Category Archives: Asian

The Roaming Dragon Year Of The Dragon Party

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A couple of weeks back I was invited to the Roaming Dragon Year Of The Dragon party and I was lucky enough to get invited.  The guy’s at Gourmet Syndicate have been a favorite of mine for the innovative flavor combinations they come up with.  The Roaming Dragon was one of the 1st food carts I tried and they have been featured front and center on Eat St.

The party was held at 319 Main Street and the red carpet treatment was in full effect.  The event was a chance to check out something else the Gourmet Syndicate does very well-event catering, also we got to try some new menu items for the truck.

The feature drink of the night was appropriately named Dragon’s Breath.  It was there Basil and Lychee Lemonade spiked with vodka, it was completely refreshing and went down real easy.

The menu classics were present of course.  The pork belly sliders and Chinese fried rice balls were just as good and popular since the first day I tried them.

Indonesian Beef Rendang Poutine-fresh cut Kennebec fries, cheese curds,braised beef, lemongrass, galangga, red chili and coconut cream.  This is a dish that I have been waiting to try since I saw it on there new menu.  The beef was super tender and the coconut flavor was subtle.  The fries were super crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.  This poutine does pack some punch in the heat department I found out as each serving was served with a whole piece of chili.  This poutine same we had wasn’t big on cheese, that aside I’m definitely going back for a full order of this.

Malaysian Lime-Chili Grilled Burrito-Asian harvest slaw, peanut sauce, picked purple cabbage and red onion, carrots & shitake, sweet soy dressing.  I didn’t know that this was a tofu burrito it was that good!  The 1st and biggest flavor I got from this bite was peanut, the veggies were crisp and again I’d order this from the truck in a heartbeat.

The new Edamame Falafel was a new item from there catering side and I think it should be available on the truck it was that good.  The texture was just like a traditional falafel and I think the sauce underneath was a spicy humus.  The bite was flavorful but not on the heavy side-I could have eaten 6 or 7 of these!

the Vietnamese Sloppy Duck-Viet style ground duck, hoysin mayo, pickled red onion & purple cabbage, mint and cilantro in a brioche bun.  One of my favorites of the night.  The bun had a sweetness to it so it worked well with the savory ground duck.  The spicing on the duck reminded me of a 5 spice but with a Vietnamese influence that’s for sure.  This is their version of a sloppy joe and I must say it’s a great addition to the new menu.

The Roaming Dragon Chop Salad-suichoy & purple cabbage, Thai basil, mint, goji berries, coconut and pineapple, peanuts, pickled green mango tossed in a garlic-cilantro vinaigrette.  As a salad this was light and refreshing.  With all the different ingredients and flavors things were really well-balanced and light.

Salmon Ceviche.  This is one of the catering items they have.

Scallop Ceviche.  Again one of the catering items, I ate this and liked it a lot, the citrus level was perfect not to take away from the sweetness of the scallop.

Malaysian Debil Chicken Taco-Sambal braised free-run chicken, green onion mayo, coconut and pineapple on a corn tortilla.  This little taco packed some serious punch in the spice/heat department.  The pineapple and coconut added sweetness to the fire of the heat.

I had a great time getting to taste these yummy dishes and thank the crew at the Gourmet Syndicate for inviting me to the event.  You can find out more about the Roaming Dragon and their event catering side by clicking here.

Roaming Dragon Food Truck on Urbanspoon

Cache Bistro and Lounge Menu Tasting

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Cache Bistro and Lounge in Yaletown hosted a media tasting dinner held last week and i got to check it out with fellow bloggers Sherman of Sherman’s food Adventures and Ange Leung.  The menu is a mix of French technique with an Asian influence and Chef/Owner Alex Mok brought us some of his favorite dishes.

We were all served some champagne with hibiscus in it.  The champagne was crisp and it was a great way to start the meal.

As we toasted to the chef a bread board with a trio of house made flavored butters was brought to the table.  There was a cranberry butter, a satay butter in the middle and a white truffle butter on the end.  The bread was nice and warm with a semi crunchy crust and a soft inside.  The flavor of the butters was nice, the satay was one that stumped us all, it was a nice spiced butter, the cranberry butter was subtle and at first I thought it was a beet butter and lastly the truffle butter was big on the truffle oil, the truffle aroma really came out when I was spreading it on my piece of bread.  I think a black truffle butter would be a better choice.

Our opening dish was a Foie Gras creme brulee with flying fish caviar on a bed of frisee salad and white truffle vinaigrette.  This was a rich and decadent 1st course.  There was a nice chunk of foie in my egg and the flavors were all pretty mellow.  The flying fish caviar added a nice texture contrast and the greens served underneath were nicely dressed with the truffle vinaigrette.  The final verdict for me on this one is it’s worth the $10 it’s on the menu for.

With each of the dishes we had wine pairings.  For the foie course we had a nice  crisp white and for the duck we had a full bodied Merlot.

Next up was the black tea smoked duck breast salad with arugula. The salad was dressed with a lemon vinaigrette, onion jam and white wine soaked raisins and candied walnuts made up the rest of the plate.  The duck had a light smoke and I personally couldn’t pick up the tea smoke flavor.  The duck was tender and a pleasure to eat.  The arugula was a perfect choice greens wise for this salad and balanced out the duck well.  The onion jam for me was perfect and it went well with the duck.

Bacon Wrapped Semi-De boned Quail stuffed with marinated dried cranberries with a side of grilled vegetables was our main of the night.  For me this was a bit of a miss, the bacon could have been cooked a bit more and I ended up butchering my quail trying to cut it in half.  By the end of trying to cut it me and Sherman put the knives and forks down and picked up the legs with our hands and dug in!

Wine pairings for the quail and the mushroom were a unoaked Pinot Noir and a French Rose.

Stuffed Portobello with spinach and cream cheese, served with a spinach salad and balsamic reduction.  This was a winner for me, the cream cheese tasted like a homemade Boursin.  The mushroom was the perfect vehicle to get that cheesy goodness in your mouth.  The salad and balsamic reduction were the perfect side to this to cut the richness of the stuffed mushroom.

Pavlova with fresh strawberry’s and a hibiscus cream was the dessert of the night.  I appreciated the concept and flavors but my meringue was really gummy texture wise.  the hibiscus cream was flavored nicely and the green garnish was basil so it was a bit of a surprise when were 1st tasted it at the table.

The dishes we had were all pretty good and it was a great way to check out some of Cache’s finest dishes.  Caché Bistro & Lounge is pleased to announce their grand opening on April 26, 2012 and it’s open to the public.

**Disclosure~I was an invited guest and was not charged for my meal or drinks, my opinions are completely my own and I was not expected to write a review.**

Caché Bistro & Lounge on Urbanspoon

Ramen in Vancouver

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Ramen is huge in Vancouver and is one of my favorite dishes, here are a selection of my ramen adventures around Vancouver.

Miso ramen with lean pork from Kintaro

Toroniku Miso Ramen from Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, this has been voted as one of the best dishes in Vancouver and is a must try.

Miso ramen from Jinya on Robson street

akioni spicy miso ramen form Benkei Noodle Shop

Standard miso ramen from Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Curry ramen from Benkei Noodle Shop

Next Generation Miso Ramen from Motomachi Shokudo

Chicken ramen with wontons from Jinya

Shio Tonkotsu Ramen form Jinya

Tan Tan Mein from Ramen Sanpachi

Miso Cha~shu from Ramen Sanpachi

Oxtail ramen from Suika

Yokohama Miso Ramen with Chicken Katsu from Nikkyu Sushi

I’ve enjoyed all of these ramen’s pretty much but the ramen from Hokkaido Ramen Santouka and the Suika Oxtail ramen is some of the best I have ever had and is a must try of your visiting Vancouver and if you like ramen noodle soup.

 

Ensemble Tap’s Taste Of Tap Special

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Ensemble Tap has become a favorite of mine for the great beers, great service and most importantly killer food that has kept me coming back for more.

From January 20th-Feb 4th,2012 you can get a Taste Of Tap, Dale has picked some of his best dishes and made them available in a 3 course menu for $29 (plus tax and gratuity) that is available with beer pairings for an extra $15 and it’s available at lunch and at dinner.

The menu options are as follows:

Asian Vegetable and Green Salad
Enoki Mushrooms, Cashews, Black Sesame Seeds
or
 Popcorn Prawn
Tempura Sea Asparagus, Spicy Mayo
suggested pairing of La Chouffe Belgium Strong Blonde Ale, draught

plus

Bangers and Spætzle
House made Sausage, Tarragon Spætzle, Mushroom-Onion Pan Gravy, and Onion Slaw
or
 Ensemble Burger
Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Pickle, Fries
suggested pairing of Tap Pale Lager, draught

plus

Key Lime Pie
Chantilly, Toasted Coconut, Lime Zest
or
Root Beer Float
Dad’s Old-Fashioned Root Beer, Vanilla Ice Cream, Root Beer Rim
suggested pairing of Russell Cream Ale, draught

On my visit I wanted to try a couple of dishes that I had yet to nom on, I didn’t do the beer pairing because I was visiting at lunch and couldn’t get hammered!

This is the Asian Vegetable and Mixed Greens Salad, it has enoki mushrooms, black sesame seeds and cashews, the dressing is a peanut/sesame tasting creamy yet light vinaigrette, you do have the option of adding seared tuna or chicken to this if you want some protein but I went with it as is, I’m a big fan of dressings that taste like this so it was a winner there and the ingredients all went well together, the nuts provided a nice crunch, I’d definitely order this again. The price for this alone on the menu is $14 but it’s a bit bigger and served in a bowl~a lady next to me ordered this so I got to see regular version of this with tuna but the size of this was filling enough and a great starter.

The other option I’ve had on a previous visit~Popcorn Prawns

They are in a nice, light crisp batter and are scented with kaffir lime, the spicy sauce isn’t too hot and the dish is garnished with tempura sea asparagus.

For my main I chose the Bangers and Spaetzle, house made sausage, tarragon spaetzle, mushroom-onion pan gravy, and onion slaw. This was totally delicious!, the sausage was juicy on the inside yet had a great “snap” to the casing, the other star of the plate was the spaetzle, whenever I’ve had spaetzle it has always been cooked right~boiled in broth and then tossed in melted butter, they way they do it here really won me over, they crisp it yet its nice and tender on the inside~just the right amount of texture to make it hold up to the gravy that was rich yet not overly heavy, the chunks of sausage was a great touch~it reminded me of a Southern Sausage gravy that you would serve over biscuits and the onion and cucumber slaw cut the richness of the dish perfectly. This plate got a lot of looks from a couple diners around me and the common comment was how creative the twists on classic dishes are here. I almost couldn’t finish this plate and the regular version comes with another sausage and a bit more of the other goodies so beware~it’s a big plate and a full meal.

The dessert I chose was Dale’s Key Lime Pie and seeing that it was National Pie Day on my visit I thought it was a totally appropriate choice, served with Chantilly, toasted coconut and lime zest on a graham cracker crust. It was a killer pie and hit the spot, the filling was just tart enough and it was light and airy, if you’ve never had it before it’s a must try. The other option is a root beer float that is super popular and worth checking out as well.

If you haven’t been in yet to Ensemble Tap it’s a perfect reason and a great way to get a real taste of Ensemble Tap.

ensemble Tap on Urbanspoon

The Little Food Truck Called GuacTruck

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Reblogged from Stellaire:

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I first saw this interestingly designed truck on the parking lot in front of Net Square in BGC. I saw it while I was on the Fort bus and gave it a long “Hmm…interesting” look and thought “why don’t we have something like that near our building?”, and just forgot about it afterward. I didn’t think of Googling about it since I didn’t get the chance to see its name.

Read more… 674 more words

another great food truck serving up unique eats!

Legendary Noodle House 飛天拉麵

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The Legendary Noodle House is bringing old school hand pulled noodles and dumplings to the masses in the West End. I first saw one of the owners here on Bob Blumers Food Network Canada show Glutton For Punishment where Brock Li~the gentleman I mentioned was charged with teaching Bob with becoming an expert noodle puller in a week, it was a great episode and I was pleased to know he opened up shop on Denman street bringing a change of noodle dishes that are different from all the Ramen, Udon and Pho places in the neighborhood.

The space is filled by an antique wooden waterwheel and bobbing Chinese lanterns. Past a beaded curtain, the compact space is furnished with dark wood tables and benches imported from China. Red silk cushions accent the seats. Other ancient’s include wooden tools and garlands of firecrackers decorate the walls. By the open kitchen where the Master Chef stretch’s noodles you feel like your sitting in a noodle house far away in China.

I’ve had a couple great meals here before I started doing photography and blogging, the place is memorable for me for a couple personal reasons with awesome experiences and dinners that I thought I’d show you what my favorite dishes here are.

This is there House Chrysanthemum Flower Tea, it’s $3 a glass and is pretty interesting, it’s a very floral green tea with goji berries and other interesting things that I’m not familiar with!

These are the pan fried pork and chive dumplings, yo have the option of just steamed or pan fried if you want. The filling is nice and juicy and seasoned beautifully, the dumpling wrapper is crispy on the pan fried side and tender with just the right amount of give on the steamed side. I really enjoy these and they’re a nice change from all the gyoza I eat.

You get the traditional soy dipping sauce that come with dumplings but every table has a condiment set to jazz up your dipping sauce.

This is a dish that I had the first time I came here~Gan Ban Mien, it’s minced pork with black bean sauce and diced mushrooms, you get your choice of thin,thick or flat noodles, I prefer thin noodles but have had it with the thick ones~it was really hard to eat with the larger size ones but it’s just a personal thing. The sauce is kind of loose~on the thin side but it’s enough sauce for all the noodles, the mushrooms are diced a big larger than a small dice so you know when your eating one and they don’t get lost in the minced fried pork. There is also some Asian greens in the dish and some broccoli.  It’s one of those dishes where you have to mix the sauce and the noodles together, the noodles are softer than Italian pasta and the meat sauce is the real star of the plate.

The scallion pancakes with peanut dipping sauce weren’t as much of a hit~the peanut sauce had the consistency and tasted just like melted smooth peanut butter and that’s it, the pancakes were crisp and definitely tasted like green onions, for $4 it was an inexpensive lesson in what I like here.

Finally they have Xiao Long Bao or XLB pork soup filled dumplings and they are damn good here!, they were $9 I think for 6 and when you order them your warned that they take 15 minutes to make, I order them right away and by the time I’m done with some of my other meal they have become the perfect temperature to eat~if you eat them right when they come to your table you will get a major burn in your mouth.  When your break the dumpling skin in your mouth you get a  flood of warm broth and a nice nugget of pork, I noticed a star anise flavor slightly, they’re a classic delicious dish that everyone should try at least once in your life.

Legendary Noodle House 飛天拉麵 on Urbanspoon

Food Truck Trends 2011:Sliders,Grilled Cheese and Asian Fusion

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“Fred & Ethel Fish Sliders” Babaloo Truck (Florida)

It’s been a banner year for the food truck movement (and yes, we mean movement, not trend, we predict food trucks are here to stay!), as a seemingly endless barrage of trucks roll out across North America. Alongside fun and fancy looking trucks came increasingly innovative cuisine. As the year draws to a close, we thought we’d offer up a series of posts capturing some food types that have been all the rage with food truck foodies everywhere. Here are the first few food trends we’ve noticed in 2011.

S L I D E R S

“Butcher’s 3-Way” Sliders from The Butcher’s Son (Dallas) Photo by DFW Food  Truck Foodie

Small and succulent, you just can’t go wrong with a bite-size bun filled with savory goodness, it seems. Gourmet sliders have featured heavily on menus across the nation (such as this “Butcher’s 3-Way” trio of sliders from The Butcher’s Son). There are even entire trucks dedicated to this tiny treat alone. Check out some of our favourites:

Slidin’ Thru (Las Vegas)

Slammin’ Sliders (LA)

Easy Slider (Dallas)

Slingers Mobile (Vancouver)

F A N C Y  G R I L L E D   C H E E S E

“The Jackson 3″ at Mom’s Grilled Cheese (Vancouver). Three pieces of sourdough surrounded by melted, Brie, Boursin and Gruyere. Photo courtesy of Me.

Twists on comfort food classics have hit the food truck scene strong, and no other food has received a greater revamp than grilled cheese sandwiches. No matter where we turned, there seemed to be a new ooey, gooey, supremely cheesy melt-in-your-mouth concoction, like the “Jackson 3″ sandwich at Mom’s Grilled Cheese in Vancouver, with triple cheese and triple bread (talk about a triple threat!).

Here are some of our other favourite cheesy trucks:

Gorilla Cheese NYC (NYC)

Ms. Cheezious (Florida)

Gorilla Cheese (Ontario, CA)

The Grilled Cheese Truck (California)

A S I A N  F U S I O N

“Korean Beef (Bulgogi) Taco Box” comes with 2 pc fried roll, 2 dumplings, 2 rice ball, chicken with special spicy sauce and house salad w/ Ginger dressing. Korean BBQ Taco Box (Florida). Photo courtesy of Droolius

Cultural mosaic or melting pot, whatever you call it, Asian Fusion food truck fare signifies the beautiful melange of flavors that occurs when East meets West (or North, or South or what have you). This food trend has also solidified the genius that are burritos and tacos as conduits for tastiness. Take this “Korean Beef (Bulgogi) Taco Box” from Korean BBQ Taco Box in Orlando, Florida – a glorious mouthful in every way.

Some of our other favourite Asian Fusion trucks are:

Coma Food Truck (Vancouver)

Jogasaki Burrito (Los Angeles)

Camille’s on Wheels (Hawaii)

The Chairman (San Francisco)

Silver Spoon Contributors

Special thanks to some of our Eat St. Silver Spoons for offering up their trend suggestions and wonderful photos for us to use in this series! Here’s a short introduction to who they are:

DFW Food Truck Foodie

Stephanie Hawkes, aka DFW Food Truck Foodie

Hi I’m Stephanie Hawkes, aka DFW Food Truck Foodie. I’ve always loved food and travel and was excited when the street food culture came to Dallas/Ft Worth and I could combine both loves. By day I work for a large corporation, so blogging allows me an excuse to get away from the office for lunch and go have fun!

You can find me online at:
Blog: www.dfwfoodtruckfoodie.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/dfwfoodtruckfoodie
Twitter: @dfwtruckfoodie

Droolius

Droolius Blog and Eat St. Silver Spoon!

Hello everyone, I’m Julius and I have a food blog Droolius.com – food photos that make you drool. I love discovering new foods and taking food photos. Food Trucks are awesome and I love the food from the trucks here in Orlando, such a diverse food truck scene here, with so many new ones to try. Name a food truck and I’ll tell you my favorite menu item. I work as a photographer, social media/marketing consultant and food blogger. I’m always looking for new food to try, locally or during my travels. I hope to try a food truck in your city next!

Let’s connect online:
Blog: www.droolius.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/droolius

Twitter: @Droolius

Sean Neild

Sean Neild: Sean’s Adventures in Flavor Town

A born and raised Vancouverite, Sean has taken the time to find some of the best food that Vancouver has to offer.  With a background in the video game industry, Sean has taken his love of technology and applied it to his love of photography and good food by creating http://seansadventuresinflavortown.com and also contributes to http://www.eatineatout.ca and http://www.vancouverstreeteats.ca

Find Sean online:

Twitter: @YVRbcbro
Facebook: facebook.com/seansadventuresinflavortown

Zagat blog: http://forkandtell.zagat.com/blog/seans-adventures-in-flavor-town

To check out the original post click here

Gyudon Ya

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Gyudon Ya opened it’s big wooden doors last year and I’ve passed by it a million times. They serve up Japanese fast food in the form of donburi rice bowls or in other words~Japanese rice bowl or dish.

It’s usually packed at lunchtime with office workers getting a quick lunch and is generally slower on the weekends so when I was walking past on a Saturday I stopped in to give them a try.

This place used to be a little cafe for many, many years and these guy’s took it over just over a year ago. The seating inside is limited to the bar and the window bar behind that, there are a couple of 2-top tables but that’s it. I wasn’t a fan of what they did with the place~it looked kinda dirty or “grungy” looking.

Food wise I went with something that totally sounded good:

The “grilled” beef short rib bowl, the quotes I used were also on the menu like that so it should have been a warning sign!, I chose to make it a value meal and my choices were kind of limited~potato salad or cabbage salad and miso soup

the cabbage salad was a total miss, the mix was a bag coleslaw mix and it wasn’t very fresh and the dressing had a sweet taste to it that I couldn’t put my finger on. The miso soup would have been OK but for the fact they put so much kombu in it that it wasted like the ocean.

My “grilled” Short Rib bowl consisted of 90% rice and about 10 thin slices of beef that has an odd rubbery texture to them and a sweet sauce in them, I don’t think they were freshly “grilled” and I have no clue why they use quotes around the word grilled other than to mean “grilled like?”, there was also some Japanese pickles and lettuce as well in the bowl but like I said~it was mostly rice.

With all the good food in this city it really stands out to me when I get a bad meal and boy I can say I didn’t feel good after eating this, I don’t think I’ll be back.

Gyudon Ya on Urbanspoon

Prestons

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This week I was lucky enough to be invited to try the new fall menu at Prestons in the coast hotel in downtown Vancouver. It was a night of mixing and mingling with some of Vancouver’s best food bloggers and putting a face to the people who I’ve read and followed for a while now, 106 people showed up so it was one packed event.

Prestons is located in the new Coast Coal Harbour Hotel on Pender street, they feature a West Coast menu inspired by Mediterranean and Asian flavors, an awesome drink menu and full bar makes Prestons a solid place to grab a drink and eat some good food.

Granville Island Brewery was there pouring samples of their awesome beers

Therapy Vineyards was also represented by Icon Fine Wine and Spirits serving up great wines

We were all greeted to Venetian Spritzers when we walled in, it was a real taste of Italy-Aperol Herb liqueur and brut served on ice with a slice of orange. I’ve never had Aperol before and I found it to be a bit boozy for my taste.

The other featured drink was the French Martini, it was a mix of vodka, chambord and pineapple juice. This bad boy went down real easy, the chambord and pineapple went great together and it’s definitely on my list of martinis when I’m out for drinks.

Everybody was raving about this martini as well~the Lemon Meringue- Limoncello, Absolut Vanilia, fresh lemon juice, pineapple juice, graham cracker rim. It was a killer drink and tasted just like a tart lemon meringue pie without being sickly sweet, the graham cracker rim was something I have never seen before and totally made the drink.

Food wise they were sampling their new fall menu, we were served 10 different mini versions of the menu items, I missed a couple of the items so here are the one’s I got to try:

Baby Back ribs with a sweet hoisin and ginger glaze, these were melt in your mouth tender and came right off the bone, the sauce was more sweet than ginger tasting so it was a great balance.

Braised BBQ Pork Sliders_slow cooked pork, homemade BBQ sauce and a gorgonzola coleslaw. This was one of my favorite items of the night, the slaw was the star of the show and the pork was actually sweet more than smoky so it was a great sweet/salty taste combination. They feature these for $2 each during Canucks games.

One of the area set up was a gyoza cooking station featuring there shrimp and vegetable stuffed dumplings with a miso vinaigrette. It was nice to get them fresh out of the frying pan and the stuffing was ample but not to my taste.

Eggplant Parm sliders were on the menu, they have a great take on the Italian traditional dish, it was topped with stewed red peppers, basil pesto and feta cheese.

Crispy Chicken karaage-garlic sake marinated chicken flash fried with a spicy lime aioli and a miso cabbage slaw. The chicken was really tender and moist, the aioli was a nice touch but wasn’t needed~it ruins the crispy crunch of the chicken so I would hope it’s served on the side when ordered ala carte off the menu, the slaw was nice and had a great crunch.

Tomato and Bocconcini crostini-artichoke and basil pesto puree under marinated mozzarella topped with cherry tomatoes. Delish bites of tomato and mozzarella and the artichoke and basil pesto puree was light yet totally flavorful.

Mini matcha creme brule was the dessert of the night, the top was caramelized perfectly and the creme brule filling was nice and creamy, really a great take on traditional creme brule.

With Prestons open for breakfast/brunch,lunch and dinner,free wi-fi and a QR code based rewards program it’s a great option in the downtown dining scene. If you need reservations they participate in the Open Table online system.

**This was an event hosted by the restaurant and I received all my drinks and food for free, I’m not paid to write this review and wasn’t required to do so either.**

Prestons on Urbanspoon

Ramen Sanpachi Robson Street

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In my ramen tours downtown Ramen Sanpachi just off Robson st on Bute is a place that I’ve walked past many times, it’s a place that always has customers in it or it pretty much full but I figured that it must just be “just another ramen joint”, I was wrong I think because I was introduced to something that I’ll eat for the rest of my life!.

They offer a few different types of ramen that I’ll be talking about in future posts but for now this is what I’ve had so far:

Pork Gyoza $3.75, standard gyoza with a well-balanced pork filling, if you like gyoza’s you’ll like these.

Miso Cha~Shu $8.95, I think they use MSG in the ramen because I was full before then end of my bowl of noodles, the broth was not salty yet not bland and the pork was nicely marbled as you can see, one thing I didn’t like to much was the fact my noodles were chewy, I thought they were just under cooked but I think it’s just the way they do noodles here~not a deal breaker but just a pet peeve.

Mini Cha~Shu Bowl $3.95, I really like this bowl, the mayo used has an added a great creaminess to the rice and pork, the meat was diced up and really tender, It’s actually a large bowl~there’s alot of rice and is great value for $, I cleaned my bowl.

Tan Tan Men $9.95, this was the stand out dish that I will try if I see it on other menu’s, the sauce is spicy peanut and sesame~like a thinned out satay sauce, ground fried pork, spinach and leeks with ramen noodles, it was freaking amazing!!, the sauce had that addictive “it’s damn hot and I should stop eating but I can’t” quality.

At the end of the day I’m coming back here for the Tan Tan Men and the Cha-Shu bowl and I’m going to have my miso ramen where I know there’s no MSG.

Ramen Sanpachi (Robson) on Urbanspoon