My Foodie Adventures in Downtown Vancouver

Well I am back in the blogger office and finished with my short term special project. I do have a couple of blog posts backed up waiting to be finalized and published but, I thought it would be more fun to look back at the food I encountered over the last few days.

I apologize in advance for the quality of some of the photos. They were all taken with my iPhone and while the iPhone can take quality pics, I don’t always seem to be able to do so.

Without further ado, here begins the highlights of my foodie adventure in downtown Vancouver.

My first meal came after a $6 cab ride away from the conference centre. I had a “meh” plate of noodles with a few green beans at Hon’s in Vancouver’s Chinatown. Not bad, not good.

 

Next meal captured on film was at The Winking Judge Pub just up Burrard Street. The Past Tense sandwich had shaved pastrami, swiss cheese and caramelized onion marmalade.

Being a fiend for fries, I chose a side of fries and added their gravy.

The pastrami was not shaved, it was sliced. And not sliced thin enough. When I bit into the sandwich the entire slice of meat slid out of the sandwich in one big slice and coating my bearded chin with molten cheese and hot pastrami.

Not as classy a look as I would like for a business lunch.

The fries were factory fries. Nothing noteworthy. Just passable. (After eating frites at The Spud Shack one is very spoiled in the fries world.)

The gravy was blech. No stand out flavours other than a salty mess. The caramelized onion marmalade was well done and added a nice element of flavour to the sandwich.

Next was a late night stop at one of my old favourite barbecue joints, Peckinpah in Gastown. It was too late to eat so I broke my personal rule of not drinking any alcoholic beverages while I am away on business and I actually had a drink.

 

The Bourbon Caesar was worth it. Poured in a beer mug with a long pickled green bean slid in the mug and a deep, smoky bourbon flavour made my taste buds sing.

Sitting on top of the drink was a beautiful slice of beef jerky. Tender enough to bite through without a battle and smoky enough to make me want some barbecue eats.

Instead I settled for a deep fried pickle.

The pickle, while a clever idea and tasty enough would have been presented better if it was cut into quarters rather than sliced so thinly.

The taste was very cool though. Just enough snap from the dill pickle to make you know you have a dill in your hand.

The jalapeno mayo was a perfect companion to the dill. The jalapeno gave it zap while the mayo tempered the zap to a reasonable level.

The next day I took another $6 cab ride and ended up on the east end of Gastown at Big Lou’s Butcher Shop.

The joint looks like a blast from the past only with “too-cool-for-school” hipsters behind the counter.

As well as being a butcher shop serving all kinds of locally sourced meats, they also have a sandwich counter.

As I may have said before, I am a disciple of The Big Star Sandwich Co on 12th Street in New West.

However, these guys make a pastrami sandwich that comes close to equalling the Big Star’s pastrami sandwich.

I ordered Big Lou’s One Pound pastrami sandwich.

Although it may sound massive, a one pound sandwich is not massive. Granted, it is pretty freaking large but for a professionally trained foodie like myself, it was a manageable lunch.

An incredible dill pickle, saurkraut like my grandmother used to make back home in the old country, a smear of mustard and a pound of pastrami…heavenly.

Once again though, they would improve the sandwich by shaving the pastrami thinner.

However, this was the sandwich highlight of my days away.

I did eat a couple of breakfasts as well. The best one came from Phat’s Deli.

Scrambled eggs, hashbrowns, thick cut multigrain toast and a HEAP of shaved pastrami! These guys know how to shave pastrami so that it pulls apart with little to no effort.

A plate of perfectly shaved pastrami. Deelish.

The eggs and hasbrown cubes were uninspired but the toast was excellent and the pastrami….beautiful.

One more late night snack and then we are done.

Spicy tuna sashimi at YakiNiKuYa just off Robson Street was a perfect way to end the longest day of my work away.

A lovely little plate with perfectly cut to mouth size chunks of tuna sashimi interspersed with crisp slices of quartered cucumber.

A lovely and refreshing way to end a very long and exhausting day.

Of course I ate at a number of other meals including a disappointing roast beef dinner at Save-on-Meats on Hastings Street and a a fabulous – FABULOUS chicken shawarma pita sandwich with taste sensations. However, that is enough for now. Enjoy!!