Happy birthday Colleen! How else to celebrate but with a big meal. Yes, we ate here the day before her actual birthday to have a post up today! My mom wanted to have Colleen try Filipino food since she hasn’t had much exposure to it. And where we decided to go was Pin Pin on Fraser street with tons of parking at the back. My family has eaten here numerous times before and we have always had a good experience.
Pinpin
6113 Fraser St, Vancouver BC
Tel#: (604) 322-3086
Once all of us arrived we got seated promptly. You see, they have a policy memo on the door stating that they will not seat you until all your party has arrived. Can’t hold tables here. lol
We let my parents do the ordering and we had to stop them because it was already a lot of items for only five of us. We started with some appetizer items, here we have their fresh lumpia.
The lumpia’s here are freshly made with their own version of a crepe like wrapper and vegetables inside. The sauce that it’s served in was quite sweet and had a strong garlic flavor to it. Colleen found it to be too saucy but we on the other hand like the sauce by the buckets. LOL I find that the lumpia itself doesn’t really have a lot going on for it except the sauce.
Spring rolls came next along with our order of garlic fried rice. The spring rolls were ok, nothing special in my opinion. And the garlic rice itself was also not garlicky enough.
Ma-ki (don’t know if this spelling is right) but this is basically pork tenderloin, covered in tons of starch and the soup itself is a very thick goop. I don’t really know how to explain this dish, but it is very chi-flip lol. My dad likes this very much. I don’t care so much for all that starch. lol
Here we have kare-kare. Of course this version from the restaurant, or any establishments have no comparison to my mom’s version. In picture we have one of two pieces of the ox tail in the order. Too much sauce and too little ingredients. The taste was also a bit bland and watery. Not so much a fail, just not good enough. As for explaining the flavor, I’ll just say that it has peanut butter in it and use your own imagination from there.
This was all I ate. Crispy pata!! Which is basically deep fried pork hock. LOL ! It’s not the best thing to eat on a regular basis but I haven’t really had this since last year. So I’m good to go. Just look at that crispy skin, pictures don’t lie.
Miki bihon was a surprise hit with Colleen, its a noodle combination of thick and thin…fried with shrimp and veggies. A very typical filipino dish and it was particularly very tasty today.
On the side is a green bean, pumpkin vegetables in coconut sauce. I didn’t try this dish at all but for some reason there was a small piece of chilli that ended up on colleen’s bowl(that I accidentally put in there) and spiced up her food too much. hahahaa, 3 cups of water later and we were back. hahaahahaha This dish has a strong coconut flavor to it and was rich and creamy.
Dessert time! My dad was all ready to have dessert before everyone was even finished with their meals. So he ordered us up this matamis na saging, which is banana slow cooked in a sweetened syrup like a brown sugar mix. Top it off with evaporated milk, shaved ice and tapioca pearls. It wasn’t strong enough in flavor for us and we found the order to be very stingy.
Now, even though someone said they were already too full to eat anymore, that same someone ate a whole cup of this coconut shaved ice concoction. haahahaa. It was delicious! It’s a mix of coconut ice cream and pandan flavor jello with some sago pearls and frosted flakes. ahahahah. This is a repeat for sure.
Overall our meal was very filling. We enjoyed sharing this experience with our b-day girl and look forward to our future visits.
Post by Marv
Happy Birthday Colleen.
Maki is one of my childhood snacks in the Phils. Its popular with the Chinese folks in Manila. BTW, Marv is your dad a Filipino-Chinese?
HAPPY BIRTHDAY COLLEEN!!!
Ma-Ki is similar to Rou-Geng (肉羹) in Taiwan, or I call it pork nuggets…one of BB’s favorite!
The “coconut shaved ice concoction” sounds interesting! I love anything with pandan!!!
Yes thats right BG. The taiwanese rou-geng is similar to Filipino maki. The main difference is that the Filipino maki does not have any veggies.The taiwanese stall in Parket Place mall near the entrance serves the Taiwanese maki. I talk to the lady owner in Fujian and she understands me. I always order it as ma-ki there or pork potage soup in their menu.
Happy Birthday Colleen!
hehe thank you Crispy, BG and BB!! =)
I loved the ma-ki, it was so tasty, but I could not put down the coconut shaved ice dessert! I didn’t even want to share with Marv heehee 🙂 And I already want to go back just to eat that! 😀 Thanks again to Marv ‘n his family for taking me out for my birthday, the meal was great 🙂
Crispy: I will have to ask Marv to clarify again, no matter how many times he tries to explain it to me, I still don’t get it 🙂
BG: Rou-Geng? You’re going to have to say it for me the next time I see you so I know how to order it next time lol! 😀
Why not just meet at parker place for a meal?
Good idea BB. One of my ATF dish there is the Zajiangmien from the Shanghai stall. Only 5 bucks and its good.
YES!!! YES!!!
I LOVE THE IDEA!!!
We can all go and hog a round table…or even two round tables together and order the food!!!
haha good plan! Marv says anyday but a weekend hahaa, all the clumsy drivers seem to gather around there 🙂
…but Marv is a Richmond driver…hehehehehe
hehee *looks around* shhh!! i complain about it all the time! haha
Happy birthday Colleen!
Try the fried tilapia … ok, fine, I guess you can make it at home.
And yes miki bihon (also try the one at Goldilocks) is awesome!
Leche flan at Pin Pin is ok but doesn’t compare to any of my Aunts’ of course.
Marv: How do you thicken kare-kare? Toasted rice or toasted rice flour? And where’s a good place to get beef oxtail?
Thanks Meryl! 😀
lol, I’ll be sure to give Goldilocks a try the next time I’m in the area 🙂
Did Marv end up getting back to you about kare kare??