Last Vancouver post here. Here is a quick meal at Nan Chuu with Gene and Geoff. This place is a Richmond offshoot of Gyoza King, which remains one of my favorite Vancouver izakaya spots. Nan Chuu is a bit bigger, with a more narrow, long main room, and a similar modern decor. The place was quite crowded, and we had to wait a little bit for a table. I also remember a cute waitress..

kanpachi sashimi - C$18 We saw kanpachi sashimi on special, and decided to bite the bullet even at $18. That is the power that kanpachi has over me, I guess. It had a good texture, but slightly bland.

gyu tan - C$4.95 Nan Chuu also has a bit more robata stuff than Gyoza King. We chose to try the beef tongue. It was really nice, actually. Tender and flavorful. Unfortunately, it wasn't warm enough. Perhaps it was sitting for a minute too long before being brought to us.

pork and chive gyoza - C$3.95 The gyoza is pretty similar to GK's. Very crisp and delicious. It kind of feels more like a Chinese potsticker than Japanese gyoza though. That's not a bad thing; I'd be happy to eat many of these little morsels.

hotate butter yaki - C$6.75 Another special was this scallop and butter concoction. Again, alright, but not too memorable. Definitely not as good as the scallop/mushroom dish at Gyoza King.

mentaiko yakiudon - C$8.5 And finally, spicy cod roe udon. Gyoza King makes the best version I've tried, and I was eager to see if this could match it. It came close, but didn't quite get there. This was definitely better than Manzo, but still didn't have quite the pure buttery richness of the original GK. Maybe they need to put those nori strips... they at least make it look a lot nicer. All in all, I'd rather be eating at Gyoza King. This seems to be happening a lot with Vancouver izakayas. Maybe it'll be simpler to just keep going to GK, Hapa, and Guu. I've got a couple of random SF posts to finish, then it's going to be Australia stuff. As for now - I'm fortunate enough to be going to the French Laundry again for dinner tonight! Thanks Jennifer. You'll probably read about tonight's meal in like... 2 months. :P

So surprise surprise, I'm a little behind schedule. It turns out I didn't have internet access for my last few days in New Zealand, so I wasn't able to update then. I'm back in San Francisco now though. I'm going to Vancouver briefly for the holidays, then back here to SF for a bit, then back to Boston. I should be able to update pretty much daily for the next couple of months. I have a few more Vancouver/SF posts to wrap up before I get started on my huge Sydney report.

This one is gonna be pretty quick. Over the summer I managed to make another visit to Kintaro Ramen (check out my first visit here). The place is still packin' em in from the looks of it. Geoff and I barely got a table before the place filled up completely. A pretty long line soon formed out the door. If we'd gotten there 10 minutes later, we probably would have had to wait another 45 minutes. I guess you could say the place hasn't changed much.

bbq pork shoyu ramen - C$8.75 This time we both got ga-ga-greedy and ordered the ramen with extra bbq pork. And they're not joking around - you get 4 huge pieces instead of 1. Of course, we went with the fat pork and rich soup, and the result was a HUGE bowl of food. It was tough to finish it, but I managed. The bbq pork is really great here... absolutely tender and fatty. 4 pieces might be too much though. I think next time I'm gonna ask if they can give me 2 pieces of fat pork and 2 pieces of lean pork.

gyoza - C$3.25 While the gyoza isn't particularly superb, it's perfectly decent. It's pretty much an automatic order when you're getting ramen anyway. It's about to get really busy around here. Stay tuned...

And so the Japanese barrage continues. My aunt Amelia was kind enough to take Geoff and I out one night. We wanted to go to Vij's, but when we got there the wait was over an hour. We decided to take a rain check on Vij's, and walked down the street to check out En. Luckily, the place was almost totally empty. En's sort of taken the izakaya thing and moved it a little bit upscale - white tablecloths, peaceful zen surrounding, more fusion-type food - and moved prices up accordingly. I actually quite like the space; it's very calm and serene. The menu is divided into a few sections, including light appetizers, sushi, small dishes, medium dishes, and main dishes. We ended up not ordering anything from the list of mains so that we could try more stuff.

"rice crispies" They actually gave us an amuse bouche to start. They described it as their version of a rice crispy - basically, little wedges of deep-fried rice with a bit of soy. Pretty tasty, and a nice surprise.

soft shell crab tempura salad with spring mix, vegetables, daikon, olive oil, sesame seed, rice vinegar - C$13.5 This came off the medium dishes list. The crab itself was pretty good, with a nice hot crisp to it. The salad was a bit ordinary; they put a little too much dressing for my taste.

lightly pan-fried halibut cheeks placed on a layer of dungeness crab meat served with a soy/dashi sauce capped with fresh herbs and grated lemon skin - C$14.25 This was one of the better dishes of the night. The fish and the crab went surprisingly well together - they had strangely similar texture but quite different flavors. The blackcurrants (or are those called boysenberries? I always get them confused) were pretty sour and a bit out of place.

assorted sushi plate - C$29 We were a bit fooled by what we would get on the sushi plate - it just lists red ahi tuna nigiri, salmon nigiri, hamachi nigiri, unagi nigiri, amaebi nigiri, ikura nigiri, uni nigiri, and california roll. We'd asked how many pieces there were, and our waitress said 15 or so, so we said why not. It turns out we got 8 pieces of california roll and 1 each of sushi, which was a bit disappointing. The sushi was definitely good, but you can find better deals in Vancouver.

asparagus gyoza - $9.5 This was definitely the star of the night. We were quite curious to see what asparagus gyoza would be like, and this was cooler than I could have imagined. The asparaguses (asparagi?) were wrapped whole! The skin was nice and crispy. A great combination.

lightly sauteed sliced giant scallop placed on top of dungeness crab meat covered with a rich tamari soy reduction served with risotto - C$16 Another one off the medium dish list. This was the only thing Geoff had tried before so he knew it would be good. The scallops were tender, the risotto was rich and creamy, and the sauce was just beautiful. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever had scallops with risotto before. You'd think it would be more common than it is...

matcha cheesecake Sorry, didn't take the price down on this one. Geoff had also tried this dessert before and was eager to get it again. It was deliciously moist and rich, though perhaps just a touch sweet. I'd get it again in a heartbeat though. So overall the meal was pretty good, but the prices are a definite notch above the many Vancouver izakayas out there. The setting is admittedly a bit more upscale, but I don't know if it's worth it. Auntie Amelia seemed to think money would be better spent at other places...

One late night, Geoff and I were, as usual, looking for some grub. We wanted to go to Gyoza King or Hapa, but when we arrived at both they were closed. We tried the Guu next door, which was still open, but weren't taking any new seatings. Thwarted, we drove over to Richmond. We ended up trying Manzo, a Vancouver-style izakaya that happens to be open pretty late. Geoff hadn't tried it in forever, so we gave it a shot. The place was pretty empty late at night, and had the typical izakaya decor - lots of black wood. The menu has a lot of the normal izakaya stuff, but also a fairly strong focus on yakitori and other skewered bbq items - I guess that's why it's open late.

cheese chikuwa age - C$4.95 We started off with this cheese chikuwa age, which is a sort of fishcake-like thing stuffed with cheese and deep fried. A weird combo, but it was actually pretty tasty. The cheese was stretchy like mozzarella. It was also about 8 trillion degrees, and I came pretty close to burning my whole mouth on the first bite. Luckily, I survived...

kawa - C$3 Next came probably our most anticipated dish, kawa. Essentially, fried chicken skin on a skewer. This stuff was excellent - crispy and crackly, with a nice saltiness. My dad woulda liked this.

beef with enoki mushrooms - C$4.95 There was some other thing we wanted to order that they had run out of, and we substituted it with this instead - beef wrapped around enoki mushrooms. I love enoki mushrooms and this is a great combo. It would have been nice if they took had taken it off the fire a few seconds earlier though.

gyoza - C$3.95 The gyoza was average. I can't decide if I like it when they don't seal the ends. Some of the best gyoza I"ve had in Japan was done this way. On these, it felt like I was losing valuable juices that were dripping. I guess it all depends on the filling.

mentaiko yaki udon - C$8.95 We saw mentaiko udon on the menu, and for comparison's sake we had to try it. All around, it was clearly worse than the Gyoza King version. The noodles were a bit limp and overcooked, and the sauce was more watered down and bland. It didn't have the wonderful butteriness of GK's version, and it wasn't nearly as pretty either. It was still good though - I guess mentaiko udon is sort of hard to screw up. I wouldn't order this here again though.

bbq pork - C$4.5 This bbq pork was very good, and quite different than what the term refers to in Chinese context, as you can see. The meat was juicy, with a slight porky chewiness to the texture, and a strong flavor. Definitely a good value, too.

onigiri with eel - $3.9 The menu had a small section of different onigiri (rice balls). This one had some unagi in the middle along with some unagi sauce. As much as I love onigiri, I didn't think this was very good - it didn't have the right balance of crispy to hard on the outside and soft on the inside. We were still pretty satisfied with the meal. It's certainly a good option after most of the other places have closed, and you can have a really good meal if you pick right from the menu. If I go again, I'll probably lean very heavily on the bbq stuff, which clearly stood out during our meal. There was a big list of different items, and you could stuff yourself on a variety of bbq alone.

Sorry 'bout the week of inactivity - had a lot going on at work and a paper due. Back to the Vancouver eats. So for some reason, God didn't want me to go to Ajisai this summer. During my two week stay, we tried to go three times, only to fail utterly. Once it was closed, the second time we got there too late for lunch, and the third time they actually closed on the day we were there for a week. Until the day I was leaving. Just my luck, right? So Geoff and I finally resorted to getting a sushi lunch somewhere else. We decided on Okada Sushi, which has gotten some good reviews online. It's actually located right in downtown Vancouver, hidden away up some stairs. The decor is pretty typical, with the standard Japanese restaurant look. The staff seemed to be mixed between Japanese and Chinese, if I remember correctly. The place is famous for its live lobster and crab offerings during dinner, but kept it simple with some sushi at the counter.

unagi roll - C$4.5 This unagi roll was pretty much standard. Don't remember too much about it, so it must have just been par for the course.

negitoro (C$3.75), chopped scallop (C$2), uni (C$3-4 I think), salmon (C$1.65) Those prices are per order, and quite a steal. The negitoro was generous and tasty. Scallop was light and not too heavily mayo-d, and uni was good but not great. The salmon was pretty blah, but I don't like salmon all that much. I'm actually not sure why we ordered it...

toro (C$2), tamago ($1.25) The absolute steal on the menu though was the toro nigiri. At $2 a pop, these came in below hirame, unagi, ikura, hamachi, tai, RED TUNA, and a score of others. We thus decided the best idea was to order a lot of toro - 4 pieces each in the end. And the reason it's so cheap is that it's albacore toro, which Vancouver seems to have plenty of. It's not quite as good as it's red-fleshed cousin, but it's still yummy. Very soft, buttery, and fatty. The tamago was light and fluffy. I must say I was pretty happy with Okada. I've had better sushi before, but the prices are just so good here. The rice had a good temperature, texture, and flavor. Quality and execution, while not out of this world, were still at a high level. I can't stress enough how good of a deal the toro was. If I go back, I'll probably just ask them to make me a toro don and be done with it.

It seems that every time I go to Vancouver, there's a new crop of small plate Japanese izakaya-style places to try. The competition in this category is definitely fierce. After failing to get in to a few other places one night over the summer, Geoff and I ended up trying Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe in Yaletown. Walking up to the joint I couldn't help but laugh - the picture may be too small to see everything, but their sign is the most buzzworded sign for a restaurant I think I've ever seen. In its entirety, it says: 'Shiru-Bay Chopstick Cafe, izakaya-ism, Japanese Fusion Gourmet Bistro Tapas-Bar, Flavour of Tokyo'. Now there's a mouthful of description... I think they have every possible base covered. The gimmick alarm went off, but we pressed on. The room is sleek and modern, with plenty of black minimalism. We were seated outside but ended up moving inside to the counter, where a line of cooks prepare food in full view. Th menu is comprehensive, covering most of the usual Vancouver izakaya bases. We opted for a $40 11-course omakase (O.MA.KA.SE is how you spell that in hip menu language), and let them do the deciding.

pickled vegetables They started us off with some pickled veggies, which were pretty standard fare. They took a bit to arrive, but we let them off because we did move tables across the whole restaurant.

negitoro and avocado tartare with garlic toast, cheese tofu with honey and almond Next came this pair of cold apps. We weren't really sure how they were counting courses. It seemed like the pickles were supposed to be a freebie and not an actual course, but this may have been 2 courses because it was 2 different items. Either way, we ended up eating 11 plates of things, and stopped trying to keep track after a while. This negitoro was just so-so. Again I'll remind everyone that "negitoro" in Vancouver izakayas (the first of the Big Three izakaya dishes that every place serves) seems to just mean negi-regulartuna, and not actually toro. This one was a bit oversauced in my opinion, and the garlic bread was just so so. (It was funny watching one of the cooks stick like 50 pieces of garlic bread into a little toaster oven at once, cramming them in there in any way possible.) The cheese tofu, weird and boring as it may sound and look, was one of the best dishes of the night - cool, delicate, and creamy.

kobe beef carpaccio with fiji apples, reggiano & truffle oil This dish was another hit. It had a touch too much black pepper on top, but nothing too serious. They skimped a bit on the truffle oil, but for the price I guess I can't complain too much.

hiaburi shime saba Item 2 of the izakaya triumvirate came with a slight twist. They did the usual show, bringing out the saba and blowtorching it, but rather than just serve the fish they took half of it and made it into a salad. And not a bad salad - it had some nice big chunks of onion and a vinegar dressing. The fish tasted the same as it does everywhere else.

hamachi, maguro, amaebi The sashimi was actually really good. The hamachi was a bit lean but had a nice clean flavor. Maguro was typical. The amaebi were actually very sweet; I've started liking this more and more. After the sashimi came, we waited a looooong time.

ebi mayo chilli - deep-fried prawns with 'their' original Chili-mayo sauce, topped with wonton chips & sliced almonds After like 30 agonizing minutes of watching food going to other tables, the last of the Big Three came out. Again, it was just okay at best. The batter was just too thick for me, and it was crunchy and oily rather than crisp and light. And I don't know who invented ebi mayo, but claiming originality for 'Chili-mayo sauce' seems like me saying I rolled the world's first burrito. I guess I could be wrong; maybe they were the first to do it. Either way, there was too much of it on the tempura.

croquette of dungeness crab, corn, caramelized onion & bechamel sauce served in crab shell Now here's something I hadn't seen before. They actually stuffed the crab shell with the filling and fried the whole thing. This was pretty fun to dig into, and the inside was quite tasty as well, with a heavy dose of crab and cream. A definite highlight.

pan roasted lamb chop with cran balsamic miso sauce, bacon garlic mash Nothing much to say about this. The lamb was decently cooked, but completely unspectacular. It felt like this was stuck in here just for the sake of having a meat course. The mashed potatoes were horrible.

yellowtail braised in sweet ginger-soy reduction After the disappointing lamb, the meal rebounded with this fish. The fish was flaky and tender, while the sauce had a slightly sweet but very deep soy flavor, without being too salty. This was probably the best of the hot dishes.

sushi: dragonball, musashi, unagi & cream cheese We knew these sushi things were coming, and we weren't really looking forward to it. We were seated at the counter right in front of the sushi station, and throughout the entire night, we'd been watching a cook make this stuff from an assembly line of old, cold, pre-molded rectangles of rice and the various ingredients. The Dragonball, their signature, has prawn, avocado, salmon roe and tobiko. The Musashi has dungeness crab with mango coulis and tobiko. The unagi & cream cheese is pretty self-explanatory. The ingredients all tasted good enough, but there was a general over-use of mayo and sweetness. And the rice, as expected, was cold and just plain bad.

strawberry ice cream and fruits The dessert course was a bit lazy, but the ice cream was decent enough I guess. In the end, while I felt like the meal was still a good deal for $40, the food was too inconsistent and the service a bit off for me to go back. The people were nice enough, but the timing of the dishes was pretty bad - we'd wait long periods of time, then have 3 come at once, etc. And while there were some great dishes (the cheese tofu, the fish), there were some bad (lamb) and some really bad (sushi) ones. I think the sushi is a real example of a restaurant trying to extend and do too much. I mean, if you're gonna be making sushi using rice like they do here, just don't bother serving sushi at all. The menu has its strengths, but definitely focuses a bit too much on style over substance. With the quality of other izakayas in Vancouver, I don't see much reason to go back to Shiru-Bay. I'd rather eat at Gyoza King, Hapa, or Guu any day.

So since my last visit, Hapa Izakaya has gone through some renovation. They took over the place next door and the space is now considerably larger. The new area, like the rest of the restaurant, is beautiful, and has been integrated very well. Sleek dark wood, minimalist furniture, and a hiply-dressed (not to mention cute) waitstaff give the place a cool, modern vibe. The menu has also enlarged a bit, and includes everything I can remember from the old menu plus a number of new additions. The place is bustling, but thankfully the prices remain very reasonable. We actually went on New Year's Eve - wow, I sure am behind with these photos...

kobe beef tataki with special blend barley miso dip, seared at the table - C$9.8

nama harumaki - fresh rice noodle stuffed with crab, avocado, mayo & lettuce - C$6.8

aburi shime saba - fresh marinated mackerel, seared at the table - C$6.8 They really enjoy breaking out the flamethrower in a can at Hapa, and I must admit I enjoy the show. The tableside searing also ensures the dish is hot when you eat it, which can often be a problem with tataki dishes. The beef tataki was really great - more rare than it appears in the photo, as it was only seared on the top side. It had a very nice, soft texture that went well with the accompanying sauce. The nama harumaki was sort of like a very strange play on a California roll, and was also quite good. The rice noodle wrapping was the perfect counterbalance for the mayo-ey mix inside. The saba was great just like last time. We noticed this time that the yogurt (or something - not sure what it is) sauce with the salad on the side was good for killing off what little fishiness remained after the searing. I think this is still Geoff's favorite dish here; then again, he is a saba lover and I am not.

ebi chilli omelet - egg omelet topped with deep-fried shrimp and chilli sauce - C$6.8

negitoro - fresh tuna belly, chopped with spring onions, served with toasted garlic bread - C$6.8 The ebi omelet was by far the weakest dish of the night. It tasted pretty much like shrimp with scrambled eggs, a very typical Chinese combination. The "chilli" sauce should more accurately be called tomato sauce, and a pretty bad one at that. It's too bad they drenched the entire dish in it. The negitoro was good - a little more complicated than a sushi-style negitoro in its flavor, but appropriate for this type of eating (lots of small dishes) and a good match with the bread.

ishi-yaki - rice, minced pork, garlic sprouts, egg, tomato, lettuce, spicy miso cooked in a Korean hot stone at the table - C$7.8

cod roe gratin - C$5.4 Ishi-yaki was the third repeat dish (along with the saba and negitoro), so I already knew what to expect - hot, flavorful, textured rice with tasty ingredients. The cod roe gratin was delicious. The gratin changes every day, and I guess it was just our lucky that we got cod roe. I'm not sure what the deal is with cod roe, but so far it's 2 for 2, considering this dish and the mentaiko udon I had at Gyoza King. Actually, Hapa also has mentaiko udon on their menu - it's on my to try list. Anyway, back to the gratin. A wonderful, cheesy, flavorful mix that also had some vegetables in there. My only complaint is that we didn't have a loaf of baguette or something to eat it with. We had to settle for the ishi-yaki, which had too much flavor of its own to be used as normal rice, and some remnants of the garlic bread from the negitoro. The gratin was probably too salty to eat by itself, but mixed with some kind of carbs it is just delicious. I could make a meal of it with a bowl of white rice.

annin tofu - almond-scented coconut and milk pudding, topped with maple syrup - C$3.5 Somehow we had a bit of room for dessert. We almost ordered the panna cotta (I love panna cotta!), but the waitress suggested we try the annin tofu, which she said was much better and sounded very interesting anyway. Turned out to be a great decision. This pudding was rich and creamy without being overly filling or sweet, and screamed almond flavor. One might even call it refreshing after all the food we ate. Good stuff! So I've heard a few negative comments about Hapa randomly around the net, but we had a good experience. One minor misstep worth noting is that the timing of the dishes coming out wasn't very good - after the first few, a lot of them sort of came out at the same time, and we couldn't really keep up. We managed though, and the food was good. Just don't get the ebi omelet...

Throughout Vancouver, Tojo's has quite a reputation. It's won pretty much every Japanese food award in the city, and regularly sweeps the "Best Of" lists in newspapers and magazines across town. The place is famous for its omakase, which come in C$50, C$75, C$100, and C$100+ levels. There is also a vegetarian option for $55. When asked to describe the difference in the price levels, our waiter (a really funny guy actually) said that the 75 is a step up in quantity, the 100 is quantity and quality, and the 100+ is just for the over the top stuff. We decided on the 100, which got us the following.

tuna tataki with sliced daikon

smoked salmon & raw scallop salad with dijon mustard

halibut cheek with red peppercorns, shitake mushrooms, chinese broccoli and a mandarin orange sauce The tuna tataki was good - nice texture and the right amount of sear. The surprise was the daikon, which was probably the most refreshing daikon I've ever had. It was extremely crisp and crunchy, and I ended up eating every last piece. The salmon and scallop salad was quite nice. I loved the scallop and the dijon vinaigrette, but I think I would have preferred salmon sashimi to smoked salmon. The smoked salmon proved a bit too salty in this dish for me. The halibut cheeks were tender and delicate, and the sauce provided a pleasant balance of tang and sweetness. The peppercorns added a bit too much kick I think - they didn't make the dish spicy, but when you actually bit one you got a huge rush of pepper. I avoided them for the most part after eating one or two. The rest of the dish was excellent though. Funny how cheeks always seem to be the most tender part of whatever animal...

"sun-tanned tuna" - tuna wrapped with seaweed, tempura'd, and served with mushroom, cabbage and a japanese plum sauce

smoked sable fish (as it was served)

smoked sable fish in broth with asparagus, bamboo shoots & mushrooms The sun-tanned tuna was a great dish. Big, meaty pieces of tuna matched perfectly with the somewhat subtle plum sauce. The mushroom/cabbage mixture was delicious - the type of stuff that you could dip bread into. The sable fish had a very interesting presentation. All was wrapped up as in the picture, and revealed a stuffed piece of fish with an amazingly fragrant broth. The fish was melt-in-your-mouth tender, but the highlight was easily the broth, which lended both a delicious flavor and wonderful aroma.

golden roll, great canadian roll, pacific northwest roll, spicy tuna roll, tuna & amaebi nigiri

spicy tempura cone with avocado & asparagus Next came the sushi, with a variety of Tojo's specialty rolls. The Golden roll is fresh prawns, salmon, scallop, crabmeat, and kaiware wrapped in a thin egg crepe. The Great Canadian roll has lobster and asparagus with lettuce rolls inside, and topped with smoked salmon. The Pacific Northwest roll is fresh crabmeat, avocado, and tamago rolled inside out with spinach, and topped with scallops and herring roe. The spicy tuna roll had some nice pieces of fish on the outside. I liked the golden roll a lot; it had a great seafood-salad type of taste. The Pacific Northwest roll was also nice. The yellow herring roe is a nice diversion from the usual masago. The Great Canadian was just so-so, I thought - again, I found the smoked salmon a bit overpowering. The spicy tuna roll was delicious. The toro was pretty good, but I've had much better. The amaebi tasted very fresh and clean - I'm sure amaebi lovers (I'm not one) would really enjoy it. The spicy tempura cones were excellent. This must have been the most quickly-served tempura roll I've ever had (in terms of time between the tempura being in the fryer and the cone being in my hands), because the tempura was so hot it almost burned my mouth. I for one love the concept of tempura in rolls, so this was right up my alley. Delicious... We also got a little mango ice cream with a fruit-yogurt mixture as dessert. It was a great end to the meal. The only thing lacking was perhaps a meat course of some kind. We were expecting maybe some type of meat dish before the sushi showed up. Maybe if you get the 100+ they'll give you some Kobe beef. Still, it was a wonderful meal. The price reflected it too - though still cheap by U.S. comparison, there is definitely a significant premium compared to basically every other Japanese place in Vancouver that I've been to.

My trips to Vancouver are incomplete without a visit to Ajisai, a great little sushi bar in Kerrisdale. I've been there several times now total, and it has always been great. The restaurant is quite small, and the counter only has about 6 seats, but the service is friendly, the room is warm and pleasant, and the food is consistently high-quality and very reasonably priced.

nigiri (per piece): toro - C$2.25, hamachi - C$2.25, aji - C$2.5

dynamite roll - C$4.5, special unagi/scallop roll - C$6.5 The majority of the tuna served in Vancouver seems to be albacore, and thus lacks the redness so commonly associated with the fish. This doesn't mean it tastes bad. The toro was fat and buttery; quite a bargain at $2 Canadian each. The hamachi had a nice texture and crisp taste. The aji was a special that day - it lacked the vinegar I usually see it served with, but was still very good. The dynamite roll is another steal. Ajisai adds some corn flakes into it for a crunchy bite. A lot of restaurants have started to do some similar stuff (tempura bits are increasingly popular), but Ajisai years ago was the first time I'd experienced this. The unagi roll was also a special, and was basically unagi combined with chopped scallop and avocado. Two rolls in one! It was tasty.

negitoro maki - C$3.25

uni nigiri - C$2.5 each

gindara - bbq black cod - C$9.75 We had a minor mix up and instead of getting two negitoro cones, we got two rolls. We didn't mind of course, and the rolls were delicious despite being in cut form. Uni. Let me say this about uni: my dad sure was right. I never really enjoyed uni much until my trip to Hokkaido, uni capital of Japan. When I tried it there, my love for uni began. Now I eat it pretty much whenever I can. Uni at Ajisai was sweet, creamy, and very good. Not spectacular, and a little on the small side, but still delicious. I'd order it again, especially at those prices. Gindara, or black cod, was another daily special and we opted to go for one hot dish. We were deathly scared of that small pile of natto at the bottom right, but luckily none of it was touching the fish. The cod was good, but fairly ordinary. I wish I had Ajisai here in Boston - great sushi for great prices. Next time maybe I'll try getting omakase.

My cousin David's friend Lauren recommended Kintaro (about halfway down the article), proclaiming it the best ramen in Greater Vancouver. Geoff had also heard about it so we decided to check it out for lunch. By pure coincidence, we stumbled into Lauren eating there at the very same time. I wasn't sure what to expect - I hadn't been to a ramen joint in Vancouver before, so I had no idea what the standard is. What I did know is that my own bar for ramen was set pretty high after my trip in 2003 to Sapporo, the capital of ramen (notice that ramen on the left). I've been unable to find a place that can make anything comparable outside of Japan. So I was pleasantly surprised when I stepped inside of Kintaro and found a very serious-looking ramen operation: three Japanese guys behind the counter, various massive pots of stock containing giant pork bones in different steps of the soup-making process, and an efficient assembly line of production with each batch of noodles and each batch of soup prepared individually. Perhaps most impressive was the taste testing by the head ramen guy of every single batch of noodles and soup as it was made. Anyway, on to business.

shoyu ramen - ramen in soy sauce soup with pork bone stock with bean sprout, menma, green onion, nori, and BBQ pork - C$6.25

gyoza - C$3.25 Another immediate sign of encouragement upon receiving our menus was the notice at the top that gave options for both soup (rich, medium, light) and pork (fat, lean). Why anyone would choose a combination other than rich/fat is completely beyond me, but hey, whatever floats your boat. I ordered the staple shoyu ramen as I always do (they also offer miso and shio, and claim the miso as their house specialty). To be frank, this is the best ramen that I've had outside of Japan. The soup was remarkably flavorful, and splashed with little tiny globs of pork fat, a luxury I have only experienced in Sapporo and Tokyo. The single piece of fatty pork was delicious. Bean sprouts, green onions, and salted vegetables were all great. The noodles were firm and textured. This bowl of ramen was wonderful, although I still don't think it's as good as what I've had in Japan. That's not a knock though - this ramen was really great. The gyoza was very good, though not spectacular, and did its job as ramen sidekick of choice. Kintaro is better than any ramen I've had in SF proper (though I admit there are places around the Bay Area I have yet to try), and I expect it will become a regular stop for my future Vancouver trips. Next time I'll try the miso...

I've mentioned a few times of the trend in Vancouver of small plate Japanese restaurants (also called izakaya). Guu (the linked article also talks about Hapa Izakaya, and Kintaro which I'll be posting about soon) is another such spot. Guu has a few different locations throughout Vancouver. I checked out the one on Thurlow with Geoff and Tiff.

chopped fresh tuna sashimi with green onion - C$4.80

fresh salmon sashimi - C$4.80

baked oyster in spicy cod roe mayo sauce topped with cheese - C$3.80 First I should mention that we went pretty late, and sadly many of the dishes we wanted to try were sold out. Most of their "signature" dishes were gone, including a pumpkin croquette, a baked cod, a potato croquette, a yakisoba, and some of the daily specials. About 5 things we tried got shot down if I recall correctly, and according to Geoff and Tiff, those are the really good dishes. But we dealt with it and got some good stuff anyway. The tuna was the notable exception. There's not much more to say other than that it was straight up bad. The fish was way too cold - you could tell it was recently in the freezer. It wasn't frozen, but it was close. This dish really answers the question of why it's supposed to be "negitoro" and not "negimaguro" - it only works with toro... The salmon, which was a daily special described simply as "fresh salmon sashimi," was vastly superior. It actually came out very very slightly seared on the outside, with some kind of ponzu sauce and chopped nuts on it. This dish was really excellent, and we were banging our heads for getting the tuna instead of 2 salmons. The oyster was also very good, more for the sauce that it came in - cheesy, gooey, and delicious.

kimchi fried rice - C$7.20

grilled beef steak skewers with grated radish & ponzu sauce -C$4

skewered pork cheeks & green onion - C$4 The kimchi fried rice was really, really good. Fried rice is one of those simple to make, difficult to master things and they do it here really well. The rice has a great texture and flavor. The grilled beef was good - perhaps very slightly overcooked (medium rather than medium rare), but still tasty. The pork cheeks were on the specials menu, and we ordered it based on the experience of beef and fish cheeks being notably tender "cuts," so to speak. The pork was very fat, juicy and tender - almost like eating a meatier cut of bacon. Very good. Hopefully I can go back to Guu and try some of the signature dishes that were gone.