Category Archives: Vancouver52

Ouisi Cajun Cuisine

Posted on April 7, 2011 by | 1 Comment


Vancouver World Tour > Americas > Cajun / Creole

Admittedly, we went through the Americas section a while ago but I was feeling like it was missing a key cuisine – Cajun/creole – so we stopped in at Ouisi Bistro for lunch today.


I’ve been many times before but hadn’t really experienced the “Cajun” part of it. My Ethnic Food Lover’s Companion tells me that Cajun cuisine is a mixture of French, Spanish, African, Mexican and Native American cultures and comes from Nova Scotian farmers who moved south. This is where your jambalayas, po’boys and crayfish come in. Creole, on the other hand, is similar in flavour but more formal and that the original Creoles were French and later Spanish nationals born in Louisiana.

But anyways, on to the food!


We started with gator bites, because how can you not eat alligator when given the chance? It was my first experience and I liked it! But at Ouisi it’s served with a healthy dose of “cajun tartar” (a spciy mayonnaise sauce with horseradish) and under all that flavour it really does taste like stringy chicken.

chicken po'boy

For lunch we both had chicken sandwiches – Matt had the Ouisi po’boy – blackened chicken breast on a baguette with Cajun tartar – and I had the 14th Street Eats sandwich which was chicken breast with pesto and asiago cheese.  It was good but boy was it messy! Lots of sauce all over the place.

Speaking of sauce, I waved away the ketchup in favour of the sauces on the table – Frank’s Hot Sauce and what I thought was a sweet relish, Matouk’s Calypso sauce. It looked so friendly and yellow, with a jazz musician on the label. Except that I had a few fries and then my mouth was on fire and not from the Frank’s. When I took another look I noticed the “hot! hot! hot!” down the side of the bottle and Matt pointed out that the main ingredient was aged, pickled scotch bonnet peppers.

It originates in Trinidad and Tobago and it’s not available in Vancouver – Ouisi imports it specially – but they do sell it in the restaurant for around $6. Unfortunately for us they were out but I think we’ll need to go back for it. Delish!

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Ouisi Bistro
3014 Granville Street, Vancouver

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Panaderia Latina Bakery

Posted on March 21, 2011 by | 5 Comments

Vancouver World Tour > Americas > Latin America, Chile

Panaderia Latina Bakery has been on my “to visit” list for a year at least but it’s out of the way enough that I forget about it constantly and I don’t have a sweet tooth so I never know what to expect from bakeries. Luckily a couple of weeks ago I had a wedding dress fitting literally a block away from Panaderia (it means ‘bakery’ in Spanish, so I’m tempted to leave out the rest of the name) and they had a selection of savoury empanadas.

Matt and I shared a carne empanada, huge and full of juicy beef filling but that’s not what catches your eye when you walk in. The display case is full of pastries, all kinds of sugary goodness piled up around the piece de resistance – neon pink vanilla cake. Not my thing at all but I was sorely tempted to gift it to a small child.

Instead we ordered a dulce de leche dessert. Dulce de leche is a thick caramel sauce or filling popular in Latin America. I can take it in small doses (before the sugar overpowers me) and it’s a flavour I enjoy. Unfortunately this pastry was comprised of a ball of hard (ish) dulce de leche sandwiched between 2 crackers. It was perhaps my fault for requesting something “not too sweet” but the contrast between the sugary middle and the almost tasteless outsides of this dessert was jarring. They have a dulce de leche empanada that might have suited better.

They also have a selection of Chilean sandwiches – and a small seating area – so I’m going to try and get back for a proper lunch – just as soon as I don’t have to fit into the dress!

Panaderia Latina Bakery on Urbanspoon

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Panaderia Latina Bakery
4906 Joyce Street

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Afghan Horsemen

Posted on March 3, 2011 by | 2 Comments

horsemen
Vancouver World Tour > Middle East> Afghanistan

Pulling up in front of the Afghan Horsemen’s new location – a restaurant I hadn’t eaten at in years – I exclaimed over their sign, still intact since 1974. It was a guess at the date but, even though it turned out to be correct, this restaurant has been around a long time and corresponds with my first forays into “adventurous eating”, driving into the city from Langley to sit on cushions and eat strangely named luxuries.

Lush fabrics, ethnic art and artifacts hung on the walls make it feel as though you’ve been transported to a yurt in the Khyber Pass. They have tables and chairs, but for the full experience be sure to sit in one of the “pillow rooms” on a night when they have a belly dancer. Seated on cushions at low, communal dining tables sets the stage for an exotic dining experience.

From their website:

Afghani cuisine is mainly influenced by that of old Persia, India, Greece, and Mongolia. It draws together spices from India and Greece, styles of cooking meat from Persia, and rice, noodles and various pastas from Mongolia. The ingredients are fresh and without preservatives. The flavors of Afghanistan include cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, saffron, cloves, coriander, garlic, black pepper, cilantro, dill and mint. Onion and tomato are also important in Afghani cooking. Afghan cuisine is noted for its succulent kebabs in addition to its variety of lentil and vegetarian dishes.

Meals come out in platters, so you’ll have the best sampling if you go in a group, but everything is available individually as well. At $17.95 the appetizer platter for two is not the array of riches it portends, but you will get one of everything; salata with feta cheese, humus, sabzi mast (spinach & yogurt dip), boulany (crust stuffed with mashed potatoes and onions) & sambosa (spiced mixed veggies and potato, wrapped in dough & deep fried), with chaka (sour cream & yogurt) and pita.

We also had the mantu, a Middle-Eastern version of the Chinese mantou. It’s a mixture of spiced minced beef, onions and herbs wrapped in dough, then steamed and topped with the ubiquitous chaka. We also had the kabuli palaw which comes vegetarian or with a choice of meat. Like in Indian cuisine, palaw is baked rice with sautéed carrots, raisins and almonds while kabuli is spinach, cauliflower and potato mix. We got it topped with a braised lamb shoulder.

I remember being enthralled with the Afghan Horsemen. So many group dinners of my past were held there, but maybe the magic of the room captured my imagination or perhaps my palate has changed. On this visit, the flavours were interesting but everything tasted watered down and oily, the delicate spices being overrun by the need to feed too many dinner guests.

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Afghan Horsemen
1833 Anderson Street #202, Vancouver

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Solly’s Challah/Challa/Chollah

Posted on February 24, 2011 by | 2 Comments

urban solly's
Vancouver World Tour > Middle East > Israel

I wrote this for a Museum of Vancouver exhibit (on ethnic bread) that never came to be, but I thought I may as well include it in the Vancouver World Tour.

Walking into Solly’s Bagelry and Deli on a rainy day is tantamount to pressing the Comfort Overdrive button on some kind of sensory device. Filled throughout the day with the smells of baking bread (first challah and rye loaves, then regular rounds of bagels) as well as matzo ball soup, it smells like you expect your grandmother’s house should, even if your grandmother isn’t Jewish. It’s busy in a cozy, friendly way and the windows steam up when it’s wet out – for increased comfort. It’s the kind of New York style deli that makes you want to linger and eat the paper while you linger over lunch – a bagel sandwich or pastrami on rye with pickles and soup. Various counters and cases display all sorts of Jewish nosh including knishes, rugelach, cinnamon buns, chocolate babkas, latkes, and bagels and schmear galore. The ubiquitous pot of matzo ball soup simmers on the stove.

challah bread

Challah is very similar to brioche, glazed with egg to make it shine and so soft to sink your teeth into. But unlike French egg bread, it can also come covered in sesame seeds or poppy seeds for extra decoration and flavour. At Solly’s the challah is available in sesame, poppy and plain, but also in multiple sizes (including one enormous wedding-size, about a metre long) and in French toast format. Sweet egg bread cooked in egg with syrup on top? That’s a decadent tradition I can get behind.

wedding challah

Tradition-wise, the Oxford Companion to Food tells us that, “two loaves are served at each of the three Sabbath meals, as a remembrance of the double portion of manna which fell for the Israelites in the wilderness to provide food both for the sixth day and for the succeeding Sabbath day.” While they were wandering in the desert for forty years after leaving Egypt, manna fell from the heavens as a gift from God. It didn’t fall on the Sabbath or holidays, thought, so an extra loaf fell the day before. This manna was apparently sweet to the taste – as is the challah – and being braided represents two loaves in one.

broken open

Within this realm of comfort, Challah is perhaps less recognized than say, matzo or knishes, but it is nonetheless a traditional, culturally important bread. It’s a braided egg bread sweetened with honey and, plucked off the shelves relatively soon after baking, can be a delicate, pillowy-soft treat.

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Solly’s Bagelry and Deli
2873 W Broadway, Vancouver
368 W 7th Ave., Vancouver
189 E 28th Ave., Vancouver

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Omnitsky Kosher Deli

Posted on February 22, 2011 by | 2 Comments


Vancouver World Tour > Middle East > Israel

I had brought salad for lunch – salad and celery – but my day turned sideways and I turned to some comfort food. Maybe not  mac ‘n’ cheese, the comfort food of my childhood, but matzo ball soup will certainly do in a pinch.

I’ve been meaning to check out Omnitsky Kosher Deli for months but it was too late or it was Sunday or some other (not very good reason) and so when I finally got there last week, I didn’t really know what to make of it. It’s a deli, with a couple of seats in the front and a sandwich counter plus shelving in the back. It’s kosher, obviously.

You walk around the displays of chips to the meat counter where there is a sandwich board and deli meats. I was freezing, so I stammered out an order for soup – and received an order of standard daily chicken matzo ball soup -  and made my way through ordering a half sandwich of Montreal smoked meat on caraway rye bread with homemade spicy mustard. First meat (Montreal smoked meat was the favorite), then bread (choice of rye, caraway rye, or wheat), then mustard (regular, grainy, spicy, and the only real choice in my opinion – spicy homemade).

I can’t even tell you how good it was and how kind everyone was, giving me tips on what to order and passing me the paper when they were done with a section. I loved the soft bread and they weren’t kidding about how spicy the mustard was – it was delicious. The whole experience was nourishing and comforting in many ways.

Omnitsky kosher deli

I wandered back into the deli to buy some spicy mustard and (also spicy!) hummus and to check out the ENTIRE SHELF of herring and it was impressive. I almost picked up some knishes, but my freezer is only so big and it still has a quarter of a lamb in it (not kosher). Sigh.

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Omnitsky Kosher Deli
5866 Cambie Street, Vancouver

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East is East

Posted on February 17, 2011 by | Leave a comment

feast
Vancouver World Tour > Middle East > Arabic fusion

As we head east, East is East seemed like a logical place to start. Fusion food, they combine the flavours of the silk road from Turkey to China. The Silk Road Feast we ordered mixed dhal lentil soup, roti, Afghan boulani (roti stuffed with potato, green onion and herbs), tabouleh (parley and mint salad), with lamb kebab patties and “thai tofu” (tofu, red pepper, chilis, lime leaves and ginger in a sour mango green curry) presented on a tin thali plate.

Despite not usually being a fan of fusion foods (especially that span entire continents), I liked it. The lamb kebabs were flavourful and moist and the the the tang of the tofu curry was interesting and delightful. Not only did my meat-loving fiance pick it from the menu and order it, he loved it. That’s saying something.

tibetan mantu

Washed down with cups of sweet and spicy chai, we also sampled the Tibetan mantu. It surprised me. I’ve only had Chinese mantu, with thick dough but these were dumplings stuffed with green onions and chives with skin thin like a pot-sticker.  and covered over with dehydrated yogurt, chickpeas and alfalfa sprouts. It was kind of a mess and after a couple of bites the dehydrated yogurt flavour got to be too much.

East is East

The room itself is a fusion of Kitsilano hippie chic – polished wood tables and stump stools – with Eastern-styled paper lanterns and wall hangings. It’s cosy and easy to hang out and sip tea for a while.

This turned out to be a good thing, at least on the day we were there, because a child birthday party arrived and no one ever came back to our table.  Maybe laid back has been adopted as a service model or maybe the dessert isn’t actually that good.

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East is East
3239 W. Broadway, Vancouver
and
4413 Main Street (Main and 28th), Vancouver

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Nuba

Posted on February 9, 2011 by | 3 Comments

Najib's Special
Vancouver World Tour > Middle East > Lebanon

Nuba was the very first restaurant I wrote about on Ethnic Eats and it was one of my go-to recommendations for healthy ethnic food when the Vancouver Sun interviewed me last year. So it was an obvious choice for a Middle Eastern pick. I’m a fan.

Nuba spread

In the time since, they’ve expanded to two “cafe” locations and their loungey downstairs restaurant in Gastown which was packed when we tried to get a mid-week 7 PM reservation. Turns out Vancouverites were hungry for something more than donair and falafel stands.

One of my favorite vegetable dishes – maybe even in the city – is “Najib’s Special”. Roasted cauliflower with sea salt and lemon and served with tahini combines the sweet, salt, tart and tangy flavours into utter deliciousness. I have no idea who Najib is but this is the best cauliflower you’ll ever have.

halumi

Despite my favorite menu item being a vegetable, I hadn’t remembered that such a significant portion of the menu was vegetarian, nor that the menu itself was so limited. It seemed as though the menu was smaller than any of us had remembered and in fact, even the one they have online currently is more varied.

Nuba

But no matter, we stocked up on a variety of appetizer-sized mezze. We had the fattoush salad and the fire-grilled halumi cheese – a gorgeous salty dish that’s easily another fave – and mjadra, which is a perfectly decent lentil spread served with pita. But the chicken shish tawook was so dry as to be inedible and was abandoned in favour of lamb. Both the baked lamb kibbeh sainieh – spiced meatballs – and the grilled lamb popsicles with hummus (unfortunately a special for the evening and not on their regular menu) were so good that we had to order repeats.

Nuba

Another option to ordering piece-meal would be to get the platter which seems to come with one of everything you’d want to try.

Photos by Matt Walters.

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Nuba
207-B West Hastings Street, Vancouver (+ various)

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Vancouver World Tour: Africa

Posted on February 2, 2011 by | 3 Comments

African cuisine is a diverse as the countryside; iron-rich injera and Indian-influenced dishes on the East coast to couscous and tagines in the North, South African cured biltong and okra and yams in the West. Vancouver doesn’t have all that many African restaurants – the preponderance of which are Ethiopian/East African – but I tried to cover them all. Unfortunately, after months of trying to get to Lagos Corner Nigerian, they were closed. I’m going to keep trying and I’ll add it in when I finally get there, but blog-wise I want to move on to the next region: the Middle East.

See below for African reviews or if you have a favourite Middle Eastern restaurant in Vancouver, please tell me about it.

Africa:

South African: African Breese Imports

Ethiopia: Fassil

Tunisian: Carthage Cafe

East African: Simba’s Grill

Nigerian: Lagos Corner Nigerian Restaurant, 7546 Edmonds Street

 

Please also see Harambe and Red Sea Cafe. I’ve tried several dishes at Nyala but found the food and service to be not worth reporting on.

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Jambo Grill & Good Morning Paan

Posted on December 7, 2010 by | 1 Comment

potato puffs
Vancouver World Tour > Africa > Uganda.

With all the busyness of trying to get everything done before having knee surgery, I was finding it hard to get to any of the farther afield African restaurants on my list, but I was looking forward to Jambo Grill & Good Morning Paan. Jambo is a Swahili word meaning ‘hello’ and paan is an Indian dish, a betel leaf filled with sweets and nuts and with all the multi-ethnic welcoming, I was expecting deliciousness.

Like Simba’s the menu here is a mix of Indian and East African. The menu explains:

The dishes at Jambo Grill and Khoja style, which is quite different from other Indian style dishes. Khoja’s followers of the Ismaili Branch of Shia sect of Islam, our forefathers in India, were converted to Islam by the Dais from Iran. Thus, there is a strong Persian and Gujarati influence evident in our cooking…Around the 1920′s the Khoja settled in large numbers in East Africa before immigrating to Canada in the 1970′s. Certain African style dishes such as Cassava and Tilapia Fish are influences from that continent. Also cooking on the grill (Sigdi) was very common in East Africa.

I was seated with four menus, presumably to cover off this range of cuisines and when I had finally settled on the bateda wada – spiced mashed potatoes battered and fried – and the mishkaki, spiced and grilled steak, I waited. I was a long way from work for lunch, so somewhat worried about time, but it seemed impossible to catch the waitress’ eye. She was busy with another table, then busy wandering around the restaurant, then just missing. Finally I ordered.

The potato balls, when they arrived, were dry but luckily there was an array of sauces on the table; ambli tamarind sauce, pili pili hot sauce and moto moto chili sauce, that got slathered on everything.

meat and potatoes

I read a magazine then got up to go to the bathroom. When I got back to my table, my steak was sitting there, getting cold. I was disappointed that she hadn’t bothered to put it under a heat lamp for a few minutes until I got back, but there was no telling her that – she was MIA for the rest of the meal, save for a surly water refill. When I wanted to pay, I had to get up and stand at the cash register. Luckily? It was the owner who came to help but when he inquired about the experience and I told him about the terrible service, he hauled the waitress over and reprimanded her in front of me. Her indignant, “what?!” shouted in the restaurant mirrored the shock and incredulity on mine.

Service aside, the flavours are interesting and complex. I like the combination of tamarind and fennel seed with chilies, especially in beef, but everything was so dry.  Simba’s has similar fare and is a much better experience, in my opinion.

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Jambo Grill & Good Morning Paan
3219 Kingsway, Vancouver

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Simba’s African Grill

Posted on October 5, 2010 by | 2 Comments

cassava
Vancouver World Tour > Africa > East Africa.

I’d heard decent things about Simba’s Grill over the years, but never enough to get it high enough on my list. I almost made it there during Meat-on-a-Stick week but then it slipped under the radar again until last week when I managed to convince my partner to go on a longish walk to the West End to eat some African food. “What’s it going to be like?” he asked. “Skewers, I think” was my response. And so we set out, not expecting much.

goat curry

Expectations were not raised when the owner came over and gruffly asked if we had any questions. I didn’t have any specific ones, other than I wanted some recommendations. The menu is divided into barbecue (on skewers, ha!) and curry. The curry (and the naan, and the chutneys) have a decidedly Indian influence that I need to learn more about, with familiar ingredients but unrecognizable names. We ended up with the goat curry in brown sauce (mbuzi muchuzi) and barbecued ostrich (mbuni).

ugali

Before they arrived though, we got a complementary plate of fried cassava sprinkled with chilies. The table already held a set of coconut chutney, yogurt and tamarind sauce and the cassava was accompanied by homemade pili-pili hot sauce and mango hot sauce, so there were plenty of flavours to be sampled. Several of them were unapologetically (and deliciously) spicy but we had a large Tusker beer from Kenya to quell the heat.

The mango hot sauce had an exquisite flavour, both sweet and spicy, that I started dabbing on the cassava with the coconut chutney but by the end of the meal I had poured out the rest of each on various parts of the meal. The pili-pili was more heat than flavour but gave the cassava and ugali (cornmeal made from maize) a good kick whereas the tamarind sauce was dark and sultry and sticky.

The ostrich came with saffron rice so fragrant that I held the plate to my face before I even tasted anything. Then I tasted the rice, even before the meat. Then I sliced open a chunk of ostrich and it was medium rare and a beautiful dark wine colour. It tasted rich and decadent, while still being quite lean meat. Astonishingly, it got even better with a little dab of the mango hot sauce.

From the first bite we started in with “Mmmm!” and “Try this!” and it didn’t stop until we were walking home, doggie-bag in hand. By the time we switched plates, half-way through the mean I had already uttered, “wow” several times – something that rarely happens anymore. The goat curry provoked more wows; I dunked spoonfuls of the soft ugali in the sauce and spooned up mouthfuls of flavour. It was different than an Indian curry, there was more heat and more going on in the background with cloves and cinnamon. There were also bones, some of them small and barely noticeable in the thick sauce, so be careful.

The decor is pure African kitsch, from lion’s mane wall sconces to saucières with embossed lions on them and plates that would not be out of place in the Fantasyland Hotel but who cares? The food is delicious, the portions are huge and the walk home along the water (at least for us) is incomparable. We’ll be back soon.

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Simba’s Grill
825 Denman Street, Vancouver

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