Vancouver: Japadog, The Greedy Pig & The Alibi Room

Since we stayed near Gastown in Vancouver, we spent a good amount of time around that area since it was within walking distance, and there's a lot of great bars and restaurants.  One thing about Gastown is that if you like the hipster culture, then this is THE spot.  It's almost as if all the hipsters in Vancouver gathered in this little area.  For our last night, we decided to hit up a few spots around the area since hipster spots meant good food and drinks!

One of the must eats when visiting Vancouver is stopping by a Japadog location.  They are the originator of this Japanese fusion hot dog, and there's even a location in NYC now!  Before Alice, Calvin, and I headed off to Gastown to hit up our spots, we stopped by the brick & mortar location of Japadog on Robson for some appetizers :P

Japadog

530 Robson St

Downtown

Vancouver, BC V6B 2B7  

www.japadog.com

Been to a cart location, now to their brick & mortar location!

We decided to get four to share, with some unique to these Robson location.

Yakiniku Dog.  One of the hot dogs that's unique to this location.  Essentially, an Arabiki sausage sits on a bed of rice, then topped with yakiniku between bun.  It's like a MOS Burger gone cray cray!  Sauce was pretty damn good.

Tonkatsu.  Another unique to this location.  There's no hot dog in this, but a piece of pork katsu, drizzled with sweet mayo and katsu sauce and topped with cabbage between bun.  

Oroshi.  Still my favorite hot dog from Japadog.  Grated dikon on top of a juicy pork bratwurst with some green onions on top.  So simple, but so good.

The one that started it all, Terimayo.  Since Calvin & Alice never had Japadog, had to order the original.  Teriyaki sauce, sweet mayo and seaweed = winning combo.


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After Japadog, we made our way towards Gastown, and stopped by the first stop of the night, Greedy Pig.  It's a lounge/gastropub that focuses on whiskey cocktails.  Pigs seem to be a really popular thing nowadays haha.

Greedy Pig

307 W Cordova Street 

Downtown, Gastown

Vancouver, BC V6B 1E5

thegreedypig.ca

Greedy Pig's logo on the menu.

Calvin's Ward Eight.  Classic cocktail, except their version is with Kentucky bourbon instead of rye.

Alice's Roughrider.  Made with Canadian rye whiskey.  Not a huge fan of it cause it was super sweet.

Old Ripper.  Made with Tennessee sour mash, pureed white peach, creme de peaches, fresh lemon juice, bitters, and egg white.  Very hipster drink with the egg white, but it was the best one out of the three we tried!

Part of their menu.  We decided to get the Marrow & Toast to share.

Marrow & Toast.  Roasted marrow bones, garlic confit, sea salt, truffle oil, arugula, and bacon.

The marrow and the bacon.

Marinated garlic!

Toasts.

My own little bite.  The truffle oil was very light.  Sea salt was a nice touch since it helped cut through all the fat.


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We actually stopped by another gatropub but it was way too packed so we decided to go to our last stop, Alibi Room, a very hipster Canadian pub.  Why is it hipster?  Well, it's a pub that serves a ton of craft beers, including local brews, tons of interesting characters (saw a guy wearing a sailor's outfit there), and it's actually located a bit far away from Gastown, in an area that's a little shady.  

Alibi Room

157 Alexander Street 

Vancouver, BC V6A 1B8

alibi.ca

Front of Alibi Room.  A bit hard to find if you don't know the area.

Logo.  Lots of beers on tap.

I wanted something a bit unique and local so I went with the Red Truck "Prev-Ale" Maple Ale.  Definitely get that maple haha.

Calvin's "Le Nez Rouge" Tripel.  A local brew as well.  9% Belgian tripel.

Alice likes porter so she got the Phillips "Longboat" Double Chocolate Porter.  

Must have something to nibble on so we got the fries.

Came with two condiments: housemade ketchup and chili garlic vinegar.  I am a sucker for ketchup made in-house so I went for that most of the time.

Later on, we couldn't resist the piggy, so got the Pork Belly Sandwich, which was topped with beer braised onions, served with jalapeno coleslaw, and more fries.  Pork belly was not as good as Calvin and I liked, but the slaw was very interesting!  Gave us regular ketchup this time instead of the homemade.   

We called it a night after Alibi Room, but I was definitely surprised with the Canadian craft beer scene!  It just seems like all of Pacific Northwest is loaded with these breweries brewing these unique beers.  Should've saved some room for more beer instead of food haha.

New York: Sandy Party

What do New Yorkers do when a super storm comes shuts majority of NYC down?  Eat and drink!

That was what we literally did when Edwin, Link, and I got stuck in NYC cause our flights got canceled.  We, along with Jimmy, Janice, Allison, and Tim, just stayed in the living room playing drinking games all day. Somehow the small living room fit all 7 of us :P  We were lucky since the power, TV, and internet did not go out where we were, so we didn't feel Sandy as much as others.  There were even a few pizzeria and food places opened, doing deliveries during the storm!  Probably got hella business haha.

Like all of NYC, we went to the market and bought a bunch of food, ended up only cooking 3 meals, bought pizzas and beers during the storm, and even went to an empty Times Square at 2am.  It was definitely a different NYC experience.

The living room.  Where Edwin, Link, and I slept for a week.  Seriously though, thank goodness we didn't have to stay at a hotel.

When I woke up the morning Sandy hit on Oct 29th, breakfast was already ready!  Thanks to Janice, Allison, Tim, and Jimmy.  They even had a tub of King Taco's red sauce.  They were prepared haha.

Avocado scrambled eggs.  Fancy!

Pancakes!

What to do after breakfast?  SANDY PARTY!  We spent the majority of the day playing drinking card games.

We actually ran out of beer pretty fast so we went out to a market nearby that's still open to get some more: Bud Light, Yuengling, Heineken, and sake.  I wanted ice cream so also got some Edy's Mint Chip haha. We passed a dollar pizza place and they were still open!  Usually a whole pie is $8, but that day they were charging $10.  

Cheese pizza.  Not bad.  The crust wasn't as good as some of the other $1 pizza places.

We added a ton of garlic, oregano, and red chili flakes haha.

Always have Cup Noodles ready!

For dinner, we decided to pan fry the chicken thighs we bought, and make some curry.

Pot of curry slowly simmering.  We added onions and carrots to it.

It's a pretty and delicious plate if I say so myself :P  Add some green onion some Korean furikake... perfect.

Another plate.  

After spending a whole day drinking and staying indoors, some of us were getting a bit restless.  Luckily, the storm pretty much passed NYC by 2am, so we decided to go for an early morning walk.  

I've never seen Times Square so empty.  Only a few people walking, but most of the people on the streets were NYPD.

This was Edwin's first visit to NYC, and he got to see an empty Times Square.

Just a few blocks away, it was completely dark since power went out, but Times Square was still lit.  Sorta pretty how the light just reflects off the water.

On our way back, we decided to stop by Papaya Dog, which is right around the corner from Jimmy's.  No, it's no the popular Gray's or Papaya King, but good enough when most storms were closed.  I went for a corndog.

Edwin's Philly Cheesesteak with fries.

Lean steak, cheese, mayo, ketchup, and veggies.  Sorta odd to have ketchup in a cheesesteak, but for what it is and the price, not bad actually.

It was definitely what Edwin, Link, and I imagined when we came to New York City, but good friends and alcohol always mean a good time haha.  Homemade meals may not look as good as high end restaurants, but there's always that comforting feeling you get from a meal like that!

Washington DC: Obama Ate Here!

Gonna be a short post, but I had to give Ben's Chili Bowl its own!  Ben's Chili Bowl is one of those... places that's made famous by their famous patrons and the history of the place.

Brief history of the place and why it is famous: essentially, Ben's Chili Bowl opened in 1958, and since it was near a theater, plenty of celebrities frequented the place.  Bill Cosby was one of its biggest supporters, and there's pictures of him all over the wall!  It's been through several riots, and played a significant role throughout the city's history, serving food through these troubling times.  In 2009, President Obama also dined at Ben's and you can see that all over the place as well.  There's even a little note on the cash register that says "only Bill Cosby and President Obama eat for free!"  

With over 1700+ reviews on Yelp, although very mixed, I convinced my co-worker to take the Metro with me to check it out.

Ben's Chili Bowl

1213 U St NW

Between N 12th St & N 13th St

U Street Corridor

Washington, DC 20009

benschilibowl.com

Right outside the U Street Metro stop is Ben's Chili Bowl!

Closer look.

Of course, Ben's Chili Bowl is known for the chili, so decided to go crazy and went for their famous Half Smoke Chili Dog and the Chili Cheese Fries.  Quite pricey... the whole meal was around $15 with a drink!

1/4lb. half pork and beef smoked sausage on a warm steamed bun and topped with mustard, onions, and spicy homemade chili.

Michael strongly recommended this half smoke over the regular dog cause the casing had more of a snap.  Didn't really feel the snap, but I was too busy thinking about the chili!  It has a little bit of heat and it is all meat!  All meat chili trumps chili with bean any day. 

Chili cheese fries.  Good, but to be honest, nothing too crazy about the fries, but wow they put a lot of nacho cheese sauce over it.  You're really getting it as a different vessel for the chili!

I actually liked Ben's Chili Bowl a lot!  I can see why people would dismiss it or think it is overhyped, because in the end, it is just a hot dog with chili over it, and you can get that everywhere.  Not the best chili I've had, but I do like the chili here and would even pay for a whole bowl of it!  It's just one of those joints serving simple American food and been doing the same way forever.  With all the history behind the place, it's just cool to check it out.  Plus, I can say I ate at the same place as the President now :P

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After eating at Ben's, co-worker and I decided to stop by a bar to relax.  Ended up at Buffalo Billards in Dupont.  Just so happens they were showing the Presidential Debate on TV!  I find it weird that they would show it at a bar that oddly reminds me of Busbys in LA, but it is DC after all!

Plus, anything is interesting after a few pints of Yuengling :P