Hungry Girl’s Guide: Wild Garlic Bistro

My friend Paul (@fire) seems to have some sort of clairvoyant ability to find the coolest restaurants and identify the coolest dishes. He’s introduced me to some of the coolest restaurants ever. So when Paul (@fire) said we all must try Wild Garlic Bistro, Jay (@jaycatalan) and I agreed. I was surprised how small the place is. The hostess was so warm and gracious, she immediately remembered Paul from his previous visit. I was starving so I had my heart set on the 3 course menu for $28 which was an amazing deal!

We were served with some garlic bread while we were waiting for our food, it was soft and brushed with just the right amount of butter and garlic.

Paul got the Lamb, Jay got the Duck and I got the Steak. I had Halibut Chowder with my 3 course set menu but flash didn’t work well against the white soup so no picture. We were all delighted with our food; Jay mentioned that this was one of the most perfectly cooked duck dishes he’s had. The garlic mash potato here was the BEST with real soft garlic cloves blended in with the mash. The hostess realized how much we liked the garlic mash potato so she gave us an extra bowl of garlic mash on the house – another huge reason why I will be returning, the generosity and graciousness of the hostess.

I am DEFINITELY coming back!

Wild Garlic Bistro - Vancouver

Wild Garlic Bistro - Drink Specials

Wild Garlic Bistro - Interior

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Wild Garlic Bistro - Interior

Wild Garlic Bistro - Garlic Bread

Peppercorn crusted Lamb Sirloin, Sour Cherry Jus

Washington Duck Breast, Orange Grand Marnier Jus

Wild Garlic Bistro - Creme Brulee

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Roaming Dragon Truck

Roaming Dragon is or will be, if City Hall’s mobile food truck pilot program goes through this month, the first restaurant quality food on the streets, according to the buzz in Vancouver. I am intrigued by the buzz, we have had Japadog for a long time now and their food is definitely restaurant quality if not better than some of the restaurants I have eaten in, in terms of innovation and creativity. I was on my way to Richmond Night Market so it was a great time to seek out the Roaming Dragon truck and sample its creation.

Roaming Dragon - Truck

Roaming Dragon - Truck

Roaming Dragon - Examples of dishes

Roaming Dragon truck is a pretty majestic looking truck, reminds me of a high-end modified adult ice cream truck. Instead of dishing out ice cream it was delicately prepared pan-Asian food by really well-dressed staff. The menu looks really interesting, the description of the food made my mouth water and the pricing well, it’s not Richmond Night Market pricing that I am used to. To be fair, if the truck was downtown then it is priced competitively but because it was Richmond Night Market where standard is $2.50 fish balls, it looks a bit too pricey against its surrounding neighbours.

Roaming Dragon - Menu

We ordered Korean short rib tacos and Asian duck confit salad with Lychee & Basil Lemonade. The food came out 5 minutes after we ordered. For the price, I appreciate the fine ingredients used in the food and the care it took to prepare the food. It was definitely fusion food, borrowing the best of different cultures to incorporate into one dish. The food was innovative, it took some risks and I appreciated it.

Roaming Dragon - Duck Confit Salad

Roaming Dragon - Korean short rib tacos

Roaming Dragon - Lychee + Basil Lemonade

Follow Roaming Dragon (@dragontruck) on twitter to find out where the truck will be next.

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Richmond Night Market ((tag: Chinese deep fried buns, deep fried oreos, dragon's beard candy, fresh lemonade, richmond, roaming dragon, rollies, shaved ice, skewered meat, sticky rice, super spicy fish balls, tempura prawns, thai

A feast for your eyes and your tummy, it never fails to amaze and satisfies my taste buds – welcome to Richmond Night Market.

Richmond Night Market

Richmond Night Market - Roaming Dragon Truck

Richmond Night Market - Food Vendor

Richmond Night Market - Chinese Deep Fried Buns

Richmond Night Market - Fish, beef, squid balls

Richmond Night Market - Skewered Meat + Tempura Prawns

Richmond Night Market - Dragon's Beard Candy

Richmond Night Market - Sticky Rice + Skewered Meats

Richmond Night Market - Hot dogs from Thailand, Japan, China, etc

Richmond Night Market - Instant noodle house

Richmond Night Market - The name says it all "Rollies"

Richmond Night Market - Shaved ice with variety of toppings

Richmond Night Market - DANGER: Super spicy fish balls

Richmond Night Market - Deep fried oreos

Richmond Night Market - Fresh pressed lemonade

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An entrepreneurial lesson from a street artist

I was strolling down Burrard Street one day but to avoid the crowd, I veered off on Robson to get to Hornby to get to my destination. At the corner of Burrard and Robson was a guy casually going about his way drawing on the sidewalk, he was drawing a stunning portrait of a lady reminiscent of the Renaissance period and amazingly, it was all done in chalk. I didn’t even realize you can do that with chalk. It was mesmerizing, I was certain he was a master painter transported from the 14th century because it was just extraordinary.

First I was in awe of his work, then I thought when it rains his work will be washed away. Why did he do it in chalk? Oops forgot sidewalk is government property, you can’t put any permanent art work on it so oil or acrylic is out of the question. Why wouldn’t he do it on a canvas and maybe sell it afterwards? Then I started thinking of all possibilities for him to preserve his work and then it dawned on me – whether he realized it or not, he just taught me a valuable lesson – detachment.

Vancouver Street Artist

A lot of time, entrepreneurs have a hard time accepting criticisms about their ideas. I plead guilty to this; I remember during the first year of our business when we just started, people thought I was extremely stubborn. But for me it was my life, I live, eat and breathe the business. My partners and I took the time to groom it, to nurture it and to grow it. So we get a little defensive when someone criticizes our ideas. While it is important to verify the source of where the criticism is coming from before you take their advice or defend your ideas, it is more important to be quiet for a second and just listen. It is very important to be able to detach yourself for a second from the business to listen to criticisms that could potentially allow your business to go to the next level.

Take a step back and look at the bigger picture, listen to the person who disagrees with you and see if they have validity in their points. Be open to ideas from anywhere.

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Pour House

This is one of the few places where I wish I had a bigger set of vocabulary to describe what I taste, the discriminating taste buds that can distinguish the finest hint of a specific fine herb from the rich sauce and finally the expanding stomach to accommodate more food! Everything was so delicious, so delicious that I have no words to describe it, this is all I can say – it was delicious. Sorry to disappoint you, I’m just a hungry girl; I’m not a foodie or food critic.

There you have it, it’s definitely worth the visit!

Pour House Restaurant - Exterior

Pour House Restaurant

Pour House Restaurant - Menu

Pour House Restaurant - Saratoga Chips - Vancouver

Pour House Restaurant - Espresso Braised Beef Ribs

Pour House Restaurant - A fish dish?

Pour House Restaurant - Crab Louie

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Flying Wedge Pizza

During my first four years in university, I spent most – if not, ALL – my time at the library studying. Every Saturday and Sunday, I came faithfully early to score the best seat (according to me) at the library. The best seat is on the 4th floor, right across from the Ford Centre. It was my home away from home for a long time until The Network Hub was built. Once in a while, I stroll back there to read, borrow a book, rent Mary Poppins or just to take in the activities.

Vancouver Public Library

Vancouver Public Library

I used to survive on cheap pizza and coffee, Flying Wedge Pizza back then didn’t fit a student entrepreneur budget, and it was a treat for when I had a major breakthrough or when I was so stressed that I couldn’t get a break. They don’t have seafood pizza anymore but when they did, I was so thrilled. Whenever they were making it fresh, I didn’t mind waiting 10-15 minutes for one to come out the oven. The Network Hub is steps away from well-known, great tasting and affordable pizza shops such Goldies Rustic Pizza, Freshslice and Classic Pizza. While they are all good, none of them come with as much memory as Flying Wedge Pizza.

Flying Wedge Pizza

Flying Wedge Pizza

Flying Wedge Pizza

Today I picked the “Tropical Pig” – it is a Flying Wedge favourite with ham, pineapple, cheddar, garlic and of course good old tomato sauce sitting on some chewy pizza dough. I like my pizza with all the works – parmesan, hot sauce, pepper.

Flying Wedge Pizza

Flying Wedge Pizza

There is my slice of history for you (sorry couldn’t help it with the pun).

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Hungry Girl’s Guide: Posh Hotpot

Posh, according to the menu, is the “First exclusive Japanese Sukiyaki restaurant in North America.”  Sukiyaki hotpot varies significantly from Chinese or Thai hot pot as “Japanese style hot pot [is] made with Japanese low sodium soy sauce.” The soup base most people are used to is Thai hot pot or Chinese hot pot where the broth comes flavoured with many different spices. I was a bit skeptical as I am used to the robust flavors that Thai hot pot provides, not to mention the spiciness that Chinese hot pot offers. Soy sauce based broth sounded boring but what the heck, all-you-can-eat for $15.88 to a hungry tummy works for me. It being the first day of HST, saving a bit of money so I can eat more was an added incentive for me to try this place out.

Posh Hot Pot - Interior

Posh Hot Pot - Menu

The staff was extremely informative; they asked if this is the first time we were here and gave us the low down on how to order. There are two different kinds of all-you-can-eat: Signature Sukiyaki Dinner or a Certified Angus Beef Sukiyaki Dinner for $7 dollars extra. We stuck with Signature Sukiyaki Dinner, I’m not sophisticated enough to distinguish the difference between regular versus certified Angus Beef. I did however add spicy hotpot – just in case I didn’t like the regular Sukiyaki style.

Posh Hot Pot - Regular Hot Pot

Posh Hot Pot - Spicy Hot Pot

Now their spicy pot adopted the Taiwanese style of hot pot, I’m glad I ordered it because it was quite an experience! It contained 15 ancient Chinese herbs with 4 varieties of chilies; you can definitely tell it’s spicy from the color and the aroma.

Pot Hot Pot - Satay + Chili Dipping Sauce

Posh Hot Pot - Vegetable Plate

Posh Hot Pot - Meat Plate

I am quite surprised, the variety of vegetables, bean curd – prepared different ways make this place very vegetarian friendly! I ordered copious amounts of vegetables and even more meat. Their thinly sliced beef is to die for!!! It’s fatty and had a kind of buttery taste to it, I guess I can compare it to Kobe beef. It was even more tasty when dipped into my mix satay with chili oil custom concoction. The waiter did tell us it was better to crack a raw egg yolk into the dipping sauce, whip it and dip the food with it. The premise behind raw egg dipping sauce according to Wikipedia is “mixing a raw egg with the condiments to reduce the amount of ‘heat’ absorbed by the food, thereby reducing the likelihood of a sore throat after the steamboat meal, according to Chinese herbalist theories.” Sure, sounds good to me but I am really not up to getting salmonella so I skipped it altogether although my dinner companion did it and he’s still kicking around.

Posh Hot Pot - Pineapple + 7-up

Their bottomless pop selection deserves a mention; it’s not just your regular whoopity doo pop. They have pineapple and 7-up, peach and 7-up and a few other varieties. I got pineapple with 7-up and it was delightful. Even though it was bottomless, the first serving came in a huge glass so it was unnecessary for me to order another.

Posh was a wonderful surprise and I highly recommend the place. Come hungry, bring some friends and heck, it is so affordable it’s hard to complain about the bill even with the darn HST added.

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