Before he left the building, Elvis was a raw food fan– for about two days

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Eatery is devoted to warming your heart with uncooked fruits, vegetables and nuts.

GORILLA FOOD

435 Richards St., 604-722-2504. www.gorillafood.com. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Sun Restaurant Critic. [email protected]. Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.

– – –

It might surprise you to know Elvis was a raw foodist. Before you start jumping up and down all huffy and demanding a correction on that, let me add this — he did it for two days in 1973. Then it was back to fried chicken.

In the bio, Elvis Presley’s Own Story, there’s an excerpt from his friend Larry Geller’s diary. “So that you all know what’s happening around here, I’m changing my diet,” Elvis apparently said to his pals. “Because the spiritual teachings say that you have to eat right, I’ll be eating a lot of vegetables now, a lot of salads and raw fruits. I’m telling the maids and that’s what they’re going to make for me.”

Elvis has left the room but hip hop artist Mike D of Beastie Boys picked it up. “D” (for Diamond) eats nothing but raw, organic, vegan food. And how do I know this? Aaron Ash was his personal raw food chef in L.A. and Ash now operates Gorilla Foods, a raw food/vegan/organic cafe a few blocks from my office. Gorilla Foods started as a takeout window on 422 Richards, then early last summer, it moved to a sit-down basement space. In keeping with walking softly upon the earth, Ash got some pals together to paint the premises greenly.

“I painted with spirulina, turmeric and cayenne pepper soaked in water and put a sealant from Green Works over it,” he says, going boldly into deep ecology. “We experimented with kale juice.” Some of the building material came from the beach on Sunshine Coast, he adds triumphantly.

When I had lunch there on a recent Saturday, I left feeling like I’d just had a refreshing shower. Raw food does that. When you think of it, it’s like salad tricked out in costume. The menu masquerades in straight-ahead offerings — pizzas, veggie burger, falafal, taco, linguini, wraps, salads, an assortment of desserts including carrot cake and cookies, juices, smoothies and shakes.

Only, they’re made without a stove-top or oven. The warmest the food gets is when it naps in a food dryer — blends of nuts and seeds and vegetables dry into crackers, bread, cookies and pizza crust. Instead of a bun for the burger, he uses a lettuce leaf. Instead of wheat noodles, he cuts long lengths of zucchini on a Stirooli slicer which spins them out.

The veggie burger is tall and statuesque with two patties (walnuts, sunflower seeds, hempseeds, veggies), guacamole, ginger tomato sauce, and shredded veggies. No fries.

I think the cracker-like crust needs to yield more so the toppings (sun-dried tomato, fresh tomato herb sauce, tenderized kale, season greens, pineapple bits, crumbled walnut ‘cheese’) don’t tumble off. Just don’t try to cut into it. The guacamole is familiar territory and very fresh at that. (Ash buys everything organic and one of his suppliers is a bio-dynamic farmer.) I snacked on chili almonds before lunch came out and it was addictive. I tried some of the “baked goods” and liked the carrot cake of shredded carrots, dates, coconut oil, star anise, spices, soaked raisins and an icing made of blended cashews, dates, spices.

The little cookies I tried didn’t excite, however. For some of his desserts (truffles, chocolate hempseed pie), he grinds his own cocoa nibs.

Ash, who personally feeds raw foodist Woody Harrelson when he’s in town (most recently in Whistler with his family) is earnestly trying to turn people on to a healthy cuisine. “At 117 F, enzymes [in the food] die, science has shown,” he says.

I’m not sure about having to eat nothing but raw foods to keep healthy but I do say if you want to feel freshly showered, give it a try.

– VALUE ADDED

In my mailbox, on the day I wrote this, I co-incidentally received an advance copy of The Simply Raw Living Foods Detox Manual by Natasha Kyssa, a former international fashion model. It outlines a 28-day detox program eating raw foods (soaked, sprouted or fermented) and 135 recipes. It will be out in May.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

And sumptuous sauces so toothsome and tangy

Mark Laba
Province

Roy of Atithi restaurant with Mumbai Bhel and the Rack of Lamb, a veritable morass of satisfying flavours. Photograph by: Nick Procaylo, The Province

Atithi

Where: 2445 Burrard St.,

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-731-0221

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Lunch buffet, 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., Mon.-Fri.; brunch, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., Sat.-Sun.

If one were to believe in reincarnation — as I’m wont to do on those days when I bounce a cheque, get athlete’s foot from too many walks to the 7-11 for snack foods, or ride a rush-hour bus unaware that my fly is open the entire trip — then I would wish to return to this mortal coil as a butter chicken.

Even though I know that’s not really a species of poultry, a guy can dream anyway. I mean what could be finer than to strut around the barnyard, lording it over my fellow chicken folk, clucking “I’m going to be part of a magnificent dish, the favourite of Mughal kings while you, unfortunately, are going to end up as some poorly breaded monstrosity stuck inside a bucket of KFC and dripping grease like a Vancouver Special eavestrough during the winter rains.

It’s a dish that’s been done to death so to speak, but in the event of my death I will gladly steer toward the light that will lead me to that great chicken coop in the sky where a pot of makhani sauce is burbling in the afterlife, beckoning me to my destiny, the steam enveloping me in the comforting aromas of coriander, turmeric, cumin, garam masala and fenugreek. What better way for a foodie to meet his destiny although to complete this dream I’d then want my reincarnated chicken body to be served up at a Jessica Biel slumber party.

But enough about me, how about this restaurant that started me on this rant in the first place. Almost brand spanking new and with a chef/owner formally of Maurya, which is known for its exquisite cuisine, I was anxious to try the food.

Took Peaches along for this humble soiree because in this present economy you have to know which side your bread, or in this case poultry, is buttered on and act smartly. So decent pricing and generous portions are the rule of the thumb these days and this joint filled the bill in more ways than one. As sumptuous as the food is here the décor is the antithesis, relying on tasteful simplicity that borders on the nondescript. But the small touches are appreciated and a dash of colour here and there stands out like a sore thumb whacked repeatedly with a hammer.

Began with a house specialty, the Frankie ($5.95), which is kind of like a Punjab version of a soft taco, except with paratha bread instead of a tortilla and filled with spiced chicken. Alongside arrived one of the finest hot sauces I’ve ever tasted with a heat that builds like a suspense novel and ends with an explosive finale.

Also sampled the Chilli Gobi ($3.95), cauliflower deep-fried and finished with a soya garlic sauce that was delicious. Truly the only way to give the cauliflower’s docile personality a wee kick in the pants.

We moved on to our main dishes-the aforementioned butter chicken ($12.95) with a sauce as sumptuous as a big budget Bollywood musical and delectably tender chicken. The Lamb Palak ($12.95) with it spinach curry sauce was a vegetative morass of flavour marred only by the odd tough piece of baby sheep.

Chana masala and aloo gobi (both $9.95), two fine vegetarian dishes rounded out the feast, the chana masala perhaps a bit more liquid than my preferred chickpea viscosity but the aloo gobi was perfect from the ‘tater texture to the saucing. There’s also a wonderful bagara bengan that makes me actually want to eat eggplant, and a savoury coconut-infused prawn curry. All in all, this place covers it all from the Bay of Bengal to the Kashmiri foothills and after the meal, gazing at the reasonable bill I felt like the slumdog millionaire of Burrard Street.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Spanning the spice box of the Indian subcontinent.

RATINGS: Food: B+ Service: B+ Atmosphere: B

© Copyright (c) The Province

Publicity-shy owner develops another unique dining experience in Richmond

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Yvonne (left) and Stephanie Wong with food from Hakkasan Restaurant in Richmond. On the small plate is Curried Seafood stuffed whelk, on the rectangular plate is Duo of Fish (roasted golden sea bass and smoked Alaskan black cod) and on the round plate is prawns and vegetable fried rice. Photograph by: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

HAKKASAN CONTEMPORARY CHINESE CUISINE

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

$ – $$$

2188 No. 5 Road, Richmond. 604-273-9191. www.hakkasan.ca. Open for lunch and dinner Tuesday to Saturday; dinner only on Sunday.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

– – –

The woman who opened Hakkasan Contemporary Cuisine has run several successful Chinese restaurants but is happiest in the background. Thus, no photos, no name.

She opened Zen restaurant in Richmond, the one that got huge press when Jennifer 8. Lee called it the “greatest restaurant in the world” in her book, The Fortune Cookie Chronicles last year. But by then, the original owner had sold it to her brother Sam Lau, who became the chef/owner.

Going further back, she opened, then sold some popular, affordable Chinese restaurants — Bill Kee, Wonton King and Park Lane. I visited Wonton King last fall and her influence is still there where another brother runs the friendly, good-value, service-oriented restaurant.

Hakkasan follows the Zen restaurant model with tasting menus and contemporary presentations. (Zen, by the way, closed when the lease expired and the website says Lau will be relocating elsewhere, no address given.) It also offers a casual a la carte menu that includes a unique set of $11 burgers made with Chinese steamed buns and fillings like sweet cabbage pork patty and grilled eel; there are also some Hakka-style dishes like Hakka free-range chicken and Hakka-braised pork belly.

While the matriarch stays in the background, her daughters, Yvonne and Stephanie Wong, have caught her passion for food. “All she watches is Food Network. She collects cookbooks, travels, does a lot of research and tries the best restaurants in the world. Her life is all about food,” says Stephanie. The daughters quit their professional jobs (respectively, a professional fundraiser and a planner at a school board) to build up this restaurant and they’re responsible for the cheerful service in the front of house.

There are three eight-course tasting menus which you can view on www.hakkasan.ca. They’re $55, $75 and $98 — luxe ingredients, like Kobe beef and abalone (not the B.C. banned kind) are added as you go up the price ladder. Groups must order the same tasting menu and if you want the changing monthly tasting menu, you have to order ahead. Their marketing suggests the tasting menus are half the price they should be; I’d say they’re good value but at double the price, I don’t know how many takers there would be.

We ordered the $55 menu (seeing as it’s a recession and all) and I was dismayed to see foods on my “avoid” list for ecological or ethical reasons — sea bass, shark’s fin soup (real, not imitation) and foie gras. But I did indulge and was glad the sea bass was treated with great respect and was excellent; the foie gras (delicately crispy outside), with apple and pomelo confit was a nicely conceived dish.I enjoyed the subtly salty, tender Hakka chicken (served cold); sweet cabbage pork patty pot rice is a flavourful, rustic dish; a half lobster slathered in a blanket of chopped garlic (made breath-friendly by a secret method) is generous indeed but it was overcooked, thus tough. Dessert was a steamed milk custard made with egg white — light and delicate with a hint of sweetness.

I also tried a couple of dishes from the casual, a la carte menu and liked the seafood fried rice; fried tangerine spareribs were a little oily but good. Some of the dishes on the tasting menu appear a la carte — the Hakka salty free-range chicken, and wok-seared Kobe beef, and the sweet cabbage pork patty pot rice, for examples. The Hakka style food, Yvonne says, is rustic and rural with a lot of stewed meats, braises and roasting.

The tasting menu dishes aren’t quite as refined as at Zen, but the chef was formerly the sous chef there. Still, it’s a unique dining experience, the service is a cut above and dishes are, on the whole, tasty.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

With Tojo, expect the unexpected and expect it to be brilliant

Mark Laba
Province

Hidekazu Tojo regaled the company at our table with rare antics. Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province

Tojo’s

Where: 1133 West Broadway, Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-872-8050

Drinks: Fully licensed.

Hours: Mon.-Sat., 5 p.m.-late, closed Sun.

It’s not often you see a famous chef yank down his own pants in the middle of his restaurant. But during a visit to the famed Tojo’s, as the restaurant was winding down with the last diners of the evening, our table was honoured by a visit from the master chef himself, Hidekazu Tojo. After regaling us with stories of the celebrities and rock stars he has cooked for, he then shifted to a darker theme of how to deal with hoodlums looking to mug inebriated folk tottering along downtown sidewalks after a night of wining and dining. His self-defence system seemed to have been based on a real-life experience.

“Take shirt, rip, then pants, pull down like so,” whereupon Tojo yanked his pants down to his knees, boxer shorts beneath hanging on for dear life and stumbled around the rear of the dining room. “Look very bad, like street person, ask them for change.”

“I think I just saw Tojo’s butt,” said North Shore Girl, one of the nine people at our table, gathered at the behest of our host, the mysterious Mr. Bentley, who was springing for the entire shindig. No small feat when you realize the prices here are equivalent to the U.S. Stimulus Package. Across the table, the Karate Kid (another dinner guest) nodded his head in agreement with Tojo’s evasive tactics.

Just part and parcel of the Tojo’s experience, where the unexpected is expected, whether it’s from the chef or on your plate. The room is huge and yet has a feeling of both community and intimacy, and strikes a balance between traditional and modern.

We began our journey with Tojo’s special sake and his signature tuna sashimi with special sesame and wasabi sauce ($15). Hint of sweetness lulls the senses along with the luscious tuna flesh, as soft and supple as Angelina Jolie’s lips and kind of similar in appearance until the hit of wasabi blasts through the nasal passages.

Next up, baked local sablefish ($27), so succulent it almost seemed sinful on the palate, finished with Tojo’s secret marinade and topped with a tiny nest of shredded yuzu for a citrus counterbalance, making this dish a textural and tasteful masterpiece.

The dishes kept on coming and my mind began to blur around the edges with the sake, lichee martinis and calvacade of culinary pleasures. So let it be known that I ate the gonads of a sea creature — sea urchin nigiri to be precise — because that’s what I discovered uni is. But these were the finest and freshest sea urchin gonads I’ve ever tasted, straight from Neptune‘s larder and about the same price as a Jacque Cousteau expedition. The eel nigiri was equally tasty.

There was also wild-prawn tempura and assorted veggie tempura (both $28), followed by three selections from Tojo’s Original Rolls. The Great BC Roll ($18) with barbecued salmon skin, salmon and cucumber, the salmon served warm to create a miniature temperate rainforest on the plate, the Tojo Roll ($12) with Dungeness crab, avocado, spinach and egg, and The Northern Light Roll ($14) with wild prawn tempura, avocado and a tinge of pineapple, all rolled into a thin cucumber crêpe.

My only beef was with the poultry course. In this case, a kind of teriyaki creation ($28) had chicken tougher than Colonel Sanders in a death cage match with Foghorn Leghorn. But the Japanese plum brandy was excellent and the delicate black-sesame panacotta dessert wondrous.

From the sublime to the downright strange, the bawdy to the beatified, all part of the mystery and mystique of this man and the special world he has created. Although you’ll pay through the nose and every other orifice you own for the experience.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Charlie the Tuna couldn’t even get a job valet parking at this place.

RATINGS: Food: A Service: A Atmosphere: A

© Copyright (c) The Province

R.TL plans to keep changing its fare every three months

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Alain Canuel, general manager at Regional Tasting Lounge, sets paella cake in front of Christine Monk (left) and Mikki Litzenberger. Photograph by: Stuart Davis, Vancouver Sun

R.TL
Overall 3 ½
Food 3 ½
Ambience 3 ½
Service 3 1/2

1130 Mainland St.
604-638-1549
www.r.tl

Open for dinner daily

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

– – –

It’s not a bad concept, especially in Yaletown, where diners form posses, moving from trend to trend. The menu at R.TL (awkward shorthand for Regional Tasting Lounge) highlights different world cuisines, changing them every three months but keeping B.C. food permanently in the mix.

It’s a risky move because the chef will be moving out of his comfort zone into areas that are not of his heart and soul. Right now the dining public, cowed by troubling times, is not particularly adventurous either, leaning toward comforting French bistro and Italian trattoria kind of food.

They soothe a jittery populace. (On cue, owners of the fine dining Parkside restaurant have just announced they will be changing its format and opening their second La Buca with its rustic Italian cuisine.)

But tapas like that at R.TL does have its place, especially in Yaletown, where dining out is recreation and entertainment.

Chef Erik Smith does some dishes very well, others need tweaks as simple as better seasoning or toning down acidity.

He starts on the right foot with good ingredients, including a number of products from Oyama Sausage. The price is right, too. Some of the dishes are quite generous and the average price is $12 or $13. Four to six dishes should feed two.

General manager Alain Canuel is polished and knows what he’s doing. He’s managed or done sommelier stints at Diva at The Met, Burrowing Owl in Oliver and Araxi in Whistler and he infuses the room with his passion for food and wine. There are 30 wines by the glass on offer thanks to the Enomatic wine preserving technology using a controlled environment and argon — a good thing for this style of eating.

Spain and the Middle East (as well as B.C.) were the featured cuisines when I visited. Chickpeas with Andalusian sausage was surprisingly yummy with currants and pine nuts. Sherry vinegar pulled the dish together. Paella cakes packed traditional paella into a puck shape with a crusty surface and a crisp wafer of Serrano ham inserted like a feather in a cap. Saffron aioli adds a soft layer of flavour. A half-dozen small lamb, pork and veal meatballs were satisfying, especially with the cinnamon-infused tomato sauce.

Malaspina mussels with Oyama chorizo in savoury saffron sabayon would have been delicious but the sabayon (made in an aerating whiz machine called Frix Air) was a touch too sweet.

Braised lamb cheeks rubbed with ras el hanout (a Moroccan spice-herb blend) were tender and tasty and served atop apricot and fig couscous and with caraway raita. Port-soaked figs on goat-cheese-slathered baguette sets you up for a nice hit of port but it didn’t deliver.

B.C. scallops are encrusted with chia seeds, which Smith says are loaded with Omega 3 oils.

They came with carrot puree, quince confit and pickled torpedo onions.

A very nice dish which would have been better with more seasoning on the scallops.

Fesenjun, usually an Iranian stew, is deconstructed into its parts — sliced organic chicken breast, toasted walnut puree, pomegranate syrup. While the chicken was very good, the pomegranate syrup tasted highly acidic and vinegary.

Desserts need editing.

Two-thirds of a chocolate trio were very good. The sticky toffee mousse with corn gelato (yummy!) and mint chocolate semi-freddo were delicious, but the truffle and chocolate malt was a surprise; it was a beverage with chocolate, malt flavour and the mushroom kind of truffle flavour.

It didn’t work.

And a lemon tart was exceptional only in that the crust was hard as concrete.

Still, if prices are kept in check, it’s a welcoming place to spend an evening and the menu is an adventure.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

A tad pricey, but here’s a chic place to swipe at your taste buds

Mark Laba
Province

Owner and Chef Luis Montalvo shows off two of his mouth-watering creations, Pollo en Mole (left) and Sopa Azteca at the El Barrio Restaurante Latino. Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, The Province

El Barrio

Where: 2270 E. Hastings St.

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-569-2220

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Tues.-Thurs., 5 p.m.-9 p.m., Fri., noon-11 p.m., Sat., 10 a.m.-11 p.m., Sun., 10 a.m.-9 p.m., closed Mon.

I’ve been watching a lot of Dora the Explorer with my kids lately because I’m too cheap to take a Spanish class. I figure in another 10 years I’ll be able to say, “Boots, do you see the magic rocks that will help us cross the troll’s bridge to the magic banana forest?” fluently. Unfortunately that doesn’t help me much in my line of work, ordering off the menu in Mexican and Latin American restaurants. I mean it’s not often you find Dora throwing back tequila shooters before getting down and dirty with a plate of frijoles, huachinango sarandeado, cuitlacoche and ropa vieja. Those words just don’t show up in the cartoon nor do you ever find Boots nursing a mescal hangover.

Still, I decided to put my rudimentary language skills to the test as Peaches and I hit this Mexican restaurant where the Spanish was flying out of diner’s mouths as fast as it takes your average tourist’s skin to burn under a Puerto Vallarta sun after imbibing too many margaritas and falling asleep on a mid-day beach.

Up front is a classic bar area with high stools around small tall tables all done in a rich dark wood that makes you want to reach for the Pledge. The back of the room is the dining zone with tables and chairs that can only be described as Legion Hall chic, the chic part being that you’re surrounded by bright red and yellow painted walls and archways along with a smattering of colourful art instead of a pull tab machine and the high drama of a meat draw. Nevertheless the joint was boisterous with lively music over the airwaves, happy diners putting back tasty Mexican cooking and the margaritas, martinis, daiquiris, vino and cervezas flowing freely.

I wilted at the first Spanish words on the menu but knew enough to differentiate between fungus and flan. We began with two appetizers — patas bravas ($9.75), which, if my Spanish serves me well, means brave potatoes that will burn you with spiciness, and a prawn dish done up with garlic, tequila and lime. Both were very good and hats off to the cook who whipped up these crustaceans, which were perfectly done, tender but firm like the lips of a mermaid beckoning you onto small, crispy garlic rocks.

For entrees I took on a nice piece of Grade A steak marinated in pineapple and lime juice served with rice, frijoles volteados, which are Guatemalan-style refried beans, and a fresh salsa ($17.95). Peaches went à la plancha, meaning grilled on a metal plate or skillet. Her dish was poultry marinated in chipotle for a wonderful smoky, sweet finish and came bedded down on a mass of onions and green and red peppers ($14.95). My steak was of the thin variety, common in Mexican cooking and the grill marks seemed to run with rivulets of pineapple and lime juice, adding a nice zing to the lightly charred flesh.

All in all a pleasant experience, although a bit pricey compared with other Mexican eateries. Still there are intriguing entries like Pollo Cuitlacoche, made with a black fungus that infects corn and visually is about as appetizing as gangrene but considered a delicacy, as well as some less daring but nevertheless satisfying fare like salmon in tequila green salsa, chile relleno or the great shredded beef ropa vieja.

As for my Spanish, well, Dora is too advanced for me but I have learned one phrase — “Swipe, don’t swipe”– which comes in handy when, say, your spouse is trying to steal your tres leches cake while you’re checking the b-ball scores on the TV.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Wrapping sunshine in a tortilla.

RATINGS: Food: B+ Service: B+ Atmosphere: B-

—

© Copyright (c) The Province

Shanghai-style offerings at Lin Chinese Cuisine garnered a Chinese Signature Dish award

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Diners enjoy lunch at the Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House on Broadway. Photograph by: Ian Lindsay, Vancouver Sun

LIN CHINESE CUISINE AND TEA HOUSE

1537 West Broadway, 604-733-9696

– – –

When the Chinese Signature Dish Awards were announced recently Lin Chinese Cuisine and Tea House was named for its Shanghai-style juicy dumplings. They’re made from scratch with each order. The dumplings are filled with pork, then steamed and it comes with a vinegar and ginger sauce for dipping. Six of them costs $4.99.

Dishes average about $10 and most are well-prepared and fresh tasting. What’s not to like? Moreover, most of the servers are cheerful and dishes are fresh and nicely prepared.

One of the more expensive dishes, honey prawns, featured large fresh prawns with a crispy sweet coating. Chicken in wine sauce, a cold dish, comes with a warning from the server. “Do you mind skin on?” the server asked as westerners aren’t accustomed to skin that’s not crisped up. We found the Szechuan spicy beef left a funny tingle on our tongues. It was a pepper I’m not familiar with.

I’m not sure what marinated “groton” curds are but found it listed under appetizers. But other dishes include ones that appeal to the western palate, like orange peel chicken, tan tan noodle soup, a variety of noodles to ones that probably wouldn’t — like sauteed shredded eel and jelly fish with shredded radish.

Lunch specials top off at $8 and that mid-day menu includes a smaller portion of the honey prawns at half the cost.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Jean-Georges Vongerichten delivers terrific dishes in a gorgeous setting — and it’s incredibly accessible

Mia Stainsby
Sun

David Foot has no problem surrendering his own creativity to Jean-Georges Vongerichten. ‘I’m learning new things.’ Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun

David Foot in the kitchen of Market by Jean-Georges Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun

MARKET BY JEAN-GEORGES

Overall 5

Food 5

Ambience 5

Service 5

$$/$$$

Shangri-La Hotel

1115 Alberni St.

604-695-1115

Open for dinner, daily

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

– – –

When a three-Michelin star chef comes into town, you expect swashbuckling swagger. Well, Jean-Georges Vongerichten has none of that Jagger swagger. In my interviews with both him and for that matter, Daniel Boulud, the other iconic New York chef to have opened here, there’s no wasted energy on inflating their egos.

When I visited Market by Jean-Georges at Shangri-La Hotel, I couldn’t believe the great value for such ravishing food. And the thing that gives Market buzz is its accessibility — our bill wasn’t much different than meals at Cactus Club. And yet, the quality of cooking orbits into the stratosphere. (Entree prices range from $19 to $29.) And service is pretty much beyond reproach. I’d tell you of how they went out of the way to correct a problem we encountered but it would identify me — suffice to say, they went above and beyond.

The room is uncluttered with a soft monochrome of creams with touches of red. The simple background brings diners to the forefront.

One might wonder how a chef overseeing 24 restaurants on three continents can manage quality control. One way is to limit menus to his own tried and true recipes. “I have 3,000 in a data base,” Vongerichten said. (In a New York magazine article, he’s quoted as saying his recipes are bulletproof when they leave his hands but his fight is to “only lose five or 10 per cent of himself” when he delegates those recipes.)

Market chef David Foot says all the recipes are scaled out to a tenth of a gram. When the dish is plated, he says, “it’s perfect.” I asked Foot if he’s okay suppressing his own creativity: “Absolutely!” he said. “I get to work with Jean-Georges! I’m learning new things, new techniques. It’s been a steep learning curve.” Market’s recipes, he says, are “the best of” from Vongerichten’s restaurants.

The first dish I ordered was a $12 shrimp salad with mixed greens, avocado and champagne dressing. I expected three perfect tiny shrimp nestled in a mouthful of greens. What I got were five large prawns dressed in that lovely dressing, avocado slices and the dish was nearly a meal. Other starters were equally impressive — sea urchin toast with yuzu glaze and jalapeno (okay, maybe the paper-thin pickled jalapeno was a touch blunt with delicate sea urchin); warm Okanagan goat cheese custard with sweet and sour beets and crushed pistachio (ethereal); Dungeness crab dumplings with meyer lemon and celeriac tea (a gently Asian dish). I tried two fish dishes, Arctic char and sablefish, and both were handled beautifully, cooked not a second beyond doneness.

Carnivores will rhapsodize over the soy-glazed short ribs with apple jalapeno puree and rosemary crumbs. The meat is braised for three hours with soy, Asian pear, lemongrass, chili, galango, ginger and white wine. The broth is reduced to a glaze and the green apple puree adds a palate-cleansing counterpoint to the richness. Parmesan-crusted chicken (organic) with salsify and lemon sauce tastes of chicken, which today, is a big deal.

I was, however, disappointed with a side order of truffle mashed potatoes. It didn’t deliver on the truffle flavour despite the many flecks of black truffle dotting the dish. Foot says it’s because they couldn’t get winter truffle peelings and relied on canned summer peelings.

For dessert, you gotta try the apple confit with green apple sorbet, one of Vongerichten’s classics. Thin apple slices become a dense cake of apple and orange zest. The sorbet has an incredible lightness of being. A creme fraiche cheesecake becomes something more than itself with the port-poached cherries and red wine sorbet lifting it out of the ordinary. I didn’t try the pavlova but after hearing about it, I wish I did — the meringue is a perfect sphere with passion fruit filling its hollow middle.

The good news for fans of Vongerichten is there’s talk of opening another of Vongerichten brand restaurant in Vancouver called Spice Market. “The boys are talking about it,” says Foot.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Thai and Malay dishes spicily delicious

Mark Laba
Province

Chili Garden manager Brad Kemash with a display including King Prawns, Panang Duck and Tom Yum shrimp. Photograph by: Les Bazso, The Province

CHILI GARDEN

Where: 4186 Main St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-879-8896

Drinks: Beer and wine.

Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily

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Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow / With silver bells and cockle shells and chili peppers that’ll have you yelling “fire in the hole.” Anyway, that’s the way I think the nursery rhyme should go, at least the South East Asian version. Though I don’t have a green thumb when it comes to gardening, I’ve certainly got a red tongue for slamming back the hot stuff from the flammable section of the vegetable patch.

I might need a couple of inner tube patches on my intestinal tract if I keep up with my obsession with heat, but my motto is if you’re not burning yourself a third nostril or second rear end, you’re just not getting the full taste experience.

It was with that philosophy that I steered Peaches into this new Main Street eatery because once I saw the sign I was hooked.

Inside we were greeted by the serenity of a thousand Buddhas or maybe more like three or four rendered in both sculptural and painted mediums. The whole room evokes that monsoon-season feeling, with bamboo dividers, persimmon-coloured walls and tropical wood fixings.

At least they appear that way from the carved teak elephants to the tables and chairs. This joint used to be Sandy‘s, a Filipino cafeteria-style restaurant and, considering the former utilitarian design of the interior, this new facelift looks like a million bucks — or more George Hamilton than Mickey Rourke.

Usually my antennae would be twitching when I’d see a billing like this place, advertising both Thai and Malaysian cuisine. I’m a fan of each but don’t see them co-existing under one roof. Still, if you see them on a map and ignore that scale measurement at the bottom, hell, these countries aren’t too far apart. So why not mix ‘n’ match and see what a little culinary country-hopping would bring?

Began with a great appetizer called a Golden Bag ($4.95). Six crispy rice pastries tied up like pouches with a strand of lemongrass and, inside, a delectable mix of minced onion, corn, carrots, peas and potatoes, dusted with a touch of curry and fired up golden brown.

“Papa’s got a brand new bag,” I told Peaches as I snagged the last one.

“James Brown you ain’t.”

Our table filled up quickly with orders of cashew crispy chicken ($9.95), mee goreng ($8.95) and beef gata ($11.95). The mee goreng was very satisfying, not as spicy as I would’ve expected, which was a good thing for Peaches, and it was brimming with chicken, beef, shrimp and hulking pieces of tofu that looked like soybean curd icebergs adrift on a sea of noodles.

The beef gata, a Thai construction, came with onions, peppers, zucchini and Thai herbal touches awash in a tomato brandy sauce. A hint of sweetness, a tinge of heat, along with tender thinly sliced beef made this dish a delicious choice.

As for the crispy cashew chicken, it was OK, although the poultry was a little tough, probably due to the light breading going off the crispo-meter during the wok-frying. But the cashew imbued a sweet, nutty flavour that saved this bird.

It’s certainly an intriguing menu, from sambal prawns to Thai barbecue chicken, Malaysian whole fried crab to crispy duck. As for the heat, most of the chili factor is handled with a balanced hand in the kitchen, meaning that an insane guy like me will have to wait another day to turn his stomach into a spewing volcano. You have to be cruel to be kind in the right measure but my form of culinary cruelty knows no boundaries.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Can’t stand the heat, stay out of the garden.

RATINGS: Food: B Service: B+ Atmosphere: B

© Copyright (c) The Province

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Nash Mawani, owner of Jambo Grill, with some of his favourites. Mawani is known for his friendly greetings. Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Vancouver Sun

JAMBO GRILL

3219 Kingsway, 604-433-5060. www.jambogrill.ca

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There are scores of humble mom and pop restaurants around Metro Vancouver and the interesting ones don’t always declare themselves. Several readers pointed this one out when I made a call for your favourite global restaurant.

You liked the food at Jambo Grill and you also liked the friendly owner. Jambo means “hello” in Swahili, a tipoff that there’s some African influence here. The food is so Vancouver — a fusion of Indian, East African, a few gulps of Iranian flavours, as well as Indian-style homage to North American fries and pizza on lovely naan. Owner Nash Mawani has a selection of his own African/Indian creations, like deep-fried Cornish hen with Nairobi-style sauce, Masai ribs, jungle ribs.

He’s been running Jambo since 2005. On the sign outside, you’ll see Good Morning Paan. Bit of history to that. In 1939, a Ugandan immigrant opened a paan cafe, paan being an Indian street food or dessert — it’s a mix of lime paste, betel nuts, rose extract, tiny sweets, rose petals wrapped in betel leaves. The only words this man would say in English, no matter what, was “good morning” and so locals ignored the real name of this business and called it the Good Morning Paan place.

Mawani decided to buy the Good Morning Paan name and incorporate the dish into his menu when people kept coming for it. If you go to their website, they’ve posted a YouTube video of him making paan.

On the main menu, however, Gujarati Thali goes for $14.98 and comes with two curries, rice, naan, pappadam, dal and dessert. The Grill Combo, for $22.95, will easily feed two; it’s a big plate of rashni kebab (beef sausage), tandoor chicken, jungle ribs, and masala fries.

The menu features dishes such as bhajia (lentil patties), mogo (cassava fries), bateda wada (mashed potato balls in chick pea batter), paya (goat curry), halibut masala, and chicken or lamb biryani.

Mawani’s wife Yasmin does most of the cooking while he takes care of the front of house, visiting each and every table with warm welcomes.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun