HOT TASTES
Delicate and delicious, Parisian macarons top a tally of Vancouver food trends for 2012
In a food- besotted city, there’s no shortage of new things to try — ingredients, dishes, restaurant concepts, and even the return of the old. Offal is the most glaring example of the old becoming the latest best thing, and it’s more than a trend, it’s a social and intellectual shift. Marshmallows? Well, they’ll have their run, then be elbowed aside. Not so sure about macarons, though. I think they’ve got what it takes to stick around.
GLUTEN- FREE. Once it was the preserve of celiac sufferers. Gluten- free is now a mainstream preoccupation, brought home to me when I learned that 20 per cent of cookbook sales at Barbara- Jo’s Books To Cooks was for gluten- free cooking and baking. The store carries some 30 to 40 titles. Wheat intolerance, wheat sensitivities, wheat allergies, call it what you will, the sales of gluten- free products and gluten- free dishes at restaurants have also caught fire. At Edible Canada Bistro on Granville Island, three of the staff have celiac disease and so there’s a higher- than- average number of glutenfree dishes there.
FORAGED INGREDIENTS. God help the wilderness. Some of the world’s most celebrated chefs are out gathering wild edibles and they have a flock of followers. For chefs like Rene Redzepi, of Copenhagen’s Noma ( world’s best restaurant for two years running by a jury of peers) it’s been a badge of distinction. Mushrooms, seaweed, herbs, berries, leaves, shoots, roots, stems — all candidates for posh plates. Recently, when I phoned Redzepi disciple Blain Wetzel on Lummi Island, he and staff were out foraging for the afternoon. When I phoned Jefferson Alvarez of West Vancouver’s Fraîche restaurant late last summer, he was out picking blackberries and does the wild thing like his mentor, Andoni Aduriz of Mugaritz restaurant in San Sebastian, Spain. As well, there’s a growing number of commercial foragers combing B. C.’ s backwoods and meadows and seasides gathering ingredients for high- end chefs.
OFFAL. I went to a five- course offal dinner last fall ( with trepidation, I admit) and lo and behold, it was a was at Campagnolo Ro change worth noting. have been odd ones o loathing the “nasty bit ears, stomach, blood, n and so on. Attitudes ar offal is not so awful an STREET VENDORS GO When street food vend gives them the capital needed to get out of t opened a bricks- and- m as did Japadog ( not on but in highfalutin’ New well). Nu Souvlaki ope storefronts to hawk th off carts but it will be o
s a sold- out event. ( It o Roma.) That’s a sea ng. North Americans s out, fearing and bits” of animals — like d, nose, feet, testicles s are changing and any more. GOING OFF- GRID. endors succeed, it tal and swagger of the rain. Go Fish d- mortar operation, only in Vancouver ew York City as pened not only two the souvlaki it sold be opening a third in Gastown in a month or two ( although the mother ship, Nu restaurant, closed last year). Other street vendors I’d bet on to follow suit would be Feastro the Rolling Bistro, Re- up BBQ, and Tacofino. MARSHMALLOWS. The marshmallow makeover has begun. In Vancouver, Butter Baked Goods has been carrying fresh marshmallows for grown- ups for a few years. Whole Foods bakery sells them, too. Cocoa Nymph Chocolates carries 10 flavours of them, including salted caramel and Crown Royal, which they pair with their hot chocolates. The airy confections have been spotted at the Vancouver Bakers’ Market during its annual October to December run. And trendsetting New York City is all sticky for Three Tarts Bakery’s cinnamon, strawberry basil and chocolate rosemary marshmallows and a Chicago restaurant has added a savoury marshmallow to its menu. Game on!
RESTAURANT GARDENS. Sooke Harbour House on Vancouver Island has been the model for years and now the city chefs are keen on growing their own food — some of it, anyway. SaveonMeats, a community- minded diner, will be growing veggies on its roof this summer. The Fairmont Waterfront Hotel grows herbs and some veg and has an apiary for honey production. Ethical Kitchen in North Vancouver has a bountiful garden on its property. Nita Lake Lodge in Whistler gets 40 to 60 per cent of its restaurant’s produce from its rooftop garden and is working toward 80 per cent. If there’s any earth to spare, chefs are growing their own produce wherever they can, in their own backyards, behind restaurants, and on rooftops. Even the YWCA ( downtown) is growing produce on the roof for women and families in the Downtown Eastside.