Ethnic Eats – Sampling the World’s Cuisine Without Leaving Vancouver

Well, I’m back from New York and it’s been a week, but I haven’t looked at my credit card statement or my scale and I’m a bit afraid of both of them. New York was absolutely fantastic and we shopped and ate our way around the city like gluttons, but it was so worth it because I had some of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had, all in the space of a week. All the same, this sticker from The Spotted Pig gastropub illustrates the theme of our vacation very well: we pigged New York.

The first night was a Mexican fusion place in Hell’s Kitchen, also called Hell’s Kitchen, where we ate lamb lollipops with blueberry glaze and mango salsa, pan-seared scallop tostados with smoked ancho chili and guacamole, ancho-chili crusted albacore tuna with spinach and peanut sauce, and striped bass poached with a spicy tomato broth. IT was a dark, edgy little place that was far from full late on a Monday night, but we savoured every bite.

The next day was lunch in Central Park followed by an unremarkable dinner at Mint. It was highly recommended in a couple of different places, but it turned out to be underwhelming. That’s OK, though because afterwards we went to the Carnegie Deli to try their famous cheesecake.

It was pretty impressive (although not as indeliably seared into my mind as the sight of the foot high sandwiches arriving on tables around us), but in fact I would have been happy to sit there and just eat pickles. The light green ones tasted just exactly like cucumbers fresh out of the garden with a little vinegar poured on top.

Wednesday saw us eating at a fancy Spanish restaurant in the Flatiron district. It was the only night that we left the hotel room without an idea of where and what we would be eating and while not a disaster, wasn’t one of the more memorable meals of the trip. We knew that we wanted to go to 230 Fifth for cocktails so we headed to that area and ended up at El Quijote, an old-school Spanish place. It served to fill us up with massive quanities of dishes straight out of the early nineties (quails, rack of veal, crab cocktail with cocktail sauce, iceberg lettuce salad, a carafe of rose and a dessert cart that was pushed over to the table at the end of the meal) as well as entertain us with the kitchsy decor. It looked like a cross between a fancy restaurant and a gift shop in Cervantes’ house. The portions were ridiculously big and we were stuffed (although not necessarily satisfied) before it looked like we had even made a dent.

The next day we were shopping in SoHo and decided to try Tailor for lunch as I had heard of them recently in a GQ article. Turns out they were not open for lunch, so we went across the street and had an amazing meal at Aurora.

The highlight of the meal was this bresaola with ricotta and balsamic vanilla infused figs. I had an excellent sausage and salad as well, but I would have just kept ordering this dish until they ran out of ingredients if I could have. It was that good.

Thursday turned out to be a good eating day because after our tour of shopping, we decided to go back to Tailor for dinner and there had the memorable meal of my life so far. I’ve had dreams of being in Tailor this week that threaten to depress me when I wake up.

The best thing was my dessert, but I’m going to note absolutely everything we ate that night because it was all heavenly and amazing and brilliant and deserves acknowledging:

Amuse bouche: Sake-cucumber soda
Cocktail: Blood and Sand (Scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry ale, orange head)
1st: Buttery Fois Gras and apricot mousse with apricot sauce and nitrogen-created balls, topped with nasturtiums, fresh apricots and crunchy nasturtium balls
Cocktail: Pastis Fraiche (Vodka, absinthe, anise hyssop and lemon)
Main: Pork Belly squares (crispy on the outside and buttery in the middle) with miso butterscotch sauce, artichokes roasted with bacon, and parsley
Dessert: Manchego blackberry cheesecake. Manchego cheesecake dipped in blackberry gel, with graham cracker ice cream and fresh blackberries
Aperitif: cedar infused bourbon

My sister stacie had a kumquat capirinia, scallops sprinkled with spice toast and papaya, paprika rum punch, skirt steak with pureed cauliflowers and amazing peas and cocoa nib drizzle, followed by chocolate mousse with sesame ice cream, crushed peanuts with ancho chilis and mole paper. We were there for hours and I could have stayed days longer.

Friday was our outing to the Spice Market in the Meat-Packing district, the dinner we were most looking forward to, and the atmosphere was so charged. It was packed to the imported antique gills with shiny happy people dining late into the night and it would have been very easy to be impressed except Tailor’s cosy, warm genius wowed us way more than the cold, trendy Spice Market. Regardless, the food was still outstanding.

Other highlights of the trip were Shanghai Cuisine’s xiao long baos, soup dumplings from the heart of Chinatown:

Sourcream Hazelnut waffles with berries at Balthazar:

Antipasto from Rocky’s in Little Italy:

It was such a great trip. I can’t wait to go back.

Thanks for all your suggestions on new Vancouver places to try! As soon as my wallet recovers, I’ll be sure to check them out.