La Belle Patate - Review 2

Restaurant: La Belle Patate - Review 2

Cuisine: Canadian/French/Fast Food
Last visited: February 19, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Downtown/West End)
1215 Davie Street
Price Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 5
Service: n/a (Met the owner, so I’m biased – but he’s really nice to everyone)

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Owner Pascal Cornier from Montreal, Quebec
• Specializes in poutine
• Very authentic
• Recently opened (couple months now)
• Original location in Victoria, BC
• Offers 30 different kinds of poutine
• Offers vegetarian poutine - Traditional poutine is vegetarian
• Poutine sauce imported from Montreal
• Fresh, made upon order
• Fast food
• Take out/Dine in
• Open daily 11am-late

**Recommendation: Traditional Poutine

This is where I started my quest for Vancouver’s Best Poutine on Davie Street. Since then I have re-visited La Belle Patate on a couple occasions to try their other items. In my opinion their poutine wins the most traditional and authentic poutine.

The cheese curds are definitely what makes these poutines stand out and memorable. They're real cheese curds - that squeak becuase they're so fresh!...and they don't melt, it's the real deal. However now that I've revisited on a couple occasions, my rating goes beyond them having excellent cheese curds.

On this visit to La Belle Patate’s it was to try their other items at my own expense. I’ve tried 4 of the poutines now, but of all of them I still think the traditional poutine is best. They're all still very good, but that’s the one I still recommend. I'll still keep trying others just in case...I want to be sure.

La Belle Patate - Review 1

On the table:

Smoked Meat Poutine 3/6

• Small $7.50 Medium $8.50 Large $9.50
• I got the small size – which is enough for one – they’re quite heavy and filling.
• Besides poutine, La belle Patate focuses on their authentic Montreal smoked meat as well.
• I thought this poutine was good, but the smoked meat was a little too salty for me. The flavour was really simple, not many spices (if any) – just salty.
• The smoked meat is almost like ham rather than a brisket and it has a charred-barbeque taste rather than a smoked taste.
  

• It’s not like deli ham, but like a ham you would have on Christmas. It’s a cross between that and a brisket - but it is beef. They’re pretty lean pieces and they give you quite a bit, but I wasn’t crazy about them.
• The gravy was the smoked meat gravy, but it still reminded me of the vegetarian poutine sauce they use on the traditional poutine. I actually couldn’t tell much of a difference.
• The fries are made of red potatoes and they’re a thicker hand cut fry.
• Again the best part was easily the cheese curds, however overall I still like the traditional poutine better.
• 

Breakfast Poutine 4/6

• Egg, bacon, onion Medium $10 Large $12
• The smallest size you can get is a medium for this one – which is what I ordered. It’s huge!
• I prefer the breakfast poutine at La Brasserie hands down. This one is still very good, but after the one at La Brasserie – I don’t think any breakfast poutine can beat that one. It was so delicious!

• The egg was a scrambled egg and I wanted more of it. It was a bit dry and overcooked (front piece that looks like a wrinkled cheese curd in the photo).
  
• I know a poached egg is too ‘gourmet’ for La Belle Patate, but I wanted the egg to have a runny yolk to mix in with my gravy. I would have even liked a fried egg – which isn’t ‘gourmet’.

• I loved the onions and how they were sautéed nice and soft, and sweet. They weren’t to the point of caramelized, but almost there. I could have used more of this as well.
• The bacon pieces were those standard bacon strips that are quite fatty. I think it's about 2 strips of crumbled bacon - it's cooked on the spot upon order but they're too salty, fatty and not crispy enough. I'm not a fan of bacon in general (yes, I can almost HEAR all the jaws drop...but bacon should always be crispy I think)
  
• Overall I enjoyed this poutine, but I wanted more eggs and onions. It was also quite expensive at $10, considering La Brasserie’s gourmet breakfast poutine is only $12…and just a couple blocks down the street.

Galvaude 3/6

• Chicken and peas Small $7.80 Medium $9.90 Large $12
• They have a BBQ Galvaude version which has a meat based poutine sauce. The original galvaude is served with a vegetarian poutine sauce.
• This one had lots of peas, a decent amount of sliced grilled chicken breast and cheese curds.
• Needless to say – but the cheese curds were best as always.

• The peas are not the frozen Green Giant peas, but they're those dark green canned mushy ones. They're not as sweet or crunchy and I prefer frozen ones. But I think it might be more authentic with the canned ones.
• Authentically I’m pretty sure Galvaude Poutine is supposed to be served with shredded chicken and not grilled sliced chicken. I would have preferred shredded chicken for a poutine, but the grilled was still good.
• It’s a very basic and simple recipe.

Traditional Poutine

Bo Laksa King

Restaurant: Bo Laksa King

Cuisine: Malaysian/Burmese/Singapore/Thai

Last visited: February 16, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Joyce-Collingwood)

4910 Joyce St

Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 1.5

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Major hole-in the wall
• Located inside Malaysian grocery store
• Specializes in Malaysian/Burmese food
• Famous for laksa and wraps
• Husband and wife operation
• Good for quick lunches – Malaysian wraps
• Fresh, homemade, made upon order
• Half menu made on site, half from main off site kitchen
• Popular to neighborhood/locals in area
• Seats 2-4
• Cheap eatery – not dirt cheap, but reasonable
• Lunch and dinner service
• Full dinner menu only available online from 6pm - pick-up/delivery only
• Dinner - Pick-up before 8pm
• Delivery charges apply
• Open late
• Catering available

**Recommendation: Roti Canai, Laksa, Malaysian style wraps (but I haven’t tried)…also haven’t tried but the Lahpet Thoke (Fermented tea leaf salad) is authentic Burmese food not available anywhere else.

I would have never heard of Bo Laksa king and would have never discovered it on my own. Thanks to Kim (I’m Only Here for the Food) I was able to try this major hole in the wall located in a Malaysian/Asian grocery store. I’m also never in that area so I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to wander around. It’s a total word-of-mouth place and their business depends on this type of advertising.

It’s a husband and wife operation and they’re really nice people. She’s Chinese and he’s Burmese. The recipes are actually very authentic but they also offer a mixture of South East Asian cuisine from Malaysian, Singaporean, Thai and the rare…Burmese! They even have a couple Chinese dishes in there. It’s popular for quick lunches and their full dinner menu is only available online for delivery or pick-up before 8pm. They operate out of the small kitchen in the back of the grocery store and also a main kitchen that is a few blocks away on Victoria. Keep this in mind because the menu is limited if you’re going for dinner and eating in.

Okay so being a major hole in the wall, I have to lower my expectations a bit, however not by much because the food was really good. It’s a hole in the wall with fresh, authentic, homemade, made upon order meals for a good price…what more can you ask for? Overall I was pleasantly surprised. I would go back because I think there’s better then what I had, and I want to try a wrap.

On the table:

Burmese Tea 4/6

• $1.50
• It’s similar to Thai tea but not as strong or sweet. It’s frothy, milky, creamy and a smooth tea.
• It’s still quite sweet though because it’s mixed and shaken with condensed milk.
• The tea is authentic Burmese tea that is steeped and it’s stronger than Chinese tea, but milder than Thai tea.
• It’s made upon order and a pretty large cup for only $1.50

**Roti Canai 5.5/6

• The small is served with beef curry $3.99 Large is served with chicken curry $5.99
• The roti is very hot, fresh and made upon order on a griddle. It’s super fluffy, flakey, soft, stretchy and chewy…but it was a tad oily. We devoured it in seconds though so it didn’t matter. You can watch her toss it and cook it on the spot – it’s almost like watching a pizza dough show.
  

• The curry is their beef curry sauce. It’s very flavourful and slightly spicy. There are little bits of beef brisket throughout and the sauce has a very strong beef broth flavour. They use lots of spices and herbs in there so it’s very flavourful.
• It’s quite oily too though so you really have to scoop up the sauce or you’re just dipping into oil. It’s good though!

Satay Skewers 3.5/6

• Choice from marinated chicken, beef, or lamb served with sticky rice, cucumber & spicy peanut sauce. (3 skewers) $3.50
• The satay skewers are made on a griddle rather than a grill…which I’ll let go because they’re working with limited resources being in a grocery store.
• You wouldn't miss out by not ordering it, but it’s a pretty decent sized appetizer for a $3.50 bargain!
• This chicken is marinated in a curry spice, but I couldn’t really taste it. It was tender and the pieces are big, it wasn’t necessarily anything to rave about.
  

• The sticky rice is almost like a dessert. The rice is a bit sweet and almost like a giant mochi ball sprinkled with dried coconut flakes.
• The peanut sauce is that authentic creamy Thai peanut butter sauce rather than the chunky Malaysian sauce. I prefer the Malaysian version. Bo Laksa King’s is okay but the fish sauce mixed into the peanut sauce was a bit too tangy for me and I didn’t really like the brand they were using – a bit too rancid in taste.
  

**Laksa 6/6

• Prawn, chicken, fish ball, tofu puff, egg, sweet bell peppers and bean sprouts. Choose from vermicelli or yellow wheat noodle $7.50
• The authentic way is to have it with vermicelli – so that’s what we ordered it with.
• We got it to go, so the fancy bowl is not how it’s served.

• It’s loaded with tons on topping and that surprised me.
  

• There are lots of fresh herbs and spices in the broth and it’s really obvious. It had that slow cooked, on the stove all day homecooked flavour. It tasted very authentic with exotic herbs and spices that I’ve never really experienced in laksa before.
• It wasn’t very spicy for me, but just very aromatic! It’s very rich and creamy with the sweetened taste of coconut milk.
• The noodles are al dente! They’re harder then expected, which I like! They were blanched in the soup and packaged in a separate container to ensure they’re not overcooked.
  

Pad Thai 3/6

• Thai rice noodle, eggs, shrimps, extra firm tofu, Chinese chives, dried chili peppers, banana flower, bean sprouts, preserved turnip, stir fry in house made traditional tamarind sauce $8.75
• This is a traditional version of Pad Thai and not the Western version where they make it with Ketchup. This one is made with Tamarind – just like the one at Tangthai Cuisine of Thailand Restaurant.
• It’s one of their popular items, but I wasn’t crazy about it.

• Overall it was still good with lots of shrimp (6 of them); however I really didn’t like the whole peanuts. I usually love peanuts too, but I want them ground up when I’m having it with Pad Thai.
• It was served with a house made fish sauce…which I didn’t like. By home made I mean adding chilies, jalapeños and some additional spices to a bought fish sauce. It was too tangy and rancid…which is expected…but it was almost overly rancid and off. I love fish sauce too! Maybe it was just the fish sauce brand they’re using?
• It was a tangy and spicy Pad Thai with jalapeño peppers. I thought it need more flavour though…I was relying on the lime and the fish sauce (which wasn’t that good)…and also the peanuts (which weren’t ground up)….so everything was there…but also not there for me…
• I prefer the ground peanuts and fish sauce at Thai Basil.

Ganache Patisserie - Bakery

Restaurant: Ganache Patisserie - Bakery

Cuisine: Desserts/Bakery

Last visited: February 14, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Yaletown/Downtown)

1262 Homer Street
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: 4.5 (but I think there's better I haven't tried)

Service: n/a

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 4.5

Additional comments:

• Opened December 2003
• Pastry chef and owner Peter Fong
• Gourmet/high-end Parisian bakery in Yaletown
• Creative/exotic/posh cakes
• Modern French cakes (w/twist)
• Quality/seasonal ingredients
• Chocolates
• Menu changes, seasonal cakes
• Whole cakes/mini individual serving cakes
• Wedding cakes
• Baked goods to go/gifts
• Take-out only, very few seats if any
• Croissants available Friday-Sunday
• Tues-Fri. 11am-7pm
• Sat. 11am-9pm
• Sun. 11am-5pm
• Closed Mondays

**Recommendation: Caramel-Chocolat, Chocolat-Banane (popular choice, but haven’t tried this one)

I’ve heard so many great things about Ganache Patisserie, I haven’t come across one person that doesn’t love it. Visually they are masterpieces, but taste wise…I’m not so sure. I would rather have Bakery Nouveau. I can’t say I was disappointed by Ganache Patisserie, but I also wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. Since it is a gourmet/high-end bakery my expectations are higher than usual…as it should be for places like these. It really reminded me of Kreation Artisan Cake – classic French cakes and pastries with a contemporary twist.

My friend brought them over and I indulged in all of them with 2 of my girlfriends. We all felt the same way about each cake…and we’re good judgment of desserts. They’re good, but not OMG sooooo good…except for the caramel-chocolat. When my friend asked the staff what she recommended she actually listed the more traditional items rather than the exotic cakes. I guess I just need to try the less original items next time because I was a little underwhelmed by the exotic ones. So I would still go back to try more but I wouldn’t crave anything because nothing was too memorable either. I do recommend it, but I've been really spoiled with great desserts...so I have had better...not necessarily in Vancouver though...so this is still good!

I didn’t have the descriptions while trying them so I was relying on my taste buds to pick out all the flavours. We each had a 1/3 of every cake so it was a decent sample and representation.

On the table:

Blanc Fraisier 4/6

• Vanilla cake, vanilla sablé Breton, white chocolate black pepper mousseline, strawberries, passionfruit meringue $5.50-5.75
• They say that this is everyone’s favourite and it’s one of their best sellers.
• It tasted like strawberry shortcake to me. The cake layers were drier and very much like shortcake cake.
• It was almost like custard or layers or pastry cream with fresh strawberries in between the shortcake layers. There wasn’t much strawberry though.
• It was creamier then it was mousse like. I couldn’t taste the black pepper or any sort of spiciness. I couldn’t tell it was white chocolate either.
• I also couldn’t tell it was passionfruit meringue although it was fluffy and marshmallow like. I liked the texture.
  

Guava Exotique 3.5/6

• Strawberry guava mousse, lychees, pineapple financier sponge $5.50-5.75
• This one reminded me of an Asian cake. It was mousse like and the mousse is the light airy mousse they make at Chinese bakeries.
• I definitely couldn’t taste the pineapple and didn’t know it was in there until reading the description.
  

• It was nice and moist and the lychee really stood out. There were little pieces of lychee throughout the cake and I liked the texture eating it with the mousse.
• I could taste the guava and it was a very floral and fragrant cake.
• I’d order it again, but it wouldn’t be my first choice. I’d rather try something else before ordering this again.
  

Matcha-Exotique 3/6

• Green tea mousse, mango-passionfruit gelée, lychees, black sesame biscuit joconde $5.50-5.75
• I was very excited about this one! One of my girlfriends had tried it as a whole cake and apparently it’s better that way because they make it in layers instead of a bomb cake where the flavours didn’t mesh together as well.
• This one is too bitter. They use so much Matcha and black sesame that it became bitter. It was definitely fresh and quality ingredients, but the flavour became overpowering rather than complementing.
  

• The black sesame cake was a bit dry and crumbly in texture too. It made the whole cake taste a bit powdery especially with the green tea mousse which is also made with Matcha powder.
• The mango passionfruit was almost like a jello but denser. It was made with frehs puree and it was very tangy and also sweet. The cake tasted much better if you ate it with the jello, but it was hard to portion because there wasn’t much of it. The mango and passion fruit helped to break up the bitterness.
• There were also little bits of lychee in this one, but I lost the flavour because of the Matcha and sesame. I only knew because of the texture.
  

**Caramel-Chocolat 6/6

• Milk chocolate caramel mousse with hazelnut croquant, raspberry gelée, 75% Tanzanie dark chocolate mousse, praline crunch, chocolate biscuit $5.50-5.75
• This is another one of their popular cakes. It’s more traditional and I usually go for exotics so I wasn’t too excited about this one…little did I know it would be the best of the 4. It was all of our favourites.
• 

• It was moist, creamy, moussey, rich and perfect in texture.
• There was a great combination of chocolates and levels of sweetness. The hazelnut was obvious and the raspberry was so little, but so potent.
• It was chocolatey, nutty, and tangy – I would order this again for sure.
• It was the sweetest of all the cakes, but since it was dark chocolate it wasn’t overly sweet. It was definitely most indulgent and I was happy to at least end off on a good note.

Patisserie Lebeau

Restaurant: Patisserie Lebeau

Cuisine: Bakery/Dessert/Cafe

Last visited: February 1, 2010
Area: Vancouver, BC (Robson Street/West End/Downtown)

1728 West 2nd Avenue
Range: $10 or less

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Food: n/a (didn't try enough)

Service: 3

Ambiance: 4

Overall: 5

Additional comments:

• Family owned
• Famous for waffles
• Authentic Belgian waffles
• Made with butter/natural ingredients
• Unbleached flour, pure vanilla
• No additives/preservatives
• Savoury foods available: quiche/sandwiches etc
• Pay at cashier
• Fresh baked breads
• Baked daily
• Homemade/home baked
• Ready to eat or sold frozen
• Seats 20-30
• Located around industrial area
• Available for wholesale

**Recommendation: Any of their Belgian waffles or Leige waffles (several flavours)

My friend had first introduced me to this bakery by bringing me some waffles from the store. However I managed to discover the actual location quite randomly. I noticed it while driving around that area and I took a quick stop to check it out. I saw the “Authentic Belgian waffle” sign outside and as soon as I walked in I noticed the display case full of them. I put one and one together and was really pleased that I had found it. It’s kind of located in a small industrial/office area on West 2^nd so It’s not an obvious location people would know about. It’s one of those word or mouth places that you would feel lucky to find.

It’s a great place for a quick lunch or coffee break. They have some sweet and savoury baked goods and sandwiches and a nice café set up in the front. It was actually decently busy from local businesses during lunch but the line-up goes fast and there’s actually a lot of seats inside.

They are most known for their waffles obviously. The website claims that they’re a “healthy snack” because it’s made with natural ingredients…but I highly doubt they are healthy or recommended for a healthy diet…even if they’re all natural.

I’ve been to Brussels before so I am very lucky to have tried the real deal…these are quite close to the real deal, but they're not as moist. I would go back to try more stuff because I believe that they can do better then what I had. Let's go in detail...

On the table:

**White Chocolate Lemon (Liege) Waffle 3.5/6

• $2.80
• I would give a 5.5/6 (a bit dry) to their original leige waffle, but not for this white chocolate lemon one.
• There was no white chocolate...at all. I was expecting white chocolate chips throughout the batter but there wasn't. I'm not sure if they melted the white chocolate right into the batter but I couldn't taste any so I doubt it.
• It smelt like lemons though and I could taste the fresh lemon zest and see it.
• The best part of these waffles is the sugar crystals which they call "pearl sugar" - a sugar that's made in Belgium. I call them sugar crystals - they're basically tiny clumps of sugar that's all natural. Some of them melt into the dough and some of them stay clumped and create "crystals". So when you eat it you bite into little clumps of sugar that are delicious! They're not hard like rock sugar, but they're slightly crunchy like little balls of sugar soaked in sugar syrup.
  
• The sugar crystals that do melt during the baking process end up coating the outside of these waffles and make them crispy.
• It sounds sweet and it is, but not overly sweet at all.
• It's really dense and heavy and it was almost bread-like because they're made from yeast. It was like a dense lemon cake.
• As good as these waffles are they could be better because they're a bit dry.

Peach and Custard Waffle 2.5/6

• Brussels waffles stuffed with peach and custard $3.55 (I think)
• I was actually pretty disappointed by this. It’s their most popular stuffed waffle so I had high expectations.
• The biggest disappointment is because they used canned peaches.

• It’s actually a pretty heavy and dense waffle. My friend had bought them that afternoon and they're baked fresh daily. We were eating them about 6 hours later and by then they were already a bit hard, stale and quite dry. I don't think that should have happened that quickly...I don't know though maybe it's because they're "all natural" that they go stale so quickly as well.

• The custard is almost like a pastry cream. It's super thick and almost like a pudding. It's light tasting though because it's not that sweet. I wanted a stronger vanilla taste though. I couldn't see any vanilla bean seeds so I think they just use pure vanilla extract.
  
• There is a lot of stuffing in the waffle, but I just wish it was real peaches...it cheapened it.
• This one has no sugar crystals, it's more bread like.

Valentine's Day 09 - 15 Course Dinner

A LOVE AFFAIR WITH FOOD…

Happy Belated Valentine’s Day! (This is the post for Sunday Feb. 21 and Monday Feb. 22, 2010...couldn't "waste" it on one day...took a long time to make ;))

I didn’t do anything really special on Follow Me Foodie for Valentine’s Day so I’m doing it now.

As you know, my best friend and I really enjoy cooking and baking…well if you didn’t know, not you know. (It really pays off to be friends with us! ;)) This is the same friend I made 3 kinds of crab cakes with for our Christmas dinner – See my post for My Holiday Dinners and Feasts.

Anyways on Valentine’s Day last year we got together and made a 15 course dinner…for the 2 of us. Yay! Fun right?! It was! And we ate it all. I wanted to do an appetizer thing so I suggested that we make 3 appetizers each…except I went overboard and couldn’t stop and ended up making 12 appetizers. Well we actually had 12 savoury and 3 dessert courses which came to 15 courses in total.

So here’s a sneak preview of what happened last year.

Added note: Sorry, but I have no recipes for anything...(well might have an idea by memory, and I'm not sure what her recipes are) but I like to cook and so does she but we're not chefs (she could be!)...we just really really like food and I like to go with the flow :)

15 Course Dinner Menu

1) Deep Fried Mac n' Cheese Balls with Pomegranate Salsa - by SC
2) Coconut and Panko Crusted Prawns with Sweet Chili Sauce - by SC
3) Chilled Strawberry and Cardamom Soup (palette cleanser) - by SC
4) Baked Creamy Crab and Artichoke Dip with Pine Nuts - by SC
5) Red Beet with Feta, Almonds and Balsamic Reduction - by Me
6) Red Beet with Honey Glazed Pears, Cranberry & Pink Peppercorns - by Me
7) Sicilian Salad - Pasta shells, sun dried tomatoes, basil & lemon caper dressing - by Me
8) Caramelized Onions, Sesame Pork, Garlic Spinach and Candied Walnuts on Baguette - by Me
9) Creamy Chicken Ragout topped on Yam and Sweet Potato Cake - by Me
10) Sweet Potato, Yam & Snap Peas with Caramelized Onions and Sweet Chili Balsamic Glaze - by Me
11) Edamame Pesto Rotini - by Me
12) Lemon Orzo with Feta, Spinach, Almonds & Cranberries - by Me

Desserts
13) Homemade White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies with Espresso Ice Cream - by SC
14) Baked Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seed Cookie, Caramel, Vanilla Ice Cream & Pecans - by Me
15) Half Baked Chocolate Brownie with Red Beet Compote & Vanilla Ice Cream - by Me

A few highlights...

Deep Fried Mac n' Cheese Balls with Pomegranate Salsa - by SC

Coconut and Panko Crusted Prawns with Sweet Chili Sauce - by SC


Chilled Strawberry and Cardamom Soup (palette cleanser) - by SC

Baked Creamy Crab and Artichoke Dip with Pine Nuts - by SC

Red Beet with Feta, Almonds and Balsamic Reduction - by Me

Red Beet with Honey Glazed Pears, Cranberry & Pink Peppercorns - by Me

Caramelized Onions, Sesame Pork, Garlic Spinach and Candied Walnuts on Baguette - by Me

Creamy Chicken Ragout topped on Yam and Sweet Potato Cake - by Me

Dessert 1 - Homemade White Chocolate & Cranberry Cookies with Espresso Ice Cream - by SC

Dessert 2 - Baked Pumpkin with Pumpkin Seed Cookie, Caramel, Vanilla Ice Cream & Pecans - by Me

Dessert 3 - Half Baked Chocolate Brownie with Red Beet Compote & Vanilla Ice Cream - by Me