Nostalgic Tomato-Flavoured Lunch

Straight from the oven, baked fish fillets in tomato sauce

Today we headed to Vancouver's Chinatown and to our usual eatery for lunch -- The Boss Bakery & Restaurant.

It's categorised as a cha chaan teng, with its extensive menu filled with all kinds of dishes from Hong Kong-style borscht soup to pork chops with cream sauce to fried rice. Wash the meal down with yuen yeung (mixture of coffee and tea), milk tea or Horlick's, and finish with egg tarts or cocktail bun.

I ordered the baked fish fillet with tomato sauce, a stainless steel shallow round pan filled with rice mixed with bits of scrambled egg, a few spinach leaves and two small fish fillets that are smothered in a kind of Campbell Soup-flavoured tomato sauce and baked.

Because it's in the oven for a while, it is a test of your patience, while everyone else at the table is already tucking into their plates of food.

Finally it arrives, piping hot, but after blowing a spoonful to cool it down a bit, it's comforting to eat, a reminder of when I was a kid and after school made Campbell's Soup from a can and added instant noodles. But this version is healthier with the fish and spinach.

No way can I finish this serving -- the portions at The Boss are huge and we always bring food containers to bring them home.

The Boss Bakery & Restaurant

532 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

604 683 3860

A Hearty Vegetarian Soup

A hearty bowl of cannellini and kale soup for lunch 

Earlier this week I made a simple soup for lunch, using a bunch of kale and an onion I received from Harvest Community Foods.

I chopped up the onion and stir-fried it before adding rinsed cannellini beans and chicken stock, let that simmer for a bit before adding the chopped kale.

For some umami flavour I put in parmesan rinds and that helped thicken the soup a bit too. You can also mash some of the beans, but after about 20 minutes the soup was thicker, as some of the beans had disintegrated. Took out the parmesan rinds, added some salt and pepper, and the soup was done.

It would have been good with some warm sourdough bread, but it was still delicious, and vegetarian!

Review: Legato Cafe's Thai Lunch

Green curry with coconut milk, eggplant, bamboo shoots

A friend who works in Kerrisdale asked if we could have lunch at a restaurant she had never been before. She was concerned the food might not taste good (and didn't want to be blamed).

But I'm all for trying something new, even if it doesn't work out. Cause you don't know until you've tried it.

The place is called Legato Cafe, and its signage outside promotes that it also serves Thai dishes. 

Spring rolls with salad comes with the lunch set

We were curious.

Inside it looks like a cafe, with coffee, tea, baked goods and some salads, soup and sandwiches. 

The lunch set menus looked good -- about C$15 per person with a starter and a main course.

We ordered two different mains, green curry and pad Thai and sat down.

The waitress was busy, but efficient. We made our order and paid at the cashier and then sat down where she gave us glasses of water and utensils.

The starter featured two halves of a deep-fried spring roll choc full of vermicelli and strips of carrot, with a nice portion of salad, a simple mound of lettuce with shaved carrots and a ranch dressing.

Not long afterwards we were served the green curry with chicken, and a side of rice. The curry initially had a mild taste that got hotter at the end, perhaps thanks to the chilli flakes sprinkled on top. The curry had Thai eggplants, bamboo shoots, and carrots mixed with coconut milk. 

Pad Thai with bean sprouts and peanuts, no chilli

The curry was quite addictive -- I couldn't help but keep spooning more on my plate even though it was quite spicy!

Meanwhile the pad Thai arrived, a bit too much ketchup-y sauce that made it look orangey than soy sauce, and tasted sweeter too. We also chose chicken for this dish (the choice was beef, chicken, pork or tofu). It really should have prawns in it, but cost-wise it would be more expensive.

Nevertheless, in general it had some of the main ingredients, but lacked scallions, chilli flakes and tofu. 

In general we were quite pleased with the food, not completely authentic, but at a decent price. We'll be back!

Legato Cafe

2299 West 41st Avenue

Vancouver

604 264 1666

Palm Springs' Meal Deals

Olive Garden: Americanised Italian cuisine

Palm Springs used to be a fun place for seniors to eat, taking advantage of the early bird specials at various restaurants. But post-Covid those days are long gone... unless you are interested in eating dinner at 3pm and finish by 5pm at Pacifica in El Paseo, one of the glitziest shopping areas.

Nevertheless, we managed to find a few delicious deals. One was lunch at Olive Garden, where on weekdays they have the soup and salad and breadsticks deal for US$11.49 where you get unlimited servings of each. 

Fresh salads were the highlight at Olive Garden

My first bowl of soup was the pasta e fagioli, white and red beans, ground beef, fresh tomatoes and tubetti pasta. But then I made the rookie mistake of ordering the chicken and gnocchi, a creamy soup that filled me up quite quickly. I managed to squeeze in a third bowl of minestrone but was extremely full afterwards.

The unlimited salad is simple but very fresh, featuring chopped cabbage, slices of tomatoes, shredded carrots, black olives, pickled peppers, and chopped red onions in Italian dressing, while the breadsticks are more like pillowy soft wide sticks that are oily and sprinkled with salt.

Another weekday lunch deal is unlimited soup or salad with certain pasta dishes like shrimp scampi, chicken parmigiana, spaghetti or cheese ravioli for between US$12.49 or US$13.49, and the portions are just right.

Minestrone soup was choc full of vegetables

We also went to IHop for breakfast before heading to the airport. The menu looks like it offers a lot of dishes, but many are all combinations of eggs with either bacon or sausage, toast or pancakes. There's a section offering deals for 55+ diners, such as the 1x1x1 -- one egg, one sausage, one bacon and toast or pancakes. 

I had the 2 quick eggs -- two eggs, either sausage or bacon, hash browns and toast for about US$13. The eggs came perfectly cooked over easy, and a rectangular slab of hash browns that was decorated with two skinny (and fatty) slices of bacon, and two slices of wholewheat toast that were further sliced in half and buttered.

While IHop was good value, it was kind of sad to see the sign on the door explaining the hours had changed to Monday to Sunday, 6.30am until 3pm. When we went on a Sunday morning, the place was just over half full; it used to be bustling with customers, and sometimes we had to wait for a table.

IHop's 2 Quick Eggs breakfast

It seems Covid hit Palm Springs hard, and tourism is its biggest industry, other than healthcare services. Fewer tourists are coming, resulting in restaurants closing or downsizing, and the same with shops. Golf courses have noticeably fewer visiting golfers, which has resulted in fewer staff catering to them at the reception desk. Tee times need to be booked online instead of on the phone or in person.

Hard to say if the city will be bustling again... the people are still friendly, but out-of-town visitors are few and far between.

Seaport City Deemed Michelin Worthy

Rice rolls, chayote, crab and fish maw, trotters and dumplings

I took some friends to have lunch at Seaport City Seafood Restaurant -- which was recently bestowed Bib Gourmand status by the Michelin Vancouver guide.

Perhaps because of this new designation the place was packed for a Thursday lunchtime and we barely got a table even though I had reserved one. We were tucked in a corner by the wine fridges and behind the reception area, but it was sort of a semi-private area which was a blessing in disguise.

Dan dan noodles with peanuts...

With five of us we were able to order the har gao and siu mai, each of which had five dumplings each in the steamer. We also had pork dumplings with beets and mushrooms, steamed rice rolls with beef, egg and coriander, and pan-fried taro cake that were served in blocks stacked up like Jenga.

Everyone raved about the pickled chayote or Buddha's hand in Chinese. It was chopped in thick slices that were marinated in vinegar and finished with fresh chillis. Another gourmet dish was the crab meat and fish maw supreme in squash soup that was just enough for each of us to try. Fresh bits of crab meat and fish maw were a decadent combination with the sweetness from the squash. How decadent.

Another was the dan dan noodles, with springy wheat noodles in a slightly spicy sauce that was elevated with the chilli oil from the dish of spicy wontons. Everyone scooped up a bit of the chilli oil and couldn't help but have another serving of the noodles!

Noodles elevated with the chilli oil from here

The pork hock with ginger -- typically a dish women who have given birth will eat to restore their health -- is also served here. The pork trotters are simmered in lots of vinegar, sugar and ginger, and boiled eggs are usually added as well. While the one served at Seaport City doesn't use particularly spicy ginger, it had a mild taste that probably appeals to most people. The pork trotters had been cooked for ages and easy to eat.

For dessert we finished with steamed honeycomb cake and honey twists. Needless to say the friends from Hong Kong were suitably impressed. While Seaport City is more expensive than say Kirin, the selection and quality of dim sum dishes make it a solid place to go for lunch.

Seaport City Seafood Restaurant

2425 Cambie Street

Vancouver

604 222 7288