Kaplan's Star Deli

From Kaplan's

I thought I would take a break from my usual Asian dining and go for something a bit different (for me, anyway). My wife suggested "deli" and I immediately thought of Kaplan's.

Kaplan's isn't exactly "chowish" in price and ambiance. It is, however, definitely a one-stop shop for all the Jewish deli meat favorites. You can even get a sort of a sampler plate called the Triplet, where you can have three meats (corned beef, pastrami, and chopped liver) on mini challah buns. The Triplet is what I decided to order. My wife had a Montreal Smoked Meat (flown in once a week) sandwich which had a generous helping of meat. The sandwiches were filling and the coleslaw was excellent.

The prices are a little high ($9-$13 range) compared to an authentic deli like Schwartz's in Montreal where they charge about $5 for the same sandwich. Still...it hit the spot.

Pics http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus....

Xiao Long Bao

I'm not sure exactly when Xiao Long Bao became A Big Thing. I vaguely remember having it for the first time in San Francisco when my parents drove us all down for a trip to Disneyland many years ago. When I first bit into one, the juices squirted down my chin and made a mess of my T-shirt. A right of passage.



Over the years, I have seen it on menus, ordered it once in a while, but I never thought much of it. The last couple of years, I started reading food blogs and forums. I was surprised to see that these soup dumplings have taken on a mythical status. XLB became a beast worthy of a hunt. To many, it was the sine qua non of a city's Chinese cuisine. Without good XLB in your city, some say, then the Chinese food there must not be worth eating. Hyperbole, of course.

In Vancouver, the Chinese food scene has been dominated for decades by Cantonese style food. Since the relatively recent opening up of China, we have seen a great influx of Chinese immigrants from different parts of of this huge country. Some of them - mainly Northern Chinese and Shanghainese - brought their dumpling and XLB making skills to our shores.

The some of the best XLB in town are served in little holes in the wall like Wang's at the Food Court in Burnaby's Crystal Mall. The bigger dim sum places also serve it, albeit at higher prices and often, at lower than exemplary quality.

Here's a video from a recent trip to Wang's:

Wang's - Destination XLB in Burnaby

From Wang's Shangh...

I decided to visit Wang's today over lunch hour to update my XLB photos. The last time I was there was a few months ago (I posted my field trip to Crystal Mall with my two daughters here on CH). I had used the camera built-in to my Blackberry. The images were blurry and didn't do the subject matter justice.

I recently picked up a new digital camera (a Fuji Finepix FZ20)....what a huge difference in quality. Not surprising I guess. In any case, I managed to get some great photos and even some video of the XLB and XLB ladies at Wang's. I need to figure out how I am going to post the video, but for now...some photos.

Back on topic...

The XLB was excellent....perhaps equaling or topping my current favorite XLB at Lin Chinese Cuisine. The skin was very thin, the broth was flavourful and the pork ball was light. It only lost points for not having slivered ginger with their black vinegar (though it perhaps didn't really need it). It is also the most inexpensive XLB in the GVA at $3.25 per steamer of five.

I thought these new photos and Wang's by itself warranted a new topic outside of my current XLB Survey thread. They two ladies pictured are the two top XLB makers in the the GVA. The lady on the right has been making XLB for decades. Her rolling and pleating technique was amazing - completely effortless.

From downtown Vancouver, it only takes about 20-25 minutes to get to Crystal Mall on the Skytrain...well within the time constraints of a typical lunch hour. (Considering it only takes about 5 minutes to order and eat these babies).

Pics http://picasaweb.google.com/gu

Obsession: Dan Dan Mian Survey, Part One

I first fell for this dish (and Sichuan food) over 25 years ago at Szechuan Chongqing Restuarant in Vancouver's east side. We had "Tan Tan Noodles" every time we dined there over the last few decades. We were addicted. I introduced my soon-to-be wife to this dish and she too fell in love with it....probably more than I do.

Since then, my appreciation and knowledge of sichuan food has grown to be more sophisticated and I have come to realize that Szechuan Chongqing's rendition of these noodles is not authentic. Szechuan Chongqing's version of this dish is an "Americanized" peanutty concoction of noodles, peanut butter, chilis, garlic, and assorted other flavourings.

Dan Dan Mian (also called "Tan Tan Noodles") have two canonical "authentic" versions, both of which are outlined by Fuschia Dunlops excellent book The Land of Plenty. The two canonical styles are: the "Traditional Dan Dan Noodles" in the Chengdu style and the "Xie Laoban's Dan Dan Noodles". The difference between the two is in the sauce.

Tradition Dan Dan Mian has a tart, vinegary chili oil sauce that have the requisite ingredient: sichuan peppercorn.Without this peppercorn the dish just does not taste right. Xie Laoban's version has a thin sesame paste sauce with the same types of flavourings as the Tranditional version.



The Tradition Dan Dan Mian looks similar to this one from Golden Szechuan in Richmond. BC:


Note the thin, oily sauce with peanuts and pork. This particular restuarant, however, did not go far enough...more on that later.



Xie Laobon's version looks similar to this one from The Place Restaurant in Vancouver BC



This version uses a deep, toasted sesame paste as a flaovour base.



The third "inuathentic" version - the peanutty Americanized Dan Dan Noodle looks like this from Ba Guo Bu Yi in Richmond BC:



Peanut butter provides this version with a sweet creaminess that is irresistable to peanut butter fans (such as my wife).

to be continued....

Photo Essay: Pastry Heaven - Our trip to Thomas Haas

Thomas Haas Fine Chocolates & Patisserie

128-998 Harbourside Drive
North Vancouver, BC V7P 3T2, Canada
(604) 924-1847
Get directions

Song Huong - My Family's "Go To" Pho

Song Huong across from Bon's on Broadway on Nanaimo used to be our "go-to" Pho restaurant. Recently, they opened a second location much closer to my home near Nanaimo and First Ave.

The proprietors are from Hue in central Vietnam. Consequently, their style of pho is lighter and more clear than the usual dark and aromatic pho from the south. Their signature dish, however, is their bun ba mon - a bowl of vermicelli with an assortment of beef "sausages".



This dish comes with a strongly flavouored mam nem dipping sauce.. Mam nem is essentially unfiltered nuoc nam. The flavour reminds me of bagna cauda - the Italian anchovy, butter and gralic based dipping sauce.

Song Huong
2408 Nanaimo Street

Vancouver, BC V5N 5E4, Canada

(604) 251-1151‎
Map

My Chao Vietnamese Restuarant - Pho Ga Specialists

As much as I love pho bo (beef pho) , sometimes I seek something lighter. My default non-pho Vietnamese dish is bun...however, today, I was at My Chao. I had intended to try their bun so I can include it in my survey...however, this place is well known for its pho ga -- "chicken pho" with their special fried chicken.

My Chao is a Northern Vietnamese pho restaurant. A relative rarity in Vancouver where the pho scene is dominated by pho from the South. Norhtern pho (including the pho bo) is lighter and less redolent of the sweet spices that characterize pho as most of us know it - cloves, cinammon, star anise. The side dish of herbs includes ram rau - a herb not often seen in town.




My Chao is also known for their fried chicken, Vietnamese style. Tender and moist meat with a thin golden skin. Amazing.




This place was packed today.

Pho ga has a very light stock and and the noodles were fresh and tender. The stock was so light, it was refreshing.

Hue Regional Vietnamese Cuisine at Co Do

From Co Do

In my first time at Co Do, I was there to try their bun. Upon scanning their menu, I noticed some interesting menu items that were unusual for a typical Vietnamese pho restaurant. I thought that they must be regional cuisine, so I asked the proprietors where they where from in Vietnam. They told me that they were from Hue - a city in the central Vietnam which also happens to be the former dynastic capital of feudal Vietnam. The cuisine from Hue was heavily influenced by the kitchens of the royal courts and is distinct from the cuisines from the North and the South. I had already ordered my bun, so I promised myself to come back soon to try these interesting looking items.

Today I came back and brought a food loving friend. We ordered bahn ram banh it (shrimp paste with rice ball on top of crispy rice cake; banh canh tom cua bot loc (a fish, crab, shimp, tapioca noodle soup; bahn nam (banana leaf wrapped shrimp paste, pork and rice paste) and banh uot (rice flour cakes with shrimp paste).

This meal was all Texture because of what we decided to order -- the dishes were all unusually glutinous. Next time I come here, I will bring a couple more friends so I can contrast these dishes with some grilled items, fresh salad items, and some deep fried items....and perhaps a bowl of bun bo Hue (the most well known Hue dish). There were only two of us and we were committed to giving these dishes a try. Carrying onwards....

The soup had a flavourful and starch-thickend fish broth, yellow and earth with turmeric. The tapioca noodles were quite gelatinous. It had pieces of fresh crab, shrimp, and sliced eel.

The bahn nam was very similar to a Filipino rice tamale. The shrimp and pork paste was subtley spiced and benefited from the nuoc nam - based dipping sauce.

The banh ram banh it was an appetizer sized order that looked almost like a scallop dish. The fried rice cake's texture contrasted nicely with the glutinous rice ball.

The banh uot was a platter full of the rice cakes topped with the dried shrimp paste and Vietnamese ham. It too came with a nuoc nam dipping sauce.

Once again, I would not order a meal with just this set of dishes....this particular meal was purely experimental. I would choose one or two of these dishes and fill out the rest of the order with other items. Co Do also does a great bun and from all accounts a great pho....however, make sure to give the Hue dishes a try if you do decide to pop in.

Co Do
950 Kingsway Vancouver BC

Random Shots: Pig Roasting in my 'hood

The Brave Bull House of Steaks

If David Lynch were a restauranteur, this is the kind of place he would run.

Many of you Vancouverites have probably driven by this place at Hastings and Clark, but have never considered dining there. The signs outside the building advertise steaks for $8.95. So is it worth the time to eat there? It depends on what you are looking for. If you are looking for a great steak, keep driving. If you are looking for a strange, Lynchian parallel universe....then this is the place for you.

The restaurant is run by old Chinese couple who are both in their 70's. The lady owner who served us explained in her broken English the they kept their 1991 prices because they were too lazy to change the signage outside. The restaurant's clientele is made up mainly of regulars who live in this area. They are an odd mix of truckers, tattooed longshoremen, prostitutes, and slumming hipsters.

The food...well, let's just say it isn't worth discussing....but since this is a food board...The Salad is bagged iceberg lettuce mix. You get a choice of bottled dressing...I opted for Italian. You also get a choice of soup: beef barley and cream of mushroom - both canned. I chose cream of mushroom. My friend had the steak and I had prime rib. The gravy was an odd grey colour and tasted like powdered gravy cut with flour. The beef was definitely not Prime or AAA....it might be beef down into the "B" grades. The meals come with a foil-covered baked potato...with the requisite Bacon Bits.

The food was edible...but with such places such as the Argo (steak for $10 Rib Eye), Stella's ($12 Steak Frites), or even the Hamilton Street Grill ($12? Hanger Steak), there really isn't a reason to this far downmarket to save three or four bucks....unless of course you are really after the ambiance.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus....

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Tofino Food and Wine Festival

From Tofino Food a...

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus.maximus/TofinoFoodAndWineFest

My family took advantage of the great hotel and festival package deals that were being offered for this event. We go to Tofino about once a year to recharge in its hyper-oxygenated environment. The first time we went was 11 years ago for our honeymoon. Back then, the food scene was lacking. Beyond the high-end restaurants at the resort hotels (The Pointe at the Wickaninnish Inn for example)...Tofino was a gastronomic ghost town. I can see why - the town's population in the winter collapses to about 1,800 denizens - hardly enough to support chain restaurants (thank goodness - Tofino is still a Starbucks-free Zone), let alone some high-end ones.

It's a very different scene now. Over the last three or so years, some great places to eat have opened up in town. SoBo (review forthcoming on a different post), which started off in a converted lunch truck, signaled great things for this town. Now we have Shelter, Raincoast Cafe, Trilogy (at the Botanical Gardens cafe formerly occupied by SoBo), and Wildside Grill.

This is my first time attending this event. Since it was being held outdoors in the middle of a rainforest, I was worried about the inclement weather. Tofino is notorious for unpredictable Pacific Coast weather. The weather reports did not look promising. We were lucky - it was stunningly sunny the whole time we were there. The weather for the event could not have been better.

The event itself, which was held at the Botanical Gardens, was actually quite small. Despite its diminutive size, some heavy-hitters from the BC wine biz showed up to support. Joie, Quail's Gate, Sandhill, and many others offered flights of their best stuff. The wine tasting alone more than made up for the cost of entry. My favourite spot was the Joie - Oysterman gazebo where you were can sip Joie wines and have freshly shucked oysters. I lingered there for quite a while. Lesser known wineries, plus some meaderies and cideries also represented.

The "food" side of the festival was a little lacking - some of the town's restaurants served samples of their appetizers; Chocolate Tofino, Sweet T's were there to round it out with some dessert fare. I'm hoping that as the event grows in stature, the food tastings will balance out the already great wine tastings.

We had our children with us. Luckily, the event organizers set up child care at the hostel right at the Botanical Gardens. They had fun playing with the other kids. I snuck out some seafood brochettes for them to eat.

Some off-site events were held during the evenings that I chose not to attend (eg the Winemaker Tasting dinners at Shelter, Long Beach Lodge, and the interesting sounding sustainable fisheries dinner held by Red Fish Blue Fish at the Trilogy. Perhaps next year.

Photos: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus....

Sobo's New Digs

From Sobo, Tofino

Whenever I tell my kids that we are going to Tofino, it isn't the beach or the forests that they think of first...they both yell: "Sobo!" in unison.

To me, the evolution of Sobo embodies the maturation of the Tofino food scene. Chef Lisa Ahier and hubby Artie Ahier made a lifestyle choice to move to Tofino from their former home of Texas. They started Sobo in a purple lunch truck in a parking lot. A few years ago they moved to the cafe at the Botanical Gardens. Then this past year they moved again...this time to an expansive, bright space right downtown Tofino.

The past couple of years, we ate at Sobo for at least two meals a day. To me, Sobo "gets it." They serve healthy food at an exceptional value. We always go for the same dishes - their fish tacos in a fruit salsa and their now world famous Polenta Fries. This time around, they had fresh oysters on special...so oysters for lunch as well. Why not?! I also noticed that they took extra care with the presentation of many of the dishes I say coming out of the kitchen. Their soba noodles used to have a rustic presentation....It now has a architectural look to it - a tower of soba with a flurry of garnish.

As much we love going to Sobo, I'm also very happy that we now have many more dining options. Still...next year when we are in Tofino, Sobo will definitely be one of our first stops.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus....

I'm a Sucker for Good Bread

600 Degrees in Tofino has some of the best bread I have had in a very, very long time. The owner, Julie Lomenda , is a total hearth bread geek. She apprenticed under renowned bread builder Alan Scott.

Alan Scott has designed and built dozens of his famous barrel vaulted ovens all around the world. Salt Spring Island (The Bread Lady) has an Alan Scott oven. There are a number of un-named private ovens scattered around Vancouver and the Islands, as well.

Julie's naturally-leavened breads...especially Walnut Loaf is truly a work of art and passion.

Calm Waters, Tofino

From Calm Waters, ...

This was my most disappointing meal in Tofino. I didn't really have any expectations, since Calm Waters never gets any coverage from the food press. We were already staying at the Tin Wis so I thought we should give this room a shot.

Three Words: "Cruise Ship Food".

Uninspired and insipid. The food and ingredients were fresh, but this place does not cater to my tastes at all.

Obsession: Bun - The "Other Vietnamese Noodle", Part One

As I write this, Vancouver is experiencing June-uary weather - still cold enough to warrant a bowl of Pho for lunch. However, I have long switched into my summer cheap lunch - Bun ("boon"). For the unitiated, bun is essentially a rice noodle salad topped with (usually) grilled meat and other items such as spring rolls. My favorite type of bun is topped with spring roll and grilled pork - or Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio. Most menus will offer grilled beef, chicken, shredded pork, tofu, etc.

Following the footsteps of Vancouver gastronaut and Pho afficianado Knightafter (Knightafter, if you are reading this, you are an inspiration!), I have set out to do a mini-survey of Bun in this town. There is just NO WAY I can provide the same coverage as Knightafter who - at the last count - has cataloged over 43 Pho restuarants in this city (I think he is actually close to 50 at this point). He is a man on a mission. http://www.eatvancouver.net/2008/06/04/knightafter-did-it-again/

My paltry little survey attempt is currently at seven shops...I will update as I eat more Bun.

There doesn't seem to be a canonical bun...every shop does it differently. After sampling the bun from about four or five shops, I believe I have come up with my own personal criteria...

What do I look for in a Bun (specifically Bun Thit Nuong Cha Gio)?

1. Fresh Noodles reconstituted in fresh water - some places do not change their water often enough which detracts from the ricey-ness of the noodles. It actually tastes " off or dishwatery" if the water is not changed often. The noodles should be the "thin" kind and not the wider "pho" kind. The noodles, IMO, should be at room temperature or slightly below. I don't care for tepid vermicelli.
2. Great grilled meat - good char, good flavour (most often with lemongrass), tender and sweet
3. Great spring roll - some places use Chinese style wrappers, Vietnamese rice paper, or rarely Banh Xeo crepe tinted yellow with turmeric
4. Good ratio of fresh crispy greens to vermicelli - shredded cucumber, iceberg lettuce and bean sprouts seem to be the most common. The addition of quick pickled carrots and daikon is also common. Bun should taste and crunch more like a salad, IMO.
5. Good herbs - Mint/Basil, Cilantro and/or Scallion - The mint/basil is often spearmint, Vietnamese mint/basil, rarely Perilla and almost never sawtooth herb (a common addition in Vietnam). I would love to have some others that are commonly available in Vietnam (many of which, BTW, is available at nearly all the Vietnamese grocers along Kingsway)
6. Freshly made dipping sauce (Nuoc Mam) - with Nuoc Nam (fish sauce), Vinegar, Sugar and Water. Often with slivers of carrot and daikon.
7. Freshly toasted and crushed peanuts - this makes a huge difference, IMO
8. Presentation - Bun should look colourful and beautiful.

Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/gustibus....