Purebread (Gastown) - Can I Eat Everything?

Purebread started off as a one off location in Whistler but progressively got more and more popular as the years went by. Now, they have a location in Gastown and it's FULL of carbolicious goodies.

I absolutely adore their display case. It's simple, lays out all of their products in an extremely attractive manner, and is honestly just a feast for the eyes.

Blueberry drizzle loaf.... Mmmm..

I was so tempted to get their Chocolate Bottom Banana Bar which is essentially a 50/50 bar of banana bread and brownie. How delicious does that sound?!

I ended up getting a Flat White and an Earl Grey Lavender Scone as a snack. It was nice to sit by the window and eat this while reading my kobo. It was a super relaxing way to spend the weekend.

Surprisingly, the lavender flavour was a lot more prominent than the earl grey. The floral taste really sets this apart from all the other regular scones like 'blueberry' or 'cheddar'. Also, the drizzle on top is a citrus icing which went beautifully with the scone. If you don't know what to get here, get this item!!

Purebread is an awesome little bakery and will satisfy any sweet or savoury tooth when you're in the mood. I will most definitely be going back to buy a whole bunch of items to try back home.

Service Rating: 3/5

Food Rating: 4.5/5

Price: $

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating! 

                            Habababa... Carbs...

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Starbucks - La Boulange Flourless Chocolate Cookie

Ever since Starbucks introduced their new cafe and bakery line called La Boulange, I've been dying to try out their pastries. I wanted to know whether they were really better than their previous pastry offerings.

I tried their Chocolate Croissant and it was pretty much the same. It didn't blow me away but it was solid.

Their Gluten Free Flourless Chocolate Cookie is a completely new product exclusive to the La Boulange line. It's even wrapped and sealed to avoid wheat contamination inside the display cases.

Since I am wheat intolerant, I decided to give it a try. It's not cheap. One bag has two cookies and it was $3.95. The cookie is primarily made with egg whites so it tasted quite like a meringue.

Despite it being a tad crunchy on the sides, the center was quite moist and fudgy! I don't usually see a lot of gluten free cookie options around the mall (ex. Timmy Ho's, McDonald's, Cupcakes, Mrs.Fields ...etc) so I will definitely repurchase whenever I want a sweet treat.

Service Rating: N/A
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!

     
when I see something I can't eat because it has wheat :(

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Little Babycakes - Little Bites of Sweetness

The kind peeps of Little Babycakes, a small start-up cupcake catering company, gave me a sample of their little cupcakes to try. They don't currently have a permanent location set up but they will have pop up location inside Holt Renfrew from March 28th to April 4th.

Their concept is simple, they want to give customers a little one-bite indulgence. Think mini donuts or mini tapas- in cupcake form, served at a party.

They have six flavours to choose from with different toppings and frostings

The Coconut Paradise was quite sweet and I liked the addition of the coconut. I found the cupcake a little dense and not fluffy enough though.

Their Red Velvet flavour was by far my favourite. The mini pearls added a touch of elegance and crunch making me feel kind of like a princess eating it. The cake was also really moist and fluffy. Yum, yum, yum!

If you're a fan of chocolate, you'll definitely like the Double Chocolate. There is cocoa in everything including a little dark chocolate chip on the top.

With the majority of the Vancouver population being Asian, you can't forget about the ethnic flavours of red bean and matcha! The green tea frosting on the Redbean Matcha cupcake was surprisingly rich and gave a great punch of matcha flavour.

The Chocolate wasn't super memorable and I remember the cake being too dry and dense.

For people who like the classic vanilla cupcake, this Original one might suit their fancy. It has a simple vanilla frosting with quite pink sprinkles on top. 

These little babycakes are legit mini. My mouth is really small and I can easily fit the entire thing in my mouth. It's truly a one bite dessert/snack so keep that in mind. This won't fill you up but it's an easy finger food to eat while hanging at a cocktail party or networking event.

These babies are $7 for 6 and $13 for 12.

Service Rating: N/A
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $-$$

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!


               me being classy and sipping my tea like..

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Momofuku Noodle Bar - Crack Pie Tastes Like Crack.

I've always wanted to try Momofuku, the famous restaurant chain owned by chef-founder David Chang. They're only in New York, Sydney and Toronto so I knew I HAD to try it when I went to T-Dot for a business trip. 

I went to the Noodle Bar and Milk Bar because I mainly wanted to try their 'famous' ramen.

In Toronto, they have something equivalent of our "Dine Out Vancouver" where restaurants participate in a month long prix fix menu program called Winterlicious. What a weird name eh? Haha. My colleague and I opted for that and the menu was $25 for three courses.

They're all about the communal tables at Momofuku. I ordered a Thomas Lavers Ginger Beer and it was spectacular. Really gingery and really potent if you like the kick.

I didn't order the Chicken Meatball Bun but my colleague insisted that it was good. It had kind of a spicy Thai chili sauce going on.

I went with their signature Pork Belly Bao and it came with two THICK fat pieces of pork belly inside a steamed bao. There was such much fat it dripped down my wrist! That's when you know it's a good burger.

Their Dan Dan Mien consists of ramen, spicy pork, scallop XO sauce, and peanuts. I like lots of broth with my ramen (I drink it all!) so I was glad I didn't choose this.

I instead went with the Winter Ramen which had smoked chicken, kale, squash, and egg. This was definitely a fusion ramen. A very poshy one too.

I think I'm too used to authentic tonkotsu ramen so I didn't love this as much as I wanted to. The grilled onions tasted a little out of place but everything else was great. Loved the addition of kale too (my favourite green as of now).

I didn't get to taste the brownie topped chocolate mousse but I heard it was delicious.

For my dessert I chose the soft serve ice-cream. Even though you can't see the colour difference, this was actually half Cereal Milk, half Fried Apple Pie. Boy was this delicious. I would come back to Momofuku just for this.

You know you're gluttonous when you continue to shop for food after being stuffed to the brim. That's what I did. I shopped at the Momofuku Milk Bar upstairs to grab some snacks to bring back to the hotel.

Their famous "Compost Cookie".

Apparently this "Corn Cookie" is also really popular.

I ended up choose the compost cookie and crack pie. You cannot go to the Milk Bar without trying these to signature items!!

Their signature Crack Pie is essentially a pie made of eggs, flour, sugar, butter and cream. It's ridiculous. I honestly didn't expect it to be so freaking delicious. Before I could think twice about how many calories I was putting into my body, the whole pie was gone. True story.

The compost cookie on the other hand was okay but I didn't understand the hype.

The Momofuku Noodle Bar and Milk Bar is worth checking out if you are visiting Toronto. If you can't make it for a meal, at least buy the crack pie!! You won't regret it.

Service Rating: 4/5
Food Rating: 3/5
Price: $$$

Overall Rating: 3/5

Happy Eating!


                       me after inhaling dat crack pie

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Soft Peaks Ice Cream - Dat Honeycomb Doe.

Soft Peaks Ice Cream just opened up in Gastown on Feb 5th and already they are taking Vancouver by storm. It's already the most talked about place on Urbanspoon and I hear they have line ups every single day!

Soft Peaks began when brothers Dan and Ken Kim left their corporate jobs to invest in the concept of gourmet organic soft serve ice-cream in Vancouver. They wanted to offer fresh flavours unlike any other soft serve you would normally get and top it off with cool ingredients like Fraser Valley honeycomb.

Meta Knight and I came on Valentine's Day after dinner and the line up was through the door! There were easily 30 people in front of us and we waited for roughly 30-40 minutes. Boo. Good thing it wasn't raining.

Their menu is simple and I love the whole 'honeycomb' decor. Their most popular soft serve is obviously the 'Honeycomb Peak', but they also offer some cool combinations like matcha/ red bean, and yuzu marmalade. Avalon organic milk is what they use as the base of the ice-cream.

I've never had real honeycomb before so I was super ecstatic to give it a try.

It seemed like they only had one or two ice-cream machines going at once so that could have been the reason why it took so long. Meta Knight commented on the hipster-ness of the place because he saw mason jars. Haha.

We ordered the Salty Himalayan ($6) which consists of a syrup of your choice (we got the Organic Maple Syrup) and himalayan pink salt, as well as the Honeycomb Peak ($6.75) which consists of crunchy cereal and a piece of Fraser Valley honeycomb.

Both of us could really tell the difference between this and regular McDonald's soft serve. It was creamy, barely sweetened, and just, very...fresh. You can even say it tasted like freshly churned milk. As for the honeycomb, it was da bomb. That little piece is all you need to sweeten the entire cup of ice-cream. The maple syrup on the other hand was a little on the sweet side and personally for me, I would have loved a bit more Himalayan salt sprinkled throughout and not just on the top.

Overall, Soft Peaks is a great addition to the Vancouver hipster food scene. I just hope the hype eventually dies down so I won't have to wait 40 minutes for ice-cream.

Service Rating: 3.5/5
Food Rating: 4/5
Price: $

Overall Rating: 4/5

Happy Eating!


       I wish my hair did that when I eat ice cream

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