‘The last leaf clings to the vine’, a line from the song popularized in the 60’s by The Cascades, a group whom I heard was a vic­tim of airplane crashed then. We haven’t heard from them since then. Thanks to modern technol­ogy, I was able to ‘google’ their name and ‘viola’ I have a story to write about the ‘fall season’ which was known to us as the Autumn Season. The Cascades was the group who sang ‘The Last Leaf’ and ‘Shy Girl’, remember these songs? The group disbanded in 1975, John Gummoe, the com­poser of the group continued to compose and record his songs. He was behind the success of ‘The Very Best of The Cascades’, including several remixed of songs done for RCA Victor that were never released. It would be interesting to get this CD copies at John Gummoe website. Check it out!

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Yes, as we welcome the fall season, our palates were tickled with something different to sa­ vour from Korean Specialty stores along North Road, Burnaby. Gimbap or Kimbap were sold at $5.00 per roll. A complete meal with steamed rice, boiled spin­ach, slices of carrots and slices of flavourful sweet thin slices of pork rolled in sheets of dried seaweed wrapper. They were cut into half an inch thick (bite-size pieces). Across North Road, we spotted Anna`s Cakes where we sampled Mango Mousse Cake and Soft Whole Wheat Loaf Bread.

Along the busy North Road corner Lougheed Highway, we discovered Yan’s Chinese Restau­rant that served good selection of dimsum dishes. Assorted types of siomai (pork, beef, shrimp); steamed gail-lan (broccoli leaves) with oysters sauce; steamed ‘per­fect-to-the-bite’ beef tendons; chilli chicken feet; tripes; steamed buns; machang or sticky rice (glutinous rice and meat wrapped in lotus leaf) were served among other variety of dimsum concoc­tions. Take time to visit this place. Make sure to call and make a reservation because the place is Tropika Restaurant, Robson-Roti Canai - Malaysian Bread with Curry Sauce quite busy during lunch time.
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At the heart of the Vancouver, interesting fried layered bread dipped in Spicy Curried Sauce called Roti Canai at Tropika (Ma­lay-Thai) Restaurant, Robson Street Vancouver. We were used to seeing an omelette-shape Roti Canai but recent discovery was different. A pile of thin sheets of grilled dough that we peeled one­by-one, rolled and dipped in hot curry-chili sauce made dining different. Satay, skewed slices of pork pieces (not sweet unlike Pi­noy skewers) flavoured with tur­meric, curry powder and chilis. Nasi Goreng, an Indonesian fried rice with shrimps, peppers and spices, a meal in itself. We treat­ed ourselves with Hot and Sour Soup, a perfect flavour for cool breeze of fall. As expected, Indo­nesian Veggie Spring Rolls were the first to run-out on the table.
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Last weekend, we were treated by Cua family for lunch at Cucina Manila in Surrey (near Sky train Station). Fairly reasonably priced combo lunch/dinner menu $ 8.50, a choice of 2 dishes and big servings of rice filled us up. ‘Lu­tong-bahay’ menu selections sat­isfy our hunger up to the last bite of the original ‘Crispy Turon’ fried with nice coating of caramel/sug­ar on the wrapper; banana and ripe and flavourful langka fruit slices. While munching our turon, we traveled back to the time when we were students. At Manila’s uni­versity belt, ‘turon’ was sold at the sidewalk. Yes, ‘turon’ is a street food that young people enjoyed eating in the 70’s. Hot & Crispy Turon and a bottle of Coke were a real lunch treat for us!
We finished lunch with filled tummy and a smiling face, a sat­isfied customer. We left Cucina Manila with our usual ‘bit-bit’ (take-home) of favourite dishes and ‘siopao’ bola-bola and Asado bought from nearby New Town Bakery.

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