Chow Times » Fast Food

Churros from Empanada Hut in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond

Ben — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:32:52 +0000

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 …
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Japadog in Downtown Vancouver

Ben — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 12:30:54 +0000

Street food is the pits in Vancouver.

As far as I know there are nothing but hot dogs that are allowed on the streets. It is kind of sad right? With such a cosmopolitan population, there are so much potential to make Vancouver the mecca of street food. Already we are probably one of the best in terms on ethnic cuisine in North America but for street food, it is the pits … with one exception.

Despite this limitation imposed on street food vendors by the city health authorities, we do have something that we could be proud of.

When Anthony Bourdain came to Vancouver, the one thing he chose to feature was Japadog (wind to the 7th minute of the youtube above). I might be wrong but I think Japadog is uniquely Vancouver.

Japadog started off with a storm at the corner of Burrard and Smithe in downtown Vancouver. Back then, the long queues were a spectacle. There were people who would stand in line for 30 minutes just for a hotdog.

When I was there recently, there was no queue. Maybe it was because they were forced to move across the street due to ongoing road construction at their usual spot and not many of their regular customers were aware if it.

Besides Bourdain, there are quite a number of famous people who had tried Japadog. They proudly display their famous fans’ pictures on their cart and what they ate.

Some of them are more famous than others. Click on the picture above if you can’t read properly who they are. ;-)

Bewildered by the many combinations, I decided that that I won’t go wrong with their most expensive item on their menu — the Kurobuta Terimayo.

Kurobuta is described as the “Kobe Beef” of pork. According to Wikipedia, Kurobuta is listed as vulnerable because their are only 300 breeding females. Hmmm … I learn new things everyday.

I am not a hotdog person but I like Japadog. It is unlike any hotdog I had ever tried. What makes Japadog a difference is the …
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Barcelona: Guess Where We Had the Tarta de Queso

Ben — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:12:13 +0000

After the whole day of walking, our feet were killing us. We looked for somewhere to rest and get a drink. We wanted somewhere simple.

We came upon this restaurant which looked familiar. So we went in and since they have really delicious looking pastries too, we ordered some. Suanne gravitated towards the Tarta de Queso as always. Alright, it is cheesecake but the words name Tarta de Queso sounded cooler.

It was served somewhat fancy considering that we did not expect a place like this to do that.

I had a simple pastry. Loved the way they served this. You may think that … so what? This is nothing unique. It sure is considering where we had this. We had this in, believe it or not, …
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Barcelona: Getting Around Barcelona (and Our First Spanish Meal)

Ben — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:02:15 +0000

We got to Barcelona — finally.

As much as Suanne feeling that the vacation started when we crossed the US border, it is only when we landed in Barcelona that I feel the vacation really got going. After all, Suanne has put everything on my shoulders. She said that she is leaving it entirely up to me to do everything … she is there only for the ride. I am the tour guide, she is the tourist. She got the better deal.

Here is some self explanatory trivias for you which I got from Wikipedia.

Source: Wikipedia

In terms of cities, Barcelona ranks #11 in the world.

It did not take us too long to clear immigration at the newish looking Barcelona airport. We travelled light with no checked in baggage. When travelling standby, you don’t want to have the mess dealing with retrieving your baggage in case you don’t get to board.

Getting from the airport proved to be easier than we thought. Due to the lack of planning, I had earlier been prepared dole out some bucks (or rather euros) for taxi ride to the hotel. I was really expecting it to be expensive too. For some reason I do not know, many airport taxis in the world have surcharges making it more expensive than normal. Do you know the reasoning behind this?

The Information counter at the airport speaks perfect English. We were directed to down an escalator and there was a stand with a bus waiting. The bus shuttles to the city very often and costs a few euros.

The shuttle bus last stop was at the main square of Barcelona. It is called the Plaza de Catalunya. It is like the Barcelona city center.

Having got off from the bus, we needed to get some bearings on where we are and where the hotel is. The bus driver was of no help because he speaks no English. So, we went to the Information Center office at the Plaza de Catalunya, lugging our bags along. We were not so conspicious because there were tourists doing that too. So, yeah … we blended in alright!

At the Info Center, the folks there were helpful. But that place was super busy and
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McDonald’s Angus Third Pounders in Burlington, WA

Ben — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 05:32:42 +0000

Our flight to Spain was from the Seattle-Tacoma (SEATAC) Airport. Flights from the US are way much cheaper than if one flies out from the Vancouver International Airport. Frankly, I don’t have much of a choice of the departing airport when it comes to staff travel. Flying from SEATAC is the cheapest they could route me. Otherwise it would have been about $200 more … per person.

It was very much down to the wire. He he he … Suanne was quite nervous but I knew our travel services will come through. On the day before our scheduled departure date, we still had not had the e-ticket issued. We only received the e-ticket about 18 hrs before our departure time.

Lots of Hotels and Long Term Parking along International Blvd

Since our flight is in the morning the next day, our plan is to drive to the SEATAC Airport the day before and stay the night in one of the many motels around the airport. We chose one that has a night stay with discounted long term parking. Found one that had crappy hotel rooms but at least the long term parking was cheap at $8 per day. One tip about the long term parking in the hotels in SEATAC — you can actually bargain with them on the posted rate. We had our parking reduced to $8 from $9 per day. All long-term parking and motels provide free shuttles to the airport.

Our original plan was to have a nice lunch in Seattle at Mae Phim. But because by the time we gotten the e-tickets in our hands, it was already too late. So we decided to just take it easy and take a slow drive and just settle for burgers. We stopped at the McDonalds outlet in Burlington along I-5.

If you remembered, McDonalds sent chowtimes quite a number of McDonald’s Angus Third Pounders coupons last month (see our post here). We have given away all we had except for two. So we used that. To our slight dismay, this coupon is only for the sandwiches, not the meal deal. Oh well, at least it was free.

For those of you who received the coupons from Suanne, have you used your coupons yet? Let me know what you think.

The Angus Third Pounders are only officially launched in the US. They are not in Canada yet and if you see them here, it is probably under trial or test or whatever they call it. The Angus Third Pounders came in three different different offerings:

Deluxe
Bacon and Chesse
Mushroom and Swiss

The sandwiches alone costs $3.99 USD.

One thing we noticed differently is the bun. They are much better tasting than the normal ones. They are toasted sesame seed buns and are sweetish and soft.
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Nando’s Chicken on Marine Way, Burnaby

Ben — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:00:57 +0000

Nando’s wrote to us out of the blue a couple of weeks ago letting us know that Rochelle Schätzl, the world’s foremost authority on Peri-Peri Chili, will be in Vancouver asking if we would be interested in meeting her. Rochelle is an award-winning author and chef from South Africa, the home of the Peri-Peri Chili. She had written a book about it called “Peri-Peri: The Contrasts and Contradictions of the African Bird’s Eye Chili”.

We said yes, because we knew it will be an opportunity to learn more about the Peri-Peri Chili and its exotic flavours … and boy, was that some learnings we had! Never in my imagination could someone share non-stop about everything Peri-Peri for two straight hours. LOL! We had a great time and this is what we learned.

After a few email exchanges, Mark suggested that we meet at the new Nando’s Restaurant in South Burnaby, in the new big boxes shopping mall by Marine Way. We were greeted by Nick, the owner of this outlet, and Mark and Rochelle. Believe it or not, Suanne and I had never been to Nando’s before because we thought that it was just a spicier version of fried chicken.

We found out how different Nando’s is from KFC and Church’s and that it is not quite the fast food the way we know it. Well, it is like a cross between fast food and slow food is how I would describe it. You place your orders at the fastfood style counter and given a wooden block with a number where there will bring the food to your table when it is ready.

This particular store was busy during lunchtime when we were there during a weekday.

Nando’s originated from South Africa in 1987 and is a restaurant with a Portuguese theme. Nando’s operates in 35 countries today with their biggest market in South African and Britain. There were a lot of other facinating stories about Nando’s history and beginings but am not going to bore you with those.

Anyway, this restaurant we visited carries the South African theme with African decor and artifacts. The restaurant was pleasant, clean and tastefully designed.

Rochelle gave a copy of her beautiful book on Peri-Peri. It took her two years of research to write it. It was a privilege to be given the inside scoop of this brilliant pepper and how it is impacting the global culinary landscape. Specialty Food Magazine recently listed the Peri-Peri Chili as one of the Top 10 Flavour Trends of 2009.

From our time with her, we can clearly see that Rochelle is proud of South Africa, it’s food, people and culture. She told us how the tiny Peri-Peri Chili represents very much a way of life of the South African adding that all restaurants in South Africa will have some form of Peri-Peri.

Peri-Peri is the African version of the Bird’s Eye Chili. It is very much like the South East Asian version of Chili Padi or Thai Pepper. This chili packs a punch despite its size. Peri-Peri is used in a dry form and not fresh. Do you know why?

Let’s see a comparison of Scoville Scale (a measurement of hotness) of Peri-Peri Chili against other common peppers:

Law enforcement grade pepper spray: 5,000,000 Scoville Rating
Naga Jolikia (Hottest chili in the world): 1,000,000
Habanero: 100,000 to 300,000
Peri-Peri: 50,000 to 175,000
Thai Pepper: 50,000 to 100,000
Cayenne Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
Tabasco Pepper: 30,000 to 50,000
Chipotle Pepper: 10,000 to 40,000
Jalapeno Pepper: 3,000 to 8,000
Bell Pepper: Zero!

There had been attempts to cultivate Peri-Peri Chilies outside of a small region in southern African but all attempts had failed. Rochelle said that the Peri Peri is a chili with a bad attitude … the harsher conditions and weather, the meaner the chili gets. There had not been much success in cultivating the Peri-Peri commercially.

Suanne and I sampled a lot of food at Nando’s but there is one I love a lot … the Chicken Livers ($7). Oh major yum. I guess it is not for everyone but if can get over the texture and the thought of it, chicken liver is really delicious.

We ignored the bread that came with the Chicken Livers. We can’t help but notice the tempting looking Portuguese Garlic Bread ($2) …
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New McDonalds Product – The Angus Third Pounders

Ben — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:34:46 +0000

Hi All:

Chowtimes were informed by McDonalds USA that they were launching a new burger nationwide yesterday. Please note that this is currently being launched in the US and not in Canada. Normally we would not be interested because it’s for the US but since they offered to provide us BOG (Be-Our-Guest) cards, we jumped on it and said yes.

The new products are called the Angus Third Pounders. Obviously from the name itself it is large … a third larger than the quarter pounders. As a matter of fact, this is the first new burger launch from McDonald’s since the Big N’ Tasty burger was added to the menu in 2001 … eight years ago.

The Angus Third Pounders are available in three offerings: Deluxe, Bacon & Cheese and Mushroom & Swiss. The big-big difference between this and the other McDonald’s burgers are the introduction of ingredients never seen before on a McDonald’s burger:

Red onion rings
Full slices of bacon
Sauteed murshrooms
Natural Swiss Cheese
Bakery-Style sesame seed roll

It seems like McDonalds is upgrading their burgers to offer
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Burgers Etc on Hastings, Burnaby

Ben — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:00:16 +0000

At work, I report to someone whose base is in Atlanta. I don’t see my boss very often. Maybe once every quarter. Last month, he told me he’s coming over to Vancouver and did not state his agenda for the visit. Some of us were uneasy because I know the company had clamped down on traveling during these uncertain times. Who knows, right? For all we care, he could be here to serve Termination Notices! I mean serving of Termination Notices had to be done by the boss and in person too.

Nothing of that sort happened. LOL!

Do you guys ever get worried about losing your job?

I used to read a lot in the papers of some company laying off 10 people here, 1200 there, and 50 in another place. They were just numbers … and it did not hit home until I began to hear about substantial layoffs in Vancouver companies … EA, McKesson, Best Buy and others. All of the sudden, I began to know names of people who had been laid off … they are no longer numbers, they are real people … and people I know. *shudder*

Enough of these depressing thoughts … back to food.

So, the thing is I brought Frank (my boss) and Stevie who are both from Atlanta out for dinner. As much as I would love to bring them to the best that Vancouver could offer in terms of ethnic food, I know the Americans would not really enjoy it. I played safe and brought them to a burger place.

I brought them to Burgers Etc. I could have brought them to a pricier place but as you know, expenses are harder to claim these days and trying to pass a $50 per head dinner is not going to fly. But then Burgers Etc is not exactly really cheap.

Burgers Etc is well known as the “Best Burger in Metro Vancouver” by viewers of CTV News. Burgers Etc is not a big place with just about 10′ish tables or so. I guess this is a place where people come pick up a burger, eat and go.
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Splitz Grill on Main St in Vancouver

Ben — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 15:00:01 +0000

Nanzaro is like a pitbull. When they latch on to you they never let go. Nothing makes them let go of their deadly jaws.

For some unknown reason, he had been hankering Suanne and I for “gourmet” burgers … not just any burgers … but GOURMET burgers. McDonalds, Burger King and the likes will not do.

Nanzaro did some research over the net and narrowed his choices to either Splitz, Burger Etc or Moderne Burger. We settled for Splitz because the slogan on the http://splitzgrill.com website says “a true gourmet burger joint”.

It had been quite a while since Suanne and I last had burgers. Moreover, it is good to have non-Asian food for a change.

Splitz is located on Main St at 27th in Vancouver. This place is actually a spin off from the very popular burger joint in Whistler.

Ordering here requires you to go through the process of first placing your order at the front of the aisle. You then move on to the garnish station where you tell them the sauce and toppings you want. Most of the toppings are included in the price but some are extras, like sauteed mushrooms and bacon.

The dining area is spacious and clean. It was not really comfortable but I do think that this is really fast food where people pop in, grab a sandwich, eat and go.

Both Nanzaro and Arkensen ordered the Legendary Splitz Burger Combo. The combo costs $9.45 which included a small fries and small fountain drink. I am not sure why but Nanzaro ordered his pretty plain. He hates greens and so just opted for honey mustard despite me telling him he can have as many sauce or toppings he wants.

Despite the simple burger, it really looked very enticing — moist and juicy. This really shows how well they do burgers.

Arkensen had the same as Nanzaro’s but he had the basics … ketchup, honey mustard, tomato and lettuce.

Suanne and I shared a burger because we know it will be too much for if we ordered one for ourselves. We had the Grilled Lamb Burger (no combo) which costs $7.75. I asked for the Splitz Sauce and Medium Salsa for the sauce and everything but pickles (I don’t fancy pickles).
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Philadelphia: The Potbelly Sandwich Works

Ben — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 23:53:51 +0000

In the past week we were in vacation, we see quite a lot of Potbellies. There was one just nearby our hotel and since we had no idea where to go for dinner, we decided to just go into this place and check it out. I don’t recall seeing any Potbellies in the Seattle area. Are there one there?

I like the name Potbelly. It gave me the image that it is a place where potbellied big eaters congregate. And on top of that it is not just sandwich … but sandwich “works”.

The place were virtually deserted but it is quite a big place though. I guess it is close to closing time for them. The service was great and patient. We appreciate patience because we had no idea what we wanted and really needed help.

We ordered “A Wreck” — nice name, huh? We love the wholewheat bread especially … it is very light and crunchy to the bite. Light is good because you get to taste more of the ingredients than the bread.

It is served warm and has salami, turkey, roast beef and ham with Swiss cheese. It was pretty good and is better than the Subways that we had in Vancouver. At just only $4.19 (such an odd number), it was a cheap meal.

We got ourselves a bowl of soup too. I can’t remember what it was really.