Chez Meme Baguette Bistro (The Heights, Burnaby, BC)

I am a huge fan of The Heights neighbourhood in Burnaby. I love the small businesses, I love the community, I love the murals, and I love the history behind the Heights. Their annual Hats Off Day (taking place this year on June 5) highlights this sense of community while celebrating the history. It was the Hats Off Day of last year that I wrote about Heavenly Bites, an Indian restaurant that served tiffin boxes / set meal that came to under $10.

Unfortunately, due to a medical situation, Heavenly Bites closed up suddenly. Almost as suddenly, a couple months ago, Chez Meme Baguette Bistro opened up in its place. M spoke about it a couple times, as he passed it on his commute.

He mentioned it enough that the name and location stuck. However, when we tried to visit them, they were always closed. Reason? Their limited hours - as the restaurant is run by a couple with younger children, Chez Meme is only open during 8am-3pm, Monday through Friday. As of writing, they have plans to open one Saturday a month, but will have to work out the scheduling and babysitting. :)

So how did I manage to visit Chez Meme Baguette Bistro? Well, the bossman gave me a whole day off this year for my birthday. ...And, well I literally had a doctors appointment that ran into lunch!

The first time I visited Chez Meme was with FMace, cousin Nate, and Chez Henri. "Chez Henri", you say? Well its suitable that I introduce Chez Henri in this particular post. He lived in France for a period of time before he came to Canada. One of the first times he went into MacDonalds in Canada (for breakfast, no less) he was under the impression that everyone spoke French. So Chez Henri (who didn't speak an ounce of English at this point) walks up to the counter at MacDonalds and orders a "Jus D'orange". The stunned girl (I think this was in interior BC or something) hesitated, then continued with the order.

Chez Meme concept is simple - French bistro food in the form of omelettes, baguette sandwiches, and other offerings like a duck confit and brioche french toast. A fresh batch of soup / potager is prepared regularly, and it shows!

The first time, I ordered a Bourguignon baguette. All the sandwiches come with your choice of salad, soup, or fries. The soup of the day was the spinach, fennel and apple. While the portions may look small, I was pretty stuffed. Upon viewing the photos at home later that day, M got some "lunch envy". He was a little upset that I'd gone there without him! For good reason though - the baguette was crisp with a slightly chewy interior, and the pulled beef short rib was complemented well by sharp horseradish and slightly sweet carmelized onions. The soup was a light accompaniment to the meal. I was surprised that the soup was so fresh. It was pureed, but the quality showed through.


Fmace had the Sarladaise - an omelette with duck confit, potatoes and onions.This is a French omelette: moist, tender, and no colour on the omelette. The filling was rich - shredded duck meat and onions. The bite that I sampled did not have potato... As the restaurant name implies, the omelette was served not only with potatoes, but with crusty baguette as well. The baguette was fresh and crisp, but the potatoes could have been crispier and seasoned better.

Cousin Nate settled on the Brioche French Toast, banana and maple syrup option. Honestly, if Nate wasn't there that day, I would have ordered the French Toast. The slices of brioche were light and fluffy. When I asked Nate whether he liked his (Chez Meme) french toast or his moms' French toast better, he thoughtfully sighed out a long, "moms...." with a long sideways look at his mom.

Chez Henri ordered a Jambon-Brie baguette, also followed by their daily soup. Although you cannot see it in the photo, the baguette was full of oozing, melty cheese.

Chez Meme Baguette Bistro is a fairly small operation with about twenty seats. It was packed at lunch hour, for good reason. There was even a couple people  waiting for seats when we left!

On a subsequent visit, M and I had a chance to savour more of Chez Memes' baguettes. M ordered a Cordon Bleu sandwich, while I (on my meat ban) ordered a From'ton.


The Cordon Bleu was a ham, chicken, and emmenthal sandwich with dijon mustard on the side. M thoroughly enjoyed this, and would order it again. My From'ton was a sandwich of brie, pear, and walnuts. When it came, I was excited that they didn't go cheap with the cheese; however, upon finishing my meal I was ready to take a nap. :p While I enjoyed the combination of melted, creamy brie, sweet pear, and crunchy walnuts, I would have liked to have more pear (it was canned, I believe), and for the walnuts to be roasted / toasted. It said toasted on the menu, but the walnuts looked like they were out of the bag when I got my sandwich. Even so, I got a euphoric foodie high when I had the odd bite that included brie, walnut, pear and baguette!

We both went with the soup of the day, a fresh tomato, fennel, and Italian parsley soup. Once again, it was a nice medley of flavours. I think Chez Meme has convinced both of us to start using more fennel in our cooking.

Overall, we liked Chez Meme. It is unassuming, delicious and food is prepared fresh. I only wished their children would grow up faster so that they'd be open on weekends. ;p Chez Meme Baguette Bistro is a nice addition to The Heights community.

Chez Meme Baguette Bistro
4016 Hastings Street
Burnaby BC
P: 604-299-1141

Cafe Medina (Vancouver, BC)

This post was actually a long time coming - seeing as it is now February and I went to Cafe Medina when I was noshing for waffles around the time that I visited Patisserie Lebeau and Damien's Belgium Waffles.

Upon seeing Frank at Vanfoodies at the East is East dinner, he questioned whether I was done writing Cafe Medina. I remembered that I had, in fact, bumped into him there. (Rather - we were milling about in the "waiting crowd" outside on a weekend morning for brunch.) I was reminded again as he posted about it a couple days later.

I visited Cafe Medina with two of my favourite ladies in the world, MYY and F-to-the-Izzo (my favourite Izzo of them all, that is. :) (Fine, lets make that FMace, as in favourite Mace of them all, while we're at it.) Cousin Nate was also along for the ride and be still your hearts, his six-year-old-full-of-frenetic-energy body actually lasted the long 20-30 minute wait he had to endure!

We started off with an assortment of hot beverages (clockwise from top left): a matcha tea latte, a mocha, hot chocolate, and a London Fog. Pretty and delicious at the same time!



Cousin Nate ordered a duo of waffles with milk chocolate lavendar. We were a little afraid his pint-sized tastebuds wouldn't appreciate the lavendar, but he liked it just fine! It kept him busy for...about ten minutes.

What'd the ladies have? We ordered the Les Boulettes, the Tagine, and the Fricasse. As per the menu, the Les Boulettes includes "2 poached eggs, spicy Moroccan meatballs, cilantro, hummus cucumber tomato salad. Grilled Foccacia.", while the Tagine had "2 poached eggs on spicy tomato stew and red pepper, merguez sausage, sundried black olives, and cilantro. Grilled Foccaccia.". Meanwhile, the Fricasse had "2 fried eggs on braised short ribs, roasted potatoes, caramelized onions, arugula and smoked applewood cheddar. Grilled Foccacia."

It was a lot of egg, and a lot of meat. That being said, it was flavourful. The Les Boulettes (F'maces' choice), shown above, had perfectly poached eggs that were perfect for dunking the foccacia into. The meatballs, although billed as being spicy, were lightly spiced and were a touch dry. The sauce was spicy, though, and made up for the lack of spice in the meatball. The sauce was also enjoyed on the focaccia.



The Tagine (above, left) was ordered by yours truely. the sausage was a little on the dry / lean side again, but the dish was executed nicely with spicy sauce and the occasional olive. Poached eggs again on this one.

The Fricasse had to be the heaviest meal of them all. Roasted potatoes, onions, cheddar, and braised short ribs. The meat was the best by far in this dish, and although Fizzo tried her hardest...she couldn't finish it.

What? Did I forget something? Yes, I went there for waffles, right? The waffles were, as rumoured and enjoyed by many, were delicious. The accompanying dipping sauces were yummy as well. 

While Nate had ordered the milk chocolate lavender early on, we finished with a single white chocolate pistachio rosewater dip - to share. *That* is how full we were from our meals. While the milk chocolate sauce was light on the milk chocolate, the latter had nice white chocolate, hints of pistachio, and just a whisper of rosewater. I'd order the latter again.

In light of the Olympics, Cafe Medina will be open late every night during the Olympics, and will also have a take-out window for all your yummy street-eating needs!

Cafe Medina
556 Beatty Street
Vancouver BC
P: 604-879-3114

Review: The Cannery (Port of Vancouver, BC)

It's been sunny all weekend. For me, sun is not conducive to food blogging. Eating - yes...blogging about it, not so much.

Yesterday, we visited The Cannery at the Port of Vancouver for brunch. We had tried visiting a couple weeks prior, but they were closed for one reason or another. The manager was nice enough to give us a small token of appreciation for making it all the way out to visit them - yesterday we finally had the chance!



The weather was fantastic and so was the view, so we were surprised that we were seated promptly without any waiting after we arrived without reservations.

M couldn't make up his mind about what to order as we'd had a filling meal the night before with his family. The waiter recommended the lobster eggs benedict, the steak sandwich, and granola and yogurt parfait.

Finally, M chose the steak sandwich, while I decided on the lobster bisque and salmon & crab cakes. I had seen two patrons at a nearby table order the same thing, and wanted to try it as well!



Can you believe I've never been to The Cannery? I've lived in Vancouver / the Lower Mainland my entire life and even when I was working at their sister restaurant, The Fish House at Stanley Park, I never made it out to The Cannery try their menu.

There's a first time for everything!

I was quite pleased with the service and food quality yesterday. The waiter was amicable and present when we needed anything, and allowed us plenty of time to admire the view and enjoy our meal. The hostess seated us away from the louder, busier part of the main dining room so that we wouldn't be bothered by some of the larger parties that were dining.



The waiter came by with some flakey croissants, butter and jam, and the lobster bisque followed shortly thereafter. One thing both M and I were impressed with was the temperature of the food. It was nicely hot! The bisque was steaming and rich in flavour and texture; it went nicely with my last bite of buttery croissant.

Ms steak sandwich came on a lightly toasted ciabatta. The chunks of steak were juicy and succulent, and he said it was on his list of favourites for steak sandwiches in the Lower Mainland. The sandwich was accompanied by a well-dressed Caesar salad with large slices of good grade parmesan on top. Yum!

My salmon and crab cakes were *hot* as well. They were served with a beautiful mound of harissa mayonnaise, crostinis, and a potato-tomato salad. The salad, although slightly bland, was a nice and light side to the tender salmon and crab cakes. You could taste the salmon, as well as a light helping of crab and cilantro throughout the cakes. It made for a healthy Pacific Northwest meal!

Getting to The Cannery is a little tricky. I was only reminded of the location as I was in the Port of Vancouver doing some work - to my knowledge, the Victoria Drive access is now blockaded; you can only get to the Cannery and the Port of Vancouver via the entrance near Brighton Park (behind the PNE fairgrounds).

As The Cannery is relocating after the Olympics in 2010 for port security reasons and lease issues, make sure you take advantage of their scenery and current brunch / Tuesday night chowder bar specials before then! See their website for more details.



The Cannery

2205 Commissioner St [map]

Vancouver BC

Phone: (604) 254-9606