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absolutely true. Same thing with the big cities of Europe. |
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A.Bento, a modern take on humble Taiwanese street food, has become one of my favourite new places to eat in Metro Vancouver. Even better, it's located on West Broadway, so I don't have to travel to Richmond or Burnaby to eat it.
This place is legit. Everything tastes as good or better than what you'd find at your typical Taiwanese night market. I've eaten here half a dozen times now, and every meal was superb. Spicy Beef Fried Rice https://i.imgur.com/TrICJIkh.jpeg Three Cup Chicken. One of their standout dishes. The 'three cup' refers to using a cup of rice wine, soy sauce and sesame oil for the sauce. As with many Taiwanese dishes, a generous helping of basil brings the flavour to another level. https://i.imgur.com/qt709Aeh.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/EH2RxHNh.jpeg Braised pork rice What you can't see under the Taiwanese sausage and egg is a mouth-watering and artery-clogging pork belly stew that covers the white rice. Each little piece of pork melts in your mouth. https://i.imgur.com/AR0zveXh.jpeg Their signature dish, and probably their best. I LOVE black pepper steak and noodles in Taiwan. It's a common dish at night markets that's served on a hot skillet with an egg. A.Bento punches it up a tad, and uses short rib instead of a flank steak. You can pull the beef off of the bone with chopsticks. It's divine. https://i.imgur.com/4j4a6N2h.jpeg I highly recommend A.Bento. Really good and authentic Taiwanese food is surprisingly difficult to find outside of Taiwan, so when you come across a place this good, it needs to be shared. |
^That looks incredible! Need to find some authentic Taiwanese now.
We went to one of our pre-COVID favourites in Toronto last night - Seoulshakers in Bloordale. I was pleasantly surprised that the quality hasn't dipped and despite being slightly more expensive portion sizes have remained large. It's a kind of Korean fusion (hate that term but for lack of a better one) with dishes like bulgogi chopped cheese and eggplant kangpungi. Plus chill enough to hang out for a couple drinks after our meal without pressure to leave, despite it being fairly busy. Didn't take pics but the menu is still pretty similar to this article: https://www.blogto.com/restaurants/s...akers-toronto/ Prices are about $2 more per dish - not bad considering. The owners other restaurants are great too (Hanmoto, Oddseoul, Shakers club and the unfortunately now-closed Pinky's Ca Phe). I know Monkeyronin has posted pics from some of these in the past. |
^ Seoulshakers looks great! The eggplant kangpungi, in particular. I could definitely eat that right about now.
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Some of my favourite restaurants (and a couple bars) in Vancouver:
Bar Susu. This is everything I like a restaurant to be - great, unpretentious food, convivial atmosphere, good wine & cocktails, nice space: https://i.imgur.com/WvKKVPA.jpg https://i.imgur.com/taWk8OE.jpg https://i.imgur.com/M1zmgta.jpg PiDGiN https://i.imgur.com/DkVDoH2.jpg https://i.imgur.com/ccWyrGF.jpg Lunch Lady. I come here for brunch all the time: https://i.imgur.com/ipAKNU8.jpg https://i.imgur.com/OX9u4Io.jpg https://i.imgur.com/LyBYVxl.jpg https://i.imgur.com/NIb0aUQ.jpg Les Faux Bourgeois https://i.imgur.com/VY2JSlP.jpg https://i.imgur.com/M7JLsaq.jpg Savio Volpe https://i.imgur.com/El11QRt.jpg https://i.imgur.com/APn5ZU0.jpg https://i.imgur.com/MZg3p9C.jpg Carlino. This place was a bit of surprise - a high-end restaurant in the Shangri-la hotel focusing on Friulan food (from the Friuli region in northeastern Italy - where my family is from): https://i.imgur.com/0pyY87C.jpg https://i.imgur.com/dseBiGT.jpg Pepino's / La Tana https://i.imgur.com/KCGix5F.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tr2yh6B.jpg https://i.imgur.com/nJfrqeV.jpg https://i.imgur.com/gswRLkU.jpg Keefer Bar https://i.imgur.com/NYOhpAB.jpg https://i.imgur.com/tjOPclV.jpg 33 Acres Brewery https://i.imgur.com/jEEnxeC.jpg One glaring omission so far is that I haven't included any of Vancouver's excellent representation of every variety of Chinese cuisine. This one is one that I've barely scratched the surface of though - I've been to some great spots like Western Lake, Kirin or Sun Sui Wah for dim sum; Don Tai Xiang or Bubble Waffle for more specific or regional foods; Memory Corner for Taiwanese; and many more that I'd like to try (definitely got to go to Quan Ju De when I've got some money to burn). But none individually really stand out. So I'm going to cop out and mention the Crystal Mall food court and its many delights packed together under one roof: https://i.imgur.com/OhoepJp.jpg https://i.imgur.com/0zgfCsR.jpg https://i.imgur.com/CP6Lwoq.jpg https://i.imgur.com/rG3UpBD.jpg And lastly, an honourary mention to Pilgrimme on Galiano Island. One of the best & most interesting meals I've ever had. https://i.imgur.com/izS2b9l.jpg https://i.imgur.com/HrzE6ja.jpg https://i.imgur.com/VZOAZ7e.jpg https://i.imgur.com/xuFFIQL.png https://i.imgur.com/ttWYOpF.jpg |
Great pictures guys. The food looked really good.
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Honō Izakaya, a yakitoris bar on St-Joseph street with great japanese tapas and even greater cocktails.
https://images.adsttc.com/media/imag...jpg?1549810620 https://images.adsttc.com/media/imag...jpg?1549810656 https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...bw&oe=6585ABE9 https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...PQ&oe=65A8871E |
It's been awhile since I've posted anything..My vote goes to the Vitorria tratorria.
https://vittoriatrattoria.com/ For diners, it's the Elgin Street Diner. |
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Le Clocher Penché, a french style bistro situated in an old bank on St-Jospeh street. Fantastic brunch menu, gorgeous setting.
https://www.appareilarchitecture.com...aud_BR_016.jpg https://www.appareilarchitecture.com...03-600x800.jpg https://www.appareilarchitecture.com...aud_BR_010.jpg https://www.appareilarchitecture.com...aud_BR_004.jpg |
My wife and I are totally riding the Hakka wave sweeping into Kitchener-Waterloo. Hakka Kitchen Wall is amazingly scrumptious. I strongly urge anyone who likes bar wings to try lollipop chicken, especially at this place. Talk about juicy and mouth-watering. Definitely get the Hakka shrimp, too. And the honey-garlic fish. And the basil mango veggies.
If Indians doing their own take on Chinese food is wrong,* I don't wanna be right. *It was difficult balancing my principled opposition to this cultural appropriation by the Nepalese owners with the utterly fantastic taste of their food, but I managed it in the end. |
Somewhere, perhaps on College Street around UofT, I saw a sign saying "Taiwanese Street Food" that looked appealing. There's a new Hakka place near Bloor and Indian Grove that looks good, but as you know with reflux and CD, these menus are off limits. For people such as myself, I noticed a GF place near Richmond and Spadina. (And another reason my ex and I broke up, she couldn't deal with both reflux & gluten-free diet restrictions. It's hard to date, especially since coffee and drinking is off the table.)
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I know who Keith Lee is because he goes around the US finding hidden gem restaurants that are struggling or are not as popular as they should be (though some do pretty well already) and then gives genuine reviews. Next day business blows up. I don't follow him on tiktok but he came to Toronto so all his videos were on my for you page.
He went to one restaurant in the west end on Weston Rd. One Downtown spot and then like five Scarboro spots and a backyard bakery in Ajax. They all just blew up. They say Torontonians love to line up. I've seen it a couple times while Downtown at work. One time for a single free Heineken in a gift box and one time for a free pizza at PI Co. And I'm familiar with the sensation of a new popular franchise opening. And I know it's not just Toronto, but perhaps Toronto really does it more than any other major city. I don't understand the psychology of not being able to wait a couple weeks for the fanfare to die down. https://www.tiktok.com/@keith_lee125..._t=8lXOAvwrw7J https://www.buzzfeed.com/abbyzinman/...ate-in-toronto Dude got rich doing this. Amazing success story. He basically puts money in small business owners' pockets and makes bank himself. And leaves $3,000 tips and buys meals for all the patrons in the restaurant, etc. And any time you see or hear of a food critic visiting a city, it's basically always Downtown or near core in a fancy or at least interesting looking spot. I don't seem to recall Anthony Bourdain venturing out to Scarberia to some mom and pop shop. Gotta respect that. I do wonder if he only did food or did other things in the city. If you love top class ethnic food then you can't go wrong with Scarboro. But if you want to see what a city has to offer outside of food then Scarbs, Weston Rd. and Ajax ain't it. |
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