Mia Stainsby
Sun

When you’re a professional Hoover (a restaurant critic) and one that lives in present tense more than in past (has a bad memory), then an occasional salute to delicious dishes eaten seems like the decent thing to do. Otherwise, all the talent, the care, the skill involved in preparing these fine dishes disappear into my river of forgetfulness. So many of my good food memories simply drown. I stick my head into the water and I see a tumbling blur and a few amazing dishes might bonk my memory.

Cooking, unlike other creative endeavours, comes to an unfortunate end. People eat what chefs create; they chew up their art; they digest it and well, you know the rest. There is no displaying of it in living rooms, let alone galleries; there is no listening to it, enraptured, over and over; there is no post-mortem discussion afterwards, like after viewing a Cohen brothers or Spike Lee or Godard movie. It is ephemeral, like theatre, but at least at a play the audience pays attention and it knows.

And with the open kitchens of today, chefs have to make nice even if customers are being ungrateful philistines. No more apoplectic yelling at their staff in displacement behaviour; no more making the line cooks cry; no more throwing pots at them like their mentors used to do to them.

Fulfilment for chefs is more of a metaphysical matter. It comes in knowing that people love their food and there’s pleasure in purely, simply feeding others. Anthony Bourdain might have broad-penned chefs into irresponsible, out-of-control, backroom fiends, but it so happens that the restaurant community, led by the chef, does more charity events than most, giving time, food or portions of their sales (the annual Dine Out Vancouver, Dine Out For Life) to causes. And besides, with all the open kitchens, even the bad boys and girls had to learn to behave better.

I decided it was time to showcase some of the memorable dishes I’ve had recently. The dishes that bobbed to the surface of my consciousness are telltale signs that I must have been in need of comfort and that the weather was still a bit chilly as my choices tended to be simple comfort dishes cooked exceptionally well (except for the Oysters with Horseradish Snow dish I had at Gastropod). Nevertheless, I think there’s something eternally satisfying about comfort dishes like Pied-a-Terre’s Onion Tart, Raincity Grill’s Tagliatelli with Onion Fondue and Mushroom Ragout, and Chambar’s Braised Lamb Shank with Honey and Figs that are memorable and leave their calling card. They’re my kind of soul food.

– – –

CHAMBAR’S BRAISED LAMB SHANK WITH HONEY, FIGS, CINNAMON

(Tajine D’aziz a L’agneau)

I can’t NOT have this when I visit Chambar, it’s so delicious. It’s best served with the classic couscous but it would go well with rice or fettucine noodles, too. Chef/owner Nico Shuermans say this is an all-seasons dish. “It’s really nice on hot days, too. It’s a dish from Morocco, right?” He prefers New Zealand lamb to Canadian for this dish because the shanks are generally smaller.

4 x 1 pound lamb shanks

2 onions finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

5 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch of saffron

2 cinnamon sticks

2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger

3 tablespoons coriander seed

Salt, pepper

Water

1 bunch fresh cilantro

1 cup whole dried figs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Sear lamb shank to golden brown colour with olive oil and salt in saucepan. Place in deep roasting pan JUST large enough for 4 shanks. Add all ingredients around the shanks except for the cilantro and figs, fill pan with water to cover meat. Cover with lid or tinfoil. Roast for 4 hours.

Add figs, and fresh cilantro and let sit for 1 1/2 hours. Reheat before serving. let spices infuse.

Makes 4 servings.

PIED-A-TERRE’S ALSATIAN ONION PIE

Alsatian onion pie (or tart) is an ideal comfort food. The version at Le Crocodile in Vancouver is well known, but I recently found another at a more everyday kind of bistro, Pied-a-terre. Owner/chef Andrey Durbach says it’s something he can eat again and again when having lunch there (one of his three properties). “It’s comforting, familiar and most importantly, delicious. It’s one of those old classics that I never seem to lose my appetite for.”

Pate Brisée

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, cold

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon cold water

Onion Filling

10 yellow onions, thinly sliced

1 cup butter, melted

4 egg yolks, beaten

2 tablespoons cornstarch

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme

1/2 cup grated gruyere cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg

Pate Brisée: Place flour and salt in a mixing bowl and make a well. Cut butter into small pieces and put in well. Mix with fingers until a crumbly dough is formed. Add egg and water and knead until a ball is formed. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least two hours or overnight. Roll out pastry on a floured surface to 1/8-inch thickness. Place in an 8 x 1.5-inch tart pan with removable bottom and prick dough with a fork. Blind bake pastry with pastry weights or beans for 15 minutes at 350 F.

Onion filling: Cook onions in butter gently over medium heat for 45 minutes in an 8-litre saucepan with a solid bottom. Drain cooked onions in a colander to remove excess moisture. Transfer to a mixing bowl and mix with all other ingredients. Pour into blind-baked pastry shell. Return to oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until set firm and lightly browned. Leave for about an hour before cutting.

Makes 10 appetizers or 6 main courses.

GASTROPOD: OYSTERS WITH HORSERADISH SNOW

This is a standout dish at Gastropod. It requires timing and prep work. Use the freshest oysters possible, from a place like Lobster Man on Granville Island. For the “horseradish snow” chef/owner Angus An uses an inexpensive Tiger Brand ice shaver he purchased at Fujiya Japanese store on Clark Dr. I was told they won’t have any until summer so An suggested freezing the horseradish snow in a bowl, then “shaving” bits off the top with a spoon.

Horseradish snow:

2 cups milk

1/4 to 1/2 cup grated horseradish root, grated on microplane

1/4 cup yogurt

1 teaspoon salt, divided

1 tablespoon sugar

Juice of 1 medium lime

Shallot reduction:

5 shallots

1 cup rice vinegar

Sauternes jelly:

1 cup sauternes

2 1/2 — gelatin sheets (measuring 2″ x 4″)

2 dozen fresh, medium-sized Pacific oysters, like Golden Mantles

Horseradish snow: The ‘snow’ needs to be made a day ahead to freeze properly. In a saucepan, bring the milk to a low simmer. Remove the milk from the heat and grate the horseradish root into the milk, depending on the strength you desire,grate about 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of grated horseradish into the milk. Bring the milk back to a simmer and turn off the heat to infuse the flavour. After about 30 minutes, the milk should be cooled. Stir in the yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar and the lime juice. The milk should taste subtley sweet with a hint of lime and the taste of horseradish should be prominent but not overpowering. Put into the container provided by the ice shaver and freeze over night. Or, if you don’t have an ice shaver, freeze in a bowl.

Shallot reduction: Finely mince the shallots and place in small saucepan. Cover with the rice vinegar and bring to a low simmer on the stove and then turn it down to the lowest possible setting. The slower the shallots cook, the better the finished product. It should take about 40 to 60 minutes. Cook until the shallots have absorbed the vinegar. When you tilt the pan, it shouldn’t have any residual vinegar left. Near the end, stir in 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cool in the fridge.

Sauternes jelly: This needs to be made 2 hours before serving. Use a good quality sauternes. Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water until soft. In a pot bring sauternes to low simmer and whisk in the softened gelatin. Do not boil and make sure there are no gelatin lumps; strain if there are. Cool in the fridge until set. When ready, the jelly should be soft and look slurpable.

Oysters: When guests arrive, shuck the oysters and set them on crushed ice or coarse sea salt. When shucking oysters remember to use a proper oyster shucker and a dry towel to hold the oysters in place. Wrap the dry towel around the oyster with the flat end facing up. Insert the tip of the oyster knife through the back of the oyster, there should be a tiny hole where the two shells meet. Apply pressure without being too aggressive, otherwise you could break the shell or cut your hand. Once the knife penetrates the shells, move along the top shell until you cut the muscle that connects the two. Inspect the oyster, make sure it isn’t foul smelling and is free of broken shells and sand. On each oyster place 1/2 teaspoon of shallot reduction and 1 teaspoon of the sauternes jelly. With the ice shaver, shave the horseradish snow onto a bowl before your guests arrive. If you’ve frozen it in a bowl, shave the surface with a spoon. Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of snow on each oyster.

Makes 4 to 6 appetizer servings.

RAINCITY GRILL’S MUSHROOM TAGLIATELLI WITH ONION FONDUE

Patience. The results will be worth the time and effort. I loved the mix of the mushrooms, gorgeous onion fondue in a carbonara-like sauce in this dish. Use fresh mushrooms like oyster, chanterelle, shiitake, namenko, shimiji. Raincity Grill chef Peter Robertson says he’ll probably vary this dish by adding asparagus and broad beans as they come in season.

Handmade pasta:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

9 egg yolks

Salt

3 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons olive oil

Mix together in a food processor to form loose, dry dough. Bring it together by hand until reasonably tight and knead for about 5 minutes. Let rest for a minimum of 1 hour and ideally, 2 hours. Cut into about three pieces then put through pasta machine starting at the widest setting and progressing to ever-finer settings. Roll through the second-finest setting (No. 2) twice and cut into tagliatelle noodles on the machine or by hand. Hang the pasta on a wooden pole or stick to dry, from 40 minutes to overnight, until completely dry.

Onion Fondue:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 large yellow onions, finely sliced

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves

In a large saute pan, 40 cm. across, melt the butter on a low heat then add the onions and salt, mixing to ensure the butter coats the onions.

Continue to cook the onions on a low temperature for between 21/2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally making sure the onions do not take on any colour. This long cooking process brings out the natural sweetness of the onions. To finish add the vinegar, thyme and adjust the seasoning. Reserve.

Note: You will have more onion fondue than required for the pasta, however it is a great condiment to have on hand.

Mushroom ragout:

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

5 cups mixed mushrooms (cleaned, trimmed, cut)

2 tablespoons chardonnay

2 tablespoons veal demi glaze (available at Stock Market, Granville Island)

2 teaspoons thyme leaves

Salt to taste

In a large pan, melt the butter on medium heat and take to beurre noisette (nut brown). Add the mushrooms and cook out for 5 minutes. Deglaze with chardonnay then add the demi glaze. Cook out on a medium heat until the liquid has reduced and coats the mushrooms like a glaze. Add thyme, adjust seasoning and reserve.

The assembled dish:

Dried tagliatelli

2 teaspoons chopped fresh chives

2 teaspoons chopped parsley

2 teaspoons chopped chervil

2 tablespoons butter

1 cup parmesan, finely grated on micro-plane grater

3 egg yolks, beaten

Salt flakes to taste

In a pan of salted, simmering water (about 2 per cent salt content) cook the hand-made pasta for about 4 minutes.

Remove from water and transfer to a metal mixing bowl, add herbs, butter, cheese, egg yolks. Season each element with salt flakes as you go. Divide mushrooms and onions and place on 4 large bowels next to each other. Using the tines of a carving fork, twirl pasta into a cylinder beside the mushrooms and onions. Finish with some grated parmesan over the pasta.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Feel-good atmosphere at the right price

Mia Stainsby
Sun

The breadbasket is a foreshadowing device. If we empty it, it’s a sign of good food to come.

At Fraiche, we gobbled up the bread in no time. Not surprising when you consider the man in the kitchen. Chef and co-owner Wayne Martin also runs Crave, the great-value Canadian bistro on Main Street. Before that, however, he was the big cheese at Four Seasons in Vancouver and at other locations; one does not lead Four Seasons kitchens without being in alpha league of cooks.

Fraiche sits like a crow’s nest on the slopes of upper West Vancouver with a sweeping view of water and city. (Actually, that should be cities, plural, because on a clear day, you can see out to Richmond.) I’m happy that this is more than a place to force march out-of-town guests to gloat about our beautiful city. Just don’t miss out on the food experience. Gloat about it, too.

Co-owner/general manager Mary Ann Masney runs the front with ease and expertise. She’s done the same at Araxi, Bacchus, and Quail’s Gate Winery restaurant. The idea was to offer the community above the Upper Levels a neighbourhood restaurant. To get there, you ascend the mountain, past palaces occupying far too large a carbon footprint than any household deserves and you come upon Fraiche in modern envelope of glass, wood and views. Once inside, you behold a dramatic 400-pound dogfish sculpture by Robert Davidson. Masney is the welcoming committee; she does the rounds, chats and all of a sudden, it’s a feel-good room.

Fraiche is everything the former restaurant, Bread and Tulip, was not. Starters are $8 to $18 (the latter for Quebec foie gras) and mains are $18 to $40 (the latter for butter-poached lobster). The lounge menu will be up and running, offering favourites from Crave that people have asked for — burgers, cobb salad, tuna nicoise — and they can be ordered in the dining room, too.

The food didn’t disappoint. When I first opened the menu, I spied “truffle” on a couple of items and my heart raced. For starters, roasted celery root soup with fine shavings of black Perigord truffle was perhaps a little too thick but quite luscious. Roasted beet root salad was fresh and tasty. Crabcakes were light, full of crab and sat in a wading pool of seafood chowder. Organic chicken noodle soup featured flavourful chicken.

I had the most tender, buttery duck I’ve ever come across and it wasn’t just the magnificence of the duck meat. After rendering it down, stove-top, Martin roasts it in a very slow oven. He cuts it thick but that’s no hindrance to knife or teeth. Arctic char had a golden crust but inside, it was cooked just to the edge of doneness; it was served with bacon and brie ravioli and caramelized onions. Lemon and herb marinated lamb rack proved to be a gorgeous piece of meat and a fresh-made pappardelle with roasted mushrooms and artichokes was light and earthy.

The pastry chef, 24-year-old Amanda Cheng is one to watch. Dessert offerings are limited but I can see she’s very skilled. Her passion fruit chocolate bombe is on a par with a Thomas Haas creation. Did I really say that? Yes. And I’ll stick by it. On our second visit, we didn’t share as we customarily do. We each ordered one and were glad we did.

The “chocolate bar” was like an ingot of chocolate enrobed with ganache as shiny as patent shoes. My lemon tart was luscious, a perfect balance of sweet and sour.

One server was like a Jim Belushi stand-in, with a great sense of comic timing. “Well, in that case, do you want a bottle?” he asked my husband when I declined wine. “You have a designated driver.”

The wine list is limited by space but Masney, who’s the wine director, has been cherry-picking the some favourites from California and France with pepperings of Australia, New Zealand and B.C.

This is one view restaurant where a windowful of water and mountains aren’t the only payoff. It’s worth the trip, even when the view is nothing but grey clouds.

– – –

FRAICHE

Overall: 4

Food: 4

Ambience: 4

Service: 4

2240 Chippendale Rd., West Vancouver. 604-925-7595. www.fraicherestaurant.ca. Open for dinner only. To offer lunch and brunch at later date.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Sharing dishes is best

Michelle Hopkins
Sun

Mahek Restaurant & Lounge, on the border of Surrey and Delta, is a restaurant for those who love East Indian cuisine.

We went early on a Sunday evening and the restaurant was half full. By the time we ordered appetizers, the place was filled to the brim, with lively chatter all around us and a line-up at the door.

The polish behind Mahek is obvious in every detail. The décor is a testament to owner Harvey Sanghera’s good taste. The walls are adorned with carved Indian wood-work and a cascading water feature with a lit Mahek sign takes centre stage at the bar. You’ll also noticed this delicate fragrance in the air; it’s infused with a hint of coriander, nutmeg, saffron and other spices you might not recognize.

Servers are friendly and know the menu well. Let them help you select the meal and you won’t be disappointed.

The wine list isn’t long list but you’ll probably find a red or white to suit your palate.

If you favour naan bread, you’ll love the variety here. The breads are fluffy, melt in your mouth and are served with your choice of homemade (secret family recipe) sauces. We opted for the mint chutney and the ‘Papdam‘, which is a red chutney and had to order more; they are refreshingly tangy and, frankly, addictive.

One of the best ways to enjoy Indian cuisine is to order a variety of dishes to share. And that’s just what we did.

The Chicken Tikal Masala ($10.95) is a signature dish, with a surprising onion, tomato gravy. We also ordered the Dhai Balla, ground lentil balls deep fried, dipped in yogurt and served with (yes, more) chutney. ($5.95); prawns Vindallo, in a tangy curry sauce with rare spices (Harvey says it’s a famous fiery Goan specialty and I agree, it’s hot, yet delicious, for $11.95); and finally a few vegetarian selections, the Dal Makahni, lentils cooked with onions and tomatoes ($8.95).

The food is wonderfully flavourful.

The portions are generous, the menu varied and lengthy, and we came home with enough leftovers for two.

Sanghera grew up in England, home to some of the best Indian food.

When he immigrated to Canada a little less than two years ago, he and his wife/chef Tara Sanghera went on the lookout for an Indian restaurant for sale — it was to be his wedding present to Tara.

The couple had dined at Mahek Restaurant & Lounge a few times and were impressed with the food. They approached the owner and seven months later it was theirs.

The Sangheras updated the lighting — it’s soft and creates a warm, cosy ambience — the décor and the menu.

“It already had a very good reputation and we just wanted to put our own stamp on it,” says Sanghera. “Tara is an excellent cook and back home she was constantly asked to cook for family and guests.”

Tara and two seasoned chefs make up the kitchen team.

The prices at Mahek are surprisingly reasonable. The restaurant’s semi-upscale décor suggests a much higher priced menu.

Mahek Restaurant & Lounge is a classy restaurant to eat some well prepared Indian food. One feels an atmosphere of well-being here.

Mahek seats 122 inside. To avoid disappointed, reservations are recommended on the weekends. Phone 604-585-3331 or visit www.mahek.ca.

– – –

MAHEK RESTAURANT & LOUNGE

9470 — 120th St., Surrey

Reservations recommended

604-585-3331

Open: Mon-Thurs 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. To 10:30 p.m., Saturday noon to 10:30 p.m., Sunday noon to 10 p.m.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Chef Andrea Potter gave up fine dining to work at an inexpensive vegan restaurant

Mia Stainsby
Sun

“I was finished with egos in kitchens of fine dining,” Andrea Potter says, explaining why she gave up swank for simplicity and health.

She’s the chef at Radha Yoga and Eatery, an alternative, second-floor vegan restaurant. It’s only open only three evenings a week, from Thursday to Saturday, and it’s a stark contrast to her job in Belfast, Ireland making pastries in a restaurant that until recently, had a Michelin star, meaning it was pretty fabulous.

She moved to Vancouver two years ago and worked as entremetier (preparing veggies) at Feenie’s for about five months before she moved over to Radha. “Fine dining wasn’t jiving with my personal philosophy on food,” she says. At Radha, she shows that vegan food can be interesting. I wasn’t enthralled with all of the dishes but overall, the food is delicious enough to draw me back. Her customers, she says, are omnivores, not just vegans.

She puts huge effort into wringing nutrition out of ingredients. Example: the mushroom and almond ‘ricotta’ napoleon, a layering of crimini mushroom duxelle (a mushroom paste of shallots, herbs) and Fraser Valley almond ‘ricotta’ between sheets of crisp, whole wheat phyllo. For the almond ricotta, she soaks the nuts to activate enzymes (like sprouted seeds) and grinds it into a paste with miso, lemon juice, herbs and sea salt. Fermented ingredients, like the miso, is a running theme in her dishes for its health benefits. It’s a delicious dish befitting of a high-end restaurant.

Some items on the menu are holdovers from Radha’s earlier days when it just served lunch. Regulars didn’t want to part with them. Potter calls them Classics on the menu — the nori roll with raw sunflower and hempseed paté with sprouts, avocado and julienned veggies wrapped in nori; masala yam wedges; a grain bowl with veggies, sprouts, hempseed over brown rice and a choice of sauce; quinoa nut burger, a mile-high burger that comes loaded.

Potter introducing new dishes every month. In February, I had a lovely beet and orange salad and a raw food pizza made with a cashew nut crust; my husband liked his potato blini with eggplant caviar and a polenta lasagne. For dessert, a yummy vanilla almond panna cotta with a strawberry balsamic compote.

She buys as much organic as she can and manages to keep prices very reasonable ($7 for appetizers and $13 for mains). When I visited this month, a couple of dishes didn’t work for me. The roasted garlic cannellini bean ragout with scalloped potatoes and squash gratin was too stodgey and the nori roll was too mushy for my liking. The quinoa burger was big and bodacious but I wasn’t too keen about the raw chocolate banana cream pie with coconut date crust, though — it was too dense for me, but my husband liked it fine.

And guess what? There’s a wine list offering really reasonably priced wines. But I went straight for the kombucha tea, which is fermented with a kombucha colony of yeast cultures. It’s supposed to be very cleansing and besides, believe it or not, Potter makes up a wickedly delicious, light and sassy brew.

– – –

RADHA YOGA AND EATERY

728 Main St., 604-605-0011.

www.radhavancouver.org.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Diners swamped Zen after it was publicized that it had been named the ‘world’s greatest Chinese restaurant outside China’

Mia Stainsby
Sun

One moment, Sam Lau is watching his restaurant in a freefall. He’d let most of his staff go, leaving himself, his wife, a dishwasher and too few customers.

In the next moment, his phone line is jammed with people clamouring for reservations. CBC’s As It Happens and other media want to interview him. His life and restaurant went into a 180-degree tailspin after a story ran in the Vancouver Sun — it referred to a passage in a just-released book by Jennifer 8. Lee, a New York Times reporter, who called Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine in Richmond (his restaurant) “the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant outside of China.”

In particular, Lee, in The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food, referred to a $36 seven-course tasting menu. Well, you can imagine the ensuing stampede to phones.

It had been four years since I visited Zen. I’d given it a solid two thumbs up back then and ooh-ed and ahh-ed over some of the dishes. It was time to revisit.

Zen is definitely unique for a Chinese restaurant. It offers multi-coursed tasting menus with imaginative dishes and styled individual servings. (Wild Rice is another such restaurant in Vancouver, but its uber-hip feel doesn’t translate as Chinese.)

In his Richmond kitchen, Lau has the $500 El Bulli Cookbook, the bible of molecular gastronomic cooking from what some consider is the world’s best restaurant. He’s incorporated some El Bulli cooking magic into his dishes.

When I visited — the day my story ran — the restaurant was slammed. Choices of menus included the $36 bargain menu (now called The Vancouver Sun Special) and four others, topping off at $95. As I’d reported four years earlier, there’s a tedious pre-ordering process so Lau can shop and prepare for each evening. He’ll go through the menus verbally so you can decide which your party wants to order. And then there’s the other annoyance — each table grouping has to order the same menu and that’s because Lau is the only one in the kitchen. If I were Gordon Ramsay, I’d turn apoplectic and explode into furious and frustrated pieces.

But Lau is trying to change things as fast as he can, thanks in large part, to some volunteers who arrived at Lau’s door, eager to help this struggling chef. Valerie Ann-Owen walked in the day after the story ran, offering her considerable skills as a restaurateur and she’s been playing a managerial role as well as hostess; Bud Li-Lam showed up, offering his computer and Web skills, offering to set up an absolutely necessary website. Another fellow with a background in wines wants to help with strengthening the menu and marketing. Consequently, Lau will have a website running soon (it’ll be www.zencuisine.ca) and once Lau has some help in the kitchen, the group pre-ordering system will be relaxed. “Vancouver is proud and they’re flood the lines with support,” Ann-Owen says.

On my visit, I had to forgive the slow service as Lau was overwhelmed and unprepared for the onslaught. We had pre-ordered a $49 eight-course menu. On it: stuffed whelk with curried seafood (served on a whelk shell); double-boiled coconut soup (served in a coconut bowl which infuses flavour); steamed lobster (surprisingly, a half lobster with lots of meat); foie gras over fruit topped with a sweet foam; chicken which tasted like Hainanese chicken but Lau says is “his own style”; barbecued pork cheeks “with secret ingredient — plum sauce”; geoduck with scrambled eggs (sounds iffy if not icky but I’ve never tasted better scrambled eggs); and a black sesame custard.

Lau is doing wonderful work, quite amazing considering he’s on his own in the kitchen and he is an artist (and obviously weak on the business aspect) and he’s passionate. The geoduck scrambled eggs, for instance, was almost like a warm mousse. He achieves the bouffant eggs with chopstick action and by cooking it in warm (not hot) oil. Yet, there’s no trace of oil. But I would hesitate to say Zen is the greatest Chinese restaurant outside of China. Locally, restaurants like Sun Sui Wah, Kirin restaurants, Shanghai River and Shiang Garden are putting out some amazing food, although in heap-big servings.

I exchanged e-mails with author Lee. “Ah,” she responded when asked if she really thought Zen was the ‘best’ outside China. “The subtlety is that it is the ‘greatest’ — which is different from ‘best’. There is a little more sleight of hand in the definition of ‘greatest’. And I make a semi-rigorous case of it in the book of how it is specific to Chinese restaurants. But yes, I think Zen is a unique Chinese dining experience the world over.”

She explained to Zen restaurant inquiries, too, saying that their food manages to capture both high-brow and low-brow aspects of Chinese cuisine. And, she said, the $36 tasting menu is an amazing deal — an important component in assessing Chinese restaurants.

Zen is special; the food leaps beyond boundaries of the traditional. But I wouldn’t hop a plane to Richmond to try it out, as some are doing. But if you can walk, bus, or drive there. Definitely.

– – –

ZEN FINE CHINESE CUISINE

Overall: 4

Food: 4

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $$/$$$

8580 Alexandra Rd., Richmond. 604-233-0077. Open every day except Tuesday for dinner.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Eating well on a budget tastes equally delicious at this cafe

Stephanie Yuen
Sun

Tea cafes have long been at the heart of social gatherings in Taiwan. In Metro Vancouver, they’re adolescent hangouts. So when my friend asks to meet at GoGo Tea Café for lunch, I have no idea what to expect.

Located on the second floor of Cosmo Plaza, GoGo is easy to overlook. Once inside, however, you’ll take notice. The room is beautiful. And huge. White leather chairs, smartly designed decors and a view of the streets gives the place that futuristic feel teenagers love. The clean, spacious dining room has a comfortable, inviting layout that will appeal to couples and families.

The waitresses are young and courteous, and their smiling faces make up for minor flaws in their service. They’re outfits are a bit of a surprise — French-maid style uniforms.

The food on the offering is more conventional. The one-page lunch menu is simple; even the drink list has more choices.

I order a set lunch of minced pork on rice, a stable rice dish in any Taiwanese cafe. The pork is done right and the portion is bigger than expected. The impression GoGo has upon me so far has been a good one.

I return with my family for dinner, prepared to taste more of what GoGo’s kitchen team can whip up.

We start off sipping a few well-prepared and nicely presented beverages. The sweet and delicate Longan and Ginger tea I so enjoy is poured from a beautiful glass pot set on a stand and is heated by a tea light candle.

The Taiwanese-style beef noodle soup is good, but not exceptional. At $7.95, the grilled Black Cod with stir-fried vegetables is a bargain. But for something that is delicious and fun for everyone, try the hot-pot.

For under $10, this is the best priced you-cook hot-pot in town.

Each meal arrives in a full set: Small table-top butane-burner, a kettle of your choice of soup, a plate of raw entrée (meat, seafood or deluxe vegetables) and a bowl of rice. The hot soup is already loaded with vegetables and tofu. Each additional plate of raw food costs only $2.

We choose Szechuan style spicy soup and the pork chop soup as the bases for our meals, and the flavours are so intense they are perfect for cooking the two meats we order: Ribeye and lamb shoulder. Both are sliced paper-thin to be cooked by simply dipping them in the soup. At $2 each, we order extra plates of ribeye, assorted seafood and thick slices of taro. (I particularly like the taste of the softened taro cooked in the spicy soup.)

We pace ourselves so we can savour this hot-pot dinner while we share some great family time. At the end, we agree to concentrate on drinks and hot-pots next time we come.

– – –

GOGO TEA CAF

2170-8788 McKim Way (at Garden City)

Richmond

604-244-7336

Open daily from 11:30 to 1 a.m.

Cash only

Price range: $

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Quaint daytime eatery puts a little welcomed spice into conscious eating

Mia Stainsby
Sun

When looking for a bite to eat, vegans can trip over landmines. Watch out for the eggs over there, and yikes, there’s butter in the sauce and chicken broth in the vegetable soup.

At Land of Green Ginger, there are some vegan options amongst the simple vegetarian fare. It’s a tiny little place with an old-fashioned kitchen range behind the counter. Quaint, yes, but it produces some very tasty muffins, including a good selection for vegans; they have crunchy domed tops and nice, moist interiors. Some are made with rice or spelt flour for wheat-sensitive types. The signature muffin is the ginger date with spelt; chocolate chip chai with cardamom, cinnamon and vegan chocolate was good, too.

Marie Booth and Simon Fawkes, who run the small daytime café do a great job with the baking.

There’s a limited number of savouries, mostly in the form of organic rice bowls and wraps (made with rice bowl fillings). They come in small or large ($7 or $8.50) with a side salad. Choices include Mediterranean, Mandalay curry, Mexican, Thai coconut curry, Indonesian, Jamaican jerk and Japanese temple.

Rounding out the savouries, there’s a different soup every day, a quesadilla, pakoras, samosas and a tortilla de patatas (Spanish potato omelette). Majority of offerings are organic and fair trade. Land of Green Ginger opens at 7 a.m. and you can stop for a bowl of organic whole groats that have slow-cooked overnight.

The name Land of Green Ginger was taken from the street upon which Fawkes’s great grandfather’s brokerage firm was located in Hull, England. The younger Fawkes travelled to Thailand and Burma and fell in love with the country, and apparently with Booth, whom he met in the South Pacific. In 2003, they opened a spice importing business and they still sell spices in their shop.

– – –

THE LAND OF GREEN GINGER

2967 West Broadway, 604-737-1588. www.greenginger.ca.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

For a place this small and casual, it sure offers some spiffy plates

Mark Laba
Province

You can light a fuse, change a fuse, blow a fuse, be confused, defuse a bomb or a situation, suffuse a room with light or light a room with nuclear fusion, refuse the cold fusion theory or diffuse a kitchen with the aromatic infusions of a profusion of cooking, transfusing the senses with effusive displays of drooling and chop-licking anticipation. Much like I saw Pluto do in an old Mickey Mouse cartoon when he didn’t get any birthday cake.

It is the latter that concerns me here. Not Pluto but the chop-licking action, so I set out for this place that bills itself as Asian fusion in a flash, cooking to see and taste what exactly can be done with intricate and intriguing recipes after the hourglass has been tipped and the sands of time are running out, so to speak.

I decided to use Peaches, The Law and Texas Slim as a judging panel, three disparate sets of tastebuds if there ever was one. If I could fuse these three food curmudgeons into one agreeable and perhaps even favourable opinion then this small eatery would’ve accomplished nothing short of a miracle, or at least convinced an old codger like me that there is some ray of hope in the food-fusion racket.

It’s a small joint, as sparse as a Zen monk’s mind — when he’s got the spiritual pedal to the metal and has the om going full throttle — with a few simple black tables and some stool and counter seating and three colour field panels on the wall that read serenity, tranquility and harmony, or something to that effect. I’m not sure — I was falling asleep.

We put the kitchen into overdrive with our order, determined to get as good an overview as possible as if we were human satellites. Beginning with hand-rolled three-onion cakes ($3). They looked as unassuming as a chartered accountant on holiday in Bangkok but pack a lot of punch into their flaky baked bodies with scallions, red onion and shallots.

Essentially everything got laid out at once and this is how it all played out. The curry cilantro skewers with chicken breast dressed in Madras curry ($8) is excellent, albeit the price may be a little steep for two skewers, but the ginger rice is very nice. Pork dumplings ($6) with pork, panko and veggies, the triumvirate of pan-Asian cooking, was a great success with a wonderful dumpling wrapping.

Texas Slim, a real meat-and-potatoes man, was excited by the honey-hoisin braised short-rib selection ($12), marinated and braised for as long as Fidel Castro has been in power it seems. Succulent, satisfying and a worthy finish to the business end of a high-voltage cattle prod.

The Black Eyed Shanghai sounds like an old film-noir movie, with double-dealings and nefarious undertakings in an alleyway opium den, but turned out to be delicious thick Shanghai noodles with bok choy, shiitake mushrooms and red pepper finished with a garlic-black bean sauce ($8).

The black sheep of the bunch was not a sheep, but a porker. Asian-style spaghetti and meatballs ($8) was OK, the meatballs a little off-putting initially with their pale pork complexion. But after the first bite with an echo of cilantro in these warm-hearted pig-snuffling orbs, I was won over. The spaghetti and tomato sauce especially seemed as timid as Chef Boyardee up against a Sicilian brick wall by local mafioso after not coming clean on a gambling debt.

Still I’m amazed that such a small and casual –to the point of dropping in in your bathrobe wouldn’t seem unusual — joint like this is turning out some spiffy plates that wouldn’t seem out of line at more monkey-suit establishments. It’s a quick fix, no doubt about that, so don’t get gussied up, but your stomach will leave feeling like a million bucks.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Wok-fried that’ll make you tongue-tied.

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

Review

Fuse Pan Asian Express

Where: 1078 Mainland St. (entrance around the corner on Helmcken), Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-687-3873

Drinks: Soft drinks and Asian sodas.

Hours: Mon.-Fri., noon-8 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., noon-6 p.m.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

India Abroad’s signature fare has people lining up in the morning at the International Food Fair

Mia Stainsby
Sun

If you have a thing for butter chicken, find the longest queue at the International Food Fair, and at the front you’ll find a rewarding lunch.

I tried the food at India Abroad based entirely on the telltale queue, which outflanked all others in the food court. It must be a cut above, I figured, and joined the elongated line.

India Abroad is run by Gurcharan Singh (cooking in the back) and Baljit Kir (serving in the front). Singh comes from a restaurant family, going back a couple of generations. His late father ran a high-end catering business in Moga in the Punjab and that’s where Singh learned to cook.

Regulars say his butter chicken is different, in a good way. “What can I say? Cream, yogurt, ginger, garlic, spices,” he offers.

What spices?

“Secret,” he says.

Whatever secret the butter chicken holds, it sells out daily, which might explain why lunch starts at about 11 a.m.

The food here is simple and good but the attraction is the $6 price charged for most dishes. Meals include rice, salad, raita, chutney and a pappadum. Add a naan and a mango shake, make that $9.50. The menu includes chicken masala, spinach chicken, lamb masala, lamb vindaloo, beef vindaloo, samosas and veggie balls and there is a special dish for each day of the week.

Many customers at India Abroad are regulars and Singh understands their cravings. If diners want to switch things up and get a combo plate of say, half butter chicken and half beef vindaloo, that can be done.

Singh’s straightforward and appetizing meals show that fast food isn’t always deserving of the abuse it takes.

– INDIA ABROAD

International Food Fair, 530 Hornby St., 604-684-6047.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Careful preparation and generous portions make for a loyal following at Elisabeth’s Chalet

Alfie Lau
Sun

Josef Huber has tried retirement twice and discovered it was much harder than working.

Along with wife Elisabeth, Josef runs Elisabeth’s Chalet, the cosy and inviting Bavarian restaurant that has delighted Surrey diners since 1994.

The Hubers have long been in the restaurant business. They had a place in Langley from 1973 to 1988 and another in Abbotsford from 1989 to 1993. After five months in retirement, they gave in to the lure of the kitchen, opening up their current Cloverdale location and serving the customers who love authentic Bavarian schnitzel and prime rib dishes.

“I love taking care of my customers,” said Josef Huber. “I give them as much respect as I can and that means we have flowers, crisp linens and generous portions.”

Huber greets diners at the door, where servers such as Nigel, an 11-year veteran of the chalet, are extremely helpful with food choices.

Clams and mussels ($9.95) is a great alternative to the popular oysters Rockefeller. Diners will be impressed by the sheer volume of clams in this hors d’oeuvre. It could easily pass for a main course.

The heart of butter lettuce salad ($5.80), which some would say is among the best offered in the Lower Mainland, complements nicely.

For seafood devotees, the Dungeness crab cake served with salsa ($8.95) is not to be missed. They are flaky and flavourful, the equivalent of anything I’ve ever eaten in Maryland, a place known for its fresh and addictive soft shell crab cakes.

For mains, try the roast duck ($21.95), double cooked to ensure crispiness. Expertly done, it’s evident in a bite that excess oils have been cooked off, leaving only crispy and tender duck breast to be savoured.

And what would a visit to Elisabeth’s be without schnitzel.

The Swiss Four Season schnitzel ($20.95) comes with a tomato sauce, mushrooms and red and green peppers. The Austrian Franz Lehar schnitzel ($23.95) is topped with crabmeat, asparagus and Hollandaise sauce. A house specialty, it’s a customer favourite at Elisabeth’s Chalet.

The portions are large. The schnitzels cover more than half the plate, barely leaving enough room for the tasty spaetzle noodles and carrots that accompany some meals.

The majority of employees have been with the Hubers since 1994 and head chef Max Bleiker has worked with them since 1968. Bleiker runs the kitchen and while he won’t tamper with the tried-and-true menu, he does experiment with the seasonal seafood dishes sold as daily specials.

Huber is proud that he has a long list of regulars, including seniors looking a good meal at a good price.

“I’ve got people who’ve been with me since Langley and Abbotsford,” Huber said, “I still have my prime rib special for them each night and I make sure it’s a good deal for them.”

The food is wonderful, and equally outstanding is the attention to detail. Huber comes by each table to say hello and ensure that everyone’s dining needs are met.

It’s a nice gesture that means so much, yet isn’t done nearly enough with the same sincerity at many fine dining establishments.

Don’t count on the Hubers retiring for the third time any time soon.

“We tried retirement and we missed our customers too much,” Huber said. “We love meeting new customers as well and it’s so much fun. Why would we want to quit now?”

ELISABETH’S CHALET RESTAURANT

17785 No. 10 Hwy., Surrey

Phone 604-574-1474

Open for lunch Tuesday to Friday, 11:30 to 2 p.m.

Open for dinner Tuesday to Sunday at 5 p.m.

Reservations recommended

Budget: $50-$100

© The Vancouver Sun 2008