PanDa Bakery

Mooncake!

Kintaro Ramen

Shuraku Sake Bar and Bistro

Went to Shuraku (833 Granville Street) to meet up with a friend from university that I hadn't seen in a while. I've been to this restaurant before but never had the opportunity to take pictures of the food.

The sushi kitchen can be a bit slow to get food out when the restaurant is busy, but despite this I still really like the restaurant, due to it's creative selection of maki rolls. Having been there a few times, I was able to quickly select my two favourites.



The Godfather Roll - Italian flavours in a sushi roll. Cream cheese, avocado, mango and cucumber wrapped in rice, topped with proscuitto and a caper. Served with a balsamic glaze.



The Roulette Roll - spicy scallop, avocado, and cucumber, topped with crispy lotus chips, served with a seaweed sauce.

New iPhone HDR Photo Feature

As part of iOS 4.1 releases today, the camera app is now able to process pictures in High Dynamic Range (HDR) mode. The iPhone takes 3 pictures in rapid succession with different exposures, and uses the combined set of information to fill in parts of the picture that are too dark or too light.

If desired, the camera saves both the pre and post processing pictures. I've posted one of the more impressive before and after pictures.

Before:


After:


I was pretty surprised (and very pleased) at how big the improvement was. Definitely a plus for using the iPhone as a stand-in for a DSLR when photo blogging.

Wings on Granville

Went to Wings on Granville with a group of friends. Wings has become a sortoff regular spot for us to hang out, and quite well deserved - they offer a wide selection of wings, and are among the best I can recall having in Vancouver. Occasionally, the service leaves something to be desired, but for the most part, we've been treated well.

To our pleasant surprise, they've added some new flavours. We tried them all.



Jakarta Heat. These wings had a pretty good Asian chili kick, if you could get past the "my-mouth-is-on-fire" sensation.



Malaysian Orange Ginger, Mesquite Bear BBQ, and Bombay Tandoori. The Orange Ginger is the wet wing in the picture, and was a surprising pleaser - not a huge fan of orange ginger chicken dishes in Chinese restaurants, but despite this, the flavour was amazingly enhanced with the fried goodness of a hot wing. The Mesquite and the Tandoori were also delicious, and have become new favourites of mine on the Wings line-up. Both are dry wings, one with a slightly sweet flavour, and the other slightly spicy.

Buses are back on Granville...

After a 4 year Olympic hiatus, buses returned to Granville Street, which for some reason, struck a chord with me...

...Especially weird after seeing the streets packed during Taiwanfest...

... hopefully I remember to stop jaywalking across Granville on coffee-less mornings...

Ragazzi Pizza Co.

Decided to try another new street food option with Beginning Fresh. This time, it was Ragazzi Pizza Co. at 400 Burrard Street.



As well as offering 4 options in slice form (Capriciossa, Primavera, Prosciutto e funghi and Hawaiian), they also make full size pizzas to order.



I ordered the Hawaiian, and my friend ordered the Prosciutto e funghi. I have to admit, I was a bit underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong - the pizza was delicious - The slice could have used a tad more sauce in my opinion, but the thin crust, however, was spot-on. Definitely a step up over the regular fare that you'll find on Granville Street.

However, the options seemed mundane (though rather impressive sounding in Italian), and not unlike those very easily available in the downtown core. For example, the prosciutto e funghi slice could have done with something a bit more adventurous than white mushrooms.

I think my expectations were set a bit high by the level of creativity and quality delivered by my still-favourite street food option, The Re-Up BBQ. For example, Ragazzi have hit it out of the park by offering more adventurous slice options with fresh ingredients like salmon or boccacini (e.g. the similarly priced pizza lunch options offered by Italian Kitchen)

In retrospect, I think its a bit unfair for me to require a vendor that seeks to be "traditional" to be a bit more out-of-the-box, but because of how commonly available pizza is as a fast food item, I think this joint needs to be much more of a pioneer in order to be succesful.

@Taiwanfest

Taiwanfest was taking place a few blocks from my apartment, so I decided to check it out. Apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea - I've rarely seen Granville quite this crowded.



For me, the main appeal was the infamous Taiwanese street food.



Ok, so I know that Stinky Tofu is a popular dish in Taiwan, and I have no right to judge... but I might have considered trying it if it had a more appealing name..



Further up the line - grilled squid. Another delicacy that I was happy to skip over...



Oyster "Omelette"... ok, this dish seemed to have some promise on the onset, I'd been told that this was a favourite among the non-Chinese. Unfortunately, I had a very different experience - the choi was bitter, the egg part was goopy, and worst of all the dish was already cold by the time it was served to me. All in all I found the entire dish mostly inedible. Even by street food standards, it was pretty awful.

I will caveat that it may have just been the plate I was served - I noticed omelettes from other food stands were steaming hot and visibly much more aesthetically pleasing than mine.



Taiwanese Hot Dog - I definitely was pleasantly surprised by this. The "bun" was actually made of sticky rice, and was of the same texture and consistency that you'll find at a dim sum restaurant, and the pork sausage paralleled the barbecued pork chunks that you might find in the sticky rice. Delicious.



Cross section of the Taiwanese Hot Dog



After finally finding something satisfying to eat, I walked over to the Main Stage area in the plaza of the Vancouver Art Gallery. I wasn't really expecting to get much from the experience since I'm not really familiar with the Taiwanese music scene. But the costumes were pretty... interesting.



From what I gathered, the main singer of this group is from an aboriginal tribe in Taiwan call the Amis. His outfit is similar to one worn during the Harvest festival, even though I'm sure his is significantly more colourful than you'll find in Taiwan.

The Re-Up BBQ

There's a new food cart that's opened up near work called "The Re-Up BBQ". I'd heard good things about their pulled pork sandwich, so I decided to give it a try.

... and here's the 45 minute line up. Ok, so admittedly, the first time I went to try the famous pulled pork sandwich, I was unsuccesful - unfortunately I couldn't afford the time, so I had to grab a shawerma instead.

A few days later, I returned with a former coworker. This time, we got there early - unfortunately, about 20 minutes before the stand was ready to open. But this time, we waited it out, and it was worth it.

The sandwich was huge - stuffed with pork, and aptly topped off with fresh slaw. For $6+tax, it's definitely going to be a repeat for me.

Weekend in Seattle

Went to Seattle to visit a friend from University who had flown across for the week. I've been to Seattle before, but even then, this weekend had a few blog-worthy highlights.

My first taste of Russian Piroshky...

...which are Russian pastries with delicious sweet or savoury filling.

We also visited Japonesa at happy hour, and ate delicious Crunchy Seattle Rolls - Salmon, Avocado, and Cream Cheese, all battered and deep fried.

The theme of this hot dog stand, and the menu items seem suspiciously familiar...

Later we went to a gun range. First time for me firing a gun. Or even holding a live round for that matter. At this moment, I remember thinking to myself, "This thing could explode and take my hand off.". It's probably the actuary in me.

Firing a Beretta!

Not bad for a first timer. Ok, so maybe I missed the target 4 times.

Video of me firing a Special .38 revolver.

In the end, I was glad I tried, but I have to admit that it's probably not something I plan on doing often, or fantasize getting very good at.

Guu - Gastown

I went to Guu with a friend of mine from University who recently moved out West. Normally Guu's pretty hit or miss for me - it can be pretty loud, and usually ignorance leads to me ordering something that we really won't like. But on this occasion, everything was spot on.

The visit was a few days after getting my iPhone, and I still had the protective cover over the camera to prevent damaging the phone while I waited for a more permanent option, so the photos came out a bit fuzzy.

Deep Fried Oyster, served with Kimchi Mayonnaise.

Deep Fried Eel, served with Teriyaki sauce and a poached egg, with the runny yolk serving as a dipping sauce.

Both dishes were incredible, and I ended up talking about the experience to almost anyone who would listen for the next few days.

One other notable event was that there just happened to be three birthday groups at the restaurant on that evening - which the waiters announce by singing Happy Birthday in impressively loud and amusingly strong Japanese accents. Definitely a highlight, even if on three separate occasions.

Asia Trip: Hong Kong

Originally, Hong Kong was planned as a mere stop over on my way back to Vancouver. But the three days that I spent there were amazing, and enough to convince me that I needed to return. One of the key memories that I have of the trip is the time spent in Lan Kwai Fong, or LKF for short. LKF is Hong Kong's bar district, and our night there was filled with bar-hopping while sampling specialties from each establishment we visited, including Vodka shots in the cold room of a Russian bar, to Jello Shot's from Al's Diner, and in fine Hong Kong form, we ended the night with Dim Sum at a nearby restaurant that doesn't open until 4am.

Unfortunately, I wasn't willing to take my camera to LKF, so most of my pictures on this site are of scenery =D

I met up with a childhood friend of mine who lives in Hong Kong, and he showed me a few of the sites. This is a shot of Hong Kong side from Kowloon side, after taking the Star ferry across.

Another shot of Hong Kong side.

An egg tart, from *the* Hong Kong bakery. Yup, the one that the former Governor General of Hong Kong frequented. I think I ate my first egg tart at a dim sum restaurant in Mississauga, and I've loved them ever since, but I don't think anything could have prepared me for how delicious this one would be.

A bit later, we headed up to the peak for some shots of Hong Kong at night.

The weather was extremely fickle - we were at one point caught in a torrential downpour - but fortunately the sky cleared up for long enough to take this, one of my favourite shots ever.

Prior to racing off to the airport to catch a flight back to Vancouver, we went to the Aberdeen Marina Club for dim sum. Again, delicious food, and gorgeous scenery.

I think I could grow to get used to this city.

Asia Trip: Hua Hin

After three days of non-stop touring in and around Bangkok, we headed to Hua Hin to enjoy the four ceremony-filled days of the Indian Wedding.

We stayed at the Sheraton....

...it was adequate....

....yup...just adequate....

...Ok, it was actually a pretty awesome hotel =D

The hotel's pool snaked around the central area. One of the wedding events was held poolside, with little cabanas set up and decorated just for the event.

After one of the late night events, I was able to take a gorgeous shot of the sunrise, reflected in the hotel's infinity pool. Required precarious handling of my camera inches about the pool surface, while significantly inebriated. The shot was worth it.

The actual wedding ceremony was held in a structure constructed and decorated specifically for the event. The event was held at sunset.

Shot of the Bride being carried away after the ceremony was complete.

The four days we spent there were nothing short of amazing. From the food menus at all times of day, to the planned events and after parties, every detail was planned, designed, and executed flawlessly.