Monthly Archives: February 2010

El Rinconcito Salvadoreno Pupusas

Posted on February 18, 2010 by | 9 Comments

pupusas
Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants > Americas > El Salvador

Skipping down the coast to El Salvador, I swap tacos for pupusas. Like a pocket full of love, it’s a tortilla (of sorts) stuffed with refried beans, cheese, chicharrón (pork), or a mixed bag of ingredients,  then fried. In Vancouver the place to get them is at El Rinconcito Salvadoreno on Commercial Drive. After 4 PM, they start making them en masse and you just tell them how many you want. That’s all there is to it. They come stacked like pancakes and served with a vinegary coleslaw and hot sauce. If you’re smart you order a cerveza to wash it down too. For years my standby has been two bean and cheese and two pork pupusas (and a beer, of course) but there’s a full menu of Mexican-style dishes. The fish tacos are good and the carne asada is nothing to shake a stick at either.

Travelling through Central America, you’re not going to find a lot of gourmet dishes. What appears so often as to become tiresome is beans and rice, rice and beans, beans and cheese, etc… Always something carby and comforting and inexpensive to make and served up simply.  Pupusas feel like that kind of fare to me – deliciously uncomplicated.

Rinconcito Salvadorean on Urbanspoon
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Rinconcito Salvadoreno
2062 Commercial Drive, Vancouver

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Posted in Americas, El Salvadoran, Vancouver52

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Tacos Guaymas – Another Roadside Attraction

Posted on February 15, 2010 by | 1 Comment

chimichanga

I’m not really a fan of junk food – or “road food” as Tom Robbins calls it in Another Roadside Attraction – which makes heading out on a road trip somewhat less exciting in the eating department. Last year, however, a friend introduced me to Tacos Guaymas which has become a required stop on every trip south of the border. They’ve got plenty of locations, including several in Seattle, but Burlington and Everett are the ones that seem to tie in well after waiting in the border line up.
carnitas platillo

Tacos Guaymas is a chain of fast food (for lack of a better word) restaurants, but rather than serving up processed, wilted dishes, the food is fresh and very authentic. They’ve got one of those menus that goes on and on with specials on coloured paper tacked on to the bottom and sides and it includes all the standard Mexican fare like tacos, burritos, carne asada, chimichanga, and enchiladas, etc. but I’ve also had the meat plate (above) and ceviche and others and not once been disappointed. The portions are enormous – truly trucker-sized – so consider yourself warned. It’s easy to get carried away ordering and then have to stretch out in the car for a couple of hours until you get to where you’re going.

burrito

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Tacos Guaymas
590 S Burlington Blvd, Burlington
1814 112th St SE, Everett

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Posted in Mexican, Vancouver52

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Las Tortas Mexican Sandwiches

Posted on February 8, 2010 by | 4 Comments

Las tortas

Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants > Americas > Mexico

Despite what some people think, not everyone likes sandwiches. I, for one, think they’re kind of a boring necessity. That opinion has changed somewhat, however, now that Las Tortas has come on the scene.

According to their website, a torta is more like a hamburger anyways, and comes served on a soft bun called a telera with tomato, cabbage, pickled onions, jalapenos, guacamole, and refried beans. With that as a starting point you can choose from 11 different kinds, from schnitzel to Mayan style chicken breast.

Las tortas sandwich

To order, you pick up a bag and a marker, note your choices and then use that as transport for your lunch. It’s an efficient system that also saves some trouble on pick up orders and picnics.

The pierna sandwich checkbox has seen the most action from me. Pork thigh roasted with Mexican spices is mopped up nicely in the soft bread, although I’m quite fond of chorizo sausage and Oaxaca cheese too.

Las Tortas on Urbanspoon
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Las Tortas
3353 Cambie Street, Vancouver

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Posted in Americas, Mexican, Vancouver52

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Consider the Pasta – Campagnolo

Posted on February 8, 2010 by | 2 Comments

crispy ceci deliciousness

Today I was admonished that one should never order pasta in restaurants and while I see the sense of that economically, I can guarantee that there is better pasta in some of the restaurants around town than you’ll ever get in most people’s restaurants. Take Campagnolo for instance. They only have 3 pastas on the menu, but done perfectly in the Northern Italian regional style.  Simple, rustic and hearty, they are: tagliarini with pork ragu, basil and pecorino; ravioli with potato, sage and brodo, and arlecchino with fennel sausage, kale and green onion.

Tagliarini deliciousness

The tagliarini is my favorite and goes quite well with a negroni, as you can see from the picture.

What to have with your pasta? The crispy ceci pictured top is one of my favorite things to eat in this city, hands down and once we had fried pig’s feet in pesto that was sumptuous in the extreme. The pizza is also delicious here.

negroni

Also see my review of Campagnolo on Foodists, and a post on pasta in Vancouver.

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Campagnolo
1020 Main Street, Vancouver

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Posted in Italian

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Ethnic Eats in the News: How to Find Healthy Ethnic Food

Posted on February 5, 2010 by | 1 Comment

I was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun last month about how to make healthy choices in ethnic dining. I wanted to have a permanant link to the article on my blog so here it is: Bidding goodbye to butter chicken: How to find healthy ethnic food

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Posted in News

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Pinche Taqueria

Posted on February 4, 2010 by | 2 Comments

la taqueria
Around Vancouver in 52 Restaurants > Americas > Mexico

The first time I went to Mexico wasn’t to a resort, it was to a little town called La Colorada in Sonora. There were no umbrellas in drinks, but there were steaks the size of plates and tequila and tacos. With some local help we went in search of tacos one night, driving down a street that may have been busy during the day but at night was dark and empty save for a small cart and a group of savvy taco-eaters. Full of anticipation, we placed our orders for lengua, carnitas and asada and sat on the still-warm curb trying not to drip salsa on our sneakers.

More than any other Mexican restaurant in Vancouver, La Taqueria reminds me of that experience. On an empty block of Hastings, it feels like a taqueria has been transported straight from Mexico, complete with bottle cap decor and turquoise laminate counter. Except that this “pinche taco shop” as they call it (pinche is slang for Kitchen boy) serves up pastor with braised Chilliwack pork and Pemberton meadows beef tongue lengua.
tacos
They are $2.50 ($2 for veggie) per taco or $$9.50 for four, so I had the tongue, carnitas - pork confit with pickled red onions, pollo con mole – maple hills chicken in three chili mole, and rajas con crema – roasted poblano peppers with creamed corn, sour cream and Mexican cheese. They’re flour tortillas, served with the above ingredients plus cilantro and onion. Lengua was my favorite, although the tang of pickled onion against the meaty pork flavours in the carnitas is hard not to rave about as well. Chicken mole was ok but I regret the poblano choice. Creamed corn and cheese is just not what I expect out of a taco even though it was executed well. I should have had the cachete instead (braised Chilliwack pork cheeks) but I need to have something to save for next time, along with the fish tacos and the special that changes weekly.

Doña Cata has been held the taqueria title for a while now and it’s well worth a trip there as well, but I’m so glad we’re finally getting some more decent Mexican restaurants in town. A third option is Salsa and Agave.

La Taqueria Taco Shop on Urbanspoon
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La Taqueria
322 West Hastings Street, Vancouver

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Posted in Americas, Mexican, Vancouver52

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Robbie Burns Day: the Haggis

Posted on February 2, 2010 by | 1 Comment

haggis, neeps and tatties

What’s Robbie Burns day without haggis? If you can’t have haggis, you at least need whisky. I’m a traditionalist, so I like to do both if I can and I wrote about the whisky yesterday. Robbie Burns Day is January 25th, and it’s a strange sort of holiday – the birthday of the national poet – that is celebrated primarily by (surprise!) eating haggis and drinking whisky.

Haggis is a traditional Scotch dish that is made froma sheep’s heart, liver and lungs, ground up and stuffed into the lining of a sheep’s stomach with oatmeal and spices. If people know what haggis is, they tend to think it’s disgusting and so I’ve had to come to its defense several times this week, but I love it. You can do a lot better with a Costco hotdog if you’re looking for something in the disgusting department. It’s been a couple of years since I’ve had haggis, so when Ben told me he had bought a good one at Jackson Meats (2214 West 4th Ave.) I went straight out to get my own.

They have two types; traditional Scotch haggis and one made in-house from their own recipe with more flavour and spices. I got the Jackson variant and served it with “neeps and tatties” and a couple of glasses of Talisker.

This is the recipe I used for neeps and tatties, from Chow.com, although my grandmother would argue that you must use turnips.

INGREDIENTS
  • 3 pounds potatoes (about 6 medium sized)
  • 3 pounds rutabaga (if it is 3 1/2 pounds or 2 1/2 pounds, it’s fine)
  • 2 teaspoons salt plus more to taste
  • 1 cup hot milk
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground (if possible) pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated if possible), or to taste
  • I tablespoon chopped parsley, optional
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. Peel and cut rutabaga and potatoes into two inch pieces and put into separate saucepans. Cover with water. Add 1 teaspoon salt to each pan. Cook until tender, remove from heat and drain. Leave in pan. Rutabaga will take about 30 minutes, and potatoes will take less time (about 5 minutes less). Both are done when they are not firm when you jab them with a fork.
  2. Heat the milk. Mash the drained potatoes in the pan. Add all the hot milk and mash potatoes some more (adding the milk before the butter makes the potatoes smoother). Add 2 tablespoons butter. Mash some more. Taste and add more salt if necessary. Mash drained rutabaga in the pot in which they were cooked. Add 2 tablespoons butter and mash some more.
  3. Combine mashed rutabaga and potatoes; add pepper, and nutmeg. Mash some more. Taste and add more salt if necessary. If you wish, garnish with chopped parsley.

If you want to get ceremonious, you can always recite Burn’s Address to a Haggis before you eat.

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Posted in European, Recipe

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Dumpling Dinesty

Posted on February 2, 2010 by | 4 Comments

diners

I’ve been on a bit of a dumpling kick lately. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love xiaolongbao, or “soup dumplings” but since I’ve got a car it’s made roaming the golden city (Richmond) a whole lot easier.

Xiaolongbao are a magic kind of Shanghainese style dumpling made by cooling meaty gelatin and wrapping it around the pork filling inside the dumpling,  becoming “soup” when the dumpling is cooked. They can be a bit tricky to eat without burning your tongue, but the risk is well worth it.

dumpling menu

Dinesty has a great many dumplings on the coffee-book quality menu – a whole page, in fact. The xiaolongbao were ordered immediately, along with some pan-fried ones, and as man cannot live on dumplings alone, we also ordered the highly recommended ancient boil fish, pan-fried squid, and hand-cut noodles with seafood and pork.

And then we ordered dumplings for dessert. I told you I was on a kick.

xiao long bao

The ancient boil fish soup (what a name!) was spicy and flavourful, but in a way that washed out the meat of the fish. All you got a hit of oil and pepper and the flavouring was pretty interesting, but I would have liked it to be a bit more balanced and I wouldn’t order it again. The noodles were better, offering chunks of seafood between the ropes of noodles, and the pan-fried squid was better still. As for the dumplings, they held together well and were nicely flavoured and are the menu item I’d go back for.  I preferred the xialongbao to the pan-fried and the red bean dessert dumplings, but then I always do.

Here you can see the dumpling makers at work, preparing for the next day:

dumpling making from Degan Beley on Vimeo.

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Dinesty
160-8111 Ackroyd Road, Richmond

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Posted in Asian, Chinese

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