Brewery & The Beast Vancouver 2018

If you’re a meat lover and haven’t heard about this year’s hottest summer event, you’re missing out! Brewery & The Beast is an annual meat festival that showcases products and delicious offerings from local restaurants. It emphasizes sustainable eating and supports local farmers and growers, as well as our food & drink industry. Tickets are about $100 per person, which includes all food and drink. It was my first time attending (thanks to a pair of tickets that I won – shoutout to TEAMCHOMP and Brewery & The Beast for the contest)! It was quite the event and I’d be extremely happy if I got to go again next year.

As soon as you walk in, you can see (and smell) all the different kinds of meat being grilled including whole pigs:

There was an incredible selection of restaurants serving pork, beef, lamb, chicken, duck, seafood, and so on.

Cache Creek 45 Day Dry Age Beef Tomahawk – Two Rivers Specialty Meats

Grilled Beef Tongue – Market by Jean Georges

Jamaican Jerk Pork Loins – Johnston’s

Brant Lake Wagyu Cheesesteak Slider – BC Kitchen at Parq Vancouver

Charcoal Grilled Beef Ribeye Skewer – Atlas Steak + Fish Burnaby

Chashu Pork Yakitori and Bacon & Bourbon Ice Cream Sandwich – Nightingale

Confit Turkey Leg – Juke’s Fried Chicken

Kalbi Beef Short Rib – Pidgin

A few of the restaurants participating this year included: Adesso, Araxi, ATLAS Steak + Fish, Au Comptoir, Boulevard Kitchen & Oyster Bar, Hawksworth, Heritage Asian Eatery, Juke, Nightingale, Pidgin, Royal Dinette, Shokunin, Torafuku, Two Rivers Specialty Meats, Wildebeest and many, many more! See the menu below for a full list of all the offerings.

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Drinks were aplenty as well, with Phillips Brewing Company serving up their various craft beers. There was also wine from Mission Hill and cider from Left Field Cider Co.

Phillips Brewing Co.

Non-alcoholic options were available too: soda from Phillips Soda Works, Kombucha from Bucha Brew Kombucha, and coffee from Oughtred Coffee and Tea.

Phillips Soda Works

One of the highlights for me was Berrymobile‘s amazing selection of fresh fruits. Just look at those beautiful colours! Everything was so juicy and sweet, especially the cherries. This was very refreshing and honestly, such a nice break from all the meat.

Berrymobile Fruit

Live music by the Electric Timber Co. was playing throughout the day. Thanks for keeping us entertained!

Electric Timber Co.

There were so many more things I wanted to try from different stalls but my stomach could only hold so much! Favourite vendors of mine were: Two Rivers Specialty Meats, Heritage Asian Eatery (their BBQ lamb breast was incredible), Maenam, Berrymobile, Houweling’s Tomatoes, and Bucha Brew Kombucha.

Had an amazing time out here at the Brewery & The Beast and I highly recommend checking out this event next year if you’re looking for something to do in Vancouver in the summer. They also host it in Calgary and Victoria so keep an eye out for it too if you’re in those areas! Tickets sell out quickly, so make sure to grab them if you’re interested. The Calgary event has now passed, but the one in Victoria is coming up on Sunday, Sept. 23 and tickets are now on sale, which can be purchased on their website.

Kobe Beef Lunch @ Mouriya Honten

One of our last few meals before departing from Japan was Kobe beef at Mouriya Honten. There’s 5 branches of Mouriya all within walking distance of each other. We made online reservations at Mouriya Honten, which is their original restaurant. I highly recommend making a reservation in advance, especially if you want a counter seat where you can watch the chef cook on the grill right in front of you! Don’t worry, there’s English and you can indicate your seating preferences on the online reservation on their website. They also have coupons on their website available from time to time — make sure you take advantage of that! We were able to get 5% off our total bill by printing it out and presenting it at the restaurant.

Mouriya Honten

Since we had a 1-day Japan Rail (JR) Pass, we took the JR train from Osaka Station and got off at Sannomiya Station. There’s a JR special rapid service train available so try to catch that one if the time lines up with your plans (it’s faster and with fewer stops). It took us just over half an hour to get here from Osaka using this method.

Mouriya Honten

Dinner is always more expensive so we came here for lunch — it’s significantly cheaper and they have Kobe Beef lunch sets available which are great! These range from ¥4,800-¥15,800 depending on which cut of beef you get. They also have cheaper “special selection” sets but note these are NOT Kobe beef. But if you’re coming all the way here anyways, I would just shell out some extra money to get the true Kobe beef experience. So make sure you get the Kobe Beef Steak Lunch Sets!

Salad

Corn Soup

Iced Tea

We each ordered our own Kobe beef lunch set which includes soup, salad, grilled veggies, a choice of bread or rice, and a beverage.

Kobe Beef

I opted for one of the most expensive options — the Prime Sirloin (¥14,600) which is A5 grade and you get 170g of it. The others ordered Prime Rib Eye (¥12,500, A5, 180g) and Rump Steak (¥6,000, A5, 120g). When the meat came out in all its glory, we were in awe. Just look at that marbling! The chef was nice enough to take a photo of all of us with the meat as well. I was eagerly awaiting the first bite of this…

Grilling veggies

Salt, Pepper, Wasabi

Grilled Veggies

The chef cooked the veggies first. There was eggplant, green pepper, and large bamboo shoots. He also explained how to eat the meat with the different seasonings provided. There’s salt, pepper, wasabi, and grilled garlic chips. He told us to first try the meat without any seasonings, then with a just bit of salt, then salt and pepper, then with some salt with wasabi, and so on. This way, you’re able to first taste the natural flavour of the beef then enhance the flavours to your preference.

Meat on the grill

It was so much fun watching our chef cook. No flashy shows or tricks or anything — just pure focus. He moved so swiftly and used his knife to cut through the meat with such calculated precision. I loved that he separated the fatty parts from the meat and cut them up into small bits, letting them get crispy on the grill. They were like meat cracklings! He also used the fat of the meat as oil to cook the bean sprouts and veggies.

Cooked Prime Sirloin

Finally, it was time to have my first bite of the meat. Oh my, it was incredible. So tender and rich in flavour, without any added seasoning. I had a bite of the Prime Rib Eye as well and it was bursting with even more flavour. The Rib Eye is a fattier cut of meat, so that makes sense. I thought it was more buttery and more melt-in-your-mouth compared to the Prime Sirloin. However, I still preferred my Sirloin just because you still get so much flavour without it being too, too fatty.

Cooked Rump Steak

Tried a bit of the Rump Steak as well. It was obviously not as tender as the others because it’s a much leaner cut and there’s not a lot of marbling, nor did it have the same amount of flavour. However, for a budget option, it was still a very good piece of steak.

Kobe Beef Award

Kobe Beef Award

The whole thing went by so quickly — I wish there was more!!! That was no doubt the best steak I’ve ever had. The cattle raised in Kobe are under strict regulations and are treated with the utmost care. It’s no wonder Kobe beef is on a level of its own. Flavourful, tender, and excellent marbling. These qualities all make Kobe beef a prized delicacy in Japan and all over the world.

If you’ve read my other posts, you may know that I also had Kobe beef at Steakland during my previous trip to Japan in 2016. If you’re looking for a place to eat Kobe beef, I can now say for sure to skip Steakland and go straight for Mouriya Honten. The service and quality are much better here and we just had a more enjoyable experience across the board. The chef and servers were much more attentive here and it was a more intimate experience, contrasting the factory-like production at Steakland. Definitely check this place out and don’t be afraid to splurge! I promise you won’t regret it. 😉

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Address: 2-1-17 Shimoyamatedori, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture
Landmarks: across from Tokyu Hands

Ganso Kushikatsu Daruma Shinsekai Sohonten

Kushikatsu (Japanese deep-fried skewers) was one of the things I wanted to eat while on this trip so it was perfect to try it while we visited Shinsekai for the evening. The majority of restaurants there offered kushikatsu, but one of the restaurants that seemed to be most popular was Ganso Kushikatsu Daruma — the one with the angry man mascot! So, the 6 of us went in.

Kushikatsu Daruma in Shinsekai

Angry man Daruma

They have a wide selection of kushikatsu ranging from meat items to veggies, and even seafood. They also have sets available so you can try a lot of different things. But since we had just finished our meal at Okonomiyaki Chitose, we were so full and just wanted some snacks so we each ordered a few skewers for ourselves. I tried the classic beef kushikatsu, lotus root, okra, and shitake mushroom. Although we ordered separately, they served us the skewers all together in one rack… We didn’t know which was which so we had to ask them to tell us what they were so we could pick out the ones we wanted.

Kushikatsu

After some rearranging, we were finally able to start eating. First, theres some rules you have to know about eating kushikatsu. The dipping sauce is communal so you MUST NOT double dip! If you didn’t get a good dip the first time and realize you need more sauce, what you can do is use the cabbage provided to spoon the sauce onto your kushikatsu. However, I saw on the menu that if you order less than 8(?) skewers per person or don’t spend a certain amount of money, they will charge you for the cabbage — at a cost of ¥300 per person! I thought that was pretty ridiculous. We clearly did not spend the minimum amount so we didn’t use the cabbage for fear of being charged…lol. Thankfully they didn’t charge us extra when we got the bill.

Lotus root, okra, classic beef kushikatsu, shitake mushroom

Anyways, kushikatsu was fun to dip and eat. They were golden-brown and crispy, but not overdone. The sauce was salty, slightly sweet and sour, but had a thicker consistency than soy sauce. I’m not exactly sure what was in it but it was good! I probably wouldn’t go here for a full meal since it’s all deep-fried food but I did enjoy the experience and glad I got to snack on these. Oh, and I only spent around ¥600 here so that was cheap 🙂

Address: 2-3-9 Ebisuhigashi, Naniwa-ku, Osaka 556-0002, Osaka Prefecture
Landmarks: Near Tsutenkaku Tower at Shinsekai, look for angry man!

551 Horai

551 Horai is a popular place for butaman, which is a steamed bun filled with pork.  We went to the location in Namba.  There’s a lot of other shops and places to eat in the area, as you can see from the picture.

551 Horai in Namba

I’m really impressed with how the Japanese display their food. Everything there looks so neat and tidy (including clothing). They have an actual restaurant upstairs too if you want to dine in. They serve a variety of dishes (other than buns).

Butaman display

Other dishes at their restaurant

Each bun costs ¥170 and if you get it for take out, they give you a small packet of mustard to go with your bun, which provides another pop of flavour.  The bun just by itself is already really good though.  It was firm and not soggy at all.  The pork filling was savoury and it was an adequate amount.  The meat to bun ratio was perfect.  Sorry, I guess I got too caught up in eating the bun that I didn’t take a picture of the inside!  It was really tasty and the best steamed bun that I’ve had! 🙂

Nice packaging!

Butaman

They also sell these at KIX airport — in fact, we bought these again there on our way home!  Too bad we’re not allowed to bring meat items into Canada.  Otherwise, we would’ve bought more for friends and family to try back home.  Anyways, if you’re in the area I would highly recommend grabbing a bun or two to share (or not share) 😉

Address:
〒542-0076 3-6-3 Namba Chuo-ku Osaka

Japan Adventures: MOS Burger

First time trying MOS Burger! We went to the location at Universal Studios Osaka. It’s a Japanese chain that’s also available throughout different countries in Asia including Singapore, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, etc.

MOS Burger Universal Studios

Their burgers are a lot smaller than North American burgers but man, were they tasty. I  could probably eat two (or more) of these in one sitting. 😛

Left – Tobikiri Burger; Right – Rice Burger Kaisen Kakiage

Right – Shrimp Cutlet Burger

We tried the Tobikiri Burger, Rice Burger Kaisen Kakiage, and Shrimp Cutlet Burger. All of them were really good.

Rice Burger Kaisen Kakiage

Iced Caffe Latte

My own order was the Kaisen Kakiage which is basically seafood (lots of shrimp) and veggies. It was sooo yummy. The rice was grilled perfectly and there weren’t any bits that were too hard. It was just the right amount of crispiness but still soft and chewy as you bite into it. Mmm.. I had it with their iced caffe latte which was not bad either! Goes perfectly with the burger. I ended up having to put lots of syrup in it though since it was much too bitter for me at first (I like it sweet).

Even my parents were so satisfied with these (and they’re not easily pleased)! We wanted to eat at MOS Burger again but we didn’t have enough time to make another trip to another location. Next time I go back, I’d love to try their other burgers and their salad since it looked good as well.