4 Words = Double Crusted Lemon Pie

I have never tasted a pie that was so damn good. Tartine excels in their pie making. Especially when it comes to the crust. Imagine the most flaky, buttery, thick and crunchy pie crust. Wait, hold for it. THEN DOUBLE IT UP. I need to shake the hand of the genius that came up with that idea. Next step, fill the inside with a sweet, tangy, lemony custard-like filling and sprinkle the top with giant sugar crystals. UNBELIEBABLE (typo intended)!!!

I've had me a few other pie flavors there (strawberry rhubarb, maple boston cream, etc.) but my heart belongs to this one. The pie gods really did do a number on this one. I truly believe you can't go wrong with any pie at Tartine so please try a few and report back to me on what you think!

No pie should ever be enjoyed without a side of vanilla ice cream! It would be a pie-eating sin!

Beard Papa's Vanilla Cream Puff. That is All.

Need I say more? Now that they've opened up multiple Beard Papa's locations and I don't need to haul ass to Richmond and stand in an annoying long line up to buy a case of these bad boy cream puffs, I'm a happy camper! Though they have many different daily flavors, my heart belongs to their original vanilla oozing, airy fairy puff of magic. AND their new mini size is perfect for that little afternoon delight. Scrumptious, I say!

Fluffy the Donut - By Lee's

If I could talk to this donut, I would say: 'Hi Fluffy. You are the fluffiest donut in the whole entire world. Perfection is you. Dipped in honey and flaked with sugar, you and my mouth are partners in crime. I could have half a dozen of you. And I'd kiss you before every bite. Thank you for being in my life." Love, your biggest Phan, Phancouver.

My dear friend SS and co., surprised me on a work weekend with Lee's donuts. They arrived nice and toasty, traveling just a few minutes from Granville Island, across the water on the ferry. As soon as I saw the nice grease marks on the brown bag, I started salivating. Haha. Lee's Donuts top Krispy Kremes any day. Give them a whirl people, you are missing out!

Take this 'Golden' Opportunity, to make S'mores!

These Golden Grahams S'mores will grant you the title of 'Everybody's Favorite Friend'. Soft, chewy, gooey, chocolaty goodness that is sure to satisfy everyone's sweet tooth. Literally only taking 5 minutes out of your busy schedule to make, it is worth every second. Big thanks to my pal MC for introducing me to these tiny bites of heaven.

It's easy as 1-2-3 steps, 4 ingredients, and 5 minutes to make! SO SIMPLE, it's on the back of every box of Golden Grahams! You can't go wrong! Well unless your initials are JY. =P

Party-in-Your-Mouth European Delights

Take it from me. These are one of the best dessert snacks you will EVER indulge in. A crispy wafer on the outside as you chomp down and then BAM! Surprise! There's a sweet soft sugary syrup in the middle that takes your breath away. This is what a foodie experience is all about. Excitement to your taste buds. Guaranteed goodness. The best kind is straight from Holland but there are many replica brands in your local grocery store I'm sure. This is a Phan fave, my friend.

Cheap Cones Bring Back Great Memories

Did I ever tell you how much I enjoy cheap ice cream cones? When I was just a wee lad, my cousins and I would go gaga over a bucket of grocery store Neapolitan ice cream and a box of cheap ice cream cones. No fancy waffle cones here. Just the budget, crumble in your mouth and hands, leaky, soggy cones. Once in a while, this tradition pops back up at our yearly potlucks. JOY. Btw, this was devoured during a hot summer day at Lonsdale Quay.

Cream Cheese Frosted Carrot Cake (Wow, that's a lot of C's!)

Another easy recipe to share with y'all. HS, I promise you will not have to call me after attempting this one in your own home. :) Check out that nice golden brown color of my 'naked carrot cake'. I owe a big thanks to my gal pal MC and her momma for sharing this delicious recipe with me. Try putting the cake in the fridge for a chilled cake snack, yum!

'Easy Peezy' Cooking Instructions:

• In one bowl, sift together 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 3/4 tsp salt and 1 tsp cinnamon.
• In another bowl, beat 1 and 1/4 cup oil, 2 cups sugar and add 4 eggs (1 at a time!!!)
• Slowly add the dry ingredients and add 2 cups of grated carrots at the end.
• Pour into a bundt pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.
  

Wait for the cake to cool off a bit on a cooling rack and then spread cream cheese icing evenly like so! The craft you see above is by my sister slave MP.

Cream Cheese Icing:

• 4 oz cream cheese
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat in a mixing bowl until desired light and fluffiness and apply to cake!

A Dessert to Die For - Earl's Chocolate Sticky Toffee Pudding

One of my favorite desserts to devour from a restaurant (and believe me, I don't have very many) is the Earl's Chocolate Sticky Toffee Pudding. Essentially, this bad boy is assembled with a warm, rich chocolate cake drizzled in chocolate and toffee sauces, and paired with vanilla bean ice cream nestled in an edible caramel crunchy nest. It tastes very similar to a lava cake with ice cream but with added goodness. It's the perfect comfort dessert to end a well deserved relaxing night out.

7 Layered Finger Jello - Heaven on Earth

And my brother in law's Earth-angel-of-a-mom strikes again. You really have to be one of the nicest and most patient people on Earth to put together this rainbow finger jello with layers of condensed milk in between. It's such a treat when she gives us a whole tray of them. :)

'Please Sir, I Want Some More ...' ... of RHM's PIE!

My my, what do we have here? RHM's plump pie filled with a delicious fruit filler and crispy crunch crust! I've sampled her blueberry and strawberry pie (with a scoop of ice cream and side of Jersey Shore of course) and they were scrumptious! Courtesy of RHM, here's how you can make one too.

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup shortening
6 tablespoons cold water

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture is completely blended and appears crumbly. Mix in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, by lightly tossing with a fork. Divide the dough into 2 balls and roll each out into a circle.

Fold one circle of dough in half, and gently lift. Place into pie plate and unfold and add filling to pie plate. Fold second circle of dough in half and gently place over filling and unfold. With a table knife, cut off excess crust evenly so that 1 inch extends beyond the edge of the pie plate. Fold under the excess dough and cut slits in top crust for steam to escape.

Yummy, take a look at that delicious filling. Here's how!

Filling:

3/4 cup white sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch (add a bit more to avoid a 'runny' filler)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 cups of fresh strawberries (can replace with whatever fruit you like)
1 tablespoon butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon and sprinkle over strawberries. When pie crust is laid out in pan, pour mixture into the pie crust and dot with butter.

Bake for 40-50 minutes and watch as crust browns and voila! EASY AS PIE!!!!

Oh and if you're wondering what this strawberry jam picture is all about, it's RHM's momma's fresh home made jam that she shared with us while we waited for the pie to bake! HEAVEN!!!

All You Can Eat Coffee Jello?

One of the only ways I actually enjoy coffee is in this jello format. Topped off with a splash of condensed milk and in my tummy it goes! Shabusen is not the best all-you-can-eat Japanese food restaurant out there but it is rare in that they offer this delicious coffee jello as part of their dessert. It's so good that my cousin had 10 of them once.

The Mother of All Cakes, for the Best Mom in the World

Feast your eyes on this Phancouver readers, a GINORMOUS cream puff cake with mini cream puffs on top! HEAVEN! :)

From the Fratelli Bakery on Commercial Drive, this dessert haven prides themselves on their infamous 'Saint Honore' cakes as well as their pies, pastries, customized cakes including Staggettes (to which I will keep the Rated R photos to myself) - you name it! You haven't lived until you've tasted the cream pumped into these babies.

Double the Junk Food Platter Please

Behold, junk food lovers, Society in Yaletown presents the ultimate junk food platter!!! Designed for 2-4 to share, we doubled the order to satisfy the sweet tooth cravings of 7 girls.

What you see is what you get. A girly decorated smorgasbord of cotton candy, caramel corn, DELICIOUS Oreo milkshakes, cupcakes, doughnut holes with creme anglais dipping sauce, (similar to Italian Kitchen) ice cream sandwiches, rice krispie squares, cookies and candy, OH MY! While the food at Society is just okay, this twenty-some-odd dollar array of sweets is definitely a steal, perfect for a birthday girl and in this case, we celebrated MA being forever young.

Ice Cream I Could Eat for Breakfast

I swear I did eat this ice cream bar for breakfast once when I was at Pacific Centre early in the morning with my pal PY years ago. We walked by the Purdy's counter and couldn't resist the ice cream goodness so we stopped, watched the lady dip the vanilla ice cream bar first in dark chocolate sauce and then coat it with nuts into a standstill of dessert perfection. Great for a sunny day irresistible lip-smacking snack.

Double Dragon

This day, I bid a very envious adieu to my Amsterdam-bound-gal-pal MY at The Naam. We gabbed over food and said our goodbyes as she embarked on a 3 month journey abroad, cycling around in cute outfits, meeting hot European men and partying her little heart out. JEALOUS! Anyhoo, we were actually dying to have the lunch Dragon bowl (which I've never had) but we came during breakfast hours and settled for the breakfast version instead. My first experience was a pleasant enough one. We shared three plates of potato-and-egg plentiful dishes and were stuffed silly. Above, you see the open-faced Croissant Witch with scrambled eggs and veggie sausage over their homefries. I'm guessing that their food is made bland (healthy) and the flavor is added on with S&P and ketchup to your liking (which in my case, I had to add a whole lot).

We knew that we had to have their staple Breakfast Dragon Bowl with similar ingredients to the above dish except this was mixed with their famous miso gravy (which I couldn't really taste to be honest). Nonetheless, it was a hearty and filling breakfast. What I did really like was their thick toast and homemade jam, actually!

To compliment our starchy meals, we ordered a cup of their yogurt and fruit bowl which was quite nice and refreshing for our palates.

Why Double Dragon you ask? (Btw, I thought this name was brilliant because I got to experience two 'dragon' foods in one day!) In the afternoon, I met up with a few more friends at Dragon Ball Tea House and had another Phan fave there - the green tea ice cream slush with pearls. This combo is deadly. First of all, I don't know how they manage to get pearl consistency perfection each time. Of all bubble tea places, I think they have the best pearls (close runner ups are Bubble World and Estea). Second, I swear I saw them scoop the ice cream out and microwave it for 15 seconds once (is this their secret tactic?). Then the crazy chemistry of the frozen ice cream and warm pearls magically mixes and solidifies into an amazing dessert drink! It's damn filling, but worth every sip. =)

A Lebonese Meal ... Made with Love

Now what kind of Lebanese meal would this be without fresh finely chopped parsley? We embarked on another one of our cultural themed nights and my friend RHM truly outdid herself. How? By slaving away over the cutting board, slicing and dicing the fine particles of tabouli ingredients you see above so that we luvas could enjoy the true authenticity of our first Lebanese meal in.

While us hungry hippos waited on the main, we stuffed ourselves silly with fresh black olives (the best are from the Parthenon Supermarket I'm told), two types of pita bread, AHM's delicious fresh hummous (RHM's momma whom I had the pleasure of meeting and watching MJ's 'This Is It' with!) and the refreshing tabouli I mentioned above.

Sizzling in the oven was RHM's roasted paprika covered chicken drumsticks. Yum!

Nicely plated and paired with roasted potatoes, and dipped in RHM's special garlic 'toum' sauce (and when I say garlic, I mean 10 cloves of garlic spicy-ness) and with a bit of ketchup, we were well on our way to experiencing a night of wonder and intrigue for our tastebuds.

For dessert, I whipped up a simple and crunchy apple pear crumble. Diced and doused in cinnamon, rolled oats, flour, and brown sugar, my crumble came out of the oven crispy and ready to serve. We also had the privlege of pairing our dessert with Thomas Haas' famous 'sparkle cookie' (the bakeable version). PY picked up this delicious delight from Urban Fare and we popped them into the oven and they came out resembling mini lava cakes. Deemed the world's best cookie, this truffle, dessert, or whatever it is, is rich in chocolate and perfect with a scoop of Vanilla ice cream.

'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'

This is the ultimate cookie guys. The Cappuccino Chocolate Chunk from Cookies By George. Eat one and you will be full and do not leave until the next day, it's not the same! Soft, chewy, loaded with cappuccino flavor mixed with the just the right amount of sweetness from the white chocolate. Totally worth the price and it's true, why give a girl flowers when you can give them cookies.

Sweet Jane, Chikuwa Cheese and ... a Mouse?!

In my eyes, Ma's Clubhouse is one of the best restaurants in the Lower Mainland. I usually order the same meal every time I come, and the food quality and taste is always consistent! This is my favorite sushi roll of ALL TIME - the Sweet Jane Prawn Tempura Roll. Stuffed with prawn tempura of course, sweet potato, asparagus, sweet bean curd and drizzled with teriyaki sauce, this is one plump and satisfying roll!

My second favorite is very simple, a spicy salmon and avocado roll. Refreshing and flavorful.

Now, this is the Chikuwa Cheese dish. Deep fried fish cake, baked with mozza and cheddar cheese, topped off with teriyaki sauce and a bit of seaweed. I've had this dish at many other Japanese tapas places and this one is by far the best. Plentiful in size and cheese, and perfected gooey-ness. DELICIOUS!!!

And of course, the yummy Japanese pancake 'okonomiyaki'. Last night, we had it with the prawns and it was delightful. Pan fried dough mixed with lettuce, your choice of meat, ginger and lathered with teriyaki sauce and lined with mayo, this is an amazing entree. You can also opt to have it with yakisoba underneath but we would've overloaded. I've also had this at The Eatery and it was soooo nasty. Come to Clubhouse for an authentic and tasty okonomiyaki y'all!

Now we were contemplating on ordering their yummy 'Sonna Banana' dessert consisting of crepes, ice cream and bananas until I freaking saw a mouse scurrying by! EWWWWWW! Well I mean, there is a lot of construction in that area with the Olympic Village, and it is sort of a hole in the wall restaurant but when you actually see the rodent, ugh! However, knowing me, I will definitely be back, the food is too delicious to ignore! I did mention it to the owner and she said she would take care of it ... but you know Asian restaurants. So we just went back to my place and devoured a mini ice cream sandwich each, the perfect size! On a side note, seriously guys, my Blackberry camera is so amazing, look at my pictures! I can't get over it! 9700 Bold all the way!!!

A One-of-a-Kind 'Reese's Pieces' Replica Delight

This is officially my sister MP's 'cooking' at her finest. Her specialty is toasting a slice of bread, spreading a layer of Nutella, topped with another layer of Peanut Butter and finished off with a few slices of bananas. Her daily breakfast, mid-day snack and for me, tonight's dessert. Special shout out to my homie, LW for introducing her to this one-of-a-kind 'Reese's Pieces' replica delight. We each took a bite out of it and then I realized I should take a photo and blog about it, haha! I think it adds artistic flare ... what do you think?

Round 2 at The Keg!

As you can clearly see, I really quite enjoy The Keg. My 2nd Keg experience in a week was due to my sister MP lucking out and winning her hockey pool = dinner for the family! I had this meal literally hours before I boarded my flight to Mexico and it was a GREAT farewell. I opted for my all time favorite dish at The Keg, The Teryaki Classic. I usually start it off with the classic Keg Caesar salad but I recently found out that you can substitute it for this summer salad boasting of mandarin oranges, spinach, cranberries, pecans and my favorite, goat cheese. mmMMmm!

For my entree, I had the teryaki steak cooked medium rare with a baked potato (with the 3 cheese topping). Yummy, it never fails to satisfy me. And for some reason, I REALLY LOVED their vegetables this day - the seasoning was so tasty!

MP took a chance and ordered off their feature Crab Celebration menu - the Mushroom Crab sirloin. The horseradish was not favourable to our tongues but we just can't get enough of those juicy mushrooms!

A family Keg experience wouldn't be the same without JC indulging in a Billy Miner Pie. (He had to share this slice with us but he usually has one on his own and devours within 1 minute, tops!) Yummy coffee ice cream with drizzles of caramel and chocolate sauce, coated with almonds, sitting on a chocolate crust - perfect way to end the meal.

But the real finish is the notorious Keg mint. With a surprise chocolate filling in the middle. Who thought of that? AMAZING IDEA!!! Btw, I freaking love the camera on my new Blackberry Bold 9700 - it's super handy and takes great shots, hence the ones taken here!!!