Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Still thinking vegan and there were intriguing-sounding things on the menu, so I decided to try the Chickpea sit-down restaurant (not the food cart). Interesting choice of locations as it's right next door to also-vegetarian Meet on Main. Busy starting around 6pm till maybe 8.30pm, so best bet is to squeeze in early or resign yourself to a later-night snack. Table turnaround doesn't look that bad, though, but you might be waiting outside the door as the waiting area isn't that big. Style of food is similar to that popularized by places such as Nuba and Jamjar, so nothing too weird and meat-eating friends out for Lebanese probably won't care. A good gathering place as it's vegan with gluten-free option -- this is pretty lowest-common-denominator food nowadays. ChickTea ($3.50) mint, ginger, organic sugar, and lemon Pass on this if you are are used to stronger-tasting pouch teas. If you do get it, let it steep for a long time or it will taste like hot wate...

You may have seen this week's Georgia Straight article on Avocado Toast and be inspired to get Avocado Toast if you happen to be at Tour de Feast. STOP. Yelp reviews do seem to point out the toast (and for fair reason since the dish is quite tasty) BUT it's NOT the same thing the Georgia Straight is talking about. At Tour de Feast, it's more like a toast composition with some avocado on the side. You also get a bigger place that a slice of toast with green mush on top. Worth getting? Yeah, *maybe* even at the $14.50 price point. But if you are hoping for avocado styled onto toast like the picture in the Georgia Straight article... Nope. Avocado Toast ($14.50) choice of bacon strips or sausage, and crisps or salad The avocado tucked in the side looks like an afterthought to make this "Avocado Toast". Looks plain and overpriced, so you will probably surprised that this is actually really quite tasty -- probably in all the easily overlooked parts like...

So this happened at Nightingale tonight: Our server tells us their pizza are "big" because they are 12-inch. At 12", that is at the larger end of Neapolitan-style pizza , sure. But by any other yardstick, a thin 12" pizza for $17 is not "big". Maybe she was trying to set our expectations, or maybe it was just a reminder of price inflation / paying for name / paying for ambiance / whatever you want to call it. It's family-style / tapas-style, which is pretty much synonymous for wanting you to order several items per person to share, meaning your bill is going to be about 2-4 times what the average menu price looks like. For Nightingale, it's gonna look like $45 before tax and tip. Four is a good number. Any more and each dish needs to be more or less doubled up for everyone to have a good bite. Cranberry Ginger ($6 non-alcoholic) Not a bad substitution on the somewhat commonly seen ginger lemonade. Good bite but not so much as to linge...

I've had Queso Fundido at a couple of places ( Glowbal and The Mexican ) and so far Glowbal's done it the best. Why? The main reason is it's hot and stays sizzling hot for a long time. This keeps your cheese goopy and tasty, and helps you get some seared cheese on the sides of the stone bowl. Tried it tonight at La Mezcaleria and it was disappointing for so many reasons. Price was probably the worst -- at $26 you might be able to make it a meal for one, but you're also more likely to get much better and tastier for your money. And at $26 (for the one with ground Mexican chorizo, the only meat-optioned one) it cost twice as much as at Glowbal or The Mexican, for a comparable portion of cheese in a big but thick-walled shallow bowl. It came to the table sizzling but strangely with very little seared cheese on the sides of the volcanic stone bowl. Our server pointed out the seared cheese being a delicacy and I was also definitely looking forward to it. But it was ...

Got dragged to the Keefer Bar for their happy hour (Sunday to Friday) . Not a bad deal (2-for-1 food) except you have to buy a drink with it and I'm not a drinker. So she had the drink, I had a non-alcoholic beverage, we shared the two food plates -- and somehow we ended up splitting the bill in half which meant I walked out feeling having overpaid. Which was actually not the case. Food is okay with some nice points and there's a decent selection of gluten-free choices. Nothing that really stands out but decent in taste and portion at full price -- meaning it's really good value during 2-for-1 happy hour, which is at a very convenient 5pm-7pm -- dinner right after work. It's all small plates and it doesn't look like you can put together a dinner, but you actually CAN and at a good price during happy hour! So just patiently order and order again. Two of the larger plates can possibly add up to a fairly filling meal and you're topping it at $10 for two plat...