Tamarind and Thyme

It’s becoming increasing apparent that some of the best food in Vancouver is Asian. Dim sum, anyone?

This was all eaten at Sun Sui Wah, one of the best Cantonese restaurants in Vancouver. The dim sum quality was top-notch and the price was much lower than we all expected. The only sad thing was that I couldn’t eat one of my favourites - wu kok - as they had run out! All the photos from our lunch can be found on my Flickr photostream.

Sun Sui Wah
3888 Main Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada

Perhaps surprisingly, excellent Vietnamese/Cambodian food can found in Vancouver’s Chinatown at Phnom Penh. It’s even Anthony Bourdain approved, as the signed menu on display attests. As for me, well, I’ve eaten there once already and I hope to make another visit before I leave. For our first visit last week, we chose a number of their “greatest hits”, their most famous dishes.

First up, garlic fried chicken wings - I think they’re dusted with cornstarch before frying and they’re so juicy and crispy on the outside. But what really sets these wings apart is the dipping sauce on the side. It’s mainly lime juice and black pepper and that spicy zing goes so well with fried foods.

We had to have our usual order of their delicious Trieu Chau fried rice. I have no idea what they put in there in terms of seasonings but it’s great. Oh, and the addition of lots of tasty Chinese sausage doesn’t hurt as well.

Some marinated butter beef? Sure, why not?! This is again one of their signature dishes of rare beef (almost a carpaccio) layered with butter and a delicious sauce of I don’t know what and fried garlic and cilantro on top.

I also tried their dry egg noodles, with soup on the side. There was minced pork, pork slices, kidney slices, liver slices, fried garlic, cilantro, and their special sauces (that’s what their menu says!). This wasn’t my favourite on the table but it was still good.

I couldn’t leave there without trying one of their many desserts. As I hadn’t had a flan in a while, I ordered their version of it - the caramel custard. It had a lovely flavour and I gobbled it up pretty quickly (and by myself too as no one else at the table liked sweets).

If you’re in the area, and not looking for Chinese food, I highly recommend this place! It does get very busy as it’s not a very large restaurant but it does take bookings for groups larger than four.

Phnom Penh
244 E Georgia St
Vancouver, BC
Canada

I love Taiwanese noodles! Why can’t we find this in London?!

Spicy beef noodle soup, but they aren’t very spicy. What they are are massively delicious though!

Regular beef noodles if you can’t take the heat!

Fried pork chop noodle soup. The pork chop comes on the side to prevent it from becoming soggy.

And this is the finest fried pork chop I’ve come across so far. There’s a light and crisp batter (is it made with cornflour?) surrounding the tender and tasty chop. There’s a little five spice in the coating and it’s sprinkled with lots of black pepper.

I can’t believe I forgot to take a photo of the panfried pork dumplings we had on the side.

Wang’s Beef Noodle House
(formerly the Taiwan Beef Noodle House)
8390 Granville Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada

Some of the best Indian food in North America is supposedly at Vij’s in Vancouver. The food there is not what one might consider classically Indian but is perhaps fusion, incorporating some ingredients and cooking styles from traditional French cuisine.

Vij’s is famous is Vancouver for not accepting reservations and so one must be prepared for a bit of a wait. We were told we’d have to wait an hour (we arrived at 7pm) but we were ushered in about 45 minutes later. This was on a Monday too - it’s busy everyday! The wait feels much shorter though as waitresses stop by every once in a while with a tasty little morsel to keep you happy.

Like little sprout topped crunchy flatbreads.

Or crispy potato fritters.

Oh, and chai is also offered for free.

To start, we each had a spoonful of Dungeness crab with coconut, cilantro and candied beets. Now I’m not fond of the usual pickled beets but these were delicious and not at all candy-like. Might have to roast some beets myself to replicate this. The crab wasn’t bad but was a little too cold for my liking.

We also split a dish of BC spot prawns in coconut masala on grilled kale. The prawns were so tender and juicy and the kale still had a good bite to it, giving a good contrast.

As mains, we all split the following four dishes: Beef tenderloin with almonds and garlic in tomato and yogurt curry. This was the most disappointing dish that night as the curry was quite bland in comparison to the others and the beef was not as tender as its name suggested.

Wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on spinach potatoes. My number one dish that night! And yes, I’ve had the dish before but it was so memorable that I had to order it again. The lamb is so tender and cooked to a perfect pink and the curry is soooooo rich and creamy and so good with rice.

Grilled pork tenderloin and back ribs in fennel seed, ginger and coconut curry with roasted cashews. This was served on some rice (even though there was rice on the side) and was the second best dish on the table.

And “hook and line caught” ling cod in roasted red pepper and saffron curry with grilled vegetables. Again, this one was a bit blah. The fish was beautifully fresh though.

Oh, and there’s unlimited rice pilaf and naan bread on the side. For four people with a couple of drinks, the bill came to about $150 Canadian. While this isn’t the cheapest meal around, it’s not the most expensive either and the price is actually comparable to many of the chain restaurants around here. It’s a nice place that’s definitely worth a try if you’re fond of Indian food.

Vij’s
1480 W 11th Ave
Vancouver, BC
Canada

If you’re a follower of my Flickr photostream, you would have already known that I’m currently in Vancouver. I’m spending my days fitting in whatever I can eat and lots of relaxing and reading. Last Saturday, we went to eat at Jang Mo Jib, a Korean restaurant on Robson Street (there is another location in Richmond, BC) that’s always packed with Korean students and families. We dropped in for dinner at about 7-ish and the place was already buzzing…and we were the only non-Koreans there.

After ordering, every table gets this complimentary kimchi and namul. The potatoes are in a sweetish soy based sauce and are entirely moreish. Free barley tea is also offered to everyone and it’s hot in the winter and cold in the summer and we got it somewhere in between.

We split a huge hotpot of spicy pork rib soup, with preserved vegetables, potatoes, onions and a bit of spice (this can be adjusted to taste). This comes in a giant pot set bubbling over a portable tabletop burner - every other table had some pot or other simmering too. As this soupy stew continues bubbling throughout the meal, the liquid reduces and becomes a delicious concentrate of spicy porky goodness. It’s wonderful over rice and good for a chilly day, which it still is over here.

There was also a bo ssam, slices of pork loin and pork belly served with Chinese cabbage, crunchy pickled radish (I think) and a homemade sauce of tiny salted shrimps. On the side were raw garlic slices, raw chili slices, and a preserved spicy bean paste. We made bundles of the cabbage, pork, radish and sauce, skipping the raw garlic (eeks!), and popped them whole into our mouths. They were gorgeous little bundles of spice and pork and crunch. I think I would have preferred fresh lettuce to the blanched Chinese cabbage though.

These two dishes were more than enough for all of us and they happily packed the leftovers for us. I can also happily recommend the seafood pancake and the spicy pork from here, having had them before. The pancake is especially good and huge to boot! The location is particularly good if you’ve been shopping downtown and on Fridays and Saturdays, they close at 5am.

Jang Mo Jib
1719 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada