Benkei Ramen on Thurlow

Finally had a chance to check out the freshly renovated Noodle Express, er…I mean newly constructed Benkei Ramen on Thurlow today along with Ed and a few coworkers.
The lineup was already out the door when we arrived, but somehow within a few minutes we were able to get a table for 5 ahead of a few couples ahead of us.
The interior is pretty much the same as its sister location further down Robson with slightly more seats (not very comfortable). The menu is still straightforward, with its different variety of soup bases in the front and toppings/extras in the back.
Though everyone else got it, I HAD to get something other than plain miso ramen, cause its what I had for dinner pretty much the whole week (orz), and ordered the Akioni (red devil) spicy miso with the works (but no butter, so its all healthy). It wasn’t that spicy though, so anyone could take the extra flavour kick. They were out of the Akioni right after we ordered, so apparently its pretty popular. No surprises here. Its just as good as the other location.

We’ll be back. Often.

Viet Sub on Robson

I look forward to lunch so much sometimes that I wonder if I go to work just for the lunch. I’m sure anyone who toil away in an office for over 1/3 of their waking hours can relate. But depressing statistics aside, the lunch breaks at work have been a pretty fun affair. We have a regular group happily venturing out everyday (‘happily’ only on non-raining days) and have a sizeable rotation (of which I’ve meant to blog) of restaurants we go to to keep things fresh.
Viet Sub on Robson is one place we’ve been going to for a while now.

These guys makes some great subs toasted and rolled in front of your eyes.

The special sub is the well rounded choice I usually go for, but they also have some good pho noodle soups. The ingredients are typical to viet style subs, and the taste is exceptional. Fast, cheap ($~4/sub) and friendly.

There’s a specials board on the wall behind the door with more menu items(I haven’t seen anything move from either menus though).

There’s almost 0 seating capacity in here, so its take out preferred. Which is great, because there’s a new Beard Papa’s right next door you can go to get a cream puff for dessert. Perfect combo.

Turkish cuisine @ Anatolia’s Gate

A friend from work was leaving the country indefinitely, so me and another friend (a native of Turkey) decided to take him out for a meal, a last exploration into Vancouver’s vast ethnic food offerings.

We ordered their mix plate of starters, which includes a large sampling portions of their cold dishes. (chickpeas, carrot, eggplant, tomato dips) These went perfect with their famous Lavosh flat bread. I ordered another plate of these to go for dinner.

Though we had only 3 people, we ordered their group set meal (Padishah’s Table, $20/person), which was the biggest medley of food I have ever seen in my life. My favorite was the Lahmajun, a thin crust pizza with ground meat on top.

Being a sendoff meal, we took our time eating, sipped on our ayran between bites while shooting the breeze. About an hour later, we finished the huge plate of food and were completely demolished. The only thing that could bring us back to consciousness was a shot of Turkish coffee. Brewed with the fine grinds in the cup, this coffee had bite.

The meal, nay, feast, did the occasion justice. From what my Turkish friend says, the food is true to regular restaurants found in his home town. It drew many nostalgic tales of home out of him, and in turn, us.

“Food is our common ground, a universal experience.”  -James Beard

(map)

Food is our common ground, a universal experience.

James Beard

Food for thought.

I want to share some interesting bits from a book I’m currently reading. “How we decide“. A rather average book among the heaping pile of the pop psychology titles being published recently.

The book details many psyc experiments to do with how the brain works. Some might sound familiar to those who’ve taken some PSYC-100 courses in school. I found these of particular interest to a food blogger such as myself. You’ll see why.

1. An industry study measuring the quality of several strawberry jams invited a panel of professional food tasters to rate a selection of jams on a numbered scale on the characteristics of sweetness, taste, enjoyment, spreadability, and a few other criteria. Result was that brand A was the best, and brand Z the worst. Years later, a professor attempted to repeat the same test with his students, and got the same results. However, when the test was given with an extra criteria of “why”, as in “explain why did you think the jam is highly spreadable”, the results were reversed. Brand Z, the cheapest jam in the group, got the highest score.

2. In another test, all subjects were given a word puzzle test after ingesting an energy drink, labeled as providing higher alertness and energy. Half of the subjects paid the full price for the energy drink before the test, while the other subjects were told to pay only half. The result of the test shows that the group that paid the cheaper sale price scored 30% lower on average.

3. A group of students were asked to do a blind taste test of 5 different bottles of wine. Although among the 5, one $5 wine was presented once as $5, then again as $45. Not surprisingly, the $45 wine rated as being far superior than the same bottle labeled at $5. This test was given again to wine experts, those that frequently consume and judge the quality of wines, and received the same results.

Egg Tarts from Golden Gate Bakery (San Francisco)

While visiting San Francisco’s chinatown, our friends/free tour guides insisted that we must try the best egg tarts in town. We did. They were, in fact, the best we’ve ever had. Custard is airy and fragrant, and shell is soft and flaky. Sorry, I couldn’t resist biting mine before I took the picture.

Lineups are found here constantly, waiting for trays coming fresh from their back alley oven. Here:

From which you can also make purchases from. Its bout 2 blocks away, and very well hidden. Hard to describe the location, but google street view helps.

They didn’t seem to like me taking pictures in their store, though its no mystery what the inside looks like.

One of those must try places when walking around Chinatown in San Fran.