Dinner from ZAC-ZAC Japanese Curry House at H-Mart

While hubby spent time with his high school friend, I visited the Vancouver Public library to check travel guide books. I know it's "old school" to read travel guides because everything is online, but it feels nice to touch physical books.

After an hour or so, I met up with my husband, and we decided to have a food coma dinner at ZAC-ZAC Japanese Curry House inside the H-Mart. 

I ordered the Katsu Curry while hubby chose the Fish Furai Curry. We also ordered a basket of Chicken Karaage.

Fish Furai Curry
Panko breaded filet served with rice.

Chicken Karaage

Katsu Curry
Pork cutlet. Served with rice

I surprisingly preferred the fish curry. It's soft and delicate inside, which worked well with the crunchy outside. Meanwhile, the fried chicken was juicy and perfectly cooked.

When I first tried the curry here in 2016, I thought it was one of the best available in the city. Still, Suika and Mr. Japanese Curry totally raised my Japanese curry expectations that this is acceptable to satisfy your cravings but not meet your emotional needs that can only be satisfied with absolutely delicious food.

Lunch from Mr. Shawarma at Robson Square

Happy Saturday! My husband and I walked across Granville Bridge on this beautiful sunny summer. He's meeting a high school friend in Downtown Vancouver, and while he's doing that, I met with my parents and sister, who are enjoying Robson Square. 

It was my first meal of the day, so I ordered from the closest food source, Mr. Shawarma food truck. I ordered the Steak Original Platter and asked for three additional falafel.

Steak Original Platter with three additional falafel
Steak served over seasoned rice with carrots and peas, garlic sauce, and tahini sauce. It includes hummus, house salad (cucumbers, chopped parsley, tomatoes, and shredded lettuce), plus a slice of pita.

For future me (and others), I recommend going for falafel all the way. It's so delicious!

Dinner from Beast on Fire and Unleashed at BC Place | Vancouver Whitecaps FC vs Houston Dynamo FC

I have purchased from every food stand at BC Place (you can check my progress here), so my goal is to go through the checklist and order as many food items as possible to make a list of my favourites.

So far, I conclude that anything with the short rib is delicious, whether in a rice bowl, with poutine, burger, or on top of mac and cheese.

For dinner tonight, we ordered the Chicken and Waffle from Beasts on Fire and Bao Burger from Beasts Unleashed.

Chicken and Waffle from Beasts on Fire

The waffle was surprisingly sweeter than I expected in a savoury dish. Since it's served without syrup, it makes sense. The chicken is not fried. It's roasted. I haven't seen a grilled, fried chicken with waffles before, but the sweetness of the waffle overpowers any flavour the chicken has. Thankfully, the chicken is not dry, and there's a mayo sauce that seems spicy, but it just doesn't work because of the sweet waffle.

Chicken and Waffles with a bag of Miss Vickie's Original Recipe chips

Chicken and Waffles from Beast on Fire
Tender roasted chicken, toasted waffle, aged cheddar, and chipotle aioli served with kettle chips.

Short Rib Bao Burger from Beast Unleased

This one is a winner! The short rib was juicy and well-seasoned, while the shell bun was soft and surprisingly delicious. Arugula is one of my favourite vegetables as it changes the flavour profile and acts like a palate cleanser. However, I wish there were more pickled carrots and radish to balance the fatty short rib.

Short Tib Bao Burger from Beast Unleashed
Pull short rib, arugula, pickled carrots, radish, and hoisin mayo on a steam shell bun.

Overall, it's a good food night, and somehow the Whitecaps pulled a last-minute win on an overall bad game.

Dinner at Mr. Japanese Curry

We're celebrating our 11th year as a couple today. So I asked my husband to choose where we should have dinner. It doesn't have to be fancy, and it could be Tim Hortons or McDonald's for all I care, as long as we have dinner outside our apartment.

He said Mr. Japanese Curry or Suika because he knows I am crazy about Japanese curry and love what both restaurants serve. So, after 5:00 PM, we started our walk to Cambie Street to the location of Mr. Japanese Curry.

Interior of Mr. Japanese Curry in Vancouver

We ordered a lot of things. First, I had the Menchi Katsu Curry, while my hubby had the Tonkatsu Curry. Then for our siders, I ordered a small chicken karaage (5 pieces) and curry poutine. Finally, to end our meal, we ordered the Matcha Tiramisu and Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée.

Menchi Katsu Curry
Beef curry with a fried hamburger patty

I can't believe it's possible to have too much fat flavour, but that's how the hamburger patty felt with the already delicious beef curry. The patty was juicy, so all the juiciness coming out of it goes to the beef curry changing its flavour to be oilier than it really is.

Tonkatsu Curry
Chicken curry with sliced pork cutlet

I feel like two toppings always go well with curry: fried pork (tonkatsu) and fried chicken (karaage). Tonkatsu with chicken curry or beef curry will always be delicious.

Curry Poutine
Crispy fries with beef curry sauce and melted cheese

You can not go wrong with a curry version of the poutine, but what makes this version from Mr. Japanese Curry standout is they use melted cheese instead of curds. The melted cheese works so well with the curry sauce.

Matcha Tiramisu

It's hard to pick just one dessert because they both have positives. The matcha flavour from the tiramisu is impressive, but the cake itself is dry, which is unfortunate. Meanwhile, the Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée is the perfect dessert after a curry. It cleanses and cools down your tongue and palate, but the flavour is not as strong.

Vegan Vanilla Crème Brûlée

While enjoying our dinner, we're already discussing strategies when we return.

Dinner at Genki Eki

Genki Eki opened maybe a couple weeks ago near the corner of West Broadway and Heather Street, sandwiched between Michael's and Blenz Coffee.

We entered the newly opened Japanese restaurant and loved the interior. Check out the bus (or train) stop-looking décor with a bench and carton box-designed vending machine.

inside Genki Eki

Genki Eki is Subway-like in the sense that you choose which bowl you want in five steps. I'll list down the available options when we were there today.

Step 1: Choose one noodle

Udon

Soba

Ramen

Step 2: Choose one protein

Beef with onion

Chicken breast

BBQ Pork

Duck breast

Step 3: Choose one sauce

Soy Base	Spicy Base	Curry Base
Wasabi Soy	Yuzu Miso	Sesame Base

Step 4: Choose two toppings

Tamago Egg	Fish Cake	House Kimchi
Sweet Corn	Bamboo	Bacon Crumble
Cucumber	Carrot	Snow Crab
Tomato	Ham	Broccoli

Vegetable Medley

Lettuce

Step 5: Choose three mix-ins

Green Onion

Crispy Tempura

Garlic

Pickled Ginger

Seaweed (Nori)

Below are the ingredients we picked for our bowls.

	For Me	For Hubby
Noodle	Udon	Ramen
Protein	Chicken Breast	BBQ Pork
Sauce	Curry Base	Yuzu Miso
Toppings	Carrot and Vegetable Medley	Tamago Egg and Bamboo
Mix-Ins	Garlic, Pickled Ginger, and Green Onion	Garlic, Seaweed (Nori), and Crispy Tempura

The bowl came with a delicious miso broth. It's the most subtle yet delicious broth I've ever had.

As you can see from our choices, we picked ingredients usually found in a curry rice bowl and ramen bowl. It was a great experience! Although, if you have social anxiety, picking ingredients might be a challenge. 

Udon Curry Chicken Bowl and Yuzu Miso Ramen Pork BBQ Bowl

After enjoying our meal, I looked at the Instagram account of Genki Eki and found that they have recommended bowls already, which are not yet in the store (or I could have missed it).

I hope to come back and enjoy the pre-designed bowl for maximum flavour and to try Oden.

Snacks from Wendy's

Happy BC Day! We have no work today. Yay! We're just lazily staying home most of the morning, but decided to take a walk in the afternoon and ended up at Wendy's. We enjoyed a couple large fries (I should have ordered a Biggie - is that size still a thing?) and two medium-size Frosty - one chocolate and one vanilla.

Vanilla and Chocolate Frosty and French Fries from Wendy's

Afterwards, we walked around Canadian Tire a block away to see if they had any stickers. Then, we ended up at Michael's, where I got stamps.