Jan-chan’s Tidbits

The menu cover.

To celebrate a pair of birthdays we went to A Kettle of Fish for dinner. Its our first time there and I heard from several people that the food there is pretty good. They had a special three course menu that night but since I’m more of a shellfish person I got jumbo prawns for mains with pulled pork as my appetizer.

Kurobuta Pulled Pork Rillettes

Wild Jumbo Prawn Pappardelle

Before the start of our meals they offered us a little treat. It was a shrimp ravioli in shrimp broth. It was so good that we were tempted to ask if it could be our main dish. Here are more pictures of the food. I ordered cheesecake since I haven’t had any in ages.

Nel came up just before CNY and we hooked up for dinner on. We had planned to go to Burgoo but it was packed so we ended up moving to Crave on Main. However the wait was just as long! We got there around 8:10 and didn’t sit down at the table till around 9:00pm. The food was pretty good and I liked my shorty poutine. The amount of cheese was just right and it was not drowning in gravy.

That night's special, steak with two jumbo prawns. I liked the sauce.

Chipotle bbq lacquered baby back ribs

Braised lamb shank - photo credit: Nel

Shorty poutine - photo credit: Nel

We were also fooling around with our cameras, check out Nel’s camera and his giant lens. It makes mine look so tiny…

Me & my tiny camera...

...vs...Nel and his "fat" lens

While we were waiting for the food, Nel and I were fooling around with our cameras and took some random shots…

Oh ya, Nel gave us a bag of peanut candies he brought back from his trip to Japan/HK/Macau. They were pretty addictive…chewy and just the right sweetness. I couldn’t stop chomping on them >”< Thanks Nel for bringing them for us.

Yummy peanut candies

Here's another shot.

The foodie in me was greatly satisfied last month as I got to try out a couple of new restaurants as well as returning to old favourites. During the Dine Out in Vancouver event, I went to Lux @ Caprice, Watermark on Kits Beach and Cannery Seafood Restaurant. Here’s my take and some photos to drool over:

Lux @ Caprice

I love the decor of this restaurant. It’s very elegant with the white walls, high ceiling, fireplace and the black chandelier. The food were good but not exceptional. My camera died after our appetizers arrived so I didn’t have more pictures.

The bar area.

Trio of soups.

Northern BC Bison Carpaccio.

The fire place and chandelier.

Watermark on Kits Beach

Ok first of the batteries were dead so I didn’t get to take any pictures. The location provide a very nice view of beach and ocean but the since it’s so dark at night and with the crazy fog we had in January we didn’t see anything even thought we got a window seat. I ordered the pork ribs and to my dismay it was over cooked. The highlight of the main course was the creamed garlic potatoes. The dessert was pretty good. I know sometimes during the Dine Out events the quality of the food might go down due to the volume so I might come back for lunch or brunch when I have out of town guests.

Cannery Seafood Restaurant

I must have written about Cannery like 4-5 times since I’ve started blogging. I love this restaurant. The food is always excellent and the location and atmosphere of the restaurant is very unique. This time I went with two friends so the three of us each got a different entree and dessert to try. Sorry some of the pictures turned out grainy because it was pretty dark inside.

Bread with lobster oil dip.

Sauteed Tiger Prawns, over tomato basil cream, julienne vegetables

Pan Seared Lamb Sirloin, risotto with garlic parsley pesto, thyme demi glaze

Grilled Wild BC Salmon Filet, mushroom fricassee

Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tower, preserved berry coulis

Espresso Cheesecake, caramel sauce

Lemon & Mango Sorbet, Chantilly Creme

I can’t believe they will be moving at the end of this year. I hope they’ll be able to relocate next to the harbour again.

Ok over the past week, aside from going up to Whistler for a snowboarding trip (I’m still waiting for MH to get me those photos…), I’ve been working on another paper craft project to give to Al’s mom as birthday gift. I made a gold fish that sits in a basin. It’s pretty neat once it’s completed and definitely looked much better than my bike since now I got the hang of cutting the paper super close to eliminate most of the black outlines.

I’ve posted more shots of the parts from this project on my Picasa Album.

We had a family dinner on Christmas Eve and I was playing chef that night. Since there was a snow storm warning, I picked up the ingredients the night before. However I underestimated the power of crazy shoppers. I went to Save-on-Foods at around 7:30pm and there was almost no more meat (that I wanted). All that was left was a whole bunch of frozen turkeys, huge packages (bulk) of roasts, chicken and lamb.

So I thought, maybe I’d head over to Superstore for a try. I’m not exactly a huge fan of buying meat there but maybe they’d have the ones I need (beef or pork tenderloin). Well they have the meat there but…I had trouble with securing my veggies! There’s nothing left except potates and brussle sprouts! (Well there are some others like onions…even the bunched carrots were near extinction…)

I still managed to find enough food for the dinner. The menu is really simple because I didn’t expect the store to have next to nothing! Usually I like to plan for a 3 course meal but this time it’s main course plus a super simple dessert. Here are the items on the menu:

[Balsamic roasted pork tenderloin with caramelized onion jus & Roasted yam (top)]

[Jumbo garlic & rosemary prawns]

[Balsamic roasted fingerling potatoes]

As for dessert, I made strawberry & lime jello (one layer on top of the other). Picked those two because of their colour. I only spent about 2.5 hours cooking this meal which is pretty fast consider I usually spend about 3+ hours cooking (with about 75% of the time just chopping food…I cut slow…)

A couple weekends ago I went to Nu Restaurant to celebrate my mom’s birthday. It’s my third time there so I’m sure I don’t have to say how much I love their food. You can read a review here when I went there for mother’s day with Al’s family. I’ve taken some photos of the dishes we ordered so lets drool over those instead.

[bread with signature roasted salt and unsalted butter]

[roasted corn soup]

[braised short rib mini burger with fries]

[i ordered the pork belly. so tender!]

[the duck was really popular since everyone else on the table except me and dad ordered it]

[dad's favourite: lamb sirloin]

[pumpkin brulee with a candle especially for my mom]

[pear tart]

As some of you know I was up at Kelowna for a conference. I was lucky enough to stay at a hotel right next to the lake and the view is superb. Here’s what you’ll see outside my door/window:

It’s a bit chilly in October but the view is just so beautiful. At night you can see lots and lots of stars in the sky since it’s a lot darker than in the city. I wouldn’t mind going back in the summer for a short vacation and visit the nearby wineries.