| Food
Finds: London and Vancouver
 London
Exotica
One of the best Indian restaurants in the world is Mayfair’s
stunning, award-winning Tamarind,
where founding chef, Atul Kochhar, was the first
Indian chef to be awarded a Michelin star in 2001. Tamarind offers
diverse, innovative seasonal menus featuring items such as grilled
monkfish and “Murgh Makhni,” tandoori chicken in creamed
fresh tomatoes, flavored with fenugreek.
However, if it’s a no-frills, neighborhood curry house you’re
looking for, Mayfair has that, too. In what may be one of city’s
tiniest restaurants—more like a quaint English sitting room—we
found some of London’s best Indian classics. The New
Taj Mahal on Whitehorse Street has just five tables, and
offers tandoori chicken tikka masala, muglai prawns, lamb vindaloo,
and other regional Indian favorites with light, aromatic sauces
that take these standards to new heights.
In Belgravia’s luxurious Halkin Hotel, Nahm,
London’s only Michelin-starred Thai restaurant, features specialties
such as mussels with chili jam and green curry guinea fowl. Chef
David Thompson hails from Australia but lived in Thailand
where he collected hundreds of Thai recipes that he now executes
with local market finds.
Zeta
Bar, in the Park Lane London Hilton, has an outstanding
bar menu rated Best Bar of 2003 by Class magazine. On Friday nights
it’s jammed with young Londoners sipping combinations that
keep Zeta at the forefront of the cocktail art scene: the Morello
Martini, made with morello cherries; the Green Lantern, a green
tea and cucumber-based martini; and the Basil-Berry Martini, made
with fresh basil and strawberries. Jason
Fendick’s creations even come with a menu that
highlights the health benefits of the natural fruit and vegetable
juices his concoctions.
Vancouver Treasures and Ultimate Indulgences
From another corner of the Commonwealth, more treasures await at
Vancouver’s Les
Amis du Fromage, one of the finest cheese shops we’ve
seen on the West Coast. Recently relocated to new digs just a few
blocks south of Vancouver’s Granville Market, owner-operators
Alice and Allison Spurrell, a
mother daughter team of truly dedicated turophiles, specialize in
the finest French, Swiss, English, Irish, Italian, Spanish, and
Canadian artisan and farmstead. A visit is like stepping into a
Parisian corner fromagerie, with both English- and French speaking
customers happily arguing the merits of one cheese over another.
Unfortunately,
the Spurrells do not ship to the U.S. However, Fromages.com
has a wide selection of French and Swiss cheeses, including (like
Les Amis) an exquisite, freshly made, autumnal Mont d’Or,
and does ship.
(Speaking of that all-time favorite Vancouver food destination,
the Granville Market, more will come in a forthcoming
feature on Public Markets. If you have suggestions to add to this
forthcoming feature, please let
us know.)
 Vancouver’s
elegant Sutton
Place Hotel is noted for more than being a mecca for
visiting film producers and crews. Its Fleuri restaurant’s
fabulous Chocoholic Buffet is a city favorite for
after-theatre treats, family celebrations, and intimate indulgences
for anyone who’s even slightly hooked on America’s favorite
flavor. Offerings include decadent, though light and beautiful,
cakes and pastries, as well as Breton crêpes and fresh fruits
awaiting enrobement in rich ganache. Austrian trained Master
Chocolatier and Pastry Chef Wolfgang Dauke puts top-quality
Schokinag chocolate to its finest use: pure pleasure. For truest
devotees, there’s even a long list of special Chocoholic cocktails
and liqueurs.
Across the city in Yaletown’s very chic Phthalo
Boutique, we found another chocolate treasure in a
class of its own—Chocolat
Debauve & Gallais, considered to be among the finest
chocolates produced in the world. What was good enough for the last
of the Bourbon kings (possibly adding fuel to their demise at the
non-merciful hands of the republicans who couldn’t afford
to eat cake, let alone chocolates at this price!) is truly fabulous-tasting
chocolate that’s made from the world’s finest beans,
and comprised of 60-72% cocoa solids. As a delicious (Can$1.00!)
pistole
(disk) or nibble of a $15-20 bar melts in your mouth, you’ll
be transported to another world, another time. At $200 for a box
of magnificently-flavored and luscious truffle treats, these are
a rare indulgence—indeed, perhaps only for those who want
the best and do enough good works to assuage any noticing minions
who might otherwise rise up in protest!
Addresses
Tamarind,
20 Queen Street, London WIJ 5PR. Tel: 020 7629 3561; Website: www.tamarindrestaurant.co.uk.
New Taj Mahal, 2B
Whitehorse Street, London WIJ 7LB. Tel: 020 7493 0024.
Nahm, Halkin Hotel,
Halkin Street, London SW1X 7DJ. Tel: 020 7333 1234; Website: www.halkin.co.uk.
Zeta Bar, 35 Hertford
Street, London W1Y 7TG. Tel: 020 7208 4067; Website: www.zeta-bar.com
Les Amis du Fromage,
1752 West 2nd Avenue, Vancouver V6J 1H6; Tel. 604-732-4218 (toll
free in Canada: 877-676 1166); Website: www.buycheese.com.
Fleuri Restaurant Chocoholic Buffet,
Sutton Place Hotel, 845 Burrard Street, Vancouver V6Z 2K6; Tel.
604-642-2900; Website: www.suttonplace.com.
Debauve & Gallais Chocolat,
Phthalo Boutique, 1067 Hamilton Street,
Vancouver V6B 5T4; Tel 604-689-2789; Websites: www.debauve-et-gallais.com
and www.phthaloboutique.com.
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