Oh My Gado! - Food Truck

I was fooling around with an app called Street Food and noticed that a truck that I had never heard of, was at the nearby Valley Fall Fair. Their creatively Can-Donesian menu and inclination towards puns (It's Wheely good), made me decide that the 15-minute drive to visit them and the craft fair would be a worthy investment.

Their menu does not go on forever, which is a good thing, so I placed my order and went over to browse the market. Set in a glass greenhouse, the market featured assorted crafts and plants for purchase along with some purveyors of locally prepared foodstuffs. For the sake of social distancing, a course was laid out for everyone to follow and hand sanitizer was available. I was surprised that not as many people were wearing masks as I have grown accustomed to seeing. I was not impressed with that but tried to set an example.

Still, I really only came for the food. I ordered 4 of their 6 or 7 menu items and took them home. Mharie and I ate our fill and had leftovers as usual. The menu items are generally $12 to $15.

The Can part of Can-Donesian starts with 9-hour slow-roasted ribs. This was a straight-up Rib Bun which consisted of a pretty good helping of rich meat, a few greens, a decent bun and not much else. It allowed the tasty meat to shine through.

I am not keen on the idea that poutine is our national dish as some assert. I mean, fries, cheese and gravy? I think we can do better than that. However, add some Indonesian flavours and now you have something better. Chicken, peanut sauce, peanuts and a side of sambal oeleck on top of the usual fries and cheese made this something to try! Nice!

Decidedly turning towards the Indonesian now, we had Nasi Goreng (which literally means fried rice). With the tasty South East Asian ingredients such as kecap manis, a salty-sweet soy sauce, this is an easy and tasty introduction to a new cuisine for many folks.

Gado-Gado is an Indonesian salad with some just cooked vegetables (including green beans and small potatoes). Again peanut sauce is a main character and the thing that makes this a special dish. This was a very good version.

So even though we have just met, we are fans of Oh My Gado! There are plenty of trucks that have burgers or donuts or tacos and those are great too but here we can get something unique and tasty!

Food                    3 1/2 out of 5

Comfort               3 out of 5 (you need to make your own comfort)

Service                 4 out of 5 (friendly and efficient)

Value                    3 1/2 out of 5

Kerala Kitchen

I think that Kerala Kitchen might be the last Surrey area South Indian restaurant that we had not experienced. Note that I specify South Indian ( we have come to love dosa and other tastes of Southern India). We are all familiar with (and love) the Punjabi style restaurants but South Indian is a bit harder to find and I am making it my life's work to seek it out (not really but it would be an honourable pursuit).

Located on 120th Street not far from 96th, we were almost their first guests of the day and were seated quickly. They have tables spaced for social distancing as well as a login for contact tracing, hand sanitizer and our server was all masked up so everything was good! 

I'm afraid that we are a little predictable in our ordering habits and need to branch out a bit. We generally start with a combination plate of appetizers, this time it was Idli, Vada, Sambar and a couple of chutneys. This one came with Uthappam also. If we do manage to branch out, I think that we could do without the Idli. These little steamed rice flour pillows are a little on the dry side (always) and basically serve to soak up sambar and chutney. Everything was good here though and it gives one a taste of a few different things to start.

The main event as always was the Mysore Masala Dosa. This one didn't have the usual tubular shape but it doesn't really matter.

What it did have was more filling than any dosa that we have had in the past (frankly, they can be chintzy sometimes). I highly recommend the Mysore part (it was all delicious) which is a red chilli-garlic chutney on the inside of the dosa). Best that we have had!

I kind of mistakenly overlapped by ordering Onion, Tomato and Pea Uthappam (already came with the appetizer) but this was another best ever for us. The whole thing was moist and tasty and like everything else came with chutneys. 

For me, you can never have too much chutney and sambar (we ended up taking quite a bit home). The coconut chutney always blows my mind but this one had a few extra spices and seeds that we don't always find. As far as sambar (basically lentil and vegetable soup or stew) I could live on that stuff!

Alas, we swerved off the vegetarian highway and ordered Lamb Biryani. This was also very tasty but not legendary. The crispy onions on top were more like overcooked carmelized rather than crispy and we got a chunk of cinnamon. I am not sure if that was intensional or an error. It was edible (and kind of interesting) but a little too close to being a chunk of wood. Still, there was lots of tasty lamb and who doesn't love Basmati rice.

We paid about $60 but had so much left over that our actual meal cost was like half of that and we ate a couple more lunches from the leftovers. Service was friendly and tolerated my usual barrage of questions. Does anyone know what percentage of the South Asian folks that live here had originated in the southern provinces of India? We really recommend this place!

Food                        4 out of 5

Service                    4 out of 5 

Comfort                   4 out of 5

Value                       4 1/2 out of 5

RedBeef Noodle Kitchen

When we can't decide what to eat, Taiwanese places will always be high on our list. We have been fascinated by RedBeef Noodle Kitchen's menu for some time now. Also, the fact that they currently have 4 locations, means that they are doing something correctly.

Located at the corner of Main and Keefer, they seem to be doing a decent job of social distancing. We felt comfortable and the place was not too busy when we there.

Their specialty here is beef noodle soup and it was very good. The cut of meat is shin which might not seem to glamourous but the process which involves 12 hours of cooking time renders a rich stock and tender beef. The noodles too, which are produced at their central kitchen are spectacular. Served with a small side of pickled cabbage that traditionally is added to the soup, we kind of went non-traditional and ate most of it on its own. I also failed to ask about their premium soup which I think we can assume is a  more impressive cut of beef. We enjoyed the Signature soup quite a lot at half the price of the premium.

Also on our always hard to resist list is Curried Beef with Rice. It was very good with tender beef and not too spicy but strong curry flavour. And some broccoli thrown in for good measure! I will never complain about that!

Mharie and I always like to have at least one deep-fried item to round out a meal. The Salt and Pepper Squid were tender and yet crispy. It's hard to make the salt, pepper and garlic stick to the tentacles so we often resort to a spoon! You can't just leave all that behind!

We had a most refreshing little side dish which was Cucumber with Minced Garlic. And it was very garlicky! There was just a touch of sesame oil to round out the flavour.

This is a chic room with a fair bit of space for social distancing. The staff were friendly and helpful. There is a lot more on the menu to try here and we will be back. 

Food                            4 1/2 out of 5

Comfort                       4 out of 5

Service                         4 out of 5 

Value                            4 out of 5

The One

Why do I feel like we have never heard of this place? Was I away when it opened or has it just been around a long time and been kept secret? It was very busy so evidently, it is a popular haunt for the folks in South Burnaby where it lurks on Buller near Kingsway. The One presents the usual challenge for me at a Taiwanese restaurant namely, an endless selection of things I would like to be eating.

We went with Marie's kids and grandkids (a selection of them anyway) after visiting the Selfie...I mean the Sunflower Festival in Richmond. We didn't have to wait too long for a table for 7 of us, although it was close to 9pm on a Sunday evening. 

So many of us meant a lot of dishes to photograph and comment on. First up was Deep Fried Chicken Skin, certifiably the most unhealthy dish known to man but oh so tasty in small quantities! Best to share rather than making it your main course!

The Beef Noodle Soup was impressive also. Beefy and with really decent noodles, some greens and a generous helping of beef balls.

My own choice was Stir-Fried Lamb with XO Sauce and Noodles. This was tasty enough and the noodles and sauce were great. However, the lamb bordered on shoe leather. It presented quite a challenge to my jaw and never really did get eaten.

The kids like the Ham and Eggs Fried Rice so much so that they got two orders. I thought it was tasty enough.

This dish of little bites was (along with a bowl of rice) part of a meal set (I don't remember which). A soy sauce egg, spring roll, something close to kimchee and a sauced beef. It would have nicely rounded out a meal set for a sole dinner but got absorbed into the family meal here.

The Deep Fried Squid (this might have been the main for the meal set) was a tad on the chewier side. My jaw got more of a workout here than I would usually look for, but the squid was tasty and salty and enjoyable in small portions.

Finally, there was Sliced Beef in Pancake. I am a big fan of Chinese pancake and this one was pretty good. The thinly sliced beef was a tasty addition. This was probably my favourite item of our late evening feast.

This is a fairly chic place and they are handling the whole COVID thing well with spacing and taking info for tracking purposes. Our servers were efficient and friendly and had the whole social distancing thing under control.

Food                    3 out of 5

Comfort               4 out of 5

Service                4 out of 5

Value                   3 out of 5

Dine Oustside Vancouver - Chimec Fried Chicken and Burger

Always in to try a new fried chicken joint, Chimec also had a Picnic 2 Go as part of the Dine Outside Vancouver Festival. Located on Denman close to Robson, this meant we were within walking distance of several nice places to set up our blanket and picnic.

They offered a pretty good deal for the picnic and they had a separate Special Offer (also as part of the festival).

So we lugged our couple of picnic bags to Coal Harbour and sat down in the shade. The $25 picnic consisted of some very decent fried chicken Five pieces that were meaty and nicely juicy were the main attraction.

There was a generous box of some pretty good fries that would have been better straight out of the fryer and had they not suffered our walk to the park.

Finally, a nice little Ceasar Salad with a few croutons. This needed to be assembled which was obviously a good thing! Then there was the Special Offer; more chicken!

A dozen Wings for ten bucks did not seem like a bad deal. Again they were pretty decently crispy and tasty. I know it's just fried chicken and everybody seems to be opening a fried chicken joint these days. I'm not going to tell you they are the best ever but they're not bad.  

Back at headquarters on Denman, there are a few tables and some fairly friendly folks serving up your order. They have burgers too as their monicker suggests.

Food                3 out of 5            

Comfort          4 out of 5 (a Coal Harbour picnic!)

Service            3 1/2 out of 5

Value               3 1/2 out of 5

Dine Outside Vancouver - Gurkha Himalayan Kitchen

I had visited Gurkha Himalayan Kitchen many years ago (under different management, it seems) and enjoyed their interesting menu and hospitality. The suggestion of the Himalayas conjures up thoughts of yak's milk and completely exotic dishes that we have never heard of but in reality, while unique the cuisine (as served in Vancouver) is not that far from some of the Indian food we know and love. Don't be afraid!

When we saw that GHR had prepared a Picnic 2 Go for DOV, we were all in. Gurkha is located on Davie Street where you can't miss them, beside the Shoppers Drug Mart. While we waited, we had a glass of water and enjoyed their outside patio. Then we gathered up 2 bags of picnic and walked down the hill to Sunset Beach, the perfect dining room.

There we took stock of our little feast which cost only $20 each for the two of us.

For appetizers, we chose one order of Chicken Momos and one order of Vegetarian Momos. While momos can be a pretty sturdy dumpling, we found these to be pleasantly chewy and with a tasty filling. The dips, of course, round out the experience, one being cilantro based, a sort of milder curry and one fairly spicy sauce.

We chose Chicken Noodles as one of our mains. There was a lot of this! Tasty saucy noodles and a decent amount of chicken and vegetables. This was not too spicy and seemed like an Asian leaning sauce which was rich and had some depth!

Next was the Chicken Curry. Again this was a generous portion with rice. I always whine about takeout butter chicken being all sauce but this was the opposite. There was a little bit of heat in this delicious curry and was great with Basmati rice.

One of these mains also came with lentils which always make me happy.

Finally 2 tasty and refreshing desserts. One was Coconut Rice Pudding which I could eat all day long. The other was Cheese Pistachio Lush. I had never heard of this before but apparently, it is a layered dessert based on a cheesecake? I'm not quite sure as its hard to Google a definition without ending up at a cosmetics store. The picnic came with a soft drink and we ended up with a lot left over for the next day.

They have a comfortable little dining room and lots of patio space at GHK where you can dine a little remote from the noise of Davie Street. This was our best of all 3 of our DOV experiences and highly recommend that you give it a try.

Food                 4 1/2 out of 5

Comfort            4 out of 5 (Well, Sunset Beach!)

Service             4 out of 5 

Value                4 1/2 out of 5