My Dinner Table

Compromising

Daphne and I went for fish and chips on Friday. We had intended on going to Pajo's out at Steveston, but the planned changed and we ended up at one of those restaurants along the dock. When I think about it we probably should have gone to Dave's, a little bit in from the harbour, but it was easy. We were walking down the dock when we realized it was still a little cold to be eating outside. So we stepped into the nearest doorway and sat at a table by the window. I say it was a compromise because the fish and chips were nearly as good. The batter was heavier and the chips weren't even close in quality. But in return we got two things. One was the comfort of eating inside, the second was perhaps more important for me. We were able to order beer. It was Friday evening after all. The beer tasted so good going down and definitely made up for the substandard fare. Beer, even just one, is sort of magic that way.
Sockeye City Grill. #108-300 Bayview St. Steveston. 604-275-4347. 

All for naught

I went mountain bike riding this morning with Austen near Mount Seymour. We'd planned on going on Saturday, but I didn't make it and had to push it to Sunday. But all the exercise was for naught as after our ride we headed to the Tomahawk and I had the bacon and eggs Yukon style. Damn good, but it cancelled out all my hard work on my bike this morning.

Casual fine dining

I went to the Cactus Club with Austen and Paul on Saturday night. It used to have a terrible cow motif, but the restaurant chain reinvented itself several years ago as what they call a casual fine dining place. I'm not sure who came up with the genre, but Vancouver seems to do it better than most places with Cactus Club, Earls, etc. The menu is quite eclectic. Things like edamame, share the same page with quesadillas and kung pao chicken. All very reliable for a decent meal. Nothing I'm going to call the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but very reliable.

I had the pistachio crusted halibut with mashed potato and red Thai curry. I quite enjoyed it. The curry had a decent level of heat and the fish was nicely cooked. I hate overcooked fish and this was good. The curry and pistachio were great flavours for what is normally a pretty plain flavoured fish. For dessert we had the apple pie. It was a little apple tart with ice cream and caramel sauce. It was quite good. Warm. I wonder if it was baked to order. It took a while to come out so maybe it was.

Cactus Club. 855 Main St. West Vancouver. 604-922-1707.

Thinking pink at Aurora Bistro

There are a lot of chefs and restaurants that talk about offering the best of the season and local ingredients, but don't really deliver. Jeff Van Geest at Aurora Bistro isn't one of them. He really delivers with his Your Food, Your Wine tasting menu. It is a three-course tasting menu plus dessert that is paired with B.C. wines and changes every week through the summer. This week the theme was Think Pink and all the wines were roses, a kind of fun idea. The restaurant has received a lot of press recently and it was pretty even though it was Tuesday night. The dinner began with warm cornmeal crusted alpine gold cheese, arugula salad and dried blueberry preserve. It was served with Garry Oaks 2005 Blanc de Noir. Fried cheese. What's not to like about that. Eaten all together the arugula and blueberry preserve were great with the cheese and the wine, both Daphne and I thought, was the strongest of the night. All sorts of fruit flavours. Really incredible.

Next up was a seared halibut cheek on barley with preserved lemon and wild nettle. It was served with the Pentage 2004 Gamay Blush. This was my favourite dish of the evening. It was cooked beautifully with nice carmelization, but not overcooked. And the preserved lemon and wild nettle with the barley was incredible. I'd never had wild nettle, but quite enjoyed it in this dish. The barley was still firm and had some texture and the preserved lemon was very good. But the halibut was the star of the night. I'd call this the best halibut cheek dish I've had. Better than the one at Tojo's.

After the fish came the organic chicken braised with wild mushrooms and Pemberton potatoes with the Joie 2005 Pinot Noir Rose. I'm sucker for braised meats. Cook any cut of meat long and slow with a bit of liquid and I'm yours. The chicken was moist as you'd expect and the selection of mushrooms was excellent as I picked out the little bits of morels in the mixture. I'm not sure this wine was the best pairing though. I guess they were a little restricted as they were going for the Think Pink theme and this was the best pairing there was. It's not that it wasn't a great wine, I just would have preferred something bigger.

Dessert was anise ice cream in a dark chocolate cone and a mini blood orange kir royale made with Sumac Ridge's Stellar's Jay Brut and blood orange syrup. It was a very fun way to end the meal. This was Daphne's favourite of the night. It was presented to us in a block of dark chocolate that they had drilled holes into to hold the cones. For an instant the thought that we would get to eat the entire block of chocolate they used for presentation flashed across my mind and I was very excited, but it was not to be. The anise flavour was very good in the ice cream. The aroma was quite pronounced. It was even more evident after Daphne pointed out there were little anise seeds on the base of the cone and that if you took a bite of them first and then of the ice cream it really brought out the flavour. I love Aurora bistro. It strikes a great balance between serious food and a casual friendly atmosphere to enjoy it in.

Aurora Bistro.  2420 Main Street, Vancouver. 604-873-9944.

Very excited

I'm very excited. Mike just called to confirm our dinner reservations at Chez Panisse later this summer. I'll be heading to Berkeley for his wedding, but the night before a group of us are going to dine at Alice Waters's foodie Mecca. It isn't for a month, but I'm still very excited. On an unrelated note, I had dinner at Aurora Bistro last night with Daphne. We had the weekly seasonal tasting menu and it was fantastic. I'll post more about it later. I don't have time right now to do it justice. So stay tuned.

Unplanned but good

Dinner on Sunday was at the Red Door. We ended up there because our attempts to go for sushi were foiled by restaurants that were just way too busy. The line at Toshi's was out the door and Shabusen would have been a half hour wait at least we were told. So we ended up at the Red Door, across the street from Shabusen in what used to be a Bread Garden. They've been open for a while and I've been wary about going. They pitch themselves as a pan Asian grill and I'm pretty wary of anything that thinks of itself as fusion. But I'd been told by people who should know that I should give it a go and I might be pleasantly surprised. Steve explained that it was more individual dishes from different parts of Asian rather than foods from different parts of Asia combined. The restaurant is part of the Spectra Group, the group that runs the Boathouse, Kingston Taphouse and Grille and Romano's Macaroni Grill. Not stunning credentials by any measure, but not ones that would scare me off. We shared three dishes. Austen picked the Seven Flavour Beef, Daphne picked a spicy eggplant dish and I chose at Singapore noodle dish. All were pretty good. The portions were a little small, but they were tasty. The beef was tender and had a tonne of different flavours going on. Hoisin, chilli, garlic, ginger, and that's just four, so I assume I'm missing three. The eggplant had a great chilli sauce and the noodles came loaded with goodies. Chinese sausage, barbequed pork, the works. I also had a tamarind ginger lemonade that I really liked. I'll get that again for sure. I'm not saying the dishes were amazing. They were solid. You could probably get the same for cheaper at a good Chinese or Malaysian restaurant else where. But the room is kind of cool, they have a wine list and the service was good. Things I don't often get in Chinatown. Next time I think I'll try sitting on their little patio.

The Red Door. 2996 Granville St. Vancouver. 604-733-5944.

An unlikely lunch

I was starved when I arrived in Regina on Saturday. After a morning flight out of Vancouver and three hours in the Edmonton airport because of a delay in the connecting flight I was famished. So after a quick tour of the Queen City for Daphne's benefit as it was her first visit the the land of Tommy Douglas we headed to Lang's Cafe for what when I first discovered it I thought was a very unlikely lunch on the prairies. Regina, and Saskatoon for that matter, have great Vietnamese food. I don't know if it is true or not, but somebody once explained this to me as a result of many of the boat people being sponsored by churches in the province. Whatever the reason, it has solid Vietnamese food. When I lived there, this was what I ate instead of the Chinese food because that was very mediocre. Lunch was bun or vermicelli noodles with spring rolls and lemongrass chicken. Oh so good. The chicken tender and well flavoured. The serving more than generous. And very cheap. This place could do well in Toronto or Vancouver. If you find yourself in Regina and looking for a place to go, definitely check this place out. For a second, well maybe a nanosecond, while I was eating it I thought, hey, living in Regina wouldn't be so bad.

Lang's Cafe. 1745 Broad St. Regina. 306-757-5655

Belated birthday

I went for dinner with some very old friends tonight. It's not that they are very old, I've just known them for a very long time. It was Steve's birthday a couple of weeks ago and we just hadn't found the time to get together so we finally went for dinner tonight. We tried out Stella's on Commercial Drive. Neither of us had been and heard good things about the place. The Vancouver Sun referred to it as a downmarket eastside Chambar. High praise as Chambar is bloody fantastic. The menu is tapas. Sort of. It's definitely not Spanish and I wouldn't call it Belgian either. It kind of wanders the globe.

We shared several dishes among the four of us, starting with the orange marinated beet salad, fresh baby spinach, crumbled goat cheese and gooseberries. It was OK. I really like beets so the dish appealed to me, but I think I've been spoiled by the Aurora Bistro beet salad which is outstanding. This one was only OK. I think I would have preferred it if they didn't dice the beets so small. I would have liked larger pieces of beets. This was followed by the Saffron mussels. Baby spinach, Spanish onion, Persian saffron and cream along with what they called a bucket of Stella's frites, but were in fact a small bowl. I was quite disappointed by the the size of the order of frites, though I did enjoy them and the aioli they came with. I just wish the order was larger and the frites were fresher. They were kind of just lukewarm when they hit the table. The mussels weren't bad. I couldn't help but think I liked the ones I made from the Bouchon cookbook a couple of months ago better.

The star of the night was easily the sesame-crusted, seared rare Ahi tuna, wilted spinach, wasabi aioli. Very good. Easily the best dish of the night. I'd get this again for sure. The sesame seeds were nicely toasted, the tuna still wonderfully rare in the middle and the wasabi aioli was great. In my mind that was closely followed by the lemon pepper dusted Jumbo Bay scallops with spaghetti squash bird’s nest, applewood smoked bacon confetti and green onion vinaigrette and the panko breaded calamari flash fried with chipotle aioli. Both well executed dishes. The scallops were nicely cooked, not over done and the spaghetti squash was surprisingly tasty. The calamari was ordered on the advice of our server and was simple but well executed. For a deep fried dish it was not greasy at all.

For me the disappointment of the nice was the grilled sumac-rubbed New Zealand lamb rack, minted polenta cakes with roasted red pepper coulis and balsamic finish. This may be because I compare all lamb dishes of this sort with Vij's lamb popsicles which in my mind are the best in this class of dish. This may be an unfair comparison as Vij's is an amazing place, but I can't help but make it. The flavour was OK, but the lamb was a little over cooked and I think had been sitting there for a while. I'm pretty sure it wasn't cooked to order.

Overall the meal was not bad. Their beer list is impressive if you like Belgian beers. I'm more partial to English beers myself, but can appreciate them. The atmosphere is casual and fun. They have a patio that looks like it would be nice to be on in the summer. I wouldn't rave about the food. There were some hits. There were some misses. The seafood dishes were great. The lamb was a disappointment. I think the menu could benefit from some focus. Don't try to be all things to all people.

Stella's Tap and Tapas Bar. 1191 Commerical Drive. Vancouver. 604-254-2437

Yes and not so much

I went for dinner with my parents on Friday at Hamaei. In a lot of ways I'm not very Asian, but in others I very much am. And when I go out for dinner at a Japanese restaurant, I very much am. I'll eat it all. When I was a kid I remember sitting with my maternal grandfather eating tuna sashimi and whole prawns, sucking whatever liquid squishy bits out of the heads. With my paternal grandfather I'd sit at dim sum eating whatever it was put in front of me. Chicken feet. The works. Anyway, tonight it was the deep fried heads of the prawns from the ama ebi my Mum ordered. I like this as much as the ama ebi itself. The crunchy goodness is fantastic.

Anyway, dinner for me was their deluxe chirashi donburi, one of the finest examples around. Even with the memory of going to Tojo's last weekend still fresh in my mind, I think the sashimi at Hamaei is very good. The box tonight included ama ebi and uni. I love uni. Some of the best uni I have ever had was in a place in Toronto on Church Street that served it with the yolk of a quail's egg. It was one of the best pieces of sushi I've ever had. There was no quail egg yolk tonight, but it was still really good. The sashimi at Hamaei is always great.

We also had some fiddlehead tempura with the meal. It was on the specials menu tonight. I'd had fiddleheads when I was in Scouts. They were cooked over a campfire and we did it more on a date than anything. But these were nice. Tender greens with a crisp tempura coating. I'll definitely get this again. It is also one of the great reasons to keep going back to Hamaei. They have great seasonal specials that change constantly, something a lot of the rather mediocre Japanese restaurants in the city just don't do.

Hamaei. #620-2601 Westview Dr. North Vancouver. 604-987-0080.

Trip to Tojo's

I’ll state my bias up front. Japanese food may be my favourite genre of food. There are lots that I love, but Japanese I think is my favourite overall. For its clean simple flavours and generous use of seafood, I think it is my favourite. So when I was thinking of places to go for dinner while Daphne was in Vancouver, Tojo’s was a natural.

Our dinner began with Tojo’s version of tuna tataki. It is a lightly seared albacore tuna with a ponzu sauce. This was a great way to start. I am of a strong belief that the tragedy of most food is that it is overcooked. This was just barely cooked. Just enough to change the texture a little. The light citrus of the ponzu complemented the richness of the tuna nicely as well as the ginger and what I think was some of the radish and chili mixture that added a bit of heat. This was, and I’ll correct this if I’m wrong, Daphne’s favourite dish of the night.

From there we moved on to a tiger prawn salad. The prawns were coated in panko crumbs and deep fried. They were served on top of a small salad of baby greens and a light dressing. The crunch of the coating was great and the prawns, even though they were deep fried, were cooked perfectly, something that isn’t easy. I hate overcooked prawns so this was much appreciated. I couldn’t tell you that the dressing was, other than I resisted the urge to pick up my plate and lick it.

Next up was the halibut cheek. This was my favourite dish of the night. Like the prawns, they were just cooked. The last time I had a halibut cheek I thought it was overcooked, a sin in my books. These were not. It came with what looked to be baby bok choy and a sauce that was extraordinary. I asked what it was and was told the lighter colour was based on a bonito broth, while the darker part was teriyaki based. I’m pretty sure they were trying to throw me off from copying it because it tasted like no teriyaki sauce I’d ever had. The richness of the dark part was more like veal demiglasse than a soya sauce and ginger teriyaki sauce. But, whatever. If they want to keep their secrets I can live with that.

Then came what they call suntan tuna. It is a piece of red tuna, wrapped in seaweed, dipped in tempura batter and then deep fried. The inside is still raw, but is heated. The tempura batter added a nice crunch. It came with a Japanese plum sauce. This might have been my second favourite dish of the night. Tied with the other tuna dish. I was sad to only get three pieces. But then again, I was getting pretty full already and the sushi was yet to come.

The sushi plate that followed was pretty much as expected. It had a nice selection of the regular rolls of sushi that Tojo’s has become famous for. Things like the Great Canadian Roll, which includes lobster, asparagus and smoked salmon. The Northern Light Roll, which is a deep fried prawn, avocado and scallop. There were also pieces of fluke and yellow tail. The yellow tail was easily my favourite. It was outstanding.

Dessert was a little cup with some sort of custardy thing and fruit and a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was quite small, but I was very full at that point in the meal so I was OK with that. It did seem a little odd though to get such a tiny little dessert. I kind of wondered why the bothered. Japanese restaurants never do desserts well. I find this, in a way, a little odd because of the Japanese obsession with French pastry. After such an incredible meal I always find it a little odd to finish it with what seems to be kind of an ad hoc dessert like that.

Overall dinner was fantastic. I believe that the omakase is the only way to eat there. You get a brilliant selection of their dishes, not just the sushi. Don’t get me wrong, I love their sushi, but I dont’ think that’s the reason you go to Tojo’s. There are other places that do sushi nearly as well if not just as well as Tojo’s. Places like Toshi’s and Hamaei do amazing sushi that if you were blindfold I think you’d have a hard time telling apart from Tojo’s and they cost a fraction of the price. But the cooked food sets it apart from every other Japanese restaurant in the city. It is brilliant and the dinner we had Saturday was excellent. There were some things missing though. At the level of omakase we had, we did not have the Tojo’s tuna. From experience I know that you only get this with the lowest level of omakase. We also didn’t get the sablefish, which from experience I know that you only get with the next level up of omakase. That’s not to say it wasn’t a great meal, but there were things we didn’t have.

Tojo’s. #202-777 West Broadway. Vancouver. 604-872-8050.