My food wanderings. Apologies for photo quality - all photos taken with my phone.
The pulled pork was the best I have had within driving distance of Vancouver. By far. It had a nice smokey flavour, and clearly was properly smoked low and slow instead of the stovetop stewing version you find at so many places in this region. It was served without it being covered up by a sauce - so that you could truly appreciate the meat and then sauce it only as needed. The pork was very tender, properly seasoned, and clearly had been given a proper seasoning rub during the smoking process. Delicious.
The cornbread was served warm, had the right amount of sweetness and saltiness, and was a generous chunk. It was served with a bottle of honey if you wanted to dip some sweetness. But it was plenty sweet and moist on its own.
I've never had clam chowder with BBQ before. But when in the Pacific Northwest it somehow made sense. The chowder was nice and thick and loaded with potatoes and very fresh tasting clams. Sometimes New England style clam chowder can be too flour based to the point of being goopy. This was not the case here. Nicely balanced, just the right thickness, nicely seasoned, and loaded with goodies.
The sundubu itself had a nice complex broth. You could taste the richness compared to many other places, with a distinct beef stock flavour blended with the spices. The tofu was soft, silky, and very fresh. The dumplings had a skin of the right thickness so that they stayed together while not being too thick. The only things I wish they would do is give a raw egg to crack into the pot. I missed that. Otherwise a VERY good version.
The kalbi were well marinated, grilled perfectly, and very tender. Delicious.
Nice spread of sundubu, kalbi, stone pot rice, and seven banchan
I had the chocolate ganache "croissant." I put that in quotes, because it wasn't really a croissant per se. It didn't have the flakiness one would expect, and not as much butter as well. But it was a tasty snack - kind of like a chocolate ganache empanada almost! The ganache filling was rich, smooth, and a nice twist. It was the best part of the pastry.
The buffalo chicken salad had a generous portion of freshly fried chicken which had been diced after frying and tossed with a typical buffalo wing chicken sauce, making for a nice spice hit. The romaine lettuce was fresh, the avocados were the perfect ripeness, and the blue cheese crumbles mixed with the chicken to really give the flavour of dipping a buffalo chicken wing into blue cheese dressing - delicious!
If you remember the old TV show Northern Exposure, then this town will seem very familiar. If not, you'll have no idea what I'm talking about. This is the Brick from the show. The show which was supposed to take place in Alaska was actually filmed here. So how could I avoid humming the Northern Exposure tune while wandering around this town and approaching the Brick? But forgetting the television connection (as they seem to like to do at the pub since I didn't see a single hint of Northern Exposure anywhere), this pub is the oldest continuously operating bar in the state of Washington, having opened in 1889. It still has a spitoon with running water under the bar! Normally a TV filming location would have really crappy food as it could rely on tourist trade. But that wasn't the case here. The food was actually really good! I started off with the green chili beef stew. This was a thick belly warming bowl of goodness. It was filled with very tender beef, a good amount of potatoes, and generously flavoured with green chilies. What a wonderful flavour profile!
Served in a deconstructed style. Very different than what I was expecting, but very tasty. Two corn tortillas were grilled and topped with a chorizo hash that was perfectly cooked. This was then topped with two fried eggs, which had nice runny yolks. Cheddar cheese was melted on top. On top of that was a very mild pico de gallo and a very mild chipotle salsa. Combining all the flavours it tasted very much like a traditional huevos rancheros (although a very mild version). There were also a side of black beans which were cooked properly, but also a bit underseasoned. Upon request they brought some hot sauce to round out the spice levels all around and then all was good.
