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Island Pearl on Kingsway and Sussex, Burnaby

Ben — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 02:40:42 +0000

I don’t normally take lunch at work but instead snack throughout the day. I do once in a while. For the last few weeks, I had been going out with more frequency.

I wanted to inject some variety to what I had been eating. You know, I gravitate towards Asian food more than anything else. So this time, I went to the only Jamaican restaurant I know for lunch.

Island Pearl is located on Kingsway, just across the road from Metrotown. I had a feeling that this used to be another eatery once before … am not completely sure.

Jamaica is one of those countries that really fascinates me. It’s a small country. Jamaica has a land mass of only 1/3 of our Vancouver Island. It also has a total population of only 2.5 million which is slightly more than Metro Vancouver’s population of 2.2 million.

And yet for this small island, it had tremendous impact on music and sports. Home of Bob Marley, Jamaica is where reggae originates from. In sports, they are known as the nation that produces world record holders of the sprint. Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell are both Jamaicans. Pretty amazing isn’t it?

Island Pearl is a small eatery. There does not seems to be a lot of people who eat here each time I walk past. When I was there, I was the only customer.

Service was polite but slow. There is a certain laid back-ness to the people who work here.

Island Pearl doubles up as a store for all things Jamaican. You could get all kinds of Jamaican ingredients and food stuff in the store. They even carry Jamaican DVDs. Oh … you could even get Bubble Tea here too. I find that kind of odd having a Jamaican restaurant selling Bubble Tea.

I went ahead and try their Lunch Special. It was cheap — only $6.

I chose Goat Curry, the dish that is very Jamaican. Goat Curry is introduced by the small but influential Indian community in Jamaica but today is know more as a Jamaican cuisine than it is Indian.

The serving was small. The rice was not like what you get elsewhere (like Chinese or Greek) that is a massive mound of rice. Instead it was just like a scoop. But the rice is grainy and was flavourful. I have no idea what it is flavoured with but it was good.

The goat pieces were quite disappointingly few and small. The “curry” is more like gravy. Although flavorful, it is quite salty and not at all spicy.

Frankly, I was kind of disappointed with the food but then I understand that this is just a $6 Lunch Special.

I saw on the board that there are other (more expensive) dishes. Perhaps, yeah? Maybe those were better. So a week later, I went back to Pearl Island …
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Darya Persian Restaurant on Pendrell and Denman, Vancouver

Ben — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 15:00:26 +0000

Of late, Suanne and I had been trying to make our dining out a learning experience. This all started from our gastronomic tour of Spain. In the tour, we had taken on an entirely new perspective of food. We had come to appreciate the origin of the cuisine and how it had evolved over the years — stories behind food.

Growing up, we carried the view that Chinese cooking is supreme in the culinary world. We thought it had by far the widest variety and the longest history. Even the culture of the Chinese people are centered around food … i.e. the Chinese celebrate the new year, birth, marriage, birthday by banqueting. Why, even at a funeral, food is part of the ceremony. Fasting? Virtually unheard of.

So we were intrigued by cultures which has a long history in the area of culinary arts. The more we read about them, the more we wanted to find out more. One of them is the Persian cuisine. In the learning process, we understood the pride that Iranians have in the rich heritage of their cuisine.

Suanne and I arranged to meet up with Mohammad and his lovely wife, Ilham. I asked that he recommend his favourite Persian restaurant. Being such an overly considerate person that I had known him to be, he suggested one place that is the most convenient for us … in downtown Vancouver instead of North Vancouver where the best of Persian restaurants are situated.

We met in the Darya Restaurant. Darya is located on a side street called Pendrell, just off busy restaurant row of Denman. The location of Darya is somewhat hidden and you will most certainly miss it unless you drive into Pendrell from Denman.

One tip about parking here … you know how difficult it is to get parking around the West End. Now, if you could not find a parking spot, you can actually go in and ask the owner and he will let you have the keys to the car park underground.

Darya labeled themselves as a Persian AND Mediterranean restaurant. This is quite common practice for Persian restaurants in Vancouver because not a lot of people understand and appreciate pure Persian cuisine. So to broaden the appeal to western customers, some Persian restaurants tag on the “and Mediterranean” label to the name. I felt it is unfortunate because the Persian cuisine is one of the richest and oldest in the world.

Darya is a very clean and pleasant restaurant. It is a self-service restaurant where most customers order and pay at the till. When we were there, we did not even had to order at the counter. Instead, the owner asked us to get seated and came by to take our orders.

We started the meal with some appetizers. We got something called Dolmeh Grape Leaves ($10). It is leaves wrapped with rice. We get a choice of hummus or salad.

There are many variants of Dolmeh with a lot of regional differences. This is a simple dish and is stuffed with rice. It is served cold and taste-wise, it is sourish.

The other appetizer is called Mirza Ghasemi ($9) which is an appetizer unique to North Iran. North Iran has the richest in culinary history and the region is rich in food produce.

Mirza Ghasemi is smoked eggplants, tomatoes, garlic & onions sauteed in extra virgin olive oil.

Suanne and I did not understand this part where it says “sauteed in extra virgin olive oil”. There are many types of olive oil for different purposes. For all we know, extra virgin olive oil is meant to be used for salad and for dipping. We thought that one should never use extra virgin olive oil for cooking because it burns easily.

The Mirza Ghasemi was really delicious eaten with the pita bread … and a healthy appetizer too.

The Baghali Polo Mahicheh … oh man, this dish is awesome.

I would just call this the Lamb Shank Rice but Mohammad was saying that it is not just any rice. It is basmati rice with fava beans. When he said that it just dawned on me that Persians take a lot of pride in preparing their rice. I learned that there are many ways that rice are prepared and many of them involve a complex process.

For the Chinese who eats a lot of rice, cooking the rice is a simple affair and often it is the only no-frill items on the table. Not in the Persian Cuisine. The rice must be perfect. I remember Kazem (an Iranian friend at work) used to tell me that rice used to be a food for the privileged and for special occasions. As such a great deal of care is placed in making it perfect. I remember I was quite amused when Kazem told me that in Iran, a prospective daughter-in-law is often judged by her ability to make the perfect rice (and tea).

I like the flavour, fluffiness and texture of the rice. It is not starchy like those in East Asia. As much as I thought this was perfect, Ilham complained that there were …
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Nuba Authentic Lebanese Cuisine on West Hastings and Cambie in Downtown Vancouver

Ben — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:06:02 +0000

Just as we were walking out of the La Taqueria Taco Shop having just had 4 tacos for lunch. @604foodtography suggested that we all go for dessert.

For a person who usually have light lunch during the working day, I was not too keen on doing this. That was until @604foodtography said the dessert he was talking about is one of the 101 Things To Taste Before You Die identified by the Vancouver Magazine.

That … is one thing I will not pass up.

That restaurant is located at the basement of the Dominion Building, one of the grand historic buildings in the young city of Vancouver. This 99 year old building was the tallest building in the British Empire when it was built. Because of its ornate structure, this building had been used to film many movies some of which includes The Neverending Story and Battlestar Galactica.

Nuba is the name of the restaurant we went to. The entrance to the basement restaurant is just at the corner of West Hastings and Cambie.

Nuba is a Lebanese restaurant. It was interesting to note that Nuba used to operate from the very spot that the La Taqueria Taco Shop is today. I guess business is good and they moved to this new location. Actually Nuba also has another smaller restaurant on Seymour too.

The decor is trendy and chic. It has a nice ambiance and just the perfect setting for a simple leisurely meal with friends.

Nuba menu is known for their Mezze. Mezze is like Spanish tapas … small plates. Nuba’s Mezze is quite reasonable too with prices ranging from $4 to $7.

Anyway, I am more interested in this one item of the 101 Things to Taste Before You Die. You know what it is?

Well, it is this …
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Purity Vegetarian Restaurant on Cambie and Sexsmith, Richmond

Suanne — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:00:05 +0000

We noticed this location being renovated into a vegetarian restaurant which was formerly Ellie Tropical Cuisine for a while. When we dined at the New Asia Deli in October, we could not help it but stop at the Purity Vegetarian Restaurant to look at the menu pasted on the shop front. While we were studying the menu, one of the server came out to greet us. She was very friendly and invited us to come back to try their food knowing that we just had lunch.

What captured my attention was the their dessert menu which has cheesecake, tiramisu, etc. I decided to check out their desserts with Polly for our cake meet.

The interior is clean and neat. The wall still has the huge paintings formerly found in the Ellie Tropical Cuisine.

Polly and I were quite disappointed when told that they do not have the cheesecake on that day. We went around the strip mall to try to find another dessert place to eat but were not able to find anything suitable. We returned to the Purity Vegetarian Restaurant to try out some of their snack items. The first item we ordered was the Crispy Veggie Oyster which costs $5.95. This crispy fried croquette is quite tasty. It is served with some pickled daikon and shredded cucumber and carrots.

This Baked Mushroom Escargots with cheese does not look appetizing due to the colour but
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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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