This nostalgic era is ghosted everywhere in this city if you know where to look. A world all around us yet shadowed in the past so that one can never get it back, unless you are willing to suspend reality. Hey, isn’t that what weekends are for? Your vehicle of change for this evening is a funky old pink double-decker bus. Now doesn’t that just say “WTF” already? It jars you just enough to upset the balance of your universe and goads you in to stepping onboard. You don’t make the decision to get on one of these things everyday, so when you do, you must be prepared for a few surprises. Deeper and deeper we spiral into this diabolical plot. Just enough out of our comfort zone to be slightly uneasy, then once the edge is taken off any fear, another level of the evening’s depths presents itself and we must take another step deeper into the abyss of time…

Who here can resist such temptation? The beckoning button of change… Dare to cross the threshold. Go on, close your eyes and press it. Who knows what will happen? You see the thing with buttons is, sometimes you can only push them once. Muahahahaha!

I did manage to suppress not only my urge to press that button but also that cheesy annoying Vincent Price voice in my head.

The first secret location turned out to be the old police headquarters’s “Coroners Court” building, now the home of the Vancouver Police Museum. The space is a bit creepy but hard, gritty and oozing with just the right amount of immersive themeing to take us all back to the seedy underbelly of the old downtown. I was now thoroughly entrenched in the past. Near the back, in the “wet room” of the morgue exhibit (which actually really was a fully functioning morgue), we were offered a Pimms Cup cocktail to steady our nerves. It seemed as though things were going to get, shall we say interesting…

As we made our way through this amazing collection of crime scene vignettes, I found myself with a glass beaker in my hand — “The blood of bulls” ( Salad – Beets with blood orange granite, mint and pomegranate ). Gruesome for sure, but a great combination of flavours.

..and then a steamy Erlenmeyer flask filled with Tomato consomme, pickled cauliflower and Hijiki seaweed. I found this one a little too acidic and not as pleasant a flavour palette, but full marks for the creativity.

Whisked away once more on the bus-that-time-forgot we disembarked a few blocks away at the new Vancouver Urban Winery. This moody setting will be selling wine on tap in the near future. Tonight it was our speakeasy. We stepped into this Hopperesque painting…

…to discover rows of tables in a large hall. Bar at one end, and between one wall of wine kegs while the other wall ensconced a row of stainless steel vats where the wine will eventually be vinted and sealed into beer-like kegs. Kegging wine will allow establishments the ability to sell good quality wine by the glass without having to mark it up for potential incurred wastage. Within 3 months the winery portion of this venue should be in full swing but the room itself is already booked on the weekends for the entire year.

The evenings food was prepared by Dubrelle Culinary School grad, now Executive Chef at Bishops Restaurant, Andrea Carlson. Her much appreciated passion for local, organic ingredients grown and produced in a sustainable manner showed through on this parade of plates:

Poached Hen’s Egg on crostini with Forest Mushroom salad and red wine reduction. Paired with 8th Generation Pinot Noir 2010. Ya gotta love wild mushrooms and this egg trend is fun and delicious, but is it getting out of hand?

Pitt Meadows flat iron steak with potato pave, root vegetables and a mountain huckleberry & rosemary jus. Paired quite nicely with my favorite wine of the evening, Therapy Syrah 2008. A good and appropriate meat and potato interpretation. The texture of the pavé felt a little like forking through a heavy pastry, a nice surprise when dealing with a typical heavy potato.

Riesling baba, orange blossom semifreddo with pistachio and persimmon. Paired with Naramata Lang Vineyard’s Off Dry Riesling 2008. The Baba was quite sweet on it’s own but taken with the cool creamy semifreddo it was an endearing finish to the meal. An amazingly pungent floral explosion.

The dessert played out with a quartet of Lindy dancers scampering around the room in perhaps a weak attempt to get us all on our feet but more probably to reinforce the illusion yet again. After a few parting conversations and comparing notes with fellow tweeters, we all dissolved silently into the streets of the city.
I can’t “unpush that button” or ever relive that exact evening but… Swallowtail always seems to present that button to repush, swirling time, altering our perceptions and allowing us to play inside memories we never knew we even had.

Vancouver's newest cantina meets yoga studio, Che Baba.

“Hey! Long time! How are you?” shouted Stephan Gagnon as his face lit up when I walked into Che Baba.

I looked around, and was met with a dimly lit room filled with locals cheerfully chatting over delicious looking continental fare such as beat salad with confit shallots, pistachio encrusted liver paté, mushroom risotto with truffle oil, gnocchi with sage & brown butter, braised lamb with celeriac purée, fish en papillote with quinoa, squid stew on crispy polenta, and other terrific looking plates. No wonder these people were cheerful—the menu looked and smelled amazing.

“What is this place Stephan?” I wondered as I took in the funky curves and patterns that seemed reminiscent of the psychedelic sixties. “And how have I not heard of it before?” I challenged my friend, who was grinning widely as he gave me a tour.

What Gagnon showed me was a new concept in Vancouver’s restaurant scene: one part local cantina and one part yoga studio. The eclectic, psychedelic aesthetic started to make sense, reminding me of hippy living rooms of the early seventies. Gagnon, who practices yoga himself, had created a spot for he and his friends to practice, relax, laugh and eat good food together.

The designer and builder behind Les Faux Bourgeois and other popular Vancouver restaurants has created an ambiance somewhere between zen and psychedelic.

“In Spanish-speaking countries like Argentina, “che” is a slang nickname similar to “dude” or “bro” and “baba” is an Indian word for “father”, “wise man” or “guru” Stephan explained with his thick French Canadian accent and a glint in his eye. So essentially the restaurant is called “Dude Guru”! Hilarious.

“When we opened Les Faux we wanted to create a friendly, unpretentious bistro for the neighbourhood. But when it started getting so busy it became hard to get in, and sadly the locals from the neighbourhood came less and less often.” Enter Che Baba.

“I haven’t done any marketing or promotion at all.” Gagnon explained “I’m so busy doing my own thing, I don’t even know what’s going on in the industry these days, and I wanted to create a warm, friendly space for the neighbourhood.” He went on to explain how he managed to convince local chef Marta Pan (owner of Pan-o-Pan Foods) and Geoff Van Hussel to join him on this unique neighbourhood project.

The large illuminated sign on the side of the building still advertises the print shop which used to be house in the building, and Gagnon plans to use that space as a community-access art project to showcase various artists in the neighbourhood.

As with other past projects of Gagnon’s, which aside from Les Faux Bourgeois include Vancouver gems such as Jules, Gastropod, and Bistrot Bistro, he teamed up with his partner Scott Cohen. Nearly all the design concepts and construction was done by Gagnon himself in the workshop at the back of the building.

This isn’t really a restaurant review website, so I’ll spare you the long descriptions and my opinions of my first visit and just post a few photos below of our plates to give you an idea what to expect. But I predict good things for this spot and will be heading back soon—who knows, maybe even for a yoga class!

This gem of a restaurant only seats around 35 and they don’t take reservations so locals can access the space on a first come, first seated basis. So much for Gagnon’s idea of creating a restaurant for those frustrated by how busy Les Faux is. But I’m confident you’ll find it worth a little patience if you have to wait for a seat.

Che Baba is open seven days a week for brunch, lunch and dinner (just brunch and lunch on Sundays) and is located at 603 Kingsway (just down the street from Les Faux Bourgeois), Vancouver, BC; 604-558-1519 www.chebaba.ca @ChebabaCantina (no reservations)

After decades of quietly smoking and grilling away, food trucks have lately earned a lot of attention and column inches.  In an era where multiple arugula options and gourmet ketchup are stocked in mass retailers like WalMart it is natural sidewalk sizzlers offer fare for a more gastronomically demanding public on the go.  A confluence of factors including economic trends, relaxed urban regulation, stuffy dining fatigue, and simple yet potent communications tools are drawing top chefs to offer top quality and inventive fare atop four wheels.

California is naturally the epicenter. The state’s summer 2011 international tourism campaign even focused on food trucks to entice visitors.  Recently, food truck staple cities like Portland and Austin were joined by newcomers like Vancouver developing their own scene. Cultures without their own native street food are particularly drawn to internationally influenced and gastronomically intriguing food truck fare.

Paris, has given much to the world’s cuisine – from haute cuisine to the humble saucisse and cheese stuffed baguette.  Hot on the tails of the much heralded Bistronomy movement of recent years Paris now has its first “food truck.”  Opened by French trained American chef Kristin Frederick who hails professionally from Michelin starred Spago in Beverly Hills and more recently revamped the Parisian kitchen of Rice & Beans in the 2^eme to rave reviews.

Frederick’s venture Le Camion Qui Fume (translation: The Smoking Truck (think Au Chien Qui Fume) focuses exclusively on American burger culture.  After a summer of testing (note the above image of a “grueling” testing session naturally paired with champagne) Federick’s burger truck took to the Parisian streets permanently this past week.  For a city who embraces most anything of American culture, except maybe American tourists, appetite for Le Camion Qui Fume is already strong.

BM: What did you take from French cuisine to make this a great burger?

KF:French products! We are using French cheeses, French beef, and bread made for us daily. We will have a burger du jour that will be composed of ingredients which I find fresh at the local market everyday. Clearly you are going to see things that wouldn’t be available fresh to me if I was in the US. I like to think also that since I was trained in France and most of my professional cooking experience has been in Paris that I incorporate a bit of French technique as well.

BM: Who are more discerning consumer of burgers – the French or Americans – and why?

KF: Haha…well the French are certainly more discerning when it comes to food in general… but burgers might be the one area where I would say the Americans are more critical, well, burgers and BBQ. We’ve eaten so many burgers in our lifetime that everyone can recall their perfect burger. That’s always hard to compete with.

BM: Food trucks arguably are one of this decade’s top food phenoms – why does Paris, a culture of UNESCO protected gastronomy – need food trucks?

KF: Because every culture deserves delicious street food. Gastronomy is one thing, and I feel very lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy everything Paris has to offer from experimental bistros to classic Michelin-star fine dining. However, there isn’t really a street food movement here, yet.

BM: Just as bistronomy has rewritten the rules of bistros in Paris is international cuisine undergoing a similar renaissance in Paris?

KF: I hope so. I remember when I first moved here from California I was so disappointed in the international cuisine available here. I realize that a lot of international dishes have been toned down for French palates.  In general, French people don’t care for flavors that can be considered overpowering like black pepper, raw garlic, or spicy chilies. Clearly the restaurants have to cater to that sensitivity. Its not surprising the many expats and tourists alike will find themselves eating bland Mexican food, mild Szechwan, and just horrible Indian food. I think that is changing. You can see Mexican restaurants popping up all over town, and although I have yet to see a chili reilleno on a menu, I think it’s not too far down the road.

BM: Seriously, what’s the deal with the Parisian high end burgers (€16+) with processed cheese?

KF: I don’t know. It’s the reason we had this idea. Ground beef isn’t terribly expensive here…more so when you grind nice cuts yourself like we do but most places don’t. And floppy plastic cheese is practically free so the only thing I can think of is the restaurants are uncomfortable putting a reasonably priced burger on the menu next to a 19€ steak frites (which is also expensive).

BM: What accompanies the perfect burger?

KF: A napkin. Not a fork and knife. That’s going to be a tough habit for us to conquer. If you watch the people who order burgers in a bistro here everyone uses their utensils to cut away polite bites of burger. In the truck we are going to be encouraging a fork free dining experience. Also fresh fries and a cold beer.

BM: Does being in a truck make it better?

KF: It certainly makes it interesting. Being mobile is a fun concept. You are not limited by location like traditional brick and mortar restaurants. However, it introduces a whole new set of complications of “where are we going to park today?” That’s part of the fun though especially being the first to attempt it in Paris. We are receiving tons of encouragement from people have been anxious for us to start.

The Urban Tea Merchant exclusively uses TWG tea

‘Luxury’ isn’t often the first word that comes to mind when you think of tea. Unlike a Cartier watch, Louis Vuitton purse or Harry Winston diamonds, high end tea is feasible as an everyday indulgence. It’s the second most consumed beverage after water, drank by billions worldwide. People drink it to quench their thirst, for health reasons, when they’re sick, or just because they like it. Tea is a beverage, a plant, and sometimes an afternoon snack (afternoon tea) or an early evening meal (high tea).

If we’re just talking about the beverage, technically it’s not tea unless the leaves are from the Camellia sinensis plant. White, yellow, green, oolong, pu-erh, and black teas are all from this species of plant but are processed differently. The teas that are commonly known as chamomile, rooibos, yerba maté, and echinacea are classified as herbal teas or tisanes. There’s a lot of tea out there and to help you wade through it all, it’s best to have a specialist on hand.

Front half is a retail store

Prepackaged teas and teabags

The Urban Tea Merchant recently invited several members of Foodists to visit their flagship location in downtown Vancouver. We were hosted by a husband and wife team, Casey James and Reza Nasooti. You may have seen them at their other location at Park Royal in West Vancouver. The Urban Tea Merchant is owned and operated by a local family that is the sole distributor for the TWG Tea Company in Canada, and Casey is the daughter of the founders. Reza is also the resident certified Tea Sommelier (yes there really is such a thing!) and he took us through a ‘smelling’ of some very aromatic and intriguing teas in the retail portion of the store. For customers that want an in depth session, you can also book a private tasting.

Reza getting bins of tea for us to smell

You can sign up for a tea testing so you know what you are getting before buying

They carry some very interesting items, such as this $6500 sterling silver Emir teapot

Beautiful Moroccan teapots

We then moved upstairs to their dining area, a pleasant room with music and a beautiful water fountain that gave it a subtle spa-like atmosphere. Urban Tea has recently hired a new chef, Michael Batoux. Canadian born and European trained, Chef Michael is in the process of reworking the menu and has incorporated tea into many of the afternoon tea items and a la carte dishes. The savoury items and scones are made in house while desserts and chocolate are sourced from Thomas Haas and Chocolate Arts. Macarons are flown in from TWG.

Signature 1837 Black tea

Chef Michael Batoux

In keeping with the holiday season, Urban Tea is featuring four specialty tea blends: Red Christmas, Christmas Lights, Holiday Spirit and Festive Night. We sampled each of these along with two a la carte dishes and their Signature Holiday Afternoon Tea Service. All of us drank the teas without sugar so that we could get the pure tea flavours.

Braised lamb with Moroccan Mint coulis & steamed baby beets

Hot Turkey Casserole: creamy dijon mustard and dill turkey casserole infused with Eau Blanche tea

Festive Night is a green tea that was smooth and light, with citrus, cherry, light nuttiness and spicy flavours – it was a great way to start the service before the food came. Red Christmas is a robust red rooibos with traditional holiday winter spice flavours, wonderful to inhale and savour. Holiday Spirit is a lovely black tea with spicy apple notes that had more astringency on the palate but it was smoothed out with the addition of a little milk. (These two teas paired well with the savoury afternoon tea items and the two a la carte dishes.) Christmas Lights was also a green tea but with a completely different character: very dominant in almond and marzipan with spices as the secondary flavour, and it was the perfect pairing with the sweet afternoon tea items.

Holiday Afternoon Tea Service

Macarons, chocolate truffles & fresh fruit

The Signature afternoon tea comes on a tall three-tiered tray with a variety of unique sandwiches and savoury bites on the bottom, scones with whipped Devonshire cream & jam in the middle, and sweets on the top. Each of the sandwiches incorporated a different type of tea and using a different technique: Yunnan tea-infused chestnuts with roasted venison, smoked salmon poached in Russian Earl Grey & made into rillette, apple & prawns infused with Tokyo-Singapore tea, Tiger Hill tea-infused egg salad. The scones were superb – deliciously browned and crunchy on the outside, soft and buttery on the inside.

Each of the Foodists had varying prior experiences with afternoon teas and we all really enjoyed the Signature service. While the food was quite good, the teas were definitely the star of the show. Though the Signature is quite expensive at $48, there is a $25 alternative available and it would be a great to have a quality tea experience.

The Urban Tea Merchant
1070 West Georgia Street
Vancouver
http://www.urbantea.com/

Teapot water fountain

“remember, what the dormouse said
feed your head, feed your head”
—Jefferson Airplane

The city seemed to shrink away on the horizon as we wound up through the treed lane, hugging the shoreline of Deer Lake in Burnaby, through a district where it would seem, at some point in the 40’s or 50’s or 60’s, the men and women had made a stoic attempt to carve their own sense of a summer retreat into the heart of suburbia, so that they might build modernist monuments and hide away from the disorder and ugliness of the world beyond. We parked in the stillness of the cool autumn night, a breeze tugging low almost ankle height, and then made our way down a small hill with the goal of positioning ourselves in the exact spot of the little orange man on the Google map that related to the coordinates we had been sent, along with our curious invitation to journey Down the Rabbit Hole.

I was in Calgary when I got the email. It landed in my inbox as I was smack dab in the middle of an expense account binge in the dining room at the Palliser Hotel. The winds outside that night were whipping snow through the streets at -14 degrees and I had resolved myself to a day indoors plugging away at pressing deadlines. So in those later hours, as I was wiping the remains of the oysters, both Rockefeller and Thermadore, from the corners of my mouth and digging deep into the formidable Albertan rib eye that bled across my plate, and washing it all down with an expansive tour of the Napa Region, my eye found itself immediately drawn to the message that had appeared on my iPhone’s display:

Down the Rabbit Hole
A dining experience like no other
For food and wine lovers who want to add a little wonder to their dining experience, In The House and Swallow Tail have just the thing. Follow us down the Rabbit Hole to a secret underground space where amazing food and magical performances come together to give you an interactive and unforgettable evening. It’s fine dining, theatre and surprising delight all rolled into one!

Now, a Wonderland-themed underground supper club is not something that comes your way all that often. But then again, from what I learned from my fellow guests at last night’s event, The Swallow Tail Supperclub is not your average underground eating experience. Created 3 years ago by Chef Robin Kort, its first incarnation was run out of her house and gained momentum to a point where she was hosting up to 4 times a week out of her wine cellar.

“My boyfriend was getting testy” she admits. “So I moved it out of house and into the mean streets of Vancouver. We started looking for unique private spaces to host in and I began inviting guest chefs to keep the creative juices flowing.”

Since then the Swallow Tail Supperclub has held court at various secret venues around the city always focusing on local, wild or foraged foods. This time around they were partnered with In The House Festival – responsible for the theatrics and acid-laced atmosphere, and Chef Chashma of Pastiche: Culinary Concepts, who ruled the kitchen for the evening and served as the brainchild for the experience overall.

Coordinates: +49° 14′ 4.20″, -122° 57′ 53.06″

This is where we landed. At this point in time, I am not permitted to divulge any further details on the location of the dinner. Only that just a little after 7pm a blonde haired young woman in a blue dress emerged from the woods, introduced herself as Alice and asked if we had seen a white rabbit wearing a waistcoat and carrying a pocketwatch.

How curious.

And the white rabbit did make an appearance, as a projection on the wall before scampering off and disappearing into the trees with the rest of us following close behind. After a short walk, we arrived at the house, a most remarkable house in which to leave the realities of whatever day each of us had just lived at its doorstep and allow ourselves to descend completely, if only for an evening, into a world flipped on its head and ruled by absurdity and a touch of madness.

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
— Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 6

The first encounter upon entering the front door was an installation of dinner forks suspended from the ceiling by red ribbons and casting long, angular shadows on the opposing wall. Further exploration revealed that this was in fact our first taste of the night, our amuse-bouche consisting of a piece of Marechal cheese wrapped in a concord grape fruit band which we happily freed from its suspended animation. From there, we moved along to an appetizer of a buckwheat crisp with harvest squash puree and a chantrelle mushroom duxelle, which presented itself as a battlefield tableau of a smashed porcelain tea set. All the while, a live psychedelic loop of vocal acrobatics tripped out through the space, mixing and mingling with the buzz of the guests as we sipped our welcome cocktails –a Hot Toddy consisting of Amontillado sherry, scotch whiskey, cayenne, lemon peel and tarragon served, of course, in tea cups– and watched as Alice grew ever taller and smaller before our eyes.

Finally, while still upstairs, a watercress veloutte was served in laboratory beakers with a fennel pollen breadstick and topped with a test tube of blue cheese before it was announced that dinner was served and we were ushered downstairs.

Curiouser and curiouser.

Just as with everything else, the next course was presented with the intention of pulling us out of our comfort zones and literally forcing us to get hands on with our food. The table was covered in various jars and containers stacked and spilled over piles of books and filled with the elements of our make-your-own-salad: U-Pick butter lettuce, curly carrots, pickled red & golden beets, roasted butternut squash, pea shoots, curried cauliflower, toasted pumpkin seeds & a light vinaigrette. This experience also served as the ice breaker at the table, as we passed the different elements between us and I’ve got to say, I could not have asked for a better group of people with whom to share my evening.

The main course was presented as Leg of Jabberwocky and consisted of a duck confit that melted upon the touch of a fork; a spectacular dish accompanied by a cranberry cinnamon sauce, hazelnut gnocchi, Jerusalem artichoke puree, brussels sprouts in butter, turnip tangle and chive flowers.

Between dishes, the performances continued. We were entertained by the black light smoke ring talents of the hookah smoking caterpillar and we were even treated to an appearance by her majesty, the Queen of Hearts.

The final plate of the night was a chocolate ganache and –a most appropriate– rose ganache decorated with a rose petal, which I came to learn is, in fact, edible, chocolate crumble and cherry compote. Do I need to say more here?

It was all unbelievably good. This is playful, experimental dining that challenges you to leave your…I want to say “adulthood”…at the door and plunge headlong down the rabbit hole in the most literal sense. My only concern that materialized towards the end of the evening was that my photos of the dinner were not even close to being worthy of what I ate (damn digital flash photography)…do I hear the Queen of Hearts screaming “Off with his head!”?

“I wonder if I’ve been changed in the night? Let me think. Was I the same when I got up this morning? I almost think I can remember feeling a little different. But if I’m not the same, the next question is ‘Who in the world am I?’
— Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter 2

There was flamingo croquet being played on the front lawn as we said our goodbyes, donned our coats and once again ventured out into the night and back into the realities we had temporarily set aside in its darkness. As for where and how the Swallow Tail Supperclub might surface for its next iteration, there are a few hints of upcoming events on their website for Dine Out Vancouver. But whatever it might be, it is clear that Kort and her crew seem to thrive on the edge of mystery and experimentation.

“It’s all about creating a one of a kind culinary experience for me, from wow spaces to experiencing the most creative local and international chefs,” she says with a smile. “And I get bored easily, so who knows how it will change.”

How curious, indeed.

I know this isn’t a site where we do a lot of restaurant reviews, but I feel compelled to do a little worshipping, even if it may seem a little obvious to most readers.

Last night Andrea and I found ourselves downtown Vancouver—and we were starving. She suggested we give Dale MacKay’s Ensemble another try, but to be honest the crowded, very noisy room combined with the table they sat us at and the loud talking, ridiculous couple at the table next to us, we knew we couldn’t stay (sorry Dale). We left and sauntered across the street, ducking into one of our favourite French restaurants, Le Crocodile.

It felt like coming home.

The room was so cozy and well decorated, the lighting was warm and created a comfortable ambiance, and frankly the crowd was of a higher calibre. There was no loud music playing, no clanging sounds from the nearby kitchen, and no blowhards talking loudly. And as with all previous visits to Le Crocodile, the service was beyond compare—they really do have some of the friendliest and most well trained staff in the business. Chef Michel himself popped into the dining room a couple times, chatting with guests like they were old friends.

But then came the food.

And let me tell you dear friends, there is a damn good reason why Chef/owner Michel Jacob and his crew are so often named “Best French” by notable publications such as Vancouver Magazine, Where Magazine, Georgia Straight, Zagat and others. God this place produces some extraordinary food. And when compared to many fine French restaurants, the value is very good. They don’t skimp on portions by any means and there are plenty of bonuses, such as a surprisingly sizeable amuse bouche of foie gras and sliced almond tartelette and a delightful little sorbet to finish our meal.

Divine.

Instead of explaining the  meal to you, why don’t I just post a few select images and you can go check Le Crocodile out for yourself soon. Seriously, if you haven’t been, or it’s been awhile, skip the new kids trying to impress the commoners with their “new fare” and head straight to Le Crocodile, where they’ve been setting the standard for French food in Vancouver for nearly 30 years.

Foodists Brenda and Mel have recently had dining adventures in Montreal, and I am embarking on one tomorrow in 8 hours care of Van Houtte Coffee. My big red suitcase is stuffed with empty space, save for one empty insulation bag to refrigerate the foie and smoked meat that will return with me.

I’ve gotten some great Montreal suggestions over the past two weeks, so here is what I propose: a bookmarkable, time-hardy compendium of must-do eateries in the city!

I’ll get the ball rolling below with the list I’ve compiled. When I return from Montreal next week, I’ll update this post with any new faves. Whenever another Foodist goes to Montreal in the future, I hope they remember this anthology and update it with their travels, too.

Here we go!

If you’ve only got a day

SAQ Signature Store
677 Rue Ste-Catherine Ouest
Mon-Wed 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Thu-Fri 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Sat 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Sun 12:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Brenda: If you’re staying downtown, you must visit the SAQ Signature store on Sainte-Catherine. The selection and prices of high-end and specialty spirits and wine is better than anything in Vancouver. Just make sure to pack it well in your suitcase and get the airline to stick a Fragile sticker on it. [We lost one of our bottles on the way back but most of the leakage was contained. Now one of my suitcases smells like Riesling.]

Au Pied de Cochon
536 Avenue Duluth E
Tue-Sun 5:00 PM-12:00 AM

Brenda: Au Pied de Cochon is a must if you’ve never been and if you like foie gras and pork. The foie gras cromesquis–deep fried foie cubes–are insane. Duck in a can, foie gras poutine and the foie gras burger are my favourite entrees. Their specials are also really good. Foie gras in Montreal is so cheap and good.

Lester’s Deli
1053A Bernard Ave
Mon-Fri 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM
Sat 9:00 AM – 8:00 PM

Brenda: Lester’s is my go-to place for Montreal smoked meat even though Schwartz’s gets all the buzz. Schwartz’s is good too but make sure to get the medium or fatty cut.

Fous Desserts
809 Laurier Ave E
Tue-Wed 7:30 AM – 7:00 PM
Thu-Fri 7:30 AM – 7:30 PM
Sat 7:30 AM – 6:00 PM

Brenda: Fous Desserts is my favourite bakery in Montreal. Great croissants and pastries, chocolates, and desserts. It’s nice to relax at a table with a croissant and cafe au lait.

Guillaume
17 av Fairmount Est
Tue-Fri 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sat 7:00 AM – 6:00 PM

Brenda: Guillaume is also another great bakery but there’s nowhere to sit. It’s good for picking up an afternoon pastry to tide you over before dinner. They have these sticky apple rolls that are insanely good.

Lingering for 3-5 days

DNA Restaurant
1840 René Lévesque Est
Tues-Sat 6:30 PM – 10:30 PM

Brenda: DNA was our favourite restaurant when we last visited. If you can, get a reservation at the kitchen table and have the chef cook a tasting menu for you. Make sure you eat minimally that day, and tell him when you start to get full. We ended up having to pack our main course to go. The wine pairings for the tasting menu can get expensive but they will work within your budget and ability to imbibe.

Les Chocolats de Chloe
546 rue Duluth est
Tue-Wed 10:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Thu-Fri 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Sat 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Sun 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM

Brenda: A great chocolate shop near Au Pied de Cochon. The staff are super nice and friendly, and they give you whole truffle chocolates to sample! Everything is made by hand from fresh ingredients, all done in the shop. If you buy the truffles, the flavours don’t last long, so eat them fast.

Sarah B. Bar
360, rue Saint-Antoine O
Located in Intercontinental hotel

Brenda: The Sarah B Absinthe bar is also located in Old Montreal–close to DNA–so it’s a good place to have a pre-dinner drink. The cocktail scene out East isn’t nearly as good as Vancouver, though. We mostly ordered wine at restaurants because the selection and prices are so much better than Vancouver. Don’t order BC wines out there though; the markup is exceptionally high. DNA carries a lot of BC wines because chef/owner Derek is from BC.

Cafe Myriade
1432 Rue Mackay
Mon-Fri 8:00 AM – 7:00 PM
Sat-Sun 9:00 AM – 7:00 PM

Karen: The folks behind Gastown’s Revolver Coffee couldn’t say enough good things about this place. If my favourite local coffee-slinger likes it, I’m there.

Exploring with a week or more

Joe Beef
2491 Notre Dame West
Tues-Sat 7:00 PM – 9:30 PM

Brenda: Joe Beef seems to be quite the cult restaurant in Montreal (like Au Pied) and they just released a cookbook. Reservations are hard to get, so book early. Warning: it’s the darkest and most cramped restaurant I’ve ever been in. It’s so crowded that tables for 2 feel more like tables for 4. You can hear everything beside you and the staff have to pull tables away from the wall when someone wants to go to the bathroom or look at the chalkboard menu. The atmosphere is great fun, though, and the people are very friendly. We liked the appetizers more than the entrees. Lots of foie, pork, and more unusual meats & cuts.

Brasserie T!
1425 Rue Jeanne-Mance
Daily 11:30 AM – 12:00 AM

Brenda: Brasserie T is the casual sibling restaurant to Toque (pass) and Bistro Cocagne (good). Great bistro, new, modern, located beside the Place des Arts museum, and the building looks like it could be a Skytrain station.

Dominion Square Tavern
1243 Metcalfe
Weekdays 11:30 AM – 12:00 AM
Weekends 5:00 PM – 12:00 AM

Brenda: Dominion Square is a good place to have lunch if you’re wandering around downtown. The entry is easy to miss. Really old building and the room is very classic. Simple honest food, good sandwiches.

Special interests

Salsa on the side

Montreal is easily Canada’s salsa dancing capital. I’ve been dancing since 1999 and am ashamed to have passed on their salsa scene when I had had the opportunity. Not this time around: my heels are packed and I’ll be out every night.

There are plenty of salsa clubs and dance nights to keep you on your toes 7 days a week, but I’ll be working my way down this list of long-lived, popular salsa dancing venues; this one in particular:

Cactus
4461 Saint-Denis Rue
Thu 8:30 PM – 2:00 AM
Fri-Sat 10:00 PM – 3:00 AM

A little bit naughty

Montreal’s swinging lifestyle has gotten radically muted in the past decade, and the old Red Light district by St Catherine and St Laurent is a place that the city seems to want to sweep under its rug. You can still get some of your peeler kicks at Wanda’s and Chez Paree, purportedly Montreal’s classiest of such establishments.

Club Wanda’s
1458 Rue de La Montagne
Mon-Sat 4:00 PM – 3:00 AM

Chez Paree
1258 Rue Stanley
Mon-Sat 3:00 PM – 3:00 AM
Sunday 7:00 PM – 3:00 AM

If you do decide to indulge in a redder kind of exploration, avoid Club Sexe at all costs. You don’t want to see how the dancers retrieve loonies and toonies from their guests’ hands. Or mouths.

Share your Montreal picks

Let’s work together, reader and contributor alike, to keep this list up to date. A world where every Foodist is armed with a tried-and-true dining guide is the kind of world I’d like to live in.

Like a lot of good ideas, the recently launched Food.ee was conceived out of frustration. There are a so many restaurant reviews sites, but when you analyze them for the value they offer hungry visitors looking for a good meal, they fall short.

“We were sick of ordering from the same take out restaurants, and the best way to explore and find quality is by asking experts or friends.” says Food.ee CEO Jon Cartwright. “We thought it would be great to help people do this with Vancouver’s 400+ take out restaurants by offering personal recommendations based on order history, personal taste, and diet, and also highlight the city’s most popular items.” Sounds good, right? I agree. I wanted to learn more!

Created by the talented folks at Vancouver-based digital agency Invoke Media, the team behind Hootsuite and the Eat St. mobile app, their press release states:

Food.ee is designed to make ordering takeout or delivery easy, intuitive and social. The website app gets to know users and curates recommendations based on past purchases, what friends have eaten, and the data in a personal profile of tastes and preferences. Additionally, a geo-location tool provides the most relevant recommendations to allow users to discover what is nearby for a quick hunger fix. The website will also includes a Discover section where users can read about featured restaurants, other foodees, and get updates to the application as they happen.

“We knew we weren’t the only ones tired of using multiple services to find a new restaurant to go to,” said David Tedman, Co-CEO of Invoke, the digital agency that built Food.ee. “Reviews are great, but we wanted to improve suggestions by curating them based on a customer’s personal taste graph using patterns and similarities in the food they typically eat, and the types of restaurants they or their friends go to.”

But does it work? I wanted to know, so I signed up and poked around. The default homepage for Food.ee is a “Discover” section featuring local restaurants, foodees and chefs, and provides users with up-to-date about additions to the application. The interface is cute, with a fox mascot (which looks just like the Hootsuite owl) and the user experience is refreshingly simple, but I struggled to find the real value for me as a user—yet.

I rarely order take out food, but I do long for fine dining fair at home at times, so when I first heard about Food.ee I was hoping it would include home delivery, sort of like TakeoutTaxi.com. It doesn’t, although for those restaurants who do offer delivery, it allows the user to both order and coordinate delivery at the same time. And it seems to work pretty well.

Food.ee Restaurant Listings

I wanted to browse the master list of restaurants on the site for ideas which ones I would order from, but when I clicked on the “restaurants” button, it showed one solitary business. Now, this was at 10am on a Sunday, so my guess is that only those restaurants that are actually open show on their map and list, but still.

I sort of like the idea that Food.ee plans to add a feature that suggests food options that I might enjoy, but I found the “pop quiz” on the sidebar distracting. Asking questions like how hungry I get (repeatedly) or what my favourite protein (and not listing lamb) started to get on my nerves if I’m honest.

One of Food.ee’s promises is to allow users to share your food experience with friends and make recommendations. I like this idea as a more useful way to judge whether I’ll like a restaurant or not compared to options such as Urban Spoon or Yelp, both of which are great but lack any credibility for me. I’m far more interested in recommendations by members of Foodists.ca for instance than the rants and raves of strangers who fancy themselves food bloggers. But as far as I could tell, there is no “social” aspect yet on the beta site recently and I’m curious how that will take shape.

It’s early days for this new site, and Jon Cartwright told me they’d be adding new stuff regularly, such as more restaurants each month, an iPhone app, personal recommendations, weekly specials, and an expansion to other cities across North America.

So for me, Food.ee may not be the ultimate online food discovery tool yet, but I do think with some additions and fine-tuning, it has the potential to become a terrific resource for anyone who loves good food and the convenience of eating at home or on the go. And this could prove very beneficial for local restaurants seeking a broader customer base.

Have you tried Food.ee yet and had a different experience? Tell us!

We all know how awesome Lesley Stowe Raincoast Crisps are. In our home, we always have some in our pantry for guests or just for a quick snack. After seven successful years, It seems like a natural progression to go from one hand held snack food to another.

I went to Lesley Stowe’s house, with fellow Foodist Tyler, for an advanced tasting event where three all-natural gourmet cookies were unveiled. Lesley also treated us to pairings of smoothies with each cookie; the idea being that these cookies could be combined with a smoothie to serve as a great breakfast when running out the door.

These are more than just cookies though, they fill the gap between a cookie and a power bar; being nutritious, filling, and great tasting. Now, I know what you’re thinking… A healthy cookie? For breakfast? Well, yes. The ingredients are all natural and include chia, flax seeds, nuts and high-fibre fruits. The only question on our minds now was, do they taste good?

Each cookie was moist, chewy and had a great combination of sweet, nutty, flavors that made each one distinct. My favourite was the Dark Chocolate, Tart Cherry & Pecan cookie. I’m not sure that’ll be a breakfast staple in our house, but it will definitely fill the mid-afternoon cravings. The other two cookie flavours are  Apricot, Ginger & Slivered Almond and Dried Cranberry & Toasted Hazelnut, which were both amazing. While the ginger packed some zip next to the subtle apricot flavour,  it was contrasted nicely with the chewy texture and tartness of the Cranberry cookie.

So, whether you need something quick for breakfast or need a 3pm pick me up, these single-serving cookies should fill the void. They are available in stores such as Urban Fare and Whole Foods for under $3. And for those who like to support local businesses, these products are produced in their warehouse in Richmond.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to taste the new Harvest Table menu at the most distinguished, Bishop’s.  I had just come down with severe back pain that would eventually put me in a drug stupor for weeks. Thankfully, on this night, I was able to hobble to the event determined to try this menu.

Days passed and while being in and out of my narcotic binge (with my doc’s help of course) I kept going back and remembering this amazing meal. Now a couple of weeks later, walking straighter and relatively drug free I thought I would punch out my personal experience.

We started the evening being greeted warmly by John Bishop himself – such a nice man. If you haven’t met him – do it, like right now.

After greeting the other guests I was then given a lovely 2006 Blue Mountain Rose to go with our first course – an Amuse Bouche of Dungeness Crab Custard, with pine mushroom and artichoke.  It wasn’t my favorite  – and am going to chalk it up to a texture thing for me personally.  The rest of the menu however was stellar!

Bishop’s German Butter Potato Soup was a bowl of perfection. This is the kind of soup that transports you to a rustic cabin where instantly you are eating it wearing layers of wool and donning a pair of classic Hunter boots.  It was just SO comforting and cozy. Velvet, rich, yet classically simple, the soup did however have some fun surprises like the “Mexican sour gherkin. – just the right adornment to transport me back to five-star dining.

The main was a beautifully prepared plate of Maple Hill Chicken Breast, that was bacon wrapped (thank you) with a delicate accompaniment of summer beans, cipolinni onions, chicken leg, a simple cascade tomato glaze and much to everyone’s surprise a little deep-fried quail egg – so neat!  Chef also incorporated a garnish of crispy chicken skin that was intense in flavour and gave me memories of stealing this delectable from my mom’s oven roasted chicken as a child.

And then there was dessert.  Wow. Showstopper.  A plate arrived with Corn Pot de Crème (which tasted like sweet corn) – absolutely perfectly balanced, and then a playful serving of caramel corn topped with a dollop of Corn Ice Cream. So unique, fun, and so fitting for the entrance of a new season.

I’m loving this.  Chef’s and restaurateurs’ are really being aggressive to incorporate flavours and ingredients of the season in their menu offerings.  This is exactly what the Bishop’s Harvest Table menu is all about.  It’s a growing respect for the connection between the earth and the harvest offerings.  This three-four course with wine pairing (optional) will be changing every two weeks depending on what is in season so that diners are really getting harvest offerings at the pinnacle of their prime. So this means you can come back and try the Bishop’s Harvest Table again and again. Great “natural” marketing.

As we were ending our meal one of Bishop’s suppliers was entering and making his way to the kitchen, carrying a large box of beautiful heirloom tomatoes. Everyone was eying his colourful bounty.  It’s so refreshing to see this “farm to table” experience happening before my eyes as not only a foodist but as a lover of food that is in season.

Unfortunately due to my health I wasn’t able to promote the first menu but here is the second menu that will be available until the 6^th of October.  Go, enjoy, and celebrate a new season, it is extremely worth it!

BISHOP’S HARVEST TABLE

Second Menu

Sundays through Thursdays

September 25 – October 6, 2011

Pemberton Meadows Beef Neck

cauliflower puree, purslane, borlotti beans

Sumac Ridge Cabernet Franc, 2008

Seared Halibut Filet

lentil and artichoke sauté, shaved fennel and artichoke salad, green fennel seed vinaigrette

Noble Ridge Chardonnay, 2008

Sapo Bravo Plum Cake

hazelnut gelato

Quails’ Gate Late Harvest Optima

48 -

optional wine pairings add  25 -

Bishop’s is located at  2183 West 4^th Avenue, Vancouver, BC.  Telephone 604.738.2025

www.bishopsonline.com

“hot dog or sausage?”

The Toronto street food and idling by-laws make the street food scene very bleak.  Ignoring the disastrous Toronto A La Carte fiasco, we’ve been starved for the delights that other North Americans take for granted as quick and tasty lunch options or post-clubbing snacks.

But all that is changing!  2011 has been the summer of Food Trucks! 

Chefs across the city have already taken the jump. Kitting out trucks, trailers and vans with all the equipment and licences and running what are essentially mobile restaurants sans seating. 

They are gambling on festivals, private catering or permanent partnerships with private property owners with parking to spare.  But unless you are visiting a winery or invited to the coolest wedding of the season where the food is catered by food truck, you are likely to miss out.

That is until Food Truck Eats, a movement to get everyone access to these great food trucks through food truck rallies organised by Spotlight Toronto founder, Suresh Doss.

Suresh is well known in the food community, and social media community, around southern Ontario as a knowledgeable, measured and capable instigator.  If something cool is happening in the food or wine scene in Toronto, Suresh is probably in the know.  In this case, he’s at the helm.  Both Food Truck Eats and and the Ontario Food Truck movement evolved after a trip earlier this year to Florida and where Suresh found himself dining on fantastic food served from food trucks and thought “how do we get this going in Toronto?”.

Suresh recognized the convergence of Toronto’s rising desire for more interesting and exciting street food experiences; the current buzz around gourmet grub from mobile kitchens; and the number of local chefs starting to play with alternative ways to get their food into the mouths of hungry enthusiasts. 

So far this summer, there have been 2 wildly successful Food Truck Eats events. More successful than anyone could have predicted, filling the Distillery District with trucks, chef stations and thousand and thousands of people hungry for new experiences.  The food was fantastic and included things from fish tacos to red velvet cupcakes, wood fired pizza to lobster rolls, ceviche to banh mi.

With prices ranging from $1 to $7, you can understand the lineups and why some vendors who came well-stocked for the day still sold out completely!

There have also been regular food truck pop-up events across the city, and more Food Truck Rallies happening in Hamilton and Mississauga.

The next Food Truck Eats is schedule to happen October 1st during Nuit Blanche and should be another fantastic event.   If you can come, expect line ups for fantastic food from some of the most fun and creative chefs around the region!

It's called the sea to sky highway for a reason

If you get the chance, I recommend stopping in for their pulled pork pizza and a few pitchers of their amazing beer.

Try them all... assuming you don't pass out first

If you ask nicely you can even get a tour of the brewery and try out some of the raw grains used to make the beer (raw grains are surprisingly good).

Pre-beer

These would make a great bar snack

Where the magic starts

Where the magic matures

Where the magic is bottled

Plan to spend the night (or have someone else drive) as their beers are not low in alcohol.  My favorites included the Rail Ale, King Heffy, and Devil’s Elbow but the clear winner was an advanced sampling of this year’s Pumpkineater.

My favorite

I tried talking them into letting me buy a case, but was told it wouldn’t be officially released until sometime in September and I’d have to wait.

I guess I’ll just have to go back for more.

Photo Credit: Toshi Kawano Photography

When I heard that Araxi was putting on a long table series in the heart of Pemberton I was intrigued. After asking a few foodie questions I grasped the magnitude of this so-called “dinner” and knew without a shadow of a doubt, come hell or high water, I needed to find a place at that table.  Less than 48 hours later I was driving the winding and glorious road to Pemberton and onward to North Arm Farm – nestled at the base of Mount Currie – to take my place among 110 other diners.

Upon arriving at the farm dinner guests were greeted with cocktails and wine and the first round of appetizers were passed.  We then made our way to the farm tour. It was really hot and as sweat poured, make-shift fans waved and water was guzzled, Jordan Sturdy (coincidentally the Mayor of Pemberton and the son of designer Martha Sturdy) shared farming practices that make North Arm Farm unique. During the tour I sipped a 2008 Trefethen Dry Riesling and nibbled on a Yarrow Meadow Duck Liver Parfait – so delicious.

As we walked the fields I couldn’t help but notice that there were weeds and bugs everywhere. Sturdy explained that organic farming allows nature to take its course and they don’t pluck weeds from their crops or use any kind of pesticide. It allows nature to do what nature does naturally.  I like this.

Making our way to the table I gasped. It stretched almost the length of the field and it’s white crisp tablecloth, silverware, plates, and beautiful assortment of glasses and bright floral centerpieces teased me to what was about to come. As I looked at Mount Currie, the fields, table, the other guests, I couldn’t help but feel like I was in a movie – it was completely cinematic.

My dinner companion and I chose spots and got acquainted with our neighbors who turned out to be none other than “Jack” and “Araxi” from Araxi.  They were such lovely, humble, yet playful people who contributed greatly to our shared experience.  I asked a few questions about their life in and out of the restaurant industry and grasped a good sense of the passion for food and culture that has made them so successful.

James Walt Executive Chef, Photo Credit: Toshi Kawano Photography

Now let’s talk food.  While the location was “picture perfect” the food was the shining star. Araxi’s Executive Chef James Walt could not have prepared a better menu to truly showcase the flavours of British Columbia –using ingredients from, “nearby woodlands, pastures and shores”.

I had the chance to speak with Walt and asked him what made this menu special and specific to the location. He says, “Each long table has been different because of what we are using from the fields. I usually talk to Jordan two weeks in advance and see what he will have ready and then we build the menu from there.”

If you know me you’ll know hands down I hate beets. To me they taste like dirt – but not the North Arm Beet Salad. The beets were sweet like candy yet had that rich “fresh from the garden” flavour. The menu described the dish as: North Arm Beet Salad with buffalo mozzarella, beet chips and spiced nuts, organic olive oil and lemon vinaigrette. This was paired with a Foxtrot Chardonnay. It was such a beautiful dish and made me a beet believer.

The second course was unique, simple, yet blew my mind -  Wild BC Tuna ‘Nicoise’. Picture buttered field potatoes, perfectly prepared green beans, tomato salsa verde with a gorgeous quail egg and olive tapenade.  In a word “amazing”.

However the main dish I am still dreaming about today was – Heritage Angus Natural Beef. It was described as: Crispy slow cooked beef cheek fritter, pepper and rosemary roasted fillet with North Arm onions, Swiss Chard and baby onions. Beef cheek fritters -  I don’t think I’ve ever had something so delicious…truly.

The desserts were “sweet” in their own right – cherries with chocolate dipped ice cream bars, pistachio cake, and an assortment of macaroons and homemade jellies. They were the perfect ending to a fantastic meal.

In appreciation, our table of 110 partook in the “wave” ending in cheers and celebration for an evening of gastronomic delights – this was my kind.

Photo Credit: Toshi Kawano Photography

I asked Walt what it feels like after putting on such a truly memorable dinner. “There is definitely a sense of accomplishment and gratification,” says Walt. “Three quarters of the menu comes from that field so when people can see the Swiss Chard growing behind them and then see it on their plates it creates something special for our guests.  Eighty percent of people have never done that so it’s something different for most. I love that kind of thing.”

The next morning I was pinching myself. Did I really just have that incredible dining experience?  Did I really eat under the protective gaze of Mount Currie, and sample exquisite cuisine nestled among berry bushes and rows of beautiful organic vegetables?  I had indeed.  Some girls dream of being a princess – this one dreams of long tables, exquisite food, and 110 + guests.

End notes:

Partnering on the event including the Araxi team and North Arm Farm, were Foxtrot Vineyards, Trefethen Family Vineyards, Pilliteri Estates Winery, The Wine Syndicate and Pemberton Distillery.

The heavy hitters of the evening were Araxi Executive Chef James Walt, Pastry Chef Aaron Heath, Restaurant Director Neil Henderson, and Wine Director Samantha Rahn.

For more information on the next Araxi Long Table Series visit: www.araxi.com/longtable.html

Araxi is part of the Top Table Group. www.toptable.ca

You must be willing to eat and drink anything delicious, and to walk several blocks around town. People who don’t like delicious food will not have a good time!

Here’s a little taste of our itinerary, though some dishes may still be subject to change as we confirm final details:

1:15pm – 1:45
Save-On-Meats – Breakfast Poutine

2:00pm-2:20
Everything Cafe - Stumptown Machiatto

2:30pm- 3:15
Big Lou’s Butcher Shop - Banh Mi Sandwich

3:30- 4:15
Irish Heather – Steak Pot Pie with a Guinness

4:30-4:50 pm
Meat & Bread - Maple Bacon Ice Cream Sandwich

5pm-5:45 pm
SALT Tasting Room – Meat & Cheese w/ Wine Pairing

5:55pm-6:35 pm
Judas Goat – Pinxtos & Sherry

6:45pm
The Diamond – Small Plate & Handcrafted Cocktail

The cost is $115 per person including gratuity, and the planned itinerary runs from 1 pm to 7 pm. There is a maximum availability of 20 spots for food lovers on the tour, so act fast and buy your ticket through Eventbrite.

How often does a friend say to you, “Hold on, I want you to try this new brand of olive oil my friend is importing from Spain. It’s quite special, tell me what you think.” Well, that’s exactly what happened to me recently as I was leaving my foodie friends Dawn and Joe’s house.

Apparently Dawn and Joe’s friends Kris and Diana recently started an importer/distribution company called Olives and Things, specializing in 100% natural products from Spain and the Mediterranean. One of their products is a high end, single cold pressed extra virgin olive oil called Cazorliva made from only one particular kind of olive called Picual with only 0.4% acidity.

“You can heat this olive oil past 475 degrees—well past the standard smoke point—high enough you can even fry with it!” exclaimed Dawn. Yeah, sure, I thought, knowing only too well how bitter, burnt olive oil can ruin a dish if you’re not careful. Well, she was right. I’ve used the oil a number of times in a number of different situations, and it’s an excellent cooking oil.

During the recent Butchers of Gastown seafood event, I had a number of Foodists contributors do a tasting against a couple of popular brands. It fared well, with a lovely colour, aroma and flavour. It was unanimously chosen as superior to a popular brand, but its slightly sharp note on the finish made it come second to a more expensive competitor from Italy (that the clerk made sure to remind me would not do well under heat and not to use for cooking). But having cooked with it a number of times, I like this oil more and more each use.

I did a little digging and discovered that Cazorliva is made by a company in Spain called Jaencoop. Located in La Loma, Sierra de las Villas, El Condado and Sierra de Segura in the province of Jaén, they also happen to be the second largest producer of olive oil on the planet! News to me, apparently Spain is the world’s largest producer and exporter of olive oil, with Italy and Greece second and third. Italian olive oil was marketed to the North American market sooner that Spanish oil, even though 1/3 of most Italian olive oil is in fact from Spain!

If you live in or around Vancouver, there are a growing number of locations where you can find Cazorliva so you can try some for yourself.