From greasy spoon breakfast to baked kale, with an ice cream stop along the way.

First of all, can I just say that I got a new phone? Well, new to me; my sweetie had an extra one that had belonged to a friend, and he passed it on to me, knowing that I've been frustrated by my old phone's terrible camera. I took myself down to International Village Mall today to get a sleeve for it, and found myself walking through the aisles at Yokoyaya, because I find it so charming. I know I should be horrified by all the over-packaging, and I am, but...

There is something so charming about it, something that our western dollar stores lack entirely. Everything in Yokoyaya is- and I don't mean to sound patronizing here but I probably do - adorable. I guess it's the charm of the exotic, but also the beautiful colours and orderliness. When my life feels chaotic, I walk through Yokoyaya and think If only I had stacks of plastic lunch boxes, packages of sweet chopsticks and a box of perfect, tiny hairpins, my life would be so much better. 










But before my downtown excursion, there was Bon's Off Broadway. 

Look at this place! It's totally badass. Bon's has a grungy appeal. The walls are graffiti'd. You help yourself to coffee after the first serving. The place is packed- why? Because the basic breakfast is still $2.95, for god's sake! Jay and I both went for it. The portions were generous- no skimping here. 
My bacon was cooked just the way I like it and my potatoes were delicious, and had obviously been made from scratch rather than been poured out of a McCain's bag. Eggs and rye toast rounded out the plate. 

Jay had less-than-fond memories of Bon's but after this morning's feast he had to admit that it was better than he'd remembered. Look at this face- I think this man is enjoying his breakfast, don't you? Plus they basted his eggs, which many places don't (or won't) do. 

I'd definitely recommend Bon's over our other cheapo breakfast haunt, Reno's. The food is better and you can't beat the price! 

On my way home from downtown, I decided to go back to another place that Jay and I had checked out recently: Rooster's Ice Cream Bar, which is located dangerously close to where I live, on east Broadway. Apparently they had to open quite late in the summer, due to the fact that they had to do a lot of work on the property before they opened. Hopefully we'll have a warm autumn, so that they have a chance to make some good money before the cold and rain set in. 

The food blogger over at Nosh & Nibble gave these guys a good, comprehensive review last month, but I will add my two cents here: these guys make yummy ice cream! Definitely more down-to-earth and less hipster-precious than Earnest Ice Cream, this is home-made ice cream, east van style. 

Flavours on Parade.

On my first visit I had the coffee-toffee-chocolate crunch. The owner anxiously asked if the coffee flavour was strong enough, and I assured her that it was. It tasted like a lovely, milky cafe au lait. However, I was a little disappointed in the lack of crunch going on. I'm someone who likes good, thick chunks of stuff in my ice cream, and these guys seem to be a little more subtle. However, they make up for it with flavour: not only was my coffee ice cream delicious, but Jay had a real winner: a daring combination of avocado, honey, and vodka! It was nothing short of amazing. Bonus: he liked mine better, so we traded cones when we were about 2/3rds through. I love that man.

Today I had the raspberry cheese cake. Again, I found the cheesecake bits to be too small for me to really get the texture, but the raspberry flavour was wonderful. Looks as though these guys have some new additions to the menu coming this fall, so they'll certainly keep me coming back.

Of course, I can't eat like this all the time. People ask me: "how can you eat all this rich, delicious food and still keep your amazing figure?" (Actually, no one says that at all. Although I do eat out too much, I eat healthy meals at home a lot. And because I enjoy food, my figure certainly isn't without its extra curves.) 

But I digress. I was pretty self-indulgent today, so my evening meal was nothing more than a big bowl of home-made kale chips. I cannot believe how much companies charge for bags of these treats, so I never buy them. You can make them at home in under 15 minutes. Jay had bought me a big bunch of kale from the Kitsilano farmers market, so I washed it, ripped it up, patted it dry, and threw it in the oven for about 15 minutes at 325, tossed in a little olive oil, parmesan cheese, and salt. Delicious. Although I'd better not smile at anyone tonight; my teeth are probably covered in flecks of un-sexy green. 

Bon's Off Broadway is located at 2451 Nanaimo Street, Vancouver. 

Rooster's Ice Cream Bar is located at 1039 East Broadway 

The PNE: All My Food Is Brown

You know the PNE, right? That shameless, sweaty, noisy, crowded fair. Greasy food. Minidonuts!Minidonuts!Minidonuts! A whole building dedicated to the kinds of things you usually see being shilled on late-night informercials. Balding has-been nostalgia acts competing with adorable performing dogs for your time and attention. Rides that make you dizzy and terrified.

As you may have guessed, I'm a little bit cynical about the PNE.

Pure terror. 

But I went, after a 7-year hiatus, because my guy was working there this week, and because one of my best friends works at the Agrodome and she gave me 2 free passes for helping to judge some 4H displays. So picture this: my boyfriend arrives home, exhausted and unwashed from a week of chaperoning 4H kids, and I drag his ass... right back to the PNE. What a champ. Hey, he had some food vouchers to use up. First stop: Cheyenne Coffee. My guy had been such a regular all week that he got his Americano on the house! And my cappuccino was pretty tasty too.

On to Waffles With Benefits, which Jay had been raving about all week long, for a late breakfast. Now here's the thing: every time- and I mean EVERY time- I have a sweet breakfast as opposed to a savoury one, I regret it. It's like that person you have a fling with... and it's not that fun... but you try again because you think you should be enjoying it more... But they're still not doin' it for ya. Sweet stuff has its place, but for me, the first meal of the day needs to be savoury. So clearly, chicken-and-waffles was the way to go. 

My first chicken-and-waffles ever! It seemed a fitting meal to have at the fair, where everything is deep-fried. 

Photo courtesy of Jay.

I have to say, it was an experience. The chicken was delicious: breaded and deep-fried (of course), lightly drizzled with syrup and sandwiched between two crisp waffles with a side of gravy. I poured the gravy on liberally and set to.

I'd say it was a pretty good experience overall, and certainly not bad at all for a fair ; the gravy was a bit tasteless but the slight drizzle of syrup was a nice contrasting touch. As for the waffles- well, I guess I'm still uneasy about them: they are an excellent vehicle for conveying as much syrup and gravy (or fruit puree or Nutella or whatever) to your mouth as possible, but when it comes to eating fried chicken, a nice crusty bun would have served better, in my opinion. But that's just me, and WWB is not to blame. 

Fast-forward through various fair-related activities involving farm animals (get your mind out of the gutter) and it's time for ice cream. Casa Gelato had a truck there, but we decided to give Rocky Point Ice Cream a try. So glad we did, especially considering they're way out in Port Moody, whereas I can have Casa Gelato's stuff any old time. RP had the old standbys like chocolate, and the de rigueur hipster flavours of Salted Caramel and Maple Bacon. Now, I love the sweet/salty thing, and I'm super glad it's trendy these days, but life- and ice cream- should be about variety. I was tempted by the Honey-Lavender ice cream and the Lemon-Basil sorbetto, but eventually I ordered a double scoop: Raspberry-Lime-Mojito sorbetto & Blackberry-Sage ice cream. 

Did I quail when I saw the enormous size of my cone? Only a little. Jay decided to be daring and try their featured beer ice cream of the day: Yellow Dog's smoked porter. I urged him to try a sample first, but he scoffed. "I don't believe in samples", he said airily, and reached eagerly for his large helping of beer ice cream. 

The sweet/tart sorbetto was lovely. I am a sucker for all things lime, so this was a no-brainer. Pour some white rum on this baby, and it would have been an instant cocktail. But the blackberry-sage was a revelation: the sweet fruit and woody sage balanced by smooth creaminess. Both my scoops had large, delicious chunks of herb leaf in them (mint in the mojito one of course, and fuzzy sage in the blackberry sage one). This might sound weird, but it was fantastic. 

And how did Jay fare with the porter ice cream? Damn, that was some ice cream. Very beery, with a hint of effervescence, it would have paired excellently with chocolate cake. Although I thought it would be a bad idea, and since I don't like beer I wouldn't have gone for it, I was proved wrong. Deliciously wrong. I notice that Rocky Point has more interesting flavours on their website, so if you're in Port Moody go and check them out for me! 

As the evening approached, we retired to the beer tent for a while, then got closer to the Chevrolet Stage to get down to Barney Bentall and the Legendary Hearts. Here again, my cynicism was proved groundless. Over at the packed Amphitheatre the Beach Boys might have been lumbering through their Brian Wilson-less show*, but on our smaller stage Barney and his band were killin' it, and looking genuinely happy to be there. 

Finally, it was time to wrap things up. I was craving a bit more food before we left, though, so I had some tasty fried rice balls from Roaming Dragon that left me wanting more, and mac-and-cheese from Reel Mac and Cheese that wasn't bad but needed more cheese and less, um, non-cheese (flour, maybe?) in their sauce.**

Then, of course, it was time to celebrate the day's end with a fairground classic: the deep-fried Mars Bar. Of which I can only say that not all things should be encased in doughy batter. The warm, gooey chocolate bar? Thumbs up. The stodgy batter? (Greasy) thumbs way down. 

And so ended my very nice day at the PNE, wherein I discovered that if you avoid the places that are trying to sell you something, and stick to the agriculture buildings, the concerts, and the food-greasy or otherwise- it is possible to have a good time after all. 

*I should say that while the Beach Boys don't appeal to me without Brian Wilson's mad genius, I hope they put on a good show and I'm sure many good folks enjoyed it a lot. But Barney was a better choice. 

** We were at the PNE for basically the whole day, so I wasn't quite as greedy as this post makes me seem. Okay, maybe I was.