Foodies rejoice in West Coast
For Asian food lovers, Vancouver is an absolute gold mine of good eats. My favourites here have been the Japanese style izakayas. These are drinking salons which also offer a wide array of small eats to accompany the booze. Since I’ve been here, I’ve already gone to three different izakayas: Guu, Hapa Izakaya, Shiru-Bay (my favourite of the three).
Chicago could definitely use one of these establishments. Of course, by that same token, Vancouver could definitely use some good Mexican food. I’m sure our beloved carne tacos with onions and cilantro would fly very well here. :D
Favourie dishes so far:
- Kobe beef carpaccio served with fuji apples, shaved reggiano cheese & white truffle oil (Shiru-Bay)
- Lotus root gyoza which is like a lotus root sandwich with meat filling lightly battered and fried (my mom makes something just like this; Hapa Izakaya)
- Mackerel filets seared table-side. At Hapa Izakaya, they serve the seared filet as is with a soy-citrus based sauce. At Shiru-Bay, they sear it table-side and take it back to the chef who prepares it two different ways. I never liked saba (mackerel) much due to its overwhelming smokey-fishy flavour, but I’ve decided that was due to the poor quality of the saba in the midwest. :p Out here, the stuff has just the right amount of fishy flavour and is fresh and tasty.
- And a favourite at all Vancouver-izakayas, Ebi Mayo! Lightly battered and fried sweet prawns served with a spicy mayo sauce. These are SO. GOOD. Unlike your typical deep fried shrimp served up at Red Lobster or whereever, these ebi are of top notch sushi quality and slightly undercooked—very much remniscent of my favourite sushi, ama ebi served with fried head. Yum.
More Asian food blogging to come—next time straight from Asia!
