Picture of the Day: Taking a Risk on Ice Cream

Orange calamansi creamsicle ice cream

The other day I was on Commercial Drive for a media tasting at a restaurant, and I was always curious of an Asian-inspired ice cream shop called Elephant Garden Creamery and wanted to check it out.

So even after I was full from trying a 10-course tapas menu, I waddled a few blocks down to Elephant Garden Creamery, which was still open. Unfortunately they don't allow customers to sample flavours before choosing, nor are you able to see what the ice creams look like. So I ordered blind and chose what sounded delicious -- orange calamansi creamsicle.

I like calamansi and creamsicles are a taste of my childhood. What could go wrong?

But the generous scoop of ice cream didn't have a strong orange or calamansi flavour that did not result in a creamsicle taste. It was a milk ice cream with a very faint taste of calamansi for $6.30 plus tip... it was not worth the extra calories!

In hindsight perhaps I should have tried the signature mango coconut sticky rice, durian, butter sweet corn crunch, or malted milk choco (reminiscent of malteasers)...

Elephant Garden Creamery

2080 Commercial Drive

Vancouver, BC

(604 251 6832

Ancient Mexican Fare Near Chinatown

Food before the Spanish arrived in Mexico

There's a lot of buzz about Mexico these days, with many people traveling to the country for holidays as an alternative to the United States, and most recently many bars on the North America Best 50 Bars list were from there, in particular Mexico City.

On Saturday afternoon a foodie friend and I were in Chinatown and as we walked to his car, he suggested we have a snack in a Mexican restaurant.

Salad with pumpkin flower, lettuce and sour cream

Where was that? 

A place called Machete -- pronounced ma-chet-teh, unlike the sharp knifed weapon, and it serves Mexican food that was made before the Spanish arrived. So the ingredients are mostly corn, blue corn, cacao, and yucca to name a few. Apparently this is the only restaurant of its kind in Vancouver.

Cecilia Aguayo is the chef and owner, and she cooks up dishes inspired by her grandmother who ate a healthy diet.

We tried the itacates, which means food for a journey, which are usually packed into triangles of tortillas. But at Machete, it was like an open-faced salad, and the one we had was called flor de calabaza, featuring pumpkin flower, white onions, garlic, and epazote, or Mexican tea which is a leafy plant.

It was a refreshing, light salad that was topped with lettuce, sour cream, cheese, guacamole and pumpkin seeds.

Chocolate drink with hint of orange and vanilla

Then we had the machete, a long quesadilla in blue corn tortillas, filled with vegetables and Oaxaca cheese. It came with a long serrated knife for us to cut it! Inside was mostly roasted peppers, mushrooms, refried beans and the melted cheese. 

By this point I was getting full; it was after 3pm and I would be eating dinner in a few hours!

However besides our snacks, the drinks were very interesting. Machete has a cacao bar with various drinks made from chocolate. This is not like hot chocolate served elsewhere where it is thick and rich, quickly spiking your sugar levels and leaving you feeling full.

Instead these drinks are light and foamy with the drink emphasising the chocolate flavour without the heaviness.

A vegetarian machete, or quesadilla

I tried the recommendation of meztli ice latte, a concoction of cacao nibs, orange, vanilla, cinnamon, almond milk and ice, while my friend had the nahualli ice latte, mixing cacao with coffee, milk, vanilla and cinnamon panela sugar.

Both drinks were served in giant hollowed out coconut shells and balanced on a small ring. We had to hold the cups with both hands and sip from the coconut shell. 

What an interesting experience!

Machete

1007 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

778 302 4795

Sweet New Year Chocolates

Dark chocolate orange with fortune cookie bits

Lunar New Year is around the corner and social media has sucked me into buying some chocolate, though for a good cause.

It's a collaboration between local chocolatier Hype Chocolate and Foo Hung Curios, the gift shop in the Chinatown Storytelling Centre in Vancouver.

Interesting flavours with a Chinese twist

There are three flavours out: Milk chocolate with freeze-dried White Rabbit candy; Dark chocolate orange with fortune cookies; and White chocolate with Gold Mountain tea infused.

I bought the first two flavours at C$18 each and they are creative.

The milk chocolate complements the creaminess of the White Rabbit candy. It doesn't get stuck in your teeth either which is a good thing.

But we are loving the dark chocolate with a hint of orange and then the hard crunchiness of the fortune cookie bits. 

The latter even comes with two fortune slips, probably signifying that they used two fortune cookies per bar and didn't want to throw the pieces of paper in the garbage, but packaging-wise it's a bit weird.

My fortunes say: "Be yourself and you will always be in fashion", with the lucky numbers 2, 20, 32, 36, 37 and 44.

The other says: "You are thorough and very organised", and lucky numbers 19, 24, 26, 33, 40 and 41.

Nevertheless the chocolates are fun and different, and the bonus is that part of the proceeds goes to the Chinatown Storytelling Centre.

Milk chocolate, White Rabbit candy

The centre is the brainchild of Carol Lee, who has done a lot to promote the Chinatown neighbourhood by setting up businesses and landmarks, while networking with politicians to bring more attention to the area. She was awarded the Order of Canada in December. 

Chinese New Year Gift Ideas

Impressive artistic work, but not appealing to buy

Many western companies are getting into the Lunar New Year spirit to cash in on Asian customers.

At Costco, Sunkist has boxed its oranges in a fancy burgundy-coloured box complete with a golden dragon on it, and it even has 龍年 2024 Year of the Dragon on it.

We needed to buy oranges, but cute packaging

The tagline says: "Citrus for Prosperity".

Today I went to Thomas Haas, a local chocolatier's shop. Among the special items this month along with chocolate hearts is a red dragon in white chocolate, gold chocolate coins and "bamboo". I didn't buy it, but a Caucasian woman did!