Guest Post: Best Bite #11: Chicken + Waffles

Today is a very special day here at Amis, we have our very first guest post! Thank you to our dear ami Christine for sharing her experience and helping us knock another item off our best bit list!

I am extremely privileged to be the first special guest blogger to the Amisarewe Blog and I am so excited to share my experience with you.

For the past few years, one of our friends has given me the gift of time for my birthday. For my 30^th birthday I was able to choose any cooking class I was interested in. I chose a breakfast class at DirtyApron.  Not only did I laugh hysterically as I fell flat while trying to flip my potato latkes, the atmosphere, chef and good company was all the rave! 

This year for my birthday, she gave me the gift of time again! This time the card read, “Chicken and Waffles for Chicken!”  I was invited to join her at TwoChefs+ATable for this crazy combination.  Yay, Chicken and Waffles is also an item on the Best Bites Vancouver!  We shared Chicken and Waffles as well as their Hash.

Here’s the deal with Chicken and Waffles….

IT’S DAMN GOOD!

It seems so weird to have this combo staring at you in the face but once you pour the syrup on and dig in, its mouth watering, irresistibly phenomenal. The Belgium waffle is made to perfection but the star of the entire dish, the fried chicken. No wait, the batter of the fried chicken. The pairing of the season batter, waffle and syrup is truly what makes this dish. I experimented a bit and tried just a piece of chicken without skin with the waffle, but that perfect bite was missing. The combination lacked.

Please, do yourself a favour and head down to TwoChefs+ATable as soon as you can to get a taste of this! Chicken and Waffles is where it’s at! Doors open at 9:30am and that’s the perfect time to be there if you don’t want to wait!

4 things learnt in my rant...

1.       My ageJ

2.       My nicknameJ

3.       I love cookingJ

4.       I love Chicken and WafflesJ

Thanks for letting me be the first guest,  Amis!!!

©Chicken

Best Bite #10 - Chocolate Banana Cake from Ganache

So I was cruising through the Best Bite list to cross off here when lo and behold I came across a Best Bite we didn't even realize we had tasted!

Ganache Chocolate Banana cake was generously provided by Jenny for me and my other ami's birthday celebration. As you can tell by the above picture it looked fantastic!...and it tasted fantastic to boot! The bottom was a lovely crispy banana cake with layers of a chocolate cake, banana compote and chocolate mousse. It was heavenly! It was the perfect balance of flavour and texture. I liked that the banana was subtle and the chocolate dark and rich.

You can buy them buy the slice but hell you could easily go through a whole cake!


xo J

Best Bite #9 - Nicli's Bianca Pizza

Yes, I know! It's been awhile! It has been a busy month, work is crazy and I have been somewhat pre-occupied with getting my apartment in order, which it has by leaps and bounds, I am so in love with my apartment! (is that sad?).

Anywhoodle, what better way to start monday with a brand spanking new best bite review. I've written about Nicli before so we were pretty happy to see that one of their pizza's made the list.

We started with the Burrata appetizer because the waiter said they only had one left so we figured it had to be good and it was! I have no idea how often they get this burrata cheese in (fresh off the plane from Italy according to our waiter) but if you ever happen to be there when they do then don't think, just order. If you are a fan of fresh mozzarella then you won't be disappointed.

Next we moved on to the pizza's, we of course ordered the Bianca as that is on the list, but we also got the Margarita, Proscuitto + Arugula and the Capicolla. Now let's get the painful bit out of the way first, the Bianca, carmalized onions, potatoe and gorgonzola, was....ok. I would say that a few of us are not the biggest fans of gorgonzola to begin with but we were open minded, but there was just something missing from this pizza (I thought it needed a good dose of rosemary) it didn't have the wow factor that we think should warrant being one of the best bites in town.

The other pizza's however blew our tastebuds away with deliciousness! It really made us wonder how the Bianca got chosen for the list instead of any of these other ones, the Proscuitto + Arugula was particularly on point, with perfectly silky thin pieces of proscuitto topped with fresh young arugula.

Consensus being that yes they got it right when they put Nicli Antica on the list for best bites in vancouver, but they got it wrong when the chose the Bianca.

xo J

Best Bite #8: Macarons from Thierry

From L to R: Pumpkin, Chestnut, Lime, Apple Spice and Lemon

Disclaimer: this is one of those cheats I forewarned you about. Now technically on the Best Bite list it is the pistachio flavoured macaron at Thierry that they recommend, however after three consecutive visits where they were sold out of the pistachio, I made the executive decision that trying five different flavours would compensate for not trying the pistachio.

I love macarons, I love the chewy meringue with the cool creamy centre, these macarons had that texture experience down pat, I was however I bit disapointed in the flavour. Now don't get me wrong, they were good, but they didn't quite have the intense kick of flavour that I have experienced in other macarons. I was particularly excited for the pumpkin but it was so mild that if you didn't know it was pumkin, I don't think you could have guessed. The two citrus macarons were closer to what I expected in terms of getting that kick, and I would say everyone at the table agreed with the overall assesment.

So I would say this bite fell in the middle of the road, nailing it in one category but missing the boat in another.

xo J

Best Bites #7: Buddha's Hand Citron aka Lemon Gone Wild

Buddha's Hand Lemon - your key to victory in any shadow puppet contest 

Behold the Buddha's Hand Citron or Buddha's Hand Lemon. By far it's the freakiest lemon I've ever seen! Traditionally used in Asia as aromatic offerings at temples, this monstrous looking fruit was on the list of the 101 best bites in Vancouver, so we slayed the freaky dragon lemon and had a go.

Interestingly, the lemon has no juice! It's all pith inside, so basically you have the peel to work with and that's it! Gotta admit, this lemon gets even freakier looking when you cut it in half. C'mon if that's not a monster hand I don't know what is!

Anyway, being determined to take advantage of ol' monstery, I zested it, thinly sliced it and steeped it in warm water. Then from the spoils I made a lemon tart, lemon pasta with a lemon, white wine sauce, lemon shrimp, salad with thin slices of Buddha's hand, and had the option of Buddha's hand "tea" with the steeped lemon water.

The Buddha's hand lemon has a very perfumy aroma, and is much more subtle than a regular lemon. If you're the type of person that enjoys rose ice cream for example, you'd probably like the Buddha's hand lemon.

Without juice and that traditional lemon punch, I actually had to boost most of my recipes with good old fashioned 99 cent lemons. The aroma of the Buddha's hand was still there, but honestly it didn't add so much that I would buy it again.

Also note if you want to make the "tea", I suggest just using the lemon peel. If you steep the water with chunks of the pithy Buddha's hand like I did, you're going to be left with a very bitter drink. Blech!

To summarize - this lemon is good for Halloween as a way to scare any children you know. Also, if you are a trust fund baby that has a taste for perfume and money to burn - go right ahead. Mostly though, I suggest smelling this weird looking fruit in the produce section and then bagging up some tried and true lemon lemons.

Best Bites summary: 101 bites, 7 tasted, 5 loved, 2 cringed at

Happy Eating!
xo
Jenny C

Best Bites #6: Red Truck India Pale Ale

Happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a great holiday week!

What better way to return from the Holidays but with a beverage, I'm sure you had plenty of those over the last month. This Best Bite (or Best Sip) was actually tasted at the beginning of December. Now maybe I am not enough of a beer connoisseur to appreciate Red Truck's India Pale Ale but I wasn't alone at the table on this one.

While there are some inviting fruity hints in the smell, the flavour is all bitter. Bitter, bitter, bitter! I bought a six pack and four of us couldn't even make it through one can. To be fair, all of us lean to the lighter beers so we were probably doomed from the start not to like this one.

xo J

P.S. I have somehow misplaced the photo we took of our own Red Truck so image is via here

Best Bites #5: Purdy's Himalayan Pink Salt Caramels

Do you think anything named "Himalayan Pink Salt Caramels" could taste bad?

No don't think about it - the answer is clearly Heck No!

And you'd be right - Purdy's Himalyan Pink Salt Caramels - though their name be a little fancy dancy are yummy in my tummy. And will be in yours too. These chocolates have a perfectly balanced ratio of salt to chocolate to caramel. You can taste and savour each component but no one ingredient tries to shove the others off stage and hog all your taste buds.

If you have a chocolate lover in your life (and yes, I accept gifts wink-wink) Purdy's sells boxes of these precious little flavour gems for around $20 bucks. And while you're there if you happen to pick up a few for yourself - I say Huzzah! Enjoy!

xo
Jenny C

101 Best Bites
5 eaten, 5 liked (majority rules, Jessy dissents on the olives)
More about the Amis Best Bite Challenge

Best Bites #3 & 4: Heirloom Tomatoes & Castelvetrano Olives

Here are a couple notes before I begin:


1. I am not a picky eater but I really hate olives, this was the first time I willingly put an olive in my mouth in maybe 20 years.

2. This is a pretty lofty task we have taken on, completing this list of 101 best bites, so we may cut some corners here or there.

With that being said last week we knocked a whole group of items off the list (I'll be back later this week with a review of on of the beverages on the list and Jenny has a few items stockpiled to review). One meal alone we were able to taste 4 items! Two of which were the Castelvetrano Olives and the heirloom tomatoes.

So basically my teeth punctured the skin of the olive and a had to cleanse my mouth with a good swig of wine, that is how far my dislike for olives go, and what is it about them you ask? Good question and one that took me a few minutes to formulate, it is the brine-y-ness! And according to the 4 olive lovers around the table these were low on the brine quotient and got two thumbs up all around. So basically, I wouldn't put any olive any "best" list but if you are an olive fan don't listen to me and give these guys a try.

Second was the heirloom tomatoe, and this is where we cheated slightly, as these were from California and I suppose the best bites of Vancouver should probably include tomatoes actually grown in this province, but we figured we got the gist of it. While the red heirlooms tasted just like regular tomotoes that were slightly past their best before date, the purple ones were the perfect firmness with great flavor, and really were at their best with just a sprinkle of salt and good quality extra virgin olive oil drizzled on top.

Stay tuned for more bites!

xo J

Both items can be found at WholeFoods

Best Bites #2: Jethro's Fine Grub - Frosted Flake Pancakes

Yes you did read that right.

Frosted Flake Pancakes

Are you ready to behold it's greatness?

Voila!!

Frosted Flake Pancakes from Jethro's Fine Grub. Fluffy and flopping over the edges of the plate like a beautifully rotund manatee. Oh so abundant! This was the second item that the amis and I devoured from Vancouver Magazine's 101 Best Bites in Vancouver list. No, we're not getting paid to do this... we just like food and trying new places about town.

So how did this stack stack up? (yeah, I made that pun, and I'm standing behind it)

In a word: awesome

The pancakes were delightfully light. They were the perfect level of sweetness and tartness - the tartness coming from buttermilk and the blueberries. The frosted flakes functioned mostly as a textural add-on. I thought they would add a lot of sweetness, but no, once buried within and on top of the pancake batter, and then covered in whipped cream and maple syrup - sweetness wasn't a factor. The crunch was nice though, and unexpected in a pancake. These were definitely some of the best pancakes I've enjoyed in a long while. And one plate was more than enough for 3 of us to share!

But did we just order pancakes? Hahahahha no, why would we do that?


We also enjoyed a Baked Potato Omelet and Nutella French Toast

Ready.... Set...

Attack!!

The Baked Potato Omelet was a revelation. Again - the fluffy factor was off the charts! And I mean really, an omelet stuffed with all the goodness you'd find in a baked potato? You know that's gonna be great!

The Nutella French Toast was also tasty. Think 3 inch-thick slabs of challah bread slathered with a nutella cinnamon spread. Very good. Full disclosure though - as a hard core Nutella lover, and given the ratio of bread to Nutella - this could have done with a bit more Nutella. Yup I just said that. Even though you can see the craziness that is this dish in the pictures. But if you're going to have a crazy over-the-top dish as this is - then go all the way! Make that mother the craziest, chocolatiest french toast that ever was!!

Besides that clearly gluttonous last remark, Jethro's was a great breakfast experience. You can tell they make their food with love and care. It isn't about ritz at all - it's just about great breakfast done right. I'd say if you're in the neighbourhood - it's definitely worth popping in for a bite.

What's been your best pancake experience? Have you hit up Jethro's already? What'd you think?

101 foods, 2 eaten, 2 loved, 99 to go!

xo
Jenny C

Au Petit Chavignol and a Food Game

Hi Mes Amis!

Jenny C here - I'm baaaaack! It's been a whirlwindy last 6 months and I'm sorry that I've been away so long. Jessy has been a workhorse keeping Amis alive, thank you Jessy!

Please let me begin to make up for my absence by tempting you with cheesy, gooey, deliciousness.

Enter - Au Petit Chavignol, or as some peeps I know like to call it "Cheese"

Au Petit is a cozy bistro where all your cheesy fantasies come true. Attached to a giant cheese shop next door, Au Petit offers casual comfort fare made from lovely ingredients and the best of cheeses.

After a well needed foamy latte, my friends and I all ordered the Croque Madam: think grilled ham and cheese sandwich - filled AND encased in melty Gruyere cheese, topped with a runny free-range fried egg.

Did you just die a little?

Yeah, us too. It was good. Really flippin' good. And paired with a cup of their luscious tomato soup, it was the perfect brunch treat for a cold, rainy day.

Also, this was a perfect way to kick off a food challenge that a group of food lovers and I are taking on.

Vancouver Magazine recently published their 101 best bites in Vancouver list. Au Petit's Croque Madam is on the list - and we're going to try at least one item off this list every week as we explore new hot spots and tasty treats around our town.

Wanna Play?

When we post about another list item - go try it too and weigh in with your review! Or if you live in another fabulous place - tell us about one of the best bites in your town. Include a picture and tell us what you love about it.

Let's spread the best bite love!

If you're in Vancouver - here's the link to 2011's 101 Best Bites in Vancouver

Happy Noshing!

xo Jenny C