They have the mountains; they have the sea. This year, cherry blossoms bloomed in February. And, if that’s not enough, our West Coast friends have locked down the culinary scene too.
In town for the annual EAT! Vancouver Food + Cooking Festival, I recently spent a week eating my way across the city, sipping craft beers from local brew-masters and award-winning BC wines along the way.
Brunch is big here. On any given weekday, never mind the weekend, expect a line up as long as the list of menu options. At Twisted Fork, a bistro on Granville Street, diners dither over what to order. The Gruyere baked eggs with sourdough toast sounds good. Oh, but so does the spicy pork frittata. And what about the signature Eggs Benny? The choice of fillers for EB is equally daunting — smoked salmon, roasted chicken, sausage, Portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions, bacon or ham?
At Medina Café in the Library District, those who go for their famous Belgium waffles are then buried in a choice of toppings. Milk chocolate lavender … raspberry caramel … peach and bourbon butterscotch? At Exile Bistro in the city’s west end, dietary options abound. I went with my interpretation of their slogan “stay wild at heart” and feasted on eggs with boar bacon and deer sausage while my vegan friends chowed down on French toast with apple butter and maple-birch syrup, and the gluten-free folks gobbled up eggless chickpea omelets.
And then there’s lunch. The food truck scene is in full gear in Vancouver with more than 100 carts featuring all manner of cuisine. Among the most popular are Vij’s Railway Express, Tacofino Cantina and the world-famous JapaDog featuring Japanese-style hotdogs. If you prefer a sit-down affair follow in my footsteps to Cactus Club Café overlooking Coal Harbour. As in many restaurants in Vancouver, the Asian influence shows up in several dishes – there, I devoured a delish Dungeness crab and roasted sablefish swimming in tom yum broth with coconut cream.
Not surprisingly, given the bounty of the Pacific, seafood is the star of many a dinner menu. Visit North Vancouver’s Pier 7 on Thursday at 5 pm for “The Boil”, an after-work feast which sees locals celebrate the weekend early by donning an apron, rolling up their shirt sleeves and digging into an enormous bowl of snow crab, Dungeness crab, prawns, mussels, clams, calamari, potatoes, okra, corn cobs and chorizo sausage. You get tools, but like many diners, I chose to use my hands.
If you’re after Thai fare, head to Maenam in the Kitsilano neighbourhood. As part of a dinner series presented by the festival, there, I made my way through surf — lobster duo of betal leaf wraps and egg net rolls, pork and shrimp Hakka style wonton, black pepper crab — as well as turf – braised pork cheeks, and sweet and sour pork hocks.
The most unique and fancy-pants place I dined at was Secret Location at 1 Water Street in Gastown. By fancy-pants, I mean that literally — the restaurant shares space with a high-end fashion boutique so you can shop (well, in my case, look) before or after dinner. The décor and ambience of the restaurant is as chic as its plate presentation. I nibbled my way through a 10-course tasting which included elderflower fritter with fennel and brie; crispy chicken skin with birchwood sugar and truffle salt, and seared sturgeon liver with milk and rose water.
My most casual meal, and among my most memorable, came by way of a impromptu invite to join a local couple — fellow journalist Kate Zimmerman, whom I’d just met on this trip, and her hubby, Ron, a.k.a. Rockin’ Ronnie Shewchuk of BBQ cookbook fame — for a barbecue on the beach. There, beneath the warm glow of the setting sun, the soft cover of dusk, and finally the full moon (talk about ambient lighting), we devoured a feast. When I tried to express my gratitude and tell them how blown away I was by the experience, Ron replied nonchalantly.
“We just wanted to share a little piece of our paradise.”
Happily, tourists can easily participate in this local eat-on-the-beach tradition. In Vancouver, the Seabus and water taxis can get you out on the water and to the Lonsdale Quay Market on the north shore, as well as the Granville Island Public Market. At both, you can pick up all manner of baked good, produce, deli, and artisanal fare and then head out to the shore for a picnic.
That’s the thing about Vancouver. It has the bounty of the land and sea as well as its beauty. I asked Toronto’s Susur Lee, who was among the line-up of celebrity chefs in town for the festival, for his thoughts on what’s driving the city’s culinary scene.
“Vancouver has many unique ingredients such as spot prawns and sablefish, available locally. But here, the chefs actually experiment with and use them. That’s what makes it such an exciting food destination.”
Executive chef, Rob Feenie, who leads the culinary team of the aforementioned Cactus Club chain, and is Canada’s first Iron Chef America champion, agrees but he points out that here, even a simple a loaf of bread and mussels on the beach is magical. To make his point, he adds, “One time I was cooking sablefish for Sting and I remember him coming up to me on the boat, holding a glass of Chardonnay, and after slowly looking around, saying, “Man, this a pretty special place.” “
Indeed it is. Every step you take.
CLICK THROUGH FOR RECIPES!
The post Tasty Travels: A Foodie Eats Her Way Across Vancouver appeared first on Everything Zoomer.