Day One: It's All About the Food

I landed in Vancouver around 10:30 this morning and today has been about culinary delights.

First, I had lunch at Rangoli, the café that is next door to (and run by) the venerable Vij's. From a surprisingly deep menu (roughly 25 items), I had the lamb cumin curry, with onions and red peppers. It was not one of those curries designed to make you cry at how hot it is; rather, the flavour (and aroma) is understated and subtly comes through bite by bite. I had something called 'meeti roti' for desert, custard cream served on top of a cashew and brown sugar crunchy concoction; it was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so.

Speaking of venerable, I had dinner at Tojo's, where the master himself could be seen working the sushi bar. I ordered the 6-dish omakase, along with a bottle of Tojo's Choice sake. The highlights of the six-course meal were the albacore tuna 'appetiser' and the Dungeness crab with cut vegetables and mustard/soy bean dressing, imaginatively served in a crab shell. The principal dish was a selection of sushi, including sea eel, two different combinations of fish and vegetables (one was tuna and spicy asparagus) and a lovely diced clam preparation in a tamago-type wrapper.

The entire 6-course meal (plus dessert), from what I could make out from the descriptions provided by the heavily-accented waitress:

- Albacore tuna appetiser.
- Clam Chowder.
- Dungeness crab with cut vegetables and mustard/soy bean dressing.
- Salmon with mixed vegetables, soy sauce and soy paste.
- A 'vapour dish' of smoked canadian sablefish with asparagus in broth. This is kind of soup; it comes in a bowl that needs to first be unwrapped vapour dish. It's also evidently quite important to squeeze some lime juice into the broth before eating. I don't quite understand the need for the elaborate production.
- A selection of sushi, 10 beautiful pieces.
- A small crème brûlée with berries for desert.

Once in a while, life is good...
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