Maybe I caught popular spot on a bad day
Mark Laba
Province
Be sure to try the excellent chicken satay (front dish), as displayed by Sweet Chili Cafe’s Angie Tan
SWEET CHILI CAFE
Where: 5438 Victoria Dr.
Payment/reservations: Cash only, 778-371-8092
Drinks: Soft drinks
Hours: Tues.-Fri., lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., dinner 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m., Sat.-Sun., 5:30 p.m.-9 p.m., closed Mondays
Incongruity is the key to having the senses slapped silly in the face of mundanity. Which means you’re going along with your usual day, nose to the old grindstone when suddenly a man waltzing with an inflatable pig emerges from the Skytrain, winking as he glides past you moving to the inaudible lilting harmonies of “The Blue Danube.” There’s not much that’ll make you look up from your Starbucks, but this might do the trick.
A bit extreme, you might say (if he were waltzing with, say, a walrus wearing a chiffon prom dress, you might look the other way yawning), but even the minor incongruities can send shock waves through the brain. So it was with Peaches and me as we approached this tiny (and by tiny I mean about as big as an organ grinder monkey’s underpants) eatery. Peaches spotted a place across the street that was both a convenience store and a fish shop. By fish I don’t mean the fish you eat but rather pet fish like the kind you take for a walk on a leash in your bathtub.
“Who would buy aquarium fish from a convenience store?” Peaches pondered. At that moment two people came out of the shop carrying a large container imprinted with the warning, Handle With Care, Live Fish.
“They would, I guess,” I ventured.
Our next vexing vision occurred at the counter of the restaurant. It’s a hole-in-the-wall kind of place — well really two holes in the wall being as there’s one to get in and one leading to the kitchen. With this type of venue you expect the most rudimentary of attire when it comes to your waiter or, in this case, counterperson. So when a young man with a rather elaborate Indonesian-style headscarf accented with gold designs emerged from the back room, Peaches and I were both taken offguard. There was a kind of regality to the head adornment that seemed out of place with the meagre surroundings, like putting on a tuxedo to mow the lawn or catching Prince Charles in a pay toilet.
Not that the attire didn’t make sense. After all, this was an Indonesian restaurant, but essentially there’s nothing in the place besides four tables with nice batik tablecloths, a few paintings, a plant, a floor-model air purifier, a microwave and a cash register. Not enough room to swing a cat or a Balinese shadow puppet and in the décor-department a little off the mark, albeit sincere in its determination.
I was hoping this bit of panache would also be evident in the food. So off we went with two starters — chicken satay ($6.95) and spring rolls ($4.95). Both were excellent with a wonderful homemade and spicy peanut sauce for the chicken skewers and the veggie and shrimp spring rolls done to a perfect crispiness. So far, so good.
Next up an order of beef rendang ($7.95), a dish I happen to love almost more than my wife and some nasi kari ayam otherwise known as green curry chicken ($7.50). Now if Ron Popeil had been dining with me instead of Peaches, I’m sure he would have exclaimed, “By gosh, they must be using one of my food dehydrators in the kitchen.” I know there are versions of beef rendang where the sauce is cooked away until all that’s left is a spicy and aromatic paste, but the process is supposed to leave the meat tender. This beef was as dry as a well-used saddle and as tough as the guy who sat in it. The chicken was a bit more tender but only slightly and there was no white meat. I always think a mix of white and dark makes for a happy curry plate. I’m not exactly sure what went wrong here. Some folks I know were enthusiastic about the place, so maybe I caught it on a bad day. Or maybe the cook was trying out a new Ronco product and things went awry in the kitchen.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
RATINGS: Food: C Service: B Atmosphere: C
© The Vancouver Province 2008
