Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

Overall I feel The American Cheesesteak Company is offering a very good deal during Dine Out Vancouver 2016. Since you get a voucher for $5 off, the net cost is only $15. Even at $20, what you get is a sizable and tasty meal, complete with drink. Even without Dine Out Vancouver, their sandwiches/subs are already about twice the size of a gourmet burger at a comparable price. The DOV menu is NOT for takeout, but if you're worried about finishing your sandwich, you may want to work on your side, and then wrap up your sandwich to go. You can get a steak knife from the condiments counter to cut a portion of your sandwich for eating there. Dine Out 2016 Dinner Menu ($20) Appetizer (choose 1) Fresh-cut fries ACC Fries (tossed in garlic butter and parmesan) Onion Rings - Old Fashioned, Skinny Cut Side Salad with House-made Ranch or Vinaigrette Entree (choose 1) The Polish Chick - Crispy chicken sandwich with onions & mushrooms sauteed with garlic butter and tarrago...

Dead quiet on a Wednesday night, even as late as 7pm. So -- good for groups! Probably easy to get a large group in to eat. Even though we were the only two there, water never got refilled. Hmm... Many of the desserts in the counter are not made in-house -- only the Peruvian ones. After we ordered, a small bowl of roasted and salted corn kernals was brought to the table, followed by 4 dips, three of which were pretty spicy. Ceviche Mixto ($17) Smallish portion for $17 but you do get a lot of shrimp and quite a bit of mussels. Simple and tasty. Pollo a la Brassa ($16 for breast portion of a quarter chicken) Reasonably tender and moist meat for breast. Otherwise, nothing special here and on the pricey side. Empanada Camarones ($5.75) Deep fried empanada with shrimp in spicy, creamy sauce You can isolate the shrimp and there's apparently quite a few of the rather tiny shrimp. Filling tasted like the tomato-paste like sauce. Waste of time unless you like Pizza Pockets...

Lemon Ginger Magic ($4) is a 12oz hot drink using cold-pressed juices combined with hot water. Apparently unlimited honey (self-serve) is available at the counter. I found the drink somewhat bitter and also lacking ginger bite. I tried some honey but probably put too much because it then tasted like lemonade with ginger notes. Anyway the concoction is supposed to be good for you. Safe to try if you're worried about too much ginger heat I really liked having the cover for the mug/glass to keep things hot!

The latest sample I received from Social Nature is Mettrum Originals Raw Shelled Hemp Seeds . The taste is a not unpleasant sort of bitter, like walnuts. There was just a half cup In the package so I committed it all toward a recipe I found online at Mettrum Originals: Hemp-Crusted Chicken Fingers . Unfortunately the coating was nutty but sort of bland and didn't come out crispy at all. So the recipe was sort of a dud for me, but you may like it if you are looking for something heavy on nuttiness. It also proved that any sort of bitterness with the hemp seeds is easily mitigated by mixing it with something else. So if you just want to add hemp seeds to whatever you are eating already in token quantities, as demonstrated in the brochure, you needn't worry about changing the flavour too much In short, unless you really know what you are doing, use it as a condiment or add-on instead of as an ingredient.

The Hot Chocolate Festival for 2016 has begun and my first pick this year is Diva at the Met and their intriguing chocolate globes and bombs. See the video in this post of them in action. #21 – “CITRUS ZENSATION” A chocolate globe filled with fresh raspberry puree melts into a steamy sensation of dark Cacao-Barry Extra Brute, pure orange juice, and candied orange zest. All topped with freshly ground almond crumbs. Served with a petit orange-pistachio financier. #22 – “LICORICE BOMB 21” You have to be of legal age to try this. A chocolate bomb containing Pernod Anise, and cranberry juice slowly melts its way into a freshly steamed mixture of extra bitter Valrhona cocoa. Stirred and topped with an almond-graham streusel. Served together with a mini cranberry-coffee pound cake. Both drinks are structured similarly -- a cap of chocolate sits atop an initially very hot hot chocolate drink and is allowed to melt into it. The drawback is that once you've waited the 2 minutes or s...

Still in search of good eats on a budget, I was recommended Canra Srilankan Plus in International Village / Tinseltown by their high ratings on Zomato and Yelp. I'm a sucker for roti, so I went with "today's special": Egg Roti + Plain Roti, with curry ($5.49 for lentil curry, $6.49 for chicken curry). Egg Roti is just one of their large rotis, with fried egg folded inside. The two rotis together definitely make a decent filling portion all on their own. I was asked how spicy I wanted my curry, and I said "spicy". Turns out what they do is chop a fresh green chili and add it into the curry. Curry was slightly watery but there were a decent amount of veggies (cabbage). Flavour was okay otherwise. The curry was also not piping hot, but I don't think they intended it to as you get it in a styrofoam cup. I was also given a sample of apple curry to try, plus a couple of very salty, dried (and fried-till-crunchy?) chilies. Possibly because they had...

Normally I wouldn't have eaten here but I was meeting up with a friend for a snack and on a whim chose this place to try Lemongrass Chicken Potstickers. Huge mistake. Especially since they were what looked like the last six of the day, and hence no way they were fresh. But I hoped at least to have a meaty potsticker with tasty filling. FAIL on all counts. Works out to just over $1 per potsticker after tax. Mostly empty space inside the potsticker (see picture). Very strong lemongrass flavour -- and no other flavour. Not even chicken. Spend your money elsewhere, especially if it's a Tuesday -- maybe try KFC's Tuesday special for just over $3 (see picture). Really decently sized thigh but lamely sized drumstick. Still, a way better deal than Lameass Cheesy Potstickers from Manchu Wok.