Affordable luxury paired with great food and wine list

Mark Laba
Province

LES FAUX BOURGEOIS

Where: 663 15th St. East, Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-873-9733

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: Tues.-Sat., 5:30 p.m.–midnight, closed Sun. and Mon.

– – –

I’ve always aspired to living beyond my means, even if I have to fake it with ten-buck Rolexes and $20 Gucci loafer knock-offs. Really, you can fake most everything except maybe performing brain surgery.

In the current economic meltdown, it seems some folks have shared this same idea, although many bought the real thing and, of course, then had to have the house and car and polo pony to match the bling. Others are just innocent bystanders watching their savings vanish like the polar icecaps in an Al Gore documentary. But with the de-valued dollar, I’m figuring maybe that wad of Canadian Tire money I’ve been saving might finally be worth something. From faux-money to faux fur to faux-finishing, the faux middle class is taking a beating. Not since the French lugged out the guillotine during the Revolution have so many been in over their heads and lost it in the process.

So it was refreshing to see this new joint recently opened on the Eastside that proclaimed with no sense of shame that faux bourgeois was the new social class and rich folk be damned. Great French food at affordable prices, an excellent wine list that’s equally attainable, all in a setting that oozes French bistro with an eastside retro-appeal like my Pierre Cardin fitted shirts circa 1980.

Old gooseneck lamps run along the top of the wall, pointed upward for subdued spot lighting, recroom wood panelling takes on a Gallic sensibility, black and white tiled flooring and a long mirror over the banquette seating creates a Parisian doppleganger effect.

Most importantly, this joint is warm and welcoming. Our waiter had a thick French accent, so Peaches and I instantly made a pact not to try and pronounce anything from the menu.

Began with an amazing onion soup ($8) made with rich, meaty stock instead of the usual wimpy chicken or veggie broth I’ve encountered in other places. This turns the onion creation into a soup that’s hearty on the exterior but conceals layers of rich flavour beneath the sopping bread and stretchy Gruyere covering.

We stuck to an onion theme with the Tarte flambée Alsacienne ($12), a kind of French/Germanic version of pizza but with a very flaky pastry-like crust, topped with caramelized onion, a rug of crunchy belly-fat bacon and some creamy blobs of ricotta. A wonderful balance of the delicate and the lusty, kind of like France and Germany negotiating over their borders.

For mains, I had the truly inspiring lamb sirloin with caramelized cauliflower, green beans and blue cheese hidden between the slices of pinkish lamb fillets ($17), the whole shmeer wallowing in a jus that had the deep red colouring and bittersweet hint of cherry.

Peaches tried the grilled beef fillet ($19), the prime cut served with potatoes au gratin, some green beans and some beet-like species that was delicious. She wasn’t bowled over by the beef but wasn’t disappointed either. More tender was the direction she was leaning. Rave reviews for the ‘tater construction, though.

If you go, check the daily chalkboard specials for the Chef’s Selections but really you can’t go wrong with duck confit, ling cod in white wine or chicken pot-au-feu.

Classic bistro fare so tasty you’ll be faux-pawing your way through these pseudo-bourgeois offerings like an eastside Maurice Chevalier in a brand new Sally Ann suit.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Classic French fare to please even the snootiest closet bourgeoisie.

RATINGS: Food: A-; Service: A; Atmosphere: A

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Each sip of broth reveals different tinges of pork flavour

Mark Laba
Province

MENYA

Where: 401 W. Broadway, Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-873-3277

Drinks: Soft drinks and beer

Hours: Mon.-Sat., lunch 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner, 5 p.m.-9 p.m., closed Sun.

– – –

You know that old expression “you can’t see the trees for the forest.” Well, this place decided to cut them all down to get rid of the problem entirely. Now you can see the trees but not the forest, or at least what’s left of the trees — essentially stumps turned into seats for die-hard ramen-noodle fans to plunk their broth-filled butts down on for this slurpable feast.

For generations of us Canadians raised on the Mr. Noodles variety of ramen with their strange silver packets of freeze-dried flavour ingredients that could either be green onion flakes or amazing Sea Monkeys, the true art of ramen noodle-making remains somewhat of a mystery.

For the Japanese it is an intricate dance between heaven and earth, or at least noodles and broth, with a cameo performance by seaweed and pork.

In our North American hunt for instant ramen gratification, we, in our noodle ignorance, have overlooked the subtler nuances of ramen broth, noodle texture and the mastery that this dark, burbling art demands.

Paid a visit with Small Fry Eli to this diminutive eatery where ravenous ramen gobblers were crammed to the rafters, the interior as sparse as a Zen monk’s mind. The stump seating beg the question, “if a tree falls in the forest but I’m in a ramen shop already sitting on its remains what came first, the noodle or the tree?” Or something like that.

Anyway, this newly opened spot is something of an anomaly on the Vancouver ramen scene due to its specialty in tonkotsu or pork-bone based broth. Most joints serve a mix of the other three ramen species — shio (salt), shoyu (soya) and miso — all of which use a chicken or vegetable or fish stock or a combination of the three.

Tonkotsu broth is cloudier in appearance and the flavour seems a little heavier than the other ramen varieties. I ordered the Nagahama Ramen ($6.75), named for a street full of ramen stalls in the Nagahama district of Fukuoka, the capital city of Kyushu Island where tonkotsu has its origins.

Doused with a special soya sauce seasoning I also ordered a seasoned boiled egg to be plunked into the mixture where pickled ginger, kelp, green onion and bamboo shoots bobbed about.

Hidden deep in the murk were two thick slices of slightly fatty pork belly to make the proceedings even porkier.

Each sip of broth revealed different tinges of flavours, as tenuous as a snowflake on the tongue, albeit a pork one.

A hint of ginger here, a blip of soya there and everywhere a rich, undercurrent of porker meat, probably due to the fat and marrow that seeps into the broth during the long and arduous boiling process.

Also tried the home-made pan-fried pork and vegetable gyoza ($4.80), eight of the suckers fused together into a pinwheel shape, crispy on the top side, soft as a frog’s belly underneath.

Very delicious and Small Fry Eli’s favorite dish, next to trying to scoop the ice out of his orange juice glass with a chopstick.

Essentially that’s the menu, with the tonkotsu ramen also available with a miso sauce seasoning or you can order the Ramen Noodle Set ($10) that gets you ramen, gyoza and Takikomi rice ball cooked with kelp, veggies and deep-fried tofu or try the Nagasaki Chanpon ($8.90), a ramen concoction with mixed veggies, meat and seafood. All I can say is landing in the soup never seemed so good.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A pork-a-rama of ramen goodness.

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

 

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Customers will pick the top 10 Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver and judges will select the best dishes

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Sometimes, there’s too much of a good thing. And that’s the case with Chinese restaurants in Metro Vancouver.

Just how do you start to take advantage of all that there is? And there’s a lot worth trying as Chinese food here is considered the best in North America.

Well, help is on the way. The Chinese Restaurant Awards, created by a group of Chinese food lovers, will result in a guide to the best places for 25 Chinese dishes (decided by a passionate panel of judges) and to the 10 top Chinese restaurants by style (decided by a public poll on the Web).

The group is so new, it’s just calling itself the Chinese Restaurants Awards.

The winning restaurants will be announced on Jan. 15 at the inaugural awards ceremony.

Rae Kung, a volunteer project manager, says the Chinese dining community think more in terms of dishes than restaurants, thus the reason for judging the 25 best dishes.

“I’m Chinese and when I go to a restaurant, I go for a certain dish. I go because it has the best dim sum or best northern Chinese food or have the best method of cooking chicken.”

The dishes the food critics will be judging include crab, king crab, shrimp, lobster, Cantonese/Hong Kong-style dim sum, northern/Shanghai-style dim sum, congee, noodles and rice, dessert, Chinese pastry, barbecue, soup, fish and an innovative dish.

The awards, Kung says, are a great way of promoting the Chinese culture and Vancouver‘s Chinese restaurants locally and to the rest of the world.

The judges, she says, are food writers and people who are passionate about Chinese food.

“I moved from Hong Kong two years ago and like a lot of Chinese, I like to go out and eat. As well, Westerners like to explore and try different things.”

Cate Simpson, a publicist for the event, says the Western diner probably chooses a Chinese restaurant slightly differently.

“Service and decor accounts for a little more. For me, this list of award winners is going to be great because when I go to a place like Sun Sui Wah, I’ll know what to order along with my regular favourites.”

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

More space for both the store and the deli and plenty of affordable gourmet fast food

Mia Stainsby
Sun

MEINHARDT’S FINE FOODS

Overall 3 1/2

Food 3 1/2

Ambience 3 1/2

Service 3

Price: $

3151 Arbutus St., 604-732-7900

Open Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

www.meinhardt.com.

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

– – –

During the Vancouver International Film festival, I often fly out of the office to catch a film after work, grabbing food en route. One evening recently, dinner was a bag of almonds from a gas station and then popcorn at the theatre. When I emerged from the Ridge Theatre, my husband was famished and I needed a top-up. (Our movie pals had gone to Meinhardt’s before the film so they weren’t part of the musical score with tympani of stomach rumblings.)

Anyway, that’s what it took for me to finally get to Meinhardt’s Fine Foods in its new location next to the Ridge on Arbutus Street. It’s not as central as their original, located on South Granville and given that, I’d expected this location to be its satellite. Nay. It’s more like the flagship. It’s twice the size and in the store part (as opposed to the spiffy deli), you can actually steer a shopping cart around. The look is more Dean and DeLuca but without the New York prices. The deli section (for take-away or eating in) is much bigger than the Granville location and this one has a hot food section. The bakery greets you as you walk in and you feel a gush from the salivary glands. I quickly scoped out an almond tart topped with a pregnant poached pear (cooked in sherry and scrumptious, I discovered later).

Most savoury dishes are sold by the 100-gram so we tried a number of small portions of things. Soba noodle salad, two Florentine meatballs (with spinach mixed in), a couple of shrimp wontons (if reheating, don’t overcook the plump prawns!), a small piece of halibut with a red pepper sauce (again, careful about overcooking!), and a couple of tarts, the fat pear one and a banana coconut tart.

On another visit we tried the popular free-range rotisserie chicken. At $8.99, it’s a best buy, I’d say. Indian dishes are winners, too. You can’t ask for better fast food. The chef is Elke Brandstatter who spent some time cooking at Whole Foods Market. Big sellers at Meinhardt’s include hearty dishes like beef stew and shepherd’s pie topped with yam. The chocolate decadence cake has garnered loyal fans and so have the carrot cake, marshmallows and the tarts.

Some foods don’t bear up as well in sitting the deli counter as others but some actually improve — like the stews, Indian dishes, mac and cheese and some meat dishes, like the meatballs. Salads aren’t at their best sitting around (our soba noodle salad had a starchy texture as it was pretty much the end of day for them), nor are seafood and sushi (the brown rice in ours had also been overcooked). But still, this is affordable gourmet fast food and relief for rushed lives.

Michael Meinhardt has joined his mother Linda, who began it all, and is now the director of business management for the company. They’ll be opening another in Calgary, he says, in 2010.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

I discover a new spirituality, licking sauce splatter off my shirt

Mark Laba
Province

Review

Yuum Yai Thai Restaurant

Where: 1859 Commercial Dr.

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-215-9969

Drinks: Soft drinks, juices and tea.

Hours: 11 a.m.-3 p.m. lunch, 5-10 p.m. dinner every day

I’m not a man much given to spiritual leanings. When I do rarely have those probing questions about existence, it usually has to do with deciding between maple- or chocolate-glazed doughnuts. But when I’m confronted by a large golden Buddha as I enter a restaurant, I oil the old karmic valves and pistons, polish up the rusty chakra machinery and dig deep into my divine being, which unfortunately seems to resemble old cheese and, in that sense, not much different than my corporeal body.

Nevertheless, with my cheesy karmic aromas swirling and the sludge of my spirituality sloshing about like bong water left over from the ’60s, the Golden Buddha let me pass with nary a pang of guilt or eye askance at this fallen human that passed before his glowing visage. I did wear my best pair of pants.

This establishment seems much like what one would discover on a backpacking trip across Thailand, although I’ve never been there and if I had I probably would’ve passed this joint in my hunt for a KFC. Small, utterly charming in its lack of formality and with the Christmas lights, oodles of brocaded fabric draped about and a homey floor lamp, it felt like I was eating in someone’s living room. A small bookshelf holds a slew of Lonely Planet and such travel books to read while dining, so while consuming some exotic edibles your brain can equally be transported to far-flung destinations. And I like a place with plastic covering the elaborately decorated tablecloths. It suggests an eating adventure wherein the flavours of the dishes inspire such a fervour that food is slung about in a frenzy of gastronomical abandon.

Peaches and I settled in with an order of chicken satay ($7.95) with a wonderful spice-and-herb marinade that struck the perfect balance between sweetness and pungency. And the poultry was as tender as an elephant cradling a peanut in his trunk. On that note, the accompanying peanut sauce was excellent.

For the main feast it was a three-ring circus of tastes. Pad Thai noodles with prawns ($10.95), chicken with cashew nuts, chili jam (or paste) and assorted veggies ($9.95) and a Panang curry with beef ($8.95). First off, let me preface this with a note on all the saucing, no matter the dish. There is a buoyancy to the culinary proceedings, like a midday light pinging off the shimmering body of the golden Buddha, a sense of substance that is there and then it’s not, ethereal as if the ingredients were transcending their earthly bodies. In other words, it’s damned good food. Prawns were a little overdone in the Pad Thai but that’s about my only complaint.

The Panang curry embodied that creamy coconut-milk sauce so soothing to the senses with sweet basil and herbs for accent and the chicken shindig with chili paste was especially enlightening. Veggies were cooked to this side of crispiness giving them a longer sauce life and on a saucy theme the broth had a fiery subtext that didn’t overrun the gentler elements.

For a small place, the menu is big and the gold Buddha beckons for more intriguing dishes whether it be the BBQ tofu with sweet Thai sauce appetizer, the spicy eggplant with chili, basil and your choice of meat or seafood or one of the classic curries. As for me, I discovered a newfound spirituality, fleeting as it may be though licking sauce splatterings off my shirtfront in the wee hours of the morning.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Sartorial pleasures from humble origins.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

A strangely comforting eatery, much like its dishes

Mark Laba
Province

BAREFOOT KITCHEN

Where: 1725 Davie St., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-681-9722

Drinks: Fully licensed.

Hours: Sun.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-11 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 11 a.m.–midnight

– – –

I always thought Godzilla would’ve made a great Japanese fast-fry short order cook. With his atomic breath that moves between a slight radiation vapour to an all-out fiery nuclear blast, he could handle a dinner rush no problem with plenty of time to spare to duck out and destroy an entire neighbouring city before dessert. Which would’ve made him a great candidate for handling the chores of a Japanese yoshoku restaurant. In fact, I think manning the stoves in a yoshoku eatery for all those Japanese movie monsters who might, in these modern times, find themselves out of their usual line of work and in need of a career change, would be a great choice.

Yoshoku joints have been popping up on the local landscape like protected marmots lately, offering their unique Japanese twists on Western food. The familiar becomes slightly unfamiliar with this cuisine, not unlike that nutty uncle of yours who after a few shots of peach schnapps takes his toupee off and does the Chicken Dance.

This relative newcomer to the scene is especially great if you happen to be a foot fetishist. The Barefoot Kitchen’s décor in this neat, underground space consists of large, colourful footprints hoofing it all over the walls. It’s an odd combination of both a Japanese fast food environment complete with a backlit menu board over the ordering counter much like McDonald’s and the clean line modern offerings of contemporary Tokyo with its brightly lit hip factor. In other words, it’s both a little strange and comforting, much like the food served here.

Peaches and I sampled a bunch of stuff and put our taste buds to the test with this hybrid fare, starting with the savoury Teriyaki Hamburg Steak Set ($10.50). Arrived with French fries, carrots, broccoli and a choice of either garlic bread or rice and a second choice of either miso or corn soup. Hamburg steak is the Japanese version of Salisbury steak, meaning ground beef shaped into a steak-like shape, and I found this critter particularly succulent, delicately spiced and tender as a baby calf lowing in the moonlight and with the teriyaki sauce there was something entirely decadent and delightful about the whole thing.

Also tried the Tonkatsu Set ($8.50), a breaded pork cutlet served with a citrus soy sauce, an odd steamed squash-like species on the side, plus the above-mentioned soup and starch options. The breading was the best part of this construction with its gnarly surface texture that, as in the world of snowflakes, emulates the theory that no two crispy shards are the same. The meat might have endured too much of a fry bath, taking a touch out of the tenderness but the citrus soy smoothed things over.

There was also a potato salad in the mix, though I’m not sure which dinner set it came with. Actually it was potato salad and a green salad with lettuce, cukes, tomato and ranch dressing all combined and the flavour was oddly satisfying, kind of like a Japanese white trash recipe.

There are also curry dishes and some classic pastas like the meat sauce or carbonara varieties or for the more daring the Mentaiko with thick spicy fish eggs. The new menu also offers a couple of hot pot and donburi bowl creations including a kimchi concoction and a chopped fatty tuna on rice respectively. For dessert try red bean paste and yuzu sherbert or crème brulee. To Western eyes and tastes, it’s kind of like familiar dishes that have been abducted by aliens. After they return they’re just not the same but somehow just that much more interesting.

THE BOTTOM LINE: How the West was re-invented.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Mia Stainsby
Sun

VANCOUVER – They’re the bling of our cultural diversity. Ethnic restaurants also are the doorway into our multicultural community.

Given that some 43 per cent of people in Metro Vancouver don’t speak English as their first language, there’s a whole lot more than steak and roast chicken shaking down in Metro kitchens, be it at home or restaurants.

In our ethnic restaurants, you get to experience what is often the result of thousands of years of tradition, history, evolution and ritual – you’re not just sitting down to a bargain meal; it’s cultural archeology on a plate.

And thanks to cooks and chefs from around the world, food in Vancouver has become an exciting adventure of surprises, inventions, discoveries and pleasure, and our chefs have become modern-day alchemists, make magic out of diversity. Now is it any wonder Vancouver has become such a world hot spot for its cuisine?

The challenge is to find the gems amid the ethnic plenty. I’ve mapped out some of the affordable places, the mom and pops serving home-style ethnic foods. It’s most definitely not a complete list and it doesn’t include the high-ends like Vij’s and Tojo’s and Sun Sui Wah. I’ve been to most of them myself and some are recommendations from Vancouver Sun freelancers who review suburban restaurants.

Robert Clark, executive chef overseeing Nu, C and Raincity Grill, some of Vancouver‘s best places to eat, says ethnic restaurants have influenced the industry as a whole as well as his job as chef.

“Early on, it really enabled me to mainstream a lot of seafood products that weren’t typically found in white tablecloth restaurants. I always relied on their ethnic origins, whether it was geoduck, sea cucumber or sea urchin. I looked to Japanese and Chinese cuisines to help me get it on the menu. It allowed me to work with and understand the product and from there, I was able to work it into a more European style.”

Albacore tuna, he says, is a perfect example of learning from ethnic cuisines. “In restaurants across the city 20 years ago, I doubt many were using tuna other than well-cooked. Now it’s blasphemy,” says Clark. “We can’t imagine it being cooked more than rare and the Japanese culture made that comfortable for us.” Salmon caviar was another Japanese introduction, he says.

Today, Vancouver‘s continuing search for a culinary identity most definitely includes ethnic influences, but the clincher has to be local ingredients. “We’ve been able to take flavours from multiple cultures and move forward as Pacific Northwest or regional cuisine using local produce,” says Clark. “Local produce keeps it grounded. We’re still discovering and developing what regional cuisine will be but what’s grown here will be the cornerstone.”

It’s hard to remember a time when sushi was exotic and foreign or when even lasagne was considered ethnic, but I have evidence in an old Five Roses Flour cookbook with a “Foreign Dishes” section at the back. It includes lasagne, strawberry meringue and chop suey.

We’ve moved on since those days, but it does beg the question of what exactly is ethnic cuisine. Italian food is so much a part of Canadian cuisine, it’s been appropriated as a favourite among our comfort food and hard to think of as ethnic.

The same goes with French food – French cooking was the basis of North American fine cooking and it’s deeply embedded, at least in our restaurant culture. Restaurants were, after all, a French invention. (Paris, 1765; a tavern keeper served sheep’s feet in white sauce as a restorative to weary travellers and thereby invented the restaurant.)

Whereas Chinese food once meant chop suey, we know it was an imposter dish and we’re now having a ball discovering the vastness of real food from China – and we’ve only just begun that journey.

And whereas sushi with ginger is the new burger with fries (hallelujah!), there’s still much to come from Japan. Izakaya food was the most recent import, albeit jazzed up, Vancouver style. And not without irony, yoshoku is making appearances in several restaurants – that’s Japan‘s version of North American food.

We surprise ourselves with unpronounceable words in our culinary vocabulary, like rijstaffel, escabeche and chipotle.

And our pantries have become so much more colourful – tofu, miso, shiitake and enoki mushrooms, yuzu, eel, seaweeds, Thai rice, shiso, tamarind, buckwheat noodles, hoisin sauce, lemongrass, star anise, longan, oyster sauce, coconut milk, kaffir lime leaf, galanga root, bamboo shoots, fish sauce, sesame oil, chickpea flour, red bean paste, naan, paneer, rosewater, merguez sausage, chorizo, fish roe, cous cous, rice paper. it goes on and on.

And then, there are the dishes that march into our lives – mee krob (fried rice noodles), rogan josh, congee, sambal, kim chi. there’s an army of them, too.

For most of us, initial encounters with ethnic dishes take place in restaurants. Our first pad Thai, our first bibimbab (What? You don’t know of this Korean comfort bowl of rice, fried egg, veggies, pickles and kim chi?), our first poofy naam out of a tandoor or pho or tagine – the first mouthfuls were likely served up in our ever-expanding collection of ethnic restaurants.

While Vancouver might have the lion’s share of finer restaurants, good-value ethnic restaurants are scattered throughout Metro Vancouver. Richmond has an astonishing number of them, but you’ll find them in any community where immigrants have settled – Coquitlam, Surrey, Burnaby, the North Shore.

These are inexpensive, unpretentious places that might dare you to try something new to expand your culinary borders.

Owner Stephan Gagnon brings a taste for good wine and good food prepared without fuss

Mia Stainsby
Sun

LES FAUX BOURGEOIS

663 East 15th Ave., 604-873-9733. www.lesfauxbourgeois.com.

Dinner, Tuesday to Saturday.

Overall: fffho

Food: fffho

Ambience: ffffo

Service: ffffo

Price: $$

– – –

The name, Les Faux Bourgeois, refers to the owner, not you, the diner. Owner Stephan Gagnon is a working class stiff (a contractor, who’s built some notable restaurants in Vancouver) and he’s got this passion for good food, a fake bourgeois, he says.

“I don’t like fancy things, but I love good wine and good food that’s cooked without a lot of fuss,” he says. His dream of running a restaurant materialized last year when he opened Jules Bistro with Emanuel Joinville. The lively and affordable French bistro was an instant hit. He sold his share last November and recently opened Faux Bourgeois, which has a Jules kind of vibe. There’s a demand for such a place considering how real estate has changed the make up of the east side. At Le Faux, Gagnon partnered with Andreas Seppelt, who’s also involved in Go Fish off False Creek.

Les Faux is an irresistible bargain which is why there’s huge buzz. It tugs me two ways: It makes me pine for Paris and on the other hand, I feel I’m already there. The servers are “classic French bistro guys from France” and they didn’t bring a harumphy attitude with them. One is a trained sommelier. And judging by the animated conversation, Les Faux attracts a lot of French-speaking customers.

On the menu, mains are $10 (baguette de merguez) to $19 (fillet de boeuf grillé). Tina Fineza, chef at Flying Tiger, was brought in as consultant for the first few weeks to help chef Gilles L’Heureux reorient himself to Vancouver suppliers after six years cooking in Mexico.

Our second meal there went swimmingly well — a lovely country paté and onion soup; a delicious organic chicken pot au feu and a cassoulet, all delicious. We finished with a lemon tart.

It’s not that our first visit was disappointing. I loved the ambience, but some dishes needed improvement. L’escargots were tender, garlicky and tasty. Steak frites came with yummy frites, but the steak, although flavourful, was a little chewy; the Alsatian tart had great flavour, but the shell could have been crisper; a wild line-caught ling cod with manila clams and savoy cabbage had great flavour combinations but the fish was overcooked. The chocolate mousse needed a little more chocolate intensity. I’m hoping it was the new kitchen getting to its feet. Make note of the chalkboard menu, even if you have to leave the table, to read the specials. Wines are constantly changing with “a little bit of everything,” and mark-up is “a little less than double,” says Gagnon. (The industry norm is double the retail price.)

And coming soon is Les Faux Bourgeois’ next-door coffee bar. It’ll be a coffee bar by day and an extension of the restaurant by night for large groups. The place is extremely busy, which is a good part of its allure so book ahead to avoid cooling your heels on Kingsway. It seems to me Les Faux Bourgeois’s warming, hearty dishes arrived just in time for Gore-Tex weather.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

The singular truth is that the East Indian food was outstanding

Mark Laba
Province

SAFFRON

Where: #5-4300 Kingsway, Burnaby

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-436-5000

Drinks: Fully licensed.

Hours: Sun.-Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat., 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

– – –

Two heads are better than one. It takes two to tango. Kill two birds with one stone. Good things come in twos. There’s no end, it seems, to sayings about two. Double your pleasure, double your fun, as the old Doublemint chewing gum commercial once proclaimed. Although sometimes doubling up on anything besides your bet at the craps table can produce odd results.

Witness, for instance, the Halal meat store/video rental shop or the convenience store/aquarium fish supply joint. Or Rosie Greer and Ray Milland stuck on the same body in The Thing With Two Heads. And in the world of enterprising restaurants, the pairing of opposing food endeavours in the hopes of broadening your business and hitting a wider target audience can create some truly strange two-headed beasts. Like this establishment, which serves East Indian food through the front door and pizza going out the side entrance.

So, I was wary stepping into this tabernacle of tandoori and tomato sauce, but my fears were alleviated, first by the setting and secondly by the food. Peaches and I hoofed it into some pretty styling but still casual digs that you wouldn’t expect from a place that serves two-for-one pizza next door to the main restaurant. In all fairness, the two are separated with no trace of one or the other leaking over, although they do share the same kitchen.

But Saffron’s main dining room, with its blond wood furnishings and tasteful wall décor that doesn’t overplay the whole relocated Bombay thing, emanates an overall tranquility and the food was surprising. I’ll be back for the buffet.

First up were samosas ($4.95) and although at first I was put off by the stunted size of the two crispy doughboys, the densely packed interior of potatoes and peas cranked up with cumin seed set me straight on the flavour scale.

Peaches and I went for an old standby with the butter chicken selection ($14.95) and let me preface this with previous butter-chicken experiences where I have been compelled to ask “Where’s Clucky,” looking askance at the scarcity of poultry on the plate. Well, this entry was a whole new denizen from the coop as it seemed not only Clucky, but his entire family, had found a new place to roost, albeit now in pieces and awash in a creamy sauce. But what a butter-chicken feast, with large chunks of marinated white meat and a sauce burbling with ginger and coriander, tomato and cumin.

Also tried the lamb vindaloo ($14.95) because sheep meat is always tricky and a good indicator of how well the restaurant handles the little critters, not to mention the quality of the meat used. In this instance, the lamb was tender, not fatty, and the dish included enough pieces that you’d fall asleep well before you could count them all jumping over a fence. And the sauce carried all the complexity a good vindaloo should, with the balancing act of sweetness, vinegary tartness and a brow-wiping dose of spicing.

Finally, aloo gobi ($12.95), the potato and cauliflower wonderfully cooked and simmered to a tender veggie state without compromising their underlying toothsome nature in a sauce that I thought would be overpowering but turned out to be more nuanced than it visually insinuated.

Which is kind of the metaphor for this place. Is this two sides of the same coin, so to speak? I think not. Although the heart loses steam when the eye takes in Indian food and pizza under the same roof, sometimes it’s best not to believe what you see but believe what you taste.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A butter chicken in the hand is worth two in the bush.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Some of the dishes have slipped a bit since the original Main location opened

Mia Stainsby
Sun

CRAVE BEACHSIDE

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $$

1362 Marine Dr., West Vancouver. 604-926-3332. www.craveonmain.ca. Open for lunch and dinner daily. Weekend brunch starts in the next week or two.

Restaurant visits are conducted anonymously and interviews are done by phone. Restaurants are rated out of five stars. ([email protected])

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I’ve given a lot of ink to Wayne Martin lately. He’s the guy who dethroned himself as executive chef at the Four Seasons Vancouver a couple of years ago to open a down-to-earth bistro called Crave on Main Street.

He must have missed stress and anxiety because earlier this year he opened the high-end Fraiche and, shortly after that, Crave Beachside, both in West Vancouver. Fraiche turned out to be more than just a pretty view and the food is worth driving the long and winding road up the mountainside.

When the sun was still ablaze overhead, I had a couple of dinners at Crave Beachside (located where Beachside Restaurant operated for many years). On one of those evenings, we sat on the patio at a table next to actor Anne Heche and boyfriend James Tupper. I must say, before summer slipped away, that patio at sunset was a lovely place to be. And maybe it’ll be a winter patio, too, as there are heaters and plans to protect it from the cold and rain.

While Crave offers some great affordable food, I’ve noticed some dishes that have slipped since it first opened, at the Main Street location as well as this new one. The food isn’t as carefully tailored as it first was, but the kitchen still puts out simple, delicious dishes and prides itself on fresh, often organic, ingredients. Some of the produce has been coming from West Van’s Sunday Farmers’ Market, which operates in season in the public parking lot behind Crave.

One of the great dishes is the beef shortrib rigatoni with tomato ragout and pecorino cheese — just the right dish for cooling temperatures. The Dungeness crab cake is emphatically crabby inside with a crisp exterior; it comes with a perky apple and parmesan salad. Steak frites is the most expensive dish on the menu at $24 and features a 10-ounce New York cut; the truffle parmesan frites on the side created a war in my brain. Should I eat them all? Should I not? (I did.)

The buttermilk fried-chicken cobb salad, however, was heavy, although the tiny Anne Heche happily picked away at it. (At another table, a quartet of tiny-waisted women munched away on first courses, then moved on to ribs and burgers.)

Sundried tomato and basil meat loaf (organic meat) wasn’t as moist as I would have liked. A main dish of seared tuna niçoise salad was pristinely fresh, but I missed the chorus of a dressing.

Martin says the menu at the West Van location will deviate slightly from the one at Main Street. “I don’t want it to become a chain. The last thing I want is for them to be compared to Milestones or Earl’s,” he says.

In West Van, customers want light, healthy dishes, he says. (Although, as I said, the ribs and fried chicken were going down nicely.)

On the service end, there’s enough staff to keep things flowing smoothly and efficiently, but staff have to offer a little more of themselves and give more personality to the place. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be too happy if someone came between me and truffle parmesan frites.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008