Eating Vancouver '09: The Battle of the Baos!

I've made no secret of my pining ways when it comes to missing the awesome Chinese food we had last fall on our trip to Shanghai and Hong Kong (hit the archive tab on the right for late October/early November 2008 for details). Holding an especially warm place in my hungry heart are the perfectly satisfying xiao long bao (Chinese soup dumplings) we had. Impossible to find in Portland, we hide high hopes on our Vancouver trip. We were tipped off to a couple of spots in the Richmond suburb on this local 'Couv blog that are reputed to know the way of the dumpling. So on our way out of town we made the stops at both for The Battle of the Baos.

Our first stop was Shanghai Wonderful, a fairly small spot in one of the innumerable strip malls that dot this suburban landscape. I had been anticipating this moment ever since we left Portland, so with breath held and hopes high we placed our order. w also added on an order of veggie hum bao (steamed veggie buns), because apparently the Chinese restaurants in Portland have also found these seemingly simple items to be the food equivalent of nano physics. Our two bamboo steamers were placed on the table alongside the requisite ginger-soy dipping sauce. Now the thing with xiao long bao is that the wrapper is everything. It should be tender, almost translucent, barely holding in the soup and meat within, yet sturdy enough to be picked up with chopsticks. So we gently picked up the steaming delicacies, dipped them, bit holes in the edge to suck out the soup without splattering ourselves (which is one of those learned skills)....and both our eyes went wide. THIS is what we had been missing. The wrapper was perfectly tender, a little bit of tooth, the soup broth rich, the ground pork mixture inside not too dense (although slightly too bulky we thought). I immediately wanted to order another half dozen, but w reminded me we had one more stop. I wanted to remind her we ate three dozen in Shanghai in one sitting, but that seemed best not mentioned. Besides we were both still slightly stuffed from the previous night's extravagance at Tojo's. Still, it's nice to know excellent xiao long bao are available without a trip to China. Of course there is that pesky 5-1/2 drive to contend with, but dinner at Vij's and lunch the next day at Shanghai Wonderful as motivation? Totally worth it! Oh, and the hum bao were also spot on (pic above right), the bun light and fluffy holding in the fresh, bright green chopped veggie/nut mix.

We left Shanghai Wonderful blissed out and hopped in the car for the maybe half mile ride to Chen's Shanghai Kitchen, the other bao stop. Where Shanghai Wonderful is clean, bright, and modern with a slightly upscale clientele (although still with cheap prices), Chen's Shanghai is a rundown strip mall, the formica topped tables jammed together, the customers more blue collar that buttoned up. Slightly more my comfort zone. Our bao were soon to arrive at the table, and while quite good, they didn't hit the bar of Shanghai Wonderful. The dipping sauce wasn't quite as flavorful, the skin slightly thicker and a little dry right at the peak. The broth was good and the meat actually slightly smaller, which we preferred. If you could transfer the Chen's ground pork filling into the SW wrapper, you'd have the perfect xiao long bao. Chen's was worth the visit, but for the better expression of bao-ness I absolutely recommend Shanghai Wonderful.
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To wrap up the Vancouver trip, here's a couple of other places we liked and are worthy of your stomach real estate....

For dim sum we hit Sun Sui Wah on Main Street, a short drive from our hotel. The classic large, brightly lit room that when we arrived not long after they opened wasn't that busy, but quickly filled up. The choices were plentiful (you order off their dim sum menus, not off of rolling carts) and for the most part everything was delicious. Here's some things we were particularly smitten with....

Steamed bbq pork buns

Delicious siu mai dumplings

The find of the day was their house special fresh mango "pancakes". The women at the next table were most inistent that we try them. Egg crepe wrapped around fresh mango and whipped cream. Yeah, they were that good! Not heavy at all or too sweet, very pretty to look at, better to eat! Something I'd love to make at home.



Also just kitty corner from our hotel, and recommended by my friend in malted beverages ChuckB, was the Railway Club downtown, a very cool old beer bar originally built in the early 1930s, where the selections are numerous and esoteric. A passion for craft beer clearly shows through here. They also have live music most nights, friendly beertenders, and a cozy feel. Check it out!
Then as I mentioned in the Vij's post, a great place to hang while you're waiting for your table at that temple of sub-continent sublimity is Bin 942 right down Granville Street. The sister restaurant of...and how original is this...Bin 941, they have excellent tapas (that's the goat cheese croquette and clams with chorizo above; both 5$ for a small plate) and VERY generous wine pours in a cozy-cool space. A good spot to try the local BC juice!

Eating Vancouver '09: food insanity, pt.2-the Church of Vij's

We've all had Indian food. Probably fairly decent Indian food. It's one of w and my favorite cuisines. Complex flavors, pungent spices...even the vegetarian dishes are some of the best things I've eaten. Then there's Vij's in Vancouver, BC. I thought I had a pretty good handle on how good sublime sub-continent cooking could be. Turns out I'm not so well informed and I blame our dinner at Vij's for bursting that bubble. We'd read about Vij's and the incredible food rumored to be flowing out of the kitchen. We have the Vij's cookbook. Many of our friends who had been to the 'Couv were salivating as they told us we HAVE to go. So we went. We knew about the "get there at opening or you wait 1-1/2 hours" thing. We didn't and we waited (although a good part of that wait was spent in a very cool nearby wine bar, Bin 942). There are very few dinners worth waiting 90 minutes for, but I would wait for this again in a heartbeat. In fact, going to Vij's alone is almost worth an overnight trip from Portland. Crazy food, absurdly flavorful, awesome service. One thing we noticed as we looked around is that the whole staff is women. Kitchen, floor staff, host. Our server explained that when Vikram Vij opened the restaurant, he put his new wife Meeru in charge of the kitchen. In a confined space where bodies are constanly bumping into noe another, it wouldn't have worked to have men being in contact with women, so an all-woman kitchen staff evolved, and it seems to have carried over to the front. Now I don't know if this is the reason or not (it is according to our server), but the whole restaurant exudes this calm aura. There's no tension in the air, just seamless attention to detail. I've always said if I opened another restaurant I would absolutely hire a female chef. It's a rare male chef who doesn't let his testosterone-driven ego get in the way. This only reaffirms that observation.

Enough of that, it's time to focus on what's important. So here's the Vij's show-and-tell. May I suggest you lean away from your keyboards to keep from drooling all over your keys.....

Our first appetizer, Spicy Ground Cricket Paranta with tomato-onion chutney and celeriac salad. The flour for the flatbread is actually made partially from ground crickets! It was delicious, and the chutney was so flavorful, and they gave us a little bowl of whole fried crickets (pic at top left) which we sprinkled on top. They were delicious, witha salty crunch. Here's a pic of the way to get your insect on (take that Bourdain!):

next up....

This was a pungent, incredibly spiced Jackfruit in a black cardamom and cumin masala. The jackfruit had pineapple-like texture, and the sweet fruit and spiciness were, of course, perfect together.

Our server highly recommended we order this app, BC Spot Prawns (fresh off the boat that morning she said) with spinach and mung sprouts in a coconut and lemon curry. She was correct. The shrimp was so bright and fresh, and a lemon infused curry is obviously something I need to experiment with!

w ordered the Marinated and Grilled Sablefish with grilled zucchini in a mango reduction. Read that again and you'll know all you need to know about how amazingly delicious this was: "grilled fish in mango reduction". Of course when you have a mastery of Indian spices and know just what to add, it helps. A beautifully cooked piece of fish, moist and tender, dredged through the sauce it absolutely pops in your mouth!

My pick was their Wine Marinated Lamb Popsicles (what do you think of that dds? The Greek's don't have a monopoly on lamb "popsicles"!) in a fenugreek cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes. This was simply stunning (although w said the same thing about her sablefish, and it was). The lamb was a wonderful, juicy medium-rare, the cream curry was silky smooth and defines "understated", yet it filled my mouth with so much flavor. A ridiculous combination that as I look at the picture, I know it is something I MUST have again!

For wine we ordered a bottle of Hugel Sylvaner, a crisp, delicious Alsatian white that was spot on with all the different flavors. w considers, and I can only agree, that this is one of the best meals of any kind we have ever had. Brilliant, stunning cooking in a serene settting. This is why I can only feel blessed to be able to have an experience like this. If Tojo's was food as art, this is food as religion.

Eating Vancouver '09: Food insanity, pt.1-Tojo's

That is the only way to describe two of our dinners out in the 'Couv last weekend. Easily the two best meals I've ever had back-to-back, in fact the best Japanese and Indian food I've had out. To save on too much blather, I'll just do the pictorial with short comments to add to the obvious flavor.....

First up, Tojo's "Omakase", where Hidekasu Tojo is doing miraculous things with local ingredients. Tojo has a reputation on par with Masa Takayama's eponomously named restauarnt in Manhattan. After this meal is was easy to see why. The key here is to grab some of the coveted seats at the sushi counter, which in a sign of the down economy we were able to do on short notice. When you sit at the counter you get served "omakase" style, where small courses come one after the other, according to the chef's whim, and limited only by your appetite (which when it comes to me is a slightly scary position to be put in, being that I'm a boy who has a terrible time saying no, especially to great food). All we had to do was answer two questions: Are we allergic to anything and are we adventurous eaters? After our "no" and "yes" answers, Tojo told us he would make us things we had never had before, and my anticipation ratcheted up about ten levels. With that, our first course....

Incredible bluefin sashimi, each slice is about a half inch thick. The best sashimi I have ever put in my mouth, so achingly tender. Tojo told us "Don't use your teeth, only tongue" (the first in a running set of instructions throughout dinner: "no soy sauce"; "use fingers, no chopsticks, no sauce"), which caused the flavors to explode all over our mouths. Amazing!

Since I forgot to take a picture of the second course, an earthy, pure tasting soup of shiitake mushrooms with a scallop puree that was as good as it sounds, I'll include a pic of Tojo (on the left) doing witchcraft behind the counter.

This was a succulent pile of octopus, lightly sauced, topped with flower blossoms. BTW-the sauce descriptions here are pretty non-existent, because I am unfamiliar with Japanese cooking, and I was too busy swooning and weeping to ask any questions. Suffice to say they were all perfectly matched to our dishes. The octopus again was super clean, with just the right chew to it according to w. For me maybe a little tough...slightly...maybe.....

A beautifully presented sea urchin "stew", with chunks of sea urchin and bits of unagi in an incredibly rich broth. This was my first experience with sea urchin, and if it is all this good I'd bathe in it. Another stellar composition. After this course, w already had her "I'm getting full" look going. Which of course meant I had to finish her last bite!

From a presentation standpoint my favorite dish of the night. A bowl of steaming hot fish soup is placed before you, covered in a light paper cloth that has been tied down. You untie the string, and lift the cloth to have this whoosh of ethereal, steamy fish essence assault your nostrils. An absolute sensual experience, and the soup itself was of course brilliant!

The next course...what is this, five, six courses in?....was two simply presented pieces of sushi, one toro, one shrimp, which of course was the perfect counterpoint to the previous course's rich broth.

These were the first of two courses of rolls. Honestly I can't remember what kind of fish was in them, but it was incredibly flavorful, and part of what made it so intriguing was the egg wrapper, which I had never experienced before (as Tojo promised at the beginning).

This was simply incredible. I saw the chef making it for someone earlier, and was praying it would be on our menu. Imagine a sheet of impossibly thin cucumber, stuffed with lobster, butternut squash tempura, avocado, and asparagus. The whole roll was sliced into 3/4" pieces, each of us got three pieces. Stunning to look at, the picture doesn't do justice to the vibrant color. The flavor was unbelievable, the textures of each ingredient playing off of each other like a perfectly tuned orchestra. My favorite dish of the night. Astonishingly good, and fabulously creative.

At this point w, in her wisdom, decided she was done. They asked me if I wanted another course, and like a horse who will keep eating until his stomach explodes, I just nodded my head "yes, just one more". Tojo, with a smile on his face, said it would be a few minutes. It was, and set before me was a stunning piece of halibut cheek sautéed with sesame seeds pressed into it atop some small greens with flower blossoms delicately set on top of a pile of daikon slivers. Again, so well composed, food as art if it ever was. The sauce surrounding it, again I have no idea what it was comprised of, was crazily rich, the whole dish telling you "If you weren't done before, you are now!" And I was........

......until our waiter offered us dessert. We were both so full, and tried, really tried, to say no. but he insisted, saying "no, so small, so fresh". Alright, alright, bring it on. We picked up our spoons, and our palates were instantly shocked awake by the fresh heat of ginger sorbet, topped with a raspberry with a sesame cracker. The sorbet was sublime, and ending to a meal that couldn't have gone better. Tojo's is something special. Be forewarned you do pay...a lot...for your pleasure. Was it worth it? To experience Japanese food as good as it can possibly be from an insanely talented cooking savant, for me I'd have to say hell yes.

Vancouver '09: let the eating commence!

That pic to the left is exactly what my vacations tend to be about. Sipping effervescent glasses of bubbly while a chef prepares my latest indulgence. And that's the way it was at Salt Tasting Room in Vancouver, one of the first stops on the culinary tour of this strikingly beautiful piece of BC. Our friends Nancy and Randy had given us several recommendations, of which Salt was right up there. Within walking distance of our hotel, the very affordable and well situated St. Regis, Salt is located in the Gastown area, which is a rehabbed...sort of...place where there are still plenty of homeless among the tourist shops and restaurants, they've just been shoved off into less noticeable areas.

We walked down the ominously but not aptly named Blood Alley, where the sign for Salt sits high on a building. Salt is a sleek, minimally done wine bar/small plates resto (small plates being the of-the-moment way to eat in the 'Couv) that could easily be too stark, but is actually quite comfortable. Two long communal tables (they also have a room in the cellar with more tables and a glassed-in meat/wine cellar room), a bar and tables in front. The deal here is you choose meats and cheeses off their blackboard menu, in groups of three, then pick three condiments to go with them. They source their meat from some of the city's best purveyors, and the plates are very nicely presented. You can see our picks at right. They also list a couple of specials on the board, one of which was torchons of foie gras. Ah, the fatted goose. Who am I to deny his liver? This was deliciously rich with a sprinkling of sea salt, spread on slices of bread with housemade rhubarb compote. "Yummy" doesn't it justice. We washed down this pleasure with a couple of glasses of bubbly followed by a local red and white, which was just enough to fuel us to our next stop..........