Eating 1000 Meals

We arrive en masse to lunch at this restaurant, which is known for its live jazz at night - 23 strong - an army of hungry number crunchers. We are greeted by a couple waitresses and celeb momentos on the window, on the wall, and on the pillar. A signed photo of Dustin, Nguyen that is, jumps out at me. You know him, the Vietnamese cop from 23 Jump Street, the TV series that propelled Johnny Depp into our collective consciousness. Whatever happened to Dustin? I hear he changed his first name to Scotty and has now become a fixture on the Vegas Poker tables. Just kidding - inside joke.

The ordering seems simple enough - pick a pasta and a sauce and that's what most people did. I, on the other hand, daring to be different, decide to order the same thing I had the last time here - the DaVinci Special, likely named after another cancelled made-in-Vancouver TV series. It's breaded veal and vegetable on focaccia bread. Perhaps I should have realized the implication of ordering a sandwich named after a TV coroner.

The sandwich arrived well into the hour. I made the mistake of eating the fries first and end up sampling a soggy salty sandwich. And did I mention it was salty. There was enough salt to preserve a cadaver.

Usually, I try not to leave food on my plate. I left food on my plate.

Obviously, this place can't handle large groups. This was our second time there. Last time, there were also complaints. We had called in advance, so they were forewarned. Service could have been better. Tip was 15% on top of the GST-included amount. So we tip on tax here. Interesting.

The value certainly was not there. I paid $13.47 for a lunch that would have costed $10 tops elsewhere. And it wouldn't have been as salty.

This is a very small restaurant - only 14 seats - 8 on the counter and 6 in the front. Reminds me a bit of Tokyo when I had some ramen in a similar-sized space in Shinjuku or was it the Ramen museum somewhere in Tokyo. That was one fantastic place - a museum showcasing the history of ramen with all kinds of ramen available and like 10 different ramen specialists/restaurants from around Japan. Wow, that was almost 10 years ago.

Anyhow, I order the Ebi Butter Ramen for $8.50. It's a big bowl of buttered-flavoured ramen noodle in soup with 6 shelled prawns, half slice of boiled egg, 8-9 stalks of broccoli and couple slices of fish ball. And it is good. So good it is the only thing I order every time I'm here.

They have an eat 10, get one free card here. Either my next one or the one after I should get a freebie, but based on the fine print, it might score me only a small ramen. Oh well.

Appears to be the only Thai restaurant within walking distance from work.

A tip - the portions appear to be larger at the beginning of the week when there is less of a crowd. So the Cashew Chicken order on a Monday would be larger than on Friday. More people Fridays so the portions must be divvied up. Anyways, that's my take. A second tip - speak some Thai to the waitress and you might be granted larger portions.

The Cashew Chicken on the lunch menu comes with a spring roll and rice. At $7.95, it's not bad a deal. Pad Thai here is ok, too, although sometimes the ingredients do not appear as fresh as it should be. Lately, it's not been a problem.

Alaskan king crab at $10.98/lb screams the poster on the wall at this restaurant across from Sun Siu Wah in Richmond. First time here, never even heard of it before but relatives have been here previously and say it's good. Uncle No 2 asked for the largest crab. It comes in at 16lbs alive and kicking and ends up eaten as 4 dishes - 2 of which were just crab legs. Some say it should have been 5 dishes and that we were gipped. Who knows? It was good, although I don't really care for crab.

We polish off 4-5 other entrees and 2 bottles of red wine. 14.5% proof. Not bad. Don't know how much it was as we didn't pay. It's worth coming back.

Time for a change. One can order Box B or is it Box A, only for so long. The box is good value at $7.95. You have tempura prawn, string bean, yam, fried gyoza, sumonomo, chicken teriyaki, rice, miso soup.

This week, I decide to try the Chirashi don at $9.95. The presentation is nice but the bowl is on the smallish size, as is the sushi. Don't particularly care for the sprinkled green stuff, whatever it is. Overall, it's ok.

Monday lunchtime - a sparse crowd unlike later on in the week. We get a table. Most of the waiters/waitresses are new. They don't know us like Mark the actor or the manager knows us. Ordered the usual - salmon burger, Thousand Islands but get fries instead. When advised of the faux pas, a salad was done up in a second. Good service. This place, even when it fills up, we still tend to get our orders quickly since We R Regulars.

Salmon Burger $7.95. A good deal.

Won a gift certificate during their Superbowl party at the Metrotown location. Decided to use it at the Richmond location.

Big faux pas at the beginning. We parked and went into the Cactus Club and asked about the validity of the certificate. They point out that SJP is next door. The big sign in the parking lot says Sammy J Pepper although it does say Cactus Club on the building. I had thought they had the same owners but didn't get around to changing their signs. Potentially embarrassing but no harm done. We walked over next door.

Having done some heavy lifting earlier in the day, it was time for more heavy lifting - of the pint variety. Sammy's Amber ale.

The two pints went down good. The steak sandwich appeared small but it was ok. $12.99 plus
4 pints for $22. Decent screens for sports viewing. Scenery was ok, Metrotown was better.

Discovered this place (actually, I'm not sure of the name) about a year ago, I've been ordering the beef donair most of the time. What's a donair? It's basically meat, veggies, tomato, tzitki and hot sauce stuffed into pita bread. It is sinfully good. It soaks, it drips - messy eatings for sure but oh so good.

Across the street is a McDonalds - donair vs Big Mac - it's a slam dunk decision, no contest.

This time I had the plate deal - lamb with hot sauce over a bed of rice with greek salad and homous. $6.99. The hot sauce was to die for although I did pay for it later.

Drained of energy from playing hockey, we seek sustenance at our usual post-game hang-out at Nancy's on Victoria Drive. I believe the space was occupied by a Brownie's Chicken years ago. This week most everyone is eating light - congee or noodles. My beef congee was $3.80. Nice and cheap. Restaurant is ok, but tonight is different - we get rushed out the door by the waitress because the guy who locks up is waiting in the parking lot. Of course, it's 2am. Never had that happened before. Noted.

Old Chinese proverb - "The eating of a 1000 meals begins with the picking of the right chopsticks". So it begins, the consumption of 1000 meals. How long will it take? a year or two?
How much weight will one gain? all for the sake of research.

We begin at the Imperial Gardens for dim sum. It's situated near the harbour, a building celebrating an Art Deco style gone long ago. The room is two-tiered, brightly lit by large windows with a life-affirming view of mountain and sea. Decor is nice, the place is populated by suits doing their power lunches.

We are escorted to a private room with three tables. Dim sum is served not by hostess with carts but with trays brought to each tables. Dish after dish are ordered. Tea is consumed.
The bill comes to $17 each, very expensive compared to other like restaurants.

We will be full for exactly 2 hours, when a second proverb about Chinese food will then come true.