Toulouse Petit

Normally, when I'm out-of-town, restaurant revisits are not on the top of my list.  However, if the food is memorable enough, it could warrant a second go-around.  This was the case after our 6-hour BBQ Certification Course.  Since we were not exactly hungry as we downed a good amount of BBQ meat, we ended up visiting Toulouse Petit (conveniently open late) at 9:00pm.  It was the first ever visit for Grace, but as mentioned, this was a revisit for myself.

While looking over the extensive menu, it occurred to me that the best value was their build-your-own 3-course meal.  I chose the Local Crab & Red Grapefruit Salad as my starter.  Topped with a big chunk of avocado, fennel, baby tomatoes, arugula and pistachios, the whole thing was tossed in a champagne vinaigrette.  This was well-dressed being peppery, savory and acidic.  Flavors were bright and fresh while textures were varied including the smoothness of the avocado, juiciness of the grapefruit and the crunch from the pistachios.  As for the ample crab, it was firm and a bit salty.  Also loved the hits of basil too.

Staying with crab, I had the Fried Green Tomatoes topped with fresh dungeness crab and tarragon-chive ravigote.  The picture doesn't do this dish justice as there was a tonne of firm, yet still fluffy crab on top.  I found the green tomato to be firm which held up to the crispy cornmeal batter.  It was crunchy while staying intact and adhered to the tomato even after cutting through with a knife.  The ravigote was very "tartar" sauce-like being creamy and acidic.  I liked the faint flavor of anise with the tarragon as well as the sharpness of the onions.

For my main, I went for the Toulouse 9 oz. USDA Prime Ribeye Steak Frites.  This was beautifully prepared medium-rare.  It was properly rested where the juices remained mostly in the steak even after my first few cuts.  On top, there was a cajun stilton butter that was zesty, spicy and pungent.  This added plenty of flavor to compliment the natural meatiness of the ribeye.  As for the frites, they were thin and crispy with not a whole lot of potatoness left.  I didn't mind though as I like my frites crunchy throughout.

Grace decided on the Big Easy Jambalaya which arrived as a pretty impressive portion.  One bite and the spice level was impactful without killing the dish. There was a nice depth-of-flavour where the andouille sausage added even more body.  Loved the ample meaty shrimp as well.  One thing I didn't like about the dish was the slightly bitter finish. We never really did finish everything and it was a good thing I didn't order any more dishes (although I really wanted to!).  I guess there will be another revisit because there is so much more that I want to try off the menu.

The Good:
- Impactful flavours
- Well-portioned
- Attentive service

The Bad:
- Heavy and on the greasier side (but no one said Creole food was light)

How to Cook a Wolf

On my recent trip to Seattle for the purposes of getting my PNWBA BBQ Judge Certification (yes, that is a real thing), Grace and I decided to stop by an Ethan Stowell restaurant.  Deciding between the 12 of them was a difficult decision, but we finally settled on How to Cook a Wolf out on Queen Anne.  Luckily we made a rez even though we arrived after 9:00pm as the place was still pretty busy.  The menu was pretty simple consisting of items to share from small-to-large.  We ended up doing 4 of them between the 2 of us.

Beautifully plated and vibrant in appearance, the Hamachi Crudo ate as good as it appeared.  The slices of hamachi were buttery while still retaining a fresh meatiness.  Although naturally sweet, the hamachi was dressed with a blood orange granita with sorrel and apple.  Hence the flavors were further enhanced by a sweet tanginess accented by the bright tartness of the sorrel.  Adding texture to the dish was the apple and crispy puffed rice.  From light, we went to heavy with the Seared Pork Belly with romesco, green onion puree, charred spring onion and crispy lemon.  We found the belly to be meaty and buttery with a crispy exterior.  It was well-seasoned while exhibiting a rich roasted flavor.  There was a noticeable spice and tang to the romesco sauce which was accented by the caramelized onions as well as the bright puree.

Continuing on with meat, we had the Grilled Hanger Steak prepared a beautiful medium-rare.  It was served with wilted leeks, mint gremolata, peas and fennel.  Since it was cooked to the desired doneness, the meat was relatively tender (for hanger steak) and full-flavoured (also since it was hanger steak).  The pop from the peas were appealing and sweet, however, we felt the dish could've benefited from more lemon in the gremolata though.  We ended off with the Conchiglie with pork sausage, tomato, kale and grana padano.  The pasta was firmly al dente and served smoking hot.  Furthermore, it was spicy hot too with an equal amount of acidity and meatiness from the ample sausage.  Loved the chewy kale as well.  This was a nice end to the meal which was pretty solid on all fronts.

The Good:
- On point proteins
- Attentive service
- Flavorful

The Bad:
- Flavorful, but a touch salty
- Very dark, hard to see the menu and the food

Kul Cup Organic Soft Serve Ice Cream

You knew it would be inevitable...  Whenever something new lands in Vancouver and ultimately becomes successful, there will be an array of other choices.  The resurgence of soft-serve ice cream, outside of DQ and the one at the PNE, started with Soft Peaks and has influenced a few new competitors.  Now we can add another in Kul Cup on Main and 12th which sports the same base of organic Avalon Milk.  But before we make a direct comparison, Kul Cup offers up different flavour combinations as well as fresh fruit.  I recently attended a tasting organized by Jacqueline, where we tried everything on the menu.

We began with a trio that included Matcha Slim, Swiss Bliss and Honeycomb.  From my first spoonful, it was readily apparent that Kul Cup tasted different than Soft Peaks.  It was still creamy and rich, but there was a bit more sweetness and a noticeable bigger impact from the milk powder (offering up big milk flavours).  Of the 3 in the picture, my favourite was the Swiss Bliss with Swiss milk chocolate, chocolate sauce and crunchy stick.  Despite the visuals, it wasn't overloaded with sweetness, rather, the chocolate really came through.

The next 3 sported the Magic Cookies, Caramel Popcorn and Fancy Macaron. I really enjoyed the caramel popcorn as it added a buttery sweetness as well as an aromatic popped corn essence to the creamy soft-serve.  Sure it was sweet, but the sugary firm crunch was the perfect compliment.  As the name implied, magic cookies consisted of Oreo bits and chocolate sauce.  I liked the texture of the bits, but the chocolate sauce made things rather sweet.  Lastly, the fancy macaron was more of a novelty as it was placed on the side.  I did enjoy the toasted almonds as it added both a crunch and aromatics.

Our last 4 consisted of Raspberry, Summer Love, Tropical Dream and Avocado.  As much as it seemed like a weird combo, the best of the bunch was the Avocado since it added another element of creamy richness as well as a mild flavour.  The toasted coconut was aromatic and appealingly crunchy.  The summer love was no slouch either with a combination of pistachios, cashews and macadamia finished with caramel sauce.  Definitely nutty, crunchy and mildly sweet.

Something unique ended things off with the Green Island featuring a large half cantaloupe with a good amount of soft serve in the middle topped with caramel sauce and toasted almonds.  This was rather refreshing and of course fruity.  I wasn't convince at the combination of soft serve with cantaloupe, but it was fine.  I didn't think the almonds were necessary though.  Overall, I liked most of the combinations with the soft-serve with the avocado, caramel popcorn and Swiss bliss being my personal favourites.

*All soft serve desserts were complimentary*

The Good:
- Creamy and rich organic Avalon milk soft-serve
- Good use of fresh fruit

The Bad:
- Although not unique to Kul Cup, prices are on the higher side
- A bit sweeter than the competition      

Dinesty (Burnaby)

At one point, I was convinced that Dinesty had one of the best XLBs in town, if not the best.  That could still be partially true, yet on my recent XLB crawl in Richmond, there were better choices.  In terms of their other dishes, I found them to be generally pretty good.  Now as a restaurant chain begins to expand, consistency becomes more and more elusive.  This is especially true with all forms of Chinese food (other cuisines as well, but in this case, we're talking about Shanghainese/Taiwanese), when there is a whole lot of "feel" to the cooking method rather than formula.  We tested this theory out by visiting the newly opened Burnaby location on Kingsway.

The first dish to arrive was the Shanghai Stir-Fried Rice Cake.  It was glistening due to the liberal amount of oil used to keep it from sticking to the wok.  As much as there was evidence of wok heat and caramelized dark soy, the actual sliced rice cake was overcooked.  No longer did it exhibit the classic chewiness, rather, it was soft and nearly melting in texture.  I don't think I've run into this as long as I can remember.  Next was the small portion of a Hot & Sour Soup.  I found the colour to be rather pale, but the flavour was far from bland.  In fact, there was an unbalanced amount of vinegar which made the soup too sour.  I did enjoy the spiciness though.  There was plenty of ingredients such as wood ear mushrooms, tofu and pork.  However, the pork did not retain any meaty chewiness.

Presented in a big bowl, the Beef & Tendon Noodles were indeed well-portioned.  I found the broth rather flavourful yet missing a bit of depth at the same time.  The slippery noodles were on point being al dente.  I enjoyed the slices of beef shank as they were meaty and fall-apart tender.  The tendon was unfortunately in small pieces, albeit, completely soft.  Due to a past positive experience with the Tea-Smoked Duck at the Robson location, we got an order here as well.  I guess consistency is actually an issue with different locations as this one was not very good.  Although the skin was crispy and well-rendered from the deep-fry, the duck meat was dry and stringy.  There was a noticeable smokiness to the meat as well as plenty of saltiness.

On the other hand, the 3 Cup Chicken did not suffer the same fate as the meat was succulent and super-tender.  It was bathed in a sauce that had a balanced amount of sweetness and tang.  This would've gone well with a bowl of rice, if we had ordered any!  Since the kiddies have developed a love for Xiao Long Bao, we got 2 steamers worth.  Good call as the kiddies ate one steamer between the both of them.  Exhibiting the classic thin dumpling skin with only a touch of doughiness from the top twirl, these XLBs were decent.  Much like the Richmond location, the meat was on the grittier side and very loose.  There was a decent amount of soup inside which bordered on salty, but was still balanced off by sweetness.

Our last dish was the Potstickers which featured a medium-thick dumpling skin.  The bottom had been crisped up where it was slightly crunchy.  The filling was a combination of moist pork and cabbage.  I wouldn't say these were good or bad though.  I just may ordered something else instead like the pan-fried pork buns.  So as you can see, the food at the Burnaby location of Dinesty is average at best.  Could it be that it is new and still needs to work out the kinks?  Possibly, but consistency seems to be an issue.

The Good:
- Nice dining space
- Service was okay with all things considered
- Prices seem okay for the portion size

The Bad:
- Hit and miss food
- Greasy
- Lack of parking  

Basil Garden Pho

Hey, another Pho joint!  Yes, that is as exciting as watching someone parallel park in Richmond...  We randomly decided to visit the newly opened Basil Garden Pho on Renfrew and Broadway after Sunday morning hockey.  Unlike many of the existing Vietnamese restaurants in town, Basil Garden is following the trend of purpose-built and decorated spaces rather than a dive that still resembles the old Italian or Greek restaurant that resided at that location.  Grace ended up joining us for no apparent reason, but that meant more food too!

So, whenever I see Garlic Butter Wings on a menu, I just have to order it since I inherently want to compare them with Phnom Penh (say what you will, but I still like them).  Well, these ones were crispy, but the skin was not rendered enough for my liking.  The meat was succulent and juicy though.  Although there was some aromatics, the wings were too mild-tasting with very little evidence of garlic.  I also got the Banh Mi Dac Biet to share with Milhouse and it was decent.  We found the bread to be crusty and only a touch dense.  Inside, there was enough meat and pickled veggies for texture and flavour.  Also, there was enough fish sauce for the necessary saltiness.

JuJu decided to add the Salad Roll since sharing a few wings wouldn't suffice.  It looked okay from the outside and in fact was decent with the usual vermicelli noodles, shrimp and lettuce encased in a nicely texture rice paper wrap.  However, we would've liked to see more pork and some basil to elevated the flavours and textures.  For my main, I went for the Lemongrass Chicken, Egg Meatloaf and Shredded Pork with Rice.  This was a fairly large portion with tender on-the-bone chicken that was aromatic and sweet.  I didn't like the egg meatloaf as it was hard and dense.

Grace and Kaiser Soze both had the Pho Dac Biet with the strange choice of egg noodles.  Hence, this ate much differently in terms of texture (being more hearty and filling).  As for the broth, it was clean and light with a somewhat overbearing amount of star anise finish.  The meats were fairly plentiful and sliced super thin (being tender).  Milhouse had a hard time deciding what to order, so he went for something with variety in the Spring Rolls, Grilled Pork Patty and Pork Skewers with Vermicelli.  This was fairly good with well-prepared ingredients including crispy spring rolls with legit rice paper, moist and sweet pork patty and tender and well-charred skewer.

Now you didn't think JuJu would be satisfied with just a salad roll did you?  Of course not, he also had the Dry Noodles with the usual toppings (partly obscured by the greens).  Unlike the one at Phnom Penh, this one wasn't as flavourful, but the noodles were on point, as well as the rest of the ingredients.  Overall, we thought the food at Basil Garden Pho was decent, but could definitely benefit from further refinement.  Understandable though as the place is brand-spanking new.

The Good:
- Clean and inviting space
- Well-portioned
- Nice people

The Bad:
- Further refinement needed