Sunday 8 September 2013

Faubourg

We are very excited to announce that one of our favourite French Baking shops had just opened downtown across the Vancouver Art Gallery!

Faubourg's new location opened last month! 

What it looks like inside

Faubourg specializes in French baking, while offering the classic coffee/tea beverages. It also has a small patio, which is great because we're trying to get as much sun as we can before fall starts. 

Our Faubourg favourites include their bread/croissants, particularly the Nutella and pistachio flavoured ones. More importantly, they have awesome French macarons. What we like about the macarons is their texture - a solid macaron shell on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside. Favourite flavours include Lavender Early Grey, Salted Caramel, Tahitian Vanilla, Cappucino and Dark Chocolate (we're clearly not fruity macaron people)

We were so happy we had to get a whole box

Macaron "feet" up close. Because making macaron "feet" is an art

And in case you didn't want to make the trip downtown to try these, Faubourg's original location is on Kerrisdale (41st and Arbutus). :)

Tuesday 3 September 2013

BaoQi

While Vancouver has a lot of pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) places to dine in when the weather gets gloomy, pho is not the only Vietnamese option in town. If you're feeling a little more adventurous, this little gem called BaoQi, is a reasonably priced hole-in-the-wall place downtown. We recommend going either really early or really late, as the place is small (seats about < 20 people) and can get busy! Here are some of our favourite dishes from BaoQi, that don't involve Pho. 


Shrimp salad rolls
BaoQi has four kinds of salad rolls, each one patterned after a season. Since it is still summer, we decided on the summer salad rolls which uses the rice-based wrap, shrimp and some vegetables. This is served with what we are guessing is Nuoc Cham (vinegar dipping sauce).

Pomelo Salad
The best part about Vietnamese food is getting fresh vegetables into the diet--without it really feeling like you're eating vegetables. The pomelo salad is a mix of fresh chopped or shredded veggies, with a hint of spice and sweetness. Shrimp and pomelo is definitely a refreshing combination for a hot summer day.

Beef wrapped in Bettle leaf

Shrimp wrapped in sugar cane
BaoQi also serves a variety of foods "to assemble". During this dinner, we ordered the beef wrapped in bettle leaf and the shrimp wrapped in sugar cane. These dishes are served with Vietnamese rice wrappers (think really thin tortillas), vegetables (basil, shredded carrots, shredded daikon, cucumber, some bean sprouts) and some kind of rice noodle such as vermicelli. The fun part is taking the meat, vegetables and noodles into the rice wrapper and assembling it into a wrap before eating it. These dishes are also served with Nuoc Cham (vinegar dipping sauce).

Other adventurous dishes are available such as gelatinous shrimp cakes wrapped in banana leaves or a dessert (that we are unsure is in the real menu) involving coconut milk, black eyed peas and tapioca. All these are a good change from more common dishes like pho and vermicelli bowls. That being said, there is a pho option on the menu, if one wants to opt for some southeast asian comfort food on a rainy day!