Granville Public Market

My husband and I spent a good bit of time in Vancouver at Granville Public Market. We were enthralled over the weekend. We brought the younger set over the weekdays, when it was no where near as cool in terms of music / crowd, but I actually think cooler in terms of food available. Getting to the island requires either taking a taxi across the bridge then doubling back, or taking the ferry or aquabus across False Creek.



My husband was a big fan of the giant fish displays. I need to take him to Jessup at 5 a.m. one of these days. Then again, I prefer sleeping at 5!



On a weekend the market is a total party.

On our first visit, we got some lunch from the various food stalls in the center of the building, by the waterfront.


The Indian fast food from Curry2U was incredibly good. Here we have rice, naan, channa masala, and peas and potato curry.



Very tasty tuna rolls.






This is my husband staring intently and longingly at some sausages. Soon Oyama sausages went into his belly. And some awesome cheeses into mine. Apparently you can buy Oyama sausages over the internet and have them shipped. I may do this, if I want to be nice to him.



Mango ice cream!




Some sort of pink ice cream.


The Market was a lot of fun, one of my favorite places in Vancouver.

Nu Restaurant

Monday night we ate at Nu restaurant, affiliated with C Restaurant. While it was excellent and the staff was fabulous, it wasn't quite as polished as C Restaurant, which makes sense given the price point (though both seem pretty pricey to me). The food focused on local products of all kinds.

First, we had fried oysters with a shot of lager. These were cute, and rather tasty.



Then we shared local Black Pearl oysters.

This was my husband's tuna tartare. The picture was blurry.


I had some mussels, along with some fries with awesome truffle mayonnaise.

It rained on us, so we skipped dessert.

The only bad thing about the restaurant were the chairs - they were really rather odd and uncomfortable.

Salt redux

Human # 1 and I went to Salt Tasting Room again for lunch. This time I remembered my camera. Even though we were late for lunch (2 pm) the place was hopping, totally unlike Saturday.

We took seats at the communal long table and immediately started chatting with some Vancouverites and who brought a Scottish friend. Quicky the conversation turned from food to the location of the restaurant on the edge of Gastown in an admittedly scary area. The local couple was extremely surprised that we tourists ventured this far. Being from between Baltimore and DC, and having worked in or near scuzzy areas of each, I have a pretty high tolerance. That said, a lot of the area outside Salt isn't one that I would hang around in at night. I had no issue with Human # 3 and Brother walking through together in the afternoon, though. But this time, maybe it was the gray weather and an odd encounter with a homeless man, I felt more nervous.



Anyway, we both asked the staff to pick our food and pair it with wines. Mine was cheese and Human # 1's was a mix. The sommelier gave us the same 3 wines. Possibly I have I love big dry wines on my forehead. It was awesome. First was a grigio from Van Western Vineyards, in Naramata, British Columbia. It was very dry, crisp with a bit of acidity. Next was a M. Chapoutier Tavel rose. I loved it. With apologies to my good friend MK, who loves white zin, this is not your stereotypical rose. Dry. Crisp. Light red rather than pink. Slight mineral feel. Finally we had a red blend, mostly Malbec, with some Cabernet Savignon and I think some merlot. I have my paper, but I can't read the handwriting on the name, unfortunately.



My plate started with a beautiful blue, Valdeon, served with honey. Next was Manchego with marcona almonds. This might be the greatest dessert combination on earth. Finally I had an amazing jeune mimolette with pressed date bread.



Human # 1 had a lovely combination of meats and cheeses. First, a capicollo with Guinness mustard, then a French comte cheese with the marcona almonds, and finally varazi with cornichons.


Of course, at this point we decided to order another tasting plate. We had the oka from Quebec, along with those divine marcona almonds, a cheese called poacher from Lincolnshire with olives, and pancetta with Guinness mustard.



We of course had dessert, again the Stilton cheesecake with fig compote and the chocolate mouse.

Tasty. The area's not that bad, and it's totally worth it.

C Restaurant

Human # 1 and I had a rather romantic dinner at C Restaurant. We were seated on the patio, watching the sunset over False Creek. The food was amazing and the service impeccable. Actually, there was no bathroom (or washroom as they say here) on the lower floor. One of the bussers insisted I use the staff bathroom and avoid walking up the stairs with my broken foot. I heard a waiter scream "a customer can't use that, it isn't clean!" It was actually way cleaner than any staff bathroom remembered from my own food service days. Anyway, back to the food.

C is organized around multiple tastes and presentations of seafood ingredients. They are all about sustainable seafood, and have a lot of local food, though it's not focused on local food. C won my heart by serving butter at, gasp, spreading temperature. The butter was creamy, not salty, but the dish had a few grains of sea salt on top. A bread server went around regularly. I liked the sourdough, but my husband loved the seaweed focaccia.

To begin, my husband and I shared a half dozen Black Pearl oysters. Okay, he had one, I had five. He isn't a fan of West Coast oysters, preferring bigger East Coast varieties. The oysters were served with an apple mignonette, which was terribly clever (apple vinegar and minced apple replacing shallots and vinegar in the traditional recipe) and a perfect compliment to the sweet, creamy oysters. A red pepper horseradish jelly was also offered, but I can't do bell pepper. Of course, the oysters were indeed best plain. I had a glass of sparkling BC wine with my oysters, a very dry sparkler with a bit of gold color.



Next, I had a gorgeous albacore tartare, served with a poached quail egg and some potato chips. I nearly licked the plate.



My husband had a Dungeness crab salad, with the most awesome zebra tomatoes.



For the main course, I had a lovely local salmon, cooked medium rare, paired with a BC pinot noir. The salmon rested on some lovely potatoes and beets, and was topped with salmon roe. It was also served with, and on, a parsley sauce. I've got to say, I don't think the sauce added anything, and sort of had a watery feeling. I think I would have preferred a cleaner presentation, but it was awesome nonetheless.



My gorgeous husband had an ultrarare seared Albacore loin for his main course, served with a truffle cesar salad. I can't even describe it - it was amazing.

We did have some dessert - mine was Valrhona chocolate in three textures, my better half had a chocolate mint pudding with berries. No pictures though, we were too busy eating.

Salt Tasting Room

Salt Tasting Room has an interesting concept - no kitchen, just meats, cheeses, bread, condiments, desserts, wines, beers, etc. It was awesome, incredibly so. I forgot to take pictures in the restaurant so unfortunately all I have now is some pictures of the papers they gave us, and some really awful cell phone pictures, which unfortunately I am having some trouble uploading. I'll edit this when I have a better connection.

The location in Gastown, at 45 Blood Alley, was interesting. When we arrived a wedding party was taking photos. The surrounding streets were posh, but the alley was, well, an alley. That part of Gastown is slightly on the edge of a not-s0-great area of Vancouver, as we found out when we walked back and got slightly turned around. Okay, hobbled back.

We each ordered a tasting plate, Human # 1 and I had our plates paired with wine flights, while Human # 3 had a big bear beer bottle with her tasting plate. We shared two desserts - a sublime Stilton cheesecake (and I think I licked the plate), and a chocolate mousse over a layer of apricot preserves. The chocolate mousse was very, very good, and the salt crystals on top were sublime. That said, it was simply classic French chocolate mousse, well executed, but not special. The Stilton cheesecake, on the other hand, was beautiful, layers of flavor and an amazing texture.

I chose my own cheeses. I chose a tallegio, an Italian semi soft dessert cheese, which was paired with a dry Italian red, Renato Fenocchio Dolcetto. Next I had an Oka, which was new to me. It's a semi-soft nutty cheese from Quebec. This particular cheese had a round, creamy, fatty mouth feel. The cheese was paired with a sherry, Alvears Amontillado. While I appreciated it, I have to admit I didn't really care for the sherry. It was just a bit too sweet for me. Finally, I had a beautiful, creamy Brie from British Columbia, paired with a lovely steel-aged Chardonnay from British Columbia, Joie Un-Oaked Chardonnay, which I found crisp and refreshing, despite a hint of residual sugar.

Human # 1 ordered the BC plate and BC wine flight. Salt chose the foods and the wines, illustrating the best of local foodstuffs. Toscano Salami with cipollini onions was paired with Joie Chardonnay. Though I really liked the Joie, Human # 1 hated it, and described it as apple juice. Ironically he likes the residual sugar and I love the dry wines. He does like his chardonnays with more oak, though. Ash camembert with Okanagan apple chips was paired with a Sandhill Viognier. Oh my god was that cheese good. And I really liked the wine (I traded for my sherry). A pancetta casalingo with quince was paired with Pentage Cabernet Franc. Now, I hate cabernet franc. What's supposed to be earthy tastes like muddy to me, and I swear I taste something moldy in every cab franc. So I'll say this - I didn't want to spit it out. Human # 1 absolutely loved it.

Human # 3 ordered the cheesemonger plate, three cheeses and condiments of the staff's choosing. A French Roquefort was paired with quince, and a British Comte was paired with Marcona almonds. However the best of the plate was a Jeune Mimolette with Spanish pressed date bread. The four of us - including one adamant non-foodie - nearly fought over it. To say it was awesome isn't enough.

The space was interesting - funky, halfway between a butcher's shop and a coffee shop. Very industrial chic. The menu changes constantly and is placed on the chalk board.

By the way, I'd love to see something like this locally!