Saturday, August 21, 2021

Food Daddy Persian Cuisine at Thank Granville It's Food trucks (TGIF)

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building.

Happy Saturday! I am going to let you in on a little secret. I started dieting again, and do you have any idea how hard it is to diet when you love good, delicious food? That's why the number of posts has slowed down this August because preparing meals at home would allow me to control portions and ingredients.

That said, it's my goal to try as many food trucks as I could that's part of TGIF. Yesterday, they announced on Instagram that a new food truck is going to be participating today. Hence, we had lunch from Food Daddy Persian Cuisine.

Food Daddy Persian Cuisine

We ordered Food Daddy Plate, which means we get to try all meat on top of fluffy, soft, perfectly cooked rice and a Falafel Plate.

Food Daddy Plate

Hubby and I shared the Food Daddy Plate. The portions are perfect for sharing. If I wasn't on a diet, I would eat the Food Daddy Plate all by myself, even though there's a lot of it. 😂 I highly recommend the beef out of all the three meat, but they're all delicious.

Falafel Plate

The Falafel is a bit dry but perfect with rice. I weighed everything, and the most surprising thing is there's half a kilogram of white rice in the Food Daddy Plate. It's essentially close to two cups of rice, and on a normal day, we only eat a half cup of rice.

Overall, the food is delicious.

We went to TGIF last night too, but it was at 7:00 PM, and Cazba already left. 😞 Oh well, it was good for the diet, though, since we end up having oatmeal and banana for dinner instead.

Thursday, August 19, 2021

Dinner with former colleagues at The Wicklow

It's been 2 years, 5 months, and 5 days since I last saw my former colleagues in the office because we started working from home at the start of the pandemic. We had dinner today because one of them is also leaving the company.

As an immigrant, my first friends in Canada are my former colleagues turned friends and I couldn't be happier to see them again after more than two years and catch up.

For dinner, I had my absolute favourite from The Wicklow Pub: Yorkshire Pudding Bowl. It's so delicious. I am already planning on when to come back with hubby to try their other items.

Yorkshire Pudding Bowl
Certified roast angus beef, house gravy, garlic mash potatoes, and horseradish aioli

Before dinner view at around 5:30 PM

After dinner view of the sunset at around 8:30 PM

I can't wait to plan a reunion with them around Christmas time.

Saturday, August 14, 2021

Lunch at Japadog

Happy Saturday! Hubby and I went shopping today at McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Vancouver Airport, then for lunch, we decided to enjoy a meal at Japadog.

We ordered two Japadog.

Ebi Tempura

Shrimp tempura, seasoned rice, and seaweed

It's so unusual to see rice between hotdog buns. The only reason we ordered this is because we're going through their menu and this is the next one on the list.

Love Meat Japadog

Arabiki pork, torched cheese, special meat sauce (beef) 

The Love Meat Japadog is perfect for those who wants a more familiar American hotdog. It's not as "out of this world" like other flavours.

Plain Takoyaki
Japanese octopus dumplings

Butter & Shoyu (Soy Sauce) Shaked Fries

The takoyaki and fries is pretty standard. If you crave for takoyaki or fries, this will hit the spot.

Omatcha Parfait

We ended our delicious meal with Omatcha Parfait. It has green tea ice cream, red beans paste, Japanese mochi, corn flakes, vanilla ice cream, and Japanese matcha jelly. It's perfect after walking around the outlet mall during a hot summer day, just like today.

For future me, here's a list of Japadog based on the menu in the McArthurGlen location with a link to which ones you've tried.
  1. Kurobuta Terimayo
  2. Okonomi
  3. Oroshi
  4. Love Meat (today)
  5. Spicy Cheese Terimayo
  6. Yakisoba
  7. Ebi Tempura (today)
  8. Tonkatsu
  9. Hot Spicy
  10. Yakiniku Rice
  11. Croquiette
  12. Karaage
  13. Wagyu Terimayo
  14. Avocado
  15. Cilantro

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Lunch at RedBeef Noodle Kitchen

Once a quarter, hubby and I do a Costco grocery run with my parent's membership card. We usually buy hand soap, paper towels, toilet paper, tissue boxes, detergents, and other things that usually don't expire quickly.

After the trip, we treat them to lunch as our way of saying thank you. My dad loves Redbeef Noodle Kitchen, and we do too. So hence, we had lunch here today.

Redbeef is my second favourite restaurant in Vancouver, right after Suika. I also have a dish that I consistently order: Chicken Cutlet Rice and Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken. 

Steamed Pork Soup Dumplings

I prefer the ones from Lin Chinese Cuisine in West Broadway.

Fried Spareribs with Rice

Well-seasoned and tender. I enjoyed the pieces hubby shared with me.

Malay Sponge Cake - if you want not sweet and extremely soft sponge cake, this is it!

Chicken Cutlet Rice

Salt & Pepper Popcorn Chicken

I will always get the chicken cutlet rice and salt & pepper popcorn chicken - so good! Happy Saturday!

Saturday, July 31, 2021

Mama's Fish and Chips at Thank Granville It's Food trucks (TGIF)

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building.

After breakfast from Crack On, we decided to take a 30-minute walk and grab two items from Mama's Fish and Chips: 2-pc fish and chips and a fresh wild salmon burger and yam fries. Then, we brought it home to enjoy while watching our Korean drama for the week: Hotel de Luna.

Two pieces of fish and chips

Fresh Wild Salmon Burger and Yam Fries

The batter they have for the fish looks like what you will use for fried chicken. It looks different than the usual beer batter. However, I would order the Fresh Wild Salmon Burger again, or maybe I'll try their prawns next time.

This meal made me miss Go Fish.

Crack On at Thank Granville It's Food trucks (TGIF)

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Friday and Saturday from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building.

It's a long weekend! We started our Saturday morning by waking up way later than usual, and we headed to West 10th Avenue and Fir Street for breakfast sandwiches from Crack On.

Top sandwich: Crack Sandwich (Two Rivers Maple Sausage, Havarti, candied jalapeno, tomato relish, lemon, garlic and thyme aioli)
Bottom sandwich: Take It Easy (One Arrow Thick Cut Bacon, cheddar, bacon jam, candied jalapeno, and tomato relish)

Crack On Food Truck

The service was friendly, and the food was good. I love the candied jalapeno - sweet and spicy, so good. The thick-cut bacon on my sandwich is huge, and it was a couple slab which made me happy.  I also got fresh orange juice while hubby order Agro drip coffee.

Overall, it's worth it waking up to Crack On. 

Thursday, July 29, 2021

Lunch from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery

Happy Thursday! I ordered from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery nine days ago, and I love their food so much I ordered again today. However, since it's already Thursday, I only ordered three items to enjoy hopefully until early next week, and I'm most likely order from them (or another Filipino restaurant in DoorDash) by Monday or Tuesday.

As mentioned in my previous Kulinarya post, there are no nearby (within 1-2 km radius) Filipino restaurants to our current place. As such, I need to use DoorDash or other delivery apps to enjoy Filipino favourite dishes.

Backstory: I live in a 2-person household - it's just hubby and me. I used to (still sometimes do) cook one Filipino dish (ulam) a week to reheat and eat with rice for the whole week for breakfast and lunch. For dinner, we usually eat pasta, bread (sandwich), or toasted bagel. I always thought that going to the groceries, lovingly preparing a meal is saving us money. And I think that's still true. But since I'm not feeding more people, I am trying to balance cooking (when I feel like it) and ordering family-style dishes that we can enjoy for a few days and have more variety. 

I am testing it for a few weeks, then see if I'll go over budget with the ordering in strategy or if it would be the same. 

For context, I grew up in a household of six people where weekly trips to the grocery and cooking a family-style meal almost daily are the practice growing up. It makes sense because we're a big household. But, the same strategy won't work for a household with just two people. I tried it, and eating the same dish for more than four days, even with variety (changing side dishes), is not fun. I could try changing the recipe for two people, but that means cooking more frequently, and I don't wanna do that.

Kulinarya Filipino Eatery

Hence, we're here. I ordered two dishes for today: Pork Sinigang (pork tamarind soup) and Filipino-style pork BBQ in skewers. I already cooked brown rice this morning, so we have the perfect partner for the delivered deliciousness.

Pork Sinigang
Pork with vegetables in tamarind soup

The serving of Pork Sinigang is big! I can't believe it. They didn't skimp on the pork and vegetables. I am so happy. I reckon we'll have it for three days (including today). 

Hubby loves Sinigang (I don't), and I attempted to cook it just once because I want him to have it. But finding ingredients is a challenge, and it takes a lot of effort (to me at least) to make it right. So now, I have a source of sinigang for future winter days.

Pork BBQ (4 Skewers)
Grilled pork skewers

The pork BBQ is delicious as well. One order comes with four skewers, so we had one stick each for lunch today, and the other two will be breakfast tomorrow.

Thank God the Dashers delivering our food is handled things with care and all dishes so far arrived in one piece.

Halo-Halo

On top of the two dishes, I also ordered Halo-Halo. It's so delicious, I wanted to cry. I am so happy. I can't believe I haven't had halo-halo for who knows how long and didn't realize how much I missed it.

Halo-Halo
Shaved Ice Dessert

For those who don't know, halo-halo is essentially a Filipino version of shaved ice dessert, but instead of just one type of fruit (like you'll see in Korean and Japanese shaved ice desserts), our version is a mix of different ingredients. Thus, the literal English translation of halo-halo is mix-mix.

I guess you should expect another Kulinarya post by next week. 😋

Sunday, July 25, 2021

Dinner from KFC

Happy Sunday! We're watching the Gold Cup games today, and I am seriously craving fried chicken. We ordered KFC using the DoorDash app. I love the Popcorn Chicken Poutine and will order it again.

Boneless Box for hubby

Popcorn Chicken Poutine

Zinger Sandwich

Zinger Sandwich Box

It's the perfect meal to end the weekend.

Saturday, July 24, 2021

Gelato from D'oro Gelato & Caffe

It's a hot summer day in Vancouver and perfect for ice cream. We're walking along Robson street in search of dessert and spotted D'oro Gelato & Caffe. I love the display of the many Italian desserts they offer.

Coffee Gelato

This is the best coffee gelato I've had! The coffee flavour is so strong.

Dark Chocolate Ice Cream

We ordered our gelato in a cup to prevent mess, and we ordered extra waffle cones because they're delicious.

D'oro Gelato & Caffe

Gelato Flavours

Gelato Flavours

Desserts in display

I want to try all their desserts! It looks so good.

By the time we arrived at Sunset beach, our gelato is gone.

Happy Saturday!

AYCE Korean BBQ Lunch at Dae Bak Bon Ga

Happy Saturday! 즐거운 토요일

I got my second dose of vaccine today, and as a celebration that hubby and I are now vaccinated, we walked along Robson Street from Canada Place in search of a place to have lunch. I was thinking of going to Ramen Danbo, but the line is ridiculously long, and I saw a sign for all-you-can-eat (AYCE) Korean BBQ. I was craving for Korean BBQ even though we just had it last Wednesday for dinner.

We had Set B, and I ordered one of each meat they have to offer, some of the dishes, and all sides (except rice). Of the dishes, I would recommend the Jumukbab (Rice Balls) and if you like dumplings getting the deep-fried dumplings is a good idea too. Otherwise, focus your attention on getting the meat. From the sides, I enjoyed the kimchi and sweet potato. They're both good palate cleansers when the meat is too much.

AYCE Korean BBQ

AYCE Korea BBQ

Meat on the grill

We only did one round because hubby was full already. I wonder if there are other good AYCE Korean BBQ in Vancouver.

Thursday, July 22, 2021

Thank Granville It's Food Trucks 2021: List of participating food trucks

The South Granville Business Improvement Association (SGBIA) organized Thank Granville It's Food Trucks (TGIF). Every Fridays and Saturdays from 11 in the morning until 8 in the evening from June through Labour Day, there will be a rotating lineup of food trucks located along West 10th Avenue at Fir Street in front of the Vancouver School Board building.

The location is close to transit, and parking is also available for anyone interested. 

The source of information below is from the spreadsheet on the South Granville BIA website. However, it seems like they are changing things every so often and I'll do my best to keep up.

List of Food Trucks in TGIF

Here is a table of all the food trucks that are going to be part of TGIF. This is according to the initial list available in the TGIF website.

Food Trucks
☑️ Beavertails ☑️ Brownie Bakers 🔲 Cazba
🔲 Come Arepa ☑️ Crack On ☑️ Crema Ice Cream & Desserts
☑️ Dos Amigos Tex-Mex ☑️ Food Daddy Persian Cuisine 🔲 Holi Masala
☑️ KYU Grill ☑️ Mama's Fish and Chips 🔲 Meet2Eat
☑️ Mom's Grilled Cheese Truck ☑️ Mr. Arancino ☑️ REEL Mac and Cheese
☑️ Rosie's BBQ and Smokehouse ☑️ SAJetarian ☑️ Salty's Lobster Shack
☑️ Say Hello Sweets ☑️ Shameless Buns ☑️ Super Thai
🔲 The Jerkshack ☑️ Tornado Potato ☑️ Yo-Bones BBQ

This Week

This is based on the list available in the TGIFoodtrucks Instagram account.

List of Food Trucks on August 27 and 28

August 27 (Friday) August 28 (Saturday)
Brownie Bakers Baja's Food
Rosie's BBQ Smokehouse Crema
SAJetarian Rosie's BBQ Smokehouse
Salty's Lobster Shack Tornado Potato
The Jerkshack

Upcoming Weeks

This is subject to change without prior notice and is based on the spreadsheet on the TGIF website.

List of Food Trucks on September 3 and 4

September 3 (Friday) September 4 (Saturday)

Past Weeks

List of Food Trucks on June 4 and 5

June 4 (Friday) June 5 (Saturday)
Beavertails Mom's Fish and Chips
Crack On Super Thai
KYU Grill Mom's Grilled Cheese
Salty's Lobster Shack Tornado Potato
Cazba

List of Food Trucks on June 11 and 12

June 11 (Friday) June 12 (Saturday)
Say Hello Sweets Mom's Grilled Cheese
Super Thai Dos Amigos Tex-Mex
Tornado Potato Super Thai
KYU Grill Crack On
Salty's Lobster Shack Cazba

List of Food Trucks on June 18 and 19

June 18 (Friday) June 19 (Saturday)
Crack On / Say Hello Sweets Beavertails
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Brownie Bakers
Holi Masala REEL Mac and Cheese 🧀
Super Thai Tornado Potato
Salty's Lobster Shack Yo-Bones BBQ

List of Food Trucks on June 25 and 26

June 25 (Friday) June 26 (Saturday)
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Cazba
Kyu Grill Mama's Fish and Chips
SAJetarian REEL Mac and Cheese 🧀
Salty's Lobster Shack Super Thai
Tornado Potato Tornado Potato

List of Food Trucks on July 2 and 3

July 2 (Friday) July 3 (Saturday)
Cazba Mama's Fish and Chips
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Mom's Grilled Cheese Truck
Kyu Grill Mr. Arancino
Salty's Lobster Shack Say Hello Sweets
Shameless Buns Super Thai

List of Food Trucks on July 9 and 10

July 9 (Friday) July 10 (Saturday)
Cazba Beavertails
Crema Mr. Arancino
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Say Hello Sweets
Salty's Lobster Shack Super Thai
Shameless Buns Yo-Bones BBQ

List of Food Trucks on July 16 and 17

July 16 (Friday) July 17 (Saturday)
Brownie Bakers Crema
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Kyu Grill (3:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Say Hello Sweets (1:00 PM to 8:00 PM) Rosie's BBQ Smokehouse
Shameless Buns Super Thai
Tornado Potato Tornado Potato

List of Food Trucks on July 23 and 24

July 23 (Friday) July 24 (Saturday)
Brownie Bakers Beavertails
Crema Kyu Grill
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Say Hello Sweets
Kyu Grill Super Thai
Salty's Lobster Shack Tornado Potato

List of Food Trucks on July 30 and 31

July 30 (Friday) July 31 (Saturday)
Crema Crack On (10:00 AM to 3:00 PM)
Come Arepa (4:00 PM to 8:00 PM)
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Mama's Fish and Chips
Kyu Grill Say Hello Sweets
Mr. Arancino Tornado Potato
Salty's Lobster and Shack Yo-Bones BBQ

List of Food Trucks on August 6 and 7

August 6 (Friday) August 7 (Saturday)
Kyu Grill Baja's Food
Mama's Fish and Chips Come Arepa
SAJetarian KYU Grill
Salty's Lobster Shack Rosie's BBQ Smokehouse
Shameless Buns Tornado Potato

List of Food Trucks on August 13 and 14

August 13 (Friday) August 14 (Saturday)
Cazba Crack On
Crema Kyu Grill
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Say Hello Sweets
Mr. Arancino Super Thai
Salty's Lobster Shack (half day) Yo-Bones BBQ

List of Food Trucks on August 20 and 21

August 20 (Friday) August 21 (Saturday)
Cazba Food Daddy Persian Cuisine
Crema Super Thai
Dos Amigos Tex-Mex Yo-Bones BBQ
Salty's Lobster Shack
Shameless Buns

Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Birthday Dinner at Royal Seoul House Restaurant

Happy birthday, Pa! It's our dad's birthday and to celebrate we had Korean BBQ. We originally wanted Japanese BBQ from Gyu-Kaku, but we're seven people (me and my hubby, my parents, and three siblings), and they couldn't accommodate our big group. As such, we end up in Royal Seoul House Restaurant, which is the closest Korean restaurant to our place.

We ordered our usual - Combo B (beef, pork, and chicken), Deep Fried Pork Dumplings, Seafood Pancake, and Japchae. Moreover, my brother and I are feeling adventurous, so we ordered two new dishes that we don't usually order: Ttok-Bokki (it's my first time trying it) and Deopbap.

Deopbap
Rice topped with assorted veggies in a hot stone bowl with pork.

I am not a fan of their Deopbap, but to be fair, I am eating other dishes with a stronger flavour, so I couldn't appreciate it as much.

Ttok-Bokki
Stir-fried rice cake, veggies, and fish cake with a spicy sauce

Ttok-Bokki is something you will frequently see when watching Korean dramas, but this is my first time trying it. I love the spicy sauce, and I regret eating it first before the Deopbap because the flavour is so strong and delicious. I am unsure if I like rice cake though, it's chewy.

Deep-Fried Pork Dumplings

Korean dumplings are my favourite - like the top of the list in a world filled with dumplings. They're bigger than Japanese gyoza and Chinese dumplings and flavourful.

Combo B means marinated beef short ribs, marinated beef, marinated chicken, and spicy pork.

As hubby and I are walking home, I told him that my hair smell likes BBQ. I love it. 😂 I hope my dad enjoyed our simple birthday dinner. It's so nice to have everyone here.

Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Lunch from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery

Happy Tuesday! I am too lazy to cook or even grab groceries yesterday. So today, we ordered a lot of food from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery for the whole week. The only downside of our neighbourhood is that there are no Filipino restaurants or a food source nearby. As such, I have to use DoorDash to get my favourite Filipino dishes delivered.

Feast from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery


If you know us by now, we have a consistent list of Filipino dishes we almost always order: Kare-Kare, Filipino-style pork BBQ, and lumpiang shanghai (Filipino spring rolls). Unfortunately, Kulinarya doesn't have pork BBQ.

The food arrived on time and was well packaged. For lunch, we ate a portion of the Beef Kare-Kare and Laing. Next, we finished the Spring Rolls and Turon. Finally, I placed the Canton Bihon Mix and Chicken Adobo on the fridge.

Beef Kare-Kare
Beef and vegetables in a thick savoury peanut-based sauce

I am so happy that Kulinarya can now deliver to our address. It means I can order Kare-Kare anytime I crave for some. It's a good Kare-Kare, and since the Facebook vendors where I used to get delicious Kare-Kare is no longer available, this has become the best Kare-Kare in Vancouver.

Laing
Dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk, shrimp paste, and smoked fish.

I don't order Laing from restaurants because it's something I can cook at home. However, when I order it, it ends up being so good that I feel terrible for not cooking this well. It's spicy and perfect with rice.

Lumpiang Shanghai (Spring Rolls)

I have a pretty high standard for spring rolls, and the best one with a physical location is still from Little Ongpin in Richmond. From the taste of their lumpiang shanghai, it's obvious that it was frozen the night before because it has that weird after taste. Thankfully, it's fried to perfection and did travel well.

Turon
Caramelized fried plantain banana and purple taro jam spring rolls

I love turon in all shapes, forms, and sizes. But having turon so easily available is a luxury, so this discovery is making me happy. I guess you'll see more Kulinarya Filipino Eatery posts in the future.

Canton Bihon Mix
Stir-fry egg and rice noodles with chicken, shrimp, and vegetables

I will update this post once I have tried the Canton Bihon Mix.

Chicken Adobo
A twist on tradition. Chicken leg and thigh simmered in cane vinegar, soy sauce, and garlic. Then, deep-fried for an extra crunch.

Here's the thing. I didn't order adobo. I ordered Tamarind Chicken, but they don't have it available, and I was on the phone with a customer, so I couldn't answer their call to see what I want it replaced with. I would have said dinuguan, but by the time I was done on the phone, it's too late. It's all good, though, since the adobo did look good. I will update this post once I have tried it.

Overall, I will order from Kulinarya Filipino Eatery again.

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