Ensemble, Vancouver, Top Chef Eatery



Roasted Beet Salad



I had chef Dale Mackay pegged to win Top Chef Canada by episode 2. And I was right, this guy can cook, not to mention that (from the show perspective anyway) he is ultra competitive, passionate and has a single minded  intensity that I think translates well to owning and running your own reaturant.
Enter Ensemble, Vancouver’s newest celebrity chef joint
I've had the opportunity to eat at Ensemble a couple of times now and here are some general impressions.
The restaurant is cosy if not a bit dark. It has the feel of a mom and pop place but mom and pop consulted with a slick modern designer first feel. Did I mention it was dark? The bar throws me off a bit as well, it takes a whole back wall but has only a small booze display that look budgety. The staff are friendly and attentive but not polished. I like the casual approach.

The menu is all about small plates. Order a bunch. Try a few different things. The suggestion for a typical meal are 4 plates (includes a desert). Still theses are small plates and I can see how a big eater might get into an uncomfortable financial position if they were to order with abandon. Hey, I know these people. These people are upon occasion me.

There are very many interesting and yummy things on the menu:
Here's a few of the things we had.

Sorry about the quality of the photos (did I mention it was dark)

I liked Ensemble

                         Sweet and Sour Eggplant

An Item voted Van Mags Best things to Eat and Drink in Vancouver 2011 – agreed, this was a standout favourite, Baba Ghanoush, Yogurt, Tomato all marry together, fabulous.

Pulled Pork Sandwich

The pulled pork, a dish Dale did on Top Chef. It was good but ya ok nothing to stand on the roof and scream about. The deep fried pickle was interesting if not a bit dry. How do you make a pickle dry? I didn’t get the watermelon, why was it there? Sorry, I’m just channelling a Top Chef Judge.

                                    Potato Gnocchi

Potato Gnocchi, soft, light, nice. But then so was the tomato sauce. It was ok.

Oysters

I love raw oysters. When I come across oysters on the menu I linger. I quickly scan for something else and then I order the oysters. Yes these oysters made me happy.

Cornmeal Crusted Scallops

With Tamarind-Date Purée, Cauliflower, good, if you like that kind of thing.

Beef Shin and Fritz

The beef shin was a surprise. Imagine taking a tough piece of meat, which for sure shin meat has to be. Cook it, probably boiled for hours until the meat falls of the shin. The meat would be in long strands. Take these strands add sauce and flavorings and pack into a tube mold. The result, a very unique texture, almost a stringy pate, but it works, this was really cool and tasty.

                    Chocolate Fondant

              Hazelnut-Nougatine Ice Cream

La Ghianda. Officially my sandwich shop

La Ghianda is an upscale deli / restaurant on Alma kitty corner to its sister restaurant La Quercia on

4^th Ave.



Beef tongue - La Quarcia



La Quercia tops Van Mags best Italian Restaurant List year after year. I just eat there last month but I'm not going to blog about it except to say that it was outstanding. I was there with a group of friends and the chit chat got in the way of serious, yes this place demands serious attention, serious critiquing and serious picture taking. My friend Cristina took one photo of the beef tongue appetizer just because it’s something you don't usually see on menus. It tasted a bit like really fine head cheese. The rest of the dinner was a surprise 7 course meal, served family style.

The surprise was the fact that we actually didn’t order anything; this is chefs’ choice all the way. The table next to us got the same treatment but entirely different food.



This place has its act together.
Our dinner culminated it what was probably the best lamb I've almost ever had.

Ok I said I won't blog about La Quarcia, back to La Ghianda.

La Ghianda is a cross between an Italian deli and restaurant. It has a huge kitchen for a deli and an extended menu. Great looking deli like stuff especially the salumi.  
I'm here for a sandwich. A sub actually, roast beef (perfectly roasted pink middle) on a gorgeous crusty sub style bun. The type of bun that has a thick outer crust dusted with flour that gets all over your face and cloths with every bite but soft chewy airy holiness inside. The holes in the bread suck up the ample amounts of horseradish cream and then this masterpiece is finished with crisp bitter arugula. I embellished my sandwich further by purchasing a bottle of good expensive peppery olive oil and then drizzling every bite so that the green oil filled all the air pockets in the bread. What can I say; I've got issues with olive oil (amongst other things).

Remind me again why people eat at subway? This behemoth at La Ghianda is bigger infinitely better and about a dollar more then a footlong at subway. (if you don’t count the olive oil)
La Ghianda is now officially my sandwich shop whenever I'm in this neck of the woods, unless its a Monday they are not open Mondays WTF they should be open 24/7 as far as I'm concerned.

See you there.

Meat and Bread - Porchetta - My Crack

There are a few things popping up on the Vancouver food scene that I like, that I like a lot.
Thin crust Neapolitan style pizza:
Nicle

Bibo

Campagnolo

All excellent.
And then there are the Porchetta sandwiches joints.
Pronto

Meat and Bread

I say bring it on. I think there should be a pizza place and a porchetta joint next to every Starbucks in town.
In fact, let's combine the two - porchetta thin crust pizza, OMG.
I'm going to grab takeout Pizza Margereta from Nicli, walk the block and a half to Meat and Bread, grab a pound of porchetta,  find a doorway in Gastown and dig in. I don't care that the guy next to me is smoking crack or that the doorway smells like piss, I'm having my porchetta pizza, this is my crack, leave me the fuck alone.
Six months from now when you find me in a Gastown gutter weighing 300 pounds caked in pork fat and cloths stained with tomato sauce hallucinating about pork skin, still chasing the high of the very first luscious crackling pork skin in my sandwich, please pick me up, slap me senseless, throw me in a shower and drive me to Jenny Craig.

Making the Sandwich

Yes, the Porchetta at Meat and Bread is that good.
There’s a bunch of other stuff on the menu, but if I were to visit 100 times I still wouldn’t care about them. I’m sure it’s all very good though but at the end of the day how can you compete with porchetta. And also, buy a jar of their homemade mustard, there is nothing like it anywhere, trust me.

Bacon maple syrup ice cream sandwich:

Van Mags best things to eat in Vancouver 2011

Very light on the maple, nice Smokey salty goodness when you come across a a chunk of bacon.

Bacon Maple Ice Cream

It seems another trend is to throw bacon into everything. Not a bad idea generally speaking but in the end I’m not sure if I would order it again, Its ok, perhaps I am more of an ice cream traditionalist.

Brave the crowds pray for a seat and do yourself a favour, grab a porchetta sandwich at Meat and Bread.

In case anyone was counting I wrote porchetta 8 times...9 times.

Peaceful Restaurant - No Thousand Chili Chicken

Peaceful has two restaurant locations in Vancouver I visited the

Davie Street

location.

I am here because of the “buzz”: Van Mags things to eat 2011 – Thousand Chilli Chicken.

And also a few months ago Guy Fieri from Food Networks Diners Drive-ins and Dives visited Vancouver and Peaceful was one of the restaurants he visited. I don’t know what he ate?  The show will view in the New Year.

First impressions; Peaceful is a nice no frills family restaurant. The kitchen is open so that you can view the chefs pull handmade paste. I love that. If you’ve never had fresh pasta this way go quickly, there is nothing better on a cold wet Vancouver day then fresh pulled home-made pasta in broth.

General Tsao's Chicken

Today I am here for the Thousand Chilli Chicken. But crap it’s not on the lunch menu. I asked for it anyway and I had a slight language problem with the server. I got a bit flustered, had to order by number off the menu, had chicken on the mind and ended up ordering General Tsao’s Chicken instead.

 It was pretty good; the chicken was supper tender, the sauce was sweat and yet a bit on the salty side. The broccoli had a fantastic pineapplely flavour.  But damn it, it wasn’t the thousand chilli chicken. And just to rub it, I was sitting at the window counter and smack in front of my face was the takeout menu with Item C1: Thousand Chilli Chicken staring me right in the face.

C1: Sichuan Thousand Chilli Chicken

Peaceful Beef Rolls: Five Spice beef in crispy green onion flat bread and sweat hiosin sauce. Good finger food. This is all about the sweet hiosin sauce for me, tastily but I found the flatbread a bit greasy. Still an OK dish.

Peaceful Beef Rolls

I can see why Triple D came around. The restaurant is nice family run type of joint, you get a nice show from the pulled pasta and the food is pretty good.

But me, I’m just going to obsess about not having the Thousand Chilli Chicken.

I'll be back!