For our one night in Seattle we decided to check out Le Pichet for dinner recommended by several of our buddies. I’m a big fan of the rustic neighbourhood French bistro with its low lit wood heavy interiors and long bar seating for dinner or drinks, attracting a somewhat mixed bag of diners. I also kinda like sitting closer to people unlike in most western restos where personal space is expected.

True to my expected ordering and eating ways I went for the confit while the man had steak frites. There was liver in my dish, what a nice surprise, guess i didn’t read the menu fully. The frites were fresh and crispy, steak was topped with a tad of mushrooms, yum. Wine, yes, we had a French one.

As we ate we reminisced of the French restaurants we experience in Vietnam, quaint little places in Hanoi and Saigon, filled with French speaking tourists, expats and some locals. Clicking of wine glasses, food that made you relax and go ahhhh, some times there would be a faint smell of after diner cigarette smoke(long gone in Vancouver restaurants) and the chatter in different languages, mostly French.

[Show as slideshow]

Well we pulled it off! Chez D, part of the Powell Street Festival, was a hit. With a great bunch of fun luvin food luvin artists, we created, sang, cooked, danced and they ate, ate, ate their way through the night. It was a blast I must say!

“Local artists trade their instruments and paint brushes for chef hats in Chez D, where art and cuisine meet in a tantalizing feast for the senses.

For one night only, artists normally accustomed to wowing audiences in theatres and galleries will don their chef hats and coats at Gudrun Tasting Room in Steveston and create new works of edible art celebrating the theme of migration.

Commissioned by the Powell Street Festival, Chez D artists will plate delicacies in a five-course menu that pays homage to ethnic roots, migratory paths (the ‘D’ stands for ‘Diaspora’), new lands, family restaurants and neighbourhood survival foods. As event curator Michael Speier puts it, Chez D presents “a meal full of strong cross currents and pollinations here at the tastebud’s edge of the Pacific Ocean.”

Chez D artists include Open Sesame (Michael Speier), Komodo House (Margaret Gallagher and Angela Wan), Patrick Tubajon (Gudrun Tasting Room), Ari Tomita, and Cynthia Low & Leslie Komori. Each candlelit course will be accompanied by a design element representative of the artist’s discipline, as well as the “mallow dinner music” of local music innovators Guimauves.”

Michael Speier

Not sure why it was surprising to me that it was so fun. I suppose the mind forgets what live music sounds like, how performance and dance can be so fun, how food is better enjoyed at a long feast table with friends and strangers, how all these things combined is ridiculously rare. We just get bogged down in the every day and forget to look up and smell the flowers.

We definately need more of these events in Vancouver, actually we were in Steveston at Patrick Tubajon’s Gudrun Tasting Room. Steveston itself has a varied history of Japanese immigrants living and working, many in the cannery industry. So really, this is a very suitable setting to have the Powell Street Festival event.

The set up was really a well planed migratory guerilla kitchen set up with portable tables, stoves, tents(hey its Vancouver you never know), utensils and containers of food and water. While Margaret and I were plating inside at the bar, the rest of the gang were cooking, steaming and plating outside. It wasn’t all work back there though, I did get to tear away for a minute to have a sip of Mezcal.

In the back-lot kitchen, Ari was painting with mango dressing and plating her Enso Salmon Salad, Michael was chillin keeping one eye on his New World Longboat Tamale (and pouring Tequila and Mezcal for the cooks) but it was the smell of searing venison that got me intoxicated, I found myself standing in the smoky goodness (it tasted sublime!), taking it in. Laughing robustly Cynthia and her sister recall their father bringing home whole venison and hanging the animal from a tree in the city backyard, I hope they had a fence. Their Venison o-nigiri ‘hamburger’ with jicama/beets/daikon ‘fries’ was so fun. And last but not least was Patrick’s dessert course, Isdro’s Drift mango mouse, ever so delicately adorned with chocolate drizzle hat and candy ballet slippers.

Take a look…

[Show as slideshow]

12►

Here is the menu.

Would have loved to have checked out local rock n roller Rich Hope(been a long time fan) at the Alibi Room which has an amazing selection of local craft beers ala Nigel(owner), but alas it is sold out. That’s what you get for being a dilly-dallier.

If I had to pick one fav it would be Driftwood Brewery’s Farmhand Ale, inspired by Belgium farm ale, a bit malty, citrus notes, um very drinkable, hints of banana. And I really like the branding, yes you can sell me a product on good branding, I’m a sucker.

BeerBrats - with Philips Brewing Company beer

Since we are on the subject of beery things to consume, I had bought three different packs of BeerBrats from the Trout Lake Farmers market that opened this last Weekend. Writing this, I couldn’t resist frying some up, mmm, the house smells like sausage! Made with local organic meats, and craft brews from Philips Beer(in pic), Red Truck Beer, R&B Brewing Co and Driftwood Brewery. They were less greasy, less salty and nice and beery, first thing that hits your palate is the beer. There are no preservatives in these sausages so we had to eat them all fast, well I gave away the chorizo for mother’s day.

What other beer wonders are to come this week…

The other night, dia de los muertos night at Zocalo Restaurant I heard the familiar music from a memory, el Mariachis! The music and the attire conjure up the images of mariachis my friend and I hung out with in the wistful Oaxaca city zocalo(town square) 10 years ago, before the ‘reno’ of the square and before the intense labour demonstrations.

I love the bigness of music when its live. Its true, its bright, you physically feel the music. Mariachi Los Dorados played loud, played at various tables throughout their set, serenading dinner goers and even had one diner join in to sing a song. Along with the others I swayed from side to side with the music feeling all warm and fuzzy while sipping on some excellent Patron tequila, one of many that proprietor Tanya has to offer from Vancouver’s largest collection.

The food experience is unlike other Mexican restaurants in Vancouver. The dishes are interesting, not the standard burritos or enchiladas, instead they have dishes like Puerco con Chile Ancho – pork, slow cooked in chilies, spices and oranges, served with warm tortillas. I could eat a lot of this. Or Chile en Nougada – Ancho chili stuffed with turkey breast, nuts and sun-dried fruit. Served with pecan crèma.

Another fav is Fish Tacos with habanero mayonnaise. And for some cheesy goodness, Queso Fundido – queso Oaxaca and Monterrey jack, black beans, Mexican chorizo. Served with homemade tortilla chips. You must of course join the most interesting academy and have a Dos Equis.

They use local, in some cases sustainable, ingredients with traditional techniques all made from scratch.

And the Mariachis; I must find out where they play next, got to get another dose of charro outfits and emotional folk songs soon.

Mostly seasonal except for the more established ones like Szimpla Kert(in the Jewish quarter of Pest also a cinema), these are a bohemian oasis where you can find dj sets, cheap drinks, aged courtyard view or a rooftop view, eclectic makeshift décor and a mix of personalities, mostly young.
http://www.szimpla.hu/index_en.htm

Kerts are found in old courtyards perhaps in a building slated for demolition. One kert is a on communist-era department store rooftop, Corvinteto kert(year round), I’d love that, a long view, warm evening, local yokals. http://www.corvinteto.com/

These makeshift bars pop up in the spring and summer to September around Budapest, generally you have to check the current local sources for happening new kerts. Now this gives me an itch to go back to Budapest…

Old but interesting article about kerts
http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-trw-kert6may06

Best discovery of the night? Victoria Gin! Yes the olives were fantastic, the production lesson was informative but the gin martini was stupendous! All I wanted was another one. The initial flavours are star anise, then orange peel, finishing with woody oris root, gins are complex. With salt cured Italian Cerignola and Castelvetrano olives the martini is complete.

Dinner at Boneta, just look at that luscious braised short rib, scalloped potatoes, and decadent onion rings, wow that is a lot of food for one gal. All mouthwatering. But wait, there’s more! Home-made gnocchi with fried sage in brown butter is fat+starch satisfyingly good. And to add to the already heavy deliciousness is Brooklyn Beer on tap.

Entrées at $25+ is pretty standard for this calibre of dining, its a good choice to taste local ingredients done contemporary. Also awesome is the ever friendly owner partner wine guru Neil Ingram (especially friendly when you hang with CBC’s Margaret Gallagher).

The ceiling dons framed mirrors angled and hanging. The walls are adorned with local artist Charles Forsberg’s very large canvases. Charles, can I store one of these in my living room for you?

You can kinda see the painting on the right in my layered night shot.

My new favourite restaurant is 50-seat Les Faux Bourgeois snuggled in the triangle shaped swatch at Kingsway and Fraser.

This French bistro is the brainchild of Andreas Seppelt(co-owner of Go Fish and the old Bukowski’s) and Stephan Gagnon (a former co-owner of Jules Bistro in Gastown). The consulting Chef was Tina Fineza of Flying Tiger.

The food is great and I won’t go on about it except for the fillet de boeuf grillé, all elements perfectly done, the escargot’s got garlicky goodness and the sweetbreads sandwich will make you swoon. But one of the best things about the vibe there is that its causal and friendly, while some of the accents of French waiters and bartender takes you half way around the world. So lovely.

The other thing that brings me back is that it has a long bar with nice selection of affordable wines by the glass, woo, no tables available? No problem, I can sit at the bar and eat a full meal or hang there for some social time with a friend. Highly lacquered wood walls and wood everything comforts you as you walk in, combined with low lighting gives it that popular ‘dive bar’ feel says owner Andreas.

Its been very busy since it opened last summer. Les Faux Bourgeois is now open on Sundays too. Make a rezzie or drop in after 9pm if you want a table!

One of my favourite places to take in Vancouver’s scenery and indulge in some fresh local seafood Pacific Northwest style and of course cold beer and local wines(also boasts an international collection of 1800 bottles) is the Sandbar Restaurant on Granville Island, Vancouver.

Its mostly always busy and there is a after work crowd around the main level bar on weekday afternoons, don’t let that deter you because the view through all the exterior glass walls on the main level or the upstairs patio is excellent! Totally like being a tourist in your own city.

The best part of the experience is the view from the upstairs(3rd level) outdoor covered patio, thoroughly outfitted with heat lamps and personal lap blankets for those chilly VanCity nights. Its hard not to just sit and catch the sunset and cheers the night away, maybe you’d be lucky enough to score a table with personal fireplace, maybe you are ok with sitting at the small bar but you def have to sit outside! The last visit ended with much scotch and rum on the rocks…ow!

Their website here

We had the local albacore tuna ceviche to start, love the ceviche!

Then to share, Maple chipotle glazed beef short ribs with sweet potato chips, and Pan seared BC sablefish y fennel sausage chilaquiles, achiote azafran tomato broth y mole amarillo.