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The Naam on West 4th and MacDonald, Vancouver

Ben — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:18:08 +0000

From being a family who usually have light breakfasts at home, we find ourselves going out for breakfasts quite a number of times lately. All this started since we first went to Bon’s Off Broadway which serves one of the best $2.95 breakfast in town.

Frankly, Suanne and I are not big fans of breakfasts but we got to make it up to Nanzaro who was still mentioning about him missing the breakfast in Bon’s. So we woke up bright and early last weekend and went to The Naam. What we did not tell Nanzaro though is that Naam is a vegetarian restaurant.

Naam starts serving breakfast at 6AM. You might think, wow, it’s early but actually they are opened 24 hours. The Naam is located on West 4th Avenue near the intersection with Macdonald St.

The beauty of going there early at 7AM is the quietness. The place exudes that kind of morning calmness with people enjoying a big breakfast, hot cup of coffee with a book in hand. The wooden varnished tables and casual decor adds to the charm of this place.

It was not like that for long. By 8AM, this place was absolutely buzzing with customers and getting service from the waiters is a true test of patience.

You know, you can’t just build a restaurant with these kind of ambiance these days. The total mood, character and experience we see here is built over the 40 years that The Naam had been in existence in the core of the Kitsilano neighborhood.

The Naam has a big breakfast menu. You could probably imagine that it took us a while before we finally settle on our selection. Anyway, if you can’t read the menu above properly, click on it for a larger image.

Hot Coffee and Hot Chocolate was $2.50 with free refills of coffee. The hot chocolate cup had a paper napkin tied to it. We were wondering why they did that because this is the first time we had seen anyone doing it. Does anyone know if there is a practical reason for this?

The hot chocolate was pretty good. It tastes like it is made with cocoa powder and is unsweetened. We like it this way but knowing Nanzaro, he hates it. To him, hot chocolate is not supposed to taste this way and it has to be sweetened like those you find in Denny’s and IHOP.

The Naam describes themselves as a “Vancouver’s Oldest Natural Foods Restaurant”. They pride themselves as saying most of everything they serve are made in premises, using pure and fresh ingredients.

Nanzaro opted for the Breakfast Quesadilla ($9). It has red organic corn tortillas with scrambled eggs. You can opt for tofu instead of eggs.

You got to hand it to Naam. Their breakfasts are …
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Chowtimes Readers Dinner at The Afghan Horsemen

Ben — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 17:11:56 +0000

Suanne and I had a great time yesterday. We really did.

We felt so honored that there are so many of chowtimes readers who would sacrifice a Saturday evening to attend the dinner. The response was beyond our expectations. Having been blogging for so many years, it is events like this that we get to know the readers on a personal basis.

I had been flip-flopping on the location of the dinner. I found and made tentative arrangements with a restaurant which had the perfect setting — a very nice newly renovated private room AND a fantastic wrap-around balcony for the entire evening. Unfortunately, I was not sure of the food because it is traditional Japanese … i.e. lots of raw food. I did not want to put it up for a vote because you know how messy it could get when you put things like this up to a vote.

LotusRapper made an off the cuff suggestion to go to The Afghan Horsemen. Suanne and I checked out the place and thought it would be fun and will be an unique experience.

The Afghan Horsemen had two true Afghan style dining rooms with low tables and cushions on the floor. We managed to secure a room save for three tables. For all intents and purposes we got the place almost all to ourselves. The room sure was dark especially when one just walk in from the outside.

We were asked to take off our shoes before entering the dining room. They sure packed as many as they could so much so that it was an uncomfortable squeeze for all. It did not help because we had one extra person more than we had booked for.

The Afghan Room has a relaxing ambiance but because everyone was seated against the wall it does not allow us to mingle as much as we wanted. It was certainly not romantic as they advertised. I thought that if it is to be romantic, you should have the couple seated facing each other, not side by side … and certainly not facing other couples across the room. This morning I woke up with sore muscles because I had to get up from the floor so many times throughout the dinner … am getting old!

There was belly dancing as a bonus for us. This was unplanned for and unexpected. I think they have this on weekends. I can’t help but to notice how the belly dancer had strategically placed a $5 bill on her hips in clear view of everyone. I think it was a $10 on the bra — I dare not have a closer look because Suanne was there.

It was funny when the dancer was using her sword and poked Henry’s bum to get him seated. I think he panicked — LOL! He squeezed me out of my cushion so much that I had to move across the room. Or maybe he just wanted to have closer view of the dancing from my seat.

I knew it! I knew it would happen when the dancing started. The dancer was looking for “the director” of the dinner and everyone just had to point to me. I think everyone pointed to me not so much because I was the organizer but because they wanted all to be de-risked from being picked to dance. Agree?

On hindsight, I should have excused myself to the washroom and let Suanne be “the director”.

Some of the ladies were not spared either. They all had the easy part … dancing in a group. Let’s talk about the food …

Almost everyone ordered the Horsemen’s Special Platter. The platter costs $50 and is meant for two people. Suanne and I just ordered one platter to share with Anita. The starter consists of Humus and Sabzi Mast, Salata with Feta and whole wheat pita bread. The whole wheat pita bread was great with the humus. Rooskie certainly liked it a lot.
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Falafel Town in Downtown Vancouver

Ben — Mon, 25 May 2009 00:00:29 +0000

This was a pretty random pick. Suanne and I was walking along Granville St checking out the place. We wanted to just grab something light to eat and came upon the sign that says “Best in Town”.

I was thinking that Falafel Town could be as good as Abdul’s Sharwarma in Burnaby which I enjoyed a lot.

Falafel Town is a Lebanese restaurant. We know very little about Lebanese food, as a matter of fact we only got to learn what a Falafel really is here. No, we did not try the “best in town” Falafel here. They looked kind of too dryish for our liking that day.

The owner was a really friendly chap and he put up with our questions. As a matter of fact he was quite eager to educate us. We were told that contrary to the spicy hotness of some of the Vancouver mediteranean food, Lebanese food in essence are not spicy. One thing to describe Lebanaese food is that they are almost always garlicky. They commonly use olive oil and lemon for seasoning too.

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Seattle Spring 2009: Pam’s Kitchen

Ben — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 11:30:50 +0000

As much as we had always wanted to make a visit to Pam’s Kitchen, for various reasons we had not. Pam’s Kitchen had always been on our list of to-visit places in Seattle. This time we made it a point to make Pam’s Kitchen our priority.

Pam’s Kitchen is known for their Rotis from Trinidad and Tobago.

Pam’s Kitchen is located in the intersection of University Way and NE 50 Street in Seattle. Along this row are actually a lot of hole-in-the-wall type of eateries of almost every major cuisine. We counted among others Filipino, Chinese, Greek, Hawaiian, Japanese, East Indian, Pizzas. All of them looked very good from the outside.

Walking into Pams’ Kitchen, there were an unmistaken (and somewhat overpowering) aroma of spices and curry. Service was very quick and friendly. They gave us two tall glass of water the moment we got settled. The place was not very big and we can see around us that their customers looked like students mainly. Definitely no families here that night.

Strangely, we noticed a rather prominent sign hung from the ceiling that says “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone”. We wondered what that sign was all about and if they have rather rowdy customers here before.

They have rather unique drinks. Suanne had the Peanut Punch (Milk Base) which costs $3.75. This is not like anything we ever drank before. It tastes like watered down peanut drink with milk. It actually tastes like peanut butter. Am thinking that perhaps one could make this by blending a few spoonful of peanut better with milk. We like this.

For me, I had the Sorrel which is described as Caribbean Hibiscus Petals, spiced boiled and sugar sweetened. It has an obvious floral taste and smell to it. It is also kind of like chai tea with herbs and spices. We find the taste quite unique and yet familiar. Although it is described as sweetened, it is also a bit sourish. $3.50.

The drinks were a great start to the main meal.

When in Pam’s Kitchen, one just have to have Roti. There are two main selections you need to make when ordering Rotis:

Decide on the meat: Chicken ($10.50), Beef ($11.50), Lamb ($13.50) or Goat ($13.50)
Decide on either Paratha or Dahlpuri.

Suanne chosed the combination of lamb and paratha. The lamb was spicy but not very hot. Meat was tender to the bite. It was very well made and flushed with flavour. The drawback was that it was rather dry’ish and that we wished they had more curry sauce to dunk the roti with. We also liked the mash potato and chick pea server on the side … it looked deceptively mild but was spicy hot. Nice.

I read from the menu saying that they hand wash all the meats thoroughly with lemon juice.

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US Military MRE (Meal, Ready-to-Eat)

Ben — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:00:41 +0000

Corporal Nanzaro had been a member of the Royal Canadian Air Cadet for two years now. He enjoys the activities and signs up for almost every event organized. Just a few weeks ago he went to a spring survival camp called Spring Thaw in Golden Ears.

I won’t even think about signing up for a camp where the day high temperature is zero degree celsius … but he did … and he enjoyed it a lot. He brought back some of the rations that he had left over from the camp. So here it is … our blog about MRE’s.

Canadian Forces calls their rations IMPs which stands for Individual Meal Packs. The US Military calls theirs MRE’s (Meals, Ready-to-Eat). The ones that Nanzaro had at the camp are the US Military version because they ran out of the Canadian Forces IMPs.

The MREs are designed to feed an army personnel in battle or field conditions. Each day pack consisting of breakfast, lunch and dinner contains 3600 calories, sufficient for the energy needs of a soldier in active combat. The food are packaged into cardboard boxes.

On the flip side of the cardboard box, they can even double up as a post card. I wonder how many soldiers actually make use of this.

In each of the boxes are lightweight pouches. Normally, the boxes are discarded and it’s these tough pouches that are carried in backpacks. These pouches are designed to be resistant to punctures. These are good for at least one year.

While the MREs may be eaten by itself, the proper way is to boil them so that it becomes a hot meal.

There were many types of Entrees. The Mexican Rice was not too bad really — close to being good actually! We tried it and actually finished them. Arkensen said that it does not taste as good at home but remember that they were great during camps. I guess when you’re hungry anything tastes good.

We also tried the Lagsana Pasta too.

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Istanbul Topkapi on No. 3 Rd, Richmond

Suanne — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 15:00:54 +0000

Istanbul Topkapi is a new Turkish restaurant which located across Richmond Centre. It has opened for about 2 months. Nanzaro told me that the food smelt good while he was waiting at a bus stop right in front of the restaurant. Polly and I decided to try out this Turkish restaurant for a change instead of going out for our regular sweet treats.

Since the time we sat down, we saw numerous buses stop by the bus stop in front of the restaurant. It should be a good location for someone who wants to grab a bite but so far, I dont see many customers walk in while we were there. In fact, there are only two other customers when we were there. However, the restaurant owner told us that they are more busy at dinner time.

After we had sat down and handed the menu, we had no clue of what to order. Polly and I were curious at the name of a beverage called Ayran and we asked the restaurant owner what it is. The restaurant owner told us it’s a kind of yogurt drink and kind enough to give us a small glass to sample. It is indeed taste like yogurt and quite sour. The regular size Ayran costs $1.99.

Since Polly and I had no clue of what to order, we asked for recommendation from the owner. For the appetizer, the owner recommended a dish called Lahmacum which he described as Turkish style pizza. This dish costs $4.99

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Kash Cool Restaurant in North Vancouver

Ben — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:00:18 +0000

Hi All: I wanted to let you know that I had feedback from a few readers (Iranian and also non-Iranian) that some of the comments I had made on this post is generalizing, disrespectful and particularly hurtful. I had considered the feedback and re-read carefully what I had written. I do agree that some of the words were totally misplaced and that it could be interpreted as disrespectful, particularly to the Iranian community. For that I do sincerely apologize to each and everyone of you who felt offended. I want to admit that I had been insensitive in the poor choice of words used. It is very important to me (Ben) that I set things right. As such, I had made amendments to this blog entry by removing those words. Again my sincere apology!

If there is one major cuisine that I have never tried before, it is Persian cuisine. This is despite that there is actually quite a large Iranian community here in Vancouver, particularly in North Vancouver. My personal impression about Iranians in Vancouver is that they are either very rich or that they are great Java programmers. LOL! This is because ALL of the leads programmers (I had three of them!) I had on my project teams were Iranians.

There was this day when I had to go the North Shore, I thought I should take the opportunity to try out Persian food … and I wanted to have real, authentic Iranian Cuisine. So, I asked Kazem who works in my company for a recommendation. Without any hesitation … he said Kash Cool.

Kash Cool is located on Pemberton in North Vancouver. Even though I have not been to North Van for, oh, 5 years already, it was easy to find Kash Cool. We met up with Angie (of Sea Salt With Food) and her kids for lunch here.

Before I went, I asked Kazem for recommendations since the only Persian food I know of is Lubria Polo which Suanne had blogged before. Kazem was giving me names that simply confuses me. So, I got him to write down his recommendation on a piece of paper for me to bring to the restaurant.

Kash Cool does seem very authentic. They have a little fish pond right in the middle of the dining room. I find it kind of cool since most restaurant will maximize the floor space with dining tables. I later learned that having a pool with red fishes are very common in Iranian home’s front courtyard.

Kazem told me that the owner decorated the entire place himself. There are a lot of large painting and sculptures everywhere. I find that very impressive and does think that the owner sure had an artistic flare in him.

I also noticed there were quite a number of pillars. I think they are mainly for aesthetic purposes. I later found out that pillars are core elements of the Persian architecture.

I had to ask them why the name Kash Cool. I teased the friendly wait staff if they love money because of the name. She chuckled and told me that Kash Cool is the name of a dish.

We were the only Chinese looking customers there. I initially feared that I might have problems ordering. However, they were extremely helpful and could see that we are unfamiliar with the menu.

However, I also felt uneasy about being pushed. I felt there were an certain unnecessary degree of hardselling. It was when I ordered ONE chicken and ONE lamb and they will repeat TWO chicken and TWO lamb. I then repeated ONE … and they repeated TWO … this went back and forth for like five times. LOL! It sure made me uneasy, awkward and embarassed especially when I had friends there too.
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Phnom Penh in Vancouver Chinatown

Ben — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 21:45:35 +0000

Suanne and I met up with Ed and Christina of Doesn’t Tazte Like Chicken for a weekend dinner. This time it was them who chose the location. We enjoy having going out with them because they are as real a foodie as it comes. We learn a lot from them and most of all we enjoyed their stories … like $200 sashimi and having Kobe Beef in Japan.

We went to Phnom Penh located in Chinatown. Although we had heard so much of the place we had never been there before. I was kind of surprised to find that it’s located in such a quiet street. In the evening when we were there, Phnom Penh was about the only shop opened on the whole street.

I was taken aback how popular this restaurant is. It was utterly packed. Ed made reservation prior to coming but it was quite useless because even with reservation, we had to wait quite a bit past the time.

I can imagine how popular this place is judging by the many awards and newspaper clippings they had accumulated throughout the years. I even see that one award was dated back 12 years (1992!) … so they must have been around for ages.

Even Anthony Bourdain ate here before and signed a copy of their takeout menu. Gosh … if I were them I would frame it up instead of leaving it pinned on the board. That signed menu is a huge bragging right if you ask me.

I actually had half a mind of doing one for them too … you know, “Fantastic Meal, Many Thanks … Chowtimes, Ben and Suanne” LOL!

Suanne and I shared a drink called Soda Egg. I am not exactly sure what this is but does remind me of the Egg Cream (which has neither egg nor cream) I had in New York. It was very sweet and we like it. $3.95 was how much it cost.

We left the ordering to the experts since they had been to Phnom Penh many times before. We like the way the bean sprout was served with garlic chilli. I think it is supposed to go with the noodle but since they served it on the same plate, I mixed some of the chilli with the bean sprout, and it was great … the chilli gives that extra kick to the bean sprout and does somewhat goes together well.

The Dry Egg Noodle (six bucks only) was great. The egg noodle was delicious and springy. I could just eat this with the sweet soya sauce alone. I understand that this is one of their more popular dishes. We like pork liver especially and how it was lightly cooked and tender.

The Phnom Penh Curry Chicken Hot Pot was the priciest item we ordered at $13.50. Considering the size of the hot pot, it was more than enough for two persons. We ordered this with two large baguettes. The curry was light and was quite mild. I wished it was a bit more spicier.

This one goes equally well with either rice or bread. It would be better if we had BOTH rice and bread … bread to dunk into the curry and rice to eat it with the chicken and other stuff on the hot pot.

The baguette was crispy and very light and so it was perfect for dunking into the curry.

I think their numero uno dish is the Deep Fried Chicken Wings. 99.99% of the tables ordered this and I can see why. The looks itself made me drool. It was lightly battered and came with some vinegary-peppery dipping sauce. Awesome! This costs $12.50. If we come back again to Phnom Penh, it will be because of the wings. One more time … Awesome!

For desserts we ordered the Durian Sticky Rice. It was creamy and rich but they only have a very thin layer of durian on it. Have you guy ever tried durians before? it is often called the King of Fruits.

The meal costs $66 with tips included. I must say that this is a place you cannot hang around and chat. They were trying to shoo us away because there was quite a lot of people waiting for a table.

Their menu was really extensive. Suanne counted about 130 items in all — not bad. Phnom Penh is named after the Cambodian capital but I really doubt they are authentic Cambodian. This is because the workers here speaks Cantonese. Despite all that the food was really good.

Ed and Christina blogged about this meal more than a month ago h-e-r-e.

New York: David’s Bagel on 1st Ave

Ben — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 01:00:58 +0000

We had wanted to go to Luzzo’s for brunch. Luzzo’s was supposedly considered as one of the best pizza places in New York City. We made it all the way to there only to find out that they won’t be opened for another hour. Not wanting to waste time waiting for an hour, we decided to just pop over a bagel place across the street.

We just randomly went into this place called David’s Bagel. From the outside it looked very promising because they have piles of delicious looking, sweet smelling, freshly made bagels. Also, I wanted Suanne to try real New York bagels.

We decided to just share a bagel between the two of us. The plan was to eat a little here and there but in a few places. The choice was excellent … the bagel we had was as good as it could get.

What we had was the Lox Onion Omelet in Buttered Garlic Bagel. Sounds delicious huh? It was. The bagels were made on the premises and quite a lot of people walked in to buy them to take away. I had never come across bagels like this in Vancouver. This one costs $5. Not bad.

This is kind of weird finding this in a bagel joint but their drink special of the day was the Thai Iced Tea. It looked too orangey but tastes exactly like the HK-Style Milk Tea we find in Vancouver. $3.67 … pretty expensive, I say.

After that meal, we scampered all over the city … like headless chicken. We bounced from one place to another. We visited Chinatown, and Little Italy. We also made our way to the Grand Central Station where we also got ourselves the Fried Oyster Po’Boy that I enjoyed so much the last time I was in NYC. Since I had already blogged about it, I’ll just leave the link here if you so wish to read about it.

We also got ourselves some Italian Ice (or at least I think it’s what it’s called) from a street vendor. It was nice for a hot day but it was expensive if you ask me. The lady charged us $2 for this. I am not sure if she over charged us because Suanne and I looked every bit a tourist!

Atlanta Trip Report: The World of Coca-Cola

Ben — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:00:00 +0000

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..j