?!).  Hence, they inherited a modern-looking dining space that apparently has inspired their menu as well.  I was invited, along with many others, to check out what they were cooking up at their new place named Sen Bistro.

We started off with an appetizer sampler consisting of Celery & Dried Scallop, Lotus Root and Chicken Salad with spicy peanut dressing.  Served on the side was Broad Bean & Sherchai Mash.  I liked the celery as it was vibrant and had a nice crunch while the dried scallop offered up some saltiness which combined well with the sesame oil.  However, I found the lotus root marinated in a strawberry pickling liquid to be strange.  I enjoyed the crunch, but wasn't a fan of the sweet sryupiness of the liquid.  As for the chicken salad, the main problem was the meat itself.  It was stringy and dry which ended up being quite mealy when eaten.  Too bad really since the sauce was pleasant enough with a smooth peanut hit with only a hint of spice.  Despite the visuals, the bean & sherchai mash grew on me as I ate more of it.  It was smooth and salty with bits of crunch.

Next up was the Sticky Rice Sui Mai which looked better than it ate.  I found the filling gummy with an equally doughy wrapper.  I found the flavours to be rather bland despite the appearance of shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage.  The accompanying dish was much more flavourful being the Salt & Pepper Crunchy Tofu.  The plethora of peppers, onions, garlic and chilis really amped up the flavour quotient.  However, I found the tofu to be too crunchy.  But that could've been the whole point.  So chalk it up to personal preference.  From flavour explosion to completely mild, we had the Chicken, Enoki & Shiitake Soup. This was okay where the broth was sweet, yet somewhat bland.  The ingredients were good though, especially the crunch from the snow peas.

Onto the entrees, we began with a visually impressive offering in the Flambé Salmon. In reality, it didn't do much for the final product, which was "alright".  The fish was cooked slightly past what I would've liked (however, we took our time to take pictures, which meant the fish cooked longer on the hot plate).  On top, there was a red pepper sauce with fried garlic.  It was a curious flavour which was slightly sweet and a bit tart.  Not particularly plated in an attractive manner, the Braised Pork with pumpkin in soybean paste hit our table.  I found the belly to be melt-in-our-mouths worthy, yet we were wondering about the pumpkin - it didn't seem to go.  The sauce was a little on the sweet side as there was a bit too much hoisin mixed in with the soybean paste.  Steamed Buns and Pan-Fried Pancakes were served on the side. The buns were pretty standard while the pancakes were crispy, greasy and slightly dense.

Something a bit more traditional arrived next - Golden Honey Prawns and Garlic Chili Prawns.  I found the honey prawns to be slightly overdressed, but in the end, they had a nice snap and were sweet.  The chili prawns had less snap, yet had a richer flavour profile consisting of sweet, salty and spicy.  Moving away from the proteins, we had the Wok-Fried Vegetables which consisted of eggplant, snap peas, mushrooms and carrots.  Due to the large amount being prepared, the veggies got a bit mushy.  As evidenced from the glistening sheen, the whole dish was greasy.  I did like the addition of vinegar as it brightened up the flavours.

For dessert, we were served Pumpkin Pudding with a yam ball and a chocolate Pocky stick???  Yes, a look of bewilderment was had by all.  Sadly, I didn't like this pudding at all as it didn't have an appealing texture since it was dense.  And personally, I'm not a huge fan of pumpkin. Secondly, we had the Glutinous Rice Balls filled with either strawberry jam or ground peanuts & sugar.  I got the latter which was not bad.  The jam really didn't go and was rather unappealing. The pumpkin dessert, in essence, exemplified our meal - confused.  I do appreciate the effort put forth by the chef as it would be really easy to just replicate the menu from Lin.  However, I thought the food missed the mark.  I also think that retaining the Sukiyaki setup further adds to the confusion.

*Note: This was an invited dinner where all food was comped*

The Good:
- Comfortable digs
- Give them props for trying to be different

The Bad:
- I wasn't even sure what cuisine I was eating
- The Sukiyaki needs to go

Ace Burger

While we were dining at Cardero's (which was on my birthday), we decided that Milhouse deserved a birthday meal of his own.  Due to our hockey schedule, the only time where Gordo, Lionel Hutz and myself could do this was on a night of an 11:00pm game.  Great, the only options afterwards would be Denny's (*shiver*) and Knight & Day (*double shiver*).  So it is no secret that Milhouse loves burgers, so a late-night burger joint was probably our best bet (thus, no Asian food).  Open until 3:30am, Ace Burger was just the place that we were looking for.  Formerly Sunset Burgers, gone are the "Kobe" burgers and in with bigger patties, yet slightly higher prices.

We decided to share a bunch of sides to go with our burgers starting with the Fries, which were fresh-cut and fried beautifully.  They were lightly crisp with a pleasant starchiness that is consistent with Kennebec potatoes.  After trying out the plain fries as a baseline of sorts, we proceeded to have the Poutine with a good amount of cheese curds and beef gravy. There was a good combination of melted curds and non-melted ones.  These were decent curds as they exhibited a slight squeak (not a huge one though).  The beef gravy was thick, rich and a touch salty.  We felt it went well with the fries and cheese curds.  An above-average poutine in my books.  Our last side was the Tempura Battered Onion Rings with tzatziki.  These large suckers were crunchy and not overly greasy, but the onion inside was slightly firm.  Hence, when we bit into them, the batter slid off and we were left with a barely cooked piece of onion.  Despite being labeled as "tempura-battered", there appeared to be panko bread crumbs mixed in which provided a nice texture and crunch.

Seeing how we were celebrating Milhouse's birthday, we encouraged him to get the biggest and baddest burger on the menu.  This turned out to be the Royal Ace consisting of two beef patties, cheddar cheese, bacon & ketchup.  We added a fried egg to it for good measure and to test his tolerance to more cholesterol.  As you can tell, this burger was too big for anyone to actually put their mouth around.  Even after attempts to squish it down to a manageable size, it turned out to be a fork and knifer.  And if you can imagine, the darn thing was cheesy, greasy and probably took a few years off Milhouse's life.  He enjoyed it though, remarking how moist the patties were.  For myself, I went for something different in the Lamb Burger consisting of a "Lam" patty (I thought only Chinese menus had spelling mistakes... or was this a Chinese lamb?), Feta cheese, "tatziki" sauce (2 errors in the same description!), cucumber & lamb sauce.  I found the patty to be moist and plenty lamby.  The addition of feta and tzatziki made for a Greek-tasting burger.

Both Lionel Hutz and Gordo had the Original Ace Burger with cheese.  And according to both, their patties were moist as well while cooked all the way through - a good sign of consistency.  Loved the copious amount of melted cheese too.  One thing I would've liked to see was a more creative bun.  It seemed a bit generic.  So as you can ascertain, our meal was not bad.  I would probably hit up some other burger joints before Ace, but if it were a late night or an early morning, Ace would be a decent option.

The Good:
- Decently-sized burger patties
- For us, they were cooked properly
- Open late

The Bad:
- A little pricey
- Onion rings could be cooked a bit longer or not sliced as thick

Pearl House Restaurant

Playing late-night hockey in Richmond usually affords Gordo and I the opportunity to eat in Richmond afterwards. It works out for us because we are not normally in the courtesy-car capital of BC. However, Gordo just wasn't feeling it this time. He still wanted to do late-night eats. He just wasn't digging the whole Richmond thing. Apparently, our last visit to Yummy Cafe left a bad taste in his mouth, literally and figuratively. Therefore, he wanted to leave Richmond for Burnaby instead. Slight problem. Although there are late-night spots in Burnaby, there are few and far in-between. Originally, he suggest The One, but gosh, I've been to that place far too many times. I needed something different. The only place I could come up with was Pearl House which was just a bit further down on Kingsway.

Yet another Taiwanese joint, it was perfect since Gordo was in the mood for bubble tea and TBN. And as per usual, he started off with a beverage, being the Strawberry Mango Slush. This was served in a large cup which couldn't even hold all of it. Reminiscent of The One, it was a highrise of slush. It was certainly blended well-enough, but it was super sweet. It masked the fruit flavours. And referring to my MO, I had the Chicken Nuggets to start. These were large and indeed very crispy. Chicken was moist and there was definitely a salty, peppery and 5 spice thing going on. This was good. As expected, Gordo went for the Beef Sirloin Noodle with wide noodles. The noodles were toothsome. By virtue of choose wide noodles, they maintained their chewiness throughout. The beef was moist and tender where he pretty much didn't need to chew. The soup had a bit of spice and plenty of seasoning. There wasn't a huge amount of depth, however, it was a respectable bowl of TBN.

For my main, I had the Stewed Pork Belly with rice. This was prepared nicely with 3 large slices of stewed pork belly. The meat was not completely melt-in-my-mouth, but the fat did. It was gelatinous and had everything one would look for in stewed pork belly. The skin itself was really good with just the slightest amount of bite which yielded to fatty goodness. The whole thing exhibited a rich flavour (5 spice and star anise) with full of depth. This reminded me of my dad's stewed pork recipe, which gave the entire dish a home-cooked quality to it. Our visit to Pearl House essentially exorcised the demons of Yummy Cafe. The food was pretty decent and did the job for late-night. Definitely an option for Burnaby.

The Good:
- Decent eats
- Okay service
- Okay prices

The Bad:
- Modest portion sizes

Won Jo BBQ & Noodle Restaurant

I'm sure it is not lost upon most people that attractive restaurant exteriors can be a determining factor when it comes to eats.  That is especially true if it is a random meal.  As much as I generally let the food do the talking, there are times I am susceptible to the "glitzy" allure of some places.  And those lineups...  People lining up for food, it must be good right?  Just like freezing your ass off in a lineup to get into a club...  To find out it is empty...  Hmm...  Well, this was not the case with this food adventure.  Won Jo, located on North Road (aka Korean food central), cannot be any further from "sexy".  In a seemingly desolate strip mall in, the place never looked inviting to me. However, I just needed to try it, especially since I started my mission to try all the Korean restaurants in Burquitlam.

Now, with cars parked in the front, the place looked slightly more enticing.  However, most people park at the back, which doesn't give the impression anyone is in the restaurant.  Walking into the place, the interior was much more typical, in a Korean restaurant sort-of-way.  We grabbed a seat and quickly decided on some items.  You see, that wasn't very hard since the menu is super simple with only a few items available.  From that small menu, we had the Mal Mandu first.  These boiled little dumplings were very good.  The dumpling wrapper was soft, yet still keeping a slightly chewy texture at the same time.  The filling was predominantly moist pork with only a few chives mixed in.  Surprisingly, the Banchan was plentiful and well-prepared.  There was kimchi, pickled daikon, sprouts, stewed potatoes, broccoli, seaweed and pickled onion.  Furthermore, they served us a big urn of spicy turnip.

Having had a pleasing bowl of Beef Rib Soup recently at Jong Ga, I decided to order it again, albeit with noodles.  Generally, the soup comes pretty mild, so I did what I usually do (which was to add salt).  The beef was pretty tender while the noodles were thin and soft. Moving along, we ended up trying out the BBQ with Chicken and Beef.  Despite the appearance of very little marinade, the meat did char nicely on the grill and was adequately flavourful.  Furthermore, the meats seemed to be pretty decent quality as well. Alas, I wasn't able to try their noodle hot pots (as they are quite popular), but if the food we sampled is any indication of everything else, there is no doubt we'll be back.

The Good:
- Solid eats and good portions
- Reasonably-priced
- Friendly, if not sparse service

The Bad:
- Sparse service
- Limited menu

East is East Contest Winner!

Congratulations to Kristina P for winning the $75 to spend at East is East!  Please contact me at admin@shermansfoodadventures.com so I can mail it out to you!  Remember to go eat lots, even more than I did!

MBA 168 BBQ Enterprises Ltd.

On a recent visit to my favourite Chinese bakery (Karmony), I noticed a BBQ joint next door. Great, I could continue my search for the best Chinese BBQ outside of HK BBQ Master. But what is up with the name? MBA 168 BBQ? So one needs a Masters in Business Admin to make Char Sui??? I've heard of numbered companies, yet I didn't get this name. Oh well, it really doesn't matter what the place is called right?  Otherwise, why would places like Pho Bich Nga and Fook Yue ever existed in the first place.  At least they didn't name the place Burgoo BBQ or something like that...

From what I could gather, the Roast Pork was exclusively the belly which I prefer. Roast pork is not roast pork if it is lean and chewy. As per usual, I asked for a pound of it and it turned out to be pretty decent.  Of course it doesn't hold a candle to HK BBQ Master, but the crackling was crunchy and light while the meat was moist and fatty.  It wasn't too salty and there was a good amount of roast pork flavour. As for the BBQ Pork, I went for the half and half, which is a fattier cut of meat. In turn, the pork was not dry. Yet, it was hardly moist. It was obviously marinated for awhile which made the meat somewhat salty and not "meat-like". It had an overprocessed texture and flavour in my opinion. Lastly, I got half a BBQ Duck which had the similar over-marinaded texture and flavour as the BBQ pork. The meat was a tad too salty while having that non-duck-like texture, including the breast meat.  It was as if they brined the duck too long.  So other than the roast pork, the other 2 items were mediocre at best.  It would be better to hit up Kent's Kitchen up the street instead.

The Good:
- Reasonable pricing
- Roast pork is not bad

The Bad:
- BBQ pork and duck are overprocessed