Last weekend we attended the HSBC Celebration of Lights fireworks finale night. As usual, we went very early just so that we can get a good place to park the car. Since we had over 3 hrs of wait we normally would eat out for dinner. We thought it would be great for the blog to dine out at the outlet that serves the “best burgers in Vancouver”

Vera’s Burger Shack had been operating since 1977 in a really small shack by a couple called Frank and Vera. They are no longer operating the shack but has since grown into quite a famous chain. There are a total of 6 Vera’s outlets throughout the Lower Mainland.

Since we are watching the fireworks from the Vanier Park, we went to the Vera’s in Kitsilano (1925 Cornwall Ave).

Nanzaro ordered the Chicken Fingers from the Kids Menu. There were 3 large pieces of real chicken meat, not breaded. The Chicken Fingers came with some fries.

Suanne ordered the Thai Me Up Burger — which happen to be the winning entry in Vera’s “Build a Better Burger Contest”. The burger was very juicy with Thai Chilli Sauce, harvati, fried onions, bacon, sauteed peppers, mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato. The burger was too tall for Suanne’s mouth!

Arkensen ordered the Vera Burger which is the basic burger on the menu. Despite comparing with the other burgers, the Vera Burger was really good too. You can see the juiciness of the patty.

I ordered the Pawer Burger which is a classic burger loaded with CHEESE, FRIED EGG and FRIED ONIONS. This burger is simply awesome. I love the egg especially. Hmmm … all the colesterol!

We also ordered a serving of homecut fries. This is one of the best fries we have every tried — very crunchy. Suanne does not really care much for fries but for this one she took quite a bit of it.

The total bill came up to $35 which is expensive for self-service burgers but it was a really good meal for us. We were really stuffed.

We’ll blog about the Mexico’s firework presentation tomorrow.

We just made a two-day trip over the weekend last week. This time was to Seattle to check out the Bite of Seattle event. We have never been to the Bite of Seattle and was really captivated by the scale of the event on the website. They appear to be much bigger than the EAT! Vancouver event here. So, here we go again … another series of blog on food and of our short visit.

Since we had to leave early, Suanne wanted to have breakfast out instead of getting up way too early to prepare breakfast, not to mention the time needed to clean-up. We went to the McD outlet in the Ironwood Mall.

The things we do for a blog these days! What we ordered was different sets of Extra Value Meals — McGriddles, McMuffins and Bagels. Besides the sandwich, the Extra Value Meal includes coffee/hot chocolate and Hash Browns.

We like their hashbrowns very much — made to perfection, if you ask me. Total calories 150

The first sandwich is the Breakfast BLT (that’s Bacon Lettuce Tomato) Bagel. Looks pretty but seems very dry … need to wash it down with lots of coffee. That’s 430 calories.

Next on the list is the Sausage McMuffin with Eggs. The sausage (in the form of a patty) looked juicy. We liked the melted cheese look on the bun — does makes it look more appealing, doesn’t it? The bun looked dry. This has a bit more calories: 440.

Now, this is my type of breakfast! I had the Sausage, Egg and Cheese McGriddles. This one looked the best … juicy and moist all round and it is even stacked as high as the pictures we see in the restaurant. A perfect artery clogger at 530 calories. Hmmm … eat four of these and I would have enough calories for the day.

This one is not as bad … the Bacon, Cheese and Egg McGriddles has only 400 calories.

Hey, BTW, did any of you ever watched “Super Size Me”? That show did put me off McD for some time but hey, we still like McDonalds. Total costs $15 … no tips necessary!

Enough about food … here’s the picture of the western most border crossing between Canada and the US. Did you know that Canada and the US shares the longest undefended border in the world? I hope they keep it that way forever. This crossing is called the Peace Arch border crossing.

Traffic was light this morning and took us only about 10 mins to get through. We normally get through with minimal of questions but this time, the border officer seem to have typed quite a bit on their computer. Anyone of you know how their computer system works — I mean, when I cross over to the US, would the Canadian side know when I have crossed over?

As always, we stop by outlet stores to shop, mainly for (relatively) cheap clothings. We stopped at the Seattle Premium Outlets located in Tutalip off Exit 202 on I5. We have not found better outlet stores than this one in Washington state. Is there anyone better than this in terms of variety?

We made it to the Seattle Centre just before 2pm. Despite the heavy breakfast, we were quite hungry … just in time to hit the food stalls in Bite of Seattle.

Stay tuned. We’ll write more about the food we tried in the event tomorrow.

By the time we got near Kelowna, it was already noon. We took a few stops along the way to enjoy the scenery. Below is our first glimpse of the Okanagan Lake. The Okanagan is a longish and deep lake stretching north south for 120 kms. The area is famous for their fruit production and tourism.

The drive into Kelowna will pass through the West Bank on the western side of the lake.

We decided to get something to eat in a park by the lake. It was a great day to be out in the sun. We went and got a bucket of KFC fried chicken in Westbank.

The 15 pcs buckets costs $24 which also includes family sized fries and gravy.

The fries were crunchy on the outside. It was not bad but frankly we prefer McD’s fries better.

The little park by the lake was great. The scenery was beautiful with the bluish lake in the background. We took our time and was in no hurry to get to the hotel.

After the lunch, we drove over the floating bridge across the Okanagan Lake from Westbank to Kelowna. The bridge is pretty congested and is due to be replaced by 2008.

Believe it or not but we have NOT been to a Pizza Hut or called for delivery for almost seven years now. We always get their flyers all the time at home and told ourselves we should try them out — we just never did … until about four weeks ago.

Most of the Pizza Huts around were small delivery places or stalls in the mall. However, there is a full service Pizza Hut in Richmond on 8340 Westminster Hwy.

For the pizza we ordered their “4-For-All” Pizza which comprises of four different types of pizzas — cheese, supreme, pepperoni and canadian. That’s is great because the boys loves pepperoni and cheese but I don’t care too much for them.

The pizzas are not the typical round ones but are squares. It was quite a lot of pizzas for the four of us. We especially like pizzas that has lots of toppings that they drop off. Nanzaro loves the Pepperoni a lot.

Pizza Hut had their new “Side Sampler”. It costs $5.99 for a sampler that includes:

• 5 chicken wings with Ranch Dip
• 10 breadsticks with Marinara Sauce
• 10 Cinnamon Sticks with Icing

The breadsticks were surprisingly very good, particularly with the dips and sauces. They were served warm and soft — just heavenly.

We also ordered a pitcher of Lemonade. The entire bill comes to $31 (including tips). Simple but certainly a great meal.

Boy! It was scorcher the past few days. It is simply impossible to stay at home. The temperature was around 30 C.

So, Ben and I decided to go out for a walk where there are a bit of a breeze. After the walk, we decided to go for an ice-cream. So, we went to a Gelato place for ice-cream but the price were simply outrageous — $4 for just ONE scoop. Naw, that’s simply too much to pay for ice-cream and so we went instead to the Dairy Queen on Anderson Road in Richmond.

Surprisingly, there was a good flow of customers in the store. After browsing through the rather extensive ice-cream menu for a while, we decided on a large Chocolate French Silk Pie. We thought that it will never go wrong with chocolate. The large Chocolate French Silk Pie cost just $5.29. There are four sizes that you can choose; small, medium, large and jumbo.

It was a superb choice, no regrets. The Chocolate French Silk Pie is creamy and yet not too sweet. It has some chocolate bits and some crunchy ‘pie crust’ which complement the ice-cream very well.

Do you have a favourite Dairy Queen ice-cream? We used to eat a lot of their Dilly Bars.

Bet the picture above will make some of you want to just go out for an ice-cream … right?

Some families are like potatoes — all that’s good of them is underground.
~American Proverb

It has been a while since we went to McDonalds. So, we went to the FIRST (no kidding!) McDonalds in Canada — which is also the FIRST McDonalds located outside of the US. This is located at No 3 and Granville. We were quite amazed when we first found out a few years ago that the first McDonalds outlet in Canada was in the city of Richmond. There is a plaque right by the condiments station that says that this outlet was opened in June 1st, 1967. The plaque also says that one of the first crew members of this outlet is now a Senior VP in McDonalds Canada. Today there are 1400 McDonald Restaurants all over Canada alone. Pretty amazing stuff.

The boys favourite is always the fries. They never had enough of them. We also ordered the double cheeseburger which was a deal at $3 for two double cheeseburgers. The cheeseburger was a disappointment because it looks so flat. Marcus’ favourite is the chicken McNuggets which came with the sweet and sour sauce. We also ordered the Big Mac. Total costs for the meal plus drinks was $16.

A chicken with beautiful plumage does not sit in a corner.
~ African Proverb

Our boys love fried chicken. They normally wants this for lunch after their chinese classes on Saturdays. Although, the most common fried chicken places in Vancouver is KFC and Church’s Chicken, we don’t really fancy them.

Instead, we like this rather unknown place called Lee’s Fried Chicken. We tried it once out of curiosity some years back and has since been going there quite regularly. It is located along Kingsway between Royal Oak and Nelson. BTW, although this place serves primarily fried chicken, they also serve Korean and Japanese food like sushi, noodles, etc during weekdays.

The husband-wife owners of this outlet are Koreans. Since we were such regulars over the years, we get very good service from the owners — they give us real plates and cutlery instead of styrofoam and plastic ones!

The boys love the fries the most. It’s always served hot and is crispy on the outside and soft on the insides — made perfectly. It also has the right touch of salt. Norman always says that it has good texture and great taste. The serving is large enough for the four of us.

We always ordered the 10-piece fried chicken combo. It costs $17.11, after taxes. If you try this, you must order it with “extra crispy and spicy” option. You will like the crispiness. Like the fries, they are always served piping hot. The skin is crunchy and underneath it, the meat is moist. Perfecto!

The combo includes the fries and chicken gravy. The gravy is nothing to shout about. We normally do not finish all 10 pieces and bring whatever we can’t finish for dinner at home.

I know a lot of the readers of our blog work or church around this area. So, I highly recommend you to at least try this place out. I think you will find that Lee’s Chicken beats KFC and Church’s Chicken. Tell the owner Chowtimes sent you. :-)