Mak N Ming, Vancouver

It’s been a while since I blogged and that’s just due to real life getting in the way! I’ve already been to Vancouver twice this year and haven’t blogged a bit about those trips. I’ll start with a highlight of my first trip back in May. My father and I went to visit Mak N Ming, a tiny fixed menu restaurant in Kitsilano – it’s relatively new and just recently was awarded as one of Canada’s best new restaurants in 2017 by Air Canada’s enRoute magazine (Légende in Quebec made that list a few years ago). The Mak and Ming in the name are the chef couple of impressive pedigrees who’ve launched the tiny restaurant.

The restaurant is indeed tiny – perhaps only seating about 20 or so and hence booking is absolutely essential. There are only two menus – a four-course demi menu and a longer seven-course chef’s menu. As this was my last dinner before flying out of Vancouver on that first trip, we went all out for the chef’s menu ($78 per head). What’s nice is that the entire table isn’t forced into one or the other; they allow for mixing of menus.

A first bite of caviar on rye was a very promising start.

Next up was raw lamb, salsify, parmesan, shirasu and was essentially lamb tartare and much milder in flavour than I expected. The parmesan featured in a huge crunchy cracker on top.

I enjoyed the buckwheat, fried egg, greens which turned out to be similar to a crepe – though perhaps this was the least creative of the dishes that night. Still very good though.

The very minimalistic lobster, potato was butter poached lobster with a gorgeous potato puree and also shavings of potato with a seaweed coating, I think.

One of my favourites was the split pea, lobster ‘gravy’, seeds which turned out to be layers of split pea soup and a very thick lobster bisque.

The first dessert – rhubarb tartlet, brunost – was a truly inspired combination. A very short and crumbly buttery pastry with a sweet-tart rhubarb filling was offset nicely by its toupee of rich and creamy Norwegian brown cheese.

The second dessert was a sake kasu parfait, rose jelly, pistachio, meringue, sweet pea – and I never knew you could eat sweet peas in small quantities (I do believe they’re toxic in larger amounts). Not too sweet and lovely and light yet creamy, this was very accomplished.

I ordered tea for afters and it came with a plate of excellent house-made sweets for the table.

And my tea? Well, it came with a timer which gave us a bit of interactive fun.

Perhaps my only quibble with the restaurant is that the menus only seem to change once every season – if I still lived in Vancouver and had the funds, I’d want more of an excuse to visit more often! Oh, and that I missed their Sunday brunches offered only in the summer – boo. It’s definitely worth the visit!

Mak N Ming
1629 Yew Street
Vancouver, BC
V6K 3E6
Canada

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A Visit to Québec City

Earlier this year (in May), I had my first visit to Quebec City, probably the last major city in Canada I’ve been very keen to see due to its history. And its old walled city (the only walled city in North America north of Mexico) is indeed a UNESCO world heritage site. It was a short visit as I was there for work but I think I managed to see most of the highlights in my free day and whatever free time I could muster.

My hotel was located about a 10 minute walk from the walled old town (top tip: best not to choose a hotel on Grande Allée Est if you’re not keen on nightlife running into the wee hours of the morning right in front of your window). For my first walk through the city, I looped around the old fortress and headed straight for the river.

That would be the mighty St Lawrence river! It’s particularly wide here as Québec is located near its mouth. Notice the gloomy day – this was late spring and there were still large lumps of snow that had failed to melt. It was cold!

My first view of the Château Frontenac was breathtaking (as was the wind that day) – it’s quite a majestic landmark and understandably is one of the main symbols of the city. If it had been winter, it would have been a treat to go down the toboggan slide (located on the left in the photo below) dating back to 1884!

From the Terrasse Dufferin and its multitude of benches facing the river, it was down the stairs to the lower town below.

The Quartier Petit Champlain is a particularly charming tourist area with many shops with local products.

At the end of the main street is a shop specialising in all things maple (Québec is famous for its maple syrup and, I learned, wild blueberries). It’s where I chose to go for my maple taffy later in the visit. Here, maple syrup is cooked to the soft ball stage and then poured over snow (shaved ice here). A stick is used to pick up the taffy and it tasted even better than I expected! This was just one step in my dream to experience a Québécois sugar shack but, y’know, outside the actual season (typically March and April).

There’s a funicular to help you get back up that hill too… And I certainly made use of that when I came back one evening from a work dinner in the lower town. Handy!

I continued walking around the port area until I reached the Marché du Vieux-Port de Québec. This market was made up of many local farm stands selling local products – I picked up some amazing fresh maple sugar as a gift for friends here.

Fiddlehead ferns (têtes de violon in French – violin heads) were in season and were all over the market. I had a chance to have some at a dinner later on.

My sugar shack style lunch was had at La Buche, a restaurant specialising in Quebecois cuisine. I went full on with their massive brunch platter that evoked a sugar shack kind of feeling. There were eggs, potatoes, sausage, bacon, ham, cretons, fèves au lard (the Québec version of baked beans), a crepe with maple syrup, toast with blueberry jam, and fruit salad. Hearty it was and I was very full the rest of the day – I did try my best but no, I didn’t finish the entire thing!

There was a very nice dinner that night as well (oof!) and I’ll save that for a post of its own.

The oldest building in Quebec was across the street and it also holds another Quebecois restaurant – it’s not cheap but I’ve heard good things about it.

Other places I particularly enjoyed visiting? Well, there was the side of the parking lot of the Anglican cathedral, where Aldo the donkey lives. He’s out and about most mornings, I believe.

I managed to wander into Le Monastère des Augustines – still a working Augustine convent but now also refurbished to be a hotel, restaurant, café, spa, and all round community space. It’s beautiful and very peaceful.

A visit to the Morrin Centre is a must for lovers of libraries. This historic English language library is tiny but gorgeous.

Nearby is the Maison de la Littérature, a modern library created in a converted church. Again, absolutely beautiful but in its own different way.

A must-stop shop is the Épicerie J.A. Moisan, the oldest grocery store in North America. It has many of its original fixings and you can spend an hour here poring over all the goods. It’s also the perfect place to pick up an edible souvenir – I went home with some incredible wild blueberry compote.

I couldn’t not have poutine in Quebec! That quintessentially Québécois dish of fries, cheese curds, and gravy is said to have originated in the fast food chain Chez Ashton. That’s where I went and I wasn’t disappointed. The cheese curds, in particular, were exceptionally fresh, squeaking in between my teeth.

My first time in Quebec was certainly good fun if a bit cold. My next post is on Légende, the restaurant, but if you want to see more Quebec photos in the meantime, I’ll direct you to my Flickr album.

 

Eating in Edinburgh

It was yet another Easter weekend and we weren’t going to let these free days off go to waste. On Blai’s request, we headed up north to Scotland, a country I’d visited briefly but where he had never set foot. Off we went by train from London to Edinburgh, a pleasant few hours journey which saw us deposited right in the centre of the Scottish capital. We dumped our bags at our B&B and then immediately set off up the hill to the castle.

While we didn’t visit Edinburgh Castle on this trip, we could still marvel at its impressive location.

We criss-crossed the city, walking all the way down to the Scottish Parliament and the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Of course, such an appetite that has been worked up must be addressed! Dinner! And it would be at The Dogs, a well priced British bistro that was packed with locals and tourists alike. Home smoked trout, fennel and mint slaw, capers was a lovely little starter of lots of textures and flavours – that toasted trout skin was wonderful against the soft trout flesh.

Pork cheeks in cider, celeriac + pear mash, buttered Savoy cabbage were served in a very thick sauce that seemed to consist of apple puree. While the mashed was a bit too texturally similar to the tender pork cheeks and its sauce, the cabbage added a nice little crunch.

Ling, prawn + spinach pie, herby potato crust was a very comforting fish pie.

A side of mangetout, honey and pumpkin seeds was great! I think I’d been expecting the usual boiled veg but here the mangetout was sauteed. Much better!

Desserts were outstanding. A fruit crumble was the furthest away from the usual institutional crumbles I’ve encountered. As well, their pear cheesecake was incredibly light and flavourful.

The next morning, we woke up to a full Scottish breakfast at our B&B – the B+B Edinburgh. Turns out I do love me a potato scone and a square sausage. Love ’em.

A couple hours were spent first at the wonderful National Museum of Scotland. I think it was more crowded that usual that weekday as the was a science festival taking place within. Either way, loved it. Definitely recommended.

We looked for a light lunch and found it at Ting Thai Caravan. We got spaces at a shared table and tucked into fried rice noodles and this lovely light beef noodle soup. Yes, those are pork rinds on top… They were very good but didn’t really add anything to the dish.

After wandering around Victoria Street and Grassmarket, the rest of the afternoon was spent at the excellent Scottish National Gallery.

We were chased out of the museum at closing time and came out to see this over the city!

We ended up at First Coast for dinner (our second choice restaurant) when we couldn’t get into our first choice Sushiya (we made it there the next day though).

A Middle-Eastern inspired aubergine and flatbread was a nice little cold starter. Perhaps it wasn’t the most inspiring but it was tasty.

We loved the Octopus, saffron aioli, black rice. The rice was gorgeous, as was the ridiculously spoon tender octopus.

A Brazilian seafood stew, coconut milk saw off more of the cold in our bones.

A Middle Eastern vegetable stew, apricots, olives, bulgar, pomegranate felt very healthy after the morning’s full Scottish breakfast! Of course, there was another one the next morning…

The next morning after breakfast (oof), we headed around behind our hotel to see the very picturesque Dean Village, a former industrial part of the city. We could have followed the path along the path all the way to the north of the city but turned around as our remaining time in Edinburgh was limited.

Lunch was in nearby Haymarket at Sushiya (yeah, we made a reservation this time), which turned out to be one of the best Japanese restaurants I’ve tried in the UK. Everything we had was brilliantly prepared and exceptionally fresh. Here was our perfectly crisp and greaseless squid tempura.

Grilled nigiri and a dragon roll were both superb, both perfectly put together and melt-in-the-mouth delicious.

There was a scoop of white sesame ice cream as well – excellent, and strangely quite unusual as I felt more used to seeing black sesame used in ice creams and desserts. Delicious! We highly recommend Sushiya and reservations are necessary for lunch or dinner.

And then it was on to Glasgow! (And that’s the next post.)

But there was one more Edinburgh eatery to report on – on our way back to London from Glasgow, we stopped in Edinburgh to change trains. The stopover gave us enough time to have a relaxing lunch at Edinburgh Larder, a cafe specialising in locally sourced produce.

A veggie plate contained hummus and roasted vegetables, plenty of salads and little locally baked oatcakes.

A fish plate was filled with variants of Scottish salmon (that now luxury good): cold smoked, hot smoked, paté. And again, there were countless little oatcakes. Delicious little oatcakes! You should see their sandwiches too – proper doorstopper constructions one can barely get your jaws around it.

Finally, an unusual honey and camomile cake was the perfect send off for our trip back to London. It was sticky and chewy and very very good.

 

Back to Bordeaux

I was back in Bordeaux early last month, this time with Blai as we were there for his work. There wasn’t much sightseeing as we both saw the city without each other but instead lots of general strolling and, of course, eating. Friends and family came along too and we were often a small group, always a challenge for me as the restaurant responsibility tends to fall on me! Luckily, Bordeaux has numerous fantastic restaurants and we visited quite a few of them. For a group of 4 or more, I would definitely recommend booking, even if it’s an hour ahead; we were turned away from a couple spots when we hadn’t made reservations.

There was an outstanding first meal on our first night at the Corsican Le Petit Mignon with pumpkin soup with a crusted soft boiled egg…

…and my favourite salade de gesiers (confited duck gizzards).

Then a fabulous faux filet with a Corsican wine sauce …

…followed by their chocolate cake (more like a ridiculous rich chocolate torte)…

and a bavarois de poire.

We liked it so much we returned another day for lunch. There’s a good value lunch menu with dishes like this tender grilled cuttlefish with vegetables.

Le Petit Mignon
33 Rue Saint-Rémi
33000 Bordeaux, France

For more classic Bordelais dishes, we went to La Table Bordelais, a very friendly spot with a set lunch that’s available all week. There was another salade de gesiers…

…and another steak, but this time with a sauce bordelaise.

And a confit de canard! Oh yes, and those potatoes – fabulous.

Blai and I shared this simple tarte aux poires but another dessert option was coffee with that classic Bordeaux pastry – the canelé!

La Table Bordelais
10 Rue Piliers de Tutelle
33000 Bordeaux, France

There was one evening where we came out of a concert and it was absolutely pouring down. Hungry and wet, we stepped next door to Le Régent, an old style brasserie on Place Gambetta. Many of us were coming in like drowned rats and somehow there was room for all. Portions were big here!

We shared half a roast chicken…

… and a brandade de cabillaud (made with fresh cod and not dried salted cod). The food was simple but it was all well prepared and hit the spot. They do pizzas too and those appeared to be very popular with locals.

Le Régent
46 Place Gambetta
33000 Bordeaux, France

There was another visit to Le Scopitone where we all opted for the excellent value prix fixe. There was a lamb spring roll to start…

… as well as an excellent cream of turnip soup (I’m growing turnips for the first time this year and I hope to recreate this!).

There was a fish fillet (I can’t remember the type of fish but I recall it’s one not familiar to these shores) cooked very simply but beautifully with tomatoes and capers.

There was an emincé de boeuf as well, with a sauce bordelaise, and it’s where I realised that no, emincé isn’t a mince but thin slices of meat. In this case, these were thin slices of a very rare piece of beef that would be boot leather if cooked any other way!

Desserts were simple but excellent: tarte tatin…

… and an outstanding mango cheesecake.

Le Scopitone
5 Rue de la Vieille Tour
33000 Bordeaux, France

For me, one particular highlight was a lunch at Le Cagette, a beautifully light and airy restaurant. They too had a set lunch with plenty of choices. Watercress soup to start (this was an eye opener for me as I’m only familiar with Chinese pork and watercress soup)…

or a beetroot and orange salad (yeah, this wasn’t mine…I’m still not a fan of beetroot).

For mains, a mushroom risotto…

… or my favourite, an excellent slice of meatloaf with the most impossibly airy mashed potatoes.

Tarte tatin here too! Not sure if you can tell but dessert portions were ridiculously generous.

La Cagette
8 Place du Palais
33000 Bordeaux, France

One more, one more! I became a temporary regular at the Patisserie Artisanale Gaston Bordeaux, which I can highly recommend. Their viennoiserie is outstanding: all the usuals plus combinations like pistachio and raspberry or vanilla and apple. I tried many of them but my favourite is always the croissant. I never got to try their pastries (as they were laid out after breakfast time) but they looked fantastic too.

Patisserie Artisanale Gaston Bordeaux
34 Rue du Dr Charles Nancel Penard
33000 Bordeaux, France

We fell in love with Bordeaux and I sure wouldn’t mind returning again!

 

A Return to Athens

I can’t believe it’s already been 4 years since I first visited Greece. This time I was there for almost a week – Saturday night to Thursday night – and it was mainly for work. And this time, the quality of the food we had everywhere really made a big impact on me; I came back to London thoroughly missing the food and the weather.

I arrived at my hotel at about 9pm on the Saturday night and after dropping everything off in my room, headed straight out again for nourishment. Nearby to my hotel is Ravaisi, a souvlaki place with outdoor seating (packed) and a long queue for takeaway – promising signs indeed! At €2 for each sandwich, I thought things would be petite and hence ordered one pork gyros sandwich and one of chicken too. They were huge – each the size of London burritos – and, of course, I couldn’t finish them. They were excellent though!

The next day was a free day for me before work would kick in. The weather was beautiful and I spent the morning wandering around the Ancient Agora …

… and then the Roman Agora.

Lunch was at a suitably Greek time of 3pm and I headed over to Oineas, which seemed to have good reviews on Google. I wasn’t disappointed.

The restaurant had a good selection of meze and main courses and solo diners can still have a selection of meze by just choosing those that are offered by the piece. The cuisine is Greek but with a modern twist. Highlights for me were the incredible cheese pie made with kadaifi pastry and then sat in a pool of melted cheese …

… and this homemade little burger patty with a delicious spicy sauce.

My main course was a tender grilled calamari and homemade fries and its size did defeat me after all that initial cheese and meat.

I thought I couldn’t fit in another bite but when a little slice of syrup soaked walnut cake was deposited on my table along with the bill, I tucked into that too!

That afternoon was spent at the National Archaelogical Museum, which is truly worth a visit if you have the time. The treasures within are indeed jaw-dropping.

Dinner that evening was with an old friend I was meeting again after many years and he took me to spiti, an Italian restaurant in the outskirts of the city. Now here was where the locals eat! We split a couple of excellent salads. Here’s a tomato and caper leaf salad with a local cheese …

… and a refreshing salmon and avocado salad.

My main course was a grilled croaker served with a little mound of Swiss chard and tomatoes and an excellent lemon sauce.

We couldn’t fit any more after this, which was a shame as the food really was very good. I loved seeing another side of Athens.

On my first night after work, a colleague brought us to Efxaris, around the corner from Monastiraki station. Despite its super touristy location, our colleague had been brought there in the past by an Athenian and the restaurant was indeed filled with locals. Between 6 of us, we split a fine moussaka, …

… a ridiculous meat platter (grilled meat, more grilled meat, grilled chicken, grilled kebabs, gyros, etc), …

… an equally ridiculous seafood platter (fried and grilled and boiled things galore), …

… a Greek salad (not pictured), and finally a couple mountains of Greek yogurt with honey. Prices were extremely reasonable and I’d definitely recommend it if you’re looking for a place in the heart of the city.

Sometime the next day, I discovered Greek spoon sweets, the jammy candied fruits traditionally served with a spoon to guests as a sweet welcome. These little figs were insanely delicious and I after this introduction, I bought a couple of jars of spoon sweets to take home and we’re enjoying them with Greek yoghurt at home.

The second evening, another Athens resident referred us to Scholarchio, a highlight of my trip. Yes, it’s quite touristy but you do find locals there too and after our meal, my Greek friend did deem the food very good and the flavours correct. And best of all is the price – for groups, it’s €15 a head for a set number of dishes to share, mineral water, another drink (ouzo, beer, wine or soft drink), bread and dessert. To aid with selection of dishes (we got to choose 17 between 7 of us), the waiter brings a massive plate of the available prepared dishes …

… and also recites what can be ordered freshly made from the kitchen. You make your selection, start with what’s already ready to go, and wait for the rest of the dishes to be prepared. Let’s see, clockwise from the right in the photo below, we have giant beans, stewed pork in wine, dolmades in lemon sauce, and tyrokauteri (a fantastic spicy cheese).

Let’s see, left to right below, we have fava (one of my favourite dips, Greek yellow split pea puree), tzatziki, taramasalata, and spicy pork sausages.

More! Clockwise from the bottom: a new favourite – horta (boiled wild greens), another meat dish (beef?), meatballs in tomato sauce.

It didn’t end there! The freshly fried stuff coming out of their kitchen was all excellent. Fried whitebait was crisp and non-greasy.

Saganaki (fried cheese) was very popular at our table …

… as were fried aubergines.

One of our other meat dishes was a tigania chicken, a sauteed chicken dish made with lemon and mustard. There was also a tigania pork with balsamic vinegar and honey.

Courgette and feta fritters were also delicious if a bit salty; nothing a lot of tzatziki couldn’t solve though!

There were other dishes too – too many to keep track of! I recall a Greek salad and fried courgettes and fried potatoes. And maybe another meat dish. How many is that already? Dessert was another slice of the typical syrup-soaked cakes I’d been seeing – this time orange.

It’s a fun place to eat and to eat well too. I enjoyed working my way through an excellent spread!

On my last day, a quick trip to the supermarket about a 2 minute walk from my hotel ensured that my dried oregano supplies are now at their freshest. I also loved seeing the impressive range of feta and Greek yoghurt available!

Before heading to the airport to catch my flight home, I also couldn’t help popping back into Ravaisi to get one last stick of pork souvlaki (they call each souvlaki stick kalamaki) – this was a perfect snack!

Ah, I really do miss Athens and all the amazing food I had there! One thing I did notice was how fabulous all the tomatoes were at all restaurants, even at the cheapest places. Actually, all the ingredients were top notch everywhere…this is some excellent Mediterranean cuisine! As usual, all my photos can be found in this Flickr album.