I am a practicing clinician, a recent doctoral graduate who finally graduated school but will never leave school, a huge technology lover, a man constantly fighting off the fat, and a father.
Really spicy but super flavorful soup- think it was a pork bone based soup.
Assorted appetizer dishes- radish, kimchi and beansprouts
Bi-bim-bap in stone bowl. It was good but I had way too much sweet chili paste for my stomach to handle in one night.
Rice rolls in spicy sweet sauce
Kimchi pancakes. These were really filling
The Korean spread from above.
Dinner at Japanese Villiage- I thought it was interesting that there were no Japanese cooks at all in the restaurant that I could see. It reminded me of any rural Alberta ethnic restaurant I have been at. It sometimes indicates that the food is a watered down version of what the food is originally like – while I can certainly appreciate watered down or outright new dishes like ginger beef , it makes it difficult to find authentic dishes when everyone is tryign to cater to the widest crowd and tames down the dish.
In this case, I believe this is a egg drop styled soup that I have never experienced in Japanese cuisine but have had sometimes in Chinese restaurants. Unfortunately I did think it wasn’t very good and had lots of corn starch.
At least the place was clean and professional.
I liked the ambient lighting in here. What I didn’t like was standing out like a sore thumb- being Asian in a watered down Asian restaurant meant that we got a lot of comments about if this is how the food is cooked back home. Sigh. I’m from Alberta, and I identify as Canadian. Regardless, the staff was incredibly awesome and welcoming. They definitely had hospitality down pat.
The chef in particular was quite entertaining and friendly. He definitely made the dinner exciting. This was nice because I have mixed feelings about the tepanyaki that is served here.
Its definitely fresh and nice, but I really don’t think the cooking style is steps above what I would get from pan frying at home.
The atmosphere was jovial and we had a few birthdays around the table that were being celebrated. I had the rib eye steak and I was pretty meh about it.
W had the salmon, which was ok but not memorable.
Drinks at Tasty Choice bubble tea.
W had barley milk tea which ended up being corn flakes for some reason.
Had a fun lunch with W at the campus Chinese center- Hoho’s. I wonder how their business is doing now that there are two big Chinese food places- there’s a Panda Hut Express in CAB now- I think the latter is more Western Chinese though. We had sweet and sour fried rice vermicelli and saltedfish/chicken fried rice. Really solid cooking here and big portions- all on campus too.
Vietnamese last night- went with chicken pho instead for a change. I quite like this – Pagolac in Chinatown. The pork wasn’t really fresh but the rest of the dish was awesome.
Five color bun. This was good too.
Had a nice morning coffee with my reading catch ups. I finalyl submitted my doctoral proposal edits this week and have some breathing room. Still have lots to go on the old Steve Jobs biopic. I love my Sony Reader- I’m borrowing e-books from the public library online and its super super easy to borrow and drop into the reader.