Banana Leaf - Davie St

The last time I went to Banana Leaf (the Denman location) was over a year ago, and I remember liking it a lot.  This morning, I remembered why I don't visit there very often, haha!  It wasn't even that spicy, but I guess I'm just not used to it and this morning, I'm paying for my sins from last night.

Almost exactly like our last visit, there were five of us and we got the tasting menu for $28 a heard.

We started off with the papaya and pineapple salad which was an assortment of greens, papaya, tomato, and pineapple.  I dunno, maybe it's just me, but I'm starting to find the vinaigrette dressings used in a lot of restaurants nowadays are all starting to taste the same.  When I was a kid, I only liked Thousand Islands, haha!  Anyway, the salad wasn't bad, but the dressing they used didn't stick to the salad very well, and I ended up with a pool of vinegar when I was done.

The next dish consisted of roti and deep fried squid.  I remember at the Demnan location, we got chicken satay and spring rolls, but here, we got 5 skewers (one per person) of satay separately and no spring rolls.  The roti came with a dish of curry dipping sauce, and the squid came with a sweet and spicy sauce that actually went very well with the squid.  It would have been nice to get more of this stuff, but we were pretty full in the end, so it all worked out.

The mussels turned out to be really small, and were pretty hard to open.  Not sure if this was a good thing because you're not supposed to eat shellfish that stay closed.  All of them were opened, but many were nearly closed, and took some effort to completely open.  The sauce tasted really good, but the freshness of the mussels has me concerned because at least two of us had a bit of stomach trouble this morning.  I didn't ask my friend if her's was due to the spiciness of the food, or other reasons.

After we finished the appies, our server (at least I think she was our server...there was another guy bringing out the dishes as well, but that's all he did - not particularly friendly either) actually cleared our plates, wiped the table down and replaced all our cutlery, napkins and plates.  Our water glasses were never empty, and this was all done with a pleasant smile.  The mains consisted of Rendang Beef, seafood and green beans, stir fried green beans, and black cod.

The Rendang Beef was a bit spicier than the other dishes, and I have to admit, is not one of my favourite dishes.  The beef was too lean for my liking, just like at the Denman location.  I'll have to remember next time not to order this one if we go off the sampler menu.

The gulai scallops and prawns was a bit of a disappointment as well. The prawns were nice and big, but the scallops were obviously sliced from one large scallop to about a Loonie thickness.  Also, some of the green beans were completely raw, which was kind of strange because some of the beans from the same dish were completely cooked.

The stir fried green beans were good on their own, some of them were still slightly raw, which made me wonder if this is just the way Malaysians to it.  The stir friend green beans were light years better than the ones that came with the curry seafood assortment.  

The black cod was pretty good.  The fish is so awesome on it's own, you'd have to be a complete muppet to screw this one up.  But thankfully, Banana Leaf did a good job of enhancing the flavour of an already very tasty fish.  The cod was probably pan fried at one point, resulting in a slightly crispy skin, and served with a caramalized garlic and onion sauce that was sort of sweet (I didin't detect much ginger as with the Denman location).  I ate everything, including the skin from my fish (and other people's as well, haha!).  I don't understand people that don't eat the skin, it's the best part!  Same thing goes for chicken skin as well...it baffles my mind when someone has fried chicken and throws away the skin......heretics.

By the time desert rolled around, I was quite full.  Not sure if it was because I ate more than other people, or there was just a lot of food (probably the first, haha!).  The deep fried banana was served with a sauce that reminded me of the sauce found on mitarashi dango, a sort of sweet soy suace glaze.  Can't go wrong with deep fried bananas, ice cream and syrup, but I ate too much througout the meal, so I didn't really get to enjoy desert comfortably.

The highlights of my meal were the roti, the sauce from the mussels, the quid and the cod.  I think for $28, it might be slightly out of my comfort zone for what I was getting, even though I was stuffed.  I think it was probably just because I ate more than my fare share.  The service was great from one person (forgot her name - Tinami, Tamini?) but less than stellar from the other.  Would I go back?  Probably not unless it was the choice of the group. 

Mahony and Son's - revisited

Do not eat steak at Mahony and Son's, it's not The Keg, haha!  I'm not sure if the prices here are inflated because it's smack in the middle of UBC, or it's always like this, but I shelled out $26 for a steak that was slightly thicker than one I could get at say, Alleluia.  It was cooked exactly the way I wanted it - blue rare, which was a nice surprise, but it was definitely on the small side for $26.  The mashed potato and the side veg it came with were massive and truth be told, tasted quite good.  In fact, they were so good, that they actually stole the spotlight from the steak.  They made the steak look even smaller than it really was.  It would have been better to pay $10 less, swap the steak and get three links of large sausages instead.  The Bangers and Mash for $15-16 is a far better deal.

The service was great here, don't get me wrong, and Mahony and Son's still has other food that tastes pretty good,but just don't bother with the steaks.  Some other people ordered a sampler platter (basically a variety of frozen treats like chicken strips, calamari, some flat bread, some chips and dry pork ribs), a spinach and artichoke dip, ribs.  The next time I go to Mahony and Son's, I think I'll stick with the standard pub-food. 

Nan Chuu - Ramen night!

Well, Nan Chuu Izakaya officially opened with ramen on the menu!  The glorious thing about this visit is that it was 11pm and there was still ramen available!  I know, I know, ramen is probably the last thing you want this late at night, unless you absolutely don't care about your cholesterol level, but it's not like I'm eating here every night.  The izakaya was still pretty busy at this time of day, but we didn't have any trouble getting a seat.  We were greeted with friendly smiles and nods, and I peaked into the kitchen to see Minoru-san working.  Thougjh he was busier than hell, he still managed give me a nod and say hello. 

Our intention was to get ramen, and that was our mission.  But as soon as we sat down, we saw the menu and thought it would be nice to sample some of the izakaya menu items.....but no, we stuck to our plan and ordered ramen.  We'll save the other stuff for another visit.

Though I really, really liked the Shio Tonkotsu Ramen, my eyes sparkled when I saw miso ramen on the menu.  Oh God, how long has it been since I had really good miso ramen????  It had been too long and I couldn't resist.  Like a fat kid in a candy story (or in this case, a fat guy in a ramen shop), I greedily ordered it, and to really seal the deal, I got it with butter corn.  The chashu was cut as if Minoru-san could read my mind, and he knew exactly how I liked my chashu - fatty.  It's gotta be at least 50/50 for it to taste good.  You want lean and healthy?  Stay home.  The noodles were cooked to perfection, and I don't think I will ever find a better bowl of ramen outside of Japan.  The broth was so thick, you could walk across it, and you could tell that the chef (Minoru-san) had slaved over it for a long time to get the recipe just perfect.  It was nice and salty, not lean at all, full of flavour - an explosion of concentrated flavours.  This is why they serve ice cold water at ramen shops - to refresh, to cleanse the palette so that you can enjoy anew.  Some of you may not share my flavour and passion for ramen.  You people are heathens. 

When it comes to ramen, I'm like heroine-junkie and Minoru-san is my dealer.  Crom laughs at your four winds, and any other ramen shop in town.

One More Sushi

Mazui desu.  Mazui.  After class, some of us decided to go to the village in search of food, and it was suggested we visit One More Sushi....and this will be THE VERY LAST TIME.  I've been here before, ages ago, in a fairly large group, but I don't remember it being this bad.  Now, before I invest too much time into this place, I'll just get to the nitty gritty.

I made the mistake of ordering their chirashi don, my standard gauge for a good sushi restaurant.  Anyway, after having One More Sushi's chirashi don, I have come to the conclusion that they could be classified as a Japanese restaurant, but sushi would be a far stretch.  Their cooked food may be okay, I will never know, but for $15, you're literally getting ripped off on the chirashi don.  There is a mountain of densely packed rice underneath at the bottom of the bowl.  The rice smelled of rice vinegar, but it was hard, as if it had been leftover rice from two days ago.  It was clearly not very fresh.  The cuts of fish were very run of the mill, and I can't believe they have the 'nads to charge $15.  There was some salmon, some tuna (the plain stuff), tako, surf clam, some bland tamago, fake crab meat, ebi and some masago.  NOTHING SPECIAL TO NOTE OF HERE.  Even the fake crab meat was hard. 

One More Sushi is an epic fail in the sushi department, and no, I will not bother returning to see if they're cooked food is any good.

Toll's - Revisited

On the way back from Nanaimo, some folks were still hungry so we stopped into Horseshoe Bay and ducked in to Troll's for some fish and chips.  I've been here before and have been more or less satisfied.  This visit confirmed that the wait times for food can be painfully long, even though I wasn't particularly hungry. 

It was freakin' hot all day, we'd waited for the ferry for a solid two hours (maybe 3, I have no idea) under the blazing sun, and all I'd eaten was some rancid nachos passed off as Mexican food, and a stale pizza from the terminal.  What I really wanted to do was go home, but I stuck with the group and tried to tough out the throbbing headache I had.

I ordered the salmon and chips, and subbed in the chips for a salad.  It really helped.  I think if I tried to down some fries, I would have died.  The salmon wasn't as good as the last time I was here.  It was slightly dry, but still edible. 

Tony ordered a fish pie, something I'd never seen before.  Maybe next time.  Anyway, the food here still tasted decent, but I was feeling so out of it, by the time I made it home, I was blowing chunks.  I think I need to go back when I'm not feeling so bad to do a proper review on the salmon and chips, and that fish pie.

Casa Italia Pizza and Pasta - Nanaimo Ferry Terminal

What?  I was desperate, leave me alone.  Yeah, I went to a pizza-by-the-slice place in a ferry terminal, I have no right to complain, but if the pizza sucks, the pizza sucks.  I haven't found many places that serve decent pizza-by-the-slice, the only one I like so far is Romano's or Pie R Squared.  This place will not be on my list of places to go.

The pizza here was semi cold and the cheese had already hardened into a greasy mass that separated from the pie all to easily.  Add this to the list of crummy places at the ferry terminals.  Frankie's Barbeque is another place not to waste your dollars....unless you like boiled hot dogs.