La Galleria Fine Foods, Edgemont Village, North Vancouver

My work requires that I travel through out the Lower Mainland. It seems I'm constantly on the road and constantly looking for good quick lunch eats, but no crappy fast food please.

I have my favourites. In North Vancouver, Edgemont Village, its La Galleria Fine foods. Looks like its the North Shores favourite as well winner of the North Shore News favourite sandwich shop.

Hey, all these people cant be wrong, there is a constant line-up and stream of lunch goers anytime I've been there.

Why the popularity? Because they care!

The sandwiches are actually a baguette, made to order,  the bread warmed through, crispy but not toasted. The ingredients are high quality and fresh. I always order the prosciutto, sorry its a weakness, it also comes with fresh crisp lettuce lots of mayo and killer in- house roasted red peppers, no soggy red peppers from a can.
Simple is good.
I've said it before I'll say it again. Why do people go to subway?

Meat and Bread - Porchetta - My Crack

There are a few things popping up on the Vancouver food scene that I like, that I like a lot.
Thin crust Neapolitan style pizza:
Nicle

Bibo

Campagnolo

All excellent.
And then there are the Porchetta sandwiches joints.
Pronto

Meat and Bread

I say bring it on. I think there should be a pizza place and a porchetta joint next to every Starbucks in town.
In fact, let's combine the two - porchetta thin crust pizza, OMG.
I'm going to grab takeout Pizza Margereta from Nicli, walk the block and a half to Meat and Bread, grab a pound of porchetta,  find a doorway in Gastown and dig in. I don't care that the guy next to me is smoking crack or that the doorway smells like piss, I'm having my porchetta pizza, this is my crack, leave me the fuck alone.
Six months from now when you find me in a Gastown gutter weighing 300 pounds caked in pork fat and cloths stained with tomato sauce hallucinating about pork skin, still chasing the high of the very first luscious crackling pork skin in my sandwich, please pick me up, slap me senseless, throw me in a shower and drive me to Jenny Craig.

Making the Sandwich

Yes, the Porchetta at Meat and Bread is that good.
There’s a bunch of other stuff on the menu, but if I were to visit 100 times I still wouldn’t care about them. I’m sure it’s all very good though but at the end of the day how can you compete with porchetta. And also, buy a jar of their homemade mustard, there is nothing like it anywhere, trust me.

Bacon maple syrup ice cream sandwich:

Van Mags best things to eat in Vancouver 2011

Very light on the maple, nice Smokey salty goodness when you come across a a chunk of bacon.

Bacon Maple Ice Cream

It seems another trend is to throw bacon into everything. Not a bad idea generally speaking but in the end I’m not sure if I would order it again, Its ok, perhaps I am more of an ice cream traditionalist.

Brave the crowds pray for a seat and do yourself a favour, grab a porchetta sandwich at Meat and Bread.

In case anyone was counting I wrote porchetta 8 times...9 times.

Zakos Deli. No way VanMag!

Really?? Van Mags Best Things to Eat and Drink in Vancouver.

No Way! Are the people at Van Mag insane? Read this:
" As close as you can get to experiencing Schwartz's in Montreal without boarding a plane"

I've been to Schwartz's and Zakos's isn’t  even close. BTW, just out of coincidence Follow me Foodie just posted a blog on Schwartz this week. Check out the photos and compare. My god, no comparison.



There is no soul at Zako's. OK, the smoked meat is pretty good, but the Sandwich is sloppy, there's no TLC.
In the end it's just a very average sandwich. The best smoked meat in the lower mainland, which I've had so far (happy to take recommendations because I probably won't be going back to Zako's) is at Estrellas in Langley. They get their meat from Montreal as well but they tend to give a damn. Check both out and you'll feel and taste the difference.
I'm looking forward to one day trying locally produced "Montreal Smoked Meat". I'm surprised no one in Vancouver is doing this. And if you are please let me know.



halloween cookie



Cafe Medina

   

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Olive Tapenade



I'm a big fan of Chambar Belgian restaurant. It's been my long standing pre - restaurant. Meaning it’s the go to place pre game, pre theatre, downtown outing. When I crave mussels and fries, Chambar has the best in the city. Cafe Medina is Chambers’ sister restaurant next door. Were Chambar is open for dinner only Cafe Medina is open for breakfast lunch brunch and special events. A nice fit.
You can certainly tell that the same hand is in on the menu chef and owner Nico Schuermans has a certain distinguishable touch. Outside of mussel frites and waffles and beer I am painfully ignorant of Belgian cuisine but here as with Chambar there is a distinctively Moroccan fusion and west coast style.
I had the, Canard confit
Duck confit, sour cherry compote, brie, anjou pears an pecan raison sourdough. Watercress and caramelized pecans.

When I ordered I didn't know that it was a sandwich. But I was pleasantly surprised because I love almost anything between two pieces of bread. The canard sandwich was flavourful, sweat and totally hit the spot and BTW paired beautifully with my apricot beer.
My dining companion (DC) had the Paella.

Duck

Paella
Baked egg, curried orzo, Hungarian chorizo, zucchini, red pepper, roasted corn, grana padano. Watercress, tomatoes, avocado.

Unfortunatly she came away unimpressed, primarily because she didn't read the small print, orzo pealle, not rice, she was looking for rice and the dish never rebounded, she ate half before giving up.

DC Wei looked like she got the prize, the fricassee was phenomenal, and I had some.

2 eggs, braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, arugula and smoked applewood cheddar. Grilled foccacia.

Fricassee

Fricassee in this case is French for short rib hash and it’s a standout everything comes together. I would wait in line for this one.

Definitely check cafe medina out for brunch lunch or whenever it's open.

Trilussa Pizza and Pane

Trilussa is a small main street eat-in take-out wood oven pizza joint. It bills itself as Roman pizza and makes their pizzas in these long oval boat shapes with thin crust. There are a whole shwack of different flavors on display just point and they’ll cut a 3, 5 or 7 inch piece for you. Cool concept, I've never seen anything like it before and I love pizza and have seen alotta pizza and have eaten alotta pizza so this Roman is kind of confusing because the last time I was in Rome the pizzas were all on display in these big rectangular pans and the dough was decidedly thick. But then the liberal use of the term Roman Pizza is my only criticism of Trilussa. The place is casual comfortable and the pizza is fantastic crispy chewy crust, great toppings and lots of soft gooey cheese. I'm adding Trilussa to my favorite pizza list especially for a quick lunchtime stop.

Belle's on 32 , the coffee shop

I don't need to go back.
Belle’s is a nice enough place, a country coffee shop kind of feel, a Martha Stewart Living wanna be but more likely designed my Marsha, Martha’s less talented second cousin.
I think my biggest issue with Belle's are the Panini sandwiches. Belle’s advertises that they make everything from scratch but then they serve this really bad panini bread and its not just Belle's that does this I've noticed other restaurants use this same bread this flat oval ultra white "Panini " bread. The colour and the thickness of this bread scares me it doesn’t seem natural it just seams wrong. Don’t even get me started on the grill marks. What's wrong with using good quality bread in your Panini’s? Here's my rule of thumb; if you wouldn't eat the bread without it being grilled then why use it at all?
Maybe I'm blinded by the bread issue maybe Belle's serves something of quality? To be fair the apple tart was tasty. OK, I'd go back for the tart. I'd sit in Marsha’s comfortable faux country design cafe have a latte eat my tart turn my back to the order counter and try not to think of white  Panini bread.
Who am I kidding, I can't get the damn bread off of my mind!

BTW, Belle’s also has a full service restaurant right next door to the café. I’m curious. I’ll let you know.