The Noodle Box

Put some love into it. Slow Cook it!

Nick — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:17:54 +0000

February is traditionally the coldest and well..the lamest moth of the year. Lets face it we are all trying to stay warm and longing for sunshine and beaches. For the last two years we have been offering a delicious way to warm up — slow cooked curries! The art of slow cooking has always been a passion of ours, it brings out the best in the ingredients and spices and allows our chefs who normally are focused on stir fry, which could be looked at as the opposite of slow cooking, some time to really flex a new culinary technique.

The Malaysian Lamb Curry is one of our regular menu items and is excellent paired with a glass of red wine -also good for warming up, but we want to give you more choices, so every day at every location we will be offering some sort of finely crafted slow cooked curry.

Look for some of these favourites, Pork Vindaloo, Beef Rengdang, Butter Chicken Curry, Halibut and Spinach Curry, Kerela Curried Squid, Malaysian Fruit Curry and many more!

<3 The Noodle Box Crew

Loyal Customer Braves The New Ghost Chille Suicide Noodle Box!

Nick — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:24:50 +0000

Dear Jack — Thanks so much for this great feedback, we all really enjoyed reading your story! We hope to see you and your family soon, to test your taste buds!

On the afternoon of Friday January 20, 2012, while walking past the Noodle Box on Fisgard St., my wife noticed the sidewalk sign advertising the ‘suicide hot’ addition to the menu. The notice offered a free draft beer to anyone who could finish eating anything made from the ‘ghost chili’.Having just recently seen a television program, the “Hairy Bikers”, on the History channel that focused on hot peppers and the experiences the hosts had eating hot peppers (including the ghost chili) I knew there was something extraordinary awaiting anyone willing to venture into the world of ghost chilies.

The timing of this was serendipitous and I told my wife I had to take the challenge. Not so much for the possible free beer, but for the experience of the heat. We finished our Chinatown shopping and stopped in for lunch sometime around 2pm.

I ordered the ‘suicide hot’ Tom Yum soup with prawns. Words cannot even begin to describe the altered state of consciousness experienced over the next two hours. It would be like trying to explain the taste of a lemon to someone who had never tasted a lemon.

That meal was the hottest thing that I had ever eaten and I like to eat hot and spicy food. I was unable to move for a short period of time while I sat in the corner ‘radiating’ internal warmth never experienced before and awash in the euphoria brought on by the release of endorphins in my body. I did finish the dish and was rewarded with a free beer. By then there was no escape from the inferno that was now me. As I walked home the heat appeared to intensify with a quickened pace which itself seemed to be brought on by the heat. I would slow down for a while but then the afterburners would kick in and off I would go.

I want to thank everyone at the Fisgard location for providing an experience I shall not soon forget. I would recommend that anyone who likes hot food try to eat the ‘suicide’ version of your menu items. I definitely would not feed anyone anything containing ‘ghost chilies’ without their knowledge or consent – it could really do some serious harm.

Sincerest best wishes and keep up the great offerings,

Jack

p.s. I may have to try the suicide Thai Chicken wings at some point.

Snow Storm hits Vancouver Island January 18th

Nick — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:18:23 +0000

A Blizzard has hit Vancouver Island today! Wow that was a bit of a surprise after we have had such a mild winter… people were wearing shorts here a couple days ago. Well thats part of living on the coast, the weather can change just like that.

We will be keeping you all updated on the status of the stores but as of right now all of the stores except for Sidney are open as usual.

Check us out on Twitter or Facebook for regular updates.

Featured Artists at The Noodle Box

Nick — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 17:28:41 +0000

We are delighted to have local artist Jay Hanscom featured this month at Fisgard Noodle Box. From sculpture to mixed media drawings and resin based wood box frames, Jay creates work with a very pop cultural feel. The work shown at Fisgard St shouldn’t be missed.

Check out Jay’s other work at his website!

www.jayhanscom.com

Hot just got a little hotter! Bhut Jolokia Chilli Peppers new at Noodle Box

Nick — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 03:05:33 +0000

Do you like it spicy ? How about the spiciest in the world ? According to the guiness book of world records the Bhut Jolokia Chilli Pepper otherwise know as “the ghost pepper” for the way it sneaks up on you — is the hottest pepper in the world and we have got it! We had to apply to have it specially imported. Now that we have it we are planning on using it at all of our locations by the end of January. If you wanna get in on the hot action and are a spicy guru then come down to the Fisgard St or Douglas St Noodle Box and test your limits.

Now for a little history on this sneaky Chili Pepper, just so you know what you are getting yourself into. This pepper is an interspecific hybrid that was cultivated in northern Indian in the states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur and Bangladesh. It can also be found in Sri Lanka, where it is called the Cobra Pepper. This pepper is traditionally used for culinary uses but in 2009 was tested by the Indian Army in handgrenades as a non-lethal way to flush out terrorists from their hide outs and also to control rioters!!

Wow Crazy stuff, well we can safely say that we will only be using this spicy pepper in our food. If you want to give it a try but aren’t ready to commit to a suicide noodle box, look for our crying tiger satays, they will most likely have the pepper powder in them. See you soon!

Noodle Box

The Noodle Box 2011 Recap

Nick — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:57:50 +0000

The Noodle Box has had an incredible year, thanks to all of our customers. 2011 has been a year with a lot of growth and expansion, we opened three new stores this year, Uptown, Sidney and Downtown Vancouver. This year we also came up with a few new programs and promotions, lets take a look at what we did.

Home Delivery –> This has been huge for us! Downtown Victoria and Sidney have been our test stores for this program and we really appreciate the support as its been a success. Maybe this coming year we will be able to roll it out at all the stores …

$1 and $2 off cards –> you might have seen these around town, we have been handing them out at all of our locations as a way to say “hey your awesome and we really appreciate your business!”

Student Discount Program –> All of our stores now offer a discount program for all of the hungry students out there, because we dont want you to study on an empty stomach and we all know that you can easily turn one box into at least two meals which is a great value for students.

$9 Lunch Box Program –> This was so much fun for us to do! Why didnt we come up with this sooner!? The best of our foodies put their creative energy into coming up with specials that offer our regular lunch time crowd a regular, value oriented lunch. Every day at every location you can find these yummy specials between 11 and 4pm.

$4 Pints and Happy Hour Appies $5 Monday-Wednesday –> Definitely a staff favourite! This one hasnt made it to all of our stores yet but its been going strong at the lower douglas and chinatown victoria stores. You cant really go wrong with a 20 ounce pint of phillips beer and some tasty asian style small eats both for under $10!

So whats 2012 going to hold for us ?? Great food, fun times, great tunes and of course, you! Thanks again for your support over the years ~ <3 The Noodle Box Crew

The Noodle Box presents, $9 Lunch Specials every weekday at every location

Nick — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:23:12 +0000

Through judicious (ya we said it, judicious) menu creation and a focus simple quality ingredients we give you the $9 lunch program !The $9 lunch program is a way for us to offer our regular lunchtime crowd consistent, healthy, value orientated lunch option.

Our customers will find different $9 specials every weekday at every location, from 11-4, or until we sell out.

We hope you all enjoy trying out these new lunch specials!

Middle Mountain Mead Featured at The Noodle Box

Nick — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:59:54 +0000

At a wine tasting at the Empress in early 2011, we (The Noodle Box management team ) had the good fortune of meeting the owners of Middle Mountain Mead, Helen Grond and Steve McGrath. We all fell in love with their Meads but in particular the Magik Mead, which they mixed with sparkling water and a lime wedge. Mead has a sweet mild honey flavour and depending on how it is made, will normally have some herb flavours added during the production phase, giving the Meads a fresh and earthy taste. As a group we decided that brining in some of these products for the summer would be a great idea and would compliment our food amazingly.

After a month or so of having the product at our stores in Victoria and Vancouver, Steve and Helen offered to have us over for a visit. So we went to check it out and it was amazing! Their property as you can see from this photo is situated on the highest point of Hornby Island, with a stunning view of the islands and ocean. These lovely folks welcomed us warmly and we spent a wonderful afternoon touring their Meadery and tasting all the various Meads they had to offer.

Helen and Steven grow thousands of herb plants and many fruit trees on their property all of which are used in their Meads. These herbs also offer a wonderful sanctuary for all of the honey bees they keep, which make the main ingredient for the mead -Honey!

Beef Short Rib!

Nick — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 18:10:52 +0000

The Noodle Box is very proud to announce that we have sourced an amazing new Beef product. We are now using thinly sliced, Boneless Short Rib! If you’re familiar with Short Rib Beef, you will know just how tender, marbled and delicious this cut of Beef really is. Fresh, Canadian AAA Beef is hand sliced daily by our chefs, and we are proud to be serving such a fantastic, quality cut of meat. Next time you are in, try a Teriyaki Beef, or a Black Bean and Garlic with Beef, and taste the difference for yourself. Look out for the same cut to be popping up in specials and in a few of our 9 dollar lunch features, as our chefs utilize this new product in different and delicious ways. It doesn’t cost you any extra to enjoy this premium cut, and you might even feel inclined to throw the word ‘unctuous’ into a sentence….

Haliburton Farms at The Noodle Box!

Nick — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 23:23:03 +0000

Fresh organic veggies at the farm

Over the summer The Noodle Box Douglas and Fisgard have been bringing tons of local veggies from Haliburton Organic Community Farms box program. For the duration of the summer and fall months we have showcased a variety of veggies and berries grown from the collective of farmers that work the land at the farm. The farm is divided into plots of about an acre per each one or two people, each plot grows a variety of veggies to sustain them through the growing season. Each Tuesday farmer Nate brings us a delicious variety of veggies that run in our food specials throughout the week but particularly for our weekly vegetarian Wednesday specials. Another common dish that features these veggies is our Satay Lunch Box, which always comes with a fresh salad.

We hope that you have been able to come and try some of these specials and would love to hear from you if you had a favourite!

Here is a picture of Farmer Nate! Thanks Nate for the delicious veggies!

Nate eating a huge piece of swiss chard!