And The Winner of the Best New Restaurant of the Year is...

Nu! Though the news of this is certainly not new. Here are photos from the EnRoute Air Canada Magazine 2006 award ceremony/press release/cocktail party in that I was invited to way back in November that I have talked about in other posts. Vancouver was well represented by Nu, in first place, and Rare, placed at No. 5. I was a much bigger fan of Rare, personally, but now that patio season has rolled around again, I will probably find myself at Nu again. Though I do hope they have some time to mix things up a little and rework their menu. Their stuff is exciting and fun the first couple of times, but I want to see new (haha, sorry, I just can't stop) things from them. I have not had a chance to re-visit Rare, after their (sous?) chef Quang Dang left. The party was a great time though, and my first media event resulting from this blog, so this was all quite exciting for me. I was once frenetically invited to talk on CBC Radio, but wound up missing out on that opportunity unfortunately. The event organizers for the EnRoute Magazine event, in an attempt to be coy about who won, sent out the invite to the event with the address and yet not the name of the restaurant. Nu had an opportunity to show off their game at this event in the form of neverending cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, including one of their most talked about signature items - a little fried oyster impaled on beer-filled pipet. This is meant to squeeze the cold beer right into the hot little oyster as it goes into your mouth. I'm happy enough with a dry, crispy, salty battered oyster without the beer, myself, but it's certainly fun to try.


Crispy Oyster with Granville Island Lager Injection



Ginger Beer Cocktail - this is a really nice cocktail that I have ordered a few times at Nu. Lots of interesting things happening in it, with the spicy ginger beer and the muddled mint.



Beet Chip with Creme Fraiche



Tuna Tartare



Lobster Bisque. I think I enjoyed this little cup of soup the most out of the bunch of nibblies that came out. These were all labour intensive hors d'oeuvres incidentally. Almost all of them required the serving staff to come back and grab the serving vessel, utensil, or lab equipment it came with. I'm not too sure about this trend. The little cups or chinese spoons do make for beautiful presentation, and opens up a variety of foods that would not otherwise be able to be served in this format, and the staff were quickly swooping in to collect them, so you weren't left trying to find a place for the little things, but I quite enjoy the more old-fashioned idea of being creative with various edible carriers.



This is me getting on TV! And yes, a coworker confirmed for me the next day that he saw me on the news.



My Favourite Part of Nu's Decor - the Neon Chandelier



Harry Kambolis accepting Best New Restaurant in Canada for Nu



Tim of Rare which made No. 5 in the Top Ten New Restaurants in Canada. A very friendly guy and I hope all goes well for his new restaurant. I haven't heard anything about Metro since chatting with him about this at this event in November, but I'll look out for it. There is a slew of new restaurants I want to try these days, and it sounds like some of them have had enough time to get into their groove.



Nu's Kitchen



The Busy Bar (note the lovely cocktails ready to go, and Jamie Maw)



Duck Rillette with Cranberry Jelly, and a stubby pretzel to eat it with



Drunk and hungry for something more substantial, I tottered along the seawall until I found myself at Fiddlehead Joe's. I posted about my lovely experience there before, and I was truly pleasantly surprised by the place. Below are the photos from this again. For more details, see my Christmas post.



Beet Panna Cotta, Fiddlehead Joe's



Meringue in Chocolate Chili Sauce

Lucky Diner

This one even surprises me. I mean, I expected to like this place before I even got there, just because I knew that it is one of Sean Heather's establishments, and I can tell the man has taste in food, style (someone who really appreciates the Gastown neighbourhood) and lures quality staff just from having gone to Salt. But a diner in Yaletown? For a girl who loves going to old dingy Chinese-run "authentic" diners that still have 70's glassware hanging around and duct tape on their vinyl booths, isn't this place going to feel overpriced, ingenuine, and snooty? The answer? Not at all. I loved it. I loved it so much, I had to go back just to make sure it wasn't the Jim Beam bourbon milkshake (which I loved too) that was making me bourbon goggle the place. I ate at this place three times in the span of a week and a half (partly because I almost lost my new camera there). Something about the place makes you feel as if whatever you are eating is the best in its class. I found myself wondering "are these the best onion rings I've ever had?" and that's a hell of a lot of fun when you find yourself thinking that thought for just the garnish! There were a few lovely batter-covered onion rings stacked on top of the steak dinner I ordered on a return visit. They just go ahead and call their Reuben "The Best Dang Reuben Sandwich" which is what I ordered on my first visit. With a side dish, it was only $11, which I thought was really reasonable since the time I bought some of Mike Vitow's corned beef at Granville Island, the smallest chunk I could get was $10, which made about a sandwich and a half. So upon seeing the prices, I was pretty happy and feeling like I was going to get good value, which was a nice surprise in Yaletown. I wasn't even expecting the $11 to include a side dish. For my side dish, I chose the green salad since I figured ordering fries on top of ordering a fat reuben and a bourbon milkshake must break some sort of law of decency somewhere. I'm all for indulgence, but sometimes you've got to set some sort of limit. The dressing on the salad was nicely balanced - something that I think I must be a bit sensitive to these days, as a lot of times, I feel like dressings are too sour. And on top of that, have you ever received an "amuse bouche" in a diner? The charming and attractive waiter brought me a lovely bowl of their tomato cumin soup. Very yummy. Um, I mean the soup, of course...

Anyhow, this restaurant is really suited to my taste lately. High quality food in a completely casual and comfy environment. I wouldn't be able to find a speck of snootiness in that establishment if I had a magical snoot-detecting magnifying glass. Okay, that was an awkward phrase. Let me elaborate. That steak dinner I mentioned with the great onion ring garnish? It also had for its veggie sides: golden beets, braised fennel, and swiss chard! I've had this theory about the key to setting up a really successful restaurant is to set yourself up to exceed people's expectations, and this place is perfect for that. Make it a diner so that people are just expecting typical fare, and then blow their socks off with the ultimate versions of those classic comfort foods. The steak dinner also came with buttermilk smashed potatoes, and the meat was tender and not overcooked (which I'm also a bit sensitive about, having recently had a medium rare order come to me totally brown at a chain restaurant). So I got this great main dish that would hold its own in a finer dining establishment, yet I felt totally comfortable sitting in the room with my grungy work cargo pants. The perfect comfort food restaurant. The slogan? "Come sad, leave happy." The burger I had one night was really thick and beefy, on a great housemade roll, and it had a wonderfully agressively horseradishy sauce on it. (I think it takes some balls to put a sauce like that on a standard item like a burger, and have the confidence that people will like it). I had the fries with that one and found myself playing with the thought "are these the best fries I've ever had?"

And just now, as I'm typing this post (a redo of a post I worked on earlier but lost during my recent computer death), I just did a search for the link to their online menu again, and found the news on Urban Diner that the place is closing! Just when I found my perfect "neighbourhood" restaurant. They even get their coffee from the place I like getting my coffee from - JJ Bean. Oh well, all good things must come to an end I suppose. I just wished I had found it earlier. I really wanted to make my way through the entire menu. I especially wanted to try the mac and cheese, and potato salad. Looks like I'll be trying to make my way back before the place closes, if it hasn't already. Perhaps someone will take over, for a third time (it was originally Diner before Lucky Diner, and I didn't have any interest in visiting then). Anyhow, it may not have been appreciated by the masses, but I certainly was a fan.

New Nancyland Game

I'm starting to think that I'm pretty predictable these days. Honestly, I don't think I'm that hard to please when it comes to restaurants. Mainly, I just want the staff to be nice to me, and I want tasty food at prices that make me feel like I've gotten good value for my money. This can happen at high-end or low-end restaurants of course. And unfortunately, so can the converse. Anyhow, here's my new game. I call it: "Did Nancy Like It?" The rules are simple. I'm going to name a restaurant that I just tried for the first time. Just guess whether I liked it or not, using the sum of your foodie knowledge from word-of-mouth reports, foodie reading, perhaps your own experiences at the restaurant, and your familiarity with my habits. I have one friend who rarely agrees on restaurants with me, to the point where I think he now checks out a restaurant if he sees a negative review from me. Does this bother me? Absolutely not. To each his own! To make this game really test your local foodie knowledge, I'm not going to bother giving you any background knowledge, or even a link to the restaurant website. There is, just like in any fun game, an element of chance too, because every good restaurant could have a bad day, and I guess a bad restaurant could have a good day. Since I'm only visiting once, anything could happen. So Nancylanders, let's see how you do...

Tonight I went to Lucky Diner, in Yaletown.

So, "did Nancy like it?"

Birthday Nachos and Sashimi Salad

Okay, this is my kind of sports bar. Ebisu on Robson (604-689-8266, 827 Bute Street, website not up at time of posting, but should come soon), occupying the old Hooter's upstairs space at Robson and Bute, is a totally Vancouver joint. First of all, you can find both nachos (complete with ground beef and avocado for only $9 - beat that, any sports bar in town) AND Japanese tapas offerings like sashimi salad. When I was there, a group of what looked to be Japanese students were there for a birthday, and got the PA system Happy Birthday song, as well as candles in one of their nacho plates. Cute, eh?

As always, expectations have a great deal to do with how one receives a restaurant, and I've read some online comments that this place doesn't measure up to the creativity of Guu or Hapa Izakaya which are nearby, or Shiru-Bay in Yaletown. However, from what I can tell, they are going for something different anyway. The place has a huge screen, and smaller screens at the bar, showing the hockey game when I was there. That immediately gives you a more casual atmosphere than any of the other izakayas. They continue the sports bar theme by offering typical sports bar offerings like the nachos, and pitchers of beer at really reasonable prices, so you can come here to drink, watch sports and nibble very casually. Pitchers Sunday to Thursday are only $9.99, going up to $12.99 on weekends. Pitchers of white or red sangria are $12 for the small and $18 for the large. Wings are $4.99 for a half dozen, and can come salt and peppper (like I enjoyed), or with sports bar type sauces like spicy hot, teriyaki or barbecue. I had a sashimi salad ($9.55), while not mind-blowing, was very competent, with fresh sashimi, and a pleasant creamy dressing, mango and tomato concasse, and good mesclun. I also had their oyster motoyaki, which is three Royal Miyagi oysters with cheese, creamy sauce, spinach and mushrooms baked in the half shell for only $5. There are a wide range of fancy rolls in the menu that look good too in the $10 - 13 range.

I'm not really a sports bar person. I'm not that into beer, and tend to only drink it when there's some interesting microbrew or Belgium beer available, or if I'm just being social with a group. I'm not really into watching sports. And I'm a little bit picky about food, and rarely find pubs and sports bars to have a menu or level of food quality that appeals to me. I do, however, enjoy a nice casual atmosphere with cushy seating, a good plate of nachos or wings, and the freedom to drink and nibble rather than have a full meal. Ebisu seems to be the perfect sports bar for non-sports bar people. There is a huge variety of food to choose from, and it appears, from my three choices, to be good quality. There is a wide range of drinks at reasonable prices, including the hot sake I had for $7.95, beer, sangria, wine, shooters, "martinis," as well as premium sakes, champagne, and wine. The music is upbeat and "clubby" but I didn't mind it too much. The booths are big and comfy, and the high ceilings and room to stretch out make it a much different atmosphere from other izakayas in town.

The crowd on a Tuesday were all young, urban Asians gathering socially. No one was really watching the sports on screen. I went mid-week, and the atmosphere was low-key enough for me, and service was fine. Apparently it can get quite busy on weekends. Overall, from my one visit, I think this is a nice place to get drunk.

Kiwi Berry

I discovered Kiwi Berries last week! They're soft-skinned, hairless tiny versions of Kiwi Fruit, that you can just pop into your mouth directly, which most people don't do with the big hairy ones. I have actually seen friends just bite right into a regular kiwi, and enjoy eating the hairy skin and all. As a result, I've tried it myself, and it is indeed not as itchy and irritating as one might guess from appearances. But I still went back to just eating the flesh after that. With Kiwi Berries, you can, just like the marketing blurbs say, eat them like grapes. I tend to pluck that tiny bit of stem off them, so I think it's more like eating strawberries than grapes. They're sweet, flavourful, and addictive. I saw them in the little corner independent grocery store near my place, and decided to try them, but I wasn't expecting them to be as wonderfully sweet as they were. I first thought that they were "baby kiwis," but of course that doesn't make any sense, as fruit in general doesn't get sweet until they mature, whereas a baby vegetable like a zucchini is wonderfully sweet and tender. But then again, zucchini and other squash ARE the fruit part of the plant, bearing the seeds. They just have the capacity to grow huge and unsweet. Kiwi Berries are actually a marketing name for another species of fruit closely related to kiwi fruit that is called hardy kiwi (Actinidia arguta), so this is as big as they get, and they grow in big, adorable bunches on the vine.

I can see them hitting the local fancy dessert garnish scene:
"What's this?"
"Oh that's a kiwi berry. Kiwi berries are the new gooseberry."

But I'm sure there will always be a place for the original kiwi fruit. For one thing, they have always reminded me of some particular private parts, perhaps like peaches, mangoes, and bananas to some. You do lose that pleasant body part association with these tiny, hairless ones. But I've had that conversation with a few people, and maybe this is one of those "is it just me?" things. But there's definitely a general fruit - body part association that doesn't happen, say, with dairy products. Um, wait a second...I mean, grain products (please don't write me to tell me about the history of sexual imagery in grain products. I am happy to be unaware, thank you.). For another thing, it's just kind of fun to scoop the flesh out of kiwi halves, kind of like eating soft-boiled eggs out of the shell. And also, I have no idea how expensive those kiwi berries were. I like my grocer, and I just trusted that it couldn't be too bad. But I suspect that I probably could have bought a lot of kiwi fruit for the same price. But certainly worth the splurge, if there was one. Anyway, have fun with your fruit...

Missing Pho-to

I just realized I had my camera with me while at a little Pho restaurant and didn't think of taking a picture. I was coming home from a great bike ride on my new super-cool folding bike, and randomly picked a small restaurant on Hastings street. Success! Pho 888 (2474 East Hastings, just East of Nanaimo St., 604-258-9092) was nice, clean, and had good food. I just had their combo that included a small house special pho, a salad roll (it had prawns and pork in it), and a can of pop. Not normally something I'd whip out the camera for anyway, but the food was good, and I was quite pleased. Maybe I'm easily impressed because the Vietnamese place closest to my place still insists of giving lemon wedges instead of lime wedges with their pho. The broth was decent, and the peanut sauce for the salad was good too. It really hit the spot. I also like the fact that the big pot of jasmine tea came out right away after I was seated (with no charge).

I also randomly picked a place on the way to the bike path (Brunette-Fraser Greenway, which I recommend also), and found a great little Chinese run diner/family restaurant place to have an all-day breakfast special. I've unfortunately forgotten the name, and wasn't really intending to blog it either. I do love those type of places, with the comforting old 70's style glassware and decor, and the Chinese owner lady who gives impeccable service (gotta love those bottomless coffee warm-ups) and a cook in the back who knows how not to get crusty bits on sunny side up eggs, and knows how to make a seriously fluffy pancake. There's also the great bonus of being able to read the day's paper, which is always kicking around places like this. I think this one was around the 4000 block of Hastings, just one door in from the Northeast corner, because I remember noticing the going out of business sale signs in the Helen's children's clothing store with the great girl-in-a-swing neon sign.

Though these two restaurants probably don't sound all that blogworthy, there are two things that made them noteable for me. First, I like spinning the roulette wheel of unknown small restaurants. I was feeling lucky today. And just that element of chance makes the successful spontaneous pick all that more satisfying (as opposed to the intent research that usually goes into my restaurant picks for myself, and anyone who might ask for a personal recommendation). The Chinese family restaurant felt especially like a gamble because I walked into an entirely empty room on a Saturday afternoon, and almost walked right out (you could see my thought process all over my face, I'm sure, after I opened the door: uh oh, empty room, bad sign...oops, she saw me, too late!). Thus, when the attractive breakfast plate arrived, it was like a wonderful little jackpot...of fat and sugar. Secondly, I enjoyed these places because they really had a lovely neighbourhood feel to them. East Hastings feels more like a real community than dining downtown. In both restaurants, regulars walked in and were treated by the staff like old friends. I like that down-to-earth "homeyness." I guess I have a nostalgic fondness for East Hastings because it reminds me of my roots, having been raised nearby. Anyhow, I'd go back quite happily to both of those places if I was in the neighbourhood, and I would probably not ever go to Anton's - drove past the queue , which must have had about 20 starving student types standing outside to get their cheap pasta. I wanted to pull over and say, "People, this is Vancouver...you don't have to line up for cheap food." Incidentally, the pho special I had was $8.25. Or $5.50 for just the pho. The breakfast special was about that too. The real question is, how expensive was it all calorically? Here's hoping my bike ride was at least enough to break even.

Sentimental Saves

Have you ever had such a sentimental association with a restaurant that you wind up "saving" it and not returning, or alternatively, returning often to relive the memory? Minato Sushi (992 West Broadway, 604-732-6554), a little sushi joint in the mini mall at Broadway and Oak, is one of the former type for me. I had my very first official date ever in that restaurant, eons ago, while I was still in university. The boy I went with quickly became my first love, and it was everything I could have wanted from a first relationship. Let's call him Breadboy, since he was the one who taught me to bake bread, and in fact was the first person to ever teach me to cook. How funny it is to remember myself so timid in the kitchen. Cooking is really (as so many things in life are) all about just deciding to have the confidence that you can do it. Not being one to follow "the rules" of dating, or at that point in my life, to even be aware of them, I remember I wasn't shy with the ordering. I didn't hide my hunger, nor did I really comprehend that he would be so insistant in paying for the whole meal. Back then, sushi was still a big treat, even the mediocre stuff, and we both loved it. Yay! Something in common for the nervous young would-be couple. So we ordered. And ordered. I have this memory of boat-load after boat-load of sushi coming at us, and us both gorging ourselves happily, while getting more and more comfortable with each other. We're talking a fricken' fleet here, and all-you-can-eat sushi hadn't really descended upon the city yet. Anyhow, Minato still stands, and for me, it's like a little monument that holds that beautiful memory of that first date. I never went in again after that first date. I moved away, and I moved back, and I often smiled fondly when passing the restaurant, but I would never go back. It wasn't really a purposeful thing. Often, if I was looking for a restaurant in the area, I would be with another boyfriend, and always felt that I would wind up being too sentimental going back there, and figured that wouldn't be terribly considerate to whomever I was dating at the time. I mean, how boring would it be to have dinner with someone mooning over their first date at that restaurant. That's what blogs are for, hee, hee! Well, on the spur of the moment recently, I went to Minato's, alone, for a quick bite on my way from one place to another. It's just the same all these years later. It's good and reliable, and relatively cheap. And I know it's just a sushi joint. But it's made it through all these years in this town full of sushi joints. And I'm glad.