Cafe Presto Panini

I’ve associated Italian food too closely with pastas in the past. Pastas which are usually done in such a pedestrian way at most places that its become the backup plan, never the goal. Like chow mein, there’s little surprise to it. Presto Panini on Hornby showed me I simply had my eyes closed.
I really enjoyed their lunch combo of minestrone soup and cheese tortellini in fresh fruit cream sauce.
Topped with fresh parmesan, and about two servings of vegetables in the bowl, the minestrone soup is a hearty meal on its own.

This is one of the most interesting sauces I’ve had. In a good way. (I’ve been accused of using the word ‘interesting’ too often). Admittedly, I have no idea how the sauce is made. Its pure cream. Thick and a little foamy. I went with the cranberry topping this time, but had it with fresh mangos on a previous visit. I cannot imagine a better pasta to eat on a hot summer day while sitting in a tiny Vancouver cafe. The sauce is light and airy. The slightly sweet and fragrant bits of grated cheese is well complemented by the tanginess of the fresh fruit.

Its a small operation, one lone chef, closes early (7pm), crowded most of the lunch hour, great authentic Italian food, no twitter.

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We’re way overdue for another ESR Trivia! We’re going to start again with a short and sweet one:
“panini” is the plural form of “panino” (Italian for small bread)

Educations make smart.

Japadogs – Multicultural Hot Dogs

The office recently moved downtown, opening up a whole new set of lunch options. Luckily for us, the best hot dog stand in town is just around the corner.

Vancouver always touts its multiculturalism proudly, and so does Japadog on Burrard and Smithe, where “east meets west deliciously” as tastethehappy puts it. Its fusion food in a bun. More precisely, they serve hot dogs with a Japanese makeover. I know, its hard to imagine if you haven’t seen it before, and I had trouble explaining it to my coworkers without visual aid.

Take their Misomayo for example. Turkey sausage with Japanese mayo, miso sauce, and radish.

Or Terimayo, their #1 export, beef hot dog with Japanese mayo, special teriyaki sauce, and seaweed toppings.

Its more than just a gimmick, as these dogs taste pretty good with the Japanese toppings, and almost makes you forget what your momma told you about eating too much fast food. They do have other types of sausages, leaving the choice of condiments up to you. I also noticed their stand is cleaner than some restaurants I’ve been to, which is always a plus.

These guys are pretty famous too, making the news on numerous occasions, and proudly displays mug shots of B-list celebrities that have visited them, such as Steven Segal.

As far as hot dogs, cheap lunches, creative cuisines, and fusion food goes, this ranks pretty high up there.

Food: 8/10
Likelihood of returning: very high

Just in case you weren’t following up on hot dog related news, Joey “Jaws” Chestnut recently defeated Kobayashi “Tsunami” Takeru in Nathan’s hot dog eating contest by slaughtering 59 dogs in 10 minutes. That’s almost 1 hot dog every 10 second, and nearly 20,000 calories in total.

Fortunately for those two, I only had enough cash that day to buy one.