Lan from Pho Lan can be quite the angry individual. For a decided change of pace, Stephen Fung decided that we need to stick to Vancouver and discover some happy pho. Seriously, Brian (Bryan?) at Cambie Vietnamese Restaurant (located near Main and King Edward) is the happiest restaurant owner I have ever seen. It’s kind of creepy, really.

In addition to myself and Stephen, other attendees at pho this week included Leo Chiang, Greg Morgan, and Fake Fatal1ty Yurechko. Missing in action was John Chow, because he decided to party in Surrey instead.

Vancouver is home to a lot of great food and the best part is that you don’t necessarily have to indulge in places with white tablecloths to have a nice meal. Sometimes, you may not be interested in foie gras and caviar. You just want some comfort food.

Burgoo Bistro is located right in the heart of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Vancouver, drastically renovating a location that once belonged to Subway. Burgoo promises to provide you with homestyle meals that are comforting and wholesome. Pricing is in the same range as a Cactus Club or Earl’s, with entrees going for about $15. The menu seems to have been inspired by the Southern United States, but there are several international dishes as well, like Thai Tom Kah Gai and French Ratatouille.

The interior looks like the inside of someone’s rustic home on the Mississippi and the outdoor patio is perfect for bright summer nights. There’s nothing like kicking back and sipping on a mint julep or an ice cold beer. Anyways, you’re probably interested in the food, so let’s get on with the pictures.

Susanne ordered the BLT & C sandwich. It’s an open-faced sandwich with bacon, romaine lettuce, tomato, white cheddar, and lemon parsley mayonnaise served on toasted filone. The bread was very crisp and I loved the sharpness of the cheddar. It wasn’t particularly special (or big), but it was good.

A salad usually accompanies the sandwich, but Susanne chose to upgrade that to a huge cup of Gazpacho Amarillo soup. This Spanish soup — with yellow tomato, chilled cucumber, fresh oregano, and extra virgin olive oil — is served iced cold. It was very refreshing, tasting almost like you were just drinking a cucumber.

I decided to take the ultra-traditional route, ordering the Kentucky Burgoo. Having a consistency and appearance similar to stew, Kentucky Burgoo consists of slow cooked meats, lima beans, corn, tomatoes, cabbage, and okra. I had it served over a pair of biscuits, but you can opt for mashed potatoes as well. Traditional burgoo is prepared with small game (like rabbits), but this version uses more conventional meat. It was very hearty.

After polishing off our meals, we were presented with the bill… in a dim sum steamer. This is definitely a little on the kitschy side. In any case, the total bill — including tax, tip, and a couple of drinks — came to $48. Aside from the Main Street location, you can also find Burgoo on West 10th and in Lonsdale.

Even though John Chow is back in town, Dot Com Pho was not relocated back to Richmond for last Saturday’s get-together.

It’s one of those things where one begets the other, but Stephen decided to take some initiative and move our weekly lunch out of Richmond last week for some dim sum. The East Vancouver area is just more central for (nearly) everyone involved — I believe the only Richmonders left are John Chow and Ed Lau — and the Vancouver staging of Dot Com Pho is even attracting the attention of mainstream media.

The East Vancouver focus continued on Saturday when I suggested we hit up Pho Thai Hoa on Kingsway. That part of town is filled with a lot of Vietnamese restaurants, but Pho Thai Hoa is easily one of the best. It’s reasonably clean and the soup base is terrific.

The scooter king continued with his video producing ways this week, giving the root of all evil the day off. Maybe John is taking my PhotoShop contest a little too hard. Among the diners at Dot Com Pho were Bonnie Sainsbury, Leo Chiang, Ray, Tyler Ingram, Greg Morgan, and everyone’s favorite Communist coder Jeff Kee.

Making a special cameo appearance was action star Sally Chow. Keep an eye out for her after the credits!

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The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and Dot Com Pho is tomorrow. Oh, and there’s that whole business about a touchscreen phone and free slushy drinks today, but those are all secondary to a great bowl of Vietnamese beef noodle soup, right?

As Stephen Fung mentioned on his blog, tomorrow’s Dot Com Pho will be located at Pho Thai Hoa in Vancouver. It’s located along the north side of Kingsway near King Edward. If you know where the Rona and Famous Foods are, then you’re in the right neighborhood. It’s right on the corner of Kingsway and Perry.

Anyone is welcome, but do let us know ahead of time if you are coming. The best thing you can do is send a “tweet” to stephen_fung, because he has that mobile update thing going on. You can also use Twitter to contact me as well, but I don’t have that mobile update thing. Alternatively, leave a comment on either of our blogs.

We’re gunning to arrive at around 12:30pm. Because it’s a new location for Dot Com Pho and the owners of the place aren’t terribly familiar with us, it may be in our best interest to show up on time (or early) to make sure we have enough seats. I vaguely recall there being some larger round tables there with lazy Susans, but I’m not 100% sure.

See you tomorrow! You’re not Internet famous until you’ve appeared on Dot Com Pho.

It took Stephen Fung a little longer than usual to cut together this week’s episode of Dot Com Pho for no reason in particular, but the ten minutes of intelligent conversation and hilarity are now available for your viewing pleasure.

Seeing how Ed Lau is still in Japan and John Chow is lost in a corn field, we figured that it would be good to hold last Saturday’s Dot Com Pho in a location other than Richmond. Vancouver is a little more central for everyone involved and as much as we enjoy Vietnamese noodles, we also figured that it would be good to change up the cuisine a little. We’ve had Dot Com Dim Sum before and fun was had by all. Nothing quite like MSG and steamed dumplings.

Pink Pearl Chinese Restaurant has been a Vancouver institution for many years. I remember going here for dim sum when I was still a young child. The ambiance, atmosphere, and “cuisine” have remained pretty much unchanged all of these years. Then again, there’s not much innovation when it comes to dim sum.

A hearty thank you to Gary Jones of BlueFur web hosting for sponsoring our meal. Thanks Gary! If you ever need hosting for your blog or website, BlueFur is the way to go. Use the coupon code “ilovepandas” to save 10% on any hosting package.

It’s become a tradition around these parts for dot com moguls and other online entrepreneurs to get together every Saturday for some Dot Com Pho. While there are a few occasions where we deviate from Vietnamese noodles, opting instead to eat from a toilet, the pho rice noodle has become a staple for freelance writers and Internet marketers alike.

Unfortunately, there is no Dot Com Pho this week. As you may have heard, Ed Lau is off in Japan harassing the locals for the next couple of months, so he’s not around to eat lunch with us. John Chow is on his way to Lincoln, Nebraska to participate in the Top Affiliate Challenge for the next two weeks. And Stephen Fung is missing in action today, possibly trying to entertain the people of Surrey or Langley for some reason.

With three of the key players out of commission, we decided to cancel our weekly get together. We’ll see how things pan out for next week.

In lieu of our usual on-screen heroics and antics, I present to you a comical representation of how pho is made, as hosted by Jimmy Chew and Phuc Dat Bich. Let me warn you that the language is a little green in the video embedded below and sensitive types may be a little offended by the representation of the characters. With that out of the way, enjoy the satire and have a beautiful weekend.

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