canada day Archives | Foodgressing

On Canada Day last year, my family and I ventured to Canada Place to participate in the festivities celebrating our great nation. One of the food stalls that we came across was that of Dunn’s Famous. We decided to go with some Canadian-inspired eats including a Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich ($13.50) and Dunn’s poutine ($10.50).

The Montreal Smoked Meat from Dunn’s was quite tender and not chewy. It definitely had an strong flavour profile – salty and smoky. The meat slices were thickly cut and it was a quite handful. I would definitely say that Dunn’s version of the Montreal Smoked Meat Sandwich is closer to the Shwartzs’ in Montreal. In Vancouver, I had tried Phat Deli’s Montreal Smoked Meat tasted closer to deli meat than the authentic one.

Dunn’s poutine came with BBQ gravy and chopped smoked meat. Pretty good overall with decent portions of meat. Some of the cheese curds were not as soft and melted as I would like.

Overall Impression of Dunn’s Famous

The two items that I tried from Dunn’s Famous were overall tasty and fairly priced for an event food stall. I am interested in visiting their restaurant in the future. Rating: 3.5/5

On Canada Day, my family and I decided headed down to Canada Place like so many others to partake in the local celebrations. Since it was hot that day, I was very in the mood for some ice cream. We went to Bella Gelateria, known as having the one of the best gelato’s in the world, located on West Cordova and Burrard. There was a line up *obviously* but we decided to turn away when the line appeared to move too slowly for our liking.

I was a bit disappointed (no gelato makes me sad) but then we stumbled upon QQ Gelato, a small gelateria on the east side of Vancouver Convention Centre.

It’s A Small, Small Shop

QQ Gelato is a small shop: after you enter the door, you pretty much arrive right at the ordering counter. There is no seating inside QQ Gelato, but there are lots of outdoor sitting areas around the convention centre. QQ Gelato is also the sister store of QQ Bubble Tea and Coffee in Richmond.

QQ Gelato Menu

QQ Gelato has 12 different flavours of gelato available at once including green tea, black sesame, espresso flake and pistachio. There are two sorbetto (lactose-free) flavours : raspberry and lemon. A single cup or regular cone costs $4.25 and a double costs $7.50. A waffle cone costs an extra $0.50 for the single serving and $1.00 for the double serving. QQ Gelato also has fresh juice slush and milk tea slush ($5.25 – $6.00) with optional add-ons. Although there are a limited number of flavours in the display case, they do have *all* the flavours that are on the list. They take cash or credit only.

What I Tried

On Canada Day, I tried the raspberry sorbetto in a waffle cone ($4.75) which had a nice and intense raspberry flavour.

Cooled off with a raspberry sorbetto on Canada Day ?? #canadaday #canadaplace @aircanada #CelebrateCanadaDay

A photo posted by Foodgressing ? (@foodgressing) on Jul 1, 2015 at 9:56pm PDT

I returned yesterday on BC Day and had the mint chocolate cookies in a waffle cone ($4.75). This gelato flavour was surprisingly good: the mint taste was not too overpowering while the chocolate cookies added a fun crunchy texture. The waffle cone was perfectly crispy with a delicious sweet flavour. It was also fun to see a Disney cruise ship docked and it even played “It’s A Small World” with the ship horns.

Overall Impression

QQ Gelato is fine in my opinion as the next-best choice to Bella Gelateria for gelato around Canada Place. On the times I went to QQ Gelato, there was just a small line-up which pales to compare the massive one at Bella Gelateria. QQ Gelato is not considered world-class or anything too *fancy*, but they do a reasonable job of satisfying your gelato craving. Rating: 3.5/5

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/icravegelato