Follow Me Foodie (Mijune Pak) comes to St. George’s School

Sam Shen and Preston Chan|February 20, 2015

Mijune Pak, also known as Follow Me Foodie, visited the Journalism class of St. George’s on Feb 3, 2015. Mijune explained how her carrer started as a hobby and showed examples of her previous food critiques. She also taught the class a variety of techniques to improve blogging skills. After Mijune’s short visit to the school, she arranged dinner on February 9 (Family Day) so that the students get some ‘hands-on’ experience in food critique.

The destination for the meal is located in “Wildebeest”, a restaurant famous for its horse tartare and bone marrow. Under Mijune’s guidance, the students wrote a food critique for the 8-course meal prepared by the restaurant:

Restaurant: Wildebeest

Last visited: February 9 2015

Location: Vancouver, BC

Address: 120 West Hastings Street

1: Poor 2: OK 3: Good 4: Very good 5: Excellent 6: Tres Excellent!!

Appetizers:

Smoked Olives: 3.5/6

The first dish I tried out were the smoked olives. Even though it was my first time trying it with no previous experiences, I can say with confidence that this dish was delicious. Yes, I am a fan of dark olives, but this dish toppled any previous image of smoked olives. The olives were very buttery with a salty taste along with it. Not only that, the aftertaste had a ‘smoked’ effect, persuading me to continue eating the dish.

Spiced Pork Rinds: 2.5/6

The second appetizer I tried was called the “Spiced Pork Rinds”. I never had this dish before. However, I have had similar fried food, in which I can compare this dish too. Sadly, this dish wasn’t as good as it looked. Everything that I ate got stuck in my teeth and since I had braces, this experience was so much more worse for me. Not only that, the dish is over-the-top buttery, with not really any taste to accompany it.

Horse Tartare: 5.5/6

The horse tartare dish contained cornichons & capers, diced shallots, bourbon sabayon and homemade crispy potato chips. This is a great dish and was a favourite amongst most of the journalism students. The homemade potato chips were very crispy and were not too salty. The horse tartare was cold, smooth, flavourful and brought a light kick. Furthermore, the presentation of the dish was great. It was organized carefully and very nicely. Excellent appetizer!

Crispy Pork Schnitzel: 5/6

The crispy pork schnitzel was one of my favourite dishes. It had a caraway-spiced beer mustard sauce. It was served hot and was very crispy. Furthermore, it was very easy to chew and swallow unlike the crispy pork rind. The dish reminds me of the shake and bake packages from Costco. It is something that could be made at home. Nothing really special but still delicious nevertheless.

The Poutine: 5/6

Hand-cut poutine, chicken & mushroom gravy, and cheese curds make a perfect dish. This was served hot and tasted fresh. The fries were not too mushy and there weren’t too much salt on the fries. The gravy was very thick and rich with meat flavour. The cheese curdles were displayed nicely on top of the fries. Although presentation was not desirable (fries were messily placed in the bowl), they did everything else right and it was excellently made.

Main Dishes:

Homemade Parpadelle: 4.5/6

The first main dish that came was the handmade pappardelle with smoked quail ragu, grated chestnut, shaved parmesan cheese, and crispy sage. The parpadelle’s presentation was great and all of the different food items in the pasta were clearly displayed. In terms of taste, the pasta was cooked a bit longer than al dente. Normally, Italian pastas don’t contain much sauce and West Coast pastas contain a lot of sauce. This restaurant has West Coast influence, even though their pasta was made mainly based on the Italian influence. The crispy sage tasted fresh. Furthermore, the chestnuts were very nutty and sweet. Overall, this pasta was delicious. The only regret I have is not putting extra sauce on the pasta.

Radicchio Salad: 2.5/6

This was a radicchio & butter lettuce salad with toasted walnuts, grated ricotta cheese, mandarin oranges and sherry vinaigrette. Many of the students didn’t like this dish, including myself. The presentation was nice even if the dish tasted very bitter. The salad dressing was on a bit of a light side and I couldn’t taste it. Despite the salad’s bitterness, eating the mandarin oranges with the radicchio help balanced out the bitterness.

Angus Striploin: 5.5/6

The angus striploin dish contained roasted fingerling potatoes, brussel sprouts & cipollini onions, smoked salt and hay jus. Without a doubt, almost every Journalism student enjoyed this dish. The presentation of the dish was fancy and this did not disappoint. Each piece of steak was cooked medium rare and was seared on the outside and tender inside. The steak was very juicy, flavourful, and chewy. All of the other food items tasted great and suited the dish well.

Dessert:

Wildebeest Cheesecake: 5/6

For dessert, there was the Wildebeest cheesecake which came along with a strawberry sorbet and crumble. This was not your usual cheesecake. This was like a reversed cheesecake in a bowl. All the different ingredients are mixed into the bowl and the strawberry sorbet is added in the middle of the bowl. First of all, the presentation was stunning! It was very appealing and my mouth started dripping at first glance. However, the crumble could be added in a nicer fashion and not thrown all over the cheesecake. When I first tasted the cheesecake, I felt very satisfied. The strawberry sorbet melted slowly into my mouth. It felt cold, fresh, and refreshing inside my mouth. The cheesecake was rich, sweet, and smooth in flavour. This was the highlight of the night and I would definitely order this dessert when I return to Wildebeest.

In conclusion, our overall experience at the restaurant was fantastic. The servers were very friendly and the overall ambience of the restaurant was very peaceful. Here is our overall review of the restaurant:

Food: 4.5

Service: 4.5

Ambiance: 5

Overall: 4.5