Hello again.
I did not realize that it had been two months since I last did a Weekend Musing post. Been a long time … and I had been lazy too. I had been consciously trying to keep the weekends to myself and the family because it had been go-go-go during the weekdays with work and everything else. I took a day off work yesterday which is about the only day I took off this summer. So I am pretty well rested today … and caught up with sleep deficit over the past week.
Here is what I had in mind.
The New Kids On The Block
I don’t mean to use that NKOTB title but I like the sound of it. Maybe it is because I had newly discovered these food blog which I enjoyed reading a lot these days. I find these blogs a refreshing change and provide a new angle to food related topic in Vancouver.
- Food For Buddha is certainly my favourite new blog. Written by a couple who just call themselves Buddha Girl and Buddha Boy, they focus on Asian eats. Buddha Boy appears to be quite a prolific cook himself. If you are interested in Asian eats, this is a food blog you should follow. It is good to see a blog like this for a change.
- Fortune Food Palace is another food blog focused on Asian eats. The URL is actually vanrestrant which stands for Vancouver Restaurant Rant and at some point they are also known as “I Paid $20 For This?”. It is written by Amino and Kweepo. You would probably be surprised by who Amino and Kweepo is. Lovely couple. BTW, regarding our post on Luckynoodle, it was Amino who first wrote about this restaurant. Follow them for great finds … finds that is cheaper than $20.
- Foodology.ca is a very pretty and well laid out blog. I think it is a she behind the blog. Design Girl … and that figures why the blog is so well designed. The pictures are well taken and has a very a good story flow.
- Parker Pages is not really a new blog. The person behind the blog is eGirlWonder (aka Elaine). I never knew why that name Parker Pages but am curious to know. I find that people does connect to her blog because we can see how she looked like. I have a few to-try restaurants on my list that I got from her blog … like this $9 Steak.
- Senses Inspired is another pretty blog with mouth watering pictures. Theresa is the person behind the blog who is an IT Project Manager. Maybe that is why I am connected to this blog. LOL! Seriously, I enjoy this blog because it covers restaurants that I don’t normally go to and also the dishes featured are well chosen and varied. I mean, it’s not burgers, phos, grilled salmon and siu mais all the time.
- Vancouver Street Eats is on the right track covering cheap eats and food carts. This reminds me of the Portland food cart blog which is wildly popular. I have a good feeling that this is the kind of blog that will attract a lot of readers, especially when the food cart scene takes off in Vancouver someday. However, James writes very brief blog entries and I wish that there are more detail. This should be easy to do because every food cart operators out there is more than willing to tell their story. If only I work in downtown, I will steal his thunder. LOL!
- Vancouver Sushi is carving a niche for itself by concentrating on the Japanese Cuisine. I like that blog because it is educational as I know little about the cuisine. The blog is still rough around the edges with broken links and such. Now … if someone would start a blog on Korean cuisine that would be wonderful too.
- Oishizo by the name itself seems to be a Japanese food blog. No, not at all. Go read the profile of Peter and you will find him a very interesting individual. From his posts, he seems to love cars besides food.
You know what else I like about these blogs? They are still “virgins” … still unseduced by freebies and free meals. Not yet, anyway. The force of the dark side is strong. LOL!
I am sure there are a lot more Vancouver area food blogs out there. So … what are your favourite food blogs? Would be good if you could share with us your favourite sites and let us know what you like about them. 🙂
Dinner at Luckynoodle
Let me give this another try. This time with better planning!
We counted interests from at least 7 parties but only two parties could make it for that Friday (yesterday) I proposed.
For details, please refer to this post on Luckynoodle. I am so determined to try these dishes:
OK, in English it is:
- Chinese Bacon with Bamboo Shoots
- Stir Fried Chicken Gizzard with White Chili
- House special Hunan Spicy Hotpot
- Beef Tenderloin with Chinese Mushroom on Sizzling Iron Plate
- Spicy Pork Stomach with Veggie in Hot Pot
- Boiled Chicken in Special Spicy Sauce (aka Mouth-Watering Chicken)
- Stir Fried Minced Prok with Sour Beans
- Pork Ribs in Sugar and Vinegar Sauce
- Stir Fried Pork Kidney
- Braised Pork in Special Sauce (aka Chairman Mao’s Red-Braised Pork)
- Deep Fried Prawns with Onions and Garlic
I am proposing to do the dinner on Saturday, September 25th at 6PM. If we can make up at least one table it would be just perfect but the more the merrier.
Let’s hope this works this time. If you are interested, please send an email to suanne@chowtimes.com telling us how many people will be attending from your party.
And You Thought Our Pilot Food Cart Program Has Problems …
I saw this from the Vancouver Street Eats site where … James alerted us about what the Toronto Star wrote about the problems with their food cart program.
Here is the article. Very interesting read. The report said that the program is in shambles with a lot of the vendors in financial ruins.
Makes one wonder if Vancouver would do any better. I fear it will not but time will tell. I will leave my rant on these food cart programs to another time.
The Largest Hamburger in The World
Just look at it! This is the largest commercially available hamburger in the world.
I read about this on MSNBC. The Absolutely Ridiculous Burger (TM) is 150 lbs and is available for $499 on the menu at the Mallie’s Sports Grill and Bar in Michigan. If this is too expensive for you, you can go for the smaller burger, the $35 10lb Monster Burger.
I wonder how many people actually order this.
Just how big is this as compared to the Big Mac? Let’s do the math:
The Big Mac is 0.46 lbs … and so this makes the Absolutely Ridiculous Burger equivalent to about 260 Big Macs.
So it is actually a steal compared to a Big Mac at less than $2 per Big Mac sandwich size.
How do you eat this anyway?
count me in for lucky noodle.
hard to say no to Hunan Bacon.
will have to leave early though maybe at 7-ish if that wont be a problem.
thanks
Thanks for the mention Ben, I really appreciate it!
Thank you for featuring our site Ben. I appreciate it greatly when a start-up blog like us gets a mention from a site as big as Chowtimes. As for the broken links, we’ll look into that.
Hi Ben that is near my Joyce Hangout Count me in
3Q3Q Ben for your compliments!!! **hugz**
Yes…hehehe…we ARE “virgins”…and we intended to keep it that way for as long as we can…LOL!
#1 & #9 on Lucknoodle menu look interesting…but we have to pass since we’re booked next weekend (family dinners for mid-autumn festival).
Thanks for the feature! I was wondering where the weird spike in traffic came from 😉
And you’re right..I haven’t been totally ‘seduced’ by freebies yet. I’ve gone to the occasional odd ‘tastings’ but chosen to have a neutral voice when describing the experience or have include full disclosure.
Thanks again! And I’ve been a fan of your blog for years now 🙂
Hahaha. Thanks for the mention.
Loved this post, no food freebies yet but I do love free things because I’m asian. For now I will stick with my free movies from WB.
I never really appreciated food until I started the blog with my friend and realized how food can really bring people together!
Holy, 150lb burger?!?! It’s like eating a man. I wonder how many people will it take to finish it.
Hi Design Girl: I reckon that each person may finish 1/2lb of burger … so with 150lb, that can feed 300 people easily. I had been trying to search for videos of anyone actually attempting to eat that burger but couldn’t find one. Ben
I saw an episode of Man VS Food where the host together with 40 people tacked the beast burger. They weren’t able to finish it. I think they left a third of the burger. Man VS Food is shown on OLN.
http://wn.com/Man_v_Food__Mega_Burgers_in_Detroit
Count me in for one, Ben. Mr grayelf will be on a business trip, sadly. I have a board meeting that day that doesn’t end till 5 pm though so I may be a bit late as I won’t have a car either.
Good article. I really like visiting http://www.vancouvergood.com – simple and too the point information.
Oh, and http://www.greedyguts.wordpress.com is a good one too.
I’m there, Ben.
I couldnt wait and ate Lunch at Lucky Noodle.The Chinese Bacon is GOOD,See you there Marcia
Hi PinoyGourmet, thats what I had too when I went there for lunch. Bacon with garlic shoots. It was good. BTW, did you go today? Do they have their lunch specials on the weekends?
Hi Crispy: Would you be interested in joining us at the dinner? Based on the responses so far, I think we might have enough for 2 tables. I went to the restaurant today … we will have 8-10 dishes. Ben
I’d love go but unfortunately, I’m not available on Saturday evenings. That was also the reason why I missed the first 2 8GTCC dinners. Thanks for inviting me though.
Count me in (tentative) for Luckynoodle on 25th, for one.
I’m also quite interested in what the next door (new place called “Lao Bei” something rather) is all about. I drive by them every day after work and know they are new (what was the place that was there ? There’s been a bit of turnover at that location).
LR
Never mind, I just read your other threads and the place next door was Hu’s, and Luckynoodle was Jin Chuan.
Do you know if the proprietors of the current two restos are the same ones from before ?
Hi LotusRapper: I think it is like this but am not entirely sure. The chef of Luckynoodle was the same chef at Hu’s. The chef before Lucukynoodle is now the chef at Hot Luck. We can ask them during the dinner. Ben
Hi Crispy,Yes I went today and They had the Lunch specials today.Western Bacon is bland compared to Chinese Bacon.Will be back again this week to try other dishes
Thanks for the nice promotion Ben! I’m glad to be part of the food blogger community out here – and having recently come to Vancouver just 14 months ago, I feel like I’ve only touched on the tip of the restaurant iceberg in this city!
I really enjoyed your blog when I first moved here to get suggestion on where to go (and not go!) and continue to enjoy what Chow Times has grown into over the past year. You too, keep up the great work!
Thanks for the mention, Ben. Your blog remains my favorite Van food blog and an inspiration and influence.
We’re total food blogging newbies, just mainly having fun with it.
As for the name, hehe, it’s growing pains… We’re still trying to figure out our identity.
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