Nakamura in kerrisdale.

This small and cozy Japanese restaurant in Kerrisdale is tucked away on the less busy side of the street.  They do not have take out and the restaurant only has 7 small tables.  I like that this restaurant is small so everything is made to order.
I love the presentation of the food.  The menu has several less common items as well as the option of a $29 or $49 chef's menu. 
We tried most of the staple items:

It is hard to find monk fish liver on the menu of most japanese restaurants, so I had to try it. Good citrus yuzo flavour. 



Monk fish liver



The homemade gyoza was a bit of a dissappointment as the skin was too soft and falling apart.  Gyoza King still ranks first in this category.

Home make gyoza

Baked oyster has a bad reputation thanks to all the all-you-can-eat restaurants out there. I have to say this was a good dish.  Oyster was cooked just right, juicy and there was a thin layer of sauce. 

Baked Oyster

The flounder was the special of the day.  This fish is normally too fishy for sashimi,  but the citrus sauce covers the fishyness and makes that a very interesting dish. I love the presentation with the green plate. 

Flounder sashimi

Fresh seafood with a beautiful presentation,  I love the thought that the chef put into arranging the dish. 

Assorted Chirashi

All the sushi was fresh and the kani and tobiko roll had lots of crab in it.

Hamachi sushi, Ika sushi, and Kani and Tobiko roll,

There was a mix of good value as well as pricier items,  but I love that presentation was key in all the dishes.  Imo this shows the chef's passion for his craft.  Every dish came in a different dish, or plate and have lovely presentation.

What I liked:

• 2 thumbs up for presentation. 
• daily specials worth trying
• monk fish liver a must try

What I did not like:

• portions are on the small side
• restaurant not noticible from the street

Dunn's Smoked Meat

Dunn's famous smoke meat: 827 Seymour St.

Smoke meat sandwich with split pea and ham soup

Ruben Sandwich

I have always loved smoked meat, so when I heard that this restaurant was open, I could not wait to try it. The restaurant was spacious and the waitress was friendly and attentive.

I like that you have a choice of lean, medium or fatty meat. As I have never been here before, I chose the Montreal smoke meat sandwich with medium fattiness. The soup of the day was split pea and ham. As the platter comes with a choice of soup or fries, I chose the soup.

Our orders arrived swiftly. I loved the coleslaw that was sour instead of creamy. The split pea soup was lightly salted but not over powering. The smoke meat was just the right level of saltiness.  The mustard helped to cut the grease of the meat. Although a reasonable portion, I found the Ruben portion to be of better value.

I have to say that I did not really look at the other items on the menu, but given that I thoroughly enjoyed my smoke meat sandwich, I would definitely come back to try the other items on the menu.

Pink's Hotdog

 

Pink's Hotdog at the Planet Hollywood Hotel. http://www.pinkshollywood.com/

MUSHROOM SWISS DOG - grilled mushrooms,
mayo, one slice Swiss cheese

The "Planet Hollywood" Dog
Polish Sausage, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, bacon & cheese

The pink's hot dog is located at the busy entrance to the miracle mile shops.  There was a long lineup when we got there.  Apart from the location, the price point is also a plus,  most hotdogs are under $7.  We ordered 2 hot dogs and a coleslaw.  The hot dogs have a foot long sausage and have the option of various toppings.  

The sausages are flavorful with good quality meat and no fillers.  Unfortunately, there was nothing too special about the toppings combinations.  The precooked mushrooms and excessive mayo on the mushroom swiss dog was not that appealing.  The Plant Hollywood dog was piled high with toppings, but imo the hotdog would taste better if the toppings were grilled.

I have to say that we have been spoiled by the likes of Japadog here in Vancouver. Pink's was good, but not special.  Given its location, convenience and price would win over tastes.  

Ki Modern Japanese & Bar

The newest addition to the Shangri-la hotel is Ki, a Japanese fusion restaurant located on the second floor. Before coming here, all I knew was that there was another restaurant in Toronto and that this was a high end restaurant.

First impressions was that this was a large restaurant with expensive decor and an open layout. Offering small plates as well as mains; classical Japanese as well as fusion dishes, this restaurant seems to be having an identity crisis.


Seafood salad with spicy sauce. The sauce and the seaweed was served in a fried wonton cup. Presentation aside, the fish was fishy tasting, an indication that they were not using very fresh fish.


Tuna toro.


spider roll. A good roll, available at most sushi restaurants.


Kiwi tuna and the shrimp rice roll. The kiwi tuna had good visual appeal, but I did not really find the kiwi adding any flavor to the roll. The shrimp rice roll was reminiscent of a Vietnamese salad roll, but without any dipping sauce, the rice roll was a little dry.



Grilled Veal Chop with marinated king mushroom. By far the best dish on the menu. Shiso did no really add to this dish. The veal was cooked to a perfect medium rare. Juice and tender.



Creamy Miso Chowder with assorted seafood. Good balance between the cream and miso.



grilled shrimp and scallop skewer with mango sauce. Grilled just right. Sauce adds a sweetness which I found unnecessary as the seafood itself was quite flavorful already.



Grilled pork belly. This is more Chinese than Japanese. The pork pieces were too think making the dish too heavy. Thinner slices might have had a better effect.


Japanese Style Ceviche with sake, saba and amaebi. IMO the saba was too fishy to go into this dish. It overpowers the sweetness of the shrimp.


In conclusion,

• Liked the decor, the veal and the chowder.
• Did not like the pricing and many of the fusion dishes. Too much fluff that did not add to the flavor.
• This place may have been better marketed as a western restaurant than as a Japanese restaurant, as the better dishes all had little Japanese influences.
• Too overpriced to be worth a revisit. With Market just next door offering a $29 3 course lunch that is hard to beat, no wonder this place is so quite during lunch hour.
  

My version of guu seafood pizza

The last time I was at Guu with Garlic, I tried their scallop pizza and found the taste inspiring. Instead of a tomato based sauce, this used a Japanese Mayo instead. The pizza uses a regular crust but the creamier mayo and cheese combination was what I fell in love with.



My version of this pizza dawned on me the other night as I was making dinner. This takes literally less than 10 minutes to assemble and 5 minutes to cook.

Ingredients:

• Trader Joe's Naan Masala
• Japaneese Mayo
• Sharp cheddar cheese
• Fresh ground pepper
  
• Seafood of your choice. I used some small squid pieces, but any other seafood will do.

Grate the cheese finely , for the 2 pieces of naan I used about 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar and a little more to sprinkle on top. Add in about 3 tablespoons of mayo, and some fresh ground pepper and mix well. Add more mayo if needed. You just need enough to bind everything together.

Spread a thin layer of the mayo cheese mixture on the naan, add your seafood, and then finish with a sprinkle of cheese.

Put it into the toaster oven on the broil feature until seafood is cooked and cheese melted, around 5 minutes.

A meal in 15 minutes!! I like using the Naan masala a the stronger flavor holds up to the sharp chedder while adding its own favor to the dish.

This is a fool proof recipe that I will defintitely use again. You can also try other types of cheeses, but nothing too heavy as that would overpower all the seafood. I love how versatile the japanese mayo and cheese base works with all sorts of ingredients.

Thank you Guu for this meal!!

Malaysian good eats

What can I say but that I love all Malaysian food. This is just a small selection of the food choices and if I could eat 24/7 I would.

The foods below include roti, prawn mee, cham, laksa, dry curry.

There is nothing that is comparable here...

If I ever find some authentic recipes I would definitely try it. I would love it if anyone can share some recipes with me.

Roti Canai with curry sauce


Prawn Mee


Curry chicken mee


Dry chicken curry mee


Milk tea with glass jelly - very refreshing!



Durian.. yummy!

Dragon I - One Utama

Dragon I is a chain store in Kuala Lumpur specializing in fresh noodles and dumplings. We came to the restaurant at one utama on a Friday afternoon and found it to be pretty full. There are two chefs making dumplings in the front window.

We ordered the braised fish la mien (fresh hand pulled noodles), the seafood sweet and sour la mien, mapo tofu rice, pork rice, the dumplings, fried tofu, and onion pancake.

braised fish la mien

seafood sweet and sour la mien

Pan fried onion pancake.

Fried tofu

Seafood crispy noodle

For lunch, the noodles ranged from rm14-28 which is mid pricing for lunch here.

The dumpling skin is thin, but the dipping had too much msg. The noodle dishes had fresh noodle, but the noodle was a little too thin, so it did not have much bite to it. I liked the deep fried tofu as the skin was thin and crispy and not oily.

In general food came quickly and was consistent. Service was not as efficient as we had to flag down people to refill our drinks. This is however, a general trend at most local restaurants.