Local Flower

This is a local goat cheese that is worth noting. It's a fresh goat cheese made on Salt Spring Island. The presentation is beautiful and the taste is great. I ate it on toast for breakfast, on crackers at snack time and on my salad for lunch! The 3 varieties of lettuce were hand-picked by myself from our family garden and blueberries and tomatoes are all local as well. Oh B.C.!

Salt Spring Island Cheese Company
285 Reynolds Road
Salt Spring Island, British Columbia
saltspringcheese.com

The Hottest Dog in Town

Japa Dog is so famous in Vancouver and is even starting to get international acclaim. This Japanese hot dog stand has been around for a few years now and the line ups are still crazy! This was actually my very first Japa Dog. Every time I've been in town, they have been back in Japan or the winter weather has kept them away. I was recommended to try the "oroshi" hot dog, which is a bratwurst covered with daikon radish and (maybe) ponzu sauce. It was delicious but way too big! I can't wait to go back and try the other ones now!

Japa Dog
899 Burrard St
Vancouver, BC Canada
japadog.com

Best Late Night Snack: Dill Pickle Chips!

The best late night snack on the way home to surburbia. Old Dutch Dill Pickle and Ketchup chips were my favourite flavoured chips in highschool. Super salty and super delicious. Only available in Canada.

Where Italian-Vancouverites Get Their Prosciutto On!

In preparation of our party, my dad took us too his favourite Italian supermarket, Bosa Foods. It was insane! I thought I died and went to heaven. This massive beautiful store is filled of nothing but Italian food, fresh pasta, meats and cheese! They even have kitchen supplies and Bialetti espresso makers in every size and style! We loaded up on canned tomatoes, way too much cured meat, cheese and many varieties of olives! (among a million other things!) Anna even ordered an cappucino while my dad and I picked out our favourite prosciutto and salami! Of course they slice all the meats perfectly, thin and delicious! And although this place looks like a million bucks, their prices are really reasonable. I was very happy holding my stack of goodies. I'm hungry just thinking about it!

Bosa Foods
1465 Kootenay Street
Vancouver, BC Canada
(604) 253-5578
bosafoods.com

Family Tradition: Joe's Pizza Done BBQ-Style!

Every Saturday night, for my entire life, was Pizza Night at our house. So this Saturday happened to be July 4th (and with Canada Day having just passed July 1st) we celebrated with friends and family at our place and my dad made his pizza! Joe, who's actually name is Giuseppe, is my dad and he is the master in our house at making pizza. When too many people come over he has to move his pizza factory to the garage and makes pizzas among his tools! This is actually convenient since he likes to cook the pizzas on the bbq during the summer time which he sets up near the garage side door. My brother came down from Northern B.C. and helped cook up the pizzas! We all had a great time eating over 10 pizzas and drinking Italian wine! We of course drink red italian wine, usually a Barbara d'Asti, which is where my dad is from in Italy. Cin Cin!

Hide and Go Seek

After drinking and eating ourselves silly at Guu, we set over to Kakurenbou to hide out for a while! Kakurenbou, which means "hide and go seek" in Japanese, is the newest izakaya to hit Vancouver. Unfortunately we were too late, too full and too drunk to eat anything. However since we know the boys there, we were happily fed more yummy cocktails and lovely snacks until the wee hours of the night. The interior is beautifully done with old artifacts brought over from Japan. It feels cozy and dark and intimate inside. My brother had a huge meal there a few days ago and they tried almost everything on the menu, but the highlight was the sakura-niku (raw horse meat) served carpaccio style. I usually only eat raw horse in Japan but for this I will definitely make an exception! I only have a few days left in Vancity but I hope I make it back to sample their menu.

Kakurenbou
793 Jervis Street (nr Robson)
Vancouver, B.C
kakurenbou.ca

Guu is So Guuu'd!

My favourite izakaya restaurant in Vancouver is Guu. It's hands down the best food at the best price! There are several locations but lately it's been all about Guu Gastown. Every time I'm there I feel like I'm in Tokyo and I get a bit nostalgic. The place is buzzing with Japanese orders being yelled across the restaurant and it's filled with all the local Japanese and Gastown hipsters. I love it. Yuki, the tall cute bartender/cook, is a nice addition to any meal. He made us this insanely huge sashimi salad! Most of their dishes are about $6-7 CDN so it's amazingly cheap! (especially coming from New York) The fish is so fresh and the dishes are all beautifully inventive! The seared maguro (pictured here) and the grilled saba is among my favourites! They made a mean kimchi yaki-udon! They have awesome cocktails and here's Dan chuggin' their "MEGA" beer special! It's a great place to hang out and catch up with old friends. I've already eaten there 3 times this trip and I'm sure I'll be back for more this week!

Guu
#105-375 Water Street,
Vancouver, B.C. V6B 5C6
604-685-8682
guu-izakaya.com

Epic Italian Food

Epicurean Deli (as we used to call it) is a spot that I used to frequent while in art school. The coffee is great and the food is fantastic! The Cocco family who runs it is from Rome and their son, Christian, is a charismatic guy who is loves to mingle with all the locals and italian food-lovers in the area. When I'm there I feel like I'm at home. My brother used to work there so he's even tighter with the Cocco's and loves to go pay them a visit whenever he's in town. We shared their arugula and ricotta pasta and an open faced proscuitto sandwich with fresh mozzarella. All the food there is fantastic and their breakfast looked pretty amazing so hoping to get another chance to drop by before I head back to New York.

The Epicurean
1898 1st Avenue West
Vancouver, BC Canada
(604) 731-5370
epicureancaffe.com

Westcoast Special: Fresh Fried Fish!

Sorry I haven't posted lately. I have been in Vancouver visiting my family and friends. So bear with me while I am out of the country. I am excited to introduce you to some of my local favourite spots here on the west coast. Hope you enjoy!

Those are three F words that should be put together more often! My parents, who live in Tsawwassen (about 30 mins south of Vancouver), have a weekly ritual every Friday night of crossing the border to a place called Point Roberts to get fish and chips and watch the sunset. I crashed their romantic night by joining along to finally taste this tasty fish! Hard to believe that in all my years of coming here, I'd never had their fish and chips! It was awesome, lightly battered with a homemade tartar sauce to die for! So we call ahead, while buying a bottle of white wine at the local supermarket, to order our food to go. We arrive at the Dockside Café just in time to pick it up and drive over to Lighthouse Park to eat, drink wine and watch the sun go down. Because now they had a third person, my dad was excited to throw in the calamari in addition to their usual order of cod and halibut fish & chips! It was great food and a beautiful night to lay on the beach.

Dockside Cafe
713 Simundson Dr
Point Roberts, WA
(360) 945-1206

Gold-Laced Sake Tea Being Served in the Lower East Side!

Ken Hamazaki is an artist that is especially dear to my heart. I was introduced to him years ago while in Kyoto at my friend's café. As part of their five year anniversary party, they had Ken-chan (who is a old friend of my friend) come and perform the "Red Tea Ceremony" at the party. It was projected real-time onto a huge wall in the café and onto the street. It was a really amazing experience. It was amazing to now be here in NY years later experiencing it all over again. This very traditional and humbling experience, has been displaced from Japan onto the dirty streets of the Lower East Side.

Ken Hamazaki is currently having a solo exhibition at the Kumukumu Gallery on Rivington. It is a show called "Gratefull Red" which is a play on the Grateful Dead's classic American music iconography. It's a series of red on red canvases with very subtle designs that are barely painted on the surface. It was only for this opening reception that Ken-chan was performing his famous "Red Tea Ceremony" on the sidewalk outside the gallery. All were welcome to come and experience this traditional tea ceremony. The one exception, is that his tea, is not tea, it is traditional matcha mixed with nihon-shu (sake) instead of water, so it was crazy strong! It's especially funny watching the Japanese people that don't know it's alcohol get taken aback when they sip the tea! He even threw in a extra special touch this time, a gold flake into each serving. Very posh, must have been really expensive! It was amazing to see all the passerby's stop and observe this unusual and very special moment.

kenhamazaki.jp

Kumukumu Gallery
42 Rivington (between Forstyth + Eldridge St)
New York, NY
212.677.5160
kumukumugallery.com