Foodie Friday: Afghan Chopan

Happy Friday! It was my 1st time dining at a Afghan restaurant so today's Foodie Friday is an exciting one! Let's go to Afghan Chopan below!!

When you enter the restaurant, it immediately feels super authentic inside. There are booths, tables or a stage like floor seating. Of course, I wanted the real deal experience so I went for the floor seating. There were big plush pillows to add comfort to sitting on the floor so I loved that!

Have to remove your shoes first!

The walls at Afghan Chopan was filled with very intricate and detailed carpets & paintings.

For drinks, my family & I ordered "Dough", which is a yogurt drink filled with cucumber, mint & salt- which gave it that salty taste at the end of each sip!

Definitely a very unique drink. I would recommend you drinking this during the meal if you are not wanting it to taste super salty just by itself.

My family & I ordered the "Chef's Special Combo" which serves 6-8. We chose "Mantu" as our appetizers. THIS STUFF IS SO GOOD!! Like a burrito good! Mantu is a steamed dumpling filled with fresh ground beef, onions & spices and topped with a variety of sauces. 

Fresh baked naan & 3 vegetable dishes: spinach, chickpeas & eggplant. All had delicious flavour & went perfectly dipped or wrapped with the naan bread.

When the meat platter arrived, I was shocked at how HUGE this thing was! The variety consisted of, tekka kababs (beef tenderloin), chicken kebabs, shami kebabs (ground beef), chopan kebabs (lamb) & chaplee kebabs (round pieces of marinated ground beef). Also, in the center was a pile of salad! All the meats were so yummy & tasty!

2 chutney sauces: mint jalapeno & yogurt. Super delicious with the meats & naan bread.

Finally, we also got a big plateful of long grain rice that was filled with carrots & raisins. The raisins gave a sweetness to the entire meal, which I really liked!

My family & I were completely stuffed by the end of the meal. I can finally say that I have had Afghan food & I HIGHLY RECOMMEND everyone to try it!! It is so good & I am craving it again as I am writing this post hehe.

Thank you so much for reading, have a wonderful weekend loves!

Love, Linda

Afghan Chopan

12888 80th Ave.

Surrey, BC

(604) 543-2385

Foodie Friday: Icy Bar

HAPPY FRIDAY FRIENDS! In today's Foodie Friday post, we are headed for some Asian desserts at "Icy Bar". Let's go!!

It was super hot this evening so hubby & I wanted something to cool us down after dinner. We headed to Icy Bar on Kingsway in Vancouver. Never been before so we were excited! Inside, was very spacious & bright. The decor was minimal but inviting. They had colorful lights hanging & also big bunches of sticks to separate the entrance from the dining area.

Hubby ordered the red bean crystal tapioca cake. I had a bite of it and was pretty good, had a good amount of red bean in it & the cake was not too soft or hard. Simple presentation on a long rectangular plate.

I ordered red bean, green tea mochi icy! This was definitely stuffed to the top. It came with a side of condensed milk so you can pour as much as you desire on top of your icy. Inside the bowl had of course shaved ice (not flavoured), matcha mochi, red bean mochi, red bean & vanilla ice cream. Once I drizzled some condense milk on top of the icy plate it had more flavour to it, was defnitely very refreshing on a hot Summer evening. My only complaint was the mochi. It wasn't fully cooked because it was still chewy and hard, & not the good chewy a mochi has. Otherwise the matcha & red bean flavour of the mochi was delish!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend & thank you so much for reading and joining me on this Foodie Friday post!

Love, Linda

Icy Bar

3618 Kingsway 

Vancouver, BC

(604) 500-8922

Foodie Friday: Ramengers

There is a really good ramen place in town! Let's go on a Foodie Friday adventure to Ramengers!!

I find it super adorable that the theme of the restaurant/menu is based on "heros". Reminds me of avengers but instead "ramen-gers"! Cute.

The tables & chairs were super adorable, very small- kind of feels like your in Japan.

Hubby & I both ordered the shio ramen, mine was the regular size and he up-sized his.

Inside included a egg, green onion, corn, bamboo shoots, deep fried onion, noodles, shio broth (which was quite nice), seaweed piece & the most delicious pork!!

This pork was so unique because it was chared with soy sauce so it added extra flavour to the meat. It was so incredibly delicious and I have never had anything like it at any ramen restuarant.

We also ordered extras on the side which was their onigiri & so glad we did! We never tried anything like this before so it was quite exciting!! Onigiri is a rice ball formed in a triangular shape w/ seaweed wrapped around it (or in this case under it :) filled with different flavours.

Cha siu onigiri. The meat inside was perfectly chared & had a great flavour to it. Each bite was so yummy when you get the rice, cha siu, seaweed & mayo top- delish!

Tuna onigiri. The tuna was mixed with egg roe, this was good as well but I really liked the cha siu!

Ramenger's has offically made me addicted to their onigiri's & their ramen, especially that oh so delicious pork!

Thank you so much for joining me on this Foodie Friday adventure. Happy Friday & I hope you have an amazing weekend!!

Love, Linda

Ramengers

3520 Kingsway

Vancouver, BC

V5R5L7

(604) 419-4400

Foodie Friday: Les Faux Bourgeois

It was my birthday on July the 8th & hubby and I headed to a local French restaurant called "Les Faux Bourgeois" to celebrate! We always wanted to try this place & it was the perfect occasion to do so. ^___^

This French cafe was on the smaller size, quite quaint- very romantic!!

The decor & everything was very minimal and just gives you the feeling like you are going to have a great time, whether it be grabbing a drink with your friends at the bar, family dinners, dinner date or having an intimate birthday dinner with your special guy/girl! They make use of natural light with their big front windows & minimal lighting to create a dark, romantic, inviting ambiance.

To start, the very French waiter (yes, he has that sexy French accent as well ladies!) gave us a basket of bread & butter. The bread had a soft texture and with butter, was delicious!

For appetizer, we got the beef carpaccio- which was on the special menu. This was soooo yummy! I found that you needed everything in a single bite to make it the best that it could be. Meaning, a piece of beef w/ the white sauce, capers, cheese & arugula w/ that oil, citrus dressing on top. Mmmm... I am drooling just writing this haha. Perfect start to my birthday dinner!

Hubby ordered the "bouillabaisse" which is a saffron broth full of snapper fish, prawns, clams, mussels and saffron sauce on top of garlic bread.

I had my fave- mussels! This bowl had a generous portion in it, I almost thought I couldn't finish it- but I did!! The garlic white whine sauce tasted so good that Hubby & I took the bread we got at the beginning of our meal and dipped it in that delicious-ness! So flavourful.

On the side of my mussels, it came with pomme frites (french fries) as well. They were perfectly seasoned & had a soft fluffy texture inside- yum! Along with it, came a garlic mayo sauce. Mussels & fries, perfect combo!

Les Faux Bourgeois & the best birthday present ever (my Hubby, Allan) made my evening super enjoyable! Definitely felt the romance & love on my special night.

Thank you so much for joining me on a special Foodie Friday adventure my loves! Wishing you all an amazing weekend!!

Love, Linda

Les Faux Bourgeois

663 E. 15th ave. 

Vancouver BC

V5T 2R6

(604) 873-9733

Foodie Friday: Tap & Barrel

Happy Friday cuteys! Today for our foodie adventure we are off to Tap & Barrel. As some of you may know, my all time favourite view in Vancouver is of False Creek Science World & this place will give you just that. You definitely cannot miss it with the beautiful outdoor patio seating & big red umbrellas!

Local & comfort food, yes please!!

There are 2 floors in Tap & Barrel full of bar seats, tv screens, outdoor patio seating & beautiful bright windows.

I dined upstairs & it was sprinkling out when I was there so no patio for me! Next time for sure though. I love how their decor is big beer barrels, very eye catching & cool!

Loving the mason jars as mugs, very in!

Brunch time is on until 2 pm there so that is exactly what we had! To start we ordered the oh so famous, deep fried pickles. They were perfectly fried & had a great crunch and taste, so yummy! The dip was a sour cream & dill, perfect combo.

I had the Quebec Street Poutine Benny which was soooo good! Definitely very different than most poutines. The fries were delicious by itself but to add even more greatness, it was topped with pulled pork, cheese, 2 perfectly poached eggs (when you poke into them the yolk just gushes out onto the fries, mmm), hollandaise sauce & a delicious red wine and onion gravy sauce. All of those contents all in one bite is truly comfort food at it's finest. Loved it!

Hubby ordered the Tavern Brunch Burger. I had a bite & oh my goodness! The meat in the burger was soooo good, you can definitely taste the quality in it.

Look at that egg yolk go! I will definitely come back to Tap & Barrel to try their dinner menu. I love that after your meal you can walk right out of the restaurant to a beautiful view of False Creak, how fun and even romantic!!

Thank you so much for reading & I hope your weekend is filled with delicious food & fun!

Love, Linda