Mummy`s GoGo Juice

I have come to a place in my life where I love coffee. Maybe it`s the  middle of the night wake up, the never ending laundry or maybe it`s the coffee. I adore Caffe Fantastico. I go there when ever I can, usually bringing a kid or two with me. The staff are great, friendly, hilarious and never too smug to joke around with a five year old. I love their red eye. For those of you who get 8 hours of sleep at night and don`t feel the need to mainline caffeine in the morning, I will explain what this is. It is a cup of coffee ( a big one in my case) with an extra shot or two of espresso tossed in for good measure. My daughter calls it mommy gogo juice. Some days, i swear it is the only thing that keeps me going. Once, on a whim, i got a red eye at Starbucks. The Worst! It actually made me feel pretty ill. I started going to Fatastico because it has a laundromat attached to it. I am a fiend for clean laundry so I spent a lot of time there. The laundromat has a bunch of great toys and books that keep my little one occupied while I sip coffee and fold laundry. Ah, heaven!
Fantastico also has some great food. Not the muffins, some of them are super dense. Not my thing at all. But they have croissants that I swear are just crunchy butter. The other day I was there and they had apple, Maple, BACON fritters! I am not sure I ever actually lived before that day.
So ya, I love this place. Super awesome staff, great coffee, yummy snacks and the music is pretty great too.

Halibut House

Ever heard of Halibut House. Ya, me neither but now we live near it so I drive by it all the time. It's a chinese place and the name was so adorable that I had to look it up on Urbanspoon. Lo and behold, it had a super high rating. Huh? So we ordered take out and it was so great! We had the house special chow mein, the ginger chicken and the sweet and sour pork. When I picked it up, the women I spoke to was lovely. I think she must have been one of the owners. She was talking to someone who must have been a regular and the regular obviously adores the restaurant. The inside of the place is pretty whatever but we did pick up and don't really care what our local chinese place looks like anyways. The food was hot and fresh when I got it home. Everything was great. The chow mein was not greasy and the meat and shrimp were plentiful and identifiable. The ginger chicken had a great sauce that was not overly gooey or sweet, just right. The sweet and sour pork was tender and had just the right balance of sweet and vinegar without the use of too much thickening corn starch. An A+ all around. Can't wait to order again and try out some of the other dishes. This place definitely deserves our business and I am so stoked that there is an awesome chinese option outside of downtown.

Bon Rouge

This review will be a quicky. I think i am becoming too picky. I have heard great things about the Bon Rouge but the two times i have been there have been really meh. My wonderful and lovely boss likes this place and twice we have gone there for a kinda celebratory work lunch. the first time I had the Steak Tartar. It is not something i would order in a lot of places, but this is a french restaurant. The decor is lovely and the chairs are comfy and i happily awaited my tartar. it came. meh. The meat was not the highest quality and the cutting was done without delicacy. i know this sounds totally snobbish, but this is raw meat! When you serve meat in it`s natural state, it has to be the best quality and preparation possible. I just don`t see the point in serving it otherwise.
The next time i went, it was a very cold day and i was very pregnant so no cold raw meat for me. i ordered a small salad to start and the bouillabaisse as my main. OK victoria restaurants, what is with the huge lettuce leaf salads. in a bowl no less! how am i supposed to cut up my salad in a bowl. and why am i expected to cut up my salad. it`s either that or shove huge pieces of greenery into my face, something i am just not that into.
the bouillabaisse was bland, the fennel woody, there was very little seafood and the muscles were just past fresh. not scary past fresh, but with that little bit of tangyness that will turn any pregnant woman`s stomach.
Am i a total bitch. am i asking for too much from this city of a million restaurants. if i am, let me know.  i long to be impressed and comforted by the food in this city and some places consistently hit the mark, its finding new places that seems to be tough.
tomorrow, i have a dinner reservation at Ulla. fingers crossed!

Shine Cafe

I don`t like breakfast. I am not a fan of eggs, so when people invite me out for breakfast or brunch i usually pass. Shine has been the only place that i will hit up for brunch. They made a really good chicken wrap and it was a bright and fun place to go and chill. I have also had friends who worked there and really enjoyed it. i like to eat food that happy employees make.
That being said, i went a few weeks ago and the food was sooooo bad! no more chicken burger at all. Ok, i get the fact that you now make your burgers from scratch so you have taken t down to just beef or veggie. cool. I like beef burgers. i happen to make them at home sometimes so it`s nice to have chicken when i go out, but whatever, i will en joy it. I notice that the burger came on a whole wheat bun but that they had another sandwich that came on focassia. I don`t like whole wheat buns very much and am a total sucker for foccasia so I requested that they trade the buns and add some caramelized onions to my beef burger. And this is why that meal was fucking sucky:

1. The meat. Plain and simple it was plain and simple. Ever smelt plain ground beef as it cooks. it tasted like that. no seasoning, no love. I make burgers at home so i know how easy it is to make a really good burger. if you wanna do things from scratch, awesome! but you should make sure that you do justice to the ingredients you use. That poor cow never had a chance.
2. When you have caramelized onions as an option on your menu, please caramelize them. fried onions that have been sitting in a bin since yesterday will taste nothing like caramelized onions. If caramelized onions are too time consuming maybe make an onion confit. you can keep it in a bin and it will still taste good and keep longer.
3. The bread. FUCK!!! where did you get this stuff!!! it is like the Antichrist of foccasia bread. we live in a city of great bakeries. there is no excuse for this kind of tired out, bitter dried herb, stale loaf. it was in now was able to stand up to the meat and topping, and was just totally offensive flavour and texture wise. it was the kind of thing you would expect to find on the shelf in a really crappy corner store. Go to cascadia  and try theirs. no excuses, you can do better and if you can`t you shouldn`t sell such a crap product.
4. the fries were way too salty. easy on the seasoning salt!!!!
5. the chipotle mayo was just red mayo. no flavour, no spice. Boooo!

So my friend had the eggs benny. i don`t eat eggs so i have no idea what they should taste like but i know what a good meal should look like. I cook eggs for my love all the time. when someone requests medium poached that means that the eggs white should be all white, no clear slime and the yoke should be thick but still a little runny. this egg had gone to the other side. it was so over cooked that there was no way that the yoke was moving anywhere. add to that the fact that the avocado was totally sick looking and you have a breakfast fail on your hands. This is one of the bigest problems with victoria restaurants. You are allowing food to leave your kitchens that you wouldn`t serve to friends who came over to your home for dinner. and you expect people to pay you for it!!!!I understand that you need to make some money out of this and that food needs to be used, but not if the end product suffers.
So i will give shine a few months and see if they can get back on track. I hope they can. They are a great little place to eat and an awesome restaurant success story  in our city.

And the Winner of the Search for better Sushi is......

Ebizo.
That's right. Ok, my review wasn't exactly glowing but the actual sushi was the best we had. It was fresh and authentic (we think) with a good balance of filing to rice. it was cut small enough to fit in any ones mouth without embarrassment.
For rice with sauce, the winner was japanese village without question. i have come to find out that is in indeed the original and they have good reason to brag about it.
As for general cooked things like tempura and such, shiki won. I hate saying that because i hated just about everything i ate there, but our cooked food tester, sara, has decreed that it was the best of the bunch.
But the really important part was the sushi, so Ebizo, we salute you as at least of of the city's best sushi places.

Shiki Sushi - In search of better sushi Part 3

this is the final review in our search for better sushi. i should preface this by saying that i am writing this on a new lap top that i haven`t figured out yet. one of the things «i haven`t figured out is some of the punctuation so, questions marks will have t be implied. ok, onward with the final sushi review
This is an old review. i have been very busy and this blog has fallen fallen from my list of priorities. Basically, i am very pregnant and sleepy. But awhile ago i went to Shiki with Nathan and Sara for the final instalment in our search for great sushi. This lunch was a revelation that Sara doesn't actually like sushi very much. Huh? she's not a fan of fish or seafood in general. WTF! Ok, so she would be commenting on the other areas of japanese cuisine that nathan and I were sure to overlook.
I had my usual rice with sauce, spicy tuna roll, tempura roll and to keep it interesting  had a tune and green onion cone roll (negitoro cone).
Nathan had a bento box of assorted sushi and sashimi and sara had the plain udon.
I will start with Nathans: when i read assorted sushi and sashimi that is exactly what i expect. What he got was two or three pieces of california roll (uggh) and a few pieces of raw fish on rice. the rice was tired looking, had no sheen of freshness. The prawns were really one prawn split in half to make two rolls. i hate it when they do that!!! it is just the cheesiest thing. ok, not very impressed.
Sara really liked her udon. she had no complaints about it at all. We also all split some tempura and agreed that it was fresh and very tasty, not over battered or over cooked at all. big thumbs up on that.
ok, I had the rice with sauce. Booo! the rice was ld, the sauce was luke warm. it was just a salty goopy mess. maybe japanese village spoiled me but this was so sub par it reminded me why we started this search in the first place, because victoria restaurants have become complacent and they need to know that people won't pay for gross slop. or at least this person won't.
The negitoro cone was actually very good. nathan and sara had never seen one before and there was a fun discussion on how we would consume it on a date and still look human. It would make a great street food. all the other rolls had way too much rice. like over flowing, belly aching amounts of rice that made me hate rice. there was no way the flavours of the fish or spicy sauce could stand out in any way. I suppose i could have deconstructed the sushi and tried the actual filling to find out how good t was, but i wanted to eat it as the chef had served it.
So, for my purposes, shiki sucked. there was nothing there that i would gt excited to order again. they did have some really neat roll combinations but they were all about 11 bucks each. would totally consider it if they were cheaper and only piece or two, but i am not that into having one huge insane roll for a meal.

Bicycle Ride

This is going to be tough. i am extremely full at the moment, bordering on comatose but you deserve to know that truth and I will only remember this meal for a few minutes before I descend into a meat haze.
Ok, Pat and I went out to the Pink Bicycle today. I have been avoiding this place because all the hipsters seem to love it and i just can't be bothered with that kind of hype. Same reason I waveband hit up Foo yet, waiting for the buzz to die down. Today we went.

• Atmosphere: Surprising actually. I really expected something more akin to Ferris'. It had a pretty high class feel to it. The clientele were all business attire clad and that would come as a surprise when i got my food and saw how messy it could be. The decor was lovely, an artist i love but can never remember then name of. good lighting, not too loud.
• Service: Really good. We were greeted and seated promptly, brought menus, drink orders taken. They cut our food for us and the waited even suggested a dip when we ummed for a few moments too long. Bill came as we finished and we were out of there in good time for a lunch break.
• Food: Ok, so Pat and I spilt our two burgers so that we could both form various opinions about yumminess. here is the breakdown:

• Pink Bicycle Burger with bacon. This was awesome. Everything a Burger should be. The pink bike sauce was not something i would order as a side because it is simply the perfect beef burger topper.
• Fries. I have heard many complaints about the fires at this place. Pat explained to me that while he has had bad fries he has also had amazing fries so you always order the fries just in case. These fries were fine, nothing offensive about them in the least. We had the lemon dill mayo and the roasted garlic mayo. I barely tried the lemon dill because I was enamoured with the roasted garlic and it was one thing I wasn't about to share (Sorry Pat!, how was the lemon dill?).
• Blue Cheese Lamb Burger with caramelized Onions. Ok, the name should have tipped us off. Not lamb burger with blue cheese, They put blue cheese first. We should have taken that as an indication about the seriousness of the blue cheese situation. You really couldn't taste ANYTHING else. There was supposed to be some kind of apricot something or other on it too, but I have no idea if it or the onions even existed. the only reason I know the meat was there was from texture alone. maybe if you love blue cheese this burger would be great, but for me (and I think Pat too) it was too much. There was no delicate play between the sweet and savory and smelly. Too bad, won't go near that one again.

We also ordered two Sodas. So two burgers with fires and two sodas. wanna bet how much it cost? Over $40 plus tip! Oh right, that's why I avoid these fucking hipster places! Maybe as a date night for me and my love, this would be a great place but for a work lunch? hardly. The food is good and local, and I am sure the market for food at this price is there, but at the end of the day, these are burgers. They are simple comfort food. I am happy to pay for that, but not this much.

Santiago's at the Gatsby

Ah, Mexican food in Victoria. What a tough time you have. I will start this by saying that i hate Cafe Mexico. Not a fan at all. The way they treat the meat they are serving should be considered a crime. It's exactly like meat on the street in Mexico but the difference is that they have the means to use higher quality food (that's what they charge for) and they have the means to prepare it well ( a kitchen, not a cart). Still they suck more then most sucky places in Victoria suck.

But this isn't about them, it's about Santiago's. I am a little torn about Santiago's to be honest. I've gone twice now and feel like maybe I'm just not a huge Mexican fan. Everyone else likes it so i feel a little in the dark over my lack of enthusiasm. Not that i haven't enjoyed my food. I actually enjoy a few things about this place:

• It's toddler friendly. That means paper table cloths, crayons for everyone, suitable children's menu (Plain Cheese Pizza!) and no nasty looks from the servers when your child is camping out under the table. Even is a large group, which is how i seem to roll to this restaurant, my little one is well taken care of and i can't express enough how appreciated that is.
• The menu does nothing for me. It's one of those places where it takes you forever to order because nothing really gets you excited. Most people i have gone with have the thing that they always have but those thing all seem to have beans in them ( i hate beans) so i can't really go with their verdict. Also, this is a Mexican place that also has curry... very strange. In the burger section they say with each listing that the buns is buttered, making me wonder if this is De rigour in Mexico.
• On my first visit I had the Ceviche. That's right, this pregnant chick lives on the edge! The ceviche is not just fish, but also includes shrimp and scallops. Surprisingly, my favorite part of this dish was the scallops since they were "cooked' to perfection. I think the issue is that all of the different fishes take different times to properly "cook" so the shrimp and halibut were a little past done but the scallops were perfect. It's was served on greens with some taco chips and guacamole. I also ordered some sour cream and i was glad I did. This time around I had a simple Cesar salad with shrimp. There were tons of shrimp on it and they were fresh enough (ie. possibly died this week) but the dressing was pretty meh. Nothing offensive or anything but just meh.

I guess my whole deal with this place is that it seems to have some kind of identity crisis. It's a Mexican place that serves curries and sangria? How do you do that? A mexican Place that doesn't serve Tacos? everyone seems to be into the quesadillas but I'm not a fan in general. Also, they feature mussels pretty prominently but being preggo, shellfish can get iffy. If it's not uber fresh, I will puke. that is a promise and a warning.
So, Santiago's You are confusing. Nothing more, nothing less.
If you wnt mexican, head over to Hernandez or the Los Amigos Cart. They'll fix you up good!

The Hunt for better Sushi - Japanese Village Edition

As the second part of our three part journey to find Better Sushi in Victoria, Sara, Nathan and I headed over to Japanese Village. Now, this post is really hard to write because I am extremely full, but i will try to push through it.
So we all agreed that this place was awesome. Great decor for one thing. the place is really big so it didn't feel too busy or overly decorated. The sushi bar was clean and well lit. I also promised Sara that i would mention the cups that the tea came in. You see, it is very cold out today and these cups were made to wrap your chilly hands around. We all kinda coveted them a little i think.
So first, Food:

• Well all had the rice with sauce because that is one thing we are basing our rating on. This may be the sauce that started the rice with sauce trend in Victoria. They call it sesame sauce and it even had some black sesame seeds in it as proof. This was the best sauce we have had so far. Well played Japanese Village!
• The sushi was pretty great. The tempura for the prawn tempura roll and the sweet potato rool were both made fresh when we ordered which is not something either ebizo or azuma do. The spicy tuna was nicely spicy but without the mayonais overload that many places go for. They also use cucumber in the spicy tuna roll which i enjoy way more than avocado.  The tempura roll had something sweet in it that really set off the prawn nicely. The cucmber roll has sesame seeds rolled into which actually acentuated the cucumber really nicely. The sweet potatos tempura roll was full of sweet potato, no filler at all. The prawn and salmon sashimi was fresh and the salmon tasted wild according to Nathan. the only issue with the Sushi was that it had a lot of rice, making it a little heavy. We would have been satisfied with smaller rolls and would happily have paid the same amount.

• Nathan had a bento box and Sara had the vegetarian tempura. The amount of food that Nathan ended up getting was pretty awe inspiring. Both Sara and Nathan had tempura and they both expressed that, although it wasn't in any way bad and the veggies and prawns were all fresh, they found the tempura itself laking in seasoning.

And now, Service:

• We were asked where we wanted to sit (sushi or teppan) and given our choice of seats in the sushi section.I love it when they let me choose!
• The lunch menu was small. Nothing I wanted was actually on it. Didn't matter, ordered it any way and they got me everything I wanted. Same for Sara. We both order and received what we wanted without issue.
• The service was fast, and the server was sweet without interfering with the actual lunch. Our tea was refilled, our cheques were brought when we finished and we were not hurried out as we lingered over out tea.
• They have two debit machines. This may sound silly, but when i want to pay I want to pay. Two debit machines ensures that i Get to pay and get back to work faster and i really appreciate that.
• Nathan pointed out that they didn't offer or bring us water but they did bring us free tea so whatever.

Sorry Ebizo, this place just kicked your ass! The only real issue is that it's more of a go to place instead of a pick up place. Maybe Shiki will be better for take out. Also, Japanese Village is a little pricey but that is also depending on how hungry you are. We spent more but we got tons. Too much, really
So yes, Japanese Village, you are awesome!

The Hunt for better Sushi - Ebizo Edition

So, as you may have noted, I have given up on Azuma as my go to sushi place. It has been sucking and I just don't have anymore patience for it. Some of my coworkers (the lovely Sara and Nathan)agreed to help me in my search. Our first stop: Ebizo.
Ebizo gets points for being the closest to our actual office but that was really all i knew about it. Nathan joined me for a lunch test.
We decided that we should order the kind of things we always get when out for Japanese so that we could rate it consistently against other places.One of the main points i asked our served about was if they had the "rice with sauce" that i loved so much at Azuma. She said that the sauce was actually their salad dressing but lots of people order it on the rice. Fine by me! nathan had a bento with a miso soup and i had a spicy tune, Dynamite roll and a cucumber roll as well as the above mentioned rice with sauce.
now, i won't rate nathans food as he pointed out to me that he always enjoys food that he doesn't have to make fro himself.
But here are My feelings on the meal:

• Service: Sucked. that's all. It just sucked. Things came out at the wrong time, we had to wait forever for our bill. I get the feeling that if you are a regular than it works a lot more smoothly...
• Sushi: I will preface this by saying that i am not an avocado fan. That being said, i know that most people are so i think they would enjoy the sushi i ordered. The dynamite roll was tempura prawn, cucumber and avocado. The Spicy Tuna was thick tuna and big slices of avocado. i prefer cucumber with my spicy tuna because I fine that the crunch is a nice balance for the silkiness of the fish. The rolls were well proportioned, not sliced too thick to get in your mouth (i hate that) and not filled with rice. The ingredients were high quality, though the spicy sauce wasn't much of a stand out. My issue would be that they should list what is in each roll. I simply assumed that a spicy tuna would be cucumber. 
• The rice with sauce: Why would you put this sauce on a salad. it is really think and rich and the thought of it on a salad makes me a little ill. The sauce is very similar to the one at Azume but a little more oily (since it is a dressing?) and it has a hint of garlic i think. Since it was more oily, i found it a little bland but a little soy sauce seemed to do the trick. It was only $1 so it was a great deal but not as good as Azuma used to be.

So is this the best that the City has to offer? I suppose it's possible. It's better than Azuma is now, but not nearly as good as it used to be (am i living in the past?). Oh well, onward in our hunt for Victoria's best sushi!

PIGDOG!!!!!!!

What a glorious world we live in! Sorry about the over abundance of optimism, but i just ate at Pig Dog. It's amazing! Ok, I am a huge hot dog fan. I just love them! hand held meat in a manageable bun, sooo good. Street meat after the bar used to be one of my favorite vices before i became a mom. Now Pig Dog has come to fill a hole in my culinary landscape that I didn't know existed (the hole, not the landscape).
My lovely boyfriend Evan and i went on a lunch date to Pig Dog. All morning we texted back and forth about how excited we were for this lunch. In retrospect, i am lucky to have a partner that is rad enough to love hot dogs on this level. Anyways, we giggled our way to the view street location in anticipation of a dog done right. The selection was perfect, nothing too fancy but plenty to consider. Three kinds of sausages:

1. Regular (hot dog)
2. Turkey
3. Spicy Smokey

Don't be fooled, they are all smokey like in texture and size. Also, I chose the amazing turkey and felt pretty great about being the healthy one until i was informed that it was full of duck fat. Oh well, who cares! Duck fat? that just sounds down right classy!

Add ons:

• Cheese
• bacon
• fried onions
• chili

Combo Dogs:

• Pig Dog
• Chili Dog

Sides and Bevs:

• Coleslaw
• Potato Salad
• Chili
• Pretzel
• Soda
• Ice Tea
• Bottled Water

Anyway, I settled on the turkey dog with bacon, cheese and fried onions ( oh ya, health nut over here!) while the lovely Evan went with the Pig Dog. (Cue dramatic music). The Pig Dog is a dog like no other. It is a hot dog with bacon, fried onions and pulled pork. That's right, the stuff that made the Pig bbq joint famous is available on a hot dog!!! The poor boy didn't understand that this would still all involve a hot dog. I think he is currently undergoing some meat sweats, but totally earned them. We also got an orange soda and an ice tea. The ice tea is great because it is just that; iced tea. not nestea or brisk ice tea or some other form of powdered, canned or syrup form. it was once tea bags, water, maybe some lemon and a bit of sugar. Now it is a cold beverage. Cleans the palate perfectly!
So everything was exactly what i wanted. And as you know, i am uber preggo and i want things in a way that no unpregnant person can understand. i can cry over ice cream and toss my cookies over mussels that are just a little bit less than fresh. I am a chefs worst nightmare right now and am thoroughly enjoying it. And I hope you head down to this place. It is as local as they come minuse the pretentiousness that some of these "local" places come across with. The sausages are made at the Village Butcher in Oak Bay and I have loved their sausages for years. So ya, supporting this place goes a long way in supporting other suppliers and distributors which keeps things cheap and fresh.
Thanks Pig Dog. You satisfied a pregnancy craving in a way you may never understand.

Oh Azuma, What happened?!?

I have been a huge Azuma fan for years. I have converted coutless people to the rice with sauce. I told people about the excellent spicy sauce. But something has happened. Things started to change. I wanted to be charitable, not a fair weather friend. Now, I'm done. The rice has been dry, the sushi has been cut too large to fit in my mouth, and the service has sucked! I'm not asking for a lot here! If you read this blog at all you will know that i don't expect any ass kissing or to have people at my beck and call. Hell, i usually get take out at Azuma and they still manage to piss me off with their suckyness. All of this makes me pretty sad really. This was one of my spots along with Siam, ferris' and a few others. Now I need to find a new sushi place to replace it and i feel a little adrift...

Relish on the Side

I went out for lunch with Pat on Friday. I know, lucky me, right? Anyways, we decided on Relish as our destination. If you have spent even a moment on Urbanspoon or any of the other local foodie blogs you know that relish is getting a lot of attention. And that is why it took me so long to go there. Places that get a lot of buzz turn me off a lot of the time. I don't know, maybe it's my 17 year old inner self wanting to be different or something. Whatever it is, it has held me back from relish, until now.
And i am now starting to hate my 17 year old inner self. It has wasted my time on food that was not as good as relish. Let me break it down for you;

• I heard a rumour that the owner is OCD (ok, how cool would it be to be a local restaurant owner and be cool enough to have insane rumours floating around about you?) and if he does, he puts it to really good use. Every thing is home made. Ok, not at his home ( I assume) but made in shop by hands that you may have held or touched in your life. get it? not a machine, but a person who gives a fuck about how your lunch will taste.
• Ok, this one could kinda go under the first one but when love is involved you break all the rules. THE HOMEMADE BACON!!! I put it in caps because i knew you wouldn't be able to believe what you were reading. Yup, they do it. I wanna order this stuff, so salty and chewy but not too fatty and that smokiness, swoon!!! Pigs never had it so good.
• The location is great. High ceilings, bright windows and local photography (Pat's Friend!!!! I feel like i am practically famous just by proximity!) and it's on Pandora. Oh no, you say. Pandora is dirty and scary and full of crackheads. OK, if you really did just say that, you have somehow stumbled onto the wrong blog. I'm sorry. Ok, it can get a bit messy around Our place, But this place is a comfort in that world of uncertainty. That good food wins over McDonalds and mental illness. or, at least it does today.

So what did we get other than Bacon? We decided to split the chicken with bacon and brie sandwich and the roasted eggplant and pepper with goat cheese sandwich to which we added bacon (yesssss!) and also an heirloom tomato and cucumber salad. We took them to the park up the street behind welburns because all the great reviews have pretty much ruined any chance of finding a seat in this place at lunch. But it was sunny and I was with a hilarious friend so yay for park picnics!! between the two sandwiches, we decided that the chicken was the best but only slightly. i think the amazing tenderness as well as the perfect seasoning won us over. The veggie sandwich was not bad in anyway, but the chicken was just some how sublime. The salad was ok. Tomatoes aren't great this year, it's a sad but true fact. all in all we paid under $30 for two sandwiches, a salad and two drinks. In Victoria, that counts as an awesome deal, and with food that is this high quality, it felt like theft. We wanted to go back and high five the owner but didn't. Next time, we will tip large in thanks for the bounty he has placed at the feet of Victoria residence and be grateful.

Pho Hoa

Yes. I know. Pho Hoa is the McDonald's of Vietnamese food. I get it. That being said, i don't even go for the Pho, so who the hell cares?
i went for lunch with my ever lunch ready pal, Jeffy. We decided to hit up pho hoa because I am pregnant. Oh sorry, does that not make sense. Ok, I am pregnant so I like to eat, but also there isn't as much room and I get icky full really easily. So I like light food and lots of it! That is where Pho Hoa comes in. i love those vermicelli bowls. You know, with the noodle, the fresh veggies, some kind of grilled meat and a roll all served with that lovely fish sauce. Oh god! It's light, refreshing and had to screw up. Since it is hard to screw up, I haveit at Pho Hoa. Know why? because Victoria Foodies hate pho hoa. They turn up their noses and walk across the street to Pho Vy, leaving pho hoa less busy and the service faster. The food is cheap to mid range, the service is whatever but good enough for a quick lunch. My only real complaint is that the vermicelli bowl is no longer served in a bowl. It's served on one of those stylish square plates that i effing hate! Why get fancy?!? so useless, but I'm not going to complain too much.

Jeffy had the Pho against my urging. It had chicken in it.The chicken looked gross!! gray and slimy and just icky. (it didn't loo anything like the picture below. At All!!!!) He wasn't into it at all. Also, the noodles looked clumped together and the broth kinda greasy. I don't do pho so I have no clue if it was actually good or not, but he seemed to be a bit put off. Whatever, I warned him. I find that soup is not usually worth ordering anyway.

So i had a good time and I will continue to go there because something that hard to mess up should only be a block away and that is how far it is from my office to Pho Hoa.

Ferris'!!!!

I have been hitting up this place since i was about 17. One of my first serious boyfriends and i used to go all the time. On the morning after y nineteenth birthday i had a jug of daiquiris for breakfast on the patio (this was when you could still see the menu written on the wall outside and there were no heat lamps.). And I still go! Ok, the owner can be a bit much for some people. My bf is horrified by the fact that he always wear open toed sandals. But the food is so good! Everyone has there regular dish here. Alison seems to favour the Halibut Burger, Both my sisters insist on the Chicken burger. I for one am totally loyal to the Lamb burger with half regular fries and half Caesar salad. There are a number of reasons why i keep going back.

1. Service: Some people love it and some hate it. I have never had anything but great service, but i think a sense of humour (as oppose to a sense of entitlement) is key. Yes i know that you are spending your hard earned money and you expect the best. But who are you punishing by going in with mile high expectations instead of a good attitude? Just saying...
2. Place: it's right downtown and the perfect walk to the movie theatre after a meal. Date night, yes!
3. Food: That's what this is all about, right? I almost always have the lamb burger as mentioned above, but i have also tried the the roasted garlic with cambzola moose, the potsickers, the smoked tuna sandwich, the various salad mains, and some other stuff i can't remember over the course of the past 10 years. What i am trying to get at is that it was all good if not awesome.

4. The Caesar dressing: Maybe you think this should go under the food heading but i disagree. Too many places in this fine foodie city us bottle Caesar. This is unacceptable! You have a kitchen, right? You have a mixer? Possibly even an emulsifier? I want it real! I want the anchovy, caper, garlic, Parmesan goodness! Ok fine, you don't want to use raw eggs, fair enough. But at least try to make something that you are proud of. Same thing goes for croutons! There is so little that goes into a Caesar salad that i think each part should be the highest quality possible. Just my opinion. and if you can't tell my the rant, they get it 110% right! sometimes I get some extra for the table to share as fries dip, it's that good!

So ok, maybe you hate the owner. Maybe you think they are all a bunch of hipsters. Fine, fair enough. But the food? Seriously? I haven't been able to find the match for it, at least consistency wise, in this city yet.

Devotion

I took my friend James to Devour today. He had never been and since he is a healthier kind of guy, I was excited to bring him. Have you been? It is exquisite! That's not a word I throw around but here is the thing, it's all local! The menu changes everyday, that's how season dependant these women are. And it is women. One in the front, one in the back. And the place is tiny and filled with cookbooks. It's like foodie heaven. I seem to always get the sandwiches with salad. Today was no exception to their awesomneness: Bacon, tomato and brie on a lovely baguette with some kind of homemade mayo (garlic?). The bread was chewy and crispy, the bacon was tender and caramelized, the tomatoes were fresh and the brie was melty. The creamy homemade mayo just pulled it all together. And then there was the salad. I'm not usually into side salads. they are just kind of plate dressing for me, but at this place, i just inhale it! nothing on the plate remains at the end! I left full and happy for $10 and that is a pretty good deal. James seemed pretty into it too. he got the smashed chickpea sandwich. Sounds kinda lame to me because of my deep hatred of legumes (totally different story) but he was pretty into it and also enjoyed his salad.
I had a great lunch with a lovely friend at an amazing local place. This is the kind of place that deserves our support because, by buying and selling local food, they support us.
Yay for Devour!

Beef Stew!!!

Alright, now that the fall seems to be upon us I thought I would share with you my ultimate favorite comfort stew recipe. This recipe calls for beer but you don't need to use it. You can double up on the beef stock and the add a little more vinegar. Yum!!! Serve it with crusty rolls, fresh bread or biscuits as well as a couple drips of Tabasco.

Oil
1 pack stewing beef, cut into small cubes
Salt and pepper
2-3 sweet onions cut up, not sliced
1 head of garlic, each clove smashed and pealed
brown sugar, about a table spoon
1-2 TBS flour
bay leaf
thyme
1 biggish bottle of beer, something like a honey brown or maple something is nice. Nothing bitter or too crappy
1 carton of beef stock
1 splash malt or cider vinegar
3 boiling potatoes, cubed
1 big carrot, pealed and cubed
6 white or brown mushrooms, quartered
4 ribs celery


Ok, so first season the meat. Get it all tossed in with the salt and pepper. I like to use a little steak spice too, but i love steak spice so maybe that's just me. Now heat the oil in a big ass pot and brown the meat. the trick here is to do it in small batches and actually let the meat brown. Don't get impatient and take it out when it's kinda brown/gray. You want that browned flavour, so wait it out. When all the meat has been browned, put it in a bowl and leave it somewhere in the kitchen. Now toss the onions in the pot, put on the lid, put the heat to med.low and let them wilt a little. When I say cut up onion I don't mean chopped. i mean cubed it that were possible with an onion. You want the to have some size since they are gonna get melty and delicious. Yummm! Stir the onions every few minutes or so until they start to brown. Now throw in the whole smashed garlic gloves. Like the onions, the garlic will get all melty too, so don't chop them up. Stew is all about big yummy chunks of stuff in an amazing broth. let the ingredients be big enough to stand up for themselves!
Ok after a few more minutes of this, you can take the lid off and check it out. Smell good? Yes, yess it does. So now, add the sugar and give it a stir. this will help brown and caramelize the onions after a minute of stirring this, add the flour. How much? I don't know, go with your gut on this one.stir it in and let it cook for a few minutes. you want some of the flouryness to cook out of it, so don't skip this part. When the flour start to cook, add the beer. Oh man, that first sizzle when the beer hit the pot is magic! Stir it as you poor making sure to scrape all the yummy parts off the bottom. Now put the meat back in. Add the vinegar and about half the carton of stock. Now toss is the thyme and bay leaf and step away from the pot. for the next hour and a half to two hours you should only go near the pot for stirring. Nothing else.Yes this takes awhile. go watch a movie or something. ok, 2 hours are up. How is the liquid holding out? not enough? Add some more stock. Now is the time for the other veggies. Toss in the potatoes, carrots and mushrooms. Hold of about 15 minutes on the celery because nothing is grosser than soggy celery!.
ok, cook another 30 minutes or so, let sit for ten off the heat and eat it!!!
Yes, you can use turnips and parsnips and any other crazy veg you want. I've made a really good veggie stew using veg broth and tons of odd ones and barley. the main thing is the herds, onions and a fair amount of time.
Now, go eat stew!!

High class with a toddler

We went to Vancouver this weekend for my sister's engagement party. I love my sister very much, and that is the only reason why i would put myself through all that travel over a long weekend. I think, the less said about it, the better.
The day after we got back, we decided to go out for lunch. My darling toddler wanted to go for wonton noodle at Wah Lai Yuen but they are closed on Mondays. My boyfriend suggested Santiago's, which i was all for, but mid way there I got this intense craving fro the macaroni grill. That's pretty odd as I have only actually been there once and that was many years ago for my grandma's birthday. But when a pregnant women wants something and happens to be behind the wheel of a car, there is very little that can stop her. I was a little scared as this seemed like an actual restaurant, not the Red Robbin kind with cheesy music and balloons and plastic cups and food in baskets.
So we walk in and the first thing i notice is kids. There are a ton of kids in this place! i swear every other table was a family with a young child! I started to relax a little. My toddler had to go to the bathroom and fell in love with it. There was a bench with pillows on it and she thought that was amazing. She wanted to just hang out there, lounging, and have out food brought to us here. Oh silly toddler! At the table, there were tall wine glasses and actual linen napkins. Bliss! I have gotten so used to paper napkins and cutlery and glasses only brought out with an order. They have a paper table topper over the table cloth and crayons on every table, regardless of children present. We spent a lot of time drawing pictures and writing notes over the course of our hour lunch. They have a kids menu and it was decent, the only problem was the it didn't list prices.
All in all, it was a great spot for lunch. i had the Pasta Milano. Not the greatest, will try something else next time for sure, but in no way offensive. I am very picky so I try not to hold people up to the standards i hold myself up to when i cook. My boyfriend really enjoyed the sweet pepper and sausage pasta and the toddler devoured the pizza.  We all left full and satisfied, and I left happy to have found somewhere a little fancier where we could come for a family date.

Where did they come up with the name Alzu's?

You know what's a fun thing to do on a Wednesday? Well I'll tell you! My fav thing to do is to pick up my darling toddler from Daycare, get her a quick snack and then head over to the pool. It's a block away and a super awesome fun time! I'm pregnant so I really like to float around at the moment and she is a toddler, so splashing never goes out of fashion. Actually, her main focus is something she calls Water Ballet. She hums to herself while dancing in the kids pool and making dramatic arm gestures. It's one of the awesomest displays of toddler cool I've ever seen. And the great thing about the pool is it keeps her entertained for a good hour at least so that means I float for an hour and we all end up happy and with slightly dried out skin.
And what better way to celebrate an awesome time at the pool? Dinner at Alzu's of course! Have you been to this place? It's open all night so the clientele at any given time is hilarious. I'm am especially partial to the people who wear sunglasses inside at night and go to the bathroom at lot (it's 8pm and this is not Hush, what are you thinking?). Also, last night there was a table of four. i kid you not, they all had their lap tops and they were all on facebook! It was amazing. I actually looked at their table after they left to see if they left some kind of clue about their existence!
Ok, the food. They serve breakfast 24/7. I don't eat breakfast, so i don't care that much except for one thing: Toddlers love pancakes for dinner. It drives them insane! the idea of having for dinner on a week night something you only ever get in the morning on the weekend is just mind boggling to them!
For me, it's all about the curly fires. They have them and I want them. I usually go with a chicken wrap, your usual chicken Caesar. I dont' really like the fact that sometimes the person in the kitchen tries to get fancy and grill the wrap after it is wrapped. There is lettuce in there buddy, have some respect! I went with Michelle last night and she got the quesadilla. I've never been a quesadilla person, just not into all that melted cheese (insane, right?) but she seemed into it. One icky moment for me was when she asked if there was guacamole the server (I'll get into him in a second) said that there might be some and he would look around. Her guac came but is it really something you want if people don't even know if it's there? Where did he find it?
Ok, the server is this little Hobbit guy, total reformed biker look (or maybe not reformed) who i really want to call Alzu. He could be the guy! Anyway, he is awesome. understands that we rolled in with two toddlers and seated us closest to the bathroom and farthest from EVERYONE ELSE! This guy knows the deal and I appreciated it. he told us on our way out that he has five kids. Ya, i liked being served by someones dad. Dad's don't take any crap from anyone and they are honest (hence the look for the guac comment).
This place is serving ok food, but I still like it because it's comfortable and cheap and totally unpretentious.
YAy!

Oh Siam...

I had lunch with the ever lovely Jeffy today at Siam. We both seem to agree on this place as a lunch destination and I'm pretty sure i know why: Chicken Noodle Delight.
Chicken Noodle Delight is the terrible name they use for something bordering on the sublime. It's this saucy, peanuty, noodly goodness. I'm full but I would still eat more. no one who I have taken there has ever complained about the taste or quality of this dish. My other Favorites would have to be their vegetarian green curry (Spicy!) and their spinach with tofu in chili sauce. The Spinach is so tender and juicy and the light sauce just screams for rice to drench it in. Jeff actually suggested not getting rice. Lo and behold he was the first one going back for seconds of it just so he could have some more of the amazing sauce from the spinach. See, it's that kind of good.
So yes, this place is good. The service is usually awesome, but we had a new girl today and she was a little off her game. it's cool, we all need to learn, right? The guy who seems to work most of the week day lunches is awesome, always smiling and ready to help or just stay out of your way if you're in the middle of something.
So thank you Siam Thai on Fort street for being an awesome Victoria Restaurant!