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: Kobe, Japan

Author: My Husband

Kobe beef in Kobe. Kind of poetic isn’t it? When we were traveling in Japan, we managed to get our guide to order us a wagyu steak. He got the beef shipped to our hotel via overnight delivery and took us to a self-serve BBQ joint to cook it.

The beef was shipped in a clear air-tight bag along with a piece of fat. We didn’t think it was top-grade wagyu as the marbling wasn’t as extensive or well-distributed as some of the stuff we’ve seen in pictures, but it was still miles better than any steak we’ve seen sold in North American stores.

We threw it on the grill along with some other items we picked up at the restaurant’s food cabinets. We rubbed the slowly melting square of fat all over the surface of the wagyu steak to keep it moist – not that it needed a lot of help in that department.

After browning both sides, we took it off the grill and dug in. It was the most tender piece of beef we’ve had. The reports about the meat melting in your mouth are not far from the truth – it really did melt a little in our mouths, similar to the way foie gras or oh-toro would. Also similar to foie or oh-toro is the rich, pleasing, unctuous mouthfeel. Flavour-wise, there was sweetness and a huge sense of umami. Interestingly, the ‘beefiness’ (or gaminess) was pretty subtle compared to North American breeds. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

For our readers in greater Vancouver looking for a taste of real Wagyu, visit Nikuya Meats in Richmond. They sell a range of products spanning Japan-raised Wagyu to American “Kobe” beef (along with other interesting meats). Bring money…

Location: Blackberry Bistro Restaurant   
6011 Dyke Road
Richmond, BC
604-272-5755

http://blackberrybistro.soojerky.com/

If Ben didn’t mentioned in his food blog Chowtimes, I would have never found out about Blackberry Bistro.

We started with the Roti Canai, a type of flaky Malaysia flat bread that melts in the mouth. I always order roti when I see it on the menu; Blackberry Bistro has made the best roti that I have tried outside of Southeast Asia:

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Along with the roti, we also tried the satay. Like the roti, the satay was a pleasant surprise. The menu has chicken, pork and beef satay but we ordered only chicken since that’s the meat that can’t be badly cooked. I found out later that the pork is the best choice.

The laksa was a disappointment. Laksa is rice noodles served in a coconut broth. This special noodle soup is originated from Malaysia and there are many ways to make it. My husband and I are used to the Singapore style, which is designated by a rich coconut flavour. We feel that the Blackberry version tastes somewhat bland:

We saw a lot of customers order Hainanese chicken rice, one of the most popular Singaporean dishes. The chicken is first boiled in a stock pot filled with water. After the chicken has been cooked, the water, which now has become a chicken broth, is used to cook the rice. I took a quick glance at the chicken rice sitting on the table next to ours and I saw a few pieces of chopped boneless white breasts with a large scoop of rice. Again, I’m probably too used to the Singaporean style, in which the chicken is bone in and usually there are pieces from the thighs and breasts. The chicken rice with only white meat just doesn’t appeal to me much.

The Southeast Asian dishes at Blackberry Bistro are not cooked exactly the way like those in Singapore, but I would definitely go back and order their roti and satay again.