Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Torarenbo
8191 Park Road,
Richmond BC

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?

Location: Octupus Garden, Vancouver   

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!

Locations:
1. Palm Beach Seafood Restaurant, Singapore
2. Asiana Airlines Lounge, Incheon Airport, Korea

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).

continue reading…