Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery

It’s cake meet Tuesday again. This time, Christine joined Polly and I to Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery for a sweet tooth fix. This is the first time we come to this place and we did not have a pleasant experience. I’ll tell you why later.

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Notte’s Bon Ton Pastry & Confectionery is located at 3150 West Broadway between Trutch St and Balaclava St. The business is geared more on the take out than eat in although they have a tea room for sit in customer.

Our bad experience came to the fact that we are only allowed to eat the cake we purchased at the tea room with extra service charge provided that we get a drink too. A sign posted in the tea room indicated that there in a minimum charge of $3 or $4 with reading.

Anyway. since we were there already, we just agreed on the extra service charge. Moreover, they do not allow photography of their counter displays as they told me that they do not want other people to copy their products. Hmm, what do you think about that comment?

Here is what we ordered. Christine and I ordered coffee which came in a small metal jug. It is somewhat unique. The coffee costs $1.70.

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Green Lettuce in Vancouver

I organized a going away lunch for two people who worked on my project team. It’s sad to see people leave but at the same time you know that projects being what they are, people don’t get to work permanently together for very long.

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Since there were quite a bit of people going, I thought that we should try some Asian style lunch where we order dishes to share. For these types of meals, the more people you have the more you could varieties you could order.

So we went to the Green Lettuce which is basically sort of a Chinese-Indian fusion restaurant … although I think the word “fusion” is not exactly what it really describes. It more of a Chinese restaurant with East Indian cooking and ingredients. It’s like 2/3 Chinese and 1/3 Indian. Be prepared … this restaurant specializes in spicy food.

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I did not even make a reservation even though we have 17 people in all. I was pretty confident that if we were there early (11:45AM), they can accommodate us. We were lucky actually because there was another big party who booked for lunch that day. Close call! They managed to accommodate us by seating us together since we were earlier than the other group who had their group scattered across several tables.

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We left the ordering to the other side of the long table and so I had no idea what or how much were being ordered. So, I am pretty much making guess work on what it is we had. Well, the ones below is wonton soup. It was really good ones … big and meaty. The broth was great too.

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There is also the sour and spicy soup. I noticed that the Caucasians stayed away from this but simply love wontons. The Asians like this.

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Some noodles dishes. Since we had so many people, we had the chance to order two of each … one spicy and the other non-spicy.

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Lan’s Restaurant on West Broadway

Updated 4Jun2009: Closed (source from Urbanspoon)

Here is one more really, really old post. We were here for dinner on one of the Vancouver fireworks night. Oh … that must have been late August or was it July. Anyway, it was really old.

We have a fixed ritual every year. We love to go to the fireworks, not so much for the fireworks but we simply love to set ourselves down next to the waters and just wait hours for the firework to start. This one time, we decided to check out places in and around Broadway and Granville. One does not need to go far as there are lots of great eateries that caters to all kinds of tastes and budget.

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I did not feel like spending much for food those days because we had just gotten back from a long (and expensive) vacation. 🙂 From the outside, we know this place serves pretty affordable meals. If I recall correctly, this is a Vietnamese restaurant (not pho … but Vietnamese).

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Since there were only three of us (Arkensen was away camping), we ordered a Dinner Combo for 2. It costs only $26.80.

The combo comes with a Soup of the day which is a Hot and Sour Tofu Mushroom soup, the thick version.

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The appetizer is a Crispy Shrimp Dumpling serves with vermicelli on the side. The Shrimp Dumpling skin is made of yam where the outside is fried to crispy and the inside is creamy and soft with shrimp filling.

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2-for-1 Dinner at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

Polly and Vincent invited Suanne and I out for dinner last month. Polly wanted to check out the 3-course dinner at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (PICA). The PICA is located at the entrance to Granville Island and is an accredited, private culinary institute.

The settings at PICA is alright … it’s not exactly classy, this being a training institute after all. But they do have a great view of the marina for sure. Get a table by the windows, that is the best. For us, we only have a table next to the entrance to the kitchen.

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We chose Monday only because it’s a 2-for-1 night for their three course dinner. We had been meaning to try this but never gotten down to doing it. This dinner is actually organized by Polly and Suanne.

I was so glad that they had scheduled a weekday too. I just enjoy a good meal … and a drink … after work these days. Work had been demanding these days for me. Although I don’t really have to work long hours, the work day had been hectic — I did not even have the time these days to hang around the water cooler as much as I like.

After an order of drinks (I had the Granville Island Pale Ale which was pretty good) came the bread basket. It was a hit and miss … the sweet buns were better than the others. Hey … is there a right way to eat buns? Maybe it’s just me but I think to the Chinese, they will naturally use the knife and slice the bread, spread the butter in between, and then eat it like a sandwich.

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Our strategy is simple, Suanne and I will order different appetizers, main dish and dessert and share it between the two of us. That way we can try as many different dishes as possible. Polly and Vincent did that too but they did not say out loud. Yes, we have no problems with that because it is what I call, being practical.

The first appetizer we ordered was the White Navy Bean Soup. The plate was large but if you really look at it, it was really a small serving. Oh, at a glance the pepper sprinkles on the plate looked like someone dropped some cigarette ash on our plate!

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Vincent and Polly ordered the Butter Lettuce Mimosa. It contain crumpled hard-boiled eggs, chopped parsley and Dijon Vinaigrette dressing.

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Stuart’s Baked Goods in Granville Public Market

Polly and I went for our last cake meet before the summer holiday kicks off. We revisited Granville Island again as Polly loves this place a lot. She was a volunteer for the Vancouver Fringe Festival in Granville Island last year while she was not working at the time.

It was a good day to stay out and soaked up the sun. So, we decided to take out some goodies from the Public Market and enjoy the scenery outdoor and people watching. On our way from the public parking lot to Granville Island, we passed by Starbucks and decided to grab a drink from there. In the store, we saw a sign recommending a new drink called Raspberry Mocha and we decided to give it a try. Since its quite a warm day, we opted for the Iced Raspberry Mocha, a grande costs $4+. A perfect drink for a hot summer day, cold, fruity and the mocha gave me the much needed morning boost.

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We stopped by the Granville Public Market to look for something for takeout. We ended up at the Stuart’s Quality Baked Goods store which has a wide range of baked goods.

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You will be overwhelmed by the varieties of baked goods here. It is so hard to decide on what to get. Here are some of the baked goods.

Bread, cookies, biscotti…

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Liberty Bakery on Main Street, Vancouver

Updated: 12th Jan 2015; This restaurant is closed according to Urbanspoon.com.

LotusRapper recommended Liberty Bakery to us. Liberty Bakery is located at the corner of Main St and E. 21st Ave. You will not miss this bright orange building. There are street parkings and two parking spots at the rear of the bakery.

Liberty Bakery is an European style bakery with a Swedish chef. It is just perfect for Polly and me because it opens early, i.e. 8 am.

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The interior decoration is simple and rustic. The furnitures are made of wood and painted colourfully. The decoration theme seems to focus on crows as there were quite a few crows posters on the walls.

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There is even a wooden crow on the display window. Hmm, to the Asians, crow brings bad luck. I wonder what crows means to other ethnic society?

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Liberty Bakery serves pastries….

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Ganache Patisserie in Downtown Vancouver

Ganache Patisserie is a cake shop which specializes in chocolates, pastries and wedding cakes. It is located at 1262 Homer Street in downtown Vancouver.

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There are street parkings all around and this place is easy to find. Ganache specializes mainly on wedding cakes but there are three small tables for people to sit in to enjoy the single serving cakes with coffee and tea.

There are quite a number of displays of multi-tiers cakes in the shop. They are simply pleasing to the eyes. One will also noticed the French influence as there are a number of the cakes with the Eiffel tower garnishing. Here are a few of them:

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Blue Parrot Coffee in Graville Public Market

It’s cake meet time again. Polly and I ran out of idea of where to meet. It’s hard to find a dessert or cake place which opens in the morning. Do you know any? We would surely appreciate some recommendations.

So, we decided to revisit Granville Island again. We visited Granville Island in early March when Polly and I had our cake meet at the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts. This time we went to the Blue Parrot Coffee inside the Granville Public Market. This stall is located at the end of the Public Market which overlooked the Burrard Bridge and the Vancouver skyline.

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The Blue Parrot Coffee sells organic and specialty coffee and tea. They also serve gourmet sandwiches and pastry.

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Polly ordered a Tuna Sandwiches as she did not have her breakfast yet. She was too busy preparing her kids and husband’s lunches and getting them ready for school that she had no time for herself. That’s sounds like a typical mom’s morning.

The Tuna Sandwich was big and garnished with lettuce, pickled cucumber, sliced red onions and lots of tuna.

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