It's been awhile, Foodies! There's been a lot going on for me recently and I mean A LOT!

1) I have recently been hired to work for Aritzia

2) There is only ONE MONTH left until the opening of my cabaret

With all this keeping me busy, it has been difficult to post on the regular. WORRY NOT, I'M BACK!

My older cousin is in town for the weekend for a business trip so my brother and I decided to have breakfast with him in Gastown before we headed to work. We decided on Deacon's Corner.

I've actually read about this place, especially on Facebook, and have been waiting to try their funky sandwiches such as a macaroni and cheese sandwich that I saw on Facebook.

101 Main Street, Vancouver, BC

The store is diner styled and had quite the variety of breakfast items to choose from. Some were the classics kind of breakfast but there were a lot of interesting dishes like the Carolina Pulled Pork & Pancake.

I decided on the Southern biscuits, sausage, and eggs. It came with two house made buttermilk biscuits, 3 sausage patties, country gravy, has browns, and three eggs of your style (of course I choose classic scrambled w/ cheese).

It was good, but I can't really expect so much from a diner. The eggs were quite basic, nothing too special. The hash browns were sort of bland, could've used more crunch or maybe seasoning. The sausage was actually pretty good. It was surprisingly spicy. The gravy was not bad, but it tasted too non-homemade. I actually expected the biscuits to be softer and more fluffy, but this was not the case. It had a similar consistency as a bagel, which was weird too me (I'm not that much for a biscuit eater).

Southern biscuits, sausage and eggs - $10.95

Everything on that dish was pretty acceptable. Though it wasn't the most amazing dish I've ever had, it was not bad! In fact, it's better than many of the diners i've been to in New York. I'm pretty sure that Deacon's Corner is more famous for their interesting sandwiches rather than their actual breakfast. I am definitely coming back to try those cool dishes! 

"I went to a restaurant that serves "breakfast at any time" so I ordered French toast during the Renaissance."

-Steven Wright

There is nothing I like more than a line-up of unique food trucks! If you foodies of Vancouver don't know by now, Lonsdale Quay holds a weekly night market on Fridays from 5PM-10PM, which hosts a number of amazing food trucks. Not only that, but they also have many little shops that sell jewelry, clothes, and other handmade products.

As part of this celebration, my girlfriend and I have decided to attempt on trying different food trucks every Friday! Hooray exploration!

For our first taste, we went straight to dessert at Funnel Cakes. Not necessarily a food truck, but a food stand, Funnel Cakes specialize on... you guessed it... FUNNEL CAKES!

If you didn't know, a funnel cake is basically deep fried dough. It had sort of a donut-y taste. It was really good. I ordered the Traditional Funnel Cake, which was drizzled with icing sugar and cinnamon. It was sooo good. It was a little bit soft an chewy much like a donut and sometimes crunchy like some kind of sweet chips.

Traditional Funnel Cake - $5

After walking around trying to decide which actual food truck I should try first, we finally decided to try Ze Bite, which specialize in French food.

It's supposedly "A taste of France in one bite!"

We ordered the Ze Français. It was surprisingly REALLY good. It had a simple recipe of lettuce, ham, dijon mustard, and goat cheese, but it was actually kinda unique. It was the actual bread itself that was a game changer. It was soft and delicate. I'm not really sure what it was, but it looked like an overcooked crepe.

Ze Français - $8.50

Finally, we went to Taser Grilled Cheese. This wasn't really a food truck, but it was a food stand. They specialized in (obviously) grilled cheese!

Unfortunately, they didn't have that large of a menu, but each dish looked very interesting.

We ordered the So Gouda. It was made with smoked bacon and caramelized apples surrounded by gooey melted gouda cheese. This was very delicious too. This was my first time ever trying apples in a savory dish. Its sweetness surprisingly complimented the grilled cheese and it made me want more!

So Gouda - $7

Overall, for our first time visiting the Lonsdale Quay Night Market, we were pretty impressed. There was a number of food trucks to choose from and each were very unique. I am excited to visit this place again to try a different dish!

"Statistics show that of those who contract the habit of eating, very few survive"

-George Bernard Shaw

Happy Belated Father's Day!

For Father's Day brunch, we went to Pier 7, a restaurant and bar on Lonsdale Quay's Shipyard and Pier area.

The outside was modern looking and slick. Its location is really nice. It is right in front of the water, so the view was amazing. 

As nice as its location was, the menu was disappointingly small. It was somewhat pricey as well.

I got a Classic Caesar. It tasted pretty good. A great way to start the morning!

Classis Caesar - $8

For a starter, we ordered a Crispy Calamari. One word: terrible. Thee first thing my whole family agreed on was that it was way too salty. It was as if they had old calamari in the kitchen, re-seasoned it, re-fried it, and served it to us.

Really, it was THAT bad. At least that's what we thought.

Crispy Calamari - $12

I ordered the Ahi Tuna Club. It's seared rare ahi tuna, bacon, ranch, and fries. It wasn't too bad, but it was in the bland side. Drenching it with ketchup really boosted the taste though. I wasn't very impressed.

The fries weren't too bad. They were actually pretty good. Some were soggy (the good kind of soggy) and some were quite crispy. No complaints there! Maybe just a tad bit more salt.

Ahi Tuna Club - $16

My mom, my sister, and my uncle ordered the Pier7 Burger. It had aged cheddar, crispy bacon, garlic aioli with fries. I didn't really try it, but it didn't seem to impress my family's taste buds. It was quite basic and having it as the restaurant's "signature dish" was disappointing.

Pier7 Burger - $16

 Giving this restaurant another chance, we tried their Pan Fried Dungeness Crab Cake. Served with garlic aioli, this dish was actually pretty good. The crisp edges of the cake complimented the creamy sauce it was served with.

Pan Fried Dungeness Crab Cake - $15

Overall, I wasn't to impressed. In fact, I was extremely disappointed with everything about this restaurant. With its location, I had high hopes and expectations about the place. The food wasn't great, the service was slow (extremely slow), and we even found hair in my step dad's food that we had to turn it away. If it wasn't so expensive, I would've been a bit more lenient, but the fact that this could be classified as somewhat a formal restaurant, it was a huge disappointment. 

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."

-George Herbert

ADVENTURE!

Today was awesome! I climbed the Chief in Squamish with my two friend's, Ryan and Jeremy. We literally hiked for 3.5 hours just to climb up 700+ miles of mountain. 

Throughout the entire hike, the trail would change from being a nice, flat trail to open areas and rocky climbs.

There were even epic points of the trail where holding on to a chain was necessary to aid you up the side of huge rock faces.

After an hour and a half of climbing, we finally made it to the top of the Second Peak, which was 655m tall! It's amazing to think that it only took 1.5hrs to climb the mountain from the very bottom to the top!

Due to Ryan's kindness and generosity, I was able to enjoy this amazing Vietnamese Sub. It was a little cold, but after a hike like that, ANYTHING would've tasted amazing. Not to say that the sandwich on it's own would be an delicious dish. It was enough to hit the spot for us to move on to the next peak.

On the way to the Third Peak, we saw a group of people, I'm not to sure what the actual name of the activity is, but swinging. Think of it like bungee jumping but in a swimming motion. It was really intense.

This was the view from the Third Peak. It was not as great as the Second Peak, but it was still breath taking.

and... here my friend Ryan being artsy.

Overall, that was an awesome hike and a delicious sandwich. Hopefully this will be a weekly or every 2 weeks kind of event.

"Stop and look"

-Anonymous

THIS WEEK HAS BEEN SUNNY AND BEAUTIFUL!

This sandwich wasn't anything special. Just a plain old sandwich with whole wheat toast, chicken mixed some mayonnaise and onions, and lettuce. It was quick and easy to make. Nothing too fancy!

But the best part about eating this sandwich was being able to enjoy it outside in the calm and sunny weather. The weather in Vancouver has been amazing recently: hot and sunny in the day and warm and breezy in the night. Just awesome!

Just to add for an update to my life:

1) My buddy Juan and I are organizing a cabaret for charity around August 9! It should be hilarious and entertaining.

2) I now work for American Eagle Outfitters in Park Royal. Hooray job!

That's basically the main things going on in my life. Until next time foodies!

"Sandwiches are wonderful. You don't need a spoon or a plate!"

-Paul Lynde

Continuing the bar hopping from the other day with my friend Ryan, I had forgotten that I wasn't in New York anymore and was reminded of how early restaurant close in Vancouver.

We walked for about 45 minutes around downtown Vancouver to look ANY open restaurant. We were desperate! It was a miracle when we found Guu's Kobachi.

735 Denman Street, Vancouver

When I saw the menu, it reminded me of Guu's menu and unique Japanese-styled food. It came as a surprise that with further research that this place was actually a branch of Guu! Everything they had on their menu was so unique and looked delicious.

But before we ordered food, we started with Sake. We spent so much at Raglan's Bistro that we felt kinda cheap so we bought the cheapest sake.

We had Gekkeikan sake served hot. Usually for sake, its served either cold or hot. It wasn't bad, it went down actually pretty well.

Gekkeikan - $5

For tapas, we decided on Black Calamari. It's basically calamari marinated with squid ink. It was pleasantly tasty! The dip it had was also an ink based sauce. It was sweet with a little hint of tomato. Yum!

This item was actually on their Friday special menu. So make sure you're there on a Friday to try this awesome dish!

Black Calamari - $8.20

 The final thing we ordered was the Beef Curry Poutine. It was slow stewed beef tendon curry with french fries and cheese melt. Since we were in a rush, we had to inhale these bad boys. It was served in one of those sizzling bowls. The great part about this was the curry seasoning. Apparently poutine was the theme of the night.

Beef Curry Poutine - $7.80

Overall, I had a great experience in Kobachi! The food was delicious and cheap (only spent about $21), the employees were very welcoming, and the atmosphere was fun. I would definitely come back here, next time with my family! A place like this is definitely a place my family would enjoy.

"It is the man who drinks the first bottle of saké; then the second bottle drinks the first, and finally it is the saké that drinks the man."

-Japanese Proverb

It's good to be legal. My best friend Ryan and I went to Raglan's Bistro to grab some drinks and food after watching Sentinel Secondary School's Cabaret.

I ordered a Hurricane of Shipwrecked. I don't exactly remember what was in it, but it was great. It had a taste of carbonated raspberry, it was really girly, but delish!

Shipwrecked - Hurricane - $14.95

Finally... the food! We ordered the Pulled Pork Poutine. It was a basic poutine with aged cheddar and gravy, but the twist is the sweet and tender pulled pork. Delicious!

Pulled Pork Poutine - $12

The final thing we got was a Double Cheese N' Chicken Quesadillas. It was pretty basic. It wasn't anything special, in fact, I probably wouldn't order it again. For its price, I would've been better off with another poutine.

Double Cheese n' Chicken Quesadillas - $12

Overall, it was awesome! The drink was great and so was the poutine, but unfortunately, the quesadillas was only mediocre. Ryan and I definitely enjoyed ourselves and the atmosphere of the place at 12AM was awesome.

"If life gives you lemons, make margaritas"

-Anonymous

Hello Foodies! I am finally back in Vancouver for the rest of the summer.

For my first homemade meal, my mother decided to do Korean food. From scratch, she made a Korean dish called Bibimbap. It had egg, seaweed, sweet meat, kimchi, rice, and other ingredients that I do not remember (oops, I should've payed attention!).

It was really good. Before you serve it, you mix it while it is still hot in the bowl. It becomes some sort of fried-rice-like dish. It was amazing. I haven't had homemade asian food in FOREVER!

The second meat dish my mother made was called Jaeyukbokeum (according to my Korean friend). It's a really interesting burst of spicy and sweet. The meat is really thin so it melted in your mouth. It was amazing!

At the end of the day, there is nothing better than a Mother's cooking. After eating cafeteria food and take out all month, it feels good to get back in the groove of eating homemade food.

"I have come to the conclusion that just as the Japanese live to work, Asians live to eat."

-Anastacia Oaikhena

My last couple of weeks have been insane. I've been extremely busy with finals, packing, moving back home, and working at the SoHo International Film Festival. From days where I had to wake up at 9AM to begin work to nights that ended at 5AM to begin sleeping for the next class, my life has been hectic. Finally after finishing all my final papers, I found the time to rest and go out to spend my last real meal in New York City.

My roommates, Josh and Eli, and I went to Brother Jimmy's BBQ for an All-You-Can-Eat-Feast. The feast included unlimited Northern or Southern ribs for a maximum of two hours.

1485 2nd Ave, New York, NY, 10075

The place had an awesome atmosphere. There was a huge range of people eating here. From families to single people looking for a fun night at the bar. They had really interesting decors such as ski ball machines and pin ball machines.

Since we knew were were going to go to an all you can eat feast, we starved ourselves a bit. We were SO hungry!

So we had ordered the Brother Jimmy's BBQ (HUMONGOUS) Nachos. It had chips, BBQ beans, cheese, sour cream, salsa & guacamole served with pulled pork. It was the most amazing batch of nachos I've had in New York. The chips were perfectly baked and the mass amount of topics just somehow, weirdly enough blended so well together. From the picture, it looks medium sized, but when I saw it in person, I could tell why they labelled it HUMONGOUS.

Brother Jimmy's BBQ (HUMONGOUS) Nachos - $14.50

You can tell by the look on Eli's face that this was a very special moment.

Finally the All-You-Can-Eat Rib Feast arrived. You had the choice of two types of ribs: Northern and Southern. It comes with cornbread and 2 extra sides. It also comes with a special discount for drafts of bud or Bud Light for $2 each.

These ribs were so nicely charred in the grill and it tasted delicious. It was so well cooked. You know its cooked when the meat just slides off the bone like hot butter. Just writing about this post makes me hungry for more ribs.

The two sides I ordered were regular fries and mac and cheese. They weren't anything special, but the mac and cheese was actually pretty good.

After this first batch, we had one more batch and we had no choice but to call our defeat. It was just too much to handle. This entire plate was already too much for one person, but TWO plates? That's enough for a beast.

All-You-Can-Eat Rib Feast - $19.95

Overall, this place had amazing ribs and delicious side dishes. I would actually go back here to try some of their BBQ dishes like a pulled pork sandwich. This place is actually priced really well for the amount of food you're getting. Especially their daily specials.

I consider this to be my last supper in New York City. Eating here with my two best friends was the best way to finally say goodbye to this beautiful city. So long New York, I will miss you.

I can't wait to go back to Vancouver. It's been much too long.

"I have never let my schooling interfere with my barbecue"

-Mark Twain

Hello foodies,

I have made a major change to my blog. I have changed my official blog name from Vancouver Foodie to Norg Eats. Let me explain my reasoning behind this.

As a college student in NYC I would be spending half my year in the city and the other half in Vancouver itself. Being "Vancouver Foodie" I thought it was a great name because I was from Vancouver, but this could get many people confused. I might mislead them to think that I am posting restaurants that are in Vancouver, but in reality, I am posting about those of New York.

I thought that Norg Eats is a great new name for my blog because of its simplicity and its personality. Many of you already know me as Norg and many of you know me as a foodie. So there you have it, I created "Norg Eats". I am still the travel/food/experience blog that I once was, so tag along and continue following me for more food adventures!

"I love you all"

-Norg

My roommates, Josh, works at an apparently famous burger restaurant called Bare Burger (514 3rd Ave). They have amazing food here, especially (you guessed it) their burgers. Everything is free-range and organic. But what got my attention were the choices of unique meats for your burger.

You were able to choose from the regular burger patty to something exotic like bison, wild boar, or even ostrich! And for those who are vegetarian, they have a veggie menu. They even have quinoa burgers, which sounds amazing and healthy.

I went to the restaurant with my roommate, Eli and my friends Kim and Kendall to surprise our other friend Josh at work.

Eli and Kim started with a House Made Lemonade, which had a nice zest taste and was very refreshing.

House Made Lemonade - $2.95

I also really their decorations and table setting as well. It had a nice rustic feeling to it that gave the perfect atmosphere for the restaurant.

Kendall and I ordered a Bare Shake. She got a chocolate flavored one and I got peanut butter. Compared to Shake Shack's famous shakes, this peanut butter shake was a close competitor. It was sweet and delicious, but it wasn't as smooth as one from Shake Shack. This is still something I'd order again though.

12oz Bare Shake (Gluten Free) - $4.95

Finally, I ordered the Western. It was basically a multigrain bun with smoked mozzarella, country bacon, house-made Carolina slaw, and smokehouse sauce topped with crispy spicy pickle spear. I had it with bison meat. It was really delicious and extremely heavy to eat. I really like how they do the bacon here, it's not like a grocery bought bacon, but it had more of a ham-like consistency. The pickle spears were really tasty as well where it added a nice sour and crunchy flavor in the burger.

Along with the burger, I had a side of Bareburger Onion Rings, which were delicious as well. Its batter was well seasoned and it wasn't too salty, but salty enough to make you want more.

Western - $11.65 + Bareburger Onion Rings $4.95

Overall, this place is a great restaurant for EVERYONE. There is something for meat lovers and tree huggers and that something most definitely delicious. The burgers here are definitely more unique than those of Shake Shack or anywhere where I've been to so far and the amount of choices you have is what gives its appeal. For a place like this, I recommend that you step out of your comfort zone and just try something crazy. You never know, you might even like ostrich meat!

"I still eat a burger at a counter with ketchup dripping down my face"

-Scarlett Johansson

This weekend, after finally getting my Starbucks Goldcard, I wanted to splurge in Starbucks.

I bought a Chicken BLT Salad Sandwich. 

Finding it in the cold sandwiches area, I didn't expect to taste anything special. I was actually surprised of how decent this actually tasted. It was really stuffed and filling. I would actually go back to have another sandwich. It's not to kill for, but it's actually pretty good.

I also grabbed a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino.

This flavor of frappuccino was the best flavor I've ever had (except for a custom frapp a friend made me in Vancouver). This was really sweet and extremely caramel-y! The best part was the crunchy topping.

I'm not one to get frappuccinos in Starbucks, but never have I regret the decision to buy one!

"I've always thought legal addictions are a great way to create a business. Starbucks is a wonderful example."

-Nolan Bushnell

Yesterday afternoon, my Freshman BFA Acting class went on a pot luck in Central Park.

It was beautiful yesterday! It was hot and sunny.

Funny enough, this is the first time I've really hung out in Central Park. To think that having lived here for a good school year, I'd actually hang out in the famous Central Park more often than none.

I mean, look how beautiful it was! I'm still amazed.

After walking around for a good half hour, we found a great area to set up our picnic.

We set up our blankets and enjoyed the sun.

Then came the food! Kim brought empanadas from Empanada Mama, which were absolutely delicious! She got 10 chicken empanadas, 5 pernils (which were like shredded pork), and 5 cheese. Cassidy brough chips and starburst. Randi brought fancy sparkling juices and chips & guac/hummus. Emma brought popcorn. Josh made pasta with pesto sauce. Kendall bought adorable mini cupcakes. Finally, I made homemade Oreo Truffles.

Kendall's cupcakes were really good and fun to eat. It's bite-size cuteness made it pretty to look at.

These were my homemade Oreo truffles. The recipe is a secret as of now. Maybe I'll make a post about its recipe. Yum yum!

Unfortunately, the sun came in and out. Damn clouds!

After 3.5 hours of munching and talking, this mess was born.

At the end of the day, this day was a successful gathering. This was the first time the class had gathered together and the company was perfect. I definitely look forward to more events like this!

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

-Marcel Proust