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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Transylvanian Flavour

Posted on December 7, 2010 by | Leave a comment

mititei - skinless sausages
Vancouver World Tour > Europe> Romania/Transylvania

“Hug A Romanian” day came up in my office on Dec. 1st, so we took our resident Romanian out to Transylvanian Flavour for some delicacies. He thoughtfully brought us some Romanian straw hats to wear and as another coworker remarked, the whole restaurant must have been full of Romanians because no one even did a double-take.

tripe soup
Turns out that, like in many parts of the world, tripe soup is common comfort food. Here it’s called ciorba de burta and comes with sour cream, rolls and serrano chili pepper. Unfortunately, it’s a meal in itself and I also wanted sausages, so I had the borscht instead.

borscht remains
Borscht is one of my favorite vegetarian soups, brightly coloured and hearty and this one didn’t seem to be any different than the Ukrainian versions I’ve had in the past. The perogies, on the other hand, were very different. I didn’t order them – I was torn between the kiftele (meatballs) and mititei (skinless sausages). Mămăligă was on the menu but having made it myself, I finally settled on the sausages with some encouragement from my coworker and the waitress. Deliciously juicy, they are flavoured with coriander and paprika and come with a side of mustard for dipping. And they are rich! So the plate of fries was a good balance.

perogies
The perogies were also a lot richer than I am accustomed to. Filled with yam, Friulani and Gouda cheese, then drizzled with sour cream, roasted red pepper sauce and bacon, it seemed like it might also need a plate of starch to go with.

Unfortunately there wasn’t time for the Romanian donuts, so we might just have to check back in.

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Transylvanian Flavour
2120 Broadway, Vancouver

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Ramen Week: Kintaro Ramen

Posted on November 19, 2010 by | 4 Comments

ramen kitchen
Kintaro was the last one on the list. Although it has arguably the best reputation, it also has the longest lineup and the thought of standing outside in the rain seems to have more sway than the thought of hot soup. Turns out, if you go right at noon on a Tuesday, not only is there no line, but there are even tables available! The couple coming in behind us was so startled they checked twice to make sure it was the right place.
miso ramen
While Motomachi and Santouka and even Menya have decorated with warm wood, Kintaro is all about the ramen. The bowls and big and decorated in the ramen tradition but the kitchen is utilitarian; scratched paint, cold metal counters and uncomfortable chairs mean that the ramen is so good they don’t have to dress up the decor.

The menu features the usual assortment of ramen options – shoyu, shio, miso, etc. and and cheese! (according to the menu, “Ladies just lo-o-o-ve it!!”) but then there is a choice between rich, medium and light soup broth and lean or fatty BBQ pork. I had the Miso ramen with medium broth and fatty pork and Matt had Shio with lean pork (also with medium broth).

The fatty pork turned out to be a stroke of genius. Warming up in the broth, the fat melted into the broth and gave it the illusion of being thicker and creamier. The noodles were perfect, the broth was perfect. Unlike Santouka, which made me swoon, this is every day, excellent ramen. It’s not hard to see how students live off of it.

Wikipedia defines Miso ramen as:

a relative newcomer, having reached national prominence around 1965. This uniquely Japanese ramen, which was developed in Hokkaidō, features a broth that combines copious amounts of miso and is blended with oily chicken or fish broth – and sometimes with tonkatsu or lard – to create a thick, nutty, slightly sweet and very hearty soup. Miso ramen broth tends to have a robust, tangy flavor, so it stands up to a variety flavorful toppings…The noodles are typically thick, curly, and slightly chewy.

whereas Shio ramen:

is probably the oldest of the four [types]…is the lightest ramen, a pale, clear, yellowish broth made with plenty of salt and any combination of chicken, vegetables, fish, and seaweed. Occasionally pork bones are also used, but they are not boiled as long as they are for tonkotsu ramen, so the soup remains light and clear. Noodle texture and thickness varies among shio ramen, but they are usually straight rather than curly.

I still don’t have a favorite type. Different days call for different soups, and sometimes even shops. Luckily we have some good ones.
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Kintaro Ramen
788 Denman Street, Vancouver

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Ramen Week: Motomachi Shokudo

Posted on November 18, 2010 by | 1 Comment

ramen
After force-feeding him ramen for a week, by the time we were finished at Motomachi Shokudo, we had determined that Matt doesn’t like ramen. Or that he sometimes likes ramen.

Not that Motomachi isn’t excellent ramen, it is. It’s just that there are many types of ramen and some ingredient in some of them doesn’t make him happy. More research is clearly needed.

Motomachi is a beautiful room. Cozy with lots of wood stools and counters and a big common table in the middle of the room. I spent some time staring at it while we waited outside, peering through the window like smokers. I watched a six year old eat an entire bowl of ramen, slurping away slowly and I have no idea where she put it all. It did make me notice though, that there are many children in ramen shops and not many (like none) child-sizes. Japanese kids must be made of rubber.

motomachi shokudo

Finally it was our turn and we warmed our hands over big steaming bowls of miso ramen and then I ate mine while Matt pondered what the offensive ingredient might be and ate the oddly shaped “fingers” of gyoza.  The soup was  was hearty and comforting, especially with the addition of burnt onion  but the pork was a little dry and the broth was a little thin. I’d go back but it wouldn’t be my first choice with Santouka so close.

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Motomachi Shokudo
740 Denman Street, Vancouver

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Ramen Week: Hokkaido Ramen Santouka

Posted on November 17, 2010 by | 3 Comments

Rameny goodness
It took me a couple of days after the Benkei ramen experience to get Matt to pick up a pair of chopsticks again, an just in case, we picked Santouka as the next destination. It’s also a chain but, named for a poet, their style of ramen making borders on beautiful. To get the broth perfectly meaty and creamy, they simmer the pork rib for 2 days. You can see them all in process, boiling away.

Again had we had gyoza, followed by a Shio ramen for me and a Miso ramen for Matt, and when we saw that Santouka also offers toroniku (fattier pork jowl) as well as leaner pork meat, we both decided to treat ourselves.

Ramen accessories

The gyoza was excellent but the ramen was unparalleled. The broth and noodles are served separately from the meat and other ingredients, so that the meat doesn’t cook up and fall apart before you’re ready to eat it. But it also provides an opportunity to taste the broth on its own without any additional flavours. This is a very rich soup. The extra time boiling creates a creamy broth that doesn’t separate and combined with the pork jowl, was an interesting overlap between comforting and decadent. At the first slurp I may have gasped at the deliciousness of it, but by the end of the bowl it proved to be a bit much for every day. Combined with the lean meat, it would be exquisite.

Ramen-makers

Leaving with smiles and sloshing bellies, I almost wanted to end “Ramen Week” right then, but there are still a few neighbours on Ramen Row…

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Hokkaido Ramen Santouka
1690 Robson St, Vancouver

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