La Charcuterie Delicatessen and the Sandwich Nazi

After months and months of pestering I finally agreed to take the drive down to Langley to visit the notorious Sandwich Nazi at La Charcuterie Deli.  Hitman’s been there multiple times before and raved of the humor and amount of food you get for less than $10.  Less than $8 to be exact.  But the trade-off is that you have to succumb to the Nazi’s insults, crude humor, and uninvited visuals.  Hitman’s given me a preview to the stuff the Nazi has said during his visits in the past, x-rated and all, and I honestly wasn’t too keen on the uncomfortableness that’s about to ensue.

Honestly it was only a 30 minute drive from our place.  It’s located in the middle of an inconspicous industrial area and if you didn’t plan to come here specifically, you wouldn’t even bat an eye, despite the eye-catching and quite lovely exterior paint job.  When we arrived on a weekday afternoon, the parking lot was already almost full.

As we were entering, a couple was just leaving and the lady warned us “Good luck in there~”.  Great.   Inside we found that there were about 3-4 people ahead of us, with more coming up behind.  You can hear the boisterous voice of the Nazi right away.  He sounded cheerful actually, and was in the middle of making fun of someone’s age.  When he caught sight of us, first thing he said was “I don’t believe in mixed-race marriages.  Unless they’re girl-girl, man-man, or girl-girl-man.”  Followed with a fit of laughter.  Hitman then countered, “Last time I was here, I was with a black guy friend and STILL you said you didn’t believe in mixed-race marriages!!!”.  More laughter.  Apparently the way to deal with the Nazi is to join in the banter.  That’s why the place is always so loud and lively.

This deli is also a grocery store of sorts selling imported European goods.  But I don’t think people come for the grocery much.  The main attraction has got to be his personality and ginormous sandwiches.

Pho Maxima Restaurant

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… I LOVE PHO!!!!  So when I found a good pho place close to home, I was ecstatic.  I noticed that a good pho broth is hard to find nowadays…most places are either not concentrated enough or it’s much too sweet.  Maxima seems to have a good balance of both.

We’ve always driven past it and one chilly night we finally decided to try it out.  It has your usual suspects.  They’re also a bubble tea and banh mi restaurant.  Usually the addition of bubble tea raises red flags for me.  But we’re happy to say we’ve been pleasantly surprise (much like the visit to Kim Anh).

I always order the House Special ($7 for small).  I just enjoy the variety of meats offered.  The soup was fragrant and salted just right.  It does look a little on the lighter side but the taste is there.  One complaint though, one time instead of thinly sliced beef, they gave me thick strips of meat instead which did not cook well, and were extremely chewy.  But that was just one time from the few times we’ve went.

Another thing is…this restaurant is pretty damn chilly…

Hitman always orders the Tendon and Brisket ($7.50 large) combination here.  He really doesn’t have much to say but he doesn’t complain when I ask to come here, so I’m assuming he likes it here too.

DD Mau

DD Mau is a little gourmet banh mi place in Yaletown.  I guess its location validates the high prices they charge…in any other regular Vietnamese restaurant, a banh mi is at the the most $4.75.  Hitman first heard of this place from reading about it in a newspaper, and he was very excited as they offer a choice of multi-grain bun for their sandwiches…probably no other banh mi place in the city has this option.

So was it worth the extra moolah??  We’re about to find out…

Crispy Roasted Pork ($8.80)
Crispy roasted pork + scallion chimichurri + pickled veggies + cilantro + house aioli + jalapeños + cracklin.

Gotta give them credit where it’s due, they have some pretty creative concoctions.  One of those was a Pho Dip which is obvious a play on words on the beef dip.  Too bad they were out of it the night we went…however it was still pretty early in the night, around 5pm or so, and they close at 8pm, so I wonder if they had it at all.

Meat & Bread

Happy (very, very) Belated New Year!  I know I haven’t been very good with updating.  Life has been hectic and with eating, taking, editing, blogging pictures of food, I’ll have to say eating is progressing much faster than the rest.  I’ll try to change that this year and blog more often!

So with my first post of the new year, it’s a simple, simple lunch at Meat & Bread at Gastown.

After all, when you’ve partied hard the night before, when (if) you eat, you just want something no frills, hearty, comforting.  For me, that was a nice cup of soup.  For others, maybe a fresh sandwich?

Which is why Pretty Sis and I ended up at Meat & Bread.

As you can see, it really is no frills.  One long communal table (plus a couple smaller ones near the door at the window).  Minimal choices on the menu.  Once we walked in we were greeted by someone with an accent.  He basically reiterated what was on the menu.  It didn’t take him long though.

They’re liars though.  On their receipt, at the bottom, it clearly states a sentence along the lines of “We’ll never be out of Porchetta”.  But as you can see on the menu above, they’re out of it.  Boo.  That’s their signature item.