Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Cafe Crepe   
1032 Robson Street‎
Vancouver, BC
(604) 488-0045

After finishing university, I started my career at a company located in downtown. Two years later, I left the company and I have ever since missed working in downtown. Some people might say working in downtown sucks because of the bad traffic and the large amount of time spent on commute. Since I lived in downtown and walked to work, the traffic and commute weren’t my problem. I was getting all the convenience without the bad. I was using lunch breaks to run errands: banking, dry cleaning, even buying groceries. On my way to the dry cleaner, the bank and to work, I discovered many good restaurants such as Miko sushi, Jang Mo Jib, Guu, Kintaro, Le Crocodile and Zeffirelli’s, just to name a few. Among these restaurants, Cafe Crepe is one of my favourite. Located on the busiest part of Robson street, it is difficult not to notice this cafe when the restaurant’s takeout window is constantly surrounded by a crowd of crepe lovers, who wait patiently even in the cold or rain for a taste of the delicious pancake. It was at this cafe that I tried my first savoury crepe. Initially, I found the idea of savoury crepes a little strange since crepes are usually sweet in North America. However, I was never interested in sweet crepes anyway because I don’t like desserts in general. I was excited to learn that crepes could be savoury! After reading through the long list of savoury crepes on the menu, I ordered my first savoury crepe:

The ham, egg and cheese crepe tasted amazing. The cheese binded everything together. The texture of the crepe is perfect – it was light and fluffy. For a long time, the ham and egg crepe remained my favourite and I would order it in my every visit. I was married to it until one day I tried the tuna crepe:

Mixed with mayo, egg and cheese, the tuna crepe is irresistible. The ingredients oozed out of the thin pancake. I’ve been married to the tuna crepe since then.

When I go to a restaurant, I usually try to find out what other people order. Usually the item that everyone orders is the restaurant’s best dish. I have seen many people ordered the spinach and cheese crepe at Cafe Crepe and therefore I gave it a try one day.

Ordering the spinach crepe turned out to be a mistake. The crepe was dried and bland. Although I’m a die-hard carnivore, I like to try a vegetarian dish once in awhile. I had many good vegetarian dishes but the spinach crepe is definitely not one of them.

Over the years the menu selection at Cafe Crepe has expanded. There are new items on the menu such as hamburger, pizza and hotdog. ET tried the pizza and he liked it:

Oh I almost forgot about the sweet crepes. I never order them but my girlfriends all rave about the Nutella and banana crepe. Occasionally I would take a bite at it and I believe anyone who likes sweet
would love it.

Location: Phnom Penh Restaurant   
244 Georgia Street East
Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z7
(604) 682-5777

Being a Chinese girl raised in a family where rice must be eaten for every meal, I didn’t grow up trying many different cuisines besides Chinese food. Sometimes though, my mom would be in her creative mood and cook her own version of pasta. I still remember those mornings when I woke up to a hot bowl of pork rib and little shell pastas swimming in black bean sauce. As I reluctantly force the little shells down my throat, all I could think of was why would anyone like this kind of noodles? My mom’s pasta was purely disgusting. Since then I have learned and will always remember that black bean sauce is not the most suitable sauce for pasta. Although discouraged by the pasta experience, I never gave up wondering what other non Chinese dishes would taste like. I knew something out there would taste better than pasta in black bean sauce. I knew something out there would taste amazing. As I was 6, I was waiting for my next opportunity to try something different.

Such an opportunity came when I started living on campus. In my first year of university, I lived in a complex where all students ate their meals at a nearby cafeteria. The same items were always served for breakfasts – eggs, bacon, pancakes, toasts and different kinds of cereal. Lunch was also always the same – pizzas, chicken strips, pastas (luckily never in black bean sauce) and made-to-order sandwiches. Dinners were somewhat more interesting as each day had a different theme – Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Greek etc. Everyone complained about cafeteria food: “That beef is disgusting; I’m now a vegetarian.”. “Oh, that greasy pizza I had for lunch made me sick! I was in the bathroom all afternoon!”. I was complaining along too. But deep inside me, I was glad that besides rice, I had chicken strips, pizzas, sushis or sandwiches to choose from. However, after having chicken strips, pizzas and sandwiches for three months, I wanted to try something different. At 17, I was constantly finding excuses to eat off campus.

Then I met ET. Having a Singaporean background, he and I went on an endless gastronomic exploration of Southeast Asian cuisine. We found ourselves eating at Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesia restaurants. One day he brought me to Phnom Penh, “It’s voted as the BEST Southeast Asian restaurant in town”, he said. After entering the restaurant, we were greeted by a wall fully hung with awards, newspaper and magazine interviews. On our way to our table, we noticed every table ordered a bowl (or multiple bowls) of tossed noodles and a plate of chicken wings:

Unlike the Vietnamese pho, the tossed noodles are served dry along with minced pork, pork slices and shrimps. The noodles are tossed in soy sauce, oil (I highly suspect it is lard which explains why the noodles are so tasty) and green scallion. Bean sprouts, chili and lime are also provided for you to mix into the noodles. The best noodles are sitting in the bottom of the bowl because that is where all the minced pork, scallion, chili and soy sauce hide. There are different versions of tossed noodles on the menu, I recommend you to try item #4.

I love the tossed noodles at Phnom Penh. However, my favourite is item 78 on the menu, the buttery deep fried chicken wings:

Fried in an extremely light and airy batter, the chicken wings are cripsy with a hint of buttery flavour. Lime juice mixed with freshly ground pepper is served as the dipping sauce. Every time I eat these wings, I can’t help but think that if KFC’s chicken are finger-licking-good, then these wings are just finger-licking-fantastically-the-best!

Another item which we always ordered is the Vietnamese spring rolls. The spring rolls at Phnom Penh are smaller, shorter but somewhat more flavourful than those that I’ve eaten at other Vietnamese restaurants.

Last night we visited Phnom Penh again with foodies Ben and Suanne from ChowTimes. Since there were more people, we ordered the a pot of chicken curry in addition to the noodles and chicken wings:

The chicken curry had a mild curry flavour. What’s most interesting about this curry is we saw something that looked like potatoes and they turned out to be taro root. Baguettes are recommended to be eaten with the curry, which we used to quickly soak up all the curry sauce.

Ben and Suanne are very knowledgeable about Southeast Asian cuisine. When they learned there is a dessert with durian on the menu, they were excited to try it:

It was a plate of glutinous rice submerged in coconut milk and topped with a few pieces of durian. Although the durian smelt strong, I was disappointed by how thin the slices were and I almost couldn’t taste the fruit at all. When I looked at the slices closely, I realized they were not durian flesh but rather a pile of durian mousse. All in all the glutinous rice tasted yummy with the slightly sweetened coconut milk.

Now in my late twenties, I have tried a lot different cuisines besides Chinese food. I have learned that pastas are very delicious in a tomato or cream sauce, or even simply mixed in a good extra virgin oil. My mom is very good at cooking Chinese food. But because I never learn cooking from her, I never learn how to cook Chinese food properly. Once in awhile, I miss a meal in which rice is served with many home style Chinese dishes like the ones that my mom made. Now I’m trying to recreate familiar home style Chinese dishes that I grew up with as well as waiting to try dishes that I have not yet tried.