#24

<< Go to 2008 list < Go to 2009 list

Did you know that last year around September, I kept checking the Vancouver Magazine website because that was the month during which they had released the 2008 and 2009 Best Things to Eat and Drink in Vancouver lists. It would happen that when I was so diligent, it was the year they skipped.

This year, at least at this time, I do not call Vancouver home but I will be back and so I am still eager to tear apart the 2011 list that I pounced on as soon as my friend, Alfred Pang, tweeted about it!

As usual, what I’ve tried is bolded and there isn’t much this year–it seems to me that they’ve gone more upscale and less accessible. What I will be able to try is italicized.

1. Jungle Pork Curry – Hawksworth
2. Goat Cheese & Fig Salad – Rocky Mountain Flatbread
3. Octopus with Pesto – Cin Cin
4. Kobe Burger – Stackhouse Burger
5. Celery Root Linguine – Raincity Grill
6. Frosted Flake Pancakes – Jethro’s Fine Pub
7. Himalayan Pink Salt Caramels – Purdy’s
8. Dinner Rolls – Beyond Bread
9. Spicy Miso Chowder – Sushi Q
10. Chocolate Banana Cake – Ganache Patisserie
11. Pork Cheek Terrine – Refuel
12. Pear Rosemary Jazz – Benton Brothers Fine Cheese
13. Green Walnut with Grappa Preserves – Vista d’Oro
14. Raspberry Cardamom Jelly – Edible Canada (Granville Island)
15. Castelvetrano Olives – Whole Foods
16. Singapore Pork Jerky – BKH Jerky
17. Lemon Meringue Pie – Acme Cafe
18. Tea Leaf Salad – Bo Laksa King
19. Sweet & Sour Eggplant – Ensemble
20. Korean Fried Chicken – Zabu Chicken
21. Taro Slush - Dragon Ball Tea House
22. Heirloom Tomatoes – Whole Foods
23. Single Malt Gelato – Bella Gelateria
24. Chicken Sandwich – La Brasserie
25. Veal Shank – Tableau
26. Coconut Fro-Yo – Pinkberry
27. Prawn & Papaya Salad – Le Do
28. Beef Tartare – Bao Bei
29. Punjabi Amuse-Bouche – Vij’s
30. Slapjack Chowder – Rodney’s Oyster House
31. Orange Fritter – Union Market
32. Oxtail Soup – En Restaurant
33. Halibut Gnocchi – Cioppino’s
34. Risotto Cakes – Finest at Sea
35. Pulled Pork Pancakes – Red Wagon Cafe
36. Poached Egg with Summer Truffle – L’Abattoir
37. Sawmill Bay Oysters – Maenam
38. Beddis Blue – Les Amis du Fromage
39. Horseradish Monterey – Benton Brothers Fine Cheese
40. Alpindon – Les Amis du Fromage
41. Fried Wild Rice with Bacon and Crab – Red Star
42. Banana Daquiri – L’Abattoir
43. Bianca Pizza – Nicli Antica
44. Northern Divine Sustainable Caviar – C Restaurant
45. Fried Chicken – L.A. Chicken
46. Bourbon-Infused Maple Syrup – Old Faithful
47. Roasted Garlic Country Bread – Fieldstone Artisan Breads
48. Taiwanese Pancakes – Wang’s Taiwan Beef Noodle House (I’ve had the “pancakes” and been to the restaurant but haven’t had the pancakes at Wang’s.)
49. Hotel Georgia House Cocktail – Hawksworth
50. Bistecca Fiorentina – La Buca
51. Silver Sage Chardonnay
52. Pistachio Macaron – Thierry
53. Box Sushi – Toshi Sushi
54. Red Racer
55. Phillips Hoperation Tripel Cross
56. Fat Tug – Driftwood Beer
57. Tuna with Melon – Guu Garden
58. Power Shandy – Astoria Hotel
59. Halibut Tacos – Feastro Food Truck
60. Cranberry Raisin Ginger Loaf – Purebread
61. Muesli – The Dish
62. Vitello Tonnato Sandwich – La Ghianda
63. Toroniku Miso Ramen – Hokkaido Santouka Ramen
64. Maple Bacon Ice Cream Sandwich – Meat & Bread
65. Butterscotch Pudding – Cafeteria
66. Japanese Slider – ShuRaku
67. Lavender Chocolate – Chocolaterie de la Nouvelle France
68. Wildflower Honey – Fairmont Waterfront
69. Tamago – Dan
70. Grilled Pita – Nu
71. Deep-Fried Oreos – The Fair at PNE
72. Buddha’s Hand – Whole Foods
73. BS Rose
74. Corn Dog – Peckinpah
75. Blackberry Ice Cream – The Udder Guys (Whole Foods)
76. Smoked Meat Sandwich – C’est Bon! Zako’s Deli
77. Bolo Bau (Pineapple Bun) – Lido (Have had dozens of bolo bau and enjoyed claypot rice at Lido.)
78. Barbecued Salmon – Yellowhead Market
79. Nettle & Spot Prawn Ravioli – Campagnolo
80. Pumpkin Spice Doughnut – Joey’s
81. Spicy Avocado Rolls – Ki
82. Sour Beer – The Alibi Room
83. Pain au Chocolat – Faubourg (Pain au chocolat is just a fancy word for croissant? I’ve had that. And I’ve been to Faubourg.)
84. Smoked Beef Tongue – Big Lou’s Butcher Shop
85. Chicken & Waffles – Two Chefs and a Table
86. The Anaconda – The Factory
87. Chicken Karage – Kingyo (Had chicken karaage in many places and visited Kingyo once.)
88. Bresaola Pizza – The Bibo
89. Louis d’Or Cheese – Les Amis du Fromage
90. Creamy Hot & Sour Soup – Mango Thai
91. Thousand Chili Chicken – Peaceful Restaurant (I don’t know if I would ever try this dish but have been to Peaceful many times, love the Shandong noodles and potato rolls there.)
92. Grand Marnier Souffle – Le Crocodile
93. Croque Madame – Petit Chavignol
94. Dungeness Crab Cake – The Shore Club
95. Lychee-Basil Lemonade – Roaming Dragon Food Truck
96. Coconut Drink – The Tiki Bar at the Waldorf Hotel
97. Fresh Berry Sundae – Emma Lea Farms
98. Nachos – Jericho Sailing Centre
99. Potato Tornados – Richmond Night Market
100. Sweet Cherry Tarts – Tartine Bread and Pies
101. Smoothie (banana blended with Medjool dates, almond butter, raw cacao, raw maca, soy milk) – The Juice Truck

(NPY’s Picture of the Day)

NPY and I are pretty sappy about me being away in Toronto for a few months given we’ve been pretty inseparable for the past five years. I may have sufficient diversion exploring a different city to a greater extent than I ever have before, but he suffers from staying in the same place but with a void due to my departure. I suggested we share some photos with each other, possibly every day, to share with each other the interesting parts of our temporarily separate lives and he complied and already sent a photo. Of course I already had one as well.

He wrote: “Went home after driving wyn and her father to airport.  Picked up the t-shirt she recently wore, the pillow she last slept on and her favourite panda.  I missed her dearly already.”

Awwww….

Meanwhile, I was on the red eye flight to Toronto and slept somewhat comfortably for 3.5 of the four hours. A window seat with a hoodie as a pillow helps. Waking up really groggy, it’s a relief not to have sunlight flooding into the cabin but instead I captured this foggy-smoggy vista of downtown as we turned a couple of times before landing.

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< Next PotD

During the writing process, Angela released parts of her memoir as blog entries but since I did not read her entries necessarily in order, I stopped reading those posts, preferring to get the story all at once, as a book in my hands. You can’t do that with a serialized blog story, you know? And, as luck would have it, people who weighed in on the possible cover designs for the memoir were sent a copy of the book. Thanks, Angela!!

In the first part, in 1993, Angela and Joe meet in university and their relationship develops. They have good times and bad, where the bad ones made me squirm because I recognized my own relationships in those interactions. We know what’s coming, but I have certainly also missed the signs myself.

In the second part, in 1998, Angela embarks on her teaching assignment in China. Having visited Beijing recently, I was nodding along with her honest exposé of her living conditions and observations of interpersonal relations around her. We meet her cousin Huang Lei who embraces her like a sister during her time there, but Angela’s presence in China sets in motion a series of events that changes her cousin’s life forever. I’ve read references to that story in her blog, but getting the story from the top was really interesting, particularly since I’m fascinated by the traditional Chinese attitudes towards love and marriage.

The third part, simply titled “Rat and Rat”, describes Angela’s relationship with and care of Joe’s mother who has Parkinson’s disease, juxtaposing it with her outside life (or lack thereof). I wholeheartedly admired how she accepted her responsibility like the dutiful Asian daughter-in-law that I could never be. Blogs are a peculiar platform and the voice one develops for it may not reflect all sides of you–I saw a really sensitive and caring side of Angela. I’m not sure the caretaker role was natural to her, but she wore it anyhow even as things around her got worse and many others would simply quit. I was indignant for her (and relayed the anecdotes all to NPY) by her treatment by her in-laws who acted both callously and under the guise of tradition. I wondered while reading this part how a writer chooses and justifies the degree of exposition of other people’s lives.

In the fourth and fifth parts, we’ve been through the set-up but everything changes. Angela faces the most wretched of decisions that doesn’t have the most clear right or wrong path. There was a lot of foreshadowing in the previous parts but the last two parts were more in the present, no hazy glow, just the pain of reality. At the end, she takes a trip abroad to meet up with her cousin and they can compare notes on how similar, or not, their paths have been.

Each of the five parts of the memoir indicate the zodiac animals who will figure the most in that part and haiku poems illustrate the kind of interaction they have. The chapters are simply titled the year of the events (1993-2005) which, especially the earlier years, instantly transported me back to that awkward time and my relationships back then. Zodiac signs’ compatibility, symbols such as the eponymous black fish, and fortune-tellers’ readings are interwoven with the story, lending the feeling that despite all the rational decisions, all-too-human actions and reactions, there might have been a greater force at work, a taunting but benevolent force in the end.

Sometimes you read a blog for long enough and you think you know someone, especially if they aren’t always fake-smiley and seem to write honestly. Still, there are more dimensions to the author and I was constantly amazed by how much Angela had to go through, more than anyone I know. I loved how the story was laid out, strictly chronologically, with references to symbols and signs to tie events together–simple yet grand. I did not know before reading the book, but I think there’s screenplay adaptation potential to her story: there is Angela’s main story with changes in her roles and scenery over the years; then, there is Huang Lei’s story which mirrors to some extent Angela’s, reinforcing the central message. Finally, I really enjoyed how Angela’s tone was similar to what I’ve grown to like on her blog–honest and brave, like your not-too-girly girlfriend telling you her story. Let’s face it, I wasn’t going to be friends with the overly girly types anyways.

Disclosure: Review (cmp.ly/1 ) I have not been paid to review or post about the topic.

2011 @ Les Faux Bourgeois

This restaurant in an unfashionable location in east Vancouver has been pre-screened for me by NPY and Cari Ann. We knew it would be good but I wasn’t exactly prepared for how casual and noisy it would be. It all goes with the atmosphere.

We ordered the Alsacienne onion tart and a special of sauteed morels from the menu board. Lovely puff pastry and a hearty taste to the tart. I loved trying morels for the first time in the creamy wine sauce. We also ordered Vancouver Magazine-recommended steak frites–NPY likes the frites anyhow–and coq au vin. I selected a herbed butter for the steak since the chicken would be braised in red wine. The steak was okay, cooked to medium rare as requested; the frites were crisp and fresh. NPY just loved the chicken–he got the more tender meat–and I swept up all the sauce with my drier breast meat.

2010 @ Vij’s

No picture and I’m afraid we didn’t have the best dinner. It was good food of course, but a minefield for us–food was too spicy or laced with cilantro. Just a few months before, I tried Vij’s for the first time and their famous creamy and delicious lamb popsicles in fenugreen curry and should have ordered that again. I was so excited to bring NPY to try Vij’s. Oh well.

2009 @ Chambar

It took us such a long time to come around and finally try Chambar for the first time; and then we’ve been back a few more times. We ordered moule frites and are somewhat limited to the similar-sounding wine/butter sauce options since the third one is spicy and laced with cilantro. No complaints about the moule frites although Lil’ Sis’ still cries foul because mussels can be got for $1.99/lb and Chambar’s 1 or 2lbs. of mussels are $20+. However, the restaurant sources really plump mussels and you’re practically guaranteed all the mussels are opened and perfect. I ordered the duck entree which sat atop vegetables, most memorably goat-cheese baked green beans. It was so pungent it was tasty. And the espresso cheesecake was just phenomenally delicious and wonderful in texture, and that is on a full stomach!

2008 @ Le Crocodile

Since a generous uncle had taken the family to dinner at Le Crocodile, I was comfortable with suggesting that restaurant for our 2008 dinner. I’m so sad that I don’t have photographs because it was a mind-bogglingly good and filling meal. The place sounds like it would be so stuffy but the staff were really professional and great. Not knowing any better, and since it was just once a year, I ordered two crazy fattening and rich courses. My appetizer was roasted beef bone marrow which I spread on baguette slices. I’m not sure that is still on the menu prepared the same way. My duck entree may still be the one on the menu, “Roasted Fraser Valley Duck served with Pan-Seared Foie Gras and an Apple Cider Reduction”–duck and foie gras. I was in heaven but really full. I can’t even remember if we had dessert but of course we got the crocodile-shaped chocolates.

2007 @ Bistro Pastis

Ah, our first year. I don’t really remember this year except it wasn’t so great or we were awkward about it. Bistro Pastis is supposed to have the best frites but either I had not grown to like it or it just wasn’t all that. From the comments I made, I really liked the creamy quiche and the veal osso buco. Poached char is totally NPY’s kind of dish, trying to order healthy at a French restaurant! That was probably the weakest dish of the night.

While we’re on the French cuisine bender, can I throw in one more?

Birthday 2010 @ Pied a Terre

How complete is Cambie Village once a proper, delicious French restaurant joined the area? Cari Ann went once or twice before we got around to it and finally an occasion–a birthday–was the perfect excuse. We ordered the famous foie gras parfait and an onion tart, the latter of which I had heard so much as a French restaurant offering. The foie gras parfait was beautifully rich and creamy–those two pieces of bread weren’t nearly close to enough. As per usual, I ordered the duck entree.