Still full from the previous night’s meal and eager to begin my 1st day exploring New York City, I looked for a light breakfast. A few minutes from our hotel, at the foot of the Empire State Building, and on the edge of Koreatown, something caught my eye…

Do you see what I saw?

99¢ breakfast baby!
Papaya Dog, known for their hotdogs, had a “2 Eggs Potatoes & Toast” breakfast for under a buck.

The “chef” was quick with the spatula and surprisingly friendly.
So how was the food?

Not bad. The eggs and bread were fine, but the soggy potatoes were saturated with a strange and spicy seasoning salt. But for 99¢, who am I to complain? I even overlooked the fact that I had nowhere to sit, forcing me to eat standing up on Fifth Avenue.

Not the most glamorous meal but whatever - it’s not like NYC is paved in gold.

Introducing Eat, Snap, Repeat Around the World!

You didn’t think we would stop blogging just because we were on vacation did you?

I feel that meals make up some of the most memorable parts of a vacation: they’re where you spend a large portion of your vacation budget, where you meet and socialize with old friends, and where you get a taste of the local culture. To me, this is what Eat, Snap, Repeat is all about.

We’re gonna kick off ESR Around the World with New York City. GREAT SUCCESS!

First meal: Artisanal Fromagerie Bistro & Wine Bar, located on 2 Park Avenue in Manhattan. Boy was I hungry (the frozen muffin from Bellingham International Airport and Whooper from Salt Lake City International Airport did not cut it).

Walking into Artisanal, I instantly felt the New York City vibe. It was packed. It was loud. Now, restaurants in Vancouver can get pretty busy (especially the ones in Richmond), but this felt different. The patrons were well-dressed and boisterous: business men and women letting it all out after a day working at their Manhattan offices perhaps?

Distracted by the interesting crowd only momentarily, my growling stomach quickly focused my attention back on the menu. Because Artisanal is famous for its great selection of cheeses (over 250 different kinds!), we started off by sharing their Artisanal Blend cheese fondue ($24). I’m not exactly sure what the fondue consists of, but it was certainly memorable; I tasted a blend of extremely sharp cheeses, garlic, and liberal amounts of alcohol. Cubes of bread, apples ($3.50), and beef tips ($10.50) coated in this gooey concoction came to life.

Next up, an entree of Chatham Cod ($26.50). Not bad, but not as memorable as the stinky fondue. For my first NYC dessert, what else could I get than a slice of cheesecake? Forget New York style, this is the real deal. We shared the Artisanal Cheesecake, with Pecan Praline & Caramel Sauce ($10.50) - simply amazing.  Words cannot describe.

All in all, not a bad way to kick off my mini vacation in New York City.
Stay tuned for more posts from the Big Apple.

When you don’t have the time or pocket change to go out for a restaurant prepared meal, there’s always the option of eating dehydrated rations out of a styrofoam cup. If you feel guilty about not consuming any of the 4 basic foods during a meal, don’t be. Over 5 billion servings of instant noodles are eaten each year by Japan alone.

That’s 40 per person, or 1/10 of a package a day. The Japanese are a perfectly healthy group of people, so there’s really nothing to worry about if you have one once in a while.

Nissin has been making instant ramen under the Cup Noodle label for 50 years, and was in fact the inventors of the noodle and cup package. There’s an incredible variety of flavors for cup noodles, but unfortunately here in Canada we don’t get to see very many of them.

This particular Seafood variation (only available in China/HK) is found in T&T supermarkets in Richmond, and usually when you do find it on the shelf, there’s only a handful of the regular sized cups left.

For $1.79, you get a cup chock full of noodles and flavoring bits, enough for an afternoon snack. The yellow ball bits you see in the picture seems to explode MSG into your mouth (that’s a good thing).
I could not slurp the soup due to its saltiness, and had to water it down with more water after eating some of the noodles, which are cooked al dente after only 3 minutes.
Other than having to refill the water again to enjoy the soup, this has got to be the best instant ramen I’ve ever had. You pay a premium over the other brands, but you’re rewarded with an unostentatious, superior cup of noodle.

Ramen Rating: 9.7/10

Anyone else have a favorite noodle they’d gladly use as meal replacement?

The variety of Japanese food here in Vancouver continues to amaze me. We have sushi restaurants, trendy izakayas, cozy ramen bars, and even places specializing in donburi and udon. Clearly, sushi is Japanese food but Japanese food is not just sushi.

With Posh, let’s add sukiyaki to the list. Posh describes itself as “The First Exclusive Sukiyaki Restaurant in North America”.

Sukiyaki is all about the meat, baby. Thinly sliced meat that you cook yourself in a bubbling pot of water, soy sauce, sugar, and mirin to be more specific. Posh serves it up all-you-can-eat style.

Here’s how it works. Sit down at your table and you’ll find a large pot atop a portable stove in the center. The server will give you a small menu listing a few types of meats, veggies, tofu, and noodles that you can order. Using the provided pencil, you then specify on the menu how much of each you want. You can order as much as you want, as many times as you want. It’s a process that AYCE Sushi fans are all too familiar with.

Don’t hold back. We saw other tables with 20+ orders of meat, stacked several feet high (ahh, to be a food-starved teenager again…).

Cooking the ingredients in the hot pot is not only delicious, but also loads of fun. Hot pot tastes best when shared amongst a group of friends. With sukiyaki, it’s fine to eat straight from the pot. Dip the meat and other goodies in a bowl of raw egg if you want to up the authenticity.

The food is good. The value is great - a flat fee of $13.88. The service is fine. And the environment is pretty nice. These pictures are from the original Richmond location. Posh has since opened 2 other locations on West Broadway and Kingsway, so they must be doing something right.

You can tell that they’re targeting the younger crowds. They have their funky logo plastered on all their diningware. The environment is low-lit and cool. And their website is super slick.

I can’t see myself going here every week, but I’ll definitely return whenever I crave meat. Recommended!

It was a gorgeous day in Vancouver today, and lunch just had to be eaten outside. Since I’m too lazy to clean off my grill to make a burger, we headed down to the yee olde town of Steveston for a stroll by the water and a quick bite.

Steveston (formally called Historic Steveston Village) is located at the south west corner of Richmond, by the water. There’s about a dozen restaurants at the fisherman’s wharf lined up along the boardwalk. In the 6 blocks of land of the little town you’ll find the highest concentration of Fish & Chip places in all of Vancouver. I counted about 10 establishments with the word Fish somewhere in their billboard.

Pajo’s serves a few different variations of Fish & Chips, with different pricing options depending on the type of fish. There are burgers and side dishes available also, but the sign reads ‘famous for fish & chips’, so I wouldn’t pass up the opportunity.

We had the small order of Halibut and chips, which came wrapped in a newsprint cone that fits into a slot in the tables nearby. There’s also a good variety of self serve condiments by the window to go with your order.

Sitting down in the sun around the smiling young and old made the fresh and delicious meal all the more enjoyable.

Food: 9/10

Good place to go on a summer day?: Yes