I’m preparing myself to embark on a journey making what is widely considered to be one of the most difficult pastries in the world to make.

I have been working tirelessly perfecting my croissant dough with some amazing results.

I have successfully made the Canalé from Bordeau on more than a few occasions.

I have even undertaken the precise and finicky French macaron successfully, though I do need to make some improvements. The macaronage is still my nemesis.

Even the daunting puff pastry is just another walk in the park for me now.

One pastry though scares me to the point of nah, it’s just easier to buy one. But if I hope to be an instructor in the art of baking when I retire from my current job I must improve my skills. I can do that with the challenge of the sfogliatelle.

This is a “lobster tail” from Gastromia Italia here in New Westminster.

It’s a great little shop selling Italian products. The selection isn’t as big or as varied as Ciofi’s or Bosa but it’s only a 5 minute walk down the street for me so I go there when I know they have something I need.

It’s a good opportunity to start my research before I attempt to make sfogliatelle myself. I’ll be in Italy in a few weeks and will do lots more research there.

I’m not sure if they make them here from scratch. But based on the crispiness of the layers I am pretty sure they bake them here. They put different fillings in, today it’s a chocolate cream. It sure was tasty.

However that’s not the traditional filling you’ll find in Italy. That’s a semolina/ricotta filling flavored with citrus. I’ll have an opportunity to try that in Italy I’m sure.

And then when we return I’m going to give making them a go.

Unitl I am more familiar with the Sfogliatelle though I am sure happy with this version.

Hopefully the ones in Italy don’t spoil it for me.

8/10

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I’ve come close to ordering take out from Wild Thyme a few times over the last couple years but when perusing the menu I did not find myself all that excited about what I saw.

Don’t get me wrong. I really like middle eastern food. It is full of bold and aromatic flavours and is as varied as the people that make it. But whenever I considered it it I had some other ethnic cuisine on my mind.

But as we were returning from a Costco run in Bellingham Sunday Merilynn mentioned she wanted to try it this weekend as she had heard good things. And as it happened they are open for lunch so we decided today was the day.

Unfortunately I did not realize she had no idea this was Lebanese food.

The restaurant has an interesting atmosphere. Spread over three units in an older building, the interior is terraced over three levels. Its larger than it looks, according more privacy than if it were one big room.

As neither of us are huge eaters, we often share an appetizer and a meal and that does us nicely.

Well whoops. We ordered way too much food.

Merilymn ordered Kaaek and dips.

The top 4 dishes on the left, hummus, baba ghanouj, house made yogurt and garlic.

The hummus was very good. The baba ghanouj I didn’t care for, but thats my dislike of eggplant, nothing to do with the quality I’m sure. The homemade yogurt was a bit funny, but had great flavour. The garlic was my favourite. Great garlic flavour with lots of wonderful EVOO.

The Kaaek, or Lebanese purse bread, is a common street food that is crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. This version has sumac and sesame seeds on the exterior and is hollow on the inside. That’s why it looks so big. It was the perfect vessel to scoop up those delicious dips with.

The other condiments you see on the table were to compliment my Lebanese style fried eggs with Sujuk sausage.

The sausage is made in house and is very fragrant. There’s a lot going on here, the flavours were complex. They were delicious. I did inquire as to what spices make up the flavors in this beef sausage and the answer I got was there’s too many to list. The eggs were done really well, soft,fried in olive oil for even more flavour. My breakfast also included a Kaaek, so we had three total.

I decided to give Lebanese coffee a try. It’s similar to Turkish, but infused with Cardamom.

The coffee was very strong, with the Cardamom flavour very present. Thus was the first time I’ve tried a coffee like this and I loved it.

As for the service, it did seem a bit slow. Other patrons who sat down after us were getting there food before us. I might have to chalk that up to them having to make the bread fresh for us though. The servers were certainly pleasant and attentive enough. They even moved us from our original two person table to a four-person table to accommodate all the dishes we were getting.

So yes, that’s way too much food for us.

And while I certainly enjoyed it, once was enough for Merilynn.

8/10

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Our last visit to Patsara wasn’t the best. The food did not live up to the high expectations we have come to expect here. So it was with a little trepidation we decided on dinner here tonight.

Have you ever wondered why every Thai food restaurant you’ve been in seems to have the same food? If you don’t know anything about the government in Thailand’s “gastrodiplomacy” program that financed thousands of Thai restaurants around the world it really is an interesting read.

As I often like to do, my goal tonight is to try at least one dish we haven’t had before. Tonight we are trying two new ones.

First up, Tod Mun Pla, or fish cakes.

When we ordered this we had something akin to crab cakes on our brain. Ya we weren’t even close.

The flavour was good. But the texture was another story. Spongy. Rubbery even. The texture, to be honest, was a bit unsettling. Add the peanut chili sauce and then we have something more pleasant. The crunchy peanuts helped hide the squishinous, but did not completely mask it. Perhaps Thai fish cakes are an acquired taste? One which tonight we did not acquire.

My usual, my benchmark for Thai restaurants, Crispy shrimp wontons.

Really good as usual. But you have to eat them hot. Served with a sweet chili sauce, these are deep fried, crunchy goodness.

The Pandanus chicken also looks really good.

Chicken cooked in pandus leaves, with garlic, cilantro, soy sauce, coconut milk and ginger.

Moist Chicken thighs with all those amazing southeast Asian flavours were enhanced by the smokey pandus leaves.

I haven’t been to Thailand, but Pandanus Chicken gives me an idea of what eating there might really be like.

Ok, so I doubt very much we will ever order Thai fish cakes again. Otherwise a very nice meal.

8/10

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We are being a bit tarded today and gambling a few bucks on the slots at the Starlight. But we need a snack.

There’s the Match place but hat doesn’t interest us. Some other Asian joint that looks closed. And Noodles ToGo

I told Merilynn to order whatever she fancied and Beef Pho was her choice.

I’ll be up front, I don’t have a ton of experience with Pho, so I don’t have a big reference pool to compare to. According to Merilynn this wasn’t very good Pho.

A bit heavy on the Cilantro,, rather flavourless broth, a mystery meat sausage and one measly piece of low quality, fatty beef.

But the noodles and sprouts were good.

Not sure we will ever be back here. But if we are, it won’t be for the Pho.

4/10

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We just finished having sushi at Ki Sushi and as we are walking home I realized I need dessert.

And as it happens we are walking by Piva, that will do nicely.

Gonna kick things off with their awesome espresso Martini.

They don’t mess around with their espresso martinis. Real espresso and top shelf vodka make for a rich and smooth cocktail. If I didn’t have to sleep tonight I’d have a second. And maybe a third. Merilynn had one as well.

This is a Tiramisu Sundae

I am not entirely sure of all the components that make up this incredible take on the Italian classic. But it starts with delicious espresso gelato. There’s a crunch in there that I’m sure is lady fingers. I only had a small taste, this was Sophia’s pick. But that one taste was phenomenal. It would be too much for most people to eat on their own though. A great shareable though.

My choice? A tart au citron.

A very nice presentation and a really great tasting dessert. The Coulis was likely raspberry, though it’s hard to tell sometimes.

Unlike the very rich and very sweet tiramisu Sunday, this was a lot easier to eat. The balance of sweet and tart creates a very nice eating experience. Not just a sugar rush.

My only criticism was the curd itself. Tasted great but it had a grainy texture that did take away from the overall quality.

Regardless a very nice treat after some sushi next door.

8/10

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Dinner with one of the kids tonight. They get to pick and tonight it’s Ki Sushi.

As usual my Toro Nigiri.

Plus a Red Tuna.

Much better than last time we were here. Proper temperature and not stringy. Nice flavour on red tuna.

Prawn Tempura

Crispy, crunchy, delicious prawns with a yummy dipping sauce. How can you go wrong? Well I guess if you let them get cold. We didn’t.

Dynamite and California Roll

Pretty standard stuff but delicious nonetheless. I do like they don’t usually serve their rolls too cold here. That allows all the flavors to really come through.

Bow where can we get dessert?

We are off to Piva!

8/10

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Merilynn is kicking off the weekend with a Spicy Margherita.

I’m honestly a little surprised she picked this. I’ve had them and they’re not my favorite but she said it grew on her. I still have to work tomorrow so I just stuck with a cranberry and soda.

This month they have a special dish and apparently it’s very popular.

Lobster Francese

A parmesan crusted lobster tail in a lobster cream sauce with asparagus and tomatoes.

I really enjoyed the lobster tail, nicely cooked with lots of flavour from the parm. The pasta was al dente and the tomatoes and asparagus added a nice touch. The sauce had just a little bit of a kick to give it some intensity. A solid pasta dish.

Merilynn jumped all over the Shrimp and Brie dip, like I figured she would.

This was really delicious. I mean damn good. Only one problem. It’s rich. Too rich. I mean it’s hard to eat more than three bites rich. Tender, succulent shrimp in creamy, melted brie.with bacon and artichokes. Great combo.

We both scored this a 10 initially, but dropped it to an 8 as it’s honestly too hard to eat much of it.

My last visit here was a bit of a disappointment. Tonight’s visit was much, much better.

8/10

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We are celebrating two years of marriage with dinner at Piva Modern Italian this evening.

The past two years have been the best of my life, I’m married to a truly wonderful woman. Who tolerates me eating really, really well and then editing my rants about it.

Though nothing to rant about tonight.

My relationship with Piva, unlike my incredible relationship with Merilynn, started of quite rocky.

But over the last few visits Piva and I had become pretty tight. Not as close as Merilynn and I. But pretty good.

Tonight was no exception.

Drinks of course to celebrate.

My beautiful wife and her Viola. Empress Gin, Cointreau and 4 fruit juices. Very refreshing, it was an adult soft drink. Watch out, those could go down very quickly.

My Lavender Fields, essentially a Sour but with gin. Tart and silky with floral notes. Delicious.

Some focaccia bread.

Nice crumb structure going on. It was very fresh and had wonderful flavour. Almost as good as mine lol.

The better half decided on a Butternut squash/cauliflower soup.

I went with the Lobster Risotto.

I found the soup quite well balanced with a very smooth texture. Unfortunately Merilynn found it too much like baby food. The texture was very smooth and maybe a bit which. However I really enjoyed. I guess she shouldn’t have eaten so much baby food….

The Lobster Risotto was excellent as well. Lots of big chunks of Lobster and peas in a tarragon, lemon Chile oil sauce. Beautiful flavours. A bit looser than I’m used to with Risotto, I would have preferred a bit more Parm in there. That’s being really picky though. Nice dish.

No dessert tonight, I have a homemade Pan au Chocolate at home to enjoy.

An amazing meal with my amazing wife. A perfect evening. How shall we cap things off…?

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Alright I would like to know who else out there in New Westminster knows about Mukasi Coffee?

Until this morning I didn’t.

Maybe somewhere in my subconscious I may have seen a sandwich board or some other type of advertising for it but I certainly didn’t register.

It certainly somewhere you would be very unlikely to stumble across by accident, being on Front street. But not the cool part of Front Street where they do Fridays on Front. No, it’s right near the back entrance to the old Army and Navy, which has now become a shelter for the homeless, drug addicted, dregs of our society that the government refuses to deal properly with.

So if you’re brave enough to walk down Front St. from 6th and ignore the sadness, or take your life in your hands going down the stairs from the parkade at 4th, your not likely to find it. There is a way to access this area by car, I’m not sure how exactly though.

Which is a shame, as this place is great. And makes some damn fine coffee.

They roast their beans on site.

Tbe interior has that “old” New Westminster feel to it as well, which you find in a lot of the shops along Columbia. Lots of character in here.

And they make a fantastic latté.

The perfect temperature and a good balance of espresso to milk. No need for vanilla in a latté when its of this high quality.

So about two blocks from each other, in one of the sketchier parts of town, you will find two of the best coffee shops in New Westminster.

Just use caution while getting here.

One sip, you know the rules…

9/10

09/23/25

Popped in for a latte this mornin but discovered the only milk they had in stock was almond.

As I only drink milk from a cow I just had a doppio, which was excellent.

10/10

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Since we moved to the other end of town it’s not so convenient to get here.

But today I’m walking across town to get one. More for the walk, not the coffee.

Not that the coffee isn’t good. It definitely is. Not as good as Moodswing, but better than Starbucks

Nice latte, a bit too sweet though. One pump less of vanilla would be perfect.

8/10

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