151 replies to this topic

[Daddy-A]

Chef ... how was the merguez? 

I am walking over right now to see Neil...should be eating in the next 30 minutes!

Bastard!

[nwyles]

It's 5:30 now and I finished mine about half an hour ago.

Delish !

The Canadain Food and Drug people can not confiscate what is already eaten can they. ( please do not answer that as the quality of posts could deteriorate very quickly )

Now, how do we get some prohibited cheeses !

[cubilularis]

I Love Merguez...

But more importantly, we can talk about great Butchers in Vancouver.

The truth is...you need to be friends with a busy restaurant owner in Vancouver if you want to get really fresh fish or good meat...

What is in the market is all number two's. The restaurants buy the good stuff and the rest is sold to the USA at a premium because of the dollar exchange.

[stovetop]

It is hard for restaurants to find the good stuff too, most good stuff is Exported, as a chef you have to do some good food sourcing and deal with a lot of suppliers to find good stuff, it is out there you just have to search.

[yunez]

I love grilling steaks but I find that the meats available in supermarkets are not up to standard. Do you guys know where the good butchers are in vancouver (I live in Richmond)? I love lots of marbling in my steak!

[kurtisk]

My favourite is The British Butcher Shoppe in North Van. My wife did a story on bacon (real bacon) in Vancouver some years back for Angela at The Georgia Straight and found the place to be quite notable and good. On that note, if you drop by you must buy the bacon that he cures himself in a variety of styles.

k.

ps- thinking about it, he may not have steaks. sorry, just got excited. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... bacon.

Edited by kurtisk, 25 June 2005 - 10:49 PM.

[mtigges]

ps- thinking about it, he may not have steaks. 

He's got steaks. But not normally a wide variety. He usually does have nice rib eyes. And the steaks on display are an appropriate width as well.

If you go to BB, buy some bacon for sure, but don't miss the sausages.

edited to add this comment:
BB is a favourite of mine too, but it's just up the street from me. My favourite in the whole city is Armandos on Granville Island. He's just a great butcher, and a super-nice guy.

Mark.

Edited by mtigges, 26 June 2005 - 08:56 AM.

[chef jeff]

There are a couple of Italian butchers in town that rock my sausages. Columbus Meat Market on first and renfrew, and Cioffi's Meat Market on Hastings in Burnaby Hieghts a couple blocks past the Pear Tree.

They both have great steaks, game and nice sausages and bacon. They both also have horse! And thier prices are very competitive.

[dillybravo]

In contrast to some of the old reco's above I must say that I find the Jackson's on Granville to be not the best; maybe good for steaks but I always see plenty of too-old meat in their cooler, particularly sausages. I like their Irish Cured Ham but it's been pretty funky a few times I've bought the vacuum packed ham steaks and even sliced ham, so I try to stay away now.

The most intriguing recommendation that I haven't followed up on yet (no car, no BBQ, no time!), which you may miss mention of, is Traditional Fayre and Meats, said to be near Hastings and MacDonald about two blocks from Cioffi's. Pretty far from Richmond, but I've confirmed with a couple of people that he dry-ages his steaks well past the 28-day mark on occasion and that to me is the best of all possible worlds, even if the marbling isn't perfect (which I suspect it likely is).

It is hard to find well-marbled steaks because the consumer prefers steaks with "less fat" and the "fatty" ones don't get sold. You should definitely ask particularly, wherever you go, if they have anything well-aged and well-marbled in the back, or if they can get something in, because they probably can. Any good butcher will appreciate that you have such good taste and knowledge about your beef and find you something special.

Finally, if you like reading about meat as much as eating it, you should check out Steingarten's adventures in search of well-dry-aged beef (and the pursuant attempts to do it himself when none could be found), in the essay "High Steaks" found in It Must Have Been Something I Ate.

Edit: Hmm, wasn't going to mention Armando's at Granville Island because I'm not sure about the marbling, but I just found this suggestion from VanEats where 30-day aging (but is it dry-aged? I suspect wet-aged, which is not the same) is claimed; also, the people at Oyama, whose prepared meats are the finest in the land, recommend them as well.

Edited by dillybravo, 26 June 2005 - 12:25 PM.

[JenBragg]

Hi,
My favorite butchers are at Winsor Meats on Main & King Edward. The ribeye has a great beefy flavour and sufficient marbelling. I also enjoy the old-school meat pies.
Regards, Jen

[Daddy-A]

Here are some of the better old threads you can find it you search this forum for 'butchers':

http://forums.egulle...showtopic=48852
http://forums.egulle...showtopic=31114

[host]
I've merged the above threads into this one ... just in case anyone goes looking for them.
[/host]

A.

[peppyre]

Dillybravo, sorry to say, but Traditional Fayre is now closed. Much to my dismay. When it became TF though it didn't have much in the way of steaks, mostly traditional Scottish health food. Now, the previous owners of the Auld Scottish Larder (same spot, they retired) had the best aged meat in the city. The leg of lamb that I bought from them right before they closed was legendary.

[yunez]

thanks guys! i would've loved to try that dry-aged ribeye.. more than 28 days you say? i'm salivating already. Since Armando's is such a favorite, i'll pay him a visit next week and we'll see what he has.

[dillybravo]

Ack! I guess I'll have to pull a Steingarten and clear out 1/2 the fridge for a couple months. Unless anyone else has a line on extra-dry-aged beef? Maybe some of the organic producers... Good thing I didn't buy that BBQ last week (no patio, so it was gonna be a special cook-out in the park just for those steaks!).

yunez, while you're down there, can you ask them if their steaks are wet-aged or dry-aged and let us know?

[mtigges]

Unless anyone else has a line on extra-dry-aged beef?

Well, Whole Foods in Park Royal claimed that they dry-aged a portion of their product for 30 days when they first opened. They had large slabs o' beef ™ hanging on display behind the counter so I believed it. But I'm not sure they have kept that up. I don't notice the signs in the counter that this row of steaks is from aged product and this one is not. Nor do I notice a colour difference anymore, so I'm just not sure. You could phone. Regardless, it's a pretty good butcher. I've been very happy using them as my source of short ribs. Well, butchered, perfectly sized portions.

There sausages are better than adequate, but the nice thing is they sell the filling in tubs if you want. Much better than ground beef or something for a pasta sauce IMO.

What I find quite amusing though, is that WF has begun selling Blue Goose. You might think this is a good thing. I think it's funny, it's about a 2 minute drive to save yourself the markup and buy right from the source.

Mark.

[yunez]

Went to Armando's today and unfortunately, they don't dry-age their steaks (the butcher said practically everyone in the city doesn't do that anymore). He did recommended a Canadian prime cut ribeye though... it was well-marbled and aged between 35-40 days. Bought 3 steaks, cost almost $50. Cooked it, was very tender and had just enough of that beefy aroma to satisfy me. It was great, but I'm still on the hunt for the very best steaks here in Vancouver.

[canucklehead]

Well, Whole Foods in Park Royal claimed that they dry-aged a portion of their product  for 30 days when they first opened.  They had large slabs o' beef ™ hanging on display behind the counter so I believed it.  But I'm not sure they have kept that up.  I don't notice the signs in the counter that this row of steaks is from aged product and this one is not.  Nor do I notice a colour difference anymore, so I'm just not sure.  You could phone.  Regardless, it's a pretty good butcher.  I've been very happy using them as my source of short ribs.  Well, butchered, perfectly sized portions. 

I think that if you ask them - they will age it for you. They will age a steak but will not age a roast (this was the case a few months ago). I have seen aged meat on sale once in a while. My favorite butcher there is AWOL - a big lug named appropriately Angus!. He was good at recommending good cuts and good values. However - the meat is generally well butchered all around.

I've noticed that they are selling Blue Goose. I know that BG has an outlet in NV but I always thought they were only open once a week.

[Ling]

Anyone know where I can get game meat in Richmond? (Heringer's, perhaps?)

Looking for buffalo, venison...anything...

[Keith Talent]

You can get Buffalo at Save On Foods. Outside of that, I'd suspect that any butcher would order whatever you wanted, (hell the crew at Herringers is so nice, they'd probably come over and cook it if you asked.)

And there's frozen buffalo at Seafair Meats, in the freezer. Ostrich almost everywhere.

[Ling]

Thanks! Going to Seafair now.

[canucklehead]

Following up my earlier posting on aged beef - the WF butcher confirmed that the store will age entire rib of beef. Is an entire rib of beef ribs 5 through 13? Anyways it is a big chuck of meat.

They will dry age it for 28 days then remove the chine bone and the fat cap. The last time they did this - it came to about $250 for the entire set of ribs. They told me that this is the only way they sell aged beef now as the butcher shop is so busy now that they cannot spare the fridge space (does this make sense? I guess that aging the beef does cut into margins). I have visions of a Fiar Tuck-like feast dancing in my head now.

Then again they told me that they sold hangar steat - but they only knew it as skirt steak. Blank stares when confronted with the word 'onlget'. Amateurs.

[peppyre]

The problem with most butchers is that they are now geared towards selling items to the vast majority of the public. Those that want their meat vaccum packed with no fat. I've had many a discussion with my butcher on the subject and his son still insists on trimming the meat that I buy. I usually have to shriek or gasp to get him to stop. Dry aged meat just isn't profitable for these guys anymore and most of them don't have the space. I remember walking through large sides hanging in the aging room of my dad's old shop. It was a huge room and then there was the walk-in and a freezer room. You just don't see this anymore. Everything comes in cryo-vac bags, to save space and money. There is a very small percentage of guys out there that would actually know what to do with a whole side of any animal and it's very sad. I think the Auld Scottish Larder was the last place in the city where you could find dry aged meat. Oh how I miss them.

[Ling]

The lady at Seafair told me that there's some sort of strike going on, so the trucks aren't delivering stuff like game meat to Richmond for awhile. All they had in the freezer were buffalo burgers.

I ended up going to Stong's for buffalo tenderloin from Hill's (frozen). They also had buffalo chuck roast, and cross-rib roast (dry aged, not frozen).

[Luciano Loi]

I live 10 minutes (walking) from Herringers. Gotta give them an endorsement.

Try the peach pies at British Home on the corner of No. 1 and Moncton -- great.

Another meat shop that might interest people
Nikuya Meats on Broadway near Renfrew - Japanese meats including Wagyu, and really good bentos to go.

Steveston seems to be lacking the really good seafood place that it deserves.

Not true! The oddly named Fish and Gift across from Papi's has great fresh seafood. They had the best halibut cheeks.

[BCinBC]

Ling, I ordered a bunch of buffalo last winter as a part of a soccer fundraiser. The product came from the Northen BC Buffalo Co. located in Fort St John. The meat is very tender and the tenderoin for example grills beautifully rare. Burgers, sausages, roasts and other cuts available too. If you're really into it, the contact I have is Lars Jorgensen trolle_@telus.net

BTW the "some sort of strike" is the container truckers' strike which is currently doing heavy damage to many BC companies and industries. I do not object to guys making a decent living, and I certainly don't want to get too political, but the strike is currently crippling our blueberry farmers (amongst others).

[mtigges]

Then again they told me that they sold hangar steat - but they only knew it as skirt steak.  Blank stares when confronted with the word 'onlget'.  Amateurs.

Is there anywhere in town where you can get the real thing (uncooked)?

[BCinBC]

Then again they told me that they sold hangar steat - but they only knew it as skirt steak.  Blank stares when confronted with the word 'onlget'.  Amateurs.

Is there anywhere in town where you can get the real thing (uncooked)?

I believe Peppyre's Meat Shoppe recently had some, though possibly frozen.

[peppyre]

No, unfortunately Windsor can't get hanger, although they do have flat iron now, which I picked up the last time I was in. I think Neil has secured all of the hanger steak on the West Coast.

[nwyles]

I have drained Intercity and Trimpac and will have to commit to a major re-order. I have a couple of pieces if anyone really, really needs it. Just PM me for pick up times.

Cheers

[Badiane]

Back when I lived in the West End...about a million years ago - my rent was only $425 a month, if that tells you anything I use to go to the Robson Market once in a while...there was a butcher shop there that was staffed by a man and what appeared to be his meat cutter daughters...5 buxom, bodacious blondes in bloody aprons. We used to refer to them as "the meat choppin' babes". Anyone know if they are still there?