Was It The Michael Phelps Diet? Or the Water in Eureka?

I’m sure that most of you that read my blog know that I have this propensity to go for broke when I eat. Some kid that I’m “eating for two” or three or even ten. In fact, in my last few food challenges (like the Burritozilla, Beth’s 12 Egg Omelette, Pho Garden Challenge and the Fraiche Triple Slider Challenge) I’d often remark that it looked like I’d been “knocked up” after tackling such ginormous portions.

Many of these extra calories were consumed during a road trip back from the US with Kelly. I flew down to San Jose in late October to meet her and the two of us made our way home through the coast of California, Oregon and Washington. Between food challenges we hit a lot of interesting places like Napa Valley for its Wine and Eureka because I wanted to see if it was anything like the TV Show with the same name. Sadly, no.

What I didn’t realize was that many of these things (my knocked up appearance, the major amounts of extra calories consumed) was simply foreshadowing for something else that would change our lives forever.

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ASUS Sends an Early Xmas Gift

Today I got a package from ASUS, those guys that make netbooks and motherboards. Since I’ve gotten packages in the past from companies like ASUS, I thought this was just another piece of hardware that was in need of reviewing. We do often get things just showing up on our doorstep and I was just going to toss it into the pile to check out after Xmas till I opened it up and saw that it was just a little more special than what we normally come across.

The package was stacked five tiers tall and held together with an elaborate bow. It was like one of those fancy wedding cakes. The bow was topped off with a snowflake encrusted with sparkles. I know that ASUS has been experimenting with the unboxing experience with some of their products but nothing this elaborate. Could it be a prototype EeePC or maybe a new media player, cellphone or piece of hardware? I was excited.

I took the bow off and saw that it consisted of five boxes of different sizes. I was leaning towards it being a new cellphone because obviously we need boxes for a charger, case and probably other accessories. Since BC is cracking down on driving and cellphone use, maybe it was an assortment of ASUS’ latest cellphone gadgets?

I started with the smallest box and found some chocolates inside from Cheryl&Co, makers of high end gourmet brownies, cakes and fancy cookies, including seasonal cut-out cookies topped with a signature buttercream frosting. So of course, being me, I eat them and move on. But as I moved on, it revealed more and more tasty treats from Cheryl&Co but no gadgets. Hmm…

So here I am surrounded by some tasty treats. In fact, a quick look at the Cheryl&Co website revealed that this little slice of dessert/cookie heaven was in the $49 buck price range. This definitely isn’t your typical COSTCO gift box of miscellaneous Xmas biscuits. Since I’m a bit of a connoisseur of all things edible I have to say that I’m quite taken back by just how tasty these high end treats are. Someone from ASUS was definitely reading my blog and knew how to butter up this Editor In Chief. More pics of this gift pack after the jump if you have a huge sweet tooth like me.

So as I’m sitting here stuffing my face with cookies, I’d like to take this chance to wish everyone Happy Holidays and  I hope that all your Xmas Wishes come true. Now go make me proud and demolish that Xmas Turkey, Stuffing and Ham

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Stephen Fung vs. Fraiche’s Full Sized Burger Slider and Fries Challenge

This past Wednesday I battled traffic all the way out to the North Shore mountains to sample a burger created by the culinary minds at Fraiche Restaurant. This restaurant, nestled amongst the treetops is located in the heart of suburbia in West Vancouver. In fact, I didn’t even realize you could put a restaurant this far into a residential area. I guess even the Uber Rich get peckish after a long day of mergers and acquisitions. Of course, a 7-11 simply won’t do.

So, after having a morning business meeting in Coquitlam, I ventured off to meet up with John Chow and Ed Lau to take on this new gourmet burger on the block. As you are well aware, I’m no stranger to gourmet burgers. Both the late great Feenie Burger and it’s less decadent replacement, the dB Burger have fallen victim to my voracious appetite.

Fraiche Restaurant’s take on the gourmet burger starts with an 8oz organic beef patty. They then add truffle pecorino, foie gras butter, caramelized onions to the mixed followed by pancetta, and a side of house-made fries with sea salt. Without the Foie Gras or the Poutine Fries, it clearly isn’t as decadent as the late great Feeenie Burger, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction.

Since we never do anything normal, I ended up ordering three of them, making it into a Fraiche Restaurant Full Sized Slider Challenge! Check out the video below to see me take down three of Fraiche’s finest!

As many of you are aware John Chow likes to bet and win and he bet me that I couldn’t eat all three burgers which was the original challenge. After realizing how stupid that was, he said I had to eat a side of fries, which I was OK with. The chefs put more than THREE sides of fries on that plate as you can see in relation to the single order picture above. The extra fries were purely for bragging rights and you always order your sliders with a side of fries. He did everything possible to stop me by trying to add more fries to my plate. Luckily there were witnesses, his ruse was stopped cold and he was forced to pay up.

This was definitely one of the tastiest challenges I’ve undertaken. Even though I went as fast as I could, I could really taste how fresh the ingredients were. The flavours really popped. The only thing I would have changed were the fries. They were a little too salty for my tastes and could have used a little less time in the fryer for a bit more tenderness in the middle. The staff there were so amused by this they started taking pictures. Hopefully you’ll see them on their Facebook Page really soon.

So in the battle of Stephen Fung vs. The Fraiche Restaurant Full Sized Slider Challenge, Stephen WINS!

More pics by Ed “Lazy” Lau after the break…

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