Irish Heather Long Table- Second Visit.

I have been sitting on this dinner story for a couple of months. Cast your mind back to September when Sarah, Toby, Big M and I went for dinner at the Irish Heather for the Long Table Series. We had a fine time, the food was good but we didn't feel like we received the full Long Table experience of eating and talking with strangers, possibly making new friends. The Hammer made for a good story, but I don't want to be his friend. I also ended up with the empty seat next to me. So we decided to go back again to try to have that magical evening we knew was available there.

Big M made us reservations for short rib night.
Braised Beef Short Ribs With Roast Parsnips & Horseradish Jus
16oz Pint Of Driftwood Ale $17

Nuba on Hastings

Back from vacation and the land of the buffets! As I take this week to do some JC to make up for the food and free poured rum it seemed like a good idea to do some catch up on some past eating.

A few weeks ago the lovely Stoli Von Stingray and I went for some lunch to Nuba on Hastings. The last time I was at Nuba it was still in it's old spot where La Taqueria is now. When I used to work in the Gastown area (before it was hipsterville) there was some coffee shop there that I never went into. The bars on the window and the fact that it was in the basement made me feel like it would be eating lunch in a dark dungeon. Turns out I was wrong. It was really bright and clean. Good start.

Man oh man was it busy in there. It is a much larger space than I expected and every seat in the house was taken at lunch time. There was also a line up for the take out counter. The take out is weirdly located at the back of the restaurant and you have to stand around the table of seated people waiting for your order. A bit odd but busy so it must be worth it.

We started off with:
baba ghanooj 7.00
creamy roasted eggplant puree with citrus & tahini

Chopped Leaf

I have been trying to practice Meatless Mondays. I was a vegan for about 7 years and have been feeling the need to cut down a bit on the carnivorism. With it being Monday and Courtney not eating pork or fish on a regular basis, we headed out for a lunch adventure. We decided on the Chopped Leaf.

Chopped Leaf is relatively new to the Robson Street food choices. From the outside they seem to be a Jugo Juice/Wrap Zone hybrid. Their website indicates they are a franchise that focuses on the healthy and environmental factors of eating.

Kim Bo Ting- Metrotown Food Court.

This is going to be a short and not so sweet review. The SituatioM and I were doing some last minute vacation shopping at Metrotown and stopped at the food court. I was feeling soupish so I went to Kim Bo Ting. Their sign says "Fabulous Noodles". With a name like that, what can go wrong?



This. Fabulous Noodles= LIES



Worst food fair lunch I have ever had. Admittedly, I took this picture after I ate the 2 pieces of broccoli. The only edible part of the soup.  Are chunks of semi warm imitation crab a "crab meat ball"?

I should have gone to Taco Time.

Pho vs Pho NoBu Pho 101 vs Triple Coconut Tree

It has been well documented that food wrapped in dough is my favorite food. Meals in soup with noodles comes in a close second. I love pho. I said it before and I will say it again now, props to Vietnam for this awesome idea. This is a tale of two phos up in the hood of NoBu- Triple Coconut Tree and Pho 101.




Photo by Sherman

Bistro 101 at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts

Courtney and I went on our first outside of work friends date to a Writer's Festival event on Granville Island. We knew we would have some time before the show, so I went online and made reservations at Bistro 101 at Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts.

Bistro 101 is the restaurant and bakery that is attached to the culinary school. A friend recently graduated from the pastry program and told me about the restaurant. The idea is that all of the students get "real world training" in all aspects of restaurant life, including serving. They serve a 3 course prix fixe menu. I really like a prix fixe menu as it is a good excuse to eat 3 courses. You HAVE to order an appetizer and dessert. It's a rule.

The restaurant is quite sparse in decoration, but they do have large windows open to the kitchen so you can see you food being prepared.



They start you out with some really fresh baked buns and warm, spreadable butter.



There were two kinds of buns offered, one of them had cranberries in them. There is nothing bad to say about fresh baked buns.

Courtney started with the Butternut Squash Soup. I loved the fancy serving bowl.



The pepper on the side looked like a bit of a mistake, but I am sure that was a plating choice. She said it was really thick and tasty.

I decided to go all out and order the Escargot in a Curry Dijon Sauce puff pastry leaf.



So much better than I thought it would be. I have only had escargot once before in french cooking class and there they tasted like garlic and butter. They really are just a carrier for sauce. These were cooked very well (which highlighted the fact that we over cooked ours in class). The "puff pastry leaf" was salted which I found really interesting and tasty. I really liked the dijon curry sauce. It was quite different than any other curry sauce I have had.

On our way into the restaurant I told Courtney that we weren't allowed to order the same thing so that we could try more of the food. That turned out to make her dinner options very slim. They offered a fish, pork and veal dish and she doesn't eat fish or pork. She was a little weirded out by eating veal as she likes to pretend that meat magically appears instead of coming from baby animals.

Grilled Veal Steak red wine demi glace, sauce Bearnaise, potato croquette.



Her favorite part was the croquette and the veggies. Both were cooked perfectly. The Bearnaise looked like it had been sitting under a lamp for a while. Neither of us are veal experts so we don't know if it was really good veal. It really didn't taste like much.

I went with the pork because it came with bacon. The fish was a sable fish that came with a risotto but everyone knows that bacon trumps risotto.

Pork Tenderloin Medallion Wrapped in Bacon. black forest ham confit, potato croquette, artichoke (sorry about picture quality)



My dinner was fantastic. The pork and bacon were cooked perfectly. I am not a big fan of the thyme sprigs in the servings, but that would be my only complaint of the meal.

Easily the best part of the meal were the desserts. Go pastry class!

Courtney ordered the Black Forest Cake vanilla sauce, brandied cherries. Pretty and tasty.



I ordered the Apple and Berry Cobbler vanilla bean and caramel ice cream



It was so good. I loved the individual serving. Courtney said that I freaked her out with the intensity that I ate the cobbler with. I then freaked out the pastry cook when I stopped in the kitchen door to tell her how good I thought it was.

Another person that I freaked out was our waiter. Poor kid. You could tell that he was not comfortable with talking to the public which only made me more chatty. This waiter was my favorite. He was a lot of fun.  And he brough us a spoon.



I had a great time at Bistro 101. Their menu changes every day so it would be fun to go back to see what you would get the next time. The service had it issues (soup is easier with a spoon) but all in all it was really tasty and fun.

We stopped at the bakery section outside of the restaurant before we ate so that I could pick up a little dessert for the SituatioM. He loved it.

Eli's Serious Sausage

The name of the newest food cart/hot dog vendor in town is Eli's Serious Sausage. That name is no joke. Eli is really serious about his sausage- and they are seriously good.



Thanks to the magic of Twitter (@eateli), Adele and I went to the cart on opening day. It couldn't have been a nicer day for the grand opening. The cart is located at the corner of David Lam Park across from Pan Da Bakery.   For you out of towners, this is November 1st in Vancouver.



With the powers invested in me by the randomness of the Internet, I hereby rename this corner, Carb Heaven Park.

The Kaboom Box (formerly Fresh Local Wild)

Friday was a good day to eat my box lunch, but I didn't. I took advantage of the rain stopping for a moment to try one of the newest food carts, Fresh Local Wild (now The Kaboom Box). I love the information on the website for these guys so I was really looking forward to this lunch. On the site they talk about their concept being health concious and sustainable. Great. I also heard they have a chanterelle mushroom poutine. Even better.

They are located on the corner of Granville and Robson, in front of the Sears. They have a bright red trailer with a huge fish painted on the side.