2009 February : Tiny Bites

Visual Bites: Japa Dog

18 Comments Karen HamiltonFebruary 18, 2009

Would you patronize a place that makes you wait up to 20 minutes for a hot dog? Hell no!

Well, that was I used to think. But then Japa Dog came into my life. Now I find that my feet whisk me to their stand on Burrard and Smithe with the smallest of excuses. Like the others queued around me, the wait to order and the wait to receive a Japanese-style hot dog piled with ingredients exotic seems suitable penance for the hedonism that these hot dogs deliver.

The Terimayo is Japa Dog’s top seller. For $4.25 you get an all-beef hot dog smothered with Japanese mayo, teriyaki sauce, fried onions, and shredded seaweed. My favourite.

The Miso Mayo ($5) is a turkey smokie enveloped in Japanese mayo, kaiware (daikon radish sprouts), and miso sesame sauce.

The Okonomi is inspired by the okonomiyaki you see in Japanese restaurants: Kurobuta pork sausage layered with Japanese mayo, fried cabbage, dried bonito flakes, and okonomi sauce. This one is pricey at $6.25. Blame the Kurobuta for the premium. The combination of toppings is delicious and truly reminds me of okonomiyaki, but the hype over Kurobuta is not warranted, if you ask me. I wonder if they’d let you order a bratwurst and pay extra for the Okonomi toppings.

You don’t have to get East-meets-West at Japa Dog. My husband prefers his $4 turkey smokie the way he’s always had it. Even without the fusion twist, we agree that Japa Dog does hot dogs better than their counterparts in the rest of downtown Vancouver.

News Flash: new location coming soon!

Japa Dog’s second location by Burrard Skytrain station is imminent. I asked them when I should speed over there to try their new menu. They’re not sure. Could be next week. Could be next month. It’s a little frustrating not to be able to calendar this joyous occasion, but there’s a silver lining: now I’ve got a reason to frequent Japa Dog until they give me an answer.

Japa Dog
Corner of Burrard & Smithe | Downtown
Soon to be on the corner of Burrard & Pender | Downtown
japadog.com

Categories: Downtown, Food, Restaurants, Visual Bites

Recipes for a romantic Valentine’s Day at home

5 Comments Karen HamiltonFebruary 15, 2009

It’s the morning after Valentine’s Day. I awoke from a languid sleep-in to a clean kitchen and a pancake breakfast made by my husband, complete with inset scrambled egg à la croque madame.

I imagine this surprise was a thank you for the 3-course meal I slaved over the night before and have been planning for over a week. Here are the recipes that inspired my menu along with the improvisations made along the way.

The Hamilton household’s Valentine’s Day menu for 2009

Crab meat, apple, and mango salad with cumin apple chips

Salad recipe (Epicurious)
Apple chips recipe (Epicurious)

I am not a fan of presentation that is difficult to eat. The original recipe suggested a mille feuille layering of salad between giant slices of apple chip. Instead, I opted to find the smallest red apples available on the market and stack the slices in a tower next to the salad (which were scooped into the half-shells of the mango used). We ate our portions on a shared plate like we would nachos with salsa. An intimate way to kick-start a meal.

Beet-infused linguini with crab, grape tomatoes, garlic, and chili

Original tagliatelle recipe (UKTV Food)

My hunt for a pasta roller in Vancouver did not produce results in time, so instead of making fresh tagliatelle stained scarlet with beet juice, I had to make do with “fresh” Olivieri linguini from the grocer downstairs. Prelim tests with food colouring paste and gels prepped me for the fact that my pasta could only go pink with a 3 minute exposure. When it was game time, I chopped up a beet and threw it into the salted pasta water rather than use non-natural dyes. Besides, “beet-infused” sounds a hell of a lot better than “dyed with Spectrum Super Red 101210″.

I also had to give up the idea of tying the linguini into bundles of bows and cooking them that way. Luckily, the pasta seemed amenable to being shaped into a heart – a pattern I replicated with the bits of Dungeness crab that I picked out from the finished pasta. Pushed the grape tomatoes out to ring the dish, sprinkled parsley and squeezed the whole thing with some lemon, and a light, love-themed crab linguini was ready for consumption.

Red velvet cupcakes with cinnamon heart cookies

Red velvet cupcake recipe (Epicurious)
Cinnamon cookie recipe (Recipezaar)

I’m cutting it close for a submission to Nolwenn’s Cupcakes de l’amouuuur contest, but I hope this makes it in! Car le concours à écrit en français au départ, voici un peu de français par hommage =)

This red velvet cupcake recipe is different from the one I used for my birthday cake last year, and I have to say that I prefer its lighter cocoa essence and more intense colour. 5 tablespoons of regular (watery) red food colouring was mixed with a few drops of Spectrum food colouring gel to achieve the scarlet I was going for. The recipe makes just over 2 dozen cupcakes, so I baked the remainder in ramekins for the presentation I had in mind.

Cupcakes alone weren’t enough to finish this dessert; I also baked a dozen heart-shaped cinnamon cookies to spear into the ramekins. Replaced the typical vanilla frosting with softened french vanilla ice cream as requested by my husband. The decadence of this dessert balanced the delicacy of the first two dishes nicely.

That was our Valentine’s Day. Hope yours was just as lovely and sweet.

Categories: Appetizers, Dessert, Dinner, Food, Recipes

Visual Bites: Café Kathmandu

4 Comments Karen HamiltonFebruary 12, 2009

Degan of Ethnic Eats recently organized a night of food worship at the temple of Café Kathmandu.

In attendance were like-minded Vancouver food lovers: David of Loud Murmurs, Roland of VanEats, Eagranie of The Well-Tempered Chocolatier, and Raul of Hummingbird604 (even though his broken tooth prevented him from partaking in the nibbles – mon pauvre).

I sat back with camera at the ready while the rest of the group ravaged the menu for the choiciest items.

Selection of 3 tipan tipan (small plates), served with hot sauce and chiuraa – a crunchy beaten rice, lightly toasted.

Left: Choilaa, $7. Pork simmered with a distinctively Kathmandu-style spice mix with lemon, garlic, onion, and fresh coriander.

Middle: Aaloo achaar, $6. Chilled sesame-lemon potato salad flavored with timmur (Himalayan peppercorns) and fenugree.

Right: Bhatmaas, $6. Toasted soybeans, quick-fried with fresh ginger, garlic and chili and garnished with fresh coriander. By far the favourite of the table. The crunch could wake the dead; the beans felt hollowed out. Never encountered a texture quite like this.

This month features the momo for $9. We ordered a plate each of vegetable and pork steamed dumplings, served with hot sauce, tomato sauce, and cilantro chutney. I made the mistake of dolloping a teaspoon of hot sauce on half a momo. Luckily, this searing off of my tastebuds occurred at the end of the meal, after we all had our fill of Nepali cuisine.

Gently fried soft tofu curry sautéed and cooked with green beans in tomato sauce. $10 for a cereal-bowl serving, spiced at medium.

Khasiko massu for $12 – goat meat in curry sauce whose heat was also set to medium.

Medium spcied daal jhaneko for $10. It’s a lentil puree accented with caramelized onions, ginger and roasted red chili seeds.

I was feeling cold from the winter weather, so I opted for Nepali tea served with milk and steeped with fennel seed. Reminds me very much of chai, but despite the unlimited refills that I was privy to, my lactose intolerance didn’t trigger. Hooray!

The rest of the group ordered thick and frothy mahee. Looked like a mango lassi to me.

We exchanged food pleasantries and delved into topics gastronomic and tech well beyond the last bite. Eagranie even provided dessert in the highly appropriate form of mini chocolates.

If you’d like to see what Himalayan food can offer your palate, make sure to come down to Café Kathmandu the next time you are on The Drive.

Café Kathmandu
2779 Commercial Drive | Vancouver
(604) 879-9909
cafekathmandu.com