The restaurant sits across the street from the new London Drugs and 50 paces from the sparkly Whole Foods along the Cambie corridor. Also nearby are a camp of similar noodle shops such as Sha Lin and Lucky Noodle. Why these restaurants decided to operate under such stiff competition is beyond me, but Peaceful Restaurant scores a point in my book for most engaging storefront.

Despite the array of items that peddled housemade noodles of every variety, our eyes were drawn to their selection of dumplings. We opted for the Mandarin pork dumplings pictured above – 10 pcs for $6.95.

We also couldn’t resist the Schezuan hot chilli wontons for $5.95. Its nomenclature leant towards redundancy, but it was a fitting name and our favourite of the meal.

Rather than the usual order of cutting noodles with beef or pork, we selected a stew-like dish called Xin-Jiang noodles: chicken, potato, star-anise reduction, and 3 types of hot pepper with a bed of hand-pulled noodles. The neighbours to my left were riveted by the arrival of this bowl as it sizzled and crackled and wafted rich spice in their direction. It was enough diversion for them to tell us that they’ll order the Xin-Jiang noodles on their next visit.

What’s on the menu for our next visit to Peaceful Restaurant? Another bowl of those fabulous chili wontons and further exploration of their affordable dumplings and noodle soups.

Peaceful Restaurant
532 W Broadway | Vancouver
(604) 879-9878
www.peacefulrestaurant.com 

Update — Buzz Bishop and I discussed Super Bowl food options on Virgin Radio 95.3 this evening.  Below is a clip of our chat, where Buzz suggests selecting beer according to team colours.  Great idea!

Tiny Bites talks about Super Bowl XLIII eats on Virgin Radio (95.3 FM)

Do you go gaga over the NFL? If so, you’re either hosting a Super Bowl party this Sunday or going to one. This year, we’re finally doing the former (even though Kurt’s Broncos and my beloved Patriots are not in the running…boo hoo).

You shouldn’t be surprised that we won’t be ordering pizza. Instead, we’ve scrounged the interweb for munchies that will represent the cuisine of Pittsburgh and Arizona without getting too gourmet on our  football-crazy friends.

Below is our shortlist of dishes from which we’ll choose from.

Go Steelers! Pro-Pittsburgh eats

• BBQ Chipped Chop Ham Sandwiches (Accidental Hedonist)
• The Ben Roethlis-Burger, with bacon weave upgrade (BBQ Addicts)

Go Cardinals! Pro- Arizona eats

• Sliders with Chipotle Mayonnaise (Food Network – Bobby Flay)
• Soft Pretzels with Queso Poblano Sauce or Mustard Sauce (Food Network – Bobby Flay)

[What can I say? We like us some Bobby Flay.]

Other football-friendly eats

• Memphis Blues Super Bowl Party Pak - Don’t have a grill or the time? Feed 8 people with a slew of barbecued meats, chili and wings from our favourite BBQ house. Order ahead for this $89.95 take-out special.
• Our rendition of Spicy Oven-Baked Chicken Wings (adapted from Fearless in the Kitchen: Innovative Recipes for the Uninhibited Cook by Christine Cushing)

Partisan beer choices

If you’re a guest to our or others’ Super Bowl parties this year, consider bringing beer representative of the team you’re cheering for.  Iron City seems to be the popular choice for Pittsburgh brew while Arizona-founded Chili Beer looks mighty intriguing. See if you can find them in Vancouver – I’ve been having a tough time with this search myself.

• Beers of Pittsburgh (Beer Expedition)
• Pennsylvania breweries (Wikipedia)
• Arizona breweries by city – check out Glendale or Phoenix first (Beer Expedition)
• A guide to Arizona breweries (United Nations of Beer)

Brew connoisseur Rick Green of BC Brews chimed in with a pseudo-Arizona pick from Victoria-based Phillips Brewing Company. Look for their Phoenix Gold Lager at a BC Liquor Store near you.

Enjoy the game around town

If the bar scene is more your style, check out what some of  Vancouver’s pubs and restaurants are offering for sustenance on February 1, 2009.  Know of others showing the game in the city? Drop me a comment here.

• Library Square Public House – my husband’s fave after-work hangout. Stadium-style menu, $16.10 buckets of Budweiser, $3.90 sleeves of Granville Island brew, and a roast pig! Come in after 3pm.
• Kingston Taphouse – 11am marks the start of Kingston’s Super Bowl specials .  Drop in to enjoy the game, door prizes, and even a comedy act, or buy a $20 ticket to assure you a seat, a Prime Rib Burger and some Granville Island Beer.
• Memphis Blues’ Super Bowl All-You-Can-Eat Party – The fun gets going at noon. $10 pitchers. Another $20 gets you unlimited pulled pork, chicken, catfish, rib ends, coleslaw, potato salad, BBQ pit beans, and Memphis Blues’ signature BBQ sauce. (Commercial and North Van locations only)

Other Super Bowl XLIII resources

These additional sites may help you with the planning of this year’s Super Bowl shenanigans:

• Planning a Steelers Super Bowl Party (About.com Pittsburgh)
• Pittsburgh vs. Arizona Super Bowl Food-Off (Endless Simmer)
• Super Bowl Challenge: My Local Beer Quest (the Epi-Log on Epicurious.com)

What will you eat and drink on Super Bowl Sunday? Send me your tips and/or your favourite Super Bowl recipes.

I’ve had my signed copy of the Memphis Blues cookbook for quite some time, but it was only this week that we cracked it open to take a shot at their super-fantastic way of making cornbread.

It turned out alright for my first try, and my guinea pigs at work seemed to like it well enough. I’d do a couple of things differently next time:

• Use a larger baking pan: the recipe called for an 8×8 square pan, which I used, but we had enough batter to fit it comfortably in a 9×12 pan.
• Reduce the amount of creamed corn: the liquid from the can is most likely the reason that our cornbread carried a lot of moisture.
• Add a hint more sweetness: even with the creamed corn, the final result didn’t come close to the amount of sweet that I taste in Memphis Blues’ restaurant offering. Perhaps I’ll supplement it with brown sugar or honey next time. Any suggestions as to which kind of sweetening agent I should use?

My acquaintance of Congee Noodle House was limited to sick days, when all I can stomach is a steaming bowl of congee. Turns out that this place is also a regular late-night pick for the SalsaVancouver.net crew.

There were a variety of vegan-friendly options, such as their fried tofu (my favourite of what we ate) and the garlic gai lan. The quality of the food is good for the price and is a far healthier choice than the late-night, post-clubbing dive of a Chinese restaurant on the corner of Granville & Davie.

A Memphis Blues smoked prime rib sandwich! $9.95 for a mound of marbled heaven, slathered with BBQ sauce, Carolina mustard and served with thin-cut fries. Just look at all that marbled goodness.

This sandwich is a rare treat for lovers of this Vancouver barbeque mecca. I asked co-founder Park Heffelfinger how often this sandwich is available; to my chagrin, I heard “only once or twice a year” and “for special occasions like Father’s Day” in his reply. So it must have been kismet that I dropped into Memphis Blues this day of all days.

I’ll be dropping by with my dad next month for Father’s Day on the slim chance that we’ll see the chalkboard announcing the return of the smoked prime rib sandwich. And if my dad doesn’t order it, well, dang it, that just means more for me!

Want more Memphis Blues?

Check out the restaurant profile that I’m slowly building out as well as the photos below, which contain snaps of the Memphis Blues cookbook launch at Liberty Wine Merchants over at Park & Tilford. I’m going to try my hand at the cornbread recipe some time this week.