Mia Stainsby
Sun

SPLITZ GRILL

4242 Main St., 604-875-9711. www.splitzgrill.com. Open daily 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

– – –

After 20 years, he’s come down from the mount and, like Moses, he’s brought commandments.

Trevor Jackson cooked in Whistler for 20 years (10 years at Chateau Whistler, 10 years running Splitz Grill, his burger biz). He sold the Whistler Splitz and re-established another on Main Street about five months ago with his wife, Miriam, who looks after the front of house. Before he went to the mount, Jackson worked at Four Seasons Vancouver as chef de partie at the old Chartwell restaurant.

The Main Street menu, like Splitz Whistler, is dominated by burgers, but there’s also a jumbo hot dog, a smokie and chicken fingers which appeal to kids.

The commandments are posted, outlining the directions for ordering: You pay at the cash, declare an interest in extra cheese, bacon, onions or mushrooms which cost a little more, then move on to customize your burger with some 20 topping choices. There are a couple of interesting burgers — the Saltspring lamb burger and lentil burger which they make themselves, leaving whole pieces of lentils in the vegetable mash.

Splitz’s Main Street clientele is perhaps more varied than those sporty Whistlerites. Here, there are families with toddlers in tow, tables of teens, couples, singles. Across from us, two families have joined forces and a child is squealing.

While I wouldn’t say these are gourmet burgers (although I thought the lamb burger was very good), it’s many steps above McDonald’s. The burgers range from $5.20 to $6.75; combos, with fries and a fountain drink, are a few dollars more. I don’t know if our fries were end of the batch, but they were small and roughly hewn.

Splitz is a lively, hectic environment, and if that’s OK with you, a great spot for a fast, inexpensive meal.

Jackson has plans to open more Splitz Grills, so don’t be surprised to see a few more popping up.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Fine Asian food and a high-flying visit from Winnie the Pooh

Mark Laba
Province

THIDA THAI

Where: 1193 Davie St., Vancouver; website: www.thidathairestaurant.com

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-669-3588

Drinks: Fully licensed.

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

– – –

If pigs had wings, they would fly, and if Winnie the Pooh had wings, well, he’d be flying an F-16, strafing beehives for honey. At least according to one of the crazier offshoots of character toys I’ve encountered in my lifetime. Most restaurants have some defining piece of décor in their environs and this under-sung Thai restaurant has a little shrine of toys fronting a wooden welcome sign.

Centre stage is innocent old Winnie the Pooh, tucked snugly into the cockpit of an F-16 fighter plane, that honey-eating grin painted permanently across his fat bear face. The rest of the restaurant, with its light pink walls and a large mirror for illusionary space, abounds with typical Thai-style artwork but it’s the shrine that caught my eye. And it was the food that caught my taste buds by surprise.

Paid a visit with The Law and Texas Slim for a little reconnaissance mission, gathering information for headquarters, which consisted of Peaches and Small Fry Eli watching twins and waiting for takeout. When I spotted Pooh Bear in his plane, I thought I was in for a dog-fight but all I walked away with was an excellent doggie bag. Texas Slim, being a meat-and-potatoes man, is sort of the litmus test for Asian foods and just being back from his tour of great bowling alleys of the Prairies, this man had worked up an appetite.

So we began with three appetizers just for good measure. It’s said the measure of a man is whether he double-dips his spring rolls — I believe this quote is attributed to Plato — and I kept an eye on both Tex and The Law to see if I could catch them at it. They were on the up and up but I double-dipped when they weren’t looking. The spring rolls ($5.45) by the way, were excellent. No grease factor, perfectly crisp carapace and wonderful mixed veggie and vermicelli innards.

The chicken satay ($6.95) with homemade peanut sauce was equally inspiring and the ghiaw grab ($5.45), which means grab as many of these crunchy ground chicken filled wontons as you can while you distract your dining companions with a sock puppet you keep in your back pocket just for these occasions, were delicious, especially with the sweet-and-sour dipping sauce.

We moved on to both a yellow curry with beef and a panang curry with poultry (both $8.95). The yellow curry was much creamier than many I’ve tried, a true coconut-milk lullaby. The panang curry offered up myriad flavours with less of a coconut-milk effect but an invigorating hit of curry paste along with underlying current of basil and lime. Bell peppers added colourful accent to this already colourful dish.

Undaunted by the parade of dishes, we dove into Swimming Rama ($10.50) and Pad Thai noodles ($8.95), both classics that lived up to their culinary pedigree, the poultry and broccoli swimming in a great peanut sauce in the first and the Pad Thai showing a deft and delicate touch with the ingredients and spicing.

Indicative of all the dishes here, from the deep-fried fish with sweet and sour chili sauce to the multitude of stir-fries, you’re guaranteed to bump into a few menu items you may not have encountered before. And should you feel as you bend to the trough a pair of eyes burning into the back of your neck never fear, it’s just a Pooh Bear setting his sights on the long flight back from Bangkok.

THE BOTTOM LINE: A veritable kaleidoscope of exotic flavours.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Fresh menu items and a breathtaking view

Linda Bates
Sun

The Observatory Restaurant atop Grouse Mountain must have one of the most breathtaking views in the world of dining — or, for that matter, in the world. Tables hug the large windows and, at dusk, candles flicker as the light slips away, opening up another dramatic view, this one of the glimmering lights of Vancouver below.

Lovers hold hands across the tables and visitors to the city find their eyes wandering to the windows as they eat.

But enough of waxing lyrical about the view. The food provides another kind of window on B.C.

At present, the menu emphasizes fresh, sustainable West Coast foods such as halibut, scallops, beef tenderloin and lamb — and in a month or so there will be even more dishes made from local products.

Vancouver-born chef Dino Gazzola, executive chef for all the restaurants on Grouse Mountain, will be streamlining the a la carte menu and adding a seasonal tasting menu that may vary weekly, taking advantage of fresh, seasonal B.C. products.

He says, “I want to re-establish relationships with organic farmers” and take advantage of the rich bounty of food here.

Although that new menu sounds like something to look forward to, on a recent visit we thoroughly enjoyed the current one.

We started with a salad of poached apples with farmhouse cheddar and fresh Vancouver Island oysters. The salad had a lovely light dressing, the apples were delicious and I kept scraping at the plate, hoping for one more molecule of cheese.

The oysters, too, were beautifully prepared and presented — three with a Champagne sabayon (light foam) and three with a touch of gazpacho.

Our mains of beef tenderloin and halibut were good-sized and also well presented, and the cauliflower prepared three ways that accompanied the meat dish was delightful.

However, we had some minor quibbles. The tenderloin was unevenly cooked — some of it was medium rare, as requested, and some not. The halibut was moist and flavourful but salty. (We enjoyed our dinners very much nonetheless.)

Desserts were elegant and just the right size to provide sweetness without guilt. My friend especially enjoyed the white chocolate mousse with roasted strawberries.

It’s not only dessert you don’t need to feel guilty about here — the restaurant is certified by two “green” organizations. Seafood dishes are reviewed by the Vancouver Aquarium before being granted Ocean Wise approval. And Green Table, a San Francisco-based organization, assesses all aspects of a restaurant, from food to power consumption, once a year.

In addition to its a la carte menu, the Observatory also has a prix fixe menu with flights of wine. Speaking of wine, there’s a list of fine wines so vast and varied here you wonder where they find space for the bottles.

Initially, we considered the prices ($39 for a main course) somewhat high — until we realized that Skyride fare, which is complimentary with dinner, would otherwise cost $34.95 per adult.

This makes a very attractive package for a romantic special occasion or for treating out-of-town guests. You get a day of enjoying the walks, the grizzlies and wolves, the gift shops and films — topped with a gourmet dinner in a peerless location.

Make sure you request a window table.

THE OBSERVATORY RESTAURANT

Overall: 4

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 5

Service: 4

Price: $$$

The peak of Grouse Mountain (access via Skyride)

604-998-5045

www.grousemountain.com/Summer/dining/the-observatory/ Open 5 to 10 p.m. daily

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

Restaurants are rated out of five stars.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Superb sauces and splendid spicing keep the palate guessing

Mark Laba
Province

Café Mumbai

Where: 2893 W. Broadway, Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-737-2500

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m. every day

You can take the curry out of Surrey but you can’t take the Surrey out of the curry. As home to one of Vancouver‘s largest Indo-Canadian communities, it is no mystery that if it’s Indian food you crave, this is the suburban city to hit.

So when one of my favourite restaurants made the pilgrimage from the Scott Road strip of East Indian eateries to the increasingly well-heeled heart of Kitsilano (and some of those heels are stilettos, to boot, as the daughters of baby boomers discover Sex and the City values), I was hoping to find the recipes and the cooking unchanged.

It turns out that the owners of Mahek, the Surrey restaurant in question, actually sold their original place and hence the name change in Kits to Café Mumbai. Brothers Jaspal and Amarjeet Saini had great success with their original venture and I was hoping this new establishment would follow suit.

Peaches and I stepped into a spiffy room of subdued hues, turmeric-tinged walls softened by dimmed lighting and highlighted in spots by splashes of reflecting brass knickknacks, pale wood furnishings offset by darker gold tones and an unusual silvery metal backdrop, like the panel off a spaceship, behind the dark wood bar.

Menu-wise, there are a few new entries to the lineup, but it was the old standbys that Peaches and I sought out first. The butter chicken ($12.95) here has a sauce so texturally luxurious I’d offer it in a spa as a rejuvenating bath. On the tastebud level, this is a spicier butter chicken than most I’ve slobbered over, which is fine by me, because I think all poultry needs a bit of a kick in the pants if it’s going to make it out of the coop and onto a plate.

We also sampled the lamb vindaloo ($12.95), the sauce the deep dark red of a Goan sunset and just about as fiery. Intricate spicing, but I found some of the lamb to be a bit fatty. The palak paneer was a savoury mire of spinach, cubes of homemade cottage cheese rising from the pond of greenery and the aloo gobi (both $10.95) was a well-built cauliflower and potato creation, cooked tender to the tooth but not mushy.

I also like the samosas here with their plump bullfrog-like bodies, great with the tamarind dipping sauce. Some new menu items to take a poke at all revolve around poultry and I recommend the mint or the coconut chicken curry. Otherwise you’re looking at all the typical fare on an East Indian menu but here the sauces are cooked with care, the spicing is complex enough to keep the palate guessing and the heat level is not enough to make you whimper but will make your peepers water. Which, if your vision is going to be blurry, better here in a chair than crossing the Pattullo Bridge in the suicide lane.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Exotic without being quixotic.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Hats Off to Burnaby neighbourhood as road traffic makes way for pedestrians

Katya Holloway
Sun

Each day, hundreds of vehicles stream past Vita Bella Ristorante on Hastings Street in Burnaby.

Students peer aimlessly out of bus windows, text books spread across their laps. Businessmen chat on Bluetooth behind the wheel of their BMWs en route to Vancouver from Port Moody.

This restaurant is simply a blip in their already chaotic commutes. Few people take the time to walk through this stretch of north Burnaby.

But this will all change on Saturday, when tens of thousands of pedestrians flood the streets from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. for Hats Off Day.

One day a year, this stretch of Hastings between Boundary and Gamma is closed to four-wheeled traffic, giving the community a chance to see what businesses in the area have to offer.

Festivities include a parade at 9 a.m., a vintage car show in the 4500 block of Hastings, live music and street performers, a reptile petting zoo and food stalls lining the street.

Staff from Vita Bella will be setting up an outdoor table, selling sausages, prawns, meatballs, lamb chops, gelato and sorbetto.

“This is an area where we don’t get a lot of foot traffic, so this is a big day of the year for us,” explains general manager/owner Valerie Moschetti.

Being a resident of north Burnaby, I too am one of these hectic commuters who has passed by Vita Bella hundreds of times, eyeing its stylish facade, but not really taking it in. Recently, my husband Nigel and I decided to park the car and have a meal.

For a Wednesday evening, the place was bustling. Many of the diners appeared to be locals or regulars. Olive-coloured walls, a full bar, big windows and low lighting create a sophisticated atmosphere .

Vita Bella is all about “casual fine dining,” says chef/owner Leo Moschetti, who was born and trained in Bari, Italy. He moved to Canada in 1982 and has cooked at the Lonsdale Quay Hotel, taught at the Pacific Institute of the Culinary Arts, and has been a part owner of Amici Restaurant. Here, Moschetti’s inventive menu combines traditional southern Italian food with West Coast ingredients.

We started out with the Vita Bella salad, a warm salad with grilled romaine lettuce, marinated peppers, artichokes, fennel, onions and mushrooms with a goat cheese, red wine vinaigrette.

Nigel’s fork conquered the plate as we battled for bites to the finish. The salad had lots of bold flavours, and I liked how even the lettuce was grilled. It was a little heavy on olive oil for my liking but Nigel declared it “one of the best salads I’ve had.”

The portobello mushroom stuffed with Dungeness crab meat and cream cheese was very tasty, although the best part of this starter was its tangy bed of lemon-marinated sea asparagus.

A highlight dish for us was the smoked duck affettato appetizer. The duck was lean and lightly smoked with a delicious side of orange cranberry compote, adding a pleasing tang.

Nigel was delighted with the roasted half-rack of lamb, which came with a reduced wine sauce of muscat raisins and pine nuts, giving the meat a touch of sweetness and texture. It was served with grilled asparagus, peppers, eggplant and baby potatoes. The pistachio-crusted halibut with a creamy pesto sauce was light and succulent, served with a side of risotto and grilled vegetables.

However, the gnocchi alla contadina was a disappointment. They were filled with artichokes, young spinach and Roma tomatoes, but I found the sauce too bland.

Of course, no Italian meal is complete without a homemade tiramisu, and this one should certainly not be missed. Moschetti’s recipe has a “secret mixture” of espresso and liqueurs layered between biscuits and mascarpone. The restaurant also offers cheesecake, sorbetto and gelato, specialty coffees and liqueurs, not to mention a fully stocked bar with a great selection of Italian, B.C. and other worldly wines.

This place is worth parking the car for an hour or two. And why not take a stroll down Hastings to discover everything else this area has to offer?

– For more info on Hats Off Day, visit www.hatsoffday.com.

– VITA BELLA RISTORANTE

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3

Service: 4 1/2

Price: $$

4544 Hastings St., Burnaby, 604-298-4464

www.vitabellaristorante.ca

Open Wednesday to Thursday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday: 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Sunday and Monday: 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., closed Tuesdays.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

With a menu like this, it’s no wonder this Surrey restaurant has been open for over three decades

Alfie Lau
Sun

For more than 31 years, Maurice and Mercedes Aguilar have been bringing their brand of Spanish cooking to Surrey

It’s hard to miss La Masia Restaurant and Tapas Bar on Fraser Highway as it meets 64th Avenue. Set on a hill, you can’t help but marvel at the fabulous view of Mount Baker to the southeast.

The couple took over the restaurant — a former steak and seafood house — and named it after the Catalan word for estate, ranch or country house.

Enter the bottom floor and you’re in a tapas bar with more than 40 choices, but our party of three went upstairs for dinner, where the stately dining rooms wouldn’t be out of place in the hills outside of Maurice’s birthplace just north of Barcelona.

It was a quiet weekday night, so all the diners were in the front room overlooking the Fraser Valley.

We started with a hot appetizer — the baked oysters with spinach and cheese ($9.75 for three) — and a cold appetizer, the ceviche ($9).

The mix of hot and cold was both tantalizing and refreshing, as the hot oysters, followed by the shrimp and large halibut chunks, were quite representative of the tapas dining experience.

For our mains, we couldn’t resist a couple of the daily specials to go with our other choice of the filet mignon ($27) served with five tiger prawns ($10).

I went with the chicken breast served with two lamb chops and lentil soup ($27), while our female guest went with the baked filet of sole served with a side salad ($25).

“We don’t change our menu much except we have a special every night,” said Mercedes in a phone interview. “This is a menu that has worked for some time and our customers like it.”

Maurice, who now supervises all the cooking in the kitchen, is a renowned chef himself, having learned his craft in Barcelona before coming to work in Canada, where he helped open a seafood restaurant in a downtown Vancouver hotel and another restaurant adjacent to the Cambie Street Bridge.

But with the Aguilars, now fixtures in the Fraser Valley, it’s easy to see why they’ve enthralled diners for more than three decades.

The highlights were the sole –smooth as silk was our unanimous verdict — and the lamb chops, which were the definition of melting in your mouth.

The filet mignon was tender, the chicken breast juicier than usually can be expected from chicken and the prawns were a nice complement to the meal.

We couldn’t help but notice that we covered every major meat group, which was apropos because the accompanying vegetables didn’t quite meet the same standard. The deep-fried potatoes seemed out of place with such a fine selection of meats, while the carrots were a bit too soft for my liking.

Our dessert ($7) was a delectable caramel pudding nicely enhanced by peaches and vanilla ice cream.

The meal was a solid and respectable night out until the final act.

La Masia’s computerized Interac machine went on the fritz and that led to us not receiving our bill for 30 minutes. Add in another 30 minutes waiting for the server to try to get it fixed and it was a frustrating hour.

What we found distressing was the lack of effort at trying to find an alternative. After all, credit cards existed before Interac machines.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you. You should never have to wait that long,” Mercedes said during a phone interview several days after the meal. “We always work very hard to try to please the customer and when that doesn’t happen, we have to work with our staff to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Neither Mercedes, nor Maurice was working the night of our meal and if they were, the matter would have been handled differently. “We’ve been in this business for 31 years,” she said. “We believe in what we do. We try to serve the best food and we try to do our best to please the customer . . . You always have to please the customer.”

– LA MASIA RESTAURANT AND TAPAS BAR

19209 Fraser Highway, Surrey

604-574-7633

Hours: 5:30 to 10 p.m. for dinner

Monday to Thursday (until 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday)

Tapas bar open for lunch and for late-night dining

Website: www.lamasiarestaurant.com

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Borrowing money harder for buyers in tight credit market, broker says

Derrick Penner
Sun

Sales of rental apartment buildings have plummeted in the Lower Mainland this year, but not their price tags.

Commercial realtor CB Richard Ellis counted 24 transactions worth $99.9 million in the first quarter of 2008, with the dollar value falling 55 per cent compared with 54 transactions worth $220.3 million in the same quarter a year ago.

Dan Sander, recently a broker with CB Richard Ellis who has since moved to Hollyburn Properties, said buyers are having a harder time borrowing money in markets that have tightened their lending following the U.S. credit crunch.

And the rates of return that buyers can expect to earn have shrunk as apartment-property values have skyrocketed as much as 100 per cent, Sander added.

“Buyers are a little bit more reluctant to jump into those kinds of deals,” he said.

David Ho, one of Sander’s colleagues at CB Richard Ellis, added that sellers don’t want to sell at prices lower than their expectations even though buyers are reluctant to pay more.

He added that if you combine that factor with weaker investor confidence and tighter lending, “the decline in sales was inevitable.”

David Goodman, a broker with Macdonald Commercial Real Estate Ltd., said that for the first time the market is slowing while interest rates remain low.

Previous slowdowns, he added, occurred when interest rates rose to 10 or 11 per cent from eight per cent.

“When we have properties well priced, we’re getting tremendous activity,” Goodman said. “That being said, there is probably a growing gap between buyers’ expectations and vendors’ expectations.”

Sander said the summer of 2007 was probably the peak for the apartment investment market. A year ago, he said sellers might expect up to 12 competing bids.

“This year, you’re lucky to get one or two,” he added.

Sander added that commercial realtors have seen listings of apartment properties climb, but prices have yet to follow sales in decline.

“I can definitely say with a lot of comfort that the market is flat in terms of what people are achieving in terms of price,” he said.

However, Goodman said that average per-unit prices in sub-markets within the region are still buoyant. On Vancouver‘s east side, for instance, Goodman estimated an average per-unit price of $149,776 so far in 2008 compared with $127,281 during all of last year.

In Burnaby, Metro Vancouver’s hottest market in 2007, Goodman added, the average per-unit price is $135,368 so far this year compared with $125,496 during all of 2007.

Sander added that the Lower Mainland’s extremely low apartment vacancy rates and the rising gap between the cost of home ownership and the cost to rent help support current prices.

Robyn Adamache, a Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. analyst, said her forecast is for Metro Vancouver vacancy rates to hit 0.8 per cent this year, up just slightly from 0.7 per cent last year.

That includes purpose-built rentals, in the market that Sander and Goodman track, as well as among investor-owned condominiums, Adamache added.

Adamache said that the cost of home ownership has risen two-to-three-times higher than the cost of renting, which pushes up demand for rental housing, although in recent years builders have only put up about 500 units per year of purpose-built rental housing.

She added that investor-owned condominiums have provided the bulk of new rental stock. Across Metro Vancouver, 22 per cent of new condos are turned over as rentals, Adamache said. In downtown Vancouver, that number is closer to 45 per cent.

FOR SALE OR RENT

Much like real estate generally, the market for apartment blocks cooled in the first quarter of this year. But with Metro vacancy rates hovering below one per cent, investors still view apartments as a good investment.

2008 Transactions: 24

Total units: 902

Dollar value: $99.9 million

2007 Transactions: 54

Total units: 1,950

Dollar value: $220.3 million

Source: CB Richard Ellis

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Glorious food and piercing questions from R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe

Mark Laba
Province

Salsa & Agave Mexican Grill

Where: 1223 Pacific Blvd., Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-408-4228

Drinks: Soft drinks, Jarritos, horchata.

Hours: 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m. Tues.-Sun., closed Mon.

I was never popular in my school days. I was a geek, but without even the geek capabilities like computer savvy. No — I was just Dumb and Dumber Part 3.

All that changed with the arrival of our twins. Not the dumb part but the popularity. Now it seems I can’t go three steps without someone stopping me to goggle and coo over the little imps. Of course I’m not foolish enough to believe I’m the popular part of this equation but I glom onto a little of the emotional effluvia that runs off and bask in the saccharine-sweet glow that encounters with their drooling visages result in.

Twins have always had a strange allure throughout history. Jacob and Esau, Romulus and Remus, Heckle and Jeckle, the Olsen Twins. Our dynamic duo is no different.

Which leads me to this dining adventure that Peaches, the wee ones and I experienced at this somewhat new and very excellent Mexican restaurant where the twins, for a small moment, even out-celebritied a celebrity.

First, though, is this wonderful restaurant, a small affair with only three or four tables inside, a few tables out front, dark wood furniture set against yellow walls and the luminous hues of Jarritos fruit drinks in a glass display case.

The kitchen is run by Elizabeth Hernandez and Maria Rodriguez while Juan Contreras, Hernandez’s husband, manages the front room. All three are co-owners in the business. The food is built from scratch using the freshest of ingredients, the cooking is homey and authentic and the flavours will transport you to a timeless taquería by the side of a rutted dusty road, stray dogs nuzzling iguanas rendered senseless by the midday heat.

Complimentary salsa and chips are your introduction to this shindig and the homemade salsa is fantastic. A greenish-yellow hue, it appears innocent as a daffodil in June, but beneath its surface lurks a heat that builds like a tropical day shifting from morning to noon.

I tried the Carne Tampiquena ($13), a great combo plate that includes the classic Mexican thin-cut grilled top sirloin, wonderfully seasoned, plus a chicken enchilada basking in green tomatillo sauce.

Rice, beans and rajas con crema, a mix of sautéed poblano chilies, onion, corn and cream are along for the ride. Wrap this in the supplied warm tortillas and it’s like heaven and earth moving on a plate.

Peaches sampled the chicken burrito ($8) with great homemade guacamole but also check out the pork in red sauce or the sautéed shrimp versions. This place does it all, a dizzying array of food emerging from the tiny kitchen. Try the tacos from chorizo to carne asada, the sopes, the tortas, the gringa, the alambre with grilled beef, green peppers, onions, bacon, ham and tortillas or hit the chicken mole or the carne asada con chiliaquiles.

You won’t find anything over $13.

So while I juggled two babies, one in a Bjorn, the other in my arm slapping his sister’s head with great pleasure as a small crew of people walked into the place. An older woman, who still carried the punked-out look of her youth, strapped into too-tight jeans and Smokey and the Bandit-era hairdos, noticed the twins and fluttered some fingers their way. They smiled and drooled back. One shorter guy in this entourage looked our way, noticed the babies and asked, “Are they twins?”

“Yes,” I said. Peaches meanwhile hadn’t looked up from her burrito once.

“Identical?” he asked. It was then I realized I was talking to Michael Stipe of R.E.M.

“No, fraternal,” I replied. “Boy and a girl.” I was playing it cool. I might have been slightly hyperventilating but I wisely passed it off as bronchitis.

“Yes, yes of course,” he said. Then he said, “Their earlobes are very different.” It was an enigmatic observation from this equally enigmatic singer and I nodded in agreement and muttered something about the Buddha’s earlobes and ears that stick out and who the hell knows what else.

I was never cool in school but thanks to the twins I got to discuss earlobes with Michael Stipe, which perhaps is even cooler than getting the damned things pierced.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Warming the hearts and minds of those in the northern climes.

RATINGS: Food: A- Service: A Atmosphere: B

© The Vancouver Province 2008

As if 20 types of tequilas isn’t enough, restaurant will aim for dishes adapted from the traditional with local ingredients

Linda Bates
Sun

ZOCALO

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 4

Price: $$

2515 Main St., 604-677-3521

www.zocalorestaurant.ca

Open Tuesday to Sunday at 5:30 p.m.

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

– – –

Zocalo chef and owner Tanya Shklanka isn’t Mexican — you might have guessed that from her name — but she’s a passionate traveller who spent time in Mexico and says she came back to Vancouver wishing she could find a restaurant here like the ones in the cities there.

“The culture of Mexico is so diverse,” she says. “I wanted to put something together and just show people there’s so much more than burritos and pinatas.”

There are no burritos at Zocalo, but there are more than 20 types of tequila and three types of tequila’s lesser-known cousin mezcal. On monthly tequila nights patrons can sample and learn about the liquor, which in Vancouver, as Rodney Dangerfield would say, don’t get no respect. (Shklanka sometimes has to explain that quality tequila should be sipped, like scotch, not thrown back like a shooter.)

The tequila quality comes through in the margaritas, made not from a mix but with fresh organic juices.

In the food, too, Shklanka aims for fresh, local ingredients, which means that dishes are adapted from the traditional to make use of B.C. products.

Over several visits we were impressed, especially with the appetizers and desserts. The plump, juicy Saltspring Island mussels with chorizo were possibly the best mussels I’ve ever had. And the ceviche consisted of large chunks of tender white fish in a perfect balance of lime, cilantro and chiles.

The extensive appetizer menu would easily make a tapas meal for a group.

Less spectacular but still good were the mains — chicken mole poblano with Mexican rice; puerco con chile ancho (pork with chiles) and a very un-Mexican-sounding coho salmon steak.

Mole, that savoury chocolate-based sauce that always sounds weird until you’ve tried it, is made with chilies and spices and isn’t at all sweet. This dish consisted of a lean chicken breast baked in mole atop a mound of rice — a change from stew-type moles I’ve had in the past. It’s often hard to keep lean chicken moist, and here the breast was somewhat dry.

The pork dish was like a stew, tender and flavourful and served with tortillas for dipping.

Anytime Shklanka wants to move into my house and cook desserts all day long, she’s welcome. I’ll weigh 400 pounds but be happy. The coconut flan, pastel tres leches (a traditional Mexican cake topped with Mexican chocolate) and helado (homemade ice cream), were delicious.

Zocalo has live music, too, and in keeping with the theme of breaking through the stereotypes, there are no mariachi bands, but rather (on various nights) a DJ spinning Latin alternative, a Colombian singer and guitarist, a Mexican jazz ensemble and, on Fridays, a Guatemalan salsa band. For the latter she got a special licence from the city so patrons would be free to get up and dance — which, she assures me, they do.

This restaurant provides a sophisticated but warm atmosphere and and excellent value. Our meal of two margaritas, two glasses of wine and two appetizers, mains and desserts came to just $90, including tax.

Hasta luego (until next time), Zocalo.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

I did miss the belly dancing It would have added spice to an interesting evening

Mark Laba
Province

Kayan

Where: 202-777 W. Broadway

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-874-2777 or 604-874-3777

Drinks: Fully licensed

Hours: 11 a.m.–midnight every day

W hat do chickpeas and belly dancing have in common? Nothing really, but for me, the two are indelibly etched in my memory from my old Toronto days. My friend Arthur and I would visit a particular Middle Eastern restaurant for takeout and then linger in the foyer clutching our falafel and watching the belly dancing. So garbanzo beans and gyrating are linked in my synapses like the Clapper light switch is linked to the slap of hands. Goes on in a flash.

Thus when another Toronto friend, The Poet, came to town, I decided this was a good time to rediscover the chickpea-infused days of my youth because newly opened and beckoning like a belly dancer from the 1001 Nights was this Mediterranean restaurant with live music and dancing Friday and Saturday nights. The focus of the food is really Middle Eastern with a strong leaning toward Lebanese and the meat here is both halal and kosher, so both Islamic and Jewish dietary laws are covered.

The Poet is vegetarian whereas Peaches and I are carnivores and we would just about suck the cartilage out of a camel hump if we were hungry enough. But that’s the beauty of Lebanese cuisine — there’s a sufficient variety of dishes to satisfy both factions.

Stepping into this place, which occupies the old Tojo’s space, is like walking into a scene from the Arabian Nights.

Crimson walls the colour of ripe pomegranate, exotic and ornate fabrics, artwork and statuary, plus a spectacular view of the city at one end of the room while the other end houses a private dining area that resembles a sultan’s tent.

We began our Middle Eastern odyssey with hummus, foul moudammas and moutabal bathenjan (all $6.25). The hummus had an especially tart finish, as if it had been hit by a lemon thunderbolt and the moutabal bathenjan, which consisted of roasted eggplant zapped with pomegranate, lemon juice and garlic had a much chunkier consistency than other versions I’ve tasted. The Poet enjoyed this fleshy eggplant mix immensely whereas I prefer a more pulverized variety. When I want flesh I turn to meat instead of veggies. The foul moudammas, essentially fava beans with lemon juice, garlic and olive oil could’ve used a Hannibal Lecter makeover with a nice Chianti and a piece of liver but was still tasty.

Next up was a good shankleesh ($7.50), the famed Lebanese cheese finished with oregano, spices, tomato, green onion and feta. Even better was the fatayer ($7.50), a baked triangular pastry shell stuffed with spinach, nuts, onion and flavoured with lemon juice and sumac. There’s also a feta cheese and black sesame seed species just as tasty with nice flaky pastry and aromatic innards.

Onward we chomped with the falafel plate ($6.25) and the general consensus was just OK. The Poet thought the chickpea balls too pasty while Peaches and I found them as arid as a desert highway. Go figure. But the kibbie ($7.50), a classic Lebanese dish of meat within meat, the close proximity of which made The Poet a little dizzy, was excellent. Ground sirloin, cracked wheat, onion and cinnamon are shaped into ovals, stuffed with beef and pine nuts and spices and then baked.

Peaches and I capped our meat frenzy with sojok, a spicy Lebanese sausage ($7.50) that I found a little dry and the jawaneh ($9), Lebanese chicken wings marinated in garlic and allspice and then baked. Very spicy but I would’ve liked them crispier. As for recapturing the days of my youth I certainly had my fill of chickpeas but we missed the belly dancing that evening and so it remains a mirage in my memory.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Peace in the Middle East via this exotic feast.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008