Incense and carpets amp up this eatery’s ambience
Mark Laba
Province
Sonya Vikoulovskaia shows off the Eastern Plate at East is East on Main. Photograph by : Jon Murray, The Province
It’s a good thing I was just a kid during the ’60s because I would never have made a good hippie. At 10 I watched Flower Power bloom, but Mr. Spock was more my speed. Even if I had been older I think I would’ve failed miserably at the whole thing. Free love is like a free lunch to me — somehow I’d be looking for the hidden cost. Incense still makes my lungs feel like I’ve been working in a New Age coal mine, and getting in touch with my feelings would’ve meant smoking pot and eating a bag of cookies.
Which brings me to East Is East. Why would I even entertain thoughts of entering an eatery that seems to embrace all those aforementioned elements that I find so nerve-wracking? I wear my spirituality on my sleeve and that sleeve is gabardine. The last time I had a religious epiphany was when a nickel slot machine in Las Vegas spit me out $63 into a plastic cup that advertised the casino’s all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet.
But hippie culture has always held fast, like a barnacle to the small crags and crannies of the Vancouver scene, as I once ascertained from the hand-drumming circle on the front lawn of my apartment at three in the morning, the drummers reaching deep to tap at the primal roots of their indigenous suburban roots. And the older breed now discreetly park their SUVs a block away from Banyan Sound before shopping for their whale bleats and Inuit throat-singing CDs that go well with a Napa Valley pinot gris and Cowichan Valley goose-liver parfait back in their split-level faux Santa Fe-style Kits condos.
Which leads me back to this establishment. I went anyway. The interior is quite striking and reminds me of some of the places Peaches and I hung out in in Turkey. Carpets line the walls and floor; the odd tree-stump table is the perfect height when you have to scrunch down on a pillow, though you’ll probably end up eating off your lap; the lighting is dim enough that you can’t see your dining companion’s pimples; there’s incense burning; and all in all, it’s like an opium den gone wild.
“Eastern organic living” is their motto, but I was disappointed not to find any yak butter. Still, the chai was good and hot, albeit insanely spicy, and a sampling of roti rolls was not altogether unpleasant. But at $8.50 each I was amazed at the small size. I sampled the Mughal with roasted masala chicken, the Afghan Nomad with lamb kebab in a garlic onion sauce, and the Bombay Masala with chickpeas and cauliflower. I found the spicing to be rather sweet for all three and the Bombay shindig had a hint of too much something that gave it a pungency as dusky as a dip in the Ganges at sunset near a burning ghat.
A better choice is one of the complete thali plates, which feature a bit of everything from veggie to meat to seafood curries, but price-wise are too steep at 15 to 17 smackers. The Broadway location ( 3243 W. Broadway) is larger, with live music most evenings, and the servers are pleasant, bestowing an ethereal benevolence even as they work the cash register. As for me, I sent my dusty chakras out for dry cleaning ages ago, lost the stub and haven’t been able to claim them since.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Patchouli mixes with Paco Rabanne as New Agers, hippies and hipsters mingle in the lotus position.
RATINGS: Food: B- Service: B- Atmosphere: B
REVIEW
East Is East
Where: 4413 Main St., Vancouver
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-879-2020
Drinks: Exotic milkshakes, lassis, smoothies and chai
Hours: Open every day, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
© The Vancouver Province 2007
