Foodie weekend: Golden Inn for a lunar new year feast, Village Pita Bakery for the best chicken shawarma I’ve ever had, and Bite Groceteria for delicious odds and ends in Inglewood

It’s Lunar (aka “Chinese,” but it’s not only celebrated in China) New Year and our too-kind friend Swee had a gaggle of us out to celebrate with a HUUUUUUGE meal at Golden Inn, and it had us screaming “Gang Hee Fat Choi!” with great exuberance. I can’t recall everything that we had but it was a spectacle (and yes the dragon made an appearance). Let’s see: I remember soup of corn, chicken and egg; huge grilled prawns; ginger beef for the Gwai Lo in all of us; absolutely stunning crispy fried chicken; clams with black bean; black cod; one of those potato baskets with shrimp and chicken; a whole platter of lobster and crab; red bean “soup” for dessert; and a tonne of good coversation and conviviality. I had no camera, which is too bad, because it was a real sight. Golden Inn goes into our rotation for sure.

Yesterday we headed out to pick up me new chair (a genuine Herman Miller Aeron that Brian had ordered for my birthday last month) and since we needed the car for that, we took the opportunity to head east for a couple of places that we rarely (being southwest siders) get to visit. So we had lunch, first thing, at Village Pita Bakery, which is in an interesting culinary island called “Short Pants Plaza,” on 28 St SE north of Memorial Drive. I was prepared to get what I always get: a “meat pie,” which is actually a sfeeha, crispy and delicious and cheap- partner and I usually get three and split one (ie, one and half pies each). And they are SUPERB. Well, today I noticed “chicken pocket” ($6.95) on the menu and tried it while partner got 2 meat pies.

Out comes the “chicken pocket” and it looks like a sfeeha but with sliced chicken inside- it was toasted like the meat pies are, folded in half; then the lady behind the counter unfolds it and asks if I’d like “everything.” I don’t know what “everything” is but it turned out to be diced tomatoes, pickled wild cukes, pickled turnip, hot peppers, and tons of what turned out to be garlic sauce. This is what it looks like, more or less, with a few bits missing:

It’s not huge, so for $6.95 it might not seem to be great value; here I am to give you some sense of proportion. I do have pretty big hands…

Regardless of price: oh. my. God. It was delicious. It was different from any shawarma I’ve had, in part because the pita was pizza-crust crispy, the pickles added this sublime, complex taste (it didn’t just taste of vinegar or whatever despite having three different pickled things), and the garlic sauce was incredible, with a tiny bit of sweetness to it. It was pure pleasure. Next time, I’m getting two.

I’ve had perfectly amazing shawarma in Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, and at places like Tazza and A&A in Calgary. I’ve never had any this delicious. So this was, needless to say, an amazing find.

Moving back towards downtown, we stopped in a new foodie boutique called Bite Groceteria in Inglewood, which is a cool area east of downtown that we don’t get to often enough. This is a nice, characterful old space that was once a Good Earth cafe. It’s stocked with a seemingly random, but also interesting, beautiful, and appetizing assortment of foods and kitchen paraphernalia; a great place to do some discovering, with very friendly and knowledgeable staff. We went home with a small treasure trove including really good olive oil and fantastic hand-made Italian nougat. Inglewood needs places like this (until a couple of years ago it was lousy with antique shops and not much else), and we wish them well.