Memphis Blues - Broadway

It seems like the month for clogged arteries and chest pains!  I went to Memphis Blues on Broadway last night and had a near-death experience.  It was a meatfest from heaven, a vegetarian's hell, an absolute dream come true!  It reminded me of the food orgies in those Asterix comic book and scenes from Conan the Barbarian.

The sheer audacity of the place, just completely over-the-top excess of barbecued flesh served on a massive platter is food porn at it's best.  When your platter arrives, it's a feast for your eyes, and once you commence eating, it will be the dam in your arteries.  After eating your first morsel of food, you will feel your heart shudder in fear, you can feel the imminent cessation and ultimate failure of your most important organ. 

The Elvis Platter - $69.95 comes with enough to feed 4 uncomfortably.  It comes with some kind of fries that's got some wicked seasoning (puts NY Fries to shame), beans, corn bread, bbq sauce (tastes like Hoisin sauce - google it for explanation), cole slaw, potato salad, bbq chicken, sausages, bbq pork ribs, pulled pork, and BRISKET!!!!!

This was my first ever encounter with pulled pork, and I have to say I was pretty damn impressed.  I have no clue how they make it, but it was amazing.

The BBQ chicken was a bit on the dry side, but that's why the platter comes with a tub of bbq suace.  Drown the chicken in it, and you're done.

The sausage was out of this world, juicy, flavourful and the perfect fat/lean ratio.

Our platter came with brisket already, but just for good measure, we ordered a Brisket Meal - $15.95 which came with four or 5 slabs of creamy brisket.  I just call it edible grisle.  It came with beans, bbq sauce, cole slaw and a baked potato.  The cole slaw was kind of gross, but the baked potato wasn't too bad.  When we ran out of bbq sauce, Jay started using the beans as sauce.  It turned out pretty good.

This isn't that tiny sliver of beef brisket you get in your pho.  This is a barbarian-size helping of brisket that will slay you just like the name-sake. 

My buddy Jay described it best when he said the pork ribs are so tender and fall-off-the-bone moist, it was like eating meat flavoured marshmallows.

If there was ever an institute of excess, Memphis is the place. By the end of the night, the three of us were reduced to nothing more than a collection of false hopes and shattered dreams.

We've all heard of food comas, meat sweats, that thing that happens after eating turkey.  Lots of fancy names and descriptions of what happens after eating in excess.  When I eat too much greasy food, I always feel like my brain is floating in a vat of oil and my skull feels fat.  I have to say that after my evening at Memphis Blues, I was was in a world of discomfort I never imagined.  I felt like a fat kid in a candy store, a coke-head frollicking in the fields of Columbia, an alcoholic running amok in a liqor store.  I ate way more than any human being should have to eat in one sitting, enjoying every minute of it, and before I knew it, I ate too much and I wanted to hurl.  It really snuck up on all of us, as if we were doing shots of tequila.

Anyway, between the three of us, we had a few slabs of brisket and slivers of other miscellaneous meat left over.  As full as I was, I greedily grabbed a take-out box and scooped up the left-overs for later.  Memphis Blues is a God-send, a bonafide miracle.  I remember feeling pretty bummed when Tony Roma's and Dem Bone's left the lower mainland and I was a bit choked.  Had I known how awesome Memphis Blues is, I wouldn't have wasted so many tears.  Memphis Blues.....I can't wait to go back!

Kibune Sushi - Kitsilano

There's a little Japanese restaurant (yes, it's "authentic") tucked away in a corner of the Kitsilano area called Kibune Sushi.  We ended up there one night after a club meeting because I was moaning about how I couldn't afford to go to Octopus Garden anymore and my sensei wanted something a bit stronger than green tea.  We stopped by Happa that night and it was packed, but found that Kibune Sushi was not.  There were clients in there, but it was a totally different atmosphere and most of the customers looked like regulars.

I ordered a smaller chirashi don (not the fancy one), my personal guage for a sushi restaurant's quality.  There wasn't anything outstanding in the type of ingredients (shiso was a nice touch, as always), but the grade of fish used was was notable.  Definitely top notch and the rice was perfect.  The temperature was perfect, the ratio of rice/sushi vinigar, the texture.....sometimes you can really tell the quality of a sushi restaurant based on the rice.  This place knows it's stuff (not that I do). 

I'm hardly ever in the Kitsilano area, but the next time I go there, I definitely want to go back to Kibune and try some other stuff. 

Happa - Kitsilano

Happa Izakaya - oh, memories.  Years ago, when Justin first opened Happa on Robson, my pals and I would report there like good patrons should, every weekend and drop about $500.  I swear, that between the 5 of us, we financed the opening of subsequent Happa locations, and put Justin's children through university.

It was my pal Jeremy's birthday, and our iaido class, including sensei, celebrated his 20th (?) at Happa Izakaya in Kitsilano.

Their famous saba, seared on the spot with a portable torch.

Jeremy and Inoue Sensei.....Jeremy has a thing against prawns.

Justin, owner of Happa, is a brilliant business man and he opened Happa when izakayas were still a rarety in Vancouver.  Now they're all over the place, but at the time, there were maybe three or four?  Happa had a line up every night, the service was great, the management (Justin) even better.  He was always at the front line, greeting customers, and making everyone feel at home.  He wasn't at the Kitsilano location the night we went, but he has been known to be at various locations.  Regardless, the place was well run, the food was great as well as the service.  Definitely check this place out.

Octopus Garden

One of the places my Iaido sensei - Inoue Hironori likes to go is Octopus Garden.  Actually, let's go back in time a few years.  Before he was my Iaido sensei, he was just "Hiro", one of the founding members of the Vancouver Japanese Sword Appreciation Club.  I met him over 10 years ago when I first joined the club, and Octopus Garden was a regular place to go after our monthly meetings.  I would not join them because at the time, I was a starving college student and didn't even drive at the time.  After enrolling in his iaido class about four years ago, we'd go to Octopus Garden for special occassions such as birthdays and farewells.  It got a bit expensive for most people and after a while our visits sort of dropped off.

The VJSAC fell apart sometime last year, and my last visit to Octopus Garden was after one of those events. 

Me and Ritchard T., from class, tagging along with the grown-ups.

Daniel (left), a sword polisher from Japan (centre), and Inoue Sensei (right).

Complimentary tako salad.

Edamame, the usual compliment to beer and sake.

Agedashi tufu, another common dish in most local Japanese restaurants.

Some sort of fusion something or other.

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Some good old, regular assorted nigiri sushi.

A deep fried roll...starting to be a trend here in Vancouver.
Natto...yech.

Dragon/catapillar roll....

The food is pretty damn good at Octopus Garden.  It's authentic in the way that the ownership, the prep and staff are all Japanese, but the food itself has a foot in the door for fusion.  For example, the first time I EVER had foie gras was at Octopus Garden...Foie Gras Nigiri Sushi.  I fell in love with foie gras that night, and added it to my list of must have's for my last meal on earth, ethics be damned.  The service is pretty friendly as well, and the food arrives quickly (when it's not busy). 

One thing I'd like to add is that I saw my favourite sake here - Koshi no Kanbai....the only problem was it was selling at $300 for the 1.8 litre bottle....for the price of 4 bottles, I could fly back to Japan and bring back 4 of my own.  Sadly, Ocotpus Garden is overall a little bit too pricy for me at the moment and I can't afford to go there as often as I'd like. 

The Sushi Bar

Cheap Japanese food, not particularly authentic, but cheap enough to make me say who cares.  And cheap beer too....well, it was cheap at the time.  $2.50 beers, I think it may have gone up to $3.00 or something, still not too expensive.

Me and a couple of fellas from my Iaido class - Jeremy S. on the left and Richard T. in the middle...cheap beer, did I mention that?

As usual, I used my usual test with the chirashi don.  My verdict?  Well, it wasn't outstanding, and there was a lot of rice, as you can sort of tell from the picture.  There wasn't quite enough sushi vinegar, so the rice was a bit on the dry side, and the variety of seafood was pretty much standard fare.  Tuna, salmon, surf clam, saba, tai, tako, and a few slivers of amaebi.  Did I mention cheap?  You get what you pay for.

The rolls were pretty good, again, nothing you'd ever see in Japan, but they tasted good so who cares.  The roll with the avacado wrapped on the outside seems to be a pretty standard thing now.  Some places call it a catapillar roll, or dragon roll, or whatever.  The deep fried thing (bottom) was interesting.

On this particular night, we stopped in before a fireworks show (Celebration of Light) during the summer time, but on a night when we have class, the place closes a bit too early and we always miss last call.  Our regular place is still Blue Star Sushi (formerly Kishu Star). 

Banana Leaf on Denman

Banana Leaf on Denman is a great little eatery that seemed to get packed pretty quick at around dinner time. It could have been the good weather but more likely, it was because this place had really great food, and exceptionally good customer service.

I managed to get parking right out front.  There's pay parking in effect pretty much everywhere downtown, but for some strange reason, there's no meter in effect in front of this place.

We got the 8 course tasting menu for 2 ($28 per person), even though there were 4 of us.  The first to come was the papaya and pineapple salad, which I didn't get a picture of.  It was pretty light, but a good starter that got our appetites going.  Next came a dish with a variety of items including deep fried squid, roti, chicken satay, and spring rolls and three dipping sauces.

The Rendang beef was pretty good, but I prefer my beef brisket a bit less lean.  As far as curry beef is concerned, but all-time favourite for curry beef is still Mui Garden.

We added a Nasi Goreng which was absolutely incredible.  Someone told me it was just ketchup fried rice, but it's way more than just that.  Anyway, no words do it justice, you'll just have to try it. 

The Curry Chicken was a bit lean for me as well.  Not a big fan of chicken breast in any type of curry, simply because it's more often than not, all dried out in the middle.  Chicken thigh would probably have been a better cut, but health-conscious west coasters would frown on that.  This dish came with okra, which I'm no fan of, but overall, the taste of the curry in this dish was sensational. 

Alaskan Black Cod in caramalized ginger and garlic sauce.  If you're a fan of black cod, this dish will make you happy.  Usually, I prefer my black cod with miso, or a simple soy sauce, cooking wine, and sugar mix, but the complex sauce that this dish came with worked out really good.  The sauce on it's own was a bit overwhelming, but it went very well with the fish. 

Green Beens stir fried with shrimp.  A relatively simple dish, a little spicy, but good. 

Abundance of seafood in gulai sauce.  It came with scallops, clams, mussells and okra.  The shellfish were very tender, the okra was nasty (my persoanal opinion....other's liked it) and the curry sauce was defintely influenced by the seafood in it.  I ended up spooning up whatever sauce had remained.

Deep fried banana with ice cream.  Our server - Winnie, really went the extra mile with us.  She somehow overheard that it was someone's birthday and gave him a complimentary drink.  She changed our plates at least twice throughout our meal, and wiped down the table before desert was served.  The food at Banana Leaf - Denman was incredibly good, and our server completed the rest of the experience.  She made sure the food came in a steady succession, and took the time and care to add a few touches here and there for the birthday boy.  I would most definitely go back to this location, and would recommend it to anyone.