Vancouver gets a cosplay cafe

“If little Asian girls in costumes float your boat, then it’s awesome.”

So what really goes into the coffee at Tim Hortons?

The souls of its workers.

“It’s an easy-drinking coffee, an ‘all-day’ coffee,” says head taster Mr. West. The company believes its mid-blend taste encourages more repeat drinking than a more potent blend, he says. Darker roasts, like Starbucks, “are more acidic.”

That’s because of the corporate chants Starbucks employees have to say before they start each shift.

Eat real, eat local

Hellman’s FTW.

Poutine eating champion declared

I didn’t know we needed a world poutine eating championship, but apparently we did.

(Image from CC Chapman’s Flickr stream.)

Live chat with the Artigiano baristas

The Globe and Mail posted a Q&A between readers and some hard-core coffee types, including a couple of experts from Cafe Artigiano, the place I hit to get ready for work. It’s nice to see people still care about quality and getting the little things right. Trust me — you notice it in the taste.

(Image from tonx’s Flickr stream.)

Now I’m getting hungry

I just wanted to give a nod to a couple of Canuck food blogs worth following. Accidental Foodie is run by Renee Blackstone, a former colleague of mine, who left the dingy world of journalism to review cookbooks, share recipes and just generally make me jealous. Like I needed another cake recipe…. I’m less jealous of Jan Zeschky of Jan Eats, because he’s a current colleague of mine at the paper. When I read his accounts of glorious nights he had at Vancouver’s finest restaurants and burger joints, I can always console myself by giving him the crap production work I don’t want to do. God bless union seniority.

Vancouver Sun introduces the Fatabase

The Sun has worked for six months to put together a database of nutritional information about food served at Metro Vancouver restaurants and fast-food locations. It’s pretty informative — and horrifying. For instance:

Would you order The Keg’s honey barbecue ribs knowing they contained 1,975 calories — almost the equivalent of four Big Macs? How about the Church’s Chicken homestyle fillet with gravy, knowing it contained 6,691 milligrams of sodium — about three times the maximum daily recommended intake?

Check out the Fatabase before you have a heart attack and drop face first into your Boston Pizza Appie Platter (six oven-roasted wings, three cheese toast, cactus cut potatoes and cracked pepper dry ribs — all the calories you need in a day, in a single, meal appetizer).

West chefs are the best

Q interviews chefs Vikram Vij and John Bishop about the Vancouver restaurant scene. I wish I had some food in the house.

At last — vegetarian fine dining

One of the things I love about living in Vancouver is how easy it is to be a vegetarian here — unless you want some fine dining. The vegetarian restaurants here are mainly just a step or two above pub food but several steps below haute cuisine. In other words, hearty but not memorable. There are some excellent restaurants in the city that have vegetarian tasting menus — Lumiere and West both rocked my tummy — but I don’t always feel like dropping a few hundred dollars for a meal. But according to this Post article on “New Theory Vegetarianism,” things may be improving for my people — and all across Canada, not just in Vancouver.

I was talking to a young chef named Howard Dubrovsky the other day, and he mentioned he was going to be doing a cooking demo at the 24th annual Vegetarian Food Fair at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, which didn’t really pique my interest at all, until he mentioned what he’d be preparing: “risotto nouveau (sushi rice powder instead of arborio rice), dried salad (seasoned dehydrated veggies), aromatics (Indonesian long pepper and coffee oil)” and then “pure chocolate mousse, corn sheets, cookie crumbles, popcorn sprouts, tandoori masala syrup.”

What the hell, I thought. And then he said, “It’s the New Theory Vegetarianism.” And then he had me. Because any time I can use an annoying new culinary term, I’m on it like corn sheets on cookie crumbles.

Dubrovsky’s out to change the way vegetarians eat. He says vegetarian food has never been properly developed, unlike almost every other type of cuisine. “It’s a very weird thing and it’s very specific to the perception of vegetarianism as a whole,” he explains. “For example, you can go to Colborne Lane in Toronto or Toque in Montreal, or a dozen other restaurants across the country, and their vegetarian food will be much more forward-thinking and better crafted than at the, quote-unquote, vegetarian restaurants.”

He’s perplexed about why the food at most vegetarian restaurants has remained stagnant: “It just stopped; it stays the same,” he says. “It’s all family style, rustic. It goes back to couscous and curries and stews and it doesn’t develop and it doesn’t look to try new flavours or techniques or new science or innovation.” What Dubrovsky, who has been a vegetarian for 15 years, would like to do is take the foresight and creativity that he sees in the higher-end restaurants and apply it to vegetarian food.

(Image is of the interior of West Restaurant.)

Somebody feed Kevin Chong

Vancouver writer and “world-champion mooch” Kevin Chong goes in search of free food.

My first targets were markets. At Urban Fare, Yaletown’s yuppie feeding trough, I sampled a five-year-old Britannia cheese, organic chicken, pumpkin-rye bread, and dry-rubbed salmon. I didn’t leave hungry. Granville Island, on the other hand, was a disappointment, largely bereft of samples, I did have two slices of lemon-pepper bratwurst at Oyama Sausage Co. It was like eating sausage and drinking lemonade all at once.

My next plundering ground was a temple. Reliable sources had told me that both a Sikh temple in East Van and a Buddhist temple in Richmond offered free meals. I decided, however, to visit the Hare Krishna temple in South Burnaby. After removing my shoes, I entered a hall full of people chanting and singing before a colourful shrine. The music actually was joyous and the crowd was pleasantly polyethnic. For a moment I felt like one of the White Album–era Beatles. Okay, probably Ringo.

I’m going to print and frame that illustration of Chong as a squirrel.

Who are Vancouver’s next great chefs?

Vancouver magazine polled food insiders from around the city to find the next generation of celebchefs.

We found they had some fascinating things in common—Montreal, for one, where several of them grew up and trained. Lumiere, for another, where a number of them received expert, high-pressure training in turning out refined food for a busy room. And something else as well: they’ve all taken the ingredients and techniques they mastered in the fine-dining world and reinvented them in rooms built for comfort and conviviality, where jackets are checked at the door and elbows are welcome on the table. Which is not to say they don’t have their own individual styles. In distinctly personal ways, these five young chefs are helping to define the way we eat now…

Now if only they’d do a vegetarian version.

The first rule about supper club is — ohh, truffle mashed potatoes!

The Globe explores the world of underground dinner parties.

Supper clubs are popular in the United States and Europe, but in Canada they’re only barely legal. The lounge’s website lists prices for meals. It’s registered as a business, but not a restaurant – and has no liquor licence, as guests bring their own drinks (there’s no corking fee).

But by declaring these events “private parties,” Hidden Lounge manages to avoid a slew of regulations. Jim Chan, manager of Toronto Public Health’s food-safety program, says if only private guests are invited, the lounge isn’t considered a restaurant.

“That would be classified as a private party,” Mr. Chan said, adding that complaints would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. “It’s kind of almost like a little membership thing.”

Registering as a restaurant would move the concept into an entirely different realm – Ms. Young and Mr. Ellis would have to add another bathroom, buy a commercial dishwasher and obtain insurance to cover their guests, to name a few changes. The premises would also be inspected regularly.

So they run it as a private party.

Vij’s pulls crickets from menu

Vancouver restaurant Vij’s has pulled crickets from its menu only a few days after introducing them. Something about health regulations….

If you followed the story in The Sun in the past week, Vij’s took a controversial and pioneering step by putting cricket paratha on its menu on Tuesday, in the name of sustainable food sourcing. It got huge buzz from as far away as France and customer reviews were unanimously positive, as were samplings by some Vancouver Sun reporters and editors.

On Thursday, Meeru Dhalwala, co-owner/chef of Vij’s, covered just one more base in the process of putting bugs on her menu. She knew crickets held no health risk, per se – she had talked, informally, to a Canadian Food Inspection Agency staffer and was assured of that. But she didn’t want a surprise from the local health inspectors so put in a call to Vancouver Coastal Health’s health protection director, who co-incidentally had just gotten off the phone with an ABC’s Nightline reporter who wrapping up a story on the cricket paratha. Was it A-okay to serve crickets, she wanted to know.

It was a first for Richard Tacky, director of health protection.

While the future of the cricket paratha at Vij’s still looks rosy, Dhalwala and husband Vikram Vij decided to take it off the menu until sometime next week, until they receive the thumbs-up from the health department.

Acclaimed Vij’s restaurant to serve insects

Vancouver’s Vij’s restaurant, one of my favourite places to eat in the city, is planning on serving insects. No, it’s not some new dining trend, like all your dishes served in the form of foam. It’s all about the environment.

Meeru Dhalwala, the chef and co-owner with husband Vikram Vij, has decided to introduce insects as a green cuisine. She wrote about her plan in a recent piece in The Vancouver Sun.

She argued that insects can provide an environmentally positive, healthy protein and an occasional alternative to meat, if only we could tackle the yuck factor.

Green cuisine or not, cooking with insects is a bold move for a restaurant known for its sophisticated food and regarded as a top-ranking go-to spot for the famous and the foodies. Vij’s will certainly be the only high-end restaurant in North America I know of that cooks with insects.

(Image of Vij’s lentil curry from mellowfood’s Flickr stream.)

The 100-mile beer diet

Todd Babiak has an article in today’s Edmonton Journal that makes me want to try Amber’s Sap Vampire Maple Lager. Oh yes, and he calls for more local brews in Edmonton.

We should be able to drink Sap Vampire, Bub’s Lunch Pail Ale, Grog lime coolers or the tasty Australian Mountain Pepper Berry Lager, on tap at every pub and nightclub in Old Strathcona. Only we can’t. Molson, Labatt and Sleeman — and their coterie of national and international brands — have exclusivity contracts. The competition Bureau of Canada has heard a number of complaints in recent years about these contracts and other restrictions, advertising measures, and offers of money and free beer to maintain market share.

Jim Gibbon, owner of Amber’s Brewing, and possibly the most passionate and positive Edmontonian within city limits, doesn’t want to get into that. Gibbon just wants Edmonton beer, potentially one of the foundations of Edmonton culture, in Edmonton bars. He’s confident that if we have a chance to try Amber’s, we won’t go back.

“If you go to the Interior of B.C., every little town has its own microbrew or two,” he says, “and all the bars carry it. Proudly. Even in Calgary: Look at how they supported Big Rock in those early years. It’s diametrically opposite in Edmonton.”

No bar owner on Whyte or Jasper Avenues can argue it’s a question of quality. This is ridiculously good beer. There was so much positive buzz about Amber’s products at the Edmonton International Beer Festival last month that Gibbon sold out of beer and bottles. Ideally, as in Portland or Seattle or Vancouver — even Whitehorse — Edmontonians will begin to buy local beer, local arts and crafts, local fashions, for themselves and for visitors to the city.

Has Vancouver replaced Toronto as culinary capital of Canada?

The Globe compares Vancouver’s growing restaurant scene to Toronto’s and says the West Coast may be the new New York of the North. Having eaten at a  fair number of restaurants in both cities, I can’t say I agree with the article. Vancouver is a two-star city compared to Toronto’s three stars. But it’s getting better. Thank God, it’s getting better.

Torontonians have long been flattered by the “New York of the North” conceit. Canada’s largest city, after all, is also the country’s business capital and, one could argue, its key cultural and entertainment hub.

So one might forgive a self-respecting Toronto foodie for recoiling at the news that two of Manhattan’s legendary culinary stars, Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Daniel Boulud, are bypassing the Centre of the Universe to set up their first Canadian outposts thousands of miles away in, yes, Vancouver.

As reported in this newspaper last week, Mr. Vongerichten is negotiating a new restaurant in the Shangri-La Hotel Vancouver, scheduled to open early next year. Though nothing’s been signed, the project is rumoured to be a high-end destination restaurant.

Mr. Vongerichten, who oversees 17 restaurants and has been dubbed a “superchef” by New York Times critic Frank Bruni, would follow in the clog steps of fellow French expatriate Mr. Boulud, best known for the Manhattan dining temple Daniel.

Last month, Mr. Boulud announced a partnership with David and Manjy Sidoo, owners of Lumière and Feenie’s, two restaurants founded by the recently departed Rob Feenie. Under the plan, the New Yorker will take over both locations and rebrand the less formal Feenie’s as DB Bistro Moderne Vancouver.

As if that weren’t enough, Susur Lee, considered by many to be Canada’s most internationally renowned chef, is adding injury to insult. Mr. Lee last month dropped the bombshell he is closing his Toronto flagship location, Susur, and heading south to the greener culinary pastures of New York’s Lower East Side.

“I was kind of shocked,” said Mark Bittman, a New York Times food writer who also maintains a popular blog at Bitten.blogs.nytimes.com. “He just seemed like a Toronto calling card, and I thought that was kind of a shame.”

All of which, with due respect to Montreal, which has always excelled at French-based cuisine, would seem to raise the question: Has Vancouver trumped Toronto as Canada’s culinary capital?

Susur Lee ready for bigger stage

Star chef Susur Lee talks to the Globe‘s Report on Business about “leadership” at his Toronto restaurants.

Riopelle — the cheese

The Globe‘s new cheese column is really wreaking havoc with my weight-loss goals. Maybe if they didn’t tell me where I could buy the cheeses in my neighbourhood….

Creamy, ripe, melt-in-your-mouth: Riopelle is cheese that lives up to the French reputation for seduction. Barely contained in its thin, bloomy rind is a salty, triple-cream cheese with a rich, decadent paste. Its texture is that of soft butter, leaving hints of mushroom and a light tang to linger on the tongue.

Riopelle’s namesake is the famous Quebec painter Jean-Paul Riopelle, best known for his large, abstract, brightly coloured paintings on which he layered paint with a palette knife. Months before he died in 2002, Mr. Riopelle agreed to lend his name and artwork to the cheese label in order to promote the small, tight-knit community on the Ile-aux-Grues, where he was a resident.

“Just make sure everyone is as happy as possible”

Meeru Dhalwala, one of the owners of Vij’s restaurant in Vancouver, describes a shift working the floor.

As I became comfortable, I found myself peeking at the food on the tables. I was intrigued by how diners chose the menu items. By 7 p.m. I asked Mike if I could take orders, since the menu was my one area of expertise. My first table was six very happy men who all seemed to be good friends. They ordered six mutton kebobs, three lamb popsicles, and three beef shortribs. I was so shocked by their order that I must have just stood there for a minute figuring out what to say.

“Is there a problem?” one of them asked me. I told them exactly what the problem was — there was no fibre or vitamins in their dinner order and, on principle, I couldn’t place the order. I had six men looking at me, dumfounded.

(Image of Vij’s from su-lin’s Flickr stream.)

The Spread

The Globe has launched a column on artisanal cheeses. Come on — I’m trying to lose weight, damn it!

Sitting on the fence is a good thing when it comes to cheese. At least for one cheese in particular — Blue Juliette from Saltspring Island, B.C. Blue Juliette lacks the typical blue ferocity that can scare off a hesitant palate, but delivers enough zing to flirt with the taste buds of a blue enthusiast.

Made from pasteurized goat’s milk and surface ripened (the cheese ripens from the outside in), it develops a white, bloomy rind (similar to the edible velvety coating found on cheeses such as brie and camembert) that is laced with a blue-green mould, giving the exterior a distinctive mottled appearance.

This dappled look makes a wheel of Blue Juliette one of the “best dressed” on any cheese board; the flavour and texture are equally superb.