All Entries in the "European" Category

Churros from Empanada Hut in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond

We are still searching for the perfect Churros in Metro Vancouver ever since we tried that great Spanish snack during our vacation in Spain this past summer.

So when Jonnek twitter’d me saying that he found Churros in Richmond, Suanne and I was pretty excited. BTW, did you know that we are on Twitter too? If you are interested to also follow us on Twitter, it is on http://twitter.com/chowtimes.

Our boys wanted to get the newly released Modern Warfare 2 from Best Buy (MW2 is an amazing game). So, we all took a drive to the Lansdowne Mall to pick up the game from Best Buy and then pop over to the food court to check out the Churros.

Jonnek informed us that the Churros can be found at the Empanada Hut.

Empanada Hut is famous for their empanadas. Having just had lunch, we decided not to try them although they looked very mouth-watering. Foodosophy did a write-up once on these empanadas, so you might want to check it out here.

Our mission here was the Churros. Here it is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe on Cambie and W17th, Vancouver

It’s breaky time again.

For a change we decided that we would go all the way to Vancouver to check out the Dutch style breakfast at the Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe. I still remember having eaten Pannekoek for breakfast when I was in Amsterdam two years ago.

Yeah, I know. Some people tell me that Pannekoek is eaten for lunch and supper, not breakfast in the Netherlands. But to us, it is pancakes and we Canadian eat pancakes for breakfast. :-)

The Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe is located on Cambie around the intersection with West 17th Ave. It’s easy to spot the restaurant. The outside has this faux Dutch windows with flower boxes.

The inside has a Dutch ambiance and coziness to it. But the place does look old. The dining room are partitioned into three distinct sections giving this large restaurant a small restaurant feel.

I heard that this very Dutch Wooden Shoe Cafe is the origin of the De Dutch Pannekoek House franchise that you find all over BC today. So, if you like De Dutch, you should check out the real deal here.

The restaurant has a very homey feel to it. It is haphazardly decorated with wooden clogs, paintings and Dutch posters. Along the wall, they have pictures of their past customers lined on a strip on the wall with cute comments written on them.

We started off with the normal coffee and hot chocolate. However on their menu, they have a half page showing the “GIANT” Coffee Mocha for $4.25. Yeah, they capitalized the word GIANT but at the same time they also put the word GIANT in close inverted commas. It was not in anyway giant, but is sure is “GIANT”. It was quite normal.

There is a large section on the menu dedicated to Pannekoeken (the word Pannekoeken is plural of Pannekoek). We all pestered Nanzaro to agree to get the Pannekoek because we wanted to order something other than Pannekoek. He flip-flopped a few times on what he wanted. First he wanted the Nasi Goreng (fried rice!) Pannekoek. Then he changed his mind to Curry before finally settling on the Cheese Lover’s Special.

The Cheese Lover’s Special has five different type of cheeses … Edam, Gouda, Swiss, Cheddar and Mozzarella. We felt that this is really expensive because to us it is just a thin layer of pancake with 3 slices of tomatoes on top of the cheeses. This one is $12.15. Their other Pannekoeken ranges from $11 to $13.

On every table is quite a large bottle of syrup meant for the pancakes. That all-black bottle stands out and so we had to try it on the pancake.

For me, I had the Nasi Goreng and Eggs ($10). You did not hear this wrong. The name Nasi Goreng is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Stepho’s Souvlaki Greek Taverna on Davie, Vancouver

I have always heard that Stepho’s Souvlaki Greek Taverna is popular and the lines were legendary. Still I was amazed with what I saw.

View Larger Map

Suanne and I decided to go to Stepho’s our Friday night out. Since we heard that the lines was long, we decided to be there early. We were already at Stepho’s at 4:45PM. I mean there should be no waiting for a table right? After all, how many people would eat at that time. Wrong!

While we did not have to endure waiting outside the restaurant, yet we still had to wait inside for 30 minutes. Shortly after we got seated, the lines began to form outside.

By the time we left at close to seven, the line stretches over to the neighboring shop! Amazing, everyone seems to be patiently waiting. I think this is at least an hour wait for these people … most likely more!

For these people there is a two-stage line. One is outside and a smaller group inside the restaurant. It took us 30 minutes just waiting inside the restaurant. So just imagine how long this line will take.

So Suanne and I was certainly excited to finally check out Stepho’s. It has all the signs of a very successful restaurant. For one, they had just celebrated their 20th anniversary last year. There were a lot of wait staff working at a furious pace. It seems like they barely are able to keep it all together.

The inside of the restaurant is larger than we thought. It was also very dark for the most part. It just happened that we were seated at the darkest table in the restaurant. I had to manually crank up the camera’s ISO setting to 1600. So the pictures here are rather grainy and soft.

I tried their Greek white wine. There is a name for this but I just can’t remember what it is now. I did not like it. It tasted somewhat coarse and dry. This is $5 for a glass.

You know what makes Stepho’s so popular? It’s their price and especially their humongous portions. Yet despite knowing that, we ordered an appetizer to share.

It is a Stepho’s creation called Toriboukes ($6) … or just cheese balls in English. It is served with … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Les Faux Bourgeois on Fraser and 15th Ave, Vancouver

Frank, my boss, came over to Vancouver a few weeks ago. The last time he flew in 5 months ago, we were wondering if he was coming to serve termination notices. That was because he did not state what his mission was. This time he came with a pre-announced agenda — he was here to conduct final interviews for more Project Managers. So no fears of losing our jobs anytime soon because all the projects is going to keep us busy for sometime. Good!

The last time Frank came, I brought him to Burgers Etc on Hastings. He absolutely loved that. He is not into fancy adventuresome Asian food which is a shame. I would have brought him to some memorable places. So I played safe and went to …

… Les Faux Bourgeois. It’s so hard to spell that Bourgeois word, not to mention pronouncing it!

I think it is pronounced as lay-foo bow-zu-ar … something like that.

And I think it is French for The Fake Middle Class.

For a French restaurant, Les Faux Bourgeois is located in an unlikeliest of places. For directions, I would say that it is at the intersection of Kingsway and Fraser but technically it is on 15th and Fraser. The place has a rustic feel with original structural details. This creates a certain charm which makes Les Faux different from other French Bistros.

Les Faux Bourgeois is perpetually booked solid. I used to make reservation on a Monday for a Friday and they would tell me they do not have tables anymore. I was lucky that day. It was a Thursday when I called at noon and they told me that’s the last table they have for the day. If you think of walking in, I don’t think its a good idea.

There was three of us. Gage joined us. He is not too much of an adventrous eater from what I see. He always has this big bowl of salad which he mix in the office.

We called a few drinks hoping to just relax after a few hectic days. And then we had to be told by our waiter that we have to leave by 7PM. He said that was the condition that they told us when they took my reservation. I did not recall being told that. We made no fuss over this but I thought I should let you know. I think they want to turn the tables fast.

I had the Corona. It is a Mexican beer, nothing French about it. What is this thing about the wedge of lemon on Coronas anyway? Is it a branding kind of thing for Corona? I don’t see this done for any other pale lagers. Is there a story behind this?

The bread came. It was absolutely marvelous. It is especially so when you see this … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Seville: La Alqueria Restaurant in elBulli Hotel, Hacienda Benazuza (Part 2 of 2)

This is the continuation of the Tasting Menu in La Alqueria. Yesterday, I blogged about the first 4 of 12 courses. Following the first 4 snacks and tapas courses, the next five courses are called simply dishes. This is considered the mains.

The 1st Dish is called the Avocado Cannelloni with Crab and Pumpkin Seed Oil Cream.

They brought the bread as they start the Dish courses. We had a choice of three bread, all warm. Suanne is so modest. When they brought it, she just took one. For me, I told them I wanted one of each. Guess what. Just as our server was about to leave she quickly said she wants the others too. We love the bread.

I had always thought that elBulli’s dishes are small. Some of them are as small as just a spoonful. So, it was a surprise that the Dishes are full mains.

It looked too pretty to eat. It does remind us of … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Seville: La Alqueria Restaurant in elBulli Hotel, Hacienda Benazuza

Suanne took a really long bath that afternoon before the dinner at La Alqueria. She was hogging the bathroom wanting to be the prettiest she could be for THE dinner in Spain. She is very inconsiderate. What about me? I want to look handsome too. I need to wash my hair and if I don’t dry it properly, my hair would stand out and look horrible.

Dinner was at 8:30PM. That is when they open for dinner. Dinner at 8:30PM is considered early for people in Spain. The hotel is about 18 km from Seville. 18 km only … remember that.

So we called for a taxi from the hotel as the restaurant is located virtually in the middle of surburb. The ride took longer than we expected. It was because it was a Friday afternoon and people were heading to the beach. The highway was jammed packed with cars.

We thought we get there early so that we can check out the grounds of the five star hotel that La Alqueria is located in. Turned that out we got there right on the dot because of traffic delays.

La Alqueria is located in a hotel called the Hacienda Benazuza elBulli Hotel. Check out their website at http://elbullihotel.com. The hotel is definite exclusive with room rates starting at €400 for low season! I almost wanted to stay at this hotel (OK, for just ONE night) to make sure we get a table at La Alqueria but as usual Suanne knock senses into me.

La Alqueria is a 2-star Michelin restaurant. To put things in perspective, there are only four 3-star and ten 2-star Michelin restaurants in Spain. The real elBulli in Roses near Barcelona is 3-star. This one is 2-star.

When we got there, the taxi driver said the total ride was €53. But the meter was saying about €40. He said that he gotta to charge extra because the elBulli hotel was out of the way. I wasn’t in the mood to challenge him but I should have. You will know why we were overcharged later on this post. After all it was just a 18km ride.

The La Alqueria is not a very big restaurant. We counted about 12 tables only. It is undoubtedly exclusive because despite the low number of tables, they only have 1 seating a night. They don’t turn the tables at all.

Alright, I know I mentioned this to death but I will mention it again for our reader who stumble onto this post. The elBulli near Barcelona had been the #1 restaurant in the world for many years. It is run by Ferran Adria who is the man who had the biggest influence on modern gastronomy of any chef in the world. The Times had said:

To describe elBulli as “a restaurant” is like describing Shakespeare as “a writer”.

The La Alqueria is opened in 1998 about five years after the original elBulli was built. elBulli achieved it’s 3-star Michelin rating a year before La Alqueria was opened.

We have a server assigned to out table. Oh boy, she is one serious no-nonsense dude. Very prim, very proper. Whatever you ask for she will say “very good”, “of course” and “immediately”. The thing is that her English is not too good. I had a problem understanding what she was saying and she had difficulty with my questions.

As soon as we got seated our server gave us cold towels. We … errr … did not know what to do with that. Wipe the hand? Wipe the face? What? So with our nose held up high, we used the towel to wipe our hands … but it would have been nice to wipe the face too.

The sommelier came next talking with us for … More on following page. Click here to continue reading

Seville: A Slow Day Before the elBulli Dinner

Well.

I am just so affected by what Brian said in the earlier post about bullfighting. I remember our tour guide at the Bullfighting Museum saying that it is a very passionate topic even in Spain itself. I really think Spaniards are cool people despite the bull and all. So I am not going to respond anymore to the rights or wrong of bullfighting. I have stated enough times my position.

Anyway … I had given way too much weight to this topic on chowtimes. I need to explain this. It is NOT that I wanted to glorify bullfighting. On the contrary I do not. Silly as it may seem, the truth is I wanted to show off the photos I took. You see, there are not many opportunities that I get to use my 70-200mm and I thought some of the shots came out well. That’s why there are so many posts and pictures.

Up until last night, I had wanted to publish one more on bullfighting. It is the one on about the matador who was gored on the neck. From the impact and the precious lost seconds before help came, the matador was completely motionless while bull went at him again and again. I hope the matador survived but it did not look good at all. Anyway, I had decided against putting up another post and instead had embedded the pictures at the bottom of the post here. The password is iagree if you want to see them. Be warned OK?

Changing gears …

Today is our last full day in Seville. There is not a lot of places we wanted to visit. Seville is not really big, certainly not like Barcelona in any sense. There are other places like Isla Magica and all that we could visit in Seville. However, Suanne is not keen on theme parks and neither was I while in Spain. So we took it easy.

This is also the day we will be having dinner in an elBulli restaurant. It is not elBulli but it is the closest to the real deal. More about that later.

Brunch was at a restaurant called Al Alcantina which was recommended by the hotel conceirge. This is located around the central square in Seville historic city center.

We had a table outside the restaurant. Our waitress was really friendly and helpful. No bread here … they served us those thingy above. It was rock hard and definitely on the dry side. We took a couple and then left it alone.

The waitress recommended the Ensaladilla La Alcantina which she said was the prize winner of the Best Classic Tapas in the 2003 Seville Fair of Tapas. Sure, we said … it was worth a try.

€8.70 is how much it costs. It was creamy, served cold and refreshing — absolutely marvelous. We had never had these before. I think it is made with mayo with potatoes and some vegetables.

The puzzling thing is how could this have been classified as tapas?  So I did some research and indeed it is considered as SPANISH tapas despite the Russian word in the name.

We had Paella the previous day but got this again. The waitress was persuasive saying that their Paella is different. OK, we said.

The name of the dish is Arroz en paella marinea del dia. €8.70.

We like this paella better. It was drier than those we had earlier which had sauces at the bottom of the plate which makes it so mushy. It was also flavorful. Suanne said the rice was cooked al dente. I thought the word al dente refers only to pasta.

Bill came to €21.60. It is considered OK given that things are more expensive in Spain. If  I convert this to Canadian, this is over $30. Now that is expensive, right?

We tried to use the Sevilla Card which is supposed to give us a 10% discount. It took a while before our waitress sorted this out with the card issuer. It appears that our card has the “cultura” on it and that does not come with restaurant discounts.

Don’t get the Seville card.  It was not worth it.

After the lunch, we went to this church. It was nothing to shout about really after having seen the Cathedral of Seville. We did not spend a lot of time here.

Let’s talk about el Bulli.

I think I shared about this in chowtimes before. The book above is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading