Vancouver: Kintaro Ramen & More Poutine!

I love ramen.  I am addicted to ramen.  Just so happens Calvin & Alice both like it too, so we decided to make a little trek to West End for Kinarto Ramen, often rated as the best ramen spot in Vancouver.  It's located on Denman and that little area has a few other popular ones, including the huge ramen chain, Santouka!

I was expecting a long wait since it was lunch time and the weather was perfect for noodles, but luckily, we only waited about 20 minutes, and got seated at the huge communal table right next to the window.

Kintaro Ramen

788 Denman St

West End

Vancouver, BC V6G 2L5

Kintaro Ramen.

Not a big place at all.  A big communal table for about 8-10 people or so, the counter, and some twosome tables along the wall.

Part of their menu.  Like Shinshengumi in LA, you can choose the heaviness of your broth.

I decided to go all out and got the Spicy Miso BBQ Pork Ramen, with fatty pork and rich broth.  Normally, their ramen comes with two slices of chasu, but if you get the BBQ pork ramen, you get more!  The menu recommends a medium broth with the spicy miso, but I felt like clogging up my heart a bit that day.

Went with the spicy miso as my soup base since it comes with this ball of fresh ground garlic!  You can tell from the fat marbling on my chasu that yes, it is the fatty pork.

Alice's Spicy Miso Ramen.  This is the regular portion with medium broth and two pieces of leaner pork.  The broth is really top notch. 

Calvin's Cheese Ramen.  A must for cheese lovers.  Definitely interesting, although a bit odd for me! You get their light broth and a piece of cheese to sit on top of the chasu slices. There's no option in terms of the strength of the broth so you can taste the cheese. The server said it was very popular with the ladies for some reason.  Maybe he was trying to say something to Calvin haha.

The cheese!  Don't know what type it is or maybe it is two different types?

Really glad I got to try Kintaro Ramen and it actually cracks the top 5 ramen spots I've been to!  The feel of the whole place is authenticity and it's easy to tell why it's been rated and featured as one of the best.

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Afterwards, we decided to work our way back by walking on Robson and I came upon Bubble World Tea House!  I am addicted to milk tea as well, and I actually like to drink something like milk tea after a heavy meal.  Didn't have my phone with me to check how it was rated, but I was fine with it as long as it was better than Lollicup or Quickly.

Bubble World Robson 

1325 Robson St 

West End

Vancouver, BC V6E 1C6

Outside.  It was completely empty inside and the guy wasn't even at the counter so I got a little bit worried.

Ended up getting a safe choice, Milk Green Tea, with half sugar.  It was actually pretty good and did satisfy my craving.  Very milky.  Sorta expensive though.  Actually everything's expensive in Canada.

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Right before our flight, Amanda came out and met up with us, and she took us to a poutinery, Belgian Fries for more poutine since options are limited back home :P  I miss poutine..

Belgian Fries

1885 Commercial Drive 

Grandview-Woodlands, The Drive

Vancouver, BC V5N 4A6

Belgian Fries, "Best Poutine in BC"

We decided to go crazy with our last poutine in Vancouver and got a poutine with gravy, bacon, and a fried egg!  The fries are thicker than some of the others I've been to.

Egg!  I live how the yolk is still runny.  Too bad I focused on the wrong thing with my camera :[

Nothing wrong with more bacon.  

The gravy is really good here.  Flavorful and thick.

The perfect way to end a trip in Vancouver: poutine!  I really don't know why it hasn't caught on in the States, considering how everybody love fries.  Again, thanks to Amanda for coming out and then taking us to Belgian Fries!

Whistler: Zog's, El Furniture Warehouse & Elements Tapas Bar

I've never been boarding out of California, only to Mammoth, Tahoe (Nevada side doesn't count), and crappy spots in SoCal, so my excitement level once we got to Whistler was at the highest!  It seriously was a winter wonderland there!  It snowed a lot so that meant plenty of fresh powder and even got to board down the Blackcomb Glacier!  That was pretty damn cool.

Whistler is more like a small village, with the village serving as the base for all the hotels, restaurants, and shops.  Of course, such a popular vacationing spot would have several good eats, and let's just say all the places we tried in Whistler, they all beat Big Bear's bread bowl soup :P

First day of boarding!  Constant snowfall!  We took the super early bus to Whistler so after we checked in, we got ready and went out for a day of boarding.  Ending up only doing two runs because the place is just huge!  And of course, after a day of boarding, we had to stop by one of the most popular spot, Zog's, for some poutine!

Zog's Dogs

4340 Sundial Cres RR 4 

Whistler, BC V0N 1B4

Canada

Zog's.  Pretty much just a fast food stand serving popular Canadian snacks and hot dogs.  Most people come here for poutine after a day of riding since it is literally the first thing you see walking back towards the village.  People eating outside when it is still snowing.

Classic Poutine, with fries, gravy, and cheese curd.  You get all this for around $7 CAD!  It's pretty funny though since they take the cheese curd out of a single-serving package, and I'm pretty sure the gravy is from a mix, but who cares!  Poutine is seriously so legit after a day of boarding.  It did get a little gross once the wind chill got to it and made it cold haha.

We also went with the Bolognese Poutine, which is fries topped with meat sauce and shredded mozzarella.  Luckily I know where to get something like this at home cause this was bomb too.

Calvin & Alice never tried a beavertail so we got one to share.  This is the cinnamon sugar one, that's perfect with a squeeze of lemon.  We got a chocolate hazelnut one too but forgot to take a pic of it.  Just the same as the regular beavertail except it is smeared with a Nutella-like spread instead of dusted with sugar.

In fact, we liked it so much, we went back to it on the second day!  Weather was much better haha.

The outdoor grilling station.  Lots of people getting poutine and hot dogs.

We got the classic poutine again, but this time we topped it with some caramelized onions! Zog's is exactly like those beach stands that sells food.  Easy to make items, but so damn tasty.

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That night, we decided to go somewhere a bit nice and found this tapas place called Elements Urban Tapas. Made a short trek there and found the place to be completely empty except for one other table.  We were a bit worried since it was a Friday night, but we were hungry!

Elements Urban Tapas

4359 Main St 

Whistler, BC V0N 1B2

Canada

wildwoodrestaurants.ca

A look inside the place, with the open kitchen.

Menu, mostly using fresh ingredients from BC.

Wine list had a few bottles that were quite reasonable so we went with the Burrowing Owl Pinot Gris, which is from this wine regrion, Okanagan Valley, Canada.  Never tried Canadian wine except for ice wine so this was a first!

Bison Petit Threeway.  This was probably what I looked forward to the most since it was bison served in three ways, jerked, as a tartar, and grilled.  In the front, is house-smoked bison jerky and right behind it is the tartar.  Bison is leaner than beef and you can definitely tell from the jerky.  As for the bison tartar, I'm a huge fan of beef tartar, and you can barely tell that it is bison. They probably did a good job seasoning it.

Grilled bison medallion with romesco sauce on the bottom.  Very tender and grilled to a nice medium rare.  The potato chips are actually dusted with almond salt!

Lemon & panko crusted wild BC salmon.  We actually didn't eat this dish since we didn't order it and they made the wrong thing.  I was hoping they would just leave it with us, but instead they took it back... should've taken a bite before we told them haha.

This was what we actually ordered: Wild BC salmon and ahi tuna tempura roll, with tobiko and sweet ginger soy.

Not bad for Asian fusion!  Not enough though.  Boo.

This was definitely my favorite tapas: Porcini gnocchi.  The dish is just earthy all around: gnocchi is flavorful from the porcini mixed it, tossed with some wild mushrooms and a truffle butter sauce!  There's also shaved white grace peasant cheese, which is pretty similar to a young parmigiano.  This was also probably the best cooked gnocchi I've had.  Perfect texture.

Calvin was super excited for this: slow cooked pork belly, soft poached egg, savory bread pudding, and maple glaze.  Pork belly?  Super soft & tender.  Poached egg?  Perfect runny yolk.  Savory bread pudding?  Somehow it works!  Maple glaze?  C'mon it's Canada!

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I did a bit of research before I came to Whistler and found that there was this gastropub that sells all their food items for $4.95 CAD!  That's an awesome price anywhere, let alone a place like Whistler, where it is mostly fancier restaurants, so after dinner at Element Urban Tapas, we decided to stop by for a few drinks and more food!

El Furniture Warehouse
4314 Main Street Suite 24
Whistler, BC V0N
Canada

Passed by the Olympic rings on the way there.

Snow and lights everywhere.  For once, it felt like Christmas around the holidays.  

Outside.  $4.95 for evey food item!

Logo.

Of course, with such an affordable menu, the crowd is much younger, and at night, that means alcohol's flowing!  We decided to get some drinks: some local beer with a shot of applejack.

Onion rings.  Nothing too crazy, but for around $5, that's a good amount.

We wanted some more poutine so we got their version, which comes with fries, gravy, cheese curd, and maple bacon!  Better than Zog's, so much cheaper, and there's bacon!  Maple bacon!  I thought about ordering another after we killed it. 

Mini donuts with spiced chocolate sauce.  Awesome mini cake donuts!  Every bar, pub, and gastropub should serve donuts.

We actually wanted to go back for lunch the next day but the place had a line out the door... I would've been down to wait just to eat more poutine and try out other items, but we were in a time crunch since we had to catch a bus ride back to Vancouver!

Whistler, I'll be back.