Rob and I had at least three hours to kill before heading to the airport. Rather than hanging around the office, we decided that we should just go to downtown Atlanta to do some sightseeing and lunch. It was a toss up between CNN, the Georgia Aquarium or the World of Coca-Cola. For me, I was sure where I would want to go … the World of Coca-Cola.

Atlanta is the headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company. Did you know that Coca-Cola and Coke is the most recognizable brand in the world. Go to anywhere in the world and you will find that people will know what a Coke is.

The World of Coca-Cola is located in downtown Atlanta and just next to the Atlanta Underground. This place exhibits the history of Coca-Cola. I understand that this place will be moved to a new location sometime in 2007 next to the Georgia Aquarium. The entrance sports a huge rotating Coke logo.

There was not many people when we got there. Entrance is $9 — expensive. I had expected that they at best charge a token entrance fee.

The displays were displayed in a chronological order starting from the year when Coca-Cola first started operating in 1886. The Coca-Cola name is made up from the two basic ingredients: a stimulant of Coca Leaves and caffeine from Kola Nuts.

In those days, Coca-Cola was served from Soda Fountain like those below.

Coca-Cola bottles underwent many generation of changes over the years …

In 1915, the “contour bottle” also known as the “hobble skirt” was created. Story has it this design is supposed to have been based on kola nut or coca leaf but the researcher mistakenly came up with a sketch of cocoa pod. That error stuck and total we have this very distinctive bottle recognizable anywhere in the world.

The mold below is the actual prototype and production bottle. Over years, the bottle became slimmer but the fundamental shape remained.

Here is the estimated number of soft drinks served by Coca-Cola the past 125 years … what is that? 8 billion? 8 trillion? 8 quadrillion?

Coca-cola is served everywhere in the world … and also in outer space! This is the Coke dispenser designed for NASA’s space missions.

My favourite section is the Club Coca-Cola. There are a total of 35 type of soft drinks that Coca-Cola has available for everyone to try. There are two sections: The Tastes of the States and The Tastes of the World. Recognize these American brands?

I tried every single of the 35 in display. That is a lot of drinks, trust me. They have even located washrooms nearby in case any one want to take a quick pee.

The Tastes of the World had weirder tastes — some of them tastes horrible.

The best? It’s the Peach Nestea. Too bad we don’t have Peach Nestea in Canada.

I wish I had more time here and take in all the exhibits more closely. Well, at least I have been here and see for myself what the World of Coca-Cola is like.

We bumped into Steven a couple of months ago in Chapters. Steven used to work with Ben. To our surprise, Steven knows about chowtimes and being a vegetarian, he invited us to try out vegetarian food. We had never visited a vegetarian restaurant before and quickly accepted his invite.

Steven brought us to a restaurant called Simply Vegetarian on Akroyd in Richmond.

With Steven’s recommendation, Ben ordered a combo meal for $6.95. The combo meal comes with a miso soup.

Ben ordered this 3 cups of Treasure which is veggie meat made from soy bean starch cooked in ginger, basil, peanut and satay sauce. We were surprised by the taste of the dish which is pretty good.

Ben’s combo also comes with a green salad.

Steven ordered his favourite dish which comes with a vegetarian chop and spinach. I cant recall what its called. It’s a pretty big serving dish. By the way, you have a choice of brown or white rice.

Arkensen ordered a vegetarian beef noodles. This is a spicy noodles soup with tofu puff, veggie meat and meatballs and some lettuces. The flavour is amazing and out of our expectation.

Nanzaro ordered another noddles soup which is not the spicy type, out of his character. Nanzaro could’nt finish his noddles as the serving is quite large.

I ordered a Mah Poh Tofu which is supposed to be spicy. To my disappointment, it is not as spicy as I expected and its just plain tofu. I would prefer the real Mah Poh Tofu with ground pork in it.

We have just stuffed ourselves silly today. I had gained 1 kg the past few weeks and it was really hard shaking it off even having biked to work almost everyday to work. I just managed to keep it down below my target weight and now here I am eating so much today at the Nibbles and Bites. Oh well, I will have to work doubly hard next week to burn off these extra calories.

The Nibbles and Bites of Richmond is a two day event in late summer (09Sep-10Sep). You can still make it for today. If you have really nothing to do this weekend, I suggest you make your way there and try out all the delicious food from some of the top restaurants in Richmond.

We went early at 11am. Already there were a lot of people milling around the stalls even before they are ready. We bought a few strips of coupons. Each coupon costs 75 cents and comes in strips of 10.

Kudos to the organizers, made up mainly of volunteers. They did a great job in making the entire event so comfortable. Although they have always setup a tent, we noticed that this year is much better — nicer looking tent and table cloth too.

Nanzaro wanted KFC. I tried talking him out of this. I mean, we should be trying more exotic food than just plain old KFC. Anyway, he can spend his tickets anyhow he wants. He spent 3 tickets on some KFC Popcorn Chicken and Fries. Does not look appetizing, it looking so dry and all.

Arkensen wanted burgers and in BC we swear there are no better burger than the good old White Spot Triple ‘O’ Cheeseburger. What makes this so special is hamburger sauce — a savory mix of mayonanaise and red relish.

The Triple ‘O’ Cheeseburger always have a strip of pickle garnishing the bun. The sauce on a juicy patty really makes this burger great. Arkensen complained that the patty was not thick enough.

The Moxie Classic Grill stall has about the longest queue of all — year after year. Their specialty is the Baby Back Ribs and Honey Roasted Garlic Sirloin. The Honey Roasted Garlic Sirloin is aged 28 days that makes it so tender. A skewer costs 3 tickets.

The Babk Back Ribs is succulent, sublime and low roasted. The meat just falls off the bones. Very juicy and full of flavour. This one costs 4 tickets.

The Mexican Fries Deluxe costs 4 tickets. Frankly, we are not really a great fan of Mexican food but the sheer color made me want to get one and try it out.

I can’t remember which stall I got this from. This is the Salmon Crab Cake and costs 4 tickets. The sauce went very well with the crabcake which had a very dominant salmon flavour. I really enjoyed this. The sauce made this dish good. I am not sure what the sauce is though — is it just plain tartar?

I also a bowl of chilli. Suanne thought it was a tad too salty but I like it. Unlike many that I’ve tried, this one is a lot more spicy hot. Lots of chunks of minced meat, very rich and yummy. The bowl is larger than I expected. 3 tickets.

Nanzaro wanted Pizza and selected the BBQ Chicken from the Boston Pizza stall. This one costs 4 tickets. Despite the name, Boston Pizza is based in Richmond and does not have any restaurant in Boston. This is described as “Signature pizza sauce, mozzarella, cheddar, fresh mushrooms and tender chicken breast tossed in our sweet smokey BBQ sauce.”

Here is another item that I can’t recall where I got it from — maybe it was the Big River Brewing Company. The Seafood Chowder was good. Lots of chuncky salmon and prawns. Yummy! Only 3 tickets.

By the time I got to this dish, there were quite a fenzy already. Lots of people waiting at the stalls and at the tables. So, I completely lost track of where I got what, save for what it’s called. The one below is called the Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding which costs 2 tickets only. The roast beef and the gravy were awesome.

Sigh, my boys does not understand the whole point of coming to an event like this. I mean, one should come and try all kinds of food but no, they always stick to what they know. They are no where like their mum and dad when it comes to food! Nanzaro ordered the Curry Chowmein from the Bamboo Express for 2 tickets.

The Boathouse took the longest to setup. They did not start BBQ’ing until 45 minutes after all the stalls started. I was waiting patiently in the front of the queue observing what the fuss were. Apparently the food inspector were somehow checking and rechecking their stall and food.

From this stall we got two items. The first was the BBQ Salmon which costs 3 tickets.

We also ordered grilled prawns for 3 tickets. The prawns were large and the flesh very “springy”. Suanne ate the most … grrrrr.

There was also a live band to keep us entertained. I was too busy buying food, eating and taking pictures to have noticed.

We used to go to Yaohan’s food court very often. However, it must have been at least two years since we last step into this chinese mall located along No 3 Road in Richmond. Perhaps, the reason is because of the poor parking condition. Yaohan’s car park must be the worst in Richmond, maybe even the worst in the whole of Lower Mainland. We often had to circle the car park at least twice before we get a parking spot. This place is just soooo busy all the time.

There’s only two (although huge) draw factors to Yaohan — the food court and the Osaka Supermarket. Osaka is a very popular Chinese/pseudo-Japanese supermaket. We like the sushi selection in Osaka.

The food court is perhaps the cleanest chinese food court around. The food is cheap. If you’re looking for cheap eats, go after 6pm. That’s when the stalls pull down their signs and replace them with ones with lower prices. For instance, rice with 4 dishes are $5.50 before 6pm and $4.75 after 6pm.

Nanzaro ordered a Kimchee ramen noodle from a Korean stall. The noodle appears to be just instant noodles. The noodle soup came with some thinly sliced Korean beef, slice onion, carrot and chopped green onion. The serving is quite big.

Nanzaro’s order came with a side dish of some shredded pickled vegetable and some candied sweet potatoes. The candied sweet potatoes is surprisingly good.

Suanne ordered a rice wine sesame chicken from a Taiwanese stall for $6.99. The broth is very rich in rice wine, a bit too bitter for Suanne.

The rice wine sesame chicken is served either with rice or vemicelli and Suanne opted for the vemicelli. The vermicelli was all starchy, sticky and lumpy. It was really badly prepared.

Arkensen ordered the char koay teow from the Curry House stall. It is not up to our expection as there is too much bean sprout in it. The prawns and the chinese sausage are small.

It has been a ritual for Vancouverites to attend the PNE every summer. The crowds at the PNE is at times unbearable. So, I took a day off work during the week to bring the boys when the crowds are much thinner. During the weekend, it’s quite impossible to get from attaction to another.

The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) is normally held the last two weeks just before school reopens. It is because if this timing that Vancouverites had considered the PNE to be the final event of summer.

The exhibition has been held in Hastings Park since it first took place in 1910. The biggest attractions of the two-week fair are its numerous shops, stalls, performances, a nightly fireworks show, and the PNE Prize Home.

We love the Wiggle Chips at the PNE, having first tried it in Revelstoke. A bag costs $3 or for $5 you get two bags of freshly sliced and fried potatoes. It’s served hot straight out of the fryer — yummy!

The sign on the stall reads “We slice’em, You spice’em”. There’s a table full of all kinds of seasonings to spice up your potatoes. We tried almost everyone of the spices!

Family owned & operated since the 1920’s, Jimmy’s Lunch serves the famous hamburgers loaded with fried onions. Hot Dogs, fish & chips and french fries are among other traditional favourites at
the PNE.

They fry their onions in the front of the stall where they take your orders. Just looking at them and the smell itself will pull you to have a closer look. I like the huge pile of onions.

We ordered the two-piece fish and chips just because of the size of the fish. Reminded me of the fish and chips I had in London once.

We cannot remember exactly how much it costs — seems like about $9.

We had also the funnel cake below for $5.

For more pictures around the PNE, click the link below.

continue reading "PNE"

Shahdad swore that the bestest Shawarma in Vancouver is found in Burnaby’s Abdul BBQ, He brought us to try it out and it was simply fabulous. So, over the weekend, I simply had to bring Suanne and try it herself.

Abdul’s BBQ is located in the Crystal Mall on Kingsway and Willingdon. It’s a small shop located facing Kingsway. You will not miss it driving past the Mall on Kingsway.

Abdul’s is a small shop with about seating for 12 on the inside. Abdul also set up a couple of tables outside his shop. Ordering is very simple because he had very big pictures posters of his menu plastered on the outside.

Shawarma (sometimes also spelt as shawerma) is a middle eastern way of cooking meat. Common meat used are beef, lamb and chicken. The meats are cooked on a rotating machine with sources of heat over a period of several hours.

Abdul has three shawarma machines, each skewered with beef, chicken and lamb. He said that he normally will finish selling all these food by the end of day. His business had steadily grown since he opened his outlet in the Crystal Mall. He told me that when he started he had only a quarter of what you see above and today he often had to turn away customers at the end of day because his is completely sold out.

The meat that is slowly cooked is then shaved off with a large knife and drops to a circular tray below to be retrieve. Abdul was kind enough to show me close-up the shaving of the meat. It was simply juicy and mouth-watering. I had to swallow my saliva twice while taking these pictures!

Abdul is a very friendly and chatty owner of the shop. He told me that he’s Syrian and had been doing this for 16 years now. Abdul told me he uses nothing but the best quality meat for his shawarma. For beef, he uses only top round beef and for lamb, he uses only lamb shoulder.

Suanne and I were not particularly hungry and decided to order his Mixed Shawarma Platter. The Mixed Shawarma Platter was huge that it was enough to give both of us a good full meal. It consists of the three types of shawarma meat served with rice and pita. It also came with four sides. I felt that it’s pretty pricey as it costs $10 — but then I can accept that because Abdul did really use the best of ingredients and the food was great.

Here is a description of what the Mixed Shawarma Platter we ordered:

The shawarma meat was well done and is served on top of the rice. It was a bit dry for us — we like our meat to be moist-er. Not complaining here … perhaps shawarma meat are like that. However, the taste of the meat were distinct and is awesome eaten with the rice.

Abdul cooks his rice with butter and salt. They were aromatic and loose. It was so good that we can even eat the rice by itself only.

This is our favourite part — the pita spread with what Abdul said is his secret sauce spread. We could order it spicy or mild — we chose spicy hot and it was really, really HOT. It’s not so hot that it burns but it’s … never mind, it’s hard to describe here.

The spread was what made Abdul’s pita so different from those I have tasted before. Abdul said he uses a garlic sauce made out of seven different types of spices. Abdul sears it slightly on the Shawarma machine before serving. It was really that good — you MUST try it.

Here are the first two of the four sides. The main side is a salad of tomato, cucumber, lettuce. The other pinkish looking sides is a cabbage salad. The cabbage salad is dressed either in yogurt or sour cream — we’re not sure. Both of these are a bit sour.

There is a hummus dip and italian parsley salad.

This is a must-go-and-try place and is one of those great lesser known hole-in-the-walls. BTW, the address is 1691-4500 Kingsway, Burnaby and he’s opened seven days a week.

Wow, just saw the commercial on the TV that the EAT Vancouver event is on from May 26th to May 29th. We have never went to such an event before and would most certainly plan to go. Their website is http://www.eat-vancouver.com.

Rob Feenie, Iron Chef America, who owns two upscale restaurants in Vancouver will be appearing on stage. So is Bob Blumer, the star of the Surreal Gourmet on the Food Network. Even the famous “kem-kem” Chef Wan from Malaysia is appearing. We have watched Chef Wan when we were still in Malaysia — would be great to see him in person in Vancouver.

For the friends in Vancouver, let us know if you want to go too … we should go together.

The discovery of a new dish does more for human happiness than the discovery of a new star.
~ Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

The Vancouver Dine Out event is back again. This year the event will run from January 20th to February 2nd. It was a great success each year with most popular restaurants selling out. This event lets one enjoy a three-course dinner at 144 of Vancouver’s hottest restaurants for $15, $25 or $35 per person. Check out further details at www.tourismvancouver.com. Here is the link to a nice video on this event put together by Tourism Vancouver … you should check it out: Click Here for the video. Most of the restaurants booking is still open but if you are interested you better act on it fast as the best restaurants are expected to sellout pretty fast. We wanted so much to go to the Lumiere but it was sold out. Lumiere is the restaurant of Rob Feenie, one of the Iron Chef America! So, Suanne and I have booked a dinner at the Horizons on Burnaby Mountain for 5pm at the end of this month. We think the timing will be perfect because we can watch the sunset from the top of Burnaby Mountain. It’ll be one spectacular view of the mountains … I hope we can get a window table!

He he he … we have already sort of decided what we’ll order for the dinner. I am going to have the Gulf Island Mussels for appetizers, Grilled Tenderloin with blue cheese butter, red wine demi and Yukon gold mashed for the main course. For deserts, I think I will go with the Warm Apple Brioche Pudding. Suanne is opting for Roasted Tomato Soup with fennel & garlic for starters. For the main course, she thinks she will go for the Herb Roasted Game Hen with Fondates potato and apple sage jus. She will probably end up with Chocolate Mousse Cappucino with sugar tuile. This is making me hungry! Anyway, it’ll be fun to also go out with friends and so if you are interested, call me or Suanne and we can go together. It is $25 per person, and that does not include wine, taxes and gratuities. BTW, we are not bringing the boys along. We’ll try to blog the dinner.