On the 7th day of Christmas, I’m craving meatatarian sandwiches
4 Comments
Karen Hamilton
December 16, 2011
On the seventh day of Christmas, Foodsters drove to me
Seven meat-filled ‘wiches
Six buns a-steaming
Five Memphis Feasts!
Four poutines
Three Peking Ducks
Two Japadogs
And a steaming bowl of chicken congee.
There are rare occasions where the convenience of meat and bread in hand trumps my Asian leanings toward noodles and rice. When this happens, these are the places I turn to.
La Brasserie: Brass chicken sandwich
Rotisserie chicken, brined in beer. Gravy. Buttermilk biscuit. A mountain of slivered, crispy onion. $7. Yes, please.
Find this mouth-watering creation in 3 locations: the La Brasserie restaurant on Davie & Thurlow, their original street cart on Georgia & Granville, and their second street spot on Georgia & Burrard.
Meat & Bread: porchetta and meatball addictions
If you ask me out to lunch on any given day, don’t be surprised when I suggest meeting at Meat & Bread. Despite my frequent patronage, it’s still a gut-wrenching experience at the counter each time I decide between the porchetta and the meatball. I typically wind up choosing the porchetta–no self-respecting Filipino would deny themselves any variant of lechon–and persuading my lunch mates to get the meatball or the daily special. Then I steal nibbles from their sandwiches. Dilemma solved.
Bada Bing: a Philly cheese steak that won’t weigh you down
It may well be that everyone’s talking about Anthony Sedlak’s newest venture (I for one had a good first visit), but the cheese steak that continues to steal my heart is the foot-long from Bada Bing.
by foodtruckapp
Made with halal beef that’s been sliced razor thin, topped with melted Monterey and stuffed inside a soft Italian loaf, you’d think that eating a foot of it would be a challenge to your digestive system. Instead, you’ll find that Bada Bing’s combination tastes elegant and subtle, which makes it easy for even a lightweight eater like myself to polish off the entire thing.
Unfortunately, the lack of a consistent web or social presence makes Bada Bing’s food truck difficult to spot. Make sure to track their lunchtime and evening whereabouts using the Street Food App on your smartphone before calling a delivery service like Foodsters to wrangle a ‘wich for you. The Street Food App also has food cart landing pages on their regular website for those that are not smartphone-enabled.
What sandwiches are you addicted to? Inquiring minds want to know.
From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Downtown, Food, Food Purveyors, Gastown, Restaurants, West End
On the 6th day of Christmas, I’m craving buns: steamed, pan-fried, or XLB’ed
4 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 15, 2011
On the sixth day of Christmas, Foodsters drove to me
Six buns a-steaming
Five Memphis Feasts!
Four poutines
Three Peking Ducks
Two Japadogs
And a steaming bowl of chicken congee.
The Chinese way of making meat-filled pastries are so assorted and delicious that I’ve decided to put my Top Three variations under the same umbrella of craving. Here we go!
New Town Bakery: the king of steamed buns
You can find steamed buns in nearly every dim sum restaurant in this city. Those tiny, snow-white puffs of sweet, steamed bread hugging a rich core of stewed BBQ pork appeal to many a dim sum enthusiast…but not me. I much prefer what Chinatown’s New Town Bakery has been hawking for years: steamed buns of various meat and vegetable incarnations, as massive as the size of your fist.
New Town Bakery is a Filipino’s steamed bun mecca, so I’ve been a patron since I was a kid. My latest favourite is the $1.70 chicken steamed bun. Unlike the best-selling $1.50 pork asado, which I loved as a kid and whose centre oozes with meat glaze much like its dim sum counterpart, the chicken bun is filled simply with chicken, fine and minimally spiced, allowing the airy sweetness of its freshly steamed bun to be on equal footing in your mouth.
I popped into New Town this week with my daughter and Tiny Bites contributor, Bruce. They’ve recently moved to a new location–2 doors west of their old digs–and are slashing 10% off their entire menu from now until December 18th. Come in and grab lunch for as little as $3, order a dozen to go, or save even more by choosing bags of frozen buns by the half-dozen for your leisurely enjoyment at home.
Peaceful Restaurant: for pan-fried pork bun lovers
Photo courtesy © Melody of Gourmet Fury
When I’m not in a steamy mood, I stop by Peaceful Restaurant for their Huang Jing pan-fried buns. Pan frying the bun adds a layer of colour and crisp that contrasts wonderfully with the chew of its wrapper and the delicacy of its pork and scallion filling. You can also ask for steamed pork buns–the salted pork interior is similarly mild and I find that it’s a hit with the kids…especially mine.
I once had to commute outside of downtown to satisfy my pan-fried bun cravings at their Broadway and Cambie location, but the opening of their second restaurant on Davie and Seymour has turned the occasional foray into nearly weekly visits. Sadly, there is no Peaceful Restaurant within walking distance when we move to Marpole next month, so I will rely on Foodsters to get their fare to my doorstep.
Lin’s: the best xiao long bao in the world?
If neither of the bun varieties above are floating your boat, then surely xiao long bao will. They can be found at Peaceful Restaurant and most Shanghainese eateries too, but I believe that they’re best experienced in Vancouver at Lin’s Chinese Cuisine and Tea House. There, you’ll find that the sheer flour wrapper, hot bursts of pork stock, and ethereal dumpling meat will intersect in mouthfuls of bliss.
And according to some–*cough* Condé Nast *cough*–Lin’s might just be serving the best xiao long bao on Earth.
What kind of bun are you craving today, and how are you getting it to your door?
From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).
Categories: Blogging for Social Change, Broadway, Chinatown, Downtown, Food, Food Purveyors, Restaurants, South Granville, Yaletown
On why I hate sandwiches but love Meat & Bread
2 Comments Karen HamiltonDecember 14, 2011
This is what I think of when I hear the word sandwich.
Take a look at the other members of Chow.com’s Sandwich Hall of Shame >
My sandwich trauma stems from a childhood overrun with Wonderbread and lunch meats of questionable provenance: liverwurst, bologna, spam, Vienna sausage. [Spam and Vienna sausage are magic with rice, though.]
by Kevin H.
Scarred by this kind of sandwich history, I find myself amazed at how I have come to frequent Meat & Bread, one of Gastown’s newest breed of minimalist, casual eatery.
The restaurant is exactly what it claims to be: a place with a small but stellar selection of meat and bread. You will find 4 sandwiches to pick from on any given day.
Porchetta, $8. They pronounce it like “pork-etta”. Fattylicious roast pork chopped together with its juicy stuffings and topped with salsa verde. My favourite.
Meatball, $8. 3-5 giant, oozy, spicy rounds of pork drenched in housemade sambal. My husband’s favourite.
Daily Special, $8. Previous offerings have included jerk chicken, duck confit with blue cheese, and braised turkey leg. You can check out what is on feature that day by visiting their website before you arrive. I occasionally cheat on my porchetta with these temptations, and it is a constant battle at the counter between the tried-and-true and the I-can’t-believe-you-can-offer-that-in-a-sandwich.
Grilled Cheese, $7. Shaved onion and aged white cheddar melting goo between generously buttered toast. I ordered it once for my daughter but she kept stealing bites from my porchetta…so no photo, sorry.
They do veer off course to entice you with their single dessert item, which is simply labelled ice cream sandwich on their menu board. Don’t be fooled…this is a to-die-for concoction of maple & bacon ice cream, sandwiched between stroopwafel-like wafers that are similarly infused with piggy grease. If you haven’t tried this out yet, I suggest you split one of their regular sandwiches with a friend so you can have enough room in your belly for dessert.
Photo courtesy © Cathy Burrell of Cathy Eats
If you like their housemade mustard and sambal as much as we do, grab a jar off the shelf near the entrance and keep it in your fridge for sandwich emergencies. Extra handy when you take M&B fare to go and find, like we have, that the usual dollop of mustard present on your cutting board plate is unfortunately not something that can be easily transported.
There’s not much to dislike, but I have found a few minor areas for improvement:
- Stock Coca-Cola. The mom & pop colas are just not cutting it for me. I feel like a jerk for smuggling in my favourite carbonated bevvie from the pocket of my daughter’s diaper bag. [UPDATE: They now sell locally made Sip sodas--these herb-infused sparkling waters are a great fallback, but I still ask for less guilt and more Coke, pretty please.]
- Be open for dinner. One diner came by at 5:05pm and was aghast to see that he was too late for a sandwich. He looked at my cousin, who was on her way out, and asked, “Nooo…?”. “Yes,” she replied sadly. “No! No,” he exclaimed. My cousin looked sympathetic. Up and shaking went his fist, and from his mouth came a wail straight out of a Star Trek epic: “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” I hope he got his sandwich fix the next day.
- Be open on Sundays. I need you guys 7 days a week!
Maybe I’ll see you at the Meat & Bread communal table one day soon.
Categories: Downtown, Food, Gastown, Restaurants
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Articles by Karen Hamilton
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