‘Are you going to eat the eyeball,’ my son asked as I kept my cool
Mark Laba
Province
Akiko Kono, assistant manager of the Ten Hachi restaurant. Photograph by : Nick Procaylo, The Province
TENHACHI
Where: 1125 West 12th Ave., Vancouver
Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-742-0234
Drinks: Fully licensed.
Hours: 7 a.m.-1 p.m. for breakfast and lunch, 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. dinner every day except no dinner on Mondays
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There’s a reason for the Internet besides finding out if George W. Bush really secretly fathered Lindsay Lohan’s love child. Especially if you’re a food writer like myself and are about to go out and order something you’ve never heard of and didn’t Google the thing first. So imagine my surprise when a very large fish head on a plate was brought before me, although you couldn’t tell I was surprised by my face.
No siree. I kept up the bored, suave expression of a man of the world, accustomed to ordering all manner of strange delicacy. As the fish head was placed before me, its large, bulbous and unnervingly glutinous eye gazing upwards, my face, if you’re good at reading faces, merely said, “Why of course I meant to order that — just the thing I was expecting.” My four-year-old son and my wife knew better than that.
“Are you going to eat the eyeball?” my son asked, poking the gelatinous orb with a chopstick. I actually didn’t know if they ate the eyeball in Japan but I said, ‘No, of course not.” But for good measure when the waitress came by I said, “My son wants to know if you’re supposed to eat the eyeball,” passing the buck to the innocent so to speak. I didn’t want one of those situations where, after finishing my meal, if you can call a large fish head a meal, the waitress came to take my plate away and would say, “Oh, you didn’t eat the eyeball. That’s the best part,” and reluctantly I would have to say, “Oh, the eyeball, how did I miss that,” and then have to slug the thing back.
This is just part of the strange journey Peaches, Small Fry Eli and I took visiting this place that looks like a fish-and-chip shop designed by Liberace but serves up eclectic Japanese food along with Western fare like cheeseburgers, lasagna and chicken strips. Weird? It gets even weirder.
The restaurant is housed on the main floor of the Shaughnessy Village Hotel/B&B, whose business card reads, “For Thinkers, Winners & Fun-No More Lonely Times,” and grounds that boast a nine-hole mini crazy golf course, Cupid’s Gardens and a 250-foot water course for adult toy yacht races. Let’s just say mystery abounds here.
The restaurant has been taken over by the original owner of the fine Hachibei Japanese Restaurant on West 16th, so amidst the strange surroundings of ornate drapery, a Louis XIV knockoff lobby and odd catch-of-the-day nautical knickknacks dotting the restaurant, emerges some very intriguing Japanese cooking that seems as out of place as a sumo wrestler in a ballet. Think steamed monkfish liver, mountain yam with mozuku seaweed or simmered kawahagi (also known as the thread-sail filefish).
I’d heard that some of the specialty fish were flown in from Japan weekly and if I had a chance, I’d try the grilled amberjack neck. So that’s what I ordered ($17.95). But why was the head attached, I wondered. And what happened to the rest of the fish? Was it no good? Was it too unappetizing to put on a plate?
Nevertheless, the meat of the neck was succulent and savoury and as a combo plate it arrived with Japanese pickles, Japanese winter squash, rice and organic miso soup. Small Fry Eli was glad he ordered the cheeseburger.
Peaches sampled Dinner Box C ($13.95) with chicken teriyaki, a California Roll, assorted tempura, mini spring rolls, spinach gomaae and miso soup. As well, we ordered a mango sushi roll with salmon, avocado and more that was delicious.
All deemed tasty and the spring rolls were a strange addition along with the homemade crème caramel for dessert but then nothing surprises me at this place unless Liberace were to suddenly walk in looking for a mini-golf partner.
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THE BOTTOM LINE: When the going gets weird it’s time to eat weird fish parts.
RATINGS: Food: B+ Service: B+ Atmosphere: C+
© The Vancouver Province 2008
