Eating our way through Vancouver

[Abra]

It's taken me almost a week to recover from 5 days in Vancouver. Thank you dear Vancouver people for making our visit so fun. Cosmic thanks to Mooshmouse the Inimitable for being Mistress of Ceremonies, with additional and copious special thanks to Canucklehead, Daddy-A, Jamie Maw, Ling, peppyre, *Deborah*, and the fabulous Jeff and Kurtis from Aurora, NWyles from the Hammy, and Alistair and Drew from the aptly-named Elysian. You all are an awesome bunch, and I only hope I can return the favor down here someday.

The only disappointing thing was my pictures. I don't have many that are at all nice, and none that do justice to the food. Fortunately, Canucklehead took pictures at Aurora and Sea Harbour, and I hope he'll link to them below, so you can get some better food porn. Ling also took pictures at Thomas Haas, and I'm sure she'd share. Today, we read our camera manual, 2-3 years after we got the thing, and I think my pictures are going to be better from now on. RTFM, moron!

We came up by train, a fun way to travel. The trip up is really beautiful and it's a luxury to be able to watch the scenery. And it's cheap. I recommend the train.

We stayed on Granville Island, at the hotel. As a treat for my husband's birthday they gave us a beautiful room on the top floor with two walls of windows and three balconies of its own, all over the marina. We unpacked and went out into the Market for lunch, wanting to keep it light before our special dinner. I had some unexpectedly decent Indian comfort food from Rubina's.

That evening we were off to Aurora, to meet Daddy and Mrs.-A, and Canucklehead. On the absolute spur of the moment, Chef Jeff and Sommelier Kurtis agreed to whip out a 7 course tasting menu for us, with wine pairings, and it was instantly clear that we were in for a wonderful evening.

Here's the menu they created for us. For the 5 of us, Jeff usually sent out two different dishes per course, and for the main, 5 different dishes. He rocks.

Hazelmere Farms Beet Salad with Okanagan goat cheese and Orange Chive Blossom Vinaigrette

Warm Spinach Salad with a Poached Egg, Crisp Bacon, and Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Township 7 2004 Sauvignon Blanc

5 Spice Organic Chicken Consomme with House-Smoked Duck Bacon or Smoked Sablefish

Golden Mile Cellars 2004 Road 13

Pine Mushroom Risotto, Root Vegetable Tempure, and Ginger Sabayon

Nichol Vineyard 2004 Capriccio

Organic Cranberry and Ginger Sorbet with Sparkling Sumac Ridge Brut

Seared Mushroom Crusted Albacore Tuna, Rye Berry Pilaf, Sugar Pumpkin Bisque, and Scallion Soubise

Potato-Wrapped Smoked Sablefish with local mussel, Autumn Vegetable Chowder

Pork Tenderloin with Maple Mustard Seed Glaze, Okanagan goat cheese, and Apple Crumble

Smoked Lamb Cheeks with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and braising juices

Duck Confit Croquettes and foie gras Dijon sauce

Winchester 2003 Sharp Rock Vineyard Pinot Noir

Black Hills 2003 Nota Bene

BC artisan cheese plate

Sumac Ridge 2000 Vintage Pipe

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake with Walnut Crust and cranberry ginger compote

Sugar Pumpkin Tarte Tatin with Pine Mushroom Ice Cream and Smoked Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Caramelized Roasted Pineapple and Chocolate Salad

Heritage Apple Upsidedown Cake with Burnt Caramel and Whipped Creme Fraiche

See Ya Later Ranch 2003 Ehrenfelser Icewine

The duck croquettes, lamb cheeks, sugar pumpkin tarte, apple upsidedown cake, I could eat those all day long. Canucklehead took pictures of it all, ingeniously lit with his cell phone and kindly offered his pictures, which I'm hoping he'll link to below.

Actually, you'd think we'd have never eaten again, but there we were the very next day, having lunch with Mooshmouse, peppyre, and Ling at Josephine's. Moosh's ordering strategy is probably familiar to you all: one of each, please. It's a great way to really dig into a restaurant, and there was shockingly little left over after we descended like the proverbial locusts on an array of about 12 dishes. Here are a few. Hopefully Moosh will supply the names of the dishes, as I was too busy eating to write anything down.

I loved the crispy dried fish and the long beans with dried shrimp.

This is what you really want. You know you do. Deep fried pork hock. Speaks for itself, eh?

I loved these desserts! Cassava cake, sticky black rice, and a taro pudding. Delicious.

We couldn't forget that we had reservations that night at Le Crocodile, where we'd heard that portions were large. To atone for lunch, we took the bus over there in order to get in a bit of walking. The menu was one of those where all the starters look more enticing than the mains, so we just had small plates. We ordered a cool course, followed by a warm course. Cool was a foie terrine, a salad with a seared scallop, and a beef tartare. Warm was a seared foie, a stuffed quail, and onion tart. Our waiter was inexperienced and told us that wouldn't be too much food, so sadly we didn't have room for dessert. Oh wait! We already had three desserts for lunch.

The foie terrine.

The tartare. Horrors! See that bit of shell on the quail's egg?

The scallop salad. The warm courses all look terrible. I think they dimmed the lights or something. Le Croc was my husband's choice for his birthday dinner, but I wouldn't go there again. I like more thrilling food, but this was solid and very well-executed. Tasted good, too.

The next day we lunched at The Hamilton Street Grill, with Daddy-A and Chef NWyles in attendance. Despite a group of 40 and hangar steak not being on the lunch menu, we did indeed have it, with terrific yam fries, and the iconic Gingerbread Pudding with Pumpkin and Ginger Sorbet.

So good! Wow, that's only half of what we ate. Not even. I'd better do the rest in another post, but before I go, I want to mention the Elysian. We managed to get there three times on this trip, wooed by the excellent cappucinos. My husband might move to Vancouver just for that cappucino.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Abra (log)

[Abra]

Friday night is when we had Canucklehead's fabulous Chinese New Year's dinner with about 20 of you. It's well-documented starting here, so let me just say, that was some special dinner.

The delicious cold platter, with the infamous goose feet

The roe of the luscious crab in pumpkin sauce - I wanted to just wash my face with this stuff

The super-delicate dried scallop fried rice, with the sweetest and gooiest, almost dessertlike char siu bao I've ever had.

It was a thrill to meet so many of you, and put faces and voices with what I knew about you in cyber-life. You are all much skinnier than I expected!

The next morning Jamie Maw collected us at the hotel and took us for a gentle and leisurely drive in some of the prettiest parts of town, before we met Moosh at Phnom Penh for a Cambodian lunch. We were the only non-Asians in there and I didn't feel comfortable whipping out the camera, plus since the owners clearly adored Jamie, I didn't want to ruin his reputation by making a spectacle of myself. I think Jamie has photos of their incredible garlic squid in his blog, and you should probably be gladd not to have to see a picture of the congee with pig blood that Moosh and I shared. A highlight for me was getting the recipe, detailed instructions, and some special yeast balls to make their fermented black rice dessert. We all swore there was some sort of cherry syrup, but it turned out to be two weeks of fermentation that created the flavor. I am so making this, as soon as I get the right black rice.

That night, our last eG dinner, we dined at Hapa Izakaya with Moosh and *Deborah*. For some reason, there's no izakaya at all in Seattle, so far as I know, so now I'm thinking of going into the izakaya biz. You could make a fortune with Hapa in Seattle. It was super dark in there, so all I can show you is

their amazing mackarel. This wins for presentation alone. They bring it to the table raw and flame blast it with a torch until it's just done. Quite sensational, and it even tastes good.

Canucklehead blew me away by dropping in to our dinner, not to eat, but to leave me a gift. He'd gone and hunted down the sand ginger and chicken spices, and the fermented tofu for the lamb sauce from our Sea harbour dinner, and brought me a little take-home care package. And I made the stuff at home, and it was good. Not as good as Sea Harbour's, but good. I love that sand ginger. In fact, I'm using it in our Seattle avant-garde dinner tomorrow. It's such an arresting flavor. That Canucklehead, what a sweetie pie.

Oh wait, somewhere in there we went out to Thomas Haas. How could I forget? Moosh, Ling and a friend, peppyre, and we went over to the Haas fab to sample his wares. My secret agenda was to go to some pastry place with Ling, so I could have lots of tastes and she would finish everything up. In that regard, she upheld her reputation fully.

They have a really sexy pastry case. Sometime I'd like to go there when it's not right in between two huge meals.

the 20 pieces of chocolate my husband brought home.

Oh wait again, I'm forgetting the funniest part. Ling, bless her little pastry-fiend self, decided to bake something for us. So before going to Thomas Haas we had a coffee, then went out to the cars. She had a plate of her famous peanut butter-ganache sandwich cookies in the car, and she brought them out to hand around. We were standing right on the sidewalk outside the coffee place, and a total stranger guy, not to mention a totally strange guy, just walked up and took a cookie off the plate. We were all so polite we didn't know what to do, and didn't really want to ask for it back, especially since he wasted no time biting off a large piece. He claimed to have thought it was a promo for the coffee shop, but I think he just knew a good thing when he saw one. But now that I remember that cookie, I see why we weren't hungry when we got to the chocolate factory!

In case you guys haven't noticed, you live in Foodie Nirvana. Vancouver is one of the best eating cities I know, and of course we didn't even give the surface a good scratch. I guess that means we'll have to come again, eat more, hang out with you guys some, bliss out. Drat! And Moosh, you're IT!

[Ling]

It was so wonderful to meet you and Shel!

That strange guy in front of the coffee shop...that was the weirdest thing how he just reached over and grabbed a cookie off my plate, and then proceeded to eat it while we stood around staring at him!

Here is the link to some of the fabulous pastries at Thomas Haas!

[peppyre]

All I can say about the guy taking the cookie "Welcome to Commercial Drive!" If it's weirdness you're looking for, you found the right place.

Abra, it was wonderful meeting both of you last week, and I am so glad I was on holiday. That deep fried pork hock....OH...My....GoD!!!!! It was incredible, especially with the vinegar. Deep fried pork fat, how can you go wrong.

I'm glad you had a great time and I look forward to your next visit

[canucklehead]

Adding some pictures to Abra's commentary...

... the fabulous Jeff and Kurtis from Aurora...

Chef Jeff and Sommelier Kurtis agreed to whip out a 7 course tasting menu for us, with wine pairings, and it was instantly clear that we were in for a wonderful evening.

Here's the menu they created for us.  For the 5 of us, Jeff usually sent out two different dishes per course, and for the main, 5 different dishes.  He rocks.

Hazelmere Farms Beet Salad with Okanagan goat cheese and Orange Chive Blossom Vinaigrette, Warm Spinach Salad with a Poached Egg, Crisp Bacon, and Hazelnut Vinaigrette

Township 7 2004 Sauvignon Blanc

5 Spice Organic Chicken Consomme with House-Smoked Duck Bacon or Smoked Sablefish

Golden Mile Cellars 2004 Road 13

Pine Mushroom Risotto, Root Vegetable Tempure, and Ginger Sabayon

Nichol Vineyard 2004 Capriccio

Organic Cranberry and Ginger Sorbet with Sparkling Sumac Ridge Brut

Seared Mushroom Crusted Albacore Tuna, Rye Berry Pilaf, Sugar Pumpkin Bisque, and Scallion Soubise.  Potato-Wrapped Smoked Sablefish with local mussel, Autumn Vegetable Chowder

Pork Tenderloin with Maple Mustard Seed Glaze, Okanagan goat cheese, and Apple Crumble,  Smoked Lamb Cheeks with Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes and braising juices

Duck Confit Croquettes and foie gras Dijon sauce

Winchester 2003 Sharp Rock Vineyard Pinot Noir

Black Hills 2003 Nota Bene

BC artisan cheese plate

Sumac Ridge 2000 Vintage Pipe

Creme Fraiche Cheesecake with Walnut Crust and cranberry ginger compote; Sugar Pumpkin Tarte Tatin with Pine Mushroom Ice Cream and Smoked Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Caramelized Roasted Pineapple and Chocolate Salad,  Heritage Apple Upsidedown Cake with Burnt Caramel and Whipped Creme Fraiche

See Ya Later Ranch 2003 Ehrenfelser Icewine

The duck croquettes, lamb cheeks, sugar pumpkin tarte, apple upsidedown cake, I could eat those all day long. 

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Everything was delicous - but the big homeruns for me were the soup (duck bacon - fucking hell!) the lamb cheeks (which stayed very close to Mrs Daddy-A for some reason), and the Tarte Tatin.

Lovely lovely meal - and it was great of Jeff to put together something like this in the midst of prepping for DOV.

Abra and Shel - it was great meeting the both of you - such good eaters, good talkers and good sharers.

[Matt R.]

^Fantastic presentation, Chef. I especially love the tea service for the consomme and the sparkling wine with the sorbet. These two things always leave an impression.

From the pictures I have seen, the Feenie/Trotter dinner should have looked like this.

Excellent menu, I hope the photos did it justice!

-- Matt.

Edited January 29, 2006 by Matt R. (log)

[malarkey]

oh good gawd. I think I'd have to kill myself after that because life would just never be better than that. LOL

[jamiemaw]

Thanks for the delightful photos and detailed report, Abra. Terrific to meet you both - hands across the border and all that - and I certainly look forward to your future inventions in black rice alchemy! Absolutely amazing how that distinctive black cherry flavour is born. The same holds true for Phnom Penh's famous squid dish: rice flour is but one trick, the other being bottled lemon juicefor the lemon-pepper dish. That's what gives it that bleachy flavour that cuts the umami-richness of the squid tubes.

It's always a pleasure to tour someone both so knowledgeable and curious.

Cheers to you and Shel,

Jamie

[kiliki]

A very inspiring report-thanks! I don't get up there nearly enough.

[chef jeff]

Abra, I just wanted to say how great it was to meet you and Shel. It was a pleasure doing a menu for people who just appreciated what we are doing, and have a great knowledge and passion for food and wine. It sounds like the rest of your trip was amazing. It shames me that I still have not eaten at Phnom Penh!

I will be PMing you the next time my wife and I are in Seattle. We keep going to the wrong restaurants, and need some guidance.

Cheers, Jeff

[chef jeff]

oh ya, nice work with the cell phone/flash light Lee!

[Mooshmouse]

First and foremost, Abra, let me say what a huge amount of fun I had showing you around our little corner of the culinary universe! Two more wonderful people could not be found, and it was a real treat to get to know both you and Shel a little better.

Let me shed some light on the dishes that we sampled at Josephine's.

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Starting at the very top and working clockwise:

• We start with Lechon Paksiw, a sweet/savoury stew of roasted pork slow-cooked in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, bay leaves, peppercorns, sugar, salt and lechon sauce.
  
• Next comes the ubiquitous steamed rice followed by sliced Crispy Pata, pork hock that’s first boiled with onion, garlic, peppercorns, salt and bay leaf and then deep-fried so that the exterior is deliciously crispy while the meat remains tender. This is served with a cane vinegar dipping sauce infused with garlic and chilies, a popular condiment in the Philippines (visible in the top right of the photo).
  
• At the forefront of the photo is Pritong Isda-Tilapia or deep-fried tilapia, also served with the previously mentioned vinegar dipping sauce.
  
• Moving on, there's Pinakbet, braised okra, long beans and squash with shrimps and shrimp paste.
  
• Finally, there's Lumpiang Prito or deep-fried spring rolls filled with fresh vegetables and shrimp; these are served with a sweet chili dipping sauce.
  
• Oh, can't forget my favourite ethnic pop ever: Zesto Calamansi Soda.
  

Ironically, this isn't the full extent of our lunch. We also had:

• Sinigang na Bangus (milkfish in a sour tamarind-based soup with water spinach, tomatoes and onions);
  
• Pancit Palabok (wide rice noodles with tofu and egg sauce, topped with sliced hard-boiled egg, crushed chicharon or fried pork rinds, and chopped green onion);
  
• Bistek (thinly-sliced flank steak sautéed with onions); and
  
• Kaldereta ng Baka (tomato-based beef stew with potatoes).
  

This is what you really want.  You know you do.  Deep fried pork hock.  Speaks for itself, eh?

Good heavens. I haven't had Crispy Pata in eons and I was in heaven with my first bite.

I loved these desserts!  Cassava cake, sticky black rice, and a taro pudding.  Delicious.

From the top, there's Ginataang Bilo Bilo, a warm coconut-milk based dessert soup/stew, and the purple colour comes from ube or purple yam. Other ingredients include langka (jackfruit), camote (sweet potato), saba (plantain banana) and sago (tapioca) pearls. Next are slices of Cassava Cake made from grated cassava, condensed and evaporated milk, coconut milk and cream, eggs and macapuno or young coconut. Last but certainly not least is Biko, sweet black sticky rice cooked with coconut milk and palm sugar.

Lest I forget, here's a link to additional photos from our Chinese New Year feast at Sea Harbour. And a shot of your favourite cappuccino from the Elysian Room.

Finally, I leave you with one of your most vivid memories from your trip to Vancouver: a full-frontal view of canucklehead resplendent in all his phone-spotlight glory.

Just one more piece of evidence that we Vancouver eGulleters are totally certifiable! Can't wait to dine with you and some of your south-of-the-border compatriots in the not-too-distant future.

[fud]

All I can say about the guy taking the cookie "Welcome to Commercial Drive!"  If it's weirdness you're looking for, you found the right place.

←

Lucky he didn't grab your butt! That happened to my friends over the weekend on Commercial. Just randomly he walks by looking the other direction and BAM grabs her butt! We were so shocked there was no time to react.

He just kept walking too. Ahh Commercial.

Sounds like an amazing trip! Wow and the right people to take you around!

[makanmakan]

wow, quite the culinary adventure you guys had!! the perfect hosts/hostesses to show you around as well! very glad you guys had a great time here.

thanks for the pics and descriptions. everything looked so yummy.

moosh, that ginataang bilo bilo looks and sounds just like the malaysian bubur cha cha. it's been ages since i've made it. hmm...time to go find some ube!

Edited January 30, 2006 by makanmakan (log)

[*Deborah*]

Great to meet you, Abra and Shel! thanks for giving me an excuse to go to Hapa! and for helping spur the Chinese Dinner. Yum!

I'm so glad you had the chance to eat at Aurora, and thanks for the great pics of the consommé, I loved that dish.

eG culinary exchanges are the best part of it, I think. Well, one of them, anyway.

I look forward to your next visit!

[barolo]

Abra:

It was great to meet you and Shel at Sea Harbour and it seemed like a truly egullet moment to run into the two of you again the next morning on Granville Island.

Thanks for the excellent report.