Wooden Fish Vietnamese eating place (1403 Marine Drive, West Vancouver) is a joint venture of friends Uyên Nghiem and Betty, and Leng Nguyen (spouse and husband). With each hailing from a special vicinity of Vietnam, the 3 have given you a menu that’s regionally numerous and includes many of their preferred foods from formative years, dishes rooted in tradition with modern-day touches. Their motivation to launch their restaurant was easy. “We all love ingesting,” Nghiem says with fun in an interview at the bright nook space with the Georgia Straight. “Every time we go out, we devour way an excessive amount. We need to carry something greater true to Vancouver, and we carry our enthusiasm and passion into our meals.”
Take the crispy spring rolls made with a selected kind of rice paper imported from Vietnam (lighter and a long way greater textured and exciting than such a lot of spring-roll wraps). They have floor beef with shrimp, taro, jicama, carrot, wood-ear fungus, shitake mushroom, and vermicelli. Baby octopuses are grilled with satay sauce and served with salted daikon and tamarind dipping sauce; Vietnamese escargots are steamed, chopped, blended with red meat paste, lemongrass, and ginger, to be dunked in ginger fish sauce.
We love the Saigon salad roll with steamed prawns and the 5-spice duck confit on garlic fried rice with pickled vegetables. Then there’s the deeply flavourful or even extra comforting pho Hanoi. The Northern-style beef broth has simmered for 12 hours with peppers, garlic, ginger, onion, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, celery seed, and different herbs and spices. Everything comes with a spread of residence-made condiments, including pickled garlic, chilis, vinegar thickened with carrots and tomato, hot Thai-pepper dressing, and a sauce of ginger, onion, lemongrass, and chilis.
Opening June 3, it’s run with the aid of siblings Stephen and Brooke Naito, who grew up on the North Shore and desired to have a good time with their Japanese background through food. “We grew up spending every summer in Japan traveling own family,” Stephen tells the Straight. “Our father changed into born and raised in Osaka, and he moved to North America when he was 18 to attend college. However, most of our extended circle of relatives nonetheless live in Japan, and we jump at every opportunity we can visit them. We credit plenty of our love for meals via these summer season trips and the Japanese effect that followed us home, as our family grew up noshing on genuine Japanese meals thanks to our mom, who perfected many Japanese dishes via our paternal grandmother’s recipes.”
In truth, Hachiro takes its call from the pair’s grandpa. The eating place also pays homage to their past due father, Shuichi, and uncle, Shigehachi, who each passed away five years ago. Stephen, who’ll be helming the kitchen, currently spent months in Japan mastering several u. S. A..’s most celebrated ramen chefs. Hachiro will concentrate on Kyushu-style tonkatsu ramen with a creamy red meat-bone broth. “My absolute favorite area in Japan is Fukuoka, the birthplace of tonkatsu,” he says. “Tonkotsu is my preferred broth because it is vibrant, and it has a unique and awesome flavor that separates it from other sorts of ramen. We are both so excited to bring this proper fashion of ramen to the North Shore.”
Top Chef Canada competitor Dawn Doucette has opened Douce Diner (1490 Pemberton Avenue), a vintage-school spot that puts a top-class touch on its “rise-and-dine” breaky, brunch, and lunch menu. Doucette, who has years of experience catering and consulting for heavyweight brands, which include Earls and Caffe Artigiano, among many others, makes use of top-notch ingredients like domestically raised grass-fed red meat and grain-fed, pasture-raised chicken; Ocean Wise fish; and seasonal, natural produce.
The Breakfast Sammy has a fried egg, arugula, smoked paprika aioli, and antique cheddar on a toasted brioche bun. At the same time, the house-made buttermilk waffle comes with seasonal compote, residence-made vanilla crème Fraiche, and whipped butter. Yes, there’s avo toast, with vegan mayo, black-sheep smoked-gouda cheez, and little gem tomatoes and sprouts; weekends name for challah French toast with lemon curd and mascarpone cream, fruit, and real maple syrup (none of this excessive-fructose corn syrup crap).
