Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Vegetarian’ Category

[Dine Out Vancouver 2020] PiDGiN: 6-course menu shared family style #DOVF

Posted in Asian, Beverage, By Invitations, Culinary Events, Dine Out Vancouver, Dinner, French, Fusion, Gastown, Joyce, Restaurants, Vancouver, Vegetarian, Wine Pairing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on January 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Where have you booked for Dine Out this year? If you are still deciding, I’m going to start sharing my experiences, whether it’s an invited dinner or out of my own pocket. I was invited as a media to preview the menu at PiDGiN. Their food is a fusion of Asian and French cuisines, and they decorate the interior by rotating artworks by local artists.

IMG_20200115_101208.jpg

They have designed their $45 DOVF menu to be as close to their regular prix fixe menu as possible, which is a 6-course menu shared family style for a minimum of 2 people. You have the option of an omnivore menu, or a vegetarian one. You can also order drink pairing for an additional $40-50 per person. The Dine Out website didn’t include the vegetarian menu, so I suggest you to visit PiDGiN’s website for the menus, and I’m posting them here as well. Note that the following plates are all meant to be shared by 2 people – they will adjust the portion based on party size.

Food

In addition to the 6-course menu, you can also order snacks a la carte. The Beef Tendon Chicharron was addictive. It’s crispy, and it wasn’t greasy. There was just enough seasoning, and the gochugaru citrus spice reminded me of sour plum flavour, with the tiniest hint of heat.

IMG_20200115_095325.jpg

They use different vegetables to make their Daily Pickles. On this day, it was cucumber, ume-infused daikon and shitake mushrooms. They were just slightly pickled, so they weren’t overly briny or vinegary.

(more…)

Advertisement

Read Full Post »

The Acorn Restaurant – Where the Carnivore meets Vegetarian

Posted in Bistro, Brunch, Group Lunch, Joyce, Restaurants, Vancouver, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2017| 1 Comment »

As you all can figure from my posts, I love meat. Even my coworkers are fully aware of it (and sometimes make fun of me for that). So when our beloved, vegetarian friends JG and BD visited Vancouver from Toronto, it pained me a little that DV and DH chose a vegetarian restaurant — The Acorn — for our brunch together, instead of a regular restaurant with good vegetarian options. But hey, how else would I get to try The Acorn?! I’m game!

Food

The brunch menu at The Acorn isn’t big, but there are some interesting items that even a carnivore like me was intrigued. For beverage, I ordered a non-alcoholic Citrus + Spiced Iced Tea. It has grapefruit, Vermouth reduction sherbet, and mandarin spiced tea. It’s refreshing, herbaceous yet borderline medicinal. It’s quite light in the spiced flavours, but it would make a good summer drink.

Citrus + Spice Iced Tea

As for my main, I opted for the Fried Egg. What caught my eye? The fried poached egg. Yes, a poached egg battered with cornmeal then fried. You would think that the egg would be over-cooked. Impressively, my egg was cooked perfectly — I cut it open and the yolk just oozed out. The smoked chanterelles were in the place of meat; they were earthy, hearty, and they tasted so good. I wished there were more! Overall the plate was well composed. The soft polenta and parsnip puree were creamy, and the fried poached egg and roasted parsnip added some texture. Everything tasted very good, but it wasn’t very filling for me.

Fried Egg

Mr., DV and BD all ordered the Skillet, and this was a hearty dish! (more…)

Read Full Post »

[VanFoodies eat Toronto] Fat Pasha – We could do without meat!

Posted in Dinner, Joyce, Middle Eastern, Patio, Restaurants, Toronto, Travel, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , , , on August 27, 2015| Leave a Comment »

While we were in Toronto, our friend BD and JG took us to a Middle Eastern restaurant called Fat Pasha. Looking at its website, it has some interesting items, including meat options for the carnivore in Mr. and I, and many vegetarian options for BD and JG.

Food

We ordered a bunch of things to share, plus a couple meat dishes that Mr. and I got to enjoy all by ourselves.

First of all, a Salatim Platter. You can order 3 things for $14, or 5 for $23 or 7 for $32. We chose the Beetroot Relish, Cranberry Bean and Chopped Eggplant. We ate with our eyes first as the platter had such beautiful colour combination and it’s quite pretty to look at. The beetroot relish had a nice pink hue, a little bit acidic, quite refreshing on the palate. The cranberry bean was slightly spiced, but you can still taste the tartness in cranberry. The chopped eggplant was meaty, had the most savoury mouthfeel to it. I liked the addition of chopped nuts and oil drizzle and a dash of sea salt on top of the spread, to add some texture and depth of flavours. The accompanying pita bread was hot to the touch, seasoned and we kept on ordering more to finish the spread.

Salatim Platter

The Chopped Liver and Onions was a tasty take on liver mousse. When the plate arrived, we had to mix in the liver with onions and a hard boiled egg. It came with slices of grilled bread and pickled horseradish. I’m usually not a horseradish fan but this was quite mild and the peppery note really helped with the liver taste. This was quite a generous portion of liver mousse and Mr. and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Chopped Liver and Onions

The Fried Crushed Potatoes was really good! It didn’t feel like a side at all. (more…)

Read Full Post »

[VanFoodies eat Montreal] Cafe Chat L’Heureux – A Place to Chat?!

Posted in Cafe, Joyce, Lunch, Montreal, Restaurants, Salad, Sandwiches, Vegetarian, tagged , , , , , on August 10, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Mr. is a cat lover; me, not so much, so I was quite surprised when we arrived at what seemed like a cat cafe. Our visit to Cafe Chat L’Heureux was completely unplanned and unexpected.

Upon further research, Cafe Chat L’Heureux is the first Cat Cafe Project in North America. Chat in French means cat. Not knowing any French, Mr. actually mistakenly thought Cafe Chat was a place to chat. You know, literally, chat. Even Tip, the girl in the animation Home, knows what chat means in French! He claimed that it wasn’t his master scheme to trick me so he could hang out with cats. Strike one. Oh, and this is a vegetarian restaurant! Strike two. Our marriage is off to a great start! 😛

Cafe Chat L'Heureux

Food

Even though Cafe Chat may be known for the kitties rather than its food and drinks, we did order some items to go with our kitty play time. My Latte was not bad, standard affair, but I started to realize the milk in Montreal is richer and has more flavour. Mr. went for the Passion Fruit Diabolo Juice, of which he was expecting some kind of juice form. Turns out it was just passion fruit flavoured soda; another example of lost in translation.

LatteDiabolo Passion Fruit Juice

Food wise, we shared the Classic Grilled Cheese. It was an online picture of this grilled cheese that lured me to the restaurant. Priorities, huh?! Haha! This, to our surprise, tasted as good as it looked! (more…)

Read Full Post »

%d bloggers like this: