New eatery offers flavourful and affordable Japanese dining experience

Mark Laba
Province

The word posh and the term all-you-can-eat seem at odds with each other philosophically. And on that note, could you envision Posh Spice wolfing down food at an all-you-can-eat crab buffet? Well, maybe. But that Posh Spice has nothing on Mariah Carey as I soon learned at this new eatery. But perhaps I should begin at the beginning and explain how two new experiences, Mariah Carey and sukiyaki, were introduced to me. For me it was the perfect marriage of pop culture and dining although I would’ve liked to hear her do a version of the “Sukiyaki Song” that hit the top of the charts in 1963. Oddly, the song has nothing to do with the dish — just another victim of the lost-in-translation syndrome but this time on American turf.

Dropped into this new venture with Peaches, along with Small Fry Eli, who we thought would enjoy the cook-at-your-own-table spectacle. No sooner were we three steps in than the poor lad began gagging. He didn’t like the smell of the veggies. Now this has nothing to do with this fine establishment — it’s just the whimsical nature of a four-year-old’s tastebuds and olfactory senses.

So my wife and son deserted me and left me to dine alone. Table for one is a bit odd looking here. Especially with the mounds of food heaped in front of me.

I decided to sit gazing out the window at the passing parade on Broadway but everyone at the bus stop was staring right back at me. This was a little unnerving. I soon realized it was due to the Mariah Carey concert being shown on the high-def screen behind me with Mimi, as her fans call her, sporting nothing more than gold lamé hot pants and a bra: One of many breathtaking costume changes, I soon found out. I changed seats at my table for four and took in the show.

It’s a swanky looking space, kind of retro-modern chic with some futuristic glints, great wood-panelled walls, big silver funnels over the red dining booths to suck up the cooking fumes, black stone tables upon which the cooking apparatus sits, and white-leather seats. In effect, my Uncle Al with his hair-sprayed pompadour and burgundy leisure suit may not look out of place here.

Now this is how it works. The burner is fired under a large metal bowl in which sits a hill of Japanese cabbage surrounded by a pool of sukiyaki sauce. Then you’re given a checklist of the various veggies and two meat selections. Alberta Grade A beef and tender pork shoulder, sliced ultra-thin, are your meat choices and the waiter was kind enough to bring me a sampler platter of all the various tofu species, along with lotus root, chayote, various mushrooms, bamboo shoots, taro root, bok choy, pumpkin, onion, fat udon-style noodles and thin vermicelli, yam, chrysanthemum leaves, iceberg lettuce and more. Throw it all in, let stuff cook, spoon it out and eat. A raw egg was provided, which I was instructed to mix up in a bowl and dip the food from my fishing expedition into.

I slurped and dribbled my way through the meal and found the fresh organic produce and the mildly sweet sukiyaki sauce invigorating. The meats were very flavourful and tender although some veggies didn’t work as well as others and remained in a more or less raw state even after lengthy cooking times. But then you can just order another cocktail and take a breather and when you realize that it’s all-you-can-eat for just $13.88 per person, or $9.88 at lunch, that’s a high note that perhaps even Carey can’t reach.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

Bringing posh to the peasantry.

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

REVIEW

Posh

Where: 101-1788 W. Broadway, Vancouver

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-737-7674

Drinks: Fully licenced.

Hours: Mon.-Thurs., lunch 11:30 a.m.-

3 p.m.; dinner, 5:30 p.m.-11:30 p.m.; Fri. dinner until midnight. Sat. 11:30 a.m.-midnight. Sun. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

 

Fifth annual Celtic festival takes place on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in close proximity to pints of Guinness and everything Irish

Mia Stainsby
Sun

It’s not exactly historically, ancestrally, culturally, politically, or even culinarily correct, but when we think Celtic celebration, we think Irish pubs, a free flow of Guinness thickened with Irish stew.

What’s wrong with that, you say? Nothing, really, except that it’s not quite the whole shebang. (That last phrase, by the way, has an Irish origin, from the word shebeen, or dwelling.)

Celtic nations that have retained their Celtic languages and culture are Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man and Brittany, as well as Ireland. But historically, Celtic ancestry stretches to northern Portugal and Spain.

So while potato dishes, Irish stew and Guinness are certainly part of Celtic foods, so are haggis, Scotch eggs and kippers, deep-fried Mars Bar (a subtle Scottish creation), cider, galettes, prune clafoutis, Welsh cakes, Welsh rarebit and salt cod.

Meanwhile, the fifth annual Edgewater Casino CelticFest (March 12 to 16) takes place on St. Patrick’s Day weekend in the downtown area in close proximity to Guinness and plentiful Irish food at Ceilli’s Irish Pub, Morrissey’s Irish House, Doolin’s Irish Pub and Johnnie Fox’s Irish Snug.

Sean Heather, who owns Gastown’s Irish Heather and Shebeen Whiskey Bar (that’s whiskey with an “e,” unlike Scottish whisky) opines that the Irish Celts dominate because they are the largest Celtic group and a people who fought to foster their heritage, he feels.

“We [the Irish] worked our way free of British imperialism and fought to resurrect the culture and language. There are still towns in Ireland where Gaelic is the first language.”

Steve McVittie, who operates The Celtic Treasure Chest Bakery And Deli in Vancouver and White Rock, points out that Celts all have their own special days of celebration. “Whether it’s Robbie Burns Day, St. Patrick’s Day or St. David’s Day, each country has a patron saint and each celebrates their day with food and festivities,” he says.

He sells British Celtic foods including various meat pies (Melton Mowbray, Cornish, Scottish bridies, pork pies, pasty’s), bacons, haggis, sausages (Loren, Cumberland, Dubliner, pork and apple, lamb and mint), jams, preserves, candies, shortbreads, cookies, candies and marmalades. His breads span the Celtic nations — hovis, Irish potato, soda, spelt, kamut, Aberdeen rowies, butteries, parkins and Scottish oatcakes.

And many of the items on his shelves have historical and cultural attachments. The canned baked beans, for example, were illegal to import into Canada until after the Second World War. “It was because of the ratio of beans to tomato sauce. The British like beans on toast and for the sauce to absorb into the toast, so there’s more liquid.”

Teas are totally different from North American teas.

“British teas are fuller-bodied. Irish Breakfast is very, very rich and strong. British tea drinkers can tell the difference and come out and buy 10 boxes at a time.”

The British Butcher Shoppe in North Vancouver and John Bull British Bakery and Deli in Coquitlam are other shopping meccas for local Celts. There are some 30 different sausages covering Irish, Scottish and Welsh traditions at British Butcher. The shop sells “hundreds and hundreds and hundreds” of haggis, culminating in 2,400 pounds sold around Robbie Burns Day. “I might celebrate [on Robbie Burns Day] but I won’t eat it,” says owner Gerry Davenport.

The Welsh, meanwhile, celebrated their Celtic roots on March 1, St. David’s Day. Leeks play a prominent role in Welsh food, as do Welsh griddle cakes.

“When we were children going to school, we’d wear a leek pinned to our sweaters and nibble at it during the day,” says Jane Byrne, president of the Vancouver Welsh Society. “I remember it very well. Leek is truly the national emblem.”

Lamb is also an important food but it would be roasted, not stewed like in Ireland. “Then we make a soup [cawl] out of the bones and leftovers and leeks. It’s similar to a stew,” she says. Other prominent Welsh foods are cockles; bara brith (speckled bread with raisins or currants); bara lawr (a seaweed) eaten with bacon for breakfast; and cheeses, particularly Caerphilly, which is like a white cheddar.

“The cocklewomen of Gower were very famous,” Byrne says. “It’s west of Swansea and they picked on the beaches.” And Welsh rarebit is an actual Welsh dish, although they don’t call it that. It’s cheese, flour and beer on toast, basically. River salmon (sewyn) and river trout are very, very important, she says.

And sweets are like chewable nostalgia to many British Celts. The Curly Worly’s (a chocolate caramel), Dolly Mix, pontefract cakes (black licorice medallions), mint humbugs and fruit pastels are the best sellers, Davenport says. Sugar and Co. in West Vancouver and Clayburn Village Store and Tea Shop in Abbotsford are well-known for appeasing British hunger for sweet-laced memories.

At Milséan Shoppe, in Aldergrove, owners Rob and Maureen Robinson make a version of an Irish buttercrunch chocolate from an old family recipe. Milséan means “sweet things” in Gaelic, Rob says, and the company logo is an Irish Claddagh ring with two hands clasping a heart. The secret to their success, he says, is demerara sugar and Fraser Valley butter, which is creamy and comparable to Irish butter.

But as Heather describes traditional British Celtic cuisine, it’s food of an impoverished, oppressed people. “It’s stews and poorer cuts of meat, slowly stewed or braised.” And of course, even after the potato blight and subsequent famine and political struggles over food, potatoes are an Irish staple.

“It has a very close place, genetically and in our hearts. They love and hate the potato,” he says. “The Irish are criticized for having relied on that one crop but the truth is, potatoes could yield way more from a tiny plot of land than any other vegetable. When combined with dairy and greens, it grew big, strong, healthy people. It’s a proven fact. Through the generations, land plots had been divided up and had became smaller and smaller, and also people came in and took the land off the native Irish, who then became serfs. It’s all they ate because they couldn’t afford anything else.”

At his restaurant, Irish Heather, Heather offers Irish food of the 1960s and 1970s. “Pot pie is not Irish but we do beef and Guinness pot pie; fish and chips are English but it’s always been in Ireland. Colcannon [mashed potatoes mixed with kale or cabbage and butter] is definitely traditionally Irish.”

And on the topic of Irish whiskey (his whiskey house, Shebeen, sells 22 varieties), he says before Prohibition and Irish independence, they were the whiskies of choice in the world. “There were 3,400 distilleries in Ireland,” he says. “After independence, part of the punishment was Ireland couldn’t trade with Commonwealth countries. It lost the world market and only had a domestic market and by the time Prohibition was over, it killed the industry.”

Naturally, he prefers Irish whiskey. “It’s triple-distilled, which takes the roughness and impurities out,” he says. But fans of Scottish whisky say scotch has more complex flavours.

While he might feel competitive about whiskey, Heather is a kindred spirit with other Celts. “Absolutely,” he says. “We’re Celtic cousins. There’s always been a kinship. We were always fighting for our lives. And they’re always invited to Celtic festivals in Ireland.”

CELTIC FOOD SOURCES

Should you wish to imbibe or ingest a wee bit of Celtic flavour, these are some places where you’ll find foods of the British Celts.

British Butcher Shoppe

703 Queensbury Ave., North Vancouver, 604-985-2444

British Home Store

3986 Moncton St., Richmond, 604-274-2261

Celtic Treasure Chest

5639 Dunbar St., Vancouver, 604-261-3688

1534 Foster St., White Rock, 604-538-2277

Clayburn Village Store and Tea Shop

34810 Clayburn Rd., Abbotsford, 604-853-4020

Dentry’s Irish Pub

4450 West 10th Ave., 604-224-3434

Doolin’s Irish Pub

654 Nelson Street, 604-605-4343

The Irish Heather

217 Carrall St., 604-688-9779

(Moving to 210 Carrall St. in June.)

John Bull British Bakery and Deli

1046 D Austin Ave., Coquitlam, 604-939-4797

Johnnie Fox’s Irish Snug

1033 Granville St., 604-685-4946

Milséan Shoppe

2900 272nd St., Aldergrove, 604-856-3024

Morrissey’s Irish House

1227 Granville St., 604-682-0909

Shebeen Whiskey Bar

9 Gaoler’s Mews, 604-915-7338

(Moving to 210 Carrall St. in June.)

Sugar and Company

1348 Marine Dr., West Vancouver, 604-925-0801

 

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Vegetarian Heaven. For really great value order the Saravanaa special meal, a platter of curries, pickles and breads

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Experience tells me to be wary of a lineup out a restaurant door and to enter fully aware that lineups mean one of two things: either you’ll find good food for a great price or you’ll eat 10 pounds of fuel food for the price of a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

At Saravanaa Bhavan, the lineup on weekends is for the good food. Not fantastic food mind you, but decent, very well-priced South Indian vegetarian food. The dosas (the melodramatic diva of South Indian dishes) are especially good and there are a lot to choose from. The baseball bat-sized crispy south Indian crepes, with a filling in the mid-portion are light, crispy and delicate — a meal for under $10.

Saravanaa Bhavan is part of an international chain of vegetarian South Chennai-based restaurants. (Chennai is the former city of Madrid, population 7.5 million.) The restaurant locations cover the globe, from India to Oman, Singapore, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, the U.S.A. and the U.K.; in Canada, there are two in Ontario and this is the first for B.C.

Part of the reason for the attractive prices is the owners haven’t sunk a lot into looks; it’s a bare-bones, brightly lit room. However, there’s no shortage of servers. They seem to be bent on good service but some need more training, or the system is flawed — the runners seem lost and a couple of times we saw our dishes go sailing by before the guy stopped in his tracks and looked perplexed, even with numbers on tables. Over here! we beckoned.

Going back to the dosa, I’ve gone about eating it by mauling with knife and fork and Roto-tilling my way through the gargantuan crispy crepe. Saravanaa manager Mano Jayaramen set me straight. (Did I sense him rolling his eyes at the other end of the phone?) “Take a bit in your hand, then dip in chutney,” he says, “then in sambar. It comes with two, three chutneys but all have to go with sambar.”

So, get that? Break off a piece, dip, dip, dip and eat. The sambar is a soupy lentil dip.

As well as dosa, there are other typically South Indian dishes — vada (like lenti doughnuts) and idli (steamed rice and lentil dumplings). Utthappam is more like a dense pancake with various toppings. The idli are often served in hospitals because they are healthy, Jayaramen says.

But I’m fixated on dosas. In India, they’re breakfast. “We eat a lot,” Jayaramen laughs.

For really great value, order the “Saravanaa special meal,” a platter of curries and pickles and breads. For $8.95, it’s worth the wait in a line. A separate menu features some vegetarian dishes from Northern India, dishes we’re more accustomed to in Vancouver — aloo gobi, mutter paneer and the like.

In case you’re curious about the sign that says “HSB”, Jayaramen says that the “H” is for hotel, explaining that when the restaurants first opened, there was little distinction between “hotel” and “restaurant” in India. He adds with pride that in Delhi, Sonia and Rajiv Gandhi’s son Rahul stood in a queue to eat. Once recognized, he was offered a VIP queue-jump but he graciously opted to be democratic.

And if you’re wondering what the name of the restaurant is about, Saravanaa is one of Hindu god Shiva’s sons, a name often used in businesses. Bhavan can be translated as house or store.

– – –

SARAVANAA

BHAVAN

Overall: Rating 3 1/2

Food: Rating 3 1/2

Ambience: Rating 2 1/2

Service: Rating 3

Price: $

955 West Broadway, 604-732-7700. www.saravanaabhavan.ca. Open for lunch and dinner, daily.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

Kyoto native’s new West End restaurant promises to heat up competition among Japanese soups spots

Mia Stainsby
Sun

To most North Americans, ramen, the noodle with a curly perm, is, like Mr. Noodle, processed and instant.

Considering how many college students have weaned themselves on ramen, it’s not surprising that whenever a ramen shop opens, there are line-ups out the door. Ramen noodle shop customers are graduates of Mr. Noodle and frankly, I’m surprised fresh ramen isn’t fiercely duelling with sushi for the hearts and minds of the masses.

In a way, that’s exactly what’s going on in an enclave around Denman and Robson. Kintaro Ramen opened a few years ago with a permanent queue of people noodling out the door onto Denman. The same owner opened Motomachi Shokudo a block away recently. There, on the menu, I found an unusual ramen in a grey broth, coloured by the pinch of charcoal thrown in for good digestion and toxin cleansing.

Most recently, Benkei Noodle Shop opened on Robson, just around the corner from the other two. When I went to this small shop a couple of weeks after it opened, I thought it was still under the radar. Hah! I went in and stepped into a pudding of people, waiting for tables and — a good sign — most were of Japanese background. There were 12 people wilting in a tiny wait area. But one thing about ramen shops, it’s to-the-point eating. You order from a simple menu, slurp voraciously, and then take your leave. So we were seated quickly enough.

The owner, Mistuaki Inoue, is from Kyoto where his father owned a noodle factory and helped people open ramen shops.

When I talk to his assistant Yuki Nakazawa, it’s Tampopo all over again. “It’s secret,” she says, when I ask about the broth. “It’s secret,” she says, when I ask about the noodles. She does say that so far, the noodles are made for them according to Inoue’s exact specifications. Soon he wants to make his own.

I would say his competitor had better watch his back, not because Benkei is the name of a famous samurai but because the ramen is very good. There are the three broths, typical of ramen shops — shoyu (consommé style), shio (pork bones and meat-based) and miso (miso, shoyu and shio combo).

Toppings (green onion, pickled bamboo shoots, boiled egg slices, corn, butter, spinach, bean sprouts, kim chi) all cost 50 cents extra. Butter seems un-Japanese like but it’s actually a common ramen addition in Japan and most often combined with corn as a topping.

Chasu (slices of pork belly) is the signature meat in the ramen. One of the three side dishes is a rice ball with chasu sandwiched inside and wrapped with nori.

Nakazawa says the newest entry on the menu is the “special” ramen, with all the toppings flung in. “Looks great,” she says. “All in the same bowl. It’s huge.”

Should you find yourself belly-aching and hungry on a cold evening, there’s nothing like ramen to fill and warm you.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

The restaurant at the foot of Lonsdale has a list of 24 Belgian beers as well as an all-B.C. wine list

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Not one, not two, but three places have recently sprung up on the commercial blur of Lonsdale Avenue in North Vancouver.

First there was Deuce, with its tapas-style menu in a downtowny space; then Okra, offering a modern presentation of Chinese/Malaysian cuisine.

The latest I visited is The District, which had so little hype I expected it to be forgettable and a waste of my precious time. It’s been quietly operating at the foot of Lonsdale since July.

I was pleasantly surprised at the positive vibes, the honest, really well-priced and tasty food and attentive no-attitude service.

My visits went swimmingly well with one hitch — something that’s a symptom of its success. It gets incredibly noisy in the small, narrow space when the restaurant gets slammed as it did on one of our visits. Turning down the fairly loud music when voices are ricocheting around would have helped. And definitely, it ought not be non-stop drum and base.

But, you know, despite my displeasure in too-noisy places, I’d go back. I know my husband would, in a heartbeat. He was over the top with happiness when he saw the 24-long Belgian beer list. He was thrilled with the Gulden Draak and raved about the Piraat. I sampled and thought with beers like that everywhere, we’d be a beer belly city. (There is an all-B.C. wine list as well.)

The restaurant bills itself as a Belgian-style brasserie, somewhat like Stella’s on Commercial Drive, but I won’t say ‘Chambar‘ in the same breath because that’s a whole other level. As brasserie means brewery in French, the food is meant to be simple and robust.

So, yes, there are two mussel dishes on the menu, and steak and frites as well as “patat frites” for the Belgian influence. On the brunch menu, there’s Belgian waffles. But really, that’s the extent of it. You’ll also find Szechuan style spicy green beans, chicken satay, chicken breast stuffed with apple and Guinness cheddar, a chicken and beef pot pie.

Owner Paul Mon-kau says there are regulars who eat there three times a week. He had targeted a 25 to 40 years crowd but patrons tend to be in the 35 to 60 (another reason to lose the drum and base). He’s thrilled as that is an age group that’s picky about where they eat. Main are $13 to $24, the latter for the winningest dish, the steak frites. The steak is made even more enjoyable if eaten with one of the fabulous beers. Nice frites, juicy, flavourful tenderloin. (District’s meat is purchased at Olympia Meats on Lonsdale, a halaal butcher.)

A venison stew, braised in red wine was tender and flavourful, and accompanied by a fresh-baked mini-loaf of bread. The mussels in a Russell cream ale with charred tomatoes, chorizo, was fine but not brilliant. It came with a generous serving of frites, of which I ate every last morsel. But really, if the restaurant’s pegged on “Belgian-style,” the mussels should be glisteningly plump and a big hit. Stuffed chicken breast with apple and Guinness cheddar wasn’t a strong dish with muddle flavours and a too-dry risotto.

Of the appetizers tried, the portobello tart looked ready for a magazine shot with a lovely pastry crust and a whole portobello in the centre, atop goat cheese with a side of arugula salad; Gascony spring roll with a duck confit and a side salad worked. Shrimp and crab cakes needed a little perk, a little more flavour but a sprawling pea shoot salad compensated. The spicy green beans were nicely season and overflowed the plate but were a little chewy.

Desserts disappointed. A “chocolate souffle” turned out to be a previously baked molten chocolate cake with flavourless ice cream; the dessert waffle had the texture of a rewarmed leftover.

I know I’m ending on negative notes but all things considered — the service, the dishes that worked, the great beers, the good atmosphere at certain decibles, I like the place.

– – –

THE DISTRICT

Overall: 3 1/2

Food: 3 1/2

Ambience: 3 1/2

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $/$$

13 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver.

778-338-4938.

www.districtsocial.com. Open for lunch, brunch dinner, 7 days a week.

Closed 3 to 5 p.m.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

Everything comes up rich and sweet at this cafe, especially the hot chocolate

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Step inside. You’ll see a faux machine pumping molten chocolate and snaking it in a chocolate pipeline up and across the ceiling, curving down behind the counter.

It isn’t quite what you’d expect in an artisanal chocolate cafe. But then Koko Chocolate Creations isn’t quite the kind of place Alex Maman is used to working. He trained under Paul Bocuse (the Bocuse d’Or, the most prestigious international cooking competition was named to honour him) and has cooked under the Troisgros brothers and Georges Blanc (more French culinary nobility). Then he went to Israel and was named one of the top three chefs in the country. So, what’s he doing on Denman Street, serving up hot chocolate?

Well, marrying a Vancouverite while both were working in Australia would be the short answer. His wife, Cordon Bleu-trained Angie Maman, learned the art of making chocolate and they decided to open up a high-quality shop serving first-rate hot chocolates, Angie-baked pastries, desserts as well as her hand-made chocolates. And for those who need it, there’s coffee with a kick, too.

When I visited, the hot chocolate was served in sweet, egg-shaped mugs but apparently they didn’t hold up to the rough and tumble of cafe life. They’ve switched to mugs. Hot chocolate is all about quality of chocolate here, it’s top-notch Callebaut and Valrhona chocolates. It’s made with an espresso machine and a cup costs $4.50.

“It’s basically a cappuccino of chocolate and milk,” Alex says. The French vanilla hot chocolate I had was more chocolate latté than cappucino. It’s not the thick, chocolate syrupy hot chocolates I’ve had, say, at Thomas Haas, but it’s good.

You can get the traditional or be more adventurous with the Italian, Mexican, Turkish mocha, Scandinavian, French vanilla, classic American or Canadian Beavertail hot chocolates. The latter, he says, contains whipped cream and maple syrup.

Desserts include molten chocolate cake, chocolate fondu, brownies, cookies, waffles, white chocolate cheesecake, and ‘More Than S’mores‘ (S’mores with hazelnut praline and warm dark chocolate sauce). I tried the monkey bread and its a lovely piece of work, sitting over drizzles of milk chocolate. Angie’s chocolate bon bon flavours change from week to week, but the week I phoned, they had coconut curry, caramel, lemon mint, peanut butter crunch, raspberry, chili habanero, strawberry balsamic and chocolate ganache fillings. I tried a few and noted their fresh, natural flavours.

I know you might have gorged on chocolates last week on Valentine’s, but some of us don’t know when to stop, do we?

Koko is open daily to 10 p.m.

Monday to Thursday, and to 11 p.m. weekends.

– – –

KOKO CHOCOLATE CREATIONS

1118 Denman St., 604-669-1887

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

And there’s one hostess who went beyond the call of duty

Mark Laba
Province

TOMATO FRESH FOOD CAFE

Where: 2486 Bayswater St.

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-874-6020 or 604-873-4697

Drinks: Fully licensed.

Hours: Open everyday 9am-10pm.

– – –

T his year I thought I would take Peaches out for an early Valentine’s Day romantic dinner, with our seven-month-old twins and four-year old toddler. After all, the twins look like fat little cherubic Cupids minus the wings and Small Fry Eli, well he can wreak havoc with a bow and arrow. Or restaurant cutlery.

At my age, with this many kids, the only heart I’m interested in is a Jarvik, preferably one that pumps martinis. But our destination had a big, bulbous bright-red 3D tomato for signage out front, which kind of resembles a heart if you’re the Jolly Green Giant.

Now some places claim to be kid-friendly and then there are those joints that will actually baby-sit your brood. With that attitude they could serve me possum bladders with milk gravy and I’d be happy. Fortunately the food is better fare than that here and the hostess went far and beyond the call of duty by wheeling the twins around in their double stroller while we ate dinner.

It’s a cavernous room that affords twin-stroller manoeuvring with booth-seating lining one section of the place, counterbalanced light and dark wood hues from walls to furniture and two large trees sprouting up through the concrete flooring.

So, if they ever have to replace a piece of panelling, they can do their own lumbering. The old location was charming and quaint, this place is vast and lounge-like with intimate pockets

Small Fry Eli had a cheese pizza ($4.95) off the kids’ menu and a classic chocolate milkshake. This kept him busy for about three minutes, which to Peaches and me, is just about enough time to wolf down our meal. We eat faster than a pack of hyenas on a water-buffalo carcass, wary that the lions will soon return. But with the twins being attended to, we had time to enjoy our food.

I tried the rigatoni with ground chorizo, oven-roasted tomatoes, eggplant, artichoke hearts, peppers and a fresh tomato sauce ($17). My only complaint is that I think the chorizo should be served in good-sized slices rather than ground to add some textural contrast.

Peaches sampled a special of the day — baby back ribs with a maple chipotle glaze, mashed ‘taters and a nice cabbage slaw ($27.95). Great glaze and tender meat that fell from the bone like pants at a proctologist’s office.

Prices seem rather high on the evening menu and I’ve always found the brunch and lunch selections more varied and better value. Still they make a great Dungeness crab cake with roasted pepper relish and prawn aioli appetizer and a formidable local seafood bouillabaisse.

For lunch, I highly recommend the Moroccan turkey burger, the famed turkey sandwich or the veggie chili. And the breakfast from the Diner Classic to the Eggs Benny Tomato-style has always been outstanding, as are the homebaked cookies and desserts.

As we vacuumed up the last of our meal the twins started to disintegrate faster than a candy heart in a glass of champagne. Ah, the fleetingness of youth, I thought, gazing at my bald spot in a spoon, and peaceful dining, too. Still, for that one small moment, however brief, I actually remembered what is was like to chew food.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Vine-ripened dining ripe for the picking.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Organic and local foods are used as much as possible at all locations but the clincher is the price — $13.88 for all you can eat

Mia Stainsby
Sun

Sukiyaki is like the William Shatner of food. It almost disappeared off the radar and now it’s trying for a comeback career, at least in the Lower Mainland.

Peter Leung, a marketing guy, and Tony Kuo, a restaurateur, are betting on it to the tune of some seven restaurants specializing in just this one Japanese dish. They’ll all be called Posh — three are up and running and another four will open in the next year, including one on the North Shore and another in Coquitlam.

The two men combine skill sets — Leung’s marketing saavy and Kuo’s experience in offering good-value Asian food. Kuo operates the mod and popular Vogue restaurant in Richmond. Posh, too, is in a modern setting and servers, from the way I saw it, have been told to make nice with customers. The clincher, though, is the really great deal — it’s all-you-can-eat sukiyaki for $13.88. Posh uses organic and local foods as much as possible. And there’s nothing else to order, even if you wanted to. (They will be adding miso soup, a starter and dessert in the future.)

It’s not exactly the sukiyaki of yore you might have watched sizzle before you in a tatami room on Powell Street back in the 1970s, where broth, noodles, paper-thin beef and veggies were nestled in an iron pan, and cooked in front of you.

That was Tokyo-style sukiyaki. Over Osaka way, they add the broth and ingredients at the table and that’s the Posh way, too. The pot is deeper and more hotpot like.

I can’t say this style offers a neat-freak approach to eating. By meal’s end, our table was strewn with the flotsam and jetsam of our meal as it voyaged from raw plate to cooking pan to dinner plate to a dip to the mouth.

The pan starts off with a handful of shredded Chinese cabbage (for its sweetness) but beyond that you check off your choice of ingredients from a list of some 27 items. Do, do, do include meat (beef or pork). It will add much flavour to the broth, which is diluted sweetened soy. Leung says the sweetener isn’t sugar (the Japanese use sugar and mirin) and will only say the sweetness is from organic fruit.

The broth comes in two teapots, one with a concentrated broth and another with water to dilute. Diners also get a raw pasteurized egg. Stop yourself from adding it to the sukiyaki because you break it into a bowl, mix it up and dip the cooked sukiyaki into it before eating.

Items on the order sheet include Asian veggies, shiitake and button mushrooms, bean curd, onions, pumpkin, rice cake, taro, yam, konnyaku (a potato-like veg) vermicelli, bean sprouts, spinach and tomato. (The broth gets tastier and tastier as the meal progresses.) The konnyaku contains a lot of calcium, which can toughen meat, so I’ve heard it’s advisable to separate it from the meat. You can also order udon noodles to join the sukiyaki pan and it’s a good idea to leave that to the end to soak up the liquid.

The first Posh opened in Richmond about a year ago. The West Broadway location opened in November and Burnaby opened just last week. The rooms are graphically bold with red booths and black faux marble table tops. A private area includes karaoke, music videos and a private server. Servers are young and English-speaking.

Posh is named for its swank connotation and not for the Spice Girl. It’s an acronym for “port out, starboard home” indicating the best rooms in ships sailing from England to India (the best views were on port side departing from England and on starboard, returning). In Chinese, it has the same kind of meaning, Leung says.

And speaking of meanings, sukiyaki means “to like” and “grill” in Japanese. At one time in the Osaka region, the meat was grilled first, then put into the broth. In other words, sukiyaki is an etymological relic.

– – –

POSH

Overall: 3

Food: 3

Ambience: 3

Service: 3 1/2

Price: $

1788 West Broadway, 604-737-7674; 1123 — 3779 Sexsmith Rd., Richmond, 604-303-7674; 105 — 6462 Kingsway, Burnaby, 604-434-7674. All are open for lunch and dinner, 7 days a week.

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

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

A line snaking down the block is testament to the tasty meals

Mia Stainsby
Sun

It might seem bizarre for an orthodox priest (Ukrainian) to be talking about pinching perogies for the glory of god, but Father Roman Tsaplan is not someone you’d call flakey.

Tsaplan is referring to the hugely successful Ukrainian dinner the church hosts on the first Friday of each month. It’s an important fundraiser. “We don’t have a tithe,” he explains. “Without perogies it would be difficult to run the church.”

So twice a month, if he hasn’t other commitments, he sits down with the “ladies” to pinch perogies for the dinner. And they’ve got a lot of pinching to do, considering there are lineups out the door, especially in cold weather as perogies (or vareniky), sauerkraut (kapusta), cabbage rolls (holubsti) and Ukrainian sausage (kolbasa) is bracing cold-weather food. When he has time, Tsaplan helps the ladies make cabbage rolls, too.

I’d call it one of the secrets of our city, but judging by the lineups, the once-a-month Ukrainian dinners are no secret. The success is partly because of the $11 price tag for a meal of six perogies, two cabbage rolls, sauerkraut, sausage and beverage; for a real she-woman platter with bigger servings, make that $14.

If you get in a line-up to the right of the long one snaking, sometimes, down to Main Street it leads to the take-out order window where you’ll get to food much quicker and with even less expense ($4 for a dozen perogies; $6 for a dozen vegetarian cabbage rolls or $8 for meat cabbage rolls; $7 for a ring of sausage).

But part of the fun is in joining the multitudes (all 200 seats are filled) in the church hall with Ukrainian music in the background and feeling like an old-fashioned community, convening over a simple supper with perogies made by ladies and a priest.

“Quite often they won’t take my money at the cashier but my wife says ‘No! We have to pay like everyone else!,‘” he says.

Tsaplan came from Kamloops where he also pinched perogies with the ladies — only differently. “They bend the corners when they pinch them,” he says. “That was Kamloops ladies’ style. I said to my parish, this is the way and they didn’t say anything so I thought I better learn Vancouver style.”

Still, if you’re eating cabbage rolls and the ends aren’t tucked in, you’ll know it was Father Tsaplan who rolled it. “I like to have tomato paste circulate all over. I don’t close both sides for a simple reason. It is like Ukrainian sushi.”

– – –

HOLY TRINITY UKRAINIAN ORTHODOX CATHEDRAL

154 East 10th Ave., 604-876-4747. www.uocvancouver.com. Ukrainian dinner, first Friday of every month.

© The Vancouver Sun 2008

 

It all starts with the stock, for a lighter, more subtle flavour

Mark Laba
Province

Motomachi Shokudo

Where: 740 Denman St.,

Payment/reservations: Major credit cards, 604-609-0310

Drinks: Beer and soft drinks

Hours: Open Thurs.-Tues., noon-11 p.m., closed Wednesday

Stupid soup,” Peaches is fond of saying.

“What is it with you and soup?” I ask her.

“I just don’t understand it. Soup? What kind of food is that? I go out with a friend at lunch, they order soup and I think, what kind of meal is that? I mean, you throw some crackers in and at least you get something solid to eat but really, soup? You eat that stuff when you’re sick.”

Which is exactly the reason why I took Small Fry Eli and not Peaches along to this new ramen-soup experience from a master noodle-soup maker and owner of this establishment, Daiji Matsubara. The Law also came along to carry Small Fry Eli’s bag of toys, mandatory when dining out with a four-year-old.

It’s a very cool space, a kind of stylish tranquility like something you’d see on a Japanese feudal castle during the samurai reign.

Inside are three small tables, counter seating and one communal affair in the centre, all fashioned in a rough-hewn wood, as if a lumberjack with design sensibilities ran amok through the place. Stalks of dried wheat run the length of the communal table so that you’re not face-to-face with fellow noodle slurpers. I think of it as a Saskatchewan splash guard. Cool jazz on the airwaves.

We took the counter seats facing the kitchen and perched on the odd chairs that really resemble shoeshine-box constructions. Small Fry Eli began populating the space with toys and even donned a recent obsession of his — woodworker protective eyewear.

“Good thing you brought your gyoza goggles,” I say as he dug into a plump, pork-filled dough body that we enjoyed as an appetizer. “Never know when these doughboys are gonna explode with minced pork shrapnel.” Very good gyoza indeed ($3.75) with a soft but sturdy pan-fried exterior and delicious interior. A harmonious blend of all the right textures and flavours, which is pretty much the anthem of this noodle paradise.

Besides the few appetizers like gyoza, brown-rice veggie sushi, kimchee and barbecued pork ribs, this joint is really a one-trick pony. But what a trick it is. This is ramen heaven and Matsubara, who also runs Kintaro a few doors down, has opted for an organic chicken stock rather than pork-based broth, which makes this soup feel lighter and, I think, imparts a subtler flavour. The texture of the noodles is magnificent.

Sampled the spicy miso ramen creation ($9.65) with organic chicken, lotus root, cabbage, spinach, onion, carrot, mizuna (a Japanese mustard green), dried bamboo, corn and hot chili sauce. There was more stuff bobbing around in this broth than bodies from Mob hits in the East River.

The Law took a risk with the esoteric Bamboo Charcoal Dark Miso Ramen ($9.75) that included a soft-boiled egg, Japanese leek, barbecued pork, sliced chili pepper and actual charcoal stirred into the broth. The result is a grey mire that smells like a campfire and tastes a lot better than it looks. The charcoal is supposed to aid digestion and I’ve noticed this same effect when I’ve eaten the ash-charred carapaces of roasted marshmallows. You wouldn’t believe soup could carry such layers of flavours, but with building blocks like Himalayan or Mongolian salt, various miso blends or raw, unpasteurized soy sauce, not to mention the excellent meat and veggie additions, this soup is as smart as a noodle whip.

THE BOTTOM LINE:

A ramen noodle tongue-lashing.

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

© The Vancouver Province 2008