a hop, skip, and a jump across the border (vancouver, bc)

The other weekend I found myself in Vancouver, BC, with good friends and requests for delicious food. With a little help from Zagat, Google, and my favorite cookbook store, The Book Larder, I was ready to eat my way through this Canadian city. My favorites from the weekend are described below.

Steam clock in Vancouver's Gastown.

Vij's Rangoli: This was possibly the best Indian food I have ever tasted (keep in mind that I've never been to India, so I don't have that as a comparison). And if the wait on a Thursday evening at Rangoli (30+ minutes) and its fancier counterpart next door, Vij's (90+ minutes), is any indication, I'm not the only one who thinks so. Everything on the menu sounded amazing, and according to our server, everything would taste amazing as well (she was right). After many minutes agonizing over what to order (because deciding to order one dish meant not tasting another), the three of us finally settled on the following:

• Lentil, paneer, and chickpea samosas with cilantro-jalepeño chutney (starter)
• Portobello mushroom and red bell pepper curry on paneer with beet salad, and naan
• Chicken cutlets with bacon, buttermilk, and garam masala curry with vegetable rice pilaf
• Beef short ribs in kalonji curry with spicy pickled vegetables, rice, and naan
• Goat and jackfruit in creamy curry with coconut cabbage salad, rice, and naan
• Meeti roti: Custard on demerara sugar and cashew chapati with fresh mint (dessert)

Lentil, paneer, and chickpea samosas.

Portobello mushroom and red bell pepper curry.

Beef short ribs in kalonji curry.

Custard on chapati filled with demerara sugar & cashews.

Yes, I did say there were only three of us. And yes, we devoured every amazing bite. I would have gone for seconds on the dessert if it didn't take 20 minutes to prepare... 

Miku: Apparently when you visit the west coast from Indiana, sushi is big on the list of foods to eat. As you might have guessed, I was more than happy to accommodate this request. Miku came highly recommended from a variety of sources, so I made our lunch reservations weeks in advance and eagerly awaited this meal. Disregard it's location in an office building -- Miku was bustling with energy and every seat was filled when we arrived. They're best known for creative oshi (pressed) and maki (rolled) sushi, so we ordered a mix of these along with a server-recommended hamachi carpaccio and a few staples (aka spicy tuna handrolls and sockeye salmon nigiri). 

Hamachi carpaccio with avocado sauce, sweet soy
drizzle, olive oil, and black pepper. 

Sockeye salmon nigiri.

Aburi salmon oshi sushi: Local salmon pressed and dressed
with Miku sauce, topped with sliced jalapeño.

Red wave roll: Snow crab and avocado wrapped in maguro,
topped with masatake sauce (soy, sesame oil, and onions). 

Una-kyu roll: Barbequed fresh water eel tempura, cucumber,
seven spice salt, and unagi sauce.

If you can't tell from the pictures, both of us were happy diners despite the food coma that ensued.

Twisted Fork Bistro: A last minute search for a worthy brunch spot led us through the relatively non-seedy adult entertainment blocks of Granville Street to the Twisted Fork Bistro. Touting locally sourced ingredients, house-baked bread, and house-made jam, this small spot gathers quite a crowd for its weekend brunch (they also serve dinner every night). We managed to snag a table in record time (less than 10 minutes) and were soon enjoying French-pressed coffee (her), a Twisted Mary (me), and two freshly baked asiago scones with butter and blackberry jam. Following the scones, we had the well-done gruyère baked eggs (yuuuum) served with bacon, roasted tomatoes, and sourdough toast and the eggs benny with bacon -- poached eggs, hollandaise, sautéed spinach, and bacon served on toasted brioche. Both dishes also came with rösti (grated and fried potatoes, similar to hash browns) and baked beans.. not sure how the beans fit in with breakfast, but they were pretty tasty regardless.

Asiago scones.

Well-done gruyère baked eggs.

Eggs benny with bacon on toasted brioche.

hhf says: Get out your passport and head to Vancouver. There is good food to be had! Oh, and did I mention the shopping?

Louis Vuitton Merry-Go-Round pumps and mules from the
Spring/Summer 2012 fashion show.

Shoes: In the lobby of the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver is a beautiful Louis Vuitton maison store filled with Spring/Summer 2012 runway exclusives like these Merry-Go-Round pumps and mules. I wasn't convinced that I needed these shoes.. yet.

Side note: I realize that the title of this posting utilizes incorrect parallelism. Corrected, it would read "a hop, a skip, and a jump..." or "a hop, skip, and jump..." And yet, that's not how the idiom goes. Darn you, idiom!