Smooch Food: Love Letters to Every Bite

Car Free Day at Main Street: Street Food Edition Event: Car Free Day, Main Street, Vancouver Featured Items: Steamed beef momo ($15), everything dumpling bowl with pan fried rice noodles ($11 + $5), esquites ($12) Verdict: A mixed bag, but the perfect closer made the day worth it. Car Free Day at Main Street is bigger this year, with more streets closed to traffic than Commercial Drive last week. We were of course there for the day, ready to explore what the street had to offer. Let me walk you through what we ate. That Momo Spot: The Comparison First stop was That Momo Spot, and I got their steamed beef momo hoping to finally compare it with BC Momo Restaurant on Seymour . The momo is beefy with juices inside, but there's not much flavour beyond that. Now I understand why my colleagues insist that BC Momo has the best, because this is not even close. The comparison has sealed the deal for me. ...

Their There Mochi Donuts (Final Day) Location: 2042 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6J 1M9 (Kitsilano) Featured Items: White Rabbit mochi donut, Cereal Milk mochi donut, Pandan Vanilla Bean Matcha Price Range: Mochi donuts $5 each, Pandan Vanilla Bean Matcha $9 Verdict: Now I understand the hype. These mochi donuts are a revelation, crispy outside, chewy and savoury inside, with just the right amount of sweetness. I get it now. This morning, hubby and I woke up earlier than usual and walked the ~4.5 kilometres to Their There in Kitsilano for their final day of operation. Our mission: try the popular mochi donuts everyone's been raving about. After about half an hour of lining up outside, we finally made it to the front of the queue and managed to snag one creamy white rabbit donut ($5) and one indulgent cereal milk donut ($5). The brown sugar was already sold out by then. Now I understand why this pla...

Happy Saturday! My brother sent me a message this morning asking if he could hang out at our house between his morning activity and dinner plans. Of course, we gladly took him in, and for lunch we headed to our go-to spot: Mr. Sushi. 🍜 The Smooch Food Snapshot The Dish: Seafood Yakisoba ($19.25) Location: Mr. Sushi, 176 E 2nd Ave, Vancouver, BC The Verdict: The best of all four yakisoba styles, loaded with tender shrimp, chewy squid, and briny mussels. Checking my list of things I've tried here, I decided to get the briny, generously loaded seafood yakisoba ($19.25) , and it's honestly the best of all four yakisoba styles on the menu, packed with tender shrimp, chewy squid, and plump mussels tangled through the noodles. A generous pile of seafood yakisoba, tossed with sprouts and sesame seeds. Mr. Sushi is genuinely the place that made me fall...

Because I was on personal leave yesterday, I had quite a full plate today, so we ended up rushing to Costco before closing at 8:30 PM. After that errand run, we grabbed dinner at Freshslice Pizza. We'd been thinking about our idea from last week, grabbing two slices here and another couple from Uncle Fatih's across the street, but we weren't sure where we could comfortably eat both. Since Freshslice has proper tables and a nicer seating area compared to Uncle Fatih's, we decided to stay put and explore what Freshslice had to offer. Freshslice Pizza on Abbott Street Location: 663 Abbott St, Vancouver, BC V6B 0J4 Featured Items: Italian Meat Lovers, Tandoori Paneer, Veggie, Butter Chicken (slices), cheesy bread Price Range: $8.25 for 2 slices & drink with any feast pizza, cheesy bread $7.49 Verdict: A solid neighbourhood pizza spot with surprising flavour variety. The Tandoori Paneer is the real winner, and the cheesy bread is dange...

Happy Thursday! Today's team lunch theme was sushi, and we walked over to nearby Sushi Bros since they have solid vegetarian options available for everyone on the team to enjoy. Sushi Bros on Robson Street Location: 380 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6B 2B2 (Downtown Vancouver) Featured Items: Tuna avocado roll, salmon avocado roll, sockeye avocado roll Price Range: $6.75 per roll (8 pieces for tuna, 6 pieces for salmon and sockeye) Verdict: Excellent value in Downtown Vancouver with generous portions and superior sushi rice quality. Last week at Mr. Sushi , hubby and I went on a bit of a roll rampage, so I decided to order the same thing here to do a proper comparison: fresh tuna avocado roll ($6.75 for 8 pieces), salmon avocado roll ($6.75 for 6 pieces), and sockeye avocado roll ($6.75 for 6 pieces). Sushi Bros roll sele...