It’s not something many of us have experienced - picking fruit straight from the source and digging in. I remember blueberries and strawberries, fresh from the plant. Oh sure, I had to pick a few boxes as well, but I was always gently reminded that my parents did the same thing every Summer for a pack lunch and an ice cream. Also, the sun was only two miles off the ground and school was uphill both ways. But I think I’m digressing. Yes. Yes, I am.

The point is, fresh anything, as the ads tell us, is better - only, we’re very disconnected from fresh. But not entirely, if you know where to look. As pictured, Vancouver has a lot of blackberry bushes growing out to where any sidewalk pedestrian can get at them. The photo is just off of 12th ave West, but I remember one massive bush that was slowly taking over an empty lot where Georgia twisted into the park - every Summer, people would appear in the evenings with Tupperware to gather a bounty.

I’ve heard of kiwi trees successfully growing in backyards. Lemon trees. Figs. Rhubarb. Apples. Oranges. And so on. This is Vancouver. With a little work, most anything will flourish.

LA has a by-law that says anything hanging out into the sidewalks and streets are fair game to all, resulting in online maps of where to find what. And maps of where to find what if you were brave enough to trespass. And I wonder - how many Vancouverites have take advantage of the climate? Anybody gather some freebie succulents? Any one gained from having a neighbour with a flourishing tree of something? Any surprise fruits out there you wouldn’t think could grow here?

One of my favorite drink places when I first moved to Vancouver was the Crime Lab, and I’ve missed it since it’s closure back at the start of 2006 [mbv]. Walking around the seawall the other day Lydia pointed out the sign for the new Crime Lab, which seems to be focusing more on the restaurant aspect. 

Restaurant or not the Crime Lab was always a nice and relaxing place to head after a day of work, and I’m glad to see it opening again even if its new location on the corner of Denman and Bayshore Drive has kind of become the last resting place for a number of failed eateries in the last couple of years.

I went to the fireworks on Saturday, which are a bit of a pain - I’m not big on sitting on the ground, as it usually results in injury causing numbness. But I went for two reasons - to see friends I haven’t seen in awhile, and to have a Fat Burger. I don’t often eat Fat Burger, but do enjoy them. Until Vancouver gets an In & Out (and what are the chances of that?), I enjoy a yearly Fat Burger treat.

Only, they close at 9 on Fireworks night. Which means that at quarter to, they lock the doors. Which means that at ten to, I’m pissed off. If I can’t come through your door and order, you ain’t open. Your sign, it lies.

Grumpy, I slog through the evening, but later one of those aforementioned friends suggests I try Japadog. It is, any way you look at it, a hotdog stand. It makes all the normal varieties of hotdog stand hotdogs - but what makes it are it’s “Japa Style” specials, which are all beef hotdogs made with Miso Mayo, Teriyaki Mayo, or Oroshi dog, which has radish on it. You wouldn’t think it, but it’s got a nice bite to it.

Corner of Burrard and Haro (just outside the Sutton Place Hotel - you can imagine the number of famous faces they’ve racked up), if you’re still into hotdog (and I know some aren’t), you might want to consider this breath of hotdoggy air. Besides, how many hot dog stands have websites? That’s can’t be a long list.

I’m slowly working my way through the various restaurants on Main Street - I’ve got a backlog, technically, I just don’t have a good photo to go with it, which I think is key. If you’ve ever seen Jeffery’s food posts, you’ll understand what I mean - he’s set the standard. We can say something is yummy, but it’s better if we can show how yummy it looks too.

Three weeks back, Burgoo opened it’s third (I’m pretty sure it’s third) location on Main - it used to be a Subway, so automatically it’s a step up for the neighbourhood. I went with my best gal and two friends visiting from Calgary and it was fantastic - not exactly what I expected. The sign says “comfort food”, which always registers as cheese and carbs. They did have mac and cheese on the menu, but I went for the butter chicken. Surprise! It was delicious, but not the creamy variety we usually associate with the dish. Served on a wood plank (cuz they’s hot!) and add a side of herb biscuits… fantastic.

The group also enjoyed an opener fondue - cheese, fruit, bread… glah. I also have a picture of another dish, eaten by one of the visiting friends, but I can’t remember what it was and it’s not on their online menu. But it looks like a chowder. I’ll say chowder.

As a bonus, Kristin Kreuk was having dinner on the patio, which thrilled the pair of Calgarians to no end.

Funny story…

So, we had dinner, Kristin Kreuk is there. Giggles all round. We leave before her and her group, and cross the street for gelato. Yum. As we’re sitting and eating our desert, the Kristin Kreuk Krew come in for some iced confections as well. Polite smiles. Fair play. She dances to the cheesy pop on the radio a bit, and Calgarians applaud. A little forward. They leave. We leave. We get in car and drive, and that’s when we pass her and beau (ok, alleged beau) who are walking. So, they must live in the DON’T ALL STARE! Sure enough, they look at us all looking at them. OK, kind of creepy now.

The next day, I’m leaving a mom and pop shop and who’s coming in? Kristin Kreuk. Awkward.

But, I can confirm that Kristin Kreuk lives in Mount Pleasant. S’true.

Kristin, I’m harmless, I swear.

They also have salsa and meat per kilogram for to go.

The food was delish… but it would’ve been nice to have more $1 tastes and less $4 meals.

Photo by Buzz Bishop

Update: I, er, should have at least noted Jeffery’s July 14 post describing these melons in their natural environment.

My fairly good friend and local media personality Buzz Bishop had an interesting post regarding Urban Fare’s square watermelons, imported from Japan.

Buzz was seriously irked by the mere idea of an exotic melon from Japan, for various reasons, and his commentators took some specific umbrage at the potential carbon footprint of these transoceanic melons.

Now, I’m not defending the idea of square melons per se (they’re a novelty, and a pricey one, for sure) but I do like recycling, so I’ve reproduced my comment on the fuel required for shipping these things below.
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So you’re thinking that not only are you not eating enough fruit these days, you’re not spending enough on fruit either.  Well have no fear thanks to Japanese fruit growing methods you can now spend $99 on a watermelon.  Even better knews, you can make a house out of them because they’re stackable and square.

Surely Wikipedia can explain this [wp]:

In Japan, farmers of the Zentsuji region found a way to grow cubic watermelons, by growing the fruits in glass boxes and letting them naturally assume the shape of the receptacle. The square shape is designed to make the melons easier to stack and store, but the square watermelons are often more than double the price of normal ones. Pyramid shaped watermelons have also been developed.

These were spotted at Urban Fare in Coal Harbour, making me feel uneasy about doing my grocery shopping there.  I guess I should probably start comparison shopping, maybe $24 for a box of Corn Flakes isn’t the Item of the Week deal I thought it was.

I’ll admit that when I think of Japanese food my mind tends to go to sushi first, often over looking the soup-noodle combination that is the ramen.  As with a lot of other Asian flavours Vancouver is a great city for getting top drawer ramen and of the multiple noodle places in town it’s always been Kintaro Ramen that’s had the people lining up outside of it.  In fact trying to get into Kintaro will either require arriving shortly after opening or a lengthy wait on the Denman Street sidewalk.

The quickest and most obvious test to determine if an ethnic restaurant is good is whether or not the clientel can draw in the people its food is meant to represent.  Don’t trust an English Pub filled with French people drinking wine, a burger joint filled with Lululemon clad fashion models or an Asian place where the only customers are German tourists, at least if authenticity is important to you.  Kintaro Ramen has always had a strong Asian clientele and thus for ramen novices such as myself it’s got an initial bit of credibility that other places don’t have.

Opened just down Denman Street by Daiji Mastubara the owner/chef of Kintaro [evv], Motomachi Shokudo lacks the simple Asian kitchen feel of Kintaro but is every bit as good.  The food tends to be lighter, focused more on healthy alternatives rather than the somewhat heavy and fatty meat of Kintaro. 

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*Note: Goldfish Pacific Kitchen seems to be reaching out to bloggers and food writers with offers of a $50 gift certificate in exchange for a restaurant review.  I took them up on this offer, and this is the meal that I ate.  Ideally you trust that I wouldn’t lie about a restaurant for $50, if you don’t well I have a long boring counter argument ready.

I’d always gotten the feeling that for the most part dinning in Yaletown was a bit of a trade off between style and substance.  Places and the food they serve can often feel more like they’re meant to be seen, not eaten and the prices don’t exactly go along way to making them welcoming.  Add to that Yaletown’s classically terrible parking situation and the fact that after about seven at night the Paris Hilton wannabes of Vancouver flood the area and you’d have a hard time convincing me that there were many reasonably priced places to eat offering really great food.

There are exceptions of course, for lunch I do like to eat at Phat [mbv],  but I was honestly surprised by Goldfish Pacific Kitchen [gfpk].  It manages to solve all of my Yaletown dining complaints by being reasonably priced, offering free lunch time valet parking and most importantly really good food.

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Oops, that should be EAT! Vancouver, my bad.

May 23-25 at BC Place Stadium. It’s a festival of food, and I really, really like food.