My partner and I keep going back to the New Novelty Restaurant and Sweet shop for their very budget priced Indian buffet lunch. Pictured above, from right to left, are a wonderfully flavoured rice, butter chicken, dal, palaak paneer (pureed spinach with cheese), several other curried vegetable choices, naan stuffed with potatoes and spices, vegetable samosas, and an orange coloured sweet I have never tried because it’s probably made using an artificial colouring that I’m allergic to.

Freshly made naan bread

They also bring you a basket of fresh-this-instant naan bread that would be more than enough for two husky football players, but it’s so wonderfully tasty you keep eating more than you wanted to.

Of course they have icy bottles of Kingfisher beer on hand if you need something not only cold and wet but also culturally appropriate to drink, but if you’re driving, they’ll bring a pitcher of water with a smile. Service is consistently fast and friendly.

New Novelty charges the same low rate whether you pick a vegetarian or a non-veg meal. As a matter of fact, they only ever have had one non-veg choice in the buffet each time we’ve been there, and that has been an excellent butter chicken, so non-meat eaters always have lots to choose from.

I have never been able to save room for desert, but I always take away at least a small bag if not a bigger box full of Indian sweets to enjoy later at home.

Regretfully I didn’t save the receipt, but the price for a giant, all-you-can-eat lunch for two including one bottle of beer and four sweets was less than thirty dollars.

And by the way, they also have a menu that features a good variety of tandoori dishes. Find them on the west side of Fraser between 50th and 51st Avenue.

New Novelty Restaurant & Sweet
6669 Fraser St.
Vancouver, BC  V5X 3T6
604-326-1111

Creole chicken at Chaa Creek Lodge, Belize

The Lodge at Chaa Creek in Belize was not only the first eco lodge in the country, it is one of the finest resorts in the Caribbean. As part of their commitment to sustainability, they have their own organic farm from which comes many of the fruits and vegetables they serve at their excellent restaurant.

Pictured above is a Creole chicken lunch I enjoyed during my stay at Chaa Creek. There was a creamy potato and egg salad, cilantro rice adorned with plantain strips, but the highlight was the tender chicken breast with a traditional Creole style sauce. Chaa Creek usually has an item on their menu that reflects one of the different ethnic groups of Belize. At other meals I had re-fried beans, cornmeal pancakes with honey, and fresh local seafood. If this sounds simple and basic, you would be mistaken. The chefs at the Chaa Creek restaurant put a gourmet spin on pretty much every dish that comes out of their kitchen.

During my stay I also enjoyed dinners of baked leg of lamb served with tamarind sauce and a conch filet prepared in a butter and lime sauce. Starter soups included a tomato cappuccino with sour cream and paprika and a creamy mushroom soup made with fresh mushrooms and vegetables. Sometimes is was difficult saving room for dessert.

The bartender seems to be concocting a special new drink every night. I very much enjoyed his Creole Gial, an exquisitely refreshing cooler made from gold rum, cane rum, orange juice and watermelon juice.

The Chaa Creek lodge is located near San Ignacio. Started in 1977 by Mick and Lucy Fleming, it has emerged from its humble beginnings as dramatically as the Blue Morpho butterflies that are now farmed on the property.

Mary and I were there recently, and we lunched in their casual cafe, sharing Lil’wat venison chili and Squamish salmon chowder, both of which are served with a golden biscuit of bannock alongside.

With four First Nations being co-hosts of the upcoming 2010 winter Olympics, you can expect to see more native culture being promoted in and around Vancouver between now and next February. I hope that means there will be more places to feast on fire-cooked fresh British Columbia salmon.

For more about the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, go to http://slcc.ca.

The chicken broth features chopped tomatoes, onion, carrot and celery to which are added chunks of boneless chicken, strips of tortillas and the juice and slices of fresh, local limes.

The bowl with lunch at the Parador restaurant in Uxmal was all right, but not particularly memorable. A much better version was served at Hotel El Mesón del Marques in Valladolid, located in a 16th century colonial building overlooking the main square of Yucatan’s second oldest and largest city.

By far my champion sopa de lima experience was at Hacienda Xcanatun on the outskirts of Merida. Built in a restored 18th century sisal plantation, this is definitely one of the finest restaurants in the area. The Yucatecan lime soup in the photo was taken at Hacienda Xcanatun.

The reason was that Ms. Dhalwala wanted to educate people that it’s better for the planet if we ate more insects and less beef. It takes 100 pounds of feed to produce 16 pounds of beef, while those same 100 pounds if fed to crickets, would produce 44 pounds. Of course, it would be even better if we simply ate the 100 pounds of feed directly, wouldn’t it.

Anyway, the cricket parathas are off the menu at Vij’s. But that is only temporary, they hope. It’s because of worries regarding legal liabilities, because serving crickets as food is not included in Vancouver’s health protection regulations. As soon as the paperwork is sorted out, diners at Vij’s Indian restaurant may once again be able to chow down on cricket parathas, which they serve alongside a spicy turnip salsa.

One of Vancouver’s most popular restaurants, Vij’s is located in the South Granville area at 1480 W. 11th Avenue, just two blocks south of the corner of Broadway and Granville. Their website is www.vijs.ca.

Posted: June 29th, 2008 under Vancouver.

What I enjoyed most was the opportunity to talk with culinary entrepreneurs, people who have started small food-related businesses. People such as Rachna Prasad and her mother, Rekha, who gave their product line the wonderful name of “Gourmantra.” Based in Toronto, the company makes it possible for any kitchen klutz to cook up authentic Indian meals in 30-minutes. I sampled their butter chicken, and it was as tasty as any I’d find in numerous good Indian restaurants. Rachna told me I’d need to purchase at least $30 worth of spices in order to duplicate their recipe from scratch. The box of ingredients retails for less than $4, and it includes the rice. All you add it chicken, and it makes four servings. www.gourmantra.com.

The women of Gourmantra were only two of many exhibitors with fascinating offerings. For example, I loved the motto of Kitikmeot Foods, based in Nunavut. They promote muskox meat and Arctic char by reminding that “wild is the original organic.” Regetfully, this Inuit company doesn’t have a website at the moment.

I enjoyed chatting with Donna Livelton whose BC Coastal Grilling Planks company markets cedar planks on which to cook succulent salmon. The cedar they use is cleverly salvaged from discards of a Vancouver Island sawmill. www.bccoastalgrillingplanks.com.

Malgorzata Rose and her husband came to Vancouver all the way from Montana to stir up enthusiasm for culinary vacations to her native Poland. In late July she’ll be taking a group to experience hands-on and demonstration cooking lessons as well as vodka and beer tastings and art and architecture tours. www.PolandCulinaryVacations.com.

I had at least six other conversations with a half a dozen other fascinating foodies, as well as nibbling on such tidbits as picked German gooseberries, potato chips seasoned with Himalayan salt, chocolatey almond butter, yellow organic carrots and luscious green walnut and grappa preserves.

If you have a chance to go, I highly recommend EAT! Vancouver, the World Culinary Travel Expo at BC Place Stadium through until 5 pm Sunday, May 25, 2008.

Yesterday I was fortunate to be one of the travel writers and other travel industry professionals invited by Tourism Malaysia to enjoy a dinner presentation in Vancouver that showcased Malaysian cuisine. It was a lead-in to the Malaysia Truly Asian Kitchen 2008 participation at “EAT! Vancouver,” the largest food show in Canada, to be held at BC Place Stadium from tomorrow through Sunday (May 23 to 25, 2008).

In addition to feasting on nasi lemak, chicken satay, roti canai, char koay teow, mamak mi goreng and several other delicacies (the names of which I didn’t write down because I was too focused on devouring them), we were fascinated by the performances of two top chefs who had jetted in from Kuala Lumpur.

First, Chef Mior Sazali gave a dramatic demonstration of teh tarik — tea pulling — pouring spicy Malaysian tea with amazing skill and agility. He never spilled a drop, even when pouring behind his back, standing on one foot. Chef Mior has been winning teh tarik competitions since 1994.

Muhamad B. Arshad, better known as Chef Matt, the Flying Chef, then showed off his talents in tossing roti canai bread dough. Evidently they have dough tossing competitions in Kuala Lumpur, and Chef Matt frequently wins them, twirling roti dough as high as seven feet into the air, and catching it gracefully. We later enjoyed tasting roti canai, but I don’t think it was made from dough that Chef Matt had tossed. The traditional Malaysian flatbread is made from ghee, fat, egg, flour and water that is mixed, kneaded, flattened, oiled, and folded repeatedly before baking.

Malaysians are passionate about food, and their cross-cultural cuisine features flavors from China, India, Thailand and Portugal.

Nowhere in Kenya did I experience warmer hospitality than at the House of Waine. Located in the Nairobi suburb of Karen (named for Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame), it is a small but luxurious boutique hotel. The property has 11 bedrooms, all of which are unique. I stayed in the “Tembo” room, with decor inspired by elephants. A lovely painting literally done by an elephant was hanging in the elegant room.

Meals were perfect. I enjoyed two breakfasts, a lunch and a dinner there. Although there were limited choices on the small menus, it is no exaggeration to say that everything looked intriguing. One morning I had excellent Scottish pancakes with passion fruit curd. There were three of us at the lunch table. I chose the beef, another selected the chicken, and a third opted for vegetarian crepes. We were all very happy.

The House of Waine (named from the initials of the owners) is located close to many popular attractions, including the Karen Blixen museum, Giraffe centre, Kazuri Beads, Nairobi National Park, and also a fine, modern shopping center. For anyone wishing to stay at this wonderful hotel, reservations, I am told, are essential.

For more information visit www.houseofwaine.co.ke

I love those little mom and pop ethnic places that some call “greasy chopsticks.” Except they’re not only Asian. My sister, who is a San Francisco based food writer, recalls nostalgically that her California city by the bay used to have these little eateries decades ago, but high rents forced most of them out of business.

Only yesterday I lunched on a divine bowl of barbecue pork and noodle soup that cost $4.20. That’s not a typo. The price, before a tip, was four dollars and twenty cents Canadian, or about US$4.30.

This post, however, is about what may be the best Chinese restaurant in the world outside of China. It’s one I’d never heard of before, although I’ve likely driven past it many times. According to a report in this morning’s Vancouver Sun newspaper, the Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant in Richmond, BC, has just received high accolades from a New York Times reporter. Jennifer 8 Lee, writing in “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles: Adventures in the World of Chinese Food” called Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine “the world’s greatest Chinese restaurant outside China.”

What makes the story even more interesting is that the world has not exactly been beating a path to the Zen restaurant’s door. Diners seem to have been staying away in droves. Perhaps because Richmond BC, the Vancouver suburb with a very high Asian (mostly Chinese) population, as well as the Vancouver International Airport, has literally hundreds of great Chinese restaurants.

I have a friend who was born in Hong Kong, but has been a Vancouver resident for several decades. Harry has relatives who live in Los Angeles who are “foodies” and who make pilgrimages at least once a year to see what fabulous new Chinese restaurant has opened in Richmond. Harry told me that there are many restaurants in Richmond serving Chinese food that was at least as good if not better than he could get in Hong Kong.

But poor Sam Lau, the owner of the Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine restaurant has been crying in his tea that business has been so terrible, he has been contemplating bankruptcy. Until today, that is. I hope this positive publicity will bring more patrons his way. Although I’ve never eaten in his establishment yet, you can be sure it has just risen to the top of my short list for “must dine” restaurants in greater Vancouver.

The restaurant’s location is a bit hidden. It’s on the second floor of a strip mall. I hope there is a large parking lot. They’re going to need one.

Zen Fine Chinese Cuisine
8580 Alexandra Street, suite 2015
Richmond, BC

We had enjoyed brunch of breakfast burritos and quesadillas at Café Mambo in Paia, where we saw at least three establishments advertising that they packed picnic lunches for people driving the scenic Hana Highway through Maui’s North Shore. But we had heard of a tiny barbecue stand where we were determined to have lunch. “Up in Smoke” is located between mileposts 28 and 29, and we had been told they served excellent baby back ribs and grilled corn on the cob.

It was a bit of a shock when we finally found the place. We had been expecting to find a restaurant. Instead, it was more like an open-air gypsy caravan parked in front of a picnic shelter.

I don’t know whether they were under new management, or whether the chef had simply changed to a different menu, but when we finally found the place, they were serving tacos instead of ribs. We had a choice of pork, fish or chicken tacos, all mesquite grilled.

Corn on the cob was no longer in season, but there was a surprise option of breadfruit baked in banana leaves. Our “Kalua pig” tacos, stuffed into soft flour tortillas and topped with grated cheese, tomato salsa and shredded cabbage, were wonderful, although I confess to leaving most of the bland breadfruit behind.

The Kalua pork was pretty good, but nowhere near as wonderful as the pulled pork sandwiches we had enjoyed earlier for lunch on Molokai at the Kaulapu’u Cookhouse.

If you should be driving the Hana Highway, another highly recommended stop is at the Hana Fantasy Company, growers and exporters of exotic Hawaiian tropical flowers. They had a self-serve stand at the side of the road where you could pick up a bunch of the most gorgeous flowers we’d ever seen five dollars.

We were sad to leave the tropical magic of Maui and return to a snowy Vancouver winter, but Maui — and especially the Hana Highway area — is one of those places you keep in the back of your mind whenever you buy a lottery ticket.