Friday, November 25, 2016

More Vancouver Restaurants: Maenam, Cioppino's, Steveston Pizza

Maenam

Maenam may be one of the finest Thai eating experiences that I have enjoyed. Well thought out dishes, no overwhelming spice or heat and transparent layers of flavour in each dish. This is a resto worth going out of your way for if you wish to experience Thai cuisine.

Thai cupcakes with local dungeness crab, ginger, lime, peanuts, toasted coconut with a caramelized palm sugar and galangal dressing. 


Steamed clams with lemon grass and Thai basil served with nahm jim sauce (garlic,fish saucesugar, lime juice, and bird's eye chilies) all mixed with the juices of the clams (which was quite addictively good). 


Coconut mushroom soup with oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and seasoned with galangal, lemongrass and chili jam.


Sablefish hot and sour soup, rich with tumeric and flavoured with dill.


Salad with mixed greens, mint leaves, cashews.


Paenang curry of lamb shank accompanied by a very rich lamb broth curry sauce with Thai basil, roasted shallots and coconut cream.


Hand made roti that were eaten with the curried lamb shank.

Pad Thai with fresh rice noodles, tamarind, peanuts, tofu, egg and prawns. The only disappointing dish.


Young coconut sorbet with fresh cracked young coconut and sea salt. A truly refreshing dessert.


Guava semifredo with key lime syrup, frozena dn compressed seasonal fruits.


Cioppino's

It was pretty dark in the resto and I chose to not use a flash. But, I felt obliged to share this resto experience with friends. For me, it was like old home week. Many years ago, Pino Posteraro was perhaps the best chef making Italian food in Toronto and his brother Celestino, the efficient front of house manager that never forgot a name. I arranged many custom menu/special wine events with them, which we thoroughly enjoyed. It was a big loss to the food community in Toronto, when he up and moved to Vancouver, where he and his brother Celestino own Cioppino's serving well made classic Italian cuisine composed of the finest ingredients.

House made pasta, spaghetti with Baynes Sound Manila clams with parsley-white wine-garlic sauce.


Pacific octopus, Tuscan white beans and spelt. 


Roasted wild prawns , gnocchi, chorizo, piquillo peppers.

Crispy Sicilian canoli filled with ricotta cream accompanied by mascarpone sorbet.


Warm soft heart chocolate cake with Tahitian vanilla ice cream and cherry coulis.


Strawberries and bood orange granita.


Steveston Pizza

Steveston pizza offers a huge variety of toppings. I have enjoyed the crispy, tasty crusts here. One combination of toppings offered may be the most expensive pizza have ever seen available. Named the SEENAY, it costs $850.00 (!!!) and has the following toppings:medley of tiger prawns, lobster ratatouille, smoked steelhead, Russian Osetra caviar and snowed with Italian white truffles! As it happens, the very first time I visited Steveston's, that pizza was just being picked up. I had no idea of the cost, but, after the guests with the pizza left, the owner told me.


Most pizzas are $24.00 but, if you get "fancy", they run between $35.00 and $135.00. The one above is the MERMAID: Shrimp, crab legs, tiger prawns, smoked salmon and costs $45.00.

A regular $24.00 pizza with chopped tomatoes, roasted peppers, basic, roasted garlic, caramelized onions and enoki mushrooms. NO cheese.





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