foodie – SPEAKOFTHEANGEL https://speakoftheangel.com Fri, 26 May 2017 21:24:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 82987084 Weekend in Vegas: FOOD https://speakoftheangel.com/weekend-vegas-food/ https://speakoftheangel.com/weekend-vegas-food/#respond Fri, 26 May 2017 21:22:00 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=3910 I never realized how sheltered my tastebuds were until I had food in Vegas. Vancouver is an amazing place to live if you like food. The diversity in Vancouver alone makes the good food options endless. But after having some of the most popular foods in Vegas my perspective on how great Vancouver really is has changed.

As promised, I am dedicating an entire post just to the amazing food that I got to try during my Weekend trip to Vegas! 

Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill

Wolfgang Puck was on of the first meals that I had in Vegas. Throughout the trip we actually ate there twice, once on our first night there and once for lunch on our third day. 

On the first night, we ate Wolfgang after a loaded night at Porter Robinson at Hakkasan. Which means we were having this amazing food at 4 am in the morning. We had the Italian Sausage Pizza which had Crème Fraiche, Mozzarella, Red Onion, Fresno Chilies, Baby Spinach and we added Pepperoni. We also ordered an Eggs Benedict because in my mind it was technically morning and I love me a good eggs benny. 

The pizza was absolutely AMAZING. It was probably the reason we decided to eat there again later that weekend. The highlight was definitely the italian sausage. BEST. ITALIAN SAUSAGE. EVER. I don’t know how or what, but it was the most flavourful bites of sausage I’ve ever had on a pizza. 

The second time we ate there we shared the Pepperoni pizza which features San Marzano Tomatoes, Red Onions, Fresh Oregano. And of course we had to add the italian sausage to it. The highlight of this pizza was surprisingly the San Marzano tomatoes. It made each bite flavourful and juicy and I think the taste brought the ingredients together perfectly. 

Gordon Ramsey Burger

Our second meal in glorious Las Vegas was Ramsey Burger. We had their Hellfire Wings and Truffle Fries to start along with their Creme Brulee Orea Milkshake. In my honest opinion, the wings were a little disappointing. They weren’t very hot and nor did they stand out to me at all. BUT their truffle fries definitely made up for that disappointed as they were BOMB. 

We shared their Hells Kitchen Burger which features Asadero Cheese, Roasted Jalapenos, Avocados, Roasted Tomatoes, and a Jalapeno Pesto Aioli. Their burger was EXQUISITE. We weren’t quite hungry at that point (probably because of our hefty 4 am meal the night before) so we just ended up sharing one burger. Their patty was juicy and fresh and the flavours were rich and delicious. 

StripSteak at Mandalay Bay

Oh my f*cking GOD. Stripsteak was the most luxurious and delicious meal I had on this entire trip and we had some DAMN good food all throughout. I have never in my life had better steak. Or steak that even came CLOSE to the mouth-watering tender marbled goodness of their Prime Creekstone Dry Aged Rib Eye. Really makes me doubt how I’ll ever eat non-dry-aged steak again. And even if I somehow find a place in Vancouver that serves it, will it taste as good? PROBABLY NOT. 

We ordered their America’s Best Oysters and Wagyu Fillet Tartare to start. The beef tartare wasn’t really my cup of tea. It featured basil pesto, truffle potato foam, russet potato chips. I kept tasting mustard or horseradish in the dish, which I hate, so that might have ruined the dish for me. 

Their fries might actually have been a huge highlight of the meal for me. The fries comes on a platter of three which features garlic fries, truffle fries, and another one which I can’t for the life of me remember. Garlic fries were hands down my favourite of the three. We also ordered their Brocolini side which was phenomenal as well. 

He ordered the World Wide Wagyu tasting plate which showcases three different Wagyus from around the world. The Japanese A5 NY Strip was our favourite, and stood up against our beloved dry-aged rib eye quite well. The other two, the American Rib Cap, and the Australian Short Rib were both amazing as well. But still the Japanese A5 and Dry-Aged Rib Eye blew them out of the park. 

District One Kitchen & Bar 

District One was something we found on the internet but we were both super glad we left the strip to try it out. They are a Asian fusion restaurant that features Vietnamese flavours. We were drawn in from a photo of their lobstor pho. We knew we had to give it a try. We had their Surf and Turf pho which featured half a lobster as well as rib eye steak. How ridiculous does that sound. Going into it we suspected that this place was popular mainly for the novelty of lobster in pho rather than for the taste but boy were we wrong. The soup was authentic and amazing and surprisingly it paired really well with the lobster and steak combo. We also ordered the big bone soup and OH MAN is it big. I’ve never been the biggest fan of bone marrow but I have definitely been converted. It was impressive how tasty the bone marrow, fat, and fall-off-the-bone meat was with the classic Vietnamese pho soup.

We have some good pho in Vancouver but damn we were both impressed.  

I’ve also developed a love for oysters during my trip to Vegas. Maybe I’ve just never really tried to enjoy them now I’m realizing that I’ve been missing out. I’ve got an oyster date with a friend in a couple of days :3 Just couldn’t stay away.    

Hakkasan

Hakkasan is an international restaurant that has received Michelin stars at some of its other locations. If you look at their list of accolades, it’s long but well-deserved. They serve traditional cantonese/chinese food with the ever so slight twist. Although their menu and options were endless, we decided to eat quite simply as neither of us could fit another feast into our tummies. We had the Gai Lan in Garlic sauce, which can I note is the BEST DAMN GAI LAN I HAVE EVER TASTED. And I’m chinese. I’ve eaten a lot of gai lan in my time. I don’t know what about it makes it so good but I’m suspecting that they just have some top-tier veges imported from god knows where. We also ordered their hakka noodles and their steamed dimsum platter. The dim sum included har gau, scallop shumai, Chinese chive dumpling, and black pepper duck dumpling. The presentation was great but I’m thankful that the taste did not stray from what traditional dim sum tastes like. I apologize for my shitty photos by the way. I was honestly too busy stuffing my face to care about trying to take a proper photo (oops!).   Last but not least we tried their Caramel Passion which featured passion fruit tapioca, chocolate cremeux, and salted caramel ice cream. I swear it had a lot more fancy ingredients than that but those are what’s listed on the menu and that’s really the only way I can remember. We also tried their Yuzu Panna Cotta which has a raspberry compote, tahitian vanilla madeleines, raspberry sorbet, and seasonal fruit. Probably wasn’t a good idea to eat these two desserts together because the Caramel Passion made the Panna Cotta really sour. But they were both delicious nonetheless. 

And that wraps up my Vegas food journey. 

All I can think about everyday is the food honestly. I’ve been eating my way around Vancouver trying to chase those flavours. No luck so far. I found a place that serves a 30-day dry aged steak which I think I’ll go try soon. GOD I want to go back so bad. 

I hope you enjoyed my food post! I’m going to go make myself some food now cause writing this up made me HANGRY AF. 

Don’t forget to check out my Vegas Trip recap post if you haven’t already and watch my Vegas vlog!

Until next time, 

 

 
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Harvest Community Foods | #Speakofthefood https://speakoftheangel.com/harvest-community-foods/ https://speakoftheangel.com/harvest-community-foods/#respond Mon, 24 Apr 2017 17:48:21 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=3870 Since I started working in Chinatown, I’ve had to opportunity to try some food places I probably wouldn’t have discovered before. With Chinatown and its continuous gentrification, the options continue to grow as these hipster food places keep popping up on every street corner. I’m definitely not complaining though. More lunch options for me ?. 

Since I’ve been given the opportunity to explore this area a little more, I thought I would start a bit on my blog about some cool discoveries in Vancouver. It’s about time I expanded past just eating at Phnom Penh in Chinatown!

Harvest Community Foods is just a couple doors down from my workplace and it is one of my go-tos for days I don’t pack lunch. It’s a small neighbourhood grocery store that also sells signature fresh veggie and meat noodles in homemade broths. Harvest opened in 2012 and started as a community project in a empty space. “This Space”, the name of the project, had a goal to start a small community business that met the locals’ needs. After much research conducted in the Chinatown and Strathcona area, it was decided that a small local food place/grocery store was exactly what was needed at 243 Union Street. 

Harvest carries a variety of different goodies on its grocery wall. From artisan olive oils, to Earnest ice cream, to milk and cream. They also have a small kitchen area that prepares fresh bowls of noodle soups. They’ve got ramen, udon, and Rice noodles with different soups and toppings. They often have daily specials as well if you want to try something that isn’t usually on their menu. 

From their static menu, I decided to try the Udon with Sake Kazu chicken, shiitake mushroom, and watercress. The shoyu based soup (soy-sauce based) was rich and flavourful, and soaked in the sweet and distinct flavour of the mushrooms. Udon is one of my favourite types of noodles and I thought it paired really well with the soup. The only bone that I have to pick with this dish was the watercress. I wasn’t too fond of the raw watercress added on top as when I soaked the veggies to soften it, it gave the soup a bitter after taste. 

This is definitely something I would order again for lunch, especially since it’s literally 3 doors down from where I work! I’ve had one of their weekly special ramens as well which I LOVED. As someone who probably eats noodles way too often, I thought Harvest did an amazing job with their menu by serving fresh ingredients and delicious soups. 

I’ve got a few more food reviews lined up to write so stay tuned for that!

Until next time, 

 

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Mexican Beef & Rice Skillet (Taco Rice) https://speakoftheangel.com/mexican-beef-rice-skillet-taco-rice/ https://speakoftheangel.com/mexican-beef-rice-skillet-taco-rice/#respond Thu, 17 Nov 2016 07:59:32 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=3479 Tried this recipe out a couple nights ago and I’m kind of in love. I’ve always been a huge fan of Mexican food and my favourite thing to eat from most Mexi places are burrito or taco bowls. This dish is kind of like that but SO much yummier. You can make a large serving at one time and eat it for several meals in a week. I’ve been thinking about meal-prepping for lunches lately so I save some money on food and this has definitely been the deciding factor. My favourite foods are hearty, rich in flavour, and comfort food soft so this is essentially my perfect meal. I’ve definitely been inspired lately to try different recipes out so keep your eyes peeled for more food posts! 

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I found this recipe on Pinterest (as I do most recipes that I try) which I have both linked and embedded down below for you guys to see. The only thing that I really did differently with mine was that after I mixed the cooked beef, tomatoes, corn, and rice together, I put it all in a baking dish as I didn’t have big enough of a skillet to cook it in. This was actually a pretty brilliant idea as we were able to make a larger serving than we would’ve in a skillet. After topping the entire dish with cheese we baked it until the cheese was melted to gooey perfection. We added all the other toppings (salsa, jalapenos, cilantro etc) on top once the cheese had cooled a bit. 

You literally have no idea how delicious this was. And the best part is, it tasted even better the next day @_@. UNF, I die. I’ll link the original recipe here. It is a one skillet dish and they actually cook the rice with beef broth in the skillet which is amazing. I changed it just the tiniest bit so I’ll throw my (barely different) version that I recreated down below!

[yumprint-recipe id=’3′]Definitely could’ve shown more photos but I was honestly too excited to eat it to remember to take actual nice photos. I promise next time I make a recipe post it’ll have more than one photo to refer to!

Hope you guys enjoyed this post, 

more soon. 

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CATTY KITCHEN EP. 1 https://speakoftheangel.com/catty-kitchen-ep-1/ https://speakoftheangel.com/catty-kitchen-ep-1/#respond Mon, 29 Feb 2016 23:05:05 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=1540

Here’s to the start of a new series that Vernice and I decided to start on our Youtube channels ! We are both lovers of food so we thought of this great idea to add cooking videos to our channels. They aren’t going to be weekly videos because of the amount of time we need to prepare and set aside to film and edit these videos (pretty much an entire day) and we are both busy with school, work, and social media. BUT hopefully we can do this at least once a month as a special video that’s a little (or actually A LOT) different from the content we usually produce.

For our first Catty Kitchen episode, we made roasted chicken, potatoes, and an avocado dish for dinner. We looked for recipes online and we found this one (roasted chicken) and this one (avocado). As for the baked potatoes, I took used an easy recipe that I thought of myself. 

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And voila! If you want to just recreate the dishes yourselves, all the recipes are included in this post. Or you could follow along with us in our video. Hope you guys enjoy watching this video as much as we enjoy creating it! I would definitely recommend doing this with a friend so you can share the cooking load as well as food after (: 

I’ll also leave you guys with Vernice’s links incase you wanted to check her out on Youtube and Instagram. She’s got an awesome feed. 

Youtube

Instagram

Twitter

If you guys have any recommendations or recipes you want to see made, leave us a comment on this post or on the video! OR go ahead and tweet me. 

Until next time, 

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CHEWIES BRUNCH https://speakoftheangel.com/chewies-brunch/ https://speakoftheangel.com/chewies-brunch/#respond Mon, 28 Sep 2015 18:19:26 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=1303 Processed with VSCOcam with a6 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with a6 presetProcessed with VSCOcam with a6 preset

Tried out a new brunch place this Sunday in Kitsilano. Brunch is definitely one of my favourite meals of any day, and I’m constantly looking for new places to try (so if you know any LET ME KNOW). 

I’ve actually had a few people recommend Chewies to me for brunch; And since I just so happened to be in the area, Vernice and I decided to go there and pig out. 

We ordered the Chicken and Waffles and the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict to share. Their chicken and waffles wasn’t as impressive as I’ve heard. The fried chicken itself was delicious. It was very crispy and had texas style spices on it. The waffle was the part that I was a little disappointed with. I found that the waffles weren’t crispy enough on the outside. So with the honey drizzle, it felt a little soggy. 

However, the Crab Cake Eggs Benny was a different story. I originally thought that the crab cake would come on top of the english muffin that bennies usually comes with. But they actually replaced the muffin part with the crab cake. It made the dish small, but VERY tasty. The crab cake’s richness was paired perfectly with the buttery goodness of the avocado. And then of course the egg was poached to absolute perfection… UNF. 

Another thing that I loved about the place was our server. He was humorous, nice, and chatty. That’s one thing I consider really important when I’m judging how much I like a restaurant, is by their servers/service. He did an amazing job with our food selection, and generally was a joy to talk to so A+++, Chewies, for hiring dope people. 

If you’re looking for a place to brunch in Vancouver, definitely check Chewies out. I know they also have a downtown location as well as the Kitsilano location. You can go to their website to check out their menu and locations ! 

More soon, 

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RAIN AND SHINE https://speakoftheangel.com/rain-and-shine/ https://speakoftheangel.com/rain-and-shine/#respond Thu, 28 May 2015 03:34:11 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=798 Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset Processed with VSCOcam with a5 preset

Little bit of a throwback , don’t know why this wasn’t posted earlier, but Summer, Terri, Janice and I went to Rain or Shine ice cream ! 

I think compared to Earnest, Rain or Shine is probably my second favourite ice cream joint in Vancouver. However, they have this great Taco Tuesday deal (as seen in the second last photo), which features a waffle taco shell, two scoops of ice cream, and topping of your choice ! 

Got a shot of Terri taking a picture for her instagram as well ! Make sure you check out Summer’s instagram for great travel pictures of her trip to Europe, and Terri and Janice’s blogs for their adventures around Vancouver ! 

Until next time, 

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MINAMI BIRTHDAY DINNER https://speakoftheangel.com/minami-birthday-dinner/ https://speakoftheangel.com/minami-birthday-dinner/#respond Mon, 18 May 2015 17:39:09 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=953 IMG_8947IMG_8948 IMG_8950 IMG_8951 IMG_8952

I turned 20 this year ! To celebrate the big two-oh, my family and I went out for dinner at Minami. This was actually my first time at Minami, and I gotta admit, I was pleasantly surprised. People have always told me that Minami just has really over-priced but delicious sushi. I have never been too big of a sushi buff, so I could never really figure out why people would pay MORE money for fish and rice. 

I totally actually get it now. Minami isn’t only a sushi restaurant, but actually is a high-end japanese-styled restaurant. Some of the their dishes are really great fusion dishes done right. And not to mention their Salmon Oshi (which is their most popular dish)….. MELT-IN-YOUR-MOUTH-DIVINE-NESS 

For my main, I got the Wagyu Beef Cha-Soba (4th picture), which is one of fusion-done-right dishes I mentioned. It’s using green tea soba noodles with a bolognese sauce made with wagyu beef. The little strips of wagyu beef were actually probably my least favourite part of the entire dish, but overall it was delicious. 

My other favourite dish was probably the Kaizen Soba Peperoncino (last picture). If I were to go back, I would actually probably order this dish instead of the Cha-soba. Flavour-wise I definitely actually enjoyed this dish more. It’s loaded with a bunch of seafood bits, tempura, jalapenos, mushrooms, veggies, and covered in a chilli-garlic sauce. UNF. 

All in all, I would 100% visit Minami again. Food was definitely worth the 13-30 price range (most of our dishes were around 14-17). Especially if you order 1 or 2 dishes just on your own, the bills comes out to about the same as most nicer restaurants in Van. 10/10 would recommend. 

Until next time, 

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Breakfast Skillet (How To) https://speakoftheangel.com/breakfast-skillet-how-to/ https://speakoftheangel.com/breakfast-skillet-how-to/#respond Sun, 17 May 2015 22:28:41 +0000 http://speakoftheangel.com/?p=999  11303423_381079442080987_305002691_n

So I have this friend Shelton, who has been going to culinary school for the past year or two, and he made this amazing, hearty, skillet dish the other day, so I thought I would replicate it for breakfast this morning !

If you compare mine (the photo above) and his (the photo down below), you can clearly tell which one was better LOL BUT I think overall I did a pretty damn good job. I had the entire thing on my own for breakfast this morning, and ate myself into a bit of a food coma. Well worth it though. It was a great breakfast.

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[yumprint-recipe id=’1′] If you guys try this dish, definitely let me know how you like it ! I think this is definitely going to become a morning favourite. With some toast next time too !

Thanks for reading,

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