Day 250: Granville Island / SD Galleria

We decided to talk a walk around Granville Island. There are so many unique stores to look at. At the Kids Only Market there were lots of neat toys for kids. There are some house boats that we admired. They are located behind the Crane (between Granville Island Hotel and Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design). I wish I can afford a house boat there. It is so neat. It is kinda away from everything but still so close to everything. After drooling over the house boats, we went to the Public Market.




There is a 101 List of Foods to Try (2009 list). One item to try was the honey dipped donut from Lee's Donuts. While we were there we picked up a honey dipped donut and a mango filled donut. I don't think the honey dipped donut was anything special. It tasted like a regular donut. Maybe I am a donut connoisseur enough to taste the difference? But the mango donut was yummy. The mango filling wasn't too sweet.

After Granville Island, we headed to dinner at SD Galleria. Full review: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/sd-galleria.html

Day 249: BBQ / Greek Day / Italian Kitchen

Another busy Sunday for us. Our first stop was the Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ. Our second stop was the Greek Day on West Broadway St. Our last stop was dinner at Italian Kitchen.


Canadian Festival of Chili and BBQ
I found out about this even on Thursday or Friday morning on the morning news. It seemed like a good event to go to. On the news the mentioned that it was only $5 for a wristband and you can taste all you want. I wanted to know more about it. I went to their website to try to find more information. There wasn't much information. I had to dig a but further. I checked out the vendor information and there was some information. I found the organizer's name and number. I decided to call him to find out more. He told me what I needed to know. It was held at Riverrock Casino's parking lot. You pay $5 for a wristband. The money is a donation to the BC Firefighters Burn Fund. It is a competition. Each hour the vendors cook a type of food and what ever is left over they give them away as samples. It is a two day event. We went on the last day. We got there at 12 and they were cooking beef brisket. At 1 pm they cooked chicken. At 2 pm, was what we were waiting for, RIBS! There were about 20 vendors. Almost all the vendors offered the beef brisket. Only a handful offered the chicken. Only about 6 or so offered the ribs. I had 3 ribs and I was so full.


Greek Day
Every year there is Greek Day on West Broadway from Macdonald to Blenheim. It is only a few block stretch but it is super busy. There were food vendors and long lineups at each one. They mostly sold the same items at a very reasonable price. We were full from the BBQ competition so didn't eat more food. There were performers on the main stage. There were also vendors that sold various items. We were only there for about an hour.

Italian Kitchen

Full review: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/

Day 248: Hamilton St Grill / Moxies

Hamilton Street Grill

Hamilton Street Grill is having their 13 year anniversary in the month of June. To celebrate their anniversary, they are having a $13 steak sale. For $13 you get an 8 oz steak (done the way you like it), mashed potatoes and vegetables. I haven't had a $13 steak for a long time. I thought this would be a good opportunity to bring more people to my dining club. There were 20 of us. Everyone had a $13 steak. Some had appies and some had drinks with their steaks. I have been to Hamilton Street Grill for a Christmas dinner last year (only 7 months ago). The decor is warm and inviting. It reminds me of Tuscan colors (shades of brown ranging from beige to deep reddish brown). There is a small patio but we didn't sit on the patio because our group was so large. For a Wednesday night it was quite busy. There were mostly groups of 4 people. The food was good. The steak was covered by a peppery spice.
I did eat it with A1 sauce, but it was good by itself. I didn't have any appy or desserts at Hamilton St Grill. After we finished our steak, some of us went for dessert at Moxie's.

Moxie's

We wanted to find a place that opened late and was easy to get to and had easy parking. My friend suggested Moxie's because she likes the desserts there. It was a good choice! There were six of us. Because we just finished dinner, we only ordered 5 desserts:

blackberry apple crisp on puff pastry -a warm flaky pastry filled with west coast blackberries and apple slices, served with french vanilla ice cream, this fabulous dessert is baked to order

sticky toffee pudding -a dense, moist cake, served warm with toasted almonds, buttery caramel sauce and french vanilla ice cream

banana caramel xango (chan’go) -creamy, light banana cheesecake wrapped in a pastry tortilla, dusted with cinnamon-sugar and served with warm caramel, ribbons of chocolate and french vanilla ice cream

chocolate espresso mousse -callebaut chocolate with the unique and intense flavour of criollo cocoa beans, crowned with real whipped cream and house-baked chocolate biscotti

white chocolate brownie -the ultimate dessert encounter, white and dark chocolate folded into a white chocolate brownie, finished with french vanilla ice cream, real whipped cream and warm chocolate sauce

I was in dessert heaven. We shared all 5 dishes and it was a good variety. It was almost every dessert they carry. I liked some better than others. My first bite was the espresso mousse. It was so heavenly. It just melted in my mouth. The fruit desserts (blackberry apple crisp on puff pastry and banana caramel xango (chan’go)) made the dessert night more refreshing. The presentation was beautiful. They took some time to make the desserts look more tantalizing. It was nice to just relax with some friends and enjoy some delicious desserts.

Day 247: Nagano Restaurant

A Japanese restaurant in Port Moody.

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/nagano-japanese-restaurant.html




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Day 246: Wish Upon a Star / Congee Noodle House

We actually went to the Wish Upon a Star: An Evening of Hope on Saturday night. We headed to Congee Noodle House after we left the event.

My friend is one of the organizers of Wish Upon a Star: An Evening of Hope on Saturday, June 19. It was a fundraiser that was close to her heart. She had oral cancer many years ago and the BC Cancer Foundation helped with her recovery. She felt that it was important to give back to an organization that helped her. I went with a few friends to support the cause. We didn't know what to expect because it was our first time going to this event. From their write up on www.aayproductions.com, it seemed like an interesting event. The event was super affordable at $25 a ticket. There were lots of entertainment and silent auction items. The money was going to a good cause. They also had a bit of finger foods. They had a limited amount of food. We stayed till the end because we bought 50/50 tickets and the draw was at the end of the night. We were a little bit hungry so we headed out to eat.

We went to Congee Noodle House on Main and Broadway. They have a late night snack menu. These are small dishes, kinda like tapas. The late night menu started at 9:30pm. We arrived at the restaurant about 10ish. We ordered a big bowl of plain congee. There was 5 of us and we each picked a dish. The dishes we ordered; spicy fried tofu, deep fried spicy fish (pictured), short ribs, black bean clams and gai lan with Chinese sausage. We ordered a good variety of food. Every dish we ordered was tasty because they each had a unique taste. They were all good with the plain congee.

The restaurant was quite busy at that time of the night. I think it is a popular late night restaurant. Most people look like they just came from a prior engagement. This restaurant is relatively clean compared to other older Chinese restaurants.

The service is mediocre. Most Chinese restaurants are not known for their service. The servers take our order, drop off our bowls and utensils and deliver the food to us. Sometimes another server droops off the food to us. We only gave them approximately 10% gratuities.

It is really reasonably priced. For a large bowl of plain congee and 5 small plates, each of us only paid $10, including gratuities.

I would come back again. I like the quality of food. The service only deserves 10% gratuities. It is easy to get to and there is lots of parking at the back on the side streets. It is open late with a cheap late night menu.

Day 245: Canucks / Dragon Boat / Cupcakes / Main St Car Free Day

Today was a busy day for us. There were so many events happening around town that we had to prioritize what we wanted to do and what would work logistically. We decided to go shopping at the Canucks store, go to the Dragon Boat Festival, go to Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge then to the Main St Car Free Day.

Canucks Sale
It's an event where they sell used Canucks equipment and there is a discount on Canucks merchandise. Because I am on the Canucks mailing list, we get to go in at 10am. It started at 11 am for the general public. My friend got there a bit early and we joined them in line. There was so much stuff for sale. I bought a black jacket for myself and some other items for other people.

Dragon Boat Festival
Across the street from GM Place at Concord Pacific was the Dragon Boat Festival. After an hour of shopping at GM Place, we walked over to check out the festival. It was neat. There was a stage with different performers, informational booths and, most importantly, food booths. The food booths were a bit pricey. We had some bubble tea, a Mexican hot dog and some Korean noodles. We stayed there for about an hour. We also watched a few of the boat races.

Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge
From the Dragon Boat Festival, we walked over to the Roundhouse Community Center where Vancouver's 1st Cupcake Challenge was taking place. We didn't really know what to expect because it is the first year. We heard there was free cupcake sampling and we were all over that. At times there was a huge lineup to get in. You get a ballot to vote for the best cupcake upon entering the exhibit room. The room where it was held was quite small. There was 6 companies in the challenge and giving out samples. By the time my friends and I entered the room, half of the companies had run out of samples. We sampled what we could and gathered some information about their companies and left. We were there for only about 20 minutes. Maybe next year it will be more organized and everyone will know what to expect.


Main St Car Free Day
It was car free day at various neighbourhoods. We wanted to go to the car free day on Main St. Main St was closed from 16th to 33rd. There were some restaurants that expanded to the street. There were stores that brought their goods onto the streets to sell. It was a nice day to be walking outside and on the streets. We also walked into some shops to explore what they have. We spent two hours walking up and down Main St exploring and eating.

It was a jam packed day for us. We chose these events because it worked for us logistically. We wanted to check out the Scandinavian Midsummer Festival this (http://scandinaviancentre.org/) weekend in Burnaby but we didn't have time. So many things to do so little time!

Day 243: Mongolie Grill

You pick your own items for a stir fry!

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/06/mongolie-grill.html