2009 May : Tiny Bites

Pinpin contest results: and the winner is…

1 Comment Karen HamiltonMay 29, 2009

…TS of [eatingclub] Vancouver! Congratulations!

TS has won a $30 gift certificate to Pinpin, my favourite Filipino restaurant in Vancouver. That should be enough for you and a friend with room for dessert. For that, I suggest any of the sago at gulaman, halo-halo, or leche flan.

Thanks to all 19 of you who participated in this contest. Some of you named dishes that I love: sinigang, kare-kare, lechon kawali, lumpiang prito. Some of you are enticing me to try sisig, which I can’t recall ever having before. And some couldn’t remember some of the dishes by name, so here’s my attempt to find them for you:

Darren, on deep fried plaintains – you may be thinking of Banana-Q (above) or turon (above, behind the flag), which is a deep-fried caramelized banana, often accented with jackfruit, wrapped to look like an egg roll and drizzled with caramel.

Debbie, on eggplant and sinigang – the eggplant dish is likely tortang talong, and I have a tortang talong recipe on Tiny Bites for you.

I also recently posted a recipe for corned beef sinigang, but the prep for the meat is more involved than it should be for regular sinigang. I’ll think about posting the recipe for the baby back ribs variant that we normally make in our kitchen.

Congratulations again to TS – I will contact you by email to spirit the gift certificate to you straight away.

Filipino Restaurant Series to date:

Categories: Events, Filipino, Food, Recipes, Restaurants, Sunset

Filipino Restaurant Series: Pinpin

27 Comments Karen HamiltonMay 25, 2009

A year after my quest has begun, I can now say with confidence that I have found a Filipino restaurant in Vancouver proper that has become my new standard: Pinpin.

Don’t be fooled by the “Filipino-Chinese” classification on Pinpin’s awning and menu. Most Filipinos eat dishes whose origins stem from China…but these so-called Filipino-Chinese dishes, like pancit canton and chicken mami, are unmistakeably Pinoy and would probably surprise your average Filipino by suggesting that it was even remotely Chinese. Moreover, the Chinese selections on Pinpin’s menu are clearly grouped on a single page of their colourful and informative menu.

Let’s touch upon this menu a little more.

Pinpin, being one of the rare Filipino eateries in the city that is not turo-turo (buffet) in style, has an enormous selection featuring a wide range of Tagalog and other regional dishes to satisfy most families in the know. For those who are new to the cuisine and unfamiliar with the language, be comforted that the menu also has full colour illustrations of some of the more popular items, plus English descriptions of every dish that would be hard to decipher otherwise.

I’d liken the style of this restaurant to a casual, family-style Chinese restaurant: no-frills environs, descriptive and extensive menu, a mix of standalone and communal tables, and huge portions. We’ve managed to eat at Pinpin as a couple for under $20 and always wind up asking for take-out containers to spoon our leftovers into. For maximum value, come in a group of 4 or more. You’ll be able to try a bunch of dishes for a similar price per person and approximate what it’d feel like to be in the midst of a Filipino family potluck.

Word of warning to non-Filipinos: be prepared for the stares. This establishment, like most Filipino restaurants, are patronized almost exclusively by Filipinos and their families, and having travelled in the Philippines recently, I suspect that it’s a habit to pay rapt attention to newcomers. However, no malice is intended, and if you venture to chat with any of your dining neighbours, I’m sure you’ll find everyone to be hospitable and friendly, if only a little surprised to see you.

But I digress – on to the food.

Pinpin comes the closest to my family’s style of cooking out of all the restaurants I have tried to date. Consequently, I feel right at home each time I drop in for a bite or grab a couple of dishes to take to go. Thus far, I’ve tried the sinigang, kare kare, pancit sotanghon, Bicol Express, lechon kawali, and pinakbet and can’t say anything but yum.

This is not to say that there are no criticisms to make.

My favourite dish to order, menudo, is nowhere to be found on their menu, despite conversations with the owners about making it a seasonal or even a regular offering in the future.

It’s also unbelievably packed, so finding sustenance for a group is next to impossible during peak dining times unless you’re prepared to wait in line or willing to settle for take-out.

Win a $30 gift certificate to Pinpin

I am so truly impressed by the food at Pinpin that I forked out $30 of my own cash for a gift certificate to Pinpin, so that one Tiny Bites reader can get a chance to sample what I feel to be one of the most representative Filipino restaurants in Vancouver proper. But you have to work for it.

Here are the contest rules.

Drop me a comment here.
In your comment, tell me about a Filipino dish that you either love or have always wanted to try. Share your reasons why that is so.
On Friday, May 29th at 12pm, I’ll do a random draw from all the entries and announce the winner here and on Twitter.

If you can’t wait until then to try Pinpin, don’t let me stop you from heading there this week. I hope you’ll love it as much as we do.

Pinpin
6113 Fraser St | Vancouver
(604) 322-3086

Filipino Restaurant Series to date:

Pinpin Contest Winner: TS of [eatingclub] vancouver

Categories: Food, Restaurants, Sunset

Wolfgang Blass: the other man who turned me on… to wine

5 Comments Karen HamiltonMay 20, 2009

That’s not me in the yellow. I would have loved to be in a photo with Mr. Blass but he was a crowd mingler and I was just too darn shy to push for what is the equivalent of an autograph.

Do you remember when you first fell for wine? I do. And the reason it sticks out is because I had hated the stuff for such a long time.

Let’s turn back the clock to 1998, when I first started exploring the world of alcohol. My budget was that of a starving student. Familiarity with fine dining was nil. My preferred poison was gin and tonic; it was a safe bet, considering the beer drunk by my circle of friends tasted like what I imagine pee would. My family, not having much to do with alcohol, only brought out wine on special occasions, perhaps not realizing that Baby Duck or magnums of red on sale for $10 didn’t exactly add much refinement. Those first few sips of wine were dreadful. I may as well have ingested vinegar; turpentine, even. It was enough to prevent my lips from touching wine again until I met my husband.

My husband, who has been my husband for precisely three years today, was responsible for my changes of heart on a variety of imbibables. He showed me how to pull off a proper tequila shot. He introduced me to the beauty that is wheat beer; he now gets a kick out of watching me down a big Hoe. But most importantly, he made me give wine another shot, and his weapon of choice was Wolf Blass’ Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon.

When we first met, the Yellow Label Cab Sauv was a reasonable $13 and was easy to spot in our neighbourhood BCLC. Unlike other big reds that my husband tried to get me to appreciate, this bottle was softer, rounder, accessible – a good beginner’s red. It was the first red in memory that I could consistently drink, especially with all the steaks that my husband would grill in our little starter apartment in the suburbs.

With me being too fearful of ruining a good thing, this red was our de facto wine pick for years until a significant price hike negated the price / quality ratio for us. To be honest, if the price hadn’t changed on us, we may have never started testing our palates with new wines, so I suppose we have Wolf Blass to thank for that, too.

These days, Kurt and I don’t really look towards Australia for our wine. We’ve been too busy with France, California, and BC, whose wine regions we’ve personally traversed, plus more unusual varietals through our good friends at Farmstead Wines. However, we haven’t forgotten our beginnings with Wolf Blass, so when I was invited to meet the Mr. Wolfgang Blass in person and wish him a happy 75th birthday…well, how could I say no?

So there I was with my camera and glass of Platinum Label Shiraz, wandering about the private birthday party set up at the Fairmont Vancouver by Virgin Radio and Foster’s Group. Buzz Bishop, who I had also met in person for the first time that day, made the appropriate introductions to get me a bit of face time with Mr. Blass before he took the mic.

“Oh my,” exclaimed Wolfgang Blass, “you’re the best looking photographer I’ve ever seen!”

I’m certain my face was aflame from that generous remark. A spunky, gregarious man, Mr. Blass’ welcome made my apprehensions at meeting a world-famous wine personality disappear. He agreed to pose for my camera before he and Foster’s Global Wine Ambassador George Samios took the stage to talk about Mr. Blass’ career and relationship with Canada.

I won’t bore you with the details of the talk except to note how little boredom it incited. It was a thrill to listen to this man, whose wine I had so heartily enjoyed in my youth, bubble about the past and the future of Wolf Blass with his German-accented Australian accent. He took George’s frequent use of the nickname “Wolfy” with aplomb and regaled us with stories of how the colour-coded labels came to be, and why he thought his wine was sexy. If I hadn’t been specifically invited to his 75th birthday party, I would not have believed that a man of his years could still contain that much spirit.

Post-speech, the crowd was led by Buzz, with George urging him to sing right into the mic, in a serenade of “Happy Birthday” before we all returned to the Wolf Blass wine tasting that had been going on all evening. My faves: the Grey Label Shiraz and the Gold Label Riesling (which sang to me in mango with every sip). Didn’t get to try the Black Label – too busy following around the birthday boy with my camera!