Dot Com Pho – The Sort of HD’ish Edition

The Dot Com Pho Crew has made treks to many different Pho restaurants in the lower mainland of BC. Well, at least most of us have. We’ve been to the happiest Pho Restaurant to the angriest Pho restaurant to the fakest Pho restaurant.

This past weekend, John Chow, Leo Chiang (back from banging chicks on set), and Ed Lau (after he woke up), joined Rory Hansen and Ray (who shall remain last-nameless) for a bowl of Pho. Also joining us this week were Dot Com Pho n00bs Parm and Moneca. we headed to a Pho restaurant that none of us had ever been to. Pho Trang An is one of the newer Pho establishments to pop up on the busy Pho Insterstate of Kingsway. With dozens of restaurants in the same block, let’s see how it stacks up…

The verdict on Pho Trang An? Well, it’s definitely expensive. At $7.25 for a small bowl (a VERY small bowl), there’s definitely a price to pay for going to the cleanest Pho restaurant in the lower mainland. Also, we didn’t particularly find the broth to be the best. Despite a weak hint of “star anise”, a load of MSG, and way too much ginger, the only saving grace was that it was hot. The noodles were done right though and the meat was indeed very fresh (sliced per bowl).

If Pho Trang An wants to survive, they are going to have to lower those prices and work on the speed of the service. They were pretty slow and forgot our orders during our visit.

This week’s Dot Com Pho was filmed using the new FLIP Mino HD. Instead of full HD, it was merely HD look. Stay tuned for a review at Futurelooks coming up shortly.

So who’s Pho chops do we bust next week?

Dot Com Dinner Chef – Battle Mushrooms

After cooking so much meat, I decided to try something a little different so I went to town in the mushroom section at the grocery store. I had picked out a bunch of Shittake, Portobello and regular white button mushrooms. So what do you do with a whole bunch of your favourite mushrooms?  I created this…

Mushroom soup has always been one of my favourite soups for as long as I remember. The fresher, the better. None of this canned Campbells crap. Since I hadn’t created any soups for a while, I thought I’d take a crack at creating my own mushroom soup from scratch. Here are the steps to creating one of the best mushroom soups ever…

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Samsung and Futurelooks @ Le Crocodile Restaurant

This afternoon, I had a chance to finally meet my Samsung rep face to face as he made a stop in Vancouver during a media tour. Samsung and Futurelooks have been working together since 2001, but it’s not often that we get a chance to see eachother face to face. Arun here is one of the newer members of the Samsung Canada team and has been our contact there for the past year. Although we’ve been very well connected via email and over the phone, there is no substitute for a face to face meeting.

Today, we talked about Samsung and Futurelooks and had a great meal over at one of Vancouver’s best French restaurants, Le Crocodile. Here are a few highlights…

After settling in with some fresh bread and a complimentary goat cheese tart (not pictured), I had my favourite comfort food of all: Foie Gras. It was a special they had at lunch that combined a healthy sized pan seared piece of foie gras, topped with a crispy potato wafer and a pan seared scallop. It was drenched in a rich savoury sauce and they even added some extra butter for the full heart attack.

For my main course, I had the Grilled Wild B.C. Salmon, served with a light Saffron Velouté Sauce and a sauté of Calamaris. I don’t think there was anything light about this dish, but it was fresh and downright awesome. The even left us with a mess of french fries just in case we weren’t having a coronary.

Next, more free stuff came our way. The chef was all about freebies this lunch. First the goat cheese tart, and now we get a scoop of freshly made pear and mint sorbet served on a mint leaf. This was offered to us so we could cleanse our pallets for the real dessert.

Finally, for dessert, I had the frenchest of all French desserts: Creme Brulee. The blowtorch action was good, and the dessert was rich, but it didn’t have the gentle sweetness that I’ve experienced with versions from Feenies or WEST. It was also more uber thick than I’m normally used to. It almost had the consistency of cheesecake. Not bad, but not my favourite. I would have preferred a little bit more sweetness and a little less of a butter like consistency.

Finally, our meal was finished off with little chocolate Le Crocodiles and of course, the bill. Our total came to about $112 plus tip for the two of us which made it the second most expensive lunch that I’ve had, next to the Feenie Foie Gras Burger. Actually, that’s not true since I didn’t pay and Samsung Canada picked up the bill. Free is good. Thanks again Arun and Samsung Canada. You’re welcome back anytime to take me to lunch