The Flying Pig: Gastown

On a nice Sunday afternoon, I found myself exploring gas town with my girlfriend and her school mate from China. Okay, so, exploring may be a liberal term to use, as I've already seen and done pretty much everything that can be seen and done in gas town. A better way to put it would be 'guiding' the school mate.

Being in the area sparked a craving of The Flying Pig's shortrib macaroni. I'd been there before on an anniversary dinner with the girlfriend, and would definitely rank it quite high on my list of places to go. The macaroni is quite honestly the best pasta dish I've ever had. And that's saying a lot.

Arriving at around 2:30, we saw an opening for a patio table and took it. They were still serving brunch, an I have to admit I was a bit disappointed at the number of breakfast items in comparison to lunch items. A lot of the things that were on the lunch portion of the menu felt more like breakfast items, or snacketizers. While I understand that this is a common concept for lunch - being snack time - I was expecting more variety, especially having had a taste of their dinner menu.

Aside from the complimentary banana bread, we ordered the macaroni once again, and the croque Madame. The latter choice was difficult as we weren't really looking for a breakfast item - I had made salmon bennies for breakfast that morning. The problem was, we just didn't see anything we wanted other than the macaroni, yet, we had the pressing issue of feeding three people.

Like I said earlier, the macaroni did not disappoint. It was still amazing, and while I could describe it all day, I suggest you either go taste it, or try your own version at home. It's a perfect blend; large hollow noodles of some sort, braised short rib and some sort of rich (but not thick) gravy. Delicious!

The croque was... Well. It was a croque. What more can I say? It was good, but I wouldn't say it was the brunch order of a lifetime. The salad it came with in the other hand was very fresh and tasty. All in all the croque was a safe order, but I would stick to the macaroni in the future. As for the restaurant itself; I'll stick to the macaroni for brunch, and bring my visiting guests here at dinner, in the future.

Sciue Melville

Having visited Sciue: Italian Bakery Caffe numerous times, it was only inevitable before I reviewed some of their products. Truth is, I have had a taste of pretty much everything available. My girlfriend works there , and today is her last day.

One of the things the Sciue 'brand' prides itself on are the in-house Italiab style pizzas that you can purchase by weight. The concept is quite different when compared to other coffee shops or pizza places in Vancouver. And well, "different" is a thing that sells in Vancouver. 

So how are the pizzas anyway? Honestly, they're pretty average. They do rotate and try new pizzas routinely - which is a good thing - but there isn't anything special here. Your best bet is the smoked salmon pizza if you're looking for something different, or pancetta bacon if you're a fan of the classics; because bacon just rocks.

The coffee at Sciue is great. They only provide organic coffee, and their espressos are 'made in the style of Rome'. I'm not really sure what makes Roman espressos different, but what I do know is that Sciue doesn't used sweetened chocolate in their mochas. For me, this is a good thing as it marks a better foundation for making the drink you want; need I say, unsweetened mocha is a good alternate to a latte?

The real seller for me isn't necessarily the products that Sciue carries; for the most part you can get the exact same thing at any other coffee shop, and more places keep going organic and fee trade to keep up with the competition. The seller is the concept. The idea here is that you can go to a coffee shop and get Italian baking - pizza, sandwich, soup and pasta. It's a nice alternate to 'fast food coffee shops'.

Blog status: New schedule

After the first couple of weeks of blogging, I've made the 'executive' decision to do scheduled blog posts. What this means is that I'll only be blogging on Mondays and Thursdays at this time. While its also true that I have a backlist of blog articles yet to be written, I've decided that by concentrating on only blogging at certain times I can put out more quality articles, and the rest of the time I can spend collecting photos, and such for my articles.

Additionally, this doesn't just mean two posts per week. I've also made the decision that I'll likely batch and release articles throughout the day. Depending on the time involved, I could put out only one article, or as many as three per scheduled blogging day.

Lastly, I'll try to make regular updates - similar to this one. Which I will post on weekends. The purpose of this last point is simply to update readers on the status of my blog; should there be any changes.

Pepsi wings; a Chinese thing?

To my surprise, a few nights ago my girlfriend suggested we have wings for dinner. And so, she busted out the cutting board to begin preparing the sides - garlic toast and stir fried veggies - while I busted out a beer (we actually drink quite light, so the one beer was split between the two of us.)

As I waited for the wings to "marinate" in the Pepsi, I wondered what kind of wings we were going to have. At first I suspected plain, with just salt and pepper, as I had not seen any sauce in the kitchen. But I figured, perhaps she bought the sauce while I was waiting outside the grocery store with the dog.

Once I tried the wings, I thought they tasted quite similar to my great aunt Sandy's sweet and sour wings. It was quite tangy, and the sauce was viscous and sticky. When she told me she used Pepsi, I thought she was joking at first.

After a bit o joking around I saw that she was serious, and then she reminded me that she had mentioned this type of thig before. Pepsi chicken wings are supposedly quite well known in China. Who'd have guessed?

The American Cheesteak Co.

One thing that doesn't immediately come to mind in the world of Vancouver cuisine are Philly Cheesesteaks. While its true that Phillies are a staple of any pub or dive bar menu, that environment is considerably underdeveloped in Vancouver. While its true that groups such as Donnelly and Browns public houses try to have the essence of being a pub, they are still more like a mishmash that takes the best of pubs and casual fine dining; and mashing them altogether.

But this still doesn't answer the question of representation for the Philly. Well, if you like Phillies as much as any other self respecting human being, you may be please to know that there is a Philly Cheesesteak deli on Davie, offering nothing but different variations on the Philly. It's actual been there for almost two years, but who's counting?

As for myself, I love Phillies and I've partaken in the greasy sandwich many times since moving to Vancouver. The most recent time, I tried the Davie Bird - a strange version of the Philly, featuring chicken. While I'm a fan of chicken over red meat, and while it wasn't that bad, I'd suggest you to steer more toward their higher fat options. If you want a Philly, stick with the classics. The chicken option is still loaded up with sauce, cheese and bread, so you won't really be cutting back on calories.

The quality of the Phillies here are great, but there are a few downsides. Firstly, its not a pub atmosphere at all. Although, they do sell beer, the place is more akin to a sandwich deli or fast food joint. The price is also steep. It can easily be a 20 dollar ordeal, for what boils down to a sandwich, fries and a drink. That said, if these things aren't much of a hang-up for you, then you should definitely check it out.