Author: My Husband

My wife and I have been customers at Shanghai River since it opened, and we think it is the best beifang (northern Chinese) cuisine restaurant in the lower mainland. The people who own Shanghai River have seen fit to put some money into the upkeep of the restaurant, and things still look fresh and clean even after all these years.

We think they make some of the best “xiao long bao”, as well as a bevy of northern Chinese standards, in the lower mainland. As far as Chinese cuisine goes, I’m more partial to Cantonese, which I feel has a wider range. However, once in a while, when the itch for beifang food needs to be scratched, we will return to Shanghai River.

Here are some of our favourite dishes from a recent meal there:

We started with some xiao long bao.

Shanghai River has two varieties – the standard bao with just pork, or the xie fen bao with added crab roe and meat. We went for the xie fen bao, which adds a strong hint of crab roe flavour that goes very well with the pork. In Shanghai, most xiao long bao is of the xie fen variety; I think that is definitely the way to eat them. Shanghai River’s baos have a consistently thin skin, and there is a healthy dose of crab roe tinged broth that is oh so good. This is one of the must-have dishes at this restaurant.

Next up, some prawns.

These are prawns fried in soy sauce. The sweet and savory soy sauce complemented the sweetness of the prawns perfectly. The prawns were firm and fleshy – very satisfying.

Then, some crab claws.

My wife really likes this dish. Each “ball” is made by rolling crab/prawn paste into a ball around a whole crab claw, breading it, and then deep frying it. This version was good, though not that different than the many other versions we’ve tried at other quality Chinese restaurants.

And then, my favourite dish at Shanghai River.

This is a tofu hotpot with crab meat and roe. The strong flavors of the crab roe are imparted to the tofu, which is soft and smooth. The tofu, as well as the rich and complex sauce, is perfect accompaniment for simple steamed rice. We don’t usually have rice when we eat out in restaurants, but we made an exception for this dish.

And then some smoked duck.

This is another one of Christina’s favourite at Shanghai River. This ducked, smoked with black tea, is lean, yet moist and flavourful. While smoked duck can never be described at tender, Shanghai River’s version has a texture that yields readily to your bite. And the tea-smoked flavour is very strong in the meat.

And finally, a dish that we got for my mom.

Broccoli with fluffy egg white and conpoy (dried scallops). This is a simple dish, yet very comforting. The egg white and shredded conpoy is a perfect foil for the broccoli – the green-ness of the vegetable is toned down by the eggs and even I, of the vegetable averse school, ate some.

Shanghai River is one of those restaurants that have paid attention to the details and gone from strength to strength through the years. The place is always packed, so reservations are a must if you are planning to visit.

Author: My Husband

In the 20+ years I’ve lived in Vancouver, I have eaten at many places. Chain restaurants, ethnic restaurants, fine-dining restaurants, hole-in-the-walls, hot dog stands, not-quite-a-stand, etc; you name it, chances are I’ve done it. But regardless of the type of eatery, I’ve noticed an affliction that ails 80% of the places I’ve patronized – they don’t last more than 5 years in business.

Why these places go out of business, I don’t know. Perhaps the owners don’t know how to run a business? Or perhaps they had a bad business plan to begin with? Or maybe they had a run of bad luck? Maybe they’re bored with the business and want to do something else? Or maybe, just maybe, they’ve achieved their financial goals and can get on with retirement living? Whatever the case may be, the fact that 80% of restaurants fail within 5 years is a pretty damning statistic. Who in their right mind would want to break into the food business, given the odds against them? It would take a very confident businessman, or a very foolish one, to start up a new restaurant operation. However, year after year, many people do.

Just as with people getting into the restaurant business, year after year, many couples get married. And while the odds of a marriage breaking down, at approx 50%, are better than the odds of a restaurant failing, those are still pretty dismal numbers. Yet, sure as the sun rises in the east, people continue to get hitched every day. Statistically speaking, it is a fool’s game. Yet the cock-eyed optimist in all of us drives us to give marriage a go, to put our love, minds and hearts to beating the odds. And sure as there are restaurants that become profitable concerns, there are marriages that become long-lasting, loving unions.

Le Crocodile celebrates its 26th year in business in 2009, and Christina and I celebrate our third anniversary as a wedded couple (and over a decade as a couple) this year. And we really couldn’t think of a better restaurant – an successful, well-liked, long-established and profitable concern – in which to have our anniversary dinner.

As I’ve written in my previous post on Le Crocodile, there are some things that don’t change at the restaurant. The charming ambience, the impeccable service, the verbally-recited list of specials, Christina’s choice of appetizer…

This is how our evening went:

After placing our order, we were presented with complimentary amuse bouches of savory egg tartlets. The egg custard was so smooth it would give the best Portuguese egg tart filling a run for its money.

Christina’s foie gras. Notice that the preparation of this dish hasn’t changed since the last time we had it? It tasted as good as ever and my wife loved it.

My starter of roasted beef bone marrow. I’m not usually one to stick to the same appetizer, but I wasn’t totally satisfied with the way Le Croc prepared the marrow during our last visit and wanted it done differently this time. I requested a naked roasting of the bone marrow, with only a dusting of salt, pepper and thyme. These came out great, and tasted like the dish I had in France. The portion was huge this time around, and by the time I finished it, I was pretty full. Interestingly, my wife didn’t like this one bit. She claimed it tasted disgustingly like pork fat; but that is precisely the reason why I like it…

Christina’s main course of Angus steak. This was served with a slice of foie gras terrine atop the steak. The terrine, which had slightly softened from the heat of the meat, was as smooth as silken tofu. The beef had the texture of butter, only slightly more chewy. The jus had the perfect balance of richness and acidity. This was a really superbly executed dish.

My main course of lamb shank. The lamb was very tender, and there was a lot of it. I found the jus too acidic, but it may have been intentional as there was so much meat. I could only finish one of the two shanks.

Complimentary pear sorbet palette cleanser. There was some pear liquor in this, and it tasted suitably pear-ish.

We ordered the same dessert that we had on our last visit. Chocolate covered crepes with a rich hazelnut cream filling. It’s every bit as good as it looks.

Another year, another anniversary. Another meal at Le Crocodile, another satisfying experience. Some events and places go together naturally, and we think we’ve found our preferred pairing.

Author: My Husband

What, two sushi posts in a row? Well, I did say we’ve been eating more than our fair share of sushi in my previous post, didn’t I?

The focus of this post is Miko Sushi on Robson Street. Here are some fun facts about the place: (1) it has been at the same location for over 10 years; (2) the chefs and waitresses are Japanese; (3) many professional athletes have eaten and left their marks here.

Both side walls of the restaurant are plastered with autographs of pro athletes who have eaten here. It would seem that many of the Canucks stars like sushi…

Without further ado, here’s our meal:

Fanny bay oysters. These were fresh and briny, and served with the typical Japanese ponzu mix.

Deep fried soft shelled crab. It is difficult to find well-prepared soft shelled crabs in Vancouver, and these were lacking as well. The lack of batter, and perhaps insufficient oil temperature, meant the crab retained more oil than a perfect deep-fry job. It was less than crisp, though the meat was still firm and tasted fresh. Alas, the gills were not removed before deep frying, which resulted in us having to inelegantly pick them from our mouths.

My nigiri. Toro, hamachi, tamago, ebi, uni, and tobiko. The uni was perfect, and the fish was fresh. The ebi was probably pre-packaged and too firm, but there was a sweetness to it. The sushi rice was seasoned well, but packed a little too tightly.

My wife’s nigiri. Toro, unagi, and amaebi. Christina claimed it was all good, with the unagi and amaebi being standouts. The unagi was perfectly boneless, had a good balance of fat, and a sauce with just the right amount of sweetness. The amaebi was very fresh, with a very crunchy texture that didn’t become too gluey during the chew.

As mentioned in my previous post, we like to end our sushi meals with some hot courses. We had a roasted eggplant topped with bonito. I was expecting the eggplant to be marinated or basted with a sauce during the roasting, but it was done naked. As a result, it tasted pretty bland even with the bonito topping.

Grilled black cod. This dish was a winner; the fish was perfectly cooked with rich, tender flakes of black cod just melting in our mouths.

Grilled salmon belly. This dish was a bit of a mixed bag. For the parts that had lots of fat surrounding the meat, it was rich, tender and flavourful. The leaner parts were a little overcooked and firm.

We used to eat at Miko when we were living downtown, and we’re happy to report that standards have been maintained over the years. Their prices have also held over the years and if anything, may actually have dropped! When we’re in that part of town and looking for a Japanese fix, Miko is still our favourite choice.

Author: My Husband

Those of us who are in Vancouver have been living through the dog days of summer these past several weeks. The mid 20’s temperature and the harsh sunshine have ganged up to make the interior of our home swelteringly warm, and that has really curbed our appetites for hot dinners. So lately, we’ve been having more than our fair share of sushi.

Christina and I do not patronize any of the all-you-can-eat sushi joints. The AYCE menus do not interest us much, and we simply do not eat enough to make the prices worth our while. We try to eat at middle-of-the-road Japanese restaurants that strike a reasonable balance between quality and price, though admittedly, such places are difficult to find.

One such place, in our humble opinion, is a smallish restaurant in Richmond named Torarenbo. The restaurant setup is pretty interesting – the chefs behind the sushi counter are Japanese, but the front-of-house staff is mostly (all?) Chinese. I don’t think I have encountered a restaurant with this staffing mix in Vancouver – has anybody else?

At any rate, Torarenbo has won quite a bit of our business these few years. The service is friendly, and the chefs know what they are doing. The place is almost always packed, so reservations are a must.

Here’s what we had when we visited two nights ago:

Many Japanese restaurants serve oysters on the half shell at attractive prices. At many smallish places, ordering live shell fish tends to be a crapshoot; sometimes you get fresh briny oysters, other times, you get detritus that is well past their peak. At Torarenbo, we’ve gotten pretty fresh oysters when we’ve ordered them. This time, it was 5 Mary Point (I think!) oysters that were creamy and mildy salty. The ponzu mignonette was a little strong for these delicate tasting oysters, but they were still good eats.

We had some cream-of-corn croquettes that were very crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Unlike French croquettes where the mashed potatoes are on the dry side, the texture of these Japanese croquettes was almost runny. This interplay of textures and flavours – savory mashed potato vs the slightly sweet creamed corn filling – makes this one of our favourite dishes at Torarenbo.

This was one of the specials available on the day we visited. Shima Aji is a medium fat, rich-tasting fish that has a toothsome texture. Think Hamachi, but with bolder flavours and less crunch. This was very nice, though a little on the pricey side.

The nigiri at Torarenbo is competently prepared. I haven’t eaten at top-notch places like Urasawa’s or even Tojo’s, so I don’t have a reference for what top-quality nigiri is like. At Torarenbo, there is a good ratio of rice to ingredient, and the knife work looks good. We’ve never run across any sinewy or chewy pieces, and what we’ve had always tasted fresh. In our order, the unagi and hamachi were pretty enjoyable, and my wife thought the saba was tops. The uni was alright; it was not as fresh or creamy as live uni, but it was nowhere near its past due date. The ebi, sadly, was overcooked and tasteless. I imagine the chef used packaged ebi for this.

The amaebi is served with a deep-fried head. This was very good, and Christina ordered the amaebi more for this than the nigiri itself.

We had some chopped scallop maki to fill up . Not the prettiest of maki, but it tasted pretty good. Scallops were still toothsome and not overpowered by the mayo.

After sushi, we always like to finish up with something warm. I find that a warm course helps to settle the stomach after eating raw seafood. At Torarenbo, I always have an onigiri as my last course. They do it very well here – the rice is not burnt, not overly hard, and there is a generous amount of filling in it.

We enjoy our meals at Torarenbo – they serve up good quality at reasonable prices. With so many sushi restaurants in Vancouver, you’d think there be more places like Torarenbo, but this isn’t the case. I’m sure there are similar places out there we haven’t been to yet – for our Vancouver readers, what are you favourite sushi haunts?

Author: My Husband

In all the years we have been eating Japanese food, we have never tried omakase. We’ve always preferred certain Japanese dishes over others, and weren’t convinced that a chef could read our minds well enough after a 3-min Q&A session to serve us what we liked. Some might argue that is a positive, that by leaving the choice of our dinner ingredients to the chef, we would be served dishes that could expand our culinary horizons and push our Japanese-food boundaries. That is a good argument, but when dollars that could be spent on food that we LIKE are being put up for a chef’s guess of our likes/dislikes, well, we’d have to be convinced that the chef was damned near psychic.

A few years ago, while talking about Japanese food with a friend from Japan, we asked her if there was a restaurant she particularly liked. She thought for a little bit, and said “Octopus Garden”. Thinking she misunderstood my question, I repeated it, this time with more emphasis on “Japanese”. “Octupus Garden” was the unblinking reply. That was the very first time we’d heard of this little restaurant in Kitsilano. Minako told us that even her visitors from Japan enjoyed the food at the restaurant, and she suggested that we have dinner there. So one fine day, back in 2003, we went to this funky and colourful little Japanese restaurant in Kitsilano where the food (and nautical décor) made a huge impression on us. Prices weren’t cheap, but we got what we paid for. For two or three years after that, we paid OG the occasional visit when we wanted good Japanese good. But after we moved to Richmond in 2006, we stopped visiting.

Two weeks ago, our foodie friend J took two out-of-town visitors to OG for omakase. She had a phenomenal experience there and painted such a beautiful picture of the food that…we had to drag her back there to experience it ourselves. On the strength of J’s recommendation and our faith in her tastebuds, we rounded up our new-found eating buddies B and W, and along with J and another friend D, headed off to OG for our very own omakase meal…

The exterior of the restaurant hasn’t changed much from 2006, but I think the interior has been reconfigured to include a “private” booth. And as was the case back in 2006, all the chefs and waitresses were Japanese. Interestingly, the chef did not conduct much of a Q&A with us; J told him we wanted the lobster omakase and after making sure we weren’t allergic to any foods, he set off to create our meal.

Here’s what we had:

I think these were kumamotos. These were not as fresh and clean tasting as they could be. Everybody commented on the too-strong smell of shellfish, so it wasn’t just one or two of the oysters that were over the freshness curve.

Mussels on a bed of greens. The mussels were fleshy and sweet, and these were fresh. The slightly bitter greens (with a vinaigrette dressing) were a good counterpoint for them.

Sashimi platter. Every guest had individually portioned servings of sashimi – salmon, snapper, and tuna – on a scallop shell. The salmon and snapper were very good, though sliced in an unorthodox fashion. My tuna, which was quite rich tasting, was a little too mushy for my taste. The lobster sashimi was very very good; it had a toothsome, almost crunchy, texture and a clean, sweet taste.

We were presented with some freshly grated wasabi for the sashimi. We tried to grate the root for more, but were not very successful at doing so.

Deep fried enoki mushrooms, deep fried cheeks of black cod, and squid ink pasta. The squid ink pasta was rich and the enoki crunchy. The cod cheeks were a little tough, maybe a smaller fish or a different style of preparation (e.g. robata), would have resulted in a finished product that was more tender?

Lobster soup. The leftover lobster meat was cooked in a garlicky miso-based broth that showed off multiple layers of flavours: umami, savory, sweet. It was very tasty!

Next came a beautifully presented platter of sushi. There were rolls made with lobster and spicy tuna. There were nigiri sushi made with black cod belly (though there was really more skin than belly) and a combination of salmon/ikura. While these were all good, I wouldn’t say they were particularly memorable. And yes, that was the lobster head being used as a lamp.

Then came some deep fried pieces of fish dressed in orange sauce (and chunks of orange). This may sound irreverent, but this dish tasted a bit like the sweet and sour fish you can get at Chinese restaurants. It certainly wasn’t bad, but again, not very memorable.

White sesame ice cream with a matcha-infused Madeleine. Very strong notes of sesame came through in the ice cream, and all of us enjoyed it tremendously. My wife, who loves black sesame ice cream, asked for and received a sample of the same. She said it was great.

So, what did I think of the omakase meal? Well, the chef served us dishes that we liked, so in that sense, he read us rather well. On the other hand, Christina and I (and our dining buddies in fact) are a lot more adventurous when it comes to Japanese food, and as such, the meal did not come close to expanding our horizons or pushing our boundaries. J also mentioned that the meal she had prior to this was better – certain ingredients were fresher, and the sashimi more varied. While the quality and preparation were good foodwise, I think the chefs at OG are capable of better. I remember the food being better back when Christina and I patronized the place, but there’s always the possibility that my memory may be playing tricks on me.

Ultimately, the company we had that evening made the meal really enjoyable, and thus, it was a fantastic dinner in my books. B, W, J, and D, thanks for a great evening! Christina and I look forward to doing it again soon!

Author: My Husband

Finally, we have arrived at the last post on my Singapore-India trip. It took a while, but I’m glad to have gotten out the series of posts that I’d planned. I hope it was easy reading, and maybe even a little illuminating, for some of our readers out there.

Right, back on topic then… For anyone wanting a full culinary experience in Singapore, the (in)famous Chilli Crab is not to be missed. I don’t know much about the origins of this dish, and there are as many stories about it as there are people to tell it, but what I do know is that Chilli Crabs have gotten as close to being Singapore’s “national” dish as any.

Naturally, being a “national” dish, there are a multitude of establishments that serve it. From the humble neighbourhood hawker centers to Singapore’s most swanky restaurants, each cooks up their own variant of Chilli Crabs. Despite this, I always head (or am taken) to one of the three seafood chains for my fill of this dish: Jumbo, Long Beach, or Palm Beach.

This trip found me and my relatives at the new-ish Palm Beach branch at One Fullerton. One Fullerton provides a very pretty setting for restaurant, especially during dusk.

Restaurants along the One Fullerton river walk.

The hotels at Marina Bay. You can see the multicoloured F1 grandstands on the right.

The décor of the restaurant is sleek and modern, and aside from the bank of seafood tanks lining the back wall, I wouldn’t have guessed this was a Chilli Crabs place.

Here’s what we had:

Palm beach chilli crab. A meaty Sri Lankan crab cooked in a tomato/chilli sauce. The meat of the Sri Lankan crab is firmer and less flaky than that of a Dungeness, and has a hint of sweetness to it. The crab meat is a vehicle for getting the sauce into one’s stomach. I like a thicker sauce, so Long Beach’s Chilli Crabs are a bit more to my liking, but Palm Beach’s was pretty decent too. That said, I’d still vote for Long Beach as my preferred place for this dish.

Deep fried man tou. We got these to soak up the remainder of the chilli sauce.

Deep fried whole baby squids dressed in a sweet and spicy sauce. The squids are super crispy. Tastewise, there is an initial sweetness that complements the crispness really well, followed by a long and nicely spicy finish.

Fresh prawns in Dang Gui (當歸) broth. The prawns, scooped up from a live tank right before preparation, were toothsome and had a natural sweetness to them. The broth was a good mix of umami, sweetness, and woody-ness (thanks to the Dang Gui).

Fish otak. This was fish paste wrapped up in a leaf, then deep fried. Tasted much the same as other deep fried fish paste – nothing very special about it.

Chicken satay. We ordered a ½-dozen to try, and it was decent. I liked the Chinese-style pineapple dip that could be added to the regular satay sauce.

Rojak! This version even had century eggs in it. It wasn’t bad – the rojak sauce was too weak – but the one we had at Food Republic was much better.

Prawn/Squid fritters. Sorta the same concept as otak, except without the leaf and with prawn/squid paste instead of fish. And like the otak, it tasted much the same as other deep fried seafood paste…

Sambal kang kong. I am known to have a dislike for veggies, but I really liked this dish. The kang kong vegetable is very tender and non-fibrous, and just soaks up the sambal flavors.

Deep fried silken tofu. The tofu was made in house, and was supposed to be really smooth. It was good, but really not that different than the tubed silken egg tofu that can be found at T&T.

After two days of vegging out and (over)indulgent eating, it was time to head home. I met up with my friend D, who had flown in from HK that day, at the airport and we caught the SIA flight home.

Before leaving Singapore, both D and I had some satay at the airside T3 restaurant. It wouldn’t have been as good as that which was available elsewhere in Singapore, but it sated our hunger and was as good a meal as any to end the trip with.

The Satay restaurant in Changi T3

The size of the satay is worth noting. This reminded me of the size of the satay sticks served in Vancouver…

The SIA flight from Singapore required a tech stop at the Incheon Airport in Seoul. We got into Incheon close to midnight local time, and the airside shops were all closed. So D and I made our way to the Asiana Airlines lounge, which was thankfully still open.

The lounge was opened recently, and is decorated in a fusion modern-Korean and old-English theme. We sat ourselves down in the food section and helped ourselves to snacks.

Coke is bottled in smaller cans in Korea.

The lounge attendants could cook you some instant noodles if you asked.

Pretty measly selection of liquor, but lots of interesting Korean soft drinks…

Like this. An energy drink with added vitamin C.

Finger sandwiches and a salad bar were still on offer despite the late hour.

Korean snack cakes – tasted very much like twinkies. I took a couple of these home for Christina and she quite liked them!

Ok. Next posts – Vancouver restaurants.

Author: My Husband

I asked some of my India-based colleagues if they ate Chinese food, and the response was an overwhelming “Yes!” One of them volunteered that many Indians love Chinese food, but he goes on to explain that Chinese food in India is different (i.e. much spicier) than that available elsewhere. This really piqued my curiosity, so one evening, I suggested to D and M that we have dinner at Chinoiserie, the Taj’s Chinese restaurant.

The entrance is a bit nondescript for a fine-dining restaurant…

But the table setting and stemware certainly didn’t look out of place.

The head chef – originally from Hunan – at Chinoiserie actually came by the table to take our order personally. Frankly, I think he was just happy to have the opportunity to meet some people with whom he could converse in Mandarin.

Before our main dishes arrived, we were given some pickled veggies to whet our appetities.

Before long, our mains arrived. Like Sonargaon, the waiters divvied up the food between the three of us. However, the portions at Chinoiserie were more generous and as a result, there was enough food remaining for seconds and thirds.

Stir-fried veg. with mushrooms. Tasted like regular stir-fried veggies to me.

Lemon chicken. This was a deep-fried chicken cutlet dressed with a sweet/tart lemon sauce, very much like what Hon’s serves. I remember thinking that the Hon’s version actually tasted better.

Stir-fried Spicy Lamb. This was probably the best dish of the evening; the meat was tender and the spiciness added an extra kick to it. As you can see, it doesn’t look appreciably different than any stir-fried meat dishes in North America…

I think the chef tried to make the dishes a little more “Chinese” for us, so we didn’t get to experience the Chinese-Indian fusion flavours described by our colleagues. Since the food wasn’t much different than that available back home, we only visited Chinoiserie once.

Author: My Husband

The Taj is an excellent hotel, and most of the restaurants in the property were correspondingly excellent. Sonargaon, the Indian restaurant, was where my colleagues and I ended up having dinner most often.

The décor is quite elaborate, with the designer trying to create the look and feel of a rural house.

The photos below show one of our dinners there. The waiters actually divvied up the portions onto our plates, which we found novel at first. But then, it became quite impractical as each of us ended up being over/under served. On subsequent visits, we told the waiters to just leave the food on the table.

Instead of the trio of chutneys typically served in Vancouver Indian restaurants, Sonargaon provides a plate of pickled pearl onions, onion slivers, as well as cucumber and carrot sticks. For the more adventurous, there were also two super hot chilli peppers.

Papadams were nicely crispy and spicy, though my colleague M thought they were a little too spicy.

Raan Sonargaon. This is a tandoor roasted leg of lamb finished in a curry sauce, and is a northern Indian dish. The meat was tender, and the curry a little milder than the Kosha Mangsho (below). This is consistent with what I have been told: that northern Indian dishes tend to be less spicy compared to their southern counterparts.

Kosha Mangsho, or Bengali Mutton Curry. A rich, spicy dish, with the gaminess of the mutton slightly masked by the curry. Despite the heat, the other layers of flavours came through. I had to wash this one down with plenty of Kingfisher…

Daal made using black lentils. This was easily the best daal I’ve eaten, with a luxurious, creamy texture. The maitre’d mentioned that a lot of cream was used in its preparation.

Rumali roti. This was a very thin, very delicate bread (folded up like a handkerchief) that went very well with the curries. Just slightly thicker than a crepe, this bread tasted surprisingly doughy.

I did not capture any photos of our other meals at Sonargaon. Not surprisingly, I’ve never had better Indian food anywhere else. In fact, Sonargaon has raised the bar for Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) so high, I’m thinking of giving up on ordering it in Vancouver restaurants. The Butter chicken was an off-menu item that we ordered on 3 occassions, but the chef did such a masterful job that one would have thought it was a best-seller in the restaurant. The flavourful and moist tandoori chicken (thigh pieces) served as the perfect vehicle for transporting the wonderfully rich and creamy sauce into our stomachs. To make a good Butter Chicken, using good tandoori chicken is quite essential! The chef came out to chat with us the third time we ordered it, but he was probably secretly thinking we had a very one-dimensional view of Indian food.

Despite Sonargaon being the Taj Bengal’s flagship restaurant, the service was strangely hit and miss. One evening, we ordered three mango kulfis for dessert, which they had run out of at a previous dinner. The waiter went off and came back with three servings, mumbled something about “…chef saying this is good for you…” and set them on the table. It wasn’t mango kulfi. We asked the waiter to repeat what he said, and he replied, “The chef said caramel kulfi is better for you, that’s why we’re serving it to you…”. Since we didn’t mind that much (and found it pretty funny actually), we just ate up and chalked one up to experience…

Author: My Husband

Some of our readers may recall the post about Paris where I wrote “Business travel blends into a blur of planes, hotels, and boardrooms…”. Most frequent travelers can relate to this, where they – just for the briefest of moments – don’t remember where they are. This is especially true when travel takes you to any one of the generic-looking “developed” cities around the world.

But then there are some places that are so different, so in-your-face unique, that you can’t help but be reminded of where you are at every waking moment. Kolkata happens to be one of them. I’ve been in India for the last 2 weeks on business, and I must say that I did not, at any moment, forget where I was.

Kolkata was quite an experience, but one of the curious side effect of staying there and eating local food for a fortnight is that you begin to pine for other types of food. Now, Indian food in India is brilliant, with tastes, smells, and nuances that Vancouver Indian food can only aspire to. However, after two full weeks of eating spicy food, no matter how brilliantly cooked, I started becoming a little indifferent to it. I mean, you would get sick of lobster if you eat it everyday, no? Most people, especially people who care about food, would wholeheartedly agree that variety is the key to gastronomic happiness. Sure, taste is important, but can you see yourself eating the same beautifully cooked dish every night for dinner? I’m sure you would be willing to trade a little quality for more variety, wouldn’t you? So variety and choice is really what enjoying food is about, and that statment then provides a nice segue into the topic for this post.

During the last week of March, Christina and I were invited to a “Foodie’s night” at the recently opened R.TL restaurant. Since we are always game to try out new places, we accepted the invitation. In the interest of full disclosure, we were guests of the restaurant and did not have to foot the bill for our food and beverages that evening.

RTL is located in a cozy little space in Yaletown. We initially thought that the place was more of a lounge than a restaurant, since the L in R.TL stood for “lounge”. The darkly tinted automated sliding glass door entrance didn’t change our impression – if anything, it felt even more lounge-ish. But once inside, we discovered that it was set up like a little bistro. A bistro with very modern touches and a lounge-ish feel, that is. Carrie, who invited us, showed us to a nice table near the window and explained R.TL’s concept to us.

R.TL, as it turns out, is a full-fledged restaurant featuring a menu that focuses on three culinary regions at any given time. Also, in keeping with the “lounge” part of its name, R.TL features a wine program that allows customers to order some pretty high-quality products by the glass (more on this later).

That evening, we were given a sampler of the type of food RTL serves, along with free-range of the beverage menu. Here’s the food:

Starting from the left, a duck liver pate served on a toast point. Next, bacalhal (salt cod) fritters. Then prawns piri piri. Then a Dungeness crab and shrimp cake. Finally, a petite nicoise salad.

As you can see, the sample plate was beautifully presented, and the prawns piri piri as well as the bacalhau really tickled our palette. We would very happily order full size portions of these. The rest were decent, but didn’t stand out all that much taste-wise.

And here are the drinks:

I had a flight of Riesling, Sangiovese (actually it’s a super tuscan – Sangiovese/Cab blend), and a very nice Pinot Noir. These wines showed no sign of oxidation at all, and drank very well. For wines served by the glass, I was really impressed.

And here’s one the machines that dispenses the wine. The Enomatic machine injects the equal volume of argon gas into the bottle from which it had just dispensed, thus minimizing oxidation of the wine. This allows each bottle to keep for days, and allows R.TL to offer some expensive wines to be sold by the glass. This is a win for the R.TL, and a huge win for oenophiles who visit the restaurant.

And RTL does have a good selection of very drinkable wines. I had a quick chat with Alain the sommelier/Operations Mgr and he told me his philosophy was to buy products that he liked and was accessible to R.TL’s customers. The flight of three I had was certainly very likeable, and at the listed prices, quite reasonable.

Because the guests that evening were presented with sampler portions, the chef also prepared some full-sized plates to show us. Here they are.

We did not taste these as my wife and I had another appointment to keep, but look-wise, they were certainly appealing.

So what did we think? R.TL is quite good foodwise, but it is not at the level of, say, the Bins yet. But the ability for guests to buy wines by the glass is a definite winner. Too many times, you see something interesting available on the winelist, but cannot order as you are the lone drinker at the table. The Enomatic machines installed in R.TL has solved that problem nicely. And just for that, Christina and I will return for a few more glasses…

Author: My Husband

Every now and then, Christina and I would have a hankering for some down home Indian cooking. While “down home” isn’t entirely apropos for describing East Indian food, it does convey the spirit of the type of Indian cookery that my wife and I like best. We like our Indian food to be simple and traditional, free of pretensions and unencumbered by the trappings of fusion flavours du jour.

So when we meet people who share our taste in Indian food, we always ask for the names of their favourite Indian restaurants; through such word-of-mouth recommendations, we have discovered quite a few good Indian eateries. And so it was when I asked one of my engineers, who was visiting from India, for the name of the restaurant that impressed him the most during his visit. “Salam Bombay”, was his immediate reply.

Salam Bombay is located directly above the Hermes store on the corner of Burrard and Alberni. Walking into the restaurant, we discovered a bright, spacious, and nicely decorated space with a large bank of windows that offered expansive views of the streetscape below.

As it was our first time there, we decided to order some “standard” dishes to get a sense of Salam Bombay’s cooking style. Here’s what we had:

Papadams. These were deliciously crispy, and none too greasy.

Chicken Masala Pakora. These were flavourful and moist, but I suppose the exterior could be a little crunchier.

Onion bhaji. Crispy and masterfully seasoned, these were great. In fact, you could make a meal of a couple of plates of these and a beer or three.

Lamb curry. This was a thin curry, cooked without yogurt or coconut milk. We like richer curries and didn’t know what to think of this initially. But over the course of the meal, the nicely balanced flavours won us over. Christina thought this would go really well with some wheat noodles!

Butter chicken. The creamy consistency, along with the rich flavours of this dish made it really enjoyable. I’ve noticed that most butter chicken dishes are made with chunks of breast meat, but I suspect this already tasty dish could be even better if bone-in meat pieces were used instead.

Garlic naan. It was crispy and flaky, and wonderfully satisfying without being overly doughy. We liked the first one so much that we ordered another.

And since we had curry, the unwritten rules of Indian dining stipulated that we also had to order some rice.

Overall, it was a very good meal. The dishes were masterfully seasoned and were very tasty. None of the dishes were overly greasy. In fact, it was probably the least oily Indian meal we’ve ever had.

During our meal, Jose Madappilly, one of the owners, came over and chatted with us. When we asked about the philosophy behind his food, Jose said his intent is to have the restaurant prepare food the same way he cooks at home: healthful AND flavourful. And because Jose is originally from the southern Indian state of Kerala, he has also included quite a few south-Indian dishes in the menu. Since south-Indian cooking tends to emphasize bigger, bolder, and spicier flavours compared to north-Indian cooking, this should be welcome news for Vancouver Indian food fans.

After we finished our meal, Jose offered to show us around the restaurant. It didn’t take too much convincing on his part to get us to accept! Jose mentioned that he had looked at over 50 locations before he finally found a suitable space; and when he and his partner took it over, they subjected the place to a pretty comprehensive renovation program. Christina and I were taken on a tour of the private function rooms, as well as the bright, spacious, and spotless kitchen. Jose also showed us the spice room, which houses the spice mixes – all of which are imported from India and blended in the restaurant – used in his dishes.

We traditionally finish off our Indian meals with some masala chai, and we stayed true to tradition at Salam Bombay. After eating a spicy meal, nothing settles the stomach like a comforting cup of warm, milky tea!

If you share our taste for “down home” Indian cooking, be sure to put Salam Bombay on your “to try” LIST!