fmed

With Tesuya and Yoshi gone...who's left at Blue Water's raw bar?

>>Like nearly all the places downtown too. But I must say I had an excellent lunch at la Brasserie over the Christmas break. La Brasserie's suckling pig sandwich is outstanding!

Blue Water is taking over the Sweeney's space. I work in Yaletown and have been to Sweeney's for lunch many times. To food was merely OK....like nearly all the places open for lunch in Yaletown.

It's at Robson and Denman towards Georgia. I think the other yoshoku-ya, Barefoot Kitchen, closed last month too (or so I heard - I haven't been by to confirm).

Have you tried Luda (Hastings at Slocan)? Not open late. They have a bunch of good soups and simple dishes. Not really a noodle house per se - more like Mui Garden (they are "affiliated" through family connections) - a hybrid of HK, noodlehouse, and straight Cantonese. They have a pretty good wonton soup - thin skin, good broth...and to make it a bit different - they add fried garlic chips. Golden Phoenix (Nanaimo at Broadway) is another option - though a bit of a schlep. Good soups - but again not a straight noodlehouse. I think they still open late.

I would love to do a ramen hop if it wasn't so filling! Looking forward to trying Ramen Sanpachi. Good to see the Japanese chains having trust in the Vancouverites' palate for ramen. Could Ippudo and Sategaya be far behind?

It's almost like the city set up the pilot for failure. I don't know why the stalls weren't up and running for the Olympics. Seems they missed out on the cash cow on that one. That said, has anyone posted reviews of any of the street vendors that are up and running? The Olympics were the reason they weren't up and running during the Olympics. The city staff had to suspend many projects and licensing because of the workload brought on by the Olympics. The games were cited specifically as one of the causes for the delays in the street food initiative. Many of the city's foodbloggers have reviewed a number of the stalls already (Sherman, KimHo et al.) Also check out http://vancouverstreeteats.ca/

Cooked pasta tossed with canned sardines.

To try the rabbit heads, you'll have to join us when we have our Watership 'down. (Thanks for that one grayelf). Glad you liked CXG...the cooking can be inconsistent, but when the chef is 'on' (and he thinks you want authentic Sichuan), the food is really good. (BTW there is a dedicated thread to CXG here.) The steamed dish you are describing is 粉蒸肉 fěnzhēngròu which is served at Xi'an Xaochi at the Richmond Public Market.

Sadly, no. (Though, I have a couple of nostalgic hole-in-the-wall favourites - Gain Wah, Newtown, Foo's Ho Ho).

The city should (at very least) plan to phase in better food at the park and beaches concession stands. I see them as a lost opportunity. (Giving monopolies to big restaurant groups doesn't count.)

Los Guerreros is a great place. Check out Killarney Market (Killarney and 49th) as well. On topic: Rice World (Richmond) is a great place. I nearly forgot about this place. My parents shop here regularly. It is the Asian Costco. (Need frozen turtle? You can get it there....)

Portland segregates the carts into clusters or pods. Most of these carts are renting space on private properties (parking lots, etc). Portland has large areas that are underserved by restaurants (compared to here) so food carts thrive there. The restuarant biz there isn't happy with food carts as they see it as unfair competition. They would like to level the playing field a bit. I may have posted this article here already. This article outlines the concerns of the Portland restaurant industry.

It's under the radar because it is a food court stall. It has a following - there are often line ups around lunch time. (Mostly Mainlanders.)

I'm all for more variety. Downtown, much of this pent-up demand for street food can probably be fulfilled by existing cart licenses....ie we don't necessarily need many more vendors - just better, more visionary ones. Less draconian health regs to allow more interesting food will help. Something like Toronto's "a la Carte" pilot project (despite its significant failings) might be something that Vancouver can try. The pre-existing concession stands along the beaches can also be converted into hawker centers. Industrial Parks (eg the airport, the techparks, etc) which dot the city and suburbs can benefit from more food trucks and carts.

Hey Mooshmouse! Where the heck have you been? My new faves are Blue Water's raw bar, Lime (Commercial Dr) and Sushi Hachi (Odlin and Cambie in Richmond). There are many good sushi bars now that the choices are overwhelming...plus I have really cut down on my sushi consumption these days.

Not a TBN, but.... I really like the Guizhou beef noodles at Huaxi Noodle Specialist in Crystal Mall. Spicy, Savoury, and Sour...make sure to add a blob of minced garlic from the jar by the till. Guizhou soup noodles are traditionally served with rice noodles, but I prefer the yellow wheat noodles as they cook it to near perfection here. I get the #8 (Braised beef) or the #9 (Tendon)

Dylan was taking about the fen zheng rou ("rice steamed meat" roughly). It is called "Steamed Pork with Rice - $5.50" on the menu board. Very good.

I think I have turned too and now prefer CXG for its more refined take on Sichuan. I do think that S&W's much more robust and rustic approach with its cafeteria ambiance has its own appeal. I like them both. If anything - the cold peanut and cilantro dish at S&W is worth the trip....and their water boiled dishes are certainly a lot scarier looking in terms of the sheer amount of chilies and huajiao. I'm still in for fried rabbit heads at CXG if anyone dares.

I keep hearing that changes to the bylaw are upcoming. But no news lately. The last I heard was that a "staff vacancy" at City Hall (Vancouver Food Policy Council, specifically) pushed this out. The next meeting is tonight April 14...so look out for the minutes over the next few days. From VFPC minutes from Jan 13 2010:

Things are looking up. I have to commend the organizers and judging panel of the Chinese Restaurant Awards. I think these awards are providing much needed mainstream coverage and publicity. Back to the blogs...it isn't just Asian food that the bloggers cover - they eat pretty much everywhere and everything - from high-end places to little holes-in-the-wall. It is probably too much to ask for traditional media to provide the kind of blanket coverage.

Yes...Margaret G indeed does a great job. And I know she has a great palate for Asian food in particular. The coverage on Breakfast TV is sporadic and feels somewhat perfunctory. But I do commend them for attempting to address the gap. The Tim Pawsey of Courier does a good job as well - I don't always agree with his Asian reviews but that is of course subjective. Eat! isn't really mainstream as you have to seek it out. The Sun, Province, G&M are MIA for the most part.

It's a good topic for discussion. In terms of coverage of the city's food scene, traditional-media is (and really always has been) irrelevant to a huge portion of the Vancouver dining public. Asians in particular rely much more on word of mouth for recommendations. I wish there was a way to capture this information....actually there is: amateur food blogs. Even the bigger new-media lifestyle meta-blogs are not really doing the Vancouver dining scene justice as they tend to cover the same small group of restaurateurs over and over again. I don't really think the ethnicity is the real factor here. It is a really a more of a small tightly knit club. $0.02 -f (PS I think Caroline Ali is another writer who covers the ethnic (including Asian) scene well.)

I do like Chowtimes for its approachability. I don't think Ben is attempting to be a critic. He's merely providing narrative about their experiences eating about town. I don't know of any non-English blogs, but Dylan posted about this one...http://www.wretch.cc/blog/blackrumba/ Regarding that Urbanspoon list...it is interesting to note that 8 perhaps 9 of the top 10 blogs are run by Asian bloggers. I think that these bloggers are filling a void that is largely being ignored by traditional-media food writers (most of whom just don't understand the Asian palate and way of dining).

It's hard to find more perfectionist diners than rameniacs (sushi-heads included). ORU is trying something unprecedented here - street food in a fine-dining setting. It's a tough row to hoe in this landscape of good cheap Asian eats.